Epilogue #1
TL: Tsubak
ED:
Asgard and the nine realms.
Bringing the decisive battle that put the fate of the ten realms to an end took more time than expected.
They had already defeated the agent of the end, the giant of fire Surtr, but there were countless devils and evil beings left.
The army of the Kingdom of Fire numbered hundreds of thousands.
But victory and defeat had already been decided. Actually, the evil beings couldn’t even dare to pull back their forces. The only thing they were able to do was to withdraw while their comrades were dying.
The blessing of the Goddess of victory from Olympus, Nike, brightened the battlefield. The forces of the Kingdom of Fire fought instead of escaping and the battle that started in the morning came to an end late in the afternoon.
A third of their forces died fighting and two-thirds of them fled to Olympus through the connecting path. But of course, that was just a number so if you actually counted the ones that were fine they wouldn’t even amount to a half of that half.
Ragnar, that had commanded the warriors of Valhalla instead of Odin, calmed down the group that tried to chase after the enemy that had fled to Olympus. Even though they had the advantage in the situation, it wasn’t a good plan to chase after the enemy too deeply.
In addition the enemy had lost the pivot of the Kingdom of Fire and its strongest warrior, Surtr. The Kingdom of Fire couldn’t become a flame of calamity that threatened the ten realms.
The heroes of Olympus had complaints at Ragnar’s decision but no one protested out loud. It was because the Heracles, the one that represents the heroes of Olympus had agreed to Ragnar’s idea.
Zeus also looked what was beyond in Olympus and clenched his fist but he didn’t advance. He wanted to take back Olympus right over but everything had its own order.
“We will first seal the connecting path.”
Tae Ho looked at Odin and Zeus that had gathered near the entrance and the two Gods nodded at his words. Odin and Zeus had experienced countless wars. They didn’t make the mistake of dropping their guards after a big battle.
Tae Ho extended his hand towards the connecting path. The seal of being the master of four worlds that he got able to utilize freely as he awakened into the World God Asgard became one in the back of Tae Ho’s hand. When he clenched his fist in that state, the connecting path that was broken and split started to close slowly. It looked just like he was reverting time and restoring a broken object.
The connecting path closed. Everyone of the Kingdom of Fire outside the connecting path got taken care of and that’s why Tae Ho let out a sigh of relief. He turned to look at Odin and Zeus and looked at Heda and Adenmaha that were standing by their side. Nidhogg smiled brightly and nodded while being carried by Hraesvelgr.
“We won.”
Tae Ho said and everyone at the surroundings yelled. The warriors of Valhalla shouted with the intent to shake the sky and the ground.
“We won!” “Victory!” “Uwaaaa! Odin! Idun!” “Thor!” “God of meetings!” “Idun’s warrior!”
Various yells got mixed and became only one battle cry. And at the last, it became the same thing as usual.
“For Asgard and the nine realms!”
“For Asgard and the nine realms!”
‘What is we won? That’s too unshapely.’
Cuchulainn mumbled. But he was smiling as if that was just a saying.
[I’m exhausted. I used too much strength and talked a lot. I won’t say a word for a while and will just rest.]
Astelone left behind some weird words and really shut her mouth. It seemed like she wasn’t even going to say that she was hungry for a while.
Tae Ho made a smile and put back the Dragon Sword. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes.
He had Idun’s blesing and the saga that didn’t make him exhausted but he felt sleepy. He wanted to sleep right away.
But he couldn’t do so yet.
It was because there were a lot of things they had to do now that they had won.
&
Night came in Asgard.
The faint golden light released from the new World Tree spread between the darkness and made a beautiful scene. It was a haze of light that you didn’t get exhausted of looking at it no matter how many times you saw it.
The starry night didn’t lose to that. The stars in the night sky that seemed to be shining more brightly than usual filled up the curtain of the night with a silver light.
And flames arose.
They had won but there were also dead people among them. The funeral of the valiant ones that had thrown their lives to protect the ten realms wasn’t something to leave for later.
