So, whether intentional or not, Rovi's actions after entering the Norse lands had, in fact, been pushing Ragnarok's early arrival in a roundabout way.
Seizing the identity of the "Wild Hunt," which belonged to Odin on the side of death, had weakened Odin's power on the side of chaos, indirectly strengthening the power of Ragnarok.
Using The Lance That Shines to the End of the World to lift the curtain of the Age of Gods and pierce open the passage between Jotunheim and Midgard, allowing the storm giants to enter Midgard, had likewise strengthened the influence of the chaotic side. No matter what present or future awaited them, the giants at that time had always been beings of chaos.
Even afterward—heavily injuring Thor, God of Thunder, and taking the Ice and Snow Goddess's Authority—everything had, intentionally or unintentionally, pushed Ragnarok's arrival forward.
Because only after Ragnarok began would the power of the gods upon Asgard continue to weaken.
Only then could Rovi make the burning seeds return to the side of order.
Turning "death" into "life."
Using the divine cores condensed from the concepts of gods to accomplish that step.
Of course, perhaps precisely because of this, the process by which Ragnarok arrived had also changed. The three winters Odin had once "prophesied" would come before it, that era in which people would be troubled by war and slaughter, had vanished without a trace.
"Skadi, next... I'll leave it to you!" Rovi turned his gaze and looked at the Ski Goddess behind him.
Skadi held the "secrets" of the gods. She held the greatest outflow of Mystery in the Norse lands.
Only she could drive these fragments of "divine cores" formed from the concepts of the gods.
"You don't need to tell me. I know what to do... This is something I already promised!" Skadi murmured softly, her long purple hair swaying as she slowly rose on the horse's back.
Her dress fluttered, and her legs, wrapped in black stockings, stood firm within the storm. A magic staff carved from black wood appeared in the Ski Goddess's hand. Brilliant light and shadow appeared in her eyes as she stared at the fragments of divine cores spat out by "Fafnir"...
She waved the magic staff.
Compared to the martial skill she had learned from Scathach, Skadi's magecraft accomplishment instead made Rovi's eyes brighten despite himself.
Flowing dark-purple light peeled open the divine cores' shells. The goddess, who both held the gods' secrets and possessed masterful magecraft, dismantled all the defenses on the divine cores with practiced ease, without damaging them in the slightest.
Specks of light shone like glittering fireflies.
Skadi raised her hand. She said, "Go—"
"Go ignite that fire!" Rovi followed up naturally.
Then their faces lifted, and their eyes met.
Skadi smiled with extraordinary happiness.
Rovi smiled as well.
The storm giants walked slowly, and specks of divine cores fell upon their bodies. The seeds burning in their chests suddenly expanded as if bursting open, blooming like blazing suns and reflecting endless brilliance within the storm.
Earth, ocean, ice, harvest, battle, hearth...
Divine core after divine core fell upon the giants. The roars echoing within the storm gradually faded, and the giants' figures continued to shrink as they advanced.
From giants, they became gods.
Disorder moved toward primordial chaos.
"So this is your answer!?" Seeing this, the lingering will of Ymir, the primordial giant, was both shocked and furious. "You seize divine Authority and become new gods!?"
"That's right. This is my choice!"
"Ymir, the age that belongs to giants has already passed. Chaos will not disappear, but order is the main body that leads the world."
"The Storm Divine Race are my people." Rovi laughed and spoke loudly. "From this day forth—"
"I am the Great God of the Norse!"
"Great god! Great god! Great god!" Those former giants who had become gods shouted.
They no longer had their previous coarse and rough appearance. Among them were men and women. The men were either tall and strong or slender and graceful; the women were either youthful and beautiful or full-bodied and noble... Others might not be able to see it, but how could Skadi fail to recognize them? Those were clearly the appearances of the gods of Asgard.
He would not only seize their divine Authority, but also replace their existences.
The only thing that remained unchanged was the storm coiling around them.
That was their symbol.
The division between old and new.
They were not the "Aesir" and "Vanir" of the divine realm of Asgard, but the Storm Divine Race, "Stepden."
"The replacement of old by new is before us!"
Wild wind swept in every direction, and the legion of storms ascended the stage of the Age of Gods.
Wherever they passed, like kindled firelight, the Age of Gods' curtain of the "Nine Realms" originating from the World Tree was torn apart and burned to nothing.
In its place was the naked truth of the planet.
Not gods of the Age of Gods.
Gods of the planet.
The storms upon them were the winds of the planet's true face, drawn out from the primordial storm.
They were planetary gods.
Gods who did not rely on nature, but could resonate with the planet itself.
"Our power..."
"Our Divinity is draining away. Our divine rank is declining—"
"Odin, why have you still not acted!?"
The gods of Asgard in the heavens declined in power because of the appearance of the Storm Divine Race, and naturally began losing ground step by step.
Black dragon Nidhogg flaunted his might, and the demon wolf Fenrir swallowed the twin gods of the sun and moon.
The sky of the human world instantly turned pitch-black, and the seeds flickering upon the Storm Divine Race became the only light.
"Gods—what an exciting scene!"
