CHAPTER 482: CHAPTER 482 - MORTAL LIFE

Hel rose from her throne. The movement alone sent ripples of power through the realm; the mists recoiled, and the souls trembled.

"...Someone has touched the boundary," she said softly. "A being born not of this tree’s branches... but from beyond its reach"

Her decayed lips curved into the faintest smile, cold and knowing.

"So, the Shadow Realm moves once more," she murmured, her mismatched eyes glowing faintly in the dark. "And with it... the one who commands true darkness has appeared"

Hel’s gaze lifted toward the unseen ceiling of her hall, as if her sight could pierce through the layers of existence, past Niflheim’s mist, past Asgard’s golden halls, until she found it: a faint pulse resonating through creation itself.

Taufik’s presence.

"...Who are you, stranger?" she whispered, voice laced with morbid fascination. "You carry the darkness that even death cannot claim... and yet, within you lies the Presence of True Death itself"

The tremors faded. Silence returned to her hall, heavy, eternal, and watchful. But Hel’s curiosity did not fade. It lingered, patient and unyielding, like death itself.

--------

- Back in Midgard

Taufik walked through the bustling town beside Thalia and Elaria.

Cobblestone streets stretched ahead, lined with merchants calling out their wares, the scent of roasted bread and tanned leather mingling in the air.

The trio blended effortlessly into the crowd, a nobleman and his two consorts, unremarkable in the eyes of passersby.

For Taufik and Thalia, such scenes were familiar, almost mundane. But for Elaria, every step was a new world. A new experience.

Her blindfolded face tilted toward the chatter of merchants and laughter of children, her senses drinking in the pulse of mortal life. She paused at a food stall, curious fingers brushing against a freshly baked loaf, feeling its warmth through the paper wrapping.

"So this is what a human marketplace feels like," she murmured softly, a faint smile tugging at her lips. "No light, no grandeur... yet it’s alive"

Taufik chuckled lightly. "Welcome to the real world, Elaria. The place where gods seldom look and mortals find meaning in small things"

As they continued walking, Taufik stopped occasionally to ask travelers and guards about the kingdom’s name and the current year. But every answer only deepened his confusion.

None of the places mentioned existed in the records he knew. Even the calendar system was unfamiliar.

Eventually, he accepted the truth, although it was the same as his Earth, this was not the Earth he remembered. Or maybe, not the time he remembered.

This was the past. A past that didn’t go down in history, or it’s just simply the same earth but a different history.

He didn’t know how long it had been since the Æsir severed Midgard’s connection to Mana. Yet, when he reached out with his senses, he confirmed his suspicion, not a single living being in this city carried Mana.

The vessels were there, the core within each soul still intact, but utterly dormant. No spark. No flow. No trace of energy.

He exhaled slowly, his expression unreadable.

"...So this is what they’ve done," he muttered under his breath.

Humans still lived their lives, building kingdoms, waging wars, and praying to the heavens, never realizing how powerless they truly were.

They looked to the gods for protection, blind to the irony that those very gods had stolen their right to defend themselves.

Taufik’s gaze drifted to the horizon, where the sun dipped beyond the stone rooftops, painting the city in gold.

A quiet resolve flickered behind his calm eyes.

"Then perhaps," he thought, "it’s time to remind them what it means to wield their own light"

---

Days passed quietly.

Taufik remained in the town, living among mortals as one of them. By day, he helped merchants carry crates, visited the market with Thalia and Elaria, and even joined them for meals in the bustling tavern below their inn.

For Thalia and Elaria, the days were filled with laughter and discovery. They tasted human food, learned the customs, and watched the sun rise and fall over the rooftops of Midgard, something they had never experienced so freely before.

For Taufik, however, it was something else entirely.

Even while partaking in the simplicity of mortal life, his mind never rested.

Every night, when the city lights dimmed and the streets grew quiet, he would close his eyes and listen.

Not with his ears, but with his very essence.

He sought the pulse of the Earth, the rhythm of its existence, the whisper of its Aboriginal Being.

Yet no matter how many times he reached out, there was nothing.

Only silence.

It was wrong. Deeply wrong.

