Campione! - Volume 21 - Chapter 1.4

Part 4
Godou finally shook off Hanuman’s pursuit using layer transfer.

Right now a gray colored space was spreading before Godou as far as his eyes could see. There wasn’t even any ground. He was merely floating in the grey space.

Not even horizon existed, it was an empty space.

「This is a really dreary place.」

Godou murmured then asked his guide in this trip.

「So Mariya. Where should I head to after this?」

There was no reply from the reliable Hime-mikoprincess shrine maiden.

Godou felt dubious. He had already experienced the telepathic communication using Mariya Yuri’s spiritual power and mental telepathy many times.

During that communication, he would always feel Yuri’s presence near him.

However currently, the sense of security when his mind was connected with her mind──couldn’t be felt at the slightest. He wondered what was going on.

「Kusanagi-sama.」

Suddenly Godou heard the voice of an acquaintance and he was surprised.

Princess Alice had appeared right beside him when he noticed. Her appearance was a combination of elegant pink dress and a shawl. Godou immediately guessed the situation.

「Alice-san, are you using the usual──the power of body and soul separation?」

「Yes. Even my body that got weakened from Prince Rama’s manifestation has also recovered a good deal……from here on, I will serve as guide in the place of Yuri.」

The『princess』 that was connected to prominently distinguished family in Europe smiled gracefully.

「To say the truth, I asked of this to Yuri. I told her that I wish for her to move Kusanagi-sama to this place. Because ahead from here──there is something that I wish for you to look no matter what.」

「Me?」

「Yes. Perhaps it will be unnecessary but──just in case, I wish to notify Kusanagi-sama……of the place where the mastermind that is controlling the King of the End is located.」

「Mastermind!?」

After Godou felt shocked, he immediately noticed.

Now that she mentioned it, he had heard of it several times until now.

「Do you mean, the originator who entrusted the fate of devil king extermination to that guy?」

「As expected of Kusanagi-sama. It’s exactly as you guessed. What I wish for you to take a look at, that is──nothing else but the territory where the god of fate is reigning.」

Princess Alice spoke solemnly.

God of fate! Godou felt a strange deep emotion when he heard those words.

「I see──. This is the guy that can push the fate of devil king extermination to Rama who is a god, so even an exaggerated title like god of fate won’t be strange……」

「Yes. It is as you say.」

「But that’s amazing Alice-san. You even know something like this.」

Wizengamot, the organization that was headquartered in Britain’s capital, London.

She was a former speaker of that organization, and possessed the nickname of『White Hime-miko』.

She was the human with the most prominent spiritual power in the world. She gave induction of spiritual power to Mariya Yuri who possessed similar disposition with her, and made her potential greatly bloomed──.

Godou once more reconfirmed how prodigious Princes Alice was.

But the person herself chuckled and spoke mischievously.

「If I have to confess, I too didn’t know about it until an hour ago.」

「Eh? Then, how do you know it now?」

「Even though I look like this but I’m the miko who represent the surface world……that’s how it is. I also often came to Astral World, and I also have acquaintances there. One of them gave me the instruction of this matter.」

「I see.」

Godou too had only met with the fairy kings of Astral World not long ago.

Surely one of the knowledgeable person among them whispered this information to the princess’s ear. And then, as expected this noble lady was also an outstanding talent to be able to be visited by such existence too.

「Then Alice-san.」

Godou stared still at the young lady.

「Please take me to this territory of god of fate.」

「Unfortunately, I cannot do that.」

「Eh?」

「The strength of the like of me has no hope to step inside such place──it’s a holy ground. If there is human who isn’t a god that can trespass into there, then most likely it will only be the devil king of godslaying……」

「…………」

「Kusanagi-sama. If it’s you who are a Campione, it should be possible for you to see through what kind of place that holy ground is. I led you until this place for the sake of that.」

Princess Alice gestured to display the surrounding space.

Everything was filled with grey color. For Kusanagi Godou who in the end only possessed human senses, it was a dreariness and coloring that only made him felt the nihility.

「This is the end of Astral World. The place that is nearest to <Domain of Immortality> where the gods lived. It’s a space that is the worthiest for the name of <The Boundary of Life and Immortality>.」

「……I get it.」

Godou nodded at the princess’s words.

「I also noticed just now. I have come here several times. Called by the fooling around goddess──who introduced herself as the mother of us Campiones.」

It seemed that they, Campiones were called as Ephimeteus’s illegitimate child.

The titan that appeared in Greek mythology.

And then, Ephimeteus’s wife was──also named Pandora.

She was created by the blacksmith god Hephaestus due to the order of the chief god Zeus.

This girl was granted with various disposition by gods as present.

Woman charm from the goddess of beauty Aphrodite. Weaving skill from goddess Athena. Beautiful singing voice from the sun god Apollo. The power of transformation from the sea god Poseidon.

Cunningness and curiosity from god of thieves Hermes, and moreover the so called Pandora Box.

It was a container that was considered something that must not be opened no matter what.

After that, Pandora opened “the box that must not be opened” due to a sudden impulse.

