Chapter 417: Chapter 417: The Lord of the Storm
The giant, leaning on his spear, surveyed the kingdom once known as the "Courtyard," returning after more than a thousand years. His gaze turned northward, towards the snow-covered lands of his homeland. Yet, as he stepped towards it, a beam of light suddenly illuminated the sky.
Caught off guard, the giant was struck by a green beam of light. He raised an arm above his head, forming a shield of lightning, but the massive torrent of magical power still pinned him down momentarily.
Then, from thousands of kilometers away, he spotted clouds of dust rising into the sky, as if something was rapidly approaching his location. Shortly after, two white lines shot from the sky, hitting him directly.
"Boom boom!" The giant was engulfed in intense flames as missiles flipped him over. Two large craters appeared on his rocky body, and blood sprayed all around.
Before he could rise, two more white lines struck nearby, exploding again.
"Boom boom…" High above, more than ten Hela drones launched missiles one after another, followed by opening fire with heavy machine guns enchanted with "Thor's Hammer" towards the magically locked target below.
In an instant, thousands of bullet-sized projectiles, magnified to resemble cannonballs, bombarded the giant at nearly twice the speed of sound.
This bombardment, equivalent to a heavy artillery barrage, lasted a full minute. The permanent permafrost of Siberia was churned as if by a tunnel boring machine, raising huge clouds of dust tens of meters high that lingered in the air.
The dust obscured most scanning devices. The Hela drones, designed for Muggle warfare and equipped with low-precision magical radars, were also interfered with, forcing a pause in the attack.
However, satellites equipped with high-precision magical radars were unaffected by this visual obstruction. Like a sword of light sent from heaven, a green beam followed the traces of the kinetic weapons that had repelled the giant, slicing through the earth in an attempt to bring him back into the attack range.
At that moment, "Bang!" A shockwave cleared the dust, and a white flash shot up into the sky. Below, the giant still maintained the posture of throwing his spear, which, in a blink, shot through a magical satellite thousands of kilometers above, turning it into space debris before returning to the giant's hand.
Now, with only half of his battered body remaining and blood scattered everywhere, the giant roared, lifting his spear high. Endless lightning fell, cloaking him in armor.
A storm rose around him, engulfing incoming missiles, turning them into mere fireworks that could no longer harm him.
"Boom boom boom!" The rolling clouds of dust in the distance halted, revealing hundreds of unmanned combat vehicles adjusting their angles to fire at the storm.
But the storm, like an impregnable fortress, melted steel in the lightning-filled winds in an instant.
"Kaunan! Hagalaz! Gebo!" Within the storm, the giant's voice thundered across the land. As the spell concluded, countless electric spears appeared in the sky.
The next moment, as the storm dissipated and the giant roared, he threw his spear. Simultaneously, thousands of lightning spears rained down on the vehicles like a torrential downpour.
"Crackle!" The power of the lightning spears was tremendous, instantly piercing the twenty-centimeter armor of the vehicles, turning their machinery into mush.
"Boom boom!" Several vehicles were hit in their ammunition compartments and exploded on impact.
With just one attack, the giant annihilated an entire unmanned combat vehicle battalion. Then, gathering countless lightning spears again, he threw them into the sky, destroying the drone fleet in an instant.
Yet, the assault seemed endless; two more missiles streaked towards him.
The giant swept his spear, deflecting the missiles.
But this time, as the dust cleared, a lightning bolt leaped into the clouds and vanished in an instant.
...
Thousands of kilometers away.
Finland.
A lightning bolt fell from the sky, blasting the top off a snowy mountain.
The giant, leaning on his spear, knelt on the ground, gasping weakly. Blood poured out over the icy snow like a waterfall as pieces of his rocky body flaked off.
But then, the mountain seemed to sense his presence, trembling faintly. An ancient song echoed in the howling wind, and the thunderous beat of war drums rolled through the gloomy clouds. He heard the call of countless people, just as in the homeland of over a thousand years ago.
The land had not forgotten him.
The giant's breathing gradually steadied, his wounds slowly healed, and his body began to shrink.
In a short while, he transformed from a nearly ten-meter-tall giant into an old man in a white robe.
A majestic aura spread from behind him. He took a deep breath and stepped towards a large lake.
Barefoot, he walked on the pebbles along the shore, his aged hand gently touching the ferns. Soon, he arrived at a rotten tree stump.
"Yggdrasil..." he murmured, caressing the decayed stump, "The world tree that supported the heavens and earth has come to this."
"Without the nourishment of divine power, the Nine Realms must have collapsed."
"Our world has died, not destroyed by Ragnarök, but by a wicked conspiracy."
"But now that I have returned, we shall rule this land again! The Aesir will rebuild Asgard!"
With that, he punched into the tree hollow, digging out a seed from the decayed muck.
He cleaned the seed in the lake water and held it in his palm. The seed, originally wilted, quickly began to shine, sprouting a tiny shoot.
"Grow, Yggdrasil! You will be the new World Tree!"
He tossed the seed into the gravel. It swelled, and thick roots twisted out, burrowing into the ground. The seed rapidly expanded and grew, becoming a towering tree several tens of meters tall in moments.
Pleased, he was about to chant a spell to extend its branches and reconnect the Nine Realms.
But at that moment, his body suddenly stiffened, and the electrical aura around him trembled involuntarily. Chains made of intricate runes wrapped around his heart, tightening to remind him that despite escaping the cage, he was still not free.
He let out an enraged roar, almost wanting to tear out his rune-enslaved heart.
But he didn't.
He couldn't die here; the Aesir still awaited his rescue.
Though the blood feud of enslavement must be avenged, they still shared a common enemy.
He looked towards the south, where a city lay. The core of their imprisonment was there.
With that thought, he transformed back into a giant, lifted his spear, and vanished as a bolt of lightning.
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