The world shimmered like a half-remembered dream as Reinhard blinked before his breath hitched. For a moment, he wasn't sure if he was awake or asleep. The air was cold, and then he looked down.

He saw his hands were different, they were bronze, which meant they were Odin's. He then realized he was standing where everything had once shattered from his last dream.

The ice plains gleamed around with the snow on the ground and the towering figure of Adumala.

It was then that Adumala's words echoed through his mind like a lullaby sung from another world. A way to bring the change you desire. But you would become the First Sinner of the world.

Odin shivered, his breath creating a small cloud of air as a low wind rolled across the plains, softly through the frozen spires. He closed his eyes and saw it, two paths unfolding before him.

Or perhaps only one, disguised as choice.

Maybe he was only fooling himself by believing he could choose at all.

He had resisted the urge to end the giants before. He had tried patience, reason, diplomacy, and mercy. But the frost giants did not change, and they would not.

Their existence follows the rhythm of stillness, the path of the realm that birthed them. And he remembered the Towering Black Being's words.

They are fragments of the icy realm itself. They embody Preservation, stillness, and time, which represent their nature. Your efforts are futile, Odin. Their nature cannot be rewritten or changed, they will always be these violent beings.

Odin's hand tightened into a fist, the sounds creaking felt louder than they should've been in the frozen silence. Then he sighed, breathing long and weary, and turned toward the great white cow standing before him.

"What do I need to do?" Odin asked, voice steady though something trembled beneath it.

Adumala lowered her great head, eyes deep and gentle. "Are you sure?" She asked softly, her breath carrying warmth against the frost. "Once you do this, there is no going back."

Odin hesitated only for a second before nodding. "Nothing I do now will lead to change. If things continue as they are, the other realms will be destroyed, and the giants will turn everything into their frozen playground."

Adumala said nothing at first before she smiled faintly, which was almost sorrowful, and lowered her head until it brushed lightly against his shoulder. The touch was enormous but tender, like a mountain sighing against a breeze.

Odin trembled before smiling as he gently, familiarly rubbed her head.

"Then follow me." Adumala said before they began to walk.

The sound of her hooves felt like thunder crashing through the ground, echoing through the ice fields. Odin followed, his smaller form almost swallowed by her towering presence. They crossed landscapes of glass and frost before moving through icy forests where every branch shimmered like crystal blades, valleys of pale blue mist where the light bent and trembled.

Then, at last, they reached the location Adumala desired.

Odin blinked before he saw eleven breathtaking rivers.

Streams of luminous color flowed through the frozen land, each one glowing with its own hue and rhythm. They didn't flow like normal rivers but seemed to flow like they were dancing, and moving to a rhythm that only they could hear.

Wait, is that music? Reinhard thought.

The air around them trembled with a song, each note strange and stunning, weaving together into something vast, like the universe itself humming softly.

It was enough to make Odin's knees nearly buckle at the sight.

Just being near them filled him with awe and dread. Each current seemed to whisper secrets that no mortal or god should hear.

Adumala nodded, her horned head gesturing towards the mesmerizing flows. "You will enter into the Streams. To have each river bless and imbue you with its power and control."

Odin blinked. "What are you-"

Adumala continued, her voice low, but forced him to listen. "It will make you transcend yourself. To reach the same existence as Ymir, and the Towering Black One."

A jolt, equal parts terror and yearning, shot through Odin. "But I thought you said no being except you three can withstand the river? How can I swim in it when even all the giants can't withstand it?"

Adumala's smile grew, a subtle curve of knowing. "I will bless you to withstand the first river, and then you will move gently through each stream. Don't worry. Your body and existence will gradually get used to the streams, starting from the first one, Svöl, and then moving to Gunnþrá, and then all the way up to the others until you reach Gjöll."

Transcend.

The words made Odin shiver as if they held so much power, beyond anything he knew. "Me reaching the same existence as you… Will it produce a change in the universe?"

"Odin, you are special." Adumala said, her gaze piercing. "You and your two brothers are the by-products of the two beings of the icy and fire realms."

The world seemed to tilt as a shock swept through Odin. "Are you saying my father, Borr, came from the fire realm?"

"Borr and his other kind-"

"There are more like Borr?" Odin interjected, his mind reeling.

"They are." Adumala confirmed softly. "But they are not ready to be awakened."

"Why not?" Odin furrowed his brows.

"The Icy realm decides when they are ready. It will move them up to the surface to be discovered. As you know, the ground is impossible to break as the concept of stillness makes it so no changes can be induced upon it."

Odin nodded, but inwardly, Reinhard felt the shockwave of the revelation. That explains so much… But then why did it pick Borr… Wait, is it because he is needed for the Universe's Phases?

Adumala's sigh was the sound of shifting continents. "Indeed, what you're thinking is correct, while the others are not. The icy realm will only accommodate those who are needed and ignore the others who are not."

The pieces of a cosmic, indifferent puzzle were clicking into place, confirming the Black Being's cold words. The Universe had its desires, its phases of creation and evolution, and individuals were merely instruments.

Adumala continued, her voice softening the harsh truth. "They originated from the sparks of the Towering Black One when it first awakened and swung its blade. These sparks drifted towards the icy realm, and when they made contact, they gradually began creating those beings, after Ymir and me."

"Borr mentioned he was awakened from the ice by you…" Odin whispered, the memory surfacing. "Could it be that he came before the giants but was sealed away because it wasn't his time?"

Adumala slowly nodded. "With the fusion of your father, who is from the fire realm that embodies change, possibilities, and space. And your mother, from the icy realm that embodies stillness, preservation, and time… When these two came together, three beings that held fragments from both realms were born into the universe. And the Universe rejoiced."

Odin trembled, his gaze dropping to the snowy ground as if he could see the truth written there. "So… My brothers and I… Do we hold the fragments of both realms in us? Is that why we are so different? Why can we grasp change and stillness?"

Adumala's massive head dipped in another nod. "It is also why you were able to tap into the Light and Forest realm powers. The principle of possibility allowed that event to happen."

Disbelief warred with a terrifying sense of conflicting feelings. His mind was a blizzard of implications, a storm of rewritten origins.

Odin took a slow, steadying breath, forcing the tempest within to calm. "Does my being a fragment of both realms allow me a better chance to withstand the streams as well?"

Adumala nodded once more. "So." She asked, her voice a gentle rumble. "Are you ready? You can refuse if you want-"

Odin shook his head, a new resolve hardening inside. "I want to do this… Plus, you bringing me here shows your trust in me to succeed… Right?"

Adumala's response was not in words. She leaned forward, and her massive, warm, rough tongue swept over him, enveloping his small frame in a single lick.

Odin couldn't help but chuckle, the sound stark against the monumental gravity of the moment. A genuine deep affection shone in her eyes as she stared at him softly.

"Of course." Adumala rumbled. "I always have faith in you, Odin, and this is no different. Because you are my friend who won't fall here."

The words struck him with a force greater than anything he had ever felt. His eyes widened slightly, and a faint smile appeared as he rested his face against her head. He didn't say anything but simply caressed her face while she gently nuzzled against him.

After a bit, Odin stepped back and nodded. "Alright. What should I do?"

Adumala's eyes began to glow with a soft, celestial blue light. A corresponding shimmer enveloped Odin, a cocoon of warmth and ancient power. "Enter into the pool," She instructed, her voice now the echo of the universe itself. "And experience it."

Odin turned towards the first river, Svöl.

Its luminous, chilling waters beckoned and repelled in equal measure. He took one step, then another, the blessed light around him humming. The ice crunched beneath his feet until there was no more ice, only the precipice of the impossible.

But he did not look back.

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