Frondier gripped Mjölnir and lined up swords before it.
All of them were copies of Excalibur.
Frondier Original
Mana Blade
Line
KAGAGAGANG─!
A multitude of Excaliburs lined up ahead of the swinging Mjölnir.
Frondier used Mjölnir like a launch pad and fired blade slashes.
“How dare you treat my weapon like that!”
Flames rose in Mjölnir’s eyes.
He swung his sword, shattering the slashes as he charged.
Seeing that, Frondier dismissed the created swords and took hold of the hammer again.
Whiiish!
He hurled Mjölnir toward Thor. Thor tilted his head back and dodged.
“Petty tricks—”
KRAAANG!
“?!”
—and then, the returning Mjölnir smacked him in the back of the head.
Thor had never even imagined another human would handle Mjölnir in exactly the same way he did.
‘Now!’
A gap opened for just an instant.
Frondier swiftly slipped into Thor’s guard.
Mjölnirs and Excaliburs bloomed all around them.
Frondier Original
Mana Blade
Crossfire Barrage
At the same time, Frondier’s hammer was drenched in black.
A hammer of black flame.
KAAA-A-AANG─!!
The Crossfire Barrage and Mana of the Nine Worlds.
All of it struck Thor’s body.
It was a blow containing every ounce of power Frondier could currently muster.
‘Got him!’
Frondier felt it in his fingertips.
The jawbone had definitely shattered. Above that, nothing should have remained intact, and the shock would have reached his brain. On top of that, he’d taken the entire Crossfire Barrage.
Damage more than enough to kill him.
And yet—
“......Now do you understand.”
Even after taking that strike—
Thor had only slightly turned his head.
When Frondier looked again, Thor’s face was perfectly fine.
The jawbone hadn’t so much as cracked—there wasn’t a single drop of blood.
“You cannot kill me.”
It wasn’t bravado or a warning.
‘......This.’
Frondier had realized the same thing when his strike landed.
With his power, he could not kill Thor.
This wasn’t a question of strength or magic.
He felt himself brush up against a law of the world.
***
“This bastard...! Wasting my time!”
Apollo swung his sword with a vicious scowl.
His fight with Hector had dragged on.
Until just a moment ago, he’d thought he could finish him off quickly—but the situation had changed.
Bzzzzt, bzzzzzt!
Lightning still crackled in Hector’s left hand.
He had quickly grown used to it and learned to handle both sword and lightning in tandem.
The lightning’s raw power wasn’t anything special, but its very nature gave it more than enough speed—making it difficult to avoid.
Whenever an opening in Hector appeared, lightning shot out, and Apollo’s movement stalled.
If he took a direct hit from the lightning, Apollo would actually be the one in danger.
“Ridwi! Got another spell?”
“Just givin’ ya mana’s hard enough. Fight on your own now. And protect me while yer at it.”
“You damn bastard!”
The relationship between Ridwi and Hector was the same as ever.
But that combination was no joke.
Even if Apollo tried to strike Ridwi first, Hector somehow sensed it every time and defended perfectly.
‘That mana bestowal can’t last forever, but I’m burning through power just the same.’
Apollo surveyed the situation with a grim face.
He hated to admit it, but Hector was fighting him on even ground.
Hector, on the other hand, wasn’t happy at all.
‘Damn it. I’m the only one who’s actually holding the line.’
Looking around, most of the battles were going badly for the humans.
Aside from him, Ospreet was the only one who still had some margin; all the other Zodiac members were at a disadvantage.
Without Ridwi’s support, Hector himself would probably have been the first to fall.
Above all, Zeus was the real problem.
RUMBLE─!
Right now, Zeus was facing Ospreet. But whenever he had even a sliver of leeway, he summoned lightning.
“Gyaaaah!!”
That lightning sometimes hammered the humans, sometimes the barrier. The mages continuously layered mana walls, but a single bolt from Zeus broke through, forcing them to rebuild it each time.
Zeus focused more on reducing troop numbers than on killing Ospreet alone. And it was working.
