Academy’s Weapon Replicator

Odyssey (29)

The goddess of forgetfulness, Lethe.

Originally, she is a deity residing in the river of forgetfulness that flows in the underworld.

The water flowing in her river causes anyone who drinks it to forget all memories of their past life, and the dead invariably drink this river water.

Thus, Lethe is both the goddess of forgetfulness and the river itself that induces forgetfulness.

Originally, the human world was not particularly of her concern. Like most gods entangled in the cycle of life and death.

So she was not particularly interested in whether gods grant power to humans or whether other gods take an interest in the human world.

Unlike the main deities who always require and desire strong faith, Lethe is free from such worries.

Because humans must die. After death, they inevitably flow into her river.

As long as human death remains unchanged, her position will also remain unchanged.

So for Lethe, divine power was a kind of play and a trend. She did not know how the great gods like Odin moved with their schemes. Even if she did, it wouldn’t have made much of an impression on her.

For her, bestowing divine power upon a human was merely following a trend.

Life by the river is boring.

Yet, if she grants divine power to someone, she can peer into that human’s life.

Considering that the seemingly trivial action has led to this point, it is quite ironic.

‘To suddenly fall from the authority of a god!’

Even in the war between gods and humans, Lethe did not reveal herself.

She felt no need to.

No matter what happened to humans, or how they lived, it was of no concern to Lethe.

For her, the idea of a god losing to a human was something she could not even dream of.

Moreover, the thought of herself suddenly stepping down from the position of a god was unimaginable.

When the god lost in the war and fell from that place.

Lethe immediately knew that she was no longer a god.

This meant she had gained a lifespan, and at the same time, it meant she would soon die.

Lethe, who always welcomes the dead.

She knows the meaning of death better than anyone.

‘I absolutely cannot allow this!’

She does not know how the god lost to humans.

However, if it is possible to regain the authority of a god, escaping death once more would not be out of reach.

It may be impossible for other gods, but she can do it.

After all, she is the goddess of oblivion.

If she makes all of humanity forget their memories, she can erase the war itself.

It cannot be used against the gods, but that does not matter. There will be no god who would refuse to reclaim their position.

After that, she investigated the war. Why the god lost and who was at the center of it.

The answer came quickly.

Frondier de Roach.

He is the mastermind behind all of this.

Lethe appears as a delicate girl on the outside, and from the perspective of the gods, her appearance is not so different from reality.

The power of oblivion is strong and effective, but aside from that, Lethe is not a strong god.

Lethe knows well that she is weak and appears weak. She was able to easily gather information from other gods by using that atmosphere.

The gods who participated in the war and survived, and those who witnessed it without taking part. From them, I heard information about Frondir without much difficulty.

One thing they all clearly said, without exception, was this:

──Do not touch Frondir.

Lethe dismissed that advice. She thought the gods were just speaking out of concern for her weakness.

If she had thought about it calmly just once, she would have understood what it meant that not a single god had made an exception to that warning.

“Hellfire…”

Lethe murmured.

Frondir, trapped in a dream according to her design. Hellfire was now in his hands.

She had heard roughly how strong Frondir was. What abilities he possessed as well. There was no information that he could use hellfire, the highest level of fire magic.

However, the absence of information about using hellfire and the inability to use hellfire are completely different.

And figuring out what abilities one cannot use is nearly impossible.

This is similar to what is commonly referred to as the devil’s proof.

To prove that a devil exists, one only needs to show the devil, but to prove that it does not exist, one must bring evidence to refute every possibility of its existence.

Similarly, it is enough to simply reveal Frondir’s abilities, but explaining everything he cannot do is nearly impossible.

Right now, Frondir was taking advantage of that gap, and Lethe had fallen for it.

‘Hmph. What’s so great about hellfire? This world is mine. This isn’t reality; it’s a dream.’

Lethe had seized the body of Quinny, the master of this dream.

So she was absolutely confident that she could win here. In fact, she felt an omnipotence that allowed her to manipulate this entire space as she pleased.

‘It’s annoying that divine power doesn’t work…’

And one more thing Lethe knew.

Frondir is immune to ‘oblivion.’

This was not something she learned from the gods, but because she had seen Armelle, to whom she had given divine power, attempt it.

That was all Lethe remembered about Frondir. At that time, Frondir was an ordinary student, not yet completed as a warrior or a mage.

The fact that oblivion did not work on him was just a bit unusual. She had seen him draw Excalibur, but that was also a fake, not the real one.

It had been less than three years since then. Human growth is fast, but three years is not that much.

“Let’s see.”

Whoosh─

Her thoughts were cut off, and hellfire flew toward a page of a book.

“Hmph!”

Lethe manipulated the pages, causing the books to spill forward.

‘Indeed, the skill level is low! To use hellfire merely as a projectile!’

The most dangerous aspect of ‘hellfire’ is that once it attaches, the fire does not extinguish until the target is completely burned.

Due to this characteristic, the density of magical power is extremely high, and the property of flames is not suitable for increasing speed.

Thus, the true completion of ‘hellfire’ lies not in manifesting the magic itself, but in attaching the ‘impact’ option to that magic.

