Waltrautesan no Konkatsu Jijou - Chapter 3 - Part 14

After neutralizing the other eight Valkyries, Waltraute watched what was occurring within the fire world of Muspelheim.

Flames blew about.

Light and heat wiped away the night.

The destructive power was more than enough to befit the ruler of evil.

But…

“He cannot do it,” muttered Waltraute.

In the next moment, Surtr stopped that flame sword that symbolized destructive power. The boy had not moved even at the last moment. He had not shut his eyes. He had simply stared directly at Surtr the entire time. And he was completely unscathed.

Surtr had halted his attack.

“That boy treated you as a respected god rather than an evil giant. As the ruler of an entire world, you could not return such feelings with cruelty. This was a crossroads where you could either affirm or deny that Muspelheim is a world of evil. This was a decision as a ruler that would affect the fates of all Muspell giants.”

And Surtr had made the decision of a god rather than of a giant.

He had saved the life of the one who had lifted up a prayer to him.

And it had been that boy’s strength that had allowed him to remember that.

Waltraute herself had long viewed the great gap between god and giant as completely natural.

She was one of those who benefitted from it.

“Soul of Midgard,” said Surtr.

“What?”

“Even if I lay down my weapon here, the tragedy cannot be avoided unless Odin replies in kind as the leader of the Æsir. What will you do about this problem?”

“I will stop it of course,” replied the boy decisively. “We – Waltraute and I, that is – will make sure Lord Odin lays down his weapon.”

“Heh,” laughed Surtr.

It was a small but definite thing. It was possible one of the Muspell had never before been brought to laughter by a soul of the human world.

And the laughter grew.

“Ha ha ha ha ha!! Interesting. Then get going and stop that war-obsessed old man!! Prove your sincerity with that! But it won’t be easy. After all, we have yet to see even the beginning of a resolution even after facing each other down over this issue for more than 1000 years!!”

Having said that, Surtr let go of his flame sword. The giant sword stabbed into the hard ground, but no major change occurred.

That sword would no longer produce flames or burn away any of the worlds.

He had lost an element of himself as a giant and as a ruler, but Surtr only glanced down at the sword with strong feeling in his eyes.

“…I put it down. Ha ha! Ha ha ha ha ha ha!! I put it down! I put down my weapon! I don’t need to kill anyone!!”

“Yes.”

“I feel light. I can feel my stiff muscles loosening up. I see. So this is what it feels like to be freed from that environment of kill or be killed.”

“That’s right, ruler of Muspelheim.”

“But how are you going to get the Æsir and Vanir to put down their weapons?”

“Don’t worry,” said the boy with a smile. “I can get my wife’s help. If she talks it out with them, it’ll all be okay.”

“Hmph,” snorted Waltraute as she turned away.

Everyone would have things a lot easier if the Æsir were so easily dealt with. The head god was a war god who liked to start wars. Just like a harvest god would cause crops to grow for no reason, that war god did not need a real reason. If the situation allowed for a war to occur, he would cause one. That was how he had always acted throughout history.

“…What will you do?” asked the eldest sister Brynhildr.

She believed in defeating someone before they defeated her, so she no longer saw attacking Muspelheim a necessity now that it was not an immediate threat. The fact that she would not act in a heartless manner as long as one did not turn a weapon towards her displayed the humanity(?) of Brynhildr that she rarely showed on the surface.

After Waltraute threatened to send out those tentacles the instant they tried anything, the other seven Valkyries grew obedient. (Although the fact they had lost the competition may have played a larger role.) Just as the holy spear Gungnir symbolized the head god and the lightning hammer Mjölnir symbolized the lightning god, the golden tool Waltraute held symbolized the weakness of a Valkyrie.

If that tool was fully activated, their hearts might stop due to a highly unairable reason.

The only way Brynhildr and the others could resist it would be to become something other than Valkyries.

Waltraute decided the item’s abilities were too much for her to give it back to the boy for the time being.

“This is a difficult issue,” she admitted. “But it is the job of a wife and a god to meet the expectations of her husband and believer. I have no choice but to do something rather reckless.”

“Meaning?”

“I will talk this over with Odin after beating him to a pulp.”