"Agreed. Let's start by cutting down the small fry."

The titan swung its massive blade downward.

KWAANG!

I barely dodged. Even a strong human would have been dragged into that crushing wind pressure.

"Hm?"

However, the blade didn't rise again. It was stuck, anchored to the floor.

"What's wrong?"

"This... this can't be..."

Its massive feet were locked as well, rooted to the ground. Its hands barely moved, unable to wield weapons properly.

"Everyone has the freedom to have their own opinion."

"Isaac. That was you?"

"And everyone has the freedom to speak their opinions. Of course, someone else may persecute them for it."

Naneow saw through it instantly. "Good."

She hooked her scythe around the titan's neck and drove it into the ground.

Krrrik! Krrrrikkrik!

The armor was absurdly durable, resisting even her weapon. Yet, its surface peeled faster and faster.

"So, binding chains. Still... they can't bear our weight. At my signal, move all at once."

"Now, together!"

Crackle!

The titans strained to break free, but as they moved, their sleek armor plates crumpled inward with the groaning sound of metal. Confused, they screamed at each other, yet they still didn't understand.

"The essence of binding sorcery is simple. Struggle against it, and that strength is reflected back, hammering the captive from within."

Is that the principle?

"What a waste, though... Fine. I'll give you this much. Finish them quickly. Now's your chance."

"Understood..."

Krrrrrik! Crack!

Naneow pressed her assault, scythe gnawing at one titan until she nearly severed its neck. I couldn't fall behind.

[Skill: Time Acceleration Lv. 2 activated.]

[Lv. 2: Every 3 seconds, time around you extends 1.5 times per second.]

I had just absorbed this skill. I wasn't watching idly.

[Skill: Thread-Needle Stab Lv. 3 activated.]

[Guides the blade to a fixed point with piercing precision.]

[Greatly increases penetration against a locked target.]

I thrust my blade at the titan, breaking free. Despite its magic-coated alloy armor, my blade sank unnaturally deep. Only when I pulled back did it spit lightning in retaliation. Although it was bound, its magic could still strike. I could endure it.

I thrust again.

[Skill: Time Acceleration Lv. 2 active...]

[Skill: Thread-Needle Stab Lv. 3 activated!]

PAAAT!

The same precise sensation drove my blade forward.

[Skill: Kasragi – Seed of Motility Lv. 5 activated.]

[Seeds of Garbera embedded in you respond to the skill.]

[Moisture-absorbing transformation triggered...]

[You are not a plant.]

[Effect applied: Seed lifespan drastically reduced.]

[Effect applied: Destructive power greatly increased.]

Krrrrik!

Something bulged from the titan's thick armor. Where even my Sword Energy had barely left scratches, the enchanted plating warped.

The skills I had taken from the effeminate duke and Garbera proved devastating against the titans. Perhaps the duke had honed his sword precisely to counter them. Perhaps Garbera had been cultivated for this very purpose.

"Bind. Bind..."

Isaac wasn't joking now. Titans broke loose and came at me, only for their steps to lock again. Giants that weighed immeasurable tons stumbled like drunks, legs tangled in invisible shackles.

The crow's whisper came quick and sharp. "Jam your inventory into the breach and expand it. For once... I'll guide you. Do it like this."

Krrrrrrik!

The titan's armor twisted grotesquely. Like a broken toy winding down, or a sun-dried husk of a plant, its plating warped and cracked. Isaac had layered the shell of his space around mine. All I had to do was press the button, the same way I had shoved aside the angels and swept debris in the cavern.

The titans flailed blindly, smashing the ground, yet their gauntlets twisted as well, losing power with each blow. The tide was turning.

Krrrrrik! Crash!

Naneow tore a titan's throat free, then kicked its severed head aside. She calmly loaded and fired five silver bullets into its torso. The huge titan toppled to the ground.

Her voice was steady, yet troubled. "Wait."

"What is it?"

"This one... it's empty."

I dodged another attack, triggered Time Acceleration, and checked myself. She was right.

There was nothing at all inside the titan's severed neck. The titans were hollow, with no faint green light like the effeminate duke's essence. Only pitch blackness existed within; there was nothing to absorb, and there was no core. They weren't worn like armor, nor did they burn like fuel. They were simply empty shells. 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

What in the world...

