Under Old Sea God Aegir's lofty gaze, the Great Serpent's vertical pupils gradually filled with a bloody hue, twisted and mad, brimming with endless malice and brutality.
"You are the warden watching over me, but I have infected a group of servants. For such an action, you didn't directly inform the Aesir but instead brought an army yourself. Why?"
The Great Serpent's low voice carried a strange allure and infectiousness, making one feel compelled to believe it.
"Because you don't trust them."
"You don't believe that when those Aesir clash with me, they will still care about and protect your ocean."
"As the main battlefield, your ocean will face the threat of destruction. Your accumulation over millennia will all be reduced to ashes in an instant."
"…"
Listening to the Great Serpent's low voice, Old Sea God Aegir didn't speak but grimly gripped the battle halberd in his hand, bracing for the risk of the Great Serpent suddenly attacking.
But the Great Serpent didn't do so. It merely spoke calmly, in a frighteningly tranquil tone, stating the various worries in Old Sea God Aegir's heart.
"But what you truly dread the most in your heart is…"
The Great Serpent slowly lowered its head. Its pupils, gradually becoming savage and mad, like a vault of the heavens enveloping the four directions, loomed over the old sea god's head. The air became a bit too still…
Then, a low murmur filled with a mad aura entered his ears.
"You dread being devoured by me…"
Upon hearing this, the hand gripping the battle halberd imperceptibly stiffened for a moment but then relaxed again. Aegir calmly raised his head, looking at the space above his head.
There, in the pupils as serene as a lake surface, yet more vast than any lake, his figure was reflected. Within, his expression, movements, even the slightest changes deep in his eyes were all clearly visible. And in the depths of those pupils mirroring his figure, it was already pitch black…
A frightening pitch black.
Aegir gazed at that pupil for a long while, then slowly said,
"You can't break free from these chains."
His voice carried a certain unquestionable conviction.
"So, here's the question…"
The Great Serpent didn't rush to refute but inexplicably let out a bizarre low chuckle.
Although Aegir couldn't see the Great Serpent's expression, and the Great Serpent had no expression, in his eyes, if the Great Serpent had an expression, it would probably be grinning at him madly and distorted.
"Want to wager on it?"
Accompanied by the Great Serpent's low murmur, in its pupils gazing down at Aegir, the madness and distortion grew even deeper, savagely chilling and frigidly terrifying.
The old sea god fell silent. After a long while, he slowly spoke.
"You wouldn't dare do that. Even if you truly broke free, the gods could imprison you again. This time, you would be bound to the World Tree."
Aegir's face was extremely calm, as tranquil as a bystander. Only the hint of gloom and fury in his tone, not easily noticed, proved that the turmoil in his heart was not as simple as it appeared on the surface.
"Just for a few servants, it's not worth it for you to do this. You're merely threatening me."
He calmly judged.
"I've said it, old one. Let's try it once, see if I can truly break free from these chains. How about it… The result will surely be intriguing."
In the vertical serpent pupils, the savagery and brutality gradually faded, replaced by a strange madness. A frightening, pitch-black darkness gradually engulfed the Great Serpent's pupils.
In the Great Serpent's low murmur, there was a certain uncontrollable, mad, and perverted excitement.
With that said, this colossal being raised its head, no longer looking at the old sea god. It let out a low roar from its maw. Its massive body, constituting half the ocean floor, began to writhe. In its pupils, a madness-filled pitch-black hue gradually took over.
And accompanying its movements, those pure golden chains deeply embedded in the Great Serpent's body also began to tighten. These chains were not inanimate but possessed a certain degree of sentience. Once they sensed the Great Serpent trying to struggle, they would directly begin to constrict, becoming tighter the more it struggled, to a frightening degree, until they deeply sank into the Great Serpent's flesh and even bones.
Those chains, already deeply embedded in the gaps of the Great Serpent's bones, were what the Great Serpent, in an agonizing state of hunger, had madly struggled against and sunk deep into.
What exactly these chains were forged from, even Odin didn't know. The only thing certain was that these chains were extremely sturdy, so sturdy that even with the Great Serpent's vast might capable of bearing the entire ocean, it couldn't break free from these chains. And it was because of this that Old Sea God Aegir was so confident.
But…
That was only in the past.
The Great Serpent was endlessly growing more immense. At this moment, whether the Great Serpent, even larger than before, could break free from these chains… probably no one could say for certain.