Only with this option can hellfire be accurately aimed at the target, fully showcasing its power.

‘A hellfire that is merely shot can be blocked by throwing a book. As expected, that guy is inexperienced!’

When Lethe turned her gaze back to Frondior with that thought.

Frondior was gone.

“……Huh…?”

Where.

The momentary fear of not knowing where Frondior was.

That fear instinctively made Lethe focus entirely on her defenses.

The bookshelf that concealed her form became an impenetrable fortress in this dream, according to that instinct.

Rustle─

Except for that one bookshelf, all the surrounding bookshelves were split in half by a blade.

“Hmm, yes.”

Amidst the falling shelves and books, Frondior stood quietly.

The view opened up, and Frondior saw Lethe, who was surrounded by several bookshelves like a dice, protecting herself.

Her position was revealed.

‘Tch, stay calm. This bookshelf will never break.’

Lethe was flustered, but it was still okay. She couldn’t focus all her attention on the other bookshelves, but the bookshelf protecting her would never break in this dream.

Lethe peeked at him through the gaps between the books on the shelf to confirm Frondior.

In that moment.

Thud!

A sharp rapier, aiming for her eye, pierced through the books. It was almost a miracle that Lethe dodged.

“What a shame.”

The unpleasant voice of Frondior. Lethe gritted her teeth.

Rattle!

She summoned the books to fill the entire bookshelf. It was a defense with no gaps.

Prondior’s senses and aiming ability are strangely exceptional. Rather than showing a clumsy gap, it’s better to block everything completely.

However, this means that Lethe herself will also be unable to see outside at all, but she judged that it was better that way.

Thud.

A sound is heard from the bookshelf. And a light vibration.

“But how are you going to kill me in that state?”

And a voice comes from above. Prondior has placed a foot on the bookshelf.

Lethe’s veins bulged, but she held back and spoke.

“There’s no need to kill you. Didn’t I tell you? To get out of this dream. You can never kill me anyway!”

Originally, when she was acting as Quinny, she had planned to find a gap to do something to Prondior, but now that she’s been discovered, a different strategy is needed.

If she could kill Prondior, that would be great. And in fact, she thought it wouldn’t be difficult.

But if that doesn’t work out, the priority is to get Prondior out of this dream.

Right now, Lethe is possessed by Quinny. And the dream flows at a different speed than reality, so once she gets out of here, it will be a long time before she can return.

In the meantime, if she wakes Quinny’s body and goes out to reality, she can impose ‘oblivion’ on someone else, which won’t work on Prondior.

Even if she gets stopped and attacked there, it’s Quinny who will die, not Lethe.

“So hurry up and get out! The master of this dream is me!”

Lethe is confident of her victory.

There’s no way for Prondior to win in this fight.

“Hmm, fine.”

Prondior said.

“I’ll do as you say. I need to get out of this dream. I can’t see a way to defeat you here.”

At Prondior’s words, Lethe smiled triumphantly. How foolish, whether in a dream or reality, you can’t kill me anyway.

“Instead.”

The next voice from Prondior was followed by a metallic sound from all directions.

“I might be ambushed while trying to get out, so I’ll set up a device.”

A device? What is he trying to do?

“You won’t see it, but the bookshelf surrounding you is lined with blades all around.”

“You must know? No matter what weapon it is, you can’t break this bookshelf!”

“Right. This isn’t meant to break the bookshelf. If even one book slips out, these blades are meant to pierce in between.”

“……!”

Lethe felt a chill for a moment.

But the situation still hasn’t changed. It’s enough if I don’t take out even a single book.

“Don’t worry. I’ve prepared for your surprise in my own way. Then I’ll just leave the dream.”

After saying that, Frondir stepped back.

He felt Mana slowly drifting away.

‘He plans to leave the dream only after getting far away from me. What a thoroughly unnecessary guy.’

And how much time had passed?

Rethe no longer felt Frondir’s presence.

Relieved, Rethe pulled out a shelf of books.

Whoosh!

“Ahhh!!”

A knife was embedded in his shoulder.

In a panic, he quickly returned the book to the shelf.

‘W-what? He hasn’t left yet?’

He couldn’t sense Frondir’s presence. Yet, this terrible pain in his shoulder, the sharp blade. It was clear evidence that Frondir was somewhere nearby.

In other words, Frondir had struck while Rethe was outside the range of sensing his presence, after seeing Rethe pull out a book.

‘You monster…’

Rethe gritted his teeth.

To leave this dream, he needed to wake Quinier. But the problem was that Rethe’s own possession must not be released.

No matter how resistant a human is to possession, a conscious human instinctively tries to expel the god that has possessed them.

In other words, what Rethe needed was to wake Quinier just enough for Rethe to maintain control.

That required immense concentration. It was impossible to do while maintaining this shelf and all the books inside it. Moreover, since he had set this defense to “absolutely unbreakable,” it was even more so.

‘…Wait a minute, then.’

Only then did Rethe realize.

Rethe, who couldn’t see outside.

Frondir, who had said he would leave and then disappeared.

The blades that would inevitably come flying if he moved even a little.

‘When… should I…’

When should I leave?

How long will Frondir be here?