Chapter 17 - The story of the Giant ill.u.s.tratio

"Source of power?" Asked Chan no doubt confused. It's a surprise how the King even bothers explaining everything to him up to this point. He could have simply let out a Command for Chan to follow and save a lot of his nerves. It's almost as if the King is strictly trying to educate this fool, feed him knowledge. But what the King likely doesn't know, is that half of what he explained to Chan, has already left his brain for good. You can't build up an academic in a day, especially one who doesn't want too.

"Yes. Without the source, the two... other ingredients are rather useless to us. Where else will you... use a ghost possessed branch or a heart from a thought to be... extinct species?" Well this formula for a staff granting power to a target is a whole mess itself, asking for ingredients of which no Alchemist would ever try to get or play around with. So even if these ingredients have other purposes in alchemy, it would of been unknown. The fact that Xakro knows of this recipe to begin with, is mysterious enough on its own.

"You have a point there Sire." Answered Guard Commander Chan with bootkissing aims(He even slightly tooned out the King, but it escaped un noticed). "But what is the source of power for us to get the staff ready and get this over with!?"

"It depends on what... power we want." The King replied, puzzled on his own thoughts. Thinking of the best power befitting this fool.

"Which one do you think is more effective?" A rather smart question from Guard Commander Chan(finally). Perhaps smart questions are rare gems for him to spell out. Clearly nothing too often. But could spending time with a smarter man such as King Xakro, push away Chan's stupidity? Well, the chances are slim. If that worked, Aaron would of turned Chan into a smarter man a long time ago.

Thinking back of the time the new Electus caused Havoc on Crutal Kingdom, the King remembered the key moments. Its not exactly easy to forget something so powerful, different. With Fire Controlling Ignites being wiped out throughout the 200 years, its a good sight to see an Ignite using his powers(at least to those who didn't suffer damage from it). Even if the Electus basically killed hundreds of Guards, to Xakro it was a good show. "The boy. The Electus, seemed to heavily rely on... his Fire Powers. He is so young... yet he casted Fire Tornados. Those are expert level spells. He is already... level four." Pointed out King Xakro as he stroked his own Chin.

Feeling slight trauma from the Fireball he(Chan) received from Eric, it taught him one valuable lesson. Never underestimate. "The boy took out half of your Kingdom. He is undoubtedly powerful. What are the odds of him already being in the process of learning different powers?" Taking a second to think a bit deeper around what the King just discussed, Chan answered. "But fire has a weakness. Am i right Sire?"

"If he trained his powers... a lot in the open, before he caused havoc on our Kingdom. There... would be many eye witnesses reporting him... already. So that makes it sure for... us that he just recently discovered his... powers. Likely even this week." Afterwards aiming to reply at Chan's second question, the King said. "The opposite of fire...is ice. But that of course makes everything...more difficult."

"How exactly does it make it more difficult Sire? Please elaborate because I don't know anything about this topic." 

"Clearly." Xakro clutched stronger to the arm support of his throne and added. "Each sort of magical power, has that special... item that grants a source of power... for anyone trying to make a staff like this."

Finally able to catch up, at least for now. Guard Commander Chan murmured a poorly thought out question, which led to a bit of improper sentences. "What do we need to. The source. Provide the source of power for the Ice Controlling magical ability? Surely it can't be an ice spike." He tried to crack a joke with the last sentence, but King Xakro's face remained stiff. Humorless. Chan even coughed awkwardly due to it and added. "So what do we need?"

"Well...to obtain Fire Controlling powers... for example, you need a burning source of pitch... Dark flame. Which is twice as hard to get. But... for Ice Controlling we need, A toe."

"A toe?" Struggled Chan to hold his laughter in. He curled his lips as if he was struggling to keep a burp in.

Noticing Chan's urge to laugh at this part of the task, he continued speaking with his thick low tone which brought Chan back to his senses, scaring the humor away. "As humorous as it sounds, it's almost... impossible to obtain."

