Chapter 302: Smash

The bone nail slowly shrank as it floated toward Aureus. By the time it reached him, it had become the size of a palm.

Aureus grasped the nail and said, “Now, you are free. Once your body has fully recovered, head to Greenwood. Do not worry about the people along the way. As you said, when they appear before you, you can simply slap them to death with a single palm.”

After speaking, he turned and left.

Castag never expected Aureus to actually pull out the bone, nor that he would leave so decisively.

Watching Aureus’s retreating back, Castag thought it looked so aged, slightly hunched.

Indeed, humans were unlike him. As long as they were not killed, their lives could grow without limit. Because of that, even after living for over twenty thousand years, he could still call himself a child without hesitation.

But for Aureus, life lasted only a little over sixty years. And as for himself, it seemed he had watched Aureus grow up.

The earth veins behind him surged with magic. Castag could feel the wounds on his body slowly healing, the flesh of his jaw trembling as it recovered. His body was mending itself continuously, and gradually, he regained the ability to sense his own form.

……

Last night, Castag had said that once the nail was removed, he would immediately recover. But in reality, it was only deep in the night that he managed to crawl out from underground.

The ground shook. Hod’s pleasure instantly faded, and a woman’s terrified scream rang by his ears. He pulled himself free, ran naked to the window, and looked outside.

A massive figure was climbing up from beyond Frozen Furnace City. A bone-chilling cold spread outward, and even the warmth of the room was covered in a layer of frost. Hod shivered violently from the cold, his teeth chattering uncontrollably.

The door was suddenly pushed open. Cooper, wearing only his lower garments, rushed in and shouted, “What happened again? Why is everything shaking?”

Hod trembled slightly as he pointed outside.

Cooper rushed to the window and then saw it—an enormous figure striding into the distance.

“This is… a Frost Giant?” Cooper said, his face filled with horror.

“I think so,” Hod replied.

The tale of the Supreme King was one every Northerner could recite by heart. Because of that, they knew Frost Giants had once existed in the North.

“But,” Cooper muttered, “wasn’t the Frost Giant killed by the Supreme King long ago? Why would one appear again, and here, at Frozen Furnace…”

As he spoke, he realized something was wrong. He glanced at Hod but said nothing more.

Hod fell silent too. The two of them simply watched the Frost Giant as it strode away.

On the top floor of Frozen Furnace Castle, in his room, Aureus sat bare-chested, revealing a scarred, emaciated body. He gazed into the distance at the departing Castag.

“‘Aureus, once I find that power, I will come back and save you! I swear, I will definitely return!’” Castag’s voice echoed in his ears before fading away.

It was the pact he had made with Castag when he was a child.

At that time, Aureus himself was only a boy. The pact merely allowed them to communicate, and even then, it would break if they were too far apart.

Aureus sighed and said, “Castag, oh Castag, I shall wait for you to come save me.”

“Of course, that is only if you can survive in Greenwood.”

……

The next morning, Hod was awakened by the sound of killing.

His face was weary. He had been kept awake by the Frost Giant’s disturbance and only slept in the latter half of the night. Now, outside, only the faint light of the Morning Star illuminated the sky.

Despite his fatigue, he immediately donned his leather armor.

Seeing the woman stirred by his movements, he said, “Hide well. It seems there’s fighting again outside.”

With that, he strapped on his armor, slung the wooden box over his back, grabbed his hand axe, and rushed out. Just as he opened the door, he met Cooper doing the same.

Exchanging only a glance, the two men wordlessly charged out together.

Reaching the courtyard behind Frozen Furnace Castle, they saw armored guards dragging corpses, hanging them up in the yard. Beneath the dangling bodies stood trembling figures, thinly clad against the cold.

There were men and women, adults and children. Hod recognized them—they were Aureus’s children, along with their spouses and descendants.

“They had contact with outsiders. Originally, I thought they were too foolish to sell any secrets even if they tried, so I allowed them to live here and propagate the bloodline. But now, since they can no longer carry it forward, I sent them to their deaths first.” Aureus’s voice came from beside Hod.

Hod’s lips trembled as he forced out the words, “These are all just excuses.”

“Yes, they are excuses,” Aureus nodded. “The real reason is that they wanted to flee to Greenwood. So, I killed them.”

