Chapter 117: The Lingering Ghost
The Giant King hadn't expected Ren to act so quickly, but the sooner the better. Every moment the children were gone, they could be in danger.
Swish—!
Ren, in his Resurrección form, spread his vast black wings and launched himself from the 100-meter-high windowsill. He didn't just fly; he tore through the night air, a black comet against the moonlit sky, leaving the stunned King behind.
Since the other party was from the Troll Kingdom, Ren would head there. His new form was overwhelmingly powerful, but its greatest asset for this mission was its sensory ability.
'Pesquisa,' Ren thought, his Ulquiorra-self analyzing the world.
[Akarin's Note: Pesquisa (Spanish: Inquiry) is an ability from 'Bleach' used by Arrancar. It allows the user to send out a sonar-like pulse of spiritual energy to locate and gauge the strength of other beings.]
A near-imperceptible pulse of black spiritual energy radiated from him, sweeping over the colossal landscape. The world, to his normal eyes, was just mountains and darkness. But to this sense, it was a map of souls. He felt the massive, slow-burning life forces of the giants in the Elbaf Kingdom's capital behind him. He felt the smaller, scattered energies of animals in the forests.
And then, ahead, moving toward the great chasm—he felt them. Ten small, but still powerful, life forces: the giant children. Their spiritual signatures were erratic, fluctuating between dormant and agitated, a clear sign of external control.
He flew faster, his expressionless face belying the urgency.
Soon, Ren saw the figures of ten giant children, each perhaps 4 or 5 meters tall, walking in a strange, lock-step trance toward the border.
Behind the children, Ren saw a group of adult giants from the Elbaf Kingdom's patrol, their massive forms keeping a hesitant distance, clearly afraid to approach. Ren descended, his black wings creating a rush of cold air as he landed silently on a boulder near them.
"Who's there?!"
Ren's sudden, demonic appearance startled the giant patrol. They raised their weapons, their eyes wide with fear at the oppressive aura he exuded.
"I am a Mage from Fairy Tail," Ren's cold, monotone voice stated. He scanned their faces, and then his green eyes landed on a familiar one. "Eh? Ayla-san?"
He recognized her instantly. It was Ayla, the first giant he had met in the Elbaf Kingdom. However, her expression was one of pure, frantic anxiety, her face pale and streaked with tears.
"You are... Ren?!"
Ayla looked at Ren, her mind struggling to connect this terrifying, winged being with the small, polite human she had carried just hours before. The change was too significant. However, she recalled how Ren had transformed when using magic outside the city, so it wasn't entirely unbelievable.
"It's me," Ren confirmed.
Hearing his voice, even if it was cold and different, Ayla finally recognized him. She stumbled forward, tears welling anew.
"Ren! This is bad! It's awful! Buli has been abducted by that evil Mage!" Ayla said, her voice cracking with a mother's terror.
Ren's cold gaze shifted to the line of zombified children. He had already sensed them, but he now focused on one in particular. Indeed, among the ten children was Buli, the boy who had curiously caught him earlier that day.
"What happened?"
"I... I don't know either..." Ayla sobbed, wringing her enormous hands. "We had all gone to rest, I put him to bed... and suddenly I just... I felt he was missing. I rushed out to look for him, and this is what happened! He just... walked out!"
"No matter how I called him, he wouldn't respond. He just kept walking," she cried, "When I tried to pick him up, he... he suddenly went berserk! He thrashed and screamed, and he... he bit me, Ren! He bit my hand until it bled! I was afraid something would happen to him, that he would hurt himself, so I... I could only let him go."
Ayla was overcome with fear and guilt, not knowing what to do.
Ren looked at the bite mark on her hand—impressive, even for a child. "Ayla-san, don't worry. Buli is probably under some kind of mind control magic. I will bring Buli back safely. I came here because I accepted a quest from the Giant King."
"Really?! Thank you! Ren! Oh, thank you!" Ayla's hope rekindled upon hearing Ren's words, her prayers answered by this strange, angelic demon.
"His Majesty the Giant King will arrive soon with his soldiers. You all should meet up with them first. Stay on this side of the chasm. I will handle the rest."
After speaking, Ren launched himself into the air again. He flew over the giant children, observing them from above. They all had eerie, vacant smiles on their faces, and their eyes were milky and unfocused, as if they had been hypnotized.
'This is good,' Ren thought, the cold logic of Ulquiorra processing the situation. 'I was worried about not finding their location. Having them lead the way makes it even more convenient.'
He descended silently, landing on Buli's shoulder. The boy didn't even flinch. Ren quickly and carefully tucked himself into the deep pocket of Buli's clothes. It was... spacious. And smelled vaguely of dirt and candy.
The giant children, controlled, walked onto the Bridge of Giant Wood.
This was a "bridge" in the loosest sense. It was, in fact, an ancient, petrified tree that had fallen across the chasm millennia ago. It was easily over a thousand meters long and wide enough for two giant carriages to pass. On either side of this natural wonder were the Elbaf Kingdom and the Troll Kingdom.
This bridge was also the only passage connecting the two countries. Far below, the darkness of the chasm seemed bottomless.
Even though Ren had grown accustomed to the large scale of things in this country, he was still awestruck by this giant tree.
