Chapter 769: Ratatoskr’s Task
Asgard was Lucifer’s real destination, not Muspelheim.
But entering Asgard in his current state was very risky. Even if he completely concealed his presence, Lucifer knew that ’Asgard’ would still be able to sense something off, and might inform Odin.
And once Odin sensed anything strange, Heimdall would undoubtedly be ordered to sweep Asgard for anomalies.
’Even if I were two Realms higher than I am now, avoiding Heimdall’s gaze while inside Asgard would still be exceedingly difficult.’
Which is why, from the start, he needed to pull their attention elsewhere.
Meanwhile, Jormungand, having listened to Lucifer’s explanation, tilted his massive head and asked,
"Last I checked..."
His heavy voice made the ground tremble.
"You could enter and leave Asgard as you pleased without being noticed, couldn’t you?"
Lucifer didn’t answer, and in the silence that followed, Surtr chimed in.
"You’ve gotten weaker, haven’t you?"
At that, Lucifer turned to him and shot back,
"You really think I died and came back to life for free?"
Hearing this, both Surtr and Jormungand instantly assumed the cost of Lucifer’s revival had been his power.
Of course, that wasn’t the truth, but Lucifer had no intention of explaining how he returned.
Besides, even in this weakened state, he was still far stronger than both Surtr and Jormungand combined.
They knew it too, which was why Surtr simply sighed and retrieved a whistle from a burning patch of space that appeared before him.
|— — —!!|
The imperceptible sound reverberated across space-time, and after removing the whistle from his mouth, he said,
"It should be on its way."
"That so?" Lucifer asked, eyes drifting to the whistle. "Special frequency?"
"Ye—"
|You damned pile of rocks!!|
A loud, screeching voice interrupted Surtr, its owner bursting from a narrow crack in space and landing a few meters away.
The Fire Giant King fell silent. Then, he calmly put away the whistle and summoned a ten-metre-long great sword in its place.
"Maybe I should make a new squirrel fur coat..."
He muttered the terrifying line as he turned to face the ash-coloured creature, its body stretching several tens of metres from head to tail.
Its leathery hide, etched with black lines, was incredibly tough, and its fur sharper than most blades found across the Nine Realms.
Its head boasted massive front teeth capable of crushing even the bodies of battle gods. A rhinoceros-like horn jutted from inside its nose, flanked by two more horns on either side of its head, positioned to form a circle.
It was the kind of monstrous creature parents used to frighten children into obedience.
Standing before the two-metre-tall giant, the beast Ratatoskr showed no fear. In fact, it seemed ready to remind Surtr that it was he who needed its aid.
But before it could utter a word, Ratatoskr caught sight of the enormous head looking down at it from high above.
At that sight, all of Ratatoskr’s bravado vanished instantly.
Having just fled Nidavellir after angering some dwarves, Ratatoskr was on its way back to Yggdrasil when Surtr’s whistle called it.
Irritated by the summons, the beast turned and leapt into Muspelheim using its Unique Spatial Authority, projecting a string of curses even before its body fully materialized.
What Ratatoskr hadn’t expected was that the Midgard Serpent was with Surtr.
And Ratatoskr’s day was about to get even worse.
Before Surtr could swing his sword, someone suddenly appeared on Ratatoskr’s back, their hands snapping a massive collar around its neck faster than the beast could react.
The instant the collar clicked shut, a fierce torrent of cosmic energy erupted like lightning, electrocuting the colossal squirrel and making it scream in agony.
|KIIREAAAAKKKKKKKK!!!!|
".."
"..."
Surtr and Jormungand blinked in stunned silence at the scene, while the culprit casually jumped off the beast and landed before it.
At his command, the cosmic energy receded into the collar, and then, placing a hand on the beast’s head, he spoke with a bright smile.
"Sup, Ratty. Long time no see."
|EEEIIKKK!!!|
The sight of a massive, horned squirrel over ten metres tall leaping up and scuttling away from a small figure less than two metres tall was almost comical, though the only onlookers fully understood the beast’s feelings.
That didn’t mean they sympathised with it, though. Ratatoskr was an annoying bastard they’d have killed long ago if it weren’t so important to Yggdrasil.
"That’s not very nice of you, Ratty."
Still smiling brightly, Lucifer closed the distance in a single step, snapping his fingers to unleash another blast of cosmic energy from the collar around its neck.
|KIIAAAREEEAKKK!!!!|
The giant squirrel screamed again, thrashing on the ground in pain as Lucifer watched with an amused smile.
He commanded the collar to stop and placed his hand once more on the squirrel’s head, repeating,
"Sup, Ratty. Long time no see."
