Chapter 326: The Furnace Giant's Heart! Luna: Ethan's just doing what he likes~
[At this point, I hope readers will remember our site domain. It really helps.]
[You successfully calmed the giants' rebellion and helped them regain their hard-won reason.]
[Your kindness is deeply moving!]
[Soul fusion rate increased by 0.5%.]
Easy.
Ethan curled his lips into a smile, lifted a hand, and patted the black dragon's head as it leaned in for praise.
His touch was practised, and he even made that soft, coaxing, "Good boy, good boy," sound under his breath.
The black dragon practically purred itself into bliss, its expression melting. It was one step away from barking, an utter disgrace to ancient dragons everywhere.
Then, in the blink of an eye, Ethan's view shifted.
The hard, black scales beneath his palm suddenly became fluffy, pale-gold hair.
Luna had slipped under his hand. She tipped her head up at him, eyes curved into crescents, and on her soft little face bloomed a bright, delighted smile.
"Hehe~"
"..."
In that instant, it was as if a tiny arrow had struck Ethan straight through the heart.
His eyes widened slightly, and a warm rush spilled from his chest into his limbs, flooding his whole body.
"Heh."
Ethan smiled too.
He stroked Luna's smooth hair, and the air around them seemed to tint faintly pink.
Off to the side, the lonely, middle-aged Hagrid stared.
"..."
Youth really is something…
Ravenclaw, fifty points.
Hagrid shed tears of proud, jealous satisfaction.
The giants stared too.
"Is this madman really going to be our king? Please, anything but that," a young giant muttered with a miserable face.
He immediately got smacked on the back of the head by an older giant, who barked, "Shut it! Our lives are in that terrifying wizard's hands!"
An elder sighed and said quietly, "So… the days of persecution are going to repeat themselves again…"
The giants' mood sank, as though a storm cloud had settled over them.
And for giants, that kind of gloom was rare. Their brains usually held only two things: fighting and eating.
Hagrid watched it all, clenched his fists, and hesitated before blurting, "Er… Ethan? What are you planning to do next?"
The half-giant fiddled with his fingers, anxious.
He was enormous, but in front of his own student, he looked like a frightened chick, completely overwhelmed.
Hagrid tried to offer a careful suggestion. "Maybe we… take it slow, let the giants choose a new leader first…"
"What are you talking about, Hagrid?" Ethan tilted his head.
A mysterious smile lifted his mouth. "Isn't the giant leader still right here, perfectly fine?"
As he spoke, he met Hagrid's baffled stare, then took a few steps back.
He raised one hand, almost like a welcoming gesture, and pointed toward the towering cave that served as the chief's dwelling.
Then, all at once.
Thump. Thump. Thump…
A heavy tread sounded from deep within the cave, growing louder with every step.
At that familiar sound, the giants jerked their heads up in shock.
In their dulled eyes, a startled, hopeful light flared.
Thump!
With dirt and loose stones raining down, an impossibly huge figure appeared in the mouth of the cave.
A figure that could treat trees like toys, standing on the rocky ground like a cliff made flesh.
It was the former leader, the one they had been told was already "dead".
Gurg Karkus.
His grey-white chest was smeared with great swathes of dried blood. On the left side, near his heart, gaped a vicious wound, red flesh visible within.
It was hard to imagine how anyone could survive an injury like that.
Hagrid's mouth fell open.
He whipped his head towards Ethan, and met a smile that looked as if everything in the world was already sitting neatly in Ethan's palm.
Hagrid's mind shook.
Then a surge of emotion rose so sharply he could barely contain it.
"Oh, Ethan!"
Hagrid shouted with pure worship.
Only now did he truly understand why Dumbledore had been willing to hand something this important to Ethan.
Ethan's methods were… deeply unsettling.
But he got results.
Perfect results. No complaints.
"Gurg!"
A young giant sprang up, trembling with excitement.
The next second, that excitement was cut off by a hoarse, frantic scream.
"You, you're still alive? That's impossible!"
On the ground, the traitor Golgomath roared through a ruined throat, staring at the former leader like he was looking at a ghost.
"Impossible… you can't still be alive!"
"I pierced your heart, I…"
A spear drove down.
Golgomath's howl snapped off mid-syllable.
Blood welled steadily beneath the spearhead, gathering into a thin stream that flowed across the flat central rock, laying a fresh slick over the old, dried stains.
"Guh… guh…"
Golgomath's eyes bulged. He opened his mouth and spat a mouthful of bloody froth.
Death was upon him, yet his eyes still burned with hatred as he glared up at the leader.
"What an ungrateful idiot," Karkus rasped.
He looked down at his former deputy with nothing but disgust.
"You thought all our ancestors left us was violence and blood. Traitor. You nearly drove our entire people to extinction."
"We were once called Furnace Giants, because the life-fire inside us never went out."
"Even if we've long since lost the power to command flame, we cannot sink into being a pack of beasts that only tear and devour!"
Under the leader's harsh rebuke, Golgomath swallowed his final breath in agony, unwilling and unrepentant, eyes wide open.
And just like that, the rebellion that should have succeeded came to an end.
At the same time.
"Hm?"
Ethan's brows lifted. He felt a gaze.
He looked up, towards the boundless, fathomless sky.
Two seconds later, he bared a grin.
"Well then, lofty Lord Death. It seems I've accidentally changed the direction of fate again."
