Chapter 53

Theodore picked up the orb left by Jörmungandr, it was surprisingly a beautiful color; pearly white with a tinge of light blue and pink. He checked its status with True Dragon Eyes and smiled at what was revealed to him.

'It's a Status Orb.'

[The Skill 'All Devourer' has been activated.]

Green tendrils rose from the hand that was holding the orb and began surrounding it, eating away at the object until nothing was left.

[You can pick up to three skills belonging to Jörmungandr.]

Another panel appeared in front of him showing a long list of skills that Jörmungandr once had.

'...Now that I think about it, should I've just All Devourered Jörmungandr? Is that different from consuming the Status Orb?'

[Negative.] The System replied for him. [Using the Status Orb only increases the chance of you gaining the target's skills unlike if you were to directly use All Devourer.]

"Thanks, Apophis." Theodore looked up for a moment as if speaking directly to the goddess. He then got back to the task at hand and scanned through his skill options.

Eventually, he decided on these three in particular:

<<Personal Attribute: Deicide

Lvl.MAX

Rank: S

Type: Passive Skill

Cooldown: None.

On Ragnarok, the legendary battle between Jörmungandr and Thor caused heaven and earth to shake from their sheer strength, eventually, both of them would fall but this only shows that despite having the power of gods, the World Serpent can kill even the strongest among them. Gaining this ability will allow you to deal more damage to deities.>>

<<Skill Upgrade: Master of Poison → Master of All Poison

Lvl. 1

Rank: A+

Type: Active Skill

Requirement for Upgrade: Kill 1,000 targets using poison.

Cooldown: 30 Seconds.

When Jörmungandr had emerged from the ocean, its cries spread poison all over the battlefield, the water became deadly and the air was filled with eerie miasma, its poison was so powerful that even the gods couldn't withstand it.>>

<<Skill: Caller of Ragnarok

Lvl. 1

Rank: S

Type: Active Skill

Requirement for Upgrade: Fight and take down a god of thunder.

Cooldown: 7 Days

It'd been told that if Jörmungandr releases its tail, it would spring out of the ocean to face the mighty God of Thunder, signaling the beginning of Ragnarok. With this skill, you can create a battlefield where you and your opponent will be forced into a death battle, neither side can leave until one comes out victorious, once this skill is high enough level, you can revive Ragnarok on a world-wide scale.

Bonus Effect: Any Gate Creature within the skill's vicinity will fight alongside you no matter their level, their main objective will be to kill any living being they come across, excluding you.>>

The first two skills Theodore had already seen during the time when he needed to pick between Lucifer and Jörmungandr, the 'Deicide' skill would be especially useful in this situation since he was going out to fight some gods.

Upgrading his poison skill is great too, he hadn't used it much but he figured that for his upcoming battles he would need to use every petty tricks he could think of. Poison that can kill the gods? He'll take it.

Then there's the last skill that caught his eye: Caller of Ragnarok. While it doesn't seem particularly useful, he can activate it when his opponent tries to run away and secure himself a victory. 'Gods are cunning…This might come in handy.'

He didn't choose the skill that lets him grow in size simply because he didn't want to end up like Jörmungandr. Their fight was practically child's play because of how slow the serpent was compared to Theodore's enormous speed stat.

Not to mention the fact that he still has his 'Godspeed' skill.

'His sheer size was the problem, it's easy for someone small and agile like me to evade.'

Theodore had never thought we would think of that in his life, after all, he was supposed to be a mage, and mages are anything but agile, they're frail but hard hitters that usually don't have the strength to run very fast.

'Anyway, I should go see if everyone's okay.' Theodore hopped back inside the run-down palace and made his way down the messy corridor.

Eventually, he would find Asmodeus standing with her arms akimbo while staring at a large group of injured demons. She turned towards him once she noticed his presence. "Theo, are you alright? What about that snake?"

"Jörmungandr? I killed him, don't worry." Theodore walked past Asmodeus and immediately went to a nearby injured demon. He knelt down and casted a healing spell on him before moving on to the others that were wounded as well.

['Asclepius' Guidance' is enhancing your healing magic.]

<<Asclepius' Secret (Lvl.3) → Asclepius' Secret (Lvl.4) [Temporary].>>

"Theo!" Merlin came rushing towards him after checking on one of the injured demons. He let out a relieved sigh after seeing that Theodore wasn't injured. "Is he dead?"

