The Star Of Annihilation

The Star of Annihilation

Chapter 37 – Flaws (3)

Written by : eleven

* * *

Whoooooosh~

As the carriage got closer to the village, fierce gusts of wind filled with smoke blew in the air.

“AAHHHH!”

Screams echoed in the surroundings as they got to the border of the village.

The scene in front of Roy and Lucius was brutal

“Stay inside.”

“Why can’t I come too?”

Lucius ordered Roy as he questioned in response.

“You can feel it too.”

Lucius spoke cryptically and Roy roused his mana core as he started to sense the presences inside the village.

Tingle.

Roy felt goosebumps as he belatedly realized the monstrous presence inside of the village.

‘What kind of…’

Bang!

Roy wasn’t even able to finish his thoughts before something shot out at the carriage and forced Lucius to cut it down mid-air.

Clanggggg!

Perfectly sliced in two, a door to a random home was chucked at them.

“Tch.”

Lucius clicked his tongue wistfully as he looked at the door he had spliced perfectly in two.

Thud. Thud. Thud.

The ground shook with each step it took.

Roy looked at the being with narrowed eyes.

He could see several humans and demons that had been laid strewn about in the village.

Humans also lived in the Demon Territory and weren’t inadequately treated.

But the being in front of Lucius and Roy was neither Demon, nor human.

“What business does a member of the Giant Race have with the bordering villages of the Demon Territory?”

Lucius asked in a calm voice.

The large giant, standing over 15 meters tall, looked at Lucius with enraged eyes.

The anger present in its figure was clearly apparent.

Giants were not brainless creatures. They were just as smart as any other race that inhabited the Northern Continent.

However, they were small in number and were rather called a ‘Tribe’, since their numbers spanned less than a thousand in total.

But the Giant in front of Lucius, did not answer his question and reacted instead with a beastial roar.

“GWWWAAAOOOORRRR!”

Roy trembled at the sheer size and killing intent being emitted from the Giant towards the carriage.

Yet, despite the massive amount of mana that the giant was in possession of, Roy felt something similar towards it.

“Wait Master…”

As Lucius started to prepare his stance, Roy suddenly spoke up.

“Yes…?”

“Try not to kill it.”

“Of course, you idiot.”

Lucius smacked Roy on his head and smirked.

“Do you think the Empire would be scotch-free after killing a member of the Giant Race?”

“…it’s not just that, there’s something weird going on with that guy.”

Roy pointed at the Giant who seemed to be standing still, waiting for their move.

Yet, to the trained eye, it was blatantly obvious that the Giant was shaking ever so slightly from the outrageous amounts of ki that Lucius had.

No matter how special of a Giant it was, if it wasn’t one of the Giant’s Elders or Chief, there was no way that it would be able to stand up to a Swordmaster of the Empire.

“I’ll be done soon.”

Roy looked at Lucius who spoke with a look of reverence.

‘I’m really lucky.’

Roy was appreciative of Lucius, his new master.

His new master in this life was in a path he would have never expected as Lucius did not know magic, and was someone so reliable that Roy couldn’t help but feel at ease and safe when he saw the man unsheathing his sword.

The wind and blowing smoke started to calm down as Lucius closed his eyes.

Bwoooosh!

The air suddenly seemed the streamline around Lucius’ figure as his golden locks of hair fluttered with the blue aura that started to coat around his sword.

Other than the hood of the robe falling down and the aura around his sword, nobody would know that this man was a Swordmaster of the Empire.

Bang!

Lucius kicked the ground and shot forward.

* * *

30 kilometers South of the Eastern Kingdom, Palest.
In the air, two individuals were floating high above the realm of visible sight for humans.

Latras, one of the Great Three, and Parish, the Lord of the Dragons stood afloat while talking.

<How are the experiments going?>

Parish asked about the progress of the task he had given Latras.

<They are going as planned, we may see results even sooner than we thought.>

<How soon are we talking?>

<Well, I’ve started to experiment with combining different sources of energy in this world into the bodies of the humans we are experimenting on, but the best subject was actually a member of those rather large humans. The regular humans of this weak kingdom can’t hold what they call ki and mana at the same time, yet if given the proper circuit, I think they can hold conflicting types of power in one vessel. The best subject that I was working on was able to hold several powers despite not having a circuit thanks to its strong genes…>

<Its genes?>

<Yes, the genealogy of the specimen seems to be of durable build albeit weaker than us.>

<Hm…>

Parish twirled his long red hair with his fingers as he contemplated the report.