From inside the box, hatred, jealousy, greed, death, sickness, and so on, every kind of disaster came out and spread on the world. But there was only one thing that remained for the girl, 『hope』──.

……That was the mother of godslayer, Pandora.

The memory when Godou met her in Astral World was forgotten all the time when he was in the real world. However, if he returned to this world, that ban of forgetfulness would be gone.

When Godou talked with Pandora a few months ago, he certainly came here.

「Then Kusanagi-sama. With strong heart……please look forward.」

「Forward?」

「Yes. Ahead of the space that is painted out by grey color──see through all of that. Think of that strongly and stare still only to the front……glare……discover the end of the world.」

「The end of the world, what is ahead of it.」

Godou was able to imagine what he should do from Alice’s words.

He concentrated to both his eyes with the intention of breaking through all divine power, sorcery, and curse obstructing his field of vision. He also fully activated his magic power.

Gradually──the 『gray color』 spreading before his eyes was thinning.

Godou saw something in exchange.

「Carpet!? Is that made from cloth!?」

When he noticed, a tremendously vast 『carpet』 was spreading before his eyes.

The end couldn’t be seen at all by Godou’s eyesight.

A single carpet was spreading without end. And then, if Godou advanced for three hundred steps more, he would be able to step on it.

That carpet──was brilliantly colored to extreme degree.

It was weaved using string of every color.

There were colors that Godou knew, and also colors that he didn’t know. It was a carpet that was weaved with tens of thousands color.

The strings of abundant colors were forming geometrical pattern.

Not just one. Ten, a hundred, a thousand, ten thousand, a hundred million──no.

Patterns in a colossal number that couldn’t be counted were drawn on the carpet’s surface. And then, not one was the same with other.

A fabric──in the shape of carpet spreading boundlessly possessing myriad of colors.

「Alice-san. What is this thing!?」

「This thing is exactly <fate> itself.」

Princess Alice spoke quietly.

「Does Kusanagi-sama know of the three sisters, Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos from Greek mythology?」

「Only that I heard of their name somewhere, I guess.」

「They are called as the three goddesses of fate. They are goddesses who designed and created the grand fabric of <fate>……. The three of them together are also called as Moirai.」

Not just spiritual power, it seemed that Alice’s knowledge was also standing out.

She faced Godou who was overwhelmed by the vastness of the carpet (?) spreading before his eyes, and the noble princess continued talking of the myth.

「Their authority is nothing more than manipulating the thread of fate.

First the eldest sister Clotho spin the thread,

The second sister Lachesis decide the length of the thread,

The third sister Atropos cut the thread.

Like that, magnificent and diverse fabric of <fate> is completed──. That is the definition in the world of Greek mythology.]

「Fabric……」

「It’s said that these three sisters’ name each has meaning, Clotho who spin the string is 『creation』, Lachesis who decide the “length of string” that also mean the life span of humans is 『preservation』, and Atropos who cut the string is 『destruction』.」

Godou never imagined that something like fate would be given such analogy.

It was an image that Kusanagi Godou’s poor power of imagination wouldn’t be able to come up with at the beginning. He spontaneously admired it. However, Godou noticed something and he tilted his head.

「But, Rama is a hero from India mythology isn’t he? And yet god of fate from Greek mythology is the mastermind?」

「Fufufufu. Kusanagi-sama, the story still has continuation.」

Alice smiled mischievously once more.

「Actually, similar god and myth──also exist in other regions. For example in the Roman Empire that should be called as the successor of ancient Greece, there are Nona, Decima, and Morta who are called as <Three Goddesses of Fate>, they are similarly weaving fabric of fate……」

「There is still more!?」

「Yes, in Norse mythology too, they have the three goddesses of fate called Urd, Verdandy, and Skuld. In Celt mythology there are Morrigan, Macha, and Badb who can be applied to this. There is some degree of difference, but everyone of them possess an episode related with 『fabric of fate』.」

「There is that many……」

「By the way in Greek mythology, there was one goddess called 『Moira』 who came before the three goddesses who was shouldering the role as god of fate by herself. But it is also told that the concept of <fate> has existed even before she was born and even the gods were manipulated by it.」

「……」

「And then in India mythology, the divinity that qualify as the three goddesses of fate──is not clear. But, the concept of 『The Trinity God』 who created, preserved, and destroyed the world existed clearly. Later the wives of the supreme deity Shiva……Parvati, Kali, and Durga, these three goddesses are existence that govern the things that is extremely close to fate──『time』.」

「Now that you mention it」

Godou suddenly recalled.

「I have heard something like……. three goddesses like what Alice-san mentioned who are governing 『Past, Present, Future』, there are goddesses like that isn’t it?」

「Yes. And then, mythologies that liken time and fate as 『fabric』 could be seen here and there all over the world.」

Princess Alice fluently told him of mythologies.

Here she caught her breath and stared still at Godou.

「Kusanagi-sama. The “god” who manipulated the King of the End Ramachandra was the prototype of such three goddesses……so to speak that god could even be called as the very first god of fate all other gods of fate originated from. The one who dispatched the strongest war god in order to control time, eternity, fate──」

「I see.」

Hearing Alice’s words, Godou muttered.

「So that guy is my……true enemy.」