"Yes." Theodore nodded, referring to Jörmungandr. "It was…surprisingly easy."

Merlin amusingly huffed. "Show off. How's the patients?"

"They'll be fine, it's just some scrapes and broken bones, nothing that healing magic can't fix." With Asclepius' Secrets gaining a temporary level, it shouldn't be that difficult to heal every injured person no matter how much they'd suffered, and from what he could see, no one was heavily wounded from this event.

"Why weren't you here when the fight five days ago ended." Asmodeus crossed her arms with a smile on her face, saying that she was just teasing him.

Though Theodore still felt guilty despite that, he'd gotten uncharacteristically emotional and left his soldiers to deal with their injuries by themselves despite him having healing magic. "It's my fault…No one else died from injuries, right?"

"Nope, I took care of them." Asmodeus shook her head.

"...Thanks."

"Of course," The demon king walked towards him just as Theodore stood up from the floor. "As a fellow demon king and a friend, I'm always here to help."

"Were you here this whole time?" Theodore frowned, which caused Asmodeus to chuckle playfully.

"I told you, Cyrus can handle my kingdom's management."

Theodore sighed. "At this point, why don't you just take the Lake of Rage?"

"You know I can't do that."

"I was joking, I'm not giving you my palace." Theodore gave the demon a soft smile before beginning to look around, inspecting the damages done to the Pearl Palace, though it seemed that the only real problem was the large hole Jörmungandr had created which shouldn't be a problem for the demons to fix.

"Anyway, where's Rhys?"

Asmodeus pointed towards a corner where Rhys was, he was sitting against a wall while Sheridan tended to his broken leg, he had his eyes squeezed shut and his fists balled in pain as he tried his best not to let out any cries. "He played a hero and pushed one of the demons out of the way of a falling debris, he deserves a promotion to be honest."

Theodore nodded and headed towards the two of them. "You okay?"

Rhys was slightly startled by his sudden appearance, though it didn't take long for him to recompose himself and reply. "I'm good…The broken bone just shifted when I moved sud—ACK!"

"Ah! I'm sorry!" Sheridan lifted her hands off of Rhys' leg. "I'll let the medics splint you then…!"

It seemed that Sheridan was only there to help because they were understaffed, she was about to turn to call over a proper doctor but Theodore placed a hand over her shoulder. "I'll heal him."

Activating his magic, a soft green glow encased Rhys' body and a sprinkle of gold hovered over his wounds and broken leg. It didn't take long until the injuries were healed and Rhys slowly got up, stomping the ground lightly with his previously wrecked leg to find that it'd completely healed. "I…Thank you."

Theodore just waved, as if saying that it wasn't that big of a deal. He turned around and went to the other patients and continued to healed them with Asclepius' Secret as well. '...To be honest, I was tempted to just break Rhys' other leg…But he's being good these days, maybe he'd really changed.'

While Theodore was still very frustrated about being killed by such a person, he wasn't going to be eternally vengeful for no reason. Rhys had already gotten what he deserves and the most important part was that he wanted to change for the greater good, Theo thought that he should at least make use of it instead of breaking a perfect slave.

"What was that snake anyway?" Asmodeus came up to him while he was casting magic on an unconscious demon.

"Jörmungandr, have you heard of him?"

"Is that a Norse name?" Asmodeus guessed with a dumbfounded expression. "We aren't very knowledeable in other mythologies…the Devildom is isolated from the other underworlds and so are they."

"I see…" Theodore nodded before moving over to another patient. "You were right though, Jörmungandr is Norse. He's a powerful monster that can encircle the entire world."

"I guess we're lucky that even the gods' actions had consequences." Asmodeus sighed. "I would assume that it would be the same since the Creator is under a similar restriction."

Theodore gave an understanding nod. "Though despite that, a certain god is going around the human world causing mayhem."

"...Who?"

Theodore frowned the moment this god's name came to his mind. "The King of the Egyptian Gods, Ra."

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Because Theodore had gained a new skill: Temple Recall, he wouldn't need to use Asmodeus' teleporter to get to the human world anymore.

Eugene and Merlin insisted that they come with him despite his protests, and Theodore soon gave in since they kept trying to grab onto his leg when he tried to move.

"Okay, okay!" Theodore managed to slither his way out of his two friends' grasps. "I'll take you with me, just…don't get yourselves hurt."

