Chapter 26: Ragnarök

Elinor* opened his eyes in the darkness.

For a while, he didn’t know where he was.

Until the painful burning wounds on his back and belly awakened his reason, coldly and cruelly establishing facts into his mind.

Now, he was finally awake.

Elinor could clearly smell the curse on his back. Those vicious spells attached to the wound eroded his bones and blood bit by bit with the passage of time, and every second it was closer to his heart and lungs than before, he could even feel the strong and decadent smell of curse in his breath.

Compared to this, the wounds on his stomach were simply insignificant.

Even though it was the source of all pain, it was the culprit that forced the godhead out his body.

Elinor tasted the burned and metallic taste left by the dark elements on the tongue, and his golden vertical pupils were burning coldly in the dark.

The power of faith has been completely drained from his body, and the cold emptiness spread from the spine to his limbs that couldn’t maintain a human shape. Even the thick fur couldn’t resist the contradiction of the elements, making him feel extremely cold.

Everything became numb and distant.

Only the sting of being betrayed was deeply branded deep in his mind. With every touch, bloodthirsty rage rushed out uncontrollably, gnawing all his remaining reason.

However, Elinor couldn’t remember any details about the betrayal.

All the memories of God’s Domain and the gods gradually disappeared from his body with the separation from the godhead.

But this didn’t mean that he couldn’t remember the tragedy afterwards.

Leno licked the small wounds on his upper limbs, with a barbed tongue irritating flesh and blood scabs that had just healed. He tasted the smell of his own blood, letting the pain wake up his nerves.

Pain was a good thing. The pain made him sober.

The forcible stripping of the godhead does not mean the losing his strengthened body. Only weapons forged by believers could truly harm gods.

…Or rather, former believers.

Yes, the deprivation of the godhead was set up by other gods, but the other vicious curses and fatal wounds all come from humans – those kind, loyal, fanatical, blindly obedient, and weak humans.

The God of Light wanted to purify the world.

So the God of War must be eliminated.

He brought slaughter, was bloodthirsty, cruel and mad. He was the only remaining dark faction god from the Great War of Light and Darkness 30,000 years ago. Destroying the God of War was equivalent to ending the war.

Everyone looked at him with eyes full of fear and hatred.

【He should go back to where he belongs. Go back to his dark followers. 】

Elinor tasted the faint light element in his blood and showed a cold and mocking smile.

As everyone knew, all his power of faith came from believers of light, and the battle between the Light and Dark forces 30,000 years ago was when his divine power greatly rose. Only humans’ desire for fighting and power can nourish a god who is in charge of war. The title of god of war was influential and now vacant, sooner or later there would be a second god to take over it for a long time and develop a new godhead.

Killing a god was simple.

But it wasn’t so easy to destroy a god.

——In any case, they will have to pay the price.

At this moment, Elinor heard a faint noise, his ears moved, and his eyes instantly focused on the darkness not far away.

In the dense dark elements, the accuracy of his five senses was much lower than when he was on the mainland. He squinted his golden eyes and in the dim and blurry vision, he could barely discern a figure curled up under the cliff, the protruding shoulder blades were thin and fragile, shivering like fallen leaves in the storm, as if experiencing an inhuman torture

Elinor sniffed the air.

……A human?

Elinor licked his sharp teeth, and recalled the fragmented scene before he passed out—

Black swarm of worms, the burning cloud of fire.

He knows why he was here. It was because of a powerful and vicious curse, strong enough to drag the gods to the back of the continent, but why was this human being in Calvary, occupied by dark creatures such as demons?

Perhaps it was another trap.

A suppressed rage flashed in the depths of Elinor’s cold pupils. A cruel and bloodthirsty look emerged. He quietly accumulated his strength in the darkness, waiting for the moment when the opponent approached, so that he could use his blade-like fangs and claws to tear the fragile flesh into pieces.

Time passed slowly.

The trembling and gasping in the distance finally subsided, and the empty cave returned to silence.

As Elinor heard the sound of the opponent standing up on the rocks and the sound of footsteps approaching, he narrowed his golden eyes. The eyes accustomed to the bright sunlight weren’t adapted to the pure darkness of Calvary with almost no light. In his dim vision, a tall and thin figure could be seen slowly approaching.

But… the other seemed to be much bigger than he remembered?

Elinor was not so sure.

After all, the experience of dying could cause distortion of senses.

