Sloth (2)

‘Well, things have gone smoothly so far.’

Though Frondier had laughed fearlessly, he was sweating bullets inside.

He had never even experienced astral projection in a game. It was inevitable that he would be nervous, having left his own body and become a true soul.

‘Laurie did a great job.’

Just before Frondier was swallowed by the fragments.

Laurie was on the opposite side of Frondier. While all the monsters' attention was focused on Frondier, Laurie detoured and moved to a spot where she could meet his eyes, as instructed.

And at the signal of the fragments pouring down, she pulled Frondier's soul out.

The reason this worked out better than expected was because they had practiced it beforehand.

“But my hypnosis misses you. How are you going to solve that?”

A few hours ago, Laurie had listened to Frondier's astral projection plan and voiced the first question that came to mind. It was less of a question and more the most crucial problem with the plan.

“You set up a fake personality, right? How did you hypnotize yourself?”

“Well, I look in the mirror and do it. It works on the target I'm looking at with my eyes.”

“Then if I can use that magic, I can hypnotize myself too, right?”

“……? Well, yes, but how are you going to use my magic?”

It was possible.

Frondier's Weaving affected even ‘Skills.’ He just couldn't put them in the Workshop, so he could only imitate them while the opponent was using the skill.

Frondier wove a mirror. And he said to Laurie.

“Use hypnosis on me.”

“……? Well, okay.”

Laurie didn't understand, but she used hypnosis on Frondier. Her eyes glowed, and mana flowed towards Frondier, drawing a unique pattern.

As expected, the hypnosis didn't work on Frondier because the target was wrong, but Frondier wove Laurie's skill.

‘I know who I am.’

Frondier looked in the mirror. He wove Laurie's hypnosis and shot it at the mirror.

Hypnotizing Frondier.

Only Frondier in this world could do that.

‘……So this is what it feels like.’

The moment Frondier hypnotized himself, he recognized his own soul for the first time.

Laurie's hypnosis affects the mind. He had simply thought of it that way, but in reality, it was a process that touched the soul. That's why Laurie was able to control even the black monsters.

And the moment Frondier recognized his soul through hypnosis,

He took a step back as a test.

“Uh, uh?!”

Suddenly, he saw his own body. He saw the back of ‘Frondier de Roach.’ His body, from which his soul had escaped, lost strength and fell forward. Laurie, startled, supported Frondier's body.

‘It worked.’

He could astral project on his own. Confirming that, Frondier clenched his fist.

And time passed, to the present.

Frondier succeeded in astral projection just before being swallowed by the fragments.

When the time came, Laurie would hypnotize Frondier, and Frondier would weaving that hypnosis and hypnotize himself to attempt astral projection.

With this combo, he succeeded in deceiving Hela's eyes.

‘Now, the remaining problem is.’

Frondier looked towards his body with a somewhat tense expression, his flesh still consumed by the lump of evil spirits.

Even if tens of thousands of evil spirits killed each other and became entangled as one, it was originally the result of a tremendous number of egos colliding.

Even if it couldn't act or think properly, it certainly didn't mean that the existence was easy to deal with.

Frondier had surrendered his body to tens of thousands of evil spirits and escaped as a soul. So to reclaim his body, he had to take back control of it. This was a problem that Frondier had to solve himself.

“Hela, what do you think? Do you think I can get my body back?”

[……How dare you utter such nonsense to a god,]

“Forget it. I was a fool to ask you.”

Hela's veins bulged at Frondier's words.

Of course, Hela couldn't directly harm Frondier. It wasn't a complete descent.

Frondier, of course, knew that and said it, but he had never submitted to a god in the first place.

[Do you think someone like you can do it?]

Hela uttered words that were like a curse.

[Do you think you, a mere human, can overcome the gathering of so many wraiths? You too will be torn apart and broken, becoming a part of that lump.]

Hela spoke as if she were cursing him, and that was indeed what she thought.

Frondier was not a god. Nor was he a hero who had accomplished great feats. Nor was he one of the twelve ‘Zodiacs’ of the continent. He was just a child who had not yet reached adulthood.

