192. Midgard Ascent (1)
-Whiiiiirrrr……!!
As the gateway activated, magic surged out like a tidal wave. The hellish magic painted a mirage of colorful light, distorting everything around it as it spewed forth. Fernandez slowly steadied his breath and stared straight ahead.
Then, a choking sound came from behind him. No way. Fernandez twisted his face and turned around.
“Your Excellency……”
“What a fool……”
There stood Kirhas, gasping for breath, and Abel, supporting her. The horse they had ridden, tainted by the hellish magic, lay far away, coughing up blood.
Abel was pale, trying to catch her breath, while Kirhas had bloodshot eyes, blood trickling from her lips. Fernandez quickly approached her.
“I, I……”
“Shh. Quiet.”
He grabbed her wrist and slowly infused her with magic. The contamination of hellish magic is deadly to the living, potentially leaving permanent scars on both the soul and the body.
The soul is still fine. Her spirit had already been strengthened by Kadán’s blessing. But the physical damage was getting worse. As Fernandez examined her body, his face twisted in horror, and he glared at her.
“Why did you come here…… Abel. Did I give you too heavy a mission?”
“Fernandez. I couldn’t leave you alone.”
“You should have!”
Fernandez shouted in anger. Abel, facing his rage for the first time, flinched and looked flustered. Looking into her eyes, Fernandez slowly calmed his breathing. Erik’s madness was consuming his soul, making it hard to control his emotions.
“Your Excellency, it’s not her fault. I, I wanted to be by your side.”
“You…… You had a better future.”
“Future. Future…… Your Excellency, I am not the ‘Kirhas’ you think of.”
Kirhas pushed Abel’s support away and slowly straightened her back. Despite her sickly appearance, a resolute will shone in her eyes.
“I am not a mirror reflecting your regrets, Fernandez Sernerd. Did you ruin and twist my future? No way. You saved me.”
“Kirhas……”
“Look at me. The woman you knew from the distant future and I are already different beings, and I neither want nor can become her. The shield of the Great Wilderness, the great chieftain, the queen of the alliance! I don’t need such packaging.”
-Rumble.
As the gateway opened, the presence of demons grew more intense. Kirhas, with bloodshot eyes, stared straight at Fernandez and slowly drew her sword.
“It’s fine to walk the path you’ve paved. It’s also fine to choose the path that brings me closer to you. If I am merely a pawn in your plan, so be it. It still means you need me. But, but…… Since you’ve become the compass of my life, don’t leave me alone.”
If this path leads to certain death, I will gladly be your companion. Even if I’m used as a puppet, as long as I can be by your side. Kirhas said this as she adjusted her grip on the sword hilt.
Fernandez looked at Kirhas, then at Abel. Abel smiled softly, her face pale.
“I’m greedier than this child…… but not so different. Don’t go alone. As she said, we are not shadows reflecting your regrets.”
“……I wanted you to live a better life.”
“Better than this?”
At her words, Fernandez couldn’t help but laugh. Kirhas and Abel also smiled, seeing his laughter. Fernandez nodded and gripped his shield.
“I’ll take the lead. Don’t fall behind.”
Without waiting for a response, Fernandez leaped through the gateway. Kirhas and Abel followed.
* * *
This wasn’t his first time crossing dimensions. Fernandez didn’t remember, but the day he first fell into this world, he had already torn through the walls between the horizontal world and the main world.
But this was the first time he had crossed while maintaining full consciousness. Fernandez frowned at the familiar sensation of his body and soul being slammed into the ground. It was a brutal descent.
-Thud.
He felt the ground approaching at a terrifying speed, but in reality, he landed gently. The sensation of speed might have just been a spiritual effect of dimensional travel. He slowly looked around, breathing cautiously.
-The flora is familiar, and there’s no issue with breathing.
‘This is the Domain of the Gods, after all. Asgard. It’s unlikely that the afterlife for humans would be hostile to them.’
The natural environment wasn’t much different from the North. Except for the scale. The sky was impossibly high, the trees incomparably large, and the spiritual energy swirling in this world was dense enough to crush mortals.
Magic, spirit, and corruption—all of it swirled together.