"I never heard of Dark flames before. And I don't even want to know how to obtain them. But a toe sounds more doable. Does it have to be a random toe or something specific?" Obviously getting a random toe won't do the trick. How is a toe a source of power?

Noticing the Clear misunderstanding, and knowing for sure that Chan couldn't possibly know more of this topic, the King spared Chan's brain cells by answering. "Frozen Toe Kingdom. Which is located... on the edge of the continent. It has that name for a...reason."

"What's the reason Sire?" Chan's overall knowledge isn't exactly big, but at least he has a reasonable amount of curiosity. Or could it be fueled by fear?

"It represents the "Frozen Toes" of the Giant ill.u.s.tratio. Once... that toe is obtained, the staff...can be completed." Well at least the staff is now completely described. He can check further questions towards it off of the list. But knowing Chan, he might not have caught up entirely just yet.

Guard Commander Chan replies with undoubtedly great shock. His eyes widened in surprise and even his hands subconsciously arose on the air at the heat of the moment. He even yelled out the question! "There is a Giant ill.u.s.tratio?" Just when you thought that the questions reached an end.

Seeing the King getting angrier due to this disturbance of peace and quiet of which Chan Caused, Chan followed up with sentences in aims to calm the King down. Or at least prevent him from shooting Fireballs. "I suppose I would know if I read more."

"Indeed." The King let out a sigh of dissatisfaction. He realised quite well that Chan is mountains away from becoming a well knowledged man. Finding ways to understand his overall brain capacity throughout the conversation they had, he learned to show at least a bit more patience and hope by the 8 sources that he will eventually become smarter.

"Let me guess. To get the toe, I need to kill the Giant ill.u.s.tratio?" He wasn't so far off with this question based on the information he was given, but no. Killing the Giant ill.u.s.tratio is impossible and even if they managed too, it wouldn't serve them any purpose.

But Xakro, he had enough of it. Even though he should have expected such a question from Guard Commander Chan. "No! You fool!" Shouted the King as he fisted the arm support of the throne so hard that he completely broke it. It even slid all the way to Chan's feet. Which made him swallow his spit in fear.

"You don't have to kill him. Mostly because he is... indestructible and almost...immortal. But his toes aren't indestructible. His toes are... beyond frozen, hitting it... with a sword it's like hitting actual ice." At this rate, it doesn't even sound like this Giant ill.u.s.tratio is real. I mean, how does the King even know that for sure without trustworthy eye witnesses? He could be sending Guard Commander Chan in a wild goose chase. But if we all look back, King Xakro seems to know a lot about the paranormal and the unusual. So maybe his points are fact based. Maybe he knows exactly what he is talking about instead of just throwing around theories and thoughts.

"He sounds powerful enough to invade all of us. Why didn't he already?" Another insightful question from Chan? Is the sky falling? 

"He can but he also can't. His body can't stand warm weather...literally. His body… temperature is always scorching hot." With frozen toes? The irony is rather large. But this topic is no doubt interesting. Even to Chan. He even managed to catch up again.

"So if he walks anywhere warmer, his body heat can kill him?"

Giving an internal smirk in satisfaction, the King slowly says under his casual low tone. "Precisely. But His toes are not... affected by that body heat. An interesting creature... indeed. He won't even feel it if you cut... one toe off. But of course... cutting it off is hard without... being killed. Even if he isn't doing anything, it's hard to simply... cut it off."

Aiming to ask the obvious, Chan says.

"How did this Giant even appear? Is he a magic spell gone wrong or just an ancient species."

"You don't read much... do you? He is all of the above." Shouted the King due to the dissatisfaction Chan's lack of common ill.u.s.tratian knowledge is causing. There are countless tales and legends about this Giant ill.u.s.tratio, even written in some books as official facts. But he spared Chan the time of researching deeper into the topic, by explaining it to him by himself(Because from the looks of it, Chan wouldn't look for more knowledge about it once he exited this throne room in one piece. "Way before... any other race existed, there were... only ill.u.s.tratios. We ruled everything. Our numbers were small but we were... on top of the food chain. The strongest....Unstoppable... We were around thirty feet tall. Living for hundreds of years at... a time. But of course, evolution... did its part. And here we are now. Six foot tall people."

