The boy had lost count of the times he had tripped over protruding rocks, stones and roots, as well as collided with or brushed against low branches. He didn't know why he was fleeing, but it didn't take Odin's wisdom to know that the god of deception was not on good terms with the inhabitants of the place.

An arc projectile passed a meter in front of his eyes going to end up who knows where. Then, a sword came to rest with its edge on his middle back in a menacing manner. One distracted him and another took advantage of the opportunity. But Donsuk also found himself surrounded and the ice giant, seeing his master in trouble, followed suit.

"Can we reiterate our relationships?"

"Only if he's done with your punishment and with you out of our kingdom", a soft, masculine voice threatened serenely, belonging to the hooded man who had Donsuk cornered against the grassy ground.

"And since when do the white elves own Vanaheim, huh? As I recall, thanks to my patron, you lost your kingdom."

The taunt was not lost on the ambushers, as the sinews of their bows strained and their slender swords pressed.

"Rechorcholis, they no longer respect the laws of hospitality in the nine kingdoms," he commented pessimistically, wincing at the awkward position he was in.

"We respect and I would respect those same sacred laws with anyone, but less with you, dies of tricks."

The humid aroma in the air was easily and quickly overshadowed by a crude and acid one capable of souring the expression, just as it was happening at these precise moments.

"Last words, filthy serpent", he conceded, causing a slight cut to the side of Donsuk's gullet.

"Fuck it, Nix, when are you going to show up?"

The "Knight of Nottingham" deity advises you to say the following if you wish to survive.

The blue screen lit up in front of him without anyone noticing.

(Are we going to do magic now?)

"NI~IX!"

The sword rose in the air ready to do him damage, surely he criticized his hostage, but a voice with familiar words stopped his action dead.

"◼️◼️◼️."

Many, if not all, turned their gazes from him to Hansung, with a sheen of cold sweat, round eyes, and rigid muscles. Whispers were heard. At last, an angry growl followed by an incredulous tone of voice.

"I won't ask how the hell do you know that, because it's not up to me to ask the questions", the one who seemed to be the leader of the group ended up taking off his hood, revealing an elf with a small portion of his face covered in scars from something else. what are you calling "Get your asses up and follow us, unless you like living with creatures that aren't friendly to outsiders."

(An elf. And where are the wizards and dwarves?)

The deity "Typhon" claps loudly thanking the other deity.

The "Cowardly Warrior" deity delights in the fear of others.

Fifteen had shown themselves to light at the time of capture, but this number only tripled when the main threat was denied. They all wore peculiar clothes that were in tune with the forest around them, being their weapons the ones that differentiated them from each other; short swords, sabers, spears, and bows, most of all. Five escorted them closely, with the leader at the forefront.

Hansung vehemently approached the elf leaning forward looking at the uninjured side of his face with a stoic expression that swayed slightly to an irritable one.

(Let's just try so my blood doesn't stain the green grass.)

"I understand that you do not belong to this world. With all the respect I have for your race, and if you don't mind..."

"Humans had to be the ones who received the most blessings", he muttered with obvious annoyance without noticing the opposite. "The same thing happened to us that will happen to your kind if they don't put aside their greed and selfishness and unite against the greater evil."

This time he formed a longer distance in order to avoid human contact, leaving Hansung with a thousand questions.

(The same will happen to us. I like to solve problems from time to time, but when they are cryptic they become a nuisance.)

He slowed down his speed letting Loki and the Jotun get ahead of him enough to start a dialogue, but first to speak was Donsuk.

"As you heard, they are outsiders in this place too, why do you think so?"

It was the first time he had taken a completely serious expression since he had rescued him from the hospital. The question with clues was not a difficult question, the answer was.

"Just what you're thinking. To put it briefly, the particle accelerator failure destroyed the mana walls that protected our world of astral deities and absolute and lesser evils. We don't know who or how. We were the lucky ones in a million civilizations. Unprovoked evil was met with by white and dark elves, dwarves, Ent, giants, and many more, with no higher authority to protect them."

"And where were the Aesir? Just like every civilization, anyone needs a pillar of faith based on superior entities. What happened to the gods of those worlds?"

He had the accumulated intention for more than a decade. What was mythology suddenly became reality. But if they were once physical, that raises the question why they are no longer in the flesh.

"I guess we'll never know that. But at least we were absurdly lucky to have more religions than everyone else."

And there it was in front of them. At first it seemed like a mountain, but then it found its shape; a cube with inward-sloping walls, with a huge city and a fortress on top of it and a wide and long bridge with the only access that connected to a gorge through which they began to travel. The views over the left shoulders were only synonymous with magnificence, or with a war.