Arald did not answer, but Frondier already knew the answer.
“Arald, you hate the gods, don’t you.”
“.......”
“A perfect check against the gods— no, a power that could threaten the gods themselves. If one were to become King of Demons, that kind of power would be possible. And if someone were to sit in that seat, it wouldn’t matter whether they were demon or human.”
Arald must have been searching long before he ever met Frondier.
Searching for someone fit to become King of Demons.
The current Seven Deadly Sins were not enough. They had no intention of opposing the gods.
In the end, the Seven Deadly Sins could never become a single sovereign. For the rest of their lives, they would bow their heads before the gods.
Then who?
If even the Seven Deadly Sins, called the pinnacle of demons, could not stand against the gods— who else could?
“And the one you ended up finding was me, Arald.”
“.......”
The silence continued.
Frondier knew what that silence meant.
It was the silence of someone who knew that whatever he said would disadvantage him.
“When we first met, you told me, didn’t you. That I would be able to use ‘the power of demons.’”
The power of demons.
Now understood as “Ecleksis,” that power— Arald had said Frondier would be able to use it too.
“You already knew, didn’t you? That the power of demons was originally Ecleksis. That’s why you said I’d be able to use it.”
“......Yes.”
A short answer. But it was enough.
“And probably, you didn’t have absolute confidence in it at the time. It would be good if I could use it, and if I couldn’t, so be it. You’d just go look for someone else.”
To Arald, Frondier had been just one among countless humans. Even if Frondier was considered strong, there had been no definitive proof that he could use Ecleksis.
But there had been hope.
He had seen Frondier’s records.
He had gathered the mana of Helheim inside himself. He had surely killed stray spirits and ghosts.
He had no countermeasures against the dead— so how had he done it?
If he used Ecleksis—
“And when I actually mastered Ecleksis, your thoughts must have changed.”
“......Yes.”
Become King of Demons.
When Arald asked Frondier that, it had been little more than an empty wish.
Of course he had hoped for it, and he had expectations, but he had believed the chances were low.
But Frondier had mastered Ecleksis.
And not an ordinary kind— a very special and overwhelmingly powerful form.
From that moment, Arald’s thinking had changed.
He had chosen to follow Frondier.
“You started acting devoted after that. After you realized I could use Ecleksis, and after you knew I could re-enter Pandemonium.”
Frondier sat down in a nearby chair.
“I appreciate your devotion. So even if you hid some information and, as a result, ended up deceiving me, I can understand.”
“......Thank you.”
“But.”
Frondier’s eyes darkened like ink.
“No more.”
“.......”
“If you had revealed everything you knew from the start, we could have solved the situation much more quickly and neatly. But now it’s too late. I know very well how hard it is to cough up information once you’ve held it back. So I’ll give you a chance myself.”
Frondier extended a hand.
“Will you help me?”
At those words, Arald froze for a brief moment.
But it lasted only a few seconds, and then—
Ssk.
He dropped to one knee and showed complete respect toward Frondier.
“I will obey anything. I will never again harbor mistaken thoughts.”
“Good. Then first question.”
Without hesitation, Frondier spoke.
“Why do you know about Ecleksis?”
Demons believed the power they used was “the power of demons.” When Frondier used Ecleksis, they mistook him for a demon.
In other words, unless one was a very high demon, they would not know the name “Ecleksis.” Demons believed it was a power exclusive to themselves.
But Arald was different. When he predicted Frondier could use it, he had already known of Ecleksis.
“......I thought so.”
Arald opened his mouth.
“I see you already know everything, Frondier.”
“Your words just confirmed that my guess was right.”
Frondier smiled.
“You existed even before Ecleksis was designated as ‘the power of demons,’ didn’t you.”
“Yes.”
“You’re a demon far older than I thought.”
“That is correct.”
“Riri is looking for demons with eyewitness accounts, but the one she’s looking for is actually you, isn’t it?”
“......Yes. I am a demon who witnessed Ragnarok.”
Arald answered honestly. He said he had witnessed Ragnarok.
That meant that he possessed the information Frondier needed— and had been deliberately hiding it. Just as Frondier had said.
“You hid it from me because you feared you’d lose my trust if you revealed it only now?”
“That is one reason, but there is another.”
Arald lifted his serious eyes toward Frondier.
“I did not witness all of Ragnarok. What I saw was only a very small part of it, and I feared it might cause misunderstanding or misinterpretation.”
“Only a very small part?”
“Most demons did not involve themselves in Ragnarok. It had nothing to do with them. So we stayed as far away as possible to avoid getting caught in the devastation.”
“So you also only saw it from far away.”
Arald nodded.
“Even so, I did witness part of the Pandemonium that occurred during humanity’s battle with the demons. I still remember its location. Even if not perfectly, I can guide you near it.”
“Oh?”
The location of Pandemonium Frondier had been searching for so desperately. And the one who knew it had been so close all along.
But Arald added,
“However, there remains a problem.”
“What is it?”
“Frondier. You know this well from your own experience. Pandemonium is a battle of souls. Only the soul is pulled inside. The body remains here.”
“......Ah.”
