<h4>Volume 4, Intermission - The Strongest Gaidga (1/3)</h4>


    Arrogant dark green eyes, a body twice as big as the Goblin King when he was at his ss, gray skin with a more pronounced ck, and a blood-red hair that ran from his head to his back and all the way to the end of his tail.


    Arms as thick as logs and hands that seemed like they could crush any normal goblin’s head with ease. Fangs that peeked out from his mouth and painted a fierce image that made him fit to be called a demon from hell.


    One of his eyes was bandaged but that only made him more intimidating.


    His stiff tail could send foes flying, but there was also a horn at the end that could be used to pierce. If one were to be asked to give five of the strongest men in the Goblin King’s Kingdom of the ck SunAlrodena Kingdom, he would surely be among them.


    That was the Chief of the Gaidga Tribe, Rashka.


    A goblin said to be the strongest among the tribes, and one who has received the divine protection of the Goddess of the Underworld because of his ancient blood.


    Rashka, a member of one of the four goblin tribes, that were said to be the founders of the goblins, had grown tired of war and would sometimes show up to the Gordob’s medical team. His goal was Kuzan.


    But of course, it wasn’t anything romantic. Although she’d already lost the divine protection of the twin-headed snake, the Lord of Decay, to the tribes, she was still a noble priestess, who deserved respect.


    Even Rashka, who was fearless since his youth, had been properly instructed by his distant dad in that regard. ording to him, anyone whoys a hand on the priestess is shameless. Anyone who hurts the priestess is an enemy of the tribe. And the priestess is the person that should be respected the most among the tribes.


    The priestess was someone who devoted her body and prayed for the tribes’ prosperity. She was someone who had foretold of the king’s return.


    Whether she had power or not, she had authority.


    He didn’t understand that much as a child, but even at his worst, he never once thought of hurting Kuzan. Rashka didn’t know what kind of person someone who should be respected was, but the moment he met her, he knew she wasn’t one to trifled with.


    Since then, the Goblin King appeared, in the blink of an eye, the tribes were unified, and then they chased away the great demons, restored the Fortress of the Abyss, and then… Time passed. In that time, Rashka and Kuzan’s rtionship hadn’t changed even a little.


    “Oh, Rashka-dono,” Kuzan said.


    Rashka waited for her time to end before visiting. When Kuzan saw him, she bowed her head.


    “Hey,” Rashka said.


    The difference in stature between these two goblins was even bigger than the difference between an adult and a child, but they were definitely some of the most respected goblins.


    “Tell me more of that story.”


    “dly.”


    For a long time now, Rashka has been fond of the stories of his ancestor. The story of the biggest and fiercest goblin, who appeared with the original Goddess of the UnderworldDeetna.


    As the wings of the Goddess of the Darkness spread themselves, the twin red moon sisters illuminated the night, and Kuzan began to tell the tale of that valiant goblin.


    ◆◆◇


    The moment the old gods opened the door to the underworld, the War of the Gods began. The founders of the humans, the heroes, and the goblins and monsters that came to this world through the gate of the underworld.


    Through the giant hole opened in the ground, the ancient monsters appeared with the goddess leading them. The ancestor of the orcs, the Ancient Demon Beasts (Blue Orcs). The ancestor of the Great Demons (Ogres), the Ancient Great Demons (Ancient Ogres). The ancestor of the mindless giants and the onlyplete giant, the Wise Giant (Bahhal).


    Since they appeared in a world where the elves, the demihumans, the dragons, and the humans have already made homes for themselves, their first contact could only be war. However the battle between the Races of the Land and the Forces of the Underworld that started with what was essentially a surprise attack would quickly fall into a stalemate.


    While the Forces of the Underworld relied on their overwhelming strength advantage on an individual basis, the Forces of the Land were always increasing their number and fighting with quantity. Against these monsters, who hadn’t even thought of reproducing, the Forces of the Land reproduced, raised their kin into soldiers, and fought.


    The forces of the underworld did not have parents or children because the monsters were born when the recesses of the cycle of the gathered souls in the underworld fell and hardened. They were born as part of a cycle, so they didn’t have parents or children. If there had to be a parent, then the Goddess of the Underworld would be the parent of all the monsters.


    Hence, even though Mother Deetna had moved to the underworld, she was still continuing to give birth to life.


    Because of the forces of thend choosing to defend by increasing their numbers, the scale of their world grew even bigger, and while the monsters could still fight them, they became unable to overwhelm them.


    So the monsters started thinking. The races of thend were strong because they prospered. If they took that prosperity, then they should be able to defeat them.


    —We too will prosper as a race.


    Mother Deetna granted that wish. She used most of her power to give the monsters a gender, she made them male and female, and made reproduction possible. She even made it so that they could reproduce even with the females of other species.


    Although the primal god, Kutiarga, was already dead by this time, and Deetna had moved to the underworld, her power was still worlds apartpared to the old gods.


    Yet after granting the wish of the monsters, something neither the monsters nor the goddess expected happened. The species that were born from reproduction were not the same as the original monsters.


    Diversity was the foundation of prosperity above thend. While the monsters continued to multiply, monsters that didn’t listen to the Goddess of the Underworld and those who did whatever they wanted were born.


    The best example of these monsters was the descendants of the Wise Giant (Bahhal), the Mindless Giants (Gigantopitecus). The Wise Giant, that had a mode of life different from the giants birthed by the Gods of Starfaring々 (Tear), looked at his descendants andmented.


    “It’s almost as if they’ve degraded. There is no one who can surpass me.”


    When his descendants started to ignore his words, he led them away from the Forces of the Underworld and settled down at the western part of the continent, then dered neutrality.


    It was at this point that the battle between Mother Deetna’s forces and the forces of thend started to change. As the generations changed, the war to wipe each other out by reproduction continued.


    The struggle for existence between the two forces had taken that form.


    The forces of the Goddess of the Underworld kept their advantage in the battle, but by the time they moved to the end of the eastern part of the continent, they were already starting to get tired.


    And when they’d finally reached it and confronted the humans there, the new gods, the so-called gods of the humans, stood in her way.


    The power of the humans that had just recently risen to power were able to contest the monsters thanks to their overwhelming reproductive abilities and the changes that the new generations would bring to their civilization.


    Moreover, sometimes there was a human stronger than the rest, one that could only be born every few generations. This type of human was known as a ‘hero’. In the face of these heroes, the monsters given life by Deetna were defeated, and the death of her loyal monsters weakened her control over her monster army, causing their attack against the humans to weaken as well.


    Soon the monsters even fought among themselves and they ate each other.


    The exhaustion over the years undermined the Forces of the Underworld, and the Goddess of the Underworld’s invasion was left at a standstill.


    Among the monsters loyal to the Goddess of the Underworld were the Demonic Children of Chaos (Goblins). They were small and did not have a strong ego like the bigger monsters, but they swore to follow only the Goddess of the Underworld.


    Under the lead of one the founders, the goblins continued to reproduce until their numbers exceeded all the other monsters in the army. Among those goblins were four that stood out from the rest.


    They were Gordob, Paradua, Ganra, and Gaidga.


    But by then, the War of the Gods was already in itsst stage, and due to Deetna giving too much of her power to the monsters, she grew weaker, and the human gods were able to use that opening to attack. Already, Deetna was on the course to defeat.