Episode 61/Chapter 1: Great Hero (1)

TL: Tsubak

ED: StellarRain

Clearing the battlefield after a battle was as important as the battle itself.

They had won against Poseidon but Mesena became a mess. This was due to the monsters fighting between themselves inside the city and the sea Poseidon brought with him sweeping away not only Mesena but also the surrounding land.

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The water sat stagnant where the ground was low and in the places that weren’t like that, the water reached up to your ankle so one couldn’t proceed with daily activities properly.

The number of people that died wasn’t low either. Before this, they evacuated the citizens because they expected a destructive clash with Poseidon. If they hadn’t done this, the number of dead people would amount to thousands.

Many of Echidna’s children were slain but fortunately many were injured rather than dead.

Their survival was because of the power of the golden apple tree that gave a regeneration power and also  Thor, Bracky and Siri who arrived on time.

The blessing of Idun granted tenacity and toughness to Echidna’s children and supported their lives on the brink of death while the Gods of thunder and hunt defeated the sea monsters and protected Echidna’s children.

But even so, Echidna’s army sustained great damage. It wasn’t an exaggeration to say that her army, composed of dragons, was halved.

The Gods also suffered serious damage.

Hermes lost both his legs and couldn’t run anymore. A God could even regenerate the entire leg but he would need a long time before being able to boast of being the fastest of Olympus again..

Hestia still didn’t wake up, even after the battle subsided. Based on Athena’s examination she wasn’t dead but was on its precipice. Hestia’s divine power was severely crippled by Triana, so she would need a long time to recover.

Athena worked hard to maintain Hestia’s life during Poseidon’s attack and so she collapsed right after the battle ended. However, she was among the least injured among the Gods of Olympus. She had actually awoken a day after and continued with her duties.

Echidna’s main body was destroyed by Poseidon so she could barely open her eyes. Her lower body of essence had also been forcefully torn away and she had suffered several stab wounds to the chest.

“Uwaaa! Echidna! You can’t die! I don’t want you to die!”

Nidhogg cried with a messy face. Hydra, who was grabbing Echidna’s hands, also cried next to her.

‘I won’t. I won’t die so please be quiet lady. I can’t sleep because you are too noisy.’

Echidna lacked the strength to mumble so she just thought of this in her mind. Of course, there was no way for Nidhogg or Hydra to hear this so they continued to cry and disturb her sleep.

This disturbance made Echidna, only for a moment, regret lending her diving power to Nidhogg and Adenmaha. Otherwise her divine power, stamina, and magic power wouldn’t be so exhausted.

What Echidna did in the middle of battle was simple.

But of course, the result and the process were easy to speak about but the actual implications were difficult to realize.

What she did was help Nidhogg raise her limits..

Nidhogg, who was a real ancient dragon, had an unawakened but unlimited potential. Just like the queen of the land of darkness had confirmed, the amount of magic power she possessed could overwhelm a God of magic.

But she was unaware of how utilize it. Part of it was because her comprehension of magic was low and she didn’t have the skills, but it was mostly because she didn’t understand her amount of magic power and had only been using a small fraction.

If you were to make a comparison, she had an overwhelming amount of water that could fill a huge reservoir of water but didn’t have the proper tools and instead tried to pour water with a bucket.

With her magic power, Echidna installed a water gate on Nidhogg’s reservoir. With this, Nidhogg was now able to harness a much greater amount of magic.

But of course, she faced a tremendous amount of pain from forcefully installing a water gate.

What Echidna did with Adenmaha was much simpler.

Echidna just gave Adenmaha strength. Echidna transformed all her divine power, stamina and magic power into strength and transferred this to Adenmaha.

Evolving this strength to transform into a real dragon from a sea serpent was all due to Adenmaha’s own capabilities.

“It should be thanks to master’s saga as I have already transformed into the white frost dragon quite some times……my body and soul must have remembered the shape of that strength.”

Adenmaha’s speech and smile were different than before. Not just Tae Ho, but everyone could see that she became more beautiful and mature.

She had increased her divine rank.

Her God rank had increased. Perhaps this was from her metamorphosis into a dragon from a sea serpent, or from all the things she accumulated that exploded in this battle.

As a Valkyrie she was  a God without a deity but now she had acquired one.

