Valhalla Saga

Episode 59/Chapter 1: God of conquest (1)

TL: Tsubak

ED:

Tae Ho’s rest was short. It was because a voice was heard from above when not even a minute had passed since he closed his eyes.

“Did everything end now?”

It was the voice of Hermes. When Tae Ho opened his eyes he saw Hermes extending his head from beyond the hole.

“Yes, it seems so.”

“Whew, i’m glad. I only have the strength to return now.”

Tae Ho couldn’t see his face well because of the backlight but he felt like he could know how he was feeling just by listening to the relief in his voice.

And actually Hermes was already at his limit.

Even if he had the winged shoes Talaria, it wasn’t that he could roam Olympus without any restrictions.

He spent a few more times in strength when he was accompanied by one person and even if that was the case he was bringing Tae Ho with him when he was weakened because he lost his sacred force and took him to the sacred force of Artemis so his expenditure of strength was really big.

If he said that he only had strength to return, that should be true.

But it was at that moment. Cuchulainn said something different.

‘He’s afraid.’

‘Hermes?’

Tae Ho stood up while shaking off the dust from his but and asked. It seemed like he was asking him in agreement and not because he didn’t know.

Tae Ho had also noticed the uneasiness in Hermes’ eyes and voice.

‘Right, that’s unavoidable. He couldn’t even have imagined a sacred force getting attacked like this. He should be scared of us even if we won.’

It wasn’t that the fact of attacking a sacred force itself was unfamiliar. Actually Ares and Poseidon also attacked the sacred forces as they pleased.

What Hermes was afraid of was that Tae Ho had turned several sacred forces into a mess in only a few hours and weakened Artemis drastically.

Actually this wasn’t something common.

He could summon strong dragons through the summoning rocks, could find the nucleus of a sacred force through the ‘eyes of the dragon’ and destroy it by force thanks to Tae Ho having the strength of a master and was assisted by Hermes, that could roam Olympus freely.

But even so he could only feel fear. If there was only Tae Ho, they could replace Hermes’ role plentily.

Hermes hadn’t imagined the situation of Olympus being invaded just like Apollo warned Athena. It was more correct to say that he had felt an instinctive rejection towards Tae Ho when he saw a sacred force being destroyed as he also relied on it.

‘Well, that’s not a common method. But this really is hard.’

Actually, Tae Ho hadn’t been able to destroy the nucleus that easily. It took much more strength to destroy them perhaps because he was a foreign God and not a God of Olympus. In addition, he had used strong sagas in consecution so his mental fatigue was also great.

‘Is this the first time I used the ‘dragon cannon’ four times in succession?’

In addition, he had just destroyed the ground in an ignorant way so his right arm was still numb.

‘But what happened?’

‘What?’

‘That the seat of the God of sun itself wasn’t handed over but you are sharing it with Athena. In addition, looking that you received the necklace....it looks like you received the same but the foundation went to Athena right?’

Cuchulainn was almost always with Tae Ho but he couldn’t do that last night. It was because Apollo had requested him a one on one conversation.

Tae Ho nodded at Cuchulainn’s question.

‘Yes, I’m also able to use the authority because I have this necklace but Athena should be able to use it even without this. She’s now a Goddess of warfare and at the same time the Goddess of sun.’

The using right was divided in two but Athena had the ownership.

‘That is the weird thing. Why did he do that? I don’t think he did this to seduce Athena.’

‘His love towards his sister is praiseworthy.’

‘What nonsense are you spouting about? Are you someone that will let things pass just because of that? I wouldn’t know if you threatened him saying that you will kill Artemis if he doesn’t hand over his seat.’

‘Hoho, this person is really crafty.’

Tae Ho stroke the beard he didn’t have and laughed.

It was obvious he was hiding something.

‘What are you plotting? Just tell me at once.’

‘I will tell you later.’

‘Later when?’

‘At night?’

“Master of Asgard?”

