The light from the smartwatch showed no sign of dying down.
The notification sound kept ringing noisily. I wanted to check what it said, but it was so bright I couldn’t even see what was written.
And then.
“Hm......?”
Selena and I both realized that one side of the passage was getting noisy.
“What is that sound......?”
“Rather than a sound, I feel some kind of bustle.”
Selena’s eyes narrowed.
But unlike Selena, who denied that it was a “sound,” I really did hear an obnoxious noise.
In that case, could it be.
'Souls?'
“Let’s go, Selena!”
I finished my judgment and moved. Selena entered my shadow.
When I had seen the Moirai’s memories, they had blocked the souls from passing through. It had been a battlefield for the sake of sending me back.
Which meant the souls would still be gathered on one side or the other.
'Then Atjie will /N_o_v_e_l_i_g_h_t/ be there too!'
My speed increased.
Following the sound in the passage as I flew straight on, I soon saw a huge bulk in the distance.
'......A chimera?'
If it had been right in front of me, I would have had to throw my head all the way back just to barely meet its gaze. A massive thing was blocking the way.
Its body was a mixture of all kinds of beasts. Too many different parts were stuck together for me to describe them one by one, but the most noticeable thing was that its lower half was reptilian.
'So that’s Campe.'
The chimera hadn’t noticed me approaching and was busy squabbling with the souls in front of it.
Roughly, they were asking when they would finally be allowed to pass, or saying if it was going to be like this, then send them back to the living world. Things souls would be likely to say, so I understood the situation right away.
In any case, the number of souls was enormous. They filled the vast passage, forming an endless line with no visible end.
Tartarus wasn’t a place where every soul came. Only heinous criminals and those with deep sins should end up here, and even after sorting like that, there were still this many.
I quickly approached Campe.
“Hey! Are you Campe?”
“Huh......?”
Only then did Campe lazily turn to look at me.
Then its eyes flew wide open.
“What! How are you coming from that direction!”
Soon Campe was staring at me in a guarded posture.
“Don’t tell me, you’re the one who killed the Moirai!”
......Hm.
It seemed it knew the Moirai were dead, even if it hadn’t seen it directly. Well, as the Moirai themselves had said, the World of Salvation would have been smashed, so it would have been strange not to notice.
“Yeah.”
I answered honestly.
I didn’t feel like persuading this thing, and right now the important one was Atjie.
If it tried to block my way here......
“Is that true!”
Campe said that and then,
Grinned.
“!”
It was the most horrifying sight I’d seen recently.
“So those Moirai are finally dead! Hahaha! That’s a good thing!”
“......A good thing?”
“Yeah. Their power over fate kept getting stronger, and they’d started trying to mess with Tartarus too. And you killed the Moirai!”
Whump! Whump!
Campe patted my shoulder.
I took pure, straightforward damage.
“You don’t seem very surprised.”
“I’ve heard a lot about you. You’re Frondier, right? There are a few who are cheering for you. I’m one of them.”
As far as I knew, Campe was a character who got killed by Zeus. In the mythology of my original world, that was how it went. Inevitably an enemy of Zeus, and from that angle you could say it was close to the giants too.
“Sorry, but I’m looking for my older brother. He should be somewhere around here.”
“What? I was wondering why you came all the way here, and that’s why? You want to say goodbye to your brother who’s become a soul?”
“No. I’m going to send him back to the living world.”
When I answered like that, Campe’s eyes changed.
“You’re suddenly talking nonsense, Frondier.”
“......My brother was dragged here by Thanatos’s power. He’s not dead.”
“It’s the same thing.”
At that moment, Campe’s presence was already turning into killing intent.
Tsk, I clicked my tongue. So it was going to turn out like this after all.
“Every soul that comes here is under my authority. You don’t get to take them just because you want to.”
At that, I pointed my thumb over my shoulder.
“He hasn’t arrived in Tartarus yet, has he?”
“Don’t think that kind of wordplay is going to work on me.”
Campe growled.
I clenched my fist.
So I’d have to fight after all. I really didn’t want to fight this type. In the end, I was the one getting in the way of a being that was just doing its job. The reason was on the other side; I was the one being unreasonable.
But if Thanatos’s unreasonable demand was being accepted by Campe.
Then I had no choice but to make my own unreasonableness work too.
“────Hyung!”
Just then, I heard a voice from very far away.
In the middle of the uproar of souls pouring out their complaints and grievances, that shout was distinctly different.
Maybe that was why it reached my ears, or else.
“Hyung! It’s me!”
Maybe it was because that voice.
