A man among dragons, building a mysterious ancient church.

Chapter 410 Odin's Last Dance

It's been so long, so tiring, so exhausting.

"Roar! Roar!"

Who? Who's calling out?

No, is someone calling me?
Who am I? Where am I? The dizzy dragon, soaking in a warm cocoon like amniotic fluid, is like a person who is in a dream and slowly awakening.

It was like being in a dream, but the dream was so long, so long that even when he lost all patience and composure, it still had no end.

It seemed he was destined to sink into this endless abyss until today, when an unexpected event occurred: a dragon's roar echoing from the depths of his soul awakened him.

He remembered now, he was Pompeii Gattuso? No, he was Bondarev? No, that wasn't right either! He was Odin, the son of Nidhogg, the Black King, and the ruler of the sky among the four great monarchs!
Odin suddenly opened his eyes. He remembered everything. He was killed by the members of the Old Church. The alchemy that he used to overwrite the cause and effect of reality inexplicably failed. In the end, only his soul escaped and returned to the cocoon that had been buried in advance!

Moreover, the dragon roar that awakened him from the depths of his soul is the Black King's Word of Power: Emperor?! Has the Black King returned?
The moment Odin opened his eyes, he saw a contradictory dragon body that was both incredibly young and incredibly old.

This is... my own dragon body?! How is this possible? Why has it aged so much? What happened?
The contradictory dragon body that came into Odin's view was truly tiny, only about one size larger than an adult. For the Dragon King, it was as tiny as it could possibly be.

The dragon's body, which was so young, is now so old that it is almost dead. The new dragon scales covering its entire body are like a wasteland eroded by thousands of years of wind and sand. Large pieces of scales have peeled off, revealing the gray, wrinkled skin with large age spots underneath.

The dragon wings that should have soared through the sky are now just tattered sails hanging on the skeleton, the wing membranes as thin as old straw paper, tearing at the slightest movement; the keratin around the snout and eyes is cracked with fine lines, like parched earth that has not seen rain for many years.

The dragon's body was far too old, so old that it was almost devoid of any vitality. It seemed that in a few more minutes, the dragon would die in its embryonic stage.

Yes, an embryo. Odin recognized it. This was clearly the cocoon he had planted beforehand, and inside it had become an embryo nourishing the dragon's body. But why? Why would the nourished dragon's body die of old age so mysteriously?

Seeing such a bizarre scene, Odin even forgot about the Black King's Word of Power, Emperor, and stared dumbfounded at his own dragon body.

Odin's current situation is very mysterious. His soul has left his body and is floating on top of his dragon body, still connected to it at the bottom. Therefore, Odin can see his body aging.

"Why? Why?" Startled by his excessively aged dragon body, Odin's soul was utterly bewildered, as if he were using his own wisdom and countless experiences from ancient times to try to find the corresponding reason, which caused his brain to crash and overload.

Reason told Odin that a dragon's body could not possibly undergo both embryonic rebirth and aging. From ancient times to the present day, the dragon race had never experienced such a strange embryonic transformation.

Odin's spirit looked grim and extremely somber. Unable to figure out the specific reason, his dragon-shaped soul extended its forelimbs, deciding to enter the body and experience it firsthand. Perhaps after returning to the body, he could find the root of the conflict.

"What is this?!" The dragon-shaped soul was horrified to discover that on its outstretched forelimbs, and in the gaps between the dragon scales, there were more than one translucent worm lying or crawling on the scales.

The worm's body is like pure crystal, with twelve rings. Some lie quietly in the gaps between the scales, while others crawl around actively!
"!" Odin was both surprised and frightened. Why were there insects in his soul?

Who wouldn't be afraid? Put yourself in their shoes: imagine waking up and about to wipe your eyes, only to find your hands covered in tiny bugs. Anyone would be terrified.

In a panic, Odin quickly examined the soul, raising his other forelimb and looking down at different parts of his heart and abdomen, only to discover that not only his forelimb, but also his soul was covered with worms.

The translucent worms were densely packed among the layers of scales on its soul, as if Odin were draped in a terrifying insect garment made of these external objects.

A chilling aura penetrated directly into the core of his soul. Even though he was still in an astral state, Odin felt a chill run down his spine.

"Damn it, damn it!" The dragon-shaped soul went mad, suddenly rose to the surface, completely separated from the dragon body, and its entire soul floated in mid-air above the embryo, performing an ugly aerial dance that no one was watching.

Odin frantically clawed and scraped at his heart and neck with his forelimbs, his claws scraping the dragon scales with extreme brutality, much like someone in a hurry frantically applying shower gel to their hands.

The excessively violent and rough scraping produced a piercing "crack" sound at the soul level. The dragon scales shattered and peeled off, tearing apart the spirit beneath them, which dissipated into specks of spiritual energy.

But Odin seemed oblivious to the deep-seated pain in his soul, only wanting to dig out every single one of those worms that gnawed at his bones.

At the same time, Odin's hind legs swung back and forth in mid-air, kicking forward and backward like a rabbit kicking an eagle, like a giant swing in an amusement park. Unlike human dance, Odin also had his thick dragon tail, which he used to whip his dragon back and wings, trying to knock off all the transparent worms attached to them.

The hundreds of Time Worms were completely unaffected by Odin's solo dance.

