Ranker Who Lives Twice

Wondering if there were other giants besides the Ghost Giants that he had gathered, a sudden thought popped into Yeon-woo's mind: the hometown that Valdebich once spoke of.

Didn't Valdebich say that there were still a lot of giants that existed even though it was widely accepted that the giants had gone extinct? Once Yeon-woo considered this option, it made sense that the giants were here. However…

'Why do I smell the Soulstone from them?' Hoping to resolve his question, Yeon-woo sharpened his senses and expanded his senses to the inner core of the planet. While he was doing this…

[The Legion of Death appears!]

[The Ghost Giants look at their old tribe members!]

[The two groups of giants oppose each other!]

The Ghost Giants got into formation around Valdebich and glared at the giants that stood atop the canyon. For a moment, as each side's respective fighting spirit collided, the planet shook violently as if it were about to collapse.

「Based on the aura of their fighting spirit, it seems like they're our tribe members, right?」

「However, they're…」

「I can smell our scent from them…」

The Ghost Giants narrowed their eyes as they watched the giants above the canyon. It was an interesting sight, to see their old tribe members still existing in such a place. On the one hand, it was strange that the giants atop the canyon were exuding a scent of the 'dead' rather than a scent of the 'living'.

Thus, a conclusion was reached. The giants above the canyon were all undead. They were cursed spirits whose souls were bound by the planet. The souls were all from beings that had exuviated or transcended.

「Traitors…!」Even though the giants above the canyon were seeing the Ghost Giants for the first time in their lives, they were all sharpening their teeth and giving the Ghost Giants ferocious glances. They had called the Ghost Giants 'traitors'.

「Traitors?」Valdebich thought that something was strange and tilted his head.

"My head hurts from looking up… Shall we smash their heads on the ground before discussing what we should do next?" Sun Wukong raised his fist, expressing his deep displeasure. It seemed that he was prepared to throw out a Lightning Strike at any moment.

However, rather than feeling nervous, the giants above the canyon seemed to egg Sun Wukong on, daring him to make a move. Feeling that no good would come about from staying still, Valdebich was just about to step forward…

「Bastards.」At that moment, an arrogant voice rang out from atop the canyon. The giants above the canyon all looked back with bewildered faces. Although smaller than the other giants, a giant with a formidable aura walked towards the cliff.

「Leader! Leader, w-why are you here…?」

「Why? Can I not be here?」

「No, that's not what I meant…」

「Did you think you guys could leave without me noticing? Stand back! What are you all doing?」The one the giants referred to as their leader started throwing out accusations without hesitation.「Fish-eyed bastards. You can't just face off with anyone. You need to know who your opponent is.」

Then, the leader stood at the edge of the cliff and bowed his head in Valdebich's direction. In an instant, Valdebich's eyes widened at the very familiar face. Laughing aloud, the leader said, "It's been a while, bro."

***

The place where Yeon-woo and his party were guided to was a dungeon-type city located underground. The passageways were intricately connected to each other like an ant's den, and the cavities located here possessed different characteristics.

Since it was a place where large giants lived, the spaces were all large and spacious. It was a large city that could have been inhabited by thousands of normal human people. However, right now, less than a hundred giants were occupying this space, so the general atmosphere of the city seemed bleak. Most of the buildings looked like they had been abandoned for a long time.

「What happened?」Valdebich firmly clenched his jaw while observing the city. He personally felt the misfortune that befell on the giants.

「What do you mean what happened? Everything went down in a downward spiral.」Valdebich's youngest brother, Narotsu, who Valdebich still vaguely remembered, burst into laughter.

When Valdebich first saw Narotsu, he was shocked. He was surprised that the face of his younger brother, who had only been a very young child when Valdebich left, remained the same even though he became an adult. Moreover, Valdebich was shocked that such a brother was 'dead'.

So, Valdebich asked many questions as the party made their way to the underground city. At each question, Narotsu smiled lightly and replied as if their plight was nothing serious. But for Valdebich, all of Narotsu's replies presented another shock.

「…」

「Fine. Fine. I'll be more serious.」Narotsu shrugged his shoulders.「Since you left when you were so young, you probably don't know what happened here…but you do know that many of the elders in the tribe went to the Tower before you, right?」

「Yeah.」

「Right. But the entire tribe didn't go to the Tower. Those who were fed up with the continuous war remained here, and their descendants…」

「We were the descendants.」

「Right. Thanks to that we were able to maintain our presence here. However, since there wasn't enough of us, there's been a lot of mixing of different bloodlines.」

This was the reason why Valdebich and his brother were half-giants.

「However, our race couldn't prevent falling into further turmoil. This planet itself was collapsing. The level of power we possessed as a race was also falling every passing day…so that's how it came to this.」

「…」

「The reason why father sent you to the Tower was to somehow slow down the downfall of our race.」

Narotsu added that their father believed that Valdebich would somehow save their race.

「Then, what about father…?」

「He passed away. All our other siblings as well. The catastrophe that engulfed this planet is too great.」

「Ah!」Valdebich bit his lower lip.

「Then, one day, a shooting star suddenly fell onto the planet.」

Yeon-woo, Sun Wukong, and Erlang Shen, who were quietly listening to the brothers' conversation, were able to realize what happened. It was the Soulstone.

「It was a stone with a lot of strange powers… Anyway, we were able to continue living with a parasitic relationship with the stone. We felt that this was the only way our race could be preserved.」

Each Soulstone contained an enormous amount of energy. The idea to leech off the stone was made by Narotsu, who was leading the group at the time.

By forcibly binding their souls to the Soulstone, they sustained their lives. Because of that, the little amount of divinity that they had disappeared completely, and their powers also collapsed. Thus, they ended up being bound to this bleak planet. Narotsu and his tribe members never gave up. They persevered as much as they could.

