Ragnarok (5): Sing of Wrath, O Goddess
The day paradise beyond death was invaded.
The day insolent fools crossed the forbidden wall.
The day wrath shook the world.
The day wrath shook the world.
They shall burn to ashes.
Blades shall rust and crumble, armor rot and fade away.
Feeble resistance shall vanish like foam swallowed by the waves.
They shall all disappear like eyes beneath the sun.
The giants' horn shall shake the earth,
The breath of scale and wing shall topple all.
Paradise shall become battlefield and execution ground.
Their names shall be forgotten.
No one shall remember them.
Only the fact that such beings once existed shall remain.
They shall scatter as dust.
“Terrifying.”
Hermes clicked his tongue briefly and gazed at paradise. A place only the permitted could enter. Among Olympus's gods, only he himself and…
“War…! Boiling blood, the thrill of war…!”
“Calm yourself, Ares.”
“I’m not Ares! I am Mars!!”
Ares had changed strangely. No, only Mars had been granted permission to come here.
“I can’t fathom what the Deep Forest Sage did to make a god change like this.”
Ares, who had lost nearly all his faith to the Deep Forest Sage, had spent ten years recovering it to finally awaken his ego once more… but something must have gone wrong in the process, as he’d gained a different divinity. His essence as the god of war remained unchanged, however.
“Right. Mars. How do you see this war?”
“No need for words—it’ll be the Aesir’s pathetic downfall!”
Even changed, a war god was a war god. He was an expert on anything war-related.
“It’s a fight they can’t win from the start. The heavens desire the Aesir’s defeat, the battlefield is paradise crafted by the Life Goddess, and the forces joining the fray outmatch the Aesir by far.”
Hermes nodded slightly.
“Who’d have thought such fearsome beings lurked in the underworld.”
The army gathered to destroy the Aesir. At its forefront stood colossal entities without life—titans of rock and flame, ice and storm.
And at the very front, the black rock colossus.
“So that’s the underworld colossus we’ve only heard rumors of.”
The colossus, meticulously shaped by the Life Goddess to guard the underworld, brimmed with immense power. Perhaps just shy of a chief god’s might.
“Terrifying. So the Life Goddess can casually create something like that.”
A being capable of forging such a thing—the Life Goddess was far more formidable than the other gods had imagined. Not opposing her…
…had been the wisest choice.
“The Aesir fools are simply pitiable.”
Hermes tore his gaze from the black colossus, Talos, and scanned elsewhere. Past armies of the dead souls, beyond the underworld’s managers, his eyes settled on enormous lizard-like beings with wings.
“Dragons…”
Transcendent creatures from heroes’ tales, said to share some connection with the Life Goddess. Dragons.
He knew some dragons were enshrined as gods, but seeing pure dragons was a first. Dozens of them, each with unique scales, rivaling Talos in strength.
The dragons alone could probably challenge Olympus.
There were also the giant wolf god and titan gods, but with the dragons, Talos, and the armies of the dead, it was overkill for the Aesir. The extras hardly mattered.
“And in this situation, me and Ares…”
“Mars.”
“Ahem. Mars get permission to come? It’s a show of force, plain and simple.”
Zeus had sent Hermes and Mars with orders to seize Odin’s eye if the chance arose. But in this mess, they’d have no opening.
If that happened… would the Life Goddess grant an extension? Unclear.
Hermes could try for Odin’s eye himself, but success was doubtful.
“My legs aren’t fully recovered yet… but no choice but to try.”
If Hermes failed to take Odin’s eye… Zeus would have to offer his Baal fragment.
At that moment—
Bwoooooooong!!!
A massive horn blast echoed, and the gathered forces began to move. Their target: the fortress in paradise. The pitiful structure the Aesir gods called Valhalla.
The Aesir would fall.
Freya felt it in her bones.
Even the army of the dead outnumbered their gathered Einherjar by far. And those dragons and the black rock colossus… even famed Aesir warrior gods couldn’t predict victory against them.
Not to mention the titan gods who’d clashed endlessly with the Aesir, and the wolf god imprisoned by them, now joining the fray.
To overcome such foes, they’d need double the Einherjar and more than twice the Aesir gods.
And even that “victory” would leave them barely clinging to life amid the ashes.
Worse still… the Life Goddess herself hadn’t joined the army.
Without her, the Aesir couldn’t claim triumph. No—in truth, that army was irrelevant.
If the Life Goddess willed it, the Aesir would vanish to dust in an instant.
Thus… thus, Freya justified her choice.
“I’m not wrong.”
The offer to spare her and her loyal Valkyries. No one could refuse it.
So she’d carry out her orders to the letter.
Freya sighed softly and approached Odin atop the fortress, gazing at the enemy.
“What is it, Freya?”
“Odin.”
The one-eyed old god. The wisdom god lost to madness. The god who’d brought Aesir’s doom.
“Do the Aesir have a chance?”
Odin said nothing to Freya’s question. He merely stared at the foe with his remaining eye.
That silence was answer enough.
“No need to reply—I get it. The Aesir are finished.”
Odin slowly opened his mouth at Freya’s words.
“What… should I have done?”
“How should I know? If the wisest god doesn’t, who does?”
“Even fleeing to another world won’t save us… Did the sage lie to me…?”
“Lie?”
“He said there was a chance to avert doom by going to another world…”
Freya merely tilted her head at Odin’s words.
Opening a path to another world was impressive, sure… but it wouldn’t save them from ruin.
The path led to the Life Goddess’s world. Paradise beyond death—no escaping her.
Odin knew exactly where this was, so her great wrath was natural.
If that sage said such a thing, perhaps he meant creating an entirely separate world to flee to?
Had Odin grown so foolish he couldn’t grasp that?
The Aesir’s fall… was just a matter of time.
“Whatever. Doesn’t matter to me.”
Freya sighed at Odin and spoke.
“As promised, I’ve done my part. My Valkyries and I crossed over, built the fortress, laid Valhalla’s foundations.”
“Yes. You’ve done more than enough.”
“So, pay up.”
Odin nodded faintly at Freya’s demand.
“All Valkyries under your command, and half the Einherjar too… Fine.”
Odin nodded lightly and gestured into the air.
At once, Freya sensed her link to countless beings. All Valkyries and half the Einherjar now hers to command.
“I expect you and your Valkyries to shine in the final war.”
“Shine…”
Freya shook her head slightly.
“The Life Goddess said something.”
“Hm?”
“That she has a role for me and the Valkyries. Things to entrust us with.”
“Freya. You…”
“The other Aesir gods will face their fates… but Odin, she can’t just let you be.”
Odin stared at Freya in silence for a moment.
“Betrayed us?”
“No. Just accepted a wiser offer. I wasn’t even born Aesir anyway.”
Surviving beat perishing, didn’t it?
“So, as agreed, I’ll take the Valkyries and half the Einherjar. Thanks for everything, Odin.”
“Freya…!”
Odin reached for her as if to say more, but his hand grasped only air.
Freya, who’d been speaking with him moments ago, had vanished as if she’d never been there.
The battle was one-sided.
Deprived of Freya, the Valkyries, and half the Einherjar, the Aesir crumbled faster than anyone expected.
Dragons seized complete air superiority, the dead outmatched them in numbers, and their geographic edge from the fortress vanished as Talos’s black greatsword shattered the walls in one blow.
Aesir gods familiar with battle fought valiantly amid hordes of foes, but outnumbered, their collapse was inevitable.
Even Thor, one of the Aesir’s mightiest, couldn’t withstand the combined assault of the wolf god Fenrir and a titan god. He fell cold to the ground beside his hammer.
Odin could only lament his own folly.