"Hey, what do you take us for? Weaklings?" Eugene crossed his arms and puffed up his chest. He was wearing a black sleeveless shirt that brought out the outlines of his muscles, a pair of camouflage trousers and black leather boots, which overall gave him the look of a soldier.

Merlin on the other hand dawned a more humble appearance, wearing a blue shirt with a pink necktie, jeans and brown leather shoes. He would've looked like an average teacher if not for the fiery bow strapped across his back and the black one that he was holding on to, plus, he was wearing extra armor underneath his outfit and some pads on his knee and elbow as well. "You should see what we did in the forest troll village, that army stood no chance!"

"Yeah! Merlin did a three-sixty and killed a dozen of them at once!"

"And Eugene wiped out a small group of them with a single axe swing!"

"Okay!" Theodore extended out his hands for the two men to stop talking. "I said I'll take you!"

He didn't bother confirming whether what they said were true or not and quickly activated his skill.

[Temple Recall]

With a flash of green, all three of them disappeared from the Demon World.

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Emerald, icy smoke suddenly sprung up from the air, startling all the forest trolls that were near a large stone statue of a snake. Shamra, who was nearby, quickly rushed over to see what was going on while tightening the grip on her magical staff.

"Who dares invade this great village? Show yourself!"

The troll sage's expression abruptly changed from frustration to terrify in mere seconds as her gaze landed on a particular figure.

He wasn't the same as before when they'd met that day, back then he could be considered a snakelet compared to what he looked like now. Standing with his head perked up high and proud, Theodore in his serpent form looked down onto the trolls with his cold golden eyes, prompting them to subconsciously kneel as if afraid standing would lead to their deaths.

The horrifying aura radiating from the behemoth's body was enough to completely suppress Shamra's, she was proud of her powerful magic, but when standing in front of this beast, she couldn't do anything but submit.

"Oh Great Serpent…You have returned…!" Shamra spoke in a shaky voice as she lowered her head even further, her forehead almost touching the ground.

Merlin and Eugene turned to look at Theodore, mouths opened wide in complete shock, they were standing very close to each other when they'd teleported so they couldn't help but fear that they could've been crushed at that moment.

Theodore's tail extended far behind him, his body weaving through the now-miniature statue of what was supposed to be him; if he really wanted to, a single flick would have wiped out everything the forest trolls had ever built.

Luckily for them, Theodore wasn't there to do such a thing.

"I wasn't here when the village was attacked. I'm sorry about that," He started with an apology, slightly lowering his head as he spoke. His goal there was to regain the forest trolls' trust after what'd happened, and appearing in his snake form was a part of the plan; to instill fear yet show humility.

"That…! That is fine, Great Serpent! Your…messengers had already helped enough!" Shamra looked up for a moment just to lower her head back down again after briefly meeting her gaze with Theodore's, she could feel her body shaking just from the slight contact.

Theodore glanced down at Merlin and Eugene and immediately the redhead began to act along, puffing up his chest proudly and spoke in a booming voice.

"Of course we have! We wouldn't be his…um…messengers if we weren't capable!"

"That's right!" Eugene shouted stiffly, stepping forward to add to the dramatic effect. "It was a small matter! The Great Serpent didn't need to be here!"

"Okay you both can stop now." Theodore turned his attention towards the forest trolls. "Stand up, I have a mission for all of you."

"Mission?" Shamra slowly got off of the ground, supporting herself with her staff. "Please entrust us with anything, Great Serpent, we shall complete it without fail."

Theodore gave an approving nod. "Good, what I want you to do is simple: gather followers. Convert anyone you see into my worshiper, no matter their prior beliefs."

Shamra's eyes widened with surprise. "I do not mean to doubt you…But why must we risk a religious war with other species' tribes?"

"Because it is necessary." Theodore answered in a serious tone, lowering his head further. "...Some other gods are causing mayhem…They're trying to gain strength through mortal faith, it's essential that we take back control before they could do further damage."

Shamra went quiet for a moment before eventually nodding, her expression turned serious in almost an instant. "...I've been noticing that it's been thundering more often these days too…So it's the work of another god?"

Theodore wasn't as surprised by Shamra's words, it was within his expectations that Zeus' influence would have started to spread by now. "Yes, now that you understand, please hurry and make the preparations."

"Of course, Great Serpent," Shamra gave him a low bow before straightening herself, eyes gleaming with resolve and confidence. "Your name will spread far and wide even beyond this Forest of the Oracle, leave this matter to us."

