I shuddered.
Was it because of the cold?
Or because I was afraid?
“The first… void?”
The words slipped from my lips.
Before me stretched an endless glacier. Above, an abyss of pitch-black darkness concealed everything. No stars. No moon. Nothing. Even beneath my feet, I could sense traces of magic. The faintly glowing ice wasn’t real ice at all. It must have been crystallized magical power.
“Hah… hah…”
My ragged breaths turned white and drifted away in the freezing air.
Ymir stood before me, his massive body wrapped in red-black flames, silently watching me.
“You cannot move.”
The Golden Flame surrounding my body is gradually growing weaker. Perhaps it’s because I had been separated from the gods by such an immense distance.
…Think. Organize your thoughts.
Ymir had traveled from place to place, devouring the world as he went—through the Royal Capital, Flocia, Alvis, and countless others. And with every place he consumed, he regained more of his strength. Until, at last, he reached this place—Ginnungagap, the Void where creation itself had begun.
He had torn open a rift in the world so enormous that it had cast us completely beyond the boundaries of our own world. This was also the place where cold and hot magical forces had once collided—the place where Ymir himself had been born.
I looked up. In that starless darkness, I could just barely make out a thin streak of light.
Was that the rift I had fallen through?
“…I’m fine.”
I raised my short sword toward Ymir.
I lowered my stance.
But even as I did, I could feel the warmth in my chest being drained away faster and faster.
—This is terrifying.
The gods had told me about this place. But the reality was beyond anything I could have imagined. There was no sound. No wind. Nothing. Only Ymir and me.
Scary.
I’m scared.
Something deep inside me was screaming. This is a place where no living thing is ever meant to exist.
No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t picture myself defeating this titan. I couldn’t even picture myself surviving.
“So that is the extent of your strength.”
Ymir advanced toward me without a care in the world.
On his left arm, the icy bracelet Lu had given him glimmered faintly.
“This place is far too cold for an ordinary human. And far too terrifying.”
The titan lowered his body.
Move. Move!
My instincts told me so.
“—!”
I threw myself sideways, rolling across the ice.
A blast of wind tore past me.
And then I felt it, something had been ripped away from my waist.
“Urgh…”
My pouch was gone. On the right side, I kept the Gjallarhorn—the horn that could awaken the gods—as well as my potions.
On the left—I kept the Heart of Frost and Flame.
Ymir is now holding the pouch from my left side.
My legs trembled. Sweat broke out across my body. He had stolen it from me while my movements were slowed.
This is bad.
Really bad…!
“My heart…”
Ymir tore open the pouch with his fingers and pulled out the Heart of Frost and Flame. The heart, encased in ice, began beating faster, as if rejoicing at finally being reunited with its owner.
“I’m taking it back.”
Ymir pressed the heart against his chest.
For a moment, I thought I saw his massive body ripple.
My entire body trembled.
I nearly dropped my short sword.
Then Ymir let out a roar.
“—!”
It wasn’t so much a sound as it was like having a massive slab of wood slammed directly into my face. I was blasted backward, tumbling dozens of meters across the ice. My hands struck the glacier, and the freezing air immediately sapped even more of my strength.
I want to fight. But fear—terror—had seized my arms and legs.
No, I had to fight!
“S-status…”
Desperate for something—anything—I clung to the gods’ voices.
But the voice that echoed in my head was different from usual.
It was faint. Raspy. So weak that it sounded as though it might disappear at any moment.
| Rion — 14 years old — Male Level 35 |
“…?”
Was it because I had fallen into the Void?
Had the divine blessings of the gods in our world completely disappeared?
A faint tremor ran through the glacier.
I raised my head. For an instant, I caught my reflection in the blade of my short sword. I looked deathly pale.
Ymir had reclaimed his heart. And here, in the First Void, the primordial titan was slowly—ever so slowly—growing larger.
◆◆◆
Mia sprinted up the grand staircase leading to the temple.
Running alongside her, Felix murmured,
“…It’s quiet. Unnaturally so.”
Ever since they had heard Ymir’s roar, not even the sounds of battle had reached them. And yet, an eerily cold wind is blowing down from the temple.
Mia pulled her cloak tighter around herself and ran faster. When they reached the top of the stairs and arrived at the temple, both of them stopped dead.
“…W-what the hell is this…?”
The temple had been swallowed by a gigantic hole.
Except for the area around the entrance, a rift dozens of meters wide had opened its gaping maw through the structure.
There was no doubt about it.
Ymir had torn space apart.
And Rion—
Rion was inside that hole.
Mia swallowed hard.
“R-Rion!”
No matter how loudly she shouted, there was no answer.
She scratched at her red hair and muttered,
“…It’s dangerous, but… should we try going down?”
Just as Mia moved forward, Felix grabbed her by the shoulder.
“Don’t.”
“But—!”
“We have no idea where it leads. There’s no guarantee it will take us to the same place as Rion.”
Mia clenched her teeth. She wanted to save him. Then Luisia, still dressed in her priestess robes, peered out from behind one of the pillars.
“Mia-san”
“Luisia! You’re safe!”
Mia rushed over and pulled her into a tight embrace.
Rion must have protected his little sister with everything he had.
Mia wiped away the tears welling in her brown eyes.
“Ugh—y-you’re squeezing too hard…”
“S-sorry. …Was this Ymir’s doing?”
“Yes. My brother went into a rift earlier, too. I thought he’d come back, but then…”
Luisia looked toward the enormous hole.
“…this happened.”
Mia and Felix turned their eyes toward the temple once more.
There was almost nothing left. Only the entrance, with its three pillars standing side by side, and a few fragments of wall remained. Everything else had been swallowed by the gigantic rift.
Beneath the dawn sky, the dark, bottomless hole gaped open in the ruins. There’s something deeply unnatural about it.
“Felix, let’s come up with a plan.”
“Yes. However…”
“I know it’s reckless. But we can’t just leave everything to Rion.”
That was when a voice echoed inside their heads.
—I believe this rift extends to an unimaginably deep place.
Mia frowned. The voice seemed to be coming from Luisia. Her left eye had turned green.
“…Freyja?”
—Yes.
—Most likely, this rift extends all the way to what is known as Ginnungagap—the space that existed before the world was created.
Luisia’s voice trembled.
“Is my brother… safe?”
—I cannot tell from here.
—But this cold… it is abnormal.
—If Rion is being exposed to magical energy this cold, energy that drains heat itself, then he is in grave danger.
Felix planted his staff firmly against the ground.
He touched the coronet on his head and let out a slow breath.
“…I want an honest answer. Goddess Freya, can you help him?”
—It would be difficult for me in my current state.
—The cold magical energy has reached even the heavens, rejecting the gods.
—However, the gods in the heavens… especially the Sun’s Daughter, who can bestow warmth… there may be a chance.
By then, more and more adventurers were catching up with Mia and the others.
“Mia! We’ve got a problem!”
“What is it this time…?!”
“The monsters down on the snowfield are multiplying. Most likely—”
The adventurers stared uneasily at the hole that had swallowed the temple.
“There’s another hole just like this one at the edge of the snowfield. Ymir must have summoned more monsters.”
Mia clicked her tongue.
The Primordial Titan is regaining his strength far faster than they had imagined.
“…As expected of the monster boss.”
Suddenly, a murmur rippled through the back row. About ten adventurers were walking towards them, and a ragged man emerged from between them.
Luisia’s eyes widened at the sight of his flowing blond hair.
This is translated by Yume Neiji. Kindly read at yumeneijiworks.com
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