‘It’s a more normal environment than I thought.’
-Calmly thinking, Sadarkelisa’s active involvement hasn’t been that long. Considering the history of the Northern Temple of the Gods, it’s unlikely that the entire dimension would be corrupted so quickly.
‘But if there are still intact gods in the Northern Temple of the Gods…… why would they allow Baldur to go mad like this?’
Fernandez stroked his chin, lost in thought. It’s strange. Baldur was consumed by madness, Loft fled, and Freya had to seal herself due to the terrible corruption that should have spread throughout the Northern Temple of the Gods.
Yet, this forest was too peaceful. The vast nature surrounded him, but the level of corruption felt throughout the Northern Temple’s domain wasn’t severe.
“Is everyone alright?”
Fernandez turned to the two who had landed behind him. Both Kirhas and Abel seemed to have passed through the gateway safely.
“Better than I expected.”
“Yes, breathing is much easier.”
After passing through a gateway spewing hellish magic, a perfectly fine world lay before them? Fernandez frowned as he looked at the bushes. Loft was spinning above the shrubs, looking down at them.
“Loft. What’s going on here?”
“Bifröst is a gateway not just to Asgard but to multiple worlds. That brat could only create a gateway to Sadarkelisa’s domain.”
If he had made a deal with Sadarkelisa, she wouldn’t have given him more power than just opening a gateway. Fernandez slowly touched the soil beneath his feet. No traces of corruption.
A cool winter breeze shook the branches. A faint, acrid smell lingered in the air, not from the forest but more like the air from a fire scene.
“Asgard still has uncorrupted……”
“Was there a place?”
“Corruption… It’s hard to call it corruption, strictly speaking. But does this place look intact to you, friend?”
Hearing Loft’s words, Fernandez closed his eyes. What more was there? Relying on his vision sense was more advantageous for understanding the situation than maintaining a blurry sight.
Checking his senses one by one, Fernandez quickly surveyed his surroundings. First, the smell—a faint scent of burning. It wasn’t the kind of smell that would come from a forest fire, and if there had been a wildfire, the sky was too clear. Strange.
Second, the sound. The sound of wind. The rustling of leaves colliding and scattering. He examined each one carefully. And then…
“There are no beasts.”
“Right? Haha, impressive!”
At his words, Loft laughed, slapping his knees. Soon, he leaped down and stood in front of Fernandez. In his hand was a single leaf.
“There are no beasts in this forest. Not just that, no insects, no birds… Not even this single leaf.”
-*Crunch.*
Loft rubbed his fingers, crushing the leaf. It crumbled into dust without any resistance. He extended his dry, bone-like index finger, devoid of any moisture, and pushed it close to Fernandez’s nose.
“See, friend?”
“There’s no life here. Is this… not Asgard? Did they push us into a completely different dimension?”
“Half right. If Jormungand had fully controlled Asgard, how would your world remain intact? What hope would we have had?”
Loft exaggeratedly waved his hand, pushing aside the bushes. As the bushes parted and withered, a path slowly began to open.
“Come, walk.”
“…Alright.”
A mage who dislikes riddles cannot become a true mage. The world is a vast questionnaire, and the process of attaching logical questions to it, the entire process of solving it, is the study of magic. Fernandez, as a scholar of magic, naturally enjoyed this kind of riddle.
He followed Loft. Loft walked slowly, unhurriedly, humming as he spoke.
“Asgard, Midgard, Jotunheim, Vanaheim… These names, aren’t they ridiculous? Asgard where the Aesir live, Vanaheim where the Vanir live. Jotunheim where the giants live. Midgard, the center of the world. Haha, foolish.”
“Do you mean the division of dimensions is meaningless?”
“Yep. At least you’ll understand the essence more easily than anyone else.”
Loft chuckled, looking at Fernandez and Faijashi standing behind him. The God of Death, even older than Mumto of the Great Wilderness… It was impossible to think he wouldn’t recognize Faijashi.
-He knew.
“Of course! From the beginning, from the time I was imprisoned in the Great Wilderness, I knew you. The destroyer of worlds, the great Dark Mage.”
