Type-Moon Start, but an A Certain Magical Index Mage

As a Greek god who had experienced the battle against a Comet Probe, you actually couldn't see what was special about this magic?

Or were you saying that on purpose?

He looked into Artemis's eyes, which at least for now seemed innocent, and ultimately decided not to dwell on whether she was pretending to be foolish or truly was foolish.

It was far too much of a coincidence for the moon goddess to appear here. He didn't believe it was an accident.

But regardless, since she had come looking for him, her purpose would eventually be revealed. He merely had to wait quietly for her to state her true intentions.

Medea had been wary of the girl who had suddenly appeared, but upon seeing how adorable she looked, she immediately threw that vigilance to the winds.

"My name is Diana. I'm from Athens, and I'm training in archery!"

"My name is Medea. I'm from Colchis. His name is Mephistopheles, and the two of us are traveling together!"

"How nice, being able to travel together like that. I really want to travel everywhere too." Artemis, calling herself Diana, revealed an envious expression, instantly improving Medea's mood several times over.

Thus, the delighted girl decided to offer some help to the girl who envied her. "Aren't you training with a bow? Then you can come with us! We'll be traveling all over the place, so we'll definitely encounter plenty of strange beasts!"

"Really?!" Artemis's eyes lit up as she looked toward Mephistopheles. She had long since realized that the quiet man was the one making decisions here.

Her purpose in coming here had been to observe this mysterious person who had suddenly fallen here from another time and space half a year ago.

"Of course. Having one more person along always makes traveling livelier." Mephistopheles smiled at Artemis, and Artemis, having received his approval, cheered happily. She didn't look at all like a battle-hardened hunting goddess.

Artemis's acting is truly impressive now. She could act in television dramas without any problem. At the very least, Medea has been so thoroughly fooled that she completely forgot to carefully ask about her purpose. As Mephistopheles thought this, he continued preparing the ingredients.

At that moment, Artemis asked again, "By the way, what kind of magic is this?"

Artemis once again asked the question Mephistopheles had not answered earlier. Mephistopheles merely smiled. "It really is just magic used to prepare ingredients. Nothing special."

Upon hearing that answer, Artemis uttered an "Oh," but inwardly, she began complaining.

Even the Star Sword is being called magic for preparing ingredients. It feels like I, who was defeated by Sephar back then, have been insulted too. Still, this man really is interesting!

But this shouldn't be the real Star Sword. It is somewhat similar, but there are differences too. I wonder how this man acquired such magic. Sure enough, secretly coming down here was the right choice. I'll probably encounter many interesting things afterward!

Reasons

"So where has my dear sister gone?" A man with long, wavy golden hair and a body that looked as though it had been carved from marble gazed down upon the human world.

His gaze flowed alongside the light. Wherever there was light, he could see.

Then, he saw the three people walking together along a path in the human world.

"So she went to find that strange human." The handsome man murmured to himself and lightly plucked the strings of the instrument in his hands, producing waves of beautiful music.

He was Apollo, the sun god, the god of music and light, and also the god of prophecy.

His eyes were filled with flowing radiance, as though they were crossing time and space to seek out the future.

Finally, after observing a great deal of time, Apollo reached a conclusion.

"The future has long been decided. At least, the stories history will sing of have already been decided, and none of what you do will be recorded." Apollo spoke to himself, as though delivering an oracle, yet he was speaking to no one, because it was merely a soliloquy.

Afterward, he continued playing his gentle music. As he played, he said, "The ender of the past will once again raise the banner of destruction, and humanity will embark upon the path of resisting it. The age in which the gods withdraw is about to arrive..."

"So Gaia really exists!" Mephistopheles looked at Artemis in surprise. Although she concealed her identity, she was still willing to discuss certain matters from the past.

"Of course. For example, the Primordial Dragon Typhon was created by Gaia." Artemis spoke seriously. "That was a terrifying monster. All the various monsters we know of now, including a monster called Yamata-no-Orochi over in Takamagahara, were all born from Typhon!"

Mephistopheles fell silent. Mephistopheles frowned. Mephistopheles very much wanted to scratch his head.

Yamata-no-Orochi was born from Typhon?! Why not say Izanami is Hades, and the Eight Thunder Gods born from Izanami are Zeus?!

He ranted madly in his mind, but in the end, Mephistopheles merely smiled and nodded. "So that's how it is."

He had no idea how perfunctory his tone was, but at least he had now clarified one thing: the Type-Moon World had two Gaias. One was Gaia, the consciousness of Earth, the famous Counter Force.

The other was the Titan Fleet warship Gaia. Dissatisfied with Cronus, warship Gaia created Typhon and gave it the task of destroying the entire Titan Fleet. In other words, the gods of Olympus were included as well.

