Giant, Onion, and a Void

Thus begins the story, we can finally see more interaction between the two worlds, beginning with the story of the two old friends.

I can only hope all of you enjoy the story.

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In the Cardinal World, there lays a desert to the far west, a desert of utter calamity.

It is a land in which nothing lives, save for the race of the Giants.

The Giants are a relatively quiet race, save for a few quarrels with the Kingdom of Lubelios here and there.

Though called "Giants", they are not the Giants you would expect, rather, they register a height about one and a half times that of a human, but, that only goes for the normal Giants.

The True Giants, the Giants of origin, of which there are few, are different.

They possess different attributes, and can grow taller.

One of these Giants, is Dagruel, who is known to be the leader of the Giant race, and also the guardian of the Heavenly Star Palace, the very same place where The Creator was born.

Dagruel, who goes by the title of "Demon Lord", or, by an epithet, "Earthquake", is possessive of neither titles' general qualities, like Demon Lords being evil, or "Earthquake" entailing his raging strength.

He is strong, just, not the brawler kind.

Now, as Dagruel sits down near a dune of sand, he is surprised to see a massive humanoid walking towards his town.

Dagruel stands up, thinking it's a True Giant that has gone berserk and activated full form, but, he was quickly convinced otherwise.

He approaches, and sees the entity walking alongside a human bearing a height akin to average, wearing armor which puzzled Dagruel.

He approached, but the two seem to have sat down, opposite each other.

The figure seemed smaller when he approached, and to Dagruel's puzzlement, they started.. Drinking?

He heard the two cups hitting each other, and down the hatch the drink went.

And after one round, the two began talking, and Dagruel just stood a fair distance away, completely dumbfounded.

-"Yhorm.. Old Friend..

Nothing beats a Siegbrau!"

The human cheered as he slammed the cup down.

And he was cheering for another reason.

"And once more, I drank faster than you! Hahahaha! 50-24!"

The figure grunted in frustration.

-"Your cup is smaller anyways, you would never outdrink if you and I had the same size!"

The figure exclaimed, before turning his head to the left, noticing the standing Dagruel.

"Oh.. Hello there, are you perhaps from the areas around here?"

The figure, as tough and as imposing as he looked, was quite calm and gentle-sounding.

He was, to an extent, much like Dagruel.

Answering the figure's question, Dagruel approached.

-"Pardon my intrusion, we do not get visitors often, I am Dagruel, the ruler of this land.

I cannot help but wonder, what race of giants are you?"

Dagruel took to questioning out of enormous curiosity, and it was Yhorm's turn to be confused, as he wasn't a "Giant" per se..

-"I am not.. Sure.. What you mean...

Race of Giants..? There's multiple races..?

I am a Lord of Cinder.. Or did we end up in the wrong area by a misplaced teleportation sorcery..?"

Now it was both staring at each other in confusion.

The weird-looking armored human stood up and spoke.

-"Now now, let's get this to work.

Hello, Dagruel, this is Yhorm, my old friend, he is a Giant from the lands of Lordran, I am Siegward, a knight of Catarina, do not mind the armor.

We seem to be in quite the pickle, we suddenly awoke and found ourselves here..

And I could swear I slew my friend.. But it was all just a bad dream.

Where are we, exactly?"

Dagruel slowly started to understand, and then..

Ah.. They must be reincarnated..

..

How do I break it to them?

-"Uhuh..

Alright, listen to this.

You two are not where you were, you are in a different world.

This is called the "Cardinal World", and wherever you were, you cannot go back to it.

I am sorry if it's such a surprise."

Dagruel put a hand behind his head and scratched it, he was a little worried they'd go mad and attack him thinking he's a liar.

But they didn't, they merely looked at each other and laughed.

Is this a sarcastic laught-

-"Ah.. Forgive our surprised laughs, we are just taken aback, we'd never thought we'd end up like this in a new world!"

Siegward exclaimed, these two were truly strange.

How calm! These two are absolutely ready for any situation.

What a dynamic duo.

Dagruel was absolutely correct to think that.

-"Yes, although it may seem like a paranormal situation, a thing of the extreme, we are always calm together, we have faced many hardships together, and, to that extent, nothing surprises us anymore."

-"I understand, and that makes things easier.

Do come with, we will talk more on the way."

Yhorm, Siegward and Dagruel moved along the dunes to the town of the Giants, and a visible catastrophe could be seen.

And the only thing the two could possibly think...

-"The.."

-"Abyss?"

Siegward started, and Yhorm finished, which instantly left Dagruel confused again.

-"Hm? The Abyss? What might that be?

If you are talking about that eyesore, it is an ancient relic of a battle long lost.

You needn't worry your heads about it now.

Whatever it is, it is not related to what you are thinking of."

The two nodded amongst themselves and went ahead.

A long walk had them exchange some of their pasts, roles, and whatnot, until they reached the topic of "Skills".

At first, Yhorm was confused, but Siegward's eyes, although behind armor, looked very impatient.

He had heard the "Voice", but, Yhorm hasn't.

Dagruel took the initiative to explain what they obtained, hoping they'd understand his simplified explanation.

-"Alright, listen closely.

Within the soul of any being, there is will, and from that will, comes power beyond understanding for the normal entity.

For stronger willed people and creatures, that power is stronger.

These powers are skills.

What is the name of the skill the voice spoke of, Siegward?"

Siegward answered Dagruel's question instantly, with a tone of excitement.

-"It was called.. Hm.."

Dagruel waited for an answer.

