To repeat Ragnarok.
Frondier knew well what that implied.
‘The Giants are still on this land. Trapped inside Pandemonium.’
Of course, he couldn’t say all of them were alive.
From Frondier’s own experience, his Pandemonium wasn’t something that could be endured for long. Even Bael and Atena had reached peril in that brief span.
The war between humans and gods—the Ragnarok of this world—was so long ago that present humanity could no longer remember it. Naturally, the fact that people now don’t even know such a war existed isn’t simply a matter of time. Still, certainly a long time had passed.
Giants were originally humans. Could they really endure such a long time inside Pandemonium?
“They’ll be alive.”
“!”
As if reading Frondier’s thoughts, Heracles spoke.
“They’re still alive, waiting for someone who will someday come again.”
“......Why do you think so?”
At that, Heracles smiled.
“Because half of me is human.”
Heracles believed in the strength of humans. In that case, Frondier—entirely human—could only share that belief.
Even so, Heracles said,
“But whether meeting them is truly the right thing, I can’t give a definitive answer.”
The Giants who fought the gods in the distant past would reappear. What would happen next would flow as naturally as water.
Flames would leap high.
Heracles knew all too well the resentment the Giants bore toward the gods, and even if Frondier didn’t know it, he sensed it. If the Giants reappeared, war would surely break out.
“Then why tell me this? You must be well aware of the danger.”
If Heracles feared war, he could have kept silent. Yet he showed Frondier the possibility. What was the reason?
“The first reason is that, if you truly can enter Pandemonium, I think it is the only method to kill a god.”
“......Do you resent the gods that much? As much as the Giants?”
“Resent? No, not that. This isn’t that kind of matter.”
Heracles slowly shook his head.
“It’s simply something that must be done. The Giants would have thought so as well.”
“......But you’re a demigod. You can’t feel exactly as they do.”
“That’s right. The gods too simply do what must be done.”
As he said so, a lonely light passed through Heracles’s eyes into the empty air.
“That’s why I’m an onlooker.”
“.......”
There was still much Frondier didn’t know.
The Giants’ resentment toward the gods, the killing intent Heracles had emitted, and all that he called ‘what must be done.’
But Heracles had no intention of explaining that far. The many things he hid in his words were proof of that.
“What is the second reason?”
“Because the power you possess is far too exceptional.”
Re-entry into Pandemonium.
What had become almost natural to Frondier looked exceedingly strange to Heracles and Telephos. Atena and Bael likely thought the same.
“Until now, no one could freely go in and out of Pandemonium. Including humans, demons, and gods alike.”
And a fact that holds for everyone becomes a single law.
The law that Pandemonium cannot be entered again.
However, since this law wasn’t made from clear logic or grounds, a single exception breaks it.
And an exception had occurred.
“With an exception of that magnitude, one feels there must be a reason.”
“A reason?”
“The reason such a power was given to you.”
Heracles pointed at Frondier.
“If that power, in the end, is to take out a Giant trapped in Pandemonium.”
He spoke as if peering into Frondier’s soul.
“Then we’ll be able to know whether that is resisting a fate arranged by someone—or ultimately submitting to it.”
***
Selena, as usual, spent her time assisting Arald or Riri.
Administration of the demons, improvements and restoration of the three-dimensional map device—Arald and Riri had tasks that overlapped and yet were entirely different. Selena didn’t know the details, but she would help with the small things.
Outside of that, she devoted herself to personal training. Back when she was in Manggot, there had been people who helped her train, but now she immersed herself in training alone.
“Hoo.......”
Even now she was training in the room—an empty one Frondier had arranged for her. This room looked very similar to a personal training room of Constel, and in fact Frondier had conceived almost all of it, then asked Arald to draft the design.
It was a room with basic soundproofing, vibration-proofing, fireproofing, and waterproofing, so unless a war broke out, one couldn’t know what was happening outside from within. One could focus solely on training. Except for the shadow connected to Frondier.
Sss—
Selena lay long across the room. As if she were about to take a nap, she stretched out straight. Her thin arm passed over her head, the palm at the end touching the floor, and—
Whip—
Pivoting on her hand, her entire body turned once and rose. A technique that used aura, her body control, sense of balance, and balance. It wasn’t a movement helpful in actual combat, but to make this movement possible required enormous prerequisites.
“It doesn’t feel like there’s anything wrong with my condition.”
Selena murmured as she examined her own body.
The most important task for her was guarding Frondier. But in truth, the times when Frondier needed her were really only occasional.
So since first meeting Frondier to now, Selena had gradually been seized by a growing doubt.
It was a very serious concern.
‘Am I necessary to Lord Frondier?’
