Hela’s army could no longer hold back the gods.
They said it fared better than Hestia’s thanks to its sheer numbers, but that amounted to nothing more than buying a little more time.
KWOONG─!
“Urk......!”
At last, one of the Naglfars Hela possessed sank.
The ship that had been floating in the air split in half, slowly collapsing, and the soldiers on top of it knelt and bowed their heads as if to share its end. Even as they fell with the tilt, they did not so much as twitch.
“Good. Gods, head for the Bifröst!”
Odin’s shout.
With one Naglfar fallen, a broad road opened toward the Bifröst.
And when Hela raised her lamp once more,
PANG!
“Kyaak!”
That lamp suddenly shattered.
A single stone had flown in and pierced its center.
“Baldur!”
When she checked who it was, it was Baldur, and he came flying swiftly toward Hela.
“I should have killed ✪ Nоvеlіgһt ✪ (Official version) you, Hela!!”
“Ha! If you had, I would have been glad of it, you arrogant wretch!”
Hela shouted.
Baldur raised his sword and struck downward. The god-form hurtling in at high speed.
By nature Hela was skilled in magic and weak in body. She had no way to respond to Baldur’s attack as he closed in.
‘......Tch, that’s what I get for getting my hopes up again for no reason.’
Hela clicked her tongue inwardly.
It was because of Belphegor that she’d come this far.
He’d said this was Loki’s message.
That she alone could stop Odin—so Loki had said.
‘For me to trust a demon,’
Cutting off Hela’s thoughts, Baldur drew near enough to touch.
And then,
THUD!
“......?”
Baldur went face-first to the ground.
Under a huge paw pressing him down.
Hela slowly lifted her head.
“......You.”
[Hela.]
Snow-white, thick-grown fur. A gigantic wolf.
Fenrir.
He had crushed Baldur.
Flick.
Then he flicked him away with a forepaw like tossing aside a sack.
“Ghhk......! That damned mutt!”
Of course, that alone would not kill Baldur. He was already rising, eyes blazing as he looked at Fenrir.
“Baldur!”
But there was a voice that checked him.
“Go to the Bifröst!”
“......! Lord Odin!”
“Stop letting yourselves be played by the humans’ thoughts! We have already wasted much time.”
“But in that case, what are we to do about that wolf and Hela?”
Instead of an answer—
THOOM─
He gripped a spear in his right hand.
“I will take them.”
“......Understood.”
Seeing that, Baldur promptly moved and headed for the Bifröst.
[Gungnir, is it.]
Fenrir glared at the spear.
From the moment Hela and Fenrir confirmed Gungnir, they gave up on stopping the other gods.
Instead, they blocked Odin. If anything, this was the best course.
[Hela. Stay behind me.]
“If you’ve shown up to act like a big brother all of a sudden—”
[What are you talking about.]
The wolf’s mouth rumbled a growl as he sank his stance low. Power gathered in the hind legs. The deck of the Naglfar split with a crack.
[It means don’t get in my way.]
CRUNCH!
Fenrir kicked off and shot forward with all his might.
Thanks to that—
“......That fool.”
Another Naglfar broke apart.
***
“.......”
Atlas, Elodie’s house.
Mei sat vacantly on the bed.
House-sitting duty.
When told to stay home, Mei neither liked it nor disliked it in particular.
Mei is neither human, nor demon, nor god.
All of them are outsiders to her. Whether someone lives or dies, Mei has no reason to grieve or rejoice.
So—
“......I’m bored.”
Mei muttered to herself.
A house with no one in it. An unbearably heavy silence.
It does not feel real that there is a war going on somewhere right now.
Sss.
Mei rose absentmindedly.
And she walked around the room. Tap-tap, the child’s steps made small sounds that stirred the silence little by little.
But when she reached the front door,
“......Ah.”
She went back and sat down.
Mei had been repeating this motion for a while now.
Going out, then returning because she could not understand why she was trying to go out—repeating that behavior.
Why try to go out? To something that has nothing to do with her.
Mei was now looking for a reason for herself to go out.
“What do I want to do.”
Mei looked out the window.
She remembered Frondier’s face.
Frondier had grown grave, as if he had heard some urgent news.
He had said he was returning to the Palind Continent.
Before he left, Frondier had said this to Mei.
“Mei. Please stay home for a while. Until I get back.”
“......House-sit?”
“Yeah. You can do that, right?”
“Mm.”
What’s so hard about that.
Mei nodded blankly.
But before he went, Frondier also said this.
“......Mei.”
“Mm?”
“If you, on your own, decide you’re going to do something.”
Frondier smiled gently.
“Then you can do it.”
“......Other than house-sitting?”
“Yeah. Other than house-sitting.”
Mei thought for a moment and then nodded. Seeing that, Frondier left as if relieved.
It was nothing difficult to understand.
While house-sitting, if she came to want to do something, she could do it. A very free order.
But, and so—
“......What is it I want to do? I.”
If there’s nothing she wants to do, she can just sit still.
Humans, demons, gods. It does not matter to her who lives or dies.
If she waits like this, someday Frondier or Elodie—
“......Ah.”
There Mei looked out the window.
What if they do not come?
What if Frondier or Elodie, or the others, do not come—then what?
“Then, I.”
Then does something change?
I don’t care what happens to humans.
Frondier and Elodie are probably human.
“......No.”
Mei stood up.
Her expression was guileless, but her eyes grew clear.
She knew what she wanted.
“Things like that don’t matter. I—”
──I have to save them.
As Mei thought that—
TONG─!
Mei snapped her head up as if struck by lightning.