Valkyrie Reginleif set on fire an altar made by piling up wood. She lead the souls of the deceased to the place they had to go to.
The God of death of Olympus, Hades, grabbed the hand of the queen of the Underworld Persephone and recited a chant. It was to lead the souls of Olympus that had nowhere to go as the connecting path was closed.
The souls got gathered in a purple crystal the size of a fist that Hades had made. Those souls would one day get freed when they took back Olympus and the Underworld got stabilized so that they were able to follow the principles of Olympus.
The martial artists of the Temple sent their deceased comrades in their own ways. Nuwa and the maidens that came with her lead the souls instead of the God of death. The connecting path of the Temple was open so the souls of the Temple followed Nuwa and headed to the Temple.
The time for the deceased came to an end. They had spent a considerable amount of time in settling down the battlefield so it was already long past midnight.
But there was no one that sat down on the ground or lied down to sleep. It was because it was time to conmemorate the happy time.
Odin opened the provision vault of Valhalla. All of the cooks of Valhalla got mobilized and cooked something for the alliance that numbered hundreds of thousands. But actually the only thing they did was to cook pork, chicken and cow meat as it was but they already had a side dish called victory so it was enough with that.
The keeper of Valhalla, Freya, decided to empty the alcohol trove today. Dionysius, the God of wine of Olympus, that had returned to being someone that wanted to maintain the world blessed the thousands of barrels of alcohol. Son Wukong also dissolved the Leadin Peaches he received from the Queen mother of the West to amplify its flavor.
And finally, an enjoyable feast started.
The warriors of Valhalla boasted of their accomplishments and new sagas got created from their stories.
Tae Ho sat in the middle of the seat of honor that had Nodin, Zeus, Nuwa, etc. and checked his surroundings for a while.
The muses of Olympus were singing and the Valkyries also played their instruments. The maidens and court musicians from the Temple danced and sang so there were countless things to see around them.
Siri and Bracky were passing between warriors. It was to serve alcohol to the ones close to them as usual.
When will my turn come?
Tae Ho grinned and looked at a place that was near.
Idun was the one sitting next to him. It was because it was a formal place and now that it turned out like this, Heda had pushed Idun to make the publicity more certain.
Idun smiled brightly while raising a big cup of alcohol perhaps because she noticed Tae Ho’s gaze or she sensed his thoughts.
The one sitting at his left side was Adenmaha. She was still taking care of Nidhogg even at this moment.
“Only one cup?”
“Yes yes. Only one cup. Ehehe. Only one.”
Nidhogg drank thte honey alcohol and Adenmaha looked at her with worried eyes.
She wasn’t worried at what will happen to her with one cup. She was anxious that she would take a liking to drinking.
“She really is a mother.”
Cuchulainn’s laughter wasn’t heard inside his head but at a distant place. He had materialized thanks to Odin, Freya and Scathach having used their magic and was sitting at the opposite side from Nidhogg and tilting his cup. It was really nice to see him sitting next to Scathach and sharing a drink.
Tae Ho rolled his eyes and searched for more known faces. He could see Ragnar and Bjorn standing far away. The ones at their side were a bit unfamiliar but he saw their identity right away with the ‘eyes of the dragon’. They were Ragnar’s other children besides Bjorn.
‘Could Rolph be at a deeper place?’
He was certain that he was alive as he had taken special attention to him. But even so Rolph was an inferior ranked warrior so it seemed like he wasn’t near the seats of honor but at a deeper place.
Tae Ho looked where the warriors of Ullr’s legion were at for a moment and then looked at his side. It was due to Idun having pullled his sleeve.
“Idun-nim?”
“My warrior Tae Ho. My warrior Tae Ho.”
He repeated the same words while smiling. It seemed like she was already drunk.
‘Indeed, this alcohol got blesssed by the God of alcohol and is also mixed with the peaches of the Temple.’
It wasn’t a normal alcohol anymore. Humans and even Gods could only get drunk by it.
