Ch.1226The Power of Science Is Amazing!

I will surrender, so please spare my life.

It was an excellent proposal.

I had nothing to lose, could gain a subordinate nearly as powerful as Caljarat, and could extract plenty of information about central Naraka.

Of course, there was the risk of betrayal making things serious… but even that would probably be better than bringing in Caljarat in his current state.

“Very well. I swear by the name of Haschal Median Austica, Goddess of Stars and Dawn. If you enter my service, I will spare your life. Including your subordinates, if you have any.”

“……”

The giant’s eyebrow twitched slightly at the mention of including his subordinates, but then he slowly bowed his head and spoke.

“…Then I, Bergelmir, also swear. I will serve you as my lord until the end of your life.”

A solemn oath spoken over the ruins where the storm had subsided. And so I gained a giant subordinate named Bergelmir.

“Spineless giant…!”

Caljarat, who had to witness this scene, burst with indignation, but that was no longer our concern.

“Not knowing shame and begging for your life, you still call yourself a warrior!”

What do you expect? Quite talkative for a loser. I grinned and turned my attention back to Caljarat.

“If you’re jealous, you could surrender too. Oh, but you said you didn’t want to, right?”

The sword in my grip gleamed like an executioner’s blade.

—-

“Wait, wait a moment. I have advice to offer.”

The first thing Bergelmir did as my subordinate was to offer advice to his new lord.

“Advice?”

“If possible, capture that orc alive instead of killing him.”

Capture Caljarat alive. It was advice with unclear intentions. I couldn’t see why we should bother at this point.

“Why…? Do you want to torture him?”

“Torture? Nothing so barbaric.”

…Now I’m being called barbaric by a giant.

I thought he might want to capture and torture Caljarat out of resentment for ruining his own situation, but it seemed his reasons weren’t so petty.

“Then what?”

“There’s no time for detailed explanations… For now, capturing him comes first.”

Bergelmir answered, glancing toward Caljarat. At his response, I turned my head back toward Caljarat as well.

“Kuh, gahak, grooooaaa…!”

As if to prove his words about sacrificing his life to kill me, he showed every sign of struggling to the end, burning his divinity and life.

Purple energy was rising from Caljarat’s entire body, writhing like flames as he growled, spitting blood.

“…Indeed, this isn’t the time to be listening to explanations.”

If I left him to struggle like this, even if I captured him alive, he’d die on his own within half a day.

I wasn’t sure what benefit capturing him would bring me, but if I wanted to find out, I needed to forcibly stop his current behavior first.

“It looks like cutting off his limbs won’t be enough to subdue him… I’ll need to knock him unconscious completely.”

It’s not an easy task. With my strength, if I miscalculate even slightly, instead of knocking him out, I might send him straight to the afterlife.

In other words, I might aim to hit the back of his neck to knock him out, but end up making his head explode.

But if I hit too softly, he might endure it with his toughness and counterattack. This required intuitive yet precise control of my strength.

“Can you do it?”

“It’s more complicated than killing him… but I’ll manage somehow.”

Well, I’ll figure it out as I go.

Even if I make a mistake and kill him, my divinity would grow stronger, so I wouldn’t really lose anything.

“Alright, let’s do this.”

So I lightly stomped my foot, pulverizing the ground, and charged toward Caljarat, who had transformed into a purple torch.

And then.

– KWAAANG!

Sword clashed against greatsword.

Caljarat, who somehow blocked my strike with his broken body and fractured sword, growled with intense killing intent in his eyes. He looked like murderous intent given form.

“Even if I have to sacrifice my entire life, you…! I will definitely kill you…!”

“Such big dreams. Don’t you know you shouldn’t make promises you can’t keep?”

I smiled at Caljarat as I said this.

The repulsive force transmitted through the blade was quite formidable, befitting a strike that burned even his lifespan, but it was still within my expectations. It hadn’t exceeded my predictions yet.

“You seem weak. The more you…”

It seemed I could easily defeat—no, subdue him. Probably.

“KRUAAAP!”

“KYAAAAT!”

Dozens of seconds later. After the sword and greatsword thundered across heaven and earth, and purple radiance and crimson flames burned each other before dispersing like smoke.

– BBEOGEOEOEK!

