Infinite Evolution Hunter - Chapter 174

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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174
The young villager who had been tapping the golem’s head couldn’t even react to its sudden assault—a hole tore through his abdomen and he collapsed.
“Kyaaaaaaah!!!”
The fallen youth’s wife screamed, and with that cry as a signal, the golems began their assault on the villagers.
“Mere puppets!”
A male resident known for his strength drove a pitchfork into the golem’s head. But the golem advanced toward him with the pitchfork’s blade embedded in its skull.
The panicked man strained to pull the pitchfork free, but it was wedged too firmly, and the handle snapped instead.
The golem seized the man’s neck as he stared helplessly at the broken pitchfork, lifted him, and twisted his head clean off.
“We can’t win! Run!”
The Witch screamed. The Ark’s residents, lacking proper weapons, were hopelessly outnumbered by the golems.
The Witch’s cry sent the villagers scattering in all directions.
But the village’s perimeter was already encircled by golems.
Whether they’d come from other villages or been hiding somewhere, the golems surrounded the settlement without leaving a single gap for escape, slowly tightening their noose around the people.
“Tsk… I would have preferred to handle this quietly, but the noise has become troublesome.”
Brixel approached the villagers slowly.
“Had you simply remained silent, these people might have lived a bit longer.”
Brixel spoke to The Witch.
“You! You’re… a demon!”
“A demon? Me? Your savior?”
“How is this salvation?! Using us as sacrifices to build this Ark?!”
At The Witch’s words, Brixel exhaled deeply, and his gaze turned cold.
“Foolish child. Without the Ark, you would all be dead. How could you possibly comprehend my noble mission to preserve the countless species that exist throughout the universe? Who else would preserve them if not I?”
The Witch didn’t even listen to Brixel’s self-justification—she fled.
“Tsk, tsk… Where do you think you’re going inside the Ark?”
A golem blocked her path and reached out its hand.
The Witch crouched and placed her hand on the golem’s leg, and it froze mid-motion.
The Witch had not merely trembled in fear through countless ages. She had contemplated how to destroy the golems, and in that moment, she grasped the technique to separate a soul from its golem vessel.
“…Kill her! Don’t let her escape!”
Seeing the golem slip from his control, Brixel barked orders, and countless golems rushed toward her.
She fled into her own house, and the golems surrounded it.
“Destroy it.”
At Brixel’s command, a massive golem charged at the small witch’s house door with its shoulder.
Kwaaaaaaah!!!
An explosion erupted from The Witch’s house, shattering the golem that had charged through the door into fragments, and flames spread in all directions, blasting away the golems clinging to the house like ants.
“A self-destruct… Such a waste of souls lost. Capture the remaining ones alive. We must harvest their souls.”
The golems mechanically seized the surviving villagers.
“P-please… spare us.”
“Fear not. You will become the power source for golems and live far longer than you did as humans.”
Brixel’s puppet face smiled.
* * *
Ricaros clutched his head as The Witch’s flooding memories overwhelmed him, staggering backward.
“Commander of the Giant Race! Director Exbog! Are you alright?!”
Giant Race warriors rushed to support Ricaros and Exbog.
“Don’t lay a hand on this woman—fall back!”
Exbog wrapped his aching head and snapped at the Giant Race warriors.
“Wicked Witch… If you come quietly, I won’t kill you, but if you resist…”
“I’ve run for so long. What was the point of surviving? I’ve grown weary of it all.”
The Witch didn’t look at Exbog; instead, her gaze locked onto Ricaros as she spoke. Her eyes were too lucid, Ricaros thought, for someone called both witch and madwoman.
“Yes, so this was what it was all for. Now it falls to you. You possess a strength I never had. Stop him.”
With those words, she closed her eyes and collapsed like a puppet with severed strings.
“She’s dead.”
A Giant Race warrior cautiously approached and examined The Witch before speaking.
“What… exactly was that? Exbog, did you see it too?”
“Perhaps The Witch played some trick. Commander, pay it no mind. Warriors, retrieve the corpse.”
Exbog brushed off the dust and answered.
The Giant Race warriors handed The Witch’s body over to Brixel.
“Hmm… She died rather pathetically. Well, you’ve done your part.”
Brixel waved his hand dismissively at Ricaros, his manner now entirely that of a superior addressing a subordinate.
* * *
“Brixel.”
“Exbog. What brings you here at this late hour?”
Brixel sensed something amiss in Exbog’s solitary visit and questioned him.
“I know what The Witch showed us was true.”
“…What did The Witch show you?”
Brixel rose from his chair.
“Don’t worry. The Giant Race wishes to support your vision. We understand that sacrifice is necessary to maintain this great Ark.”
“I’m relieved you understand.”
“However… the Commander is not of the same mind. He is a man of principle.”
“What do you suggest?”
Brixel had already grasped Exbog’s intention, but asked for confirmation.
“…One cannot speak of the greater good without soiling one’s hands. But please, guarantee the safety of the remaining Giant Race. We harbor no intention of opposing your will. We shall continue to serve as your hunting dogs.”
“Very well. I entrust this to you.”
