Episode 71/Chapter 2: Asgard (2)

TL: Tsubak

ED: StellarRain

“We have to take care of Daji first.”

No one rebuked Son Wukong’s words.

There were many beings in Kum Oh Do with special abilities. They had somewhat understood the situation in Kum Oh Do with the ability thousand kilometers eye.

There was a battle between monsters- no, a holy monster and an evil monster that transcended logic, and the holy monster won the battle.

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The result of the battle was the destruction of the entirety of Kum Oh Do. For the Temple, a tooth that ached for a long time had been instantly pulled out.

They couldn’t see Tongtian Jiaozhu in the battle between monsters. But countless beings in Kunlun had confirmed his death. It was because a massive star had been extinguished in the night sky.

Tongtian Jiaozhu was the commander of Kum Oh Do and master of the destructive beings, so it was hard to hide his death, although it might be different for an injury.

Kum Oh Do was devastated and Tongtian Jiaozhu was annihilated.

Then, the only ones left among the destructive beings was the army lead by Daji, the hundred faced fox.

It was the perfect opportunity to drive the destructive beings from the Temple. In addition, they didn’t know when the battle from the south would resume so they had to stabilize the north as fast as possible.

It was deep in the night but Son Wukong thought about dispatching and countless beings agreed to his idea. They were sure the group lead by Daji also received the news of the death of Tongtian Jiaozhu and the devastation of Kum Oh Do so there was a high probability they were in chaos.

Son Wukong grabbed his staff, Ru Yi Bang, and gave the army the order to depart. However, a new order got conveyed from the Three Pure Ones before that order could get transmitted.

‘Don’t move and stay on hold.’

Son Wukong had absolute authority over the army for the defenses of the Temple but he couldn’t disobey their orders. In addition, Son Wukong also didn’t have any thoughts of disobeying them.

‘There’s something.’

There was a bond of more than a thousand years between Son Wukong and the Three Pure Ones. Because of that Son Wukong knew them really well.

The Three Pure Ones weren’t scaredy cats that were afraid of battle. They also weren’t the type to interfere and intervene when they had already given him absolute authority over the army.

But they intervened on purpose. They should certainly have a proper reason for that.

Son Wukong could feel what the reason was. He couldn’t describe it in detail but he was sure a problem that couldn’t even be compared to Daji had surged up.

Son Wukong, that had been heading to the palace of the Three Pure Ones alone, turned to look at his arm. All the fur in his hair rose up before the order from the Three Pure Ones got conveyed.

What could it be? Just what had made Son Wukong that way?

Son Wukong looked at the west and then continued to walk.

&

“We don’t have time. We have to hurry up to the Three Pure Ones.”

Kulun mountain was at the southeast from Kum Oh Do. So it was at the opposite side from the west, where the incident had occurred.

But Tae Ho agreed with Nuwa. The still couldn’t know clearly what had happened at the west- in Olympus. But they were sure something that needed not only Tae Ho but the strength of the Temple had occurred.

That’s why they had to go to the Three Pure Ones. There was a high probability Asgard would have dispatched a messenger to the Temple by know so they would be able to hear the details later.

“Nidhogg is sleepy…”

“I’m sorry but let’s work a bit harder.”

“Ye, yes… Nidhogg will work hard…”

Nidhogg kept blinking and rose up her collapsing body by force. Adenmaha wanted to embrace her but she was sure Nidhogg wouldn’t be able to endure her drowsiness so she could only watch with regretful eyes.

Nidhogg had used a lot of strength in breaking through the gates of Kum Oh Do. In addition, she used all her remaining strength in fighting against that being so she didn’t have any strength left.

But Nidhogg had to be awake to move the black holy dragon. While Nidhogg pinched her own thigh to stay awake, Hraesvelgr controlled the black dragon and Adenmaha looked at a distant place.

Tae Ho was now with Nuwa that was lying down at the back of the black dragon.

‘Master.’

Why was he in such a hurry? Did something that surpasses the God of destruction of Kum Oh Do appear?

