Infinite Evolution Hunter - Chapter 175
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————
175
“Blansar!”
Ricaros shouted at the Giant Race warrior who had leveled an axe at him.
“Who are you?! How do you know me!”
“Warrior of the Giant Race! Do you not recognize me?!”
Ricaros, standing less than two meters tall, appeared even more diminished before the thirty-meter-tall Giant Race warrior.
Yet the confidence in Ricaros’s voice and the fighting spirit that radiated from his entire being were far beyond what such a small frame should have been capable of producing.
“…W-wait… Surely not… No, it cannot be.”
Blansar sensed in this small mechanical golem the indomitable will of the Giant Race commander who had led him through countless battlefields.
“Could it be… General Ricaros?”
“Yes. You recognize me now, fallen warrior of the Giant Race.”
Ricaros rebuked Blansar, whose face still bore the marks of disbelief.
“Come then, warrior. Let us settle this with honor befitting a warrior.”
Ricaros drew his greatsword. Though it matched his height, it appeared no more than a needle compared to the colossal Blansar.
Thud!
Blansar fell to his knees.
“What are you doing! Fight with the honor a warrior deserves!”
“I ambushed you, my General, under the pretense of the Giant Race’s survival. I have no right to speak of a warrior’s honor. Please, take my life.”
Blansar prostrated himself flat against the ground, his neck fully exposed.
“Was betraying your own brethren not enough? How can you still serve that demon Brixel?!”
Blansar remained flat on the ground, offering no response to Ricaros’s thunderous rebuke.
“What infuriating nonsense is this! You are no warrior at all!”
“That is correct. I am no warrior. Please, strike off my head.”
“I will not sully my blade by executing a criminal.”
“…”
“Atone for your sins yourself. And die as a warrior should.”
“I shall obey your command.”
“Rise.”
“…Is this really alright? He betrayed you once already. If he betrays you again…”
“It will be fine. I can feel their wavelengths aligning with each passing moment. This Blansar will dedicate his life to Ricaros.”
At Bae Na-young’s words, Jae-in simply accepted it as fact. After all, if fighting broke out, she would retreat to the rear anyway.
“Blansar, open it.”
At Ricaros’s command, Blansar grasped the Iron Door he had been guarding with both hands.
The massive arms of the Giant Race warrior swelled as if they might burst, and the heavy door finally began to move inch by inch. Only a Giant Race warrior could have opened such a door.
“Earthlings, this is the Soul Urn.”
Where Ricaros pointed, a translucent pillar ten meters tall and four meters in diameter stood, within which countless particles of light swirled in a vortex.
White light radiated outward in all directions through the magical circle carved into the floor surrounding the pillar.
“This Ark is powered by the sacrifice of countless souls.”
“…But why?”
Bae Na-young asked Ricaros.
“What?”
“Why does Brixel go to such lengths to create and maintain this massive Ark?”
“He said it was for the greater good. And that sacrifice was necessary to preserve a dying race.”
“But that doesn’t give him the right to sacrifice others for his own beliefs.”
“Exactly. Brixel has lost his mind.”
Ricaros ground his teeth.
“Ricaros, is this the Infinite Box?”
Jae-in pointed to a box beside the urn and asked.
Inside the transparent cube was another cube, with each edge connected by lines.
“That’s right. With the Infinite Box, you can expand or compress space. Ah, the Earthlings are here.”
“Where?”
Jae-in looked around, but saw nothing.
“Right here.”
Ricaros pointed to a black box roughly one meter in length, width, and height.
“Look inside.”
At Ricaros’s words, Jae-in pressed her head close to the opaque black box. Inside, countless objects smaller than grains of rice were packed tightly together.
“That’s… all of them?”
“The Earthlings. They’ve been frozen by magic and their space compressed. If needed, he probably planned to extract them and harvest their souls. Take that item as well—it can undo the freezing.”
Ricaros pointed to an item that resembled a wristwatch.
“This actually makes things easier. If they were awake, it would have taken longer to transport them.”
Originally, I had planned to create a makeshift Ark with expanded interior space and escape with everyone inside.
“Now I’ll search the Soul Urn for a spirit to merge with.”
Bae Na-young grabbed Ricaros’s wrist as he reached toward the urn.
“Is it because of the Earthlings? Don’t worry. The space compression in the Ark will remain intact even with the leftover spirits after I absorb them.”
“That’s not it. If you extract the spirit, won’t the Ark’s space compression be undone?”
“It will.”
“Then… what about the people inside the Ark?”
“They are criminals as well.”
“The people on the middle levels didn’t know.”
“Knowing or not, they survived by standing on the corpses of others. They must pay the price.”
“I can’t accept that.”
“Why not? Isn’t it enough to save the Earthlings?”
“…Because I think you would save them if you were in my place.”
Bae Na-young did not release Ricaros’s hand.
“…I don’t want to fight you. So what do you suggest?”
“What if we open a Gate to Earth?”
“How am I supposed to transport all the Ark’s inhabitants in such a short time?”
Bae Na-young’s brow furrowed as no solution came to mind. Would I have to abandon the refugees on the middle levels after all?
“We’ve identified the upper, middle, and lower levels, but what is this place?”
While Bae Na-young pondered, Jae-in, who had been examining the Infinite Box with her analysis skill, asked Ricaros.
