Chapter 167. Battle of the Giants (1)

The basement of the collapsed hotel was pitch black.

Water, perhaps from a burst water tank, came up to his calves and a slight chill could be felt.

It seemed they had made a cold storage in the basement.

But it must have malfunctioned due to the hotel’s collapse, causing the cold air to leak out.

Kuuung-

Kureureu…….

The ceiling shook precariously due to the Skeleton Lord rampaging above.

Luis thought.

This underground space, which could collapse at any moment, might become his grave.

But he still moved.

Splashing through the water on the basement floor, he searched for Dayle.

“Dayle! Dayle!”

It was then.

“Lu, Luis……?”

Luis could hear Dayle’s voice.

“Day, Dayle!”

Finally, Luis was able to find the Dayle he had been so desperately searching for.

It was the deepest part of the basement.

And that space was filled not with water, but with ice and glaciers.

Dayle was there.

Buried in a thick glacier, he had one arm out and was barely looking toward where Luis was.

In front of him stood a towering frozen statue and Luis instantly realized it was a block of ice formed as a Death Knight froze.

But he didn’t care.

As soon as Luis found Dayle, he stepped onto the ice sheet and ran towards him, buried within.

“Dayle. What happened.”

“Ha. Haha. You came. As you can see, this is what happened. So, sorry. Jaygie. I couldn’t save her.”

Dayle forced the muscles of his stiff face to move and managed a smile.

Cold breath seeped out from between his pale, trembling lips, and at that sight, Luis had to suppress a surge of emotion.

“There’s nothing to be sorry for. You did your best. Thanks to you, Miss Jaygie is safe.”

“I-is, is that so? That’s a relief. I knew I’d……do it. Keuheuheu.”

Dayle gave a thumbs-up with the only hand he had sticking out.

But his firmly frozen fingers wouldn’t straighten as he willed.

“Damn it……”

“Hoo. Dayle. Can you get out? I’ll help you.”

“You. You’re injured.”

Dayle’s eyes fell on Luis’s blood-stained shoulder.

“I’m fine.”

Luis grabbed Dayle’s hand and pulled him up.

The pain from his shoulder made him dizzy and for a moment he almost lost his mind, but Luis quickly held on to his senses and gritted his teeth.

It was obvious what had happened without even seeing it.

He must have fired a Frost Bullet to subdue the Death Knight, but failed to control the power and distance, getting caught in the aftermath.

“Luis.”

It was then.

Dayle suddenly forced his hand out of Luis’s grasp.

Luis tried to grab his hand again, but Dayle slapped his hand away.

“Dayle……?”

As Luis looked at him with a gaze full of bewilderment at the unexpected action.

“Hoo-uk. Hoo-uk. R-run.”

Dayle said in a low voice.

“……Pardon? What do you mean by that? We have to get out together, don’t we?”

“Then we both die. That bastard, he’s not dead.”

Luis looked at the Death Knight trapped in the ice.

It was just as Dayle said.

Though frozen into a statue, the Death Knight’s eyes still shone with a brilliant light from within, staring at the two of them.

“That bastard. He, he’s aiming for us. Hoo-uk. The ice on him will break before I can be pulled out, and the moment he’s out, he’ll rush to kill us. Even you, in your injured state, won’t be able to stop a Death Knight.”

“……”

“So…… r-run. And live. And tell the boss how I. How this Da, Dayle fought for Shadow, and what a help I was. Hehehehe……!”

Smiling forlornly, Dayle glanced at Luis and tilted his head.

Luis just stood there, looking down at him.

“Hey. Lu, Luis? What are you doing just standing there? H-hurry up and run……!”

“……You’ve changed a lot too, Dayle.”

“What……?”

“When we first met, you were a con man who only cared about himself. Do you remember?”

Wrinkles formed on Dayle’s brow.

They had spent time living and struggling together.

Just by looking at Luis’s expression, he already knew what choice he was about to make.

“Hey…… r-really. Are you going to be like this till the end, you? I wanted to be cool at the end, but can’t you just listen to me for once without ruining the mood, would it ki, kill you……?”

