Chapter 248: The Giant

The Giant took one step forward.

The stadium shook. The faceless crowd in the stands turned their blank heads to follow it. The silver-green threads pulsing through its body flickered like a heartbeat.

"YOU."

It pointed at Goliath.

"YOU TOUCHED THEM. YOU TOOK THEM FROM ME."

Goliath didn’t run. He didn’t raise his weapon. He just stood there, staring up at the thing he’d been trying to create.

"I didn’t take anything," he said. "I harvested. That’s what the Tower does. That’s what the system does. I just sped it up."

The Giant tilted its head. Its blank face rippled.

"HARVESTED."

The word came out wrong. Twisted. Like it was tasting something rotten.

"YOU TOOK THEM BEFORE THEY WERE DONE. BEFORE THEY WERE RIPE. YOU STOLE THEIR MEMORIES BEFORE THE FORGE COULD USE THEM."

"What does that even mean?" Dillon whispered.

Smithy was already writing. "I think it means the Tower has a process. The Giant is part of it. Goliath’s device disrupted the process."

"So it’s a system glitch?"

"It’s a very angry system glitch."

Nathan kept his eyes on the Giant. His [Hunter’s Insight] was working again... slowly, carefully. The Giant wasn’t one entity. It was thousands. Tens of thousands. Every soul the Tower had consumed since its creation, all merged into one body.

But it wasn’t a monster. Not really. It was a defense mechanism. A guardian. Something the Tower built to protect itself.

And Goliath had just stolen from it.

---

The Giant moved.

It didn’t attack Goliath. It ignored him completely. Instead, it reached toward the pods... the ones Goliath’s device had been harvesting.

Silver-green threads extended from its fingers. They wrapped around the pods, around the unconscious civilians inside, and pulled.

The threads snapped back.

The pods were empty.

The Giant froze.

"WHERE."

Its voice was quieter now. Worse. It wasn’t shouting anymore. It was confused.

"WHERE ARE THEY."

Goliath smiled. Just a little.

"You mean the memories? The souls? The fuel?" He gestured at his device. The pale blue glow was pulsing steadily. "I already extracted them. They’re in here. Being processed. Being used."

"USED."

"To create... you. Or the thing that will become you." Goliath stepped closer. "You’re the first fragment of the Lord’s consciousness. The Tower’s guardian. But you’re incomplete. Half-formed. You need more souls to become whole. And I’m providing them."

The Giant stared at him.

Then it laughed.

It was the worst sound Nathan had ever heard. Thousands of voices laughing at once. None of them happy.

"YOU THINK I WANT TO BE WHOLE."

Goliath’s smile faded.

"YOU THINK I WANT TO BECOME... A LORD!?."

The Giant raised both hands. The threads around it went wild. They shot outward, wrapping around the stadium, the seats, the screens, the melting banners. They wrapped around the raid party, around the blue-skinned faction, around the pods, around everything.

"I WAS A MOTHER."

One voice. Then another.

"I WAS A SON."

Then another.

"I WAS A HUSBAND. A DAUGHTER. A FRIEND. A DOCTOR. A TEACHER. A CHILD."

The voices overlapped. Dozens. Hundreds. Thousands.

"I AM EVERYONE THIS TOWER HAS TAKEN. EVERYONE THIS TOWER HAS CONSUMED. EVERYONE SOON TO BE FORGOTTEN."

The Giant’s blank face split. A crack appeared. Then another. Then another. Light bled through the cracks—silver and green and something else. Something red.

"I DO NOT WANT TO BE A LORD. I WANT TO BE FREE."

---

Nathan made a decision.

"Guys, Defensive formation. Nobody attacks until I say."

Kaito shot him a look. "You want us to do nothing?"

"I want us to not get caught in the crossfire if whatever the fuck is going on." Nathan pointed at Goliath. "That’s his fight. Let’s see how it plays out."

Arthur nodded slowly. "He’s not wrong. The Giant isn’t looking at us."

"But it might," Elise said. "And if it does—"

"Then we fight. Together. Same as always."

The raid party spread out. Weapons ready. Eyes on the Giant.

The Giant and Goliath stared at each other.

---

"You don’t have a choice," Goliath said. "You’re part of the Tower. The Tower’s purpose is to create a Lord. You’re the first fragment. You’ll be absorbed eventually. You’ll become part of something greater."

"GREATER!?."

"Powerful. Unstoppable. A god that will break the Babel System itself."

The Giant tilted its head.

"AND YOU... WILL CONTROL IT? CONTROL... ME!?."

Goliath didn’t answer.

"THAT IS YOUR PLAN. THAT IS ALWAYS YOUR PLAN. YOU WANT TO CREATE A GOD THAT WILL BOW TO YOU. YOU WANT POWER. YOU WANT REVENGE. YOU WANT TO BE THE ONE WHO SITS ON THE THRONE."

"What other choice do I have?" Goliath’s voice cracked. Just a little. "My world is gone. My people are dying here. I have nothing left but this. I have nothing left but the hope that I can create something that will save us."

"YOU HAVE NOTHING LEFT BECAUSE YOU DESTROYED EVERYTHING."

Silence.

