“By the way, why is the god of the underworld so weak?”
Since there was no way the man would stop just because I told him to, I might as well clear up another question.
Even if he was binding and absorbing divine authority, it was clearly strange.
He was still a god. It was weird that he could die so easily.
“The three gods of Greece are all in incarnated bodies made from soulless flesh. In other words, they’re ordinary Heroic Spirits now. There are several conditions before they can use their authority.”
“No, then shouldn’t that make things way harder...?”
Olga Marie had already said that even exercising divine power was difficult. So how was he doing it in a human body...?
“This is the Age of Gods, and this is their home turf. Even though they’re in the form of Heroic Spirits, the restrictions are greatly reduced.”
“Ah...”
“In any case, god-tier is still god-tier. If you hadn’t absorbed all of that bastard’s authority, it would’ve been us getting taken down. So I’m asking you.”
Alcides drew his bow.
“What is that power?”
“I already explained it last time, but I really don’t know what it is.”
“I know you aren’t lying. But there is no power in this world that can so lightly absorb Hades’ authority.”
“Aren’t you paying a little too much attention to what that guy said before he died?”
“I have no intention of listening to the dying breath of a foolish god. But your power is too dangerous. I cannot dismiss you when you might bring about the destruction of the world.”
“I don’t have the will to destroy the world, and I sure as hell don’t have the motive...”
“The reason I am saying this is because you are exactly that kind of ordinary human.”
“...I’m not the kind of person who’d kill someone just to satisfy my own desires...”
“You are not a ruined human. But if it means surviving, humans will do anything.”
“...”
“That power is a threat to the world. If the world turns against you and keeps trying to kill you, will you die without resisting?”
“...I wouldn’t... No, I can’t.”
After all, the whole reason I was still alive and trying to do anything right now was to take down the bastard who had turned me into this mess.
If the world turned against me, I’d probably run, or kill my way out somehow—anything to survive. But...
“I’m going to die in a year...”
“...That is precisely why I am not killing you on the spot and am asking. I am asking about the path you intend to walk from here on.”
Alcides lowered his bow.
“Are you going to spend the rest of your life trying to save the world?”
“I don’t want to die after doing nothing. But I don’t have some grand dream of saving the world either. I’m just going to smash the bastard who put me in this state.”
But Alcides denied my words.
“That is a lie. You are only enduring by using that as an excuse.”
...Ha.
I guess he was right.
People who stake everything on revenge and cling to it for ten or twenty years are often called relentless.
I didn’t have that kind of tenacity. If something really seemed impossible, I’d give up. I wasn’t the type to go all-in on one thing to the end.
Even this revenge I was talking about was just an excuse. It was only a way to hold back the fear that I didn’t want to stop, that I didn’t want to die so meaninglessly...
“What revenge am I even talking about? I’m the kind of bastard who forgot he fought with his little brother two or three weeks ago...”
“That is, in a way, the natural human state. I was the same before I became reversed... No, forget I said that.”
“Yeah, I should. More importantly...”
I looked at the enormous thing sleeping as if dead beside us.
“If we wake that thing up, we’ll die too...”
“I am a Heroic Spirit. Even if I die, so long as my purpose is fulfilled, that is enough.”
“...What about me?”
“I have no further business with you. Run somewhere far away. The rest will end with this thing destroying everything.”
“....”
There was no more conversation, no lingering attachment. We had only been people whose goals happened to align during this journey.
I turned to head up the stairs to the upper level, but my body would not move.
A girl with snow-white skin and hair redder than blood appeared before me.
I couldn’t even make a sound. The girl in front of me was on a completely different level from that half-formed god from before. Just moving would mean risking my life.
“Who are you?”
She granted me permission to speak.
I thought, even if I answer, would she really let me live?
Even as I hesitated, I could feel my lifespan being shaved away in real time.
Then—
Whoosh!
Alcides, standing behind me, sensed the threat and loosed a barrage of arrows. I crouched as fast as I could and tried to run.
Of course...
“Harpe.”
It didn’t work.
“Who are you, you woman, exuding mana like Typhon?”
“You’re the son of Zeus, Heracles, aren’t you? And yet that Hera bastard calls herself the goddess of family. Really...”
“Shut up!”
I thought, Damn, was she deliberately trying to provoke him like that?
Alcides was furious, but his attacks were precise. He kept his distance and searched for openings through long-range sniping.
“Nine Lives!!”
Even his Noble Phantasm struck home, but...
“This is... Hydra venom?”
“You as well...”
“There’s no such thing as a parent being poisoned by their own child.”
“From the smell of Jason’s blood on you, it seems he’s already been killed upstairs...”
“Is the death of one foolish man really such a big deal? For a great hero like you to care about something like that...”
But Alcides had no intention of talking any further.
“Come, faker born of the coincidence of [Ephemeros].”
“...So you really can’t be fooled after all...”
And so the two of them clashed for a long while, and in the end, despite Alcides’ fury, the one who won was the red-haired woman.
I tried to run while she was off balance from the fight, but...
“You’re going to run away even though your ally was just defeated?”
