The God of Death Just Wants to Quit?!

The ground began to tremble beneath Edrick's feet just as the statuette of the Lord of the Mountain cracked, and the green light, now blinding, blazed out through its fissures.

Edrick leapt back with Olina still in his arms, just as the statuette shattered completely and an explosion of light covered the altar.

His eyes widened as the light dimmed, revealing a giant figure with imposing horns and fangs as long as a human arm.

"Of course, I am not going to let myself be killed so easily. You have to defeat me."

As he spoke, vapor rose from the giant's jaws and seemed to warm the frigid air around them.

Edrick lowered his gaze to his daughter for a few seconds, then lifted it again and looked straight into the eyes of the Lord of the Mountain.

"How can a human kill a god?"

The question did not sound like Edrick was trying to deny the gigantic being's words. It sounded sincere, as if he truly wanted to know how it could be done, how he could save Olina.

"A god?" The Lord of the Mountain let out a long laugh. "Yes, perhaps I was something similar once, but only over these lands. A local deity, so to speak... But now I am only a vestige of what I once was."

Edrick stared at him in disbelief. Every word carried by that deep voice seemed imbued with a powerful mystical force. No one in their right mind would look at such a being and call him a mere vestige.

"Still," the Lord of the Mountain continued. "Perhaps it would be impossible for any ordinary human. But as I said, you are Edrick, the last hero of humanity, are you not?"

"There was a time when they called me that. A time when my only goal was the survival of my people. I was so blind to everything else that I couldn't see what was happening in my own home." Edrick held his daughter against his chest. "But that is no longer who I am. A hero does not abandon his people to pursue his own ends. Now I am nothing more than a desperate father."

For a moment, Edrick could see a smile forming between the fangs of the gigantic figure. But before saying anything, the Lord of the Mountain pulled a leather waterskin from somewhere within his clothes and tossed it to him.

"Coat your weapon with this. It is water from a sacred spring on this mountain. Since it is part of my essence, it will make your weapon capable of wounding me."

Edrick turned and walked toward the trunk of a nearby tree, cleared the snow from between its roots, and carefully placed Olina there to shield her a little from the blizzard.

Then he returned to pick up the waterskin he had been offered.

"My apologies for the delay, Lord of the Mountain," he said, fitting together the two halves of his spear, which he had been carrying separately, tied to either side of his waist. "But if you will allow me one question, I would like to know why you would want to die."

The Lord of the Mountain snorted as he brought his hands behind his back and drew out two gigantic twin axes.

"Then let me ask you the opposite. Why would I want to continue existing?" With the axes at his sides, the gigantic figure lifted his gaze to the sky for a few moments before lowering it toward his opponent. "I have already seen everything there was to see. There is no life left on my mountain. All that remains for me is to slowly disappear... Though my name has already been forgotten, and those who knew of my deeds no longer exist, I would rather die remembering my days as a warrior."

Edrick finished coating the assembled spear and pointed it toward the Lord of the Mountain.

"If your wish is to die, I will do everything in my power to fulfill it," he said as he took his stance, preparing for battle. For a moment, he looked back at his little daughter lying between the roots of the tree, but then fixed his eyes once more on his adversary. "You do not read minds, but can you guess what attack I am planning?"

The Lord of the Mountain gave him a fanged smile as he also took his stance.

"Worry not. You are an open book to me, but I cannot see the future. Something of that magnitude is only within reach of powerful gods, such as those of time or fate." The giant exhaled forcefully, extending the axes before him. "But those are only stories my mother told me. Gods like that never appeared in this world."

They watched each other in silence for a few moments.

In the distance, the snow accumulated on a tree branch finally grew heavy enough to fall, bringing the branch down with it.

At that very moment, Edrick lunged at the gigantic figure with superhuman speed.

But despite his enormous size, the Lord of the Mountain moved with similar agility. Edrick dodged the swing of his axe by a hair, and the blow split the earth in two.

Edrick seized the opening and thrust his spear toward his opponent's head. But the Lord of the Mountain ducked and blocked the attack with one of his powerful horns.

Or so it seemed. Once they broke apart, a cut became visible on the horn, and it snapped in two before falling to the ground.

The Lord of the Mountain smiled, and as he drew each axe across his body toward the side opposite the hand holding it, their blades began to shine with green light.

Edrick quickly shifted position. Not so much to escape, but because Olina was behind him.

"As you know, Goddess Tereya, my mother, was the Goddess of Wind. And as such, she left me an interesting trick or two."

The gigantic figure turned to follow his adversary, and once his axes were shining brightly, he swung them out from his waist with brutal force.

"Wind's Edge."

Powerful slashes of green light, dragging the wind with them, split the forest in half and unleashed a thunderous crash.

Edrick barely managed to dodge them, but the attack left a huge, bloody gash across his shoulder.

Even so, without flinching, he charged again toward the towering Lord of the Mountain.

The gigantic being smiled again, enjoying the battle, and one of his axes began to shine once more before flying from his hand, spinning through the air as it unleashed a storm in its wake.

Though the attack uprooted even tree trunks in its path, Edrick drove his spear into the ground with a powerful thrust and used it to launch himself into the air, vaulting above the Lord of the Mountain.

"Comet Rain."

Edrick's spear shone with bluish light, and his thrust multiplied into hundreds of flashes that pierced through the Lord of the Mountain's defenses and riddled him in countless places.

By the time the spear stopped shining, a stream of blood ran from the corner of the Lord of the Mountain's lips.

"Very good... But not enough!"

!!

By the time Edrick realized it, it was already too late.

The axe he had dodged moments earlier was coming back from behind him.

He tried to defend himself, but the Lord of the Mountain, who still held one of his axes, struck from the front and knocked Edrick's spear upward with a blow, forcing his guard open and leaving him exposed to the weapon returning from behind.

"Agh!"

In the next instant, the axe pierced through Edrick and carried him away with it, leaving him pinned against the trunk of a distant tree.