Naneow's senses, sharpened by drugs, moved faster than her body. She dodged the titan's strikes without even looking, spun, and brought her scythe down again. Another head rolled across the stone floor, its helmet-like casing clattering loudly.

"This one's empty too!" she shouted.

In response, three of the titans leaped backward to retreat. The space opened up just enough for me to glance at Leandro. Even with six titans surrounding him, one of them housing Botis' proxy, Biblio, Leandro held his ground. Death pressed from every angle, yet he tore up every writ of execution they threw at him.

Is this right, though?

We were only on the second floor, yet the foes felt weaker than the angels we'd fought on the fourth floor.

"Something's wrong..."

"Suspicious. That's why I've been hoarding causality so tightly. Not because I'm stingy, mind you..."

A sharp shriek cut him off.

BEEEEEEEEP!

The titan with the radiant pentagonal shield on its back screamed, the sound barely within audible range.

"A signal! Watch carefully!"

THOOM! THOOM! THOOM!

The titans shifted subtly around Leandro, adjusting their formation while fighting.

Isaac said sharply, "Thirty degrees left, forty meters ahead. See it? That's the spot. I've been searching, and there it is."

"Left?"

I glanced in that direction.

Thirty degrees, sixty meters.

The titans were closing ranks toward that position.

[Skill: Tactics (Ground) Lv. 9 activated.]

Calculating their movement and speed, the answer was clear.

"They're layering protection over that point."

"Of course. I feel divinity there. Imagine the sharpest, deadliest thing you can. The more powerful the foe, the more fatal it becomes. A spear. A spear to kill gods."

Even if I couldn't picture it perfectly, Isaac's shell wrapped my inventory, guiding my strike.

BOOM!

Before the formation locked, I hurled everything toward that core point.

KRAAAASH!

Isaac pushed harder than ever before, even more than against the angels. He told me to imagine the divine, and a spear that could slay it.

I could do it. I'd touched heaven before. It wasn't impossible to recall.

KWOOM! KWOOM! KWOOM!

The backlash slammed into me, bone-deep.

"You—!"

"Insane bastards!"

The titans' composure shattered as fear rippled through their steel armor. The neat formation collapsed.

BZZZT! CRACKLE!

Circuits along their helmets sparked and died, grooves blackening like charred veins.

THUD.

One titan fell. The rest froze in silence.

"What have you done...?"

Through the still giants, a blue shadow appeared. It was Leandro, bloodied but not broken, with reins in hand.

CRACK.

The crow hopped forward, clicking its beak. "Tch. Relax those eyes, boy. You're not the first I've seen like you, and none of your kind ever live long."

"..."

Shockingly, Leandro's expression relaxed.

In a calm, deep voice, he said, "So you are the strategist. I will request an explanation from you."

He turned his attention squarely on Isaac.

Isaac coughed, then explained, "I knocked on what looked like a door. These things... only sent their minds downward to control the titans. Their bodies were never here."

"And?"

"Now we simply descend and find whatever they fear enough to pull their minds back up." Isaac turned to me and smirked. "Don't worry. We'll drain every drop of Lurium from the wreckage before we go. The chambers and..."

Suddenly, the point I'd struck flared. An emblem emerged, five seals woven into one, flickering faintly like a distress beacon.

"You've shown yourself at last."

BZZZT... ZZZZZT...

The glyph pulsed, as if trying to transmit something. Leandro fixed his gaze on it, unmoving.

Isaac stared at the light and flatly muttered, "Hot-blooded youth, read it for me."

"Project error rate 10.4931%. Urgent revision required. Current location... tracing... trace complete?"

Suddenly, the air split.

Wuuuum!

The sigil twisted, each symbol shoving into another until the whole thing churned like a nest of worms. From its center came a vibration I knew too well.

WOOONG!

Space near Leandro split open. A foul, glistening maw yawned wide.

"No!" I shouted.

I already knew what would emerge. It couldn't end here, not like this.

The crow pecked the side of my helmet.

Tap. Tap.

"Isaac. That's the one!"

Its crimson eyes blinked once.