The voice of Hermes was heard once again from above. It seemed like he became anxious because Tae Ho wasn’t coming out.

“I’m coming out.”

Tae Ho answered suitably and then took a light leap and got out. The battle between Adenmaha and group had stopped maybe because the people of Artemis got liberated from her.

“Master of Asgard, we will depart now.”

Hermes extended his hand towards Tae Ho. Tae Ho grabbed that and transmitted Adenmaha a mystical magic.

[Adenmaha, I will leave Nidhogg and the group to you]

[Don’t worry. See you later]

[Right. I’m always grateful]

[Hmph hmph]

Tae Ho heard Adenmaha snorting in a good mood and closed his eyes. Hermes activated Talaria and surged up to the sky in an instant.

And after some time passed.

They arrived in front of the last polis of Apollo as they enjoyed the wind.

“Tae Ho.”

“Master.”

“Did you come master?”

When he came down slowly with Hermes several voices were heard.

Tae Ho looked at his surroundings with his ‘eyes of the dragon’ before answering to each voice.

The battle had already ended here but it seemed like the damages were bigger than we imagined.

About a fifth of Echidna’s army of dragons lost their lives and half of them suffered small and big injuries.

Looking that half of the army of Artemis and Dionysus were dead, he could see how fierce the battle was in that short time.

What was fortunate was that Bracky, Siri and the three Valkyries didn’t have any injuries and were safe.

But this didn’t mean that no one got hurt.

“Echidna, are you okay?”

“Oh, you noticed?”

Echidna laughed bewitchingly as if nothing happened to her but Tae Ho frowned. It was because her injury wasn’t one to be overlooked and pass it over a laugh.

Even if she was the God of dragons, the divine power of the 12 Olympians was like poison for her as she was a monster. The wound itself got erased after she transformed into her Goddess appearance but she couldn’t do anything about the divine power that got inserted through the arrow and suffered a big injury.

Tae Ho smacked his lips out of regret and realized that his judgement had been wrong.

Echidna was really strong when he faced her in the city of monsters. He had thought that she would be able to buy time without suffering any injuries if someone like her focused solely in defense.

But that was a mistake.

Echidna had become much more weaker than when she faced him.

And this occurred because Tae Ho’s understanding about sacred forces was low.

The 12 Olympians could get assisted by the sacred forces even when they were far but they could receive a much bigger strength when they fought inside the sacred force.

In the case of Echidna, the differences they posed was much more severe inside and outside the sacred force.

In addition, she had offered her sacred force to Tae Ho. It was impossible for her strength to be the same from when she was the only owner of the sacred force and when she became a lesser God and split it with Tae Ho.

The other miscalculation he had made was Artemis’ strength. She had used several mystical magic to increase her battle power as she was determined to kill Tae Ho.

“I’m sorry, and thank you for doing well.”

When Tae Ho grabbed Echidna’s hands and spoke, she opened her eyes widely and spoke with an expectant voice as if seducing him.

“Oh wow, then what about doing it tonight? Huh? Aren’t you excited because you saw blood?”

“Sorry.”

“It’s not that it will wear out. How petty.”

Tae Ho got away from Echidna while she grumbled and looked at Siri and Bracky. There was an unfamiliar woman standing between the two.

[Artemis’ great hero]

[Atalante]

The words weren’t red but grey. She wasn’t a being wanting to destroy the world as she had gotten out of Artemis’ control.

“She’s the Great hero of Artemis, Atalante. Thanks to her we have been able to lessen our damages from the battle.”

Siri introduced Atalante herself and then explained about what happened after Artemis got sealed briefly.

“After Artemis got sealed, she commanded the army that fell in chaos and stopped the battle. It wasn’t possible to control Dionysius army but they lost all strength after he disappeared so they weren’t that troublesome.”

Even if she got liberated from Artemis, she was fighting against monsters that she fought her entire life so stopping the battle in an instant was an amazing judgement.

