Chapter 176: Chapter 177: The Forest of Profane (1)

WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS

Translator/Editor: Ryuu

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INFINITE MAGE

The group looked around. Trees with long leaves blocked the sky above.

From above, it seemed there were no gaps, but light squeezed through the tiniest of spaces, illuminating the world. Moss and mushrooms grew in the shade, and the soil felt damp with moisture.

Yet, it didn’t feel like their original world.

The secret to the feeling that time had stopped lay in the size of the rocks.

The age of a space can be known by the weathering of its rocks. But here, the rocks varied in size. There were small pebbles, but there were also countless house-sized boulders. It was impossible unless someone had moved them.

“The composition of this place might be different from where we lived. Maybe it has the durability to withstand time.”

Canis had a point.

Ancient artifacts were made from minerals that didn’t exist in their world. And being an ancient artifact itself meant it was something from a time before history. If it belonged to Heaven, then these rocks, having endured for eons, were living proof.

“So, this really is heaven?”

“Let’s check the Spirit Zone first.”

At Amy’s suggestion, each of them tested their ability to cast magic. The Spirit Zone is a realm of omnipotence, but there was an unease that the zone could be disrupted in a physically distant world.

Fortunately, their magic worked normally.

“So, this is heaven? Well, we’ve seen the sights; shall we go back now?”

Everyone looked at Tess. Surprised by the attention, she waved her hand awkwardly with an embarrassed smile.

“Haha, no, just joking.”

“No. I was seriously considering it too.”

If even Rian was saying such things, it was clear how tense everyone else was.

Proving this fact, Shirone’s group hadn’t moved a step from the spot where they arrived.

Shirone took a small but significant step forward and spoke.

“Let’s move. Whether we fell from the sky or space folded, we saw a city. We should walk towards it, right? At least it means there’s civilization.”

Where there’s civilization, there’s law. Though it was uncertain if the laws would be reasonable, it was a more practical decision than spending the night in a forest where anything could jump out.

“But how do we find the city? We don’t know the direction.”

“I can handle that.”

Amy’s eyes turned red. Reading the information stored in her magnetic memory, she pointed in the direction where Rian was standing.

“Based on the coordinates, the city should be that way.”

Amy’s magnetic memory perfectly restored specific moments. Even in this situation where they flew astronomical distances.

This was based on the fact that her ability wasn’t mathematical. Just as a compass points north regardless of the space, she also possessed a sort of magnet that could maintain her orientation amid any variables.

Following Amy, the group didn’t miss the sounds emanating from the landscape. They heard insects and birds, but oddly, nothing was visible.

Realizing it was a phenomenon not to be overlooked, they stopped when they heard rustling in the forest.

With heightened senses, Tess drew her saber and turned. Rian, holding the handle of his greatsword, stood by her side.

“What is it, Tess?”

“I don’t know. Someone seems to be approaching us.”

Amy asked with a tense expression.

“Are you sure it’s someone? Not something?”

Tess couldn’t answer. The breathing sounded human, but she couldn’t be certain.

There was no guarantee anyone lived here.

In a situation where some monster might emerge, the group's tension peaked.

Sss! Sss!

The sound of foliage rustling grew closer and faster. Tess was sure they were being targeted.

The mages entered the Spirit Zone, and Rian drew his greatsword, lowering it to strike the moment anything emerged from the forest.

Taking a deep breath, Rian waited for the approaching entity with a puzzled expression.

Given the frequency of the sounds, it should have arrived by now. Yet, there was only noise, and the entity hadn’t shown itself.

“Rian, you should step back.”

Tess’s voice trembled.

She thought of one possible scenario. The sound was coming from much farther away than expected.

Maintaining his stance to strike, Rian stepped back when suddenly, thud! Thud! The ground shook.

Finally, pushing through the bushes, it appeared.

“What, what is that?”

Shirone looked up. As much as he could lift his head.

A giant.

An eight-meter-tall giant. Although it was scantily clad, it wore ragged pieces of cloth here and there.

Its beard reached its chest, and its face was deeply wrinkled, but its body was as robust as a young man’s.

Tess, strategically trying to find a vital point, checked its groin. It was smooth. Though the face looked masculine, and there were no breasts, it lacked genitals.

“Um… we have a bit of a problem here.”

Arin spoke. Tess, who had left the giant’s examination to Rian, turned around and asked.

“What’s wrong? Worse than this?”

“I don’t know which is worse, but this is a first for me.”

Shirone also turned to Arin. How would her insight view the giant now?

“I can’t read its emotions. Whether it’s angry, smiling, or sad. Everything is mixed up.”

The most surprised was Canis. Even Harvest, who was materialized behind him, tilted his head while examining the giant.

“Arin… can’t read its emotions?”

Impossible. It was theoretically impossible.

The ability of Insight brings all characteristics of the world to an equal level.

If someone like Sakiri from the Magic Association could block emotions, it would at least show such Insight.

That Arin couldn’t read the giant’s emotions was certainly strange.

“Those who come to Purgatory… Those who deny God…”

The giant’s words were unintelligible. It didn’t seem they could find an interpreter. The only person they could rely on was Arin.