Adenmaha bit her lower lip.

She got an anxious feeling.

&

Nuwa closed her eyes and fell asleep. It seemed like she was saving time that she was awake as she was really weakened.

Tae Ho looked at Nuwa’s body that was asleep and then picked a suitable spot in the body of the black dragon to sleep.

Tae Ho was also exhausted and felt sleepy. He didn’t have any problem in stamina but he was at a limit in his mental power.

But he couldn’t fall asleep yet. It wasn’t only because of the new calamity that appeared at the west.

“Astelone.”

Tae Ho lied back on a rock and called out the name of the Dragon Sword with a low voice. A beautiful white blade appeared at his hands.

Dragon Sword Astelone.

The real companion of the Dragon knight Kalsted. The only sword that was at the top among all the weapons of dragon knights that existed in Dark Age.

Tae Ho stroke the blade of Astelone slowly. The appearance of Astelone was exactly the same as what he saw in Dark Age. The white and long blade that had the sentence of the World Dragon engraved in it was really beautiful.

“Astelone.”

Tae Ho called the name of the Dragon Sword again. He activated the sentence of the Milesian and called the real appearance of Astelone.

What?

The beautiful girl that appeared lying down in the ground asked casually. She still had drowsy eyes.

Tae Ho looked at Astelone for a moment before replying instantly. Due to the settings of Dark Age, she was the incarnation of the World Dragon Yggdrasil and her appearance was really similar to the Goddess of Yggdrasil drawn in the sacred torch maybe because of that.

That’s why he hadn’t thought it was weird.

Because it was no different from the weapons made with his saga.

But he changed his thoughts now.

Tae Ho picked his words carefully several times and then opened his mouth.

“Astelone.”

What?

“You… aren’t a being created through a saga?”

Through a saga, a fake made with the power of stories.

Dark Age was a game. Countless beings in the world were enjoying it but in the end it was merely a game.

A real Astelone didn’t exist. Even if it did, it was only an existence under a program composed by 0 and 1’s.

But when he made the World Dragon descend.

Tae Ho could know it as the master.

Astelone’s divinity was real. She had a real divinity of her own, independently from Tae Ho’s saga.

The power that ranked up Nidhogg as the World Dragon was also like that.

It wasn’t a power created by a saga. Tae Ho could feel the divinity of the world.

Astelone feigned a laugh at Tae Ho’s question. She stood up really slowly with still sleepy eyes and then turned to Tae Ho’s direction as if it was a bother to walk and collapsed. Tae Ho got surprised and stood up hurriedly to embrace her and then started to have a mental communication.

[I am an existence created through a saga. At least that is the case for this body and part of my memory. Originally I didn’t even have an ego]

It was something hard to understand immediately. Tae Ho embraced Astelone and looked at her face and Astelone put a bitter smile.

[You don’t understand?]

“Are you saying that Dark Age is real?”

Not simply a game but something else. Wasn’t it a game made by Gods just like it appears frequently at novels or something that happened for real at another world?

Astelone giggled as Tae Ho spoke about his imagination.

[You have a good imagination. But that’s not the case. Dark Age is indeed a game. It’s a game made by humans and not by a God and it’s not something real that is happening in another world. If what happens in Dark Age is real… then strong existences like the demon king or evil dragons have to repeat dying and reviving thousands of times right? The same thing has to be repeated a lot of times when there’s a limited event per account. And how many users do you think there are in Dark Age? Are there hundreds or thousands of them?]

It was like she had said. The world of Dark Age couldn’t exist in another world.

“Then what happened? Your divinity was certainly the real deal.”

[That’s right, it’s real. It’s because I was one of the existences among the Gods from Earth.]

“Gods from Earth?”

[Gods of Earth. But I didn’t particularly have an ego. I was a God that helped the world be maintained just by existing. Didn’t you see similar beings in Olympus?]

“If you are speaking about the ancient Gods… Are you perhaps an ancient God of Earth?”

