Frondier and Belphegor landed on the ground.
Frondier set down Selena, who had been carried on his back.
"......Mm."
They looked around the surroundings for a moment. Soon, their expressions became subtly strange.
Frondier opened his mouth.
"I went a bit overboard."
"It is more than overboard, Sir Frondier."
Back at Taven, Frondier had done something similar. To wipe out the monsters in front ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) of the wall.
At that time it had been Excalibur, but this time it was Gram. The destructive power of the weapon itself would probably favor Excalibur.
But if in Taven all he had poured out was a palm-sized piece of Penelope’s cloth,
This time he had poured in Frondier’s mana without holding back, using a magic that combined all of the mana crystal and the Dragon Heart. And on top of that, Black Heaven further evolved by the Nine Manas.
The result.
"......It looks like a crushed cake. The kind the main character of a birthday party would fling to the floor."
"Stop trying to describe it so accurately."
If the attack in Taven had created a crater, this time it looked as if he had flipped the entire ground over once.
Belphegor whistled.
"Whiiiu, incredible. Frondier, at this rate we’ll have to redraw the map after every place you pass by."
"Don’t act like I do this just anywhere. More importantly, did you find the root?"
"Ah, of course."
Belphegor turned his palm upward and raised a finger. Along with it, the fragments of the shattered ground floated up into the air.
"With this much, there’s no need to worry about whether we dug down to the root. Let’s see....... Right, I can see it there."
Belphegor pointed with his finger at some part of the ground. Frondier and Selena turned their gaze that way.
"......?"
But both of them tilted their heads.
With their eyes, they could not see what could possibly be a tree root. The area Belphegor pointed to was just the underside of the ground that had been turned over. In other words, it was simply a deeper stratum. Unlike the surface, the underside was white.
"Where is there a tree root in that?"
"You can’t see it because you’re trying to look for a root. Broaden your vision."
"......Broaden my vision, don’t tell me."
Frondier’s brow furrowed.
Belphegor grinned mischievously.
"That’s right. That ‘stratum’ is the root. One of Yggdrasil’s."
This time Belphegor raised both arms. When his hands, gathered in the middle, spread outward, the shattered ground parted left and right along with them.
Below it, the white land Belphegor had called a root gradually revealed itself.
How much debris had Belphegor cleared?
"......My goodness."
Selena let out a sound of admiration. The white thing they had thought was ground had a definite end. She wasn’t certain if calling it a root was correct, but—
Selena turned her head slightly and swept her gaze from the far left end to the far right. It was that thick.
"......That’s supposed to be a tree root?"
"Yes. One among the many roots of Yggdrasil. If you look carefully, there’s a thicker side and a thinner side. We just have to go toward where it thickens."
At those words, after staring at the root for a while, Frondier asked:
"......But the trunk of Yggdrasil I saw was thick, but not this thick. Are its roots thicker than the trunk?"
"That statement is half right and half wrong."
Belphegor said it.
Frondier’s eyes narrowed.
This question is half right and half wrong? What, is it half thicker? This boastful bastard.
"It is half thicker."
"What?"
"Think about it. Yggdrasil is a tree connecting worlds. Its trunk exists everywhere. How do you think that’s possible? Do you think the worlds just happened to be conveniently aligned vertically so that one trunk could pierce through them all?"
At that, Frondier and Selena considered it briefly, then:
"Yeah."
"Wasn’t it like that?"
They replied.
Belphegor pulled his lips taut and said:
"......That would be impressive too, but the secret lies in how Yggdrasil grows."
"How it grows?"
"Yggdrasil’s roots stretch underground, and its multiple trunks grow in different locations. Frondier, what you saw was one of the trunks that branched from a root. The trunk that stretches to your human world. So some trunks are thinner than the root, and some are thicker."
Hearing this, Frondier tilted his head more and more, then spoke as if he understood.
"Aha, like an aspen tree."
Aspen trees grow individual trunks out of a single underground root system. That is how forests are formed. Above ground, the trees appear separate, but below ground, they share a single root network.
Even if one tree dies, the root does not die; the next tree simply grows.
A famous example is the quaking aspen—no one knows the lifespan of an entire grove because the original sprout from ancient times has still not died. Eighty thousand years, they said.
"For a tree like that, the spacing of Yggdrasil seems really sparse. It’s not enough to form a forest."
"Who knows. From Yggdrasil’s perspective, it might not be sparse at all."
"......That’s a terrifying thought."
From Yggdrasil’s perspective, this might be an adequately close growth interval. In each world there was one trunk.
"Anyway, we head this way."
Belphegor stood atop the root and pointed toward the direction the root stretched.
"Toward this direction, the root gets thicker."
"......Really?"
Honestly, from Frondier’s point of view, the root was already absurdly thick, so he couldn’t tell if it was getting thicker.
"......I think it does look that way."
But apparently Selena could tell. At her words, Frondier nodded.
"Then this must be the right way."
"Why don’t you believe my words?"
"Because you’re a demon."
"Yes. Therefore you should trust a fellow kind."
"......."
For a moment, a throbbing pain went through Frondier’s head.
"But even if that’s the growth pattern, there’s no guarantee going toward the thicker direction will lead to a trunk. A trunk could sprout anywhere along the root."
"Do not worry. There is a rule."
"A rule?"