But she shook her head again.

“I don’t know. I can’t decipher it.”

Neither Insight nor telepathy worked. Arin was practically blind. She couldn’t even read the expressions, so she borrowed Canis’s eyes.

“Canis, does that giant seem hostile?”

“It does seem that way.”

Could it be that Arin, who specialized in mental resonance, couldn’t even sense hostility? The reason they ventured into this unknown world was because they trusted in Arin’s ability to nullify dangers.

Without Arin, it was impossible. Amy, possibly thinking the same, left the final decision to her.

“Arin, what should we do now?”

“Well, what else? We have to run!”

As Arin darted away, Amy stood stunned.

Canis chased after her, and the others began to retreat as well.

Amy, the slowest to react, looked back at the giant. It was uprooting a sapling nearly two meters tall and giving chase.

“Gaaaah!”

The giant’s roar was as loud as a sonic cannon. In a daze, Amy threw herself aside.

The sapling’s roots brushed her collar.

“Being big, it can’t follow us closely! We need to run!”

“Why didn’t you say that earlier?”

Amy, having caught up to Arin with Schema, shouted. Fortunately, she narrowly escaped the first strike, but had she reacted a bit slower, her back would have been split open.

“Sorry! I didn’t expect this either.”

Arin didn’t evade responsibility.

Now that they were in heaven, they were one team. As a non-combat mage, her role was to identify the enemy's nature and objectively analyze the situation to relay to the leader. With that function disabled, she could only apologize.

Since they were a united group, no one blamed Arin. But they worried about the future.

Arin’s mental abilities were a huge asset. Although it was too early to conclude that her power didn’t work against just one giant, the fact that things had gone awry from the start was undeniable.

Hearing the ground shake, Shirone looked back. Thinking the giant would be slow because of its size was a miscalculation. It had caught up quickly.

Tess’s voice echoed in Shirone’s mind through the mental channel.

-Shirone, give the command. Should we teleport and escape?

-That’s risky. We still don’t know where we are. If we encounter a greater danger, we could be wiped out.

-But we can’t keep running either. Honestly, I can’t even see what’s around us right now.

-...That’s true. Then let’s fight here. Taking down the giant seems like the priority.

As Shirone chose the combat route, Rian and Tess turned and charged at the giant.

With Shirone at the center, Amy and Canis took their positions on either side, while Arin supported from the rear.

Rian, the vanguard knight, initiated the attack.

Fighting an eight-meter-tall enemy came with unpredictable variables. Attacks from above the head were hard to predict, and they could only target areas below the knees.

Rian aimed for the Achilles tendon.

As he swung his greatsword, the giant swung the tree trunk. Their weapons collided midair, and the trunk shattered like splintering wood.

It wasn’t that he had cut it. The giant’s strength was so immense it destroyed its own weapon.

From the impact of the clash, Rian was thrown three meters away. He barely landed on his feet, but his legs dragged on the ground.

Feeling a tremor in his right arm, he gripped his greatsword with his left hand and took a combat stance.

The giant’s strength was immense. But more surprising was its speed.

“How can it be this fast? It defies physics.”

For a creature of eight meters to support its body, it would need hundreds of times the muscle strength of a human.

Just standing was astonishing, yet its combat movements were comparable to a predator.

“Executing heretics!”

Uttering incomprehensible words, the giant hurled the splintered sapling at Tess.

As the sapling embedded itself in the ground, Tess leaped into the air.

The giant, in a continuous motion, punched. It seemed impossible for Tess, suspended in midair, to dodge.

At that moment, her body flew forward, defying inertia, landing on the giant’s fist.

It was External Gravity.

Charging up the giant’s forearm, she slashed at its left eye with her saber and jumped down. As the giant covered its eye and raised its torso, she shouted to her team.

“Now!”

Shirone fired the Photon Canon. Considering the monster's size, conserving energy wasn’t an option.

A beam of light, comparable to a cannonball, struck the giant’s abdomen.

The giant’s body bent around the Photon Canon, lifting its legs off the ground.

Watching the giant get pushed back was hard to believe. Even Canis, who had previously been hit by the same technique, winced at the hallucination pain.

Shirone’s group thought it was over. But as the giant’s legs, now horizontal, came down, its feet crushed the ground, stopping its momentum.

Everyone was speechless.

The giant had withstood the Photon Canon. Wasn’t this the same magic that had nearly reached 5,000 in destructive power in the Room of Achievement and Sacrifice? The fact that a creature of flesh and blood endured it was unbelievable.

“How on earth is it still standing after that?”

The giant’s expression twisted. Its wrinkled face became terrifyingly monstrous.

At that moment, a Fireball from Amy flew in, setting the giant’s face ablaze.

Amy’s judgment was spot-on. Fire is the enemy of cells. No matter how strong, burning it was the solution.

The giant, its beard aflame, wobbled while clutching its face.

Seeing the burning giant’s face, their skin crawled. Beneath the melting skin, new skin was regenerating.

Tess murmured in disbelief.

“That’s Schema, isn’t it? How can a giant use Schema?”

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