Throughout the entire war in the Outer Wilds, Odin had been a bystander.
He watched as the situation escalated, he watched as Damien began his breakthrough, he watched as the Demigods around him began fighting, but he didn't move.
Odin didn't know what to do.
He wasn't a person who lacked morality. At one point in his life, he'd been a just leader who fought against Niflheim with everything he had.
When did things change?
When he looked down at the lower battlegrounds and saw Aishia killing her own people with indifference painting her face, he felt a heart-wrenching pain. His being felt empty.
Aishia was just a little girl not past 100 years old when he first met her. Her power level was barely scraping the bottom of 3rd class due to how intensely the Valkyries around her cherished and protected her.
That little girl had lost everyone after the war ended. There wasn't a single Valkyrie left in existence, there was no place for her to call home.
And that's when Odin found her. As he swept the world that was previously known as Asgard for any survivors, he found a single little girl crying amongst a mountain of corpses.
His heart warmed in that instant. It wasn't just pity he felt for the girl, but a sense of camaraderie.
War wasn't something that deserved to be glorified. Regardless of the heroes who appeared during wars, regardless of the various opportunities that would spawn in the chaos, for soldiers, wartime was represented by death and depression.
Back then, Odin wasn't as powerful as he was now. Although he was still a Demigod, he was the weakest kind, not even worthy of kissing Wrath's feet.
And when war broke out on a universal scale, there was a rule that almost always had to be followed.
Demigods would remain in the Ancient Battlefield. If one side dispatched a Demigod, their enemy would be allowed the same privilege. In this way, it was impossible for Demigods to appear and turn the tides with absolute power.
It was yet another method the universe used to maintain balance.
So even though Odin could barely be considered a Demigod, he was forced into the Ancient Battlefield. He was separated from those who made up the world known as Asgard.
And when he was finally allowed to return, when the war reached its conclusion, the only member of Asgard remaining was that small Valkyrie he found amidst the rubble.
She wasn't the only one who had everything she loved stolen from her. Odin was the same, and an uncountable number of existences shared their pain.
But in Asgard, there were only two.
When Odin took Aishia in and raised her, he'd done it more for his own self-satisfaction than anything else. Seeing Aishia grow truly made him happy. It gave him the determination to rebuild Asgard.
But fate was cruel. Niflheim claimed their world long before Odin returned from the Ancient Battlefield. Even after Asgard was rebuilt, it became a minor power that had to struggle to survive. And even then, it was only able to do so because of Odin's existence.
As time passed, the worries that plagued his mind became ever prevalent. He was spending less and less time with Aishia, holing himself up in his study to desperately keep Asgard afloat.
This was when the two started drifting apart, and this was when things began going downhill.
Aishia wasn't just a daughter or a disciple to Odin, she was his emotional support. Her existence allowed him to maintain his sanity even through trying times. But due to his own actions, he lost this support.
Aishia began to act on her own, integrating herself into Asgard and actively working to take down their enemy. Meanwhile, Odin became lost.
He wanted Asgard to survive. He didn't want everything he knew and loved to fall in war again. And to do so, the easiest and least bloody option was to submit to authority.
But never did he imagine that the decision he made that day would hurt his daughter so much, nor did he imagine that he'd become nothing more than a dog who could only move on the orders of others.
Looking down at Aishia, he realized that he couldn't condemn her, he couldn't pity her. The path she was walking was far better than his own, even if it would lead her to the precipice of death more times than she could ever expect.
At least she wasn't empty. At least she was able to regain herself.
As he remembered the scene of Aishia's Puppet Mechs acting against Asgard, his heart tore. He couldn't imagine what Niflheim had done to her to make her hand over such imperative research without even realizing it.
But it was too late for regret. Odin was an indecisive person, but he no longer had a choice. He wouldn't be accepted if he tried to redeem himself. He had sided with the same people who had slaughtered his family and friends, slaughtered his fellow Asgardians.
There was no redemption for the wicked.
And as the World Energy Barrier was torn down, Odin heard a command enter his head.
Kill the man within the barrier. This was what Wrath ordered him to do.
His eyes widened in shock. Didn't Wrath wish to consume this boy? Wasn't he obsessing over it for a reason? If so, why would he suddenly ask Odin to kill him?
But even as he thought these useless thoughts, Odin was well aware that he didn't have the qualifications to receive answers.
He was just a dog. A dog who sold his soul to the devil.
Odin gritted his teeth as he watched Damien. He wasn't an uninformed person, he naturally understood the relationship between Damien and Aishia.
And he had personally witnessed the scene of Damien swooping in like a hero and saving Aishia from harm. Knowing that innocent little girl, this action alone was enough to sprout feelings in her heart.
If Odin were to kill that man…
He wouldn't just be outcast. The little girl he raised for over 10,000 years would most likely take him as a revenge target, eventually killing him when she became a Demigod.
And Odin had no doubt that Aishia would become a Demigod. He knew her talent and determination best.
'But perhaps…that might not be so bad.' He thought to himself.
It was too late for redemption. Odin was doomed to die on the hill he built for himself. If so, wouldn't it be best if karma came full circle? If Aishia was the one who killed him, if he could provide Aishia with a goal to become stronger, he would at least do one good deed amongst the pile of terrible ones.
His body moved without hesitation. For the sake of Asgard, for the sake of Aishia, and for the sake of himself, the boy named Damien had to die. It was his fate for being too weak to keep the treasures he had.
Odin arrived in front of Damien within a tenth of an instant. Strangely enough, though, he could feel Damien's gaze on his body. This gaze only made him move ever faster.
His arm snaked forward, his hand outstretched like a blade. The least he could do was provide this boy a quick death.
But when he looked into those eyes, he only saw indifference and disdain. Even at the edge of death, Damien didn't fold in the slightest. His heroic spirit only became all the more obvious.
Odin's eyes narrowed. This was the kind of person. The kind of person he despised the most. What gave them the right to be so haughty?! Why must they act so domineering with death inevitably in front of them?! Wasn't it common sense to do anything in one's power to live?!
These heroic youths who inadvertently forced Odin to face the pathetic person he'd become, he wouldn't allow them to exist!
The mana and law fluctuations around his arm became fiercer! Even though the attack hadn't connected yet, half of Damien's body had already been charred to a crisp, seemingly burnt through.
And in that instant before the attack finally connected…
"Haa…"
A sigh resounded through the battlefield.
