By the time Rei and his group returned to the cave, Elena and Vihera were already deep in battle against the Giants inside.
However, that battle was nearing its end.
The number of Giants remaining had already dropped below fifty.
But that meant the corpses of nearly nine hundred defeated Giants were scattered all around, and they had become an obstacle in the fight.
"Ngh, honestly... maybe we should have fought a bit more cleanly."
After leaping onto a Giant's head and driving a Magic Impact Palm into it to take its life, Vihera landed and muttered with a slightly annoyed tone.
There were several chunks of Giant flesh on the ground where she had originally intended to land.
If she had landed right there, she might have slipped on those chunks and fallen, bringing her movement to a halt.
Of course, Vihera, understanding that this might happen, had no intention of landing as she was. She lightly twisted her body in midair and landed on a spot of ground free of Giant flesh.
Landing while twisting her body naturally threw off her balance.
But when it came to moving her body, Vihera possessed top-class skill even among Rei's group.
The moment she landed, she shifted her body again, balancing herself in place.
"When it comes to this, I envy Elena."
Glancing at Elena, who was slashing through a Giant with Mirage in its whip form, Vihera murmured with evident envy.
Elena, like Vihera, had been about to land on ground covered in flesh chunks, but in the next instant, she landed on top of the flesh—or more precisely, on a spatial position above the flesh, and in the following instant, she kicked off that space and took to the sky once more.
Using the Sleipnir boots, she had kicked off the air itself.
For Vihera, who excelled at close combat, the Sleipnir boots that Elena and Rei possessed, which allowed them to kick off the air, were an incredibly enviable item.
So much so that she wanted a pair for herself if at all possible.
However, in Vihera's case, she had Foot Guards equipped with blades extending from the heels.
Considering that, there was no denying that she could not equip the Sleipnir boots so easily.
(If I get a pair, I'll need to have them adjusted so they don't interfere with my Foot Guards.)
The Sleipnir boots were a somewhat rare Magic Item.
But even so, they were not so exceedingly rare as to be one of only a few in the world, like the Item Box.
"Elena, how are things on your end?"
While dodging a Giant's attack and slashing through its neck with Mirage in longsword form, Elena gave a light wave in response to Vihera's words.
Without saying a word, she signaled with her attitude that everything was fine.
In that state, without paying any particular attention to each other, they continued to cut down the Giants.
Normally, no matter how strong they were, defeating a thousand Giants between the two of them would be nearly impossible in terms of stamina.
No, even with monsters like Goblins, two people couldn't sustain their stamina against a thousand.
But Elena and Vihera each fell completely outside the bounds of normal.
Some sweat had formed on their foreheads, and their breathing had grown slightly heavier, but in terms of stamina, they still had plenty to spare.
(In that case, it was the right call for Marina and Byune not to be here.)
Byune was a child to begin with, and while she might excel in burst power, she inevitably lacked endurance.
Compared to Byune, Marina was an adult and a seasoned adventurer, so she likely had more stamina than the average adventurer.
But that was only compared to an average adventurer. She was far inferior to Elena, who had inherited the Ancient Dragon's magic stone, or Vihera, who had absorbed Unbris.
Even as a seasoned adventurer, Marina was only a Dark Elf of flesh and blood—though whether that expression was appropriate or not was debatable.
(She was said to be a Shrine Maiden of the World Tree, but I don't think that has any direct bearing on Marina's abilities. Ah, but being that skilled with Spirit Magic... could that be related to being the Shrine Maiden of the World Tree?)
Dodging a Giant's strike as it reached out to grab her torso, Vihera slashed through its neck with the magic claws extending from her Hand Gauntlets.
A violent fountain of blood raged around them.
But by the time the blood splashed outward, Vihera had already moved away, passing by the Giant as if crossing paths with it.
The Giant whose neck had been slashed through likely prioritized protecting its own life over its appetite. It pressed its hands against its neck, trying desperately to stop the blood gushing out.
From an outside perspective, it looked like nothing more than the Giant choking itself.
However, Vihera didn't so much as glance at the Giant displaying such a comical sight. She turned toward the remaining few enemies.
The joyful expression Vihera had worn when the battle began was already gone from her face.
To begin with, the Giants were never opponents that made Vihera's blood race with excitement.
Still, there had been a great number of them, so they served as a satisfactory replacement for sandbags. But fighting such opponents inevitably grew monotonous and boring.
They attacked driven by instinct, with no craft like feints. They simply charged and attacked.
They were in no way satisfying opponents for Vihera.
(If only there were some High-ranking Species or Rare Species mixed in... No, these Giants aren't monsters, so I suppose there wouldn't be any of those to begin with.)
Seeing the number of Giants dwindle, Vihera once again found herself thinking along those lines.
It had already been confirmed through investigation that the Giants had no Magic Stones.
Of course, it hadn't been a pleasant task, but there was no denying she had held some hope that perhaps...
Naturally, contrary to those hopes, there had been no Magic Stones or anything of the sort.
In other words, these Giants were not monsters.
Though whether anyone would nod in agreement if asked whether they were humans was another matter entirely.
Thinking about it normally, they would fall under the category of humans. But driven by the instinct of appetite, devouring their own mothers upon birth, and furthermore attacking everyone other than their own nearby kin out of sheer hunger—that was not something anyone could accept as human.
Though at the very least, Vihera and every other woman present shared the sentiment that it was a relief they were driven by appetite and not lust.
For beings that had just been born, Giants especially, it was hard to imagine they possessed any sense of aesthetic judgment.
