Chapter 444: Ragnarok (2)

"Alright, let us be off," stated Uranus.

The gods of Olympus gathered in the Hall of Protection nodded with stiff expressions. A massive war between gods on the scale of Ragnarok had not occurred since even before Demon God Bauli's insurgence. Even immortal beings like themselves could not help but be anxious.

"Begin," Gaia commanded as she stood at the forefront of the formation.

Uranus raised his arm and the floor of the Hall of Protection shone.

'The divine realm, huh?'

Oh Kang-Woo's eyes shone as he stared at the light particles getting brighter. He had only heard about it; this was his first time going there.

'I wonder what it's like?'

Considering how gods used their energy to manifest into the physical realm, he guessed that it wouldn't be some sort of utopia; if that were the case, the gods would not go out of their way to manifest into the physical realm even if they were freed of their restrictions.

'But I doubt it'd be like the Nine Hells either.'

Kang-Woo had no idea, so he stopped thinking about it and waited leisurely. Once the light filling the Hall of Protection became unbearably bright, Kang-Woo and the other gods turned into light and disappeared.

Riiing.

[You have entered the First Realm. The entry of those who do not possess Deific Essence will be forcibly restricted.]

A blue message window popped up in front of him.

'Oh, so people without Deific Essence couldn't enter in the first place.'

He knew it was the right call not to take Guardians with him. If only those with Deific Essence could enter, only Han Seol-Ah and Layla would have been able to.

'Well, I never had the intention of bringing them anyway.'

Kang-Woo looked around. The first thing he thought was that it was empty. It was black and void like he was in outer space and islands were floating here and there. Branches of an unfathomably large tree were connected to the floating islands.

'That must be the World Tree.'

Elune had said that the World Tree was a pillar for the Triad.

'So this is what she meant.'

This was the First Realm; in other words, it was the divine realm of Earth. If they traveled down the branches, they would likely come across the divine realms of Aernor and Huan.

'Hm?'

Kang-Woo noticed something odd as he was looking at the World Tree.

"Why is that area disconnected?" he asked.

A portion of one of the branches was plunged into darkness.

"Oh, that's..." Gaia continued with a sunken voice, "The path to the Second Realm... the divine realm of Huan."

"Was it always that dark?"

"No." Gaia shook her head. "Do you remember when the World Tree was momentarily corrupted?"

"Ah, yes."

"Since then, the path to the Second Realm has been covered in darkness and blocked for some unknown reason."

Kang-Woo narrowed his eyes.

'Come to think of it, Aernor and Earth were connected, but not Huan.'

He had never been there or heard anything about Huan, but he at least knew that it was one of the Triad. The fact that it was not connected to Earth meant one of two things.

'It's either further to Earth than Aernor is, or... it has already fallen.'

Kang-Woo made a mental note to learn about it in more detail later.

'It's not the time to worry about it.'

He needed to focus on the war that was about to take place. Kang-Woo and the gods of Olympus arrived at an island lined with Greek palaces that one would commonly see in cartoons.

'It's smaller than I expected.'

Olympus was smaller than Jeju Island. It somewhat made sense since no matter how many gods there were, there would not be as many as the population of humans on Earth.

'I can understand why gods want to manifest into the physical realm now.'

The world of the gods was filled with nothing but a void. Kang-Woo was not referring only to the background or infrastructure; just being in this place felt like a portion of his emotions was getting cut out. It was to the point that he was honestly impressed that gods were able to live in a place like this for this long.

'How about Asgard?'

Kang-Woo looked for the stage where the war would take place— no, he was about to.

'I guess I won't even have to go out of my way to find it.'

Kang-Woo chuckled as he stared at a giant branch that connected Olympus to a different island. On the branch that was easily several dozens of kilometers long were thousands of gods standing in formation. At the forefront was a one-eyed old god with a bushy white beard on a war horse, glaring at Gaia.

"Odin," Gaia muttered as she also glared at Odin with a blazing gaze.

Rumble!

The energies of Top-rank gods clashing caused the branch to vibrate.

"Gaia..." Odin pointed his long spear at Gaia as his blue eye shone with resentment. "You will pay for the choice you've made."

It was the phrase he had carved into Zeus's forehead. Gaia bit her lip and clenched her fists.

"Were you so dissatisfied with keeping the gods in check... for the sake of preventing chaos in the physical realm?" Gaia asked.

Odin had been so dissatisfied to the point that he immediately killed Zeus whom Gaia had sent to offer a peaceful resolution.

Odin's eye shone. It was already far too late for them to come to a compromise through conversation. Their willpower was the only thing that remained.

Odin answered without hesitation, "Gods are not the ones who should be kept in check. It is the humans."

"..."

"They have lost their faith. Our existence has become but fiction to them. We must restore their forgotten faith... their respect for us, our glory."

"..."

"Who but us could possibly stop the impending doom?"

"So you... for that sort of reason... killed Zeus?!"

Rumble—!!

