Despair

"Now everything about Ragnarok can be deduced. Hela, the goddess of death who has never appeared in Ragnarok, is probably the first god to die. When the giants and Loki and his sons attacked Asgard together, Hela, who was left alone to guard the Underworld, was probably killed by Nidhogg."

Perhaps, Odin being consumed by Fenrir was the right choice; at least for now, it seems that being inside Surtr's body is far more feasible than simply dying.

In Chaldea, Sherlock Holmes solemnly revealed the truth. Bai Mo looked at the evil dragon and sighed deeply, feeling rather helpless.

"After Baldr, the god of light, died, his soul went to Helheim. Nidhogg directly eliminated Hela and occupied Helheim's Underworld. Ragnarok was its buffet."

"Um... so, should we retreat? This Lostbelt doesn't seem like something we can handle right now, does it? I thought Surtr who devoured Fenrir was desperate enough, but then this thing comes along."

Did it just attack Surtr? Is it possible that Nidhogg is on our side?

Olga Marie's facial muscles trembled, and her forced smile looked worse than crying. Faced with a monster of this level, Olga Marie's brain was almost triggering its self-preservation mechanism.

"Haha, as expected of the director, you can even tell jokes to lighten the mood at a time like this." Sherlock Holmes laughed somewhat stiffly.

On the battlefield, dark clouds pressed down, which naturally posed no obstacle to those with Magnetic Field Power. Bai Mo adjusted his breathing; his previous unleashing of Whale Dominates the World had been completely reckless, even breaking several bones in his body.

At the same time, he faced this evil dragon, much like those humans in myths who challenge dragons.

"Nidhogg, this isn't our first meeting, is it? I'm a little puzzled. Why didn't you just make a move back in Helheim?"

Faced with Bai Mo's question, Nidhogg didn't seem to be in a hurry to answer. It narrowed its eyes and looked at Bai Mo. This was good news; at least it still had time to recover.

However, at that moment, a thud was heard beside them. Gullfaxi Shuangxi collapsed to her knees, Ortlinde seemed to have fainted, Electric Eye Dongni, was covered in sweat, like an athlete on the verge of exhaustion, panting heavily. His eyes were unfocused, as if he was about to faint at any moment.

"That's really interesting. Out of so many people, you're the only one who hasn't been affected. Is being an outsider something special about you? No, it shouldn't be."

Nidhogg spoke in a deep, ancient Northern Europe language, his large, scarlet eyes fixed on Bai Mo, not as if he were facing an enemy, but as if he were looking at a rare being.

Bai Mo ignored the guy and activated the Asura Way to heal them. Gullfaxi and Electric Eye's injuries were instantly healed. However, they still maintained their twisted appearance.

A mechanical electronic voice came from Electric Eye's head. His veins bulged as he tried to twist his eyes to look at Bai Mo beside him.

"If there's a problem, don't worry about us, just get out of here!"

"Go, that won't do. Ah, you must be wondering why this is so? I— Nidhogg —am the symbol of Calamity and destruction, and at the same time, the symbol of despair."

When I appeared, life inevitably plunged into despair, failure, loss, and death. I erased the memories of the survivors of Northern Europe so that I could witness this wondrous change, the fading of hope, many times over. Breathe, take a deep breath, can you feel this mist luring you into the deepest despair of your soul?

"Playing tricks."

Bai Mo snorted coldly. He had been breathing in the mist from the very beginning. He didn't believe that this thing could threaten him, and he was sure that many Valkyrie had inhaled the mist. If it was poisonous, he could quickly create antibodies.

However, there was nothing there; this stuff was just like ordinary fog in the Bai Mo lungs.

Seeing this, Nidhogg chuckled loudly:

"Haha, what a pleasant surprise! Logically speaking, everyone has experienced this utter despair, even for a fleeting moment. But it has absolutely no effect on you. Is it because of your status as an outsider?"

Or perhaps, deep down, you don't even believe in hope? Either way, you've piqued my interest. How about this: let me bring all your comrades under my wings. Then, will you still have such thoughts?"

Upon hearing this, Bai Mo's gaze turned cold. He waved his hand, and a gust of wind surged up, dispersing the black mist. However, the others still hadn't returned to normal, and even Skadi, who was communicating with Runes through her ear, fell silent.

The whole world seemed to consist of only one person and one dragon.

"You can try it and see if this flight will end in a crash, just as you predicted."