On a certain high mountain, Beowulf let out a wild howl.
He had joined the legion of storms, becoming one of its warriors with a living human body.
"The malice and chaos that exist in this world should be swept clean!" someone whispered. Within the legion of storms, the greatsword he swung burst forth with radiant brilliance. "This is my—Sigurd's destiny!"
The Valkyrie who had fallen from the sky was swept along in confusion and joined the legion of storms, brushing past the hero who wielded the greatsword.
"Fate" had begun to twist—even shatter.
The changes in the heavens brought turmoil to the human world.
The Storm Divine Race did not take part in the conflict. They only protected the mortals of Midgard, the surging storm wrapping the humans of Midgard in the eye of its vortex.
Those giants and Demonic Beasts naturally went around them.
At that same moment, Odin's wife, Frigg, queen of heaven and goddess of love, finally pushed open the door to the inner hall where Odin was.
Within the resplendent palace, pillars coiled upward, surrounding a throne carved from jade.
And upon that throne...
There was only a corpse.
An enormous skeleton still glowed with the golden light of Divinity. The scepter by its hand and the crown on its head represented its great identity.
Odin—
was dead!
Boom, boom, boom!
At the edge of the Nine Realms, thunder crashed and surged upon the enormous head of Jormungandr. The strongest war god of the Norse, Thor by name, had become even stronger after his battle with Rovi.
The talent of "Sefar" was fundamentally infinite growth. Thor's shell had originated from that Vanguard of the Umbral Star, so naturally, it possessed that same characteristic.
However, he could not obtain all of its attributes. He had only extracted one of them—
Using the concept of "battle" as nourishment for his own growth.
So long as he fought strong enemies, he could become stronger. That was why, even if it meant defying the God-King's order, he had fought Rovi before.
Because he yearned for battle, and yearned even more to become stronger.
And so, relying on the growth from that instant, he finally suppressed Jormungandr, who should have been his mortal foe according to Odin.
"Hiss!"
Jormungandr roared, his enormous serpent head constantly colliding with the thunder, yet there was nothing he could do.
The Norse sea rolled without end. Shining lightning conducted wildly through the water, like countless blades stabbing into Jormungandr's body.
Heavy rain surged, and the wilderness in every direction grew dim as if hidden behind a curtain.
The God of Thunder struck his hammer.
Jormungandr raged, roared, and hissed.
But he could not change his disadvantage, nor could he change the fact that he was only one step away from being hammered back to the abyssal seafloor by Thor, God of Thunder.
Defeating Jormungandr without injury.
After that, Thor, God of Thunder, would be able to turn and deal with the giants, deal with Nidhogg and Fenrir.
The current him possessed that strength.
But that was only if... everything could proceed as he imagined.
Clang. The God of Thunder's hand, raised with the heavy hammer, paused in midair, and the shining thunder seemed to freeze for an instant.
The God of Thunder's divine core... was draining away.
That instant of change caused a momentary delay in his personality.
And so Jormungandr seized the opening and rose. His raised serpent tail, like ten thousand layers of mountains, slammed heavily into Thor, God of Thunder.
The sea was split apart, and endless water was flung into the sky.
Thor, God of Thunder, crashed straight into a massive iceberg, raising a great cloud of dust with a roar.
"What... is going on?" Cracks appeared across his cold armor, and the cubes rotating at his chest and arms suddenly slowed to an extreme degree.
Thor's eyes widened, but laughter answered his confusion. "Not bad, not bad. You've done quite well!"
"Thor, God of Thunder, you really are the 'tree's' final survival instinct. Hohohaha!"
A wild voice with a hint of clownish absurdity fell into Thor's ears. He widened his eyes slightly behind the pale mask and looked at the figure that had appeared.
A slender "clown" slid across the ice, raised a hand, and bowed to him.
"Loki?" Thor, God of Thunder's voice still carried a thunderous hum. "Was this your doing?"
Lightning shone again. The heat released by the friction of thin arcs of electricity melted a large portion of the huge ice layer, also allowing Thor, God of Thunder, to break free and step onto the ice.
He instinctively moved to attack Loki.
"Yes, but also no!" The smile lifting the corners of Loki's mouth did not change in the slightest, and that certainly did not stop him from speaking. "I said it before. I like a changing world, the seed of revolution."
"But actually, there is one thing I never said."
"And that is—"
"I hate things from beyond the stars!"
The fury that had surfaced in Thor, God of Thunder, suddenly froze.
Beyond the stars...
"Are you talking about the World Tree!?" Thor, God of Thunder's voice lowered slightly, his words filled with confusion and incomprehension.
Though the World Tree was power from beyond the stars, it was also the support that had truly allowed the gods to continue existing until now...
Thor hated Loki, but he also had to acknowledge the wisdom of this "god of change." Loki could not possibly fail to understand that. Yet if he understood, how could he despise the World Tree's existence?
"Hohohaha! That's right, I mean the World Tree. What a ridiculous thing, manipulating the power of gods, manipulating the existence of the gods!"
"Look at what you are now, Thor, God of Thunder. Are you still Thor, God of Thunder!?"