“I do not mind the rumors spreading. But if even those in my castle tried to escape, those rumors might make some people believe them. Now is not the time for rebellion. Castag has already gone to Greenwood. He will test its strength for me.”

“Castag’s power is great. Even if he always calls himself a child, he is still a Phantasm—one of the legendary beings said to rival the gods. If Greenwood truly manages to kill Castag, that will prove they indeed possess the strength to resist the Lords of Annihilation.”

“Castag?” Hod asked.

“That is the Frost Giant my ancestor once slew,” Aureus replied. “Of course, my ancestor did not truly kill him, only sealed him beneath Frozen Furnace Castle.”

Hod opened his mouth but left his doubts unspoken. Why was such a mighty being sealed by the Supreme King back then? Why, upon his release, did the Frost Giant not attack Frozen Furnace Castle, but instead obey Aureus and march toward Greenwood?

In the end, Hod only asked, “And if Greenwood truly does have such power? What then?”

“It is not about what we do, Hod. We have no choice,” Aureus said. “What we do next depends only on what they want us to do, and how much time the Lords of Annihilation grant us.”

He patted Hod’s shoulder and added, “It is still early. You may rest a while longer. Once you’ve slept, tell the steward whatever you wish to eat—he will see to it. Do not worry. Nothing more will happen today. Tomorrow, my orders will resound across the North.”

Aureus turned and departed. Once he was gone, Cooper lowered his head slightly and leaned closer, whispering, “I think this King of the North is a madman.”

Hod only looked at him silently, thinking to himself, I think the two of us are fools.

……

As Aureus had told him, nothing happened that day in Frozen Furnace Castle. Yet Hod felt certain trouble was stirring elsewhere.

A Frost Giant rampaged forward, straight toward Greenwood.

Hod gauged the distance. At its pace, it would reach the border between the North and Greenwood—the Northwind Mountains—in four days.

He only hoped no one along the way would be foolish enough to provoke the creature.

……

The next day, Aureus issued his orders. But the news of the Frost Giant had already spread, and so his decree—which might otherwise have angered the nobles—went largely ignored.

Once the Frost Giant’s path was determined, the nobles along its route quickly assembled their forces. Each one dreamed of killing the Frost Giant like the Supreme King of old and becoming the new Supreme King.

Instead, Castag crushed them beneath a single step.

But Northern warriors were not easily cowed. These were only minor nobles. The true powers had not yet acted.

The Frost Giant’s path crossed the boundary between a marquis’s land and the territory of Earl Leonard Cortes.

Both the marquis and the earl sought to slay Castag, and neither would yield.

Thus, the two mighty Northern lords fought a duel to decide who would claim the right. The marquis prevailed, and Earl Leonard withdrew. Bare-chested, wielding a stone hammer, the marquis awaited Castag’s arrival.

Blood still seeped from the wounds he had received in the duel. He left them untreated. Scars were the medals of Northern warriors.

He waited in this state for the Frost Giant.

At last, on the second evening after the giant’s appearance, he beheld its colossal form.

His body trembled—not from fear, but from exhilaration. Though his height reached only its ankle, though the handle of his hammer was thinner than the giant’s hair, he led his howling Northern warriors into a charge.

Then, with a single step, the Frost Giant crushed dozens beneath its foot. The escaping frost instantly froze the army into a glittering sculpture of ice.

The marquis survived that first stomp. With valor, he leapt high and unleashed his hammer.

Yes, the stone hammer was a Holy Relic. Once released, it bore an immense weight, as though infused with gravity itself.

The marquis had once used this hammer’s power to collapse a mountain.

Now, he swung it with all his might, to forge his path toward the throne of the Supreme King.

The hammer came down hard on the Frost Giant’s right big toe, smashing its nail apart.

“Roar!” The Frost Giant bellowed—half in pain, half in fury.

With a single slap, it shattered both marquis and hammer alike. Flesh, stone, and splinters fused together, and before they struck the ground, the Frost Giant’s icy aura froze them into a misshapen lump of ice.

Howling, the Frost Giant turned its course, its connection to the marquis’s land guiding it.

Before going on to Greenwood, it would first destroy a city.

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