Odin recalled the first time she had encountered Nidhogg.
A very long time ago.
Back when she had planted the seed of Yggdrasil, and the flourishing Yggdrasil had come to support the Nine Worlds, and the world had only just begun to stabilize.
A rumor she had heard by chance.
‘Deep in the darkness, at the very bottom of the world, there lives a terrifying dragon.’
She did not know who had started it, nor when it had begun to spread, but at some point, such a rumor had started circulating.
Odin, intrigued by the rumor, sat upon her throne, Hliðskjálf, to ascertain the truth, intending to observe Niflheim, the place people spoke of.
Because Niflheim was a place inhabited only by the dead, she normally paid it no attention at all and had some trouble finding it, but with practiced manipulation, Odin soon located her target.
And there, just as the rumors said, was a colossal dragon.
A colossal dragon with black and blue scales, breathing poison that melted the earth with a single exhalation.
The dragon spent nearly all of its time asleep, and on the rare occasions it woke, it gnawed at the roots of Yggdrasil.
On top of that, while it slept after eating the roots, its already immense body grew even larger.
From then on, Odin began observing the Dragon of Hatred, Nidhogg.
Because when the prophesied Ragnarok came to pass in the distant future, she did not know whether it would become an enemy or an ally.
If it could become an ally, she intended to draw Nidhogg over to her side.
And so time passed, until Nidhogg’s bulk had grown one and a half times larger than when she had first seen him.
When his body had become so enormous that even most mountains could no longer compare to Nidhogg.
As usual, Odin sat upon her throne and attempted to observe Nidhogg, only to encounter an unexpected situation.
“?!?!?!”
Nidhogg’s eyes had met hers.
Before Odin could withdraw her gaze, stunned by the thought that the observation of Hliðskjálf, which had never once been detected by anyone until now, had been discovered—
From Nidhogg’s wide-open maw, a powerful poison that could melt even a god was sprayed toward Odin.
“Kyaaaaaak?!”
Though she knew it could not reach her, Odin was horrified by the poison that melted everything around it, and for the first time in a very long while, let out a scream befitting her outward appearance.
Then, calming her startled heart, she slumped back onto her throne and recalled the sight she had just witnessed.
Nidhogg, spewing poison at her with eyes filled with hatred toward some unknown target.
“Eek… I should avoid having anything to do with him if I can.”
That was the conclusion Odin reached after observing him.
When Odin, having briefly recalled that encounter that was not quite an encounter from the past, opened her eyes again.
The place she saw was not the magnificent and vast palace of Asgard where Odin had once lived, but the newly built, bleak and desolate palace of the Second Asgard.
Inside the audience chamber were only Odin and Freyja.
Odin sat almost lying upon the throne, while Freyja glared at her with eyes that seemed displeased.
Freyja opened her mouth in a voice full of anger.
“Just now. Did you tell me to abandon a Valkyrie?”
“Yes. As you know, now that she’s been caught by Nidhogg, there is no hope for that Valkyrie. It wouldn’t be strange if she had melted completely into liquid by now.”
“How can you be so sure? And even if that is the case, the Valkyrie’s revenge…!”
“Look at reality. There are far too many things we need to resolve right now to take revenge immediately.”
From installing the barrier inside the Gate to separating that Gate from the system and seizing control of it, they had many mountains to cross in order to completely turn this world into the Second Asgard.
Freyja, who knew that well, could not offer any rebuttal, and Odin sighed before speaking as if to admonish her.
“Haah… I’m not saying we won’t take revenge. I’m simply saying now is not the time. Once we have completely made this place our territory, it won’t be too late to take revenge then.”
“…I know we need time. But… I don’t want to lose anyone else.”
“……”
“I abandoned my family and my friends to come here, but precisely because of that, I don’t want to lose any more.”
Freyja’s face twisted in pain as she thought of the family and other gods she had been forced to leave behind in a ruined world, and the same was true for Odin, whose expression also contorted.
“Freyja…”
“Fine. I understand. I know very well that this is pointless stubbornness. So, promise me.”
“Promise you what?”
“That once the work we must do here is more or less finished, you will definitely take revenge on Nidhogg.”
“Of course. Just as we are under restrictions, Nidhogg is not in a normal state either. Once Asgard is rebuilt, we can bypass the system, regain our original strength, and take our revenge.”
At Odin’s unhesitating assurance, still firmly believing that Nidhogg had grown weaker, Freyja trusted her words and turned away.
“Then I’ll go make the remaining preparations.”
“Very well. Call me when the preparations are complete.”
***
“Is someone talking about me again somewhere?”
“What is it?”
“Nothing. My ear itches.”
It probably was not Ratatoskr, who was still recovering his strength, so had Odin or Freyja been badmouthing me behind my back?
