Hela had lost track of how much distance she had covered, and the landscape had remained unchanged. If there were slight alterations in the river, she would have believed that she was not making any progress.
Eventually, after an unknown amount of time, Hela discovered a tree in an open field. Although the tree was a bit distant from her current position, she decided to investigate it as it was the only new thing she had found.
After walking for a few hours, she finally reached the dead tree, which stood 300 meters tall. The most striking thing about it was not that it was bare, but that numerous corpses were hanging from it.
Observing their muscular arms and noting that some had shields on their backs, and even one had a sword, it was difficult to discern which wars they had fought in. They appeared to be from either the Aesir or Vanir races or even possibly Midgard mortals.
"Why should two divine races be so alike, and even resemble mortals," Hela pondered, although it was not impossible to differentiate between them if they were alive.
Aside from the fact that they were hanging there, there was nothing special about the corpses. Hela passed her divine energy through them to extract the energy of death and refresh herself since it was unlikely that she would find any more dead bodies anytime soon.
However, before she could continue, the first corpse came to life and addressed her.
"Queen Hela, the King of all the Dead and Goddess of Death, I did not expect to see you here, but I expected to meet you."
Hela observed the talking corpse with interest, as far as she knew, she could not revive the dead, and this corpse should not have been able to come back to life.
"I don't know how you came to life, or what you know about me, but I am curious as to why you are hanging here."
"It's comfortable to hang here, and the view is great," the corpse joked.
"Enough with your foolishness, tell me how you ended up in this realm, or more specifically, hanging on this tree. As far as I know, dead bodies should decay quickly in this realm, and only souls should float along the river a few hours' walks from here."
"Heh, sorry my Queen, but you should know how the King of the Gods Odin obtained his knowledge. It's not just him who can pull off such a trick."
"Only he returned alive from it."
"Not quite, my Queen. We also managed to do it, although not quite like the King of the Gods."
Hela found it strange that someone could obtain wisdom by hanging from a tree. She thought it was odd that her cheap father had received a burst of wisdom through this method. After all, many fools who had attempted to repeat the feat of the All-Father had died, becoming food for crows.
"Tell me about this method, since you didn't figure out my father's trick."
Hela suddenly realized that her father had gained knowledge by this method quite recently, but this corpse speaks as if it was too long ago. Although he may be a mortal and the time frame for them is different from the divine races, even so. By mortal standards, it wasn't that long ago.
"This is my queen, a small but interesting and quite amazing ritual. The tree is used as a repository of ancestral knowledge, and so after generations, knowledge accumulates and is passed on to the next generations, who not only improve and develop them but also pass on completely new knowledge further. So many clans pass on their knowledge of sorcery, healing mixtures, and fighting techniques. Not to mention the wisdom of the elders. "
Hela took a couple of steps back because these words only confirmed her suspicions. "Are you saying that my father got the knowledge of my grandfather and the rest of the ancestors?"
"I don't know the Queen, but I can only say that as soon as the clan tree is burned, all the generations who used such a ritual will go to Helheim and will hang here forever."
The corpse fell silent and continued to hang quietly, yes, I'm rocking a little and smiling a little. Hela turned her gaze to the rest of the troupe and did not continue asking. But she just turned around and went back to the river to continue her journey. She has a lot to think about.
Seeing that the Queen of the Dead doesn't ask anything else and is already leaving. The corpse looked at his descendants and ancestors hanging next to him on a tree and closed his eyes again plunged into eternal sleep until his service was again needed by the royal family.
HelŠ° continued her journey in silence and thought about many things, about meeting this corpse, about the method of storing knowledge, and how it is similar to Odin's method. How the time frame doesn't fit together and that the corpse knew her and behaved too familiarly with her. There was no fear of her in his eyes and voice, there was only respect for the royal family and nothing more.
"Damn, it looks like this realm is not simple, I just hope it doesn't interfere with my plans."
In the months following the expedition, a small tower could be found deep in the Midgard forest where a group of wizards had gathered. Seated around a round table, with even more wizards standing around the perimeter, the atmosphere was heavy with silence.
"What have we discovered during our expeditions?" one of the wizards asked.
"It is undoubtedly the military camp of the Death Goddess Hela," another responded. "We don't know the exact nature of the curse, but after 30 minutes inside the camp, an illusory system is triggered which prevents anyone from leaving. The energy level of death and bloodshed increases at a constant rate, causing weak-willed wizards to become berserkers. This increases their death energy, allowing them to use magic in unlimited quantities."
"Although they can only cast around five spells before their bodies completely die, the spells are extremely powerful and carry the energy of death. Any hit is fatal. Additionally, there is an attacking formation that draws death energy from the air to create arrows that can accurately kill those who have not fallen under the berserker's fury."
"So we only have 30 minutes to retrieve anything of value and leave alive?" one of the wizards asked.
"That's correct," another responded. "It's extremely dangerous, but some lucky ones have retrieved powerful artifacts and even discovered new runes that are quite versatile."
There was a moment of silence before one of the main wizards at the table spoke up. "We should make this information available to anyone who wants to explore the camp. They can keep the artifacts for themselves, but they must hand over any new runes discovered within the ruins."
The people in the hall discussed the decision and ultimately supported it. They went their separate ways, disappearing into magical whirlwinds.