A second gate fluctuation, not even a day after the first.
If Shin Sua had known in advance that something like this would happen, she would have told me.
But she, too, was looking around at the gradually changing environment inside the gate with a startled expression, as if she had no idea what was going on.
In other words, this was something even Shin Sua didn’t know about.
It seemed another abnormal phenomenon unknown even to her, a regressor, had occurred.
Whether the future had changed because of her regression, or whether there was some defect in the regression itself, there was no way to know—but that was not what mattered right now.
Just as she had not known that a double gate had formed inside the Dragon’s Nest gate, another situation she knew nothing about had now occurred.
Through the gate fluctuation, the gate where ogres appeared had transformed into one where a half-baked giant appeared, and not even a full day had passed before another gate fluctuation occurred.
Ogres, giants—what would come next?
As we waited for the changes inside the gate to end, the environment of a vast plateau thinly veiled in mist shifted along with a distortion of space.
The temperature gradually rose, the earth becoming so dry it cracked, flames blooming here and there.
As the mist vanished, a volcano could be seen rising in the distance.
With the appearance of the towering volcano, the gate fluctuation came to an end.
A gate fluctuation did not change the location of the entrance and exit, so if we simply walked on, the gate exit should appear.
However.
“An unbelievable amount of mana…”
“It does not appear to be a mere giant.”
“If it were a giant, we would have seen it the moment the mist cleared.”
Something stood on the path ahead of us, exuding an immense presence.
A being that seemed to be the master of this changed gate.
The others besides me did not seem able to see it yet, but even at this distance, my dragon eyes could see perfectly well what it was.
Compared to the giant we had just been fighting, it was small.
But compared to an ordinary human, it was quite tall.
Estimating from head to toe, it seemed to be around three meters tall.
With braided-up blond hair and a violent physique, she appeared, on the surface, to be quite a beautiful woman by human standards. But from the red armor covering her entire body save for her head, to the two spears fastened to her back, the axe and sword at her waist, and even the crescent glaive gripped in her hand—
She had plastered her entire body with weapons.
“Who are you?”
I knew she possessed extraordinary power, but had she even noticed my gaze?
The woman looked straight this way, her eyes meeting mine as she asked the question.
“I am Nidhogg. And who are you?”
“Lord Nidhogg?”
“Who are you speaking with?”
“Wait.”
Shin Sua and Baek Yeon turned to me in confusion, apparently unable to hear the woman’s voice, but Linnea sensed that something was unusual and stepped in at the right moment to quiet the two of them.
“Nidhogg. I thought I knew a fair bit about dragons, but that is a name I hear for the first time. Since you have introduced yourself, it is only proper that I introduce myself as well.”
Thud—!!
The crescent glaive, as massive as she was tall, struck the ground.
“I am the child of my father Pallas and my mother Styx. The last seat among the Titans, and the goddess who presides over violence. I am Bia.”
A goddess? A god?
I knew her power was anything but ordinary, but I hadn’t expected a god to pop out.
Was she the same kind as those self-proclaimed gods of Asgard?
If so, that power made sense.
She lifted the crescent glaive from the ground and pointed its tip at me.
“Was it you who summoned me here?”
Hm? She hadn’t crossed over into this world of her own will?
I could not sense even a shred of falsehood in her face.
I had thought she might have crossed into another world of her own will, like Ratatoskr or me, but it seemed she had been called here by someone else—or forced here.
“No. We are not the ones who summoned you.”
“Then who summoned me?”
“How would I know?”
“Hmph—very well. A dragon has no reason to lie to me, so I will believe you.”
She, who had been exuding a fighting spirit befitting the name of a god of violence, as though it would not be strange for her to charge at any moment, lowered her crescent glaive.
It was fortunate that the misunderstanding, if it could be called one, had been resolved.
Because if I ended up fighting her here and now, I was not confident I could protect Shin Sua and Baek Yeon, who were still in the midst of growing, while doing so.
That was how powerful the goddess Bia was.
Even if she did not seem hostile, there was no telling what might happen, so I asked her first.
“We are about to leave this place. May we pass by you?”
“Leave this place?”
As expected, Bia showed confusion, as if she knew nothing about this world.
Compared to me when I first crossed into this world, she seemed to know even less.
This would require a conversation.
I made her a new proposal.
“If you have no intention of fighting, I’ll briefly explain this place to you. May we approach?”
“I was just wondering how I ought to ask for help, so if you are offering it first, I welcome it.”
“Then I’ll come over with my companions.”
