This was the first time she realized how much of a relief it could be to hear another human’s voice.0
‘...’0
Looking at her, the person before her seemed to immediately realize what had happened and waited for her to cry without saying anything. She slowly looked up at him with tears in her eyes, and there was something that was clearly visible even through her blurry vision.0
The girl opened her mouth without even realizing it.0
‘“Baldy…”0
That was the first time for them. It was the first meeting between her, who would later obtain the title Athena, and him, who had already become Heimdall.0
“That’s a little much to say to the one who saved you.”0
***0
“How unlucky. To be caught up in an A-Grade Gate of all things.”0
She didn’t quite understand what he meant, but judging from his tone, it seemed that she had found herself in something quite serious.0
“Who are you? And what the hell is going on?”0
Without even realizing it, she found herself unwittingly turning toward him for support. It wasn’t just because she had seen him casually slice up the monsters that had decimated her family. He also had a charm that made people feel comfortable, feel relieved just to be with him.0
However, the more she stayed with him, the more strange she felt things were.0
“Do you somehow know who I am?”0
The man acted as if he knew her, what she liked, what she feared. He seemed to know exactly what had happened. She just assumed it was because of his special ability.0
“Although you treat me like it’s our first time meeting, I definitely get the feeling that you know me, that we know each other.”0
Although she had asked him several times, all she received in response was just being told to be quiet.0
“Shh.”0
Because that meant that there were monsters around, the girl had no choice but to keep her mouth shut.0
After colliding with monsters several times, they were finally able to advance.0
“When do you think we can escape here?”0
She didn’t want to bother the person who had saved her.0
With the power he possessed, the man seemed to be able to get himself out of this hell. However, the man just shook his head.0
“We can’t.”0
“Why not?”0
“Nothing will change if we just go out right now. The outside world is the same as here.”0
“Then are you saying that the outside has become a hell, too?”0
“Exactly.”0
The bald man then asked her a question, “Do you want to experience the helplessness you experienced here ever again?”0
For a long time, she couldn’t answer his question.0
“Do you want to experience having what you hold dear ripped away from you again?”0
He asked her again as she clenched her fists.0
No, she didn’t.0
“I’d rather die at that point.”0
“Good. That’s a promise. Just wait a little more, it won’t take too much longer,” the man muttered incomprehensibly as he carried her along for a while.0
“Why don’t you put that down?” he said as he looked at the kitchen knife in her hands.0
“Did you take it because it was your mother’s keepsake?”0
He had asked her cautiously as if trying to feel her out, but her answer was very direct.0
“No, it’s to protect me.”0
In a moment of emergency, if the man were to be in a dangerous situation, then she could at least create an opening.0
“Leave me and run away if there’s danger. I can do at least that much for someone who saved my life.”0
He continued forward while mumbling something incomprehensible again, “You’re the same as ever.”0
Several days passed like that.0
This place the man had called a gate was wide, and monsters continued to appear that were so powerful that even the bald man, who seemed able to defeat anyone, struggled. Still, even when covered in blood, he continued to advance while sometimes muttering something incomprehensible under his breath again.0
“My power hasn’t returned completely. Hmm, is it a restriction?”0
The girl didn’t ask him anything further, as the more she spoke with him, the more uncomfortable she felt, as if she was going to make a mistake with him, her savior. As they continued in that manner, the man finally stopped somewhere.0
“We’ve arrived.”0
The girl didn’t ask anything whatsoever. A terrifying monster that exuded an aura like she had never felt before was roaring.0
ROARR!!!0
“I guess I’ll actually have to use it this time.”0
The man threw something into the air while muttering something incomprehensible once again.0
‘A rainbow…’0
It was such a beautiful rainbow of light. As the rainbow appeared and disappeared, the monster’s roar disappeared alongside it. Instead, she heard a kinder voice than any other that she had heard until now.0
“Hold on well. It will be more of a hell than you’ve ever experienced.”0
Of course, it was also the moment she heard the system’s voice for the first time.0
[<tThe Goddess of the Battlefield> sponsors you.]0
***0
“Hold on well.”0
Clearly, the baldy had known she was coming here.0
