Chapter 169: Inside the King’s Court

Chapter 169: Inside the King’s Court

One of the two humanoid skeletons was no taller than 1.9 meters, the other no taller than 1.8. They looked perfectly ordinary, yet to Klein above the gray fog, they delivered an almost unimaginable shock.

In that instant, he felt as though he had returned to the moment he had first witnessed the door of light and those “cocoons.” Although the emotions were different, the impact was nearly the same.

“These—these aren’t giant skeletons… They definitely belonged to humans… The Giant King Aumir’s parents were human?” Klein’s pupils suddenly widened, as though he wished to see more clearly.

But no matter how he observed or examined them, he could not find a single trait of giants upon the two gray-white skeletons.

Their limb proportions were normal. Their skulls had two eye sockets. They were absolutely not juvenile giants.

After a brief silence, Klein lowered the hand holding the Sea God Scepter again, and thought after thought flashed through his mind.

“Maybe they weren’t his parents by blood… Or perhaps the ancestors of giants—the origin of giants—were humans… During the chaotic, mad First Epoch, some humans fused with Beyonder characteristics and mutated into cruel, bloodthirsty, irrational giants who nevertheless retained the instinct to reproduce? Their descendants inherited physical traits on one hand and gradually recovered a degree of mental normality on the other, eventually stabilizing into a savage, bloody, nonhuman race. In that case, the Giant King Aumir might have been among the first batch of mutants, yet somehow preserved enough reason to become an ancient god? Was the source of all this truly the original Creator, as the myths say?”

Once his thoughts settled into conjecture, Klein’s imagination continued to run, bringing with it even more doubts.

“Why did the Giant King designate the Decaying Forest as a forbidden area and prevent any living beings from entering?

“Did He not want anyone to learn that giants originated from humans?

“But if that were the case, He could have directly cremated His parents’ remains. There was no need to make things so troublesome… And what was that intense guilt about?

“Who opened that tomb? The ancient Sun God who killed the Giant King? The surviving God of Dawn, Badheil, or some other subordinate god of the Giant King’s Court?

“And if the ancestors of giants were humans, what about other humanoid transcendent creatures, like elves and Sanguine? Were the ancestors of dragons actually lizards?

“Was the conflict between the humanoid faction and the nonhuman faction in the early to middle Second Epoch partly caused by their different origins?”

Lacking enough clues and records, Klein could make no judgments and could not think of more possibilities. He could only forcefully restrain his thoughts and return his attention to the City of Silver exploration team.

At that moment, Demon Hunter Colin had already led Lovia, Derrick, and the others before the stone steles, where they saw the remains inside the tomb.

They likewise fell into an indescribable silence. For quite some time, no one spoke.

Finally, Joshua, wearing crimson gloves, hesitantly asked, “These are the Giant King’s parents?”

To this Dawn Paladin of the City of Silver, the height of those two skeletons truly did not resemble giants. They were even shorter than he had been when he had just reached adulthood.

And if they were young giants, their body proportions and facial structures did not match.

Joshua’s question echoed through the surroundings, yet no one answered for a time.

Several seconds later, Demon Hunter Colin slowly said, “That is why it is a secret.”

He did not mention his own thoughts or conjectures.

“…Does this mean giants are actually a branch of humanity, a divergence caused by mutation from Beyonder characteristics?” Antilna, the woman with burgundy hair, said thoughtfully.

The ancestors of giants were humans? Derrick was so shaken by that possibility that his head felt slightly dizzy. He felt the gap between the two was simply too vast.

But then his thoughts turned to companions who had lost control—especially those of the Giant pathway—and he vaguely felt that it might not be entirely impossible.

Those who lost control often became abnormally huge. Their skin turned completely gray-blue, and their foreheads split open into enormous cracks that drew their two eyes inward.

“Perhaps,” Demon Hunter Colin answered briefly.

The members of the City of Silver exploration team fell silent once again.

Amid such an atmosphere, Derrick glanced at Shepherd Elder Lovia and found that this member of the six-member council appeared calm, neither solemn nor dazed.

At that moment, Demon Hunter Colin looked around and said, “Form groups of two or three. Search the surrounding area and see if there are any other gains.”

The members of the exploration team immediately came back to themselves and, following the Chief’s instructions, cautiously began searching.

Unfortunately, aside from trees, stone steles, and the tomb, there was nothing of value in the Decaying Forest.

Without further delay, Derrick and Haim exchanged sealed artifacts to prevent his Beyonder characteristic from being expelled by the Unshadowed Crucifix.

Then they followed Demon Hunter Colin out of the Decaying Forest, rounded a protruding boulder on the cliff wall, and found the enormous cave, nearly thirty meters tall.

Outside the cave, there had once been a stone stele, but it had now shattered and collapsed, with weeds growing over it.

Bathed in orange-red twilight, it gave off an indescribable feeling of decline and desolation.

