Memories of Freyja resurfaced in Lu’s heart.
Luisia sat upon the cold chair, one hand outstretched before her.
Before her lay an impossibly vast, tranquil expanse of water. Perhaps because of the mana filling the air—or perhaps simply because it was so far away—the opposite shore was veiled in haze.
Everything around her was eerily silent.
The blue sky, the green earth, and the towering castle were all still there, and yet it felt as though she alone had been severed from everything else.
Mana flowed from her palm into the Mirror.
“Oniichan…”
The meaningless murmur slipped from her lips as Luisia closed her eyes.
She had already made her choice. Pouring her magic into the Mirror, she awakened the key that lay within her.
“Authority—Creation…!”
Thump.
A pulse, like the beating of a heart, echoed out, and a brilliant light pressed against her closed eyelids.
She slowly opened her eyes.
Without a sound, a pure white radiance began to rise from the depths of the Mirror. It seemed to be a sphere. Like the morning sun climbing into the sky, it continued to ascend.
She was left speechless.
The thing before her contained an immeasurable amount of mana. Compared to this, the power Freyja had left within her vessel amounted to no more than a fraction of the orb’s brilliance.
Now that it was taking shape through Creation, such a thing was impossible. But if this much power could somehow be turned into an attack, even the mightiest of monsters would not escape unscathed.
Then, memories belonging to Freyja surfaced within her mind.
“So this is… the world that was once left unfinished?”
Long ago, Odin had bestowed the Power of Creation upon Freyja and ordered her to create a new world. In her dazed, half-conscious state, Freyja had tried to obey. But at the very last moment, she came to her senses. She fled, taking the Power of Creation and a portion of its mana with her.
And thus, the history that Luisia and the others knew had begun.
The reason Odin had continued to grant skills to humanity…
The reason he had remained enthroned as the kingdom’s Chief God…
It was all to buy time while he searched for Freyja.
Among millions upon millions of humans, only one could become Freyja’s vessel. Even for the Chief God, it had taken nearly eight hundred years to find her. During all that time, the seal that bound the monsters had been slowly weakening. To maintain it, adventurers had to keep hunting monsters without end.
Freyja had hoped for something else. She had hoped that, while searching for the Power of Creation, Odin would come to know humanity more deeply. That he would witness the lives people lived. That he would realize humans possessed not only wickedness, but goodness as well.
But Odin never changed his mind.
And now…
Luisia had reached the same conclusion.
Though her reasons were entirely personal.
—To protect the people she most cared about, she would create another world and escape there.
“…Yeah.”
Luisia lowered her chin. Now, she felt she could wield the “Power of Creation” even more strongly than before. Because she had come to know the terrifying monster known as Ymir—and because there was a family she desperately wanted to survive. To live once more with her family, in peace and quiet. That wish gave form to her thoughts.
Imagination itself gave rise to creation, and the act of genesis that had been interrupted eight hundred years ago resumed once more. Her magical power is drawn into a gigantic sphere of light. The sphere seemed to rotate slowly. The green mana flowing from her palm is pulled into the vast white orb, winding around it and becoming part of it.
Luisia recalled how she used to build snowmen with her older brother when she was little. The process of gradually wrapping magic around the sphere to make it grow was like building a snowman. She felt as though someone gently tapped her shoulder.
— I’m counting on you.
Faintly visible behind her was an elderly man wearing a hood. He leaned on a spear like it was a staff, smiling gently at Luisia. But it may have been nothing more than an illusion. The old man—Odin—vanished almost immediately. Even so, the exhausted look in his eyes lingered in her memory.
Luisia thought to herself.
Perhaps the chief god could no longer imagine anything. If imagination had faded, then creation might have become impossible. And perhaps that was why Freyja—or Luisia herself, or someone else—was needed.
She shook her head.
But it no longer mattered.
Luisia would continue the act of creation.
So that she would never lose her family again.
“…Oniichan, you can’t, okay?”
She didn’t want him to die. She didn’t want him to face danger. He didn’t have to be a hero—she just wanted him to come home and say, “I’m back.”
Luisia’s vision blurred. She lowered her eyes, and the scattered tears glistened.
Then she heard a sound like ice shattering somewhere. Someone is running towards her, accompanied by a familiar magical energy.
“Lu!”
◆◆◆
I caught Lu in my arms as she reached out toward the water mirror.
My little sister had vacant, emerald-colored eyes. Her gaze had been fixed on the sphere of light, but slowly, she turned her eyes toward me.
“…Oniichan?”
“Yeah.”
I met her eyes.
