Seizing the Soul

The Soul Stone served as the vessel. A transparent membrane formed over its surface, like a layer of mucus. More and more of it gathered until, before long, it had grown into a sphere roughly ten meters across.

But that was as far as it went. The Soul Stone's light had faded completely, and the enormous figure inside the sphere let out a furious roar.

Clearly, there were not enough souls to supply the summoned being with the energy it needed. The Goblin Tribe had known this would happen. The old and frail Goblins closest to the magic array stepped forward and spread their arms.

They shuddered and collapsed to the ground. Their souls had been offered to the summoned giant.

ROAR!!!

Still unsatisfied, the giant roared in fury. The sound swept out like a vast barrage of magical wind blades, cutting into every Goblin—even the corpses of the old and frail.

Yet the Goblins did not dare move. They let their blood flow freely. Fortunately, it soon stopped; the giant had not taken too much from any one of them. Their numbers made up the difference.

Little streams of blood flowed into the giant's body, as though giving it life. The blue of its soul mingled with the red of the blood, making it look like a transparent figure threaded with crimson veins.

The transparent figure was growing solid, taking on the shape of... a giant. But it looked somewhat dazed. Even its earlier, emotion-filled roars seemed to have sprung from instinctive need.

"A giant! Dean, look! It's one of the giants!" Kana said, tugging excitedly at the hem of Dean's clothes.

Yanxi held his other hem. This was the young girl's first time seeing one of the giants too. Though it was not a complete giant, that small flaw did nothing to dampen her excitement. How many people went their whole lives without seeing one? And she was watching one being summoned—it was practically witnessing a giant's birth.

"My God, you call that thing a giant?" Lamore said in disbelief. "If the old fellows among the giants saw him, they might tear him apart on the spot."

True, the summoned giant was tall, but as his body solidified, his height settled at around ten meters. To a real giant, he was an infant.

What pure-blooded giant was not over a hundred meters tall as an adult? Even some of their offshoots stood over fifty meters. What did that make this ten-meter runt? Among giants, he might not even qualify as a runt!

"How did this malnourished fellow get wrung so dry? The Goblins' sacrifice is pitiful!" Lamore said, sounding a little sorry for him. Back in his homeland, a Forest Giant some hundred and fifty meters tall had lived alongside Lamore's people for generations.

How could such a stark contrast not strike Lamore as strange?

"I don't care whether this giant is malnourished. What I care about is how strong he is. Is he going to break through to level five?" Dean's face darkened. A monster that size might turn all of Blue Town into Blue Plain.

"Level five... that does seem possible!" Kana's excitement faded. Lamore's contempt for the giant's height had wiped out what little curiosity she had left.

Meanwhile, Yanxi had only one thought: Someone that big and strong could take so many hits! A shield of flesh—she had already decided this giant would make the best one.

And she was right. The giants' defenses were second to none; scarcely any creatures could match them.

"Maybe... not level five." Just then, the last of the information about the Giant Spirit Summoning Array finished pouring into Dean's mind. He finally understood this intermediate magic, something his current level should have put beyond his grasp.

"Goblin souls are much weaker than human souls. Even if this giant uses their blood to make up for the shortfall, he still can't reach level five. Level four at its peak, at most," Dean said through gritted teeth.

ROAR!!! ROAR!!!

The giant suddenly flew into a rage. He slammed a palm into the ground, gouging out a pit two meters deep. But he could not yet leave the summoning array, so he could only swing his arms, trying to smash it apart!

The array had already completed the summoning. In theory, destroying it now would not affect the result. But just as the giant raised his fist to break it, eight chains shot from the pointed symbols carved around its edge and wrapped around him in an instant.

The chains were not physical. They seemed to have been made specifically to bind the giant's soul!

"What are they trying to do?" Kana's heart trembled. She thought she could hear despair in the giant's roar.

"Maybe... Look at that old Shaman!" Dean said quickly. Right beneath the giant's eyes, the old Shaman stood at a particular spot in the magic array. At some point, he had slit his wrist and let his blood pour out.

"An array within an array! The second array is the heart of the first. Brilliant—absolutely brilliant!" Dean marveled.

A smaller array had been embedded inside the larger magic array. It was joined to the original without disrupting it, yet it allowed the smaller array to control the larger one.

Only someone who had spent years studying and using magic arrays could accomplish that. An ordinary level-three magic array could never do it. Only a Goblin who had devoted his entire life to their study could reach the point of inscribing an array within an array.

"The giant's suffering more and more. Didn't these Goblins summon him to help them? Why is he in so much pain?" Kana was torn. She did not want the first giant she had ever seen to suffer like this before he could display his might.

But part of her also hoped he would vanish after his suffering. Then he could bring no disaster to Blue Town.

"Of course he's in pain. I understand now. The old Shaman is seizing his soul—taking that body by force for himself. The giant's original soul will be torn away and sent back," Dean explained.

"So the Goblins only wanted to summon the giant's body, not his soul?" Kana pressed.

"That's right," Dean said with a nod.

"After all, a summoned giant is only bound to fulfill the contract. The summoner can't decide how he goes about it or what the outcome will be. That's probably why the Goblin Shaman is sacrificing himself—to take complete control of the giant's body." Dean looked toward the old Shaman, who was now swaying on his feet.

The giant's roars grew weaker and weaker. Beside the array, the young Goblin was already in tears.