Her big round eyes opened even wider, and her upward gaze sparkled as if taking something in.
And—
“......Let’s go.”
In a slightly changed voice, Mei murmured.
***
Aias and Glaukos landed on the ground ahead of Pielot.
“Pielot, you did it right, yeah?”
“He was falling head-first—he didn’t just get driven straight into the ground, did he?”
From here the barrier is far, so it’s hard to see.
Even so, they could see the gods who’d reached the front of the barrier unable to go any farther.
“Good, looks like it worked!”
“Let’s go too!”
The two sprinted across the ground.
Lacking flight magic, they targeted the lower gods.
Meanwhile, in the air, the newly-participating Vasileo spread both hands.
Reservation No. 3
Chain Lightning
Lightning formed in an instant and fell toward the gods.
BZZZT!
“......Uh.”
It hit them square on, yet no one fell; they were fine.
The struck gods turned their gaze toward Vasileo, who was in the air.
All he’d done was stoke their anger for nothing.
“Damn it, this doesn’t work?”
It was one of the more destructive spells among those Vasileo had, and yet it amounted to no more than getting on their nerves.
“You there, student!”
A voice came then.
When Vasileo looked, a woman with ten spells spread like wings was looking at him.
“Y-Yes?”
“Don’t use Reservations like bullets!”
......Bullets?
“Sorry, I don’t know what you mean!”
“A Reservation is leaving an empty slot open within your available mana processing for that spell to sit in! Whether you’re holding a reserved spell or using it, the slot is always maintained! If it disappears because you used it, the effect of reserving is halved!”
“......!”
Vasileo’s eyes went wide.
He quickly moved to Jane’s side.
“So you mean that since Reservation is basically keeping only the last button left to press, even after you press the button, don’t start from the very beginning—start from the middle? If you keep the space open, you don’t need to make a new space?”
“Oh, you catch on fast?”
Jane smiled.
With all ten fingers fully splayed, she was close to an autonomous strike cannon. Ten different destructive spells were poured onto the appropriate situations and appropriate targets, and once poured, they were again prepared with formula and incantation for the next spells. In the meantime, of course, the other cannons were bombarding.
“Show me the formula for that Chain Lightning you just cast!”
“Ah, yes!”
Vasileo dutifully initiated the formula for Chain Lightning.
“Right there just now! Don’t draw the mana circuit in curves—just run it diagonally! You know the concept of a three-dimensional formula, so why is your method so old-fashioned?”
“......Hah! I see, of course!”
“If your only goal is completion, fine, but the more useless circuits you add, the worse your mileage gets! You’re using more mana for about the same effect. Is that the kind of spell you want to cast?”
“No! I’ll fix it!”
“Good! Then fire!”
Vasileo completed the formula and fired Chain Lightning.
BZZZZZT!!
“Graaagh!”
This time it worked properly. The gods let out cries of pain, and some of them seemed to black out for a moment and fell.
“Oh, ooh!”
“See? Even the power goes up, right?”
“How is this possible? ‘To cast a stronger spell, you must know a stronger spell.’ Isn’t that the basic premise? I thought it was impossible to increase the very power of a spell!”
“That’s only when you’re already producing one spell’s one hundred percent! Every spell has a clear upper limit. And likewise, it has a lower limit too. Isn’t it stranger to assume the upper and lower limits are the same?”
“......!”
At Jane’s words, Vasileo gaped as if shocked. His eyes were sparkling.
Jane scratched her cheek and spoke.
“But this really feels like talking to someone from way back. I thought everyone already knew this stuff?”
“Is—Is there anything more I could learn?”
“Chain Lightning is fine, but don’t you have anything stronger?”
At that, Vasileo pondered.
He spoke cautiously.
“Uh, it’s not ready for real combat yet, but ‘Hellfire’......”
“You can use Hellfire?!”
This time Jane’s eyes sparkled.
“Ah, I can only manifest it for now.”
“Great! Do it right now!”
At that, Vasileo began his incantation.
It wasn’t long before a sinister flame was born.
Watching the surging aura, Jane nodded.
“Hm-hm. As I thought, you couldn’t attach ‘Impact.’”
“Yes, I only have ‘Launch’...... But with Launch, Hellfire is too slow—the opponent won’t just stand there and take it.”
“It’s fine.”
One of Jane’s ten magic spheres went dark.
“I can do that.”
“Ah, ma’am?”
Jane stretched out her right hand.
Upon the formula for Hellfire already made, she began mana interference.
“Impact needs its coordinates specified already in the course of the formula. Practice doing the same formula diagonally, or upside-down, or swapping left and right.”
“Will the spell still manifest if I do that?”
“Do you know what precise appearance a soccer ball must have to be in its ‘true’ position?”
“......No, I don’t.”
“Me neither.”
Then Jane finished her interference.
“Why would spells be any different?”
“......!”
Vasileo’s eyes sparkled yet again.
And—
FWOOOOSH─!
Flames spread through the mass of gods.
Hellfire clung to their bodies.
Vasileo stared blankly at the sight.
Jane brought a hand to her waist and spoke.
“None of the formulae you know were set in stone to have been made that way from the start. So think freely. A formula isn’t something you have to handle quite so gingerly. Just like a soccer ball is still a soccer ball no matter how it rolls.”
Then Vasileo looked at Jane.
With a resolute determination about him, he spoke.
“May I call you Master!”
That resolve flowed straight out in his voice, and reached Jane’s ear in full.
As if answering that heart, Jane looked at Vasileo and spoke.
“......Would you prefer to call me Teacher?”
Her expression didn’t look very pleased.
