In a hidden tunnel beneath the Alvis Dungeon.
Ganis’ eyes snapped open. He gulped. Sweat beaded on his frog-like face. His bloated body quivered, and he spoke in a trembling voice.
“A-all the golems on the lower levels… They were destroyed?!”
No. That couldn’t be. It had to be a mistake.
Ganis desperately clung to such denial.
However, his own skill, Puppet Master, and the ability [Golem Master] told him the cruel reality. There were no more signals from the golems just above the mine shaft.
“Kiiiiiii! Impossible! Impossible!”
The test golems stationed in the dungeon’s depths were annihilated. The new batch, brought in to intercept the intruders, hadn’t even caught up to them.
“This is bad… this is very bad…!”
His frog-like face flushed, then paled.
“Too fast…! They’re advancing through the dungeon far too fast!”
Whoever was down there was no ordinary adventurer. This wasn’t just some “boy holding a horn”. That child held terrifying power for sure. Of course, Ganis had no concrete proof that this “boy holding a horn” was the one tearing through the dungeon. He couldn’t be sure until he saw it with his own eyes. But the circumstantial evidence was piling up.
His skill transmitted fragmented data from just before the golems were destroyed. One had been struck by a powerful thunder spell that even Ganis had never heard of. The technique used to avoid the golems could only be said to be too refined to be that of a novice.
No, whoever it was… it could not be just a mere adventurer.
At any rate, the risk of staying in the tunnel any longer is too great. The slave trader woman is closing in on Ganis, intent on punishing him. The “Business Expert”, Rata’s promise to mediate on his behalf was conditional. It is contingent on his success in stopping the boy.
Ganis looked out over the secret tunnel with wide eyes. The icy tunnel is cold enough to make him shiver. Or… perhaps it is fear that made him shiver.
“In that case… there’s only one option. I run.”
Fortunately for him, Rata had already disappeared.
The tunnel, once filled with the rhythm of pickaxes, is now eerily silent. Ganis had returned to the dungeon entrance after meeting with Rata to issue detailed instructions. During that time, the slaves must have fled.
There were originally golems in the mine tunnels used as guards, but many of them had been turned back into golem cores in order to be used in tracking down the “boy holding a horn”. Just to be on the safe side, Ganis had also hired some adventurers, but it seems they have fled along with the slaves.
Then, from above, a beast-like growl echoed down.
A tremor shook the tunnel.
“…Those worthless scum. If they’d stayed, I could’ve used them as shields!”
Ganis clicked his tongue and hurried back toward the lift.
“I have to reach the manor. Burn the ledgers… Forget this research—no, wait…”
Muttering to himself, he rode the lift to the upper floor. And there, waiting at the exit, was a woman.
Ganis collapsed backwards in fear.
“Oh my, hello there.”
It is a woman in black robes.
“J-Jor-dono…? W-what a surprise, meeting you here…”
“Mm, going somewhere?”
Jor stepped closer. Her lips curled in a faint smile. Her black hair curled like coiled serpents. That crimson tongue licking her lips—paired with Ganis’s wide-eyed stare—made it look as if a frog had just caught the gaze of a snake.
“And where are you off to?”
“Ah, t-that…”
“Where to, mountain toad?”
Far too fast.
Ganis cursed under his breath.
“R-Rata… that bastard…!”
Rata sounded as if he’d only recently told Jor about it—though in reality, he’d probably tattled on him ages ago.
“Fufu… Ganis.”
Jor grasped Ganis with one of her pale, slender arm and lifted him effortlessly. The strength was clearly not that of a human. She dragged him out of the lift and slammed him against the wall.
“Gu-uh!”
“You used the ashes of the titan without permission. My, my, your greed is even greater than that of a snake.”
As Ganis tried to get up, he noticed the giant face in front of him. By coincidence, the place where Ganis was thrown was very close to the giant’s face embossed on the rock wall. He landed right in front of it.
――Oooooooo…
A searing breath leaked through its cracked lips. Blood-red eyes, as large as human heads, began to focus on him.
Ganis begged.
“I-isn’t this just a vein of ore? W-what have I been mining—!?”
Jor giggled.
“Ufufufu. No way. This—this is no ordinary ore. It is what remains of a titan that lived long ago, before the kingdom of Asgard was founded. He was sealed away and what remained of him was buried under ice and earth.”
Jor reached up lovingly and stroked the stony giant’s face.