Loft, who had been walking briskly, tilted his head awkwardly and stopped. Without creating any more paths through the trees, he stood in the middle of the forest, looking at Fernandez.
The smell of burning was getting stronger. Now, it was clear with every breath.
“If you’ve crossed the horizontal worlds, you’ll understand this world more easily. Two worlds, or rather, dozens of horizontal worlds. And the gateways that can cross those worlds… Can you guess?”
“…What Sadarkelisa wants isn’t just the opening of the Hell dimension.”
“Right. That’s why I like you!”
-*Rumble…*
A tremor was felt from somewhere. But Fernandez, pale, couldn’t tell if it was an earthquake or the confusion caused by his racing heart.
Horizontal worlds. Parallel dimensions touching each other… Asgard where the Aesir live, Vanaheim where the Vanir live… And Midgard, the center of the world…
If this wasn’t just referring to the divine realm, the domain of the Northern Temple of the Gods… The reason he specifically mentioned horizontal worlds was that this place was Midgard, a dimension of the same status as the world they came from…
‘The northerners considered themselves descendants of giants.’
From the Aesir, Vanir, Jotun, to the dwarves… Their roots lie in the ‘giants.’ And before his eyes stood a survivor of the giant gods, smiling.
Like a lightning bolt, realization spread through his spine.
“Overlaying a dimension destroyed by demons… Defying the heavens…!!”
“The fate of the gods (Ragnarokkr)! Yes. That’s right. And this is… the process.”
-*Fsss…*
As Loft flicked his fingers, the bushes around him began to scatter. The green trees parted, and what appeared behind them was not a forest.
It was never a forest. Before their eyes was a massive cliff.
-*Crash! Boom!*
A crumbling world unfolded beneath them. This place was an island floating in the air. From the high altitude where red clouds hung low, the ground could be seen below.
Lava flowed like snakes, and the shattered earth screamed as it crumbled. Occasionally, the crust collapsed, and crimson flames erupted from the gaps. Demons resembling snakes crawled out from those gaps.
“My… God.”
Kirhas exhaled a suppressed sigh, gasping. Could this simply be described as Hell? Floating islands, small islands barely maintaining nature, were scattered everywhere. It wasn’t to escape the disaster of the earth, but rather, it looked as if they had been flung up from the ground.
-*Whoosh…*
A sticky, hellish magic-laden wind blew. The magic crumbled at the edge of the forest, scattering light. It looked as if a kind of barrier had been erected.
“Fernandez… look at that.”
Following Abel’s finger, far in the distance. A scene that had been blurry, almost like a background, slowly began to come into view.
-*Thud. Thud.*
His heart pounded heavily. Five massive marble pillars shone under the sunlight piercing through the sky. Beneath their faint outlines, thick chains flowed down…
“Sadar…kelisa…”
A shining liquid… probably mercury. According to records, she was submerged in mercury. A massive waterfall of mercury flowing somewhere… and a wall could be seen.
“Yggdrasil.”
Loft looked in the direction Abel pointed and chuckled. It wasn’t a wall. That thing was so massive it felt like a wall, too large to fully enter the field of vision, appearing only as a faint afterimage.
“It’s almost the only thing in this world that hasn’t been destroyed, the ‘living’ one. The place where Botan’s palace is. Where Jormungand is sealed. And where your god’s messenger sleeps. That’s our goal, friend.”
Loft spoke in a somewhat distant voice. Soon, he resumed his playful tone.
“Jormungand is trying to overlay this world onto yours. And by fully controlling Bifrost, he aims to build a massive gateway connecting to other corrupted worlds. Mainly, the world you destroyed.”
“That world still has other dimensional demons intact. Sadarkelisa doesn’t seem like she’d want to share her achievements, does she?”
“Of course not. So, this is more like a conquest war. After completely devouring your world and taking all the spiritual energy of your Temple of the Gods, he’ll open a gate to other dimensions. This is just the process. The result will lead to the end of all dimensions…”
So, are you going to stop the world’s destruction, friend? Loft laughed from the edge of the cliff. His hair fluttered in the wind. A sinister wind laden with hellish magic.
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