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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 76
Chapter Title: A Warm Spring in Niflheim
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Naglfar.
It was a warship made from the fingernails and toenails of the dead, painstakingly sawed, planed, and bound tightly with sinew over a long period of time…
It was a calamity born with the destiny to adorn a part of the “foretold day of destruction,” which would inevitably arrive someday.
Hela had secretly devoted herself to the construction of Naglfar for a very long time, pouring all her effort into it so that no one would notice.
It was a time of perseverance.
But Hela, wanting to lend strength to the gods who shared her cause, focused solely on trimming, carving, tightening, and polishing it.
That tedious work was repeated without missing a single day for a period so long it could only be described as eons.
She had been tempted to give up countless times, but whenever she was, Hela would consciously shake her head from side to side.
*Don’t worry.*
The warship gradually began to take shape.
The joints were securely fastened…
The deck was layered, and the sails were raised.
*No matter how long it takes, I will see you to completion.*
The work continued.
*On the foretold day of destruction, you will make your maiden voyage. On that day, you and I will roam the battlefield together, making our presence known…*
It was the moment she finally placed the period at the end of a grand journey that had seemed as if it would never end.
*Finally…*
For the first time in her life, Hela shed something called a ‘tear.’
*It is finally complete…*
Her chest grew hot, as if she had swallowed lava.
It was the masterpiece of her lifetime, crafted with her very soul.
*How beautiful…*
She was captivated by Naglfar’s aesthetic form.
*Beautiful…*
And she was captivated by its overwhelming power.
*For you, I feel I would have no regrets, even if I were to face annihilation in your stead…*
If she were to be annihilated, she wished it would be with her creation.
She prayed that, at the very least, her creation would not be annihilated before her.
For Hela, who had been a deity since birth, it was an unfamiliar emotion.
Love.
Like many artists, after long hours of contemplation and immersion, she had fallen deeply in love with the work she had completed.
“■■■…”
Hela glared at Kang-jun with venomous eyes.
“That’s absurd!”
She cried out as if in a frenzy.
“Naglfar… I will never give up Naglfar!”
Hela snapped her head up, shouting at the massive warship floating in the air directly above her.
“Fire the cannons at once!”
However, the warship did not budge.
“Turn this place into a sea of fire and reduce these bastards to a pile of ash this instant!”
She clenched her slender fists and pounded the ground with all her might as she chanted.
“Please, please, please…”
She, too, had witnessed it with her own eyes and knew just how absolute the power of ■■■’s ‘words’ was in this place.
Having been robbed of the territory she had ruled for so long and all its dead, it was no different from having her very divinity stolen and denied.
[The divinity of ‘Hela,’ Guardian of the Underworld of Two Halves and deity of the Asgard Constellation, is being stripped away!]
[The presence of ‘Hela,’ Guardian of the Underworld of Two Halves and deity of the Asgard Constellation, is fading!]
[The status of ‘Hela,’ Guardian of the Underworld of Two Halves and deity of the Asgard Constellation, is plummeting!]
She felt that none of that mattered.
“Please, just not Naglfar…”
Thick tears began to stream down her cheeks.
“Please…”
Kang-jun, who had been looking down at Hela with indifferent eyes, tilted his head and asked as if in thought.
“Is that ship so precious to you?”
A deep sense of hope shadowed Hela’s eyes.
She immediately lifted her head and looked up at Kang-jun.
Then, in a tone overflowing with desperation, she begged again.
“Yes, so please…”
She pleaded abjectly.
“Please don’t take it away…”
Just then, Kang-jun spoke.
“Therefore, I will take it.”
His voice overflowed with madness.
“Seeing you beg so pathetically makes me want it so much I can’t stand it.”
He then added.
“I declare it again.”
“Please, just this once…”
“I will take it.”
This place, Niflheim, had become a canvas, and Kang-jun’s imagination, the paint that colored it.
It was a space where he could become omnipotent, where even his thoughtless ‘boasts’ would materialize with absolute power.
“Naglfar.”
“Please…”
“Halt.”
At his words, the great warship floating in the air came to a dead stop with a screech, “Screeeech…”
Perhaps because of the sudden stop, it continued to sway gently back and forth, unable to overcome its inertia and momentum even after halting.
“Hela.”
At the words Kang-jun uttered while looking at the ship bobbing in the air, she looked up at the plunderer’s face, dumbfounded.
“I will make an example of you to warn all other deities.”
A “Tiring!” sound rang in Kang-jun’s ears.
[All the gods of the Abyss are watching you.]
Kang-jun pressed his divine power into his words as he continued.
“Anyone who tries to take what is mine will end up like this.”
Finishing his words, Kang-jun grabbed her by the hair and, with a “swoosh!” lifted her up.
“Watch this miserable sight closely, how she has had everything taken from her and is now begging for mercy.”
Then he commanded Hela.
“Die an honorable death by your own hand.”
At his command, Hela, as if a marionette, reached up with both hands and gripped her own neck. “Squeeze.”
“N-no…”
Her eyes flew wide open.
This was a suicide forced by another.
“St-stop…”
Chunks of text began to flow out of her body.
- Born a deity, she was cast into Niflheim by the ‘king’ who ruled the Asgard Constellation at the moment of her birth…
- The side of her that collided with the ground became completely necrotic, giving her a grotesque ‘half-alive, half-dead’ body…
It was the saga she, a deity, had built over a long period of time.
