Chapter 238
– Gurgle! Bubble!
About three kilometers from the Infernal Railroad construction site.
A vast lava lake spread out there.
Normally, it was just a thick, ordinary hellish lake, peacefully(?) simmering away.
But today was different.
For some reason, it was boiling far more violently than usual.
It bubbled with an unprecedented ferocity.
The reason was simple.
– Gurgle… So noisy…
At the bottom of the lava lake, a lava giant was tossing and turning in its sleep.
With an irritable gesture, it covered both ears.
It couldn’t be helped.
It wanted to sleep more.
It had only slept for about 20,000 years so far.
It wanted to sleep for at least another 100,000 years.
Only then did it feel like the endless fatigue would ease even a little.
Ah, today… today, it felt like it might finally experience the satisfaction of having slept soundly.
But reality?
Was cruel.
‘Boom! Boooom!’
That noise. That irritating vibration that had started some time ago from somewhere nearby.
It couldn’t figure out where it was coming from, or how it was being made.
No—it was too bothersome to even want to understand.
It was even bothersome to get up and check.
So it left it alone.
If it ignored it, it would probably stop after a while.
Just a passing disturbance.
So the best course was to ignore it and go back to sleep.
That was what the lava giant thought.
But now?
It seemed that thought had been wrong.
‘Boom! Boooom!’
That vibration, driving the giant mad, came endlessly—every moment, twenty-four hours a day.
It pounded the lava lake and stabbed at the eardrums of the lava giant sleeping at the bottom.
– Gurgle!
The lava giant’s eyelids twitched irritably.
The two massive palms covering its ears tensed.
‘Boom’, each time the vibration rang.
‘Boooom’, the giant’s brow furrowed.
‘Boom’, each time the noise grated on its nerves.
‘Boooom’, the giant’s expression grew fiercer.
And finally, the lava giant realized.
It couldn’t take it anymore.
– Gurgle! Gurgle!
The moment the thread of patience snapped, the lava giant opened its eyes.
And slowly rose to its feet.
A change occurred in the lava lake.
The bubbling, stagnant lava was absorbed into the giant—becoming part of its body, swelling its already colossal frame even further.
And finally—
– GROOOOO! GUOOO!
Having absorbed all the lava from the lake, it stood up.
A massive body reaching two hundred meters.
It stood tall on the ash-filled plain, its gaze burning with rage.
It glared in the direction from which the noise and vibration that had tormented it all this time had come.
– Gurgle!
Three kilometers away.
With no mountains or hills in between.
And with the giant standing two hundred meters tall.
It could see clearly, without obstruction.
A long, straight mound of volcanic ash had been piled up.
And around that mound, thousands of Satans were clustered together.
They were busily moving about, doing something.
That sight provoked the lava giant.
– Gurgle!
It’s them.
It didn’t know what that long mound was, but it was certain those Satans had been making all that commotion while building and piling it up.
So the solution?
Was simple.
– Kill them all, gurgle!
That would do it.
Kill all those Satans.
Dead Satans wouldn’t make any noise.
The surroundings would become quiet again, and it could sleep comfortably.
Having decided, the lava giant took a step.
‘KRAAANG!’
A blazing sole—thirty-two meters long—shook the earth.
At first, it moved slowly and carefully, because it hadn’t walked in a long time.
But it gradually got used to it, and the steps grew heavier.
Then, with undisguised rage—without hesitation—
‘THUD-THUD-THUD-THUD-THUD!’
It ran.
It charged.
Like a typhoon.
Like an earthquake given legs.
With tremendous strides, it crossed the three-kilometer distance in an instant, bringing destructive vibrations and roars as it descended upon the railroad construction site.
Without hesitation.
Without compromise.
Putting all its weight into it, it leaped.
And stomped on the railway under construction.
‘KRAAASH!’
The carefully laid rails and sleepers were crushed.
The subgrade—painstakingly built—was smashed.
A single leap and stomp.
With that one strike, a section of subgrade about eighty meters long was destroyed without a trace.
The Satans working there were no different.
“Wh-what is that?!”