But it didn’t matter. His sharp teeth were ready, eager to tear all the flesh in front of him, and they felt almost painful with the strong desire to soak in blood.

Elinor waited calmly, his muscles tensed slowly, his limbs ready to go.

Finally, the opponent entered his attack range.

He showed his fangs, the predator’s hunger emerged and burned in the dark golden vertical pupils, and then he rushed forward-

wait?

It doesn’t seem quite right?

The sound of the wind whizzed in his ears, and Elinor’s eyes flashed with a flustered look, but before he could understand what was happening, he fell to the ground in the next second, whimpered and rolled a few times and then hit a hard object.

Ge Xiu lowered his head and looked at the furry ball that hit his toes with a subtle expression, then squatted down, grabbed the nape of its neck with two fingers, and picked up the fluffy thing.

The little wolf with dirtied fur was waving his paws in mid-air, showing teeth and claws, with two small wings flapping hard behind him, trying to get rid of Ge Xiu’s fingers, and let out a menacing growl trying to frighten the other.

……Was it that big before?

It doesn’t seem right?

Ge Xiu shook the furry ball held in mid-air, and for the first time began to doubt his memory.

However, when he looked closely, he could see that the huge injury on its belly that almost healed, but got torn again because of the struggle, the fur with dried blood on it became wet with blood again, although the deep net-like scars on the back were still there, with no trace of healing, but it was clearly out of the close to death state. Even the white light radiating from his body has stabilised a lot.

Could it be some kind of self-protection mechanism? Ge Xiu thought uncertain.

He gently avoided the other party’s attempt to scratch him and somewhat curiously pinched the flapping wings behind the little wolf – the little thing responded with an angry roar.

…With wings.

So, it could fly?

Ge Xiu blinked thoughtfully.

During this period of time, he touched almost every inch of the land at the bottom of this abyss, and was very familiar with its structure from beginning to end. He could say with confidence that every rock on the wall was as smooth and vertical as if cut by a sharp blade, there was hardly any way to climb out.

Flying away was a good choice.

…If this little thing could be change back to its original size as soon as possible.

Ge Xiu shook it again – this time the little wolf did not uselessly struggle in mid-air, but stared at him firmly with those beautiful golden eyes, as if he wanted to bite off a piece of flesh from his body with his eyes.

The young man in the dark curled up his lips silently.

They will get along well, Ge Xiu thought happily.

He manipulated the dark elements to condense into a ball empty inside, properly put the little wolf in, and fixed his limbs to prevent the wounds from tearing again due to its movement.

Ge Xiu broke through the barrier he repaired yesterday and moved quickly towards his home.

Under the abyss, many monsters have their own jurisdiction and rule. It is a very risky choice to invade the land of other creatures. Although Ge Xiu likes to live in an unsettled place and feel adventurous at all times, because of his fixed period of weakness every night. So I had to choose a relatively safe place for myself.

Behind the huge rock more than ten meters above the cliff, there is a shallow cave. Its existence can hardly be noticed on the ground. The entrance of the cave is sealed by a barrier condensed by Ge Xiu with dark elements to prevent it from being blocked by others. Discovery of sensitive animals. This residence hidden in the rock peak is very concealed, and it has brought him an indispensable shelter.

Ge Xiu skilfully searched for a foothold among the jagged rocks protruding from the rock wall, and leaped lightly to the platform at the entrance of the cave.

The cave was empty and there was almost nothing.

Ge Xiu sat down cross-legged and opened the ball.

Almost at the moment when the sphere disappeared, the creatures trapped in it rushed out like a plush cannonball, and the movement was so fast it seemed like a vague shadow. It seemed that to have been planning it for a long time, and the cold sharp claws were directed at Ge Xiu’s neck.

But Ge Xiu was clearly prepared.

The dark element in the air suddenly became dense, and it was strong shield around him like a solidified entity. The attack and speed of the little wolf were suddenly weakened, and there was a painful look on the fluffy face. By the time he got closer, his limbs had basically lost most of their strength.

Ge Xiu looked at him calmly, without the slightest emotion in his sight, but simply evaluated it rationally.

Sure enough, the dark elements in the abyss hurt it a lot.

A genuine outsider.

He lowered his eyes, and his thoughtful gaze suddenly stopped–

He saw that the wounds on the chest and back of the little wolf torn open again, dampening its dirty and silky fur again, dripping blood.

