The moment we stepped out of the temple, I used my skill, Sun’s Divine Protection, upon Mia-san and Felix-san. Golden flames wrapped around them so we could chase after Safi faster.
Entering the dungeon from the far side of the mountain, the Horn of Awakening, Gjallarhorn, lit up at once. No doubt it was the dwarves’ way of guiding us, pointing towards where our true destination lay.
I blew the horn in the passage which stirred the mechanisms far ahead of us. Maybe everything was done just in time. We are now standing here protecting Safi.
“Rion…!”
The dwarf blacksmith wiped away her tears.
This reminded me of Father somehow, and so I forced myself to smile, nodding as firmly as I could—trying to look dependable.
“It’s all right now. We’re all here—together.”
At the front, Thor the God of Thunder stood like a wall, followed by Loki, Uru, and Sigris—the four gods forming our vanguard. A step behind them, Solana hovered close to us. Mia-san readied her chain axe and Felix-san leveled his staff. We held our formation on the dungeon floor.
But that’s not all. We got allies above as well. The vast chamber rose like a hollow cylinder, ringed with multiple tiers of platforms. Mounted on them were heavy ballistae and arcane engines and every weapon are trained upon the enemy.
Yes—the enemy.
All we had to do was look up to understand the scale of what we are about to face.
Pressed against the far wall, loomed the massive form of Flamebone Surtr. Even in kneeling posture, the flame titan’s body made the “Incarnation of Rage” or the “Flame Golem” we had fought before look small. If he stood to his full height, I think he would easily near twenty meters.
And at that same level, standing with folded arms as if enjoying the spectacle, was a woman cloaked in black.
“Well, well… it’s been a while, hasn’t it, horn boy?”
I took a deep breath. I readied my blue crystal short sword and crouched down. Step by step, I repeated the movements I had learned.
“How’s your little sister these days?”
Cutting through the tense silence of the great hall that’s in a deadlock, came her gloomy voice.
So it really was her!
As I had thought, she’s the slave trader who had shown up in the Royal Capital. But I am not someone who would falter at her taunts.
I pressed my lips shut and met the woman’s gaze head-on.
“Your little awakening skill is quite marvelous. I’d dearly love to have such a gift for myself… But tell me, your sister also have something unusual, right? Some delightful power of her own, isn’t it?”
My body almost instinctively took a step backwards.
The sound of her voice was vile, coiling through the chamber like a great serpent, prickling at my instincts with a primal warning.
“Have you release some kind of seal inside her? As though… there’s something else living within?”
Lu’s face flashed across my mind.
The first time she’d used her skill, Creation, she’d seemed shackled, as though bound by invisible cuffs.
“Right, I thought so. Fufufu.”
Had she sensed my hesitation?
“But, is it really okay for you to be here? You see, no matter where she’s concealed, a brother who loves his sister will always, always find her…”
Brother…?
What is she talking about?
“You are not the only one who has the right to call that child ‘little sister’ you know.”
I felt my stance waver, the short sword trembling in my grip. The most important thing to me—my family—had been spit out with malice.
“W–what are—!”
“Rion!”
Solana’s voice cut sharp at my side.
She was pointing into the darkness where a flicker of crimson had begun to bloom.
“G-garmr’s fireball!”
Safi’s shout tore through the chamber.
Damn it! I let myself get distracted!
The blazing sphere, birthed from the maw of the hellhound, streaked toward us like a falling star.
“Fufufu. Really now… you’re playing fire before a god huh.”
With a snap of his fingers, Loki smothered the fireballs in mid-flight. The flames vanished as though they had never existed.
And with that, the battle resumed.
From the walls, the dwarves’ contraptions unleashed their fury. Arrows and bolts rained down with bursts of magic, searing the horde of monsters. But no rain of steel could stop them all—those too swift or too fierce, tore through the barrage fire. However, each that broke the line found themselves engulfed in Loki’s conjured flame. They were incinerated before they could close the distance.
This was a battle between two massive armies. A scale I had never seen before.
At that moment, a sound came. Chains jingled, heavy and merciless, they start slithering across the stone like iron serpents.
“To reach Surtr, we first have to carve our way through this horde of monster.”
Mia-san narrowed her eyes at the titan waiting fifty meters ahead.
