The Forest of the Fallen (1)

The giant, spewing incomprehensible words, hurled the broken sapling at Tess.

The moment the one-meter-long sapling slammed into the ground, Tess kicked off the ground and leapt into the air.

The giant, poised to throw, followed through with a punch. Tess, suspended in mid-air, seemed to have no way to dodge.

At that moment, her body flew forward as if defying inertia, landing on the giant's fist.

It was anti-gravity.

Charging along the giant's forearm, she slashed at its left eye with her saber and leapt off. As the giant raised its upper body, shielding its eye, she shouted to the group.

"Now!"

Shirone fired a Photon Cannon. Considering the monster's size, this was no time to conserve mental energy.

A blast of light, comparable in size to a cannonball, struck the giant square in the abdomen.

The giant's body bent as if embracing the Photon Cannon, its legs lifting off the ground.

The sight of the giant being pushed back was hard to believe, even for those witnessing it. Canis, who had been hit by the same technique before, winced as phantom pain shot through him.

Shirone's group thought it was over. But as the giant's legs, now parallel to the ground, came down, its feet pressed into the earth, and it came to a halt.

Everyone was speechless.

The giant had withstood the Photon Cannon. Wasn't this the same magic that had nearly reached a destructive power of 5,000 in the Hall of Achievement and Sacrifice? It was unthinkable for a living creature of flesh and blood to endure such a blow.

"What the… how can it take that hit and still be fine?"

The giant's expression was twisted. Its wrinkled face was grotesquely terrifying.

At that moment, a Fireball from Amy flew in from the side, setting the giant's face ablaze.

Amy's judgment was effective. Fire was the bane of cells. No matter how strong its muscles were, burning it would do the trick.

The giant, its beard now on fire, clutched its face and staggered.

As they saw the giant's face engulfed in flames, a chill ran down their spines. Beneath the melting skin, new skin was regenerating.

Tess muttered in disbelief.

"That's Schema! How does a giant have Schema?"

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Arin cast Dark Authority. Now that the giant was injured, it was the perfect opportunity to test if her abilities would work.

The Dark Authority Arin used took the form of shadowy tendrils, branching out like plants. The tendrils, burrowing into the giant's shadow, rose like vines and wrapped around its ankles.

Arin then cast Mental Shock, a psychic attack.

If telepathy was like theft, Mental Shock was akin to assault. While it couldn't delve into trauma, it could deliver shocks akin to phobias.

The true strength of Mental Shock was its ability to chain into Mind Control.

Mind Control, a specialty of Arcane, was a magic that allowed one to manipulate another's body, but it was notoriously difficult to succeed.

To approach a 100% success rate, it required concentration twenty times that of the target's mental strength.

In essence, you couldn't dominate someone stronger than yourself.

However, depending on strategy and tactics, such a feat could sometimes be achieved, especially if Mental Shock succeeded.

If they could dominate the giant with Mind Control, there would be nothing to fear in the forest. Knowing this, Canis watched the outcome without intervening.

Mental Shock failed.

The giant, its face on fire, began charging at the group with even more violent movements.

Arin bit her lip. Telepathy, Mental Shock, Mind Control—the three great psychic arts—had no effect on the giant.

For her, the Clairvoyant, it was the first time she had felt such helplessness. Her tender emotions flared up.

'Why? Why isn't it working? It's just a big human, isn't it?'

"Arin! Dodge!"

Canis stepped in front of Arin and cast Shadow Wall.

As the shadow rose, the giant's fist slammed into it. The darkness of the Shadow Wall scattered like dust. The impact had exceeded the magic's absorption capacity.

But the giant, having lost some of its strength, couldn't push further.

Harvest climbed onto the giant's wrist and slashed at what seemed to be a blood vessel.

The calculation that it would resemble a human body if it had mastered Schema proved correct.

As the blood vessel at the elbow was severed, a fountain of blood erupted. But the wound quickly healed. If anything, the pain seemed to enrage it further.

'It's really strong. How can such a creature exist?'

Shirone lured the giant with a teleportation, and Rian slashed at its heel as if drawing a bow.

Canis cast Dark Authority. The saw-like shadows, specialized for attack, couldn't cut through the muscles even as they wrapped around the ankles.

Canis shouted, "It's got monstrous strength! Do something, quick!"

Amy's Flame Strike bombarded the giant's face. But adding more fire to an already burning situation didn't change much. Though the wind's force added to it, the physical impact was weaker than the Photon Cannon.

Shirone compressed photons. Contrary to what everyone expected, the activation time was longer than usual.

Seeing the blob of light warp and distort, Canis snapped in frustration.

"Dammit! What are you doing? Focus!"

"No, that's not it."

Arin spoke up.

"He's changing the form of the photons."

If physical force couldn't bring it down, he'd convert it into cutting power. If neither heat nor impact worked, sharpness would.

It was the right judgment for the situation.

But Canis doubted it would work. Changing the form of light was beyond common sense.

Shirone was feeling it too. Artificially suppressing the light he was trying to release was exhausting. He thought it might be possible by altering the direction of the force compressing the photons, but the mental strain was absurd.