After finishing my conversation with her, I spoke to the three who had been quietly waiting.
“She seems to be a being who happened to fall into this place because of the gate fluctuation. She doesn’t know anything. Let’s go over, explain this world to her briefly, and then leave.”
“…Is she a being from the same world as you, Lord Nidhogg?”
“No. I’ve never heard of her. She probably crossed over from a world different from mine.”
Of course, I could not claim to know every being in the Nine Worlds, but considering that she did not know me, despite my having made quite a name for myself across them, she was most likely from a different world.
“A being from yet another world, separate from yours, Lord Nidhogg. How fascinating.”
“Did you happen to hear her name?”
“She said she was Bia.”
“Bia, Bia… I’ve never heard that name before.”
“It is my first time hearing it as well.”
With both Shin Sua, a regressor, and Linnea, a Valkyrie, saying they had never heard the name before, it was all but confirmed that she was a being who had crossed over from a world different from mine.
However, the fact that Shin Sua did not know of a being of that caliber meant she had never appeared before the regression. Once again, my thoughts leaned toward this gate fluctuation being an abnormal phenomenon unknown even to her.
For now, we could not keep Bia waiting any longer, so we walked through the changed interior of the gate and approached her.
“Wow. Her aura is brutal.”
“She called herself the goddess of ‘violence,’ so she must be confident in matters of force.”
Linnea spoke as though chilled by the fighting spirit she could feel more clearly the closer we got.
Befitting her self-proclaimed title as the goddess of violence, even though she was not showing hostility, her fighting spirit was sharp enough to feel as if it were pricking at the skin.
“Welcome, dragon and his retainers. I am Bia, goddess of violence. It is a pleasure to meet you.”
“If you’re welcoming us, how about doing something about that fighting spirit first?”
“My apologies, but I cannot. I am the goddess who presides over violence, and the incarnation of violence itself. To tell someone like me to restrain myself—do you think that makes sense?”
“That’s true enough.”
Just as Odin acted like a madman as the god of madness and knowledge, and Thor was always accompanied by thunder as the god of lightning, it was only natural that she, as the incarnation of violence, would exude a rough and ferocious presence.
Still, I could not simply leave it as it was. Linnea, being a Valkyrie, might be fine, but Shin Sua and Baek Yeon were still not capable of receiving her aura head-on.
Even now, they were doing their best to look fine on the outside, but cold sweat was beading on their foreheads.
I stepped forward as if to shield the two of them and used my own aura to block the goddess Bia’s.
Since the aura she was releasing toward us was not particularly hostile, I was able to block it easily by letting my own aura collide with it head-on and scatter it.
When I dispersed her aura as if it were nothing, Bia looked at me with interest.
“Oh… so you are indeed a dragon. I want to fight you with all my strength right this instant.”
“Let’s leave fighting for later. First, I’ll explain this world to you.”
Unlike her, who seemed completely ready to fight, I had no intention of fighting her at all.
Even in my avatar state, I did not think I would lose if I fought her, but if I fought her here, there would be nothing left of our surroundings.
Ignoring her gaze, which watched me like prey while her fingers twitched as if itching for a fight, I called Shin Sua.
I could explain it myself, but in this field, it would be better for her, who knew more than I did, to do the explaining.
Shin Sua, called to my side, read the room and explained this world.
Earth, gates, and even the history of monsters.
Having already explained once to Ratatoskr and me when we first crossed into this world, Shin Sua continued her explanation skillfully, and Bia also understood it well, so it did not take long for the entire explanation to end.
When the explanation was over, Bia asked Shin Sua about the things she was curious about.
“In that case, those strange letters that appeared on our way here must have been this system.”
“They appeared for you too?”
“From the way you say ‘too,’ it seems you also saw the words saying you would be quarantined.”
Befitting the goddess of violence, Bia possessed considerable power, and it seemed she, too, had been subjected to quarantine measures inside the gate.
When I nodded at that, she asked curiously.
“According to the explanation, you should have been quarantined as well. How, then, did you enter this place?”
“Ah, this isn’t my main body. It’s an avatar, so I was able to come out. A kind of loophole.”
“An avatar? With that much power?”
Just as I had gauged her power, she could also gauge mine, so she seemed quite surprised that I was merely an avatar despite possessing this level of strength.
Bia, who appeared startled for a moment, soon returned to a face brimming with fighting spirit and licked her red lips as she said,
“To think that with that much power, you are still only an avatar. As expected, it is difficult to endure. Won’t you fight me once?”