<Where did you find it, and how many of them are there?>

<They seemed to be hidden, but they are called the Giant Race according to the locals of this planet. They tend to stick together, but the one I found was separated it seemed as it was near the territory of the Empire and the Demons. Right now, I am putting it through a testing phase to see its power and whether it will be able to even inherit our powers sooner than expected.>

<Hm… Good. Tell me if anything changes. But for now, continue your research and if you need any assistance, just ask my son, Hanu.>

Latras bowed at the command of Parish.

Parish didn’t like the human polymorph form of Latras, as it was easier to call him a chimera instead.

Even among the Dragon Race, Latras was a rather detestable figure as he openly experimented on his own body and liked to associate his research with the lower species that they were to conquer.

If it weren’t for Argenta’s death and the appearance of that odd-looking, red star, Parish would have never asked Latras for such experiments or measures to create an army to be safe.

Whoosh-


Parish turned around and waved his hand in the air as he split the space apart and walked through.

<I shall hear from you later.>

He spoke with his back turned to Latras as he warped across the space over to the Dark Continent, where he had made the Palace of the Dragons temporarily as their base.

* * *

Bang!
The ground exploded as the Giant fell from the air.

Imperial Swordsmanship Sixth Series : Shield of the Forgotten


A bright blue dome of aura surrounded Lucius’ figure, with the tip of his sword as the central point.

Roy had been watching the fight from beginning to end.

No… it wasn’t a fight.

His master, Lucius, had one-sidedly beatdown the Giant.

Yet something was odd about the Giant in front of them.

“GRRRRAAAAAAAAAAOORRRR!”

It showed no signs of being hindered or in pain from its injuries.

Furthermore, if he looked closely enough, Roy started to spot something odd happening.

Crick- Creakkk-


The Giant’s skin started to seemingly crack apart slowly as the bones in its body started to crack and bend in irregular angles. Watching this, Roy felt as if he were watching something inside of the Giant, trying to rip itself out from the inside of its body.

Suddenly, it became deathly silent and the Giant no longer howled in agony.

Brikkkikikikik!

Flakes of dead skin started to float off from the Giant’s body as if it were shedding a layer of cracked glass.

The dead skin started to peel off of its body as scaly, oiled and freshly uncut skin started to appear.

‘Scales?’

Roy blinked repeatedly as if he didn’t believe what he was seeing,

Circulating the mana in his eyes fiercely, he re-focused onto the Giant’s body to see if he had seen correctly.

“……wooooar.”

The Giant let out a small moan that felt as if it were crying.

As Roy’s eyes re-focused onto the Giant’s body, he quickly solidified his guess as scaly skin to be true before it happened.

The Giant’s neck turned around 180 degrees and twisted unnaturally as Lucius and Roy heard the bones in its neck snap completely.

‘That thing shou-’

thwack!
Roy couldn’t finish his thoughts, because by the time he had already realized the Giant was probably dead, his vision started to fade.

Lucius quickly knocked Roy out and let him sleep in the carriage as he noticed the Giant’s odd behavior.

The eyes of the Giant rolled back and the whites could be seen…. Until an odd energy started to flow out in the surroundings.

At that moment, Lucius gripped his sword and saw the whites of the Giant’s eyes turn completely pitch black.

BA-BOOM!


* * *

A cloud of dust and smoke was thrown up into the air as the village that the subject of the experiments had been let out to rampage at.

[Hm…? Hohoho…!]

An odd laugh sounded out in the dark room as the being who was watching the fight between Lucius and the former Giant, broke out.

[It seems this one was inevitably a failure, but it looks like we have found the right trail. Master Latras will be very pleased.]

A ferocious energy that Roy would have immediately recognized as demonic energy, gushed from the body of the being that laughed.

The King of the Serpentine Demon Family, Alar, smiled cruelly as the two black horns at the tip of his head started to glow green with excitement.

Chapter 37 – Fin