Chapter 942: Goddess of the Underworld, Hela.
Hell Castle, personal quarters of Hela.
Sitting on a sofa, the goddess of the Norse underworld looked at the crackling green fire with a neutral gaze. As the green fire was reflected by her retinas, she seemed utterly lost in thought.
Remaining in this trance, she began to hear something, the sound of voices, voices that she knew very well. Those were the hateful voices of her father, Odin, and Thor. As well as the voices of several other Norse gods and goddesses who always spoke behind her back on the few and only times she visited hell upon leaving this prison imposed on her by Odin himself.
How foolish was the All-Father, in his delusion of grandeur, lost in his own immortal arrogance? He did not understand that by imprisoning Hela in hell, it would be the same as giving her power, power enough to take revenge in due time.
Her father was a good-for-nothing who did whatever Odin wanted, a dirty coward whose only exceptional courage was marrying her mother, a goddess of fear. Ironic that a coward like him was able to get the attention of the goddess of fear.
Well, it's not like her psychopathic mother was any better, a woman who only cared about the monsters she created.
'Heh, worthy of being the parents of the greatest calamities that will ever strike Asgard.' Hela's sarcastic thoughts were as clear as her expression of disdain and hatred.
She hated Odin; she hated the fact that despite him being a God King, he was so cowardly to the point of following a stupid prophecy given by a goddess who wasn't even from his own pantheon. An attitude worthy of a dirty eunuch who clung to power, an attitude worthy of an old man whose brain was so rotten that it was disintegrating.
As a goddess of Time, she knew very well how stupid Odin's attitude was. The future is not defined. It was the attitudes of beings in the present that defined the future, and this rule applied to immortals as well. And despite not being able to see the distant future for a long, after all, it demanded a lot of energy and was prohibited. Time was an exclusive tool of the primordials, and not even a goddess like her could interfere much.
But despite not being able to use Time as she would like, she could use enough Time to understand how foolish the race known as the 'God King' was, the rapist of Olympus, the eunuch of the Norse who exchanged his eye for wisdom and still continued being stupid, the coward of the Hindu pantheon whose only praiseworthy attitude was to listen to the god of destruction.
They were all fools, fools controlled by a prophecy that didn't even exist. 'Heh, no wonder Gaia likes to give prophecies so much. Since she is a primordial, the foolish gods will follow her words like a duckling.'
She hates her father, who was directly responsible for leaving her and her siblings in this deplorable state. She didn't choose this job and was forced into it, but it's okay; she could work with it. She was no longer a child who would cry because of loneliness.
Odin, her father, her mother, and Asgard will fall before her and her brothers. 'Ragnarok must happen… Because only then can I guarantee my freedom.'
As long as the arrogant gods who had a foot of dick in their asses existed, she and her brothers would never be completely free. What they did in the past can only be paid for by blood. She wants Odin and Loki's skulls as her new decorative cups, and she won't stop until it becomes a reality.
'It's a shame that bastard Diablo failed. I even went so far as to break the Bifrost, but he still lost. Useless idiot. He talked so much about his great plan that, in the end, he was defeated like a useless bitch... Who was it that really defeated him? ...Oh, yes, I remember... The Dragon God of Chaos... What an arrogant name. No one has ever had the title' chaos' since the first primordial.'
"So much hate in your heart…"
As if the name itself could summon this creature, she heard an amused voice coming from behind her. Quickly turning her head as she summoned her Staff, she saw a man wearing a full black suit. The man looked like the embodiment of beauty itself, and she had never seen a male god as beautiful as him, but that wasn't important now... That man was sitting in her FAVORITE armchair! Unforgivable!
An amused expression shone in his eyes as if he could read her mind, and proof of this was that he leaned back in the armchair, becoming even more comfortable.
"It's like you're the very personification of hate. No wonder you worked with Diablo."
Hela's eyes narrowed slightly; few individuals knew of her involvement with Diablo. Yes, she attacked the Bifrost at a delicate moment in the demons' invasion, thus preventing Odin's army from traveling through the void of dimensions, but this attack and the demons' invasion should have no solid relationship with each other.
