After settling everything in Fenrikshavn, I took my beastmen and Kwenthrith back to Norway, to Odin's palace.
We were about halfway through our journey when I sensed something very large coming at us from beneath.
I immediately manipulate the water and air currents to get the ship out of the Titan's path.
"Hang on to something!" I warn my beasts.
"You, hold Kwenthrith!" I say as I point to a bear man.
Despite going very fast, the Titan adjusts its trajectory and continues to aim for us.
Changing tactics, I wait for the last possible moment to create an enormous burst of air and a powerful wave to carry us out of the Titan's path.
The air current is so powerful, it starts to tear the sails and even the mast looks like it's about to snap.
Just barely evading the Titan that erupts from the ocean, the ship comes to a halt about a hundred meters away from the beast, close to the shore.
As my beastmen all look behind me with shocked expressions, while Kwenthrith looks terrified, I turn around to get a good look at the monster for myself and see...
"YES! LUNCH!"
'The giant lobster, Ebirah! And it came at exactly the right time. Lunch time.'
I jump out of the ship, into the water and take my giant, humanoid wolf form.
*CLAP!*
I immediately have to evade one of Ebirah's pincers. As I move my head backwards, I see the pincer move past my nose as it snaps shut, creating a very loud noise that rattles my eardrums.
I grab the pincer and immediately Ebirah launches the other one straight for my face.
I move my head to the side, barely evading the pincer, but while it passes my head, I grab it.
Now mostly neutralized, I drag my lunch back into the deep.
Even though it struggles, I use my superior strength to hold it in place at the bottom, about four hundred meters below sea-level.
I activate my volcanic physiology and heat up to about three thousand degrees celcius to kill it.
Once it's dead, I immediately lower my temperature to about fifteen hundred degrees celcius.
I boil the giant red lobster for about an hour. Meanwhile I've given my beastmen a telepathic command to set up for lunch on the beach.
Once it's done, I drag the boiled Ebirah onto the beach.
'Now I have to get creative. I suppose I'll have to use aura constructs.'
I use my aura to create two giant plates.
I first snap off the claws and put them aside. I then take the tail and twist it off.
I crack open the shell covering the tail and take out all the beautiful, succulent meat inside. The mouthwatering fragrance assaults everyone's nose, making them gulp in anticipation.
After extracting all the meat possible, I throw the carapace into the ocean and put most of the meat in my storage space.
I take one claw for myself and give the beastmen one leg and a knuckle from the claw.
'Hmm, the only thing missing is butter.
Well, if there was ever a moment to use creation, this is it.'
I make a large aura construct in the shape of a bowl. I then fill it with seawater.
I concentrate on the bowl as the water slowly turns whitish yellow and becomes solid.
I lift the bowl with one hand and turn my hand into lava, melting the butter.
"Alright eat up! Be careful though, it's hot."
"Mmmm! It's so good!" Kwenthrith says after taking a bite.
After a satisfying meal, the beastmen are all enjoying themselves on the beach along with Kwenthrith who is starting to open up.
Meanwhile I'm bathing in the ocean, still in my wolf form, thinking about Ebirah and his sudden appearance.
'My aura covered the entire planet, including the oceans. How did I not know he even existed?.
Unless.. hollow earth. My aura didn't go down there.
There could be so many more interesting Titans and animals down there.'
After making sure my beasts know the way to Odin's palace, I leave for the hollow earth.
I turn into a Megalodon and swim towards an underwater tunnel that leads down to my destination.
I enter the tunnel and after about fifty kilometers I reach a strange energy barrier.
Given how Ebirah was able to pass through, I should be able to do it as well.
I swim through the barrier and immediately I'm launched forward at an insane speed, almost like how I travel between universes.
After only a few seconds I reach another barrier that slows me down immediately and spits me out into another ocean.
For about a second it feels as if my brain is rattling in my head. 'Damn, that's some crazy whiplash.'
The moment my head stops hurting, I start swimming to the surface.
I shapeshift into my wolf form and get on land.
I look around and immediately notice how alien everything looks. There's plants I've never seen and insects flying around that don't look like anything on the surface.
I look up and see a sort of ceiling. As I look closer, I notice animals walking on it and birds flying upside-down.
I decide to get a closer look and turn into a giant eagle.
I fly up for about six kilometers, when I reach some sort of gravity bubble. Suddenly I can't feel any gravity at all until I reach a little higher.
I immediately start to fall towards what I thought to be a ceiling. I readjust my position in mid-air and start gliding down to the second surface.
'This is all kinda strange and at the same time pretty cool.
I want to go explore everything and yet I also feel I might as well just spread out my aura and get it over with.'
Coming to a decision, I spread my aura throughout the hollow earth.
As my aura spreads in every direction, it dissolves and absorbs one specimen of every new species it touches, giving me all knowledge of their physiology and the ability to turn into one.
Again, this process causes a headache, but whereas the previous one felt like a doctor was practicing trepanation again and again, this time it's more like migraine. Still not great, but manageable.
Just like last time it feels like my consciousness expands along with my aura, allowing me to see, hear and even feel everything it touches.
Injured animals start to heal while withering plants regain their vigor.
As my aura has spread throughout the hollow earth, I notice a few interesting things.
There's some kind of energy spread everywhere in this place. It's definitely responsible for the gravitational anomaly down here, but if my assumption is correct, it might also be the very energy that allowed the Titans to become so large and have their extraordinary abilities.
Speaking of Titans, apparently they noticed me.
There's so many of them.
Nine of them are all coming at me, all at once.
Taking a good look at all of them, I can only say.. Damn nature! You scary!
The first to one is a large, flying snake-like creature with large, orange bat wings. Let's call it Warbat.
The second one looks like a large, blue Brontosaurus with armor plating. It walks on two legs and has a mostly humanoid form. Let's call it Sizemosaurus.
Third, another dinosaur-like creature. It's a giant, humanoid Triceratops covered in spikes and has a large, spiked club at the end of its tail. Tyrantasaur.
The fourth looks mostly like a T-Rex except for the top half of its skull and its back, which are completely covered with spiked bone plating. It's also pretty small for a Titan. Titan-Rex
The fifth and sixth both look like members of Godzilla's species, except one of them is covered in red scales and the other is way larger than any Titan I've seen before. It's about 140 meters tall. Instead of having large legs and tiny arms like Godzilla has, this one has relatively small legs and huge arms with big claws. Nemesis Prime for the big fucker and Nagoraiar for the red one.
Number seven is... odd to say the least. All I can say is it's large, humanoid and covered in armor and spikes. It also seems to be using some kind of electrokinesis. And is capable of lengthening its claws to turn them into electrified whips. Enslaver.
The eighth Titan is one I recognize because of the many heads. Yamata No Orochi or Orochi for short. It's a large, red hydra-like Titan with eight heads.
And finally Pulgasari, the minotaur titan.
'Alright then... TITAN WAR!'