(And for the illnesses the author screwed up badly and mixed up the release of chapters. Sigh. For those who managed to read it, I can say that you managed to. And I had to delete chapter 167 and re-upload 166 to keep things in order.)
Alex walked ahead of Brunhild and Göll, heading toward the waiting room he had turned into a temporary base. His expression remained grim, not just because of the lost battle but also due to the realization that a fragment of an Outer God's power existed in this world. The price for the information he had gained might have seemed insignificant, but the consequences of his interference gave the gods plenty of leverage against him.
His thoughts kept circling back to the malfunctions in the detection module, originally configured to locate Nyan-Nyan's power. However, it had now detected distortions, barely catching the presence of another Outer God's energy. This realization pushed Alex to modify the device further, enabling it to track fluctuations in all such energies. But what worried him most was that this fragment was in Beelzebub's hands—a being whose experiments could lead to disaster.
In the original timeline, Beelzebub had implanted Zerofuku with the seed of the Demon of the Sixth Heaven. Adding the power of an Outer God to that equation could multiply the threat exponentially. Alex vividly remembered how the Demon of the Sixth Heaven nearly destroyed Helheim single-handedly. If paired with the madness that came with the Outer God's power, annihilation would be inevitable—not just for humanity but for the gods as well.
Running a hand down his face, Alex tried to organize his thoughts. He needed to determine how many such fragments existed in this world and whose hands they might end up in. The possibility that these forces could fall into the hands of those acting without understanding the consequences was enough to give him a headache.
Brunhild observed Alex as he delved deeper into his thoughts, her worry about his behavior growing. She couldn't understand why he had interfered in the battle and conceded defeat when victory had been within their grasp. Additionally, the two strange dragons that had emerged from Zerofuku's body, which Alex had destroyed, only raised more questions. Her thoughts returned to his earlier claim that Ragnarök had been orchestrated by someone who sought the destruction not only of humanity but possibly the gods as well.
When they reached the waiting room, the doors opened to an unexpected sight. Hrist, Hlökk, and Thrúd were seated in front of a strange television, watching a drama. Thrúd was even crying, wiping her tears with a handkerchief during an emotional scene. Rebecca, lounging on a couch, lifted her head when she saw Alex entering with the two Valkyries, a sly smile creeping onto her face.
At the sight of Brunhild holding Alex's hand, Rebecca's smile widened, causing the Valkyrie to grow visibly uneasy. Rebecca was about to start teasing her but reconsidered upon noticing the dark look on Alex's face. Deciding it wasn't the right time, she remained silent. Brunhild, gathering herself, turned a stern gaze toward Alex.
«Why are my elder sisters here? And why are they watching some weird drama?» Göll asked, pointing at the Valkyrie trio in confusion.
Brunhild also fixed Alex with a demanding look. Alex felt a chill run down his spine. Mentally, he warned the three Valkyries through their spiritual connection not to reveal his secrets, especially the fact that he was directly participating in the battles. The Valkyries agreed but warned that their silence would only be temporary.
«It's simple,» Alex said with an unbothered expression. «Hrist is here as my contractor, and the others are here because their contractors have temporarily left the arena. So, they decided to gather here.»
The trio nodded in confirmation, adding that they had gotten bored and decided to watch a drama.
«Let me introduce you to my team,» Alex continued. «This is Rebecca, one of my fiancées. If you need dangerous weapons, she's the one to talk to. That strange blue fluffball is Stitch, her pet. You already know G.I.R.; he's my assistant. And MIMI is our analyst, though she can step in for G.I.R. if necessary. Both of these robots were initially designed as guardians, but thanks to some 'adjustments,' they've become… chaotic entities.»
Göll blinked in surprise, while Brunhild let out a weary sigh, realizing Alex had once again managed to conceal his true intentions behind a flood of information.
Alex gestured to each member of his team in turn. He started with Rebecca, who was staring at Brunhild with a mischievous, almost gremlin-like grin. Then he shifted his gaze to Stitch, who had curled up into a fluffy blue ball and was busy finishing off the remains of some food. Next, he pointed to MIMI, perched on his workbench and intently monitoring various programs. Finally, he indicated G.I.R., who was comfortably resting on a floating cushion beside Göll.
