chapter 22

The ability to discern between reality and fiction, an ability that those with sentience possess.

Something that I've been losing.

Ah, I think I understand what this is...

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I planted a Primordial rune on his shoulder when I pulled him through.

A good fight is all I want, but in his state, he'll hold back. So either he breaks or he tempers his will.

Those are the only options.

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"I can't believe you're in such a sorry state. Are you seriously sat here on the brink of madness? What would she think of you now?"

"Just shut up."

"No! This is your quest, your drive! AND YOU WANT TO GIVE UP NOW!? YOU SIT HERE WALLOWING IN MISERY!?"

"What else do you want me to do?! Fight on like a moron as if there's nothing wrong?" It was at that moment, where Mereoleona punched Walter.

"Of course you are! You cannot allow personal strife to interfere with your goals! A fool who tries to push past his limits is bad enough, but a man whos nowhere near his limit and still refuses to push on is PATHETIC!" Walter chuckled a bit.

"Quite the motivational speaker, Mereoleona. Right. I understand. Keep pushing forward. That's what you're trying to say, and that's what I'll do, for now." Walter stood up, his previous turmoil was now being pushed to the side.

"So, I can at least discern that wherever we are currently, isn't reality." Mereoleona playfully planted her fist on his forehead.

"We're in your mind. Odin seems to have trapped us here." Alright. Odin was said to be a master if runes, so he probably placed one on my body.

I've already discerned that this place isn't reality, so, much like waking a deep sleeper, a powerful shock may be needed to wake up.

I know just the thing.

"No. Not. A. Chance. You are not doing what I think you want." Unfortunate.

"Mereoleona. You and I know that we need a shock to wake up. Not only that, I've been quite shortsighted recently. I think i need a different outlook."

"Can you handle the pain?"

"You know... to quell my fear of death, I killed myself. Repeatedly. It'll be painful, but pain is nothing new." And so, Walter grabbed his eye. His right eye.

And he pulled. The tearing as his eye was slowly, painfully, and brutally torn out of his eye socket. Everything blurred, and Walter returned to Odin's abode, eye still in hand before it disappeared into shadow.

"You madman. You... utter fool!" Odins hateful words noticeably had an undertone of glee. Everyone else had left, there was now no reason to hold back.

"My dear Mereoleona. You have helped me greatly. This..." The All-father launched himself forward, appearing in front of Walter as if he had teleported.

"is for you." Gungnir flew at Walter, grazing his cheek. However, Walter struck back with his blazing fist, firmly socking the head God in the cheek and burying the norse All-father into the ground.

"Gungnir never misses. And because it never misses, I just needed to make sure it grazed me. Is this all you have Odin?" Those words emboldened the All-father.

Walter was launched back from a single rune, and as he landed dug his nails into the ground, stopping any further drag.

"Ah, it's been such a long time since I did this. Brace yourself, Walter Newgate!" Odin dropped his robes, revealing his heavily scarred chest. Worse yet, it wasn't hard to notice the runes being carved into his flesh.

Each one augmented his strength further, but the final rune looked especially dangerous.

It made his skin crawl.

"This Primordial rune, represents Siegfried! The greatest dragon slayer of the Norse pantheon! This is a battle, to the death!" Gungnir too began to light up with runes.

"These runes kill even that which has no life. Ymir was a being with no life created from the energy of two realms. And I still ended him. He was more a golem than anything else." Odin gripped his legendary spear tightly.

Before making a deathly thrust at the dragon.

'Gungnir never misses, so dodging isn't an option. Therefore, deflecting is my only option.' I'm not good at duel wielding, I'll have to learn at some point. So for now, we'll use Mereoleona.'

Primordial fire must have some conceptual properties if the prophecy of ragnarok is anything to go off.

Gripping with both hands, I knocked Gungnir away upwards, redirecting my blade into a diagonal slash aiming straight for the gods neck.

I missed.

Shit!

Tearing out my eye fucked my depth perception.

And my mistake cost me. That cost was gungnir ripping through my sternum.

Fuck... I feel... awful... I suppose thats what the effects of... a dragon slayer... Will do...

"Damn, Walter. You look like shit." Odins spear arm went limp as something flew straight through it.

Tenjiro appeared behind him.

"I hate old bastards like you, they remind me of central 46."

"What... what did you do to me?" Walter himself ripped out gungir during tenjiro's words, and Odin stared at the yakuza in fear.

Something that Odin had never done.

"Tenjiro... Where's your toothpick?" He pointed to the wall behind him that was shattered from a single point.