"Yggdrasil’s trunk always grows from the thickest root of a given world. Since there is only one trunk per world, it sprouts where nourishment is best supplied."
"......I see. I understand."
Thus the three flew again. Selena, carried on Frondier’s back, struggled against the wind but soon grew used to it.
While they traveled, Belphegor spoke.
"I’ll mention it just in case, but don’t think things will continue going this smoothly."
"I don’t think that at all. In fact, it’s strange things have gone smoothly so far."
Frondier replied, and Selena, still being carried, had a tense expression.
"Your movements are predictable, Sir Frondier. Satan and the other gods guided things so you would come here. They failed to kill you, but they know your goal."
Frondier was going to save Atjie. There was only one method. Whatever Belphegor was thinking, the other gods likely knew it too.
Then why had they not been obstructed up to now?
"It means there’s no need to drain their strength."
"What do you mean?"
"They’ll be waiting at the end of this root, at the next trunk of Yggdrasil."
"Who will be waiting?"
"Who else? The master of Niflheim."
At that, Frondier’s eyes sank.
"......Hela."
The goddess who ruled Helheim, Hela. Since Helheim existed within Niflheim, it was only natural that Hela was here.
Belphegor asked:
"You’ve met that woman before? Since you have Helheim’s mana."
"Yes. A familiar name."
"I do not find it familiar at all."
Selena muttered with a dark expression.
"When I think about how that woman nearly killed Sir Frondier, my blood still runs backward."
Belphegor laughed at that.
"Haha. You’ve got a good subordinate, Frondier."
"She’s not a subordinate."
"Then what is she?"
"......."
Frondier’s mouth froze.
Belphegor shrugged and flew forward again.
"......Then what am I?"
But Selena asked.
She did not just let it go.
Frondier made an awkward expression and said:
"I’m not sure."
"Sir Frondier, you are the worst man."
Her evaluation plummeted. Where had all the trust they built until now gone?
"To evade the answer like that—this is unlike you, Sir Frondier."
"This is not evasion. I answered truthfully."
"That was truthful?"
"Yes."
Frondier sighed. His face carried anguish.
"Because I genuinely don’t know."
"......."
Selena blinked.
The old Frondier would have given some answer.
Selena was both his guard, his ancient-language disciple, and his classmate.
He could have chosen any one of those roles and it would have been enough. That was surely the Frondier she knew.
But Frondier now said:
He didn’t know.
"......I see."
At that, Selena asked no more and closed her mouth.
Frondier, to change the subject, asked Belphegor:
"Yggdrasil’s roots don’t necessarily grow in a straight line. Are you sure we can navigate by direction like this?"
"Didn’t you see how thick that was? Even if it curves a bit, it would take us a long, long time of flying before we could even feel a change."
After saying that, Belphegor glanced at Frondier with a smirk.
"If you’re that nervous, why don’t you smash the ground again? Then you’ll know for sure."
"......Oh?"
At those words, Frondier’s eyes changed, and Belphegor’s expression stiffened.
"No, that was a joke. One big commotion is enough."
"It sounded like a good idea."
"Smashing the ground wildly won’t help. We had no choice earlier because we needed to find the root. But doing it repeatedly as we travel is not an option."
"Why not? Worried they’ll detect us? The gods already know what we’re thinking. And once we arrive, we’ll meet Hela anyway."
At that, Belphegor spoke in a low voice.
"Not that. The problem is the giants."
"What?"
"You’ve heard of them at least once, right? That Niflheim has giants. They’re as dangerous as gods. No—depending on the meaning, even more so than gods."
Niflheim has giants.
Of course Frondier had heard this.
No—this was something even taught to students at Constel.
In many worlds—Niflheim, Jotun, Muspelheim—giants appear. Even the Titans in Olympus were the same.
But back then, they had simply thought of giants as literal giants.
Now things were different.
"Giants are humans. Weren't they humans who resisted the gods?"
Now Frondier knew what giants really were. They were people who once resisted the gods, and were even praised as heroes.
Belphegor let out a bitter smile.
"Yes, that’s correct. Your understanding is precise."
"Precise?"
"The giants in Niflheim are humans, too."
"......What?"
Frondier asked again, and Belphegor was about to explain more, when—
"Tch."
He clicked his tongue.
"If you’re that curious, see for yourself."
Belphegor lowered his gaze.
Frondier followed that gaze downward.
And saw—
Towering.
"Eek!"
Selena let out a short scream in surprise.
Frondier had stopped mid-flight.
"What is that."
"......Frondier, time is of the essence. We cannot waste time on every—"
"Belphegor."
Frondier looked at Belphegor with killing intent in his eyes.
"I’m still human. And you want me to just pass by that?"
"......."
Belphegor let out a sigh.
"Fine. Look as much as you like."
At those words, Frondier descended to the ground.
And the place where he set foot—
"......."
Frondier looked around.
With frost settling in his eyes, he looked at the surroundings.
There were humans.
Humans who did not move.
"......Frondier, I won’t lie. There is no need to lie, anyway."
Belphegor spoke.
"Have you heard the myth? That in Niflheim there are frozen humans."
"......Don’t tell me."
Frondier looked at the unmoving humans.
They were not frozen.
They were simply—
"They lost, Frondier."
"......."
"Pandemonium."