Despite Odin's claws scraping and tail whipping, even as Odin scraped off the spirit's scales and whipped its back until it was almost dented, it had no effect whatsoever.

When the dragon claws scrape off a dragon scale, the Time Worm crawls to another scale, only to have it scraped off as well. In its haste, it simply burrows into the spirit body, leaving only half of its six-ringed body outside, making it even more disgusting to Odin. Alternatively, a Time Worm whipped by the dragon's tail might take advantage of the whipping force and embed itself directly into the spirit body, as if it were an inseparable part of the body.

They just won't leave!
"The Church of the Old Ones! Damn it, it must be the Church of the Old Ones' doing! Whether it's these insects or the aging of the dragon's body!" Odin's dragon-shaped soul roared as it danced grotesquely.

Although the exact mechanism is unknown, the aging of the dragon's body must be related to these insects! And these insects must be related to the Old Church! Apart from the Old Church, no one or no dragon could use such a bizarre and inexplicable method!
The Time Worms ignored Odin's lashes and accelerated the theft of his time. It was because of their diligent theft of time that Odin's dragon body aged so much.

Of course, what is being stolen here is not time in the broad, universally understood sense, but only lifespan, which can be simply understood as stealing one's lifespan.

Therefore, it will not make the target grow up instantly, nor will it make the young target mature. It will only reduce the target's lifespan. Accelerating aging is just a symbolic external manifestation.

Before Odin could even finish his dance, the dragon beneath him had already died completely, stillborn.

The death of a dragon's body triggers a passive ability in the dragon kings, causing their souls to transfer to the next cocoon. If there is no cocoon, the dragon king will die completely and will be unable to be resurrected.

Odin felt a deep drowsiness wash over him once more: "No, no... I can't fall asleep, I remember everything... It's the second time, the second embryo to die of old age."

"These insects went through two cocoons in a row! And they even used some kind of method... to make me forget this memory...!"

At this moment, Odin fully understood why he had felt so long and tired during his previous slumber: it was because these worms had been stealing his lifespan, and he could only wake up and fall asleep again in a hurry each time his dragon body died of old age.

Doing this over and over again will definitely feel long and tiring.

Odin dared not sleep now. He knew in his heart that to avoid any unforeseen circumstances, he only left three cocoons; any more would affect his strength.

But these worms have already killed two cocoons. If this continues, he's doomed! He must resist!
Unfortunately, Odin was not powerful enough on a spiritual level to deal with the Time Worms, nor could he resist the dormant instinct during cocooning. After dancing for a few more minutes, he reluctantly and desperately fell asleep again.

……

Unlike the miserable Odin, his two other brothers were enjoying a hot pot meal in the mountain town. Old Tang picked up a piece of tripe for Constantine: "Try it, I controlled the heat perfectly, this is the best taste!"

Constantine blinked cutely: "Thank you, brother."

He took the food from the bowl, picked it up with his chopsticks, and ate while watching Old Tang enjoy his meal. When he saw Old Tang hissing and spitting out spicy food, Constantine had to try his best to suppress his laughter.

His brother was really different. In Constantine's memory, his brother Norton should have looked down on humans, had a very bad temper, and was prone to yelling and cursing.

Now, Old Tang is taking Constantine on a trip around human society, eating all sorts of delicious food and playing all sorts of fun games. His temper has also improved a lot, and he no longer swears, which makes Constantine very happy.

If only things could stay like this forever. Constantine reached out his chopsticks, wanting to cook a slice of beef for his brother, but his chopsticks suddenly froze, and the beef fell onto the table.

Old Tang didn't say anything, because at that moment he was also stunned. The two brothers simultaneously felt that call from their souls.

“Brother, brother…” Constantine was almost frightened to tears by the voice of the soul, his eyes brimming with tears as he looked at Old Tang: “It’s, it’s Father…”

"Cough! Cough cough cough!" The response to Constantine was not his brother's comforting words, but Old Tang's frantic coughing: "Spicy, oily, it's choking my throat, cough cough!"

"Water! Kang, water!"

Constantine felt strange. Seeing Old Tang like this, he suddenly wasn't so worried about his father, Black King, anymore. He quickly found some ice water and handed it to his brother.

"Gulp, gulp." Old Tang finished his drink in one go, but still couldn't help coughing. He raised his hand and rubbed his throat from the outside: "Phew, that feels really uncomfortable."

"By the way, Constantine, you heard that too? Was that the Black King? What a lunatic, spouting nonsense in people's heads."

"Huh?" Constantine was dumbfounded. What did he mean by "that's the Black King"? What did he mean by "just spouting nonsense"? That was his father's Word of Power, Emperor!

Brother, don't you even remember your own father? And you call Black King a lunatic?

The younger brother felt increasingly unable to keep up with his older brother's train of thought: "Yes, that's Father calling out. Father, Father has recovered. We, we are in danger."

Seeing Constantine's slightly frightened expression, Old Tang quickly stepped forward to comfort his naturally timid younger brother: "Don't be afraid, don't be afraid, leave it to me, the Old Church can handle it, don't worry."

After saying that, he took out his phone and dialed a friend's number: "Hey, Brother Huang, did you guys know that Black King woke up?"

……

At the same time, Xia Mi, still at the Auckland Lakeview Hotel, stared intently northward: "Why did you have to wake up when Xu Lie was busy? Hmph, you really know how to pick your timing, Nidhogg!"

(End of this chapter)