I continued falling down with Selena.
BOOM!
KWA-ANG!
Smashing through the barriers that blocked us one after another.
There were several layers of barriers, but fortunately, the gaps between them weren’t that narrow. It was enough space to move into position between them and hit the weak points.
“Selena! How many needles do you have left?”
“Twelve shots remaining!”
So we’d used about half.
“But the next one is the last!”
“Yeah, I can feel it too.”
The last remaining layer. From it, I could sense mana on a completely different level than the barriers before.
“......Ugh.”
Selena furrowed her brows.
“I can’t see the weak point.”
“What? You’re saying it’s flawless?”
“No. If anything, there are too many weak points, and they’re moving so fast I can’t stab a single point.”
A barrier was ultimately magic.
If the flow of mana was fast, and its pure defensive power high, then maybe increasing the number of weak points was another way of doing things.
But if that was how it worked—
“Then this is convenient.”
“Sir?”
I opened one hand.
Weaving, Black Heaven, Mana of the Nine Worlds
Rank - Divine (Protagonist God Rank)
Criselachatos, Ioecheira
I created a bow and arrow.
“Here.”
“......Yes?”
“You shoot.”
At my words, Selena flinched in shock.
“H-how could I dare handle your weapon, Young Master Frondier......!”
“Here, this is the arrow.”
I deliberately placed the arrow into Selena’s hand and set it on the bowstring.
“Now you just pull and let go.”
“Y-Young Master Frondier!”
“You can see everything, can’t you?”
“......!”
“That barrier probably has divine-power resistance too, but this arrow is wrapped in mana from the Nine Worlds. It’ll punch through that resistance.”
At those words, Selena’s eyes widened for a moment, then she looked down. As if taking in the entire barrier in one glance.
“......Understood.”
After saying that, Selena exhaled deeply and drew the bowstring. Very carefully, as if handling something extremely precious and delicate.
......To be honest, even if she just glanced and fired roughly, it would hit anyway, so I didn’t think she needed to be that careful.
Sst─
Pabababatt!!
Ioecheira shot forward and exploded like fireworks.
Selena hadn’t loaded it with that much aura, so the number of arrows wasn’t enormous, but this was more than enough.
PUPUPUPUK!
The arrows flew their own paths and pierced countless points of the barrier. I couldn’t really tell with my own eyes what was different about the spots she’d aimed at.
CRAAASH!
But the effect was clear.
The final barrier shattered like a glass window.
“Good, let’s go.”
“Yes, sir!”
I held Selena in my arms again and minimized the surface area we presented while falling. To increase our speed even a little more.
......To be honest, I was impatient right now.
I had no idea how far Atjie’s soul had gotten. I’d heard that once you passed through Tartarus, that was the end.
If we trusted Belphegor’s words, Atjie hadn’t reached Tartarus yet. He’d still be resisting.
But there was always that one-in-a-million chance.
Until I saw Atjie with my own eyes, I would stay impatient no matter what.
That said, spreading my wings and using aura now, when I’d already burned through so much, wasn’t an option.
‘It feels like my aura capacity has gone up a bit since I became a demon, but still, this forced march has gone on too long.’
From the moment I heard the news of Atjie’s death in Agoris until now, I’d come all the way here without resting.
......Frankly, it was strange how I didn’t feel tired, but I had no idea how long that would last.
On top of that, I had to watch Selena’s stamina too. With her current body, even this falling speed had to be quite a strain.
“Young Master Frondier.”
“Huh, yeah?”
“I can see the ground.”
“......! Yeah? What’s it like? Lava?”
“......No. It just looks like bare ground. An uncannily clean floor.”
We’d reached the very bottom of the volcano, and yet there was no lava—that was ironic in its own way.
After a bit, I could see the floor too, and just as Selena had said, it was a smooth surface. But it didn’t feel artificial; it looked more like the material itself was naturally like that.
FWOOSH!
When we got close to the ground, I spread my wings. The arms Selena had wrapped around me tensed slightly.
Sssk.
Then I slowly set my feet down on the ground.
Selena and I almost reflexively scanned our surroundings.
......The space here stretched out strangely in just two directions: forward and back. It was so wide that it barely felt like a “path.” It was broad enough for at least four subway trains to run side by side.
This was definitely a passage. A passage leading to Tartarus.
“So then the question is: which way leads to Tartarus.”
Tartarus was hell. In Greek mythology, a prison for truly heinous sinners.
So I’d imagined it would be crawling with vicious souls, but nothing tripped my intuition.
I’d thought that by watching which way the souls flowed, we’d know which direction was Tartarus.
‘......But of course, I can’t feel Atjie either.’
If I sensed Atjie’s soul, I would recognize it instantly. He was my brother, after all. There was no way I’d ever confuse him with anyone else.
And yet I couldn’t feel Atjie—couldn’t feel any souls at all.
“This is a problem. For now, should we just pick a direction and start walking?”
“.......”
“Selena?”
Selena suddenly went quiet, so I looked at her.
Frozen in place—or rather, looking terrified—Selena kept darting her eyes around ceaselessly.
“Do you sense something?”
“......No. I can’t sense anything. But......”
Selena’s eyes narrowed more and more.
