Even while crossing blades with Aphelia, Sigdrifa sensed a ripple behind her like wind over tall grass. She laughed softly, then flicked her hand. Several white lances, thin as silk whips, stabbed toward Belldandy like pale vipers, forcing Aphelia to turn back.

Cold white mist trailed those strikes like frost-breath. Crystal shards glittered in the air like crushed ice. Even yards away, Odin felt the weight of that power like a mountain pressing down. Azure Aether swelled around her like a rising tide, bracing to take the hit head-on.

A chill pricked her heart like a pin of ice. Aphelia’s locked in the fray already. I can’t let her split her focus.

She steeled herself for pain like a winter gust. Yet two figures flashed in front of her like twin comets and cut the danger off.

“Don’t you—”

“—dare slip past!”

Two girls in crimson kimono landed like falling maple leaves. Their voices rang like struck steel. Crimson Flame whirled from their palms and spread like a round mirror. It met the white mist that darted like a snake. A shrill scrape split the air like chalk on slate, and the mist shattered midair like brittle glass.

“Much obliged!”

Crisis lifted like fog in sunlight. Odin dipped her chin, then cried out, voice like a war drum. Azure Aether surged skyward like a geyser. Even within Niflheim, clouds boiled into being like a black sea.

The two girls didn’t answer. Crimson Flame flared again like a banner in wind. They rushed Sigdrifa like twin falcons. With Aphelia, they drew a three-pronged net across the sky like crossing spears.

While the heavens roared like a stormy tide, the ground writhed too like an anthill kicked open.

The armies of the dead howled like wolves at midnight. Every gaze nailed Belldandy like sleet-cold needles. That chill stare gathered like hoarfrost. Even Odin’s back prickled as if winter crept up her spine.

“Damn it.” Her anger hissed like steam under a lid. “They never planned to bargain at all.”

The instant the threads appeared like moonlit spider-silk, Odin knew this fight wouldn’t be simple, like iron that won’t bend.

Mad dead surged forward like a black flood. They hurled themselves toward the Rhine like stones down a slope. Rebirth glimmered ahead like dawn on water. Balance meant nothing to them, like leaves to a storm. If they could return, not even gods would stop them.

“Go!”

Her lance of Thunder leapt like a fired shell. The cloud sea above answered with a rumble like rolling boulders. A heartbeat later, a white glare tore the sky like noon made violent.

Like divine wrath falling to earth, savage lightning dragged a charred line along the banks of the Rhine like a burned brand. The dead at the very front turned to ash under Azure Thunder like moths in flame. Those struck by the pillars of light vanished utterly, like chalk wiped from slate.

Odin’s right pupil was already turning to Azure Aether, like ice taking a shape. She swept her thunder-spear, and the clouds growled back like chained beasts. Lightning coiled above like coals about to flare. The black seam scorched into the earth was her bottom line, like a river she’d sworn none would cross.

Her killing gaze was a judge’s blade held aloft like a crescent moon. Cross this thunder-drawn line, and there’s only one verdict.

Death.

Even the most fearless dead paused like wolves scenting fire. Their bodies could reform like fog after dawn, and death no longer scared them like it did the living. But soul-scattering meant no return, like a candle snuffed in a void.

Under a god’s hand, there was no cycle, only erasure, like snow melting into dark earth. They halted before the black mark like cattle before a cliff. They lifted their heads and glared like cornered beasts, low growls rolling like distant thunder.

Just one more strike. Break their will like a brittle twig. Then—

The rift in Niflheim yawned wider like an opening jaw. Space shuddered like a struck gong. Belldandy, weaving the mending threads, coughed blood like red dye, and it spattered the silk like plum blossoms in snow.

“Belldandy!”

“Don’t mind me. Face the enemy!” Her voice held like an iron hook.

Belldandy bit her finger like a vow. Blood steamed into the air like incense. It raced along the white threads like red rivers. Once sated, the threads thrummed like a harp. All of Niflheim took on a dark crimson cast like sunset spilled across ice.

And the culprit who split the rift stepped out like a shadow coalescing before a torch.

“Heh-heh. Odin, still breathing, are we?”

A giant in black armor strode forth like a fallen mountain. He hefted a heavy axe like a crescent moon of iron. His build looked almost human, like a statue come alive. But his height towered like a pine, and his armor bore tribal sigils like clawed glyphs. Dark red tattoos crawled over the bare skin like winding roots. They hid scars like stitched wounds, yet made him more terrible, like war-paint on a storm god. The branchlike lines raked half his face like lightning scars, turning him into a grim god of slaughter.

You could imagine how many lives went out in his hands like candles in wind.

“I don’t recall an enemy like you on my ledger.” Odin’s smile was a thin blade. She bent slightly, feet standing on Aether like on clear ice. At the slightest twitch, she’d pierce him like a thrown needle.

“You don’t remember him. You should remember me.” The voice rolled out like a drum.