Moreover, he had also known that this place was a hell. But, even though he had known it, he had still brought her to such a place.0
At first, the girl was angry. She had thought that she was escaping the hell she found herself in, but ended up falling to an even crazier hell. The hardest part of it all was the solitude.0
As she hunted the monsters that kept appearing, the only interaction she had was the sponsorship sent from time to time from her Sponsor, who seemed to be enjoying her struggle.0
She couldn’t talk to anyone or do anything. Her life just repeated in cycles: hunt the monsters and then eat the monsters. There was nothing that couldn’t be eaten when faced with starvation.0
After a few months of living like that, she was even thankful to that baldy.0
‘He said that the outside world was like that hell, too.’0
All things considered, he might have just been giving him a chance to survive there. This current hell was an impressive space. Even after being injured to the point of death by a monster, she was revived.0
As if her Sponsor was trying to mold a warrior that would satisfy her, the Sponsor would bring her back and urge her to fight, again and again. Then, as she fought like that over and over, she began to hate the baldy, too.0
‘You asshole.’0
If he was going to throw her into a place like this, then he should have at least come with her. She would think at times of how much she hated that he left her here alone, but then she would return to being grateful again.0
At some point, she no longer feared any of the monsters. She had killed them, and then killed some more. Although the shapes and types of monsters were all different, she didn’t care.0
‘They’re the enemies that killed my parents.’0
She considered them all the monsters that had killed her brother and her parents and slaughtered them as they came. It was a never ending road of revenge.0
She thought that the futility of it all would eventually overtake her, but her desire for vengeance just blazed stronger the more she continued. Hunting had become enjoyable, and the pain was bearable. However, she still hadn’t gotten used to the solitude.0
‘Is anyone there…? How many years have I passed in this darkness?’0
One day, she saw a vision of her parents welcoming her and, off to the side, a vision of her brother as well.0
AHHH!0
But then, the monsters that were running toward her once more tore through the visages of her family. They were faces she had already begun to forget.0
She raised her spear again.0
Stab, cut, explode.0
One day, she threw her spear away and began to hunt them with her bare hands.0
Although the monsters she faced became stronger, she was becoming even stronger than them. After endlessly hunting the monsters, that bitch of a Sponsor, satisfied with what she saw, lauded sponsorship after sponsorship on her with the same intensity as her satisfaction.0
So, she hunted endlessly. Somewhere along the line, that hateful Sponsor had become a being she almost considered a friend.0
‘Maybe she’s actually a good being?’0
Although she may have been the reason the girl had been pushed into this hell, in truth, what the Sponsor had done was no different than saving her life.0
More importantly than anything else, she had been given strength.0
The strength to not die like her parents, like her brother.0
The strength to fight.0
‘The strength to face him.’0
So she changed her mind. This wasn’t hell. No, it was a kind of shelter.0
A shelter made for her until she became perfect.0
A shelter made so someone like her could become compatible with such hell.0
‘You want to make me be able to face the hell outside, right?’0
Before she knew it, she was even talking to the Sponsor. There was no response.0
Groaaah.0
Just as always, monsters that let out disgusting cries came toward her once again. She wasn't afraid of them anymore.0
[<The Goddess of the Battlefield> sponsors you with Aegis.]0
This time, she obtained a shield.0
***0
At a rough count, it seemed like ten years had passed—ten hellish years.0
In her solitude, the girl had even made friends with the Sponsor, a friend who never responded to her call. Although it was stupid, at least the Sponsor was looking at her and spending time with her.0
Whenever she defeated the monsters, the girl asked her the questions that she wanted to ask herself.0
‘What is your purpose?’0
‘What are these monsters?’0
‘Who are you?’0
She didn’t want an answer, as these were just as much for her as they were for the Sponsor. She thought of the Sponsor as a sort of god who worked diligently to save her people in this era that was like the coming of the apocalypse.0
That was why she was going to the same.0
‘I’m going to save people.’0
She had made up her mind and gotten stronger. The girl and her Sponsor, they were friends like no other, attached at the hip.0