“I’m sorry, but you’re too foolish. I don’t think I can grant that request.”

Luis stood up.

“Hey…… Hey……! Luis! What are you? Doing now! Luis! Luiiis……!”

“Dayle. Do you think I would abandon you and run?”

“Th-think rationally, you punk! Shadow! The boss?”

Dayle stretched out his only arm and screamed.

However, Luis had already made up his mind.

“I am being more rational than ever right now, Dayle.”

‘One time is enough for that damn memory of abandoning a comrade and running away.’

Muttering that inwardly, Luis tightly gripped the longsword in his hand and looked at the ice statue.

At the same time.

Chaaaang!

The ice statue that had been restraining the Death Knight shattered.

Kwang-!

Caught in the force that exploded from within, shattered pieces of ice flew in all directions.

Among those ice shards was the Death Knight, freed from its bonds, and the tip of its sword was aimed precisely at the space between Luis’s eyes.

At lightning speed.

“Heup!”

Luis, who had anticipated it, raised his sword, but perhaps because he had already exhausted too much stamina.

……At the last moment, his shoulder wouldn’t tense up.

Luiiiiis──!

“Ah.”

Just at that moment when the space between Luis’s eyes and the tip of the Death Knight’s sword met.

Kwang!

A sudden force came flying and sent the Death Knight flying.

Like a puppet with its strings cut, the Death Knight flew at an incredible speed and was embedded deep into the wall.

Luis and Dayle stared at the scene with dumbfounded expressions.

Luis, who came to his senses first, turned his gaze to where the force had come from.

“You’re Luis?”

There stood a man with a cold appearance, holding the pose of a just-thrown punch.

***

Parnaci closed the restaurant door and stepped out into the plaza.

Perhaps because it was late at night.

There were almost no people in the plaza.

He brought a chair, placed it on a protruding stone, and sat down.

It was the spot with the best view of the plaza and his restaurant, a place Parnaci usually sought out to rest.

But now, he wouldn’t be able to see it anymore.

“The last time……”

Parnaci suppressed his sorrow, gripping the sword in his hand and went over everything to see if he had forgotten anything.

He left a letter for his employees, and one for Jaygie.

Also, one for Luis.

He had also told his long-time friend, a wealth manager, in advance.

That if he were to die suddenly, all his assets should be transferred to Jaygie.

That’s right.

Parnaci was sitting here with the resolve to die.

He would fight Dorian’s gang head-on and save Jaygie.

Of course, the chances were slim.

Parnaci himself had been a mercenary in the past and he had developed an eye for people since then, but he had never seen anyone as dangerous as them.

So Parnaci knew well that there was no chance of winning this fight.

As proof, his whole body was trembling from the fear of death.

But, he didn’t want to be a shameful father.

You never know until you try.

Who knows?

Maybe a god, moved by my courage, will grant me a miraculous power.

‘Of course, I’ll die in this fight.’

If only he could save Jaygie.

That was enough.

And so, Parnaci waited for death.

The night deepened.

The plaza grew empty.

He didn’t know how long he had waited, but Parnaci was starting to sense that something was strange.

“……Why aren’t they coming?”

He checked his wristwatch.

The appointed time had long passed.

Yet, Dorian’s gang did not appear.

‘Did something happen to them on the way?’

He thought he had heard something collapsing from a distant spot just a while ago.

Seeing faint smoke rising from the sky in that direction, it seemed a fire had broken out.

‘Could it be true?’

Though he knew the probability was low, a desperate Parnaci earnestly prayed for his imagination to become reality.

That all the bad guys would die off and only his daughter Jaygie would escape safely and return to him.

He dreamed such a dream, if only for a moment.

“Dad?”

Did the dream really become reality?

Parnaci turned his head.

A lone silhouette stood tall above the darkened plaza, looking at him.

“……Huh?”

Parnaci rubbed his eyes.

Because that silhouette looked exactly like Jaygie.

He must have gone crazy from desperation.

Even so, to see a hallucination of his daughter…….

Just as he was thinking that, she walked over, step by step.

