Bathed in a radiant golden light, Freyr fixed his gaze on me.
An unsteady breath slipped from my lips. The light surrounding my enemy bore an uncanny resemblance to my own 『Alarm』 skill.
There was no mistaking it—it was my father’s skill, the one forever etched into my memory.
“…My father’s… skill?”
It was called 『Awakening』, a power that unleashes the user’s latent potential in a single, explosive surge. It was the very ability that had elevated my father to the ranks of a heroic adventurer.
Adventurers who surpassed level fifty, like my father, were rare. Across all of recorded history, their number barely reached a hundred.
I tried to recall what my father had been fighting in his final moments.
A chill pierced straight through my core, as if an icicle had been driven into my chest, threatening to freeze me from the inside out.
“Then….. Ymir killed my father.”
“Indeed. Ymir devoured your father’s skill—and then bestowed it upon me.”
Freyr’s lips twisted into a triumphant grin.
“This is not ‘Awakening.’ In the end, it wasn’t a skill capable of breaking the dungeon’s seal. Still, a power that ‘releases one’s dormant strength’ seems to carry at least enough influence to keep its bearer from being put to sleep by the seal. Thanks to that, I was able to travel just as you did.”
A god should have been affected by the seal. And yet, Freyr had come and gone from the Temple of Odis as he pleased. Without Solana’s light of awakening, even Thor and the others would hardly have been able to step outside.
In this case, there must have been some way to resist the seal. And that way was—my father’s skill, 『Awakening』.
“B-But…! If you had that kind of power—”
“You mean, you, as his son, should have noticed it within the dungeon? The awakening skill that Ymir granted me was, at first, only a fragment of its true strength—a kind of insurance. Between Ymir and myself, we safeguarded that precious power which could resist the seal. And after devouring the orb, Ymir transferred the skill 『Awakening』 to me in its entirety.”
So the light I had seen being passed between them in the Orb chamber was really the glow of a skill.
Freyr slipped a necklace from within his cloak. Once dulled by soot, the divine relic now blazed with a brilliance sharp enough to dazzle the eye.
“The divine treasure of Freyja—the necklace Brísingamen—lost nearly all of its power while I remained in the guise of Nils. Had the relic protected me from the seal, the other gods would surely have sensed it.”
Freyr murmured, “Such a pity.”
He readjusted the grip on his sword.
A gust of wind slipped through the window, whistling softly as it sent a chill crawling down the back of my neck. Until now, I had layered the image of my father over Nils—over the person standing before me. But at last, that image sharpened into something unmistakably real.
I had admired him. I had wanted to become an adventurer like him. And now, that very dream stood in my way.
The swordsmanship of the god Freyr… and the skill of my father, Rutger—the heroic adventurer.
How was I supposed to win against something like this?
Each second stretched, every moment drawn out until it felt suspended in time. It was a prison of thought.
Suddenly, a shout rose up.
Gaps yawned between the walls of the topmost floor, and through them I could see the city below. Outside, a storm raged. Furious winds howled beneath a sky split by thunder and rain. Sigris scattered flashes of blue light as she fought. Loki hurled spell after spell, while the lightning flaring deeper within the city must have been Thor and Uru.
The adventurers were also desperately trying to fend off the monsters, being pelted by the heavy rain.
Everyone was fighting.
And I—I was the key to it all.
Freyja-sama, slumbering within the tower, possessed a vast and immeasurable well of magic. With Alarm, I could release that power—turn her into an ally.
I tightened my grip on my short sword. Planting my feet shoulder-width apart, I lifted my gaze and met Freyr’s eyes head-on.
“…It seems you’ve found your answer to my question.”
Everyone was fighting, believing in me. It had been my own decision that led us here—the choice to protect my little sister. That resolve had drawn countless others into this battle as well.
So I shouldn’t be afraid.
I shouted.
“Freyr!”
If my opponent is a hero… then I would simply have to become one too.
“I will—defeat you.”
Freyr smiled.
Then he stepped in.
A slash flashed toward me like a bolt of light, and I threw myself sideways to avoid it. Even with the Golden Flame at my command, it was a razor-thin escape.
“Wake up!”
From the crystal set in my short sword, the wind spirit Sylph burst forth. Freyr deflected the blade of wind with his sword and kept his distance. At the edge of my vision, a golden radiance flickered.
“Rion!”
Solana loosed a beam of magic-laden light. Freyr darted in a zigzag, evading the strike as he ran.
