Anagin Chronicles

Chapter 137

The battle with the mages ended more easily than expected.That was how fights often were.

Unless there was an overwhelming difference in ability, things could end absurdly easily depending on chance, compatibility, or tactics.

For example, charging in to knock the opponent down, only for the opponent to execute a knee strike.

Anagin himself had nearly hit his master a few times that way.

‘All of them failed, though.’

Pigmenes, who had evolved into a bipedal pig, and the mages fell into a similar case.

Pigmenes burst out through the belly hide of the massive blood beast and immediately charged at the mages.

The mages, whose defensive line had weakened because they were concentrating the beast on Anagin, attempted to defend themselves by creating a blood barrier.

A textbook and the most reliable response.

However, they had chosen the wrong opponent.

The moment the mages deployed their defensive magic, Pigmenes opened its snout and began sucking in the magic imbued in the barrier.

The mages were startled.

But they did nothing beyond being startled, and in the meantime, the blood barrier lost its strength and collapsed as it was.

As if to say that, to Pigmenes—which devoured magic—this level of barrier was not even an obstacle.

After that, there was nothing to speak of. The fate of mages who had lost their magic was obvious.

The burning, bipedal Pigmenes smashed a mage’s face with its enormous fist, crushed temples with the back of its hand, slashed mages simultaneously with a flaming blade, and spewed fire from its massive snout, burning the mages alive.

Before Anagin could stop it.

The mages’ greatest mistake was that they had gathered in one place.

Because they were clustered together, they had no chance to flee, and were simply wiped out all at once.

Once all the mages were dead, the beasts they had been controlling fled immediately, and the blood beast likewise lost its form and collapsed.

An ending so anticlimactic it left one dumbfounded.

Several seconds of silence followed.

As if trying to judge whether this situation was a dream or reality.

"What is that?"

Tramachus, realizing it was not a dream but reality, approached and asked cautiously.

Instead of answering right away, Anagin turned his head to look at the Argo trio and Sanchonius.

‘Hmm, I should just call them the Chiron Tower Four. Mentioning them separately makes it feel like I’m leaving someone out.’

The Chiron Tower Four were dirty from battle and looked tired, but they did not seem to be seriously injured.

Anagin greeted them first.

“You all worked hard. Thanks for the help.”

Thanks to the pressure relieved by the Chiron Tower Four, Anagin had been able to test his magical tool relatively easily and learn new techniques.

Perhaps Anagin’s words of gratitude were unexpected because the Chiron Tower Four hesitated for a moment.

Tramachus looked slightly surprised. Or perhaps embarrassed.

“......You worked hard too. And... thanks for the help.”

Tramachus hesitantly expressed his thanks.

If not for Anagin’s timely support, they might have been seriously injured while holding out under encirclement.

Anagin nodded firmly.

"Of course. Be a little more grateful."

“Brother.......”

At Anagin’s way of speaking—which could create a debt of a thousand gold coins with a single sentence—Sphinx, transformed into a cat, covered her face with her front paws.

Every single word he spoke was "precious" in a way that had the mysterious power to make any feeling of gratitude vanish instantly.

Indeed, Tramachus seemed to have lost his emotion and immediately returned to the main point.

“So, what is that?”

Tramachus pointed at Pigmenes, who had evolved into a bipedal pig.

He looked quite wary.

Its form was a bit different, but that was clearly the pig Hippomenes had summoned.

A summon called forth by Hippomenes, who had joined the Barbaroi Cult.

“Wasn’t the summon dwelling in the Beast Devourer just a piglet?”

Tramachus asked, recalling the summon that dwelled in the Beast Devourer.

Anagin replied.

“I don’t really know either. It suddenly evolved like that.”

“Evolved? All of a sudden?”

“Don’t ask me. I told you, I don’t know either. But it seems like it was because it drank blood.”

“Blood?”

Seeing is believing.

Anagin showed them the pattern engraved on the blade of the Beast Devourer.

A burning pig pattern.

They had all seen it before, but there was something slightly different now.

The red glow engraved in the pattern had grown a bit deeper. Like blood.

“When I cut down that blood beast over there, the Beast Devourer absorbed all its blood, and then it changed like that.”

“...So it changed like that by absorbing blood?”

