pdf-ebookys Chapter 444 The Goal (Page 12)
Chapter 444 The Goal (Page 12)
These words were like a dull knife, slowly carving into the hearts of every Asgardian god.
Loki's illusionary clones froze simultaneously, their emerald pupils contracting violently.
In that deathly silence—
A shadow darker than darkness itself quietly emerged from the roots at the very bottom of the World Tree.
Hoddle's eyes were always closed, and his pale face bore an innate sorrow.
This Norse god of darkness, the god of blindness, now holds a short sword formed from absolute darkness—the "Night's Thorn," which is said to be able to slay any being of light.
He made no sound, not even disturbing the air.
Just as fate itself inevitably descends, the thorn of eternal night silently pierced Laozi's back.
This attack contained no divine power fluctuations, no spatial tremors, and even the killing intent was perfectly concealed.
Because Hoddle was born into darkness, his very existence was the embodiment of silence.
When the sword tip was still three inches from the Taoist robe, Laozi suddenly sighed.
"Idiot."
He gently swept the whisk backward.
Hodr's Night Spike suddenly froze in mid-air. For the first time, a look of astonishment appeared on the eternally serene face of this god of darkness.
He "looked" at his wrist—where a crystal-clear Daoist chain was wrapped around it, with a faint light that even darkness could not swallow.
“You shouldn’t have participated in this killing.” Lao Jun turned around, his gaze falling on Hoddle’s tightly closed eyes. “A born blind man, yet he sees more clearly than anyone else.”
Hoddle's lips trembled, but he couldn't utter a single word.
He felt a warm power flowing into his body along the chains, a feeling he had never experienced before—light.
Odin finally rose from his throne.
Gungnir, the spear of eternity, erupted with blinding divine light, and the nine runes on its tip simultaneously burst into flame.
But the God-King's movements suddenly froze, for he saw Hoddle's tightly closed eyelids trembling slightly.
"Stop!" For the first time, fear crept into Odin's voice. "You can't—"
“I’m not hurting him.” Lao Jun gently touched Hoddle’s brow with his finger. “I’m…healing him.”
Hoddle's eyelids trembled violently.
A single, glistening tear slid down from between her eyelashes, leaving a shimmering trail on her pale cheek.
When that tear fell onto the fragment of the Rainbow Bridge, it made a crisp "ding" sound.
Then, something incredible happened -
Hoddle, the god who was born to live in eternal darkness, slowly opened his eyes.
What eyes they were! The iris was like the deepest night sky, yet the pupils shimmered with starlight.
As he looked around blankly, all the shadows that his gaze touched began to recede, revealing the pure essence behind them.
“I…saw it…” Hoddle’s voice was as soft as a sigh.
He looked down at his hands, then at the stunned gods around him, and finally at Odin. "Father... is this... the appearance of light?"
Odin's single eye contracted violently.
Gungnir in his hand suddenly felt incredibly heavy, for at that moment he realized what a terrible mistake he had made—that he had allowed Hodr to live in darkness forever because of a prophecy, and even condoned the tragedy of Badr's death.
Laozi released his whisk, letting Hoddle fall onto the Rainbow Bridge.
The newly sighted god of darkness, like a child, gazed fascinated at the sky of Asgard, at the branches of the World Tree, and even reached out to touch the colors he had never seen before.
“Now,” Laozi turned to Odin, his voice suddenly turning icy, “it’s time to settle the real sins.”
Odin's one eye finally revealed true fear.
He realized that this was not a simple act of revenge, but a judgment on the very essence of divinity—what the Moral Lord sought to sever was the most fundamental sin of the Asgardian pantheon.
"Ragnarok..." the God-King murmured to himself, "So that's how it is..."
Laozi's figure began to rise into the sky, his black and white Taoist robes fluttering in the winds of the Nine Realms.
His voice was like a resounding bell, causing the tiles of the Golden Palace to fall off.
"In the name of Heaven—"
"You are all traitors..."