As Ethan murmured it, that gaze clearly picked up a hint of anger.
Ethan's smile deepened.
He licked his canine, pleased and expectant.
If you're going to chase thrills, do it properly.
Fate, I'm looking forward to it.
What sort of "gift" will you bring me next?
Once the traitor was dealt with, the leader gave a wet jerk and yanked the spear free.
He lifted his head, and his stern gaze swept across the giants who had followed the revolt, forcing them to bow their heads in fear.
At last, his eyes settled on Ethan.
His tone turned respectful. He bent slightly and spoke in a voice that rang like a bell.
"Thank you for saving me, and saving my entire tribe, wizard."
"I swear by the name of Karkus. From this day forward, the giant tribe will unconditionally crush whatever path you point to."
"With strength as solid as rock and earth, we will clear the way ahead for you."
The steady, powerful vow echoed between the cliffs.
An unseen pact seemed to coil around the giants' hearts and sink into their rushing blood.
"Ooooooh…"
Hagrid was deeply shaken. He let out a hoarse, wordless cry of excitement.
He even felt as if a thin layer of that vow had brushed him too, giving a drifting man, for the first time in a long while, a flicker of belonging.
"I'm looking forward to seeing the giants at full strength," Ethan said, lips lifting.
He raised a hand and took the leader's slowly lowered index finger, shaking it solemnly as if it were the most normal handshake in the world.
In the original story, the people Voldemort took pains to recruit could not possibly be weak.
[Congratulations! You have successfully formed a friendship with the giant tribe!]
[Light level increased!]
[You have gained inspiration: the Progenitor Giant!]
Whoosh.
A towering, majestic figure appeared in Ethan's mind, and his brows rose.
Bigger even than the current leader, like moving mountains.
In its chest burned a life-forge that never went out.
It strode across the earth, enduring even under the dominion of ancient dragons, carrying its people from a savage age all the way to the present.
"If I can recreate the Progenitor Giant's bearing… even fate would hesitate."
Ethan's eyes shone.
A surging heat rolled from his heart into every vein, making him itch to start painting this very second.
But before that.
To recreate the Progenitor Giant, he still needed one crucial prerequisite.
A giant's heart.
The primal spark. The furnace of life.
Ethan lifted his gaze to the giant leader and rasped, "The goods we agreed on. You can give them to me now, yes?"
Hagrid froze.
His pupils practically rattled.
Ethan. What sort of unspeakable agreement did you make with the giant king?
Could you not warn your poor professor even once?
Hagrid had the awful feeling that while he was asleep, the world had jumped ahead a hundred years.
"…All right."
The leader paused, then nodded.
He turned and walked back into the depths of the cave.
Not long after, accompanied by several booming rumbles, he emerged again, swaying slightly under the weight of whatever he carried.
"That is…"
A young giant stared, eyes wide.
Then, scratching his head in confusion, he blurted, "What is that?"
Clang!
"Ow!"
Ignoring the commotion, the leader slowly bent his enormous body and opened his massive palm.
He presented Ethan with a "small stone" resting in the centre.
It was a black "stone" no larger than a human palm. From the outside, it looked exactly like burnt coal.
The leader said, "It is a treasure passed down in our tribe. A piece of heart left behind by our ancestors in ancient times."
"But in my view, it has already fulfilled its purpose."
Ethan took it curiously.
It was icy cold in his hand, like a relic, like a dead ember.
He could not feel any trace of life-force at all.
And yet, when he sent a thread of magic carefully into it, he detected something.
A tiny, tiny spark of energy, like a match that still glimmered faintly in the dark.
[You have obtained a gift from the giant tribe!]
[Common material: Burnt-Out Heart of the Furnace Craft.]
[Once served as a giant's heart, burning with a primal fire that never went out. Now it has fallen silent along with the body it once belonged to.]
[If infused with immense power, it may still be able to release its final effect.]
[Appraisal: Passing on the flame too, brother?]
The Progenitor Giant's heart.
And it could still be used.
"With the inspiration of the Progenitor Giant, and a heart that still holds its last trace of power… I can recreate the giants' glory of old."
Ethan's eyes lit up. He gripped the silent "coal" tightly.
He could not hold back any longer.
He immediately pulled out an easel from his leather bag, stretched a canvas, and sat on a jutting rock as if it were a chair.
Wand painting. Ahem.
He began to paint with absolute focus, as though he had stepped into an entirely different world.
"What's wrong with him?" the giant leader asked, puzzled. "Is there a problem?"
"It's fine," Luna said.
Her gaze on Ethan was gentle as water. "Ethan's just doing what he likes, that's all~"
Hearing that, the leader did not truly understand, but watching the black-haired boy pour his whole self into that little sheet of paper, he suddenly felt something shift.
Perhaps Ethan's true purpose here had never been conquest.
And perhaps it was not, like some greedy wizards, an attempt to enslave them.
It almost seemed as though he simply wanted to see what other people looked like.
As for "becoming the giant king"…
That had merely been a by-product.
"What a strange man," the leader muttered.
Yet on his weathered face, a smile rose without him quite meaning it to.
If it was this strange human, perhaps the giants really could untie the knot between their two peoples.
Return to the surface. Return to sunlight.
Live a life where they could fill their bellies every day.
"After all, that wizard with terrifying power is the greatest threat of all," the giant leader said quietly.
It was the wisest thing he had said all night.