"…"
Hearing Shane's apologetic explanation, the ghostly blue flames flickering around that enormous skeleton seemed to quiver lightly, as if stirred by a faint breeze.
After a brief silence, that ethereal, indifferent voice rang out in Shane's mind once more.
But this time, it carried less of that lofty, crushing pressure and a touch more calm detachment.
"Things that live in the mortal world were never meant to cross the boundary into the underworld. What I care for are only those fleeting traces of the living world."
She sounded almost dismissive as she said it.
"Through your eyes, I have already seen what those flowers looked like in bloom. That… is not something worth your sighing over."
Though Ereshkigal's voice remained solemn and cold, the meaning between the lines was unmistakable—she was awkwardly trying to comfort Shane, telling him not to dwell on it.
That unexpected lenience caught Shane slightly off guard.
He had assumed that this goddess of death would be just as the myths described: capricious, cold-blooded, and cruel.
But instead of lashing out over the ruined offering, she had shown a kind of easygoing patience that completely clashed with her terrifying appearance.
"Even though when she was borrowing my senses up there just now, she looked pretty mad…"
Shane's thoughts wandered in that direction.
And the instant that thought surfaced—
Crack… crack…
He suddenly felt the temperature around him plunge again.
The frost that had only been coating the surface of his skin instantly thickened into a hard layer of thin ice, locking up his joints.
"Hiss—"
Shane sucked in a sharp breath from the cold. His legs stiffened, and he dropped onto the stone floor in an extremely undignified heap.
This…
Shivering, Shane parted his lips in stunned disbelief and looked up at the giant skeleton ahead of him.
She still maintained that same calm, superior posture as before, without so much as moving a single bone.
But it was obvious enough—using her authority, she had heard that slightly irreverent comment he made in his head and immediately delivered a small punishment.
"This goddess… is unexpectedly a bit petty."
Sitting on the ground, Shane couldn't help grumbling again in his mind, practically asking for death.
That instant retaliation for overhearing his inner muttering felt way too human. It was nothing like the detached indifference of the traditional gods who viewed all things as straw dogs.
Maybe that was exactly why she was the only goddess willing to accept his impossible prayer.
At the word human, the blue flames flickered again.
But this time, whether because she couldn't be bothered to argue with a mortal any further or had simply grown tired of his nonstop internal babbling, Ereshkigal did not send down more frost.
Instead, she went straight to the point.
"As for the wish in your heart…"
"Since I have appeared here before you now, that alone already serves as… my answer."
At that, the ethereal voice abruptly stopped.
A strange stillness fell over the wasteland.
Shane sat there on the ground, waiting for quite a while, but no follow-up came.
He could even clearly sense a look in those two hollow, black eye sockets—a look that practically said, Well? It's your turn to speak now.
"…"
The corner of Shane's mouth twitched.
"So this goddess really had no idea what my actual wish was and just came out to respond anyway…"
He remembered that although Ereshkigal was queen of the underworld, she yearned deeply for the vibrant world outside.
She had even envied her sister Ishtar—who could roam freely beneath the sun—to an almost painful degree.
But bound by her duty as a goddess of death, she could never leave this sunless land of darkness.
So… this somewhat clumsy goddess had responded so readily not because she knew what he wanted, but simply because she wanted to use the excuse of granting a wish to "get out for some air," however briefly?
Shane made the bold guess in his mind.
And that slightly awkward liveliness of hers only made him even more certain of one thing.
The cold, sanity-shredding skeleton before him was definitely not Ereshkigal's true form.
He did not know why she refused to show her real appearance, but in Shane's view, that lonely phantom he had glimpsed by the bedside that morning felt far more like the true color of this goddess's soul.
"You do understand… that within the underworld, I am omnipotent, don't you?"
Just as Shane's imagination was running wild, her quiet voice came at exactly the right moment.
"…"
Without the slightest hesitation, Shane instantly emptied his mind.
Inwardly, with fervent sincerity, he frantically offered several praises for the goddess's generosity and greatness. Only then did he compose himself, lift his head, and say solemnly:
"I wish for you to exercise your authority and remove the curse laid upon me—and upon those around me—by a god."
"…Are you certain that is your wish?"