“......It’s getting darker.”
At Selena’s words, I looked around.
Sure enough, it was gradually getting darker. It had changed so slowly that I only realized it after she pointed it out.
Once I noticed it, my tension spiked.
You could say it was “just getting dark.” That was easy to say.
‘But it’s getting darker without being detected by my intuition or Selena’s senses.’
Thinking of it that way, of course I couldn’t help but tense up.
The darkness kept deepening. Any darker, and it would shrink below the distance at which Selena and I could respond.
With no choice, I took out a mana crystal and spoke.
“Selena, stay right next to me.”
Tak!
In that instant, my mana crystal vanished.
No—that wasn’t it.
‘It was taken......!’
Realizing that, I turned my gaze.
“Frondier.”
There were three goddesses there.
The Moirai.
They were here.
And among them, the goddess on the left
“Selena!”
had her hand wrapped around Selena’s throat.
“Kh......!”
Selena’s face twisted in pain. She tried to pry the hand away, but she didn’t seem able to overcome the strength holding her.
Then Selena’s eyes flashed wide open,
Bzap!
In an instant, the needles she’d loaded were aimed at the goddess.
Sst─
But with a light movement, the goddess dodged the needles.
‘......Just now.’
That evasion just now.
The fact that she dodged Selena’s point-blank attack at all was shocking enough.
But to my eyes, it had looked like the goddess moved ahead of time.
‘......Moirai.’
That’s right. These were the Moirai.
The goddesses of fate.
TADADADANG!
Suddenly the surroundings flared bright, and gigantic objects that hadn’t been visible a moment ago lined up in a long row along both sides of the passage.
They were looms. Threads dropped from the ceiling above were sucked into the looms, weaving themselves however they pleased and producing all kinds of cloth.
It was an unimaginably vast weaving factory, stretching beyond sight.
And in the midst of that countless forest of looms stood me and the Moirai.
‘To think there was a factory this huge, and I didn’t notice it at all!’
I swallowed.
Combining my detection ability with Selena’s, I’d believed that, unless something was outside our range altogether, we’d detect everything within it.
But we hadn’t sensed something of this scale.
The goddess in the center spoke.
“Frondier, you actually managed to come all the way here.”
“......Moirai. Let Selena go.”
I spoke, my voice filled with hostility. The moment they took Selena hostage, any chance of a peaceful conversation was gone.
But the goddess in the center let out a sigh at my words.
“There’s no need to use force, Frondier.”
“If you don’t let Selena go right now,”
“What are you going to do?”
The goddess on the right spoke.
“Frondier. Do you really think that kind of threat will work?”
She looked truly bored.
“We are the goddesses of fate. We see everything you’ll do and everything that will happen afterward as clearly as the lines on our own palms.”
“You cannot attack us.”
“You cannot save Selena either.”
“Because that is how it is.”
Each of them tossed out a line, mixing mockery ★ 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 ★ and malediction.
I took in all three of them at once, searching for even the slightest opening.
......But the Moirai were right.
The moment Selena was taken as a hostage, I became critically weak.
So I asked,
“What do you want? If you’re not killing Selena on the spot, it means you want something, doesn’t it?”
At my words, the goddess on the left—the one holding Selena’s neck—spoke.
“We don’t particularly want anything.”
“What?”
“Just you coming this far is enough. Our goal has already been achieved.”
They’d achieved their goal?
I didn’t have time to question that before another goddess spoke.
“We see everything.”
“When you moved, how you came this way, and where you’re going.”
“Is that surprising, Frondier? You knew of our existence. Did you come all the way here without grasping that much?”
As goddesses of fate, they spoke as if they truly could read the future.
I twisted my mouth.
“What a joke. So you’re saying this world turning into such a shitshow is your will too?”
If the Moirai were really goddesses of fate who saw everything?
Then that meant they’d been reading everything I’d done up to this point.
That the ruin of the divine world, the unleashing of Fenrir, the deaths of angels and numerous gods—had all been part of their plan?
There was no way.
“That’s right.”
Cutting off my thoughts, the goddess in the center spoke.
“Frondier, don’t overestimate yourself.”
“We needed a convenient subject, and it just so happened to be you.”
The goddesses on the left and right spoke in turn.
“A convenient subject?”
“That’s right. As a reason to judge humanity.”
At that moment, Selena reached out again. But once more, the goddess easily slipped away, and Selena’s hand only brushed the goddess’s clothes.
“Humanity in this world had already begun to raise its head in doubt against the gods.”
“Frondier, even if it hadn’t been you.”
“It would have been the same with or without the likes of you.”
Again, they spewed their lines. With every word from their mouths, my mood got filthier.
“We knew everything.”
“Because we’re the ones who guided your path.”
I replied,
“What kind of bullshit is that.”
Beeep─
My words cut off halfway, and I turned toward the direction of a sound I knew all too well.
......My smartwatch had chimed.
Slowly, I raised my wrist, and even as I did, the goddesses kept chattering at me.
“Do you understand now?”
“Did you think you were some kind of special existence?”
[Main Quest: Arrival]
• Description: Everything you had to do is now complete.
• Objective: Die.
• Reward: None.
• Failure is impossible.
“You are nothing at all, Frondier.”