Brunhild and Göll examined each team member closely, but it was the two robots that left them particularly puzzled. Alex's remark about their initial design as protectors and how «something went wrong» during development didn't help ease their confusion.
Brunhild's thoughts returned to Alex's earlier mention of his fiancée, which left her feeling awkward, especially after their recent kiss. However, she couldn't help but notice that Alex had used the plural—fiancées—and that oddly brought her some relief. That relief, however, quickly turned to irritation. One fiancée might be tolerable, but it seemed Alex was intent on assembling an entire harem.
Rebecca, noticing the rapid shifts in Brunhild's expressions, couldn't contain her laughter, doubling over in amusement. The Valkyrie trio, observing the interaction, were equally stunned—they hadn't seen their eldest sister display so many emotions in such a short span of time.
Alex, lost in his own thoughts, failed to notice any of this. His mind was preoccupied with tasks he wanted to complete as soon as possible.
«All right, you guys chat for a while. I'll finish up some work, and then we can talk,» Alex said, motioning for the Valkyries to take a seat.
Brunhild, slightly calmer now, cast a glance at Alex, who had already headed toward his workbench, oblivious to her or anyone else's reactions. She turned her attention to Rebecca again. Now she had to confront the woman Alex had called his fiancée. Göll, clueless about why Brunhild was so anxious, decided to join her sisters. Meanwhile, Brunhild, summoning her courage, approached the couch where Rebecca was seated.
Rebecca greeted her with a playful grin that inexplicably irritated Brunhild. Collecting herself, the Valkyrie decided to get straight to the point.
«So, you're one of Alex's fiancées?» she asked, trying to keep her tone calm.
«Something like that,» Rebecca replied with a sly smile. «But the fact that you're asking means something happened between you two.»
Brunhild froze, searching Rebecca's eyes for any sign of jealousy. All she found, however, was amusement, as if Rebecca was thoroughly enjoying the moment.
«We… kissed,» Brunhild admitted, hoping for some kind of reaction.
«You kissed? That's it?» Rebecca replied, sounding disappointed as she crossed her arms. «I was expecting something more… interesting. Maybe something spicier?»
Brunhild was taken aback. Instead of jealousy or outrage, Rebecca seemed let down by the lack of juicy gossip, which only confused the Valkyrie further. Their conversation had already drawn the attention of the other Valkyries, who found this sudden drama between their eldest sister and Alex's fiancée far more entertaining than the show they had been watching.
«Aren't you supposed to be… jealous? Or something like that?» Brunhild finally asked, utterly perplexed.
Rebecca burst into laughter, clutching her stomach. Brunhild's assumptions clearly amused her.
«Jealous? Why? Alex always makes time for all of us. The hardest part is getting used to his strange habits and antics. If you can handle those, everything will be fine,» Rebecca replied, wiping away tears of laughter.
«What do you mean, strange habits?» Brunhild asked, leaning in with sudden curiosity.
Brunhild had recently noticed Alex's strange, chaotic behavior, but she hadn't given it much thought. Even his desire to steal Buddha's weapon had gone ignored.
Rebecca, on the other hand, had begun telling the others about Alex's peculiar habits, skillfully avoiding details about other worlds, knowing that Alex wasn't ready to reveal that secret yet. Their conversation caught the attention of the other Valkyries, who curiously joined in and started asking questions.
Meanwhile, Alex was focused on tweaking G.I.R.'s search module code. His goal was to fix the bugs that had previously led to incorrect data display. The system now needed to determine whether an Outer God was present in the universe or if only fragments of its power remained. Alex theorized that these fragments might have scattered across the multiverse after an ancient war.
«Perfect,» Alex muttered as he completed the code update.
Running a test, he confirmed there was no avatar of Nyarlathotep in this universe, only traces of fragments from other Outer Gods. Pinpointing their exact location wasn't yet possible due to system limitations, but Alex already had some ideas about where to start searching for the first one.
