Time flies like an arrow, days and months pass swiftly. As the seasons turn, spring, autumn, and winter come once more in their eternal cycle. The entire world never stops turning because of the disappearance of any one existence.
The great serpent, firmly suppressed at the bottom of the sea by the chains binding its body, could do nothing. Not to mention the chains on its body or the heavy ocean pressing down on it, rendering it completely immobile, even beside it, there was the old sea god Aegir, constantly watching its every move.
The entire great sea was a prison, and the old sea god Aegir was the jailer.
This old sea god Aegir clearly had no qualms about being the one to guard the great serpent. On the contrary, he took advantage of his occasional patrols of the sea to come and check from time to time to see if this colossal monster showed any signs of trying to break free.
The ferocious nature and immense power displayed by this monster, the spirit that nearly overturned the entire sea, truly made this old sea god deeply wary… even fearful.
It was precisely because of this that Aegir was particularly attentive to matters concerning the great serpent. At first, he would even come to check every day, until two or three years later, seeing that the serpent indeed showed no signs of reckless action, he slightly reduced the frequency of his visits, but still came for routine checks two or three times a week.
And apart from that, in the sky above, whether it was the sun goddess Sol who had a deep grudge against the serpent, or the moon god Mani whose moon had been more than half shattered by it, leaving only a crescent to show, or the myriad other stars and clouds… they were all ceaselessly watching its movements day and night. If there was the slightest unusual activity, they would immediately blow their horns to summon the gods.
From the sea to the sky, though the countless stars were many, not a single one cast a kind gaze upon the great serpent. Though the clouds in the sky were beautiful, not a single one was willing to provide the serpent with shade.
Countless eyes, filled with vigilance, hatred, hostility, fear, suspicion…
All were fixed upon it.
Though heaven and earth were vast, they could not tolerate a great serpent suppressed beneath the sea.
If not for the serpent's exceedingly tenacious vitality, such that even the gods were powerless to kill it and could at most imprison it beneath the sea, perhaps it would have long since become a serpentine corpse, its soul having no choice but to descend to the lowest layer of the world tree, accompanied by those departed gods who had existed before the birth of the world, the dead giants, and the innumerable spirits of the deceased.
And with the great serpent firmly suppressed beneath the sea, naturally no one would provide it with food. The intense hunger it was born with once again enveloped it.
Whenever it was starving to the point of madness, the great serpent would let out agonized wails, struggling desperately, and the chains tightly binding its body would, along with its violent thrashing, cut deep into its flesh and even its bones.
Its flesh scattered in the great sea, attracting countless carnivorous fish to come and gnaw on it. Faced with these specks of dust it would never have paid any mind to in the past, the great serpent could now only helplessly wait for its hunger to gradually fade, for its flesh and scales to slowly heal until it could withstand the gnawing of these creatures of various sizes. And then… the hunger would come again, and everything would repeat once more.
Every time the great serpent wailed in agony, screamed, struggled, and bled in the depths of the sea, its colossal form would always make the entire seafloor tremble, triggering undersea volcanic eruptions, raging tsunamis on the surface, and even causing earthquakes of varying intensity on land.
But the great serpent could not die.
Neither the endless hunger nor its own injuries could kill this colossal monster. These could only make this undying monster feel pain forever. Even if this monster grew more and more hungry, it would not affect its body gradually becoming more and more immense.
And for this monster, this could only make it feel even greater hunger, with no way to help it at all.
In its vertical serpentine pupils, the previous disdain for everything gradually faded along with the agonizing torment, replaced by a coldness that made one suffocate. However, that aura of savagery and brutality only intensified with each passing day. No matter how great the pain, it never eroded the thick malevolence within this monster's body.
The days seemed to pass endlessly in torment and struggle.
Until one day…
"Awoooooooooo!!!!!!"
From the dome of the sky came a fierce and furious wolf howl, the sound reverberating through the heavens, reaching the ears of the great serpent slumbering at the bottom of the sea.
The utterly bored great serpent raised its head, looking at the crimson clouds spreading across the horizon and the blood rain falling upon the earth. It instinctively sensed that something had happened in the sky.
It was not until much later that the great serpent learned through the mouths of spirits who occasionally passed by the seafloor… or rather, through threatening them, that the perplexed serpent finally realized what had happened in the sky.
…
After suppressing the great serpent, the gods had thought they could rest easy, but they never expected that a new hidden peril would emerge within Asgard…
The great serpent's physiological elder brother, that monstrous wolf Fenrir, had grown up.
Initially, among Loki's three siblings, Jormungandr the great serpent was cast into the endless deep sea because it was too hideous and disliked by the gods. The half-dead Hel was appointed by Odin as the ruler of the realm of the dead to govern the entire land of death. Only the puppy Fenrir, who looked very weak and could even be considered cute when young, without showing any ferocity, was allowed to stay in Asgard after some deliberation by Odin, to see if it could be of any use in the future.
In this regard, Odin was quite tolerant. As long as one had ability and was not evil, one could live in Asgard.
Just like the sun goddess Sol and her brother, the moon god Mani, their father was also a giant, but they were still granted the status of gods. Loki, born of the frost giants, the nemesis of the gods, was also accepted into the twelve leaders. Another example was Freyr and his sister of the Vanir…
There were many such cases, and more. Many of the gods in Asgard were not of purely divine origin, but were all valued nonetheless, not looked down upon because of their origins.
However, after keeping this puppy Fenrir, things took a turn for the worse.
This monstrous wolf, which had a few endearing aspects when young, began to grow at a terrifying rate in a very short time. Although it did not have the colossal size of its brother, its ferocity and cruelty were even more horrifying than the great serpent's, its avaricious and brutal aura as if poised to devour someone, making people tremble with fear at the sight of it.
The gods, including Thor the thunder god, all developed a deep apprehension towards it. Only the incredibly brave and fearless war god Tyr dared to feed this monstrous wolf.
And after suppressing the great serpent, this apprehension only intensified. The gods began to discuss how to deal with this monstrous wolf that was gradually showing signs of being uncontrollable.
Subdue it by force?
Even Thor the thunder god, after carefully pondering this idea for a while, shook his head.
The might of that monstrous wolf was definitely not inferior to its brother's. Thor was not fully confident he could subdue it, and if a great battle erupted in Asgard, this painstakingly restored Asgard might be reduced to ruins in a flash.
Therefore, after much deliberation, the gods decided to capture it by cunning.