Every world, every realm he had ever stepped into, possessed an Aboriginal Being, a Primordial Life that represented its will.

His own Earth had one, though only a single being instead of the usual pair.

But here... in this Midgard, there was none.

Not even an echo.

The thought gnawed at him as he sat on the balcony of the luxury inn, a quiet suite he had paid for with a handful of gold conjured by his Power of Creation. Behind him, Elaria and Thalia were fast asleep, their slow, steady breathing filling the silence.

Taufik rested his chin on one hand, his gaze lost in the moonlight.

"...Every planet should have an Aboriginal Being," he murmured. "Even if one perishes, the universe compensates for the imbalance. But here..."

He paused, eyes narrowing slightly as a thought surfaced.

"...Ymir and Auðumbla"

He remembered Elaria’s story, the creation of Yggdrasil, the shaping of realms from Ymir’s flesh, and the ancient cow, Auðumbla, who nourished the first gods.

"Those two... they’re unmistakably Aboriginal Beings," Taufik whispered, his expression turning thoughtful. "Then are they not merely the Aboriginal Beings of Yggdrasil, but of the Nine Realms themselves?"

He leaned back in his chair, crossing one leg over the other. The faint night breeze stirred his hair as he muttered to himself, "...But Ymir is dead. And when one of the two falls, the universe should react, create balance. Yet, there’s no trace of Auðumbla either"

His brows furrowed.

"Did the Laws of the Universe erase Auðumbla to maintain equilibrium?No... the Laws don’t operate that way. They preserve, not erase. Then..."

His eyes gleamed faintly under the moonlight.

"...Could something else have been created to replace them both? A substitute, or worse, an imitation?"

Silence answered him.

At times like this, Taufik would usually speak to The System, exchange thoughts, share theories, and debate possibilities. But now, the System slept within him, silent as stone.

He exhaled softly, resting his back against the chair, the night stretching endlessly before him.

His gaze lifted toward the sky, beyond the stars, beyond the veil of the realms, until he felt it: the faint mark he had left on Thor’s body, pulsing far away in Asgard.

"...Odin," Taufik muttered, his tone laced with quiet suspicion. "You’re hiding something"

His eyes lowered again, to the sleeping town beneath him, the soft glow of lanterns, the distant murmur of dreams.

"...The important thing now," he said quietly, "is how I should bring Mana back to this world"

The wind whispered past him, carrying away his words, and for a moment, it almost sounded as though the world itself had held its breath to listen.

--------

Morning light filtered through the inn’s shutters as they finished breakfast. For a few long seconds, the three of them only listened to the clink of spoons and the distant bustle of the town waking up.

Taufik set his cup down and turned, face suddenly serious. "I want to go to Asgard," he said. "Will you two come with me?"

Silence answered him. Thalia and Elaria exchanged a look.

"I said, will you come?" he repeated, a little firmer.

Thalia blinked. "... We heard what you said clearly, but... what?"

"Edmund... What?" Elaria echoed, confused.

Taufik shrugged. "The question is simple: I’m leaving for Asgard. Join me, if you two didn’t want to, I’ll send you back to Álfheimr"

Thalia’s eyes brightened despite herself. "Will it be dangerous?"

Taufik’s smile went confident, the sort of smile that made people believe it even if they didn’t want to. "Didn’t I say the safest place in the universe is by my side?"

"Then I’ll go," Thalia said before she could overthink it.

"Thalia," Elaria began, voice small with worry, "I know you crave adventure, but this is Asgard. If we do anything wrong there, Mother’s entire court could be implicated. Think-"

"I don’t want to cause trouble for Mother," Thalia cut in. "I just want to see Asgard. To see it with my own eyes"

Taufik leaned back, watching them both. "We didn’t come here to start a war," he said lightly. "... I’m the one who wages wars"

Elaria’s mouth tightened. "That... only makes it worse," she muttered.

Taufik shrugged. "So? Are you coming?"

Elaria looked at her sister, then at Taufik, and finally nodded. "I’ll go. I’ll watch Thalia"

Thalia reached across the table and squeezed Elaria’s hand, already grinning at the promise of the road ahead.

....

...

..

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