"The gods of Asgard long ago became the so-called World Tree's 'tentacles'!"
Thor, God of Thunder, froze. He instinctively wanted to angrily rebuke Loki, instinctively wanted to kill him, yet for some reason, he felt Loki's words might be right.
What had he been like at the start?
Though warlike, he had also been straightforward. Though he loved martial combat, he had not been fond of killing. He had preferred making friends through battle, loved drinking and harvests. He was the God of Thunder, but also the guardian of farmers... and now?
Within his pale body, only the obsessions of "battlelust" and "becoming stronger" remained.
The rotating cubes held only the obsession to "survive Ragnarok."
Was that him? Or... was it not?
"Not only you. The gods in the heavens are the same once they shed the shell of Divinity and lose the concealment of their divine cores!"
"Ragnarok? It actually arrived long ago!"
"Hohohaha—"
Loki laughed madly as he looked toward the World Tree, which kept shaking and trembling, and toward the "gods" on its summit, panicked and terrified.
As their divine cores were encroached upon, as their Divinity drained away, the appearances of the gods also changed. Under normal circumstances, they should have returned to nothingness, but at this moment they still existed, exposing pale shells and rotating azure cubes.
They were exactly like Thor, God of Thunder.
They had long since ceased to be the gods of Asgard.
They were merely the "tentacles" of the World Tree, who believed themselves still to be gods.
What was going on?
In that moment, not only Thor, God of Thunder, fell into a daze. Even Skadi, standing high above in the world of the true planet, felt somewhat terrified.
Were those gods?
Were those... the gods of Asgard who had once stood beside her?
"Of course not," Rovi said, only tightening his grip slightly around the storm lance. Behind the cold iron mask, his expression was rather solemn.
The gods of Asgard had been gone long ago. Back then, to continue the prosperity of the Norse Age of Gods, Odin had cultivated the remains of the Vanguard of the Umbral Star into the World Tree. But how could the power of the Vanguard of the Umbral Star be so easily taken for their own?
After that remaining power became the World Tree, it continued corroding the so-called "Nine Realms," corroding the gods upon the tree.
It turned the gods into its own tentacles—and the gods remained utterly unaware.
Among the gods, only Skadi had not been corroded because she was born the latest, and so she became the "purest" goddess.
"Odin possessed the wisdom of the world, yet he never knew how to use it. He was only a learned fool!" On the sea's ice, Loki looked up at the wild, towering Jormungandr, his comically painted face twisting without end.
If someone had insulted Odin like this in front of Thor before, the hot-tempered God of Thunder likely would have brought his hammer down on the spot.
But now, as Loki spoke and Thor gradually sensed the strangeness in himself, he only remained silent.
"—I once tried to stop him, but it was useless. He still insisted on using power from beyond the stars. But as early as several thousand years ago, once he discovered the heresy, he did regret it. Only by then, the power from beyond the stars had already sunk bone-deep. The gods had all been controlled by the World Tree and could no longer break free."
"And so, under his instruction, I personally designed this 'Ragnarok'!"
"You..." Thor could not help being stunned.
"Surprised? Terrified? Or delighted? Only when the gods vanish can the power from beyond the stars be thoroughly eradicated. Only then can the world be restored to its original state!"
"And so I personally ended Odin's life. I controlled his messengers and issued every order in his name. I personally awakened Ymir's consciousness. With Ymir's power, I gave birth to Hel, Fenrir, and Jormungandr, yet made Ymir believe he had plotted against me. From the Inner Sea of the Planet, I found the planet's self-defense mechanism against power from beyond the stars—the black dragon, Nidhogg!"
He had single-handedly brought about this "Ragnarok."
Loki, God of Sophistry and also god of wisdom, had always been the most terrifying among the gods.
Because he was both mad and meticulous.
Because he had been born a giant, yet had joined the gods of Asgard.
He possessed both ultimate rational order and ultimate mad chaos.
Boom, boom, boom!
Thor, God of Thunder—thunder rose and flashed.
But Loki only bared his teeth and smiled.
Laughing. Laughing madly.
The mad clown stood at the center of the sea, yet his unrestrained laughter spread throughout the Nine Realms.
Rovi raised the lance in his hand.
The Storm Divine Race had already taken form.
The God of Sophistry, who had planned for every contingency, had miscalculated only one thing: him. Only this King of the Wild Hunt, who rose with the current. Only this King of Storms, who appeared with the opportunity.
But Rovi's appearance had likewise been incorporated into Loki's plan.
He let him act as he wished.
In the same way, Rovi had also silently allowed Loki's plan to proceed, pushing it forward.
He knew something was abnormal in the Norse lands.
The white crystals mixed into the blood of living beings had never been anything good.
But Rovi had never spoken of it openly.
This was also cooperation in silence.
A win-win between the sage of old, today's God of Hosts, King of the Wild Hunt, the new great god of the Norse, and the god of change—where both could achieve their aims.
"Hohohaha..."
"Go on, go on!"
"I will applaud and celebrate for you here, new king of the world—"
"New Great God!"
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