Frondier was strong. So strong that he was lightly surpassing Selena.
He said he was weak in close combat, but by now that claim had lost persuasiveness. Facing Aster head-on and you’re weak in close combat? Modesty gone so far it became deceit.
‘......He must mean really close—the domain of ultra-close-quarters.’
Selena was both an assassin and one of the Yeolgots that annihilated enemies. She was first-rate in handling the body.
The weakness Frondier spoke of was in fact Selena’s specialty. A distance even closer than one where weapons cross, closer even than a striking match where fists fly. All forms that entangle using arts like grappling.
In other words, a distance where not only weapons but every reach including arm length becomes meaningless. At this distance, Selena had the advantage over Frondier. That was certain.
“Of course, I don’t know how to get in.”
From that perspective, Frondier needing Selena wasn’t an empty statement. Selena was like Frondier’s final defensive line. If his weapons and Heukcheon, even the short sword he drew himself, were all pierced, Frondier had no means to respond. So Frondier entrusted that means to Selena.
But could Selena stop an enemy who broke through all that?
“......I’m weaker now.”
Selena let out a deep sigh.
Frondier’s enemies were growing stronger by degrees. As for monsters, they were now killing even abyssal beasts; as for humans, they had surpassed the Zodiac level; and even the Seven Deadly Sins and higher gods were aiming for his neck.
In Manggot, Selena had been selected and selected again. In appearance and skill alike. There were almost none who knew the total headcount of Manggot, and only Hagli, her former superior, had a rough grasp of the scale.
Even if Manggot had fallen, not all had died. There must be quite many living scattered somewhere.
Among them, only ten. Only ten entered the Yeolgots, and only those ten could become one another’s training partners. The others were of no help to Yeolgots training.
And among them, for Selena, all the remaining nine served as her training partners.
“It’s different from then.”
Count across the entire continent of Falind, and the number of people who could beat her would be on the fingers of one hand.
Originally, Manggot were those who had moved to burn the Empire. And among them, the Yeolgots were a group raised to kill a Zodiac.
Naturally, that didn’t mean they surpassed a Zodiac in skill. However, if it was solely to kill, there was no need for higher skill.
If the conditions and environment were met, they could kill a Zodiac. By spending a very long time and stabbing into a single moment’s opening. Of course, in most cases that would be a mutual kill.
All Yeolgots were called by letters of the alphabet. An utterly insincere naming, and Selena was called “J,” the tenth.
In other words, Manggot completed the “Yeolgots” by putting Selena in the tenth seat; said another way, at the point Selena joined, they were confident the Yeolgots could kill a Zodiac.
‘I thought I’d grown stronger, but I’ve grown weaker.’
There had been a time when she thought only of killing.
There had been a time when she thought [N O V E L I G H T] only of burning.
As with everyone in Manggot, Selena had that past, too.
If she was to protect Frondier from now on, if she was to remain by his side—
Then that former killing intent—
Beep─
Selena lifted her head at the signal sounding in the room. It meant someone was outside. Like a doorbell.
She moved her steps, wiped her sweat with a towel, and opened the door.
There stood Ria Liss.
“......Hello.”
“Hi, Selena.”
Riri waved warmly.
Selena felt somewhat awkward.
Ever since she had left the continent with Frondier, she had spent a long time together with Riri.
But they had never met privately, and this was the first time she had come to her home. It was only natural she felt a certain awkwardness.
“What brings you here?”
Selena asked Riri.
If only it would end at awkward.
Unlike Frondier, Selena could not look at Riri so kindly.
“I came to ask a favor.”
“......A favor?”
With a puzzled look on her face, Selena simultaneously let a cool gaze settle behind Riri.
Riri was a demon. A demon who had deceived Frondier.
According to Frondier, her power was so high that it could be compared to that of a Seven Deadly Sins—a high-ranking demon.
A demon with the power of “Charm.” A demon whose power, abilities, and even name evoked the ancient demon Lilith—Ria Liss.
With this incident, she seemed to have earned quite a bit of Frondier’s trust, and so Selena was all the more wary of her.
‘Lord Frondier has gone to meet Heracles, and Ms. Elodie is with Mei. If she aimed for this gap to come to me—’
No one knew of Riri’s Charm unless Riri herself or the one affected confessed. Just as no one in the Empire had discovered it before Frondier.
If she intended to enthrall Selena that way and put her beneath her—
‘Before that, I’ll—’
Kill—
Whip!
“?!”
Right then, Riri did something utterly outside Selena’s expectations.
She bent at the waist in front of Selena at a ninety-degree angle.
“Teach me shadow transfer! Selena!”
“......Ah, what?”