She couldn’t hear them anymore.0
The calls of her parents, the calls of her brother, and even the cries of the monsters had disappeared.0
In that dimension of nothingness, she spent over ten years. Eventually, one day, the girl heard her Sponsor’s voice for the first time.0
[Leave Andlangr, my child.]0
The girl laughed without answering. When she opened her eyes after getting out of that hell, she found herself in a familiar place.0
‘So, I’m back here.’0
She had returned to the time before she entered the place called Andlangr. She was now back to the gate where her parents had been killed.0
She could feel that the gate was collapsing, so she had to get out of there.0
Screech!0
The remaining monsters that hadn’t yet died caught sight of her and rushed forward.0
They were the things she had been afraid of before she had gone to that hell—no, before she had entered Andlangr, which had been her shelter. They were the real monsters that had killed her family.0
But that girl, that little girl had become a warrior before she knew it.0
‘Die.'0
Her spear had no mercy as it pierced through space.0
‘GRAGHH!’0
Her spear brought despair to the monsters. She wanted to pay the despair she had received back the same way.0
Squelch.0
However, she didn’t go through with it, just killing them with a single stab. It wasn’t mercy. It was just that her vengeance had been worn down, faded and inscribed onto her very being like a tattoo.0
There weren’t any chances for her to use Aegis.0
‘The gate is collapsing.’0
She could see that she had to leave right at this very moment. However, her anger, which had become like a tattoo stained on her soul, refused to let her just leave like this.0
‘I have to kill them all.’0
These monsters, who had taken everything from her—she had to cut all of them down without leaving even a single one behind.0
Swish! Squelch! Bang!0
Her spear, her fists, and her feet moved nonstop. She didn’t get tired. She was no longer a girl, nor was she even a warrior.0
She had become one with the one who had sponsored her.0
‘The Goddess of the Battlefield.’0
As the pile of monster corpses formed a monster, the gate finally collapsed, and she finally escaped. It was only then that she finally realized. That the time that she had spent in Andlangr hadn’t even amounted to a single flip of a child’s hourglass.0
“Long time no see. Baldy.”0
That he had been waiting for her.
This was the first time she realized how much of a relief it could be to hear another human’s voice.0
‘...’0
Looking at her, the person before her seemed to immediately realize what had happened and waited for her to cry without saying anything. She slowly looked up at him with tears in her eyes, and there was something that was clearly visible even through her blurry vision.0
The girl opened her mouth without even realizing it.0
‘“Baldy…”0
That was the first time for them. It was the first meeting between her, who would later obtain the title Athena, and him, who had already become Heimdall.0
“That’s a little much to say to the one who saved you.”0
***0
“How unlucky. To be caught up in an A-Grade Gate of all things.”0
She didn’t quite understand what he meant, but judging from his tone, it seemed that she had found herself in something quite serious.0
“Who are you? And what the hell is going on?”0
Without even realizing it, she found herself unwittingly turning toward him for support. It wasn’t just because she had seen him casually slice up the monsters that had decimated her family. He also had a charm that made people feel comfortable, feel relieved just to be with him.0
However, the more she stayed with him, the more strange she felt things were.0
“Do you somehow know who I am?”0
The man acted as if he knew her, what she liked, what she feared. He seemed to know exactly what had happened. She just assumed it was because of his special ability.0
“Although you treat me like it’s our first time meeting, I definitely get the feeling that you know me, that we know each other.”0
Although she had asked him several times, all she received in response was just being told to be quiet.0
“Shh.”0
Because that meant that there were monsters around, the girl had no choice but to keep her mouth shut.0
After colliding with monsters several times, they were finally able to advance.0
“When do you think we can escape here?”0
She didn’t want to bother the person who had saved her.0
With the power he possessed, the man seemed to be able to get himself out of this hell. However, the man just shook his head.0
“We can’t.”0
“Why not?”0
“Nothing will change if we just go out right now. The outside world is the same as here.”0
“Then are you saying that the outside has become a hell, too?”0
“Exactly.”0
The bald man then asked her a question, “Do you want to experience the helplessness you experienced here ever again?”0
