Chapter 339 178. The Frost Giant -1 (Part One)
Chapter 339: 178. The Frost Giant -1 (Part One)
Translated by A Passing Wanderer
Edited by RED
Bone-chilling air that was cold enough to freeze the bottom of our shoes quickly rushed after us. The skeleton horse was breaking apart and the surrounding terrain was being altered rapidly.
The buildings were collapsing while blocks of ice thrust up into the air in the literal blink of an eye.
I was instantly creeped out by the sharpness of these ‘icebergs’.
‘Give me a freaking break!’
I hurriedly summoned the Bone Wyvern and tossed the old man, Klare, high up in the air. The undead creature caught him in its maw and flew away.
“Y-Your Majesty?!” Klare shouted out towards me.
You shouldn’t worry about me, dear Mister Butler. The sky filled with flying boulders is far more dangerous than the freezing ground I’m on, you know!
“Your job is to aid King Zayner, Runan, and Marcus with their escape from this place!” I roared back, and Butler Klare hurriedly nodded.
The Bone Wyvern flew towards the citadel.
In the meantime, the frost bergs continued to shoot up, freezing me from the bottom of my feet all the way up to my head. I was eventually encased in ice, just as blocks of ice several hundreds of metres wide froze the entirety of the duchy’s capital from its centre. The whole thing now looked like a literal ice mountain.
Countless many citizens who had failed to evacuate on time, just like me, were trapped inside and instantly froze to death.
‘Jesus, it’s freaking cold!’ The blood in my body was freezing up, and even my soul seemed to have solidified in ice, as well. Consciousness threatened to abandon me.
That Frost Giant, what an absurd monster it was. As expected of the bringer of destruction, capable of destroying the whole world!
While I was inwardly thinking up of some words of ‘praise’ for it, my frozen eyes caught a certain spectacle still playing outside.
I could see that the giants were still messing around with the boulders right outside the city limits. And then, there it was, one particular Jötunn that stood so much taller than the rest.
Its height shot past the thirty metre-mark. It was the Frost Giant!
Maybe the sense of disharmony was to blame here, because I thought I was looking at a moving mountain of ice found in the great outdoors or something.
Cold air circulated all around it, while ice encased the creature’s entire body, like some kind of armour. Under all that ice was compacted snow that looked like silky-smooth muscles.
This thing was quite similar to the mud giant I encountered some years ago. However, the sense of disharmony I got from this one was different.
Yup, this one was far, far stronger than that one…
It was as if… this thing was not an artificially created being, but the mother nature manifesting itself.
[Name: Hrímr.
Age: Unknown.
Attributes: Crushing, squashing, impaling, creating ice mountains, freezing everything, cruel and vicious disposition.
+ I shall revert everything back to the beginning!]
The attributes of the creature I saw through my [Mind’s Eye] were all specialised in destroying and wrecking stuff.
While still trapped in ice, I continued to watch the Frost Giant make its next move.
The creature lifted its arms back up after it had finished smashing them down on the ground. As the whitish air leaked out of its mouth, the Frost Giant suddenly looked up in the air, then its expression distorted as if it had seen something up there.
It reached up, then by using some unknown power that could either be magic or just sheer physical strength, it twisted time and space itself.
“…!”
What kinda absurd dogsh*t was that?!
I kind of figured out why the gods chose to seal the Jötnar away. That kind of power simply broke all common sense. No wonder the gods wanted to get rid of them somehow, since they possessed such incredible power, and let’s not forget, their instinctive need to demolish everything standing in their way.
The extended fingers of the Frost Giant broke through the transparent wall of space. I instantly realised what that ‘thing’ was.
…The wall of time and space that connected to the past. The pocket world existing within [Foresight] that Seran had been in.
The Frost Giant, Hrímr, was trying to capture Seran from the past right now.
‘Move!’
Muscles all over my body began writhing and wriggling. I used divinity to thaw all the frozen blood vessels in my body. Blood quickly began circulating again within me.
‘If it was Kelt or Charlotte, they would’ve easily broken through this sort of ice by now.’
I used the Bloody Golem to curse my body. My flesh was wrecked several times over, but I was revived by divine power in what felt like an unending loop. So, I should have acquired a transcendental body that had broken through the limits of a human being, just like those two people.
Cracks formed on the ice encasing me.
