As if recalling that time, she spoke in a trembling voice, her face gone deathly pale.
“Since everyone involved died, it was never discovered what happened inside or why the Gate Break occurred. But Lord Nidhogg, after emerging from the gate, was consumed by rage and burned half the world over the course of several years.”
“This guy did?”
“I did?”
Ratatoskr and I, on the other hand, reacted as though we had just heard something utterly absurd.
Considering my conduct before coming to this world, it was only natural for us to react this way.
I had spent most of my time sleeping and gnawing on the roots of Yggdrasil, and even when I left Niflheim to go elsewhere, I had never caused any major trouble.
And yet that same me burned half the world?
Nonsense.
“I think I know why you did it.”
“Even if it’s just a guess, tell me.”
“When Lord Nidhogg emerged from the gate, the one beside you…”
Ah, come to think of it, since she knew her name so naturally, I had forgotten to introduce Ratatoskr.
Ratatoskr, finally realizing this as well, pointed to herself and said,
“I’m Ratatoskr.”
“You burned the world alone, without Lady Ratatoskr. Perhaps someone among those who entered the gate targeted Lady Ratatoskr?”
“Huh?”
At her deduction, my face twisted without me realizing it, and a strange sound slipped out.
So, Ratatoskr suffered some kind of mishap, and that made me angry?
What kind of nonsense was that?
If it were really me, if something happened to Ratatoskr, I’d be more likely to be pleased than anything. I didn’t think I’d get that angry.
Ratatoskr also denied the deduction, picking at her ear as though she had heard something horrifying.
“No matter how I think about it, we’re not that close…”
“But if not for that, I can’t imagine any reason Lord Nidhogg would become so angry.”
Hmm. Since it was the opinion of a regressor, I couldn’t exactly ignore it.
Had there really been some development in my relationship with Ratatoskr over those five years?
If there had, I was curious how on earth we had become close.
At that moment, Ratatoskr, whose expression had turned serious, offered an opinion.
“Then why don’t we go out and check for ourselves?”
“Go out ourselves? Aren’t we trapped here right now?”
Ratatoskr and I were in a state of being quarantined inside the gate by this world’s management system.
But judging by what Ratatoskr was saying, she seemed to have some kind of method.
“Well, sure, our main bodies are trapped, but I think something like an avatar could get out.”
“An avatar?”
“You know. That thing.”
“Ah, that thing?”
Only when Ratatoskr tapped her mouth with a reluctant expression did I understand what she meant.
Long ago, before that world had yet perished.
Around the time the war between the Aesir and the Vanir had just ended.
Odin gathered the saliva of the gods from both sides into a jar and fashioned a being from it.
The name of the man created from the saliva of countless gods was Kvasir.
He was extremely wise and intelligent, and it was said there was no question he could not answer.
For that reason, Kvasir was called by the epithet Sage of the Nine Realms.
Back then, after hearing that story from Ratatoskr through conversation, I grew curious and conducted a certain experiment.
If a person could be fashioned by gathering the saliva of gods, couldn’t something be made from my saliva as well?
Since the only material needed was saliva, the experiment was carried out immediately, and the conclusion ended in half-success.
“It’s been a while, so I don’t know if it’ll work.”
Kah—ptoo!
I gathered saliva in my mouth and spat it onto the ground.
Then the saliva, mixed with black poison, fell to the floor, writhed like a giant jelly, and formed a certain shape.
It was only about the size of an arm, but it was a small dragon whose appearance greatly resembled mine.
If I wanted, I could make it bigger than most humans, but this much should be enough for now.
At the sight of the miniature Nidhogg sitting still without any movement, the woman trembled in fear.
“An evil dragon…”
“You know what this is?”
“Yes… In truth, around the time you burned the world, Lord Nidhogg, there were very few instances where you moved personally. Most matters were handled instead by the evil dragons you sent, and we couldn’t even stop those properly… Of course, the evil dragons Lord Nidhogg sent at the time were larger than most buildings, but their appearance was definitely no different from this.”
“Ho. Is that so.”
It seemed that in the future she came from, I had actively used my avatar ability when attacking humans.
Well, if the main body was safe, avatars that could be produced endlessly were certainly efficient.
The eyes of the avatar, which had been sitting still since its completion, gradually began to fill with life.
—Grrrrrrr!!
“Oops.”
Kwaaang!
I lifted a toe and pressed down on the avatar I had gone to the trouble of making, suppressing it without crushing it.
The reason I called the avatar only a half-success.