「You expected me to come, right?」Valdebich recalled the will of the last king of the giants, who disappeared after transferring his last powers to Valdebich.

"Our shaman once stated that someone will come and guide us. I believe that you are that being, along with that being next to you."

The exact meaning of the prophecy spoken by the last giant king was still unknown, but one thing was certain. Just as much as the last king of giants believed in the prophecy and toiled away for long time as the Crawling Chaos' slave, Valdebich's younger brother and his people also had faith, enough to survive at all costs. Just as Valdebich expected…

「Right. We received a prophecy, a prophecy that our savior would one day come.」

'Of course…'

「And you really came.」Narotsu smiled broadly.「When I heard that prophecy, I knew it would be you, brother.」

「…Why do you believe so much in me?」

「Just…a feeling?」Valdebich looked at his younger brother with a puzzled expression.

Narotsu largely only knew of Valdebich's existence. They had not spent enough time together to build any lasting, deep memories with each other. Moreover, as a child, Valdebich was quite the coward. He was a coward who barely spoke and always acted slowly. But his younger brother had a feeling?

「Here it is. This is the stone you're looking for. I guess the stone's real name is Soulstone?」Narotsu stopped in a certain, large cavity. It was a space that boasted a much larger open area than the other spaces. However, the place was in ruins. Dust covered the altar. And at the center of the altar was the Soulstone, which was firmly protected by a barrier.

[You have found a Soulstone – Diligentia (Diligence)!]

[Access is currently not possible.]

Since the Soulstone was currently connected to the extinct race, the Soulstone shone brightly. Yeon-woo ignored the warning messages and walked towards the altar. Crackle! Boom! The barrier was fiercely trying to repel the invading entity.

[Your 'Shadow Domain' seeps into the barrier!]

[You are canceling the barrier's operation.]

[You are removing the elements that constitute the barrier.]

…

[The barrier has been nullified!]

Yeon-woo easily crossed the barrier and approached the front of the altar. Hundreds of Pairing could be seen from the Soulstone to various places. It seemed that the giants were barely surviving with the magic power supplied by the Soulstone. Reaching out towards the Soulstone without trying to sever those connections…he was trying to reach out to the soul stone so that no one could get hurt.

「Stop!」Suddenly, the giants who were beside Narotsu rushed towards Yeon-woo.

Boom! The Ghost Giants did not miss a beat as they suddenly appeared in front of the rushing giants and blocked the giants' path.

「Move out of the way!」

「Don't touch that!」

The giants tried every which way to free themselves from the Ghost Giants. The more they squirmed, the greater the amount of magic power that emitted from the Soulstone – Diligentia (Diligence).

Valdebich looked at Narotsu.

Narotsu let out a sigh as he covered his face with his hands.「Ugh…!」

「Why are they acting like that?」

「No big reason. Just take the stone…」

Narotsu was about to say something, but before that, another giant shouted.「Don't touch it! If that stone disappears, it's the end for us!」

Valdebich's gaze automatically turned to the speaker.「You guys probably don't know, but our god deals with death. Even if you take the stone, we'll continue to live…」

「You don't know anything, do you?」

「What?」

「Our souls have already whittled away. We're just vestiges at this point. How are we going to ever return to our previous state?」

「…!」It was only then that Valdebich realized that things had taken a strange turn. They were surviving as vestige thoughts. That meant that if their foundation, the Soulstone, disappeared, all of them would instantly perish. It was then that Valdebich realized that it was not just a simple task to recover the Soulstone.

The giant who spoke twisted his lips into a sneer.「You're going to save us? You? A guy who abandoned his own tribe in the past…!」

Narotsu stated that their savior would come, but the remaining giants did not place much faith in Narotsu's words. How would anyone know if the prophecy was true? What if a babbling fool came and stated that he was their savior? What they did know was that, once the Soulstone disappeared, they would all have to face 'death'.

It would be a death that would not allow them to reincarnate. Thus, the giants wanted to maintain the status quo for as long as possible. They would rather live a decrepit life than be annihilated. Who knows? Perhaps they would be able to come across a solution to free them from their daily living hell.

「That!」

「Sure. You probably have a lot to say. A lot. However, no matter what you're planning to say, does that change the fact that we're all going to face the end of days? Are we going to be able to avoid this through your saving grace?」

「Patron! Be quiet…!」

「You be quiet, Narotsu! Even if you're the leader, you don't have absolute control over our tribe's survival!」The giant named Patron ignored Narotsu's shouts.

The giants were split into two groups, Narotsu and Patron's camp. The two sides started to growl at each other. It appeared as though a fight would break out at any moment.

The hierarchy structure of the giant race was very rigid. Narotsu's eyes trembled from anger. However, Patron continued to ignore Narotsu and glared at Valdebich. Patron glared at Yeon-woo as well. At that moment…

"What if it's possible?" Yeon-woo looked at Patron with a blank face.

「What nonsense are you spewing…!」

"What if I said I can bring you back even if you disappear?"

Patron's face flushed red.「Are you making fun of us?」

"Why would I do that? It would be easier for me to just kill you all off and take the stone."

「…!」In an instant, Patron's eyes fluttered wildly. In fact, he knew that if Yeon-woo made up his mind, he could defeat them all easily.

"I will make a change."

「…what?」

"Once I transcend, I will change all the natural laws and laws of causality that exist in this 'dream'. In that case, you, who have fallen without salvation, will be able to exist and thrive once more."

Patron and Narotsu looked at Yeon-woo. So did Valdebich and Erlang Shen. Sun Wukong looked at Yeon-woo with a faint smile.

「Tell me…more.」 Patron said in a trembling tone.

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