Waltrautesan no Konkatsu Jijou - Chapter 4 - A.E. 0 - Part 7

The end came suddenly.

While the small Waltraute had not grasped the truth of the matter, she had sensed some sort of premonition.

For example, there was the arrival of the dragon slaying sword Nothung.

(That boy said it had washed up onto the beach, but would something so convenient actually happen? Come to think of it, what even happened to that great sword after Sigmund and then Siegfried owned it?)

And one other thing stood out to her.

(Even if several unlikely possibilities coincided and Nothung did wash up on the beach, would that boy really be able to pick it up? While the sword was created so that souls of the human world could wield it, it was supposed to search for the greatest souls. …Not even I view that boy so highly as to think he is made of the same stuff as Siegfried. Why was that boy able to pick it up?)

The small Waltraute let out a groan as she watched the boy (and Brynhildr who had grown very fond of him), but she could not come up with an answer. And the fact that she could not gradually filled her with more and more unease.

Something was happening.

Meanwhile, a stingingly tense atmosphere filled the area around a spring in one corner of Asgard.

A decidedly negative emotion that was not murderous or hostile encroached on the area.

It could best be described as a general awe-filled fear for something unseen and not present.

It often filled human hearts when they thought about the gods, but it was exceedingly rare for it to spill from the hearts of the gods themselves.

The evil god Loki and the goddesses of fate known as the Norns were standing before that spring that displayed destiny.

Or perhaps it should be said they were confronting each other from across the spring.

Norn was not a term that referred to a specific individual. It was a general term for the three goddesses that made various predictions. In other words, it was closer to being a type of race like dwarf or elf.

But in this age, the term Norn referred to this group of three.

The goddess of the past Urðr, the goddess of the present Verðandi, and the goddess of the future Skuld.

As usual, the trio of Norns was completely expressionless.

“Even the way the story was introduced was odd,” said Loki. “A large difference exists between Asgard and Midgard’s cultures. That can be seen from the difference in the level of perfection of the runes they each use. …But bringing out the ideas of things like synthetic fibers and school swimsuits was the biggest problem.”

Verðandi and Skuld must not have been interested because they completely ignored Loki.

Perhaps because the issue related to her period of time, Urðr alone turned toward Loki.

“How is that a problem?”

“It has twisted the laws of this universe.” Loki smoothly continued speaking. “That boy removed one of the causes of Ragnarök. Surtr put down his sword and ceased construction on Naglfar. …But Ragnarök has more than one cause. If one is destroyed, the beginning of Ragnarök will focus on one of the others. Oh, I suppose this involves more than just the past, though.”

“Understood. As this involves multiple time periods, I will reply as the goddess of the present as well.”

“Same here as the goddess of the future.”

They seemed quite reluctant, but the other two goddesses also turned toward Loki. Urðr had also been in a bad mood about it from the beginning.

“As the goddess of the present, I must ask: can you sum up what you are ‘presently’ talking about?”

“And I have a question as the goddess of the future: what conclusion do you see this leading to ‘in the future’?”

Their lines and their attitudes did not match at all.

The Norns were in a very lazy and negative mood while Loki grinned with delight.

“Not even Odin can change the occurrence and outcome of Ragnarök.”

“And?”

“Fate is set in stone so not even the gods can alter it. But what about right now? In this moment, the cause of Ragnarök is switching over to another cause. Don’t you think fate can be shaken in this moment?”

“…”

“…”

“…”

Past, present, and future all fell silent.

None of the time periods could decide how to respond.

“And so strange things are happening. For example, all nine Valkyrie sisters have changed into swimsuits, they are using terms from an unfamiliar culture, and a completely normal human boy has picked up the dragon slaying sword Nothung.” Loki continued on his own. “Right now…no, I suppose saying that would be inconsiderate to Verðandi. Right here, fate and destiny are no longer in effect. Questions we already know the answer to can be led to a different answer. Right here, we have a threat that makes Ragnarök look like nothing. Unlike a war with a decided conclusion, no one can see how this will end. Not even the goddesses of fate. Am I right?”

“…”

“…”

“…”

“These nine worlds will soon be destroyed. The river of fate will collapse and flood everything. Not even I can imagine what will happen after that. Having everyone act on their own without being bound by fate sounds nice, but it may mean everyone will be eternally isolated and never able to make any connections with anyone else.”

“…”

“…”

“…”

“I had thought the three goddesses that can watch over all that exists would know some tricks into how the worlds work. But if you are at a stalemate here, it seems I was wrong. And something you three find impossible would be impossible for the other more minor Norns as well. Do you have any ideas as to who else might be able to do this?”

“Well,” it was the goddess of the past Urðr who replied. “This naturally occurring distortion in fate should have spread its effects thinly across all nine worlds. If you wish to cause an intentional change, you would need to interfere with all nine worlds rather than focusing on a single point.”

“…One would need quite the long reach to manage that.”

“I can think of one possibility,” said the goddess of the present Verðandi in regards to the presently developing situation. “The destiny that controls everything in the nine worlds cannot be interfered with or controlled even by we three sisters that watch over it all. I believe there is only one person who could do this.”

“Who would be able to do something even Odin cannot?”

“The nine worlds,” replied Verðandi. “The worlds themselves can grasp and even interfere with the entirety of the destiny spread thinly across them all.”

“…I have never heard anyone say the worlds have a will of their own.”

“In the present, no.”

“Nor in the future.”

“But in the past, they did.”

Loki frowned when he heard the words of Urðr.

“…So that’s it.”

He sighed.

He had been led to quite possibly the worst answer.

“What are the nine worlds made from? I’m sure the goddess of the past can gladly answer that one.”

“The great giant Ymir. Odin and the others killed the giant, broke apart his flesh and bones, and created the various worlds and living creatures out of them. That is how Odin was able to name himself the head god, name the Æsir the gods, and to name Surtr and his kind evil giants.”

“So the distortion of fate has returned Ymir’s will and he is planning to resurrect himself from the dead. Or perhaps the distortion in fate came about specifically because Ymir wished to be resurrected. But that distinction is unimportant,” said the evil god Loki. “To resurrect, Ymir requires all the parts of his body.” He finally reached his conclusion. “But his body has already been distributed to the nine worlds and the beings that live in them. If those parts are returned to the original giant they belonged to, the nine worlds and all life within them will be utterly annihilated.”