Asgard.
The noble hero was currently traveling across a vast plain. Ideally, he should have been throwing himself into battle to prevent the war as much as possible, but the reason he found himself on this random plain was quite simple.
“Lord Jörmungandr…”
Having become the guardian deity of the Kingdom of Trelinia through a grand ceremony, he had dispatched all the demon beasts on the battlefield in an instant.
To others, it seemed like just a dream. But to him, who had already encountered Lord Jörmungandr before, it was crystal clear.
He could vividly picture Jörmungandr gliding through the sky, effortlessly wiping out all the demon beasts sprawled across the battlefield.
“Is it true you have become a god?”
It left him puzzled. Moreover, when he suddenly declared he had truly become a god based on that ceremony, even greater questions arose.
Asgard. He was also a hero who had even caught a dragon that invaded his town.
A legendary dragon. It had horrifically attacked his village, burning everything to ashes right after breaking its seal at the surface. He had dealt with it directly, using his sword and the power of a hero.
That gave him confidence. Confidence that he could handle any abomination that came his way.
But this one was different. Just by showing up, Asgard once again felt the helplessness he had first experienced when facing a dragon.
And Lord Jörmungandr was even more terrifying. While he could defeat the dragon with his strength, he couldn’t think of any way to defeat Jörmungandr, no matter how hard he tried.
“My noble traits didn’t even work.”
His special trait dealt more damage to unholy foes.
It was another ability tied to his title of the noble hero, and at that moment, he considered Jörmungandr to be an unholy foe, so it activated.
Yet even with that, he couldn’t land a single scratch on Jörmungandr.
That solid scales. The dark scales made up of an unknown material deflected all his strikes.
At the very least, he needed to wield a weapon. If he swung his sword, he might catch something.
Yet, with any weapon he carried, he couldn’t even chip away at a scale. No matter what, he couldn’t think of a single way to defeat him.
But then…
“What? That wasn’t a god?!”
What the heck was that? It was scary.
An overwhelming force possessed by Jörmungandr, who wasn’t even a god. Then, if the current Jörmungandr was called a god, just how strong was he?
With a mortal body, he was that strong. Now that he had acquired divine status after the birth of the Saintess, how powerful could he be?
Asgard trembled at the chilling thought.
“…He was indeed massive.”
While he was quite far from the battlefield. Still, he saw Lord Jörmungandr filling the sky, wrapping the entire world with his presence.
Just from the size alone, he was more enormous than the Jörmungandr Asgard had faced before.
He had a thought, exaggerated as it may be. Could it wrap around this world?
“Ugh…”
Asgard frowned as he climbed the high plain.
It had already been a week since he began exploring this plain. He had come looking for an abominable beast that supposedly devoured people, but where the heck did it vanish?
“Well, it would be hard to find anyway.”
While the plain provided excellent visibility, it was also incredibly vast.
Just how huge could it possibly be? Standing on the highest mound in the plain, looking around, there was nothing but flat land stretching to the edge of the horizon—no buildings or anything else.
It had been a week since he had seen nothing but this green expanse. Considering his speed was dozens of times faster than others, it was a ridiculous expanse.
“At this rate, am I ever going to find it…?”
Before he could find the hidden abomination among the plains, he worried he might just grow old and die.
Holding onto his fading sanity, Asgard forced strength into his legs. His muscles contracted tightly, and in an instant, he sprang up like a spring.
In one leap, he landed several meters away. The scenery around him continued to stretch like a panorama as the hero kept running.
Had he been sprinting for three days without a break? Heroes like him were capable of surpassing the limits of living beings, so running for three days straight was a ridiculous feat.
As he continued to run endlessly, a sign appeared before him.
You have traveled 10% from the entrance of the Arkel Great Plain.
ヾ(≧▽≦*)o
Fighting!
——
“……”
He was speechless. After three full days of running, and now he had only covered 10%?!
It was disheartening. Ultimately, the hero collapsed onto the vast grassland, letting all the strength slip from his legs.
“What the hell am I doing…?”
Looking back, there seemed to be no plan. The Arkel Great Plain was a notorious labyrinth said to be richer in unexplored terrain than explored.
