Originally, Aster planned to travel by ship.
Naturally so—Aster is a pure swordsman, so he has almost no achievement in magic. Something like “flight” is out of the question.
Renzo does things akin to flight without using flight magic, but that’s because he’s Renzo.
So Aster, as a professional, intended to report the situation to the imperial palace, then board a large vessel capable of withstanding the sea between continents and cross the ocean. In ❀ Nоvеlігht ❀ (Don’t copy, read here) fact, the imperial palace, which knew the situation of the Zodiacs, was making preparations for this.
The plan unraveled within three steps of Aster picking up his spear and shield.
“Wait...... a second.”
A voice came from behind Aster.
‘......Divine power!’
Feeling that strange sensation, Aster hurriedly turned his body.
Ludovic was already watching him with his eyes open.
‘......Huh? It’s not Apollo.’
For a moment Aster thought it was Apollo.
But even the gaze was different.
Ludovic had returned.
Relieved at that, Aster spoke.
“Your body was fighting until just now. There will surely be fatigue. Please rest.”
“That goes for you as well.”
Ludovic slowly rose.
His body felt heavy, but it looked more like the languor after a long sleep than fatigue.
“Apollo healed my body completely. There’s nothing to worry about.”
“......It does look that way.”
In truth, Ludovic now felt his condition to be very good. Even if there had been Apollo’s healing, the mental damage and fatigue from being possessed should have remained.
The reason was simple.
“My eyes have been opened.”
“.......”
“After being possessed, I understood clearly. Just how pathetic a disgrace I’d been showing.”
Ludovic, tormented by guilt.
That was unavoidable, perhaps, but it was a state that no one—not even Ludovic himself—wanted to see.
Everyone had been expecting and waiting for him to stand again.
Yet the god who had been granting him divine power could not endure and stole his body.
“I’ll take you there. By ship will be far too late.”
“......Mr. Ludovic, can you fly?”
“A Zodiac can do anything.”
At that, Aster’s eyes widened. “Can’t do anything”—indeed, Zodiacs are amazing. His face showed such a thought.
“Come on, get on my back.”
“.......”
Ludovic turned his body and bent his knees. He even tilted himself to make it easy for Aster to climb on.
“......I feel too honored; my feet won’t readily move.”
“Is that important? We’re in a situation where every moment counts.”
“......Quite right.”
And so Aster climbed onto Ludovic’s back.
Ludovic rose by flight, and the two headed toward the western continent at high speed.
‘Wow, incredible speed. At this rate we’ll reach Agoris in no time.’
Aster was impressed, but at the same time worry came to him.
Could they truly maintain this speed until arriving in Agoris?
He didn’t know much about flight magic, but wouldn’t it consume quite a lot of mana?
“Aster, don’t worry.”
Then Ludovic spoke.
“There will never again be a matter of my body being taken.”
Ludovic’s voice when he said that was so distinct that it was heard clearly even amidst the sound of wind whisking by at high speed.
‘......I wasn’t worried about that to begin with.’
The possibility of Ludovic having his body taken again.
Even if it wasn’t small, for some reason Aster thought such a thing would not happen.
‘......Rather.’
It seemed Ludovic himself did not feel it,
but from the moment he said his eyes had been opened, Aster had been continuously sensing it.
‘Right now, from Ludovic I feel a power different from mana and aura.’
A short while ago, when Ludovic awoke and spoke to Aster—
Aster felt divine power. So he thought Apollo had come again.
But it wasn’t Apollo, and what he felt as divine power was a little different from Apollo’s shade.
From Ludovic there came an aura that resembled both Baldur, who had once been Aster’s god, and Apollo.
Yet Ludovic was possessed by no one.
Then what is this power?
‘......Surely not!’
Aster’s eyes flashed open.
‘Mr. Ludovic—has he become a god!’
His eyes were still far from reaching the truth.
***
As Aster and Ludovic drew closer to Agoris, the number of people visible around them gradually increased.
‘......They’re mostly Zodiacs. More precisely, gods possessing the Zodiacs.’
Not only the Zodiacs, but famed powerhouses of the Empire were moving in large numbers. It was a moment that made one feel the might of divine power.
However, not everyone was present.
Constel’s headmaster Ospreet, Monty, and Ridwy Urfa were nowhere to be seen. Had they overcome possession? Or had they gone far ahead already? Perhaps they were causing trouble in the Empire.
Aster whispered.
“Will this be all right? If they find out we’re not possessed.”
“Everyone is in a hurry now; they have no room to mind their surroundings. In the first place, the notion that something non-god is mixed in among them is strange.”
“But I’m not even flying; I’m being carried on someone’s back.”
“Look around. Many have already noticed you, but they don’t care. You’re holding Ares’s spear and shield right now. Most of them will think you’re Ares. There are plenty of reasons not to fly. You might have spent all your mana in the previous fight, or been injured.”
“That’s rather vague.”
“As long as you keep your mouth shut, it’ll be fine. You look like the type who can’t lie at a glance.”
Aster couldn’t bring himself to say “no.” He decided, as Ludovic said, to keep his mouth closed.
“Look there.”
Ludovic looked to the head of the crowd, which had swelled before they knew it.
“It’s Zeus.”
“......That person—”
One might wonder how to distinguish Zeus among so many people, but it was very easy.
He was already holding Astrafe.
Since he was possessing someone, it wasn’t Zeus’s face, but that one weapon was proof enough.
“......It truly is shaped like lightning.”
“Of course it is.”
Of course. Everyone says so. Zeus’s Astrafe takes the form of lightning. No—Astrafe is lightning itself. Zeus grasps lightning and throws lightning.
Seeing the shape of sharp straight lines breaking in succession, Aster spoke.
