' That's definitely bad that mimic alone is already a good catalyst for black magic but the amount of black magic that can be derived is too little considering the age of this thing ' Harkness assumes that someone around here could be a black mage capitalizing out of the Mimic's hatred .
' But who would it be ? ' Harkness tells Ikuta about the Mimic that is about to consume the ashes of gods ' The problem is if the mimic can handle the amount of black mana that can be derived from the ashes of gods "
' It won't be a problem these gods are pretty weak however it would be dangerous because of the amount of black mana you can find and the variety it's more like a tangled yarn . "
' So it's like last time ' Ikuta checks the mana in the hourglass ' it's all harmonious probably because the paradise and purgatory are all the same but ' he imagined what it would be like ' I'll have to learn how to unravel it '
There wasn't any real target for Ikuta to test his ability because the hourglass was such a good item in extracting black and white mana without making it difficult for him to use it ' I need to learn how to unravel black mana "
' That would be hard " Harkness said ' I could ask Vedrfolnir right ? " ' You can try " Ikuta turns to Vedrfolnir who was prepared to tell him a story of Olympian gods " Vedrfolnir do you know how to unravel Black magic ? "
Vedrfolnir turned his attention to the memory of Ikuta being able to use black magic " I suppose I do know " he said , looking into the state of Ikuta's heart to understand his intention " So you predict you might need this ? "
Ikuta nodded and laid on bed " I suppose it won't be hard to tell you how to do it but you must understand that in wishing to do this you are bringing your hand into a box of blades , you will injure yourself since that's what black mana does "
" So I need a lot of white mana to heal ? " " Better save that mana for protection than healing " Vedrfolnir teaches Ikuta how to unravel the tangled yarn by presentation .
" See the problem with tangled black magic is the fact that they can tighten to each other you can try to twist it like normal yarn but you would have to do it very fast "
" Because black mana comes from the soul ? " " Correct " Vedrfolnir also tells him how it could happen " Which is why every black mana sacrifices is always individual just like lining up for a shop of course it's possible to have different receptionists accepting customers but that also means making the process of deriving black mana more complicated"
Ikuta conveys Vedrfolnir's words to Harkness ' I think you do have to learn it much faster then " Harkness told Ikuta about what the pit has ' Someone is extracting black mana from the mimic and there's only one receptionist in that store "
Ikuta was surprised and wondered if he could sneak out ' No , don't . If you do that , we risk exposing ourselves ' Harkness warned, turning to the garbage disposals to locate who the black magic user was around.
' Let me handle this ' Harkness said , narrowing the suspects down to the right target and locating any traces of black mana ' Not you ' she exempted the newbies , looking for any workers who seemed most experienced.
She ran through the night concealed by the light turning herself into the darkness . She passes the workers trying her best to detect the right one who has black mana using her seeing dark spell .
' Where is it ? ' the ashes of gods were sinking fast because the Mimic was devouring whatever it was given without a thought ' Come on where are you black mage ? ' she passes through everyone and finally finds the black mage bringing the charred remains to be used as fuel .
' Good ' she took control of the black mage to have them change the formula with Ikuta ' So this is what you want ? " ' Yes , it's the only way for dad to get what he wants to have all the black mage attracted by the pit like fishing "
' so you want to ensure the mimic becomes a proper vessel for obtaining black mana ? " ' Yeah exactly this way we can fish out all the black mages and maybe gather enough souls for me to use Pandora's box for the defender "
' It might not be long before the defender loses all of the denier's power , how about we search for another legend ? " ' Yeah I'll try to get that information " Ikuta finally slept in and Harkness used the black mage to control the mimic .
...
