Chapter 362 - 190. Donn O’ Donnchadha (Part One)

Translated by A Passing Wanderer

Edited by RED

**

All the Jötnar froze in place. There was no need to even mention Surtr's current state, either.

An eerily familiar presence could be felt coming from the Skeleton King's figure, right before their eyes.

-But how? How can this even...?-

Only one being in this entire world could emit that distinct aura. It was none other than the Frost Giant, Hrímr!

Indeed, this presence belonged to that creature, one of the four Kings of the Giants..

Surtr's eyes trembled unsteadily. Its gaze landed on the space visible beyond the Skeleton King's icy armour and the ribcage.

A powerful aura encased in frost was swirling and spinning around inside there. A thing resembling Hrímr could be seen imprisoned within, crying out desperately.

The Frost Giant's soul had been trapped within the Skeleton King's body, its power gradually being stolen away.

Surtr shook its head as if it wanted to reject this reality, but that didn't last for long. Unchecked rage overtook the giant right away.

-You dare to devour my brother?!- The Fire Giant's entire body shuddered in fury. It opened its maw wide and roared out monstrously.

Alice was singing her hymn, but was shocked out of her concentration and had to stare at the Skeleton King as well. Not only did the humongous undead emit this powerful and sacred aura, it had even forcibly manipulated the dead giant's soul and sealed it away.

This was the King of Death, and it was displaying its ability to collect the souls of the others to absorb their strength.

Alice's surprise didn't last long, and she quickly shifted her gaze over to Allen next. He was already wearing Amon's Skull and the suit of bone armour.

Anyone else would've seen his overflowing majesty and aura of an absolute being capable of ruling the entire world. But Alice could see something else.

She could tell his divinity flow was unstable. It was clearly in disorder.

'I knew it. He's straining himself.'

Alice clenched her teeth and increased the volume of her voice. She worked extra hard so that Allen would have an easier time unleashing his power through her Resonance.

Meanwhile, he raised Avaldi's Spear up high, before slamming its end down into the ground.

As if to match that, the burning eyeballs of the Skeleton King glowed even brighter.

-Be trapped in ice!-

Four spears of ice pierced into the ground. Huge blocks of ice exploded out from the burning forest and all that lava flooding the land.

A portion of the Jötnar of fire were imprisoned within the rising ice. Even Surtr was trapped in one of the larger ice blocks, its entire body freezing up instantly.

-All this ice, isn't it...?!-

-It's Lord Hrímr's authority over nature!-

-That bastard has defiled our king's soul!-

The Jötnar of fire were enraged.

-We must burn that bastard down to ashes!-

-Yes, we must free Lord Hrímr's soul!-

The Jötnar of fire were displaying massive outrage to the Skeleton King. But just as they clenched their weapons tightly and tried to pounce on the Skeleton King...

Allen slammed Avaldi's Spear down once more. A pristine, gentle sound reverberated throughout the land, causing the Jötnar to turn their attention over to him, instead.

Surrounding him were Kasim, Nasus, and Rahamma, standing tall.

Even if it was the one and only Skeleton King, facing off against three hundred Jötnar was still a very tall order.

Allen glared sharply at the giants, then beckoned at them with his finger. "Come and get some."

The Jötnar of fire all crumpled their expressions in anger, and then charged his position.

And so... the Skeleton King handled Surtr, while Allen dealt with three hundred irate fire Jötnar. He summoned countless more undead from the lake of holy water. The undead monster legions, comprising of all sorts of bizarre bone combinations, leapt out from the water's surface to fight back the giants.

-What a beautiful voice she has.-

-Rather than an insect, isn't she more like a skylark?-

Alice, still singing the hymn, had to turn her head at those comments. Several giants were snickering away while looking down at her.

The ancient Jötnar had a tendency to enjoy pleasant music, so much so that the old legends said that the giants would be charmed by one capable of singing beautifully and abduct them, even if the singer happened to be an insignificant human being.

However, these Jötnar were displaying naked hostility rather than curiosity right now. In fact, one of the Jötnar hoisted a mace made out of fire and slammed it down towards the ground without hesitation.

Alice, still singing the hymn, quickly flung herself to the side to evade the attack. She sucked in a deep breath and continued to sing the melody.

'It's getting harder to breathe.'

