Devouring World Dragon

Chapter 44 The dust has settled...?
Inside a palace in Assa Garden.

"Slurp..."

The greedy and savage wolf was devouring the flesh and blood of the dead monster beneath it. Its pupils were a cold, eerie green, its sharp fangs were enough to crush anything, and its fur was stiff and straight, like barbs. Its entire body exuded a ferocious aura.

Although their sizes are completely different, this dire wolf has a feeling that is no different from its brother...

Cold, cruel, inhuman, arrogant, a complete monster.

Just then, the palace gates suddenly opened.

"Crack..."

The wolf raised its head, and under its cold gaze, a group of prey entered its palace.

Yes, it's food.

In the eyes of the demon wolf, there are only two kinds of things in the world: food that can be eaten and food that cannot be eaten for the time being.

In its eyes, the gods were nothing more than a group of walking prey. However, these prey would often bring it more food, so the demon wolf magnanimously decided to wait and eat them later.

And from these prey, the dire wolves could sense their deep-seated apprehension... even fear.

These foods are afraid of it.

"Fenrir...how about we play a game?"

From this herd of prey, who were wary of the demon wolf, emerged a rather large creature and spoke to it.

The dire wolf knew this guy because he was the only prey that wasn't afraid of it, and the dire wolf even remembered his name...

Tyr, the God of War.

However, it paid no attention to these things, but was instead attracted by something else that Tyr mentioned.

"Games? What kind of games?"

The wolf's cold eyes stared at him.

……

The gods made a bet with Fenrir, the wolf. They first praised Fenrir's great strength, then brought out a very strong iron chain called Thundercrest, which had been forged by Thor's hammer for nine days and nine nights. They said they wanted to test how strong Fenrir really was, and asked Fenrir to be bound by the chain first. The arrogant Fenrir readily agreed, but with just one effort, he easily broke the chain.

The gods feigned praise for Fenrir's strength, while simultaneously forging a second chain ten times stronger, named Dehmi, and once again asked Fenrir to submit. However, this chain also failed to resist Fenrir's power and was broken. This time, the enraged wolf declared that it would devour all the gods.

The horrified gods had no choice but to seek the help of the dwarf. The dwarf then used cat's footsteps, stone roots, a woman's beard, fish's breath, bear's alertness, and bird's saliva—all sorts of nonexistent and illusory things—to twist a rope thinner than a thread, which he named Gleipnir—the Entangler.

After obtaining the magic rope, the gods again asked Fenrir to be bound. However, at this time, Fenrir became suspicious and made a condition: it would only allow the gods to bind it if a god's hand was placed in its mouth.

No god was willing to take the risk, except for the fearless god of war, Tyr, who stepped forward and placed his right hand in Fenrir's mouth as collateral.

Fenrir the wolf was bound, and no amount of strength could break free of the ropes made of illusory things. Enraged, Fenrir bit off the right hand of Tyr, the god of war, and cursed the hypocrisy and shamelessness of the gods.

However, the gods then used a knife to pry open its upper and lower jaws, silencing it completely. The blood that flowed out formed a river of blood. Fearing that the bindings were not tight enough, they bound it with a thin rope called Galgar, pressed the rope against a giant rock called Gior that sank deep into the earth, and then placed another rock called Tveti on top of it, leaving the wolf Fenrir with no chance of escape.

……

The furious howl of the wolf that the serpent heard was the angry roar of the demon wolf Fenrir after realizing that he had been deceived, and the blood rain was the blood that fell into the mortal world after Tyr's wrist was bitten off.

Even with a knife pressed against its jaws, the giant serpent could still occasionally hear the deep, dark howls of the demonic wolf carried by the wind to its ears. Those howls were filled with anger and resentment, and a faint, almost imperceptible curse.

It was cursing, cursing that one day it would devour all those hypocritical gods, venting the wolf's endless rage and hatred with blood and death.

The giant serpent listened silently at the bottom of the sea. Suddenly, it raised its head, ignoring the excruciating pain caused by the chains tightening around it and sinking deep into its flesh, and roared at the sky.

"Roar!!!!!!!!"

The high-pitched roar shook the ocean and stirred up a storm in the sky. The stars in the night sky were terrified, thinking that the great serpent was finally trying to break free of its chains. The sound of horns then resounded through the sky.

Above the sky, the ever-ready legion of heroic spirits, led by the valiant and beautiful Valkyries, charged towards the sea on the clouds, ready to stop the giant serpent from breaking free of its chains. But all they saw was a calm sea, with only a few waves.

The giant serpent lay quietly in the depths of the sea, ignoring the countless disturbances caused by its momentary actions. It didn't expect the demon wolf to respond to it either, as the two were too far apart and the wolf might not be able to hear it.

But just then...

"Awoooooo!!!!!"

In the night sky, a mournful wolf howl rang out, as if responding to the previous roar of the giant serpent. Perhaps because the knife was pressed against its jaws, the wolf howl sounded unusually strained and intermittent, as if the wolf had exhausted all its strength just for this one howl.

The old sea god Egil stared at the giant serpent with a gloomy expression, cursing under his breath, but the serpent didn't even glance at him. From beginning to end, it never looked directly at the old sea god.

They're nothing but ants.

Even though he had been suppressed in the depths of the sea for a long time, and his former arrogance had been greatly weakened, the serpent still couldn't be bothered to pay attention to this old sea god, because he was not worthy of its attention at all, and he was not qualified to be even glanced at by the serpent.

Lying on the seabed, feeling the chains that pierced deep into its flesh, and listening to the echoing wolf howls in the night sky, the serpent's pupils turned unusually cold, chillingly so.

"endure……"

He silently said to himself.

……

Meanwhile, within the Garden of Asgard, the gods were celebrating a great event.

Loki's daughter, Hela, finally succeeded in ruling the entire land of the dead and respectfully went to Asgard to offer her loyalty to Odin, the king of the gods.

The land of the dead, or Helheim, is the natural final resting place of all the dead, the lowest level of the World Tree, and the cornerstone of the entire World Tree. It existed long before the World Tree was born, and how many spirits slumber within it is unknown even to Odin, the king of the gods. Among them are many ancient gods who passed away long before the creation of heaven and earth, and its importance is self-evident.

However, Hel is extremely strange and desolate, where only the dead can live. Even the gods find it difficult to adapt to the environment. Only Odin, a few others, and Hela, who is half-dead by nature, have the talent to rule Hel.

Initially, after much consideration, Odin made Hela the ruler of Hel and her queen, just to comfort Loki. Otherwise, with one of his three children banished and another in Asgard, wouldn't that be a bit too much?

Letting Hela manage Hel might be a tacit agreement between Loki and Odin, in exchange for Loki's tacit approval of how his three children are dealt with.

However, Hel could not be considered the territory of the Aesir. Those ancient undead were not easily subdued, so Hela's rule in Hel was naturally extremely difficult. She finally became the recognized queen of Hel and offered her loyalty to Odin, expressing her obedience to him.

To many, this was Hela's act of submission to Odin after her two brothers were subjugated, demonstrating that she was not as unruly as her brothers and was willing to obey Odin. However, to many gods, it represented only one thing:
The Aesir have finally brought another world under their rule!
Such a thing is naturally something the gods should celebrate.

Looking at the gods sitting on their thrones in the Golden Palace, laughing and drinking merrily, Odin, the king of the gods, showed a rare expression of relief. However, when he saw an empty throne, his gaze paused slightly, and then became somewhat complicated.

That throne was the seat of his brother, Loki, the god of fire...

Loki has not returned to this day, leaving only a lonely throne in the Golden Palace.

(End of this chapter)