The giant stood at a distance from the fighters, towering with an arrogant calm. For a few heartbeats it did nothing but regard them from afar with an expression that could not be read.
Perhaps it despised them. Or perhaps it could not see them at all, given the yawning gulf of size and space between them.
Certainly the fighters could see it clearly.
It was a giant roughly three hundred meters tall. Its skin was formed of hard black stone—stones like volcanic rock. Its body was vast enough to be a world unto itself.
From the crown of its head molten lava seeped, snaking through the cracks and fissures of the stone skin. Excess flows of lava fell to the earth from the giant's brow.
It looked as though the sky had opened and poured rivers of magma down around the giant. Its body glowed with that burning flow.
Moreover, the giant was not the only terror to fear. Hordes of beasts crawled across its rocky hide.
They were four-legged armored spiders, their ends fitted with crushing pincers like those of a crab, only far larger and far deadlier.
Some of these four-legged spiders reached four meters in length. Thousands of them scuttled over the giant's stony surface.
This giant was well known to the Akimo people. Many of their ancestors had died trying to repel it. They called it the Keeper of Hell.
It was one of the many giant breeds that dwelled in the Underworld—perhaps the strongest of its kind.
On the other side, not a single Sairn spoke or moved. They were among the finest fighters of their generation, veterans of countless harsh wars and perilous missions. But an experience like this?
Well…this was not the sort of thing one lived through twice in a lifetime.
Ilara looked at Alexa with disbelief.
"The Keeper of Hell?"
Alexa shook her head.
"No. This isn't the Keeper of Hell… this is Hell itself."
The five assessed the giant with apprehension. The group comprised the ruling Alexa, her husband Eiris, her sister Ilara, and two nobles—renowned generals of the army.
One was Zak; the other was called Alex.
The family names didn't matter here—these were not pure-bloods.
Eiris scanned the Keeper with a scowl. Unlike the others, he tried desperately to find a way to fell the giant before it reached the palace.
In truth, the danger wasn't only its arrival at the palace. The stakes went far beyond that.
Because of the Underworld armies' assault—and Alexa's baffling decision to annihilate the monsters even at the cost of countless soldiers—the Sairn's military strength had been halved.
Their clan had survived many battles, but never such catastrophic losses in a single engagement.
Alexa had failed today, and spectacularly so.
If the five warriors failed to stop the Keeper of Hell now, it would march on neighboring cities. Those cities would fall one after another. The clan would be devastated thereafter.
Allied Sairn forces in the Union would take hours to arrive—by then it would be far too late.
Eiris studied the Keeper's form carefully, searching for a weakness. At first the giant seemed devoid of any vulnerability. Then Eiris noticed something.
As the Keeper moved, Ilara and the other nobles trembled, but Eiris and Alexa identified the weak points quickly.
They saw that regions where the volcanic flow reached only sparingly were almost lifeless—dormant—while the zones drenched in molten lava were fiercely active and animated.
The heat of those lava streams fed the giant's body with energy.
Eiris and Alexa exchanged a glance. They said nothing—words were unnecessary.
They differed in command style, perhaps, but in that moment their understanding was absolute.
Now all that remained was finding a way to stop the lava flow. That was the difficult part.
They could not simply ride the magic clouds to the giant's head—the enormous drops of molten rock raining there would make approach impossible.
How could they possibly get close?
Eiris spoke a bit louder than a whisper.
"Perhaps we climb it."
Alexa replied calmly.
"It seems so."
Reaching the crown would be brutal given the lava pouring from it, but the flow fed the giant through three main channels—one at the front of its neck and two at the rear. They had to block those channels by any means.
Eiris took a few steps and halted near Alexa.
"I will take the front channel."
Alexa tried to protest—but how could she argue?
After that thunderous impact she had lost much of her own magical reserve, and the others beside her were far weaker than Eiris.
The wisest choice was to let Eiris handle the frontal channel.
Alexa turned her head to address the others.
"Ilara, you'll help me close one of the rear channels. Alex, Zak… take the other. Understood?"
They all nodded.
Alexa continued in her steady voice.
"Listen. The capital may have fallen, but that does not mean the entire clan must fall with it. The fate of the Sairn depends on the five of us today. Millions—women and men, children and elders, commoners and nobles, even the blood-pure—count on us. There is no option but success. Understood?"
The five cried out in unison.
"Long live the Union. Long live the clan."
Now, it was time to act.