Ikuta woke up hearing the news about the appearance of a large hole at the disposal site and Harkness's voice waking him up ' I found a camp of black mages and you wouldn't believe what I just found "
Ikuta accessed Harkness's senses seeing a dark cave with a skeleton in the altar " I have bought the sacrifice " the mage Harkness controls showed the Mimic ' You better think fast Ikuta you just delivered a great sacrifice to the lich himself I think the casualties will be too much "
Ikuta thought quickly wondering how he could solve it and quickly grabbed his sword and burned it sending it to Harkness ' Use that sword and take the Lich's body " Harkness grabbed it and quickly using the sword to store the Lich's soul while passing undetected by the cultist using dark magic .
' I'll deal with the rest on my own " Ikuta quickly sends the hourglass ' Use this we can use it for the next legend " Harkness gladly takes the hourglass and uses it to takeaway all the souls ' What about the mimic ? "
' Maybe leave it there " ' The cult is bigger than I thought and this one is just one of them " Harkness reads the memories of the cultist in the hourglass and turns to the mimic who was struggling inside the Pandora box replica spell .
' I'll seal the Mimic I'll throw the black mage so we can use this place as bait for the rest of the black mages " ' Dad probably doesn't predict anything and just wanted to let the mimic go crazy he wouldn't have thought that a cult already found it he might trace it so we should avoid being too close to it "
Harkness agreed but was not comfortable hearing the mother she had being called father but knew Ikuta felt the same way ' Is it possible to find the saintess's body ? " Ikuta thinks about it considering that the saintess was the one that fought the withering while the defender fought the abyss .
' do you know where the rest are ? " ' yeah most of them dad would always say to me , he never knew that your soul was in the mannequin and just kept saying your body isn't in this world " Harkness prepares to take down notes mentally and listens to Ikuta ' The core and alchemist are stored in a highly secured facility "
Ikuta gives her the memory of the location ' the defender was never found by dad but we did , although the saintess is said to have been placed in Valhalla after her death where she found Dad during ragnarok and was hit by his power " ' I do know the blacksmith disappeared with the erosion that was left , and as for the adventurer last he was heard is in mount Olympus "
They already know the locations of their siblings so now they just have to answer one thing ' but why did mother make us ? " ' you didn't learn anything at the moon ? "
' not at all , I was too mad how she left me when I learned she was alive " Ikuta wasn't sure if he was blessed to know how close his father was with him or not .
Ikuta gets ready and Harkness returns to the apartment using voodoo dolls from the cult to clean up . She opened her laptop to find them while Ikuta continued with his own life " By the way young master I still have to tell you how to get to Mimisbrunnr first "
" Okay is there a map or something ? " " I suppose there is however without the roots you might have a hard time locating it , but if I can see how the realms separated upon Yggdrasil's death then I can draw " Ikuta waited patiently .
" Oh young master you still have to wait for a while I'll be finished once you get back so go to school now " " oh " Ikuta packed his bags and finished his breakfast and headed to school .
Upon arriving he meets with his group of early bird friends " I finished it " he shows the console " How did you get it to work ? " Pyra asked " I needed some batteries filled with mana and with the beacons Petra built I could get a lot of batteries as for the dark mana it derives on its own in this battery it's much easier that way since the console could run faster now "
" Wow I don't even know how to code yet " " It's okay Pyra Ikuta is just different " Ezio said " But who was that lady yesterday ? " " She's my tutor it took a long time to find one that teaches dark magic because of that I was able to enchant my umbrella look "
Ikuta showed the umbrella " Check it out " Ikuta showed the magic formula that was hidden inside the umbrella " it's white " " Yeah that's the only way i could see it but with this enchantment , I could do this "
Ikuta pointed the umbrella to the ceiling and activated the spell shrouding him in darkness " It's like there's no light inside " " Yep it means I can make dark mana using this and look " Ikuta spreads out tendrils .
" I can easily manifest things " he stops using the spell that brings darkness returning it back to normal " That's weird " Pyra said " It's not like there's anything else better " Ikuta said , he shows the console and starts it making the 8-bit sunglasses .
" But at least I made more colors " " Cool " Ezio grabbed it showing it off " This is so good can I keep it ? " " It won't stay like that if it's too far from the console , that's the only thing I can't change " " Aww that's too bad " Ezio said .
