Crash-!!!!
"""""!!!"""""
The sound of something breaking. No, it clearly conveyed a meaning to everyone present.
".....Akumo?"
He conquered it.
He overcame something and, at last, conquered it.
"No way....!!"
"Lord Kylos, what on earth happened to Lord Akumo!?"
Ever since they entered the tower, they had kept searching for Akumo, who had vanished.
"I can't feel Lord Akumo's presence!"
"Damn it...!! Where the hell did that bastard disappear to this time!?"
"[Pioneer]...!! Just you wait, you bastard!!"
"Run faster instead of wasting time fighting, comrades!"
In the meantime, the unfamiliar enemies charging at them were enough to throw them into confusion.
Clang-!!
"What!? A Monster using swordsmanship!"
Kiiing-!!!
"Watch out!! They're stone monsters!!"
Enemies whose origin they could not even begin to guess.
Cutting their way through those foes, they finally reached the core through Mikoto's guidance, but—
"....He is not here."
"Lord Kylos!?"
What stood there was not the shrine maiden of Vesta from another tower, but Kylos.
"He has fallen into a deep sleep, and soon he will be drunk on dreams."
An enormous upheaval even he had not foreseen.
-"And you are....?"
-"Let us say we are the tower's administrators."
The unknown siblings who had appeared before him.
They carried a vast unknown even beyond himself.
Step—
"Exactly one hour. That is all the time you get."
If Akumo did not return within that time, Kylos would personally shatter the core and send Mikoto's group back.
Step, step—
"Choose. Even if you have no chance of winning, this could still succeed."
At that moment, Carissa appeared between Kylos and the others and was about to make her proposal, but—
"We will wait."
"....Pardon?"
"I never once considered that Lord Akumo would not return."
Starting with Mikoto's answer, the others there each replied to Carissa as though it were only natural.
"If he is not here, then this worthless tower means nothing, whether it is broken or not."
"But even if it is not him, for you all...!"
"Akumo is Akumo alone."
"....!!"
"The man I love is only one."
Even if everyone else died, Ryu would wait.
She would trust the man she loved and wait.
"....Are the rest of you the same?"
"There is, of course, the will of the Goddess as well...."
Hedin glanced at Freya behind him for a moment.
Smirk—
Freya, smiling as gently as ever, and Artemis beside her.
"Whatever choice you make, I will respect it."
"Because that is your 'freedom.'"
So the answer had already been decided.
"We stay. No, we destroy the tower with him and head to Vesta together."
Hedin answered Carissa with his usual composed expression, as if giving the obvious reply.
"Tch, I don't like it, but [Pioneer] is valuable combat power."
Shiiing—
"I have no intention of being toyed with by some nonsense about him suddenly disappearing and us just leaving."
Risos also had no intention of standing by quietly.
".....Hah."
At that sight, Carissa was astonished.
'How can they be so....'
"Foolish."
Smirk—
"And yet give such a nostalgic answer...."
Just like the feelings she and her younger sister had once held when they accepted a god's proposal and became the tower's administrators.
Though now worn down and eroded...
-"Because it is the one and only."
The one who conquered the tower had made them remember that feeling once more.
"Yes... no matter how it ends."
Swooo—
Carissa turned her back and left, her body gradually turning to smoke and fading away.
"That story is the story of you, and you alone."
With those words, Carissa's body vanished completely.
Step, step—
At the same time, someone slowly walked over from the other side and approached the group.
"""....!!!"""
Hedin, Risos, and Kylos could only stare in shock.
"What happened? You vanished all of a sudden...."
"I just went on an adventure, as usual."
"There you go again with those incomprehensible words.... It's a bad habit, Lord Akumo."
"Sorry, Mikoto. But it's the truth, isn't it?"
Ryu and Mikoto scolded Akumo as if they had expected this all along, speaking with complete composure.
"....Honestly, seeing this kind of thing makes me think..."
'The world really is unknowable...'
Freya could no longer distinguish the color of his soul.
"Lady Freya, Lady Artemis."
Step, step—
Because the light she now saw in him was—
Swish—
"I'm back."
Smirk—!
All colors were connected through a path, converging on one overwhelmingly blue and intense hue.
**
Tingling—!
"....Now."
Someone's liberation gave the goddess a conviction stronger than ever before.
-!!!??
And that same force reached the Flame Men before her as well.
-Th, that hateful...!!!
-The filthy lightning of a god!!!!!!!
Fwoosh—!!!
"Ugh...!!?"
'The flames are growing even fiercer...!'
As if in convulsion, a massive blaze of hatred suddenly erupted.
Flicker, flicker—!
It was a fire that looked ready to turn their bodies into charcoal and burn even their souls away.
But—
""...""
The blacksmiths had no intention of stopping.
-....How....?
Step, step—
The two blacksmiths walked forward, gladly cutting through the flames.
"Of course."
"You live in the past."
"We and the gods live in the present."
-!!! Shut up!!!!!
Fwoosh—!!!!!!!!
At that answer, the blacksmiths' flames of resolve swallowed them whole, but—
Thud—!
They still seized the hammer.
""Whether god or human, it doesn't matter!!""