[No, I wasn’t that great of an existence. And actually… currently, Earth doesn’t have any God that has a personality. If it wasn’t for you, I wouldn’t have been able to think and speak like now.]

“I’m getting more confused.”

[It’s simple. You called the Dragon Sword Astelone through your saga. But Astelone is an existence that has a divinity as its the incarnation of the World Dragon, right? That’s why I, one of the Gods of Earth, became Astelone by receiving the memories and appearances from your memory. The current me is a God of Earth that received the memories and appearances of Astelone to obtain a personality of my own.]

“Then what about the power of the world that got added when you transformed Nidhogg into the World Dragon?”

[The power of the world worked instead of the divinity of the World Dragon. You are an existence from Earth- Terra and your saga has its origins from Terra.]

“Isn’t the saga a power from Asgard?”

[It’s a power that only belongs to Asgard. But stories and belief isn’t only the power of Asgard. Terra and the nine worlds… you could say it is the power of all ten realms. You also experienced this in Olympus.]

Tae Ho thought of the sacred forces. The Gods of Olympus were certainly strengthening themselves through the power of belief.

[A story isn’t a fake thing. The story becomes true because there is someone that believes in it. Your story isn’t a fake thing at all.]

Astelone pointed at herself as if she was proof of it. Tae Ho could feel the presence of Astelone from his embrace. Her body was warm and soft.

‘Goddess of Terra, I’m curious of one thing.’

[What is it? Mister lecher of Erin.]

When the silent Cuchulainn butted in, Astelone answered back with an expectant voice. It seemed like she quite liked Cuchulainn.

Cuchulainn smirked as he was susceptible about that and then asked with a calm voice again.

‘What is Tae Ho? Is he a special existence? Such as a being that was selected to be born with the fate of a knight.’

[Tae Ho is a normal human. He isn’t a being that was born with the fate of a knight or was born by the will of Gods. But he is a really special human.]

‘In what aspect?’

[He is the strongest gamer that’s played by more than a billion people. He’s the strongest of Dark Age that gets recognized by billions of people. He is someone that has the power of a story that can’t be compared to others and the result of that was that he became a piece of Terra. If this isn’t being special then what is?]

“A piece of Terra?”

[There are no personality Gods at Terra- so to say Earth. But they clearly have a divinity and their divinity is protecting the son of Earth. Because of that, the ones that became special on rare occasions share the divinity of Earth and become an even more special existence. That’s the piece of Terra. And Tae Ho, you are also a piece of Terra. The big and clear grains of sand stand out more among other grains of sand right? That’s what you are.]

The reason the progamers brought by Odin weren’t able to activate a saga like Tae Ho was because of this.

Tae Ho was the strongest in Dark Age and the result was that he obtained a vast power of stories that couldn’t even be compared to the other progamers and became a piece of Terra.

The saga Tae Ho used until now wasn’t only the power of Asgard. It was the result of having the assistance of Terra and having the powers of two words combined into one.

‘I can generally know what you are talking about. You were a really famous bastard in your world.’

Cuchulainn didn’t exactly know the population of Erin at its prime. But he was sure it was a bit more than a billion.

‘Hey, you are really special.’

[He is. He is an existence that is being loved by the Goddess of your of Asgard and the representative Valkyrie of the legion at the same time but also has the Goddess of love and beauty of Erin beg to have her waist dislocated. He doesn’t only handle one ancient dragon but two and in addition, the two of them call him as master. Not only that but he can do whatever he pleases to the ancient God of Asgard and the ancient dragon that can now transform into the World Dragon. He didn’t have enough of making her work hard but is even working her hard now when she didn’t have proper sleep. In addition, a beautiful and frail woman that is hard to find is posing hunger and he is so merciless he doesn’t let her eat anything…so he really is special.]

‘Hey, you are a real trash.’

Astelone spoke too much. In addition, she formed a good pair with Cuchulainn to the point it was weird.

[But it’s all true.]

Astelone smirked with a sleepy face and Tae Ho couldn’t deny that.

< Episode 71 – Asgard (2) > End

TL note: Thanks for reading~