A groan escaped through his teeth. As he tightened his focus to an unbreakable level, the photons flattened.

The Photon Cannon, now in the form of a disc, surged toward the giant.

The giant, having broken through the Dark Authority with brute force, twisted its torso. The blade of light slashed across its side, opening a wound a hand's width wide as blood gushed out like a waterfall.

It was a critical hit, at least.

Realizing this, the group, swordsmen and mages alike, charged in with wild eyes.

They stabbed with sabers, hammered with greatswords, burned with flames, and sawed with shadowy blades. The giant's body toppled backward.

The attacks continued, but it felt like trying to dismantle a dragon with a pocket knife. Even a single muscle fiber was as strong as steel.

Amy panted, "Haa, haa. It's dead, right? It's gotta be dead, yeah?"

"I don't know. Probably. Should we do it again if you're worried?"

Tess shuddered.

"No, I can't do this anymore. There's a limit to how cruel you can be."

"I tried to cut its neck with Dark Authority, but it wouldn't budge. What if we skin it first?"

Canis's words were the final straw, as everyone paled and stepped back. In any case, the giant showed no signs of moving, and the wound Shirone had inflicted wasn't healing, so leaving it alone was the best course of action.

Tess gave Shirone a thumbs-up.

"That was awesome, Shirone. Another new magic, huh?"

"I got lucky. If the giant had dodged, there wouldn't have been a second chance. Just imagining it is terrifying."

Canis wasn't pleased. The Photon Cannon was an impact-focused spell. To change its form into cutting power? The idea itself was impressive, but as a dark mage, he couldn't help but feel his turf was being encroached upon.

"Hmph, it's only because we won that it's fine. It was practically a gamble. When we work as a team, individual mental strength converges with the party's. If it had failed, we'd have been incapacitated. In a situation where even a mage's body can be a shield, leaving the frontlines is dangerous."

"I know. I was surprised by how inefficient it was too."

Canis snorted and turned away. Though he had snapped, the insight to pivot in that situation was undeniably talent.

Arin, thinking the same, watched Shirone rest with her Clairvoyance and said, "I've felt this before, but that kid's ideas are really free."

It was a gamble, but a high-probability one.

The insight to choose what to sacrifice and what not to in order to reach victory. If even one or two out of ten choices had been wrong, they wouldn't have achieved this result.

"Tch, he's always had quick reflexes."

Canis added a comment. In any case, they were a team now, and denying what should be acknowledged was a sign of inferiority.

"Grrr…"

As the giant groaned, the group's hearts sank. Though it showed no signs of getting up, its fingers twitched slightly.

Without needing to exchange words, they sprinted into the forest.

They still didn't know what kind of world Heaven was, but they had no intention of fighting the giant again.

With Amy's Crimson Eye, Tess's senses, and Arin's ability to distinguish natural from unnatural, they were able to find their way without much trouble.

They arrived at a rocky area.

The abundance of shadows pleased Canis and Arin. While Shirone's magic wasn't affected by the environment, dark magic was maximized in darkness.

"This place feels safe. If things go south, we can use Dark Port to move."

"But Dark Port can't transport multiple people, right?"

Dark magic lacked the theory to transfer effects like photon magic. Thus, only dark mages could travel through shadows.

Canis shrugged as if it were no big deal.

"At the very least, it'll help tactically. Here, I can lure enemies alone."

Tess, taking turns with the water canteen, said, "A giant with Schema… Isn't this place too dangerous? Plus, the fact that Arin's psychic magic doesn't work is unsettling."

"I'm sorry. I couldn't be of more help."

As Arin bowed her head, Tess waved her hands.

"No, it's not your fault. The giant was too much for me too. Anyway, we won, right? What's important is that we all worked together to win. Speaking of which, Heaven doesn't seem so bad, huh? Hohoho!"

Tess lightened the mood, but the mages' expressions darkened.

Unlike swordsmen, who thrived on improvisation, mages disliked unpredictable situations. They needed to control all variables to feel secure.

The magic of altering photon form wasn't part of their party's strategy.

They knew that adding variables upon variables would lead to annihilation. Relying on individual ingenuity for victory didn't bring them joy.

"In the last battle, we didn't have full control of the situation. It's a bit early to say this, but I think we need to consider whether to retreat. What do the rest of you think?"

As Shirone brought it up, Amy spoke.

"I think it went well for a first attempt. We shouldn't overlook the fact that we won. What I mean is, Shirone found a solution, and that solution can be applied to other situations. So even if we face the same enemy, we can avoid a situation like this."

Amy's opinion had merit.

Of course, Canis was against retreating. But he wasn't foolish enough to voice a false opinion out of greed.

"It's not that simple. Shirone probably won't use that strategy again, right?"

"Yeah. It's too risky. The time it takes to compress photons and the inefficiency… I don't think I'll try it unless it's absolutely necessary."

"The idea was sound. If you can give photons mass, light becomes more like matter, allowing for form alteration, right?"

Canis could read Shirone's thoughts because the method he had attempted was the domain of dark magic.

