Nastrond (2)
“You’re planning to make us fall into the abyss?”
“Hmm. I’ll explain as we go. It’ll be better for you too.”
Belphegor spread his wings.
Selena tensed slightly at that. It was easy to let your guard down around his relaxed demeanor, but Belphegor was a devil. And one of the Seven Deadly Sins at that.
“Where are we going?”
“You said you’re saving Azier, right? Then that’s where we have to go.”
At Belphegor's words, Frondier looked at Selena.
“Selena can’t use flight magic, right? Can she enter the shadows?”
“...Shadows are just a means of transportation. It’s not suitable to stay inside. It’s not a breathable space.”
“I see. Then you won’t last long.”
“Yes. At most, 10 minutes.”
“...”
Frondier was at a loss for words for a moment.
So Selena could hold her breath for 10 minutes?
“It can’t be helped.”
Frondier turned his back to Selena and knelt on one knee.
“Get on.”
“...”
This time it was Selena’s turn to fall silent.
“Hurry up. We don’t have time.”
“I, that...”
Belphegor, who was watching them, spoke up.
“My, my. Frondier, you don’t understand a woman’s heart.”
“What do you mean?”
“She’s asking you to hold her like a princess, so she can see your face.”
“That’s not it!”
Selena cut Belphegor off and carefully made her way in front of Frondier’s back.
“E-excuse me.”
“Alright.”
Selena hesitated for a moment before finally getting on Frondier’s back, and Frondier stood up.
“Let’s go.”
“This way.”
Belphegor flew up first, and Frondier followed behind. Meanwhile, Selena hid her blushing face in Frondier’s back.
Whoosh—
As they flew, Frondier asked again.
“So, what was Satan’s plan?”
When Frondier asked, Belphegor waved his finger playfully in the air.
“Like I said, I wasn’t interested in the affairs of the demon realm. I didn’t care who fought for power or who became king. But it seems Satan didn’t think that way.”
“What do you mean?”
“That bastard thought I was trying to become king. Well, I didn’t find that out until later.”
Satan then held a staff, which had appeared out of nowhere, in one hand. As he swung the staff, letters appeared in the air. ‘Baal’.
“Originally, the strongest of the Seven Deadly Sins was this guy.”
“...Baal.”
“Yes. He’s gone now.”
“Gone? But I met Baal.”
“Yes. That’s why...”
Belphegor, who was about to explain, stopped abruptly. He looked at Frondier with puzzled eyes.
“How did you know that Baal and Baal are originally the same being?”
“...”
This was knowledge that the people of this world wouldn’t know. They didn’t even know of the existence of devils in the first place.
However, in Frondier’s case, he had knowledge from his previous world. He knew that Baal was called by many names.
“Well, it doesn’t matter. That’s not important.”
Soon Belphegor shrugged it off and continued his explanation.
It seemed like he was getting annoyed.
“Originally, Baal was among the Seven Deadly Sins. He was the strongest devil, in name and in reality. There was no king back then, but it had a different meaning than it does now. Since Baal was practically the king, there was no need to officially decide on one.”
“He must have been overwhelmingly strong.”
“Yes. But there was one problem with this guy.”
“What was it?”
“He was half God.”
Frondier tilted his head at that. Was that even possible?
“Baal is one of the strongest and oldest devils. At least to the people of old, Baal was a God. Even now, somewhere out there, people are offering prayers to him as a deity. That’s why Baal didn’t have the ‘desire’ that a devil should have, and he could also grant humans Eclexis. He even interacted with Gods back then.”
“Then that doesn’t sound like a devil at all.”
“You’re right. But he was in the demon realm, and he liked to command devils. So Baal seemed like a bridge connecting both devils and Gods, or like a bat with a foot in each camp. Well, no one dared to say it out loud because he was so strong.”
Then, Belphegor crossed out the word ‘Baal’ that he had written with his staff.
“He made a mistake.”
“A mistake?”
“He fell for a God’s trick.”
Belphegor wrote another name next to it. ‘Odin’.
Frondier’s eyes narrowed naturally as soon as he saw the name.
“Odin wanted to weaken the devils. He knew Ragnarok was coming. If Ragnarok really came and the devils were too powerful, there was a chance they could wipe out all the Gods.”
“So what did he do to Baal?”
“He persuaded him to become a God.”
Baal, who had a foot in both the divine and demonic realms. He was confident that he could stand on either side, but at the same time, he was in a state of existential confusion because he didn’t belong to either. Odin saw right through that.
“But Baal didn’t know the specifics of how to become a God. It was only natural. He was already a God. He just didn’t think of himself that way.”
“What did Odin say?”
“He told Baal that because he was half God and half devil, he had to get rid of the devil part. That if he removed one side, he would fully settle into the other. That’s what Odin said, and Baal listened.”
—But, would such a being even exist in this world?
“Wouldn’t that be impossible?”
“Half-god, half-devil. Half-god, half-human. These beings are called that for convenience, but they’re not actually a perfect blend of the two halves. If there was such an easy way, all those half-bloods would have chosen a side by now.”
To rephrase Odin’s words, Heracles would have become a full-fledged God in an instant.
Souls were not something you could just tear apart and put back together at will.
“Baal didn’t know that. Or maybe he knew, but he thought he was different. He tried to tear away the part of himself that ‘thought like a devil’. Most devils would have died at that point.”
To sever one’s own soul. Most devils wouldn’t even know how, and even if they could, they wouldn’t survive.
“Odin’s goal was to kill Baal, but something unexpected happened.”
“...He succeeded in separating his soul.”
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