ALL NOVEL Chapter 13
EP.13
I had a vague understanding.
I was just a gigantic serpent.
A colossal serpent that coiled around the world of Norse mythology, and yet, unlike the snake that confronted the gods, I couldn’t shake off the feeling of something being lacking.
I was certainly strong.
These chains, even the sealing chains that had cost thousands of lives, felt weak, like mere sand to me.
A faint sound…
A small movement.
With that alone, I gazed down at the completely shattered chains and looked up at the sky.
I could not fly.
Was it due to my massive mass, or was it something that even the legendary Jörmungandr could not accomplish?
Despite possessing transcendent power, I remained just a large snake.
What was I missing?
I thought about it for countless years.
Was my training insufficient?
Was the strength of the enemies I devoured not enough?
Had I not yet become a fully grown being?
Did I not know how to awaken my powers?
Yes.
All of that was true.
I had not yet become a fully grown being, did not know how to fully control my own body, had lived relatively mildly, which meant I had not devoured many enemies, and had not yet awakened the divine abilities that a divine being possessed.
I put in the effort.
I tried to become stronger.
But no matter how much I faced walls and transcended them…
It seemed I would forever live a life that only gazed at the wall with my own power.
As I concentrated my mind, I felt everything happening within my domain.
This planet was, after all, my domain.
The hero fights against the demon race.
Their battle was undoubtedly fierce.
Yet, it was still insufficient.
That demon was at least stronger than a manifestation of the Demon King.
For a chick-like hero like Asgard, defeating a seasoned and skilled demon was almost an impossibility.
Thus, defeat was an expected conclusion.
A broken sword tumbled on the ground, and I heard Eliserde’s despairing voice.
To become stronger.
To be reborn as something new.
To break free from this cocoon once more.
What must I do?
I recalled the tales from mythology.
More precisely, I thought of the gods that also existed in this world.
Did they become gods solely through their own power?
It was akin to the question of what came first, the chicken or the egg.
Gods are worshiped, and as those who worship them increase, they become more distinct and stronger.
At that moment, I realized.
Ah, what I lacked.
It was something that I could no longer fill on my own.
I needed faith, worship, and reverence for myself.
And that was something I could not fulfill.
So I pretended to be weak.
I acted as if Eliserde was infinitely precious.
In truth, it was not quite like that.
Even if she was a friend I had lived with all my life, I had a personality that could not easily offer my life.
And that was the same even now.
Sacrifice for others?
That sounds good.
But I couldn’t do such a thing for a princess I had only known for a month.
I admit it.
I do have a fondness for her.
If I were to put it in context, we could be considered friends.
That’s why I wanted to give her a chance.
For her, the first and perhaps the last.
Realizing what my existence is.
What she could do.
From the first moment I faced her, the potential that resided in my heart.
For the first time, Jörmungandr completely unleashed the limitations of its size.
* * *
“How did this happen?”
Everything is confusing.
The once-mighty Jörmungandr bowed its head because of itself, and the hero, who stepped forward for me, kneels while spitting blood.
It was filled with hatred.
Not for those who caused this to happen, but for my own inability to do anything.
I tightly closed my eyes.
Yet, nothing would change.
She was still weak, merely a powerless princess who could do nothing.
The prison clinks noisily.
Before I knew it, the walls of Trelinia were right in front of me.
And atop those walls stood countless soldiers of the Trelinia Kingdom, alongside my father and brothers.
With fiery eyes, they were there.
A powerful resolve existed to kill the evil ones that sought to torment their precious princess.
“Release my daughter!!”
That voice echoed.
I could hear the mocking voice directed at him.
The princess they cherished so highly was being taunted, held in the enemy’s grasp.
With just a tiny gesture, they could toy with the princess’s life, and yet that vast army could not offer any resistance to such light mockery.
Blood was spilled.
Soldiers were helplessly swept away by the forces of Kalibargo, and my father desperately tried to stop them while gnawing at his own lips.
All those sounds began to grow faint.
Thud, thud…
Everything fell silent.
I could hear the pounding of a heartbeat.
Initially, it started as a small thrum.
Thud, thud, thud…
But then, suddenly.