Finally, my fist, with divinity withdrawn and weakened to the limit at the moment of impact, smashed into the dying orc’s lower jaw.

“Keuik…!”

A blow that crushed his entire lower jaw and violently shook the brain inside his skull.

Unable to withstand the shock, Caljarat rolled his eyes and staggered, then collapsed to his knees.

“……”

And he never got up again.

“Haa, haa…. Huuu.”

Taking deep breaths to recover from the strain of drawing power intensely for a quick subdual, I quietly looked down at the fallen Caljarat for a while.

‘…He’s not dead, is he?’

Honestly, I wasn’t entirely sure.

Looking at him lying motionless in a pool of blood with only his upper jaw remaining, it was hard to tell if he was unconscious or dead.

I meant to knock him out by hitting his jaw, not tear it off completely, but perhaps due to old age, his bones were much softer than I expected.

[Don’t worry. He looks like a corpse, but his heart is still beating properly. If treated in time, his life can be saved.]

‘Ah, that’s right.’

When I quieted my breathing and listened carefully, I could hear his heartbeat.

It wasn’t fast enough to call healthy, but at least it hadn’t stopped, so I could consider my attempt to knock him out successful.

Only then did I breathe a sigh of relief, sheathed Durandal, and carried the collapsed Caljarat like a sack to Bergelmir, who was standing some distance away.

Bergelmir was in the middle of emergency treatment, transforming his mechanical armor to cover the wounds and connecting pipe-like power lines to the blood vessels to stop the bleeding. The sight was somewhat grotesque, like a mixture of machinery and flesh.

Well, in terms of grotesqueness, it couldn’t compare to Ophelia’s test subjects, but it was certainly grotesque enough to rank second.

Of course, that wasn’t my concern.

“I knocked him out and captured him alive as you said. Now, let me hear the reason why you made me do this troublesome task. I assume there’s some benefit for me?”

“Of course. If there were no benefit, I would have advised you to kill him as quickly as possible.”

Bergelmir looked alternately at the collapsed Caljarat and me, nodding his head heavily before finally speaking.

—-

“From what I’ve heard, this orc… Caljarat desires the revival of the orc species, but inwardly believes it impossible and has given up. Is that not so?”

“Yes, probably.”

That was at least how I understood Caljarat’s psychology. Though it was speculation without much evidence, his reactions made it seem very close to the truth.

Whether human or other species, those with intelligence tend to react with anger as a defense mechanism when their hidden feelings are exposed.

“So what about it?”

“I could fulfill that wish.”

“…What?”

Revive the orcs? A species that went extinct hundreds of years ago, leaving only one survivor?

“Is that possible?”

I reflexively asked, not having expected such a statement.

“It would take a long time and countless trials and errors… but compared to overcoming a god’s curse, it’s worth attempting. Using that point to persuade him again, couldn’t we bring him to our side?”

“Specifically, how?”

“I’m not sure you would understand if I explained the detailed method…”

Bergelmir groaned softly, trailing off.

It was like the reaction of a physicist who had to explain quantum mechanics to a wild human encountering civilization for the first time.

…He seems to think I’m just some muscle-headed barbarian.

Don’t underestimate me, you rock-headed giant. Despite appearances, I was a cultured person who enjoyed the cutting-edge civilization of the 21st century!

“I’ll worry about understanding it myself, just explain.”

“…If you insist.”

Bergelmir sighed and nodded.

“First, we extract orc genes from his blood, then modify and cultivate them to create a female orc… or more precisely, a biological entity with such functions. That’s the first step.”

“……?”

Wait, create what?

“In the initial stages, it would be full of defects, but by inducing mutations to broaden diversity and eliminating defective specimens to increase stability, eventually… eventually it would converge to a form infinitely close to the original species.”

“……”

Um, so…

He’s saying he’ll use Caljarat’s genes as a base to create Caljarat(♀), and through countless fertilizations and crossbreeding, selectively breed them until they’re infinitely close to the ancient orcs.

“……”

He’s saying absolutely insane things.

This giant looks like some medieval colossal statue, but his thinking and behavior are exactly like those of a mad scientist.

A grandiose experimental plan to restore the extinct orc species through gene replication and repeated selective breeding. I was genuinely dumbfounded by this approach coming from a giant’s mouth.

The worst part was that it actually sounded convincing.