It was because the avatar was excessively aggressive.
As if it hated all living things, it would rampage at the slightest opportunity, and it showed hostility toward everything except me, its master, so I had refrained from using it until now…
I inserted a portion of my power into the avatar’s captured body.
Then, surprisingly quickly, the avatar’s thrashing, which had been exuding a ferocious aura, came to a stop.
“How is it?”
“Smoother than last time.”
“Is it because I’ve grown stronger since then? Or it might be thanks to the essence Hel gave me.”
A voice identical to mine came out of the avatar’s mouth.
If I had just explained the reason for the half-failure, then the remaining half of the success was thanks to this.
I was able to share consciousness with the avatar I had made.
In other words, the completion of Nidhogg Mk. 2.
When I lifted my foot and released its restraint, Nidhogg Mk. 2 lightly flew up and landed on the woman’s shoulder.
Her body stiffened completely, but paying it no mind, I asked Ratatoskr,
“What should I check after I go out?”
“Not one specific thing. Find out how this world works. Gather as much information as possible. Especially information other people can’t easily get their hands on.”
“To do that…”
“Right. That human needs to expand her position among other humans.”
“I’ll be busy for a while.”
What other way would an awakened with no connections have to expand her position besides clearing high-level gates?
It seemed I would have to diligently tour gates together with her for a while.
Still, this avatar wasn’t exactly weak, and she had Valkyrie standard-issue equipment, so it shouldn’t be particularly difficult.
“Then before we leave the gate, let’s get our story straight.”
Both of them agreed with my opinion, and we shared information and made a plan.
***
The Seoul Branch of the Awakened Association.
That place was now in chaos over an unprecedented gate fluctuation incident.
It was not the first time a gate fluctuation had occurred, but the problem lay in the density of mana detected from that gate.
Sitting in the branch manager’s office and listening to the report, Gu Dohan, the branch manager of the Awakened Association’s Seoul Branch, rubbed his forehead against a throbbing migraine and asked the association agent who had come up to report.
“Could you say that again…?”
“Yes. As a result of the gate mana density test, the mana density of the E-rank gate ‘Goblin Forest’ has risen to a value that cannot be measured with our current equipment.”
“Hoo… So it wasn’t a mistake. I would have preferred it if it were.”
“I understand that you’re confused by this unprecedented situation, but we must immediately issue an evacuation order to the surrounding citizens.”
“Evacuation. Evacuation, huh… How much?”
In the past, during a gate fluctuation incident in another country, a gate that had transformed into an S-rank gate released a twin-headed ogre and a horde of ogres that appeared to be its subordinates, and as a result, by the time the situation was brought under control, an entire city had already been devastated in an instant.
An S-rank gate was already that bad, but the gate that had appeared in Seoul now showed a mana density so high that it far surpassed even that S-rank.
On top of that, the unmeasurable gate was located in Bundang.
Just how many citizens were supposed to evacuate?
At the branch manager’s question, the agent’s face hardened gravely, and he spoke with difficulty.
“…At minimum, all citizens residing within Gyeonggi-do…”
“Do you think that makes any sense?”
At the words that they would have to abandon the entire metropolitan area, where most of South Korea’s infrastructure was concentrated, the branch manager looked at the agent as if asking whether he was serious, but the agent did not back down.
“But if we don’t, and a Gate Break occurs, the casualties will easily exceed several million at the very least.”
“Why don’t you just suggest we launch a nuke at Seoul instead… First, issue a summons to every combat-type awakened stationed near Seoul. And contact every guild leader, from the large guilds—no, the medium and small guilds as well.”
“Understood.”
Logically speaking, the branch manager also knew that people needed to evacuate immediately.
But if they abandoned not only Seoul but Gyeonggi-do itself and fled, the resulting damage would be impossible to contain, and once an evacuation order was issued, it could not be taken back.
And so, for the first time in his life, the branch manager prayed earnestly to God.
‘Please, don’t let a Gate Break happen…’
Generally, when a gate fluctuation occurred, the chance of that gate causing a Gate Break was around 75 percent.
The branch manager prayed desperately that the 25 percent chance would come true.
And as time passed, while he was discussing future countermeasures with the other guild leaders gathered by the emergency summons…
Perhaps the heavens had heard the branch manager’s prayer, because an association agent entered the conference room bearing hopeful news for him.
“Branch Manager! Survivors have come out from inside the gate!”
“Is that true?!”
Sin Sua and Nidhogg had emerged from the gate.