But had they run rampant driven by lust rather than appetite, just how immense would the damage have been? Vihera's honest feeling was that she didn't even want to imagine it.
"That's the end!"
Hearing that voice, Vihera cast her gaze around.
True to Elena's words that had just reached her ears, there was no Giant left standing anywhere.
Of course, that didn't mean every single Giant had been completely finished off.
There had been nearly a thousand of them to begin with, so there were still some Giants visible that had survived.
Though those Giants would likely have their Flame of Life extinguished before long, there was probably no mistaking that.
At any rate, the strike Elena unleashed with Mirage had severed a Giant's neck, meaning not a single Giant remained standing in this place.
"Phew... well, the Giants are taken care of for now, but what do you think we should do next?"
"Right."
Shaking off the Giant blood clinging to Mirage's blade, Elena asked Vihera.
At those words, Vihera thought for a moment, then directed her gaze toward Ryutas's guards, stationed a short distance away from where the door had been.
"Hey, I'll ask just in case, but none of the Giants went out into the corridor, did they?"
A question from Vihera, a peerless beauty. Moreover, a woman who wrapped her irresistibly attractive figure in the thin garments of a prostitute or dancer.
Any ordinary man would have been over the moon at being spoken to by such a Vihera.
Or perhaps, captivated by her overwhelming beauty, he would lose his senses and be unable to form words at all.
It would have been one of those two, but this time was different.
The guard could not immediately return a response, but that was not because his eyes had been stolen by Vihera's beauty. It was because he was desperately trying to suppress his body, which was trembling with fear without even his own awareness.
As a guard for Ryutas—in other words, as a guard for the candidate to lead the future of Jaya—the man knew just how much power a Giant possessed.
In terms of combat technique, there was no doubt they were an extremely crude existence.
But their physical abilities were on a level entirely incomparable to an ordinary human.
So much so that he felt he would absolutely never win if he fought head-on against even a few Giants.
And nearly a thousand of those Giants had been defeated by just two women—though Rei had contributed somewhat as well.
To the guard, the two women before his eyes might have been beauties, but above all, they were beings possessing power beyond his comprehension.
To be addressed by such individuals, it was only natural that his body would freeze up.
"Oh my, what's wrong? Did you perhaps not hear me?"
"N-no! I heard you! The Giants didn't go outside, so please rest assured!"
Called out to once more by Vihera, the man snapped back to himself and answered in a near-shout.
That was because he thought that if he continued to give no answer, he might end up sharing the Giants' fate.
In reality, neither Vihera nor Elena had any such intention, however.
At any rate, hearing that the Giants had not gone outside, Vihera looked at Elena with relief.
"What should we do? Should we go check on Rei's group?"
"Going to check is fine, but I suspect there will be nothing to do even if we go."
At Elena's murmured words, Vihera could only nod in agreement.
In truth, against nearly a thousand Giants, while Elena and Vihera had consumed stamina, they had come through without a scratch in terms of actual damage.
If even they had managed that, it was impossible to imagine Rei having any trouble with ordinary soldiers—whom they considered weaker than Giants—and fewer in number at that, only several hundred.
(Ah, but outside it was a forest, so it might be a bit difficult for Rei to fight.)
Rei's Twin Spear Style, holding a scythe in his right hand and a spear in his left.
Both of those weapons were long-hafted and lacked maneuverability.
Given that, fighting in a place like a forest would put him at a disadvantage against opponents carrying longswords or similar weapons.
Of course, the gap in strength between Rei and the soldiers was so overwhelming that even if the soldiers had a slight advantage in weapon handling, Vihera couldn't imagine them posing any real threat.
Vihera's mind conjured the image of Rei bisecting soldiers and trees alike with Death Scythe, and the Twilight Spear piercing through tree trunks without losing any speed, skewering several—perhaps even over a dozen—soldiers' bodies.
"Right. It doesn't seem like we need to worry about Rei's group either. In that case, shall we go check on Marina? She might be dealing with something."
With no other particularly good ideas, they ended up heading toward Marina.
"Marina-san, um, could I ask you for some Water Spirits?"
Nodding in response to the soldier who had spoken to her, Marina called upon the Water Spirits.
In the next instant, a Water Ball slightly larger than a fist floated up into the air.
"Will this do?"
"Thank you very much!"
The soldier gave Marina a brief word of thanks and departed with the Water Ball.
Watching his retreating figure, Marina once again surveyed her surroundings.
What had been rampaging here were a few Giants.
Even so, because they possessed physical abilities far exceeding those of humans, the damage they caused was by no means light.
The fact that the number of dead was not that high was likely because the Giants were not simply killing—they were eating the soldiers they killed.
A grown man had a large body.
Moreover, since they were guarding this cave, an important location within Jaya, many of them had been reasonably well-trained.
In other words, there was more muscle, more for a Giant to eat than an ordinary man on the street.
Thanks to that, it had been possible to buy a little—truly only a little bit of time, and that had allowed some of them to survive, however marginally.
(Though what that ultimately means for them is debatable.)
Even if they survived here, there was no happy future waiting for the people of Jaya.
To begin with, Marina herself held absolutely no goodwill toward the people of Jaya.
As a fellow woman, she could never forgive them for using countless women as sacrifices to birth Giants—calling them sacrifices was no exaggeration.
Even so, the biggest reason she was here helping the people of Jaya was because Rei had asked her to.
And she hoped that those involved in this matter would receive a formal judgment. That was what she truly thought.