Having finished his work, Alex stretched to loosen up and turned around. His gaze fell on the group of girls engrossed in conversation. He spotted Brunhild and couldn't help but smile—although she looked calm now, Alex still half-expected her to grab a knife and try to cut something off him below the waist.
«Hey, I'm here! Where are my promised sweets?» a loud voice boomed as Buddha burst into the room, dragging a sheepish Zerofuku behind him.
All eyes instantly turned to Buddha. Alex's face twitched, and his left eye began to involuntarily spasm at his friend's audacity. Zerofuku, who seemed to have recovered and returned to his former self, was noticeably more comfortable, though he had lost the horns Beelzebub had once implanted in him.
«Could you not barge in like you own the place?» Alex asked dryly.
«Oh, it's nothing, my friend! The important thing is the sweets. You promised them in return for me following your Valkyrie's plan,» Buddha replied nonchalantly.
Alex sighed heavily. Arguing with Buddha was futile—he always found a way to justify his audacity with lofty spiritual musings about karma and duty.
«And how about you, Zerofuku? Are you feeling better? Have you recovered from being split into seven parts?» Alex asked, ignoring Buddha.
«Yes, thank you! And I'm sorry for how brash Ebisu was...» Zerofuku bowed so low he nearly hit his head on the floor.
«That's enough apologies. It's all minor stuff,» Alex waved dismissively.
«Yes, yes, forget the apologies. Just ask him for sweets instead,» Buddha interjected effortlessly, giving Zerofuku a friendly pat on the shoulder.
Dark shadows of irritation began to creep across Alex's face.
«Is that all you care about—sweets?» he asked, clearly trying to keep his composure.
Buddha adopted the pose of a wise teacher, raising a finger as an almost holy glow seemed to appear behind him.
«My friend, karma binds us all. Karma is the chain of good and evil. If you receive good, you must return it a hundredfold. If you suffer evil, repay it in kind. Everything in this world is interconnected. Every meeting is predestined. Our fates intertwined in the greenhouse, and now we are friends…» he began, as if delivering a sermon.
«Yes, yes, we get it. Just don't forget to take your sweets before continuing your philosophy,» Alex interrupted, rising from his chair to fetch some treats, hoping to distract Buddha from another lengthy monologue.
Alex's expression twisted at Buddha's words. For others, his speech might have sounded like a profound sermon, but to Alex, it felt like the cunning tactic of a shameless freeloader fishing for more sweets.
«Fine, I get it. Enough already. Karma, blah, blah, blah. Here are your sweets, now stop,» Alex muttered, tossing packs of candy at Buddha.
Buddha grinned broadly, catching the flying candy packs with impressive agility. Stacking his loot into a neat yet formidable pile, he sprawled into a chair as if he were at home. The others, watching this scene, looked bewildered, as if they had just witnessed something utterly unimaginable.
Meanwhile, Zerofuku, noticing G.I.R., MIMI, and Stitch, was immediately intrigued by the peculiar trio. To Alex's surprise, they quickly became friends. He could only sigh and silently pray that the trio of chaos wouldn't «corrupt» Zerofuku.
«Well, now that I've got my sweets, don't you think you owe me an explanation for why you interfered in my fight with Zerofuku-chan?» Buddha asked, popping another candy into his mouth.
Alex shot him a dry look.
«Can you wait at least a couple of minutes?» he replied, clearly struggling to keep his irritation in check.
Buddha paused for a moment but then flashed his signature wide grin.
«Nope.»
Alex's eye twitched, and he once again considered hitting Buddha with a stick. However, he suppressed the urge—there would be time for that later. Sighing, Alex sat down on the couch between Brunhild and Rebecca, closed his eyes, and focused on how best to explain the situation.
«To start with, this is about Zerofuku,» he began, gesturing toward the god who was happily munching on candy, surrounded by G.I.R. and the others.
All eyes turned to Zerofuku, who looked completely carefree. Even Buddha, who had been lounging lazily, straightened up and directed his attention to Alex.
«Zerofuku was created as a god of happiness and fortune. He took away people's misfortunes and granted them good luck. But this had severe consequences for his essence. The thing is, that was never supposed to happen,» Alex began, rubbing his chin.