For the present, for hope, they would hammer the iron.
For that, they would gladly ignore your grudges and debts.
And still, they would remember.
"We will write our own story."
"So please, lend us your strength."
The wills of both sides, all reaching toward the sublime, finally became one.
Clang-!
At last, the clear and magnificent sound of the hammer announced the beginning of forging.
Bang-!
"....!?"
Clang-!!!
The technique of the gods unfolded within a small furnace.
"Hup!!"
As the hammer came down, sparks flew from the ingot.
With every breath she exhaled, the outline of the sword took shape at impossible speed, unnecessary parts falling away.
Clang-!!!
"Haaah!!"
What was terrifying was that, at the same time, she was engraving [Hieroglyphs].
As she cut into her arm and let ichor drip through her elbow, she used a thin, chisel-like tool to carve intricate characters so precise that even Choi Sae would have gasped in shock in an instant.
Scratch, scratch—
Each and every one of those characters was a crystal of miracles.
The [Hieroglyphs] engraved not only on the surface but also within became the foundation of a divine weapon.
Clang-!!
The heavenly flames moved as if they were one with her.
Fwoosh—!!
That was only natural, since the god of blacksmiths controlled flame.
Clang-!!
'Don't think about anything else right now...!'
Human technique unfolded within a small furnace.
Hammering the ore before her, like ash itself, she surpassed her own limits.
Rumble—!!!
Even with the waves of flame surging around them, even with proof that their comrades were moving, he focused only on the hammering before him.
"....!!"
Clang-!!!
'Don't look away. Match the rhythm of your breath!'
Just as Welf had been astonished by the gods' craft, Hephaistos was truly astonished by Welf's growth.
'The fact that this appeared before me... it could never be a coincidence...!!'
That moment when he had nearly fallen into despair with the goddess.
From the ashes, no—an ore stone condensed from the ashes themselves.
Clang-!
They struck it.
Clang-!
Even if the hammering seemed meaningless, they simply struck the stone.
Boom—!
At the same time, they carried out their roles with perfect rhythm and sincere will.
".....The sound stopped."
".....Is it over?"
And then, the children born.
"This is... the [Forge] of the god's sword...."
Welf was captivated by the massive blade before his eyes.
"Yes... the shrine of the sword that rules flame."
Wobble—
"The smallest altar itself...."
Hephaistos, exhausted, could barely explain the blade, yet her gaze was fixed on the child Welf had made.
"And this is...."
"Yes... for this land soaked with ashes...."
A gravestone made while recalling this world, filled with the failures of humans, gods, and all alike.
A tombstone like the earth itself, bearing every one of those stories.
Wobble—
"Hah...!?"
He had meant to say more, but Welf was just as exhausted and staggered before collapsing.
Step, step—
To them came Aphrodite, equally worn out and barely managing to walk.
"Honestly~ you're all completely drained!"
"....Yeah? We really poured everything out for the first time in ages."
"Us too... and the gods are all a mess as well....."
Perhaps it could not be helped.
"Because this is [the story of gods and their children]."
**
"So this is the central altar...."
It could not have been long since those bastards headed for the tower... and yet the central altar was already open.
Grit
"As expected, he really is a disgusting hero."
Well, by now, it hardly mattered.
Step, step—
"A place truly close to the heavens. I could call this the aerial sanctuary.... It feels as though my hand could touch the crimson-burning sky!"
Epimetheus raised his blackened arm high.
"....."
Beside him stood Rhea, silently following him.
"It truly took a long time to realize my ambition. How long I have awaited this day!"
Clench-!!
"I, a fallen hero, shall declare it myself...."
Behold, gods. Look clearly upon this world.
"The blaze that pierces the goddess with a sword and burns this world to ash!"
Shiiing—!
"I will carve Epimetheus's final story into this world!!!"
Kiiing—!
The moment he lifted Epimetheus's sword toward the sky and opened his red eyes—
"....Before that, I suppose I should do the final cleaning?"
Step, step—
"Wouldn't you agree? You foolish, foolish idiots."
What appeared before him was everyone who had conquered the tower.
"Lord Aeton! No, Hero Epimetheus!"
"Looks like we arrived first. But now the only forces left are you and Lady Rhea."
"Now you have no allies left!"
Lili, Ryu, and Aisha bared their hostility toward him at once.
"And what exactly is that supposed to mean? In the end, I am still standing here in perfect condition."
As long as the strongest, most terrifying existence still lived, nothing had changed.
"In exchange for helping to break the seal."
Thus, he looked down at them with the unwavering red eyes of a ferocious dragon.
"I will turn every last one of you to ash, without exception."
The sword of Epimetheus in his hand was dyed in a dreadful violet light.
Shiiing—
"....You."
It was not only Epimetheus who was dyed in violet.
"I politely decline your offer."
"You reject mercy and choose a miserable death, you foolish piece of trash."
Clench-!!
"Fine. I'll crush your heart first."
Before the heavenly flames, Akumo stood against him just as he had before.
"Who knows? We'll see just how it turns out."
And so, since arriving in Olympia, he was in the clearest state of mind he had ever known.