" Hey do you think something happened at that pit ? " Ikuta knew what did but shook his head " I don't either " Ezio said " But do you think it's a cult again ? I heard that some cultist dead in the mental asylum "
Ikuta was surprised to hear that " They did ? " Ezio nodded " Apparently they committed suicide because they used too much black magic you should be careful too Ikuta " " Don't worry I'll be fine I have many 100% clear on horror games so I won't be scared of using black mana "
' Although that's only because dad is the scariest ' class begins and Ikuta happily eats his lunch feeling freer without having to be in the know of his father's presence ' Vedrfolnir is right knowing too much hurts '
' Ikuta , did you do something about the cultist that committed suicide ? " Ikuta was disappointed to learn that his moment of peace was over ' No " ' Then that means I'm investigating the right place "
Harkness checks every worker looking for the right person who was exploiting the patients and making them suffer ' I really should've learned some science ' Harkness knew it was too late and simply searched for any traces of black mana .
' I'll call you back when are you free ? " during magic practice , Ikuta learned about Harkness's discovery ' So it's like I said there are a lot of cultists all around the world I used an account and found that they have a lot of people is there a way to gather them all up ? or was mother just expecting them to gather around the bait like fish ? "
' I'm honestly not sure Dad doesn't know about the cult why do you think he just throws bait out randomly ? " ' Maybe it's the use of this era's technology "
' That could work " ' And won't mother be worried that something isn't working her way ? we did interrupt it keeping casualties to the bare minimum "
' And Dad already knows that someone is controlling the cult before and he doesn't know it's dead so all we have to do is find a scapegoat " Harkness thinks of it while Ikuta was thinking of using the mimic .
' How about we reincarnate the lich ? " ' That's possible ? " ' Yes I have done it myself and your idea of using the mimic doesn't make sense , but we can throw the lich into a corpse and make them meet the mimic and become the scapegoat so mother can forget about the cultist that controlled the cultist in the first place "
' That could work " ' then I'll take the sword " Harkness wondered how fitting it would be to use the black mage she is controlling ' Is it okay to leave the Lich with all of his memories ? "
' Yeah just make sure you handle the lich before they confirm they never controlled the small cult you exterminated if mother finds out you saved me it would be a very big problem "
Ikuta walks with Ezio , arriving at home to see so many equations written around the house " What's happening ? " " Sorry young master Vedrfolnir is taking a long time to map out everything "
Nidhogg apologizes " Nidhogg you don't have to apologize for Vedrfolnir " " Sorry young master this is taking longer than I thought I suppose Young mistress took a while to find a strong human who could feed her . "
Vedrfolnir was busy drawing the map " It's taking a while to complete this " Ikuta looked at the giant map showing a glimpse of what Yggdrasil looks like with three roots stretching downwards .
" Wow , that looks amazing " Ezio said " You still have to study Ezio " Ezio thought about his grades not wanting to have his games confiscated . Vedrfolnir draws the map using Midgard or Gaia as the center .
The map was drawn with only a few relevant things most importantly the world they stand Yggdrasil , the roots and the wellsprings as well as the bifrost that connects to asgard and to valhalla where the stag Eikthyrnir drawing was present in Valhalla whose antlers spilled water that didn't fall into Hvergelmir who was at Niflheim .
" Ikuta , why is Vedrfolnir making a map ? " Ezio asked during their break " He wants me to find mimisbrunnr " " Oh you mean that wellspring odin threw his eye in ? " Ikuta nodded " If I drink that do you think I'll be as wise as Odin ? "
" You might but " Ikuta said keeping Ezio's hopes down " It gives you a very big headache " " Huh why ? "
" Because Vedrfolnir said that the only reason a few could drink it is that there's so much knowledge think of it like food if you ate too much your stomach will hurt that's the same thing as your brain , the only reason Odin was able to drink it is that he was already very smart and wise plus even if you drank the water you still won't past the test "
" Huh how ? " Ezio was surprised because he knew that spring was technically a well of knowledge " Because the knowledge it has is old , for example back then they used a different language to describe things they wouldn't know modern words like okay , bros or modern knowledge like science and the scientific names "
" Huh so even if I drink it , I still won't pass ? " Ikuta nodded " Don't worry about it Ezio you just have to study hard " Ezio surrendered to studying very disappointed to learn how useless Mimisbrunnr actually is in the modern world .