The Goddess of love and beauty.

This was Adenmaha’s deity. She represented love and beauty as a Goddess of Erin.

‘A deity really does reflect the actions of a person.

Cuchulainn was convinced by Adenmaha’ actions and smirked. Adenmaha would have flushed at his mocking tone but fortunately only Tae Ho heard that and he became embarrassed.

Tae Ho wished to rest two or three days but he couldn’t because of the situation.

Tae Ho applied first aid to himself then went to meet Thor, Bracky and Siri below the golden apple tree.

“The God of thunder greets the new master of Asgard.”

Thor smirked and clasped his hands together.

Bracky and Siri glanced at each other and hit their chests.

Tae Ho greeted them in the Valhalla way. He had seen Thor a few times but had almost never spoken with him. However, give the current circumstances, Thor was the one Tae Ho wanted to see the most.

“Well, it’s not that complicated. Father and Freya opened up the connecting path with difficulty as it took a lot of time. Freya poured her power into it until she almost collapsed but only a crack was made. That’s why father told me I should head on first.”

With the power of Mjolnir, he would be able to widen the crack for a short time.

“Father lent me Sleipnir to go faster. It was like the rumors said. It was unbelievably fast. Anyways, after I left the crack while riding on Sleipnir and firing out lightning, the army of Olympus was filling my vision. It was quite ironic that the soldiers of Zeus were among the monsters.”

“So what did you do? Fry them up with lightning?”

Bracky asked in excitement and Thor shook his head.

“I wanted to do that but I didn’t have time. The master was quite far away so I just flew above them. You should have seen the dumb faces they had at the time.”

Thor narrated and laughed. He showed a more relaxed side because he recognized Tae Ho, Bracky and Siri as Gods at the same rank as him.

“Whatever the case, I was  narrowly able to arrive on time.”

“Yes, you were of great help. I wanted to dance when I heard the sound of thunder.”

Tae Ho joked while Thor and Bracky laughed once again. Siri frowned at their laughter but she still showed a bright smile.

Tae Ho spoke again.

“Thor-nim.”

“Just call me Thor. Aren’t you the master of Asgard?”

Thor smirked, Bracky swiped his nose with a proud face and Siri put on an unusually playful expression.

It was because Bracky and especially Siri knew Tae Ho since he was a lowest ranked warrior.

Tae Ho flushed with embarrassment but proceeded to speak after clearing his throat a few times.

“Then, Thor, Bracky and Siri. A battle between Olympus and Asgard has started near the connecting path.”

“Um, probably. Father and Freya were working hard.”

Bracky’s eyes became sharp as Thor affirmed.

“We should go and help them immediately.”

“Wait, it’s impossible to go right now. We won’t be able to arrive at time because everyone has exhausted quite a lot of strength and even if we do arrive at time we won’t be of much help.”

Bracky frowned at Siri’s words but he didn’t complain at all. It was because he also knew that she was right.

“Thor-nim. How big is the force of Asgard?”

“It’s strong. Excluding the minimum amount to defend the northern region, almost everyone was mobilized for the attack of Olympus. The ones at frontline are Ullr and Tir and the ones supporting from behind are father and Freya. If you include the Steel warriors around forty percent of all the warriors had been dispatched.”

Many warriors of Valhalla lost their lives in the second Great war but they still numbered five hundred thousand. With forty percent of that, their army still amounted to two hundred thousand.

‘Odin may be planning to take over Olympus.’

Cuchulain smiled bitterly. To him, as a member of Erin, Odin wasn’t the father of all Gods but the one that was always right but a cruel and merciless God of war,.

Taking over a country and taking over the world was completely different. If Odin was really thinking of invading Olympus, it was unlikely he was thinking about taking it over completely  for Asgard.

‘He would just take everything and pull away.’

Just like a viking.

But that was only in Cuchulainn’s imagination. Even he thought that Odin mobilizing a huge army was the right thing to do in this situation.

Even if Odin had no intentions to take over Olympus, he still needed a huge army as this war was between Olympus and Asgard. If Odin didn’t want to expand the battlefield to Asgard and limit it to Olympus, he needed to mobilize a huge army and invade.

“If it’s that much, he should be able to defeat the forces stationed in the connecting path.”