Even while fighting Ospreet, he had spare power—and proved he could kill humans in the meantime.
But then—
“......!”
Zeus felt a sudden killing intent and swung Astraphe behind him.
KRAAANG!
A sword had been about to cleave down on Zeus.
Recognizing its wielder, Ospreet’s eyes flew wide.
“Ludovic!!”
What a welcome sight.
Zodiac Ludovic had arrived.
“I’m a bit late!”
Whiiish!
Ludovic backed off to open up some distance. He took in the surroundings—sure enough, the situation was dire.
“The Zodiac all seem to be struggling.”
Ospreet nodded.
“That’s right. They haven’t become watchdogs yet.”
“......Excuse me?”
At those words, Ludovic’s eyes went round.
“—Kahahaha! I see! So that’s how it is! It seems even the Zodiac still have some coddling left in them!”
Zeus did not appreciate that laugh.
Astraphe crackled with ominous light.
“What difference does one more human make?”
“Oh? If nothing changes, Zeus—”
Ludovic grinned, madness in his eyes.
“Why don’t you try throwing lightning again?”
“.......”
“Feels to me like the sudden mass deaths of dozens of people stopped the moment I showed up. Just my imagination?”
“I’ll prepare a separate punishment for you.”
Zeus’s killing intent sharpened. But just as Ludovic said, his lightning had stopped.
If he were only facing Ospreet, it might be different—but with Zodiac Ludovic added to the fight, he no longer had the freedom to do something about the other humans as well.
However, at that moment—
KUNG!
Another surge of power was felt from Bifröst.
Ludovic’s smile faded, and he clicked his tongue.
“Damn...!”
The next gods were appearing.
Even with the Zodiac already being pushed back—they were getting more gods on top of that.
‘Asgard!’
Jane’s eyes flew wide.
She could see more gods approaching from far away.
A sign that Asgard’s defenses were being breached.
‘......They’re still lower gods for now. But...’
Grit.
She clenched her teeth and checked the battlefield.
The soldiers and knights had already plunged into close quarters.
Which meant there were no forces left to block those gods’ charge. If they split their troops carelessly now, they risked being crushed one group at a time.
“I see.”
And the gods grasped the situation immediately.
“Straight line to the barrier! Wipe out those annoyances!”
At the command, the gods of Asgard advanced.
“Cheh...!”
Inside the barrier, Dierre clicked his tongue.
The situation was bad. The balance was only barely being held as it was.
There were too many unexpected absences. Elodie and Angfer were both missing.
Vmmm─
Then he felt a vibration from inside his pocket.
Dierre pulled out his phone and checked the screen.
“......!”
His expression changed.
“Senior.”
Dierre called Edwin.
When Edwin turned around, Dierre handed him the notebook he’d been writing in all this time.
“I’m leaving the rest to you.”
“What?”
Without waiting for an answer, Dierre leapt up onto the barrier.
“Hey! Wait! Are you insane?!”
Even lower gods were still gods. A single one of them possessed power that made the monsters outside look like nothing.
It looked like a suicidal move.
“Not that you’re entirely wrong.”
Dierre stood atop the barrier and drew up his aura. In response, the magic circles engraved all over his body sparked and began to glow.
“But I’m hardly the only crazy one here.”
Dierre drew his sword and faced the incoming lower gods.
One of them locked eyes with him.
“So you’re the strongest one on this barrier!”
The god gripped his spear. His divine form shot forward at high speed, slicing the air in a straight line toward Dierre.
And the tip of that spear—
grazed Dierre’s cheek, scraped his shoulder, and skimmed past his flank.
“Welcome.”
THUD!
“Guh?!”
Dierre drove his knee into the god’s gut. The god’s face twisted.
A serious amount of damage. Not because Dierre had ❖ Nоvеl𝚒ght ❖ (Exclusive on Nоvеl𝚒ght) overwhelming strength, but because the god had simply taken back the speed he’d used to launch himself.