"Nirvana!"
"You, Odin... personally released the nameless fog in Antarctica, causing the whole world to be shrouded in mist, forcing the gods of my Great Xia to destroy the Heavenly Court, sacrifice their own lives, and enter the cycle of reincarnation to protect all living beings!"
The voice of the Supreme Lord of Morality resounded like thunder in the golden palace of Asgard. His black and white Taoist robes fluttered without wind, and every silver thread on his whisk shimmered with runes of the Great Dao.
His gaze pierced through Odin's single eye, as if trying to see into the darkest secrets of the god-king's soul.
"This grudge should be settled today!"
With this angry shout, the wooden sword on the ground suddenly trembled, and the six ancient seal characters "Taiqing Daode Tianzun" on the sword blade emitted a dazzling blue light.
The wooden sword soared into the air, transforming into a streak of blue lightning that instantly pierced the black eyepatch covering Odin's right eye.
"Gods of Asgard, behold, is your God-King still the same as before?" The voice of the Moral Celestial echoed in the ears of every deity.
The blindfold slowly floated down, revealing Odin's right eye, which had never been shown to anyone before—it was not the eye of a god, but a terrifying sphere formed from countless scarlet worms.
The tiny worms wriggled wildly in the eye sockets, intertwining and separating, their surfaces covered with a layer of translucent mucus that reflected a nauseating dark red glow under the eternal light of Asgard.
Queen Frigg abruptly rose from her golden throne, her magnificent robes sweeping away the golden cups on the table.
Her fingers gripped the necklace tightly at her chest, her knuckles turning white from the force: "This can't be... Odin's right eye was clearly meant for drinking from the Well of Wisdom..."
Loki's phantom clones froze simultaneously, and his emerald pupils contracted violently.
The true form of the God of Deception emerged from the shadows, his usual nonchalant expression vanishing without a trace: "Ha! I knew it! No wonder you suddenly forbade anyone from entering the basement of Valhalla after that hunt a hundred years ago!"
Odin's one eye—his normal left eye—flickered with a hint of panic, but it was quickly replaced by rage.
He suddenly grabbed Gungnir, the spear of eternity, and pointed the tip at the Moral God: "It's just sowing discord! Don't believe it!"
But the commotion among the gods could not be quelled.
Although the god of war Tyr was sealed in divine blood, his wife, the goddess Sif, stepped forward.
The blonde goddess lifted the silver veil that had been covering her left arm, revealing not the legendary beautiful golden arm, but a deformed limb covered in scales:
"Ever since you 'healed' my wound a hundred years ago, my arm has looked like this! I've always been too afraid to tell you..."
"Enough!" Odin roared, and Gungnir burst forth with dazzling divine light, but this time, the runes on the spear flickered erratically, as if resisting their master's will.
The Celestial Venerable of Morality snorted coldly, and with a flick of his sleeve, the illusory image of the Kunlun Mirror unfolded in the air. Ripples spread across the mirror's surface, revealing a scene that took the breath away of all the gods—
On the Antarctic ice sheet, Odin holds Gungnir, its tip piercing the ice.
His right eye was completely occupied by a swarm of scarlet worms, and he was chanting incantations that did not belong to any divine language.
As the incantation was completed, a gray-black mist surged out from the cracks in the ice and quickly spread throughout the entire field of vision.
"This is the true scene from a hundred years ago." The voice of the Mortal Lord was icy and chilling. "Odin has long been parasitized by the kin of Cthulhu. He released the Nameless Mist in Antarctica, causing the present world to be shrouded in mist."
The scene in the mirror shifted, revealing the tragic state of the Heavenly Court—countless gods struggled in agony within the mist, their divine bodies beginning to decay, celestial palaces collapsing, and peach trees withering. The Jade Emperor and the assembled celestial lords sat solemnly in the center of the Lingxiao Palace, discussing something with grave expressions.
