[Super Human Strength: Purely based on force, the user will be able to produce strength rivaling anyone one tier above him. Must be stationary to use full force.]
[Undying Giant: Able to heal from the most gruesome injuries with the mere thought of it, including lost limbs, organs, or blood. When active, only a decapitated head can truly kill you.]
[Divine Forge: Innate ability to create or destroy weapons of extremely high grades with the touch of your hammer.]
Standing before Ethan, the giant humanoid known as Gilgamesh bent down, his massive hand hovering over the corpse of the dead Demi-god beast.
For several moments, he simply stared.
The creature’s body was enormous, its scales and hide layered so thickly that even the strongest weapons would struggle to penetrate them. Its claws were equally terrifying, each one carrying a faint pressure that made Ethan instinctively cautious.
Even in death, the beast radiated a sense of danger.
Gilgamesh reached out and pressed one thick finger against its hide, his expression entirely blank. He was not human in the ordinary sense anymore—he had once been one, at least according to ancient legends, but whatever remained of the original Gilgamesh had been fundamentally transformed by the summoning system.
Still, there was intelligence there. Ethan could see it clearly.
Whenever Gilgamesh encountered something unfamiliar, his eyes would linger on it. He watched, studied, and sometimes even tilted his head slightly as if trying to understand what he was seeing.
He simply could not speak, which was the biggest difference.
Ethan looked at the enormous carcass beneath him and sighed.
*’I killed a Demi-god just now.’*
The thought almost sounded ridiculous.
He glanced down at his own battered body. His clothes were torn, dark blood covered his arms, and one of his bones had been shattered earlier. Although White Transit and his other passive abilities had allowed him to recover, the heavy exhaustion remained.
He had fought a Demi-god beast, and somehow, he was still alive.
Yet Ethan wasn’t arrogant enough to believe he had actually defeated it through his own power alone. The truth was obvious: the beast had already been severely weakened by dozens of fighters. Davos had clashed with it directly, the Maqaue warriors had chipped away at its defenses, and Ethan himself had bombarded it with lightning.
Its skull had already been critically fractured before Gilgamesh ever appeared.
If Gilgamesh hadn’t arrived at that exact moment to repeatedly smash its injured skull with his warhammer, Ethan would never have received the final kill credit.
Still... a kill was a kill.
The giant stood several meters tall, his massive hammer resting against his broad shoulder as Ethan studied his traits.
The abilities of Gilgamesh. Super Human Strength meant Gilgamesh could produce force comparable to someone an entire tier above himself under stationary conditions, while Undying Giant meant almost nothing short of full decapitation could kill him.
And Divine Forge... Ethan’s eyes narrowed. That ability alone could become terrifying if developed properly.
He didn’t know how far Gilgamesh could eventually evolve, but one thing was certain: this summon was entirely different from anything he had commanded before.
Ethan slowly pushed himself up from the dirt. "Now to see what the hell that was all about."
His expression hardened as he looked toward the top of the cliff.
Something had gone wrong during the battle. Davos had vanished, the Demi-god beast had survived long enough to nearly wipe out everyone, and then Davos had somehow returned with two high-value prisoners.
Ethan wanted answers. He couldn’t afford to blindly trust anyone in this place, especially not after realizing that the dungeon contained hostile factions powerful enough to manipulate the entire expedition.
About twenty minutes later, Ethan landed near the top of the cliff.
He had used the Mind Dragon to carry him back up the ravine, but before approaching the main camp, he dismissed the beast back into Morganas mental space. He didn’t need anyone asking unnecessary questions about it.
After thoroughly masking the dragon’s lingering presence, Ethan stepped out from the rocky thicket and began walking toward the camp.
The sight that greeted him made his expression darken.
The Maqaue warriors had pitched several temporary tents across the rocky ground, but there were far fewer people now. Those who remained were heavily wounded—some had bloodied bandages wrapped around their limbs, others were barely conscious, and several were missing arms or legs entirely.
The battle against the sovereign beast had extracted an enormous price.
Ethan had seen something similar only once before: Black Water City, during the catastrophic descent of the Blood Serpent God. Back then, he had watched ordinary mortals suffer simply because beings far beyond their realm had decided to wage war.
Now, he was seeing it happen all over again.
*’When gods fight, men pay with their lives.’*
Ethan’s gaze moved across the camp. The Maqaue expedition had entered this dungeon with hundreds of warriors and human auxiliaries, but now only a fraction remained, and they still hadn’t reached their true objective.
