Vergil continued watching the two of them for a few more moments. With every strike from Sepphirothy, entire kilometers of the Abyss simply ceased to exist. Immediately afterward, all that energy was pulled toward Lilith as though answering the call of its own creator. It was an enormous task, yet strangely organized. There was no waste, no haste, and no concern. The two of them seemed to know exactly what they were doing. He crossed his arms before letting out a small sigh.
"Then I think I’ve decided."
Lilith raised her eyes.
"About Helheim?"
Vergil nodded.
"I’m going."
The silence remained for a few seconds.
"I’m going after Frey with Freya."
Lilith merely smiled faintly.
Sepphirothy, meanwhile, completed another slash before walking back toward them. The sword vanished into silver particles as she brushed a small amount of dust from her clothes, despite there being absolutely no dirt on her.
"And you?" Vergil asked. "Do you want to come with me?"
Sepphirothy did not even need to think.
"No."
The answer came immediately.
Vergil arched an eyebrow.
She noticed his surprise.
"My priority is something else right now."
Her eyes shifted toward Lilith, who continued absorbing absurd amounts of demonic energy.
"She has spent far too long weakened."
Lilith let out a quiet laugh.
"You say that as though I were some little old lady."
"You practically are."
"So are you."
"You both are."
Vergil commented naturally.
Lilith grimaced.
"You bastard."
Sepphirothy simply ignored the provocation completely.
"While you’re away, I’ll accelerate this process."
She looked back toward the black horizon.
"The Abyss has grown too much."
"The faster we eliminate the excess, the faster my mother will return to her peak."
Lilith nodded slowly.
"And when that happens..."
She opened and closed her hand, feeling the power returning to her body.
"...no one will need to worry about invasions through the Underworld anymore."
Vergil did not doubt it.
Even while still at the level of a Demigod, her presence was already overwhelming. It was difficult to imagine what she would be like once she fully reclaimed the title of Demonic Goddess.
He then turned his attention back to Sepphirothy.
"Are you sure?"
She nodded.
"I am."
Then she crossed her arms.
"Besides..."
She looked directly at her son.
"...you don’t need to bring an army either."
Vergil became curious.
"What do you mean?"
"Helheim."
She answered calmly.
"It isn’t Tartarus."
She raised one finger.
"It isn’t the Christian Underworld."
Another finger.
"Nor is it Duat."
One more.
"Every Realm of the Dead functions in a completely different way."
Vergil remained silent and listened.
Sepphirothy continued.
"Helheim was created to administer souls."
"Not to imprison monsters."
"Not to hold Titans."
"Not to contain the Deadly Sins."
She made a small gesture toward the void.
"What lives there, basically, are spirits."
"Souls."
"The Valkyries."
"Some administrators."
"Hela."
She shrugged.
"It is an extremely... quiet realm."
Lilith smiled.
"To the point of being depressing."
"It is."
Sepphirothy agreed.
"You can walk for hours without encountering a single hostile creature."
Vergil thought for a few seconds.
"Then why is everyone so worried?"
Sepphirothy answered immediately.
"Because something disrupted that balance."
She slowly walked toward the edge of the platform where they stood.
"The problem isn’t Helheim."
"The problem is whatever managed to affect Helheim."
Vergil nodded.
That was exactly what he had concluded as well.
Sepphirothy continued.
"The chances of you encountering a battle in there..."
She paused briefly.
"...are below twenty percent."
Vergil arched an eyebrow.
"That low?"
"Very."
She answered.
"The entire realm exists to organize the dead."
"The Valkyries do not spend their time patrolling while waiting for wars."
"Hela rarely needs to fight."
"The souls themselves have no reason to attack anyone."
Lilith added:
"In fact, most of them aren’t even capable of it."
Vergil became thoughtful.
"Then the most I’ll find..."
"Are souls."
Sepphirothy said.
"And a few Valkyries."
She looked directly at him.
"If there is combat..."
"...it will be because something completely abnormal has happened."
Vergil breathed slowly.
That made sense.
Persephone.
Nyx.
Hela.