"Hmm, that's rather strange. Logically, someone who's given up hope shouldn't be like this. This is getting more and more interesting. Don't rush to reject me; perhaps you'll understand."

Nidhogg spread his wings wide, and two figures appeared behind Bai Mo. The three of them overlapped their arms, and the Peerless Demon Blade clashed with his wings. With a loud bang, the shockwave from the powerful collision was like a nuclear bomb falling into the sea, dispersing all the surrounding black mist.

Electric Eye lay down on the ground and looked up at the sky. At this moment, all he could do was look at the sky one more time and search for possibilities in the constellations.

Bai Mo was forced to fly like a cannonball. Nidhogg took flight, looking at his own scales, seemingly surprised that Bai Mo, with only such a small number of scales, could unleash such unexpected destructive power.

With wings spread wide, Magnetic Field Power surged, and countless souls roared. Then, Bai Mo saw countless energies rushing towards him, which transformed into spears, hammers, arrows, shields... At the same time, he saw the faces of the twisted souls beneath his wings.

"Are these the Northern Europe gods you devoured?"

"Do you like it? You carry the resentment of many gods, it seems you have some unpleasant memories with them, tsk, that makes it even stranger. But anyway, considering you've given me thousands of years without any mishaps, perhaps I should deal with you last?"

Bai Mo shifted his power, raised his hand to catch the flying shield, and slammed it hard against the tip of the flying spear; he turned sideways to grip the spear shaft, cleaved the flying arrow with the spear, and stepped on the most powerful hammer-shaped energy that was also crackling with thunder. He activated Whale Dominates the World, and countless metallic clangs echoed in the air. Surrounded by hundreds of weapons, he headed straight for Nidhogg.

Nidhogg let out a low growl, and the souls beneath its wings let out a heart-wrenching roar. Then, the energy that had transformed into weapons seemed to come alive, turning their spears and attacking Bai Mo.

At this moment, Bai Mo had returned to Nidhogg's presence. The Oga War God, overlapped with his figure, and Bai Mo pounced towards Nidhogg like a shooting star.

At that moment, a sudden change occurred. A towering pillar of fire ignited in the distance. Surtr raised his Sword of Flame, his movements reminiscent of King Arthur of Fuyuki. Laevateinn transformed into a giant sword thousands of meters long and slashed down at Bai Mo and Nidhogg, intending to annihilate both of his enemies.

Having survived for countless years, Surtr still possesses the power to attack the two enemies before him.

"Go to hell, all of you!"

"Useless trash, I'd almost forgotten about you."

Nidhogg snorted disdainfully at Laevateinn, then took flight. One of its wings transformed into a sharp blade under the Magnetic Field Power, lunging straight at Bai Mo's Tyrant Fist. At the same time, the tip of its tail emitted a brilliant light.

The brilliant light from its tail shone on Nidhogg, as if light and darkness were intertwined, and then a piercing sound like a sword being drawn rang out.

A longsword emerged from its tail, unlike the Fafnir it had faced before at Chaldea. The biggest difference was that its tail seemed to possess some special power, but Bai Mo had never given it a chance to use it.

Now, the source of this power is revealed: the serpent that gnaws at the World Tree possesses nothing but Projection. At the tail of Nidhogg lies the very sword once wielded by the god of abundance, the sword that was meant to face Laevateinn in Ragnarok — the Sword of Victory.

The golden blade clashed with the fiery red greatsword. Nidhogg's 990,000 horsepower was truly formidable. Coupled with Surtr's shattered divine core, this was no simple injury. The Sword of Victory pierced through Laevateinn, split the flames, and thrust its blade through Surtr's right shoulder.

The divine sword moved at will, soaring through the sky, shattering Surtr with a single blow, and then turned to attack Bai Mo, who had just used the momentum of the clash to retreat and avoid the Sword of Flame. The sound of metal clashing rang out, and a hideous wound appeared on Bai Mo's body, running from his shoulder to his waist.

Faced with this attack, Bai Mo did not defend himself. He stretched out his finger, and a strange white symbol appeared in his hand.

Faced with this small white light, Nidhogg felt an inexplicable sense of threat. But reason told him that Bai Mo couldn't possibly have the means to harm him.

In that brief moment of thought, the mark of Avici Uninterrupted lightly landed on its body. To Nidhogg's astonishment, its indestructible scales and its formidable 990,000 protective forces vanished as if snowflakes had melted away.

For the first time in thousands of years, he felt pain.