Longing

Just as the Ancient Gods began to take the field one after another, the Goddess of Harvest, Omebella, returned to the Giant King's Court with Badheil, the God of Dawn.

"That Angel's power is strange. Losing to him does nothing to diminish your glory."

Omebella left after saying only that. She had already fought Truman twice, by her reckoning.

Setting aside Truman's strange abilities, anyone who fought him felt a sense of dread, as though something terrible were about to happen.

She had come to understand how strange Truman was, and at a moment when a divine war was about to erupt, she had no desire to provoke him.

Still, for a Mythical Creature, those few words of comfort were already a mother's concern for her son.

Badheil said nothing. Omebella had suppressed the signs of madness in him, but an air of decay still clung to his body.

"Glory..." Badheil rumbled, his single eye wide. "Only greater power can preserve one's glory!"

"The Demon Wolf and the Phoenix hold authority!"

But those were beyond his reach. They each had their own masters, and all of them were Ancient Gods!

He headed for the Twilight Palace to see his Father God and seek a way to advance further.

But not long after he left the palace, two Ancient Gods departed from the Giant King's Court.

"The Elf King is about to arrive. The Ancestor of Vampires invited your Father God to go out and welcome him. A divine war may be coming."

Badheil met Omebella in the Twilight Palace and learned this.

Naturally, they could not take part in a divine war. Even watching from afar might cost them their lives.

That realization dealt a heavy blow to the desire for strength that had just begun to rise within Badheil, sending him sliding toward another abyss.

The psychological suggestion Truman had planted in Badheil was simple. He had barely done more than reinforce it in a negligible way, making that urge to "become stronger" churn endlessly beneath the savage beatings from the Historical Projections of several Angels and the Goddess of Misfortune's complete suppression.

The "Giant" Pathway, known in later ages as the "Warrior" Pathway, had a Sequence Two called "Glory-Seeker." That was the Sequence Badheil currently occupied.

Power was the source of all glory.

See? Truman had even demonstrated the Acting Method to Badheil.

"..." Badheil left in silence. His thoughts churning, he had no desire to return to the Palace of Dawn, so he wandered through the Giant King's Court instead.

Before long, Badheil found himself looking at a gloomy forest.

"The Forest of Decay?" Badheil froze, sensing that something was amiss. Why had he come here?

But in an instant, the Dream Phosphor buried deep in his heart burst open without leaving a trace, erasing that thought at the last moment.

He forgot that fleeting sense that something was wrong.

"The Giant Ancestor..." Badheil turned his thoughts to the Forest of Decay before him.

"Father God never allows anyone to approach this place."

"Perhaps this is the reason Father God is so powerful?!"

At that moment, the Giant King Aurmir was facing off against the other Ancient Gods, with no attention to spare. This was the best opportunity—perhaps even the only one...

In the end, the thoughts churning within him overcame everything else. Badheil entered the Forest of Decay, transforming into the Light of Dawn and blending perfectly into the twilight.

Become stronger. Kill every enemy.

The thought had arisen within Badheil himself, and he naturally set about acting on it.

With the Giant King away and the Giant Queen focused on the divine war, no one could possibly notice Badheil.

He easily evaded the guards and even slipped through the power of twilight, arriving before two ancient tombstones. The words "Father" and "Mother" were written on them in Jotun.

This was the origin of the Giants.

Those two words held a mystery that could command the forces of nature. They directly filled Badheil with longing, sadness, and guilt.

But Badheil was the most exceptional Giant after his father—a Warrior and a "Demon Hunter." His perception even let him directly catch a certain trace of information left behind in the corresponding part of the Spirit World.

An image from some ancient age seemed to flash before Badheil's eyes. Its subjects were his Father God and two corpses lying in coffins.

But why were those two corpses so small? They were even smaller than newborns of the Giant Race!

Badheil's body gradually stiffened, and a chill spread through him, for he saw the shapes of those two corpses.

"Humans..." Badheil fell silent. The two corpses were vastly different from Giants, their bodies built in ways utterly unlike theirs.

Those two corpses had two eyes!

But Giants had always been one-eyed.

"Father? Mother?" The Light of Dawn in Badheil's single eye fell into complete disarray. He did not know how to face the truth before him.

"How could this be?" Transforming into the Light of Dawn, Badheil instinctively stepped forward. Suddenly, the intense guilt emanating from the Giant King engulfed him.

He gradually began to discern something deeper within it.

But Badheil's thoughts were now sluggish, and he could barely think. As Light of Dawn, he vanished completely into the Forest of Decay.

"Father God never lets any Giant but himself approach the Forest of Decay..."

"And that overwhelming sense of guilt, even..."

Badheil returned to the Palace of Dawn as quickly as he could, shut himself away, and refused to see any Giants. He never took part in the war again, either.

He might have guessed the truth.

"Soniathrym!" Aurmir nodded at the Elf King, who stood astride the waves, trident in hand.

"I'm going to the place where the Chaos Sea is." Soniathrym looked toward the distant Kingdom of Silver, having already fixed his attention on it. The Chaos Sea had once appeared there, and he was determined to go.

"That is my territory!" Aurmir's voice sank.

"That is the Chaos Sea. It has nothing to do with you!" Soniathrym stared intently at Aurmir, lightning crackling wildly around him.

The scene seemed poised to erupt into a fight at any moment.

Such was the Humanoid Alliance: even in these circumstances, conflicts and rivalries persisted.

"Let him go," Lilith said, descending on moonlight. All three Ancient Gods of the Humanoid Alliance had gathered here.

"..." A flash of violence passed through Aurmir's single eye. The Light of Twilight trembled faintly as he fell silent.

The Elf King laughed and strode forward. In just a few steps, he reached the Kingdom of Silver. Sensing the lingering aura of the Chaos Sea, he nodded in satisfaction. The turmoil in his body and mind subsided somewhat.

At the same time, however, the Elf King's longing for the Sefirah had reached its peak.

The Dragon of Imagination was in the same condition.

Its virtual personality was already roaming the Sea of Collective Subconscious of the Kingdom of Silver's citizens, eager to absorb the power of the Chaos Sea.

"I must obtain that Slate..."