"But it was a miscalculation. Refining the mind is antithetical to you. It's the nature of dark magic. Dark magic may lack impact, but it excels in form alteration to exert engineering-like force. In my case, it's saws; in Arin's, it's vines."

Arin demonstrated with Dark Authority. Shadows rose from the ground, transforming into the shape of an intricate apple tree. She even adjusted its size to give it a three-dimensional appearance.

As Shirone marveled, Arin smiled and explained.

"Mages use mental formulas, but dark magic specializes in mental refinement, so we don't need separate formulas. We call this modeling. Stable elements like ice or darkness are easy to shape, while active elements like fire or light are difficult."

Amy agreed.

"Now that I think about it, I'm the same. I can't control the form of flames. That's why I incorporate air attributes into my magic."

"Right. But light is even harder than fire. No, theoretically, modeling is impossible. You can add light's characteristics to other elements, but you can't add other attributes to light. Of course, Shirone made it possible with divine particles, but that's a special case. Thanks to that, he achieved some level of modeling, but even that's too impractical for real combat."

Shirone sighed.

"Then how should we fight giants in the future? A laser might work, but considering the giant's movements, it won't be easy."

Lasers could destroy matter regardless of durability, but they took time to accumulate energy, making them less effective against fast-moving targets.

If Harvest had known about lasers beforehand, he wouldn't have been defeated so easily last time.

"The problem is that we've only encountered one giant. How strong are giants in this world? If we knew that, it would help our exploration."

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________

At Rian's remark, Shirone snapped his fingers.

"That's it. Let's think about it. If there are living creatures, they must consume food, and in that case, the ecosystem's food chain would be pyramid-shaped. If we extract only the distribution of predators and analyze the statistics, wouldn't it look something like this?"

Shirone drew a pyramid with sharp curves, like a woman's body.

At the base were lower predators, in the middle were intermediate predators, and at the top were apex predators, with a few mutant predators scattered throughout.

Since only carnivores were marked, the lower and middle layers showed an equal distribution.

"What are these mutant predators?"

"Among predators, many species don't hunt for food. They might use traps or rely on intellectual abilities to feed. Like monkeys in our world."

"I see. Then where does the giant fit?"

"The gravity and air are similar, so its biological traits probably aren't too different. Assuming that, it would be around here—between intermediate and apex predators."

"Oh, so the giant is a mutant predator? It's that strong?"

"Well, it could be an apex predator. If so, there's still hope for us, but its fighting style is too primitive, don't you think? Even cats have refined hunting methods. But uprooting trees to swing them doesn't seem very helpful for hunting. That's why I classified it as a mutant predator."

Tess tilted her head and asked, "Couldn't it be a mutant between lower and intermediate predators? If so, that's a problem, right? It would mean most predators in this forest are stronger than the giant."

"I don't think so. It seemed to use language. If it has even a little intelligence, it can't be below intermediate predators."

Canis said, "I see. So the giant we first encountered is in the top 30%. Of course, there's still a chance it belongs to a different distribution."

"Statistically, yes. In any case, there probably aren't many of them. Based on intuition, the chance of encountering an enemy stronger than the giant is less than 10%."

Amy, having sorted out the situation, concluded, "Then there's no problem, right? Six of us can handle anything. No one's hurt."

Shirone carefully analyzed the situation.

Looking at it positively, Amy was right. But when lives were at stake, probabilities were nothing more than mirages.

The fact that less than an hour had passed since arriving in Heaven seemed to make turning back impossible. It was just a baseless illusion, but everyone probably knew that.

In the end, they didn't want to leave yet. Even if a greater danger awaited them.

"Alright, let's head to the city walls. I don't want to give up here either."

As they prepared to shoulder their packs and set off, a loud noise came from the forest.

Tess's hearing picked up a woman's voice.

A sense of unease flashed through them—this might be more dangerous than the giant's attack. But if it was truly a woman, it meant an intelligent being. The information they could gain from her was nearly limitless.

Exchanging glances, Shirone's group, as if by unspoken agreement, dashed into the forest.

Kiiing! Kick! Kick!

The six-legged poison-horned demon let out a rough cry.

Belonging to the crustacean family, the poison-horned demon was a creature that moved by stabbing its six pointed legs into the ground like tripods. Its lavender body was covered in a carapace, and a single large eye sat in the center of its face. The long, sturdy horn on its forehead looked even harder than a unicorn's.

"Lena! Drive it this way!"

"Got it! Be careful, sis!"

Kanya and Lena surrounded the poison-horned demon from front and back.

Kanya, with her black hair flowing down to her waist, was the older sister, while Lena, with her large, pretty eyes, was the younger one.

As members of the Mekara, a race of Heaven's citizens, their slender jawlines, small noses, and thin lips like crescent moons made them look younger than other races.

Though they were seventeen and fourteen, their faces made it hard to tell who was older.

Lena, pinning down the demon's rear, swung her sword at its flank. The blade, with countless lines intersecting at right angles, was a complexly assembled weapon with remarkable effectiveness.

As she struck the demon's back, a shockwave erupted, scattering fragments of its carapace.