At the edge of the world, as I sat watching the world burn and wondering what I should do from here on out—
With a colossal gale that seemed capable of tearing the world to shreds, an eagle as enormous as I was descended from the sky and slammed down onto the fire giant’s head.
—Kreeeeee!!
“Surt! How dare you set fire to my nest! You must be eager to die!”
The eagle that seized the head of the fire giant, Surt, in her sharp talons and let out a shriek brimming with rage was none other than the eagle auntie I had fought not long ago.
Come to think of it, the top of Yggdrasil was Auntie’s house.
Burning that auntie’s house down—he must not be ordinary, but the same was true of Eagle Auntie.
Besides, with her house gone, Eagle Auntie looked angrier than I had ever seen her.
Just before her talons, wreathed in a storm, tore Surt apart, he opened his mouth.
“Greatest of eagles. This is the end that was foretold long ago, destruction for the sake of a new beginning. Do not interfere.”
“What? The time has already come?”
“It has. So accept the end obediently and join the cycle.”
“…Tch! I have no intention of interfering with what was foretold, but I have no intention of joining it either. Handle the end yourselves.”
Eagle Auntie, whose anger had subsided after only a few words, released Surt’s head with a displeased expression and backed away.
No, that Eagle Auntie is backing down like this?
It really must be time for the world to end.
Flapping her wings wide, Eagle Auntie passed Surt and came toward me, landing nearby.
“What are you sitting there staring blankly for? Did you perhaps get hit in the head wrong during our last fight?”
“Eagle Auntie. I heard even your nest got blown away. Are you really just going to leave him like that? I think you’re the one whose head got injured, not me.”
“You damned lizard… I told you not to call me that!”
Whack!!
“Gaaah!”
A massive lump of wind gathered in midair and smacked the back of my head.
Since she was leaving Surt alone after he destroyed her nest, I wondered if she really had hurt her head, but judging by how she reacted to the word auntie, her temper was unchanged.
After smacking my head a few more times, Auntie let out a deep sigh and explained the situation.
“Kid, this is the end that has been ordained since the distant past. It is the trigger that ends the age of gods and begins a new world. Do I look happy when my nest has been burned to ashes? It is simply that there is nothing good to be gained from defying fate, so I am complying.”
“What you’re saying is too hard for me to understand, Auntie.”
The end, fate, and all that.
For me, who had spent my time in Niflheim eating, sleeping, and playing while thinking of it as my reward for working hard in my previous life, it was all far too difficult.
“I told you not to call me Auntie! Ahem… You, who only stick to the bottom and eat and sleep, may not know this, but going against the flow brings fierce backlash. It is not as if my life is at stake, and it is not worth defying fate merely because my nest burned down. Just understand it that way.”
“So anyway, you’re saying it’s a natural thing, so I should just watch?”
“Yes.”
And so Eagle Auntie joined me as a bystander and observer watching the world, and everything else, burn to nothing.
No, I thought it was only Eagle Auntie, but when I looked again, I could see Ratatoskr as well, shoulders slumped between Auntie’s feathers.
“Haa…”
“What? I didn’t think you’d be dead, but you really did survive without even a scratch.”
Since the world was ending anyway, I dropped the atmosphere I usually maintained in order to pretend to be solemn and openly sneered at her, but Ratatoskr only kept wearing that same gloomy expression even at my mockery.
“I know you two are not on good terms, but do not do that now.”
“Why? Did something happen?”
“She is an apostle, or perhaps an incarnation, with part of her mind connected to Yggdrasil. Now that Yggdrasil is burning, she must feel an emptiness as if a part of herself has been torn away.”
“Uh…”
I had been thinking of lightly teasing her because it was rare to see her so down, but it seemed I had picked the wrong time.
To think there was such a circumstance behind it.
“Uh… sorry.”
“It’s fine. I already knew an ignorant pig-lizard like you was uncultured…”
“Hey, even when I’m trying to comfort you—”
“Tsk!”
I growled in irritation at the venom that came back after I had gone out of my way to comfort her, but my anger was instantly suppressed when Eagle Auntie’s wing struck the back of my head.
Why only me…!
It felt unfair, but there were no rainbows here who usually listened to my complaints, nor were there any guys I could at least call friends.
Swallowing my resentment, I gave up on teasing Ratatoskr or taking revenge and turned my gaze forward again.
Even as we talked, Surt had been diligently burning the world, and now the end was truly right before our eyes.
Most of the world had either collapsed or was on the verge of collapsing, and all that remained now was Asgard, where those arrogant beings who called themselves gods resided.
Perhaps judging that attacking Asgard alone was too much, Surt crossed the Rainbow Bridge together with countless fire giants.
And the moment they crossed the bridge, Surt and the fire giants charged at the gods guarding Asgard and the warriors they had chosen.
