Episode 44/Chapter 4: The Great War (4)

TL: Tsubak

ED: Ren

The warrior that woke up the first when morning came could sense it.

The Steel warrior that was glaring at the battlefield covered with fog understood.

It was something they knew, even without saying it and they were able to feel it because they were opposed to each other.

The battle would start soon.

A big fight would take place today.

It was the same as when Odin accepted the magician king’s choice to retreat when the reinforcements from the Temple arrived.

They understood what the other side was going to do.

It was a formation of a weird trustworthy relationship.

Morning was bright. The giants and the monsters led the vanguard and pushed forward to Valhalla.

The forces of Valhalla, including the alliance of the small worlds and the reinforcements of the Temple, stepped forward to face that army. It was a simple clash of strengths, which was faced from the front.

The sky and earth became covered with blood and death.

The warriors of Midgard called out to Valhalla and died.

The nameless evil spirits got their heads crushed while climbing the walls of the fortress and died.

Rains of arrows fell down from the sky.

The monsters howled and the giants roared. All kinds of strong magic emitted their own light from several places on the battlefield.

The battle continued in an agreed silence.

The army of the giants repeatedly attacked and retreated and the army of Valhalla defended the fortress to the end.

And on the fifth day of the war…

Odin and the magician king played their cards once again.

It was a card they each knew the other would one day play but regardless of that, it was the only card they could put in play.

The magician king and Odin looked at different places of the map.

It was the place at which the God of fire and lies Loki was being held.

&

The magician king didn’t kill Loki, even though he knew that he had betrayed him.

It was in order to squeeze out the strong magical power he had.

But now that it was confirmed that Odin was alive, Loki didn’t only serve as a living magical power storehouse; one more worth was added to him.

Then on the morning of the sixth day of the war.

The shape of the battlefield was the same as always. A group clashed within the walls and another group clashed outside the walls.

Countless beings burned down their lives in the excessively wide battlefield.

Led by Witacheon and Juh Palgye, the group of the Temple charged and opened up a parth and the five dragons controlled by Idun’s warrior took the attention of everyone. Hraesvelg and the black frost dragon were in their sixth duel. The God of sea, Njord, and the messenger God, Heimdall, made their existences clear in their own spots.

The magician king, who glared at another place of the battlefield from deep inside his camp, sat down in a curled position, similar to Odin. He looked at Valhalla, which was far away and at the countless others with his eyes and whispered in a low voice, “Odin will come. Probably today or at most tomorrow.”

He wasn’t talking to his underlings like the Giant of Night, Avalt, or the Giant of Sea, Grund. He was speaking to Loki, who was tied up with chains and hung on the walls.

Loki didn’t answer. He just maintained the forced faint smile he had worn since Odin and Idun’s warrior had returned to Valhalla.

“He is certainly a cruel and sly God of war but he won’t be able to throw you away.”

He had lost too many people in the Great War; and he hadn’t gotten over it at all.

If Loki had died instead, Odin would have been able to live more relaxed, rather than being sad.

But Loki was alive and Odin also knew of that by now.

He had realized it on the first or second day of the war.

The battlefield was as fierce as ever. The two sides were still killing each other. It seemed like they would be able to endure this for more than a month when they had expected at most fifteen days.

Loki wished for his king to be a colder person but he couldn’t deny the words of the magician king.

Odin would come; to rescue him, the man that had sacrificed himself for more than a hundred years.

The magician king stood up slowly from his place and stepped forward. If the hunter was next to the trap, no matter how dumb the prey was, he would obviously stop.

The magician king started to walk.

And Loki closed his eyes.

&

Juh Palgye, who was swinging his steel chains that had ten blades in them, felt a sense of incongruity at some point. He opened his thin eyes more sharply and glared at the battlefield.

One giant was hit by an attack from Witacheon, filled with his energy, and collapsed. The one that was surveilling him jumping over the collapsed giant lightly and charging like lightning again, became certain.

“He noticed.”

An uneasy and nasty smell was felt. It was certain that they had realized the strategy that even a minority of the side of the magician king knew of.

The voice of Juh Palgye was covered by the sounds heard from the battlefield but the Pagoda-Bearing Heavenly King Li Jing heard it clearly. He swung his pagoda, which shrunk when it was in his hands but got larger by tens of meters when he threw it, and answered with the same low voice.

“I still think he won’t stop.”

The reinforcements of the Temple didn’t save their forces. They were low in numbers but each one of them were strong, like they had promised and were well able to open a path in the battlefield.

Juh Palgye turned over a spacious piece of ground that was a few meters in front of him. He looked at the evil spirits that were sent flying and admitted, “They don’t know the exact moment but the two sides know of it, huh?”