The giant face, slightly larger than Ganis’s, was probably nearly two meters in size. If the creature stood upright, it could probably step over castle walls.
“B-buried in ice and earth…?”
Ganis remembered the subsurface landscape.
Finally, he understood. The materials he’d been mining—were parts of this giant.
――Oooooooo……
“Hi-hiiii!”
He curled up, clutching his head in terror, pleading. But Jor’s voice remained playful, even as heat rippled through the air.
“Oh? Seems that the boy with the horn is getting close.”
The dirt and stone peeled off the giant face, revealing the red-hot skin. The passageway began to heat up. The giant face is beginning to glow with flames.
“He’s reacting to god’s presence.”
Ganis could hear it—the crisp sound of his robe sizzling. Sparks scorched his cheeks. His instincts screamed.
“F-flame titan…?!”
Ganis knew neither the true myths nor the race called “Flame Titan.” But the words that slipped from his lips were true nonetheless.
“Correct. This is Surtr Flamebone, king of the flame titans.”
The titan roared. If it weren’t for the magical barrier that Jor had whimsically erected, Ganis would have been slammed against the wall and died. At the very least, his eardrums would have been ruptured.
“Ha, ha, hahaha… hihihihi…”
Ganis wept and laughed like a madman. The fact that he hadn’t wet himself only suggested something in his mind had already snapped.
The titan’s eyes turned upward—slowly.
“Oh my? Not coming after all huh…”
Jor covered her mouth with a delicate hand, chuckling.
“Cautious? Or just cowardly? Either way… the end won’t wait forever.”
Footsteps echoed from the tunnel. Another figure emerged from the exit.
It was another slave trader—Rata. His noble-style garments looked out of place in the dreary tunnel. Despite the heat, his expression was calm and composed.
“The dungeon is in complete chaos.”
He smiled like a kind youth. But his crescent-shaped eyes with cold gleam made that smile unsettling. From their golden depths, he stared into the titan’s burning face.
“That shaking and that roar… Some are calling this the world’s end. Well, it is not far off.”
He turned to face Jor, frowning slightly. He brushed aside his thick chestnut hair with a sigh.
“Jor, you are the only one here? There is no mistake about it—the boy holding the horn is here. They outsmarted us.”
“Ymir-sama won’t be joining us. As for brother…. it’s likely that he won’t be coming either.”
Jor added a small “ah,” as if remembering something.
“By the way, the brother I’m talking about isn’t the boy with the horn.”
She giggled and crouched, locking eyes with the slumped Ganis.
“But you know, Ganis, I am grateful to you. Ymir-sama granted you the Puppet Master skill to awaken the ancient dwarven techniques that lay dormant in this land. You did well—though, yes, a bit too greedy.”
Her eyes gleamed.
Ganis shrieked.
“But still. Since Surtr won’t fully awaken until nightfall… Ganis, I think I’ll borrow your strength a little longer.”
A fire ignited in Ganis’s heart. He wanted to be called a genius. To wield power freely. To have not only the commoners but nobles—even lords—kneel before him.
That greed was drawn out and it grew stronger.
| Skill: Seduction was used. |
Just as Surtr was cloaked in flame, Ganis’s soul was consumed by the fire of ambition.
“The power of the Serpent’s Temptation… Gideon didn’t need it. But you, Ganis—I’ll grant it to you.”
Jor leaned close to the dazed man, her red lips brushing his ear.
“Now… if this titan becomes your golem… If it were enhanced with your craftsmanship… You’d go down in history, wouldn’t you?”
The flame in Ganis’s almost-extinguished ambition was rekindled. At the serpent’s temptation, the magic engineer laughed like crazy. He stood up with vacant eyes and began to slowly walk back to the lift.
The conversation between the slave traders went on.
“Now, Surtr will fully awaken by nightfall.”
Rata said, glancing at Jor in her black robe.
“Surtr’s body is nothing but the ‘titan’s ashes.’ It seems Thor is also there… perhaps I can finally fight in my true form?”
Rata smiled gently.
“Serpentbone Jor—in the age of myth, you were the world’s largest serpent, after all.”
Jor shrugged and bit her fingertip. Dreaming of a day when her serpent’s maw would swallow the Thunder God, the boy, and his sister—all whole.
This is translated by Yume Neiji. Kindly read at yumeineijiworks.wordpress.com.
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