No matter how quickly someone might feel regret, any regret would always be too late. The Heavenly Giant Lord was about to find that out himself. Even before he could express his willingness to surrender, he had to face a pair of glistening snake-like eyes.

“You bastard! You had this in mind from the beginning, didn’t you!?”

Only then did he realize that his opponent had had no intention to resolve the matter amicably in the first place. His initial reaction had had no effect on the opponent’s decision at all from the beginning.

“I’m not going to get pushed around like this!”

With a fierce roar, the Heavenly Giant Lord’s body swelled and grew.

Rip.

His already tight clothes were instantly torn to shreds, and his giant body grew several times in an instant.

Kim Jin-Woo’s gaze was cold as he watched the unusual scene unfold before his eyes. “Attack,” he whispered softly as he looked at Valhǫll’s towering spire.

[The One-Eyed Lord of the past ruled the Underworld with a mighty power that no one could surpass. But even that One-Eyed Lord was not free from any threats.]

[The Heavenly Giant Lord was his greatest threat and enemy. The warriors of the giant tribe he led also tormented the Einherjar for a long time with their naturally enhanced strength and valor.]

[Until the arrival of Twilight, there was no end to the battle between the One-Eyed Lord and the Heavenly Giant Lord. Only after the Wandering Lord intervened did the endless chaos finally stop.]

[Before the war was over, it was not the intrepid One-Eyed Lord, nor the Einherjar who had transcended Death itself, who had slaughtered the most number of giants.]

[‘Giant Slayer’.]

[It was Mjöllnir, the natural enemy of the fearless giants.]

[That very same Mjöllnir has once again revealed its majesty in the Underworld.]

A flash of light erupted from the spire before Kim Jin-Woo even had time to read the messages. Thunderbolts followed.

Crash! Crash!

The solid earth exploded with each lightning strike, and the whole Underworld itself seemed to light up with every bolt.

[Indeed, Mjölnlir’s power lives up to its title as the ‘Giant Slayer’. Unfortunately, however, there are too few experienced Einherjar who can actually operate Mjölnir.]

[The Einherjar have been unable to draw out Mjölnir’s full power.]

[The accuracy of Mjölnir’s strikes is poor due to the Einherjar’s lack of experience.]

[More than half of the attacks have missed.]

The thunderbolt strikes, which should have fallen only on the Heavenly Giant Lord, started raining down in all directions.

“Run! You’re going to get caught up in it!” Catherine exclaimed. In response, the Beastfolk King fled hurriedly, while Angela retreated into the shadows.

“Needlessly dramatic.” As the thunderbolts swept across the area, Kim Jin-Woo, standing still in the midst of it all, cursed under his breath as he revealed his honest feelings about Mjöllnir.

“Kaaaaargh!”

In front of him stood the Heavenly Giant Lord, who was suffering from a concussion due to all the direct lightning strikes he had received. Unable to draw out his powers at all due to the constant electrocution, the giant looked like a complete mess that was a far cry from his notorious past.

But his loud demeanor remained the same, as he continued to shout barbarically despite his body being engulfed in flames. “Why, you son of a bitch!”

“You’re a tough one,” Kim Jin-Woo said with an air of blatant ridicule.

In response, the Heavenly Giant Lord once again expanded his muscles, looking as if he were about to explode at any moment.

“Hmm.” Kim Jin-Woo’s eyes narrowed as he stared at the giant.

Seeing as the giant was only focused on increasing his size instead of charging toward him, it wasn’t difficult to guess the fact that the power of the Giant Lord couldn’t easily be controlled by the body of a mortal human being. Otherwise, there would be no reason for the Heavenly Giant Lord to not rush at him right away in spite of his anger.

“Don’t hide like a coward behind Mjöllnir; come and face me like a man!” the Heavenly Giant Lord roared hoarsely as if asking for a fight, his voice sounding as if it were emanating from a deep cave. “If you’re truly the one who has inherited the name of the One-Eyed Lord, you won’t avoid battling me!”

Was his confidence growing as much as his body? The Heavenly Giant Lord’s presence was growing more rampant by the minute.

“If I lose, I’ll gladly become your slave!” he cried. He didn’t seem to have completely lost his senses, as he was still wary of Angela and the other Highlords. Contrary to his provocative actions, he was rather cunning.

“If I could, I would love to entertain you…” Clearly seeing the intention of his opponent who was trying to reverse the situation by bringing him down, Kim Jin-Woo responded coldly. “But the opportunity to test the reputation of the ‘Giant Slayer’ doesn’t come easily.”

As soon as he finished speaking, a message appeared, highlighting that Mjöllnir, which had been drained of energy from the constant lightning strikes, had finished recharging, and Kim Jin-Woo ordered another attack without delay.

“Y… You! You cowa—!”

The Heavenly Giant Lord’s final words were drowned out by the thunder that erupted once more.

“It’s terrifying. This is worse than I thought,” the Beastfolk King muttered.

“I knew of the existence of the Giant Slayer, but I didn’t know it was this powerful,” Catherine responded, looking equally worn-out.

The Heavenly Giant Lord continued to suffer one-sided harassment by Mjölnir, and found himself unable to draw out his own powers.

“But even so, isn’t he too helpless?” the Beastfolk King remarked.

Instead of being relieved that his choice had been correct, he instead lamented his choice. Despite the fact that he had surrendered and was safe, the fact that such a huge power gap existed between them and Kim Jin-Woo wasn’t a good sign at all.

