Cybel does not know her mother's face. She has never seen it even once.
When she was young, she thinks there were times when she was at least curious. So she even asked her father, Dawud.
'Back then, what did Dad say again......?'
She cannot remember.
Why that important conversation will not come to mind, and why Cybel, after that, stopped caring about her mother.
Her head throbbed. Cybel put a hand to her temple.
'Well, if it were divine power, Pandemonium would never have opened. Even if it did open, it would have been my god that entered Pandemonium, not me.'
Since she herself is inside Pandemonium, this power is, after all, her own power.
Krrrk-
At that moment the sound of gears came again. This time it sounded a little clearer.
“Where in the world is it coming from.”
Cybel turned her gaze, following that sound.
Her gaze searched for the sound, then gradually went down.
“......No way.”
The sound was coming from beneath the ground.
This domain is Cybel's domain.
In her eyes, the inside of this land began to be visible.
Inside it, there were gears.
“What is this.”
One gear led into the next gear.
Countless gears, endlessly connected, turned without end inside this land.
Countless gears whose length no one could know, whose turning no one knew what they were ultimately meant to move.
'......I see. Among all of these, I've only ever heard the sound of a few of them.'
Cybel had always thought that it was only a single gear she was hearing.
But in reality, among the countless gears that turned without respite, she merely heard a few of them from time to time.
The moment she saw the gears turning throughout this entire land, her head spun, but somehow those sounds were not noisy, and instead gradually made Cybel understand.
This is her domain.
Her own domain, which she has not yet understood.
'......In the end, what are these gears for.'
Cybel watched the whole of it. To find the end of the gears. To see how the gears turned, and what they ultimately set in motion.
And at last, Cybel knew.
At the central part connected above the gears, there stood a single tree.
At the end where all the gears turned, finally.
The teeth reached the tree.
───Tick.
Along with the sound.
“Hm......?”
A fruit grew from the tree.
A golden-colored fruit.
'......Just now, it sounded like the second hand of a clock moved.......'
But that sound rang out only once. It did not ring again.
And in time with that, the golden fruit that had grown.
Cybel walked toward the tree.
The branch was too high for her hand to reach.
Cybel naturally raised high the huge scythe she was holding.
'It fits perfectly.'
At just the right height, the scythe reached the branch.
Rustle, as she lightly touched it, the fruit dropped with a thump. Cybel lightly caught it with one hand.
“Is this an apple......?”
Seen up close, it was an even more dazzling gold.
Just as she was thinking whether this was something a person could eat,
[Idun.......]
Jormungandr's voice was heard.
[How can such a thing be.]
At those words, Cybel's expression stiffened.
Idun.
It was an all too famous name.
The goddess who guards the golden apples, Idun.
But there is no record anywhere that she married a human.
Let alone that that human would be, of all people, Cybel's father, Dawud.
“You're saying my mother is Idun?”
[Yes. Do you not understand?]
“......Then this, is it really a ‘Golden Apple’?”
[This is Pandemonium. Talking about what is ‘real’ is nonsense. Idun has simply left this scenery to you.]
Jormungandr swept his eyes over Cybel, who was blankly staring down at the apple.
[Now that I look, your hair color and your eyes. You resemble her.]
“......If you're distinguishing just by colors on that level, if you look, there must be other people,”
[Have there ever been? Such a person. Someone with pinkish hair and green eyes like you.]
“.......”
In truth, there had not.
Her colors were both brilliant and alien. Her eyes aside, she had never seen anyone with the same hair color as her.
That was why she drew even more attention, her appearance shone all the more, and she enchanted so many people.
[So that story was true.]
“What story?”
[I heard Idun was kidnapped by a giant, but that in truth she ran away from Asgard of her own accord.]
According to the records, Idun was kidnapped by the giant “Tiyachi”. Enchanted by her appearance, Tiyachi kidnapped her together with the basket she was holding.
Because all the golden apples were inside that basket, it is said that the gods, who could obtain immortality only by eating the golden apples, all became old.
“......And you're saying in truth she came out on her own?”
If in that story, Idun voluntarily left Asgard,
then it means she devised a plan to deliberately make all the gods grow old. No, going further, she must have thought of killing them all.
[I could not believe it either, but there were several strange points for it to have been just a kidnapping.]
“Strange points?”
[First, when Idun was kidnapped, the basket was taken whole along with her. At that time, Tiyachi had no interest in the apples. Yet it is strange that he carried off all of them without missing a single one. It was obvious he would incur the gods' wrath, and even kidnapping Idun alone from the start was a dangerous act.]
Kidnapping Idun and, in the midst of it, also taking the basket filled with golden apples. It was a troublesome and difficult thing, and at the same time it only increased the risk. If she had truly been kidnapped, it is highly likely Idun would have thrown away the basket. Because she knows what her duty is.
However, if it was Idun who went out of her own accord, it is rather natural. She only had to go out holding her own basket in her arms. All the more so if her purpose was to keep from giving the golden apples to the gods.
[Another is that after Idun left, not a single fruit grew on the tree.]
“......Ah.”
Even if all the golden apples in the basket were lost, the tree should, by its nature, bear fruit.
However, the reason the gods grew old so quickly was because the growth of fruit on the tree stopped. Is that not something Idun herself brought about?