“Sorry, but that man nearly killed me several times, and while we were traveling together, we were companions, sure, but not really allies.”
You could call me selfish. But from the very first meeting, he had shoved a longbow into my stomach and made me fight Hades without even explaining anything, then told me to wake up after I’d been knocked out for three hours...
“Honestly, the fact that I don’t hold a grudge is...”
“That’s just how Greek heroes are.”
Huh. Unexpectedly, we can talk?
“So... what are you planning to do now?”
For now, I had to talk. If she said she was going to kill me, or do something on that level, I’d have to run.
Even if she said she was going to destroy the world or something like that, I’d still have to bolt.
“My goal is to kill Zeus and Poseidon.”
?!?!
“The person you just killed...?”
“Heracles, the strongest hero of Greece. I couldn’t just let a guy like that come to assassinate me openly...”
“No, that guy was summoned as an Alter Avenger, and he was trying to wake you up so he could crush the gods.”
“...”
Hades, after manifesting here, had been sealed, and then... no, Typhon had threatened Poseidon and Zeus.
It was humiliating. To think the strongest dragon, the pureblood dragon of god-slaying, had been used like a tool...
In the end, Hades was killed by that son of Zeus and his subordinate.
The seal hadn’t been fully lifted, but fortunately, I—the brain core—had been freed.
The problem was that monster over there, the one absorbing Hades’ authority.
Hades possessed top-tier authority, second only to the Twelve Olympians, and even Zeus kept his guard up around him.
And yet a human was absorbing the power of such a being? Impossible. We had to either recruit him as an ally or eliminate him immediately.
To do that, Heracles had to die.
For a man who had suffered his whole life because of his parents’ greed, and who was now being used even after becoming a Servant, granting him peace was her own form of respect.
I thought, This woman is definitely in the Black Jeanne or Olga Marie category...
“Ahem! Then let me ask you this: will you help me...”
“I will. Killing gods, right?”
“...Don’t people usually set some kind of condition first?”
“Like what? Asking me not to threaten the world?”
“My goal is only to kill the gods of this Singularity who used me like a tool. And anyway, I already know there’s no more humanity left outside this Singularity.”
“Then I have no reason not to cooperate.”
I explained my identity and my goal in great detail to the woman before me.
“Chaldea is a pretty insane place too...”
“Well... every era has its crazy groups.”
“Anyway, you’ve introduced yourself, so I suppose I should do the same?”
“I’m Typhon, and yet not Typhon. I’m Typhon’s brain core. More precisely, I’m the fruit of non-being that Typhon devoured. That’s why my class is Pretender.”
“Uh... then this...”
“There isn’t one. My appearance here was nothing more than a miracle of [Ephemeros].”
“Ah... I see.”
“The problem is that Typhon has no mana right now. Even if you wake me up, I won’t be able to move properly.”
“Wait, could it be...”
“You’re going to supply mana to Typhon.”
In truth, no matter how vast my mana was, charging something like this was suicide... normally.
But now, after absorbing Hades’ authority and gaining an enormous amount of mana, I was recharging that mana into Typhon again... with something like a charger stuck into my body, no less...
“Damn it, it hurts and I’m dizzy...”
“Be quiet. I’m doing the work you were supposed to do, and you still have that many complaints?”
“I’m not being fed, I’m giving up my mana to keep Typhon alive, and I’m exhausted, so of course I’m struggling...”
I ended up getting fairly close to her too. She was the director type, so after about a week we were already trading jokes back and forth.
“But... it’s awkward to keep calling you ‘you’...”
“That’s true...”
“Hmm... then how about [Ephemeros]?”
She seemed to like the name I came up with, and reluctantly accepted it.
“A fleeting existence... Hmph. Call me that if you want.”
“By the way, the charging will be done by tomorrow...”
“Yeah...”
Her voice carried a trace of regret.
“You won’t have much time left after this. What are you going to do?”
She changed the subject and asked me.
“...My motive for revenge got shattered pretty quickly too... But I still don’t want to die. I want to live... as happily as I can, for as long as I can...”
“I’m a reverse curse type, so if you wish for something like that, it’ll go the opposite way~?”
I was startled by her words, but...
“The dead end isn’t going to change anyway, so dying in some horrible way wouldn’t be that strange...”
Seeing how gloomy I looked, she seemed to panic.
“I-I’m joking!! My function’s weakened right now, so even if I wanted to, I can’t do it!!”
After a brief silence, she continued.
“Then what about you? What’s your dream? Something like the end of the gods?”
But Ephemeros denied my assumption.
“If I were Typhon, maybe. But not for me.”
“Then what are you?”
“For someone like me, a reverse curse type, there’s no such thing.”
Ephemeros’ eyes somehow looked lonely.
“Then why not take one now? Something like wanting to live freely, or wanting to live happily. A life without hope, like mine... is really hard.”
“Hmph! I’ve lived thousands of years longer than you, and you’re telling me that? Still... it doesn’t sound entirely bad. Maybe I should try having one too... a dream called freedom.”
“It’s late, so let’s get some sleep...”
“Yeah... you must be tired too...”
And so I thought that this long, hardship-filled journey would end tomorrow...
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