The Heroine is My Stepsister, and I'm her Final Boss
Chapter 77: Taste of Freedom

Chapter 77: Chapter 77: Taste of Freedom

Within the dark of the jungle, the trees held their breath.

The canopy above swayed with the wind, but no creature dared disturb the slumbering mass beneath. No bird sang. No beast tread close. Even the monstrous fauna of the Dark Continent—creatures bred for chaos and blood—curved their paths away, as if warned by instinct older than evolution. The ground itself bowed, sloped subtly away from the epicenter of stillness.

He was not just asleep.

He was being waited on.

A Giant. A myth. A mistake.

The slumbering figure stretched from ridge to ravine, tangled in root and fog, so still he seemed part of the landscape. But his body was not made of earth. It was made of something older. Something that pulsed in tune with the sun’s own rhythm. His every breath stirred leaves in entire groves. Every exhale sang through the stones.

He had dreamed for five hundred years.

But not tonight, he had waited. Not for freedom. Not for revenge. But for an end.

Because his birth had been a sin—his mother, once beloved of the ancient pantheon, had laid with the Sun itself. The divine had punished her. Cast her down. Left him in the womb of the world like a broken apology no god wanted to claim.

But now, he was stirring.

The air around him shimmered, faint and electric. Something had shifted. Not just near him. Not just in the Continent. In everything.

His eyes opened.

Twin orbs of molten gold, veined with white flame, stared up at a sky he had not seen since the Time Before. The constellations had changed. The stars now held new names. But the feeling—the song—of the sky remained.

He blinked slowly.

{{{...Wait... it really worked?}}}

He sat up.

The motion was massive, tectonic. Trees cracked. Dust leapt from the canopy. The jungle trembled beneath his shifting weight. He ran a massive hand through his horned hair of fire, now tangled with burned moss, and laughed—a low, rough sound that rolled through the hills like the purring of mountains.

{{{Damn... it really happened... I escaped.}}}

He had come to the Dreaming’s edge a century ago, seeking stories. Seeking that mythical place where gods touched mortals through the membrane of dream. And when he had felt it begin to break—when the Dreaming collapsed—he had drifted toward it like a moth toward the final candle.

And somehow, through it, he had slipped free.

The spell of his exile—woven in sleep, in song, in silence—had unraveled. He was awake now. Truly awake.

And not alone.

He paused.

A scent. Not fear. Not hostility. But... purpose.

He turned.

At the edge of the clearing, where the mist still held onto the trees like breath held too long, two figures stood.

One shimmered with barely-contained shadow, a body always a fraction out of sync with the world—Veil. The son of Jörmungandr. A creature older than most oceans. The other, smaller. Human. Or shaped like one.

But the Giant knew. He felt it.

That was no mere mortal.

That was the so called Atlas. The human the woman and Veil talked about.

The Giant rose to full height, towering like a cathedral of fire and bone. Flames licked his scalp, symbols burned themselves into his skin. He did not threaten. But neither did he hide.

{{{Son of Jörmungandr... I sincerely thank you,}}} the Giant said, his voice like oil poured over thunder. {{{I never thought your lies would turn to reality.}}}

Veil twitched.

Even the Giant’s gratitude made his teeth itch.

"It’s not me," Veil growled. "It’s him. Atlas. The one Eli and I followed. The one who broke the Dreaming."

The Giant turned.

His eyes locked onto Atlas.

Not in awe.

In recognition.

Atlas stood firm.

The jungle pressed around him. Heat gathered at his skin. The firelight from the Giant’s mane should’ve seared him. Should’ve boiled his blood. But it didn’t.

It just... lingered. Like an echo. Like kin.

{{{...Are you sure?}}} the Giant asked Veil.

"Am I sure what?"

{{{That he’s human?}}}

His smile deepened.

{{{He looks more like the coming of a demigod.}}}

The Giant settled at last, kneeling into the earth with a rumble that shook small stones loose around him. His immense limbs folded beneath him like a mountain descending into its own shadow. He inhaled, and the forest seemed to lean in closer, breath held on silent boughs. Then, his voice emerged—soft, deep, and full.

{{{....Hmmm,}}} he murmured, eyes narrowing in contemplative rhythm. {{{Humble words from a powerful warrior.}}}

That line echoed through the grove, but the tone was not mocking—it was reverent. As if the Giant sized up each syllable, turning them over like polished stones, seeking their hidden facets.

He paused. The silence stretched—measured, expectant.

Then he leaned forward, his single eye closing for a fraction longer than possible for his size. When it reopened, he spoke again:

{{{ I see now. I feel the remnants of @#$%##... within you.}}}}}

He trailed off, the name too wild for words, and the jungle air filled with his sudden laughter—rich, thunderous, spontaneous.

{{{....Hahahahahah!!}}}

The sound shattered the stillness, and birds exploded from the canopy in alarmed flocks. The ground vibrated, teased by his mirth.

He lingered in that moment, savoring it, letting it carve ripples into the shade around them. Then his tone shifted, softened:

{{{...And here I thought it was only myth. Stories told by my mother to help me sleep. But—looking at you...it makes sense.}}}

Atlas felt the words sink into him—not like a tag, but like an echo from some deep memory.

The Giant lifted his gaze. His gaze drank in the clearing: the velvet dusk sky, the hush of ancient trees, the soft curves of hills beyond. He regarded it as though he’d found an old, undisturbed relic at the center of the world.

{{{That explains my escape.....,}}} he whispered, tone awed. {{{This... this world...}}}"

He drew a deep breath. A moment so full of wonder it stood still:

{{{In my exile,}}} he continued, each word weighed redolent, {{{I thought I slept an eternity. I thought I dreamed myself into oblivion. I believed I’d never wake in the land beyoud my cage.}}}

He turned his gaze back to Atlas.

{{{But now,}}} he said, voice pulling tight with awe, {{{ I wake into something I never dreamed possible.}}}

He spread his massive hands low over the soil—five fingers each taller than a man—letting dirt sift between them. It was as if he were confirming his own presence, coaxing disbelief into acknowledgment.

Atlas watched silently, heart pounding at the magnitude of the moment. He felt the Giant’s relief, his astonishment, and—most of all—his profound gratitude.

The Giant inhaled again. The forest inhaled with him.

{{{Thank you,}}} he said, each word resonating deep—a vow, more urgent than apology.

Atlas’s throat constricted. He had not sought worship. Not this kind of reassurance.

But in the Giant’s gaze, he sensed a raw longing—not for power, but for connection. For liberation. For validation that this fractured world, this broken forest, was still worth returning to.

Atlas stepped forward.

He knelt slightly—small and human beside that colossal form.

"If there is purpose in my survival," he murmured, "then perhaps it was always tied to yours."

The Giant’s moss-limned skin glowed faintly in dusk light. He nodded once.

A breeze brushed through the clearing—leaves whispered. Somewhere, far above, stars blinked on.

The Giant closed his eyes. His thoughts closing towards his past he was fond off. His mother. His father. The words they spoke to him when he was still a child. An innocent baby.

{{{So.....it’s indeed time...time for the end to come.}}}