He closed the gap between us.
“Ugh!”
The short sword I raised on instinct caught the blow. The scent of death brushed past me, and a shudder ran down my spine.
“Is that the end?”
Freyr stood behind me.
A kick followed. Even through my cloak, armor, and every layer of gear, the impact rattled my spine with searing pain. I was sent hurtling toward the ground.
Solana to caught me before I hit. The goddess threw up a barrier of magic to block the follow-up strike.
“Heavy Thrust.”
—But the second stab landed precisely in the same spot in a heartbeat. The barrier shattered like glass.
Solana cried out.
“Get away from me!”
She shoved me back.
However, Freyr pivoted in an instant and surged toward me again. There was no mercy in his assault—no pause for even a breath. It was an overwhelming offensive.
No. I couldn’t afford to lose.
“Hah.”
If I had any chance of winning, it lay in maneuverability.
With his long limbs, Freyr was just a fraction slower than I was when it came to resetting his stance after an attack. It was a tiny opening—but the only one I had.
Terrified as I was, I forced myself to watch the thrust carefully and slip past it at the last possible instant. Marking each step with precision, I circled to Freyr’s right.
I reversed my grip on the short sword.
“Still too slow.”
My passing slash was caught with effortless ease. Steel rang against steel.
He reacted to that?!
Even Solana’s attacks were brushed aside without difficulty. And when we tried to widen the distance, he simply sent blades of magic flying after us, leaving no gap to exploit.
I clenched my back teeth, fighting down the tremor threatening to overtake me.
“…My father’s… power?”
At last, a sliver of distance opened between us. I ran—no, fled—trying to steady my breathing as I went. But my chest felt crushed, too heavy to draw in air.
“You’re a god, and on top of that you’re unleashing your full latent strength—what kind of situation is this?!”
Blades of magic came hurtling toward me.
If I slowed even a little to dodge, Freyr would chase me down without effort. A broken laugh slipped out—half sob, half hysteria.
Then the deluge began again. His relentless assault poured over me like a waterfall. The keen edge of his sword moved almost gracefully, as if dancing through the air—yet each stroke shaved away at my lifespan with merciless certainty.
And it wasn’t only the blade I had to fear. The original form of the Swordsman skill held an endless array of variations: sweeping leg strikes, blows from the hilt, grappling techniques—options branching out without limit.
Keep your distance!
My instincts screamed so—but the instant I reacted, he read me, and a thrust came towards me.
Dodge it!
A split-second reflex, a deadly sweep of the leg in real combat.
Relying on cartwheels to evade, my body was covered in scratches. Solana’s attacks didn’t even faze him. It felt as if his eyes were everywhere—not just behind me, but throughout the very space around me.
—Can I really win?
My resolve began to melt.
At the edge of my vision, I glimpsed Freyja-sama, sealed in ice. My movements had slipped almost entirely into instinct; fear and panic tangled together in my mind, yet my body stubbornly avoided fatal strikes.
Perhaps… the training with Nils back then had prepared me for this, leading me to these rolling evasions.
When I finally rose, Freyr was standing directly in front of me.
“Ah!”
A push against my wrist—Lu’s gauntlet deflected the slicing edge aimed at me. For a moment, Lu’s form overlapped with Freyja-sama’s image.
Before I knew it, I was purely on the defensive.
This is not enough. I am not fighting just to survive—I am fighting to win.
“Solana!”
I signaled to the goddess, and a flash of light streaked across the battlefield.
Freyr dodged—but I tilted my short sword, letting the dazzling golden glow wash over the blade. The reflected light must have stolen his vision, if only for an instant.
I pointed toward the pillar. Solana understood immediately.
“Got it!”
The golden light struck the pillar. With a roar of dust and debris, the stone column toppled toward Freyr.
I had held him at bay with the flames of the fire spirit Salamander, but of course he would have dodged. The unstable footing worked against me as well.
Still, I melted into the swirling dust. This bought me more time to stay hidden from Freyr.
“Solana, aim for the gold coin!”
I steeled myself and took the gamble.
I would—trick Freyr.
Using the very lessons this person had taught me: the art of maneuvering and deception.
| Skill 『Divine Protection of the God of Medicine』 has been activated. Achievement unlocked. A new ability has been granted. |
| Skill 『Divine Protection of the God of Hunting 』 has been activated. Achievement unlocked. A new ability has been granted. |
This is translated by Yume Neiji. Kindly read at yumeineijiworks.wordpress.com.
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