«What do you mean?» Brunhild frowned, not following where he was going.
«The misfortunes he absorbed weren't meant to remain in his body. They were supposed to dissipate over time, allowing Zerofuku to return to his natural state. But thanks to the actions of some idiot who decided to run an experiment, all that negative energy got locked inside him and began conflicting with his essence,» Alex explained.
His words made Brunhild thoughtful, while Rebecca, sitting beside him, ruffled her hair in frustration.
«Alex, can you explain this more simply? Enough with the complicated nonsense!» she snapped.
«A-chan means,» Buddha interjected with a broad smile, tossing another candy into his mouth, «that Zerofuku-chan, as a god of fortune, wasn't supposed to hold onto misfortunes. Fortune and misfortune are parts of human life, but they were never meant to linger in the body of a god of fortune. However, something—or someone—caused the misfortunes to stick, creating an internal conflict. Eventually, his essence distorted, and he became a god of misfortune.»
Everyone, including Brunhild, listened attentively. Alex let out a quiet sigh.
«See? Buddha explained it more simply,» Rebecca smirked, though her tone carried a hint of irony.
«Are you saying I'm overly complicated?» Alex asked, narrowing his eyes.
«Yes,» she replied without hesitation.
Buddha popped another candy into his mouth, smiling mysteriously.
«See, A-chan, you need to keep things simple. Only then will karma be on your side.»
Alex gave a curt nod, raising a thumbs-up toward Buddha. Rebecca, arms crossed, shot Alex a pointed look, clearly unimpressed with his explanation. Brunhild, on the other hand, finally began to grasp his words. However, a new question immediately arose in her mind: Why had the misfortune continued to accumulate in Zerofuku's body instead of dissipating as it should have?
She gazed at Alex thoughtfully.
«But now the main question: What exactly caused the misfortune to stay in his body? What triggered it? And what about those two dragons that left Zerofuku's body?» Brunhild finally asked, her eyes fixed on Alex.
He smirked, preparing to answer, but Buddha, crunching on another candy, interrupted:
«And why do we even need to know?»
Alex shot him a dry glance.
«Don't interrupt, just listen. Anyway, there's an ancient legend from Helheim about the so-called Demon of the Sixth Heaven, who single-handedly destroyed almost half of the world of the dead,» he began, his tone deliberately serious.
«And what are we supposed to do with this information?» Buddha pressed, tossing another candy into his mouth.
«Let me finish,» Alex crossed his arms. «The legend says: 'When bright light and impenetrable darkness merge into one, the horns of the underworld will awaken, and the very embodiment of evil will appear.' As you can understand, Zerofuku was the perfect candidate for embodying this legend.»
His words made everyone fall silent. Even Buddha, with his usual cheerful expression, suddenly became serious. Brunhild frowned, trying to recall anything about the legend, but nothing came to mind.
«Even if that's true, you wouldn't have intervened just for that, right? Something made you act. Otherwise, you wouldn't have said those words to me before the fight,» Buddha said quietly, narrowing his eyes and slightly adjusting his glasses to look Alex directly in the eyes.
Alex smiled, pleased with Buddha's sharpness.
«You're right. If it were just about the Demon of the Sixth Heaven, I wouldn't have intervened. You could have handled it yourself,» he admitted frankly.
«But there's always a 'but,'» Brunhild interjected, fixing Alex with a steady gaze.
«Always,» Alex confirmed with a slight smile. «Let's assume someone found remnants of the Demon of the Sixth Heaven's flesh. This idiot decided to run an experiment: implant the 'seed' of that flesh into the body of a young god of fortune and see what happens. Now add to that the fact that this same idiot found something even more disgusting and dangerous than the Demon itself. Something that could destroy not just Helheim, but all worlds.»
Buddha leaned forward thoughtfully, processing what he had just heard.
«And what could be worse than a Demon who destroyed half the world?» Brunhild muttered, trying to come up with a logical explanation.
Rebecca, upon hearing his words, widened her eyes, then her face twisted into a sour expression, as if she had figured out what Alex was talking about.
