Lord Shadow

Chapter 1978: White Snow

“Odin is also here. There are traces of him here. Almost like he wanted me to know he is here”

“He and the World Tree. Odin…Odin” Rafah could not help but utter the name of this Old God with some kind of helplessness.

Odin is old.

Older than five thousand years old.

Older than this planet itself.

And his father and his father before him, are all long-lived creatures and beings. But it wasn’t until Odin father that they created the Aesir

But Odin himself is not as old as him. But his ability and power exceed Rafah. Of course, when Rafah was doing the work of His Lord, then even Odin could withstand such power

However, personal power that Rafah possesses could not withstand the force of Odin. The force of Aesir, of Vanir, of the Eight realms.

Because Odin and his descendants got their power from the World Tree.

“It is the World tree fault. Borgan fault”

Why Borgan fault?

Because Borgan is the one who sowed the seed all those years ago. She had seen so many things

The Garden…..Etherna once set foot into it. One action affects all the cause and effect of everything.

Borgan planted a tree in the garden. And from that tree, it bore fruit. The fruit fell into the ground, nurtured and then created a place where from all of those trees sprouted.

And then one of them fell into the mortal world and a World Tree appears in a cold and dark universe

When it sprouted, lights and world appeared, stars dotted the darkness and all laws and rules appears.

And isn’t the fact that Loki, a person of Asgard being the Gardener is one of the cause and effects of this matter.

Borgan planted that tree long before any creature had even appeared in the Universe. Probably there was something that made her sow such a tree in the garden

She might not have seen everything at that point but she probably have a premonition. Maybe a last chance by The One.

Hope, probably. Or a curse. Sometimes, hope is the cruelest torture of all

Rafah could only sigh at this. He was not wrong in saying that it is Borgan fault

Then Rafah shook his head

He closes his eyes for a second and in just a moment later, he opens back his eyes. Then he got up from his seat.

Guards on the corner eyes him and Rafah simply threw a very thick energy stone onto the table and the guards nodded at him

Rafah just nodded back and went out of the tavern. He also saw some people he recognizes in the tavern

“It seems that the world powers is not as different as they previously projected” he saw a few members of Raijin army. He saw almost all of the forces of the world powers.

Some of them might be ordered by individuals but probably most of them are here to gather information.

“The public stance is to show their position. But public stance and private stance does not always have to be the same. There are still a lot of things I must learn. Mortals are really….troublesome”

Politics and intrigues and plotting and schemes of mortal beings has always confounded him.

Of course he had learned this the “last” time

But those days were like eternity for him. And in an eternity, even your “self” could be washed away.

Rafah might have the memories of a deleted timeline. But certain things had to be retrained again. Like the common sense of this world and this era.

For most people nothing changed at all.

But for beings like him who had to undergo that baptism of an entire timeline being deleted, a moment and an eternity felt like the same.

When there is no time, was it a moment that passes, or was it an eternity?

Eternity itself has no limit and boundlessness and just thinking about it makes one heart restless

Rafah walks along the streets. Sometimes he looks at the flowers and trees that fill the entire city.

There are towering buildings, but it melded with nature, with trees sometimes could be seen around the entire buildings.

Some buildings are built below ground and there is stairs leading to underground workshops and alleys

Whether below or above, it is full of people. Rafah was waiting. He walks alongside the coast.

The waves are high but because of the waves dampener it does not overwhelm the coast and there is also tamed beast along the coast that would regulate the waves.

Rafah looked at this beautiful world, and he felt it is beautiful.

“Now that I am becoming mortal again, I also have mortal feelings. Not it is a bad thing” He look at all the living things around him and he could not help but once again feel that this world even with the chaos and the calamity that it faces….it is very beautiful.

“It is beautiful…because it ends. Everything that ends is beautiful. Without an end, it would rot and corruption”

“Disorder is life and death is order. Nothing should be in excess. Even those who called themselves gods and have godlike power, ends. It is just that their time is longer. But everything ends, eventually. Only The One remains supreme.”

Rafah sees life and death differently from many people. Because he knows what lies after death and he had seen life.

He did not abhor life.

He cherishes it.

Even more so when he is in a mortal form. One might not understand why someone who could understand the preciousness of life would then so actively seeking to destroy every single life in the Omniverse

But to him….this is just maintaining order. It is because thing is temporary, it is because things ends…..that it is beautiful.

“This mind and heart are getting sentimental…the mortal form is affecting me”

The longer he is in the mortal form, the more it would affect him. Of course, this will not stop him from doing his job.

But this time it is different. Because of how he came to this world and because of the machinations of Loki, he could sense resistance of the soul from this mortal

It was different than the last time

The soul of this person he had taken is different.

At this he could not help but sigh “A butterfly that flaps its wing and created a storm”

He could only blame it on this.

He sighed and then he closed his eyes for a moment. This time he closes his eeys for almost five minutes, just feeling the ocean breeze and then suddenly he opens his eyes

“She is fast!” And Rafah looked at the sky.

And he sees the dark clouds.

Then comes the thunder and lightning. Everyone who is just strolling around the walkway and the roads all look up at the sky and they all frowned. They all could feel it.

Magic is in the air. A powerful magic.

The barrier that envelopes the entire island seems to shake so much that every inhabitants of the city could feel it.

The shaking could feel rattling the streets.

BOOOM!

The thunder and lightning become even more intense

“What is happening? Who is this obtuse? Another one?” someone said. The other furrowed their brows

Pegasus flew into the air and the winged cavalry of Arturia is creating an army formation in the sky.

“Form ranks!” the commander shouted and the moment they stay on their position, powerful aura rises toward the sky and burrow through the ground

The city walls shine with runes. All kinds of formation appear, and it glows golden and for a moment the people on the street are also ready.

“This one seems stronger. If from afar, such energy could alarm the formation, this one might be a Disk Formation realm being” someone analyzed

And even as he is analyzing, this person brought out an axe from his storage bags and is ready to hurl a long, tall axe to the sky

Some people brought out sword and some people brought out snipers. If the attack landed on the city, then these people also have their tempers.

Even the owner of the street stall is ready for action

The people of this island all have the ability to fight.

Arturia would give warning first and only then would they attack. This is because Arturia really did not need to worry that much.

This kind of thing has been happening for quite some time since Arthur announce Death Monarch is here

As long a warning is issued, whoever is coming would back down. Those who did not obey would be crushed under the protection formation and if the protection formation could not hold, then there is still the Pegasus Cavalry and if that doesn’t hold thee is a few more armies they could throw to your way

But before the Pegasus cavalry could ride toward the source of this unease, suddenly the Pegasus cavalry that was so eager to come forward halted their steps. The people seeing this were puzzled

But Rafah was not.

“Open the barrier” The commander of the Pegasus cavalry suddenly ordered. And the moment he said these words, the barrier is not immediately opened

There was a delay, probably not understanding why. But then the barrier is put down

The sound of the thunder and lightning become even more pronounced.

BOOOM!

And then amidst this dark clouds and booming sounds of thunder and the illuminating lights of the lightning…something falls from the sky

And everyone begins looking at the sky. And suddenly some people connected all the dots, and everyone could guess who is coming and why the barrier was put down

Then thinking about it a bit more they could not help but gasp. If even that person is coming…. then the one in this island is really him

What had fallen from the sky?

Snow

White snow.

“She’s here”

…