Long golden hair fluttered in the wind, mingled with snow. At the sight, Luisia felt her heartbeat surge. Freyja, dwelling within her heart, must have been shaken by this reunion as well.
Without meaning to, Luisia whispered,
“Freyr.…”
The man before them looked even more battered than when they had last parted. Tragic might have been the better word. His fine garments were torn in several places, and the blood flowing from his chest had already frozen solid. His left eye remained closed, perhaps unable to open anymore. There wasn’t even a wound there, yet the eyelid stayed shut.
His sword was gone. Only its magnificent sheath remained at his waist, as though it had been left there by mistake.
Felix stepped forward.
“You survived.”
Luisia couldn’t speak.
There was something horrifying about the man standing before her. She could barely sense any life left in him.
Freyr coughed roughly, then whispered,
“…Rion…”
His voice was hoarse, as though every word had to be dragged from the depths of his throat.
“He gave me… a small amount of his magic.”
“Oniichan did?”
Luisia furrowed her brow.
By now, she understood what it meant to give magic to a god. It was practically the same as giving away a portion of one’s own life. And yet her brother had never mentioned doing anything like that.
Then Freyja’s voice came from deep within her chest.
—It may have been an unconscious act.
The younger goddess continued.
—Gods and humans form bonds with one another, exchanging magical power.
—Perhaps even something like empathy can create such a connection.
—I believe Rion must have connected with my brother’s heart at the very end.
They had crossed swords countless times. But perhaps, in those final moments, Rion had finally understood what Freyr had been feeling as he fought. And perhaps that understanding had become a bond—much like the bond Rion shared with the Sun Goddess Solana.
A bond strong enough to keep Freyr alive.
The God of Fertility took a step forward, his body battered beyond recognition.
“—Freyja.”
As he climbed the stairs, he reached a trembling hand toward Luisia.
“…Take back—”
Luisia ran toward him.
Felix hurriedly moved after her, while Mia stared in shock.
Several adventurers were about to rush forward as well—
when Luisia shouted,
“You idiot!”
Smack!
She slapped the man across the face. The blow from the petite girl, standing on tiptoe to reach him, was enough to throw Freyr off balance and send him collapsing onto the stairs.
Luisia crouched beside him, took the god’s hand, and pressed it against her shoulder.
“Talk to her!”
“I…”
“Talk to Freyja-sama!”
For the weakened Freyr to speak with his younger sister, Freyja, he needed to be in physical contact with Luisia.
Green magical energy flowed from the girl’s shoulder, through the man’s arm. Before long, the divine siblings began to speak.
—I’m sorry, Freyja.
Freyr continued.
—I couldn’t protect you. In the previous Ragnarok, we lost to the monsters. And now… you are disappearing.
For a moment, Freyja held her breath.
—Brother. I’ve already accepted both our defeat by the monsters and the fact that I am fading away.
Her words were warm and gentle, like the arrival of spring itself.
—The gods were too divided, too weak, to prevent our defeat. We were weak.
—If my life can prevent the betrayal of those who would flee to another world through Creation, then my life is nothing to lament.
Freyr spoke as though he were coughing up blood.
—Even so… I hated you.
—I hated myself, too.
—To crush that weakness… to become stronger… I had to take it back…!
His voice trembled.
Luisia stared into Freyr’s eyes—his right eye blue, his left eye green.
The man lowered his head.
“…Yes. You’re right. I hated myself for being defeated.”
The God of Fertility hadn’t truly hated his sister. Nor had he truly hated the other gods.
Luisia understood that now. When she herself had been crushed beneath the weight of her own weakness, anything she could do to escape it had seemed dazzlingly bright.
And so Luisia, too, had once succumbed to the temptation of Creation.
The light had made her weakness seem to fade. But weakness did not disappear. It only cast a deeper shadow.
“When Creation failed, there was no longer any reason for Odin to restrain Freyja-sama with the skill Miko.”
“I suppose… I could have stopped fighting then.”
“But…”
Luisia could only vaguely grasp the meaning.
Freyja, who had once stopped Creation, had become an enemy of Odin.
Even if Freyr had wanted to free Freyja from Luisia, the chief god would never have allowed it.
But now—
Creation had already failed.
Perhaps Freyr could have chosen another path.
“I wanted to save you with my own hands.”
The God of Fertility finally confessed what was in his heart.
“For me to be saved, I had to save you.”
His hatred of his own weakness had robbed him of their final chance at reconciliation.
—I’m sorry, Brother.
—I chose to give up my life, leaving you behind.
Freyr shook his head.
“No. I’m sorry, Freyja.”
A faint light of salvation appeared in his blue eye.
“…So it really was this simple.”
It had taken the divine siblings a thousand years to arrive at something that human brothers and sisters had been doing countless times since the beginning of the world.
Luisia couldn’t help but think—It was too late.
Freyr’s body was probably being kept alive by nothing more than the magical power he had received from her brother, Rion.
Soon, he would breathe his last. And this time, he would never awaken again.
Some kind of roar echoed across the dawn sky.
―Ooooooooooooooooh!
The roar rose from the enormous hole in the temple. Rion and Ymir were still fighting somewhere within the rift that had opened in the floor.
Luisia rose to her feet and shuddered.
“…That’s Ymir’s.”
Her brother’s back flashed through her mind.
“Oniichan’s in danger.”
