At that moment,
────Thud.
Everyone in Manggot, including Di, collapsed.
‘What is this!’
Even the ease on Renzo’s face vanished.
Renzo was still standing, but he knew the reason they had all fallen.
He too could feel the oppressive pressure. From deeper inside the cave.
[......A fate that forces you to fight, huh.]
And a voice was heard.
Renzo focused his eyesight. From the very back of the cave, someone was approaching.
In the instant where even their shadow could barely be made out, with the next step,
“!”
someone reached the space right in front of Renzo’s eyes.
‘Chukji!’
A technique Renzo had only ever heard of in legends. Reaching this distance in a single step. It wasn’t aura control or muscle strength. For Renzo, it was a realm he couldn’t comprehend.
The someone opened their mouth.
[I am Tyr, god of war.]
Tyr, god of war.
One of the famous gods in Asgard, and a god every Constel student knew.
But unfortunately,
‘......Who did you say you were?’
Renzo had no idea who Tyr was.
[Man who bears the fate of battle. I understand you.]
‘No, you don’t understand either. What kind of god of war are you.’
Thinking that, Renzo recalled something.
No, wait?
Renzo tilted his head, then looked at Tyr with a puzzled face.
Instead of answering, he asked,
“Did you clear that with Ares?”
[...Ares?]
Tyr’s eyes narrowed.
[Don’t compare me to such a thug. Maybe if you said Athena of Olympus, but comparing me to Ares is simply,]
At that moment, an indignant voice rang out.
[Tyr! You’re the one who doesn’t know your place!]
Naturally, it was Ares’ voice.
Ares, god of war. Naturally, his position overlapped with Tyr’s.
The same went for Athena, but Athena and Ares were such bitter enemies that their roles were clearly distinct.
Tyr was different. Being from a different myth to begin with, he felt no need to divide up roles with them.
He felt no need. The way each side perceived that was quite different.
[Ares......?]
Tyr’s gaze turned to Ares.
Right now, Ares existed only as divine power dwelling inside Renzo. He hadn’t appeared in a divine form. Because of that, his shape was unclear.
Only because Tyr was a god could he see him at all; ordinary humans couldn’t. Not unless they had something like Frondier’s “Sixth Sense.”
Still, even that much was surprising.
[Ares, just how much power are you planning to lend to a ◆ Nоvеlіgһt ◆ (Only on Nоvеlіgһt) single human? Your figure is wavering in the human world like a heat haze.]
Among the gods, Ares was strange. Or rather, his relationship with Renzo was.
Most gods, even if they gave divine power to a human, did not speak to them. They did not show themselves.
Like Baldr and Aster in the past. That was how most relationships between gods and humans were.
Ares was not like that. On top of personally appearing, he talked with Renzo, their opinions clashed and they bickered, and he didn’t just stay for a moment, he was constantly stuck to him.
[That is none of your concern, Tyr. Dare you insult me, do you want to die?]
Ares growled. But Tyr merely scanned Ares up and down with almost no reaction.
He said,
[...So you’ve fallen.]
That single sentence.
For Ares, it was effectively a declaration of war.
[......Heh-heh, hoo-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!!]
Ares burst into wild laughter. Partly because rage surged up, and partly because it was genuinely funny.
[You dare look down on me? You, who got your arm bitten off by a mutt!]
Tyr’s eyes lowered.
It was a crude provocation, but that only made it more effective. Tyr really had had his right arm bitten off in the past. The problem was that the dog that did it was Fenrir.
“L-Lord Tyr!”
Then Di, who had been kneeling, cried out with difficulty.
“Please heed our prayers! Was that not why you came?”
[......Hm. Indeed.]
Tyr nodded.
He had not descended to meet Ares or Renzo. His reason for descending was far simpler.
Tyr was the god of war.
He had come to start a war. Toward the Empire.
This was partly due to Manggot’s prayers, but in the first place, those prayers had been led along by the gods themselves.
Tyr looked at Renzo and asked,
[Human, whose side are you on?]
Because he did not give divine power to humans, Tyr’s interest in the human world was low.
He knew only two things.
That some arrogant human had barged into the gods’ world and made a mess of it,
and that Tyr himself had descended to drop that human back into the human world.
For that reason, what mattered to Tyr now was who was on whose side.
Tyr spoke.
[Human who bears the fate of battle, whose,]
“......Oh-ho.”
Renzo cut him off and spoke, as if something had dawned on him.
“It’s true!”
[What?]
“You really are one-armed! Wow, this is fascinating!”
Renzo had been paying attention to Tyr’s arms for a while now. At a glance, it had seemed like both arms were intact, but looking closely, one sleeve had no hand showing.
“Hey, god of war. These days they make pretty good prosthetic arms, you know! If you fit them right, they work better than a real arm. What do you say, why not give one a try while you’re at it?”
As he said that, Renzo held out his right arm. Kriik, kiririk. His prosthetic arm made mechanical sounds as it twitched.
“Look. This is the latest model on the market. How is it? Don’t you want one? Even in the Red Land, products on this level are extremely rare. There aren’t many engineers capable of handling them either. Of course, it costs quite a bit, but who knows? It might be sturdier than the arm you originally had.”
At Renzo’s words, the corners of Tyr’s eyes twitched.
Tyr let out a sigh.
[......Haah, I see.]
He extended one hand.
[So this is why you lent him so much divine power. Just because he reminds you of yourself.]
Whoosh─
KWA-AAAAANG!!
“Guh!”
Renzo flew far off, scraping along the ground.
THUNK!
While sliding, he slammed his fist into the ground and sprang up. As he settled back into position, Tyr approached again with that same chukji.
[To dare compare a god’s body to a machine, it seems you need some education.]
