Episode 39/Chapter 1: Hela (1)

TL: Tsubak

ED: Julsmul

The God of Fire and Lies, Loki, had three children with the giant, Angrboda.

The first, the World Wolf, and the second, the Space Snake, Jormungand, were beings that hoped for the destruction of the world as they had inherited the strong blood of their mother.

In addition, the two of them were special. The fate of the World Wolf was entangled with the greatest God, and the fate of the Space Snake was entangled with the strongest God.

The World Wolf, Fenrir, was the doom for the King of Gods, Odin.

The Space Snake, Jormungand, was the doom for the God of Thunder, Thor.

The Gods of Asgard feared the two children of Loki and wanted to take their lives, but it wasn't possible. It was because Loki had protected the two of them.

Loki himself knew that he was doing something childish. It was too obvious that the two children would grow up to become disasters.

But Loki couldn't kill them with his own hands.

The giant, Angrboda, took the opportunity when Loki dropped his guard to take the two children and escape. It was to raise the two of them from between the giants.

That's how the first and second kids disappeared.

Loki couldn't distinguish if he had really dropped his guard or he had made himself to be like that.

And only the third kid that got left behind stayed next to Loki.

It was a kid that had inherited more of Loki's blood compared to her other two brothers.

The kid that was born as someone that wanted to maintain the world wasn't born with a destructive power, but she wasn't a normal being either.

The three sisters making the threads of fate had said that Hela's fate was connected to someone in Asgard.

But the King of Gods, Odin, kept that a secret, and because of that, not even Odin's closest people like Thor or Heimdal knew who that person was.

While the World Wolf and the Space Snake grew as strong monsters, Hela also grew up.

She, who had all the appearances of a kid, a woman, and an old lady at the same time, received Odin's order and became the monarch of Niflheim.

The queen that ruled over the dead people.

She was loyal to Asgard. She sided up with Asgard even when Loki sided with the giants.

And the same held true after a hundred years had passed.

-

'But Cuchulainn, there's something I want to ask.'

'What is it? Do you still have other thoughts?'

It was when they were climbing Yggdrasil by following Ratatoskr.

Tae Ho, who was embracing the essence of Nidhogg inside of her body, said with a calm face,

'I feel like I even got accustomed to your grumbling as I keep hearing it. Anyways, listen to my question.'

'Right, what is it? Let's hear it.'

Nidhogg stirred while being in Tae Ho's embrace. Tae Ho patted her shoulders and continued speaking.

'Asgard...The reason Valhalla is in danger is because it's in the core of the World Tree?'

Based on Ratatoskr's words, Asgard was in a precarious situation.

Odin was certainly the King of Gods. The death of the supreme commander was something that would drop the morale of the entire army and bring problems in the orders.

But even if that was the case, everything had a limit.

It was impossible for the situation to turn over completely with Odin's death alone.

Something else was added to his death.

A variable that made the scale tilt over to the side of the giants.

Tae Ho thought of the core of the World Tree he had seen in Loki's memories, and Cuchulainn nodded.

'That is possible. We couldn't ask the details because the situation was urgent but....the Magician King treated it to be so important he himself had to hide. He wouldn't have been able to trick Odin with something that was considered as nothing.'

The God of Fire and Lies, Loki, had raised several merits the past hundred years, but just like Cuchulainn had said, the Magician King wasn't a foolish one.

It was impossible that he had set up all of his plans by trusting in Loki's words.

He would probably have another information dealer.

And this meant that something that may deal a great blow to Asgard, although not to the point the Magician King thought of, existed in the core of the World Tree.

'It seems too early to guess, but at the least, a struggle that cut off the path between the army Thor led and Valhalla would have been cut off. There's a possibility Valhalla itself got attacked. Sealing all of Valhalla just because Odin disappeared is an extreme decision.'

Freya was a delicate one, but she wasn't feeble-minded at all. She was rather really strong.

Now, Freya had gotten scared by Odin's death and sealed up Valhalla?

It was something unimaginable. Something must have happened that necessitated her having to seal Valhalla.

'We will know when we get there. And....I'm saying this just in case, but don't blame Odin-nim too much. Odin also wouldn't have hoped for such a situation.'

One needed to take great risks to obtain great rewards.

