Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
More than 2,000 years ago, the majestic Valhalla Temple was once the most sacred place in the eyes of the Nordic people. People yearned for this place more than they did Odin as this was the only place where the mortals had a direct connection to the gods. The bravest and most determined human warriors would become the chosen ones of the gods after death. They were cast into eternal steel armor in the Valhalla Temple, becoming the unrelenting guards of the sacred Garden of Asgard. It was an ultimate honor for humans of that era, which meant that they could ascend onto the altar, even if they were expendable.
This fanatical loyalty existed regardless of times. It was even more so during the brutal and cruel Mythological era.
But no matter how sacred and significant Valhalla was, it was only a ruin now.
This magnificent palace was very well preserved, better than any other buildings in the Garden of Asgard. There was hardly any damage found on the surface and interior. It was empty, dusty, and weapons and armor were strewn everywhere. Walking in the dark and long corridors was as if stepping into an ancient cold tomb.
The corridor of the Valhalla Palace was towering but also depressing. At the top of the high walls on both sides of the aisle was gable metal ceiling. The inclined alloy roof stared down and gave people the illusion of being stared down by some kind of forces. On both sides of the corridor were beautiful relief murals. These reliefs, which were engraved with a technique far beyond the skills of human could attain at that time, depicting the daily life of the gods of Asgard. There was no lack of shameless self-exaltation and window-dressing. After filtering out these superficial elements, Hao Ren could see the social life of a civilization that lived in exile on Earth, that without technological inheritance but could only fumble in the dark while bullying the indigenous people.
This kind of social life was almost a typical microcosm of all the otherworldlings on the earth during the Mythological era.
Galazur and Hao Ren were walking in front. The dragon queen was bare-handed, and her arms were covered in golden scales. Hao Ren was carrying the plasma spear and the Gungnir spear. At first, he had wanted to familiarize himself with the Godslayer, but that black sword was too unbelievably annoying during combat. So he had no choice but kept it in his dimensional pocket and used the Gungnir instead. Both were new to him anyway.
Hao Ren felt as if he had become a master of spears. Perhaps it was because he had honed his spear skill through three years of combat experience, and also because the physical enhancement given by Raven 12345 was working, he could quickly pick up whatever weapon skills. Brandishing the two spears in his hands, he even started to think that he was already a martial art master.
At the rear of the team were Y’zaks and Anthony Alfonso.
Following the vague memory of Vivian, they moved deeper into the long corridor towards the control center of Valhalla. There was no enemy or ambush in the hallway.
The only strange thing was the cry when the entrance opened.
“Would these armors come alive suddenly?” Holding her pair of claws walking next to Vivian, Lily looked nervously at the armor fragments and broken weapons strewn along the corridor. “They all look like parts of Einherjar.”
“They are einherjar armors without souls. Some are just scrap metal, retired from the battlefield or rejected products from the furnace.” Vivian shook her head. “These armors were originally piled up in the graveyard in Valhalla Hall. But during the Twilight of the Gods event, Odin had ordered that these defective armors be also sent to the battlefield, and would be powered by one-time-use runic energy; they were essentially used as cannon fodder. When the Valhalla control center went offline, his plan was thwarted, and the Einherjar disintegrated on their way out in the corridor.”
They continued to move forward in the dark corridor. Just when Hao Ren felt that the passage was unusually quiet and he was uneasy, the MDT suddenly came out of his pocket. “Buddy, Einherjar are detected up ahead.”
The MDT had obtained the energy wavelength of the einherjar during the previous encounter. Now its radar had picked up the einherjar signal and given them an early warning.
“They are finally here!” Instead of being nervous, Hao Ren breathed a sigh of relief, as if he had let go his burden. He was only nervous because of the unknown.
Fight a visible enemy was always easy.
The previous encounter with the einherjar had helped boost their confidence except for Nangong Wuyue who was still drunk in detergent. As if they already had a tacit understanding, they immediately dispersed and formed into a formation.
They were not going to detour or avoid the Einherjar. Moving forward, there was only one way. Any other directions would bring them leaving Valhalla. Since they had come, there was no point in evading the battle.
There were more scraping sounds of metal.
They waited for a while, the familiar sound was indeed coming from the direction the MDT had indicated.
Hao Ren clenched the spears in his hands. “Everyone be prepared. They are coming!”
More scraping sound.
The sound was closer and closer before four einherjar draped in golden armor emerged from the shadows. These armors were the same as the einherjar they met in the Golden Palace. Armors were covered in rune and only two bright spots in the empty helmet, the Einherjar were holding giant swords in their hands.
The plasma spear in Hao Ren’s hand was glowing, while the Gungnir was starting humming. Hao Ren did not have a full grasp of the power of the Gungnir, but after the initial decoding by the MDT, he could now control the power of Gungnir. The Gungnir was pretty useful when used as a weapon.
Just as everyone was prepared for the battle, Nangong Sanba suddenly said, “Wait a minute! Something seems not quite right.”
Galazur had also sensed the anomaly. “Why don’t they come after us?”
The einherjar in the Golden Palace had indiscriminately attacked them. But the einherjar here did nothing but stood silently at the end of the corridor. A pair of light shimmered beneath their helmets, but they did not attack.
After a few minutes of silence, Lily began to lose her patience and wanted to go out there to check it out. Suddenly, the einherjar moved.
The einherjar moved forwards at the same speed as during the patrol.
They raised their guard, but the attack they had envisioned did not happen. The Einherjar just walked along the usual patrol route. As if not noticing the intruders, the einherjar strode past them and away into the distance.
Until the einherjar disappeared into the other side of the corridor, Lily had still not figured out what happened. “What is going on?”
Hao Ren thought for a long while. He looked at the thing in his hand. “Could it be because of this?”
The Gungnir spear that glistened with a silver light in his hand was once the weapon and symbol of Odin.
Vivian’s eyes brightened up. “Possible! Odin used Gungnir to command the einherjar!”
“It seems that the einherjar could still recognize the Gungnir. As I didn’t know how to direct them using the Gungnir, they remained still for a while before continuing their routine patrol.”
“Damn, only if we could discover this earlier, the battle in the Golden Palace would have been avoidable.” Lily scratched her head. “Mr. Landlord, you should have taken this thing out earlier.”
“How on earth could I know that?” Hao Ren said. “I just wanted to test the Godslayer. I would have swapped it with the Gungnir if I knew Godslayer was so annoying.”
Vivian interrupted their conversation. “At least this is good news. It seems that the Gungnir still has influence over the relics of Asgard, and the personal identification of Odin has failed. This spear—”
A weird scream suddenly interrupted Vivian. This scream was so loud that it pierced directly into their brains. They felt a dizzy sensation. Hao Ren looked into the direction of the sound. A glaring bright light suddenly burst out at the end of the corridor followed by a woman rushing out of it.
The woman was draped in weirdly looking, broken armor with bruises all over her body. She seemed disoriented as she stared dead at the Gungnir and screamed, “Intruders! Return the sacred artifact of the Holy Father!”
