Chapter 1 The Moment

The instant that ancient, feeble voice rang out, Angelica trembled violently, then stared in disbelief towards the Iron Throne. She was no stranger to the voice; it had appeared in her mental world more than once. But in the real world, this was the first time she had heard a Gu Sheng speak!

Even a caretaker who had undergone long-term training and could always maintain a calm mind could hardly suppress the excitement she felt at this moment. The young caretaker girl was almost moved to tears. "Gu Sheng, you've finally awakened?"

"Angelica, thank you for your care over the years, and thank you all," Odin's voice echoed in the empty hall. His vocal organs had decayed to the point that he could only use crystals as a medium for spellcasting, relying on vibrating the surrounding air to produce sound. "But now I need to speak with my old friend. You and this Light Seeker should leave first. Also, notify those above to cease their pointless fighting. These travelers from beyond the Barrier are our guests."

"High Priest Bollenpaar has already gone to the Upper City," Angelica lowered her head. "He should be meeting with the Speaker of the Steam Council by now."

"No, that's not enough. The Steam Council are all dutiful people, but they won't easily believe Bollenpaar..."

A wisp of light abruptly appeared in the air. It trembled, gradually condensing into a small sphere and floating towards Angelica. Odin injected his mental power into this small sphere as a token. "Send a few more people with this. Only then will the Steam Council believe you."

Clearly, although Odin had been silently slumbering on the Iron Throne for hundreds of years, his spirit was still active and had been paying attention to the City of Twilight. He also understood the Steam Council and knew the characteristics of short-lived humans. The Gu Sheng had been completely silent for hundreds of years. For humans with lifespans of only a few decades, the last time the Gu Sheng issued an edict was several generations ago. Therefore, the people of the Steam Council probably wouldn't easily believe the news brought by the caretakers, so he made some additional arrangements.

Angelica and Wendell accepted their orders and left. In the vast hall of the Iron Throne, only Hao Ren and Vivian remained, along with a dying ancient "god."

"Old friend, long time no see," Odin spoke first. "It seems you're still safe. And who is this beside you?"

"Oh, my name is Hao Ren," Hao Ren said proactively. "A friend of Vivian's."

"A peculiar name... Where do you come from? Have the Nine Realms reopened?"

Clearly, Odin was well aware of the end of Ragnarok. He knew there was no life left in the Nine Realms, and Hao Ren and Vivian must have come from outside.

Vivian found this question difficult to answer and could only explain it vaguely, "We traveled a very long way. Yggdrasil has left its original position, left it... farther than you can imagine."

Odin was silent for a moment. "How is the world now?"

This was a broad question, but Vivian knew what he really wanted to ask. She took a breath and said calmly, "The age of gods is over. You can probably guess—the Norse pantheon was among the last to fall. The rule of the gods has ended, with less than ten percent surviving."

"Oh, then I suppose the Demon Hunters rule the world now."

Vivian shook her head. "No, it's humans."

Odin was silent for even longer this time, but in the end, he didn't ask anything. Instead, he sighed in relief. "Oh, that's good."

Vivian's eyes widened slightly. "I didn't expect you to say that—weren't you always disdainful of humans?"

"...That was a long time ago, so long ago it feels like a past life," Odin seemed to sigh. "That's how I was, how we all were—except for you, the anomaly. Vivian Ansester, you were right. Many of the things you said back then were right. We outsiders ultimately failed to gain a foothold in this world."

Vivian looked in astonishment at the old man on the Iron Throne. This Odin was completely different from the King of Gods she remembered. The passage of two thousand years seemed to have completely changed this once-proud ruler. She couldn't help but recall the Odin of the mythological era—ruling over the humans of the Norse region from on high, maintaining his authority with thunderous methods, cold, strict, and full of majesty. Although he was among the more lenient of the ancient gods towards humans, he had never regarded the Earth natives as intelligent beings to be treated as equals. He used human souls to forge armies, human offerings to build palaces, and strict divine laws to rule Midgard—but now, hearing that humans had ultimately ruled the Earth, he let out a sigh: That's good.

"Old friend, you've changed a lot," Vivian couldn't help but say. "Actually, I never dared to believe that you were the 'Gu Sheng' of this City of Twilight. Although I suspected it, I just didn't dare to think that way. You've been sitting here protecting humans for two thousand years? What changed your mind?"

"The efforts of the humans themselves," Odin said slowly. "Do you see this city? Those huge machines, those boilers, that steam power, and those runic inscriptions everywhere..."

"Of course, I saw them," Vivian nodded. "Did you teach them that?"

"Only a small portion of the runic inscriptions were, the steam power they discovered themselves from the giants' legacy," Odin said. "Hard to believe, isn't it? I once thought of them as inferior beings, but they are... so full of talent."

Vivian frowned. "What exactly happened back then?"

This time, Odin didn't speak for a long time, as if he needed to recall carefully to remember that world-shattering war. Finally, he spoke, "On the day that world collapsed, everything was destroyed. When I crawled out of Fenrir's belly, all I saw was a sky and earth burning fiercely. I looked towards Asgard and found that the city walls had already collapsed—then I knew that my kingdom had completely fallen. Then, many triangular black aircraft descended from the torn sky. Demon Hunters began to enter Asgard and eliminate all living beings, so I could only flee from there.

"I passed through one realm after another, and everywhere I looked was scorched earth. I was already seriously injured at the time, but I didn't stop for a moment. Finally, I came to Midgard. This realm was also gradually being destroyed, but the situation here was slightly better than in other places. A branch of Yggdrasil happened to encircle Midgard, and the vine mountains slightly blocked the magical energy storms from Asgard, so a few city-states in the hinterlands of Midgard still survived. In order to recuperate, I decided to settle here temporarily.

"In the beginning, I never thought about protecting the humans here, let alone that I would sit on this Iron Throne for two thousand years. I was just glad that I had finally found a place to rest and recuperate, and that I still had many servants to command: Humans were weak and foolish, but easier to control. That's what I thought at the time, old friend, you should know that's what many people thought at the time."

Odin didn't have much emotional fluctuation when recalling these things, but that low, weak voice itself gave people a strong sense of oppression. Vivian nodded lightly. "In any case, you became their Gu Sheng."

"Yes, many things happened in between, and somehow, I ended up sitting on this Iron Throne," Odin squeezed out a chuckle. "You wanted to know what changed me, didn't you? It was everything here. My kingdom collapsed, my people died out, the allies and adopted sons I once trusted—they were the culprits of Ragnarok, the divine power I was once so proud of—didn't play any role at all. The glorious Asgard and Vanaheim vanished like smoke, and in the end, it was these 'mortals' of Midgard that I once disdained who survived. To relieve boredom, I taught them some runic symbols, and in just over a decade, they used these runes as skillfully as I did. I gave them some relics of the giants, and they actually managed to create steam power from that scrap metal themselves. In a situation where the whole world was burned to ashes, they built this City of Twilight, relying only on the foundations of a few city-states. It's even more magnificent than Asgard—and even in this situation, they still haven't given up hope. Old friend, do you know why I changed my view of these 'mortals'? Because I suddenly realized one thing..."

Odin paused for a few seconds and let out a sigh. "They are not inferior beings, they are the masters of this world. Their weakness is not because they were born weak. Once we so-called gods vanish like smoke, these humans... will become incredibly powerful."

Vivian exhaled. "This world, in the end, belongs to them."