[And more than anything, your existence increases the credibility of that story.]
“Me? Why?”
[The fact that she bore a child with a human means she herself went toward the human world.]
Idun must guard the golden apples. That is the greatest and only mission given to her.
That is why she does not leave the tree's side.
However, if Cybel truly is Idun's daughter, it means Idun left the tree's side and went to the human world.
'......Am I really a demigod?'
Jormungandr said so, but Cybel herself could not feel it.
She had no particular sense that she was using the power of a god. Or rather, is that precisely why she is a demigod. Her own power would not feel special to her.
'That feeling like fate is following me, is that because I'm a god.'
Not all gods would be like that. There must be a unique trait regarding “fate” that belongs to Idun.
“......Then, what are you going to do?”
Cybel looked at Jormungandr.
“Are you still planning to kill me?”
Just a moment ago, Jormungandr had tried to bite Cybel to death in one gulp.
But the serpent had fallen into a worry unlike any he had had before.
[......I am Loki's child. But Loki is dead.]
Cybel blinked at those words.
The first part was knowledge she already knew; the latter was something she was hearing for the first time.
'Loki is dead.......'
Before she could swallow the meaning of those words, Jormungandr spoke.
[The reason I do not attack Odin is because I did not see that will in Loki.]
“You said he did not want to bring about Ragnarok.”
[Yes. Because that was Loki's will.]
Having said that, the serpent shook his head.
As if reconsidering his own words just now, or as if denying them.
[......The reason Idun returned to Asgard again was because of Loki.]
Just as in the mythic records, when Idun was kidnapped by the giant Tiyachi, she escaped thanks to Loki. Loki used transformation arts, secretly slipped in, and escaped with her.
[But if Idun was not kidnapped, and instead came out on her own, then Loki sending her back to Asgard would have had a different meaning.]
The serpent's eyes shone.
[I must understand that meaning.]
“......Meaning?”
[Child of Idun.]
Jormungandr came close to Cybel until he was literally right in front of her nose.
To be honest, from Cybel's line of sight, she could see nothing but the serpent's skin.
[Once you leave this place, come to the sea. Beyond Edrium. I will be waiting there.]
“......I'm in the city to move the King of Palma. If you are going to stop that.”
[That too must change.]
Jormungandr said.
[It was only to prevent Ragnarok. If we are truly going to bring about Ragnarok, then Palma must also move.]
In other words, Jormungandr would no longer stop the King of Palma from becoming an emperor.
From king to emperor, from kingdom to empire.
For a nation that is the only one on the continent, one might wonder what meaning that has, but in this world, proclaiming oneself emperor is to claim the position right below the gods.
The gods would be able to very easily know what Palma's will is.
“Poseidon is in that sea.”
[I will meet him.]
Jormungandr answered as if it were only natural.
From two worlds, a god and a monster that rivals him would meet.
Cold sweat ran down Cybel's face, who knew the meaning of this.
“But can I even leave here? According to what Frondier said,”
once you enter Pandemonium, only the victor can leave.
At that, Jormungandr nodded.
[It is a simple matter.]
“A simple matter?”
[All that needs to be done is for me to die.]
Cybel was at a loss for ⊛ Nоvеlιght ⊛ (Read the full story) words.
The words she barely managed to let out at last were,
“Where in the world are you right n─”
Thud─
Suddenly the serpent's focus blurred, and the light went out of his eyes and dimmed.
His massive body sank into the sea.
“......What.”
Pandemonium began to disappear.
“......Hah!”
Cybel raised her body.
When she came out of Pandemonium, her surroundings had grown dark.
Right, they had said time flowed faster in there.
“Is this...... a bedchamber. In the royal palace?”
She raised herself up from the bed.
When one enters Pandemonium, the physical body stiffens and hardens. However, judging from how Frondier had worried she might be attacked in the meantime, it was not in that firm a state.
Most likely, several retainers had moved Cybel, just as she had been standing.
“I'm not going to be hated, right?”
Cybel recalled how the King of Palma had been just before and scratched her head.
The King of Palma suddenly writhing in agony. Just before that, Cybel had been talking with him.
They might think Cybel had pulled some trick on the king.
“......Well, seeing as they still moved me all the way to a bedchamber, maybe it's not that bad.”
Cybel exhaled calmly.
She thought for a moment.
According to Jormungandr's words.
'The records that Idun was kidnapped are a story from so long ago that I cannot even imagine it. If she really left on her own back then, then it would not be strange for her to leave the tree's side once more, would it.'
And so, leaving its side again, she went toward the human world and met Dawud.
Considering Dawud's age, the time when Idun met Dawud would, in terms of timing, have been around when the monsters invaded the Empire.
'But a god cannot simply descend to the human world. The process of descent is necessary.'
However, people do not pray to Idun in the form of a descent. Wishing for the descent of one who must be guarding the golden apples would only serve to offend the gods of Asgard.
From the timing, and from the traits of the god called Idun, this descent is not a coincidence. It was planned.
Then by whom?
'During the time of the monster war, when everyone was in chaos, there was someone who moved to bring about Idun's descent into the human realm.'
Most likely, that person had been meeting Idun even before that and laid out this plan. Whatever the purpose was, they were someone unbelievably bold, or else someone in whom the sense called fear was absent.
Who could that be?
