Chapter 196
Chapter 196
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 196
Chapter Title: The Well of Wisdom
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“Hoo….”
Fernandez stroked the head of Kirhas, who was clutching her ears and groaning, then hung the Thunder Smiter on his sword belt. Kirhas was dazed from the cannon fire that had gone off right beside her.
The hobgoblin with its throat torn open collapsed with a thud. Magical power and divinity leaked out from its shredded neck. Fernandez slowly walked toward its body.
[...Hoo…. Hah….]
Botan was coughing up blood, breathing raggedly. It was a pathetic end for the ruler of the Northern Pantheon. He rolled his bloodshot eyes, scanning his surroundings.
A shadow fell over him. Fernandez looked down at him, gripping the greatsword’s hilt in one hand. Soon, Botan’s eyes gradually calmed.
[Stab my heart.]
“You’re going to die anyway. And granting you a swift death would be too merciful.”
[No. Even if my heart is destroyed, there’s a way to survive. But my heart bears the mark of Yormungandr. Hurry and stab it.]
At those words, Fernandez scowled and swiftly twisted the sword hilt. The greatsword spun and plunged straight into Botan’s chest. There was a crunch as bones snapped. And… the sound of magic breaking.
[Krgh…. Yes…. The play is over.]
Botan convulsed for a moment, then raised one hand and groped at the air. Fernandez couldn’t fully understand the unfamiliar system, but the circuit of mana it traced was a kind of… seal. Botan’s spell seeped into his torn throat.
[That’s better.]
“What did you just do?”
[I anchored myself using my own flesh. At least as long as my head isn’t destroyed, I won’t face complete death.]
-Lich transformation, huh.
Feizashi chuckled darkly. A lich uses a spell to lock and fix part of their soul into their own flesh. From that moment, the body undergoes biological death, but as long as the soul vessel within the body isn’t destroyed, the soul fixed to the earth becomes nearly immortal as an undead.
For Ggian-Kel, the soul vessel was his heart. Most liches house their souls in their hearts. It was the best spot for connecting mana circuits and the hardest to destroy. But for Botan, with his throat torn below the neck and his heart shattered, options were limited.
Fernandez lifted Botan’s head. With a rip, it tore free from his body. Kirhas screamed and turned away at the gruesome sight.
“What’s the point of all that?”
[At least it’ll let me stop Ragnarok.]
“Repenting now, are you?”
[No. This was part of the plan. My death… was included in the Edda’s plan. Damn it. I just didn’t expect to end up like Mimir.]
Botan grumbled briefly. He looked up at the sky. No hawk in sight. He hadn’t fully grasped the situation amid the fierce battle, but the hawk had flown off somewhere toward Yggdrasil and hadn’t been seen since.
If it had reached Yggdrasil, there was no immediate worry. Yggdrasil was one of the few places in this Asgard that had escaped demonic corruption. Fernandez gripped Botan’s head and placed it on the altar, meeting his gaze.
“Explain it step by step.”
[…Insolent brat. First, run. Carry me. This place is about to collapse, and we’ll get sucked into that lava below. It connects to Muspelheim. Before that… run!]
-Rumble!
As he spoke, the ground began to shake. Part of the steel fortress atop the sea of lava started crumbling. As balance tilted, bricks tumbled like a sandcastle collapsing, sucked away.
“Kirhas! Run!”
“Y-Yes!”
Fernandez grabbed Botan by the hair and bolted. The fortress roared as it collapsed. Right behind them, lava surged, scorching their backs with blistering heat.
His body, pushed to near collapse from exhaustion, didn’t speed up easily. Fernandez bit his lip and ran. He stepped on shattered bricks, kicked off tilting planks.
-Thud!
Kirhas leaped like a gazelle. She ran sideways along the rapidly collapsing drawbridge, constantly glancing back. Whenever Fernandez’s steps lagged, she looked at him anxiously, hesitating.
The steel bridge connecting the fortress to the wasteland fully crumbled behind them. Fernandez panted, forcing his buckling legs to hold. Botan sneered at the sight.
[With stamina like that, how dare you call yourself Fenrir?]
“I never had that nickname.”
[…Hm. Didn’t Loki bring you here?]
Fernandez set Botan down on a nearby rock and slumped before him. He uncorked his canteen, took a swig to wet his throat, then passed it to Kirhas.
“Loki, another name for Loft?”
[Loft is one of Loki’s names. Asir have countless names. Unlike you mortals, we’ve been called by many across generations.]
“That great one’s reduced to a severed head now.”
[This was my choice. Fenrir. What’s your real name?]
Botan eyed Fernandez oddly. The eye not covered by the eyepatch curved in a subtle smile. But Fernandez looked at his other eye, beneath the patch.
He sensed unfamiliar mana there. After the infernal corruption lifted, that was likely his true self.
“Our line of work keeps names secret. You first.”
[Playing hard to get. Fine. Where to start….]
Botan gazed at Fernandez’s face thoughtfully. He paused, choosing words, then slowly spoke.
[It started with Mimir.]
* * *
Strictly speaking, the Asir were not gods. They hadn’t accumulated divinity and risen to godhood by leading mortals. They were simply a race born strong from the beginning.
Like dragons. They were born with souls rivaling demigods. Eternal lives, sturdy bodies, boundless mana…. Days when it seemed they could become or do anything.
When they finally created Bifrost, their worldview extended beyond dimensions. Asgard’s conquest had ended a millennium prior; now, long wars of conquest against other dimensions awaited.
