I had always thought miracles were the work of gods.
But what Lu was doing… it felt like the very same thing.
The Frost Orb lay shattered. The traces of its magic, even the lingering light that had filled the chamber, had been sucked into Ymir’s mouth. Only the pedestal remained. Yet Lu hovered above it, her form faintly translucent. She gently extended her hands downward.
“Skill 『Miko』”
Her sky-blue eyes, wide and unblinking, shone with a divinity that made the back of my neck tingle.
“Ability… ‘Creation’…!”
A faint, lingering white glow hovered in the air. It gathered beneath Lu’s hands. Fragments of light joined together—one, then another—until they formed a tiny sphere about the size of a fingertip. A faint smile curved at Luu’s lips.
It was as if she already knew exactly what she was meant to do.
Beneath her hands, the shattered sacred relic began to weave itself together once more. It wasn’t being repaired—it was being reborn, newly created.
“Gods…”
At her words, the deities hovering above reacted.
“Y-yes,”
Even Loki appeared shocked. The gods extended their palms toward Lu, offering light—or perhaps sharing their very magic.
My body trembled. Not from cold, not from fear.
From her movements, I felt a sacred beauty, as if she were stitching together stars themselves.
A low, rumbling growl echoed nearby.
“Grr…!”
It was Ymir. His face twisted in a savage snarl, the flames that cloaked him radiating the full terror of a monster king. He raised his massive arm—intent on crushing the orb and Lu together!
“Wake up!”
From my short sword, the wind spirit, Sylph, surged forth. But even against the sudden gust, Ymir didn’t budge an inch. The gap was impossibly small but I threw myself into it with everything I had.
“Hah!”
I slammed down the Thunder God’s Hammer, and Ymir staggered back a single step.
I planted myself squarely in front of him and Freyr.
Behind me is Lu. If I didn’t protect my little sister now, I wasn’t her brother.
“I won’t let you pass!”
The short sword I thrust forward didn’t waver. My gaze stayed locked straight ahead.
A cold wind drifted in from behind. Glancing back, my vision was filled with a blinding white light. A fist-sized orb—no, larger than the original—appeared on the pedestal.
The Frost Orb.
Freyr’s eyes widened.
“…Even beyond expectations.”
He let his sword fall loosely, his voice betraying his astonishment.
“Just as I saw in the capital! So it was there all along!”
Memories scrambled through my mind, stirring countless thoughts.
Freyr might have been in the capital.
The enemy slave trader who had appeared there—one had been in Alvis, the world serpent Yor; the other had attacked my home.
Could that person… have been Freyr?
But… what is this person really searching for?
My thoughts spun in endless circles. I felt like I was on the verge of grasping something, yet it slipped through my fingers. Elusive as clouds, yet unmistakably close, there was something I could call the truth pressing near.
The strengthening wind cut through my thoughts, chilling me to the bone.
Lu pressed her lips together, and the white light flared even brighter. Cold air raced past me from both sides, crashing into the titan. Ice particles danced in the gusts.
Ymir opened his mouth.
“The seal… I have already devoured it! Do you think it will work again?”
His colossal frame was shrouded in red-black flames, a protective barrier against the cold.
Step by step, he advanced toward the pedestal.
I had no intention of backing down.
Planting my feet firmly, I shouted.
“Bring it on!”
Ymir swung his massive arm upward.
“Oniichan!”
A signal from Lu. Thor shouted.
“Rion! Fall back! Leave him to us, the gods!”
But now—there was no time to heed their words!
I entrusted myself to the Golden Flame, and met Ymir’s strike head-on with my short sword. The impact felt like my body might shatter into pieces. A crack ran across the floor beneath my right knee as it hit. Flames scorched my arm and cheek, searing pain tearing through me.
“…Creation!”
Lu’s voice rang out.
In that instant when I held back the blow, cold coiled around Ymir’s arm.
“Ugh!”
A groan came.
It’s unmistakably from the primordial titan.
Around his arms glowed a brilliant white shackles of ice. Chains had been conjured, binding both of his massive arms.
“…Your…. creation!”
The colossal figure leapt downward, ripping the icy chains apart. The shattered chains scattered into shards of light before vanishing into the flames. Yet the cuffs that remained on his wrists survived, still glowing. The flames wrapping his arms clashed violently against the icy bracelets.
Ymir ground his teeth.
“…They won’t disappear. I’ve been… bested, it seems.”
Even an enemy like him had surely poured tremendous power into breaking the orb.
And into that moment of weakness—Luisia awakened her power.
The remaining ice cuffs on his wrists were surely sapping Ymir’s strength.
“This—”
I exchanged a glance with Solana, who hovered in the air. The goddess gave a slight nod.
“The tide has turned.”
She spoke.
Ymir’s face, carved like solid rock, twisted into a smile. A savage grin, as if he were savoring the crisis.
“…Time for a little appetite adjustment, perhaps.”
From the top of the tower, Ymir surveyed the city of Flocia. His crimson tongue flicked across his lips.
“Freyr”
“…Yes, I understand.”
I couldn’t fully grasp the meaning of their exchange. All I could see was Ymir holding his wrist—the one still bound by the ice shackle—toward Freyr.
From that hand, golden light flowed—soft, pale, and yet unlike anything I had ever seen—moving toward Freyr.
Ymir cast a brief glance in my direction.
“Even among the creations you’ve raised, this one is exquisite. Make the most of it.”
Freyr nodded, producing a necklace from his left hand. He seemed to whisper a prayer over it.
