"Shut up! You're being loud! ...Who's there?"
Elena's shout echoed through the room, and a few seconds later, that cry rang out.
The thick stench of blood and, above all, a sight that could only be described as utterly unexpected—no one in this room had realized anyone else was present besides the pregnant women, the giant children, and the corpses of pregnant women devoured by the giants.
The scene unfolding before them had been that shocking. But in any case, Rei turned his gaze toward the direction the voice had come from.
Standing at the end of his gaze was a man who appeared to be in his thirties.
However, he had a massive build that could fittingly be described as heavily muscled, and he didn't look at all like a doctor or a researcher.
The moment he saw the man, Rei finally managed to shift his focus from the abnormal scene before him to the man, and his unsettled mind calmed.
"Who are you?"
"Hah? You're with Jaya and you don't know me? ...No, wait. You're not Jaya, are you? What was it... they said some Alias Holder, a High-Rank Adventurer who keeps several women around, has shown up..."
"Lord Rezel, it's Rei. Crimson Rei."
A figure beside the man, who appeared to be a Flunky, whispered to the man called Rezel.
From those words, he must have remembered that the person before him was named Rei.
"So, why is this Rei in a place like this?"
"My reason for being here? That's obvious. Because some idiots meddled with Gilm. This is retaliation."
"...Hoh. I didn't expect you to honestly state your purpose. Are you sure that's wise?"
At Rei's words, Rezel flashed an amused smile.
However, while he himself was only smiling in amusement, combined with his short-cropped hair and fierce-looking face, that smile could only be seen as the grin of a ferocious beast of prey.
It was the kind of smile that would make an ordinary person—someone who wasn't even an adventurer or anything of the sort—freeze in place just from seeing it.
But the one standing before Rezel right now was Rei.
And behind Rei were individuals who, with the exception of Byune, each possessed power worthy of being called peerless warriors, unmatched by any number of foes.
Given that, Rei showed no sign of being rattled by the man's smile. If anything, he even wore a smile himself as he spoke.
"There's nothing to worry about. This action was officially commissioned, after all. If anything, I need to spread the word far and wide so everyone knows what happens to those who lay a hand on Gilm. Besides..."
The room Rei and his party were currently in was quite spacious—it had enough room that if Set were here, he could fly around and rampage inside it. Given that, Rei could easily wield his partner on par with Set: the Death Scythe.
"...Come to think of it, they said Crimson Rei was an Item Box User. I see, it was true. So, what do you plan to do by bringing that out here?"
"Let's see. For example, how about I split you lot in half right at the torso, or cleave your bodies left and right? Something like that."
Perhaps sensing the killing intent radiating from Rei, Rezel's face twitched.
But if anything, Rezel was impressive for enduring even that much.
In fact, all the other men beside Rezel had lost consciousness and collapsed on the floor.
"That's some intense killing intent you're letting off. Just as rumored, I see. ...Not bad."
"You're frightened by this level of killing intent? Now then, are you ready to face me?"
"Unfortunately, that's not happening."
The moment he said that, Rezel pursed his lips as if to whistle.
However, no sound came from his mouth...
"No, what was that? A sound?"
"A sound, indeed."
"There's a sound, isn't there."
"A whistle?"
"...Hmm?"
Actually, the only one who didn't hear the sound was Byune. Everyone else had heard the sound released from Rezel's mouth.
At that exchange, Rezel, who until then had not let his composed expression falter, stopped moving for a moment.
He likely never imagined that the whistle he produced through a special method could be heard.
Rezel's greatest miscalculation was, as one would expect, the fact that many of Rei's party were, in various senses, beings beyond the realm of ordinary humans.
Rei's body, created by concentrating the techniques of the Zephyle Clan. Elena, who had inherited the Ancient Dragon's Magic Stone. Marina, a Dark Elf called the Shrine Maiden of the World Tree. And Vihera, who had absorbed Unbris.
Only Byune was an ordinary human, so she seemingly couldn't hear Rezel's whistle, but that didn't mean Rezel was saved by it.
The biggest problem was, after all, that his whistle had been heard.
"Now then, what exactly was that whistle just now? Why don't you tell me about that. Well, I can mostly guess, though."
Shouldering the Death Scythe, Rei asked Rezel.
Just as he said, it wasn't difficult to guess what that whistle had been.
If one thought about what this Underground Facility existed for in the first place, the answer would become immediately clear.
And considering how he had been surprised to see that they could hear it, probably... no, without a doubt...
"You summoned the Giants, didn't you?"
As Rei spoke the answer without waiting for Rezel's response, Rezel's eyebrows moved slightly.
The movement was slight, but it was more than enough for Rei to gain certainty.
And hearing that the Giants were coming—the one who showed eagerness was, naturally, Vihera, who had been looking forward to fighting them.
She had originally been anticipating battling the Giants, so that was only to be expected.
On top of that, having witnessed the sight of the Giants bursting out of their mothers' bodies by eating through them, she also harbored anger toward them.
Though, that anger was directed more at Jaya than at the Giants themselves.
"Yeah, I summoned them. I don't know if you people are aware, but the Giants are strong. So much so that even Alias Holder adventurers wouldn't think they could be defeated so easily."
At Rezel's confident declaration, Rei pondered slightly.
What he deliberated over was not whether they could defeat the Giants.
That had already been settled as a victory in Rei's mind.
He had that much trust in Vihera's combat ability.
What Rei deliberated over was whether it would be better to kill Rezel on the spot or knock him unconscious here to obtain information later.
Of course, doing either here would be extremely easy.
From Rezel's physique, one could tell he was reasonably trained, but in the end, it was only to a reasonable degree.