“If my guess is right. So I was going to ask a few things, but.......”

Anagin trailed off regretfully as he looked at the mages, all of whom had become corpses.

There had been things he wanted to ask those mage bastards.

For example, the true nature of the beasts they had been employing.

‘They were far too strong to be called just beasts. They even bit Gigants and the Blessed to death in an instant.’

He wanted to know whether the beasts had been enhanced with magic or raised through some special method.

Only by knowing the conditions of those beasts could he naturally figure out the conditions needed to strengthen Pigmenes.

But before he could even ask, Pigmenes had killed them all, before he could stop it.

Still, he had no intention of reproaching Pigmenes. After all, it was Anagin himself who had urged it on.

Recalling the way Pigmenes fought, Anagin decided to let go of his regret.

One cannot be full with the first spoonful.

This time, he decided to be satisfied with having learned that Pigmenes could evolve into a bipedal pig, and that its combat power was considerable.

‘There are other things to look into, too.’

After calmly organizing his thoughts, Anagin called out to Sanchonius.

“Hey, Sanchonius.”

“Yes, Sir Anagin.”

Despite surely being exhausted, Sanchonius answered briskly when Anagin called.

Anagin made a request.

“Gather some items from the mages’ corpses. See if there’s anything useful.”

“Yes, understood.”

Having received the request, Sanchonius immediately went to the dead mages.

Their state was unspeakable after being done in by Pigmenes, but their belongings were relatively intact.

Tramachus spoke to Anagin again.

“There’s one more thing I want to ask.”

“Hold on a moment.”

Anagin put the question on hold and walked off somewhere.

Specifically, to the Gigant fighter bound to the Giant’s Cutting Board, and the unconscious Gigant swordswoman pinned beneath it.

“Hey, you guys. If you’ve got nothing to do, go catch the other looters first.”

So it wouldn’t be awkward to just stand around, Anagin tossed some work to Tramachus, Thyreos, and Lynceus.

There were still a few looters nearby who weren’t dead yet, so he told them to secure those guys.

Since it was necessary work anyway, the Argo trio looked at each other silently and decided to do as told.

They had nothing else to do, and they had chosen to follow Anagin’s orders.

Once the roles were more or less distributed, Anagin flipped over the Giant’s Cutting Board and pulled out the Gigant fighter trapped beneath it.

“Kuhk...!”

Crushed beneath the heavy Giant’s Cutting Board, the Gigant fighter drew in a deep breath.

After catching his breath, he tried to get up immediately, but since both arms and legs were bound in chains, he couldn’t move an inch.

It seemed the name was really quite fitting, the Giant’s Cutting Board.

A real Gigant was lying there, unable to move at all, just like a fish on a cutting board.

“Hey, hey. You stop getting up too. Try anything funny, and I’ll break your legs.”

Anagin warned the Gigant swordswoman, who had been watching for an opening.

The swordswoman, who had been pretending to be unconscious, flinched, then slowly got up.

She had originally intended to launch a surprise attack, but realizing it wouldn’t work, she decided to observe the situation for now.

In that sense, she was lucky. If she had kept pretending to be unconscious, her legs really would have been broken.

Anagin looked down at the Gigant fighter and the swordswoman and fell silent for a moment.

When the two finally stared straight at Anagin, he opened his mouth.

“You’re Descendants of Giants, right?”

The Argo trio, who were gathering and binding the surviving treasure hunters, and Sanchonius, who was gathering the mages’ belongings, all turned their heads toward Anagin at once.

Were the Descendants of Giants really that big a deal?

“How do you know?”

Thud!

Anagin kicked the Gigant fighter in the face for answering a question with a question—an annoying habit.

“Koros!”

The Gigant swordswoman shouted.

Anagin delivered an equal-opportunity kick to her face as well.

“Roana!”

Anagin kicked the fighter in the face again.

“.......”

“.......”

Only after being kicked three times in a row did the Gigant pair seem to learn something, clamping their mouths shut.

Clutching his frustrated chest, Anagin asked again.

“You’re Descendants of Giants, right?”

“......That’s right.”

“Ah, now the conversation’s moving along. Alright, now you can ask a question.”

With the frustration in his chest eased somewhat, Anagin generously allowed them to ask. Sometimes, this was good for smooth conversation.