While Tae Ho was admiring her, Siri looked at Atalante and said.

“Atalante, he’s the master of Asgard Lee Tae Ho. Greet him.”

“The great hero of Artemis, Atalante, greets the master of Asgard.”

Atalante placed her left fist in her right chest and greeted him in the Olympus way.

Tae Ho replied back in the Valhalla way and looked at Atalante’s eyes fixedly and said.

“We are able to avoid spilling unnecessary blood thanks to you. I am grateful to you.”

“Artemis-nim.......”

Atalante put on a teary face but then closed her eyes trying to calm herself down and continued speaking.

“Artemis-nim has told me at the last moment. That she was sorry.....and if possible to help her brother......”

‘Did she gain a hold of herself before she got sealed?’

The brother Artemis spoke about was certainly Apollo. As Cuchulainn got surprised and asked, Tae Ho remembered the eyes of Apollo he saw last night.

‘Apollo’s care may have worked.’

Because it was really an extreme love.

Tae Ho turned to look at Apollo and Artemis that had become rock and were embracing each other. He could feel the extreme love also from Artemis’ face.

Atalante also turned to look at the two Gods and then expressed etiquette.

“The army of Artemis-nim including me will enter the army of Athena-nim and help recapturing Olympus.”

“Thank you for your help. We welcome you and your comrades.”

Atalante and Tae Ho finished the greeting and then retrieved their forces after talking with Athena and headed to the polis of Apollo. They had many things to organize but resting came first now.

Time flowed and the promised night came.

‘What promised night? That sounds weird.’

‘You said you will tell me at night.’

Tae Ho sat on the bed after taking a nap and scratched his stomach. When he looked outside the window he noticed that it wasn’t midnight yet but it was clearly late.

Tae Ho used mystical magic on a kettle that was placed next to his bed to make cold water and then started speaking after drinking that.

‘Well, it’s nothing impressive. I got something else instead of Athena receiving the seat of Goddess of sun.’

‘Something else?’

‘Yes, it didn’t seem to be that important for Apollo and it seemed like he wanted to put at least one more reward.....but actually for me this is more important than the seat of God of sun.’

The center of the negotiation was the seat of God of sun.

That was what Apollo offered instead of him saving Artemis.

Tae Ho showed displeasement about sharing the seat of God of sun with Athena and started to speak about several conditions for his request, and the result of that was that he got able to obtain what he wanted but in a way he had no other options but to accept it.

If Tae Ho had requested him what he wanted from the beginning, he wouldn’t have been able to share the seat of God of sun with Athena.

‘So it means that you cheated on him like usual?’

‘What are you talking about? That’s the skill of negotiating and trading.’

‘That’s the same thing. So what did you get anyways?’

Cuchulainn showed a lot of interest. Thanks to that, Tae Ho got burdened and cleared his throat and answered after that.

‘The seat of God of music.’

‘God of music?’

‘Yes, God of music. Apollo is also the God of music. I haven’t been able to receive it completely as i’m also a God of a foreign world but I think I will be able to reach the level I desire in no time.’

‘What are you plann....ah!’

Cuchulainn let out an exclamation and Tae Ho smirked. He stuck out his tongue that had the rune of Bragi engraved in it.

The rune of Bragi that was the God of music and poetry.

What will happen if the God of music was added?

The strengthening of his rune.

Bragi’s rune that will release a much stronger power.

‘Let’s test it.’

How well his rune worked and how much it got strengthened.

Tae Ho nodded and tried to get out of the room. Cuchulainn thought that he was going to use ‘the warrior that had a Goddess meet him’ so he blinked and asked.

‘Hey, where are you going?’

‘I want to try it on Adenmaha.’

How well would his words using the rune will work.

Tae Ho answered calmly and Cuchulainn spoke with a sigh.

‘Is that test meaningful at least?’

But Tae Ho ignored him and headed to Adenmaha’s room.

< Episode 59 – God of conquest (1) > End