THUD! THUD! THUD!
It became a drumbeat signaling a great beginning, echoing across the battlefield.
No one noticed.
With such clarity, how could no one hear this pulsating heart?
Something was seeping into my heart.
It was not simply a curse.
It was something even smaller.
But more powerful and pure…
As if resembling someone’s eyes.
An endlessly warm and blue energy.
“Ah…”
The moment I realized what that energy was, Eliserde let out a sigh.
It felt as if everything was part of a grand destiny.
Had Jörmungandr planned all of this?
I couldn’t know for sure.
But as if pieces of a puzzle were falling into place, every scene began to align as time rewound.
Jörmungandr collapsed helplessly. His eyes, sealed in chains, were bright with intelligence, and the way he pressured the soldiers was like that of a god, and the moment he was offered as a sacrifice felt akin to a rite.
Yes.
A grand ritual.
More accurately.
As if the world were a colossal egg.
Finally breaking that world and being reborn.
From some moment, it need not be spoken.
The noblest and purest of women, possessing the potential to become a divine being, had her fate split the moment she was offered as a sacrifice, though she did not become a god.
The initial fate was…
A destiny without any continuation.
Just like that, the events went awry.
The fates of Jörmungandr and the princess intertwined not at all.
The princess returned once more under the hero’s guard.
Thus, the curse activated, and the Trelinia Kingdom was engulfed by the enemy’s grasp, while the Kalibargo Kingdom became the traitor of the human realm, allowing the demon realm to invade.
In the end, Jörmungandr stopped it, but since everything was already lost, it meant nothing.
Yet.
Now, this world is not that kind of world.
The princess was curious when she first met Jörmungandr and, despite the hero’s kindness, refused to return home, choosing instead to forge memories with Jörmungandr.
Though it was a very thin and fragile bond, the fate that would change the world was set in motion by such a small connection.
“…….”
The princess, the only daughter of the Trelinia Kingdom.
Eliserde Trelinia.
She quietly rose from her seat.
Amidst the silence that had settled on the battlefield, she stood up and opened the prison door.
As if it were destiny.
Or perhaps as if assisted by some kind and gentle presence.
The door opened smoothly, as if it had never been locked.
All eyes on the battlefield were focused solely on the princess.
Now, there was no one who could not hear the racing of her heart.
That small yet powerful resonance.
The sound announcing the birth of a new being was now overflowing the battlefield.
Eliserde contemplated.
Why had she been offered as a sacrifice?
It wasn’t merely a matter of discussing possibilities.
Among countless people,
How was it that she was discovered near her own kingdom, by a hero who knew the legend of dragons, and encountered the idea of sacrifice entirely by chance?
Could all of that really have been just coincidence?
Perhaps, it was not a coincidence at all.
“…Jörmungandr.”
Gods need followers.
They need those who will solely follow, revere, and worship them.
Therefore,
Jörmungandr was not perfect.
Though his pure essence reached the divine, he lacked the power to transform that essence into divinity.
Worship, reverence, veneration.
None existed to fulfill that role.
Because no beings existed.
Thus,
Jörmungandr could not become a god.
“I will become your….”
Everyone on the battlefield.
Looked at the princess of the Trelinia Kingdom.
Kal Rediams, the hero Asgard, the demon Kalipark, and his father Resbeliko.
And.
The being that could not break free from the egg.
“I will become a goddess.”
Before all those gazes,
The princess, now a goddess, reverently knelt and looked up at the sky.
An infinitely solemn appearance.
Her voice was filled with a deep oath.
“With my body, mind, soul, and everything else of this humble self, I will wholly become a priestess and goddess for you.”
The sky did not stir.
The earth remained silent.
The wind swallowed its quiet breath.
The sea gently rippled.
And.
Crack, crack——!
The sky split open, and he appeared.
Free from mortal flesh.
Clad in a dark, abyssal divinity.
Filling the vast sky, encompassing every scene from horizon to horizon with his enormous form.
From the heavens, that existence revealed itself.
[———!———,———!!]
The massive roar twisted the sky.
Gravity warped, and the world began to accept a new god.
Jörmungandr.
It was the moment he transcended mortal flesh and was reborn as a god.