Chapter 55
"Unfortunately, he can't return for a while, but now that Avia, who fought alongside Attila, is back, could we—"
"Absolutely not! How could you say such a thing?" Rua immediately declared righteously, "Avia bears a heavy responsibility; you must not tell him this. Anyone who dares to speak of it, I will send someone to slay the dragon..."
Watching these Huns elders, now quite old, speak in the same way they used to tease Attila and himself when they were children, Avia really wanted to say that they should just say what they wanted to do. It wasn't like he wouldn't agree to something so roundabout, especially since it hadn't changed in so many years.
Even so, he was still somewhat happy, after all, there was no ill intent involved, was there?
Therefore, Avia readily agreed to the request.
But that night, the Silver-Haired Boy had a dream he hadn't had in a long time.
It was a beautiful village nestled in an endless Tanaka, seemingly inhabited by farmers.
"Wow, finally found it, but it's not too late."
Following the sound, Avia spotted a slightly petite Humanoid creature standing on a rock.
"Luckily, the gold on you was very conspicuous and could be used as a coordinate, otherwise I would have had a hard time finding you in so many dreams. By the way, now that I have completed the task I gave you, tell me what you want me to do."
The newcomer was none other than the Half-Nightmare girl, Meli, who was now smiling and talking to Avia as if she were a friend.
From her words, Avia understood that she had probably been looking for her for a long time after what happened in Wales. As for directly saying that the request had been completed...
He wasn't surprised at all, after all, it was only Half-Nightmare, but it didn't matter. He just needed her to help him quickly find the Star Sword in Avalon Lake on the inner side.
"... Meli, please cry from the bottom of your heart, because I've never seen Nightmare cry before, and I'm curious."
Avia made a request that seemed completely inexplicable, and was definitely a line that was outside of what the Half-Nightmare had anticipated.
"Hmm, why don't you just wish to die and be reborn as a human?" Meli stretched, still smiling, and said without a trace of emotion, "But since I promised, I'll just cry a little. After all, it's such a simple request. What, still not backing out? This is a very useful request. I'm very much liked by the Great Mother. I can take any treasures inside, but if you make me cry—"
"I won't go back on my word, so please cry."
"Okay."
"This is what I got for it, "Meli shrugged, and then decided to cry as Avia had asked.
Time seemed to stand still in the dream; every second felt like an unbearable eternity, and every second felt like a fleeting moment when one wanted to look away.
Then--
"Hey, you don't actually think I can't cry, do you? Just kidding. This kind of thing is way too easy for me. I'm telling you this one last time, you have one more chance to say it again."
"This is it."
"Hehe."
As the words were spoken, the Half-Nightmare girl immediately burst into tears, her cheeks flushed, though it was only a single tear, only for a moment, and she remained calm.
But afterwards, she remained expressionless, as if she were merely completing a task.
"Alright, you've wasted an extremely precious opportunity. I'm sure you'll regret for the rest of your life making such a ridiculous request. But unfortunately, you'll never come to Avalon. Your ideals are too boring and too meaningless. I really don't need to open up to a human like you."
Faced with Meli's taunts, Avia remained silent, as if she didn't know how to respond, but she listened without showing any annoyance.
"Alright, the dream is over. You can leave now. What a boring guy."
She said this with a smile.
Perhaps realizing that her words had no effect, the Half-Nightmare's body stiffened, and as if feeling uncomfortable, she shifted uncomfortably.
"Hmm... maybe, it really is quite boring." Avia nodded as she turned around, "But I still want to thank you."
Sensing the human's kindness, a hint of doubt appeared in Meli's eyes.
"Thank you for crying for your parents, and I am truly sorry for what the Church did."
"... What boring humans, I want to go back--"
Only after his figure completely disappeared did the girl's face return to its expressionless state, though her lips trembled slightly.
Well, her father was Magecraft fixed and dismembered, then fed to monsters; her mother was burned alive; she was the only one left in the family. Honestly, it was incredibly painful. But she couldn't cry. She knew she should cry, but she just couldn't. Because she had never experienced any worries, always maintained a stable mental state, unaffected by external circumstances...
"Go... back..."
A faint, almost inaudible sound, and those purple eyes that clearly remembered the last time she saw her parents, slowly turned into a sea of tears, and faint teardrops fell from that dream, dripping down her fair cheeks.
"Why am I only crying now... I should have cried much earlier..."
"Sorry..."
This doesn't seem like the Magus of Flowers.