After entering the cave, the City of Silver exploration team proceeded along long-weathered stone slabs and nearly peeled-away murals. They walked between withered grass and rough gravel, moving forward with extreme vigilance.

With every step they took, they felt their lives grow weaker, as though moisture was constantly draining from their bodies.

After an unknown length of time, the exploration team finally saw an open gray-blue door.

On either side of the door were scattered pieces of black iron, seemingly belonging to some kind of armor.

“There should have been guards here,” Demon Hunter Colin said simply. He took out a bottle of potion and gulped it down.

His pale blue eyes quickly took on a layer of dark yellow, while two complicated dark-green symbols appeared within his pupils.

After carefully observing the gray-blue door for a while, he nodded and stepped into the dark hall.

Once everyone had entered through the door, the hall seemed to be seized by an invisible hand. With a clanging sound, it swiftly began rising upward.

More than ten seconds later, the hall stopped its ascent. Outside the door appeared a magnificent chamber supported by stone pillars, seemingly the guards’ residence.

Derrick instinctively looked left and right. His gaze swept over the many objects within the chamber and saw two murals with ancient characteristics.

The protagonist of one mural was a giant wearing silver full-body armor, radiating obvious light, with a mass of dawn condensed where his eyes should be. At the center of the other mural stood, in profile, a female giant with long dark-brown hair. She wore leather armor on her upper body and a long skirt below, holding wheat ears, fruit, and other items. Around her were harvest fields, clear lakes, fruit-bearing trees, and bright mushrooms.

The God of Dawn, Badheil… the Goddess of Harvest, Omebella… Derrick came to an understanding and nodded almost imperceptibly.

He then withdrew his gaze and saw the Chief staring at the mural representing the Goddess of Harvest, his expression as solemn as before.

Is the Chief hoping the City of Silver can also have a true harvest? Derrick thought as he followed Shepherd Elder Lovia’s instructions, forming a team with the others to search for valuable items and check whether any hidden passages existed.

Seven or eight minutes later, they gathered again and followed Chief Colin Iliad to the great doors of the chamber.

Colin Iliad thrust the two straight swords in his hands into the cracks between the stone slabs before him. Then he extended both hands and pressed against the two sides of the door. With one exertion of strength, he forced them open with a heavy sound.

Brilliant orange-red twilight shone in silently. The palaces and towers the City of Silver exploration team had seen from afar now surged into their vision with enormous impact.

That immensity, that grandeur, that sense of epic and myth had become even sharper, even more shocking now that the distance between them had closed to the extreme. Everyone subconsciously held their breath, forgetting all else and immersing themselves in the scene.

Klein, above the gray fog, was the same.

This was the King’s Court belonging to the giant race.

This was a true divine kingdom.

After more than ten seconds, Demon Hunter Colin pulled out his two swords, half-turned, and said to Shepherd Lovia, “Test the paths on both sides. I cannot see clearly enough.”

The two dark-green symbols in his eyes were slowly fading.

Lovia gave a soft “Mm” and took two steps forward, arriving at the doorway.

Outside was a platform with staircases on both left and right. Ahead stood a railing made of gray-white stone pillars, facing the tallest building in the area. There, an enormous blue-gray door stood, with countless mysterious symbols seemingly engraved on either side, solemn beyond words.

Corridors, staircases, and other structures connected the layer upon layer of palaces and towers, vast and magnificent.

Lovia’s slightly curled silver-gray hair floated upward. Stones bathed in twilight on the ground rose with it, gathering into a gray-white puppet.

The puppet possessed no spirituality, like a manipulated marionette. It stepped toward the left side.

Following the staircase, it descended level by level through the dense orange-red light, helping the exploration team confirm the situation.

Suddenly, its body froze. Fine silver light burst out from within, causing it to shatter into countless pieces.

Shepherd Lovia did not panic. Following the previous steps, she created another stone figure and sent it to the right.

This time, the stone figure made it all the way to the bottom of the staircase and stopped before the door of the palace below. Nothing unexpected occurred along the way.

Demon Hunter Colin had watched attentively throughout the process. Only now did he speak.

“We go right. But remain equally careful.”

Although the test had not revealed what danger existed, the very fact that his Beyonder ability could not detect the true situation already explained a great deal.

With this reminder, Derrick and the others grew even tenser. In groups of three, supporting one another, they began slowly descending the staircase.

As they walked down the tall stairs, Joshua, wearing crimson gloves, suddenly heard a tap, tap, tap behind him.

It sounded like someone slowly and quietly following them.

And Shepherd Elder Lovia, who was behind them, was currently to the side. With his peripheral vision, he could see that the footsteps definitely did not come from her.

A chill rose within Joshua’s heart. He hurriedly said in a low voice, “There are footsteps behind me.”

Lovia tilted her head. The roughly five-meter-tall silver knight figure appeared before her, its crimson, flame-like gaze examining Joshua’s back.

After several quiet seconds, the Shepherd elder shook her head.

“There is nothing there.”