All of them had described similar situations.
None of them had spoken of an open war.
They spoke of disappearances.
Failures.
Interference.
Broken routes.
Missing Valkyries.
It was almost as though the enemy were avoiding direct confrontation.
Lilith seemed to reach the same conclusion.
"They aren’t conquering."
Vergil looked at her.
"They’re searching for something."
Sepphirothy nodded.
"Probably."
Then she looked at her son again.
"That is why you don’t need to turn this into a military expedition."
Vergil crossed his arms.
"I was already thinking of taking only a few people."
"Who?"
"Freya."
Sepphirothy nodded.
"Natural."
"Perhaps Aphrodite."
Lilith smiled.
"She’ll sulk if you don’t take her."
Vergil let out a small laugh.
"Probably."
"And no one else."
Sepphirothy seemed satisfied.
"Good decision."
Vergil spent a few seconds looking at the two of them.
"Do you really think I don’t need to take Sapphire?"
Lilith answered first.
"I do."
Sepphirothy agreed.
"Sapphire would be useful in a war."
"But Helheim is not a war."
She looked at him seriously.
"In fact..."
"...bringing too many people could even get in the way."
Vergil remained silent.
Sepphirothy explained.
"The more people..."
"...the more energy."
"...the more presence."
"...the more interference."
"If something truly is hidden among those ancient routes..."
"...it would be better to arrive discreetly."
Lilith gave a small smile.
"And you were never exactly discreet."
Vergil made a tired expression.
"Thank you."
"I’m trying to help."
She answered innocently.
He merely shook his head.
Then he looked back toward the black horizon.
"So..."
"Freya."
"Aphrodite."
"Hela."
"Find Frey."
"Discover what is happening."
He took a deep breath.
"And come back."
Sepphirothy smiled faintly.
"That is a much better plan than your previous ones."
Vergil looked at her.
"The previous ones worked."
"They did."
She agreed.
"But they usually ended with you destroying half of some dimension."
Lilith burst into laughter.
"She’s right."
Vergil remained silent for a few seconds.
Then he ended up smiling as well.
"I’ll try not to destroy Helheim."
"Good."
Sepphirothy said.
"Because rebuilding a Realm of the Dead must be a terrible amount of work."
The three of them laughed quietly.
It was a strangely ordinary conversation for a family discussing the possibility of crossing into another underworld while, all around them, an entire ocean of demonic corruption was being erased little by little.
But for them, that had already become a curious kind of normality.
And for the first time since that entire succession of crises had begun, Vergil felt that he had a clear plan.
Helheim would be his next destination. Not to conquer a realm or confront a god, but to find a missing man and discover what ancient shadow was silently beginning to move behind all the worlds of the dead.
While Vergil made his decision in the Abyss, far away, in a place that did not officially belong to Helheim or any of the Nine Realms, a man walked alone.
There was no wind.
There was no silence either.
There was only a constant noise, like thousands of people breathing at the same time, so distant that the brain stopped recognizing it as sound and began treating it as part of existence itself.
Frey walked slowly.
His green cloak had disappeared days ago.
His golden armor was broken in several places.
His left shoulder remained completely exposed, covered in old cuts that simply refused to heal.
Only half of his sword remained in his right hand.
The other half...
He had lost it a long time ago.
Or perhaps only a few hours earlier.
Time made no sense there.
Before him stretched an endless plain formed from black stone as smooth as glass.
There were no trees.
No mountains.
No sky.
No stars.
Above him was only an enormous gray dome that seemed to breathe slowly.
Sometimes it cracked.
Sometimes it blinked.
As though it were skin.
Frey stopped.
He slowly crouched down.
He ran his fingers over the ground.
Runes.
Hundreds of them.
They had not been carved.
They simply appeared on the stone’s surface whenever he approached.
Runes that belonged to no Norse language.
No mortal tongue.
Nor any divine one.
Even so...
He could understand them.
"...Liar..."
The word appeared.
Then vanished.
"...Intruder..."
Another.
"...Cultivator..."
One more.
He closed his eyes.
"You’re becoming repetitive."