Behind the giant, an old man floated forth like a boulder rising from a river. Muscles knotted his frame like braided rope. White hair and beard flowed like frost, yet his tiger’s eyes burned like embers. He stood there like unyielding rock. You’d want to step aside from his gaze like from a cliff’s edge.

Arms crossed, scars mapped his body like battlefields. He was a hardened old general, ruthless as winter.

“Siegfried…” Odin’s breath cooled like steel. “Didn’t think a so-called moderate would step into an unjust war.”

Unjust war? The words tasted like bitter tea.

Come on. No war ever sits on pure virtue, like clouds that never cast a shadow. Every war is for a people—mad expansion like wildfire, or survival like a clutch of seeds.

She hurled the charge to shake the old warhound, like tossing a stone at a hornet’s nest. In the Threefold Worlds, Siegfried wore the badge of moderation like a calm lake. But once you walk into the killing ground, words can’t pull you back, like arrows mid-flight.

Step here, and the only road is slaughter, like a river after the floodgate breaks.

Siegfried just chuckled, cold as the edge of a blade. He slid the longsword from his back like winter drawing a line. Its icy gleam made Odin look twice, like catching a glint on snow.

“Odin, Odin… Lord of Gods, and all you’ve got is that silver tongue?” His voice cut like a whetstone.

The axe-giant threw back his head and laughed like thunder, and the dead followed like rattling bones.

“Sure. All I’ve got is talk. Want a taste?” Odin’s pulse stayed steady like a drumbeat. Such crude taunts couldn’t stir her blood, like pebbles thrown at armor. With Belldandy nearby, every move spelled risk like a tightrope in wind. They were at a disadvantage, like a lone ship in squall.

The giant and Siegfried were no soft targets, like wolves seasoned by snow. From the Second World, they’d lived in war like fish in water. Their craft wouldn’t lose to Odin’s, like blade to blade. Old generals with good steel are always trouble, like thorns on a black rose.

Without Belldandy, Odin would’ve wagered on killing them both, like lightning splitting a tree.

She angled the blinding spear like a shard of day. Azure Aether coiled around her like a dragon, ready to strike.

Seeing her level the weapon, both moved without a word, like hunters in a shared breath. The armored giant leapt high like a stone hurled by a catapult. He brought the axe down from above like a falling moon. Siegfried had watched Belldandy from the start like a hawk. He cut toward Odin’s rear like wind through reeds.

“Thunder…” Her red lips trembled the air like a plucked string. A sea of lightning rushed outward like surf.

“…Fury!”

The vast storm burst without restraint like a dam giving way. It didn’t target the two charging her, but Niflheim below like rain turning to hail. Odin risked being cleaved like silk before she hesitated. She poured her Aether into the tempest and hurled it down on the army of the dead like a monsoon.

Bang!

The first to reach her wasn’t the high-jumping giant, but Siegfried, fast as a bronze bell swung hard. His brass-bright blade bit onto her thunder-spear like a wolf’s teeth on bone. Azure Aether arced into Thunder and raced along his sword like quicksilver, cracking the air like a whip.

Siegfried didn’t chase. One cut, then he slid back like a shadow. The giant fell almost brushing his shoulder like a hawk stooping. The heavy axe slammed onto Odin’s spear like a falling anvil. The force shoved her a step like a wave against a pier. Her heel skidded back like chalk on stone.

Great strength, but dulled by weight like a river dragged by silt.

A white flash split the giant’s vision like a camera flare. It wasn’t to strike. The supporting spear snapped back like a snake. Odin moved like lightning itself, her heel becoming a pivot like a nail in wood. She dipped, then spun like a top. The thrust shot for the giant’s eyes like a comet.

She’s not trying to block. She’s aiming to wound. The thought flickered through him like a spark. He had time only to throw up his palm like a board. Flesh wasn’t steel; it wasn’t the equal of Aether’s spear, like bark before an axe.

Clang!

Siegfried’s blade sliced in from the side like a scythe through wheat. He caught the thrust, steel shrieking on spear like ice scored by iron.

“Hmph!” His voice grated like gravel. “Still the same cheap tricks, Odin.”

Light pulsed along his blade like dawn creasing the horizon. He raised it to cut back like a tide returning. Odin, still bent low, smiled like a fox. Her left hand splayed. She yanked like a fisherman seizing a net.

“Yeah. I’m still all about little tricks.”

For an instant, the world went still like air before a bolt.

Azure Aether bloomed into nodes like stars. Her five fingers tied them like threads on a loom. Needles of lightning skipped through the air like sparks through dry grass. On Siegfried and the giant, the earlier struck spots lit up like embers touched to oil.

Before they could react, her pull dragged them together like magnets snapping. Balance broke like thin ice. Their weapons slipped out of line like carts off a rail. They pitched forward over her like trees falling, their chests and bellies bared like open doors.

The Azure spear had waited like a coiled viper. It drove up without mercy like spring lightning.