A mightiest god, a monster coiled around the world, the two battled each other in a frenzied, delirious frenzy, endless lightning surging out from this enraged thunder god's body, making him appear like a colossal giant forged from countless thunderbolts, the magic hammer Mjolnir in his hand wreathed in innumerable lightning bolts, making it seem as gargantuan as a mountain peak.
Each collision produced immense atmospheric turbulence that whipped up violent hurricanes, the hurricanes howling in the vast ocean, forming towering whirlwinds piercing the heavens, directly sucking up the water from the great sea into the sky, the aftershocks of the battle rending continents, shattering stars, making even the endless vault of heaven above appear to be crumbling.
And feeling the vast power emanating from the other side, that swelling fighting spirit made this great Serpent exhilarated to the point of nearly losing itself as it laughed madly.
"Thor, you finally understand, you and I were born monsters, all others are nothing but motes of dust and insects, compared to that false sense of race and emotional identity, we who possess the power to smash the world to pieces are the true kin, how can the order set by a bunch of dust motes shackle us!"
The vertical pupils were pitch-black, as dark and terrifying as if they could devour all things like an abyss.
"In this world, the weak have always submitted to the strong, when have the strong ever followed the weak? The strong who follow the weak are merely not mighty enough, only we who possess the power to completely overturn all order, define all order, can utterly disregard the views of those motes of dust, even if the entire universe comes to oppose us, they are nothing more than a bunch of minuscule motes of dust, easily exterminated!"
"The feelings between those motes of dust, the ethics established between those motes of dust, the order followed between those motes of dust, have always been used to restrain those equally feeble motes of dust, we could never possibly be restrained by the order established by these motes of dust, that is nothing more than a flimsy string trying to bind an elephant!"
"Thor! Go uninhibitedly unleash your power! Go vent! Go show this world your might! Let this world quake at your terrifying power!!! Then… be slain by me, Jormungandr!!!!!!"
The Serpent laughed maniacally, it finally understood, what it had been looking forward to was not revenge at all, what it had been looking forward to was the thrill of fighting to the death with another of its own kind, in the eyes of ordinary people, appearances, shells and such things could not possibly trouble this utterly inhuman, pure monster.
In Thor, what it actually felt was a sense of kinship.
Thor, with the title of the mightiest, had always been a monster, only this monster, from the moment of its birth, was restrained by the divine king Odin in the name of "benevolence, justice, kindness, compassion" and so on, the monster awkwardly learning the ethics and order of the motes of dust, mimicking the appearance of the motes of dust, putting on the façade of a human, but the battlelust in its nature made it impossible to restrain, it was born craving battle, yearning for battle.
So, even though Thor was Odin's eldest son, he could not inherit the position of divine king, some thought it was because Thor was not born to the queen of the gods Frigg, not legitimate enough; others thought it was because Thor needed to be stationed in the west year-round to guard against the frost giants, so he had no time to spare for other matters, unable to inherit the position of divine king; but the real reason was that the divine king Odin had long perceived the violent nature hidden within Thor, he had always been wary of this eldest son of his, afraid that he would trigger Ragnarok, the Twilight of the Gods.
How absurd, a monster actually painstakingly taught by the divine king Odin to become a god.
It was also precisely because of this that the Serpent did not initially realize Thor's nature, only able to instinctively pay special heed to Thor, feeling that he was very unusual, but until now, seeing that profound darkness in Thor's pupils, the Serpent finally understood.
How was this a battle between a god and a monster, it had always been a battle between monsters.
And for this kin of its own, the Serpent, in addition to unexpected delight, felt even more of a deep, impatient urge to devour this kin of its own.
Compared to devouring those gods, devouring this kin of its own made the Serpent feel even more gratified.
It did not dread the thunder god being enraged by its actions, thus regaining his fighting spirit and becoming powerful, dreading battling the mighty, dreading death, even dreading this emotion of dread itself was nothing more than the exclusive domain of the motes of dust, this arrogant and all-disdaining great Serpent desired precisely to slay the strong, devour the strong, only thus could it feel that excitement that made it exhilarated to the utmost.
Kill the other! Or be killed by the other!
This feeling of treading between life and death, like the deadliest opium, made the Serpent unable to resist.
Finally, in the crazed collision between these two monsters, the long shattered continent suddenly crumbled to dust, that immense chasm smashed open by the Serpent expanded to completely engulf the entire human world of Midgard, other than the floating divine realm of Asgard and the living beings within it barely able to hover in the air, avoiding plummeting, all things including the thunder god Thor and the Serpent were devoured by this chasm, plunging into that realm of death…
…
What is the realm of death like? Barren, desolate, shrouded in endless mist, it is the bottommost layer of the World Tree, the final destination of all the deceased, only the dead can traverse here, even if gods step into this realm of death governed by the death goddess Hel, they will also be directly devoured and join the dead.
It was also precisely because of this that the death goddess Hel dared to repeatedly offend the gods, because even the gods could not enter this realm of death, if not for the near-omnipotent power of the runes created by Odin also being able to pass through the realm of death, perhaps the death goddess Hel would have long rivaled the divine king Odin.
And on this day, the countless undead and ancient perished gods in the realm of death personally witnessed a scene they had never beheld before…
A huge hole was rent open in that crimson as blood "vault of heaven" of the underworld, countless living beings, giants, einherjar, monsters plummeting down from that hole.
The aura of death then invaded them, at this moment, no matter how powerful, all strength became futile, those giants who had multiplied since the ancient chaotic era, those einherjar who had been forcibly ferried to Valhalla by the power of Odin's runes, those monsters that should have been undying… at this moment all wailed, screamed miserably, forcibly transformed into one ghost and skeleton after another, reduced to Hel's thralls.
However, among these billions of living beings plunging into death, there was one giant, his entire body wreathed in lightning, who did not transform with them.
Death, this ultimate fate of all life, had no effect on him.
No, it should be said that the speed at which he was transforming into the dead was simply too sluggish, although the blood of the living was gradually turning cold, if left for seven days and seven nights, this god who had all great glory gathered upon him would also ultimately be transformed into one of the dead, but before this, death clearly could not make him readily submit.
And accompanying the plunge of this great god into death, in that mad laughter resounding through the entire realm of death, a greedy, tyrannical, incomparably immense behemoth, its body nearly filling the entire "sky" of the realm of death, also squeezed through this hole, forcibly intruding into this realm that should have belonged only to the deceased.