After all, from the outside, it just seemed like Hela took advantage of the fact that the invasion happened to catch the Norse pantheon by surprise.
"How did you get in here?"
"You invited me." He smiled as if he found something very amusing. "And I just walked in."
Hela narrowed her eyes: '... A place protected by Norse runes and protected by three END gods, literally making this place the most protected in the world, even compared to Asgard... And he just says he entered here as if it were a common place.'
It's official. Just like her father's extremely punchable face, that old eunuch, she really wanted to punch this annoyingly handsome creature's face. Why, in the name of all the kingdoms of this damned pantheon, was he so beautiful? This doesn't make sense. If she were to associate the adjective 'handsome' and 'man', this being's face would definitely come to her mind.
"You like to hear your thoughts a lot, huh." He crossed his legs and rested his face in his right hand while displaying a small, gentle smile. "I can understand that feeling. I do the same thing a lot when I'm training."
Hela hated herself deeply for finding this simple gesture quite adorable and cute, and she couldn't help but think that she must be dead inside for finding something like that cute. 'Why is he so casual? Why is he treating me like I'm a long-time friend? And better yet, how long will he stay in MY seat!?'
The current situation was as if the most extroverted and social student came into contact with the extremely introverted student who did not like the presence of others. They were like water and oil, extremely incompatible.
But just as light cannot live without darkness, the same can be said of darkness. The only difference in this case is that this darkness has not seen light for so long that it does not know how to react to the sudden presence of this source of heat, so it reacted as it is always accustomed to, with hostility.
Hela clenched the Staff in her hand. "What do you want? You didn't just come here to talk, right?"
But who was Victor? He was the man who could deal with several extremely obsessed Yanderes, and compared to this level of difficulty, a solitary one was quite easy to deal with.
With the same smile on his face, he said, "That's exactly why I came here."
"...Huh..." Hela looked at him, extremely confused, for a moment, even forgetting to keep her poker face on. After all, in her mind, it was not possible for a being like this man to come here to talk, right? Despite everything, it was a fact that she was a Norse Goddess, and she knew very well that war brought opportunities... Opportunities that the other gods would want to take advantage of.
Hela, for a moment, even thought it was a lie, but she couldn't detect any kind of lie from the man, and to be honest, someone with his power wouldn't need to lie to her. If he wanted something from her, he would have already gotten it; he demonstrated capacity enough to do this. After all, he entered this place, a lair of three END beasts apparently alone.
This thought may seem naive, but REALLY strong beings didn't need to make plans if they wanted something. He would just get what he wanted, and everyone would just remain silent without being able to do anything. She knows that the man in front of her has this privilege. After all, he was the strongest supernatural being of this era. For these reasons, she completely trusted Victor's words, and because of that, she was left unresponsive.
Hela blinked, and in that millisecond that she had her eyes closed, the man disappeared.
"Hmm~, I see, I see. That's quite an interesting artifact."
She shuddered when she heard the voice very close to her. Turning her head, she saw that man sitting on the same sofa as her while looking at her Staff with eyes full of interest.
'I couldn't even react...' He was simply too superior to her. If the way he moved had been taken into account, she could have already been eliminated, and she wouldn't even know how it happened.
"You used your brother's fangs, huh... But how can you touch that artifact? From what I see, you're not an END goddess."
"That's none of your business." Hela narrowed her eyes.
Victor's smile grew. "Don't worry, I can imagine what happened… It's actually quite easy if you think about it."
"The answer to your ability to touch this artifact lies in Angrboda, the woman who gave birth to two END beings." Victor looked at the green fire. "Just like all newborn gods, a god's divinity will only be discovered when they come into the world, but unlike these same newborn gods, END beings from the beginning already emit a slight END energy."
Hela shivered when she heard Victor's explanations but tried her best to remain indifferent and neutral.