In the ocean, countless chains strained taut. The massive serpentine body, already half the ocean floor, once it moved, truly caused the entire ocean to churn.
"Heh heh…"
The Great Serpent's pupils had already turned completely pitch-black, filled with all kinds of uncontrollable, perverted, and mad obsessions, and let out a savage and eerie laughter.
That laughter carried a strange excitement, as if it had long awaited this moment.
The muscles on its body tensed fiercely, scales rising one after another. The massive body was striving to struggle.
A bit, a bit more, a bit more…
The massive body was arduously bearing the entire ocean pressing down on it, bit by bit stretching the chains locked on its body tighter and tighter.
"Rumble…"
In various parts of the ocean, the seafloor everywhere was fracturing, producing large fissures. That was proof of the Great Serpent's body intending to break free from its fetters.
And seeing this scene before him, Old Sea God Aegir couldn't help but retreat a few steps to avoid being affected by the Great Serpent's movements.
His expression turned ashen.
"Have you gone mad?! Just for some slaves, is it worth you doing this?!"
He shouted at the Great Serpent with some desperation.
And the only response he got was the Great Serpent's mad laughter.
"Heh heh… Hahahaha…"
The Great Serpent's pupils were twisting eerily, and could even be said to be twitching very abnormally.
Endless agony spread from the Great Serpent's body and even bones. Those chains tightly bound its body, inflicting an extremely intense torment on the Great Serpent. But this torment penetrating to the marrow, rather than deterring the Great Serpent, instead caused it to produce a nearly perverted and mad destructive desire and craving.
"Slaughter! Destroy! Annihilate! Satisfy my deep hunger and obsession!!!"
It could no longer hear what Old Sea God Aegir was saying, because it had already fallen into that mad and perverted destructive obsession and couldn't extricate itself.
That opium-like mad and twisted perverted obsession made the Great Serpent not care about anything.
At this moment, it only wanted to vent its hatred, vent its fury!
Accompanying the Great Serpent's struggles, the seafloor was already undergoing intense tremors. Amidst the Great Serpent's mad laughter, the vast army numbering in the millions was also becoming anxious and uneasy. In tremors of this magnitude, they were as powerless as ants.
"Rumble…"
On the seafloor, those undersea mountains slowly collapsed in the intense quaking. Dormant undersea volcanoes were also awakened and began to erupt.
"Don't do this. Doing so benefits no one!"
Old Sea God Aegir's tone began to soften a bit. He said with some imploring.
But the only response he got was the Great Serpent's increasingly excited and fervent, mad and twisted, perverted laughter.
"Hahahahahahahahahahaha!!!!!!!!!!!!"
And accompanying the Great Serpent's mad laughter, with its frenzied struggling, the entire ocean began to roil. From the deepest part of the ocean, it spread all the way to the ocean surface, stirring up intense tsunamis and cyclones.
The chains sank deep into the Great Serpent's bones, sinking deeper and deeper. At this moment, immersed in that mad and perverted obsession, it paid no heed, as if it didn't feel that agony at all.
The pure golden chains locked on the Great Serpent's body were faintly emitting a massive "creaking" sound.
If this continued, regardless of whether the Great Serpent could break free, or whether it could contend against those Aesir gods, at the very least, the entire ocean could forget about recovering its past tranquility. And if the Great Serpent truly broke free, perhaps Aegir would be the first to become a sacrifice.
"The Niflheim Sea can be inhabited by your servants. How about that?"
Aegir hesitated for a moment, his attitude softening again, even somewhat beseeching.
But the Great Serpent turned a deaf ear to this.
"Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
Amidst the churning seawater, the Great Serpent wantonly laughed madly, laughing even louder. That laughter carried a fierce battle intent.
The Great Serpent, having already lost its sanity, displayed an intense sense of madness.
Greed, brutality, cruelty, madness, perversion…
The Great Serpent panted with heavy breaths. All kinds of obsessions intertwined together, making the Great Serpent look extremely savage and terrifying at this moment.
Those pure golden chains binding the Great Serpent's body were so taut it made one dread if they would snap the next moment. The dazzling glow of magic on the chains was wildly flickering, sometimes bright, sometimes dark, as if foreboding… that even these chains restraining the Great Serpent might soon be unable to endure.
This Great Serpent that once plunged the world into darkness, bringing winter and death, seemed about to break free from the chains placed on it by the gods.
