Chapter 942: Goddess of the Underworld, Hela.
Hell Castle, personal quarters of Hell herself.
Sitting on a sofa, the goddess of the Norse underworld looked at the crackling green fire with a neutral gaze. As the crackling green fire was reflected by her retinas, she seemed completely lost in thought.
Remaining in this trance, she began to hear sounds, sounds 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 on the few and only times she visited hell upon leaving this prison imposed on her by Odin himself.
How foolish is the father of all, in his delusion of grandeur, lost in his own immortal arrogance, he did not understand that by imprisoning Hell in hell he 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 his own 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 Olympus.' Hela's sarcastic thoughts were as clear as her expression of disdain and hatred.
they were rotting.
As a goddess of time, she knew very well how stupid Odin's attitude was, the future is 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 her own pantheon. An attitude worthy of a dirty eunuch who clung to power, an attitude worthy of an old man whose intimate functions were so rotten that they were rotting.
As a goddess of time, she knew very well how stupid Odin's attitude was, the future is not defined, it is the attitudes of beings in the present that define the future, and this rule applies to immortals, and despite not being able to seeing the future for a long time, after all, demands a lot of energy, and is prohibited, time is an exclusive tool of the primordials, not even a goddess like her can interfere much.
But just from not being able to use the time as she would like, she can use enough time to understand how foolish the race known as the 'God King' is, the rapist of Olympus, the eunuch of the Norse who exchanged the eye for wisdom and still continues being stupid, the coward of the Hindu pantheon whose only praiseworthy attitude is 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, as she is a primordial, the foolish gods will follow her words like a duckling.'
She hates her father who is directly responsible for leaving her and her siblings in this deplorable state, she didn't choose this job, she was forced into it, but it's okay she can work with it, she is no longer a child who will cry because of loneliness.
Odin, her father, her mother, Asgard, will all fall before her and her brothers. 'Ragnarok must happen… Because only then, can I guarantee my freedom.'
As long as the arrogant gods who have a foot of dick in their ass exist, she and her brothers will never be completely free, what they did in the past can only be paid for by blood. She wants Odin's skull, and Loki as her new decorative cup, and she won't stop until it becomes a reality.
'It's a shame that bastard Diablo failed, I even went far enough to break the Bifrost. But still, he 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 my heart…"
As if the name itself could summon this creature, she heard an amused voice coming from behind her, quickly turning her face as she summoned her staff, she saw a man wearing a full black suit, the man looked like the embodiment of beauty itself, she never he saw a male species of god as beautiful as him, but that wasn't important now... That man was sitting in his FAVORITE armchair! Unforgiven!
An amused expression shone in his eyes, it was as if he could read her mind, the 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 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 and that old eunuch, she really wanted to punch that 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 'man' and 'handsome', this creature'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 student who was extremely introverted and did not like the presence of others. They were like water and wine, 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, therefore, 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 Yandares, 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, she even forgot 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, she knows very well that war brings opportunities... Opportunities that the other gods will want to take advantage of.
Hela for a moment even thought it would be 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 don'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 is 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 blinks, 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, she turned her face, and 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 was 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 newborn gods, this god's divinity will only be discovered when he comes 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 she 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."
"... I'm wrong?" He asked with an annoying smile.
"...I must say that you have a very vivid imagination, you are completely wrong." She spoke with an indifferent, neutral face, if it was anyone she could have fooled, but not someone like Victor who was an empath.
Victor's smile only grew in amusement, it was as if he was looking at something extremely amusing, and Hela really wanted to slap him across the face now. She realized that she hadn't managed to fool him like she thought she had.
'What a troublesome guy… Why is he here? Is he just here to tease me?' She felt dissatisfied, she was in completely unfamiliar territory here, and she didn't know what to do.
She blinked her eyes again, and just like before, he disappeared, and appeared near the fireplace, he crossed his arms and rested his body next to the fireplace.
"You brothers' existence is quite special, an abnormal goddess with a very strong connection to death, and time." A tree trunk appears in his hand, and he throws it into the fireplace, making the fire burn a little more intensely.
"And two brothers with the END connection. 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 smiles. "The mysteries of creation are there to be slowly deciphered, you know? Just 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 can be, therefore, it was essential to always have challenges, and discoveries to make, for this reason, he is 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, his draconic crimson violet eyes sparkled in amusement. "Yes, indeed."
Unable to keep her eyes open for long, Hela blinked her eyes, and just like before, Victor disappeared.
"You seem like someone who really likes reading."
Hela turned her face back, and saw Victor standing there looking at her bookshelf.
"One of the brothers must be intelligent in order to guide the other brothers."
"Such brotherhood…" Victor walked to the left while tapping his finger on the books, until he stopped at a 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 closes the book, and puts it on the shelf, then he takes another book and opens it: "You had my interest from the moment I absorbed Diablo's existence, and saw memories of him. 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, the Progenitor is a being that was created to make its own species propagate."
Hela's arrogant words were valid, the Progenitor of vampires is a formidable opponent who can attack the soul of a god, but compared to Hela herself who has two powerful brothers who can literally delete a being from existence, and herself being a goddess of death, and of time very powerful... A Progenitor vampire seemed insufficient, and inadequate.
Not to mention that she has much greater goals than worrying about a mortal, goals 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 more high level who has 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.
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