“Dad……”

Wiping her tears with both hands.

“Dad…… Sob. Dad……!”

She runs towards him.

“……Jaygie?”

Parnaci still wore a face of disbelief.

He stares blankly at the sight, like a man whose soul had left him.

But, his body is already moving.

Tears stream down like a broken faucet, he falls to his knees and he opens his arms wide, preparing to embrace her.

“Daaaaad!”

And Jaygie, who came running.

Deobsseok!

He pulls her into an embrace as if to break her.

“Jaygie!”

“Dad! Sob!”

“H…… How. Is it really you? Is it really my daughter?”

“Sob……!”

“Oh, heavens. Thank you, God. If this is a dream, I hope I never wake up……”

Parnaci lovingly caressed the face of Jaygie in his arms, checking again with his eyes, whispering his fatherly affection.

“What happened? Huh!? Where were you!”

“Sob. The Ladr, Ladrier Ho, Hotel…… But Luis oppa……”

Her words were hard to understand, drenched in tears, but the moment he heard the name Luis, Parnaci’s head felt as if it had been hit by a hammer.

“Lu, Luis?”

“Luis’ brother is in danger!”

“Jaygie. Wait in the shop and don’t move. I’ll be right back.”

“D-Dad!”

Without needing to hear more, his body moved.

He already knew of the Ladrier Hotel, and only then did all the puzzles fit together.

Because the direction where he had heard the loud noise and seen the smoke rising was where the Ladrier Hotel was located.

But after running only a short distance, Parnaci had no choice but to stop dead in his tracks.

His face, as he lifted his head and stared somewhere, was completely transfixed.

“……Tha, that’s.”

Behind the towering clock tower.

Kung!

Kuuung!

Two giants were fighting.

***

Luis, who had dealt with the Death Knight with Carl’s help, froze stiff at the scene that unfolded as soon as he got outside.

Starting with the Ladrier Hotel, the entire area was a complete mess.

It looked as if a hurricane had swept through.

And behind the collapsed castle wall.

Geuaaaa──

Kwaaaang!

Two giants made of bone were fighting, swinging their respective weapons.

“Th-this is crazy! Shit! What the hell is that!”

Dayle, who came out belatedly on Carl’s back, also burst out cursing in surprise as soon as he saw the sight.

Luis, who quickly came to his senses, swiftly covered his mouth.

“Carl. Let’s move for now.”

“Mm.”

Indeed, despite it being the middle of the night, there was a huge crowd around.

It was as if all the citizens living in Icata had gathered in one place.

They were all watching the battle of the giants fighting outside the city walls and the Capital Defense Force was even moving around to control them, so there was a risk of being exposed.

It didn’t matter for Luis, but Dayle without his eye patch and Carl with his lower face covered by a cloth looked suspicious to anyone.

They moved and arrived at the rooftop of a quiet building.

“That. Is that Clatter right now? And the one riding on its shoulder is the boss? Really? For real?”

“Hoo. For now…… it seems so.”

“Wow. The boss is really……”

Dayle couldn’t continue his words and just swallowed hard.

That was a battle of a completely different world.

A fight between beings he had never seen nor heard of before.

Perhaps the legendary struggle between the great hero Aidan Frey and the Great Demon Angmar looked just like that.

So he couldn’t control his pounding heart.

His breathing became ragged and his hands were slick with sweat.

He wanted to shout right here.

That the person under the pouring moon, whom everyone was watching with eyes of awe and fear, was their boss.

That the organization he leads is Shadow, and that place is his home.

But, he holds it in.

Because even without doing so, he was already screaming.

‘Over there. The boss.’

With trembling eyes, they fixed their gaze on the fight of Clatter, who had become a Skeleton Lord, and Gerard, the Skull Mask, who was riding on top of him.

And so, nobles and commoners. Knights and mages. Thieves and hero cadets.

And even the father of a child.

Receiving the gazes of the countless citizens that make up Icata.

The prelude to a legendary battle, one that would make the name of Shadow resonate across the continent once more, was beginning.

“Let’s go, Clatter.”

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