Her surroundings had become enveloped in flames, and there was not enough air to go around. Due to the high temperature, fatigue was also quickly washing over her, far sooner than usual.

'However, it's not to the point that I'd be defeated by these Jötnar!'

Alice bumped her fists. Her gauntlets let out a clear, pristine clanging noise, and were swiftly encased in divinity.

One of the Jötnar slammed its hand down at her, but Alice only stood still and watched it draw near.

'If I'm to block the attacks of Jötnar, my footing needs to be sturdy.'

She stomped her feet on the ground. Her divinity spread out, solidifying the earth below her.

As she watched the huge palm descend on top of her, the gleam in Alice's eyes sharpened even further.

'And also, to decrease the Jötunn's hitting power to its absolute minimum...'

She needed to locate the flow of Mana hidden within the giant's scorching palm, somewhere among all those flames burning ferociously within its bedrock armour.

She confirmed its location, and punched forward, hard.

What she was attempting to pull off right now was the 'parrying' technique that Marquis Charlotte used freely.

Divinity and Mana collided, and the Jötunn's hand was deflected away. The giant put on a stunned face, but on the other hand, Alice was frowning deeply.

Her arm was numb and aching. Her defence was still a long ways off compared to Charlotte's perfect parrying technique. It was still too sloppy.

However, she couldn't deny that it had proved to be effective, nevertheless!

She kicked up from the ground and leapt high. Her body spun around before she punched out once more. The Jötunn's head was pulverised into mush, and its large body was flung backwards.

The other Jötnar were taken aback by this scene, but they still snickered arrogantly.

-Oh, not bad.-

-I shall be the one to burn that skylark to ashes!-

Cold sweat trickled down Alice's face. It was already quite hard to contend with one or two Jötnar, yet there were...

"Alice!"

She quickly turned her head at that familiar voice. That's when she spotted Allen looking directly at her while stepping back.

"Come this way!"

She broke into a sprint in his direction and the Jötnar began chasing after her.

"Fuu-woo..."

Allen's heavy breaths gushed out from beneath Amon's Skull. At the same time, his arms were transforming. More bones covered them, morphing into a cannon, and he aimed the weapon at the incoming Jötnar. The twelve skeletal hands on his back were wielding muskets as well.

That wasn't all, though, as behind him was the musket regiment one hundred strong, and twenty cannons, all rising up from the surface of the holy water.

"Take aim, and..."

The muskets were trained on their new targets.

Alice's eyes widened, while the Jötnar behind her were shocked into stopping and faltering where they stood.

"...Fire!"

Alice hurriedly kissed the ground.

There were earth-shattering explosions, and dozens of Jötnar started collapsing and falling back lifelessly. The thick smoke of the gunfire and cannon shelling obscured her sight like a dense fog.

Even then, the gunshots didn't let up. That was because even more undead wielding muskets continued to emerge from the holy water's surface.

-Defend yourselves!-

The Jötnar began using their fallen brethren as shields, and continued to advance.

Despite the barrages from the muskets and cannons destroying and blowing the corpses apart, the giants managed to creep closer and closer to Allen and Alice's position.

"Huh, to think that they would actually use their own kin as meat shields."

-They would be overjoyed by our choice, actually!- The Jötnar continued to snicker contemptuously.

Meanwhile, the Skeleton King was glaring sharply at Surtr, who was still trapped within the block of ice. The undead's glowing eyes narrowed to slits, before it thrust its ice spear forward with great strength.

Right at that moment, Surtr raised its head. Numerous cracks ran through the ice block before it shattered into bits. The Fire Giant grabbed the incoming spear with its bare hand.

Intense heat and cold collided, sending out choking steam everywhere before exploding vigorously.

-You bastard!!!- Surtr roared out while gritting its teeth.

-Do not resist your death, oh King of Fire!-

Both the Skeleton King and Surtr glared murderously at each other.

The three remaining ice spears flew directly at the Fire Giant's torso. The weapons impaled Surtr's large body, causing countless spikes of ice to explode out from it.

The Fire Giant screamed thunderously.

This... this was Hrímr's ability! But, that wasn't all.

The Skeleton King splashed holy water everywhere as it retreated. It then materialised yet more ice spears, which the undead began swinging around. The glowing eyes of the giant undead arched up into a creepy grin.