The colossus living flame crouched with arms crossed before its chest, gathering power. Looking more closely, streaks of red and black, writhing like curses, is rising from his body.
“…That looks like the same effect as the titan’s ashes, doesn’t it?”
At my words, Felix-san lowered his staff and peered ahead with his far sight.
“Most likely. He’s undoing the seals on the creatures around him.”
My throat tightened, a hard swallow escaping.
The monsters kept coming—more and more pouring through the dwarves’ defenses, heedless of the bolts and fire raining down. Even with the awakening horn and the gods at our side, I couldn’t really lean on their protection forever.
Because in the end, I would still have to face Surtr.
I tried to summarize the situation.
“So, in other words—”
“Until Surtr falls, the monsters will be endless.”
Felix-san finished my words for me.
Mia-san groaned.
“Ugh, that’s just brutal…”
I didn’t say it aloud, but I felt the same.
Thor looked back at us and laughed.
“It isn’t just the monsters.”
Thor’s great eyes lifted to the black-robed woman standing on the high platform.
“Surtr’s loosening those seals for something bigger—something far worse.”
As if in answer, the flame titan uncrossed his massive arms. His right hand rose, fingers spread out toward one of the platforms—the one mounted with a great ballista.
“Everyone, move!”
Safi’s cry echoed.
From Surtr’s fingertips burst a blazing sphere of fire, a miniature sun hurled straight at the dwarves’ defenses. It struck before the ballista, exploding it in a thunderous bloom. Dust and smoke roared outwards right after.
—However, two figures intercepted it. Uru, God of the hunt, and Sigris, God of medicine. They soared up together, erecting a wall of magic that shielded the platform from ruin. Hovering in mid air, the gods braced for another strike.
Surtr exhaled in fury. His breath was molten heat. The wave of it searing even across the chamber where we stood far from him.
“…Protect the dwarf. Break through the monsters. And strike Surtr down. That’s it.”
Thor’s words made me clench my jaw. I nodded back.
The dwarves turned their artillery on the titan, launching bolts and spells. Surtr was ready though. A red-black barrier spread before him, knocking every shot aside.
It was like a castle siege.
With the dwarves focused on the titan, the monsters swarmed free. The ground shook. Golems thundered forward. Golems, Garm, and even rock worms closed in on us, shaking the ground.
“Ya!”
Solana thrust both hands forward, a burst of golden light exploding from her palms. The force hurled a golem and the hellhound Garmr together, slamming them into the far wall in a tangled heap.
Thor’s hammer struck, scattering foes like dry twigs. Loki’s magic flared as well. The cascade of fire and darkness pushed back the enemies. If viewed from above, it might have looked like a surging black wave colliding with the gods and breaking apart.
“Amazing…”
I could only stare in awe.
The dwarves’ ingenious weapons. The gods’ overwhelming power. Beyond them all, the apocalypse embodied by the flame titan Surtr, towers above the swarm. And we—mere humans—were in the very heart of it.
“Rion!”
Solana turned toward me, her smile is small but radiant.
Heat surged through my chest.
“Everyone—forward!”
I shouted. We advanced, cutting a path through the black tide of the apocalypse.
Monsters came without end.
A Garmr lunged at us with its fangs but I dove beneath its jaws, stabbing it in the throat with my crystal short sword. Against a rock worm, I wake up the wind spirit. Its wind blade cut through the worm’s armored carapace, cutting it in half.
“Haah!”
Mia-san’s axe rang against a golem’s stone hide. The crimson runes carved into her weapon flared, blasting a part of its hide into shards. With the glowing core exposed, Felix-san’s ice magic speared through, freezing and shattering it.
“Gooaaaaah!”
A massive four-legged creature approached, letting out a particularly loud roar. Its horns were ablaze, a Muspelheim Aurochs—commonly known as the “Fire Bull.” It’s a mid-boss of the Alvis Dungeon. A nightmare in its own right. Head lowered, horns aglow, the beast charged straight at us, its bulk the size of two wagons barreling side by side.
“Haah!”
I lunged forward, lightning crackling along the blade in my hand. With the Thunder God’s Protection, lightning flowed into my crystal short sword. My weapon blazed, and I brought it down in a flash of stormlight.
“Grrrhh—!?”
