Chapter 444 - Ragnarok (2)

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.’

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.