Chapter 456: Ritual

Since Loki offered several treasures, Asgard was no longer peaceful.

First, the Nibelungen Ring was stolen. It is said that it later fell into the hands of a giant of the Vanir. Then, Baldur, the God of Light, was murdered, and the arrow that killed him was made of mistletoe. Then, the Sun Goddess Sól was almost eaten by a monster like a hellhound. Finally, the gods heard the shocking news—

A Valkyrie was seduced and fell by a demigod. Through a series of tragedies, they finally obtained the ring, but the Valkyrie issued a curse on the gods through the ring, cursing that the Twilight of the Gods was coming.

A curse from a Valkyrie, just causing a mountain fire in the mountains of Asgard through the obsession of the two people buried together. At first, it did not attract the attention of the gods.

But soon, when the gods found that no matter what means they used, they could not extinguish the mountain fire, they finally felt a trace of fear.

The fire burned bigger and bigger, more and more vigorously, with a momentum that it would not stop until it burned Asgard to the ground.

"This is a ritual." A tall god with skull patterns painted on his face sat on a pitch-black warship, behind him was a rolling thick fog extending from nowhere.

Another god wrapped in a black robe had a gloomy face, "Is this fire made by you? Loki?"

"It is me, but not just me." Loki revealed an inexplicable smile under the patterns.

"This is a ritual, a long ritual. Its carrier is a story, or rather, a script. It is just like the 'concepts' that gods use to gather faith, and it can also gather enough spiritual power."

"When countless mortals and gods have known, and even believed in this story, it has real power. This power is more vast than any person or any god."

"A rule has formed in this power, and the core of the rule is the Nibelungen Ring. How the ring acts in the story, it has that kind of energy in reality."

"After a hundred years of legends, it has now become the most powerful wish-granting device in the world, and also the most powerful medium for curses."

"Therefore, the curse issued through it is difficult for even gods to block."

"But that ring was made by you," Hades still had a gloomy face, "Although you claim it was obtained from those dwarves and fairies, I know it was crafted by you. Your manufacturing technology makes even those dwarves sigh in admiration."

"I can't help but be curious again, where exactly do you come from? And what other skills do you have?"

Loki's eyes under the patterns looked at Hades, his expression smiling but not smiling.

Actually, it's not a fresh skill.

The so-called Rhine gold is just magic metal with gold as a carrier.

Then, through the ritual of "legend," it was refined into a "divine artifact" that does not have divinity but possesses divine office. It has the special magic of fairy metal to absorb everything to enhance its own ability, and at the same time, it is loaded with many carefully adjusted enchantments.

Gods have abundant divine power and powerful magic, but their use of magic is extremely rough.

And the enchantments of the ring added a large number of "spell templates" belonging to the future, which can help the god or person using it to control magic more precisely, turning the ability that originally required 100 units of magic into something that can be achieved with only 1 unit of magic.

Even though the ring actually absorbs 80 units of the 100 units of magic, in the eyes of any god or person using it, their divine power can still exert 20 times the effect, and its power is still unquestionable.

Such magic forging and enchantment technology is thousands of years ahead of the contemporary dwarves—that is, the ancestors of the fairies. Of course, they will sigh in admiration.

But there is no need to tell the Lord of the Abyss opposite about this.

"As your ally, the stronger my power, isn't it more beneficial to you? Besides, this matter was not completed by me alone. I couldn't create a demigod with Odin's bloodline."

Hearing this, Hades sneered, "My good nephew actually thought of using the flesh and divine power of Odin's own son Baldur to create Siegfried. Playing with life and death, I don't know if he is the King of the Underworld or I am."

"But without your mistletoe arrow containing the power of death, and the method of resurrecting the dead, Apollo couldn't have done this," Loki said, "And without the demigod Siegfried, no matter how much this legend spreads, the ritual cannot be completed."

"However, you are still too impatient. Driving the hellhound transformed into the magic wolf Fenrir to hunt down the Sun Goddess Sól will make Odin start preparing for the Twilight of the Gods in advance, and it will also make Apollo notice your existence."

"That Sól discovered the abnormality of Fenrir. I thought she was just an ordinary minor god. Who could have thought she was an incarnation of Apollo?!" Hades was a bit annoyed, "I'm afraid my nephew has already discovered me now."

"He didn't suspect too much," Loki said, "After all, he thought Fenrir was my creation, just treating it as another loss of control."

"Moreover, the arrow is already on the string and must be fired," Loki said, "This grand drama should also usher in its climax."

With his words, suddenly, a bright fire flashed from the mountains of Asgard, like a hot knife cutting through butter, actually cutting the Valhalla temple at the top of the mountain into two halves.

In the mountains, a giant human figure stood up from the flames. He was burning, emitting unbearable light and heat. In his hand, he held a burning giant sword. At this moment, the giant raised his sword and pointed at the Valhalla temple, "Odin, you fake King of Gods, puppet controlled by Zeus, you single-handedly created all the conspiracies and suffering. Today I will destroy you and your kingdom, let you hypocritical gods repent thoroughly for your own actions!"

Several figures flew out of the collapsed Valhalla temple. The leader rode a Pegasus, holding a long spear, and looked at the giant of fire with his one eye in doubt.

"Who are you? How can you possess the Sword of Victory?" He looked at the giant sword in the giant's hand, suspicious.

"You taught me the spell and recast this divine sword that was broken by you. Have you forgotten?" The giant sneered.

The gods were all stunned, and then exclaimed, "Siegfried?"

Even Hades was stunned, "Is this Apollo's plan? He... he became Siegfried?!"

"Not bad," Loki said, still smiling but not smiling, as if watching a good show, "He incorporated half of his soul when he created Siegfried using the flesh and divine power of Baldur. This is also the reason why he chose Baldur. Baldur's light divine office fits him very well."

"..." Hades was speechless for a while, not expecting Apollo to be able to do such a thing, "But why, why did he want to become Siegfried?"

"This is also a ritual, a ritual of a son killing his father," Loki said, "Apollo wants to complete this ritual, so he must become Siegfried."

"Because Siegfried is Odin's son Baldur, and the Valkyrie Brünnhilde who issued the curse to destroy Valhalla is Odin's daughter."

"The fire of the curse combined them into one. Apollo simultaneously possessed Odin's bloodline, Baldur's light divine office, the unceasing curse fire, the Sword of Victory capable of countering Gungnir, and the powerful martial arts from the Valkyrie. At the same time, he also got this role of a son killing his father in the script."

"The fire giant Surtur is Apollo's most powerful incarnation."

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 457 =====