The words of a Half-Nightmare devoid of emotion are merely those of a child who has lost his parents—nothing more.
108: Odin the Great
The Three-Headed Dragon in the Dniester River is named Zmei Gorynych, the same dragon slain by the hero Dobrynya Nikitich in the Russia Narrative Poem "The Ballad of the Warriors." In the Nasuverse, Nikitich's wife raised Koyanskaya for a period of time during the later Tunguska Event.
However, it should have been destroyed around the year 1000 AD on the Prah River, about 200 kilometers from Moscow.
Why would they go to the Dniester River near the Black Sea to commit crimes?
Just then, the Sun rose, Sun directly from the mountaintop onto the jet-black dragon and the two Raven that circled above it.
"A dragon from a foreign land."
"The time is ripe. I will grant you commendable divine Divine Power to destroy the fear that is about to awaken."
Once the sound, which seemed to come from the Forest itself, faded away, the Three-Headed Dragon Gorynych twisted its neck, its gaze sharpening as it fixed on the only entrance.
To be honest, if it hadn't been forcibly brought here, Gorynych would never have wanted to come to this place so far from home and scare people for months on end. But there was nothing it could do; it was not an existence that it could defy. Perhaps only Pureblood Dragon, as Primordial Dragon, could resist it.
But it doesn't matter anymore. After all, eliminating one person is no problem at all, especially with the blessing of Divine Power.
Gorynych thought rather optimistically, after all, it was essentially a very talkative dragon.
Before long, the Three-Headed Dragon spotted the human it was supposed to 'kill'. Under the sunlight, the human's azure eyes were like the ocean, as if it wanted to devour it.
It was only natural and expected that it would prepare to roar, and immediately the sky was covered with dark clouds, and a terrifying roar seemed about to tear the sky apart.
Then--
"I'm so sorry, I was wrong. Please forgive me. I didn't do anything. I have children at home to take care of."
The 'terrifying' Three-Headed Dragon unexpectedly uttered these words.
Avia, who was about to kill the dragon, looked at the Three-Headed Dragon with some confusion upon hearing this. He could tell that the dragon was sincere, but he didn't know why... But there was no need to delve into it. If they could avoid fighting, that would be the best outcome.
In reality, the Three-Headed Dragon Gorynych sensed a very strong aura of Pureblood Dragon emanating from this human, especially in this era... How could it dare to make a move? It still had children to raise, and it was best to ignore such a conflict between important figures.
"How about this, you come here to me--"
Avia put down her gun, intending to invite this unusually docile dragon to join her Hunnic Tribe; increasing their fighting strength would always be a good thing.
"The Head Body of the Giant God... why does it have a Greece aura?"
As the man and the dragon were exchanging pleasant words, a series of thunderclaps suddenly echoed through the overcast sky.
It was neither sound nor tone, yet it resonated deeply in my mind.
Avia sounded somewhat familiar, somewhat similar to the voice he uttered when he faced Yahweh, but it was merely similar; the difference was vast.
"Could you be an incarnation of Zeus? No, that's not right. Are you some kind of earthly god like Zagreus?"
"Something's still not right. You're not a god; you're just a human, yet you possess such a mixed aura. Could it be that you were the one who activated that Greece Moon Goddess's body before...?"
The sudden noise had no effect on Avia. He simply stared with his azure eyes at the Humanoid slowly forming within the lightning and asked calmly:
"Who are you?"
It is a humanoid entity, but not a human being; it is a storm, a struggle, a sword, and death.
Although at first glance he appears to be nothing more than a one-eyed old man carrying a dazzling spear, his essence is awe, the world, the ancient past. He is nothing but mysterious. Although everything around him, including himself, is visible, it is impossible to distinguish what is real.
The old man, caught in the lightning strike, stopped everything the instant he hit the ground.
Its real name is --
Odin.
In the AD, accompanied by lightning, a phantom descended from a distant higher dimension. It was a Supreme Being phantom that possessed power that could only be imagined by Wisdom and non- Wisdom beings in a designated space. It acquired the wisdom of all things and unified the Norse people. It was Odin, the Norse god-king.
"Avia."
It was not the real Odin, but a phantom Odin, who walked to Avia's side, holding a dazzling spear.
"Avia? That name... never mind, but why you? Attila should be here today."
"Did you deliberately let the Three-Headed Dragon attract the Huns' attention, and then kill her?"