“AAARGH!”
“Get down!”
Dozens of Satans were struck by fragments that flew like bullets in every direction.
They fell, blue blood spilling, screaming as they clutched shattered, torn wounds.
But they were the lucky ones.
Compared to about twenty Satans who were crushed into dust by that surprise stomp.
“L-Lava Giant!”
One Satan, who realized what it was first, shouted.
Sudden destruction and explosive dust.
All the Satans floundering within it froze at once.
Every Satan’s complexion went pale.
‘Lava Giant?’
Just hearing the name sent shivers down their spines.
The lava centipedes they controlled?
Those were nothing compared to it.
No—aside from the King of Hell, it could be said there was no being capable of stopping a lava giant.
‘Why is a lava giant appearing here?’
According to the old stories they’d heard as children, lava giants woke only once every few hundred thousand years.
And the last time one had gone on a rampage was a mere 20,000 years ago.
So there should have been plenty of time before it rampaged again.
“S-someone go! Inform the King of Hell!”
“AAAGH! I want to too!”
“Me too! But Hell Castle—it’s too far!”
“Then hide! Run!”
Satans who lost the will to fight threw down their tools.
Each searched for a way to survive—hiding or fleeing.
But they didn’t know.
The lava giant’s two eyes, looking down from two hundred meters.
That merciless gaze was observing every move.
Soon, heaven-sent violence poured down.
‘KRAAANG!’
The lava giant lightly stomped the ground.
A rocky crevice where ten Satans had chosen to hide—
Was instantly crushed.
Those Satans turned to dust as well.
The Satans who tried to flee weren’t safe either.
‘WHOOOSH—THUD-THUD-THUD-THUD-THUD!’
The giant’s massive foot swept sideways.
Like a broom.
It scraped and rubbed across the ground with its sole.
But the range of that casual motion spanned tens of meters.
Dozens of Satans caught in its wake were massacred like a swarm of ants.
“Please! S-Satan! Spare me!”
The Satans struggled to survive.
They fled in all directions, wailing.
But the lava giant showed not a shred of mercy.
Because the Satans had made noise, and it had suffered and been awakened.
It believed only by killing all the Satans here could it sleep quietly again.
And it faithfully put that belief into practice.
Stomping.
Slamming down with its palm.
Sweeping.
Exhaling thousand-degree breath.
The Satans died in droves, like flies sprayed with insecticide.
Violent roars and desperate screams.
Destructive bellows and pitiful cries.
All of it mixed together.
And the Satans couldn’t even flee properly.
Because the railroad construction site had been planned mostly on open plains from the start.
There was nowhere to hide, and no route to escape.
– Gurgle! Gurgle!
The lava giant grew even more ferocious.
Now it continued its slaughtering motions as if enjoying it.
If not for the silver-haired knight who happened to block its path, the massacre wouldn’t have stopped until every last Satan here was wiped out.
– Gurgle?
In the middle of its slaughter, the lava giant stopped the hand it was about to bring down.
It saw something strange.
– …Gurgle?
A silhouette like an ant had appeared before it at some point.
It looked even smaller than a tiny Satan.
But its appearance was strange.
Its skin wasn’t bright red.
And instead of horns, it had abundant silver hair.
It was daring to look up at it with sky-blue eyes.
So the lava giant thought.
– Gurgle!
A weird Satan with a strange shape.
I wonder how it would feel to crush that with my palm.
The lava giant didn’t hesitate.
‘WHOOOSH—!’
It slammed down its massive palm at the silver-haired knight—Javier.
At that moment, Javier’s sword flashed.
‘Swoosh!’
No roar.
No brilliant flash of light.
Just a brief glint of a longsword.
A simple disturbance in space.
And then, the next moment—
The lava giant witnessed its own palm being sliced into dozens of pieces.
‘SHHK!’
– …Gurgle!
Following the path of Javier’s sword, dozens of streams of Aura bloomed.
Like a shining net, they cut through space itself.
And sliced the lava giant’s palm into dozens of pieces.
Its forearm, its shoulder, its entire upper body—none of it was spared.