For a long time, she couldn’t answer his question.0
“Do you want to experience having what you hold dear ripped away from you again?”0
He asked her again as she clenched her fists.0
No, she didn’t.0
“I’d rather die at that point.”0
“Good. That’s a promise. Just wait a little more, it won’t take too much longer,” the man muttered incomprehensibly as he carried her along for a while.0
“Why don’t you put that down?” he said as he looked at the kitchen knife in her hands.0
“Did you take it because it was your mother’s keepsake?”0
He had asked her cautiously as if trying to feel her out, but her answer was very direct.0
“No, it’s to protect me.”0
In a moment of emergency, if the man were to be in a dangerous situation, then she could at least create an opening.0
“Leave me and run away if there’s danger. I can do at least that much for someone who saved my life.”0
He continued forward while mumbling something incomprehensible again, “You’re the same as ever.”0
Several days passed like that.0
This place the man had called a gate was wide, and monsters continued to appear that were so powerful that even the bald man, who seemed able to defeat anyone, struggled. Still, even when covered in blood, he continued to advance while sometimes muttering something incomprehensible under his breath again.0
“My power hasn’t returned completely. Hmm, is it a restriction?”0
The girl didn’t ask him anything further, as the more she spoke with him, the more uncomfortable she felt, as if she was going to make a mistake with him, her savior. As they continued in that manner, the man finally stopped somewhere.0
“We’ve arrived.”0
The girl didn’t ask anything whatsoever. A terrifying monster that exuded an aura like she had never felt before was roaring.0
ROARR!!!0
“I guess I’ll actually have to use it this time.”0
The man threw something into the air while muttering something incomprehensible once again.0
‘A rainbow…’0
It was such a beautiful rainbow of light. As the rainbow appeared and disappeared, the monster’s roar disappeared alongside it. Instead, she heard a kinder voice than any other that she had heard until now.0
“Hold on well. It will be more of a hell than you’ve ever experienced.”0
Of course, it was also the moment she heard the system’s voice for the first time.0
[<tThe Goddess of the Battlefield> sponsors you.]0
***0
“Hold on well.”0
Clearly, the baldy had known she was coming here.0
Moreover, he had also known that this place was a hell. But, even though he had known it, he had still brought her to such a place.0
At first, the girl was angry. She had thought that she was escaping the hell she found herself in, but ended up falling to an even crazier hell. The hardest part of it all was the solitude.0
As she hunted the monsters that kept appearing, the only interaction she had was the sponsorship sent from time to time from her Sponsor, who seemed to be enjoying her struggle.0
She couldn’t talk to anyone or do anything. Her life just repeated in cycles: hunt the monsters and then eat the monsters. There was nothing that couldn’t be eaten when faced with starvation.0
After a few months of living like that, she was even thankful to that baldy.0
‘He said that the outside world was like that hell, too.’0
All things considered, he might have just been giving him a chance to survive there. This current hell was an impressive space. Even after being injured to the point of death by a monster, she was revived.0
As if her Sponsor was trying to mold a warrior that would satisfy her, the Sponsor would bring her back and urge her to fight, again and again. Then, as she fought like that over and over, she began to hate the baldy, too.0
‘You asshole.’0
If he was going to throw her into a place like this, then he should have at least come with her. She would think at times of how much she hated that he left her here alone, but then she would return to being grateful again.0
At some point, she no longer feared any of the monsters. She had killed them, and then killed some more. Although the shapes and types of monsters were all different, she didn’t care.0
‘They’re the enemies that killed my parents.’0
She considered them all the monsters that had killed her brother and her parents and slaughtered them as they came. It was a never ending road of revenge.0
She thought that the futility of it all would eventually overtake her, but her desire for vengeance just blazed stronger the more she continued. Hunting had become enjoyable, and the pain was bearable. However, she still hadn’t gotten used to the solitude.0
‘Is anyone there…? How many years have I passed in this darkness?’0
One day, she saw a vision of her parents welcoming her and, off to the side, a vision of her brother as well.0
AHHH!0
