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Chapter 952: Chapter 72: Brother, Sell One
After centuries, the little girl who once enjoyed following around behind him had long since grown into adulthood.
Her long black hair lay scattered carelessly over her bare, fragrant shoulders, and her pale, nearly bloodless skin exuded a sickly beauty. The black-green battle robe hanging straight down concealed her shapely body, sparking wild thoughts; her cold features carried a stern beauty, yet they were so daunting that one couldn’t help but feel an impulse to worship reverently.
It was a kind of instinctive awe that life felt towards death.
As her gaze swept across the three people and one cat opposite, Hela coldly huffed and asked:
"Do you know the consequences of trespassing into the Netherworld? Moreover, you actually hurt my little cutie."
Little cutie?
Everyone was stunned, but then they saw the Black Dragon King Nidhogg, previously lying on the ground, perform a side flip to get up, scrambling behind Hela with limbs flurrying, meekly lowering its head to let the queen stroke its head, like a tamed little dog.
This taste and the level of coming up with nicknames...
Just as the group was quietly criticizing, Hela, with one hand on her hip and the other flicking her nails, looked towards them half-smiling, half mocking:
"So, how do you plan to settle this matter?"
"So you are Hela?"
Thor curiously sized up his legendary elder sister, then stepping forward with the Thunder God’s Hammer in hand, he proudly said,
"I am Thor, son of the Divine King Odin and the giantess Jiao De!"
Seeing Thor’s youthful and arrogant demeanor, Hela sneered and shook her head:
"Really? You don’t resemble him at all."
"Cough cough..."
Luo En coughed dryly to interrupt the mildly explosive conversation between the siblings, trying to ease the atmosphere,
"How about we talk?"
"Hmm~~"
Hela dragged out her nasal tone, half-teasingly, half-mockingly nodding and said,
"You’re starting to resemble him more and more."
Clearly, harboring strong grudges for her kin who had exiled her to the Netherworld personally.
Hearing the malice in that tone and seeing Hela slowly advancing, Brynhild instinctively assumed a defensive posture, moving closer to Luo En.
Seeing this, Hela halted her steps, her previously mocking and smiling face suddenly cooled down, and turned to her younger brother Thor:
"Kneel!"
"What did you say?" Thor looked astonished.
"Kneel, before your queen."
Hela reaffirmed with a smile, stretching out her lotus arm, a Night Sky Sword materializing in her palm,
"Since you have come to the Netherworld to pay homage, you should know the rules."
"Queen? I don’t think so!"
The hot-tempered Thor coldly snorted, unapologetically flinging the manifested Thunder God’s Hammer from his hand.
The surging Divine Power roared, and thousands of thunderbolts enveloped the silvery hammer, turning everything in its path to dust.
Yet, facing this tremendous strike, Hela merely lightly raised her empty hand, and her joined fingers pierced through the dense net of thunderbolt light, firmly grasping the silvery face of the hammer.
"Boom!"
Potent Thunder God Power then surged, causing the wilderness ground to crack open, dirt flying, instantly sinking a hundred meters.
But as the dust settled, the Death Goddess stood unmoved at her spot, the Thunder God’s Hammer that could easily destroy a mountain held tightly in her grip, wailing as it halted in its tracks.
Seeing this, Thor’s face was filled with disbelief, muttering to himself:
"This, this can’t be!"
"Little cutie, you simply don’t understand what ’possible’ means."
Hela sneered and shook her head, her eyes filled with disdain for this so-called younger brother.
In the Divine Era, apart from the more abstract Fate, Life, Death, War, and Wisdom were four potent materialized powers.
Life brought about the proliferation of races, Death brought the replacement of the new and the old, War was responsible for the survival of the fittest, and Wisdom guided the prosperity of civilization...
As long as one could deeply control one of them, they were qualified to ascend to the throne of the Divine King, but they were often unable to be fully inherited.
For instance, in the Nordic God Era, the power of Life had been divided among God Queen Freya, God of Fertility Frey, the Earth and Harvest Goddess Sif, Wise Wolf Helo, and other deities;
The power of War had been split among War God Tyr, Divine King Odin, Thunder God Thor, Valkyrie King Freya, and other deities;
The power of Wisdom had been distributed among Supreme God Odin, God of Tricks Loki, Poetry God Bragi, and Wisdom Giant Mimir, and other deities;
All the mentioned figures were at least of Chief God stature or above, while the rest who got a taste of these three powers were likely even greater in number.
However, the division of the Power of Death in Nordicism seems to be an exception; unlike in Greek mythology, which has a fairly complete and extensive Netherworld pantheon system with the Underworld King, Queen of the Underworld, God of Death, God of Sleep Twins, Ferryman of the Underworld River, The Furies, and the three major Netherworld Judges.
In the cold and lonely realm of Helheim, Hela is the sole Queen, possessing a rather complete Power of Death and unparalleled control over the entire Nordic Netherworld.
Though Odin established the Heroic Spirit Hall and snatched away a portion of the power of Death from his great daughter, it could not fundamentally weaken Hela’s Power of Death.
After all, to gain the Rune and ascend to the throne of the Divine King, he merely sacrificed an eye; whereas Hela, in order to control the Power of Death, had once transformed half of her body into a skeleton.
According to the laws of the Nordic World, everything has its price.
The higher the price, the greater the return.
