The deepest part of the dungeon was a circular hall. The ceiling was shaped like an inverted bowl, soaring high above. A three-story tower could easily fit within this chamber. Those who had arrived first were waiting along the walls.
Mia-san, Felix-san, and the gods—Thor, Loki, Heimdall—stood in a loose formation. Safi, the dwarf blacksmith was a little distance away. Looks like she is already beginning to examine the floor. Behind them loomed a large pedestal, accessible by stairs. The upper section jutted toward the center of the room like a promontory. This was likely the control point for the divine artifact in the chamber—or perhaps, the chamber itself was the divine artifact—the Yggdrasil Water Mirror. On a bridge-like section that stretched into the air, several magic stones had been placed atop a platform.
As I scanned the room, Lu suddenly leapt into my chest.
“Oniichan!”
She pressed her face against me, letting out a deep, shuddering breath.
“…Thank goodness.”
Her sky-blue eyes wellep up in tears as she looked up at me. The floppy hat of a novice priest drooped, almost sliding off her head.
“I’m fine. Sorry for making you worry.”
I smiled at Lu. She shook her head and stepped back, then spoke.
“T-the god… Freyr was here, right?”
For a moment, her eyes seemed to glow green—the same color as when Freyja first awakened. I froze in surprise.
“…How do you know?”
“Freyja-sama told me.”
“I-I see…”
I could only nod, overwhelmed. Freyr’s words echoed in my mind.
—Freyja will soon be absorbed by Luisia.
Honestly… it was hard to believe. But after everything I’d seen of the Skill: Miko, it carried an undeniable weight.
“Oniichan?”
I snapped back to attention. Next to me, Solana quietly shook her head. It wasn’t the time to tell Lu about Freyr; the impact on her would be too great.
A sharp tap echoed through the hall.
The dwarf blacksmith, Safi, rested a hand on the floor and spoke.
“Shall we get ready?”
Safi seemed to be examining the floor with her golden hammer. Occasionally, she struck the ground with it. Each time she did, the floor around her glowed, and magical runes floated into view.
I lowered my chin.
“Yeah, I’m fine.”
I cast my gaze toward the center of the room. There was a vertical rift, about the length of my arm, suspended in midair. From the far side of the room, Thor raised his voice.
“Rion, that’s what we’re looking at, huh?”
“I think so. It’s very similar to the rift I saw in the capital. This must be where the monsters came from.”
I could feel the tension rising in everyone around me.
“If we investigate this, we should be able to figure out the kind of power Ymir currently wields.”
Of course, the rift in the capital had been several times larger. A bear-like monster, bigger than a carriage, had been able to slip right through it. The force Ymir used to send monsters into the city was likely one of the first mysteries we needed to uncover.
Solana floated into the air and approached the tear.
“Hmm… there’s evidence that something enormous tried to close this rift. It was probably much larger when it first appeared.”
The faintly open crack in the air let a chill wind flow through. Solana’s blonde hair fluttered in the cold gust.
“…But this wind… it carries a magical presence I feel like I’ve sensed before.”
The goddess placed a finger at her lips. With his black robe billowing, Loki also descended from the ceiling.
“If we investigate, we’ll know immediately.”
W-when did he get up there…?
His droopy eyes glinted as he snapped his fingers. The magic stone on the pedestal along the wall glowed with a soft blue light.
Loki turned to stand beside me, looking at Lu.
“Luisia. Are you ready?”
My sister’s expression was tense, her lips pressed tightly together.
“…C-can I really do this properly?”
“It’s simple. With your current self, you can do it.”
Lu took a few steps forward. She stopped at the center of the room, just a few meters away from the tear in the air.
“L-Lu…!”
I didn’t want her standing in such a dangerous spot. I tried to rush past her, but Loki’s robe blocked my way.
“Loki!”
“Quiet for now. Trust in your sister’s efforts up until now.”
Lu extended her hands forward. A green light gathered there, as if threads of pure radiance were being woven in her palms, forming something new. The air itself trembled slightly.
This is…
“Her heartbeat?”
Thump, thump.
The light in Lu’s hands pulsed in rhythm with the sound. Gradually, the glow intensified, spreading all the way to the high ceiling. And with each beat, the light shimmered, subtly swaying. I couldn’t take my eyes off her. I don’t think any of the gods, nor Mia-san and the others, could look away either.
Solana murmured, almost in a whisper.
“So… the ‘Power of Creation’… it was once part of Ymir.”
The magic runes etched into the room began to faintly glow. Particles of light rose from the floor and ceiling, converging in front of Lu.
And then—a figure appeared. A towering man, over two meters tall.
I couldn’t help but gasp.
“Ymir…!”
Just as I had seen in Flocia, the primordial titan appeared before us. But unlike that time, the fear that had sent chills down my spine was absent. Somewhere in my head, I understood. This was an illusion created by magical power.
Even so, my throat tightened.
