“You fucker! You were alive!” The old giant ran up to Michael and jabbed him in the abdomen.
It was a fairly weak attack, even by his standards, however, it still managed to puncture his inner organs.
“Oh, whoops, you can heal that, can’t you?” The old giant said while laughing in a hearthy matter, seemingly finding the current situation hilarious.
Michael, however, was confused, he cast a heal on himself to fix his injuries and stared at the giant in front of him.
“Do I know you?” He asked flatly, if it was one of the people he had met in the past, it would be a bit troublesome for him to remember them.
After all, he still had 8 more trials remaining and so far, he only remembers 2 of his many lives.
The system was trying its best to remember the rest, however, it was fairly unsuccessful. There are times when it regains a memory or two, but it’s usually something regarding the situation.
“Know me? I am Thrym, the kid you met way back when?” The old giant replied in a confused manner, yet its expression remained firm.
‘System, that ring a bell?’
Not exactly, most of the memories regarding giants are of you dying to them, none of which feature this person.
‘He mentioned a kid, perhaps try looking for that?’ Michael held his smile so Thrym wouldn’t notice that anything was off.
Astraea remained surprisingly calm, he expected her to attack Thrym the moment he laid a hand on him.
But, it appears in times of need, she can indeed keep her composure.
As Michael was thinking that, the system’s urgent voice resounded.
Got something.
‘Yeah? Tell me.’
It’s better if I just show you..
Michael was confused for a moment, before his vision suddenly shifted and he found himself on a similar looking mountain, however, this time it was empty.
No holes covered the mountain, it looked natural, as if the giants never laid their hands on it.
‘Not in control of my own body again huh.. though am I in the sky?’ He suddenly thought as all he could do was gaze at the mountain, and it was certainly not from the bottom, more like the very middle.
Michael could tell that his feet were not touching the ground either.
His eyes suddenly darted to his own arm, and there lay a single blue kid, it seemed like he was injured.
Michael brought him to the very top of the mountain and placed him down, quickly building a small house with his mana.
‘That technique.. what the hell’ He noticed that what took him visualization and intense focus, was done in a mere millisecond by this person.
A golden light enveloped the child, quickly returning him to full health.
Michael was surprised, not because the kid got healed, but because he felt how this person did it, the mana flow and everything.
‘I can probably replicate it.. the concept is the same as making clothing, I have to use the inner part of my mana to interact with the other individual’s body, avoiding all of their mana in the process, else I would solidify it..’ He was fascinated by the sudden gain.
As Michael was replaying that certain scene in his mind, the man spoke up in a hoarse voice “Thrym, wake up.”
“Noo!” Thrym rolled around on the cold snow, acting like an absolute child.
Michael rolled his eyes and kicked the blabbering idiot who was on the ground “Dude.. you are 24.”
Upon hearing those words, Thrym stopped rolling on the ground and froze up, returning to his normal size, only slightly taller than Michael.
“You are a buzzkill as always..”
“And you don’t act your age, what’s wrong with you nowadays? Do you lack attention?”
‘Damn.. they seem like friends but at the same time.. it seemed like I was Thrym’s father or something’ Michael grimaced at that thought and continued listening to their interaction.
They talked about random things and he managed to figure out some personal stuff about Thrym.
At this current moment, he was only a member of the Frost Giant clan, however, he was also a potential successor to be the head of the entire clan.
A big shot in his own way, but it seemed like so was the current Michael as he was bossing the said big shot around.
However, as the conversation suddenly turned into a brawl, Michael noticed something strange.
‘Are those the wings..?’ He could see a pair of wings, ones that Thrym was trying to pull out from his back.
But, just as he put more force into it, Michael used some kind of repulsion attack to knock Thrym out.
“Gosh.. you act like such a child sometimes” He said and his vision once again shifted, returning back to the small hut on top of the mountain and Thrym staring at him with an excited yet confused expression.
‘Well… here goes nothing..’
Michael quickly cleared his throat and began speaking “Thrym! You looked just like when you were a kid, how are you?”
He tried to sound exactly like the previous Michael and for a moment, he thought it worked.
However, “I am not an idiot boy, I know that isn’t the actual you, you are but a fragment of his” Thrym said with a chuckle, seemingly finding this situation hilarious.
But his laughter quickly stopped, replaced with a serious expression “Though, how do you remember that? That was way too long ago for a mere fragment to remember.’
“Who knows, anyways.. are you going to spare us?” Michael went straight to the point. Knowing Thrym’s personality, that was his best course of action.
It was highly likely that he would be spared, after all, even if he was not exactly the Michael he knew, he was still his ‘fragment’.
However, the next words left him speechless “Only if you can beat me in a fight”
“You.. are you joking?”
Thrym shook his head “I am dead serious, let’s meet where we usually spar… oh right” He face palmed, remembering the fact that this wasn’t the Michael he knew.
Just as Michael was about to protest, he was picked up and flung outside at a ridiculous speed, rolling a few times in the air to stabilize himself, he finally landed on some sort of a platform.
‘How far did he fucking throw me!?’ Michael exclaimed as it did not feel that far, yet he could see the mountain he was just on in the far off distance.
“You are rather sturdy for a fragment” Thrym’s voice resounded behind him.
He had a small gauntlet on his hands, it seemed like he was some kind of brawler type.
Michael sneered and sent a Sword of Light at him, though it was easily deflected.
“Stop calling me a fragment, you brute.”
That seemed to anger Thrym as he suddenly dropped his gauntlets onto the ground and said in a mocking tone “I won’t be holding back, are you ready, fragment?”
Michael couldn’t understand why he was so frustrated with the giant in front of him, it was very uncharacteristic of him.
It seemed like his emotions were being influenced, though the system promised him that it wouldn’t happen.
It’s only temporary, I forcefully reawakened those memories for you, so you felt the full brunt of them. Rest assured, the emotions will fade with due time.
‘They better..’
“What’s wrong, are you scared little fragment?” Thrym taunted once more, however, a swift mirrored Sword of Light attack hit his side.
Michael tried, but failed to suppress his laughter.
“How’s that for you, brute?”
“..Fuck you.”
