Devouring World Dragon

Chapter 74 Nidhogg the Black Dragon
Even Odin, the god-king seated on his supreme throne, was shaken. Over thousands of years, the lines between his brows had grown longer, and his once-white beard was now almost entirely white. He opened his single eye in astonishment—an eye capable of seeing through everything—from his throne at the pinnacle of the nine worlds, looking down at the source of the tremor.

In Niflheim, the northern land of mist, a world perpetually shrouded in thick fog, as desolate as the underworld and believed to be devoid of life, the impenetrable fog gradually dissipated as the World Tree tilted, revealing a colossal black dragon with enormous wings in the land of mist.

The black dragon was ferocious and terrifying, its skeletal body exuding a deep aura of evil. Beneath the black dragon was an incredibly vast entity, resembling a continent. This thing was so enormous that it was difficult to see its entirety at a glance; one could only vaguely discern what it looked like as tree roots.

But what tree has such a huge root system, as thick as a continent and as vast as the sea?
That is the World Tree.

And Odin even recognized this black dragon…

"Nidhogg the Black Dragon".

Odin stared at the black dragon with a livid face, gritting his teeth as he spoke.

In the hundreds of thousands of years since the birth of heaven and earth, the signs of world destruction that once terrified Odin have occurred more than once. These include the unprecedented war between the Aesir and Vanir gods, the encounter with Surtur, the progenitor of the fire giants, Loki's three children, the clash between the frost giants and the gods, and...

This is Nidhogg, a black dragon with deadly venom.

To subdue this black dragon, Odin once joined forces with Loki, Thor, and other gods to cast the evil dragon directly into the underworld. It was thought that the black dragon would forever wail in the underworld with the ancient gods who had passed away. Unexpectedly, the black dragon actually crawled back from the underworld and even secretly hid in the Land of Mist, gnawing on the roots of the World Tree, intending to take revenge on the gods.

At this moment, the black dragon was roaring at the broken root of the World Tree in front of it, showing its joy to the entire universe.

Even if the roots of the World Tree were enormous and resilient, under the relentless gnawing of this black dragon for tens of thousands of years, and the corrosive effects of the venomous saliva from the dragon's mouth, the World Tree's roots, which were capable of rapid regeneration, finally broke completely.

One of the three roots of the World Tree that support the universe broke, and the World Tree inevitably began to tilt.

Beneath that tree root, the black dragon raised its head and roared.

"Roar!!!!!!!!!!"

The black dragon's high-pitched and enormous roar resounded throughout the entire universe, spreading across the nine worlds, and was heard by all the monsters and giants who were dissatisfied with the gods, and even by all evil forces.

The roar was like a horn, announcing to the entire universe the arrival of the final battle.

Odin, the king of the gods, was ashen-faced. He knew that this would be the greatest crisis the gods had ever faced.

……

The black dragon's thunderous roar echoed throughout the nine worlds, reaching even the frost giants of Jotunheim. These restless, vengeful frost giants, eager for revenge against the gods, realized this was an unprecedented opportunity. Roaring, and led by a frost giant chieftain named Yosorugana, they launched the first and final war against the gods, following the four wars of the gods.

The final battle has begun.

This time, these colossal giants, as large as mountains, marched with thunderous footsteps, forming an army of unprecedented size since the birth of the universe. Wherever they went, winter descended, rivers dried up, seas froze, and a bone-chilling cold enveloped the entire world.

A terrible winter descended upon the world along with the biting north wind; snow fell incessantly, and ice covered the entire ground.

The giants roared loudly, lifting mountains from the earth and hurling them towards Asgard, the divine realm in the sky. These fearless frost giants proclaimed the arrival of war to the gods who looked down upon the entire universe.

In the Iron Forest of the Underworld, the three wolf cubs, secretly hidden by the giantess Angorboda who had given birth to three siblings, and fed on the bones of murderers and evildoers, have grown up.

Skol (dislike), Hati (hatred), and Managarm (gluttony), their father Fenrir the wolf, was imprisoned by the treacherous gods. For tens of thousands of years, they endured the pain of sharp knives piercing their throats and the torment of being bound by iron chains. When they were young, they could only hide in the underworld of Hela, the goddess of death, to avoid being discovered by the gods. Now, his offspring will be the first to avenge their father.

The three ferocious giant wolves, whose savagery was no less than that of their father, the demon wolf Fenrir, roared as they raced toward the heavens. Skul chased the sun chariot of the sun goddess Sul, Hatti chased the moon chariot of the moon god Mani, and Managalm was even more greedy than its two brothers, opening its blood-red maws with unbridled arrogance, intending to devour the stars in the sky.

The sun goddess Sur dared not confront the demonic wolf behind her, only concerned with escaping for her life. The moon goddess Manni also lost her smile, trembling as she drove her moon chariot across the sky, occasionally looking back at the demonic wolf Hatti that was about to catch up with her.

Numerous ancient monsters also awoke, and the chains and seals that the gods had once used to bind them could no longer suppress their desire for revenge against the gods. Deep within the earth, they struggled and roared, intending to participate in this unprecedented final battle.

Meanwhile, the giant serpent that had been sleeping in the depths of the ocean for a long time, its body having long since merged with the deep seabed, finally awoke.

Hearing the roar of the black dragon beside its ear, the giant serpent raised its head. From the city of Nano above its head, the cries of countless creatures could be faintly heard. Looking at this restless universe, a deep ferocity and undisguised ecstasy were revealed in its cold, vertical serpent eyes.

It's been tens of thousands of years.

It has been sealed by the gods in the depths of the sea for more than 10,000 years. The opportunity it has been waiting for all these years has finally arrived!

The pure gold chains still firmly bound it, preventing it from moving. But over the past ten thousand years, this giant serpent has never stopped growing. Now, its power is beyond anyone's imagination.

"Humph……"

The giant serpent's heavy breath stirred up enormous waves in the sea, causing even the underwater palace of the old sea god Egil, thousands of miles away, to tremble. Alarmed, the old sea god rushed over, only to find that the giant serpent, which had not moved for tens of thousands of years, was now struggling in front of him.

(End of this chapter)