A chaotic battle began in an instant, and countless fire giants and warriors died one after another.
Eagle Auntie watched the gods’ desperate struggle for survival with a sneer.
“Meaningless flailing.”
“Is it? Still, if that sinister one or that dumb brute steps in, I think they might have a chance…”
“Are you talking about Odin and Thor? Certainly, if those two were here, the tide of battle might change. But they already have deaths appointed to them, so they cannot help them.”
“Those two are going to die?”
“Yes. They are fated to be bitten to death by the wolf and serpent they cast away.”
I had not expected that at all.
That sinister, sly old man and that god who was stupidly strong were destined to die?
I recalled my encounters with them in the past.
Odin, the sinister and sly old man, had suddenly proposed a wager, deceived me, and taken my scales and poison, while Thor, stupidly strong and nothing else, had called me an evil dragon the moment we met and fried me with lightning.
As I thought back on my history with the two, I naturally nodded at their deaths.
“They did rack up a lot of karma.”
“It seems they were flailing about, trying somehow to avoid the end, but if it were that easy, it would not be fate. On the contrary, those actions likely earned them fate’s hatred and only increased their enemies.”
True. I was just good-natured, but if someone else had suffered the same things I had, they would probably be leading the charge to wipe out the gods by now.
I nodded in agreement with Eagle Auntie’s sharp remark.
At that moment, a murderous howl rang out across the world.
—Awooooooo!!
“It seems Odin is dead.”
“Already?”
“Yes. Those eyes of yours are not ornaments, so track that sound just now.”
At Eagle Auntie’s words, I nodded and concentrated power into both eyes.
Unlike the dragons that appeared in fantasy novels, I had not a shred of talent for magic and could not use it, but a dragon was still a dragon; my eyes were special.
Let’s see… Well, would you look at that. He really is dead.
Before a silver wolf as enormous as Eagle Auntie and me, its mouth stained with blood, Odin lay as a cold corpse with two-thirds of his body blown away.
Perhaps because it was no ordinary creature, having killed Odin and all, it noticed my gaze in an instant and shot a murderous glare this way… but so what?
It was true that it was no ordinary creature, but did it really intend to come at me with a body covered in wounds from fighting Odin?
When I also revealed my power and glared back savagely, the wolf engaged in a staring contest with me for a moment before turning its head and leaving.
Where does a half-dead bastard get off acting tough?
As I was briefly examining Odin’s corpse left behind where the wolf had departed, a long spear glittering gold entered my sight.
That’s Gungnir!
One of Odin’s most precious and noble treasures.
The spear that never missed, the throwing spear that heralded the beginning of war.
That very Gungnir had lost its owner and was stuck in the ground like trash.
For the first time in a while, my eyes gleamed with greed rising from deep within my chest.
“Hey, about this. If it’s the end of the gods, that means all the gods die, right?”
“Not all. Most will die, though.”
“Anyway, you’re saying almost all of them will die. Then it should be fine if I make careful and good use of the treasures that lost their owners, right?”
Eagle Auntie looked at me with an incredulous gaze and let out a snort of laughter.
“You are thinking of running around stealing in this situation?”
“Stealing? I’m merely picking up things whose owners have disappeared and taking good care of them.”
“That is the same thing. Do as you like. In times like these, you are probably the only one carefree enough to leisurely collect treasures anyway.”
“Okay. Then I’ll be back.”
Having received permission from the only witness, I rose from my seat and spread my wings.
Then I widened my field of vision, selected the objects whose owners had died or disappeared that looked good enough to tempt me, and decided on the route to go retrieve them.
After deciding where to go and flapping my wings, the scenery around me changed in an instant, and the treasure drew near.
The first thing I went to retrieve was, of course, Gungnir, the most valuable and finest item among the countless treasures.
As soon as I arrived in front of Odin’s corpse, I looked around, confirmed that no one was there, and grasped Gungnir in my hand.
Wooooong—!!
“Now, now!”
There was a little resistance, but I thought of it as a cute bit of playfulness and pressed it down with force.
Then I put the now-quiet Gungnir into my mouth and swallowed it.
It was one of Odin’s treasures, after all. Surely it would not break or rust just because I stored it in my stomach.
Since I had collected Gungnir, I was about to leave in search of the next treasure when—
At a strange feeling, I lowered my head and examined Odin’s corpse in detail.
“What, it’s a fake?”
It had been made elaborately, but not enough to fool my eyes when I checked up close.
I knew it.
There was no way a twisted bastard who must have boiled and eaten hundreds of wily old snakes would die that easily.
Leaving behind Odin’s fake corpse, which had avoided the end in a novel way, I departed and muttered the thought that suddenly occurred to me.
“Huh? Then is this not ownerless loot, but actual theft?”
Of course, that thought did not last long.
He should have taken better care of his belongings.