“That is where Brixel’s true body resides.”
“His true body? What exactly is he?”
“He absorbs corpses stripped of their souls, leaving only hollow shells. Over thousands of years, he has consumed the bodies of countless sacrificial victims, making his true form grotesquely bloated. Even within the Ark, he occupies an enormous space.”
“Hmm….”
[How dare they….]
Flesh erupted from the cracks in the floor, coalescing into a mass from which dozens of eyeballs sprouted, sweeping across the chamber.
[Earthlings! You’ve infiltrated this far?! Blansar! What are you doing?! Kill them!]
“I cannot do that.”
Blansar moved to intercept Brixiel’s avatar.
[Would you sacrifice your entire race?]
“Try it. Every member of the Giant Race will stand against you.”
[Cursed Giant Race…. I spared you for the sake of species preservation, but now you are expendable…. I will slaughter you all as you wish.]
The mass of flesh opened its maw to a width of dozens of meters, attempting to swallow Blansar whole.
“Haaah!”
Blansar wielded his colossal axe in wild arcs, hacking through the approaching body of Brixel.
Bae Na-young supported Blansar by casting Curse of Decay upon the creature.
Ricaros also swung his blade, severing chunks of Brixel’s flesh. The pieces he cut, infused with his powerful soul, crumbled into white powder and scattered.
As the three fought, Jae-in manipulated the Infinite Box.
[Remove your hands at once! Do you comprehend what that object is?!]
Brixel had left only a small portion of his avatar inside, concentrating his strength outside the Ark to counter the Earthlings’ assault.
Yet the moment Jae-in’s hands touched the compressor, he was forced to channel his power inward regardless of the external attacks.
Brixel overwhelmed Bae Na-young’s Curse of Decay through sheer mass, devouring Blansar’s axe and arm in one gulp.
“Gaaahhh!”
Blansar’s body was half-consumed by Brixel, his flesh being absorbed into the creature.
“Blansar!”
Unable to wait any longer, Ricaros placed his hand upon the Soul Urn.
“Spirits bearing grudges against this demon! Heed my call! Burn what remains of your essence and join me in vanquishing this abomination!”
Countless spirits transferred from the urn into Ricaros.
[No! Do you all wish to perish?! The Ark! The Ark!]
Brixel shrieked, and the interior of the Ark, now starved of power, convulsed violently.
As the space expanded by souls contracted, earth surged like a tsunami through the Villages, and people screamed as they fled toward the outer edges.
[Stop!]
Brixel, having subdued Blansar, filled an enormous Corridor with his body and crashed down upon Ricaros.
“Ricaros!”
Bae Na-young cast a shield upon Ricaros, but it shattered instantly under the crushing weight.
Rather than raising his blade to fight, Ricaros lowered it and accepted Brixel’s assault with his entire body.
“Giant Commander!!!”
Blansar, most of his body consumed, thrashed desperately to escape Brixel’s form.
[Giant Commander? You mean that was Ricaros? He still lived? I will no longer use him even as a golem. Once this battle ends, I will convert him into fuel.]
Having dispatched both members of the Giant Race, Brixel’s body descended upon Bae Na-young and Jae-in.
The massive blob of flesh hurtling through the air came to an abrupt halt before Bae Na-young’s shield.
[This… what is this…?]
Brixel, bewildered that his body no longer obeyed his commands, grew even more alarmed at the sensation of movement within it.
“I’m reclaiming my body.”
Ricaros’s voice echoed from within Brixel’s form.
The chaotic mass of Brixel’s flesh gradually took shape, becoming the two hands of the Giant Race, then the arms.
Both arms bent inward, tearing away Brixel’s flesh, and the body of Ricaros, the mightiest warrior of the Giant Race and commander of giants, was revealed.
His soul, along with the souls he had absorbed from the Soul Urn, had seized Brixel’s body.
[How did you…?!]
“We never wanted such an ability. You made us this way.”
Ricaros, now grown so massive he nearly touched the ceiling, smashed Brixel’s body with his bare fists.
It was not merely physical force—his fists, infused with spiritual essence, burst and scattered Brixel’s flesh.
[This… this…]
Brixel was overwhelmed by attacks from both sides, but now the external threat was secondary. Facing the Ark’s collapse, Brixel poured his entire body inward.
Ricaros continued to pummel Brixel filling the chamber, but there was no end to it.
The multiple layers of shield Bae Na-young had erected cracked audibly under the overwhelming mass.
“Jae-in! I can’t hold it any longer!”
“It’s done!”
Kwaaaang!!!!
A sound of an entirely different magnitude than all previous noise erupted, and the entire Ark shook.
[No… this can’t be…!!!]
Brixel screamed and vanished as if sucked through a breach in a spacecraft. Yet Bae Na-young’s group remained unharmed.
“Jae-in, what did you do?”
“I released the compression and protective magic on the space where Brixel’s true body was located. By now, he’s probably been blown into Space? I didn’t know his clone would get sucked along too, but this turned out even better.”
Jae-in collapsed to the floor, drenched in sweat.
“Excellent.”
With the vast space that had been expanded for Brixel’s true body now abandoned, the contraction of the middle layer ceased as well.
“Commander…”
At Blansar’s voice, the three turned their heads. Blansar’s body had been absorbed by Brixel, leaving him missing everything below his solar plexus.
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————