Was very familiar to my ears.
“......?”
Leaving Campe, who was facing me right in front of my eyes,
I turned my gaze, as if drawn, toward that voice.
“Hyung, it’s me! You don’t recognize me? I’m me!”
I had left the human world to save Atjie,
Come all the way here, to Tartarus.
And right there, before my eyes as I turned my gaze,
'Atjie.......'
Atjie was there.
He was in the form of a soul, but aside from that, he was the same as usual, and his presence and vigor were his Atjie’s.
I had finally met him.
But.
“Has it been that long? I mean, it has been years!”
There was one other person in front of me besides him.
“It’s me! Hyung!”
That guy was.
“I’m Frondier!”
Frondier.
Frondier de Roach.
A Frondier de Roach who wasn’t me was standing in front of my eyes.
“......Fron...... dier......?”
Atjie couldn’t hide his confusion.
His brows furrowed as he looked suspiciously at the soul claiming to be Frondier in front of him.
But no matter how much he doubted, the Frondier before him wasn’t going to change.
Because that guy was the real one.
The moment I saw him, I knew.
It wasn’t an illusion, a trick, or a deception. Pure and simple, Frondier’s soul was there.
And I was the one who had,
“Ah, that bastard!”
Up until now, been pretending to be Frondier.
“He’s the fake! That guy! He’s the one who kept me tied up here for years!”
“......”
Frondier pointed at me and shouted. His eyes were colored with resentment and anger.
I closed my mouth and looked at Frondier.
Naturally, Atjie also looked at me, and in his shock he looked back and forth between me and Frondier.
“What is this......?”
Even with things in this state, Atjie was trying to calmly grasp the situation without losing his composure.
With my throat feeling like it was drying up, I barely managed to speak.
“......How.”
That voice was directed at Campe.
“How is that guy here?”
“Ah, you mean that one?”
Campe snorted through its nose as it looked at the real Frondier.
“You just said it, didn’t you? That Atjie didn’t properly die. It’s the same for that one. His soul flowed over here without going through the process of death. So he can’t go to Tartarus and is stuck here. By human standards, it’s been quite a while. Three years maybe?”
Of course it had.
It had taken about that long from the time I took Frondier’s place until I came back here.
And Campe looked at me with a suspicious gaze.
“Now that I look closely, you look just like that guy. Yeah, that one also said he was Frondier.”
“......”
“Don’t tell me, you’re the fake?”
Fake.
Campe asked me.
I started to answer, closed my mouth, and when I opened it again,
“That’s right.”
My voice was shaking.
“Hmph. Well, I don’t really care.”
Campe snorted again in disbelief.
“Hey, you told me right in front of my eyes that you would take your brother back. Spouting crap like he wasn’t really dead or whatever.”
“......”
“Before we even argue about how much bullshit that is, shouldn’t you at least be fair?”
“Fair.”
“Yeah. If you want so badly to save your brother.”
Shouldn’t you be the one to die?
There was a soul over there who hadn’t died.
A fake who had stolen a body as he pleased.
***
Ospreet and Elodie were the first to arrive in Teiven.
When they climbed up onto the Barrier, they could clearly see the pillar of light soaring into the sky.
Ospreet spoke.
“I’ll go look for an appropriate Gate. I’ll come back to this Barrier, so you get ready as well.”
“Yes. Leave it to me.”
Elodie nodded, and Ospreet took off again and disappeared inside the Barrier.
Phew. Elodie let out a light sigh and looked straight ahead.
'......The Four-Element Combination, huh.'
Ospreet had said that if in his life he ever got one chance at it, just that alone would be a miracle.
Then when was that chance supposed to come?
And if, when that time came, she didn’t actually need that magic?
Was she supposed to test out the Four-Element Combination, not knowing what would happen, and be satisfied with that?
“......For something that’s supposed to rewrite the history of magic, it sounds like a pretty useless spell.”
[It isn’t.]
“Kyah!”
Startled, Elodie looked to the side.
Rudra was there.
“Wh-what! You scared me! You never show up when I call you, and now this!”
Elodie scolded him, but Rudra didn’t answer.
He had a more serious expression than ever before.
“......What’s with you? It doesn’t suit you.”
[Elodie.]
This time, the one who appeared was Agni.
Elodie’s eyes went wide in surprise. Agni was the god who lent Elodie the most power after Rudra, but she had almost never spoken with him. Let alone him being the one to speak to her first.
Then Indra and Chandra appeared one after another as well, and then,
“......Vishnu.”
Even Vishnu, to whom Elodie had declared a breakup not long ago, appeared before her again.