– Gu, gurgle!
‘SHHK-SHHK-SHHK!’
The lava giant’s upper body was diced into hundreds of pieces.
Lava—like fresh blood—poured down in every direction.
And then… it coalesced again.
– Gurgle!
‘KRAA!’
The lava giant’s body, split into hundreds of pieces, recovered instantly.
It rose as if it had taken no damage at all.
And looked down at Javier with a composed gaze.
Javier’s eyebrow twitched.
His sword moved again.
‘SHHK!’
It cleaved through the lava giant’s entire body.
Slicing, cutting, severing—
But each time, the lava giant only split apart and fused back together.
It roared as if nothing had happened.
– Gurgle!
Watching from afar, Lloyd’s Adam’s apple bobbed.
‘Wow. What is that.’
Riding on Ggoming’s back, three hundred meters up, Lloyd’s fist trembled.
He suddenly recalled what had happened a little while ago.
He and Javier had been tidying up a section of the site a few kilometers from here.
Today’s work had been moving unusually smoothly.
The system for track construction was running well.
He’d been in a great mood.
Then he heard an ominous roar.
A roar and vibration like a volcano erupting.
The moment he looked that way, he wanted to doubt his eyes.
‘That giant was rampaging.’
The railroad construction site was mostly flat land.
Thanks to that, the lava giant rampaging a few kilometers away was clearly visible.
From the instant he saw it, Ggoming flew over as if its tail feathers would fall off.
He saw Javier jump down first, block the lava giant’s path, and wrap it in a storm of Aura.
And he also witnessed the giant recover as if it were nothing.
‘This is… kind of hopeless.’
Lloyd clenched his teeth and looked down.
Javier and the lava giant were clashing—splattering blood, no, lava.
‘Skrrk! Skrrk!’
Each time Javier’s sword moved, dozens of streams of Aura flashed.
Each time, the lava giant’s body was sliced into hundreds of pieces.
And then… instantly recovered.
‘It’s completely like cutting water with a sword.’
No. It looked more like boiling soup or curry than water.
That’s right.
The lava giant’s body really was like soup or curry.
So no matter how perfectly Javier carved it apart with Aura, it didn’t take damage.
Even if he cut it dozens or hundreds of times, it just sloshed and stuck back together.
Like trying to cut hot soup or curry with a knife.
Because no damage could be inflicted—
‘This isn’t about strength.’
Wrinkles formed between Lloyd’s brows.
‘Javier is strong. He became a Grand Master. Even now, the lava giant is being beaten around without being able to touch Javier. But the situation still isn’t good. So this is… a compatibility problem.’
Curry that can’t be cut no matter how many times you cut it.
A kitchen knife swinging hard to slice it.
That was what this fight looked like.
In other words, the matchup was too bad.
From the start, it seemed like a fight Javier had no way of winning.
‘Haa.’
Lloyd’s shoulders trembled.
With a deep sigh, his mind raced.
Analyzing the situation.
Predicting the future.
Calculating the least disastrous outcome.
‘First, this won’t work. There’s no answer. Javier can’t win. Same for me. I don’t see Triple Detonation or Rapid Charge working either. I don’t know where that lava-covered giant came from, but if it keeps rampaging like this, the railroad—and everything—will be ruined.’
He admitted it.
He didn’t overestimate himself.
Looking at the situation coldly, the outcome was too bleak.
But Lloyd didn’t give up.
No—he didn’t want to.
‘Then what if we move the construction site? It’s a shame to abandon what we’ve built so far… but if we scrap it and build a new railroad along a different route?’
At least construction could resume.
It would be painful to abandon this site they’d worked so hard on.
Thinking of all the time and effort poured into surveying, design, and construction, it felt like he might cry.
Still, if they abandoned this place, they could start fresh.
Even in the gloom, a thread-thin hope bloomed.
But just then, the lava giant—endlessly beaten by Javier—roared mightily.
– Gurgle! Kill them all! With the grudge of sleep lost because of the noise you made! I’ll kill you all! That weirdly made mound! I’ll chase you to the ends of hell and destroy it all!