"Sorry for my continuous questions sire. But how did the Giant ill.u.s.tratio, remain...well a giant. And how is he "almost immortal?" Although an obvious question, it is still rather interesting.

Letting out a large amount of smoke from his nose in clear annoyance, King Xakro replied with. "After you retrieve the ten foot tall Lava controller's heart... I will definitely lock you down in the dungeon... filled with books and you aren't leaving... until you read all of them. Let that be a punishment...for letting a child shoot you down with a two foot wide fireball." Feeling the smoke detaching from his face and rising towards the ceiling, he continued. "Even an ordinary guard could... shield against that."

"Yes Sire. Indeed i need to learn more. I suppose that's the only way I would ever read haha." He tried to crack another joke. But from the looks of it, even the finest Jester couldn't ever make King Xakro ill.u.s.tratio lll smile, not to mention laughing. His face remained stiff as a board, it kicked the humour out of Chan right away.

"Indeed... you fool. However, I'll spare you the trouble on this topic. The Frozen Toe giant... discovered sorcery. After that, he did experiment after experiment." Rubbing his thumb with his forefinger, creating small smoke from it.(As a form of looking intimidating(which worked) and simply just playing with smoke.), he continued. "He wanted to... become immortal. And he almost did."

"Almost?"

Quitting playing with smoke, he leaned his head towards the arm support of the chair which was still in tact, holding his own head up with his hand, the King continued in dissatisfaction. "Much like my GrandFather. The Frozen Toe giant, he accidentally… cursed himself. He didn't become immortal... but he also did... in another way."

'That doesn't make sense." Chan scratched the temple area of his head in confusion. Trying his best to understand.

"He put himself in a constant... loop of rebirth. Every time his age gets the best... of him, he casts a spell on himself.... Rather suicidal." This story keeps getting darker by the second. Where the ill.u.s.tratios obsessed with power from the beginning of time?

Finally able to catch up once more, Chan's face lights up in satisfaction as he started snapping his fingers subconsciously in aims to ask another question. "So he kills himself to be freshly reborn? But how does he get reborn? He...well he is a male. Isn't he?"

"You are able to think more now... does fear equal intelligence to you?" Chan doesn't give a reply and simply shows his white teeth in embarrassment. 

"Yes he kills..himself. His entire body disintegrates. It fades...on mid air. Except...his feet." Feet. Did this Giant ill.u.s.tratio have a fancy for feet? To the point where his rebirth and practical immortality starts from it?

"Its like his feet aren't a part of his body. Fascinating." Added Chan, who surprisingly was enjoying learning. Now that, is truly fascinating. 

"Indeed. Once he fades. He reappears on his feet....literally. He is reborn. He turns back to the age...the age he was when he first got the...curse. Two hundred and thirty years precisely." I doubt that's on any book, so how does Xakro exactly know about it? Yet again it isn't the weirdest thing he knows.

"But what about his highly abnormal body heat?" This does not link to the feet in any way. It doesn't make sense.

"His body heat of course was also a...side effect. Frozen Toes and hot body. Ironic. But his toe is what we need for you... to gain powers. Powers strong enough to outmatch that Kid before he becomes... even more powerful." So the body heat could've just been a biological mutation. Who knows what ingredients this ancient ill.u.s.tratio was using.

Remembering what the King mentioned a bit earlier about the toe being very hard to cut, Chan asked in slight fear. "Please tell me you have a plan instead of just me hitting it with a sword. I can't face a thirty foot tall giant and win."

"I know you coward. But fire. Fire can help you. But of course...you need to be a fire controller. Or not. I didn't wipe out all the Witches and Wizards....because...."