Frondier looked back at Hela again.
As much as he disliked it, if Belphegor was at Selena’s side, he could relax. Frondier knew very well how strong he was.
Even if he didn’t like it.
“Hela, are we going to keep going?”
At Frondier’s question, Hela’s expression twisted.
“What do you mean by that?”
“At this rate, you’re at a disadvantage.”
Frondier was specialized in fighting large numbers of enemies. His Heukcheon protected him on all sides, he could deploy weapons in numbers exceeding an army, and a single arrow became tens of thousands that pierced the enemy.
Not one of them held absolute destructive power. But they were more than enough to kill enemies weaker than that.
However, Hela did not hesitate.
“Frondier, do you resign in chess just because you’re short on pawns?”
“......Indeed. You’re right.”
Frondier understood what Hela meant and opened his hand. Mjolnir was grasped in that hand.
“You’re saying the important thing is the general.”
“Come at me, Frondier. You said you were curious about a god’s power.”
Hela’s eyes shone. Her surroundings turned black. It was the influence of mana.
Hela reached one hand forward, and mana gathered in that hand and formed a shape.
'......A lantern?'
Just as Frondier saw it, what Hela held in her hand was a lantern. Only the light inside swayed violet, making it nothing but ominous.
Hela brought her face close to that lantern.
She lightly drew in a breath,
Fwooh─
and when she blew,
Frondier’s surroundings went pitch black.
'......That’s impossi,'
Swoosh!
KWA-ANG─!
Before Frondier could finish the thought, something flew at him from his left and crashed into Heukcheon.
Judging by the sound and feel of it, it was an arrow.
Frondier heightened his tension.
'Just because she put out that lantern, the entire world is swallowed by darkness?'
As expected of the ruler of Hel. Was the master of this world truly different from the rest?
On top of that, as he had experienced just now, his sixth sense was dull here. A situation where his vision was completely blocked was dangerous.
'But Hela, you haven’t forgotten this, have you.'
Frondier took out a mana crystal.
If there was no light, then he only had to create it.
Flaaash─!
He floated the crystal up into the sky and created a wisp. The amount of light instantly swelled as if exploding.
When his surroundings began to come into view again,
“......!”
Frondier found himself face-to-face with the empty eye sockets of a skull.
“Urgh......!”
He barely managed to twist his body and retreat from his spot, and in the gap he left, skulls rammed through.
Puh-buh-buh!!
The skulls exploded one after another, and Frondier blocked them with Heukcheon as he backed away. Or rather, he should say he was inevitably pushed back by the force of the explosions.
'They really don’t make a single sound!'
They were dead things to begin with, and on top of that, they were just skulls, floating with only their heads. There was no breathing, and he couldn’t feel any presence to speak of.
Frondier checked the surroundings. Hela was still standing in her original spot.
'My wisp excels in light output, but its duration isn’t that long. I have to finish this while it’s lit.'
Hela would know that as well.
If she kept wasting time, he would only end up wasting mana crystals.
The time it took to make a crystal itself wasn’t that long, but because he knew how much mana each one consumed, he couldn’t use them carelessly.
'Before this light goes out!'
Frondier tightened his grip on Mjolnir in his right hand.
KWA-ROOM!
Lightning struck, and sparks burst out, piercing all the remaining skulls and stray wraiths around him.
He pulled his arm far back, and as the hammer was drawn back, it snapped the air and raised heat.
Then he hurled it, the hammer flying in a straight line toward Hela.
Until the hammer reached Hela, there was no chance it would be blocked on the way.
'It’ll miss anyway.'
Frondier thought.
'But I can control Mjolnir. If I make it chase Hela continuously,'
When Frondier had thought that far,
Hela was still standing in the exact same spot. She had no intention of moving.
“......Huh?”
As if to answer Frondier’s doubt, Hela raised one hand.
Thud!
She caught Mjolnir in that hand.
“......What?”
Mjolnir’s power fell asleep as it was. It was stopped by one of Hela’s hands.
Frondier stared blankly, dumbfounded.
A voice flew toward him.
“Frondier! Forgot already?”
It was Belphegor’s voice.
“Don’t use the gods’ weapons! They have resistance to divine power!”
“......Even so.”
Frondier lost his words.
Belphegor had certainly said that. Before Frondier drove his blow into the ground, he had told him to use something other than a god’s weapon.
In the world of the gods, there is resistance to divine power. So the power of a god’s weapon is halved.
But even so,
'You’re telling me that Mjolnir, becomes that powerless and falls asleep like that?'
Knowing that didn’t mean he could accept this situation.
When he heard Belphegor’s words, he had taken it as meaning that heroes’ weapons were more effective than gods’ weapons. He had not thought gods’ weapons would become completely useless.
Yet just now, when Mjolnir and Hela clashed.
To Frondier’s eyes, it hadn’t looked like Hela was blocking it with some tremendous power, but rather like Mjolnir’s power had simply vanished.
'And more than anything.'
What Frondier felt most displeased about right now.
That was precisely the sense of déjà vu.
He had seen it somewhere.
The sight of a god’s power disappearing that feebly.
When had that been?
Pop─
While Frondier was lost in thought, the light of the mana crystal went out.
The world was swallowed in pitch black again.
When Hela waved her hand again, this time cavalry appeared.
Wraith knights whose horses and riders were all composed of souls. Cavalry in formation charged at full speed toward Frondier.
The cavalry running through the sky made no sound of hooves, and the horses did not neigh either.
A fierce yet so very quiet charge.
'This time it’ll be faster than before, Frondier.'
Just now, Frondier had narrowly dodged the explosion of the skulls.