"All for our god, Ouroboros!" The other forest trolls shouted in unison before Shamra turned around and led her people away.

Theodore let out a sigh before shifting into his human form, changing his clothing to look more modern with a gray sweater, jeans and shoes. "Let's go, we need to see what sort of damage those damn gods had done."

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'SWUSH!'

A silver blade moved elegantly towards the chest of a minotaur, slashing it open in near instant and causing blood to gush out of the open wound.

The beast roared in anger before swinging its axe towards the attacker, although the swordsman's reflexes were superior to its speed so he was able to easily step back and narrowly avoided the counterattack.

"Frey!" A woman called out his name as she extended her hands forward and summoned a purple magic circle in front of them, encasing the swordsman in an aura that protected him from the gale that came from the minotaur's powerful swipe.

"I'm fine!" The swordsman shouted back before immediately getting back to the task at hand.

Frey tightened his grip on his sword and charged forward, catching the minotaur off guard as it was recovering from its last heavy swing.

In only a matter of seconds, he was airborne with his weapon held high above his head.

'RUMBLE!'

His sky-blue eyes flashed with power as thunder suddenly sounded above him, and just as the sword was brought down onto the minotaur, lightning struck.

"ROAAARRR!!!" The beast let out a pained cry, though its voice was buried under the booming lightning that was frying every fiber of its body at that moment.

Frey on the other hand was staring into the bolt of lightning, his sword by his side with its blade dripping with the minotaur's blood. He'd managed to split its forehead wide open while calling down the lightning bolt, and he knew it would be enough to finally kill the beast.

'Thud!'

The minotaur's body fell onto the ground as smoke began rising up from its charred body, the various cuts all over it had been sealed shut by the lightning and only a large lump of burnt meat was left as a result.

Frey let out a relieved sigh before turning towards his party members, consisting of him, two girls, and another boy, all of which were around his age. "Are you guys alright?"

"Yeah," The female magician from earlier nodded as she fidgeted with her wooden staff, her black irises matched with her dark hair and purple robes. "You did all the work, Frey. We just supported you."

"He sure did." The other boy talked, he was wearing full body armor leaving only his helmet, which revealed his messy orange hair and brown eyes. "Why did you even call me here if you're not even going to let a paladin do his job?"

"Stop yapping so much, Paul. Have some sympathy for assassins like me in this scenario." The last girl of the group spoke up as she crossed her arms and pouted sarcastically. She has short brown hair and gray eyes, which matched with her simple, black assassin outfit most people would see in books and movies.

Frey chuckled, intruding on his friends' conversation. "I'll let you do something next fight, Gwen, sorry I left you guys out of this one…You too, Lola."

The mage, Lola, frantically shook her head. "That's okay! I don't really like fighting anyway…That's why I stuck to Support magic!"

"But you know a lot of good attacking spells though?" Paul pointed out with a smirk, as if he was trying to urge the pacifistic woman to do some heavy lifting next time.

"E-Eh!? I…Those are for self-defense!"

"So why are they strong enough to blow an entire house off of its foundation?" Gwen jammed in.

"It's…A necessary precaution!"

Frey laughed once again, he'd been with the three of them for as long as he could remember, even before the monsters became a normal thing in this world, it was nice to see that they were still in good spirits despite all the ups and downs. "Okay now…Let's focus on what we were here to do."

"Oh yeah," Paul turned towards Frey and gave him an acknowledged nod. "I'm actually starting to doubt that a monster that 'Boss' described really exists, I mean, wouldn't the ecosystem of Delphi be completely destroyed if something of that scale were to live here?"

Frey went quiet for a moment as his gaze averted to the ground, deep in thought, but he would look up a moment later. "I don't think we should doubt 'him' of all people, I mean, ever since he came to us our lives have significantly improved, right?"

Despite the context of his words, Frey's tone was also filled with doubt.

"I guess…" Paul pursed his lips, though the worries were still plastered all over his face despite giving in to his friend's words.

"I agree with Frey." Gwen nodded before turning to look at Lola, who would also nod in agreement with the group's leader.

"Yes, let's just keep moving until we either find it or go back empty-handed, it's not really a loss for us either way." Lola suggested.

"Do we all agree with that?" Frey turned to everyone and they all nodded once again. "Then it's settled, let's go snake hunting."