" But you could get at the Urdarbrunnr " Ratatoskr said " I thought that was called Uroarbrunnr " " " Ahh doesn't matter that just proves how Vedrfolnir can also forget things " Ratatoskr said " But don't forget you can only learn runes in that well "
Ezio's ears drop seeing how much of his hopes were being raised and destroyed " Why did you even say it " " Because I'm trying to explain the ridiculous ways of how Odin earned his knowledge sacrificing an eye for a drink is ridiculous , hanging himself to prove he was worthy in front of Urdarbrunnr "
Ezio wasn't sure what Ratatoskr was trying to do " Ikuta our breaks over right ? " Ikuta nodded and continued to study . Vedrfolnir finished the map to help Ikuta reach Mimicbrunnr .
" See you tommorow Ezio " Vedrfolnir took the map to Ikuta " Alright I've drawn the map of the realms this will help you " Ikuta looked at the map with roots stretching to three places .
" Firstly you have already gone to Niflheim so this is your first step to Mimisbrunnr " Vedrfolnir made the map zoom in like it was some online maps .
" Now I have already constructed the map for you the important thing here is you have to pass Ginnungagap to be able to reach Jotunheim which is the location of Mimisbrunnr I already prepared a map for you for Jotunheim "
" Do I have to do it now ? " " No you can actually wait until the end of the season which is quite a long while so make sure to prepare .
Harkness looks at the Lich possessing the asylum worker ' To think I'd reincarnate it must be a blessing ' ' Harkness ? " ' What is it ? " ' I will be busy preparing to leave for Nidlheim and crossing Ginnungagap how is the Lich ? "
' They willingly possessed the weak character I gave him he won't find out and I already put your sword back , I'll be keeping an eye on him " ' Okay " ' By the way you have to know more about Ginnunugagap but it may have changed "
' I know Vedrfolnir is telling me more about it now " ' Great then you won't need my help but do be careful about traversing it no one has been cleaning up for a while " " Now young master you will have to be careful about any beings that appear "
" Ohho I know them , they're all trying to survive best make sure you have plenty of lifeforce " his father said " I'm sure it's not your first time fighting but you have to know this young master these monsters won't aim to kill you for no reason they are there to hunt you like a predator to prey and they have gone crazy in this void "
" Yeah they really are but you shouldn't just kill , Ikuta ? Remember ? " Ikuta knew what his father meant when his father was keeping him from mindless murder .
Ikuta fell after a spar with Louis " Okay now repeat the discipline of fighting " " Don't mindlessly kill , life can only survive by the death of another to eat but if it is for another then that's murder " " Good whenever you fight Ikuta never kill for the sake of murder , self-defense killing is good but think about why they want to kill you "
' Is this really the time for that ? ' " But they're life right ? " Vedrfolnir stopped , he thinks about the ethics he learned when learning about the current times " I suppose they are , they weren't blessed like the Aesirs , Vanirs nor the Olympians to be able to live in a bountiful world "
" So do I still have to kill them ? " Ikuta asked with a lot of guilt that his father had made him feel by feeling sorry about them " They're just hungry " Vedrfolnir peers at Ikuta's body " You could feed them your lifeforce "
" Ahh yeah good job Vedrfolnir " his father said " but would you have enough " Ikuta remembered the abyss " Ahh yeah I will " Ikuta phone called his father " Yep I can stop getting lifeforce from the abyss if that's your plan make sure to have fun out there "
His father's lack of care shows how much he is aware of the dangers of Ginnungagap and his strength " Thanks dad " Ikuta sighed with relief knowing that the abyss's space is now in his arsenal .