“Even if the Giants’ souls are still alive within Pandemonium—”
Their bodies would already have decayed and vanished with the flow of time.
Frondier pressed his hand to his forehead.
“Right. Of course. I didn’t think of something so obvious.”
Frondier was always the human using Ecleksis. He was never the one observing someone else use it. He always perceived himself as entering and leaving Pandemonium, but in reality, his body stayed exactly where it was. He’d never felt the difference, so the thought had simply never occurred to him.
“......Even so.”
Frondier lowered his hand.
“Let’s go.”
“.......”
“I never expected direct help. Knowledge and information alone are enough.”
If the Giants could not be brought back, then Frondier would simply go into Pandemonium and hear what they had to say.
And more than anything—
“I have to save them.”
They had suffered long enough.
***
Arald and I headed for the western shore of Agoris.
This region belonged to Bael— that is, to Edrium— so Arald and I could spread our wings and fly freely through the sky.
“Come to think of it, that means you knew about this continent from the beginning.”
“Of course.”
“You hid it well, didn’t you.”
“......I don’t recall ever explicitly lying.”
This guy— he really is a lot like me.
Honestly, I had sensed it from the very beginning.
Arald and I were not the type to get along by temperament. In my previous world, if I had met someone with a personality like his, we wouldn’t have stuck together long. The very idea of there being another person like me would’ve been annoying.
‘Thinking about it that way, I guess I’ve changed a lot.’
Unlike simply choosing who to get along with, now I save and handle people according to necessity. In that process, each person’s personality stopped being an important issue.
Whether that was growth or adaptation, he wasn’t sure— but right now, it was simply something he had to do.
“This way.”
Arald brought me to a sandy beach on the coast.
“You fought at a place like this?”
“Most of Ragnarok occurred in old Falind— that is, the continent of Etius. Naturally, the demons did not approach Etius. Of course, at that time most demons were in the demon realm, but a few acted in Agoris due to contracts with humans.”
“And one of them was you.”
“That’s correct. So I could not witness most of Ragnarok, but I could see the part that reached Agoris.”
Ragnarok. Even the name carried immense weight.
A war that took place in Etius had impacted even this place, Agoris.
I looked around.
Now it looked like an ordinary beach. The fact that gods and Giants had fought here— there wasn’t a speck of trace left.
“For reference, before Ragnarok, this place was a rocky coast. Not a sandy beach.”
......So there wasn’t “no trace.” The traces were simply too big to recognize.
What on earth had they done to turn a rocky coast into sand?
“Somewhere around here, there’s a Pandemonium, right.”
“If a Giant endured here, then certainly.”
I activated my intuition.
Normally, it was always active, but to find Pandemonium, I had to sharpen it further.
Finding Pandemonium was similar to detecting Elodie when she’d vanished from this world. Even though she’d been right in front of me inside a cottage, I couldn’t see her. That was how difficult it was.
But I already had the experience of finding Pandemonium twice, and I’d developed my own method.
Result—
“......It’s here.”
“What?”
Arald widened his eyes in shock.
“Is that truly so?”
“Why are you surprised? You brought me here.”
“It was such a long time ago that I did not truly think it would still remain. And more than that, this is the first time I’ve seen someone find Pandemonium.”
Fair enough— most people reacted this way.
Finding Pandemonium was harder than entering it.
‘Still—’
I hadn’t expected to find it this quickly, but there was a reason.
‘So that’s what it looks like.’
Until now, whenever I found Pandemonium, I had already stepped inside it. I had been re-entering places where I had already fought, so I had been extremely close to the entry point.
Pandemonium was essentially another world. Step half a pace in one direction and you entered, step back and you returned. But for ordinary humans, that “direction” was not one they could move toward.
But this time, Pandemonium was some distance away, and I could actually see it.
‘......A door. No, a gate.’
Pandemonium was not ornate at all.
Just a single door standing alone. No door panel— only a doorframe.
Crossing through that doorframe would take me into Pandemonium. I could feel it instinctively. Which meant this was definitely a gate.
“......Are you going in?”
“Yeah. That’s why we came here, isn’t it?”
I looked at Arald, who had asked such an obvious question.
But he seemed distinctly uneasy.
“What’s wrong?”
“......Something feels off.”
Arald’s expression tightened.
He briefly looked back over his shoulder, as though checking the path we had come.
“Frondier. I have a question.”
“What is it?”
“Do you believe in fate?”
......?
It was # Nоvеlight # a very familiar question— but coming at a strange timing.
But my answer was predetermined.
It had never changed.
“No. I don’t believe in gods.”
“......Yes. I thought so.”
Arald seemed slightly relieved.
I looked at him for a moment, then stepped toward the doorframe.
Beyond this was a Giant.
I would find him, gain knowledge, and find a clue to launch a counterattack against the gods.
With that resolve, I took a single step.
The moment I crossed—
─Ten minutes! You said ten minutes!
─It’s already been an hour!
A voice came to mind for no reason.
Selena’s voice.
When I thought I’d been gone for ten minutes, and it had already been an hour.
‘......Wait.’
I only realized the implication after I turned around.
The doorframe was gone.
I had already stepped inside Pandemonium.