He continued forward through the wounded ranks.
"Hm?"
The first person to notice his arrival was Servos. The old Demi-human’s eyes widened in genuine disbelief before his weathered expression instantly brightened.
"You’re back!" Servos pushed himself up from his seat, shouting, "I knew you wouldn’t die so easily!"
He took one step forward, then another, but his balance suddenly gave out.
*Thud!*
He collapsed heavily onto the stony ground. "Ah, damn it!"
Ethan stared down at him, only now noticing the reason: Servos was missing his right leg, having lost it during the chaotic clash against the forest vines.
Yet despite his condition, the moment he saw Ethan alive, his first reaction had been pure excitement—or at least, that was what everyone else in the camp seemed to believe.
Ethan narrowed his eyes, noticing the bottle of strong ale clutched tightly in Servos’s left hand.
He let out a quiet internal sigh. *’He’s celebrating because he thought his master died.’*
The realization almost made Ethan laugh. Servos wasn’t mourning a loyal subordinate—he had been privately celebrating his sudden freedom from the slave seal.
"Help me up, you useless bastard!" Servos barked toward a nearby warrior, who quickly hurried over to hoist the old instructor back onto his seat.
Ethan shook his head slightly at the spectacle.
"It’s good to see you’re alive," Davos’s deep voice interrupted the moment.
The Demi-god was seated farther inside the main command tent, his own body covered in fresh wounds and torn fabric. His expression was far more composed than Servos’s as he studied Ethan for several seconds.
"You survived," Davos observed quietly.
"Obviously," Ethan replied.
Davos gave a small, approving nod, choosing not to question how a human had managed to survive a direct encounter with a rampaging Demi-god beast. Perhaps he had already learned that pressing Ethan for details yielded little result.
Instead, Davos laid out what had actually occurred on the frontline.
During the battle, the Demi-god beast had fully unleashed its territorial authority, turning the vines, trees, water, and terrain itself into lethal weapons. At the exact same time, hostile operatives who had infiltrated the dungeon launched a coordinated ambush from behind the expedition’s lines.
Davos had been forced to disengage to intercept the assassins, managing to subdue two of them before the rest were obliterated.
Ethan’s eyes narrowed slightly. "A Demi-god?"
Davos nodded grimly. "From the Blood Serpent God Clan."
Ethan’s expression turned solemn. So that was the real conflict: the enemies hadn’t simply entered the dungeon to harass the perimeter—they had come to ensure the Maqaue clan failed to revive their ancient ancestor.
And now, Davos had managed to capture one of their Demi-god operatives alive.
Ethan glanced toward the inner partition of the tent. "Where are they?"
"Secured," Davos replied flatly. "We’ll deal with them later."
Ethan understood the implication immediately. The captive Demi-god wasn’t being kept alive out of mercy; he was the key. The Maqaue clan needed a massive source of divine energy to awaken the Twelve-Eared Maqaue Devil, and a living Demi-god captive was the closest thing they had to a divine sacrifice.
Ethan remained silent, harboring no illusions about his standing here. Naturally, nobody had risked their lives to search for him during the collapse—he was, on paper, merely a human retainer. If they had believed him dead, they would have simply marched on without a second thought.
He didn’t hold that against them; he would have done the exact same thing in their position.
What mattered was that he was alive.
Davos suddenly stood to his full height. "Enough resting!"
His commanding voice resonated through the battered camp. "We’re moving out!"
Several bandaged warriors looked up in surprise. "Already?!"
"We don’t have time," Davos’s gaze turned cold and absolute. "The Blood Serpent God Clan already knows what we’re attempting. If they deploy another strike team, we won’t get a second chance."
Nobody dared argue. They had suffered catastrophic losses, but reviving the Twelve-Eared Maqaue Devil was the only strategic hope their clan had left to avoid total subjugation.
Davos turned toward the towering mountain in the distance. Deep within that jagged range lay the sealed resting place of their ancient ancestor—the living angel that had once made the Maqaue bloodline feared across the realm.
Davos clenched his fist tightly. "We awaken him today."
The expedition immediately mobilized what remained of its forces.
Ethan fell into step behind them, his eyes locked onto the jagged mountain peaks ahead. He knew that whatever entity emerged from that tomb would permanently alter the balance of power across the entire territory—and for the first time since crossing the boundary, he could feel the true center of danger drawing near.
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