-"Yes..?"

He was anticipating the skill's name, but it was taking too long, and as it was taking so much time, Yhorm could only watch in amusement.

-"Mm...

I seem to have forgotten what it is called.."

Dagruel's eye twitched.

This.. Fellow..

Is very strange.

Yhorm laughed, and Siegward did as well.

-"Classic Siegward act.."

Classic..? This is normal for them as well?!

Dagruel was not one to be shocked or surprised, but this was an event beyond all reason...

Then Siegward shot up from his laughter.

-"I REMEMBER NOW!

[Onion Knight]!!! THAT'S WHAT IT WAS!

AHAHAHAHA!! PERFECT FIT!"

The shouting noise from Siegward reverberated throughout the entire desert, there is probably not a single human, giant or monster that hasn't heard that.

-"Onion..?"

Dagruel's eyebrows and eyes had the formation of deep concern.

Why would he laugh at that..?

Just what is this man...!

Wait.. 

Now that I think of it..

He does look like a..

-"Anyhow! The skill's description was magnificent!

It said something along the lines of "For the honor of all those I serve, I shall charge into the fray!", it was an epic moment to witness, and then...

I heard it say something about sub... sub.. mm..."

-"Sub-Skills?"

Dagruel picked the line up for Siegward, who continued.

-"Ah yes, that! Thank you, anyways, 

I heard a total of 3, if I am not mistaken.

One was to grant me tenacity, making me unshakeable, the second was to give me agility, to make me able to move faster in this heavy armor, not that I can't anyways!

The third was a weird one, it was a sort of..

Summoning skill I think? Mmmm...

Yes, that's what it is.

A skill that summons forth a squadron of knights like me from the past!"

Siegward finished that sentence with all his excitement released, and Yhorm nodded in acknowledgement.

Dagruel was also satisfied with that information, and now, after all that was done and dusted, they finally entered the town.

Obviously with Yhorm being extremely gigantic in comparison to even the giants in the town, he had to stay outside and observe.

-"I will be waiting for you, old friend!"

Yhorm sat a way's off and took to falling in thought, and seeing him do so, Siegward proceeded deeper into the town with the newfound friend, Dagruel.

-"Say, Dagruel, how expansive is this world?"

Dagruel thought for a moment, and he came up with the best possible answer in his opinion.

-"It is large, massively so, you can go for days on end and still be in the same regions, it also differs greatly from region to region.

You have this desert, which is actually the land farthest to the west on this continent, of which there are three, the Magic Continent, which is this continent, the Ice Continent, home to the arguably two strongest beings known to this world, and the land which houses the Golden El Dorado, home to another strong being, who was formerly a human, much like you.

If you go to the east, you will go from this desert, to a holy empire ruled by unorthodoxy, to a merchant kingdom filled with greed, to a quiet forest filled with the deadliest of monsters, to a conqueror's empire which has halted its conquest long ago.

As you can see from all I have said;

It is a world of contradiction."

Dagruel finished his talk, and Siegward clapped.

-"Uhahaha! You have a beautiful way with words, friend!

And I can only hope your words speak true, for contradiction is the only way anything can be anything!"

Dagruel smiled, he had never seen someone so entertaining in quite a long time..

He seems so lively.. He and his friend..

Unlike..

Sitting on a chair right before them was Dagruel's old friend, Dino.

Dino was an Angel, an Angel without a home.

The reason Dagruel's smile now turned to a frown looking at Dino was because..

-"Dino...

Can you do something to aid my people, please?"

Dino opened one eye and saw Dagruel and Siegward.

-"You got a guy who looks really strong, can he do it instead..?"

Dino spoke in a very slouched tone, like he was so done with life, words barely left his mouth as he didn't even put force into talking.

Dagruel's eye twitched, and he was about to throw Dino into the sky as a form of waking up.

But, Siegward intervened.

-"Oh! Good eye there little boy! I can do just that!

And I can have Yhorm help out as well, it wouldn't be fair you guided us here without us compensating, yes?"

Dagruel was stunned, but he quickly reclaimed himself, and answered.

-"...If you do not mind..

I am sorry this lazy.. Piece of work.. Won't help."

Dino shut his eyes, without so much as a thank you.

-"It's fine, he seems tired anyways, let him rest."

Siegward was fooled by Dino's ploy.

-"No you se-"

Dagruel got caught off by Siegward rushing to call for Yhorm.

"Sigh.."

Dagruel stared at Dino, a stern stare.

-"What? He accepted it just fine, can't blame me.."

-"I.. Sigh.. You.. Ugh..

We'll discuss this later.

What do you think of them?"

Dino opened one eye again.

-"I don't know..

They seem decent."

Dagruel's eyes blanked out at this response.. He forgot how simple Dino talks because he doesn't want to waste energy in talking.

I can't blame him also.. He didn't talk with them for long..

Sigh... Dino..

Dino is a close friend to Dagruel, both have lived together for a long time.

Dino practically wandered into Dagruel's land since he had no where to go and sleep properly, and Dagruel, confused at the time, just let him in.

As much as Dino is basically useless, he is not draining on any part of Dagruel's land, save for a chair or a couch he sleeps on, which Dagruel lets him use.

Sometimes Dagruel wants to make him work, but all is futile against Dino's mighty resilient laziness.

"Although.. That giant definitely is interesting...

He seems to have a skill... And yet.. he doesn't at the same time..?"

Dagruel stared in disbelief at Dino.

He, of all people, did an observation like this..!?

This might be the start of him being useful! Hopefully..