Shatter-!
The ice encasing my right hand, which was still gripping the musket, shattered and broke apart. That allowed me to take aim at the Frost Giant, Hrímr.
I couldn’t breathe into the loading chamber, so the materialised bullet should be unstable. Its firepower should be too low to do anything much, but I was confident of hitting my target nonetheless.
‘Oh, Gaia!’ I even began praying inwardly. ‘Please pass your judgement on these…’ My left hand also broke through the ice, freeing itself. My body was gradually regaining its freedom, and I could now grab the musket with both hands. ‘…bringers of destruction who dare to break the balance of this world!’
I pulled the trigger.
Bang-!
The ice shattered, and the holy bullet scythed past the howling winds to fly towards the Frost Giant at a frightening turn of speed.
Boom-!
And then, it accurately struck the right cheek of the giant. Frost Giant Hrímr’s head was tilted to the side.
But that was all. Still, that distraction was more than enough.
The extended hand fell out of the distorted time and space. The Frost Giant staggered a little, then spread open its clenched fist.
-…Escaped, huh.-
Hrímr the Frost Giant clamped its mouth shut, before smacking its lips. Its expression shifted as the smooth, compacted layers of snow making up its face moved around.
The giant looked somewhat flustered. Which wasn’t surprising, since it probably didn’t expect anyone to interrupt it like I had done.
Hrímr the Frost Giant looked up at the sky once more.
-I can’t catch that human anymore.-
Its head came down, then its eyes landed right on me.
A snicker formed on its lips while it stared at me, still somewhat trapped within the ice in the middle of the city’s street.
-You dare interrupt me, human?!- Hrímr suddenly lifted his head up and opened its mouth wide. It then shoved its hand inside its throat. Its jaw looked like it was getting dislocated, while its throat bulged outward like a balloon.
It was grabbing something in there and forcibly yanking it out.
What emerged from the Frost Giant’s mouth was a long and massive spear. It was easily well over fifteen metres in length.
‘Son of a b*tch!’
I amplified my divinity and completely shattered the ice trapping me, then urgently extracted Amon’s skull from the item window.
But… how was I supposed to fight this thing?
My opponent this time was the Frost Giant. The only thing that could potentially fight against that monster was either the Bone Dragon or the Skeleton King.
However, I didn’t have the grimoire specialised in summoning magic with me. I also didn’t have the staff with me, so I couldn’t greatly amplify my divinity, either.
Which meant that I had to shoulder all the backlash and forcibly summon one of them by myself somehow.
‘Man, how did it turn out like this?’
Belrog, that geezer! He said he needed around four years, so where the hell did he disappear to?!
I continued to badmouth Belrog in my mind while putting the skull-helm on my head. “I am the legion.”
Hrímr suddenly jerked its body back. It gripped the ice spear so hard that I could actually hear the sounds of it cracking under pressure.
“And I am Gaia’s inhe…”
-Die, punk.-
Hrímr thrust its left foot out before stomping on the ground. It threw the spear in its hand towards me.
My eyes opened wider under the skull.
The massive spear punched cleanly through the massive ice mountain in the blink of an eye.
**
(TL: In 3rd person POV.)
The ice spear accurately struck the ice mountain, shattering it completely.
Hrímr breathed out grandly while watching the huge blocks of ice crash and tumble down noisily.
-Fuu-wuu…-
The corners of its lips arched up as it began snickering again.
-Ahahat! Yes, it’s a bull’s eye! What perfect accuracy!-
The Frost Giant clapped its hands, then shifted its gaze over to the giants nearby.
-Oii, how was it? Didn’t I perfectly hit my target or what?-
The giants flinched in surprise and hurriedly began clapping their hands as well to appease Hrímr, before his mood could sour.
It was around at this point that the Frost Giant sensed something trickling down its cheek, alongside some heat coming from there. It was startled by this sensation and quickly touched its right cheek.
-I was wounded?-
Water with some layers of frost trickled down from its cheek. It felt so warm that even the cold air innate to the Frost Giant failed to freeze it instantly.
To think that there was an existence in this world capable of inflicting a wound on the Frost Giant!
Could it be that that puny human earlier was something like the vampires or whatever? Or, maybe he was something else that the vampires couldn’t even hope to defeat?
What a shocking turn of event this was!