“As a weapon, it’s not a good shape.”
“You’re thinking that in the middle of this?”
“Besides, he isn’t someone I know. Even though he has Zeus’s divine power.”
“Well. Whether he has Zeus’s divine power or not. The odds are high he’s merely a possession host.”
Indeed—now that he heard it, Aster had never heard of someone receiving Zeus’s divine power.
Ludovic continued.
“The chief gods are generally that way. They don’t grant divine power to humans. I don’t know why.”
And finally—
[Stop.]
All those headed for Agoris witnessed him.
Poseidon.
True to a sea god, with a majestic size, with a majestic voice, Poseidon—his figure as though five houses had been stacked—was holding a long trident and standing to meet them.
“Poseidon!”
Naturally, at the forefront Zeus brightened as he first saw Poseidon.
“At last we meet! It’s truly been a long time!”
“Mm, Zeus.”
Since Poseidon had been bound to the sea, the two had been unable to meet directly.
There was at least the pretext that demons had insulted the gods, so they met through possession; if not for this affair, meeting would have been much later. “Later” to a degree that even the word “years” would feel light.
Naturally, Zeus was glad to see Poseidon after so long.
Of course Poseidon was the same, but he deliberately hardened his face.
“I too am glad. It has truly been a long time.”
“It has. Poseidon, but unfortunately we have no time now. We are on our way to exterminate demons.”
At that, Poseidon nodded. Exactly as Frondier had told him.
Therefore—
“Zeus, before I let you pass, there is something to do.”
“Something to do?”
“Because there is the possibility that among you, something that is not a god has mixed in.”
At that Zeus’s face hardened.
“......Are you suspecting that among these there is a demon?”
“Yes. As long as that possibility exists, I cannot let all pass. I am, to begin with, also the gatekeeper of this place.”
At Poseidon’s words, the gods looked around at one another.
If it were their true bodies, it might be different, but now they are in a state of possessing humans. If a demon hid among them, distinguishing would not be easy.
Of course, Aster was presently shrinking himself and watching the situation.
‘......I think we’re in trouble.’
He had thought they could simply arrive in Agoris safely, but suddenly Poseidon was saying something frightening.
To root out the thing that isn’t a god among these.
That’s me.
“Poseidon, how exactly do you intend to find it? Setting aside the Twelve of Olympus, there is no god who remembers even the Ecleksis of the gods below them. We cannot distinguish a demon here. Even if it is hiding, once we arrive in the capital and sweep in one go, that will be effective.”
“Do not worry, Zeus. I will let you pass.”
Poseidon pointed toward Zeus’s right hand.
“Those who have a weapon that can serve as proof will be sent through.”
Zeus’s Astrafe. There is no one but Zeus who grasps it.
But displeasure spread across Zeus’s face.
“Poseidon. There are not many gods who possess a weapon representing themselves. What of the gods who remain?”
“I will have to examine them one by one.”
“We don’t have time for that—”
“Zeus. You alone are enough.”
Poseidon and Zeus looked at each other for a moment.
Zeus didn’t like it, but soon nodded.
If it were their true bodies, it might be different, but now they were in a state of possessing humans. The overwhelmingly strongest one here was Poseidon.
And Poseidon’s words were correct.
Zeus—he alone would be enough.
“And Ares.”
Poseidon pointed a finger in one direction. The problem was that the finger was so big they couldn’t tell whom he was pointing at.
“Ares. You pass as well. Go.”
“.......”
“Ares?”
There, Aster, who had been in a daze, heard Ludovic’s whisper.
“He’s talking to you, you idiot.”
“Ah.”
Only then did Aster straighten his hunched body and lift his head.
Poseidon looked at Aster and tilted his head.
“Are you hurt somewhere? You can’t even fly and are being carried on someone’s back.”
“......Ah, I was injured in the battle that broke out first in the Empire, and I used up my mana—”
Aster repeated the same vague excuse Ludovic had given him.
And he mixed it in.
“.......”
Zeus watched that for a moment, then—as if he were indeed pressed for time—flew off toward the capital.
In the meantime, Poseidon spoke.
“Hmm, at any rate, you go as well. That spear and shield. They are as clear as a business card.”
Poseidon thought he had presented a reasonable first sieve. A god’s weapon cannot be easily handled by anyone but the god. Not knowing the situation outside, it was, to him, a proper line of thought.
At that, Aster pointed a finger at Ludovic and spoke.
“Ah, then, since I can’t fly, could I go together with this friend—”
At Aster’s words, Ludovic muttered, “You idiot.”
A question settled on Poseidon’s face.
“......? Why say something so obvious?”
“Ah, right. Then we’ll go.”
At that, Ludovic flew on in quiet silence.
Everyone was quietly watching that sight.
Something is odd, odd...... The gods, feeling a certain sense of incongruity, were watching Ludovic and Aster.
“......Ares, you say?”
One of them at last grasped the nature of the incongruity.
“Then that face and body are Renzo’s?”
“Mm?”
“Hm.”
At that, the gods looked at Aster’s face.
“......Was Renzo’s face like that?”
“Unexpectedly, you care quite a lot about appearances, Ares.”
Because Renzo goes about alone so much, the gods do not know his appearance well.
But they had heard accounts from Ares, so there was something about Aster that did not quite match his description.
“......Ares.”
“......Ah, yes.”
Aster still reacted late to Poseidon’s call.
“Before you go, I have one request.”
By now Poseidon was looking at Aster with a slightly suspicious eye.
“Show me your Ecleksis.”
Aster clamped his mouth shut for an instant.
Ecle—what? he almost said. Truly.
“If you show power sufficient for one of the Twelve of Olympus, that will do.”
Poseidon, thinking it a generous offer in his way, said so.
But Aster only blinked.