At this moment, on the Elbaf side of the bridge, the Giant King had arrived with his elite soldiers. They stopped at the edge, watching their children walk into enemy territory.
"Your Majesty, are we just going to watch these children go to the Troll Kingdom like this?" a giant General, his face scarred and grim, anxiously asked the King.
"Ren-sama told us to wait here," the Giant King said, his voice tight. "He will bring all the children back here."
"Ren... can that human Mage really do that?" the General grumbled, his gaze fixed on the tiny, winged dot that had disappeared into the darkness. "He looked powerful, Your Majesty, but... he is so small. And those Trolls... they are not to be trifled with, especially not with that human Mage guiding them."
The Giant King said with a serious expression, "He is a member of Makarov's guild. Since Makarov sent him, I believe he is capable of doing it."
"Makarov?!" The General's eyes widened. "Is that the human Mage from sixty years ago?! The one who..."
"The same," the King confirmed, a small smile touching his lips. "The one who helped us defeat the Three-Headed Hydra of the Chasm. The little man with the heart of a giant. If this Ren is his successor, we must have faith."
After a while, Ren, from his hiding place, also saw the Trolls.
They were vile.
If giants were just massive, well-proportioned humanoids, Trolls were a grotesque mockery of the form. They had very ugly faces, mottled, dark green skin covered in warts and sores, and ferocious, yellowed fangs jutting from their lower jaws, looking like demons. Their stature was, on average, even taller than the giants, but they were hunched and misshapen, with long, ape-like arms that dragged on the ground.
The Trolls, grunting and laughing gutturally, met the children at the end of the bridge. They immediately began locking the children into massive, crude iron cages on the back of an enormous, lumbering monster that served as a transport vehicle.
The Trolls then rode this unknown monster, carrying the children towards the Troll Capital.
After a period of frantic, jarring travel, they arrived. The city walls of the Troll Capital were similar in height to those of Elbaf, but that's where the similarity ended. The walls were made of crudely stacked, un-mortared black stone, and the interior was much simpler. Rather than a capital city, it looked more like a primitive, oversized tribe. Buildings were made of massive bones, stretched hides, and mud. The air reeked of filth and decay.
The monster carriage carrying the giant children quickly drove into the central "palace," a haphazard structure of bones and black rock. Then they were led down a ramp, deep into an underground prison.
Click! Click!
The Trolls, laughing as they did it, fitted each child with a thick, metal explosive collar. Then, they were all locked in separate, filthy cages.
At this moment, as if the magic's purpose was complete, all the giant children woke up. They were completely bewildered by the unfamiliar, terrifying surroundings.
"Where is this?! Why am I here?!"
"Waaah—!!!! Mom! I want my mom!!"
...All the giant children cried out, their loud, panicked voices echoing off the damp stone, making the entire prison deafeningly noisy.
Suddenly!
A sharp, human voice cut through the din.
"All of you shut up—!!"
A human walked over, flanked by two Trolls. He wore the mysterious black robes of a dark cult, his face hidden in the shadows of his hood.
"You noisy brats! Listen to me! From now on, you are slaves of our Black Magic Cult. If I tell you to go west, you are not allowed to go east, understood?"
From the darkness of Buli's pocket, Ren watched. 'Black Magic Cult?!'
Ren's eyes narrowed slightly. He knew that symbol. "These guys are really persistent," he thought, "they even have a branch in a place like this."
"Slaves?! No! I don't want to be a slave!!"
"Waaah ah ah! I won't be a slave!!"
"Dad! Mom! Save me!!"... Many children burst into tears upon hearing they would become slaves.
"No crying! I said, no crying! If you cry again, you'll be punished!" the cultist shouted.
"Waaah ah ah!"... The children, terrified and confused, ignored the threats and continued to cry loudly.
Boom!!
The cultist raised a hand, and a magic bullet of dark energy shot out, striking the child who was crying the loudest.
"Waaah ah ah ah ah!!"
A wound immediately appeared on the child's leg, a severe burn as if struck by a bullet, and he collapsed, screaming in pain.
The other children were completely terrified by this, trembling in silence.
Ren couldn't help but clench his fists inside his pocket. A cold, alien sensation washed over him. It was rage... his rage, human and hot, but it was being filtered through the cold, empty void of Ulquiorra's spirit. It was a bizarre, conflicting feeling: the absolute desire to kill these beasts, mixed with a chilling, analytical detachment. These "beasts," he noted, actually used such heavy force on a child.
"Do you see?" the cultist sneered, enjoying their terror. "This is the consequence of disobeying orders. From now on, you will behave yourselves, and then you will get food and avoid punishment. If you don't listen, don't blame me for being impolite."
"Also," he said, "don't even think about escaping. Do you see this?"
The person took out a spare collar, then threw it on the stone floor. He then pressed a remote control.
Boom—!!!!
The collar exploded with a deafening roar, shattering the stone floor and sending shrapnel flying.
This immediately startled all the giant children, and several fainted from sheer terror.
"The collars around your necks are like this one," the cultist said with a thin, cruel smile. "But ten times more powerful. If you try to escape, the collar will be detonated and blow you to pieces!"
[Akarin Note:
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