The plan Odin had come up with had no problems when looking at it in an objective way, and actually, the Magician King hadn't doubted Loki even a little before everything had been revealed. It was good to say that he had completely fallen for Odin's trap.

If the unimaginable variable of the World Wolf having already been reborn wasn't there, Odin's plan would have succeeded.

Tae Ho nodded at Cuchulainn's words. It wasn't right to criticize when there was no problem in the process, but the results were bad.

Tae Ho had experienced something similar several times when he was a pro gamer.

But it was at that moment upon Nidhogg's body- precisely speaking, Odin's voice was heard from his seat upon its head.

"Ratatoskr, wait near here. It doesn't matter how far you go, but be at a distance that you can come immediately when I call you. Understood?"

"I understand. I understand. I will do so."

Ratatoskr stopped at the place and repeated some words while grabbing its head. It was frowning because the rune of obedience had activated weakly.

Odin treated Ratatoskr coldly and said,

"It's impossible to do something to the rune of obedience no matter how far you go. Just know that the runes will explode once you get out of the range I decided, and you will lose your life."

"I understand! I understand!"

Ratatoskr yelled and then curled up in a soft place. That sight was quite poor to see, but Odin didn't feel sympathy for it. He looked down and then spoke to Tae Ho who was inside of Nidhogg.

"Idun's warrior, you should also wait here. I will call you when the time is right."

"I understand."

'The lake of Mimir is a secret, but well, it seems like he will call you after he takes all the preparations.'

While Cuchulainn mumbled in a low voice, Odin stood up and jumped inside the fog. The fog was so dense that Odin disappeared in a flash.

As Tae Ho stared into the patch of fog in which Odin had disappeared, he spoke to Cuchulainn once again.

'The rune of obedience is really amazing. The process of engraving it is a bit difficult, but it seems like it will be effective even on giants.'

'It is useful indeed, but it's not omnipotent. It's a method that works well on trash like Ratatoskr that are weak to pain.'

The rune of obedience wasn't only exclusive to Asgard. Erin and the giants also had some similar magic.

Because of that, Cuchulainn knew well about the limits this rune had.

'The rune of obedience doesn't perfectly control the adversary. It just gives pain to the ones that don't obey your orders. If it's this much, don't you think of something?'

'It's no different to torture.'

It was the same that it inflicted pain if one didn't listen to the words.

The limit of the rune of obedience was like torture.

It was meaningless to the ones that had a strong will to endure the pain. In addition, it wasn't that one could force their actions, so it was meaningless if the adversary became determined for death.

Also, one could notice who had the runes of obedience engraved in their bodies. That's why it was hard to dispatch weak-willed beings like Ratatoskr that were engraved with the rune.

'Right, even if it's useful, it's not as much as you think. Even though I said that it still feels somewhat strange, you do know what I'm talking about, right?'

'I think so.'

Tae Ho nodded and patted Nidhogg's shoulders and then pushed her away from him.

"Nidhogg wait a moment."

"Huh?"

Nidhogg blinked and rose her upper body and Cuchulainn asked at that.

'What is wrong?'

'I'm a bit hungry.'

It had already been 9 days since he ate the golden apple. In addition, several cases happened in consecution after he woke up, so Tae Ho couldn't even eat a bread crumb.

"Now that I see....Nidhogg, aren't you hungry?"

Tae Ho was secondary, but he had never seen Nidhogg eat something.

Because of that, Nidhogg shook her head.

"I'm not hungry. The root of the World Tree is not tasty. It's sour."

Nidhogg hadn't eaten anything besides the root of the World Tree for the thousand of years it had been trapped.

Cuchulainn nodded.

'Indeed, thinking about its size....and in the first place, there are some dragons that don't even need to eat.'

Nidhogg, that had a body of 2 kilometers, was something else, but there were also cases where ordinary dragons didn't eat normally as it was almost impossible to maintain their big bodies with normal food.

'Now that I think about it, Adenmaha also doesn't eat much.'

Adenmaha could become a sea serpent that reached twenty meters in length, but he had never seen her eat anything proportionate to her size.

'Most of the dragon race maintains their body with magic. They absorb the magic in the earth or the air and move. High-ranked dragons posses a dragon heart that is like a generator of magic.'