"YOU TOOK OUR MEMORIES. YOU TOOK OUR CHILDREN. YOU TOOK EVERYONE WE EVER LOVED AND OURSELVES."

The Giant stepped forward.

"AND NOW YOU STAND BEFORE US...ASKING FOR MERCY. ASKING FOR UNDERSTANDING. ASKING US... TO HELP YOU."

Another step.

"WE...WILL NOT HELP YOU!."

The Giant’s hand shot forward. Not at Goliath. At the device.

Rell screamed. He tried to pull the device away. But the threads were already wrapping around it. Already pulling it apart. Already tearing it to pieces.

"IF I CANNOT BE FREE, THEN NO ONE WILL BE."

The device exploded.

---

The blast threw everyone backward.

Nathan hit the ground hard. Moonlight clattered out of his hand. His ears were ringing. His vision was blurry. He could taste blood in his mouth.

He pushed himself up. Looked around.

The stadium was in chaos. The faceless crowd was screaming—not with voices, but with mana. The threads were going wild. The Giant was expanding, its body growing, its cracks widening. It was getting bigger. Angrier. Less human by the second.

Goliath was on his knees. The device was gone. Scraps of metal and pale blue crystal were scattered across the floor. Some of the crystals were still glowing. Still pulsing. Still hungry.

Rell was dead. A shard of the device had gone through his chest. He was lying on his back, staring at the cracked glass ceiling with wide, empty eyes.

Shinny was still standing. Barely. She was bleeding from a dozen cuts. Her left arm was hanging at a weird angle. But she was alive.

And the Giant was looking at her.

"YOU..."

Shinny froze.

"YOU ARE NOT LIKE THE OTHERS. YOU DOUBTED. YOU QUESTIONED. YOU WANTED TO STOP."

Shinny’s mouth opened. Closed. Opened again.

"I—"

"YOU CAN STILL CHOOSE."

The Giant reached toward her. Not to attack. To offer.

"JOIN US... HELP US END THIS. HELP US FREE THE SOULS THAT HAVE BEEN TRAPPED WITHIN."

Shinny stared at the offered hand. Her fingers twitched. Her eyes were wet. Her whole body was shaking.

She looked at Goliath.

He was still on his knees. Still staring at the ruins of his device. But he must have felt her gaze, because he looked up.

"Shinny," he said. "Don’t...you...fucking...dare."

She looked at the pods. At the faceless crowd. At the screaming threads.

"I’m sorry," she whispered." I’m really sorry."

She reached for the Giant’s hand.

---

Goliath moved faster than Nathan had ever seen.

One second he was on his knees. The next he was on his feet. His blade was in his hand. His eyes were wild. And before anyone could react—before Shinny could touch the Giant, before the raid party could stop him, before Nathan could even pull an arrow—he drove the blade through her back.

The sound was wet. Sharp. Final.

Shinny gasped.

The Giant froze.

Goliath pulled the blade out. Shinny collapsed. Her blood—blue, bright blue—spilled across the stadium floor. It pooled around her body. It soaked into the cracks. It dripped down into the void below.

"You were always weak," Goliath said. His voice was shaking. His hands were shaking. "You were always going to betray us. I should have killed you months ago. I should have—"

He stopped. He looked at her body. At her face. At her eyes, still open, still staring at nothing.

Shinny was dead before she hit the ground.

---

The Giant screamed.

Not a word. Not a voice. Just a sound. A sound that shook the stadium, cracked the glass ceiling, sent the raid party scrambling for cover. A sound that was rage and grief and thousands of voices crying out at once.

Goliath grabbed Shinny’s body. He dragged it toward the remnants of the device. The pale blue crystals were still glowing. Still pulsing.

"Her soul," he muttered. "Her memories. Her life. She was one of us. One of the last. Her sacrifice will fuel the Lord."

"Hey!" Nathan started.

But it was too late.

Goliath pressed Shinny’s body against the crystals. They flared. Bright. Brighter. Brightest. The light was blinding. The heat was suffocating. The threads around the stadium went wild.

The Giant screamed again. This time, it was weaker. Thinner. Like it was being drained.

The faceless crowd fell silent.

And then—

[DING!]

The notification appeared in everyone’s vision. Red text. Burning bright. Impossible to ignore.

[Lord Creation Progress: 89%]

[Estimated Completion: 27 Minutes]

Nathan stared at it.

89%.

They’d had four hours. They’d been fighting for maybe forty minutes. And now they had twenty-seven minutes left.

Twenty-seven minutes before the Lord was born.

Twenty-seven minutes before whatever was waiting at the top of this Tower woke up.

Goliath stood up. His hands were covered in Shinny’s blood. His eyes were empty. Broken. He looked at the raid party like he was seeing them for the first time.

"Twenty-seven minutes," he said. "That’s all we need. Twenty-seven minutes, and the Lord will be born."

He looked at the Giant. It was still standing, but it was smaller now. Dimmer. Like a candle running out of wax.

"You can’t stop it," Goliath said. "You can’t stop any of it. The Lord is coming. And when it does, it will end everything."

He turned and ran deeper into the Tower.

Nobody moved to stop him, too stunned by the scene that had unfolded.