Idun was acting cute not like her usual self and rubbed her cheeks at Tae Ho’s shoulder but at that moment a loud voice was heard not far away.
“Warrior Lee Tae Ho!”
The pronunciation was clear and the voice was loud. All the warriors that were laughing and having a conversation fell silent in an instant and looked at one place.
Ingrid was standing in front of Tae Ho about a dozen feet away from him. Her eyes were a bit relaxed compared to usual and she spoke with a completely red face.
“It’s a meeting!”
It was a really familiar thing by now. But a meeting? Just by whom?
Tae Ho hurriedly looked at his sides. Idun was there so naturally Heda was also there. Adenmaha and Nidhogg were opening their eyes roundly with confused faces.
And at that moment Ingrid stuttered.
“S, so! I am the one! The one that came to meet you!”
Ingrid had come to meet him. Tae Ho blinked and Ingrids face turned even redder. It seemed like she made a slight mistake due to being drunk looking at the spark that returned in her eyes.
And then Gandur’s laughter was heard. She grabbed Ingrid by her neck and yelled magnanimously.
“Me! Me too!”
She glanced at her side and Reginleif also stood up. She smiled bitterly like she couldn’t do anything about it and added.
“I also came for a meeting.”
“It’s a meeting, warrior Lee Tae Ho.”
Idun stood up as already four Valkyries said that they have come for a meeting. She slammed the table and declared.
“I’m also in! He’s my warrior! He’s mine!”
Everyone fell silent once again at Idun’s declaration. Idun blinked as a countless number of eyes focused on her and then realized what she had just said. It wasn’t only her face that turned red but also her shoulder so she raised her cup to hide her face.
At that moment a burst of laughter occurred. They couldn’t know who was the first but the warriors of Valhalla yelled like usual.
“It’s! A! Meeting!”
“It’s! A! Meeting!”
“It’s! A! Meeting!”
“Ughhh! I’m dying of jealousy!”
The last one was close to a despair. Gandur pulled Ingrid by her arm while everyone was laughing and headed to the seat of honor with the other Valkyries and then several other people stood up from their seats.
“Me too then.”
“For the great hero that protected the ten eralms.”
“A few blessings won’t be enough.”
They weren’t only the Goddesses of Asgard. There were also the Goddess of Olympus and also from the Temple.
The Goddess of youth of Olympus and the wife of Heracles, Hebe, looked at her wife for a moment and then smiled ill-temperedly and headed to the seat of honor. Heracles laughed and accompanied her.
“He needs the blessing of a male God at times.”
It wasn’t clear if that was really the case but the eyes of Drakon Ismenios started to shine. And at the same time, Hera poked Zeus’ chest with her finger and said.
“It’s fine, right?”
“Hmph.”
It seemed like he had forgotten about his usual self that the jealous Zeus turned his head and Hera giggled and stood up. Freya grabbed Odin by his arm and said.
“I’m not going.”
“You can go.”
“Really?”
When Freya asked with an expectant voice, Odin gave her the best blessing instead of replying and Freya grabbed Odin by his neck. She then whispered at his ear.
“I also want my waist dislocated.”
Odin cleared his throat and Freya giggled.
And Cuchulainn, that was looking at all of that, exclaimed with a bitter face.
“So it’s starting once again… the meeting festival of the mad demon.”
In addition, the members this time were more numerous than last time as Asgard and the Temple was added.
Tae Ho just laughed while looking at the female and male Gods gathering and someone pulled on his arm. That person gave the best blessing to Tae Ho when he turned by reflex.
“Today i’m the number one.”
It was Adenmaha. She dodged Idun’s shocked eyes and laughed like a fool and Tae Ho also laughed. He gave back the best blessing to Adenmaha.
“Let my blessing accompany you.”
“Let my blessing accompany you.”
The night deepened but the meeting continued. Passing dawn and until morning came.
And after a few days.
The first steps towards the new beginning started from Asgard.
&
“How busy.”
< Epilogue #1 > End