For Rei and his party, who were combat specialists—in reality they were not, but—Rezel wasn't even worth considering an enemy.
But the fact that he could still stand calmly before Rei's party despite this meant he must have had strong confidence in the Giants approaching them.
If the Giants, the source of his confidence, were wiped out by Vihera... that would surely be enough of a shock to break Rezel's spirit.
And there was no one easier to extract information from than someone whose spirit had been broken.
Honestly, what this man has been doing is displeasing. It's displeasing, but... I need information, huh.
Even now, as they stood there, the process of Giants being born by eating through their hosts from inside the body was being carried out on several women in this room.
Each time, a single life was lost—the life of a woman who likely never intended to become a Prostitute, forcibly brought to Mejougo by Jaya.
It was impossible for Rei to feel nothing about it. In fact, if there were no need for information, Rezel would have been killed instantly.
Now then, what kind of information could they obtain?
As Rei was thinking such things, the Giants finally showed themselves.
The Giant that entered through the door was about three meters tall.
True to the name Giant, its body was covered in muscles that appeared sturdy at a glance.
However, it didn't seem to be holding any weapons.
Whether it was a combat style that originally involved fighting unarmed, or whether it had deliberately come empty-handed to avoid spreading unnecessary destruction here—Rei couldn't tell. But the Giant looked down at Vihera, who stood before it with her comparatively small frame.
Vihera as well looked at the Giant with eyes filled with battlelust. And from behind the Giant that was glaring at Vihera, another Giant appeared.
Come to think of it, is the counter word for Giant "piki"? ...Well, they seem to be closer to monsters, so I guess it's fine.
The Giants that entered the room numbered three in total.
Their clothing differed slightly from one another, but they all possessed massive builds worthy of being called Giants.
"So you're the rumored Giants? I have a lot of thoughts about this, but I was looking forward to being able to fight today."
"Ga... gah?"
Vihera spoke to the Giant, but the Giant she addressed merely tilted its head with a puzzled sound.
And while tilting its head, it casually raised its right hand with a clenched fist. The next moment, it silently swung that fist down.
It was not a downward strike, the kind of punch one would normally imagine, but rather an attack method known as a hammer punch.
When an ordinary person used it, it wasn't such a powerful blow. At the very least, a regular punch or—above all—a strike with a weapon would be more powerful.
But when the one performing it was a Giant, that was a different story.
Thanks to strength incomparable to an ordinary human's, even though it was a wide swing, the speed of the attack was by no means slow.
Moreover, there were two other Giants here as well, and they were silently watching Vihera's movements. In case Vihera evaded the attack, they were ready to unleash a follow-up.
If she dodged right, the Giant on the right would strike. If she dodged left, the Giant on the left would strike. If she evaded backward, there would be a brief delay, but the Giants on both sides would strike simultaneously.
The Giants had been thinking along those lines, but what they witnessed was a completely unexpected sight.
Incredibly, rather than evading the Giant's strike to the left, right, or backward, Vihera stepped forward.
However, the only one surprised by that was Rezel.
The Giants didn't possess the intellect to think that deeply, and that was precisely why they didn't freeze in astonishment.
Vihera, who had plunged into the Giant's embrace, didn't use her usual One-hit kill Magic Impact Palm, but instead launched a kick aimed at the Giant's right leg—more precisely, its right knee.
Normally, if one were to throw a kick at an enemy's right knee, it would be called a low kick.
But perhaps due to the Giant's height, the kick she delivered was one that could be called a high kick.
Vihera's kick, protected by the Magic Item Foot Guards, struck the Giant's right knee from directly to the side.
Transmitted through the Foot Guards was the sensation of something tearing—a faint ripping feeling—and the sensation of something shattering.
"Guga? Ga? Ga... gugaaaaah!"
For a moment, the Giant seemed not to understand what had happened, but as its right knee was shattered and it collapsed onto the floor, it must have finally grasped the pain.
From the scream of pain, the bewilderment of not understanding what had happened, and the various other reasons—such as failing to defeat the small woman before it in one strike and instead taking a counterattack—it raised a voice that was neither quite a scream nor a roar.
The Giant that had collapsed on the floor then swung its arm widely, whether from pain or intentionally.
Standing in its path was Vihera.
Unlike the earlier hammer punch, it was an attack where the fist wasn't clenched—truly just an arm swung around. But given that the one performing it was a Giant nearly three meters tall, it still possessed sufficient power. Enough that if an ordinary person took the hit, they would be sent flying by the force.
But naturally, Vihera could not possibly be categorized by the word ordinary...
"Wha..."
Astonishment slipped from Rezel's mouth at the scene unfolding before his eyes.
Though, he had also let out a voice of astonishment a few seconds earlier when Vihera shattered the Giant's right knee with a single kick, so it was nothing new for Rei and his party.
In the first place, there were many people who were surprised by Vihera's attacks.
However, the scene that had just occurred before Rei and his party—the feat of catching the Giant's arm that had been swung with brute force and using that momentum to throw the Giant, which had been in a kneeling position—was an astonishing sight even for Rei and his companions.
The thrown Giant crashed into the Giant on the right and tumbled onto the floor.
And toward the remaining Giant on the left, Vihera closed the distance.
The Giant, too, likely never imagined that its comrade would be thrown by an opponent as small as Vihera.
It was a few seconds late in noticing her approach.
"Hah!"
Released along with a sharp exhale was a strike from her fist.
Not a palm strike like the Magic Impact Palm, but a blow with a clenched fist.
That strike effortlessly shattered the Giant's knee joint.