While Sol and Anubis were bonding over their mutual desire to beat down the goddesses for their shenanigans, Kiyohime was busy taking notes as she interrogated a compliant Leo of all the details.
‘If only all interrogations were like this… Wouldn't have taken so much time and effort that way…’
It was the first time Kiyohime had such an easy time interrogating someone. Leo wasn’t even trying to struggle. She was complying with everything all the way.
Sadly, the answers she was getting out of her were not that interesting.
It was clear to see that… Funf was not a particularly loyal member of the Wings of Freedom and the amount of information she had access to was quite lacking to say the least.
“The true core members are Ein, Zwei, and Drei. They are the ones who actually have most of the information related to the core secrets of the group.”
“I see. Then, what about the number four of the group? His code name is Vier, right, or is it a woman?”
Funf shrugged her shoulders, clearly she didn't know about her, “Honestly, that one is an oddball. She always moves alone or with Ein.”
Kiyohime was now interested, the Wings of Freedom she remembered were always pretty cohesive. But it seemed like the Wings of this generation were full of people with their own objectives.
“What makes you think that?”
Leo shrugged, “I don’t really know. For one, she doesn’t seem to take orders from anyone but Ein. Also…”
Funf gave a weird look at Kiyohime.
“Oh?”
“I don’t really know her reasons, but I know that most of the dragon bones in Drei’s collection came from the dragons she killed. So yeah.”
This time Kiyohime furrowed her brow at the words that followed.
“Vier is an elf who hates dragons. Pretty weird, right?”
—---
[9th Heaven]
Sitting high up on her lonely throne, Tiamat was busy twirling a ring between her fingers.
This was the dimensional key created for that member of the Wings which allowed them to directly open a portal that linked them to Nihil’s dimension.
They had taken the ring and had been hopeful of using it to find the nest and kill them all and be done with it until Ymir chose new agents. But it proved to be pointless.
The two rings, the ones belonging to Drei and Funf, had ceased functioning at the same time and the link had been broken.
This was awfully convenient how all their chances to actually end the Wings were being rejected one after another.
Tiamat wondered if this was the result of extensive preparation on their parts or the effects of Sol’s power when he changed Fate at that time.
After all, Drei erasing his memory was one thing but how was it impossible for Anubis to find any trace or interrupt it? She doubted Drei had a better understanding of souls than Anubis.
Tiamat never created anything like this, but she should have still been able to find traces of the coordinates at least. However she also couldn't find anything.
‘What a dangerous power.’
She didn’t know if she was looking too much into it, or was completely wrong, but this showed that Sol needed to better understand his power to avoid such a possible mistake.
In short…
‘Nothing changed.’
Tiamat sighed in boredom. It had been so long since she had a good fight.
She had been quite excited about fighting Surtr again, but Sol intervention, while welcome, really cut her fun short.
She didn’t even count the demigod they killed. Those people were just lucky bastards with no particular skills and who were completely helpless once outside of their territories.
“I am bored.”
Because the high of her adrenaline fell, she was feeling boredom even more than usual.
Normally, she would go and sleep for a few decades because of this, but she knew that they were currently at a nexus.
She could not even read Sol’s future anymore using her dimension, even though he was a dragon.
His stars in her dimension had become a weird mix of more than ten colors and even trying to take a look at it made her dizzy.
She had expected Sol to become a singularity and have his Fate blurred. But, this was something else, something completely different.
“Deus EMachina…”
She muttered blankly. All power that manipulated Fate generally had great limitations or price.
Like how at least two Norns sisters were necessary to slightly alter events, or how Sheherazade could make wishes but could not control how those wishes would be realized.
This was fair. This was how this universe worked.
Everything had a price and limitations.
But from what she had seen, for such a great power, the sole limitations seemed to be his power level rather than anything else.
In a way, this was a Zone that broke all the rules of this world at no price.
‘It’s as if Sol is the actual rule maker.’
She shook her head at the absurdity that was jumping in her mind. Now she had to focus on what to do with his king's name.
“Skuld.”
“Oh, her majesty finally remembered me.”
All along; Skuld had been sulking while standing on the side. She wished she could have spent more time with Sol and taken care of him but Tiamat had basically kidnapped her to use her power.
“Don’t be so sassy. You have outlived your use. Now you are simply a liability and the sex toy of my grandson. The only reason I am not killing you is that I am not an ingrate backstabber.”
Tiamat’s voice was cold but Skuld simply shrugged. She knew that Tiamat wasn’t kidding.
She knew how to skirt around the line without really passing it.
“First question. You said that in the now erased timeline, I have been pursuing you and Sol relentlessly.”
“That’s right.”
“But then, why did I never catch you?”
This was something she didn’t understand. Even though Sol became a powerhouse, it wasn’t like that happened suddenly. It must have taken time.
Furthermore, that Sol had never awakened Deus Ex, so Tiamat should have been able to pinpoint his location by using his star if she really intended to hunt them.
“Sol focused more on his dimension than his zone and as such had a greater mastery. You have seen some of what he was capable of. Trust me, no one could catch him.”
“Hum…”
This didn’t really answer the question but Tiamat nodded nonetheless. Either way, she had to become more wary of the goddess.
Even though she was nearly their equal in terms of power, as the goddesses they were, they had many means Tiamat could not fathom.
“My second question is more straightforward.”
“What was Sol King's name and do you think he should follow the same path?”
Skuld shrugged, “Sol had two names.”
“...What?”
“As I said, Sol had two names as a King.”
Tiamat began to massage her forehead.
“A King name represents one's true self. We can only have one True name. Do you know how absurd it sounds!?”
“Do you know how absurd the very existence of Sol is?”
Tiamat nodded, “Touché.”
She mused and there was indeed no need to care about logic. An absurd being would do absurd things. This was all there was to it.
Once she calmed down, Tiamat realized that she should stop trying to apply common sense.
“So then, what were those names?”
Skuld pointed at the sky to which Tiamat waved her hand dismissively, “I always shield this place when discussing.”
“I see. Then give me a minute. I have sealed my memories regarding this. Also, once this discussion ends, I will once again seal them. So do not mention the second name to me.”
An 8-pointed star appeared on Skuld's forehead as pictures and images began to flow. She had in fact sealed many of her memories. She didn’t even know how much since she also made it so she would only remember them being sealed when specific keywords were uttered.
There were many reasons for such security. For one, there were simply too many memories stored and Skuld feared forgetting important ones.
For two, she did not trust the goddesses and did not want to take a risk.
Once the seals regarding that specific memory were unlocked, Skuld opened her eyes wide for a bit before chuckling,
“His first name was Hyperion.” [1]
Thanks to this name Sol got great power and control over fire, to the point he could even burn space and time.
As for the second name…
“His second King's name was—Armageddon.” [2]
[1]: Hyperion is the name of the Primordial Titan of Fire in Greek mythos. He is the son of Ouranos (sky) and Gaia (earth) and with his sister, Titaness Theia, Hyperion fathered Helios (the Sun), Selene (the Moon), and Eos (the Dawn). If you want to compare to Surtr, I say since Greek myth is superior to Nordique then Hyperion destroys Surtr.
[2]: According to the Book of Revelation in the New Testament of the Christian Bible, Armageddon is the prophesied location of a gathering of armies for a battle during the end times. Loosely speaking, it’s the Ragnarok of us Christians or the Titannomachia of Greeks. Funny how basically all religions have that one big war that will end everything.
(AN: Revelation after revelation. But this isn’t the goal of this volume damn it. I promised a volume filled with fluff so there shall be fluff. Fluff and smut. Gotta continue the NNN training arc.)
