The Record of Unusual Creatures

Panda Novel

When an old and weak voice sounded, Angelica froze. She looked incredulously in the direction of the Iron Throne: she was no stranger to this voice, as it had appeared more than once in her mind. But this was the first time she had heard the ancient sage open his mouth!

Even the caregiver, with years of training and a calm mind, could not help but feel excited. She was almost in tears. “Ancient Sage, have you finally woken up?”

“Angelica, thank you for your care over the years, and thank you all,” Odin’s voice echoed in the empty hall. His vocal organ was so damaged that he could only use the crystal as a medium to vibrate the air to produce sound. “But now I have to say something to my old friend. You and the Lightseeker leave and inform those people to stop the unnecessary fight. These travelers from outside the shroud are our guests.”

“Master Borrenpalle is already on the way to the upper city,” Angelica said with her head lowered. “This time he should be able to meet the head of the Steam Assembly.”

“No, that is not enough. Members of the Steam Assembly are all responsible men, they won’t easily believe in Borrenpalle.”

A glimmer of light emerged in the air. The light materialized into a small ball and drifted to Angelica. Odin had injected his spiritual power into the ball as a token. “Send a few more people. Bring this. The Steam Assembly will believe you.”

Apparently, though Odin had been silent for hundreds of years on the Iron Throne, his spirit was still active and keeping an eye to the situation in Twilight Capital. He also knew the Steam Assembly and the characters of short-lived human beings. To the human beings whose lifespan was only a few decades, the last time the ancient sage passed down his decree was several generations ago. So, the Steam Assembly may not have easily believed in the caregivers. That was why Odin had made such an elaborate arrangement.

Angelica and Wendell left, leaving only Hao Ren and Vivian, as well as the dying god, in the hall of the Iron Throne.

“My old friend, it has been a long time,” Odin first said. “It seems you are still healthy. The man with you…”

“Oh, my name is Hao Ren,” Hao Ren said. “Vivian’s friend.”

“Strange name. Where did you come from? Are the Nine Kingdoms reopened?”

Obviously, Odin clearly knew that the Twilight of the Gods had ended and that there was no more life in the Nine Kingdoms, Hao Ren and Vivian must be from the outside world.

Vivian felt that it was hard to explain everything at once. “We have traveled a long way, and Yggdrasil has left the original location and traveled farther than you could think of.”

Odin was silent for a moment. “How is the world now?”

This was a very vague question, but Vivian knew what Odin wanted to ask. She exhaled. “The Mythological era is over, you have probably guessed it too. The Norse gods were the last one survived before they all died too. The rule of the gods has ended, and less than one-tenth has survived.”

“Oh, looks like it is the demon hunter who rules the world today.”

Vivian shook her head. “No, it is the human.”

Odin’s silence was longer this time. He did not ask a question but breathed a sigh of relief. “Oh, that’s good, then.”

Vivian was wide-eyed. “I didn’t expect you to say that. Didn’t you look down on human?”

“It has been so long—so long that it seems like a previous life.” Odin seemed to sigh again. “I did. I used to look down on them, except you. Vivian Ancestor, many things that you said were right. The outsiders like us have ultimately failed to get a foothold in this world.”

Vivian looked at the old man on the Iron Throne in amazement. Unlike what she used to remember, two thousand years seemed to have changed the proud ruler entirely. She could not help but think of Odin in the mythology: the cold, strict, and majestic God, who ruled the humans in the Nordic region and reserved his authority with an iron fist. Though he was gentler to human beings, he had never seen the indigenous race of Earth as intelligent creatures and treated them equally. He cast the army with human souls, built palaces with human enshrines, and ruled Midgard with harsh theocratic laws. But now when he heard that humankind was ruling the earth, he sighed: that was good.

“My old friend, you have changed a lot,” Vivian could not help but say. “In fact, I couldn’t believe that you are the ancient sage of Twilight Capital though I have guessed it. You have been sitting here to shelter humanity for 2,000 thousand years. What changed your mind?”

“It is the human’s own efforts,” Odin said slowly. “Have you seen the city, those huge machines, boilers, steam powers, and runes?”

“Of course, I have seen it.” Vivian nodded. “Is that what you taught them?”

“Only the runes. They discovered the steam power from the legacy of the giants.” Odin said. “It is hard to believe, isn’t it? I used to think they were a low life form, but they were talented.”

Vivian’s brows knit together. “What happened last time?”

This time, Odin was silent for a long moment, as if he needed time to recall the devastating war in her memory. He finally said, “When the world ended, everything was destroyed. When I broke through the belly of Fenrir, I saw only burning sky and scorched earth. I looked in the direction of the Garden of Asgard but found that the wall of the city had collapsed. So I knew my kingdom had fallen. Then many triangular black vessels descended from the sky that had been torn apart; demon hunters began to enter Asgard and killed everyone. I had no choice but fled.

“I went through one kingdom after another. All I could see was scorched earth. I was seriously injured but dared not to stop. Finally, I came to Midgard, which was also being destroyed. But here, the situation was slightly better than elsewhere: a branch of Yggdrasil surrounded the atrium, and vines were blocking the magic storm from Asgard, so several cities in the hinterland of Midgard survived. I decided to stay there to recuperate.

“At first, I didn’t think about sheltering the human beings there. I didn’t even think that I would sit on this Iron Throne for two thousand years. I was just glad that I finally found a place where I could recuperate and have many servants. Though human beings are fragile and ignorant, they are easier to control. That was what I thought at that moment. My old friend, you should know that many people had the same mind as mine at the time.”

Odin did not have much emotion when he recalled the past, but his low and weak voice was depressing. Vivian gently nodded. “Anyway, you have become their ancient sage.”

“Yeah, a lot of things happened,” Odin said with a chuckle. “Don’t you want to know what changed me? It is everything here that changes me. My kingdom has collapsed, my people have died, the allies and righteous sons I have once trusted are the masterminds of the Twilight of the Gods, and the power I have always been proud of has failed. The glorious Asgard and Vanir have thus ended. The last ones who survived were the mortals in Midgard whom I used to disdain. To kill time, I taught them runes. They mastered the runes as skillfully as I was in just a short dozen years. I gave them some giant relics, and they figured out steam power from the scrap metals. When the whole world was burned to ashes, they relied on the foundations of just a few cities and built Twilight Capital. It is now even more magnificent than the Garden of Asgard. They have not given up even until this day. My old friend, you know why I have changed my perception of these mortals? It’s because I suddenly realized one thing…”

Odin paused for a few seconds and sighed, “They are not lowlifes. They are the masters of the world. Their weakness is not because they are born weak. Once we, the self-proclaimed gods, vanished, these humans became very powerful.”

Vivian sighed. “This world is theirs, after all.”

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