"These small amounts of END were enough to make you, and perhaps even Angrboda, resistant to this energy that, in theory, could only be supported if someone had the divinity of BEGIN."
"... Am I wrong?" He asked with an annoying smile.
"...I must say that you have a very vivid imagination, and you are completely wrong." She spoke with an indifferent, neutral face. If it was anyone else, she could have fooled them, but not someone like Victor, who was an empath.
Victor's smile only grew in amusement, as if he was looking at something extremely entertaining, and Hela really wanted to slap him across the face now. She realized that she hadn't managed to fool him like she hoped she had.
'What a troublesome guy… Why is he here? Is he just here to tease me?' She felt dissatisfied, in completely unfamiliar territory here, and she didn't know what to do.
She blinked her eyes again, and just like before, he disappeared again. She found him near the fireplace as he crossed his arms and rested his body next to it.
"You siblings' existence is quite special, an abnormal goddess with a very strong connection to death and time." A tree trunk appeared in his hand, and he threw it into the fireplace, making the fire burn a little more intensely.
"And two brothers with the END divinity. The primordial Death seems to like you a lot... I wonder why."
"Who knows? Why don't you ask him if you're so curious?" Hela snorted.
"Nah, what would be the fun in doing that?" Victor smiled. "The mysteries of creation are there to be slowly deciphered, you know? This way, you won't get bored over time."
As one of the beings who had the memories of many ancient beings inside his head, he knew very well how deadly boredom could be. So, it was essential to always have challenges and discoveries to make, and for this reason, he was not in a rush to discover more about creation.
Have a goal, but at the same time enjoy the journey. Victor was very much in favor of this thought.
"You seem to know very well the dangers of boredom."
Victor looked at her again as his draconic crimson violet eyes sparkled in amusement. "Yes, indeed."
Unable to keep her eyes open for long, Hela blinked again, and just like before, Victor disappeared.
"You seem like someone who really likes reading."
Hela turned her head back and saw Victor standing there looking at her bookshelf.
"One of the siblings must be intelligent in order to guide the other ones."
"Such brotherhood…" Victor walked to the left while tapping his finger on the books until he stopped at a particular book that was written in Old Norse; 'The Commoner and the Noble.'
"No wonder Fenrir left Samar so hastily when you called him." He took the book and opened it.
"You are well-loved by your brothers."
"... That's why you're here. You wanted to see what kind of person Fenrir's sister was."
"Well, you're not wrong. But at the same time, it's not correct."
"What do you mean...?"
"I've been interested in you for a long time, Hela." Victor closed the book and put it on the shelf, then he took another book and opened it: "You had my interest from the moment I absorbed Diablo's existence and saw memories of him. It turns out this was just a good opportunity; that's why I came here."
"...I see... That's why you know about my involvement." Hela could now understand how the man knew of her involvement with Diablo.
"Interesting... You don't seem to know about the Progenitor vampire's abilities."
Hela rolled her eyes. "Please, I have more important things to do instead of worrying about a slightly stronger than normal breeding horse."
Victor laughed lightly. "Breeding horse, huh? Well, you're not wrong. A Progenitor is a being that was created to make its own species propagate."
Hela's arrogant words were valid; the Progenitor of vampires was a formidable opponent who could attack the soul of a god, but compared to Hela herself, who had two powerful brothers who could literally delete a being from existence, and herself being a goddess of death, and of time with very powerful divinities... A Progenitor vampire seemed insufficient and inadequate.
Not to mention that she had much greater goals than worrying about a mortal, one goal being the destruction of her pantheon.
Only when Victor put it into perspective did he really get the feeling of how much stronger he had become. Now, he was a blood dragon, a perfect mix of a noble vampire and a true dragon, not to mention that he himself was a god of a high level who had within himself a 'nightmare form' that seemed straight out of the outer gods of Lovecraft's book.
Yes, he decided to call his form of cosmic horror the nightmare form. After all, the very existence of this form made beings go crazy, and the surrounding creation itself was completely messed up, causing chaos where order previously existed.
Nightmare form... It was an appropriate name.