“Probably. his army was quite big when I saw it but its really small compared to the army we mobilized. I couldn’t see any Gods or heroes that were particularly strong.”

The 12 Olympians, those who had the strength to resist the Gods of Asgard, became a mess from internal conflicts. In addition, Tae Ho had killed Achilles who was the leader of the stationary troop of the connecting path so it was unlikely for a strong God or hero to be in the connecting path.

Siri nodded once at Thor’s story and looked at Tae Ho.

“Tae Ho, I recommend getting some rest for now. It won’t be too late to contact with those from Asgard who have taken the connecting path after we settle down the battlefield.”

The connecting path was adjacent to the sacred polises of Apollo and Artemis that both now belonged to Tae Ho, so it wouldn’t be hard to regroup with the forces of Asgard.

“Yes, you are right. We should rest for now and aid the wounded.”

There were already several people below the golden apple tree who received emergency treatment. The reason Adenmaha, Nidhogg, Echidna and company weren’t present was because they were either resting in a medical ward or treating others.

They also needed to discuss with Athena about regrouping with Asgar’s army. Athena was currently taking care of Hestia, so it was fine to rest for now.

“Mm, good. Let’s rest then. But I have something I have to tell you before that.”

Thor judged that the general situation was explained  and tried to catch their attention. When Tae Ho and the others focused on him he laughed awkwardly and spoke to Tae Ho.

“It’s a message from Heda and Idun. They said that you have to see it alone.”

Thor gave Tae Ho a long wooden tag the size of a palm. The narrow and flat tag resembled a ruler, and the front and back were engraved with beautiful runes.

It was obviously a tool that could record videos and voices.

Tae Ho took a breath and carefully received the tag. Siri spoke what was on Tae Ho’s mind.

“Heda wasn’t able to come?”

“She has to protect Idun and nd Idun can’t leave Asgard.”

The administrator of the golden apple tree always had to stay in Asgard. So Heda, who shared her body and soul with Idun, naturally couldn’t leave Asgard.

“The two of them are in excellent health so don’t worry. Freya told me to tell you this.”

Thor spoke with a satisfied face and Tae Ho nodded and placed the wooden tag containing Heda’s and Idun’s voices into storage.

‘It seems like master is also in good shape.’

Cuchulainn thought of Scathach when he heard of Idun and Heda after a long time. Thor spoke as if he had heard Cuchulainn’s voice.

“Ah, the way I see it, the legion of Idun did participate in this expedition after all. The Valkyries of the legion led the warriors and there was quite a famous figure among them.”

There was only one famous figure in Idun’s legion other than Tae Ho.

“Did Scathach-nim come?”

Siri asked with a hopeful face and Thor nodded.

“It seems like the queen of the land of darkness is representing the legion of Idun in this expedition. The priority of each legion is to join their commander so I believe among the other expedition team they arrive here the fastest.”

‘It was also a while since you met the members of your legion right?’

Thor smirked while looking at Tae Ho. There were several faces Tae Ho wanted to see and not only Scathach. He was also worried about Helga who must have just entered the legion.

‘Speak honestly. You are excited thinking about increasing the completion rate of the ‘warrior that had a Goddess meet him’ in a long while right?’

‘I can’t say no but Cuchulainn, it seems like you are embarrassed as you will meet master in a long time.’

Cuchulainn flinched at Tae Ho’s sharp words that poked his weak point. A battle between masters with Scathach’s techniques was really dangerous and would only inflict fatal damage to the others.

“Well, shall we rest for real now? Let’s finalize the plans later.”

Bracky spoke and everyone agreed.

Demeter who was be trapped inside of Poseidon’s’ sacred force, Pontus the primeval God of sea who gave strength to Poseidon, and Mesena that had become a mess just to list a few. There were many to address but they decided to rest for now.

And the next day.

There was someone who was as glad as Cuchulainn when Scathach arrived at Mesena faster than any other expedition team.

“Scathach master, I’m curious about something!”

Nidhogg asked while smiled brightly. Scathach, who received a question from her longtime disciple smiled, but her expression quickly stiffened not long after that.

She dripped cold sweat as she faced the biggest danger since she had become a teacher.

&

“Lee Tae Ho!”

< Episode 61 – Great Hero (1) > End

TL note: Thanks for reading~