Ereshkigal's tone carried a deeper implication.
"Though in this descended state I retain the full authority I possessed in the Age of Gods, I am still bound by causality. I absolutely cannot do anything unrelated to the wish you have made."
"Yes. I'm certain."
Shane lowered his head slightly, without the slightest hesitation.
Hades was troublesome, yes—but that was still a threat within the realm of mankind. Between himself and the people of Fairy Tail, there was still room to fight, maneuver, and risk everything.
But the curse from that unknown god was like the Sword of Damocles hanging over his head—inescapable.
That danger had to be ripped out completely by a power of equal standing.
"I accept."
Ereshkigal gave him a clear answer, but immediately added:
"However, you must understand this. Because of the limitations upon me, I can only forcibly sever and dispel those curses that have not yet fully descended."
"As for those curses that have already manifested in substance and fused completely with the soul… I cannot interfere with them."
"Because of the Grail's limitation?"
Shane looked a little puzzled. Neither he nor Ultear had actually been cursed yet—they had only drawn that being's attention.
So… did she mean Zeref?
"It doesn't matter."
Without dwelling on it, Shane nodded immediately.
"As long as the hidden danger on us can be removed, that… will be enough."
"Then since the pact is made… let us go back up."
Ereshkigal said it lightly.
Maybe it was just his imagination, but from that cold, emotionless voice, Shane thought he could hear the faintest trace of… impatience.
A little surprised, he asked, "You… can leave the underworld and go to the living world?"
"This world has no dead souls that require my care."
She answered as though it were the most natural thing in the world.
The moment she finished speaking, that massive pale skeleton began to collapse apart.
In the blink of an eye, it transformed back into a dense, phantom-like blue mass of light so concentrated that its inner shape could no longer be seen.
Whoosh—
The light mass flowed like living water and instantly wrapped itself around Shane, who was still sitting on the ground.
Then, buoyed by a gentle lifting force, Shane shot upward toward the distant world of the living, as though breaking free from the crushing pressure of the deep sea.
…
At the same time, above the snowy forest ruins in the living world—
Hades stood at the edge of that bottomless pit, uncertainty flickering in his lone eye.
"The true ruler of the underworld? What absurd nonsense."
He kept sneering as he spoke, but despite his words, his feet seemed to have grown roots in the snow.
He had absolutely no intention of jumping into the pit to investigate for himself.
Because as a great wizard who had explored the abyss of magic for a hundred years, he found to his astonishment that even his prized senses could not make out the nature of the aura leaking from that hole.
It was a pure, absolute stillness of death—so complete that even his dark magic could be swallowed by it with ease.
"Hmph. Cheap theatrics."
Suppressing the wariness in his heart by force, Hades cast a cold glance toward Makarov and the others, who stood on guard not far away.
"Fairy Tail's people are all here anyway. No matter what tricks that brat Shane is playing down there, in the end he still has to come back here and face me."
Time ticked by, second by second.
Just as his patience finally ran out and he was about to step forward and issue a final ultimatum into the pit—forcing Shane to come out—
Bzzzz—
The black pit, silent until now, suddenly released an extremely violent spatial ripple.
And then—
A ghostly blue light, carrying bone-deep cold and the stench of death, erupted from the bottomless hole like a volcanic blast, bringing a figure up with it.
Tap.
With a light sound, Shane landed steadily on the broken snow-covered ground.
"Hah…"
Breathing in once more the cold but vibrant air of the world of the living, Shane felt the absolute laws of the underworld—the ones that stripped everything away—fade with it.
Without wasting a moment, he immediately reached out to his Class Card in his mind.
"Assassin!"
A tattered black robe materialized out of thin air with the flow of magic, wrapping his naked body tightly against the freezing wind.
"Hah… that went a lot more smoothly than I expected."
Feeling power fill his body again, Shane let out a long breath.
Then he immediately turned his head, his gaze sweeping rapidly across the surroundings, trying to find the goddess who had come flying out of the abyss with him.
But snowflakes drifted down quietly. The surroundings were empty and dim.
There was no sign of any figure carrying a divine presence.
The only truly striking sight was Hades, standing at the edge of the pit, his face twisted with the feeling that he had been made a fool of.