Cuchulainn listened to Tae Ho's mumbling and explained in more detail.

Tae Ho nodded this time too and then turned to look at Nidhogg that was looking at him with round eyes. He stroke her head unconsciously and said,

"Then what about eating something with oppa.....ah, no- With me?"

"Yes, yes. I want to eat."

'Hey, wait. Didn't your real feelings come out just now?'

Cuchulainn criticized sharply, but Tae Ho ignored him like usual. In the first place, it wasn't because he had impure thoughts like Cuchulainn but because Nidhogg's actions were that of a sister.

"Here."

Tae Ho took out some things from the air and offered them to Nidhogg. It was a simple sandwich that was made with bread, dried meat, and some vegetables.

But it was the first time Nidhogg saw this.

She blinked with eyes filled with curiosity and then slowly brought the sandwich to her mouth. She then stood up and yelled,

"Delicious!"

It was too different from the root of the World Tree. It was soft, tender, and delicious. Nidhogg couldn't think of other words as she lacked the languages to express herself, but she still kept repeating that it was delicious.

"Eat it slowly. Here, drink some water"

Tae Ho also became happy as Nidhogg did. He put on the smile of a dad and gave her a barrel of water.

But Cuchulainn clicked his tongue at that.

'Hey, don't you have more delicious things? Why are you giving her something that's like army food? It must be the first proper meal she had in her life.'

'If you give something too delicious at first, the joy you feel by eating something less delicious than that disappears. It's much better to climb up step by step.'

What would happen if she ate a golden apple from the start?

She probably wouldn't feel happiness from a sandwich like now.

'I want to rebuke, but I can't.'

While Tae Ho and Cuchulainn were speaking among themselves, Nidhogg put on a depressed face. It was because she had eaten all her sandwich.

Tae Ho put a smile at that and then took out another sandwich, and Nidhogg put on a bright smile as he'd expected.

'Idun's warrior.'

Odin's voice was heard at that moment. The voice rang in his head just like when he conversed with Cuchulainn.

'Come to the lake of Mimir alone. I will lead you down the path.'

It was Odin's message magic. When he blinked once, he saw a shining butterfly approaching from far away.

Tae Ho stroke Nidhogg's head instead of standing up right away.

"Nidhogg, can you wait for a moment? Odin is calling for me and I have to go."

At that moment, Nidhogg's face contorted, but it was only for a moment. She fixed her expression and nodded.

"Yes, yes. I will wait for Tae Ho master. Tae Ho master keeps promises well."

"Right, I will go then. Eat slowly."

Tae Ho took out one more sandwich and placed it in front of Nidhogg and then tried to stand up. But Nidhogg grabbed his hand.

"Tae Ho master."

"Yes?"

He wondered if she may beg him to take her with him, but that wasn't the case. She looked up at him and smiled brightly.

"I will also bless you. Tae Ho master likes blessings."

'She clearly saw your memories.'

Cuchulainn's voice was kind of cold.

But Tae Ho also ignored it this time and looked at Nidhogg with the 'Eyes of the Dragon'. The green words [Odin's Valkyrie] that appeared above her head moved his heart.

"I will entrust you, then."

"Yes."

Nidhogg nodded, in a good mood, and then grabbed on Tae Ho's hand to make him sit down. She then moved and gave Tae Ho the best blessing.

Tae Ho blinked as he was thinking that he would receive a blessing in his forehead, and Nidhogg flushed and laughed like a fool.

Meanwhile, Cuchulainn grew enraged.

But that rage obviously didn't reach Nidhogg and Tae Ho.

Nidhogg blinked her eyes a few times as if recalling her memories and then stuttered.

"Uh....um....ah! May Idun's blessing accompany you."

She had to say 'Odin' instead of 'Idun', but Nidhogg thought that she was Idun's Valkyrie.

Tae Ho ended up laughing unconsciously and answered Nidhogg, who was frowning as if she was thinking that she'd gotten something wrong.

"May Idun's blessing accompany you."

Nidhogg looked at Tae Ho with expecting eyes, and Tae Ho pondered for a moment and then blessed Nidhogg in her forehead.

-

"You came."

< Episode 39 - Hela (1) > End

TL note: Thanks for reading~