Ge Xiu hissed in a cold breath, grabbed the little wolf by the back of the neck for the second time and picked it up, and then quickly sealed the cave with an elemental barrier.

The abyss was always soaked with the smell of blood, but the blood of warm-blooded animals was rare here. That fresh and warm taste was an irresistible temptation for all monsters in the abyss.

He would try his best to deal with the wound outside and come back every time, in case some monsters follow the smell of blood to find his hiding place and destroy the pure land he has worked so hard to maintain.

Ge Xiu looked at the dense wounds on the little wolf, sighed, and added two more barriers at the entrance of the cave.

It seems that dealing with the wounds on his body was the top priority.

The wolf carried in the air no longer struggled, but the seemingly limp limbs were still secretly accumulating energy, and the sharp snow-white fangs were slightly exposed outside of his lips, facing Ge Xiu in an extremely vigilant defensive posture. A pair of eyes that looked like molten gold stared at him coldly, as if looking at a someone already dead.

Ge Xiu raised his eyebrows: “Can you understand me?”

The wolf did not respond.

Ge Xiu was not discouraged: “If you can understand what I’m saying, blink?”

The wolf’s eyes didn’t blink.

“Move your claws?” Ge Xiu bargained.

The claws didn’t move.

“Then, the tail?” Ge Xiu compromised and gave in again.

The fluffy and dirty tail hung in the air, not even the tip of the tail swayed.

In the narrow cave, only Ge Xiu was talking to himself, looking quite stupid.

Ge Xiu gave up. Corners of his lips went down, he sighed, and was about to put the little wolf down, but he suddenly heard a loud sound——

“Gurulu–“

Ge Xiu was taken aback, and looked at the direction where the voice came from.

The end of his sight was the dirty belly of the little wolf.

The ball of fur in his hand froze completely, and it seemed that it hadn’t expected this kind of thing to happen.

Seeing its embarrassment, Ge Xiu was taken aback. He smiled and brought the little wolf closer with an ill-intentioned look on his face:

“Are you hungry?” He shook his hand and raised the little bit: “When you move, I’ll give you something to eat, okay?”

The little wolf’s icy cold golden pupils were almost set on fire, and the snow-white teeth bared uncontrollably, the sharp claws emerged from his paw pads, and it seemed that he couldn’t help giving this triumphant face a few strikes.

Next second.

“Gurulu–“

a thunderous sound rang in its stomach, then it was magnified several times by the narrow stone walls, and the little wolf froze again, like a stiff, fluffy little sculpture, hanging upright in the air.

But in the next second, the flame in its eyes burned more intensely, almost to the point of becoming angry.

Ge Xiu had no doubt that if given the opportunity, this little thing would gladly use him as a dinner.

He halted as soon as he saw it, so he sighed regretfully, and placed the little wolf lightly on the ground:

“Alright, okay, don’t move. It’s okay, I don’t dislike you.”

Ge Xiu’s tone was reluctant, as if he made a big compromise, it sounded extremely…

shameless.

The little wolf ground his teeth.

Ge Xiu crossed his legs contentedly, and pulled out two Ariyust hearts from his bag.

The dark elements in the backpack continuously provided nourishment to the hearts placed in it, and very cleverly imitated its original environment. Even after a whole day has passed, those hearts were still beating quickly or slowly. Some outer parts have even been covered with a thin layer of translucent plasma again, and as long as they are given a little more time, they would grow a new body sooner or later.

But Ge Xiu was not going to give them this opportunity.

He grabbed one in his palm and skillfully absorbed the vitality into his body, leaving only a thin layer of skin in less than half a minute. Then he picked a smaller one from the remaining hearts in the backpack and threw it in front of the little wolf.

The bloody, strong heart muscle was slowly undulating when exposed to the air.

The heart exuded a strong smell of dark element.

Ge Xiu looked at Elinor intently, and pushed the beating flesh closer with his fingertips, with silent curiosity and need of exploration in his eyes.

—————————————————-

*Greek for “bright, shining one.” Elinor is an old fashioned German/French name. Also can be translated into Eleanor or Elano but Elinor fits the theme of the arc very well~ Funfact: it’s a completely feminine name ahahah author probably didn’t know but that makes ML a little princess this time

Bamboo has something to say:

can you see the parallels from their first meeting in the last world~~ Also I did half of the translation on my phone on midnight it’s gonna be so full of mistakes ah