Juh Palgye thought of the baduk he used to play with his master and brother. There were times that the two sides received the play of the other’s, even though they knew of their plays.

Juh Palgye ended his short introspection and nodded. He chose to do the same thing as always, instead of falling into deep thoughts.

“Let’s do what we were entrusted with well.”

He would open a path and sweep up the inferior beings of Jotunheim and make everyone focus on them. They would make others think that it was the same battlefield as yesterday.

Witacheon was charging from in front and the Pagoda-Bearing Heavenly King Li Jing agreed to Juh Palgye’s words.

&

Odin was advancing.

Freya was looking at his back from the distance.

She had obviously tried to stop him. She had cursed him and even slapped him.

But Odin didn’t stop and in the end Freya couldn’t stop Odin.

Freya gritted her teeth and glared at the battlefield.

They both knew of their cards but regardless of that they still saved it. They emptied out the most important place as if it was a play they had agreed on beforehand and dispatched their forces to weird places.

Heimdall and Njord stood in front of the fortress of Valhalla, rather than entering deep into the battlefield.

The giant kings and the monsters were also fighting in a place that wasn’t related to the place Loki was being held at.

How would the play they set up together end? Who would be the one to play a different card?

Freya buried her body on the throne that only the king of Gods could sit on. She put the ring that proved that one was the king of Gods on after hesitating for a long time.

Then she started her first task as the king of Gods.

&

The first duel of the magician king and Odin that notified of the start of the second Great War occurred while the two of them hid their cards thoroughly.

They each took out one card that the other was unaware of and got closer to victory.

But this time, it was the opposite. The two of them knew of the cards the other had. There were no more hidden cards.

Odin had the appearance of a normal warrior of Valhalla. He hid himself with magic and changed his hairstyle and the color of his hair with his magic. Transformation magic was a very easy thing for him, as he was also the God of disguise.

He would fight normally and advance.

Bracky and Siri fought next to him but it was only for a moment. Odin didn’t stay next to those that had already reached the level of superior warriors for too long.

Heimdall and Njord were fighting in a distant place. Odin, who had even hidden his presence as a God, defeated the evil spirit in front of him with difficulty.

He could see a crumbled fortress from far away; Loki was hanging from it.

The foolish yet wise king of Gods.

It was the nickname the head of Mimir used to call Odin. It was certainly a contradictory word but those were words that described him too well.

The one that resists the destiny he can’t avoid.

The one that is wise yet chooses the foolish option.

Odin laughed unconsciously. Perhaps, it might be the last laughter in his long life.

Odin took one more step.

It was a normal step but he could feel it the moment his feet left the ground.

He had crossed the line.

Odin looked at Loki once again.

And Loki was also looking at him.

&

Loki smiled the moment they exchanged glances.

In the end, his hopes had collapsed.

He had hoped that Odin wouldn’t come, because he would certainly do it otherwise.

But what Loki hoped for was a bit different.

He didn’t want to be rescued, but be killed by Odin.

He wanted to not be used by the giants any longer and for Odin to act as a wise and sly God of war and not be a fatal weakness to him.

But his wishes hadn’t come true.

Loki laughed soundlessly. He thought that Odin was a really foolish one.

He had acted as a spy for a hundred years below the magician king. It was a role that could kill him at any time that his identity became exposed.

For Odin to have entrusted that role to him but still come to rescue that someone that wasn’t regretful no matter when he died? And he was doing so himself?

It was a really emotional thing; and it wasn’t a judgement that a single piece of rationality could be pieced from.

But it was natural. It was something the Odin that Loki knew would do.

That’s why it wasn’t regrettable.

Loki raised his head and looked at the sky.

The card the magician king had prepared was starting.

&

The World Wolf, Fenrir, was the end of Odin, which had been decided by fate.

The moment Odin crossed the line, the sky opened up. The World Wolf, which had been fighting with the army of the frost giant King, Harmarti, against Thor’s army, appeared.

The magician king was riding on its back.

In addition to that, he used a strong, mysterious power. It was magic that could be said to be the real power of the magician king, which enabled him to survive even though the previous Five Fingers had been killed in the Great War.

The World Wolf opened its mouth widely. Then the magician king spread his arms and activated the magic he had been preparing for a long time.

A huge circle formed where Loki hung with the magician king, who was above him, as the center. The lives of all of the evil spirits and giants which were in its range were drained from them.

It was easily thousands of lives; perhaps ten thousand lives.

It was a magic that took only the lives of the ones which had symbols engraved on them but the ones that didn’t have symbols also got swept into it because of the amazing after-effect.

The life force that was gathered was transmitted to the magician king.

It was a simple structure of giving an offering and obtaining strength but a really strong magic as well.

Almost everyone that was inside of the circle collapsed to the ground. There were even some that dried out so much they started to break apart.