Ratatoskr unleashed a powerful aura, coating its claws with energy as it struggled to tear off the collar.
But with a snap of Lucifer’s fingers, it was reduced to a screaming, writhing mess on the floor, tears streaming from its pupilless eyes.
For the third time, Lucifer laid his hand on the beast’s head and said again,
"Sup, Ratty. Long time no see."
At that, Ratatoskr immediately grasped the only way out of its misery.
Sniffling and hiccupping, it stammered out, "...l-lo-long t-time no s-see..."
Lucifer nodded approvingly, patting its head once more before asking,
"I’ve got a little message I need you to deliver. You’ll help me out, won’t you?"
Ratatoskr had only two options:
Yes, or Absolutely.
Still twitching from the pain, Ratatoskr could only nod silently, and Lucifer smiled.
"Good."
He reached into his pocket dimension, pulled out a small note, and held it out as he spoke,
"You’ll be a good friend and deliver this to Nidhoggr within the hour, won’t you?"
*NOD! NOD!
The beast nodded desperately, and Lucifer, still smiling, casually added words that made it freeze in shock.
"That’s good. The power preventing the collar’s curse from activating only lasts for an hour, after all.
If it’s not removed by then, who knows what might happen?"
He shrugged as he conjured a projection of a squirrel being beheaded behind him.
"I really wonder what might happen."
Seeing the projection, Ratatoskr’s ash-coloured fur seemed to pale even more. Panicked, it snatched the palm-sized note with its massive fingers and darted through space, rushing to Yggdrasil as if its life depended on it—because it did.
As it vanished, Lucifer turned to Surtr, dusting off his palms.
"See? I told you you wouldn’t be the one forcing it to do anything."
Surtr’s fiery brow twitched at the remark, but the giant held back his retort and unsummoned his sword.
"What exactly do you plan to do in Asgard?"
The Fire Giant asked the next crucial question, and Lucifer answered just as he had with Arthur.
"To collect a Debt of Life."
With that, Lucifer sat back down on the rock he was on before, his gaze drifting toward Asgard’s direction in space.
◇ ◇ ◇
About half an hour later, a colossal roar echoed through the Nine Realms, causing innumerable stars and galaxies across these universes to tremble.
The intensity was such that every Universal Master of the Nine Universes within the cluster felt the powerful tremors emanating from Yggdrasil, their gazes turning toward the cluster’s centre.
At the base of Yggdrasil, the existence born alongside the Nine Realms, but too powerful to leave its birthplace, struck the roots of the Cosmic Nexus repeatedly.
Unlike its usual roars, filled with sorrow over its plight, this time, its actions seemed driven by rage. If left unchecked, it might permanently damage Yggdrasil itself.
This was because, like the giant serpent in Muspelheim and the massive wolf in Niflheim, Black Dragon Nidhoggr was a Beast of the END, an entity with the power to erase things from existence.
Because of this threat, Odin had no choice but to personally head to the Lake of Mimir within Yggdrasil.
At that moment, Lucifer rose from his seat, dusted off his trousers, and said,
"Time to move."
He reached out, pulled space apart like a curtain, and stepped through the cosmic gate he had created.
He repeated this several times until he finally stepped out into a palace of gold.
But the moment he emerged, he froze, his gaze turning toward the direction of the Bifrost with a frown.
’That Heimdall... Even though he looks like he’s watching Yggdrasil, his attention is actually on Asgard...’
Shaking his head, Lucifer silently poured more cosmic energy into sustaining the enhanced form of the ability of the Concealment Ring he had given Arthur, then slipped in through the palace’s rear gate.
As Lucifer disappeared from view, the god of Foresight, standing at the Bifrost, suddenly turned his gaze to the spot where Lucifer had been, his eyes narrowing in suspicion.
Due to his power, Heimdall’s eyes were unlike those of a normal sentient humanoid. Instead of irises or pupils, he had an unending void filled with swirling stars and galaxies.
At that moment, a voice echoed inside his head.
[Did you find anything, Heimdall?]
’Nothing, All-Father. I’ll keep searching.
Something felt off about Ratatoskr as it descended Yggdrasil.’
The god shifted his gaze toward Nidavellir and Muspelheim, narrowing his eyes as he peered through their Universal Barriers.
’Whatever the cause, it’s coming from one of those two...’
As he focused on scanning the regions of those universes Ratatoskr had come from, he suddenly locked eyes with Surtr, who frowned and snapped his fingers.
Immediately, Surtr’s Authority as Master of Muspelheim blocked Heimdall’s sight, preventing him from seeing any further into the Universe.