Her eyes were wet, on the verge of tears, and it hurt to look at her.
There were things I had forgotten, things I had failed to notice—things I needed to bring to light and confront first.
“Sorry, Lu.”
That was all I managed to say at first.
“I… I almost made you go through something sad again.”
Odin had forced me to confront something I could no longer ignore.
Losing family is unbearably painful. I had thought that if I became stronger—if I became the strongest of all—then no one would ever be able to hurt my little sister again. But I had forgotten about Lu’s own feelings.
My sister looked at me with her green eyes.
“Oniichan, at least—think about yourself…!”
She glared at me through tears. Her words spilled out along with them.
“Ever since I got sick before, you’ve been pushing yourself so hard… you’ve been falling apart…!”
Her confession—something I was hearing from her for the first time—tightened my chest painfully.
“It hurt. I kept thinking I was just a useless sister holding you back… and yet…!”
Lu looked straight at me.
“Even in front of Ymir… that close… you were still trying to fight!”
“…Yeah.”
If I had unleashed the Sword of the Sun’s Daughter right then and there, I would have been killed by Ymir. That was how perfect the killing range had been.
I had been ready to trade blows—to die along with it if necessary.
I had been so focused on defeating the enemy in order to protect my sister. But that wasn’t any different. It would only make Lu carry the same pain of separation I once felt when I lost my father.
“Don’t go doing reckless things for me…!”
That kind of method… wasn’t kindness. The strength I was striving for… wasn’t that.
“Sorry, Lu.”
Apologize again and again. Because that’s all I can do.
Lu pulled away and said.
“…Okay, Oniichan.”
With green eyes, he smiles secretly.
“It’s over. Go to the next world…to the world I will create, with mother, Solana-sama, and everyone else.”
“Lu…”
“Ymir is strong. Much more than Oniichan and the Gods think…!”
Because of my own weakness, someone important to me gets hurt.
That’s the regret I felt.
I just let my sister carry that on her back. I was so absorbed in things like running around for medicine and defeating monsters that I wondered if I was paying close attention to Lu.
I don’t want to lose anyone anymore. My sister’s will is extremely strong.
Odin’s voice came from behind.
“That’s right!”
The chief god Odin leaped into the air. He raised his spear like a staff and swung it. The water’s surface shone brightly.
“Look, at the ground now.”
Lu and I gasped simultaneously.
“This…!”
The gold coin in my pocket trembled slightly. Even the goddess is frightened. The scene of the ground was reflected in the water. Everyone was being ravaged by monsters.
――Don’t give up!
Heimdall was desperately swinging his sword as he was attacked by a horde of giant soldiers.
――Damn it! They’re doing it…!
Thor was swinging his hammer Mjolnir with a pale face. The World Serpent’s venom might be taking effect.
――Mia!
――I know, Felix. He’s not dead yet.
Mia-san and Felix-san fought back-to-back. Safi seemed to have run out of golem cores, and while protected by the two, she still managed to survive by throwing hammers and tools.
Ymir roared, as if mocking their desperate struggle for survival.
Ripples formed on the water’s surface, and the giant orb of light wavered.
A bright red light lit up in the monsters’ eyes.
“Do you now understand? The tide is turning in the monsters’ favor.”
Odin spoke from above.
“Ymir is consuming skills even in the midst of the battle, increasing his power. The Frost Orb in the capital is the largest on earth. Has it finally consumed its magic, or even a powerful adventurer?”
Certainly, it had been a stalemate until now. But that was under the assumption that the enemy’s power remained constant.
“The Frost Orb is weakening. The seal is loosening further, and more monsters are heading towards the temple from the dungeon on the capital’s side. Whether you were there or not… the combined power of Ymir and the monsters is now threatening to overwhelm the combined strength of the gods, humans, and dwarves.”
The capital’s defenses were already at their limit. If more monsters awaken—that excess power will attack the temple.
The only time we could defeat Ymir was when we launched a desperate attack on the temple. That’s why Odin and Lu abandoned us—because we couldn’t protect Lu there.
Lu screamed.
“No…!”
uu lowered her eyes.
“I don’t want to see! Oniichan, leave it to me!”
My sister pushed me away and slumped onto a stone chair. She was holding her head in her hands.
“…Even in the age of myths, Ymir revived after the gods thought he had been defeated. And even now, he’s gathering even more monsters from the dungeons throughout the capital. He’s been eating the skills of those around him at the last moment, increasing his power.”
I swallowed hard.