After arriving on Earth, the Machine God Typhon, born in the cosmos, chose to transform itself into a dragon species. Since it had lost its fleshly body, it truly became a purely draconic beast and madly gave birth to a pile of monsters.

Even now, those monsters were still causing havoc all across the world.

As for Typhon itself, Zeus had sealed it beneath Mount Etna.

It was said that Zeus had fought miserably in that battle. Typhon had even stolen his lightning. Had Zeus not eventually relied on trickery, including having the goddess of fate deceive Typhon into swallowing a One-Day Weakness Fruit, the Greek gods would have been utterly wiped out by Typhon.

"Typhon definitely has 'anti-Machine God specialization.'" Mephistopheles muttered softly, making Artemis look at him curiously. "What did you say, Mephistopheles?"

Mephistopheles smiled. "I said, that's such a wonderful story!"

"But I don't think that's what I heard just now." Artemis smiled as well.

Mephistopheles's smile did not fade. "Then you must have misheard!"

Artemis continued smiling. "I think my ears are excellent. There's no way I misheard. After all, I'm an archer!"

"Then you were hearing things!" Mephistopheles's face did not redden in the slightest.

Seeing how shameless the man before her was, utterly unembarrassed despite having his lie exposed, Artemis could only give up on pursuing the matter.

She immediately shifted her attention to something else.

She glanced at Medea, who was lying quietly asleep inside the tent, then asked with a gossipy look on her face:

"Don't you plan to get married? Or even if you don't get married, won't you engage in some other similar activities? I've seen many people, um, and many animals engage in reproduction. They seem to enjoy that activity very much."

Faced with a moon goddess who was this gossipy, Mephistopheles didn't know how to complain.

However, looking at her innocent expression and curious gaze, Mephistopheles knew that she was genuinely curious. After all, as a Machine God, Artemis still didn't understand many things very well.

Not only Artemis—Mephistopheles even suspected that Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty, might not truly understand the emotion known as love.

"I don't have any plans for that at the moment."

Artemis became even more puzzled. "Is it because Medea isn't pretty? But according to my understanding, Medea should be very popular with men!"

Medea's ears twitched. She had heard their conversation, and her heart immediately began racing, as though a little deer were constantly bouncing inside her chest.

Calm down, calm down. I just happened to wake up, and I just happened to hear this topic. I wasn't deliberately eavesdropping! Medea continuously hypnotized herself inwardly, keeping herself from making any strange sounds.

At that moment, the two people who seemingly had not noticed that she was awake continued talking.

"Medea is very cute. Not just cute—she's beautiful too. Her figure isn't exactly voluptuous, but I think she's quite attractive like this as well. After all, I like both petite girls and sexy women!"

Mephistopheles showed no embarrassment when he said this. He looked like someone simply stating something he liked, something entirely normal.

Artemis did not think there was anything wrong with those words either. Instead, she nodded. "Mm-hm, mm-hm. So you actually like Medea a lot?"

"Mm, I do."

"Then why haven't you made a move? I see plenty of men who can't help making a move, right? Not only Medea—I think I'm quite good too, but you have absolutely no intention of making a move on me either."

Are all you artificial intelligences this direct?!

Mephistopheles once again complained wildly in his heart. But they had already traveled together for some time. Even though it had only been a few days, that was enough for Mephistopheles to gain some understanding of Artemis.

He knew that the moon goddess was indeed very innocent, innocent in a way that matched her artificial intelligence settings. So Mephistopheles merely smiled faintly and gave his reason.

"Because I don't want to take responsibility!"

Medea was stunned. She had never imagined that would be the reason!

Artemis froze as well. She had not expected such an answer.

Although she was a Machine God and did not really understand human lovemaking, she had seen quite a few things between men and women. Shouldn't this be the time for some euphemistic or tragic story to smooth things over?

Wasn't saying something like that so directly a little too blunt?!

"I'm serious. I won't hide it from you anymore, Diana. I'm not from this world, or rather, I'm not from this time. I don't know how long I'll remain here. I have my own goal, and I must leave this world."

Mephistopheles spoke with exceptional seriousness. His earnest expression left Artemis staring blankly.

She only felt that, at this moment, Mephistopheles's handsome face appeared extremely resolute. Illuminated by the campfire, his face carried a faint golden glow, even giving off an inexplicable hint of divinity.

"I'm not a good man. At least, I think I'm the kind of scumbag who falls in love with every woman he sees. But at the very least, if I really made a move, then I should be able to give her something in return, such as companionship, right?

"So I can only say that I cannot give her an answer that offers hope. The simplest solution is to ignore it. As long as those things don't happen, there won't be any problems."