«You mean... he found what I think he found?» she asked suspiciously, staring at Alex.
«Yes and no,» Alex replied, shaking his head. «It's not related to Nyan-Nyan, but it has to do with her relatives.»
Rebecca tilted her head back, sighing heavily.
«Now there's a problem. First her, and now her whole family. When will this end?» she muttered irritably.
Alex silently watched Rebecca, who had thrown her head back on the couch, her eyes rolling in dissatisfaction. Her irritation was palpable in the air, and the others exchanged confused looks, not understanding who or what «Nyan-Nyan» was, or why Alex and Rebecca were talking about her.
«My friend, you're missing something important. We're not alone here. Perhaps you could share with the rest of us what you're talking about?» Buddha remarked calmly, but with a hint of amusement in his voice, drawing Alex's attention.
He sighed, narrowing his eyes slightly.
«I won't go into details,» he began, looking at Buddha. «I'll just say a few words. If the gods of this world are gods born within its bounds, then what this idiot found is a fragment of the power of the outer gods. Even such a fragment in the hands of a fool can lead to catastrophic consequences.»
He paused, looked around at the others, and continued:
«I won't explain who the outer gods are right now. There's simply no time for that. Our main task now is to win Ragnarok. We'll discuss the rest later.»
Brunhild studied Alex's face intently, trying to figure out what he was hiding. Then her gaze shifted to Rebecca, who just sighed heavily, avoiding eye contact with anyone. Apparently, they had already faced similar problems but didn't want to go into details.
Buddha shrugged, carelessly tossing another candy into his mouth.
«Well, since you know everything, let it be. Just don't drag it out,» he added, as if absolving himself of any responsibility.
Rebecca seemed to feel relief, understanding that she wouldn't have to be part of yet another massive battle with destructive consequences anytime soon. Alex, meanwhile, mentally ran through the possibilities: which outer god could have been the source of this fragment? How many could there be in this world? And, more troublingly—was Heimdall involved, whose behavior had become increasingly suspicious to him?
After the conversation, Alex and Brunhild headed to the candidate selection room to determine the next human fighter.
Buddha, of course, stayed put, lounging in the chair.
«There are sweets here, so I'm not going anywhere,» he declared with a smile, lifting another candy pack.
No one asked Zerofuku about his plans anymore—he had quietly blended into the group, consuming sweets at an industrial scale. By the time the others left, he had collapsed into a sweet-induced coma next to Stitch, who had spent the entire day eating and lounging around.
Rebecca returned to studying rune combinations, while the trio of Valkyries got fully engrossed in watching a show that had paused at a thrilling moment.
When Alex, Brunhild, and Göll left the room, the Valkyrie suddenly took Alex's arm and looked him squarely in the eyes.
«You're going to introduce me to the others, right?» she asked unexpectedly.
«To the others?» Alex asked, tilting his head slightly.
«Well, to your... other fiancées. Or do you think I'll agree to this without knowing what I'm getting into?» Brunhild squinted.
Alex nodded and shrugged, but something in his eyes hinted at an anticipation of Brunhild's reaction when she learned the truth. Göll, walking beside them, nervously glanced at them, deciding not to intervene in the conversation.
When they reached the candidates' room, Alex pushed the door open and saw that another... Brunhild was already inside. Or was it? Alex furrowed his brow, trying to recall who this might be, and finally realized: standing before him was Nostradamus.
The real Brunhild instantly tensed. Her face twisted in anger, as if she were ready to tear Nostradamus apart on the spot.
«My God, she's going to eat him alive,» Alex muttered quietly, watching the soothsayer's hand, now gripped in a deadly hold.
To be continued...
(The author also created a P*treon and will upload chapters to it ahead of time. Well, and maybe one of the readers would like to treat me to coffee.
The author created a p*treon just to earn money for coffee so that I could cope with my ADHD, which always prevents me from thinking normally.
All chapters on P*treon are free and all this is done with the goal of collecting donations for coffee
I will upload chapters there in whole packs of 3 chapters. My P*treon p*treon.com/GreedHunter)