So a charge faster than that would reach Frondier. In the pitch dark, the cavalry attacked while cutting off all avenues of retreat from every direction.
“......Right.”
KWAANG!
Right after, two horses were sent flying into the air.
Slice!
All the remaining horses’ legs were cut off,
Crash! Thud! Thump!
And the cavalry falling from above were all smashed against Heukcheon.
“......!”
Hela’s mouth dropped open in surprise.
An overwhelmingly faster reaction speed than before.
More than anything, in this pitch blackness, he moved as if he could see in front of him.
No, that was not “seeing in front of him.”
'......They say a warrior who has reached a certain realm becomes so keen that even with eyes closed they can clearly trace the exact shape of the enemy’s killing intent.'
But that is literally a realm that ordinary people can never reach in their lifetimes.
All the more so if it was Frondier, who had until now simply pushed through with the destructive power of skills and magic.
'Among the people Frondier knows, the only one who could do something like that is Atjie at most. Don’t tell me Frondier has grown that far as a warrior?'
Cutting off Hela’s thoughts,
“I remembered.”
Frondier’s voice rang out cold.
Right. He had remembered.
There had been a time when a god’s power had become powerless.
Frondier had seen that scene over and over.
─Baldur, please. Lend me your strength.
It was a scene from the game.
From back then, when he had challenged countless times as Aster Evans.
Baldur’s strength that had been powerless before the Minotaur.
In the game, he had thought it was because the power of divine force was lacking.
When he fell into this world, he had thought it was because Baldur, on a whim, had not granted full power.
And now.
One hypothesis flashed through Frondier’s mind.
“Hela. Let me ask just one thing.”
Frondier spoke in a low voice.
Seeing his eyes, Hela immediately raised her hand and pointed at Frondier.
The meaning was simple.
Full assault.
At that, several ships, wraiths, soldiers and archers, all at once,
Frondier de Roach
Ecleksis
dispersed.
Everything that had formed shapes crumbled like ash and scattered.
Every last one of the countless forces.
“......!”
Hela took a step back.
Frondier had not used Ecleksis until now, saying he was curious about the gods’ power.
But in this moment, none of that mattered to Frondier.
'What? How did he grasp all of this?'
A situation Hela could not understand.
In this pitch-black darkness, the only one who could see ahead should have been Hela.
Yet.
'Frondier’s Ecleksis is dangerous. That’s why I brought out the lantern from the start!'
Among those that had been revealed, Frondier’s Ecleksis was the strongest.
All the gods he had fought until now had almost all failed to respond and had been hit.
That was why Hela also knew its danger and used ⊛ Nоvеlιght ⊛ (Read the full story) the darkness to block his aim.
But if that didn’t work,
“Hela. I’m not saying I want to fight. I have something to ask.”
Frondier’s voice was filled with anger.
Hela knew the reason why.
And that was exactly why she must never be caught by Frondier.
'Even if he can see me, I’m still the master of this world!'
Hela poured out wraiths one after another. She did not choose the type. As long as they blocked the line of sight between Frondier and herself, it was enough.
With this, she would block his vision and first escape using Yggdrasil,
“Menosorpo.”
At that moment, Hela saw it.
The cylindrical mana that had appeared small in Frondier’s hand, spreading out and expanding in an instant.
Menosorpo
Workshop
Wave
Along with that, a Workshop formed as if to swallow Hela.
'With something like this!'
Hela began an incantation.
It wasn’t her specialty, but she was still a god of death. A light “blink” was well within what she could do.
She would use this to leap out of the Workshop’s range.
Tap!
And the place where Hela set her foot down was,
“Huh?”
Still inside the Workshop.
THOOM!
Soon, the Workshop closed completely.
'Just how huge did he make this?'
A Workshop that encompassed everything Hela had crossed with her spatial leap. He must have used almost the entire range of Menosorpo.
As Elodie had said, the Workshop was a kind of grand magic.
Was it something permitted to a human to use that grand magic on this kind of scale?
'......Right.'
No, it wasn’t.
Frondier wasn’t human.
“Hela.”
Frondier approached.
From the moment she was swallowed by the Workshop, the outcome had been decided.
Niflheim might be Hela’s domain, but this Workshop belonged to Frondier.
The situation was reversed. Now Hela’s line of sight was blocked.
“Answer properly.”
“......Frondier.”
Hela sneered.
“I’m only going to give you exactly the answer you’re thinking of anyway.”
“......The Minotaur Aster met.”
Frondier ignored Hela’s words and continued speaking.
“Does that thing have resistance to divine power?”
“.......”
Hela paused for a moment, but soon answered.
Just as she had said a moment ago.
“Yeah. It has resistance. So divine power doesn’t work. Well, even without that resistance, it’s tough enough as it is.”
“Why does that thing have resistance?”
“Why do you think?”
Hela’s eyes flashed open. She was filled with a kind of exhilaration.
That Frondier was angry. That fact itself seemed to give her a sort of exhilaration.
“Because a god made it, that’s why. This is what you wanted to hear,”
CRUNCH!
“Kh!”
Frondier grabbed Hela by the neck and lifted her up.
“Cut the arrogance and answer properly.”
Frondier’s gaze reached Hela.
“This is the last question.”
“.......”
Hela only twisted her face in pain.
Frondier asked,
“......Are all the monsters outside, like that?”
“.......”
Hela remained silent.
However, her eyes were fixed straight on Frondier.
Their eyes were almost the same.
Clashing like that, Frondier asked again.
“From the very beginning, were the gods creating monsters and sending them, to kill humans?”