“……”
Damn it.
The moment he heard that roar, Lloyd understood.
‘It was really pissed because of the construction noise. And now it’s saying it’ll chase us to the ends of Hell and destroy everything?’
Strength drained from his legs.
What that meant was simple.
Because it was furious about their construction noise, it would follow their work wherever they went—interfering, tearing it down.
‘Ha… life, seriously.’
Tears welled in his eyes without him realizing.
Three months of work, about to go up in smoke.
And he couldn’t think of any way to stop it.
‘There really is no answer.’
No matter how he thought, no method came to mind.
Him and Javier teaming up didn’t seem like it would change anything.
Mobilizing the phantom beasts seemed the same.
So this truly was a problem with no solution.
And clinging to a problem with no solution?
That was just hopelessness with no excuse.
So the conclusion was—
‘Cutting losses quickly is the only way to minimize damage.’
Hoo.
He let out a long breath.
Just this once, admit failure.
Coolly.
So Lloyd steeled himself.
And descended with Ggoming.
He shouted to Javier.
“Hey! You! Let’s scram!”
He didn’t wait for a reply.
This construction project was a clear failure.
Even if they abandoned this site and tried to build a new railroad elsewhere, that lava giant would eventually chase them and cause trouble.
They wouldn’t be able to proceed at all.
But if they stubbornly clung to it here?
They’d only waste time with nothing to show for it.
That’s why—
Having decided to cut losses, Lloyd raised his left hand.
And focused his mind.
Right before he first came to Hell, he recalled the magic engraved on his left hand—what the Ancient Dragon Enticus had explained as a safety measure.
‘The escape Hellgate… you open it like this, right? Probably?’
He activated the Asrahan Heart Technique.
And concentrated Mana into his left hand.
A tingling response came.
The magic circle engraved on his left hand like a transparent tattoo began to glow.
Then it shot a stream of Mana into the air.
‘KIIIIII! CRACK-CRACK-CRACK!’
The Mana stream formed a circle in midair.
The crackling ring grew to about five meters in diameter.
The escape Hellgate provided by the Ancient Dragon Enticus when he first came to Hell.
The only passage connecting this Hell and the human realm on the Lorasia continent.
Lloyd opened that door.
At the same time, he thought:
‘That dragon said the Hellgate’s exit point is set randomly, right? Then please—let it connect somewhere close to the Frontera Estate.’
He was tired.
The construction project he’d thrown himself into was ending in failure.
He would fail the contract with the King of Hell.
He wouldn’t free the Ancient Dragon’s soul.
And obtaining the Dragon King sponsorship membership would come to nothing.
Strength drained out of him.
It felt hollow.
Now he just wanted to rest.
‘Yeah, what do I need with two lives from some Dragon King sponsorship membership anyway. I should just take care of the one life I have and live sweet and easy.’
He decided to stop here and rest comfortably.
And since he was escaping Hell anyway, he held on to a small hope that the destination would be somewhere close to home.
That way, he could get back quickly and rest sooner.
He could enjoy a peaceful, uneventful, honey-filled remaining life just a little earlier.
With that small, humble wish, Lloyd looked at the Hellgate.
By now, it was fully formed.
‘Fzzzt!’
A spark snapped through the air.
From beyond the completed Hellgate, wind from the human world blew in—
Carrying a chill that felt like minus eighty degrees Celsius.
‘Whoooosh—!’
‘……Whoa?!’
The sudden, brutal cold made Lloyd hastily pull his collar tight.
‘Ugh, what the hell?’
Bewildered, he looked through the Hellgate.
The scenery on the other side came into view.
‘That’s…….’
He saw the sea.
But it wasn’t an ordinary sea.
It was frozen solid, like slush.
Massive icebergs floated here and there within it.
So that place was—
‘The polar region?’
The destination of the Hellgate he’d opened to escape, with a resigned heart.
The moment Lloyd recognized what he was seeing—
– ……Huh, huh! Ah, ah-choo!
The rampaging lava giant trembled all over for the first time.
And let out a pitiful sneeze.