Golden hair flowed richly. Even over fine clothing, the sheer strength of his massive frame was evident. His twisted mouth revealed ferocious teeth. Even knowing this titan—the one who had created everything—was merely an illusion, his presence was so overwhelming it pinned my feet to the floor.
Loki spoke.
“The ‘Yggdrasil Water Mirror’ has the ability to reproduce things. Yggdrasil—the World Tree—should hold the magical imprint of Ymir from this place. Using that, and with a part of Ymir—namely, the ‘Power of Creation’—as a catalyst, it calls forth this projection.”
His words raced through my mind like a sudden torrent.
I must have had my mouth open in shock.
Looking toward the wall, I saw Mia-san’s eyes narrowed to slits, equally stunned.
“…I see. So, what you’re saying is—?”
Felix-san rubbed his eyes.
“…Using the artifact’s functions, it’s reproducing the scene from when Ymir was here. This way, we can see, in one glance, exactly how Ymir created the rift. It projects the very moment Ymir tore open space as an illusion.”
An illusion of Ymir, created by magical power.
Step by step, Ymir advanced toward the center of the room. Then, opening his massive mouth, he bit into the air. Where Ymir’s bite struck, a large vertical crack split the space. With a creaking sound, as if ice itself were groaning, the rift widened further and further. Eventually, a massive gap over three meters tall yawned open, like a pitch-black mouth. It was as if a gateway to another world had opened.
We all held our breath.
Ymir lingered for a moment, then stepped into the void.
Then the illusion vanished.
The rift left in the space gradually shrank, eventually settling perfectly over the remaining fissure that still exists today. Before we knew it, the scene had finished replaying. The cold wind blowing through the crack whistled, chilling us to the bone.
Lu lowered her arms, sweat dripping down her forehead. I rushed forward to support my sister’s trembling body.
“Are you okay?”
“Yeah… I’m fine. I was just scared.”
I think it took me quite a while to even find my voice.
“That just now—”
Solana took over before I could finish.
“I’ve never seen power like that before. It looked as if it disappeared into that void…”
Heimdall stepped forward.
Crossing in front of us, he fixed his gaze on the rift in the space.
“…He might have… eaten it.”
I frowned, confused.
“Eat what?”
“This world itself.”
My brow furrowed.
Heimdall, in the calm, calculating expression of a strategist, scanned the surroundings.
“This world was created by the ‘Power of Creation.’ From nothing, it was brought into existence. And Ymir… he possesses that ‘Power of Creation.’ That is why he attempts to devour both gods and humans alike.”
I remembered the battle in the blood-red sunset, where my father had been. Even then, Ymir had said: “The world created by me… I shall return it to me once more!”
And in Flocia, it had already devoured temples, sacred jewels, and countless divine artifacts.
I stared at the rift that still exhaled icy cold. This chill… I’d felt it somewhere before. Solana reached toward the crack in the air, her hand stretching out as if to touch it.
“…! This… this is just like the cold before this world was born. Back when it was still just a vast void.”
A memory surfaced in my chest.
When Solana and the others had shown us the battles of the mythic age. It was the scene before the world was formed by the Power of Creation. There was nothing—just cold magical energy and heat-laden magical energy. Other than that, only emptiness stretched endlessly. A true void in the literal sense. I recalled that nothingness as I felt the cold wind blowing from the rift in the air.
Loki clapped his hands.
“…I see. I understand now.”
He spread his hands and shrugged, but the seriousness in his drooping eyes was clear.
“So Ymir made a ‘hole’ in this world. A hole here, and a hole where he wants to go. Pass through the two holes, and you can travel instantly, regardless of distance.”
Safi tilted her head, unsure.
“…I don’t really get it, but… does that mean Ymir is making some kind of tunnel that only he can pass through in the world?”
“A tunnel, huh… yeah, that’s close enough. But—”
Loki hesitated, as if weighing how much to explain.
“…In Ymir’s case, the ‘holes’ are almost touching. You could call it instant teleportation. That’s because what lies between them is the pre-creation void—before the world existed. Concepts like big or small, far or near, don’t even apply there. As a result, it’s effectively instantaneous.”
Loki’s words left a lot unclear. But I understood a little. After all, calling forth monsters in the very heart of the capital wouldn’t be possible any other way.
The dungeon was filled with monsters Ymir had created. He probably turned ordinary creatures into monsters and sent them through the rifts into the city.
Solana let out a low hum.
“Power to devour worlds and make holes…”
World-devourer.
A titan capable of consuming humans, gods, skills, everything… the sheer scale of power he’s wielding is unimaginable.
—Could we really defeat him?
A gust of doubt swept through my heart.
But—
“Lu…?”
When I looked up, my eyes met Lu’s. My sister was staring at me.
“It’s okay.”
Lu placed her hand on her chest and smiled. For a moment, I felt like I saw something indescribably intense on my sister’s face.
“Oniichan.”
Lu turned her back to me and pointed to where Ymir’s illusion had been.
“I just realized something.”
My sister asked to make Ymir’s illusion appear again.
This is translated by Yume Neiji. Kindly read at yumeneijiworks.com
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