The Record of Unusual Creatures

Odin was now so weak that he was dying. Not only because of the Twilight of the Gods but also because he was sitting on the Iron Throne for 23 centuries, not recuperating but draining his energy to power the shroud.

The spaceship shield was powered by its reactor. But since the control system was offline and Odin was unable to take over the control, he needed to use his own strength to power the shield to control the defense system. This additional energy need was taking a toll on him.

Even Odin himself had never thought that he would one day sit on such a throne and pay with his life to shelter those weaklings and ignorant humans.

“Maintaining the shield is a challenging task,” Odin’s voice echoed in the hall while his body was still sealed in the crystal. Under the illumination of the energy light, a shimmer shrouded him. “But I think I should do something. Humans have worshiped the gods for thousands of years, even during the Twilight of the Gods they were still loyal. But the gods they worshiped were no nobler than them. The sense of responsibility made me sit here and helped me resist the idea of giving up.”

“I have seen real gods,” Vivian said. “Gods who truly manage the world. You guys are no gods, not even close. But to be honest, you are doing something a god should do during your last moment.”

“The reason I’m here is that of this spaceship.” Hao Ren looked at the giant shadow under the Iron Throne. “But now it seems that I have to resettle Twilight Capital before I can take the spaceship. Dang, we need to have an internal meeting now.”

Hao Ren had a few vague ideas in mind. But they were far from being mature plans. He felt he needed to the help of his two seniors, Galazur and Anthony Alfonso, who had been inspectors for thousands of years. Perhaps they could provide some valuable input.

Just then, a commotion came from outside the hall.

“Your friends are here,” Odin said.

After a while, the main entrance of the hall was pushed open from the outside. The caregiver Angelica and the Lightseeker Wendell came in, and behind them came a large group of people, the big bald head of Y’zaks was the most prominent. Lily rushed up to Hao Ren and circled him as soon as she stepped in the door. “Mr. Landlord, Mr. Landlord, Mr. Landlord…”

Hao Ren took out a bone from his pocket and stuffed it into her mouth. “What’s wrong? Did you hit your head with a coconut?”

“The fight was too exciting just now, the adrenaline hasn’t gone away,” Y’zaks said, laughing with his arms crossed. “Things have been settled up there. It was said that some messengers had gone to the Steam Assembly. I had no idea what they were doing there, but since no one had stopped us, Galazur brought us down here.”

By now, Lily had circled Hao Ren for almost thirty laps and finally quieted down. Looking down curiously at the colossal hollow under the transparent ground while gnawing the bone, she asked, “What is that?”

Galazur came before the Iron Throne. “Is this the ancient sage of Twilight Capital?”

Hao Ren smiled and said, “Let me explain.”

The explanation was not very lengthy. When everyone finally learned the secrets of Twilight Capital, they could not help but be amazed at the truth, and genuinely shocked by the feat Odin had pulled off. Galazur and Anthony Alfonso checked around the Iron Throne; Anthony Alfonso began to lay a simple magic circle next to the throne. What he did was dazzling, and in the blink of an eye, a flashing circle of light emerged in the air, while dozens of light streams were connected to the pipes and cables around the throne.

Odin looked on, eyes were out on stalks. Well, in fact, he did not have any expression at all, it was just a more visual way to describe him. Looking at what Anthony Alfonso was doing, Odin knew this the purpose Vivian brought them here; she needed their help. But he did not understand what Anthony Alfonso was doing. “What is this?”

“Giving you a virtual machine,” the old magician said as he dusted his body. “Do you feel better now?”

Odin had never seen anything like that, but he realized that the magic circle had miraculously taken over the connection between the Iron Throne and the Twilight Shroud, the exhaustion and piercing sensation of his soul began to subside for the first time in 23 centuries. The torture had lasted for so long that Odin had fully adapted to it. When it suddenly disappeared, Odin’s tormented nerves did not even respond at all.

“What have you done?” The king of the Norse gods of the past was surprised as if he was seeing the magic for the first time. “The energy of the Twilight Shroud is so terribly powerful. How could such a simple set of symbols, which doesn’t even consist of physical runes, divert the energy?”

“This energy is terrible, but the buff that our boss gave to me when she was drunk is much more terrible than this.” Anthony proudly stroke his beard. “When the energy is diverted, your body and soul will stop deteriorating. But your body will remain as it is. So we will use special medical equipment to restore your health. But you can leave your throne now.”

Odin was struck dumb.

Anthony stroke his beard again. “I say you can leave the throne.”

“I think…”

“Please don’t worry,” Anthony Alfonso said, his smile was confident. Though the old magician was quirky, he still had the temperament of a great sage. “I guarantee that after you leave the throne, the Twilight Shroud could still run stable. Do you have something to say?”

Odin was silent for a few seconds and finally said, “Come and bring me down.”

Everyone was dumbfounded.

Hao Ren smacked on his face and said, “That was why I felt something was not quite right.”

Galazur took a closer look at Odin and waved his hand at Anthony Alfonso. “Perhaps we shouldn’t rush to get him out. I have found that his body has grown together with the tubes and the throne. But you may cut off the connection between him and the Twilight Shroud while waiting for the dedicated instrument to arrive.”

“In that case, you will have to stay on the throne for a little longer.” Hao Ren nodded to Odin and then turned to others. “Let’s discuss Twilight Capital. The problem of Twilight Capital is that the Twilight Shroud is dependent on the spaceship for power. For safety’s sake, I suggest we should first solve the safety issue of Twilight Capital.”

“I have two suggestions,” Galazur said quickly. “The first one is to evacuate everyone in Twilight Capital. At present, Yggdrasil is in the Chattar Civilization Sphere. Anthony Alfonso should be able to evacuate a few million people at once. But then, it means abandoning the city. To be honest, it would be a shame to let the magic storm to destroy this precious specimen of an unnaturally developed civilization. Second, we build another layer of shield outside the Twilight Shroud, and then we can begin to explore the ancient spaceship without having to worry that the Twilight Shroud may fail. But there is a disadvantage to this method: building a city-scaled shield required a lot of work.”

Hao Ren waved his hand. “There is a more important problem: Yggdrasil. We must not irritate him. Otherwise, this ancient creature may awaken at any moment. And once it wakes up, we don’t know what is going to happen.”

Anthony Alfonso spread out his hand. “Whether it is a mass evacuation or building another shield, there is always a risk of waking up Yggdrasil. The key question is how stable the First Born is. Without a clear quantitative indicator, how do we know what is the safe threshold?”

The three inspectors discussed among themselves, each took out their MDTs to do some number crunching and simulations. At this time, Odin suddenly said, “Did you just mention Yggdrasil?”

“Yes, the World Tree,” Hao Ren replied without looking up. “In fact, that is not his right name. His scientific name is First Born or the First Born of God. It is a powerful ancient creature. It might be sleeping now, but I have sufficient evidence to show that it is mentally unstable.”

Odin thought for a moment. “I have a suggestion, do you want to listen?”