34 Regaining Hope in the Mountain Sanctuary (1/2)

A silhouette of an old-looking large giant, even to the standard of a normal giant, with wrinkly gray skin and bald head gestured gently towards the trembling princess from the secret entrance at the foot of the mountain. Currently, despair had penetrated deep into her bones; she only operated based on the promises she lavishly tossed to her deceased team members, now feeling how heavy each and every promise was. She had fallen into the lion's den yet again. Her comrades had fallen one after another, and even her final hope, the competent Melati, was yet to be found.

Linneia stood rooted to the ground, unable to take a step forward or backwards. She had been surrounded from the front and the back. How should she proceed from here? Her recombinant suit's power was at its lowest after her final burst just now. Currently, she could only depend on her own strength without external assistance.

As the intelligent princess' mind tried to think a way out, a soft wind beckoned Linneia forward. Linneia wasn't able to stop herself from being dragged forward through the entrance!

”Come over, child.” The giant called for the second time in the ancient Kohiten language from a large seat made of reddish stone.

Panic welled inside of Linneia's mind. As hard as she struggled, she couldn't break free from the beckoning of the 'wind' generated by the giant. From her haphazard observation, she had confirmed that the mountain she aimed for turned out to be the dwelling of this old giant. Yet again, she knew that she had made a wrong decision this time. She had even chosen this location as the rendezvous point to meet up with Melati! Without the ability to notify Melati, her last surviving team member would only fell easily into this ready-made trap because of her.

Linneia had failed to consider the possibility of the mountain to be a dwelling due to its gargantuan size. During normal days, the princess would've connected the dots and became more cautious in her selection. However, being hounded nonstop, with insufficient rest, coupled with the stress of losing her comrades had dulled her mind as well as bringing her to the brink of a mental breakdown.

After she had managed to calm herself, she finally took the time to looked at her surroundings. She noticed that the interior had been hollowed out into a spacious hall devoid of things except for two items; a large sturdy seat made of stones, and a platform beside it, containing a suspended purple crystal in the shape of a lotus flower. The crystal gently rotated on the spot while refracting a soft purplish light. The giant stood up and took slow steps towards Linneia. Every step it took upon the glossed cave floor was accompanied by a surreal echo, reverberating continuously with its next step. Once it was just a few feet away, it knelt down on one knee in front of the princess to her eye level.

Linneia could see a wizened gentle feature with wisdom saturated in its slightly turbid dark gray eyes. From this giant, the feature of a gentle being with high empathy was very evident; contrasting the murderous giants outside.

”This old one is known as Olfalfas. I am truly sorry for your loss.” It held Linneia's shoulder with sad eyes. It knew what had happen to this little one's comrades.

”Elder, why? We have expressed our stand so many times! Why did all of you still attack us?” The princess whispered with a broken old Kohiten. She was already in the hands of a strong expert of the giants. Hence, at least before she dies, she needed to know the enigma behind the Kohiten's bloodlust-filled pursuit. Linneia felt that all her comrades died due to her wrong judgement and decision. It felt like a heavy stone was pressed on her chest, suffocating and pressuring her heart and mind.

Grandmaster Olfalfas could only sighed deeply, ”Naive child… Alas we have just gone through a terrible war which lasted for a few centuries. The hateful enemies came through the teleportation formation and devastate our lands, killing our people until only less than half of the population was left before we managed to force them to retreat and sealed the formation. Everyone out there had lost someone in that terrible war, and the wounds were still fresh and bleeding. You must understand the fear of being invaded again, losing your clansmen in the process.” It patted the head of the indignant princess lightly. Although Linneia was wearing her recombinant helmet, to her astonishment, she could feel a gentle breeze directly entered her head and cooled it down. Her agitated mind had significantly calmed own.

”This is a terrible, terrible timing.” The elder giant added. ”Perhaps, after a thousand years or so, when everyone's heart is healed, you will not receive such treatment especially when you have the ability to speak our language.”

The explanation by the elder giant in front of her made her dumbfounded for a whole minute. She now bitterly understood the aggressive retaliation of the other hunters out there. However, it sparked another big question within her, ”Then, why didn't you kill me?” Linneia morose tone reverberated inside the spacious dark hall.

Although Linneia now possessed the magic reservoir equaled to more than three witches, it was impossible for her to harness it currently. It was like in possession of a double-edged sword; capable of hurting her enemies and herself at the same time. It needed meticulous training for her to gain the ability to control her mutated magic core. Additionally, she had zero experience to practice her ability since she had decided to depend on herself to progress further once she knew what kind of power she possessed. As such, even if she tried to fight it out with the giant in front of her, she might just implode from losing control without achieving a single thing.

”The truth is it has been too long since the migration and no previous precedence had occurred. At that time, I was only a child, not understanding a single thing. However, the predecessors had once spoken that the seal of a guardian could only have one exception; it could only be unraveled by the true ancient power-writings from our original homeland. Thus, that makes you and me to originate from the same homeland.”

Grandmaster Olfalfas looked towards the ceiling of the hall as its gaze penetrated through to observe. Linneia could feel that the elder could peer through the ceiling to see through the heavens. It reminded her of her own people's current predicament. The people from the other planets were truly dangerous and filled with ill-intent.

Olfalfas extended its large hands with sorrow and reminiscence, ”Will you ever forgive us?”

Linneia was seething with indignance and deep grievance. If only they communicated properly. All of this could be prevented. She can't help but feel that her comrades had died in vain. Tears streamed down her face as she refused to reply Olfalfas question. She countered with a new request, ”Elder, please save my last surviving comrade. Don't let her die in vain like the others.”

...

Olfalfas sighed deeply after it arranged a suitable room for the little human it met inside its compound. With this, the vengeful warriors outside won't be able to touch her anymore. It had already tried its best to heal her mind, but the level of emotional distress she was facing was too high. It could only lower down its level to reduce mental breakdown. It understood how the human was feeling. It really hoped that the human's comrade was still alive somewhere. It had already sent down a strict order to stop the fervent pursuit to forcefully clamp down further conflict.

Olfalfas returned to its seat and started pondering with deep astonishment at the burst of familiar energy it felt from the human just now. It had hide it well to avoid alarming the human.

[Is she the successor that I've been waiting for all this while? How could this be possible? She's a different race! Is it because of the origin power-writings she encountered when using the portal?]