"I'll even make sure you get to eat more " and so Ikuta ate so much food to fill up the abyss space " Wow Ikuta " his friends were very surprise watching him eat .
His stomach fire was doing all the digesting while supplying enough life force for the abyss space . Ikuta also asked Petra to bring a plane so that he could use the Niflheim portal .
Finally , when it came , he took a quiz to excuse his absence for the last week of November and finally stood at the portal carrying his backpack .
" Young master the portal is ready and here is a change of batteries " Ikuta looked at the portal and waved back " See you soon Petra " Petra sighed knowing that wherever Ikuta was going was supposed to be dangerous but his face barely showed any fear .
Meanwhile , Harkness has been watching the Lich who inherited the name Richard ' He's been gathering up a lot of cultists and even planning several schemes now that he has the mimic that swallowed the ashes of gods '
Harkness wasn't worried because the Lich has little experience with taking care of the corpses of god ' By the way are you sure about feeding the monsters that sprout out of ginnungagap's seeds of creations ? "
' Yeah they kill because they're hungry " Harkness remembers how her mother also taught the same when there was a spider that she tried to kill ' I feel sorry about killing them so I ate a lot every day to make sure I have enough lifeforce to share to them that way they'll at least not try to kill me "
Ikuta walked through Niflheim walking in one direction recalling what Vedrfolnir instructed him to do " I've already prepared for how to navigate basically there is an end to the realm of Niflheim all you have to do is cross Niflheim and eventually you'll be close to the end "
Ikuta stood on the tallest mountain that stood the highest on the realm of frost proving it was round . He used his console to jump out of the realm of frost and experienced the chaotic gravity of Ginnungagap .
" But be careful young master without the fates monsters are bound to appear " Ikuta was ready to face such monsters and turned to look at the glowing globe of Niflheim seeing how beautiful it was despite having no sun to light up the realm of frost .
' It's probably the ice reflecting so much light ' he wondered if there was some source of light inside Niflheim and figured he could leave that one out for later adventures and walk to the path of floating rocks .
He used the seeing dark spell to look around the floating rocks and see some other tiny dots too ' I can see something far in the front ' he ran to the platforms and jumped to each of them .
' this is fun ' He felt free to feel nobody around watching stepping on the floating rocks wondering where the monsters of the void .
He walks through a very big platform and notices how it has been artificially clawed " Hmm ... ? " From the looks of the platform there were some scratches on it so he confirmed there were some monsters around ' I don't really have to do it but '
Ikuta felt like someone who had so much food beside a starving person and sighed ' Fine I did learn how to share my lifeforce from Vedrfolnir and since I have a lot ' he opened his hands remembering how Vedrfolnir taught him about Eikthyrnir .
' It's nothing compared to the stag but ' clear waters spilled out of his hands ' It's still good enough at least ' he watched his lifeforce turn into a puddle seeing months of work filling up the platform .
" I'll at least feed them " he looked at the dots but wanted to observe the monster's behaviour up close . He watched numerous monsters leap from different directions and drink the spring of water .
He looks at them drinking as much as they can hold and finds them similar to a baby drinking milk out of a bottle but more savage in a way ' I remember a documentary saying that gorging is very important , if a tree if full of fruit it's only logical to eat it all '
He remembered that was the same explanation that Claire gave him when he was worried if he had an eating disorder ' Looking at all of them I think I get why people had to gorge on food when they see it in the past ' some of the monsters grew full of the water and stood on guard hoping to stay around this spring of water that gave them life .
' it's like looking in the past ' he remembered that people had tried to predict how Ragnarok had occurred and one of the things that happened was cannibalism which didn't surprise Ikuta . He looked at the monsters who were full and slowly regaining some of their cognitive functions after drinking the spring .
Ikuta looked at them remembering he was supposed to go find Mimisbrunnr " I'll try my best to help you " he said and departed hearing the monsters follow him " hmm ? "
ns 15.158.61.20da2