"Ya see, you never saw what my schrift does, did ya?" Tenjiro launched his fist into Odin, similarly propelling the God into the wall and even straight through it.

"My schrift, The Yakuza, allows me to break Laws. Each of my attacks just now, broke the Laws of physics. Being that my fist reached max acceleration in an instant." That's... completely broken.

But that's just how schrifts are.

"Hah... right... I'll... fufill my... end of the... deal..." Odin was stood at the hole, noticeably bloody from tenjiro's one punch.

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Before I go visit the dwarves, I should check back in with them.

I... can guess that they won't be happy with what I've done to myself. Made myself an eyepatch and I think I look pretty cool.

But, what do I know?

Ophis definitely wasn't happy. I got an entire lecture on why self harm wasn't good.

Didn't expect that from her.

"Of course you didn't. The usually stoic dragon god was visibly concerned for your health. Doesn't help that I'm almost positive that all of them had realised there's something off about you." Thank you for the input, sujin.

"Your welcome."

A good grip of the doorknob, how many times have i done this now?

"It is alright, Walter. Go in." The monotone voice of ophis urged me on.

So I opened the door. It's strange, seeing only half the room like this.

I heard something drop to the floor, something wooden and small. Like... a shogi piece.

"Walter... what... what happened to you?" Oh, melascula. Her soft footsteps were audible and in my remaining limited gaze, I could see her walking towards me with an upset expression, but no tears.

"I... there were some complications with Odin. I-" she slapped me, it rang out, and it surprised me. What?

"Do not lie to me, Walter. There was more than just complications. You lost, your eye. Your right eye. That is more than just a complication."

"Now now, Mel. You should know, when to pry, and when not to." Sunny flanked the snake demon, pressing onto her shoulder.

"Everyone's is entitled to some secrets, besides, from what you've told me, he isn't gonna tell you anything! So why try when we can do something much more fun! Like... strip poker!" Quite the contrast to ichibe, but she is a much better change to the shrewd and plotting ichibe.

"Sorry, sunny. But I'll have to refuse. I need to go meet some dwarves."

"Aw... Next time?"

"...Alright."

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Brokk and sindri, the two dwarves who forged mjolnir.

They never were one for groups like the sons of ivaldi who created gungnir.

Never expected to meet them in person, other than playing God of War.

"So what can I do for yer, ya pompous prick." Hah... foul mouthed Brokk. No wonder he'd make such a comment.

"I would like to request that you forge me a weapon." The hammering in the back of the tent stopped.

"Brokk? Do we have a customer?" The sound of footsteps approached, and the short cleanly dwarf came along.

"Oh, hello. I'm sindri, this is my brother brokk." The meek dwarf gestured to his brother to introduce him.

"It's nice to meet the two of you. My name is Walter Newgate. I'm here to have a weapon forged." Sindri glanced at the sword on my sides.

"But, you already have two mighty fine weapons right there. While we could forge something better, do you really need something better than those?" So he can discern their craftsmanship even when they're sheathed?

"Hold on a moment sindri. Before we even consider forging ya a weapon, I gotta know why ya need this weapon." I let out a heavy sigh, will they still forge it if I tell them?

"There's a certain man that I must kill for the sake of the world. He wants to unravel the world to a state where death and life mingle as one. I cant allow it, I don't want to let the world stagnate. But killing him by normal means is impossible, as he can just Rewrite his own death." Brokk rubbed his chin.

"What a mess. What's this weapon you want making?"

"Can you work with organic material?" He grunted.

"Depends on how tough it is."

"An eye." Brokk paused as sindri almost hurled from just the thought of working with an eye.

"Yeah. But why an eye?"

"Because he and I possess the same ability to manipulate the future, and that ability resides within our eyes." That was when it clicked for Brokk.

"You want a weapon that cuts time, making his ability amount to jack-shit!" The foul mouthed blacksmith started to laugh at the outrageousness of such an idea.

"But... but if thats what you're aiming for, the base would have to be some outrageously powerful material like liquid creation!"

"Yeah... all jokes aside, we'd need that stuff. And to get it, we'd need to melt the ice of niflheim. That's a toughie." Mereoleona, it seems that surtrs Primordial fire will come in handy.

I presented the blade to them.

"Shit... you managed to get that grumpy bastards fire. That makes this shit a whole lot easier. Pass me that fuckin eye, gotta go put it in a jar before it starts to rot." The dwarf hobbled away, eye in hand and mind focused, preparing to forge the best weapon he'd ever made.

"I thank you two for this. Would you mind arranging a way to niflheim for me?"

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Preparing against yhwach would typically be useless... typically that is.