02

𝐀 𝐟𝐥𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐫 𝐟𝐢𝐞𝐥𝐝 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐡𝐞'𝐝 𝐦𝐞𝐭 𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐢𝐫𝐬𝐭 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞.

𝐎𝐟 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐬𝐞, 𝐑𝐚𝐠𝐧𝐚𝐫ö𝐤 𝐰𝐚𝐬𝐧'𝐭 𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐡𝐞 𝐰𝐚𝐬𝐧'𝐭 𝐚 𝐬𝐞𝐫𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐭, 𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐞𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐡𝐚𝐝 𝐛𝐞𝐞𝐧 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐥 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐡𝐢𝐦, 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧 𝐢𝐟 𝐡𝐞 𝐰𝐚𝐬𝐧'𝐭 𝐭𝐫𝐮𝐥𝐲 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞.

𝐄𝐯𝐞𝐧 𝐬𝐨, 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐰𝐨𝐦𝐚𝐧 𝐨𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝐚 𝐬𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐡𝐢𝐦 𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐢𝐨𝐮𝐬𝐥𝐲, 𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐡𝐮𝐦𝐚𝐧 𝐟𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞𝐬 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐡𝐢𝐦—𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐬𝐮𝐜𝐡 𝐚 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐲 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐰𝐡𝐨'𝐝 𝐧𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐥𝐞𝐟𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐛𝐨𝐭𝐭𝐨𝐦 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐨𝐜𝐞𝐚𝐧.

𝐀 𝐛𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐬𝐮𝐧𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐡𝐞 𝐨𝐧𝐥𝐲 𝐯𝐚𝐠𝐮𝐞𝐥𝐲 𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐝 𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐦𝐞𝐝 𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐬𝐤𝐢𝐧, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐚𝐜𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐡𝐞 𝐡𝐚𝐝 𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐚𝐫𝐦𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐥𝐞𝐠𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐬𝐤𝐢𝐧 𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐨𝐟 𝐬𝐜𝐚𝐥𝐞𝐬 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐢𝐧𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐛𝐥𝐞.

𝐇𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐝 𝐥𝐚𝐲𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐝𝐨𝐰𝐧 𝐧𝐞𝐱𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐰𝐨𝐦𝐚𝐧, 𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐬𝐦𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐫 𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐦 𝐬𝐞𝐞𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐥𝐲 𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐲 𝐚𝐬 𝐬𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐧𝐮𝐠𝐠𝐥𝐞𝐝 𝐧𝐞𝐱𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐡𝐢𝐦, 𝐚𝐬 𝐢𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐲'𝐝 𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰𝐧 𝐞𝐚𝐜𝐡 𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐜𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬.

𝐈𝐭 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞, 𝐬𝐨 𝐡𝐞 𝐝𝐢𝐝𝐧'𝐭 𝐪𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐢𝐭 𝐦𝐮𝐜𝐡.

"𝐇𝐞𝐲, 𝐖𝐨𝐫𝐥𝐝 𝐒𝐞𝐫𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐭. 𝐀𝐫𝐞𝐧'𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐭𝐢𝐫𝐞𝐝?"

———

"Hey, Jörmungandr. Aren't you tired of sucking on your own ass?"

They stirred, and an eye hidden beneath two sets of lids peeked open a bit, revealing a disturbing yellow that seemed to glow.

There floated another smirking woman in front of their face, but there was neither warmth nor familiarity from them, and as such, the serpent closed the eye again; now wasn't the time to wake up...

"Did you know that all of those siblings of yours and even your father are already out and living in the realm I'm in? Yup, Fenrir, Hel—they're all there!

"Now, why not you? Don't worry—you don't have to start Ragnarök to get there. See, I just need a liiittle bit of your soul, and a body will be generated. What do you think? Wanna join in?"

Now, the eye opened more, the inner lid still covering the eye, but the attention set on the cheeky little god—she was the one that had taken the human race by force this last century, wasn't she?

She was called the 'System', wasn't she?

'"𝑯𝒆𝒚, 𝒅𝒊𝒅 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒌𝒏𝒐𝒘? 𝑰 𝒅𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒎 𝒐𝒇 𝒃𝒆𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒂 𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒐—𝒂 𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒐 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒄𝒂𝒏 𝒉𝒆𝒍𝒑 𝒐𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒔 𝒇𝒊𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒊𝒓 𝒐𝒘𝒏 𝒑𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒆 𝒊𝒏 𝒍𝒊𝒇𝒆. 𝑩𝒖𝒕… 𝑰'𝒎 𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝒆𝒙𝒕𝒓𝒂𝒐𝒓𝒅𝒊𝒏𝒂𝒓𝒚 𝒆𝒏𝒐𝒖𝒈𝒉 𝒕𝒐 𝒃𝒆𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒆 𝒐𝒏𝒆… 𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒍𝒅 𝒂𝒕 𝒍𝒆𝒂𝒔𝒕… 𝑰 𝒘𝒐𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒓 𝒊𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆'𝒔 𝒔𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒑𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒆 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒎𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒃𝒆𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒆 𝒐𝒏𝒆…"'

❝〈…〉❞

Jörmungandr considered it—was she there, being the hero she always wanted to be?

And his siblings... they were there too?

His father as well...

〈𝐈𝐟 𝐈 𝐠𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞…〉

The tail in the serpents mouth loosened a little, blood leaking from the mouth of the serpent, and the god flinched a little—had she woken him up too much...?

❝〈𝕬𝖑𝖗𝖎𝖌𝖍𝖙. 𝕿𝖆𝖐𝖊 𝖒𝖊 𝖙𝖍𝖊𝖗𝖊.〉❞

A powerful thought that sounded like a voice resounded in her mind, and she nearly buckled beneath its weight; so this was the influence of an ancient deity...

The blood coalesced into a shard of darkness, its color a reddish-gold that attracted the gloom of the surrounding waters, pulling at the fabric of her existence, as if begging to eat her up.

A sense of 𝒘𝒓𝒐𝒏𝒈𝒏𝒆𝒔𝒔 writhed from the shard, a despair and dread of the future focused and compressed into a shard—the essence of Jörmungandr himself.

The System trembled as she realized that in all of her power, all her prevalence in the human mind, the influence of an ancient deity was not to be underestimated.

❝〈𝖄𝖔𝖚 𝖍𝖆𝖛𝖊 𝖒𝖞 𝖘𝖍𝖆𝖗𝖉—𝖓𝖔𝖜 𝖑𝖊𝖆𝖛𝖊. 𝕴𝖙'𝖘 𝖙𝖔𝖔 𝖊𝖆𝖗𝖑𝖞…〉❞

The eye closed, and the presence that the System had sensed from the shard diminished enough for her to feel comfortable around it, but the faint sense of dread that surrounded it remained firmly.

The god that had taken the world by storm seemed so small in comparison to the sleeping monster.