There were things you could learn through questions, after all.

“......How did you know we were Descendants of Giants?”

“The big lump told me.”

“Lord Keones?”

“I don’t know the lump’s name. He just said he was a Descendant of Giants.”

“Are you... the Practitioner Killer?”

Only then did the Gigant fighter recognize who Anagin was.

Keones had rushed ahead, saying he would quickly snatch the Coins of Greed, and it seemed he had been dealt with.

“Ah, ah. This time it’s my turn to ask.”

Anagin arbitrarily made up a rule. But the opponents unconsciously accepted it. They had already exchanged questions once each.

Well, even if they didn’t accept it, there was nothing a fish on a cutting board could do.

“......What is it?”

“How do you use Kr(κρ)?”

“.......”

“Is mixing Ek(ek) and Pa(pa) enough to use the Giant’s Fist?”

Anagin asked the companions of the ‘big lump’ about what he hadn’t been able to learn from him.

One might say there was no need to ask, since he had already used the Giant’s Fist, but he still wanted to be sure, if possible.

“You were interested in Energy manipulation?”

While Anagin was waiting for a positive answer from the Descendants of Giants, Tramachus cut in. The treasure hunters were all bound by now.

“I was a little interested. Now I’m even more so.”

Anagin explained that after fighting the lump, he had become more interested in Energy manipulation.

It had been the same when facing Erysichthon and when facing Hippomenes.

Energy(Γι) definitely seemed useful.

No, perhaps even more than that.

For Anagin, who had no chance of receiving blessings, he would have to train Energy(Γι) even more.

Tramachus asked, sounding confused.

“If you were interested, why didn’t you ask us?”

He wasn’t being sarcastic. He genuinely didn’t understand.

Anagin hadn’t spent a short time at the Chiron Tower. So why say nothing until now?

“Would you have taught me if someone not even affiliated with you asked?”

Anagin countered Tramachus’s question, piercing the blind spot.

Even if Anagin seemed to listen to others half-heartedly, he tended to remember necessary information surprisingly well.

Naturally, he remembered that Energy manipulation wasn’t something you could learn just by asking to be taught.

Tramachus couldn’t say anything in response, effectively acknowledging that Anagin was right.

“Besides, these guys seem better at handling Energy(Γι) than you are.”

“...What?”

Tramachus, hailing from the Chiron Tower that raised heroes, took offense at Anagin’s words and asked back, wounded pride evident.

An indirect way of saying he absolutely couldn’t accept that.

The others reacted similarly. Especially Sanchonius. Perhaps it was pride in being affiliated with the Chiron Tower.

However, Anagin didn’t care at all. He had a valid reason.

“You guys don’t really use Energy(Γι) that well.”

The Argo trio flinched at once.

To put it bluntly, all of them relied more on blessings than Energy(Γι).

Tramachus of Flame, Thyreos of Reinforcement, & Lynceus of Farsight. Even Irida of the Wind, who wasn’t here now, and Meleager and Atalanta of the Original Argonaut Expedition Team.

Despite all of them being Gigants, they relied far more on blessings than on Energy(Γι).

That wasn’t a bad thing, but watching them, you couldn’t say they handled Energy(Γι) well.

Blessings were their main strength, and Energy was merely a supplement.

In contrast, the Descendants of Giants clearly seemed to make Energy(Γι) their main strength. Even if they spouted incomprehensible nonsense, well.......

Offended, the Argo trio gave off an awkward atmosphere, and the Gigant fighter and swordswoman, who had been watching the mood, cautiously tried to interject.

“Hey—”

“—Sir Anagin.”

At that moment, Sanchonius cut in first.

“What?”

“I have something to report.”

“If it’s not urgent, can’t it wait?”

“It’s important.”

A tone full of certainty.

Anagin decided to hear him out.

Judging by the way Sanchonius spoke, it really did seem important.

“What is it?”

“I found a scroll containing teleportation magic.”

“Is that important?”

He had seen teleportation magic a few times and knew it was impressive, but he wondered if it was important enough to rush like this.

However, that thought was immediately shattered by Sanchonius’s next words. And for good reason.......

“It’s a scroll that goes near the Temple of Delphi.”

A magical tool that could bring this request to an end in one stroke.