The fire bull’s horn met the strike head-on—only to be blasted back as if struck by a thunderbolt. Its massive body swayed through the chamber, toppling down several golems.
“D-did the horn do this…?”
The gods’ power is stronger now.
To think that even a dungeon mid-boss could be flung aside in a single strike is simply amazing.
Felix-san and Mia-san stared at me, equally astonished.
A shiver of exhilaration ran through me.
“Come on, everyone! Forward!”
No matter how many monsters rose against us, we would keep pushing through.
――So, you’ve come this far huh.
The voice rolled like distant thunder, shaking the air itself.
Surtr’s eyes flared crimson, casting their light down upon us. Just the weight of that gaze felt like it could have crushed us outright.
If mere sight could kill, we’d all be gone.
“…Very well.”
From a platform above Surtr’s head, the black-robed woman stepped forward.
She drew back her hood. Long black hair, twisted and coiled like serpents, tumbled free. Her red lips curved into a mocking smile.
“Now that Surtr is fully awake… perhaps it’s time I joined the fray.”
Right after she said that, the air around her surged with a murky glow. It’s red and black, resembling the ashes of the titan. It is now rapidly gathering around the woman.
“Boy with the horn.”
She spoke. Her voice is filled with cruel amusement.
“Let me name myself properly. I am Serpentbone Jor, one of the monsters birthed by Ymir-sama.”
The woman looked down upon us and spoke.
“Behold—the World Serpent, Jormungandr.”
From her body, a foul, tar-black vapor erupted, streaming upward through the rift torn in the ceiling. It surged out into the open night sky. And then, under the pale light of the moon, it appeared.
Black scales. Golden eyes. A maw of crimson.
I forgot to breathe.
The serpent was so enormous that it completely covered the night sky visible through the rift. Its girth alone looked as if it could barely squeeze through the Royal Capital’s main gates. Its length? Impossible to fathom. Yet every fiber of my being knew—it was colossal beyond reckoning.
I know. It’s a creature that could coil itself around castles, around fortresses, and crush them as though they were toys.
“Serpentbone…”
I remembered the mural. The one I had seen in the Southern Dungeon near the capital. It spoke of the lieutenants born from Ymir’s bones. From the bones of both of his arms, an enormous serpent had been created.
“T-this is…”
I couldn’t help but let my voice slip out.
Above Surtr’s blazing form, the rift gaped wide, and through it the serpent’s face gazed down.
――Well then… while you’re all busy fighting Surtr, perhaps I’ll pay a visit to Alvis.
The massive eye curved into a crescent shape.
The serpent withdrew its head from the rift, turning its gaze toward the distant city. Faintly—so faintly we could still hear them—rose the screams of its people, already sensing the encroaching horror.
――You never imagined, did you? That two lieutenants of such magnitude would stand against you at once.
A streak of red light burst upward, hurtling towards the rift.
Lightning exploded against the serpent’s scaled face.
“…So it was you.”
Thor had thrown Mjölnir.
The hammer returned to his hand as he rose into the air, hovering within the vast chamber. His eyes locked on the serpent’s.
The World Serpent glared back at him.
――Last time… the twilight of the gods ended without our battle reaching its end.
“Hmph. The same is true for me.”
The thunder god’s and the serpent’s voices reverberated off the high stone vaults.
Then Thor’s gaze fell upon me.
“Rion! Leave the outside to me. The inside—”
I raised my short sword high in answer.
“Yes! Leave it to me!”
Thor smiled. Like a brief moment of sunshine on the rocky mountain, his face quickly returned to that of the stern god of thunder, but it was undoubtedly a smile. And in that fleeting moment, I felt the same red light burn within my chest, just as it burned in his.
“…Thank you. You’ve become a fine warrior.”
With that, Thor flew through the rift, out into the night.
Outside—the Thunder God against the World Serpent Jormungandr.
Inside—us against Surtr.
Two monsters of the apocalypse. Both ours to face.
“…Father must have been afraid too.”
But he had chosen nonetheless—chose to protect.
I made my decision too.
I hesitated and spent a lot of time thinking about it, but I’ve finally found the answer. So now, I am moving forward.
――Then, come.
Flamebone Surtr also rose, along with a wave of heat.
This is translated by Yume Neiji. Kindly read at yumeineijiworks.wordpress.com.
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