‘What is with this human’s reaction speed...!’
The god regained his senses and thrust his spear again.
This time it grazed Dierre’s cheekbone, the corner of his eye, his temple, the side of his ear.
“......!”
KRAK!
And then, a sword buried itself in his shoulder.
“Graaagh!”
Dierre plunged the blade in and vaulted onto the god’s back.
“Y-you insolent, outrageous wretch!”
The god thrashed, struggling to throw Dierre off his back. But Dierre shifted his weight there with uncanny balance, instead collapsing the god’s own center of gravity to maintain his position.
“This brat!”
Two other lower gods saw it and thrust at Dierre from both sides.
From the god’s back, Dierre—
tap.
—placed his foot on the tip of the spear lunging from the left.
“?!”
The spear tip tilted slightly, and from that point Dierre kicked off—
THUD!
“?!”
—ran up the shaft, and drove his knee into the god’s face.
‘...This bastard, this isn’t reflex! He’s dodging after seeing it!’
The god charging from the right watched in disbelief.
Dierre was letting every attack graze past his body. It had looked like he had so much leeway thanks to incredible reaction speed—
But Dierre simply had good eyes.
He was dodging at the full speed his body allowed. There wasn’t a shred of spare room.
He’d begun his evasions long beforehand, but the difference in speed was so enormous that he couldn’t avoid the attacks completely.
“You little rat! You think that’ll keep working forever?!”
Of course not.
Dierre wasn’t moving in the hope that it would.
But if he caused a commotion in front of the barrier, the gods’ attention would naturally converge on him.
Right now, the most important thing was to keep them from crossing the barrier.
Make them think the biggest nuisance on this barrier is me.
Make them believe that once Dierre Aiger is gone, they can cross it easily.
For that—
THUD!
Dierre kicked off a god’s head.
He ran across the tops of the charging gods. Stepped on someone’s back, then another god’s shoulder, then another head again.
“This brat’s really got a death wish!”
Of course, it wasn’t something he could keep up forever.
Running atop the gods’ heads was sheer madness. If even one blade tip caught him, he was dead on the spot.
It might look like he was fooling around, but he was clenching his teeth the whole time.
Causing chaos among the gods’ ranks like this would surely—
‘That’s right.’
—draw every lower god’s eyes to him.
Gods cannot tolerate blasphemy.
So then, what came next?
If the gods’ attention was drawn, if their anger swelled and they surrounded Dierre—
what remained was—
“Hey, hey! Pielot! Wake up, man!”
High above them in the sky.
Vasileo was shaking Pielot by the collar for all he was worth.
“The guy whose contact info you gave me told me to drop you right here! That man’s about to die, you oversized Snorlax!!”
Just then, a voice rang out.
[Drop him!]
Dierre’s telepathic voice.
“...Come again?”
Vasileo answered with telepathy as well.
[He’s always been like that, just drop him!]
Seriously?
Vasileo hesitated for a moment, but there was no time. Pielot would get there far faster than any incantation he could start.
To hell with it—Vasileo dispelled the spell holding Pielot aloft.
Fwooooosh─!
Pielot plummeted.
As the gods converged on him, Dierre looked up at the sky.
Dierre knew Hypnos very well.
Perhaps even better than Pielot did.
He had absolute confidence.
“You’re not the type to let Pielot die, are you?”
And just as he expected—
Pielot opened his eyes as he fell.
“......”
He wasn’t even surprised to find himself plummeting the moment he woke up.
Blinking sleep-heavy eyes, he muttered,
“......Dierre’s doing, I’m guessing?”
Right on the mark.
Pielot’s head was pointed downward. When he turned his gaze toward the ground, he saw the gods gathering.
Pielot reached for his sword.
The gods of Asgard surged toward Dierre.
And between them—
Pielot dropped down right beside Dierre.
“Long time no see.”
“Yeah.”
Ribanche Swordsmanship
Draw, Pielot Original
Harvest Festival
Swaa-a-a-a-a─!!
Black rain fell upon the gods.