A monster with this much power. How long could her brother possibly keep fighting without the gods? And the place he was in was beyond the world’s creation itself—the very place where the primordial giant had been born. In a sense, it was Ymir’s homeland.
The freezing wind must be draining her brother’s strength.
Felix planted his staff firmly and spoke to Freyja.
“…Is there any way we can go and rescue Rion?”
―If anyone can enter that void and save him, it is not humans.
―Only the gods.
But the gods themselves had lost their magic in the heavens.
Mia began marching straight toward the rift. Several adventurers hurried after her and pinned her to the ground.
“Mia!”
“Let go! It’s worth a shot! If someone goes down there, we’ll know whether we can make it or not!”
“That’s far too reckless!”
Magic.
Luisia placed a hand over her chest.
The half-finished “Creation.”
Because the ritual had ended prematurely, Luisia still had some of the magic that had been meant to complete Creation. But using it would mean drawing even more power from Freyja.
This time, the goddess’s very existence would be absorbed into Luisia—and disappear.
Felix suddenly looked up.
“…Wait. Magic?”
He touched the coronet on his head and looked around at everyone.
“There were the World Serpent Jörmungandr and Fenrir out there. Those legendary monsters left behind magic stones. If we can draw magic from them…”
A murmur swept through the adventurers.
―Those magic stones alone will not be enough.
―But if we combine the magic remaining within me with the magic stones left behind on the snowfield, there may be a chance of restoring the gods.
Luisia raised her voice.
“But then Freyja-sama will disappear!”
After undergoing “Creation,” Luisia and Freyja had become even more inseparably bound together. By now, Freyja was little more than an existence waiting to be absorbed into Luisia.
If they forced even more magic out of her, that absorption would only accelerate.
A roar echoed across the snowfield.
Felix shook his head.
“Even if the magic is still there on the surface, we would first have to get Luisia-san to Bifröst, the Rainbow Bridge. And that means…”
He glanced toward the snow-covered battlefield.
“…getting through all the monsters out there.”
A heavy silence settled over them.
They had the magic they needed.
But the price was Freyja’s life.
And on top of that, they had no way to transport that magic to where the gods were—the heavens.
Mia looked up into the snow-filled sky.
“Hey, what if we get Odin and the others to come down here? At the very least, they’ve still got some power left, right?”
Freyja’s voice answered.
―The freezing wind pouring from the rift is keeping the gods away.
Luisia understood what the goddess meant.
A bitter wind blew from the rift in the temple. The adventurers shivered, wrapping their arms around themselves.
Luisia explained.
“This wind isn’t just cold.”
It was a wind that sapped the strength of both gods and humans.
Ymir had been born from the collision of cold and hot magic—but perhaps that cold magic was the true source of this frigid wind.
To humans and gods whose strength grew beneath the sun, this wind was poison. It was even colder than the chill Luisia had felt while under the seal. Now, Luisia could sense the cold magic raging high above them. Even Bifröst, the Rainbow Bridge visible in the distance, was almost obscured by the swirling snow, looking as though the storm might tear it apart.
It was proof that traveling between this world and the heavens was no easy feat—not even for the gods.
―They may be able to see what is happening from the heavens.
―But I doubt they can come to our aid.
Luisia took a deep breath.
She had learned from her brother that breathing deeply from the belly was a way to steady herself.
And now, to save that brother, she forced herself to think for herself.
“…Even traveling between the surface and the heavens requires an immense amount of magic right now. Odin, and even Solana-sama and the others in their weakened state, probably can’t do it. If we want to bring the magic to them… I think we have no choice but to go there ourselves.”
Freyja silently agreed.
A cold wind swept down the stairs.
Luisia had the magic, but could not fight.
The surface was overrun with monsters. And at this very moment, Rion was in danger.
If Freyja were completely absorbed into Luisia, the girl’s power would increase tremendously. If that allowed her to fight, perhaps they could somehow deal with the monsters on the surface.
But then both gods of the divine siblings would die. And there was no guarantee that Luisia would actually become capable of fighting.
Luisia clenched her shoulders tightly.
Just then, Freyr rose unsteadily to his feet.
“No.”
The man was staring at his right hand. The green magic that had passed through it moments ago still flickered faintly in his palm.
“…Luisia. I may be able to draw Freyja out of your body.”
Luisia stared at Freyr in surprise. Within her chest, Freyja was equally speechless.
The God of Fertility lowered his chin.
“I’ll use seior magic.”
It was magic that acted upon the mind—the specialty of the divine siblings of fertility.
“Perhaps because I received magic from Rion… Luisia, the precision of the seior magic I can use on you has increased.”
―Brother, I…
“If I can release Freyja from your body, she should be able to fly through the sky and head straight for Bifröst, the Rainbow Bridge. No interference from the monsters. Straight there.”
“But, If I fail… neither you, Freyja, nor I will escape unscathed. And besides, I don’t know if I have your trust—”
“No!”
Luisia grabbed Freyr by the arm.
“If that’s the only way… if it means we can save Oniichan!”
Her sky-blue right eye stared straight into Freyr’s.
“…Please do so!”
Freyr looked caught off guard.
Then, little by little, a wry smile appeared on his face.
“Humans have strong siblings.”
It was a weary smile, but there was a gentleness in it all the same.
This is translated by Yume Neiji. Kindly read at yumeneijiworks.com
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