But then, the monsters that were running toward her once more tore through the visages of her family. They were faces she had already begun to forget.0
She raised her spear again.0
Stab, cut, explode.0
One day, she threw her spear away and began to hunt them with her bare hands.0
Although the monsters she faced became stronger, she was becoming even stronger than them. After endlessly hunting the monsters, that bitch of a Sponsor, satisfied with what she saw, lauded sponsorship after sponsorship on her with the same intensity as her satisfaction.0
So, she hunted endlessly. Somewhere along the line, that hateful Sponsor had become a being she almost considered a friend.0
‘Maybe she’s actually a good being?’0
Although she may have been the reason the girl had been pushed into this hell, in truth, what the Sponsor had done was no different than saving her life.0
More importantly than anything else, she had been given strength.0
The strength to not die like her parents, like her brother.0
The strength to fight.0
‘The strength to face him.’0
So she changed her mind. This wasn’t hell. No, it was a kind of shelter.0
A shelter made for her until she became perfect.0
A shelter made so someone like her could become compatible with such hell.0
‘You want to make me be able to face the hell outside, right?’0
Before she knew it, she was even talking to the Sponsor. There was no response.0
Groaaah.0
Just as always, monsters that let out disgusting cries came toward her once again. She wasn't afraid of them anymore.0
[<The Goddess of the Battlefield> sponsors you with Aegis.]0
This time, she obtained a shield.0
***0
At a rough count, it seemed like ten years had passed—ten hellish years.0
In her solitude, the girl had even made friends with the Sponsor, a friend who never responded to her call. Although it was stupid, at least the Sponsor was looking at her and spending time with her.0
Whenever she defeated the monsters, the girl asked her the questions that she wanted to ask herself.0
‘What is your purpose?’0
‘What are these monsters?’0
‘Who are you?’0
She didn’t want an answer, as these were just as much for her as they were for the Sponsor. She thought of the Sponsor as a sort of god who worked diligently to save her people in this era that was like the coming of the apocalypse.0
That was why she was going to the same.0
‘I’m going to save people.’0
She had made up her mind and gotten stronger. The girl and her Sponsor, they were friends like no other, attached at the hip.0
She couldn’t hear them anymore.0
The calls of her parents, the calls of her brother, and even the cries of the monsters had disappeared.0
In that dimension of nothingness, she spent over ten years. Eventually, one day, the girl heard her Sponsor’s voice for the first time.0
[Leave Andlangr, my child.]0
The girl laughed without answering. When she opened her eyes after getting out of that hell, she found herself in a familiar place.0
‘So, I’m back here.’0
She had returned to the time before she entered the place called Andlangr. She was now back to the gate where her parents had been killed.0
She could feel that the gate was collapsing, so she had to get out of there.0
Screech!0
The remaining monsters that hadn’t yet died caught sight of her and rushed forward.0
They were the things she had been afraid of before she had gone to that hell—no, before she had entered Andlangr, which had been her shelter. They were the real monsters that had killed her family.0
But that girl, that little girl had become a warrior before she knew it.0
‘Die.'0
Her spear had no mercy as it pierced through space.0
‘GRAGHH!’0
Her spear brought despair to the monsters. She wanted to pay the despair she had received back the same way.0
Squelch.0
However, she didn’t go through with it, just killing them with a single stab. It wasn’t mercy. It was just that her vengeance had been worn down, faded and inscribed onto her very being like a tattoo.0
There weren’t any chances for her to use Aegis.0
‘The gate is collapsing.’0
She could see that she had to leave right at this very moment. However, her anger, which had become like a tattoo stained on her soul, refused to let her just leave like this.0
‘I have to kill them all.’0
These monsters, who had taken everything from her—she had to cut all of them down without leaving even a single one behind.0
Swish! Squelch! Bang!0
Her spear, her fists, and her feet moved nonstop. She didn’t get tired. She was no longer a girl, nor was she even a warrior.0
She had become one with the one who had sponsored her.0
‘The Goddess of the Battlefield.’0
As the pile of monster corpses formed a monster, the gate finally collapsed, and she finally escaped. It was only then that she finally realized. That the time that she had spent in Andlangr hadn’t even amounted to a single flip of a child’s hourglass.0
“Long time no see. Baldy.”0
That he had been waiting for her.