Ymir’s power is unfathomable. And because it’s unfathomable, I don’t know if we can win. Because we are not sure, no matter how hard we fight—our valiant efforts might end in vain. Our enemy is truly extraordinary, the first creature of its kind in the world.
“Is that really okay with you, Lu?”
I asked my sister.
I smiled at Lu, who was looking at me with wide eyes. It was a pathetic smile, almost like crying.
“…I’m sorry, Lu.”
“Oniichan?”
“Even so, I want to go to the surface and fight.”
I looked straight into my sister’s eyes.
“Dad tried to protect them, left behind the horn, and passed it on to me. I think—maybe—Dad inherited something similar from his comrades, or his own father, or many other people.”
I paused and looked at her intently.
Then I continued.
“That’s why, I want to fight on the ground. You see, if only me, you, and our comrades survive, Dad’s spirit will die in return.”
“But…”
“Yes. I understand how Lu feels. But if I die instead, Lu will be sad… it’ll be the same as what happened with Dad.”
I shook my head and looked at my sister.
The gold coin in my pocket felt warm, encouraging me.
I can’t be a sacrifice. There are people who love me very much.
“I’ll come back.”
I told her directly.
“When I say, ‘I’m leaving,’ I’ll come back and say ‘I’m home.’ Just like the usual wake-up call, we’ll all eat together again when I’m done.”
At that house where I spent so much time with Lu and Mom. Next time, we could even bring the Gods, Felix-san, and Solana. Oh and Mia-san had been here once before, hadn’t she?
“I swear. I’ll definitely come back. I won’t treat myself carelessly either.”
It’s not just about the strength to defeat enemies.
The strongest I aim for, the gentle strongest, is the strength to protect someone. If I can’t even cherish myself, how can I possibly protect anyone?
“That’s why…”
I smiled.
“Please forgive my selfishness, and believe me. I won’t leave you behind, Lu.”
I held my head high.
“I’m different from Dad. I’ll surpass Dad and come back to you.”
Large tears welled up in Lu’s eyes. Her shoulders trembled. Stifling her sobs, my sister clung to me and cried.
“…You’re such a fool, Oniichan.”
“I’m sorry.”
“If you say it like that…! How far will you go…?!”
“…I’m sorry.”
She pressed her large tears against my shoulder and wiped them away. Lu rubbed her eyes with the sleeve of her priest’s robe and looked at me.
“I told you so.”
She sighed.
“…I’ll become strong too. So that you can rest assured, Oniichan.”
Her eyes were red from crying, but it was the same slightly assertive, reliable little sister’s face as always.
“I believe you.”
But the next smile she wore was different from the usual Lu. It was a more mature smile.
“Instead of worrying about each other, I wish we could learn to trust each other.”
“I believe you’ll come back.”
The green magic faded from my sister’s eyes. It was probably because she no longer needed to force herself to exert Freyja’s magic out of fear.
A thumping sound, like a heartbeat, could be heard, gradually weakening.
Thinking about it, whenever the ‘Power of Creation’ appeared and disappeared, there was always this heartbeat-like sound.
The orb of light is still slowly rotating on the water’s surface.
However, the flow of magic being drawn into it had stopped.
I murmured.
“…Is creation… over?”
“Yes. It’s strange, but… I can hear Freyja-sama’s voice clearly now. The goddess is also at ease. I feel like I can use my magic and abilities—more than before.”
That’s good.
She won’t have to create the world or be at the mercy of the gods’ power anymore. It seems Lu has gotten used to the current situation too.
My sister said.
“—Have a safe trip.”
I gazed at the water mirror reflecting the fierce battle.
“I’m going.”
The battle continued on the surface.
I looked up at Odin and raised my voice.
“Odin, I’m going to the surface!”
Lu no longer conjured up magic. The sphere of light had stopped growing. Odin lowered his eyes deeply and shook his head. His eyes were dark, as if he had aged thousands of years in an instant.
“…Norn. Lower the Rainbow Bridge Bifrost to the Earth.”
Odin added.
“But it’s too late now…”
“Huh…?”
In that instant, Ymir’s roar echoed from the water mirror.
In the reflected scene, the primordial giant was gnawing towards the air. Its enormous, bulging eyes pierced me and Lu through the water mirror.
“Ymir can tear through worlds and travel anywhere. This land, connected by the Rainbow Bridge Bifrost and containing his heart, has already been captured.”
Several dozen meters to the left of us, at the location of a giant ash tree.
The space cracked. Frost spread through the blowing cold air.
The primordial giant, Ymir, had stepped into the heavens of the gods.
This is translated by Yume Neiji. Kindly read at yumeneijiworks.com
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