Only one person remained below the strong wind generated by the flow.

The king of Gods, Odin.

A mere pitiful old man in front of the World Wolf.

In the first place, Odin had no choices available.

He had hoped Thor could tie down the World Wolf but it was an idle thought.

Thor might have been looking at something that was presumed to be the World Wolf, but it was merely a fake created by the magician king.

The World Wolf growled and the magician king looked down at Odin.

What are you going to do now?

What can you do now?

Odin faced the magician king. He put all the sounds he heard behind him and spoke in the silence, which seemed fake.

Nothing.

He had come to rescue Loki but it was beyond his capabilities.

There was nothing Odin could do.

The magician king was perplexed at his calm look. But he then realized it. He urged the World Wolf forward while he absorbed the life force he had gathered. Then he tried to gulp down Odin in one bite.

But he was a bit faster.

It wasn’t Odin.

It was the man hanging on steel chains.

When he first faced him, Loki had read Odin’s thoughts.

He was an emotional man. He had sincerely put his life at stake to rescue Loki.

But he was also the cruel and sly God of war. He didn’t wish it for real and rather, was ignoring it but he knew of one hand he could play.

It was something that could happen when several conditions were met.

Odin and the magician king were gambling while showing their hand but that wasn’t true for Loki. He still had one more card available.

Loki, who had become powerless.

Loki, who could do nothing.

But regardless of that, he didn’t kill himself. He neglected the risks even though he knew that the king of Gods was going to come to rescue him.

It wasn’t because the magician king had prevented Loki from commiting suicide.

He had prepared one hand after he saw the same magic the magician king was using now a hundred years ago.

The reason Loki had entered the ranks of the magician king was also to prepare for this day that was going to come one day.

Loki looked at Odin.

Odin looked at Loki.

Tears didn’t flow from Odin’s only eye. Loki looked at his poor eyes, that couldn’t cry even though he wanted to because the tears had gotten dried up, and smiled.

What could happen when Odin came to rescue Loki?

Something that the magician king might do in the middle of the battlefield.

Everything turned out as Loki had expected. Odin had wished for Loki’s prediction to be wrong but it didn’t turn out that way. Odin was an excellent bait this time too.

When the magician king increased the speed of absorption, Loki activated the magic he had prepared for a hundred years. He didn’t even need magical power to activate it, so the plans of the magician king became useless.

He wouldn’t break the absorption magic. Rather, he would enter the flow.. He would change the flow itself, as releasing poison in a flowing river.

The magician king noticed the Loki’s tricks. He hurriedly tried to stop the absorption but it was too late to stop the flow. Loki’s life and magical power were mixed into the flow. They became a lethal poison and were transmitted to the magician king.

The magician king let out a roar and struggled and the World Wolf became bewildered.

Odin was still standing still. He looked at Loki and Loki looked beyond Odin.

It was because he wanted to see someone for the last time.

But he couldn’t see him. His vision started to darken and soon he couldn’t see anything.

But Loki still didn’t lose his smile. It was too late and he couldn’t see anymore but Odin had squeezed out the magical power he could in front of Odin and connected Loki with the one he wanted to see with his magic.

“Father!”

Heda screamed from far away. It was a cry. Loki forced himself to smile. The screams of the magician king became rougher and tears fell down from Loki’s eyes. He raised his head and tried to look at Fenrir but it was impossible now for him.

“For Asgard and the nine realms.”

It was the price for giving birth to two existences that wished to destroy the world.

Loki’s heart exploded. His last thread of life became the last poison and completely disrupted the magic of the magician king.

The World Wolf roared and the magician king released the concentrated power of life forcefully and struggled.

Odin closed his eye amidst the uss. He shed tears that he thought he wouldn’t be able to shed anymore and moved his hand.

The giant kings were running there.

The group of the Temple and the warriors of Valhalla that had noticed that the strategy had worked also came rushing there.

Freya activated her magic. She opened up a space door that she had prepared five days ago, only for this day. The magician king couldn’t stop Freya’s magic after receiving lethal damage.

It was the  secret plan that Odin had prepared to face the World Wolf and the magician king.

Hraesvelg exited the space door and spread his wings widely, and the black dragon, Nidhogg, roared.

Tae Ho, who was standing on the head of the black dragon, looked at the magician king and activated his saga.

[Saga: Idun’s Warrior]

The power of a Goddess, shining in gold.

Hraesvelg and Nidhogg charged towards the World Wolf. Tae Ho roared and several others that were only waiting for that moment clashed, with the magician king and Tae Ho at the center.

Everyone knew.

Today, right at this moment, this battle would decide the second Great War.

The battle had started.

It was a time when the sun was at its peak.

< Episode 44 – The Great War (4) > End

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