Niflheim (4)
Sybil had never known her mother's face. Not even once.
She vaguely recalled a time when she was young and curious, so she had asked her father, Daud, about her.
‘What did you say back then, Dad…?’
She couldn't remember.
Why couldn’t she recall such an important story? And how come Sybil had stopped caring about her mother after that?
Her head throbbed. Sybil pressed her hand against her temple.
‘Well, if it's divine power, then Pandemonium wouldn't open. Even if it did, it wouldn’t be me, but my God who entered.’
Since she herself was inside Pandemonium, this power was undoubtedly hers.
Click—
The sound of gears turning echoed once more. This time, it was clearer.
“Where is it coming from?”
Sybil’s gaze followed the sound.
Her eyes, searching for the source, gradually lowered.
“……Don’t tell me.”
The sound originated from beneath the ground.
This was Sybil’s domain.
Her eyes began to see through the ground.
There, she saw gears.
“What is this?”
One gear connected to another.
Countless gears, endlessly linked, spun ceaselessly beneath the earth.
An unknown number of gears, rotating without end, their purpose a mystery.
‘…I see. All this time, I was only hearing a fraction of the sound.’
Sybil had always thought she was hearing just one gear.
But in reality, she was only catching glimpses, hearing a few out of the countless gears perpetually turning.
The sight of gears spinning throughout the entire land made her head spin. Yet, for some reason, the sounds weren’t jarring but gradually brought her understanding.
This was her domain.
Her own domain, which she had yet to fully comprehend.
‘…So what are these gears for?’
Sybil surveyed the entirety of it, searching for the end of the gears, trying to understand how they turned and what they ultimately moved.
And finally, she realized.
At the heart of it all, connected to the gears, stood a single tree.
At the very end, where all the gears rotated, stood the tree.
The gears touched the tree.
───Tick.
With that sound.
“Huh…?”
A fruit grew from the tree.
A golden fruit.
‘…Just now, it sounded like the second hand of a clock…’
But the sound only rang out once. It wouldn’t repeat.
And in sync with it, the golden fruit had grown.
Sybil approached the tree.
The branch was too high for her to reach.
Naturally, she raised the large sickle she was holding.
‘Perfect.’
The sickle reached the branch at just the right height.
With a gentle nudge, the fruit fell with a soft thud. Sybil caught it effortlessly with one hand.
“Is this… an apple?”
Up close, its golden hue was even more dazzling.
As she wondered if it was edible,
[Idun…]
Jörmungandr’s voice echoed.
[How can this be?]
Sybil’s expression hardened at those words.
Idun.
A name too famous to be unknown.
The goddess who guarded the golden apples, Idun.
But nowhere in any record was there mention of her marrying a human.
And the fact that it was her father, Daud, made it even more unbelievable.
“Are you saying… my mother is Idun?”
[Indeed. Do you not recognize it?]
“…Then this, is this really a ‘golden apple’?”
[This is Pandemonium. It’s nonsensical to discuss what’s real. This scenery is merely Idun’s legacy to you.]
Jörmungandr glanced at Sybil, who was staring at the apple in a daze.
[Now that I look at it, your hair and eye color… you resemble her.]
“…If you’re basing it solely on color, there must be others…”
[Are there? People with pink hair and green eyes like you?]
“…..”
In truth, there weren’t.
Her colors were both vibrant and unusual. Even disregarding her eyes, she had never seen anyone with hair like hers.
That was why she stood out even more, her beauty radiant, captivating so many.
[Was that story true?]
“What story?”
[I’d heard Idun was kidnapped by a giant, but the truth is, she fled Asgard of her own volition.]
According to the records, Idun was abducted by the giant Thjazi. It was said that Thjazi, enthralled by her beauty, had kidnapped her along with the basket she carried.
The basket contained all the golden apples. Since the gods relied on the apples for their immortality, they all aged rapidly without them.
“…Are you saying she left on her own?”
If the story of Idun being kidnapped was false and she had willingly left Asgard, it meant she had intentionally planned to make all the gods age. No, it meant she had planned to kill them all.
[I couldn’t believe it either, but there were a few inconsistencies with the kidnapping theory.]
“Inconsistencies?”
[Firstly, when Idun was allegedly abducted, she was taken along with the entire basket. Thjazi, at the time, had no interest in the apples. It’s strange for him to take everything without leaving a single one behind. It was bound to incur the wrath of the gods, and kidnapping Idun alone was already a dangerous endeavor.]
Taking the basket containing the golden apples while abducting Idun was cumbersome, difficult, and only increased the risk. If it were truly a kidnapping, Idun would have likely abandoned the basket. She knew her duty.
However, if Idun had left voluntarily, it would make more sense. She could simply take her basket with her. Especially if her goal was to prevent the gods from having the golden apples.
[Furthermore, after Idun’s supposed return, not a single fruit grew from the tree.]
“…Ah.”
Even if they had lost all the golden apples in the basket, the tree should have borne more fruit.
However, the reason the gods aged so rapidly was that the tree had stopped producing. Was it Idun who caused that?
[And above all, your existence lends credibility to that story.]
“Me? How so?”
[The fact that she bore a child with a human means she ventured into the human world of her own accord.]
Idun was tasked with guarding the golden apples. It was her greatest and only mission.
Therefore, she should never have left the tree’s side.
But if Sybil truly was Idun’s daughter, it meant Idun had left the tree and entered the human world.
‘…Am I truly a demigod?’
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