Gaia's scream shook space itself. Blinding light poured out from her.

"Hah." Odin chuckled at the absurdity. He smirked and said coldly, "You do not have the right to say that."

He was so speechless that he could not even get mad at Gaia's shamelessness after killing Thor with her own hands.

"As I'd thought... You were never fit for the position of guardian deity," Odin remarked.

He had passed down the seat of Earth's guardian deity to her after getting greatly injured after the battle against the Demon God, but he did not expect her to be this shameless and impertinent. He even thought that Bael managed to take Gaia's privileges as guardian deity due to her incompetence.

Deathly silence fell between the two Top-rank gods. They raised their hands simultaneously, realizing there was no point in further conversation. The tension in the air reached its limit.

"Raaaaaaaaaaahhh!!!"

Odin's roar shook the battlefield. The white war horse raised its front legs. A raging storm condensed and gathered around Odin's spear edge. He then pulled back his arm as far as he could and threw Gungnir.

Crackle—!!

The compressed storm was unleashed, its unfathomable power destroying everything in its path.

"Aaarrrggghhh!"

The gods of Olympus screamed as they stared at the spear destroying everything around it. Their formation was destroyed by the storm that tore apart their Deific Essence barrier just from making contact with it.

"Odin."

Just then, Gaia walked forward. The white light pouring out of her spread out like a tent.

Boom—!!!

The barrier of light and the storm collided. The several-kilometer World Tree branch was beginning to crack. The gods of Olympus and Asgard clashed against each other atop the breaking World Tree branch.

Clang! Crack! Crush!

Deific Essences collided with each other. Attacks enveloped in Divinity filled the battlefield.

"Die!"

"For Asgard!"

A battle between gods was no different from that between humans other than that they used Divinity. The battlefield was filled with curses and stormed with emotions.

"Fuuu." Kang-Woo took a deep breath as he looked down at the fighting gods.

He was used to the clanging of metal, the barrage of screams and curses, the thick scent of blood, and the disgusting stench of excrement.

'Nice.'

Kang-Woo couldn't help but smile. The battle that he was watching from afar made his heart race.

"Haaa," he sighed ecstatically as powerful hunger paralyzed his brain.

He felt like his thirst was drying him up.

'Now, then.'

It was time for a light appetizer.

Tap.

He lightly tapped his feet. His hand ripped open and a wave of gold spread across the World Tree branch. The light was so faint, unlike his title of God of Splendor, that one would never notice unless they paid close attention.

'And no one would be focusing on the ground during a heated battle like this.'

As long as Kang-Woo focused on concealing his energy without participating in the battle, he was confident in being able to fool even Elune.

Fwoooom.

The corpses of the dead gods were absorbed through the Authority of Predation. Of course, he did not outright devour their entire corpses; there was no way that the gods wouldn't notice the corpses disappearing even if they were in the middle of a war. Instead of eating their corpses, Kang-Woo was sucking the energy within them.

"Haaa."

Kang-Woo closed his eyes and enjoyed the Deific Essence flowing into him.

Riiing.

[Obtaining the Deific Essence of the Lower Intermediate-rank god 'Baldr.' The rank of the Deific Essence obtained will be lowered because the entire body was not predated.]

[Obtaining the Deific Essence of the Upper Intermediate-rank god 'Susanoo.' The rank of the Deific Essence obtained will be lowered because the entire body was not predated.]

[Obtaining the Deific Essence of the Bottom-rank god 'Abd al-Ali.' The rank of...]

Bell chimes continued to ring in his head. Kang-Woo would usually complain about it being too loud, but the usually annoying chimes sounded blissful due to the Deific Essence flowing into him.

'With this...' Kang-Woo clenched his fists and his heart raced. 'I'll be able to obtain it.'

Transcendent-rank Deific Essence, the power superior to Top-rank.

'No.'

Kang-Woo bit his lip. That was not good enough.

'I have to obtain it, whatever it takes.'

Even if he had to get an unfathomable amount of blood on his hands. Even if he had to be weighed down by intense resentment, lament, despair, and vengeful desire. Even if he had to send a son's severed head to his father. Even if he had to deceive a mother who had her son's severed head in her arms.

Kang-Woo gritted his teeth as he recalled Bael, who felt like he was engraved in Kang-Woo's brain. His heart felt like it was getting trampled on. An overwhelming sense of anxiety swept over him and blurred his vision.

'If I can't obtain it...'

Kang-Woo recalled a nightmarish hill of corpses filled with mangled flesh and pools of blood, and himself collapsed on his knees atop the hill wailing. He could see faces overlapping those of the corpses making up the hill; that of Han Seol-Ah, Lilith, Balrog, and Kim Si-Hun. The faces continued to overlap and explode.

He could hear Bael's laughter. It kept going and going... It did not stop.

"More."

Kang-Woo looked up to the top of the World Tree. He could faintly see Gaia facing Odin. His burning thirst and unbearable hunger set him ablaze.

"I need... more."

He slowly walked toward Odin.