I carefully scratched my ear with a sharp claw.
“That looks dangerous. Shall I do it for you?”
“No. It’s fine.”
Declining Baek Yeon’s offer to clean my ear, I sat leisurely and watched Shin Sua, who was training hard.
Wearing Valkyrie armor for her training, Shin Sua drew mana from her body and thinly wrapped it around the armor.
And a woman wearing identical armor, who had been watching beside her, chided her.
“That is not it. You do it like this.”
The one personally teaching Shin Sua how to handle that power was none other than the Valkyrie Linnea.
She, whom we had captured several weeks ago, had nearly reached the point of being tortured in order to extract information, but surprisingly, she was perfectly fine.
Because Linnea, realizing that Baek Yeon truly intended to torture her, had proposed a deal.
She would teach Shin Sua how to use the power of a Valkyrie, and Baek Yeon the Valkyrie spear art bestowed by Odin.
In exchange for giving up those two things, Linnea had survived unscathed despite not divulging any information.
“You do it—like this.”
“I don’t understand what that ‘like this’ is supposed to be.”
“You must not lightly wrap mana around the armor. You have to feed mana to the armor naturally, the way a sponge absorbs water. Only then can you draw out one hundred percent of the armor’s performance and use it as if it were your own body.”
“Even if you say that, the armor absorbing mana… It’s not easy.”
“It’s all right. If you keep at it, you’ll be able to do it soon. Let us try again!”
To me it all looked the same, so I had no idea what the difference was, but Shin Sua must have felt something different, because she had been keeping Linnea there for over a week and practicing only that.
“Still, it’s fortunate that there seems to be progress.”
“There’s progress?”
“Yes. At first, it felt as though the armor’s unique power was merely layered over Miss Shin Sua’s mana, but now I can see the two powers gradually mixing.”
“Is that so. I guess it wasn’t entirely pointless.”
“If she becomes able to freely use the power once it has fully become one, Miss Shin Sua will grow even stronger.”
“Ooh… Then what about you?”
Just as Shin Sua was learning how to handle the power of a Valkyrie, Baek Yeon had also been taught the spear art used by the Valkyries, so I asked about that.
“It is a fine spear art. In particular, the throwing technique is outstanding, on a level wholly different from that of humans.”
“Well, that old geezer was good at throwing spears.”
The one who had bestowed spear art upon the Valkyries was Odin.
And Odin also used a spear as her main weapon, but in particular, her spear art centered not on fighting with the spear in hand, but on javelin techniques, throwing the spear.
“By old geezer, you mean?”
“Odin. The king of the gods, who slipped into this world like me. She’s the sort who carries a hundred serpents inside her, so be careful if you ever meet her.”
“Understood.”
Even if I warned them like this, if Odin set her mind on doing something, Shin Sua and Baek Yeon would have no way to deal with her.
Her magical ability was troublesome even for my main body, so if she changed her appearance and approached them, they would be done for in an instant.
Now that I knew Odin existed, I was wondering whether I should prepare some sort of countermeasure, when—
Bzzzzzz—
A vibration came from Baek Yeon’s pocket, and she took out her smartphone and answered the call.
“Yes… Yes… I will try telling him for now, but do not expect much.”
After speaking with someone for a moment, Baek Yeon hung up and said to me.
“The Association has contacted us.”
“What did they say?”
“They say there is something they would like to ask of Lord Nidhogg.”
“A request for me?”
Ever since they had formed an expedition force and explored the Gate back then, the Association had not come looking for me.
They had discovered the two double Gates inside the Dragon’s Nest Gate where my main body was, but after nearly being annihilated exploring just one of them, exploration of the double Gates inside the Dragon’s Nest was forbidden, and the Association, with my permission, merely paid a fee and mined the resources inside the Gate.
The Association, which had not contacted me for several weeks, was now reaching out… Could it be?
“What kind of request?”
“They say another Gate fluctuation incident has occurred.”
As expected.
According to Shin Sua, around this time another Gate fluctuation incident was supposed to break out, so this was something I already knew.
And I also knew that inside that Gate was something I needed.
“Don’t tell me their request is for me to do something about the inside of the fluctuated Gate?”
“They did ask for help exploring the interior, but if that is impossible, they requested assistance in case a potential Gate Break occurs.”
“Tell them I accept.”
“Understood.”
While Baek Yeon contacted the Association again, I called Shin Sua, who was training hard.
“Lord Nidhogg. Did you call?”
“Yeah. They say it finally appeared.”
“By finally, you mean?”
“The Gate fluctuation.”
“Ah. Finally.”
Together with Shin Sua, who answered as if she had been waiting for this, we prepared to hunt a giant.