That vast saga scattered emptily into the air.
In the midst of it all, a system message appeared before Kang-jun’s eyes.
[A condition for the Hidden Piece has been partially met!]
Kang-jun’s gaze naturally turned to the space before his eyes.
【Hidden Piece: Victor of the War of Words with Hela】
The deity ‘Hela,’ who ruled the underworld of Niflheim, tried to endanger you and your comrades with sweet talk, but…
You brilliantly displayed your wits as ‘■■■’ and succeeded in saving everyone!
Although the question was raised as to whether you used force in the process…
Fortunately, the Creator God, who is uniquely lenient with you, does not seem to find that problematic.
This anecdote will become your new myth, merging with your existing myth, ‘Destroyer of the Barrier Surrounding Niflheim’!
Just as Kang-jun was scanning the contents.
A loud notification rang in his ears once more…
[‘Hela,’ Guardian of the Underworld of Two Halves and deity of the Asgard Constellation, has been annihilated.]
[You have contributed the most to the annihilation of ‘Hela,’ Guardian of the Underworld of Two Halves and deity of the Asgard Constellation.]
[You have absorbed a portion of the divine power of ‘Hela,’ Guardian of the Underworld of Two Halves and deity of the Asgard Constellation.]
She vanished completely, leaving not even a trace behind.
[Your presence as ‘■■■’ becomes more distinct.]
[Your eccentric acts spread far and wide throughout the Abyss!]
[All the gods of the Abyss are watching you once again.]
[The underworld of Niflheim accepts you as its new master and pledges absolute obedience.]
[You are granted the special authority to freely travel to and from the ‘underworld of Niflheim’.]
[The warship Naglfar, which sails toward destruction, awaits the command of you, its new master.]
[You are granted the authority to freely operate the warship ‘Naglfar,’ which sails toward destruction.]
Furthermore, everything in the world she had ruled pledged its obedience to Kang-jun.
[Your new special myth, ‘The New Master of Niflheim’s Underworld,’ resounds throughout the entire Abyss!]
It was then.
[Due to your intervention, the ‘Scenario’ of the Asgard Constellation undergoes a massive change.]
Kang-jun, examining the last system message to appear, furrowed his brow and muttered.
“Scenario…?”
It was an unfamiliar word he had never seen before.
Kang-jun felt an indescribable sense of dissonance from that word.
[The authority ‘Mythography’ is activated.]
[The Creator God begins to write your myth.]
Once again, a ‘story,’ impossible to tell if it was voice or text, echoed in Kang-jun’s ears.
*The warship ‘Naglfar,’ created by the half-alive, half-dead deity Hela after a long period of perseverance, was originally fated to contribute greatly to the foretold day of destruction.*
*However, ■■■ was not content with merely annihilating Hela, but took everything that was hers, thereby intervening in the scenario of the Asgard Constellation.*
*As a result, the foretold day of destruction that the Asgard Constellation was inevitably meant to face has been postponed to an indefinite ‘later date’…*
*Consequently, ■■■ has been granted the right to be deeply involved in the entire saga of the Asgard Constellation and the duty to write its finale.*
*Thus, the saga of the Asgard Constellation, which was originally to be recorded as an ‘Apocalypse,’ has been completely altered by ■■■.*
Kang-jun listened for a moment to the story, unable to grasp its meaning.
“I have no idea what that means…”
Muttering to himself, Kang-jun spoke to the Hunters who were staring at him with dazed expressions.
“Let’s get going now.”
There was no time to waste.
“We’ll be late for the entrance ceremony at this rate.”
As he finished speaking, the space before Kang-jun’s eyes split apart with a “crack, crackle!”
Just as he was about to lead the Retake Party Hunters out of this place, Kang-jun stopped in his tracks.
“Hmm.”
Kang-jun’s gaze swept across this world.
“Gloomy.”
This world was steeped in a bitter cold, a perpetual winter.
Trees withered, flowers fell, and animals went into hibernation.
A cold season where all life plummeted toward death.
It might be a place that suited the word death quite well.
However.
Kang-jun suddenly recalled a conversation he had with his family a while ago.
“Now that Ipchun has passed, won’t spring be here soon?”
That day, when he had been intoxicated with happiness smelling asphalt and the damp air.
The conversation he’d had while holding Seol-i’s hand, who was wearing rain boots.
Kang-jun thought of the word spring.
Of all the single-syllable words…
It might just be the warmest.
“Spring would be nice.”
As was the norm, Kang-jun’s words were absolute here.
For Kang-jun was the omnipotent master of this place.
It might not suit the word death.
But for those who had lost everything to arrive here…
He was overcome with the thought that spring would be better than winter.
“A warm spring would be good.”
Green vines began to grow along the walls of the towering fortress.
Flowers bloomed on every vine.
The colorful, variegated wave soon began to spread across the entire world.
The countless dead souls that had filled this place regained the muscles, the skin, the selves they had lost.
“H-how…”
“Where is this…”
Suddenly, the sun rose, bathing the world in its warm light.
All sorts of grains grew abundantly in the fields…
The desolate gorges filled with water, becoming rivers and seas.
It was the world Hela had conjured to delude them.
This world had now truly taken on that form.
“Now, let’s really go back.”
And so, the underworld of Niflheim established itself as the warmest place among all the underworlds in the Abyss.
The entire world resonated deeply.
It was gratitude.
Gratitude toward its new master.