There was no answer.
The runes vanished.
Frey resumed walking.
He did not know how many days had passed since he found that forgotten passage near Helheim.
He remembered only the sensation.
A small crack.
A strange smell.
Then...
Darkness.
When he opened his eyes, he was there.
He had tried to return.
He found no exit.
He had tried to open the Bifröst.
Nothing.
He had tried to fly.
Space folded in on itself.
He had tried to destroy the place.
His sword, a weapon capable of cutting giants, simply lost its glow when it touched that stone.
As though it had forgotten what it meant to be a sword.
It was then that he understood.
That place was not a prison.
It was something much worse.
It was a place where concepts began to die.
He continued walking.
A lake appeared ahead.
Black.
Completely still.
Its surface reflected his face.
But...
Not exactly.
The image smiled.
Frey did not.
The image raised its hand.
Frey remained still.
Then the image began to age.
Its hair turned white.
Then disappeared.
The skin dried.
The muscles vanished.
Within seconds, only a corpse wearing his appearance remained.
Then...
The corpse opened its eyes.
"You took your time."
Frey sighed.
"So today you decided to speak."
The creature in the reflection tilted its head.
"No."
Its voice came from every direction.
"We merely learned your language."
The entire lake rippled.
Thousands.
Millions.
Billions of faces appeared beneath the surface.
Humans.
Angels.
Demons.
Dragons.
Gods.
All of them looking at him.
All of them with completely black eyes.
"Who are you?"
Frey asked.
The lake remained silent for a few seconds.
Then it answered.
"We were forgotten."
"By whom?"
"By reality."
Frey tightened his grip on the broken sword.
"That doesn’t answer anything."
"Because your question was born too late."
The surface became smooth again.
The reflection vanished.
The lake became nothing more than dark water once more.
Frey remained still.
He was not afraid.
That feeling had left days ago.
Or months.
It was difficult to tell.
All that remained was caution.
Then...
He heard footsteps.
Real ones.
Behind him.
He turned immediately.
There was no one there.
The footsteps continued.
Drawing closer.
Tap.
Tap.
Tap.
Like boots walking over stone.
But no figure appeared.
Frey closed his eyes.
He took a deep breath.
He sensed.
Nothing.
No mana.
No divine energy.
No spiritual presence.
Even so...
The footsteps stopped directly in front of him.
A female voice spoke.
Very softly.
"So small..."
Frey opened his eyes.
There was still no one there.
The voice continued.
"And even so..."
"...you can perceive us."
He did not answer.
The sword slowly rose.
The voice let out a quiet laugh.
"Interesting."
"Who are you?"
Frey asked.
The silence lasted for a few seconds.
Then...
The space in front of him began to tear.
Not like a rift.
But like an ancient fabric being slowly pulled open.
Something tried to emerge.
Frey immediately advanced.
The broken sword shone.
One strike.
The slash passed through the opening.
For the first time since arriving there...
Something screamed.
The sound was not loud.
But it made the entire plain tremble.
The gray sky cracked.
The lake exploded into black waves.
Runes appeared for kilometers.
The thing on the other side retreated.
The tear closed instantly.
Frey remained standing.
Breathing heavily.
He looked at the sword.
It had lost another piece.
Less than a third of the blade remained.
"...Damn it."
He muttered.
Then he smiled.
It was a tired smile.
But sincere.
"At least now I know."
He looked toward the motionless sky.
"There is someone there."
Far away...
In a region that not even that place seemed able to reach...
Six enormous circles slowly opened.
Each possessed a different color.
Green.
Pink.
Dark blue.
Orange.
Yellow.
Red.
They watched Frey for a few seconds.
Like moons.
Like eyes.
Like concepts.
Then they vanished.
Frey never realized that he had been observed.
But somewhere beyond that forgotten dimension, a presence slowly opened its own eyes for the first time in countless ages.
It possessed no face.
No body.
Nor any name that could be spoken by any existing language.
Even so...
A single thought crossed that dormant existence.
"Another Heir has arrived."
Chapter 861: Then I think I’ve decided
9 min read