Bored with life, the Asir threw themselves into the conquests. Countless dimensions burned. The Material World, called the Fourth Realm. The many horizontal worlds tied to it groaned under their conquest lust.
That grand war’s end began in a corner of Helheim.
* * *
[There was a thing called the Well of Wisdom. A spring said to hold all the world’s knowledge… or more precisely, knowledge of the future.]
“The future isn’t a fixed set of events. You knew that much, right?”
[Ah, of course. The future is just a tangled mess of possibility threads. But glimpsing the highest probability—perhaps one that’s practically ‘inevitable’—should be possible, no?]
Fernandez stroked his chin at Botan’s words. Perceiving future information reflections was extremely dangerous, always bringing only side effects—an unstable technique of little use.
But Botan chuckled.
[Yes. Humans who claim to see the future all end up hanging themselves. I was prepared for that. I was… bored then. Knowing such stimulating info lurked behind the veil of the future—how could I resist trying?]
* * *
“Great King. To drink from this well… to glimpse the future… a corresponding price is required.”
The giant guarding the spring had told him. Offer the price. At that, the mighty conqueror king sneered.
“Demanding a price from me? Laughable. You who couldn’t foresee your kin’s deaths dare threaten me with the future? Fine. Guess if I’ll kill or spare you, and I’ll play along.”
“The Great King will behead me regardless of the future’s truth.”
“Hahaha!”
Botan burst into laughter at the giant’s words. After guffawing, he thrust his spear into the giant’s nape. The blade nicked the giant’s throat, blood beading atop it.
“Slippery tongue. Is sparing your life price enough?”
“One eye.”
“What?”
“To see the future, one eye must be given to it.”
The giant slowly pulled back his hood. The face beneath was scarred with burns. One eye seared beneath cruel scars. The old giant smiled bitterly with his remaining festering eye at Botan.
“Also, I knew the Great King would come… and that my kin would be slaughtered in the process.”
“Hindsight. If you truly foresaw it all, why not prepare?”
“It would have been meaningless.”
The giant walked slowly into the spring’s center. Botan scowled, watching. The giant stood over the water, retrieving a dagger sunk below the surface.
“This world will burn anyway, and dozens, hundreds more will meet the same end. The ruin you Asir bring is just that end arriving sooner. Even if we stopped you, inevitable doom would follow. Why block you?”
Botan slowly lowered his spear at the giant’s words. He sat on a nearby rock, watching.
“The world ends anyway? I’ve met countless doomsayers like you in my life—what reason do I have to trust you still?”
“The Great King will believe.”
He slowly handed over the dagger. Odd mana entwined it. Botan sensed celestial divinity slumbering within. This was… a remnant of a fallen god.
* * *
“Wait, a remnant from the Holy Pantheon?”
[Don’t interrupt. The next part’s more important.]
* * *
Botan coveted the divinity slumbering in the dagger. All spiritual beings get a chance to challenge godhood. But that path was long and arduous for an ascetic.
Eternal time didn’t guarantee perfection. Botan wanted to become more than Asir. He had no desire to remain just a strong, clever giant.
He wanted to be a true god. One who could reach the Pantheon, challenge the Third Realm, or ascend beyond.
So, without hesitation, he jammed the dagger into his right eye.
* * *
“Didn’t think to analyze it slowly, prove it through experiments, ‘Magic God’ Botan?”
[No need. It truly pulsed with immense power. Perhaps not the Third Realm, but something beyond— a relic from ‘conceptual’ beings out there.]
Keep interrupting, and it’s hard to explain. Botan grumbled, closing his eyes again.
* * *
The Well of Wisdom… was a lie. Not wisdom, not even containing the future—the spring itself was just clear water with no meaning. The truth was this. The dagger sunk in the spring… the power slumbering within this dagger… that was the true Well of Wisdom.
“Grrraaah…!”
Botan dropped the dagger, clutching his bleeding eye, staggering. Saliva and blood soaked his beard. Veins bulged, writhing. He glared into empty air with bloodshot eyes, mouth agape.
“Do you see? Now?”
The giant whispered beside him. No more deep valley spring, clear water, pristine nature. Burning illusions enveloped Botan. Amid them, the giant’s whisper thundered like lightning.
“Do you see, Great King? Thousands of worlds burning, crumbling? Where future, past, present tangle… skies freezing, earth aflame, seas sweeping lands, lava drowning oceans?”
“U…aaah…!!”
It was exactly that. The world freezing over decades, then burning for decades more; sky stars vanishing under shadow, meteor showers aflame pouring between; Bifrost linking dimensions fallen to demons, a hellish maze impassable even for Asir, barriers twisting into labyrinths with lost giants wailing within.
Demons endlessly spawning, craving giant blood; giants stabbing kin, laughing; unseen monsters scorching worlds.
The end of Asir… no, of the world.
“If… we burn Bifrost. Would that stop it?”
“Just a temporary fix.”
“What if we sever all dimensions, seal our barriers completely alone?”
“Sooner or later, even that cracks and burns. We called this future ‘Edda.’ Scary fairy tales old men tell children… what do you think?”
The giant cackled. Illusions faded; Botan staggered, gripping the wall. Leaving the giant, he departed Helheim.
To the one he trusted most. Not his son, but the trickster clown who spun the slyest schemes….
The war between Heaven and Hell, to protect themselves amid it….