“What. I get the others, but why are you here? I said we’re done. You and I.”
“I know.”
Vishnu answered in a dry tone.
Then he pointed at Elodie.
“Because we’re done, I’m doing this.”
“......What?”
THOOOM!
Light shone from the tip of Vishnu’s finger, and that light wrapped around Elodie.
The next instant.
“......Huh?”
Elodie was standing in a space she had never seen before.
She looked around. There was nothing. Just a white, perfectly blank space.
'What is this? A dream? An illusion?'
Elodie thought that, but she knew from her senses.
This wasn’t a dream. Her body, and this entire space, were all real.
And then the five gods appeared by her side again.
Seeing all of them together, Elodie shifted into a battle stance.
“What are you all doing? Did you plan this together?”
With the slightest misstep, she looked like she might declare a breakup with all of the gods at once. Seeing that, Rudra narrowed his eyes.
“......Elodie. I asked you once before.”
“Asked what?”
“What is Frondier to you? How much can you accept for his sake?”
─Protect Frondier. For the sake of that one thing, how much sacrifice is possible? Is it more important than your life? Is it something worth twisting your entire fate for? Or is it something that should take precedence even if it breaks the balance of the entire world?
─You don’t have to answer now. But don’t forget it. Put it off as long as you can, and when you can’t put it off any longer, then answer.
Rudra had asked Elodie.
At the time, Elodie hadn’t been able to answer.
Because she had barely understood what he was saying.
But that was still the same now.
“Elodie. I’m sorry, but this is the time when you ‘can’t put it off.’”
“I don’t understand what you’re talking about. Why is it so important for me to answer that?”
At that, Vishnu let out a sigh.
“Hey, Rudra. Even now, you’re still going to stick by Elodie’s side? She’s not prepared for anything, this one.”
Rudra showed no reaction at all to Vishnu’s blatant sarcasm.
Instead, Elodie flared up, but Agni spoke first.
“The Four-Element Combination.”
“Uh, yeah?”
“Elodie. You’re ready to perform it.”
“......So? The five of you got together to throw me a party or something?”
Agni shook his head.
“It’s time to steel yourself.”
“Steeling myself......?”
Indra was the next to speak.
“The Four-Element Combination is the only magic among all magic that surpasses the gods’ power.”
“It surpasses the gods’ power? You’re saying it’s magic that even you can’t do?”
“That’s right. You heard it from Ospreet, didn’t you? The Four-Element Combination requires ‘coincidence.’ But from the gods’ perspective, it’s closer to fate than coincidence. And fate is something even gods can’t tamper with.”
“You don’t get that chance just by waiting for it. Elodie, you’re standing on that path of fate right now.”
Elodie squinted one eye.
The scale of what they were talking about was so vast that it was hard to understand.
Elodie spoke, in line with what she’d roughly understood.
“So....... You’re saying that the moment of that fate has come for me, and when that moment comes, I’m supposed to perform the Four-Element Combination?”
“That’s where the important part begins.”
Rudra spoke.
“The Four-Element Combination—are you really going to do it?”
“......What?”
“The Four-Element Combination belongs to the domain of the world. And its role is limited.”
“So the Four-Element Combination is space magic?”
“No. It’s different from space magic. I told you. It’s a domain that surpasses the gods’ range.”
“......And what’s that supposed to mean?”
“The Four-Element Combination is a power that goes beyond a world. Elodie. That’s what it means for you to use the Four-Element Combination. Your role has been arranged there.”
Elodie looked at Rudra with a puzzled expression.
A role? A power that goes beyond a world? She had no idea what he meant.
More than anything, it felt unpleasant, like Rudra kept skirting around what he wanted to say.
“What have you been going on about from before? If it’s that kind of magic, why would I even bother,”
“Frondier, Elodie.”
The one who cut her off was Vishnu.
Vishnu also seemed frustrated that Rudra kept circling around the point and spat the words at Elodie.
“He’s asking if you’re going to use that magic on Frondier.”
“......Wh-what, what?”
“He’s asking if you’re going to send Frondier back to the world he originally came from.”
Elodie couldn’t understand Vishnu’s words.
She didn’t understand, but.
A cold wind blowing from somewhere made her freeze from the pit of her stomach.
Vishnu almost seemed to enjoy the sight.
“The Frondier you know. The Frondier you care about so terribly. He’s actually a fake who came from another world.”
There was even a faint smile on his face as he spoke.
“Are you going to send that fake back to his original world? Or does it not matter whether he’s fake or real? Since he’s the hero who’s going to save the world.”