Odin's words made Avia instantly understand the whole story. It seemed that the great god wanted to use the power of the Three-Headed Dragon to kill Attila, who was not yet fully grown, for some unknown reason.
This puzzled him, for he couldn't fathom the reason why. After all, Odin's Valkyries were created from the remains of the Giant God, and how could Attila on Earth possibly pose a threat to the world, unless—
"Is it because of... the moon?"
Upon hearing this, Odin nodded and continued, "You seem to know quite a lot, but as you said, it does indeed show signs of the seal loosening."
Not long ago, the god noticed that his Valkyries were occasionally going berserk without his knowledge. After careful observation, he discovered that it was because the Giant God on the moon, who had been sealed away for a long time, was showing signs of breaking free.
Odin then guessed that perhaps because his Head Body had been dug out by the Huns, his physical body had entered a new state, and so he wanted to resolve it.
But instead of meeting Attila, he encountered someone whose true nature he couldn't fathom—not a god, but a completely ordinary human.
However, he did have an urge to bring him into the Heroic Spirit Hall.
"... These are truly turbulent times."
During the brief moment when time seemed to stand still, Avia couldn't help but sigh.
He would naturally believe what Odin said, after all, this was an extremely kind-hearted chief god.
Now there's a corrupt Church in front, and Giant God who might break free of his seal at any moment, and if there's anything else...
"Yes."
As if to verify Avia's idea, Odin continued,
"Moreover, the Rhine Gold that symbolizes the curse within you, the Dragon Factor previously possessed by Fafnir, has revived Typhon, one of the Primordial Dragon, precisely because of the Greece aura emanating from you."
109: Runes given by Odin
"Isn't Typhon... completely dead?"
During the time frozen by the phantom of the great god, Avia couldn't help but feel confused about Odin's words regarding Typhon's resurrection.
Typhon, the progenitor of the Greece Primordial Dragon, was Pureblood Dragon. Although the Greek God consisted of Machine God, Typhon naturally originated outside of Earth. He was Dragon Kind born to kill the Olympus gods. In short, he was an Extraterrestrial creature in the Nasuverse, but Pureblood Dragon from Earth.
The truth Inheritance the story of "Typhon stealing thunder" is that Typhon actually stole Zeus's blueprints and created a knock-off machine.
In an attempt to defeat Zeus, Typhon ate the One-Day Fruit, but little did he know that the One-Day Fruit was Reverse Wish-Granting Machine, and as a result, he was completely killed by Zeus.
This is what confuses Avia, because Typhon was completely killed back in the Age of Age of Gods. Even if he were to be resurrected, it would only be possible for the One-Day Fruit within his body to control his remains; there is absolutely no possibility of him being resurrected.
"Typhon was indeed killed by that Zeus many years ago," Odin said calmly, glancing at the sky. "But all the Dragon Kind on this continent originate from it. In our Nine Worlds, apart from Jormungandr, its equal, the Greed-Lust dragon Fafnir and the giant serpent that gnawed at the World Tree were also born from its Dragon Factor."
"Based on my observations, Typhon only began its revival by utilizing the Dragon Factor left behind on the ground when you used that lunar machine. Unfortunately, I don't know where it died at that moment, so I can't check it."
According to Avia's speculation, when the Age of Gods existed, the worlds of the various pantheons were not like the continental plates of today, but rather like adjacent small worlds.
For the great god Odin, he himself has become a legend of the distant past. The ice that permanently covered Niflheim, the land of permafrost, has turned into water droplets and disappeared. The Norse world, which once had nine parts, is now reduced to one. The squirrel Ratatoskr, who stirred up trouble, no longer exists.
The mysterious era has come to an end; now it is the age of humanity, and the realm of the Age of Gods has been transformed into the continent we see today.
"Mount Etna in Sicily, Typhon died there."
"Is that so? Then so be it."
Odin looked at the human before him, narrowed his eyes, and then twenty-five small lightning bolts appeared beside him, each containing a strange rune.
Presumably, this is the Primordial Runes he obtained after hanging upside down on the World Tree for Nine Days and Nine Nights.
As the runes flashed, in the next instant, Avia found herself and Odin in a world of crimson light.
In this realm ruled by high temperature and high pressure, there is a violent and primal force of nature. All around are orange-red lava walls that constantly press in from all directions, as if to engulf everything. The lava walls are covered with bubbles and cracks, which are the result of the magma constantly expanding and contracting under extreme temperatures.
This is the interior of Mount Etna.