Ymir’s massive finger swept toward the lake.
“You… go to the tower. I will devour the city.”
The flames cloaking his colossal body flared even brighter. Even with the ice shackles binding him, his power was still overwhelming.
The cold of the orb clashed with the titan’s heat wave. The battle of fire and ice recalled the myths—how, in the empty void before the world existed, fire and ice had given birth to the first titan.
Ymir calmly surveyed us, as if judging the results of his creation. With the tower broken and walls gone, he stepped back toward the edge of the room. The fierce wind from outside whipped his blond hair and flames around him.
And then, slowly—he toppled outward.
“Then… farewell.”
The gods unleashed their attacks.
Loki’s magic and Uru’s arrows rained down on Ymir’s position.
Freyr cut them all aside. His body glowed with the same golden light as before. The radiance, strong and awakening, felt familiar—as if the body itself had come alive.
“Father…?”
The shadow I had long cast over him—Nils—passed through my mind.
Why… now?
Breaking through the dust, Freyr leapt to the roof outside.
Loki’s voice rang out.
“Ymir is heading for the city! Freyr’s going to the tower by the lake!”
From the distant rooftop, Freyr shouted.
“Rion! Take the horn and follow me! We’ll meet at the top of the tower… on the battlefield of Valhalla!”
Freyr’s blond hair whipped in the fierce wind as he ran toward the lake. The necklace in his hand sparkled, reflecting sunlight streaming through the clouds.
I couldn’t keep my eyes on him for long.
The enemy was below the tower.
“Ymir…!”
Peering down, I saw him standing there. A faint glow surrounded him—golden, but ominously weak. Straining my eyes, I noticed the warrior order and adventurers lying defeated. And from their bodies, light was being drawn out.
The glow slowly converged toward the titan.
A sound escaped my lips.
“Is he… trying to devour their skills?”
A chill ran down my spine.
The golden light—it must be the “light of skill” stolen from people.
Ymir opened his massive mouth. He intended to consume the skills of the fallen. It was terrifying, revolting, and my scream tore through my throat.
“No!”
Thor’s hammer slammed into the ground at Ymir’s feet like a bolt of lightning.
A laugh, deep and rumbling like an earthquake, shook the sky.
“Bold to try resupply in front of the God of War!”
Thor’s red hair whipped wildly as he dove down.
“Rion, leave Ymir to me!”
“I’m coming too!”
The God of Hunting, Uru, followed. The deity in hunting garb landed beside me from above.
“Freyr has the necklace of the sacred relic—Brísingamen! It’s the master key to the dungeon’s functions! Who knows what he might do. He could even unleash the monsters from the dungeon!”
Uru added, his brown eyes fixed on Dungeon Island, shrouded in haze beyond the lake.
“From a scout’s perspective, it seems a large number of monsters have awakened. The shattered orb’s influence is not zero.”
I gulped.
“So the dungeon monsters are… enemies too, then.”
“Exactly. We gods must protect the city—from Ymir and from the dungeon itself.”
Uru leapt from the tower in pursuit of Ymir.
Solana approached nearby.
“I’ll go with you.”
“…Yeah!”
We had to follow Freyr.
I turned back toward the tower’s interior, shouting to the remaining companions and gods.
“I’m going after Freyr! Freyja-sama should be at the lake tower too.”
If I awaken the gods and sound the horn, we might be able to drive Ymir and the others off… maybe even defeat him.
“Everyone else, protect the city!”
Loki and Sigris hovered above. And in the tower were Mia-san, Felix-san, and Safi.
I met each of their gazes. Below, Thor and Uru must already be locked in battle with Ymir.
“Oniichan, you’re going, aren’t you…?”
Lu’s translucent form floated down to the floor. She had clearly used a tremendous amount of magic; her breath came in short, ragged gasps. Her face was hard to read through the glow, but surely her cheeks were flushed bright red.
I healed my wounds with the White Flame and smiled at her.
“…Thank you, Lu. That was incredible… really incredible.”
I wondered what kind of power my little sister truly possessed. There were still so many unknowns—but there was no doubt she had poured everything she had into helping.
Lu straightened her back, proud.
“I told you, didn’t I?”
“Huh?”
“I said I’d get stronger and wait for you. Did I… manage to be of some help too?”
Tears welled in her eyes.
If Lu weren’t a form woven from magic, I would have pulled her into a hug without hesitation.
Her eyes glistened, shimmering with unshed tears.
“Because I want you to come back… I did my best.”
“…Yeah.”
I would return to the Royal Capital—no matter what!
I had something precious to protect. To keep this child from sorrow, I strive to become a strong and compassionate adventurer.
Not just strong. Not just kind.
Both, together. Only then could I truly protect what mattered most.
“Lu… you’re strong. You’ve really grown strong.”
My heart blazed.
I turned my back to my sister and gazed out over the lake, where the White Tower loomed.
“I’m coming.”
I declared it.
—The questions would keep coming, one after another.
In a moment of defeat, Freyr had said that to me.
Now, I felt I could answer. Whatever the question, and whatever answer it demanded.
—What is truly important?
It’s not letting this child be saddened.
That’s why I will return, and I will not betray my own resolve. To come back through the front doors with my chest held high.
“Solana, let’s go!”
I kicked off the floor and leapt outside. A storm of wind roared toward me.
But now… it was a tailwind.
This is translated by Yume Neiji. Kindly read at yumeineijiworks.wordpress.com.
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