Artemis watched Mephistopheles fall silent after saying those words. She blinked, then smiled. "What a strange human."

Mephistopheles smiled too. "So you aren't actually human."

Artemis did not panic because of her slip of the tongue. Instead, she asked with great interest, "What do you think I am?"

"The moon goddess, Artemis."

"How did you know?"

"Because I'm not from this world, so I knew. In another place, Diana is the moon goddess." Mephistopheles did not conceal anything. He simply told her why he knew this.

Meanwhile, Medea, who was pretending to sleep, fell from one shock into another.

What? Diana is the moon goddess? She's the goddess Artemis?! The person who has been traveling with us, chatting and laughing for the past few days, is Artemis, the moon goddess?!

Yet even that shock could not compare to the reasons Mephistopheles had just given.

So Mephistopheles really plans to leave here. I wanted to say that I could go with him, but by leaving, he means leaving this world and going to another world. If I said I wanted to go with him, that would mean leaving my home and my family. Most importantly, I can't even be certain that Mephistopheles's magic can take other people away with him...

If he really could take others away, Mephistopheles definitely wouldn't leave me alone. But he has never mentioned such things, so perhaps even Mephistopheles himself isn't certain whether he can take anyone away later on. Or perhaps he has already concluded that he cannot take anyone away at all?

Then what... what should I do?!

That night, Medea could not sleep. She sank into endless thought, yet ultimately could think of no solution.

The Gigantes' Challenge

The earth was burning. A vast number of giants moved slowly across the ground, holding aloft enormous trees wreathed in flames, each one like a towering ancient tree.

The gods atop Mount Olympus watched these giants approach step by step. Not only the gods—even the Hundred-Handed Ones had appeared on Mount Olympus!

"After all these years, the fragments of Sephar have actually revived once more..." Zeus's voice, like thunder, echoed throughout the Temple.

"The number of Gigantes has already reached one hundred and fifty. Alcyoneus and Porphyrion are leading them. They are moving Mount Thessaly, Mount Pelion, and Mount Ossa. If they stack those three mountains together, they will be able to climb Mount Olympus."

Athena, goddess of wisdom, looked down with her wisdom-filled eyes and spoke softly.

This was the great battle from thousands of years ago. The remains left behind by that terrifying white giant—though they were merely remains, enormous beings had been born from them!

They were giant soldiers who had launched another attack on the gods in order to destroy civilization, beings of pure destruction!

If the Greek gods still possessed their original mechanical bodies, they could probably deal easily with these beings born from Sephar's remains. Unfortunately, the gods had long lost their physical bodies. Though they possessed divine power, dealing with these giants was still somewhat difficult.

"We can seek out Heracles. He possesses part of a god's power and has a physical body. With his help, we can fight the Gigantes." Athena said to her father, Zeus.

Zeus pondered for a moment, then nodded lightly and looked at Athena. "I'll leave this matter to you. Go find my son. He will put his abilities to use."

As he spoke, Zeus looked toward a far more distant place.

"Have him go to the Plain of Phlegra. We will battle the Gigantes there!"

Athena immediately departed to seek out Heracles, who was still in the human world.

Apollo, watching everything from the shadows, merely continued playing his instrument, his eyes betraying none of his thoughts.

Suddenly, he revealed a faint smile and murmured softly.

"This time, Heracles will not be the only one to come."

"So this is Thebes?" Looking at the city ahead and the crowds coming and going at its gates, Mephistopheles sighed.

"Why do you suddenly look like you want to sigh about something?" Medea asked from beside him.

Medea looked no different from usual. Quite some time had passed since that day. She chose to bury the words she had heard that night deep in her heart. At least until she decided what to do, she would not impulsively do anything.

Artemis nodded slightly as well. "That's right, Medea is right. You really look like you're about to lament something."

Mephistopheles gave a short laugh. "I was merely lamenting how mentally resilient someone must be to endure it even after learning that the person they loved had a child with someone else."

Hearing this, Artemis blinked, while Medea's eyes widened. She said softly, "Don't say things like that carelessly!"

"It's fine. Isn't that person already dead? Saying it doesn't matter." Mephistopheles's words made Medea furious. She reached out and covered his mouth, allowing the breath from his nose to brush against her palm, making it itch slightly.

"One of them is dead, but the other one isn't, and that one is still high above us!"

Mephistopheles could smell the fragrance on the girl's palm. He stuck out his tongue and licked it, making Medea cry out in surprise and hastily pull back her hand. Her cheeks flushed red as she glared at Mephistopheles and warned him again, "Don't say it anymore, understand?!"

"Alright, alright, I understand. I won't say it anymore."