“You’re just as foul-tempered as the rest of them!”
Kirik! Clack!
The center of Renzo’s prosthetic arm opened, and a sword slid out from the core.
His eyes gleamed, and a cold, blue aura began to surge.
Renzo Original
From Top to Bottom
With aura blazing red along the blade, Renzo brought it down in a vertical strike.
KAAANG─!
“......!”
Renzo’s eyes flew open.
His sword had been blocked. With Tyr’s one left arm.
[What’s wrong with my arm?]
Swish─
With a light twist of Tyr’s left arm, Renzo’s sword followed that trajectory and dropped down.
THUD!
“Guh!”
Once again, Tyr’s left fist slammed into Renzo’s abdomen.
Renzo dropped to one knee. The fierce pain and pressure made it hard to breathe properly.
[Bow your head lower. You insolent wretch.]
“!”
Whooong─
KWA-AAAAANG!
The ground shattered where Tyr’s foot came down, and Renzo rolled to the side with all his strength.
[There are always humans who don’t know their place wherever you go.]
Tyr leisurely turned his gaze.
Renzo forced his trembling body to stand and spat.
He thought it was spit, but it was blood.
‘Tch, these gods all talk the same damn way.’
Renzo glared at Tyr.
The two strikes that had just landed weren’t so simple as they looked.
Renzo had actually reacted. He had tried to defend against both the first blow that sent him flying and the blow to his abdomen, but he’d been tricked by feints.
For an ordinary human, those attacks would have been invisible, yet there had been feints and changes woven into them.
‘And with that level of technique, he blocked my attack in such a crude way, with just his left arm? Hah.’
Tyr had clearly been capable of responding to Renzo’s attack with far more delicate technique.
Renzo’s technique, “From Top to Bottom,” wasn’t anything that special. It was literally a vertical slash from above. But once it became a technique, that single strike differed in speed and power from a normal attack, and the aura-infused blade carved down almost perfectly vertical.
It was hard to dodge or block even if you knew it was coming. Renzo’s attack pattern was generally like that.
And Tyr had blocked that strike head-on with his left arm.
He had shown the difference in class.
‘No doubt about it. This guy.’
Trading a few moves with Tyr had made it clear.
‘He’s the type who likes to toy with his opponent.’
Tyr, god of war.
He was merciless toward the weak. All the more so if they were humans who insulted him.
Renzo laughed.
‘So I’m the one being toyed with.’
Heat boiled in his eyes.
“This is fun.”
[Fun?]
The corners of Tyr’s eyes twitched.
So that’s it. Just a battle maniac. Tyr finished his assessment of Renzo.
He’d seen that sort of being many times. Not just among humans, but among gods too.
Those who were simply mad for battle. Charging in without thinking ahead or behind, picking fights with whoever they pleased, living in a one-dimensional way, drunk on their own greatness.
Most of them didn’t live long. Devoured by their own talent, devoured by their own arrogance.
Renzo simply hadn’t figured out his own level yet.
He’d just gotten lucky, having never met a talent greater than his own.
‘......I thought he was a noble human who bore fate upon his shoulders.’
Was it a misconception.
You’ve lived too long, Tyr.
[Ares, to think you would lend your power to a human like this.]
Tyr sighed.
The lower his evaluation of Renzo went, the lower his evaluation of Renzo’s god, Ares, naturally went as well.
[You don’t know anything, Tyr.]
Ares spoke.
[In that fight just now, I didn’t intervene in the slightest. Renzo fought purely with his own strength.]
[......What?]
At Ares’ words, Tyr looked at Renzo again.
Indeed, in the earlier fight there had been no sign of divine power.
If so, then Renzo had endured purely with his own strength. He had taken those two blows from Tyr.
‘......Even if I mixed in feints, both of them landed clean.’
Tyr looked at Renzo’s face.
He’d roughly spat out the blood, leaving a stain at the corner of his mouth, but his eyes were still full of the will to fight.
He had not lost his fighting spirit. Among the humans Tyr had met, this was a first. Then again, there had never been a human who’d taken two of his blows and remained standing.
[Tyr, that man you just looked down on is a guy worthy of my lending him divine power. It’s only your eyes that have rotted.]
[......]
Tyr silently watched Renzo.
If what Ares said was true, then certainly, Renzo together with Ares’ divine power would be strong.
Outwardly he looked the same, but Tyr readied himself inside.
He had blocked Renzo’s attack with his left arm to gauge his strength, and with that hand he had felt the durability of Renzo’s body.
Indeed, that physical power was the greatest of any human he had seen so far. Even if you searched the entirety of human history, there had never been a human with such strength.
If such a human were to obtain Ares’ power—
[Watch, Tyr. This is Renzo’s true strength.]
With that, Ares slowly began to let his power flow into Renzo.
Renzo, possessing Ares’ power, would be different from before.
The power that had driven Frondier to the brink of death had grown even further, and now—
“Fuck off.”
Renzo spoke.
[...What did you say?]
“Quit spouting bullshit about ‘true strength’ and fuck off already. How is that my power? It’s your power.”
Renzo grinned.
That smile was so fresh and guileless that it only made the madness feel more vivid.
“This is my fight. Otherwise, it’s not fun.”
[...Huh?]
Even Tyr made a sound of disbelief.
It wasn’t just Renzo’s words that were absurd.
Renzo’s own strength was pushing out Ares’ divine power. He was clearly rejecting it.
Right now, Renzo was planning to fight Tyr without Ares’ divine power.
Ares stared at Renzo for a moment with his mouth hanging open. He saw eyes full of brashness, burning with fierce resolve.
He saw a face that looked as if it couldn’t even imagine anything but victory, declaring it would defeat a god using only its own power.
At length, Ares spoke.
[Are you actually insane?]
