Devouring World Dragon.

Chapter 60 Badr's Nightmare

"ah!!!"

In Asgard, within a beautiful palace radiating boundless light, a scream suddenly erupted.

Inside the bedroom, which was adorned with gold and silver, Baldr, the god of light, sat on the bed, half-covered by a blanket. He had just woken up from a nightmare, and his handsome face, still damp with sweat, was filled with panic. His emerald green eyes were still trembling from time to time.

After a long while, he touched his forehead and slowly let out a painful groan.

……

"Baldr, the god of light, is plagued by nightmares!"

This news spread throughout Asgard within a few months, causing much discussion among the gods.

Baldr, who was kind-hearted by nature, was indeed a good person to a certain extent. Among the Norse gods, who were mostly berserkers, he was an extremely rare good-natured person, and could even be called a saint.

Just like the light he symbolizes, he does not discriminate based on the other person's good or evil, gender, race, or origin, but treats everyone equally and responds with the same light.

Not to mention gods, even the giant serpent suppressed at the bottom of the sea had met him a few times when he happened to travel. After talking with him, the giant serpent was surprised to find him rather pleasing to the eye. At least he was singled out from the "gods who must be killed" and specially divided into a category of "gods who can be killed or not."

From Asgard, the abode of the gods, to Jotunheim, the home of the frost giants, Baldr has friends everywhere in the Nine Worlds, except for Helheim, which is too harsh for anyone but the dead and a few gods.

This personality trait also led to his indecisiveness and difficulty in making decisions. As Odin's eldest son after Thor and the heir to the throne, his son Folset was chosen as the god of justice and truth to assist him in making various judgments.

But now, this future god-king is trapped in a nightmare.

Gods rarely dream, but when they do dream, their dreams are often extraordinary.

Such dreams can be like traveling between the past and the future, foreseeing past and future events; or crossing the boundary between life and death, communicating with extraordinary living and dead beings in dreams; while nightmares often signify some bad omen.

Baldr, the god of light, was indeed gentle to a certain extent, so much so that he did not initially reveal his nightmares. It was only because he had nightmares every night that the god of light became weak and mentally exhausted, which made his mother, Frigg, the queen of the gods, notice him. Then, the queen of the gods, who pitied her son who was the future god-king, summoned the gods in the Golden Palace to try to find a solution.

The goddess issued a decree, and all the gods naturally had to come.

Inside the Golden Palace, the gods used various methods, including divination, magic, and even directly entering the dream of Baldr, the god of light. After exhausting all these methods, including Odin, the king of the gods, and Frigg, the queen of the gods, who had the ability to foresee the past and future, none of the gods could fully interpret the meaning of Baldr's nightmare. However, there was only one thing that all the gods agreed on: it was a great omen of doom.

After pondering for a long time, Odin mounted his eight-legged steed and prepared to personally travel to Hel, the Queen of the Dead, to inquire about the situation.

In this world, if there are any signs of death that even the god-king, who can foresee the future, doesn't know, then probably only Hela, who is half-dead, and the wise giant Mimir know them.

The eight-hoofed steed cleaved through the sky, crossed the ocean, and followed the River Styx to the land of the dead shrouded in mist.

However, what puzzled Odin was that, from the only brightly lit palace in the Land of the Dead, hidden in the deep mist, as he looked down, it seemed as if some kind of celebratory sound was coming from.

The God-King frowned slightly. He rode his eight-legged divine steed, circling in the air, without actually falling into the Land of Death.

The world of death, which has existed since the beginning of time, has its own rules and order. Even Odin, the king of gods, could hardly bear the environment filled with the aura of death. If he were to fall directly into that world of death, even if he were the king of gods, he would probably not be able to escape the fate of being transformed into the dead and then enslaved by Hela, the lord of death.

Putting aside everything else, in that land of the dead, those ancient beings who perished in the war between the ancient frost giants and the ancient gods long before the world was born are still alive. The world of the dead already existed in that era, but even though they were once so powerful, after death, they ultimately had to submit to Hela, the goddess of death.

However, the inability to directly enter the world of the dead does not mean that Odin is powerless to do anything about it; otherwise, he would not have been able to make Hela submit to him.

He extended a finger, which flew rapidly through the air as he chanted various mantras. His voice boomed like thunder, and soon, a cold wind and torrential rain arrived under his incantation.

Amidst howling winds and storms, Hela, whose size far exceeds that of humans and is closer to that of a giant, answered the call from the dead world beneath Odin.

She flew through the air, looking down at Odin, the king of the gods, who rode his eight-legged steed before her. Her cold brows held an excessive amount of respect, and she merely bowed slightly to Odin to show her respect for the king of the gods before slowly asking a question.

"Why has the God-King summoned me?"

Odin raised his head, looked at the enormous Hela in front of him, and then asked in a loud voice.

Why are there sounds of celebration coming from within your palace?

Hela gave a vague answer.

"The world of the dead is about to welcome a distinguished guest, so we have brewed fine mead for him and prepared a grand feast for him."

"Who is that person?"

Odin ignored Hela's evasive words and pressed her for answers.

Hela did not answer, but simply shook her head.

"God-King, the living have their own rules, but the dead also have their own order. All things that are born must die. Even though you are the God-King, there are some things you should not pursue too much."

Odin's brows were furrowed, and his aged face was covered by a thick, white beard, making it impossible to tell what he was thinking.

"That man is Badr, isn't he?"

He suddenly spoke.

Hela did not answer him, but not answering was itself an answer.

"Isn't there any way to stop it?"

The God-King stared intently at Hela before him and pressed for an answer.

Before him, Hela's face remained noncommittal, her expression turning cold and displeased.

"Perhaps there is, but that is no longer something you, as the living God-King, can continue to inquire about."

Without waiting for Odin to speak again, she went back to her palace on her own.

Odin remained silent, while Hela's attitude was clear: the world of the living and the world of the dead are different.

As the Queen of the Dead, Hela governs all the dead, including even the gods. Odin, on the other hand, is the God-King who rules over all the living. The two should be equal in status.

Although Hela is now forced to submit to him due to the power of the runes, there are some things that cannot be asked, and that's simply not true. That's why Odin's relentless pressure has made her so dissatisfied that she has stormed off.

He quietly stroked his beard, but a word inexplicably flashed through his mind.

"Regaluk..."

Suddenly, the God-King felt a sense of fear and loss.

(End of this chapter)