So far, he had been lucky to survive and make various contributions, but in reality, it was all due to his skills with overwhelming performance. He himself was nothing special. How much more meager would his soul be?

“Right.”

Frondier gave an answer that was neither an affirmation nor a denial, nor even an acknowledgement of whether he had heard Hela's words or not, and then

He slowly approached his own body.

And before he touched that body, he first looked at Selena.

Selena couldn't see Frondier's soul, so she didn't know he was there. She was just shedding tears endlessly.

Her appearance seemed somehow pitiful, so Frondier gave a faint smile.

“I'll be there soon, Selena.”

And Frondier reached out to his own body.

“Ugh……!”

The first thing he felt were the swirling wraiths within the lump. Intense murderous intent and the smell of death. It was better than when the evil spirits had poured in, but the current situation was still not easy.

Frondier took a light breath,

And in one breath, he thrust his soul into his body.

“……!”

His vision changed, and Frondier set foot in pitch-black darkness.

Before his eyes, something like an omelet made of rotten mud was bubbling.

“It smells awful.”

Frondier frowned, but his mouth was still smiling.

He had been wondering why he had been smiling since earlier. Was it because things had gone according to plan? Because he had deceived Hela?

But the situation was still difficult for him, and a difficult trial was right before his eyes.

“……Right.”

Soon, Frondier realized why he was smiling. The reason why he could afford to be relaxed in the midst of the smell that made him frown and the stinging resentment of those guys that hurt his eyes.

“Somehow, you don't seem like much.”

He didn't know the reason. In his head, he knew it was a very dangerous guy.

It was a mixture of all sorts of evil spirits, so to put it bluntly, it was like a pot of all sorts of poisons mixed together and boiling. Frondier was about to stick his head into that pot right now.

But even so.

Frondier was filled with an intense sense of exhilaration that he had never felt before.

It was different from when he had faced the Zodiac Heldre, or Renzo, when he couldn't be sure of victory and had racked his brains in all sorts of ways.

The emotion he had now was simply,

“Hey.”

Confidence in himself.

“This is my body. Get out.”

It was just an incomprehensible certainty that he would never lose in this kind of fight.

Kyaaaaaak!

The lump of evil spirits screamed in all sorts of bizarre sounds and rushed towards Frondier. The smell, the appearance, and the sound all evoked disgust in humans.

A gathering of tens of thousands of evil spirits clumped together. That huge volume swallowed Frondier whole like a huge wave rising up.

[Yes, die like that! Frondier!]

Just before that, Hela, seeing Frondier not moving a finger, was convinced of her victory.

Crunch!

Zooooooop-!

Frondier grabbed the lump and pulled it outward.

With just that one action.

“Ha…… uh……?”

Selena's face, a mess of tears, came into Frondier's view.

That one insignificant action. In the instant he pulled the lump of evil spirits with his right hand, Frondier completely regained his physical body.

He looked at his outstretched right hand. His body was doing the same thing he had done when he was a soul, and his right hand was holding the lump of evil spirits.

“Fr, Frondier-nim……?”

Selena was speechless, surprised by Frondier suddenly stretching out his arm.

Was what she was seeing right now really Frondier? Was he really alive? Had he gone mad after touching the fragments? Was that why he was suddenly stretching out his arm like that─

“Selena.”

Selena's thoughts, filled with ominous premonitions, were cut short by a blunt voice.

Crackle!

Frondier clenched his right hand. The lump burst like a water balloon. Tens of thousands of evil spirits, the monster that had become their gathering, vanished so powerlessly.

Frondier looked at his right hand. He scanned his body to see if any other wraiths remained inside.

But there was nothing like that, and instead, an enormous amount of overflowing mana was swirling around his body.

Having swallowed all the mana of the fragments and taken complete control of it, he felt mana incomparable to before swirling within his body.

Since he had brought the magic of Helheim, its nature was slightly different from the general mana of the continent, but it was already completely his.

Confirming that, Frondier looked at Selena again.

“Sorry, Selena.”

Knowing well what Selena was worried about, Frondier smiled.

He gave a gentle smile, though he hadn't practiced it much.

Having been able to accomplish it unexpectedly easily, Frondier was a little surprised himself.

“I fell asleep for a bit.”