"Haaah!"

His body cut through the air in a straight line towards the glacier. Monsters rushed to intercept his attack.

Frondier ignored everything else, focusing all his energy on a single point on the glacier – the Mana-infused blades, Menosorpo, and high-speed flight using Aura.

He didn't see the winged creatures, the wild dogs, or the massive, house-sized monsters charging towards him. Their scream-like cries didn't reach his ears.

Everything that sought to take his life was dealt with by,

Shhhk! Shhhk! Shhhk!

Selena's needles, which shot up from his shadow.

'This is... more difficult than I thought...!'

Selena eliminated the approaching monsters by repeatedly teleporting next to Frondier.

Not on the ground, but in mid-air, and at high speed towards a single point – protecting Frondier by repeatedly teleporting and eliminating surrounding monsters was no easy task. Selena's vision began to blur.

However, she persevered. Amidst the constantly changing scenery and the disorienting shifts in direction, she managed to fire her needles and bring down the approaching monsters.

Of course, even Selena couldn't keep up this kind of response forever, but,

"Haaaah-!!"

Frondier's strike reached the glacier first.

Kwaa-ang-!!

The moment the sword collided with the glacier, a massive shockwave and burst of air nearly sent Selena flying.

"Huu...!"

However, she gritted her teeth and anchored herself to the ground with her needles, enduring with her Aura.

If her weapons were thicker and longer, it would have been easier, but there was no point in dwelling on such things.

"Ugh, argh...!"

A groan escaped from between Frondier's clenched teeth. The glacier was harder than he had anticipated.

He thought he could pierce it in one blow with Excalibur, which had absorbed all of his Mana, but surprisingly, the glacier remained unbroken. It was definitely under the protection of a god. Frondier was certain of it.

However, cracks were forming. No matter how hard it was, this was Excalibur, imbued with immense Mana.

"Frondier-nim...!"

Selena called his name. Although Frondier was solely focused on the glacier, monsters were still approaching him from all sides.

They were only being kept at bay by the gale-force winds generated by the clash between the sword and the glacier.

"Frondier-nim! Quickly!"

Selena's urgent cry. Hearing her voice, Frondier raised his left hand, which had been gripping the sword, and brought it to the Black Lotus.

Crack.

The necklace shattered, and all the Obsidian that Frondier had accumulated poured out. He manipulated it, transforming it into sharp thorns that he shot towards the cracks in the glacier.

Crack, crack!

This proved effective, as the cracks in the glacier gradually grew longer, eventually becoming fissures.

However, there was a problem. Unable to control all the released Obsidian, the remaining fragments scattered widely around them.

The monsters that came into contact with it opened their red eyes and howled. Fortunately, Selena was unaffected, but she was startled by the sight of the surrounding monsters and shouted,

"Frondier-nim! You don't need to break that necklace anymore! You said you improved it so you could take out just a little!"

"I don't know how to take out just a little!!"

Ah.

Come to think of it, in their haste, Selena hadn't heard the instructions on how to use it.

Crack, crack, crack!

However, Frondier's brute force method was having a sufficient effect on the glacier.

The fissures that spread through the glacier soon enveloped its entirety, and finally,

Crackle!

Kwaa-ang!!

The glacier completely shattered.

"Frondier-nim! You did it—!"

Selena cried out in joy as she witnessed this.

However, in the very moment the glacier broke,

Frondier glanced at Selena once. There was no joy in his eyes. He confirmed her location and braced himself for something.

'Huh...?'

Selena didn't understand. She didn't know the difference between the Helheim fragment within the glacier and the Obsidian that Frondier possessed.

She was worried about the wave that might occur after the glacier burst. If it was a massive amount of liquid, being swept away by it could be dangerous.

However, Frondier had considered such a thing to be nothing more than a minor inconvenience from the very beginning.

What Frondier had intuitively realized while absorbing the black monsters,

It was that—

[The power of Helheim doesn't only affect monsters, child.]

A voice echoed. Not in his ears, but directly in his head, with a strange sensation. The weight of the voice threatened to overwhelm him the moment he heard it.

Selena looked up. Time seemed to stop for a moment, except for her and Frondier.

The Helheim fragment was originally a place where the god used monsters for its descent.

The worship of the monsters over the past few days, although not perfect, had fulfilled the conditions.

The descent of a god.

[Even a mere fraction of it is enough to drive humans mad, isn't it?]

"...Hela."

Frondier uttered the name.

Hela. In Norse mythology, the goddess who ruled Helheim, the underworld.

Just as Helheim's original name was Hel, her original name was also Hel. In mythology, both the world and the goddess who governed it were called by the same name, "Hel," but to distinguish them, they were given separate names.

[The other gods were making such a fuss, so I came to see what kind of young brat it was.]

Hela's face was exquisitely beautiful, but it lacked any trace of blood, and her body was emaciated. Her skin was so pale that it appeared slightly blue, and to Selena, it looked as if she were draped in winter itself.

[Is this the extent of human strength and intelligence?]

A bored, disappointed tone. A gaze that looked upon Frondier as if he were something insignificant.

[Even though I cannot kill you directly because my descent is incomplete, if you reach out to death like this,]

Hela's eyes held a touch of pity, which enraged Selena even more than Frondier.

[There is nothing I can do about it.]

As Hela finished speaking, time began to flow again.

At that moment, Frondier reached out. He touched the endless stream of Helheim fragments flowing out from the shattered glacier.

'Frondier-nim...?'

Selena couldn't comprehend his actions. She didn't know what it meant to touch those fragments.

However, the moment the glacier burst and the viscous liquid within it was revealed, a sense of foreboding surged within her.

Humans should not come into contact with this liquid. Frondier already knew this.

Selena had exhausted all her strength to protect Frondier. As she had said, she had used all her teleportation power to protect him, so another teleport was impossible.

Therefore,

"Selena."

Frondier looked at Selena.

The moment he touched the fragment, Frondier's complexion had already changed.

"Fro, Fron, dier—"

Selena stammered, her lips trembling as she uttered his name.

Despite the pain from the fragment engulfing his entire body, Frondier smiled at Selena like a young boy.

Instead of the authoritative tone he usually used with her,

"Thank you."

Kwaa-aaah-!!

With those final words,

He absorbed all the Helheim fragments that had been trapped within the glacier, taking them all into his own body.