This time, perhaps it wouldn't be so easily satiated.
"The Niflheim Sea is yours… as long as you stop trying to break free from these chains…"
At this moment, Aegir gritted his teeth and ultimately chose to cast aside all his pride and dignity, saying to the Great Serpent in a beseeching tone.
Accompanying the old sea god's words, after a long while, the Great Serpent's struggling movements gradually ceased. The originally churning seawater also stilled its turbulence.
In the Great Serpent's pupils, the originally frightening pitch-black hue gradually faded. At some unknown point, it had recovered its icy coldness and apathy, loftily gazing down at that dispirited tiny speck beneath it.
…
The old sea god departed, taking his army and withdrawing.
Faced with the Great Serpent's utterly irrational mad actions, even if he tried to maintain a composed demeanor, he still felt fear and dread.
Although he could also realize that this was merely the Great Serpent threatening him, he was ultimately frightened.
"You dread being devoured by me…"
This sentence was deeply pierced into the old sea god's heart.
Although he had once been valiant and fearless, that was also a matter of the distant past. Now, he had grown old. Although he had become more level-headed and rational, able to easily deal with the prying eyes of gods and giants with schemes and his subordinate army, he already lacked the heroic mettle he once had.
The moment the Great Serpent nearly capsized the entire ocean, he had already developed a deep terror and trembling towards the Great Serpent.
This power far surpassed his imagination.
This should have been a power possessed only by that primordial Frost Giant ancestor Ymir, that mighty giant whose corpse could transform into the World Tree after his demise…
Just as he had once feared Ymir, he also feared the Great Serpent.
He was very clearly cognizant of this point but tried to use composure to conceal his dread, even making him feel as if he wasn't actually that afraid of the Great Serpent.
However, the Great Serpent saw through his dread with a single glance, completely shattering his composure and rationality, leaving only that fearful and trembling soul.
He dreaded being devoured by the Great Serpent. In the face of the Great Serpent's savagery and brutality, his composure and rationality seemed trivial.
If the Great Serpent could truly break free from the chains, regardless of whether the Aesir tribe would aid him afterwards, he would probably be the first to be swallowed whole by the brutal Great Serpent, with no other possibility.
In comparison, he would rather give the Niflheim Sea to the Great Serpent.
"All bark and no bite, in the end just an insect."
Lying at the bottom of the abyssal sea, the Great Serpent sneered contemptuously.
In this world, there were few lives the Great Serpent could regard highly, and the old sea god was obviously not one of them. In the Great Serpent's eyes, only that thunder god Thor could have the qualification to be looked upon favorably by it, seen as an equal adversary.
Of course, as an adversary, the way the Great Serpent most appreciated was to slay him.
"Only a dead enemy is a good enemy."
And to achieve this objective, the Great Serpent nurtured a marshland snake-man kingdom on land that worshipped it. Then in the sea, using those creatures that had once gnawed on its own flesh and blood, using the Great Serpent's power tainted on their bodies, it twisted and corrupted them into all kinds of eerie ocean races to serve as its thralls.
In the end, the Great Serpent was ultimately not someone willing to suffer losses. Those who had once gnawed on its flesh and blood would pay the price of becoming its thralls.
And all of this was merely to wait for an opportunity…
The Great Serpent had already vaguely sensed that it seemed to be driven by an unseen force, compelling it towards that scene it had once dreamed of and vaguely glimpsed in the books it had read in human memories…
"Ragnarök?"
The Great Serpent wasn't clear on all the details of Ragnarök. In its memories as a human, it had no interest in mythology at all, but it vaguely remembered through various films that it seemed to be a total annihilation ending.
It had once thought that these had nothing to do with itself, but even a fool should realize the direction in which events were unfolding.
"I should also be on the death roll of Ragnarök."
The giant serpent silently speculated in its heart, its jade-green pupils calm to a frightening degree.
But it didn't fear. On the contrary, an indescribable excitement rose from the depths of its heart.
"That unseen force, could it be… fate? But wouldn't that be perfect! If that is fate, then let fate be exploited by me."
It had long been impatient, trying to wait for the arrival of Ragnarök. At that time, it could freely vent its anger and hatred, swallowing the one responsible for its torment at the bottom of this sea into its belly…
"Thor…"
In the abyssal sea, the Great Serpent murmured, filled with an icy chill that couldn't be dispelled.