“So proud of the fact that he was the first awakened Highlord, and yet, look at him now. How pathetic.” Catherine, perhaps having the same opinion, shook her head as she looked at the Heavenly Giant Lord.

However, contrary to their thoughts, the Heavenly Giant Lord hadn’t suffered much damage. Although his skin was reddened from the searing lightning and blackened by the successive strikes, the energy of the thunderbolts couldn’t penetrate his thick skin. In addition, his burnt skin was completely restored within a short period of time, thanks to the giant’s powerful vitality.

“Kaaaaargh!”

Nevertheless, his screams didn’t end with each successive attack.

Damn the eyes of that monster.

At some point, the Heavenly Giant Lord found that he had lost his will. Following the Wailing Lord, the Beastfolk King had defected to the other side, and the True Blood Lord, whom he hadn’t even known existed, had claimed to be his opponent’s slave. All things considered, he found himself losing his fighting spirit.

No, that was all an excuse.

To be honest, he wasn’t confident that he could defeat the man who claimed to have inherited the power of the One-Eyed Lord. The others seemed not to have noticed, but the opponent was a completely different being from the rest of them.

It was only after facing that fact that he finally realized it. His opponent’s glistening gaze was like that of a predator stalking its prey, and the turbid sensation in the air felt deathly and ominous.

A Highlord’s unique presence was nothing new, and yet, the power contained within his opponent was incomparable to their own.

Just because one had inherited the powers of an Ancient Lord didn’t mean that they were all the same, equal Highlords. Realizing the overwhelming gap in power, the Heavenly Giant Lord gritted his teeth.

What a fucking monster.

As for the reason why there was such a disparity in their powers, the Heavenly Giant Lord couldn’t give a damn. The important thing now was to survive.

So, instead of fighting his dreaded opponent, he chose to be suppressed by the giant’s nemesis. At least he wouldn’t have to deal with the terrifying monster while being pummeled by Mjöllnir.

The miserable scene the other Lords were witnessing was actually a desired outcome of his plan. Meanwhile, he started to devise a way to escape the situation while caught in the endless thunderstorm. It wasn’t easy to keep his thoughts intact while thundershocks continued to rattle his brains, but he needed to find a way out somehow.

However, today was just not his day, as his opponent didn’t give him any room to breathe.

“This should be enough,” Kim Jin-Woo remarked.

Shamelessly, it wasn’t enough for the Heavenly Giant Lord’s opponent to test Mjöllnir’s powers on him, as his enemy ordered the Einherjar to stop the attacks.

The screaming spire fell silent, and the thunderstorm ended

“Urgh…” the giant groaned.

The whole area was searing hot from the afterglow of the thunderstorm, but he felt a chill instead. A viscous energy, which had been spreading out in all directions, rushed toward him and pressed him down.

“What the fuck… are you…”

Suppressing his doubts and fears, the Heavenly Giant Lord finally finished his enlargement, only to see a black dragon staring right at him when he raised his head upright.

No, it wasn’t even a dragon. It was way too horrific and ugly to be called a dragon.

Sensing danger, he instinctively ignited his shimmering fighting spirit. He cursed, “I’m so fucking unlucky.”

One way or another, the only way for him to survive was to achieve victory with his own strength. Thus, the Heavenly Giant Lord gathered his energy belatedly.

The black dragon’s jaws tore open into a smirk.

“Kaaaaargh!”

The Heavenly Giant Lord roared fiercely the moment he faced the Evil Dragon’s terrifying smirk. No longer could the appearance of a coward trying to sneak his way out of the situation be seen. In its place, there only remained the king of the valiant giants—the first Highlord to awaken.

“You monstrous son of a bitch!” he yelled.

He clenched his two giant fists that had crushed countless Nobles in the past, fire and ice forming around each one. They both merged to form a huge mace that came slamming down on the dragon.

The Evil Dragon opened his jaws as if to swallow the fist of fire whole, and he spread his black wings wide, pushing the fist of ice away.

Kaaargh!

The Evil Dragon’s blood splattered everywhere, and his wings were frozen, shattering into pieces. The Heavenly Giant Lord’s entire fist disappeared into the dragon’s maw up to his wrist, and bright red blood splattered in all directions.

With just one impact, the dragon’s wings were torn apart and the giant’s fist had been swallowed whole, but the battle had only just begun.

Black smoke coalesced to form two new pairs of wings, and the giant’s severed fist of the giant, bearing more flames than before. The two monsters continued to tear at each other’s bodies, crushing, devouring, and colliding several times before the cycle repeated.

As they watched, neither Catherine nor the Beastfolk King had any more words to say. They were drained of their will just by the evil presence of the Evil Dragon and the ferocity of the Giant’s attacks. But it was the ominous radiating energy of the Evil Dragon that made them feel even more uneasy.

“Was that originally the Naga King’s power?” Barely able to squeeze out a few words, the Beastfolk King’s voice was quiet and low.

“No, it’s different. That’s not the power of a Naga.” Catherine shook her head. Despite having seen almost all the evils of the Underworld with her own eyes, the appearance of the Evil Dragon was too shocking, even to her.

It was as if something that shouldn’t even have existed in this world had taken the form of a dragon and embedded itself into this place. Its black body that seemed to be forged from darkness itself was an amalgamation of all things unclean, and it appeared to be a perfect darkness that nothing could illuminate.

From the darkness came a terrifying howl of hunger that rattled Catherine to the bones… and she knew of an existence that looked exactly like that monster.

“It’s like…” she trailed off.

Night.

Catherine couldn’t bear to speak the name of the terrifying monster, and her face turned pale.