* * *
Ricaros returned to his quarters and fell into contemplation. He couldn’t shake the feeling that The Witch’s memories were genuine.
The Giant Race were not merely a species of immense stature. To wield bodies as vast as mountains, they possessed powerful souls and formidable willpower—beings closer to divinity than any other race aboard the Ark.
And he, the mightiest warrior among them and their Commander, had been subjected to a mental attack? Deceived with falsehoods? What were the odds of that?
Then what should he do? If he were alone, he would have charged at Brixel and chosen an honorable death in defiance, but knowing that the Giant Race who survived by his choice would all perish, he couldn’t act recklessly.
Yet how could he call himself of the Giant Race if he tolerated such injustice?
Ricaros made his decision.
“Exbog. Gather the warriors. I will confront Brixel and demand he answer for his crimes.”
“Giant Commander, even if we win, we may not survive.”
“You call us ignorant, yet we too are guilty. As descendants of the great Giants, we cannot live in dishonor.”
“That is who you are, Commander. That is precisely why we follow you. I will gather the warriors.”
“Thank you.”
Ricaros and his personal guard led the way, with Exbog and the other warriors following behind.
As they neared Brixel’s lair, Exbog cast a meaningful glance to some of the warriors.
And then.
Thwack.
“Kgh….”
Exbog’s blade pierced through Ricaros’s chest, and in other places, two or three warriors drove their swords into the bodies of Ricaros’s personal guard.
“…Why…. you….”
“We cannot allow the race to perish. One day, we will find another world and revive the Giant Race.”
“Cough….”
“Go in peace, Commander. I will inherit your will.”
“… A traitor inheriting my will? Do you truly believe you have such a right?”
Ricaros’s body began to swell.
“Kgh…. What are you doing! Let me pass easily!”
They tried to pull the blades embedded in Ricaros’s body, but they wouldn’t budge, as if driven into stone.
“Can you truly kill me with this?”
Ricaros roared. His fully enlarged form reached the ceiling of the towering Ark.
Exbog and the other warriors enlarged themselves and rushed at him, but the height difference made them appear as children attacking an adult. The Giant Commander Ricaros struck down the traitors with overwhelming force.
Yet the battle did not last long. With his heart pierced and his strength fading, Ricaros collapsed to the ground like burnt-out kindling.
“Quite the spectacle you made.”
Brixel approached the battered Exbog.
“He was no easy opponent.”
“All this trouble because of one Witch…. The golems I create from now on must have sealing runes carved so that even a Witch cannot decipher them.”
“We know nothing of such things.”
“Ah, of course. You have done well. Then, now I shall….”
The last thing Ricaros saw was Brixel, transformed into a mass of flesh, devouring him.
* * *
“To be betrayed by your own kind—the resentment must have been immense.”
As Ricaros’s story ended, Bae Na-young felt his rage. As a mind reader, it was both a blessing and a curse. She shared emotions with others—whether anger or love.
“They were not merely kin. They were comrades who protected my back through countless battles. I thought of them as my younger siblings.”
Ricaros’s mechanical face showed anger and regret.
“But all of it is my sin. My strength was insufficient to stop the Destruction God. To survive on a doomed world, I killed innocent people.”
“…You didn’t know.”
“Knowing or not, sin is sin. As Giant Commander, I have no face to show my great ancestors. Even in death, I will not enter the Hall of Warriors. But those two—Brixel and Exbog—I will drag them down to Hell with me.”
Neither Bae Na-young nor Jae-in could stop Ricaros’s resolve.
After that, they walked quietly through the corridor. They moved with utmost caution, using no mana to avoid detection, so their pace was slow.
As they ventured deeper, the corridor grew progressively larger.
Until now, this passage had been designed for humanoid golems to traverse, but this space was clearly meant for something far more colossal.
“We’re almost there. Beyond the Iron Door ahead lies the Urn of Souls and the Box of Infinity.”
“The Urn of Souls is the Ark’s power source, and the Box of Infinity controls the spatial dimensions within the Ark, correct?”
“Indeed. However….”
Ricaros’s footsteps halted as he answered Jae-in’s question.
“There’s a warrior of the Giant Race.”
Before the Iron Door that had finally come into view, a Giant Race warrior sat motionless.
“We can fight them if you’d like.”
Bae Na-young made the suggestion, concerned that battling one of his own kind might be uncomfortable for him.
“That one is also a traitor to the clan and a criminal aiding Brixel. Leave this to me.”
Ricaros walked boldly down the Corridor.
He made no attempt to hide his presence or muffle his footsteps, striding confidently through the center of the passage.
“Who goes there!”
At the sound of Ricaros’s approach, the Giant Race warrior who had been sitting with his head bowed rose to his feet, axe in hand.
When he stood, his height exceeded thirty meters, a name that suited the Giant Race perfectly. Though clad in tattered garments, the Giant Race’s dense, unyielding physique required no armor.
Jae-in, witnessing a member of the Giant Race in person for the first time, gaped in awe and craned her neck upward to regard him, while Bae Na-young tensed at the colossal figure and gripped her staff firmly.
“Blansar!”
Ricaros shouted toward the axe-wielding Giant Race warrior.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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