"In order to resist the erosion of the mist, the gods of our Great Xia have no choice but to make the most tragic decision." The voice of the Celestial Venerable of Morality trembled slightly, a rare occurrence for him.
In the scene, the Jade Emperor stands up and raises the Imperial Seal: "I have decided to destroy the Heavenly Court, cast a divine stele, and protect the mountains and rivers of my Great Xia!"
As the imperial seal fell, the entire Heavenly Court began to collapse.
Countless gods transformed into streaks of light and flew in all directions. Their divine bodies gradually dissipated during their flight, eventually coalescing into nine towering divine monuments that stood at various key points across the Great Xia territory.
The last thing seen in the mirror was Yang Jianjian transforming into silver light and merging into the divine stele, glancing back towards Kunlun.
The resolute determination and reluctance in his eyes moved every deity present.
"No...this is impossible..." Queen Frigga staggered backward, knocking over the throne behind her.
Her gaze darted back and forth between Odin and the image in the mirror. "A hundred years ago you said you were going to Jotunheim to quell the rebellion... but actually you went to the south pole of Midgard?"
The Celestial Venerable stood atop the shattered Rainbow Bridge, his black and white Daoist robes fluttering in the fierce winds of the Nine Realms. He gazed at Odin, who stubbornly resisted before him, a cold glint flashing in his eyes: "It seems I won't be able to tear through your disguise without a bit of force..."
"Queen Mother of the West, may I borrow your sword?"
Before the words were even finished, the entire Kunlun Mountain suddenly trembled on the other side.
Beyond countless layers of space, a vast and ancient voice pierced through dimensions, booming like ancient thunder in the ears of every living being: "...Borrow my sword!!!"
"What's that sound?!" Lin Qiye suddenly pressed down on the buzzing black box straight sword and looked up towards the east.
The snow from the Kunlun Mountains rolled down amidst the sound waves.
Anqingyu's monitoring device was alarming wildly, and the values jumping on the data panel had already exceeded the threshold.
A long-lost gleam flashed in the Queen Mother of the West's phoenix eyes. With a slight lift of her jade fingers, the Nine-Phoenix Golden Hairpin transformed into a stream of light and shot straight into the sky.
"The time has finally come!" She took a step forward, and golden lotuses bloomed beneath her feet, instantly reaching a height of ten thousand feet in the sky.
"Sword rises!"
With this decree, the Sword Mountain, which had been silent for a hundred years, was suddenly awakened.
The first bronze sword broke free from its ice seal, and the two characters "诛邪" (meaning "slay evil") on its blade burst forth with dazzling golden light.
Then came the second, the third... 100,000 heavy black iron swords shattered the mountain rocks, and a million white jade flying swords sliced through the clouds.
The sound of swords clashing converged into a towering wave, and the snow covering the entire Kunlun Mountains evaporated into mist within the sound waves.
"Thirty...thirty million?!" Baili Pangpang's fat face trembled violently, and the electromagnetic cannon in his hand crashed to the ground.
He saw the sky-covering rain of swords forming a silver torrent, each sword trailing a tail of different colors—there was the Pure Source True Fire left by Yang Jianjian, the Red Lotus Karmic Fire carved by Nezha, and the Shattered Star Golden Light forged by Sun Wukong himself.
Before the gods of Asgard could react, Gungnir, the spear of eternity, suddenly emitted a piercing alarm.
Loki's hundreds of phantoms looked up at the same time, and a scene that made the gods tremble was reflected in their emerald pupils—thirty million sword lights pierced through the barrier of the nine realms, like the Milky Way pouring down!
"Defend!!" The golden shield of the Asgardian god had just been raised when the first wave of sword rain descended upon the world.
The vanguard formation composed of 100,000 Immortal-Slaying Swords erupted with a sun-like blazing white light the moment it came into contact with the divine realm barrier.
The supposedly indestructible walls of Asgard crumbled like layers of a pastry, revealing the panicked Protoss warriors behind them.