"A completely new kind of power… no, it's more accurate to say it comes from another world."
The moment Astraea saw Loki flaunt that strange power, she understood—it wasn't of this world. That raw, primal energy had no connection whatsoever to their reality.
After showing off for a bit, Loki extinguished the flame on her ring and smiled.
"You're right. It really is a power from another world."
"!?"
Astraea's body trembled slightly, her expression flickering with surprise.
"You're serious?"
"I've always been serious."
"So… it's that child?"
"Mm."
Astraea exhaled softly. She hadn't expected something this absurd to actually happen in the lower world.
"Never thought someone could really come from another world."
"I thought such a thing was flat-out impossible."
"Yeah. No matter how much you try, it's just not something we can do."
Loki nodded in full agreement. She herself knew perfectly well that none of them could ever pass through the World Bubble to another world.
"Not just me—none of us can do it."
"The World Bubble protects what's inside and completely shuts out the outside."
"The wall between worlds is far thicker than anyone imagines. With our power alone, we can't break through it—hell, we can't even make a crack."
"But Tsuna did it, without even realizing it."
She remembered that night a month and a half ago, when she'd seen it happen for the first time—how a rift opened up in her bathroom, and Tsuna literally fell through it.
Especially the way he'd brought material from his world into theirs… it had been obvious then. Loki suspected that he'd somehow opened the boundary himself.
And that was exactly why she'd started thinking about pulling him into her Familia.
Loki turned her gaze back toward Astraea.
"Astraea, Tsuna wants to spread that power to your children too—and to you."
Astraea's eyelid twitched. It wasn't necessarily a bad thing, though.
"So you're the one who dragged me into this?"
She doubted Tsuna himself would've invited her directly. The culprit had to be Loki.
Loki didn't even deny it. Instead, she placed a silver ring in front of Astraea.
"Astraea, I really do mean this sincerely."
"This is… the ring that kid made?"
At first glance, it looked like an ordinary ring. But the moment Astraea laid eyes on it, she could sense Tsuna's unique power woven into it.
"It's designed to resist Charm."
"Huh? Charm? You think Ishtar's Charm works on me?"
"What about Freya's, then?"
Astraea fell silent. She wasn't one of those three pure virgin goddesses with absolute resistance.
Ishtar's Charm had no effect on her—not because Astraea was immune, but because Ishtar's power was crude and forceful, like using a blunt weapon for delicate work.
But Freya's was different.
Freya's Charm was far stronger, no matter how much Ishtar refused to admit it.
"Astraea, we gods don't die—not even if the surface is wiped out."
"But what about your children?"
"Will you just stand there and watch them die again?"
Loki's words struck her silent.
If she could've watched her children perish with dry eyes, she never would've risked being banished to the heavens just to protect them before.
Even if the lower world was destroyed and the gods vanished with it, they'd eventually revive in the heavens.
But the children? Once they died, that was it.
"So, you're planning to use the other world as a safety net?"
"And that child—will he agree to it?"
"If he didn't agree, would he have started spreading that power at all?"
So both sides had already been thinking the same thing.
Astraea paused for only a moment before realizing the truth.
"That's right. Tsuna's world is facing its own crisis too."
"He didn't go into details, but his actions made it clear enough."
"How else could a 'normal world' give birth to such a power?"
"He's been working to strengthen his own energy as well."
"Of course, that was the plan we made—back then."
"Back then?"
Astraea looked at Loki in confusion. Loki nodded without hesitation.
"Yeah. That was the choice Tsuna and I made before."
"~He probably doesn't realize it yet, but you should understand why we had to make that decision."
I should know?
Astraea frowned, puzzled.
Then her mind started to race.
If it was something she should know, that meant Loki had already given her the clue.
And that clue lay in what Loki had said earlier—when she'd first flaunted that foreign power.
Astraea had assumed it was just showing off, but that display had also proven something deeper.
Why could Loki wield the power of another world?
By all logic, that shouldn't have been possible.
People from different worlds could only use their own world's energy. Their physical and spiritual natures were entirely different.
Mortals from the lower world were bound by that rule—gods, even more so.
And yet, reality had defied that law.
Someone who shouldn't have been able to control such power was using it freely.
That meant the two worlds had begun to overlap—that their energies were now directly influencing one another.
So how had those two worlds become connected?
The answer was already clear.
"The worlds have begun to intertwine."
"You gained that child's world's power through that connection—just as he was accepted by this one."
"The established future of both worlds has already been rewritten."
"Their link is growing stronger… and the course of fate has already changed."
"No wonder you want me on board."
Astraea's voice softened, but her eyes gleamed with understanding—and a hint of resolve.
====
You can read up to chapter 170 on patreon.com/NiaXD.