It was said that the very few people who managed to gauge its vastness were those who sent dozens of high-level mages from end to end of the plain using signal transmission magic, and they recorded the time it took to verify it.
“I remember them saying the signal transmission magic traveled 500 meters per second… and it took two days to get across.”
That was an unfathomable figure. Just thinking about how huge it was, Asgard didn’t even want to calculate it further.
Everyone was worn out. He would need to rest here for a few days.
Thinking that, Asgard pulled out his backpack.
Inside it was a variety of camping gear. The supplies that could last for months, along with the meat that had been preserved with magic to keep it fresh.
Just another aspect of the spatial backpack. Despite its normal appearance, its inner space was vast beyond imagination, allowing him to carry an unthinkable amount of gear.
Thanks to that, Asgard could enjoy an unexpected camping trip.
He unpacked his camping tools, set up the tent, and lit a fire to roast some meat.
And when he took out the magically preserved meat…
“Ahhh…”
It looked delicious. Watching the meat sizzling over the fire made his mouth water.
With every sizzle of the meat on the grill, the dripping juices drove Asgard wild with hunger.
No matter how iconic a hero he was, he was still an ordinary young man.
It was only natural for him to become helpless in front of delicious meat.
Just as he was about to take a bite of the perfectly cooked meat…
“Thank you for the meal—— Uck?!”
Kuru-rung——!
With a thunderous sound, the ground beneath him collapsed.
“No!!”
He rushed to catch the falling meat, but it was too late. He could manage to hold onto the meat safely, but there was nowhere to escape in this surrounding chaos.
“What the…?”
The massive plain was crumbling. More accurately, endless cracks were tearing the plain apart.
There was no escape route. Asgard scrambled to gather his backpack while scanning the area.
“Damn it……!”
He had no room to place his feet. The entire area within dozens of kilometers was crumbling, dropping into an endless abyss.
Under normal circumstances, he would have relied on his heroic powers to rise above this.
But this calamity felt unusual.
It was evidently caused by something, not a mere natural event. Perhaps it was the work of that abomination he had been seeking.
So, Asgard braced himself against the rocks and the falling meat as he plummeted below the surface.
How far did he fall?
The hero finally landed on the ground.
—Thud!
A smooth surface.
It was a floor completely out of place for a land covered in rubble.
However, that wasn’t what was important.
“The meat…!!”
Desperately clinging to the meat, the hero looked down at what he had in hand, his aura flaring.
“Ahhh…”
He could dodge the stones and pebbles, but he couldn’t prevent the dirt dust. As a result, the beautiful meat he had was nowhere to be seen, just replaced by a clump of dirt in his hand.
“……”
The hero despaired. Forcing his nearly collapsing body to rise, he began scanning the surroundings.
It was then he noticed the ground beneath him.
A dull, dark surface greeted him with a suspicious shine.
“……Feels kind of familiar?”
Even as he infused his sword with aura to swing, it showed no signs of marking it.
The only material he knew that looked like this was one thing.
“Lord Jörmungandr?”
Panicking, he rushed to survey the surroundings.
Following the enormous body below him, he indeed saw a colossal figure stretched out like a serpent.
Of course, it was so gigantic that all he could perceive was a lengthy, straight body, but with Jörmungandr’s immense size, it was only natural that he couldn’t detect any curvature.
As he followed the body of Jörmungandr, he suddenly noticed something resting on it.
“Hm?”
It was massive.
An enormous leg, easily reaching several hundred meters tall.
A dark magical energy oozed from that huge leg, which lay across a massive, shadowy body, extending only the limbs slightly.
“……”
He distinctly remembered how that abomination was described.
It was said to be a monster that was dozens of kilometers long, with eight legs and scarlet scales.
Let’s see.
He saw four legs emerging.
Well, if just one side emerged, that would be enough.
Moreover, its sinister, black talons gleamed menacingly.
And last but not least, the red scales.
“…This is definitely the abomination I was contracted for.”
Asgard slumped down. The hero, always steadfast, felt his resolve crumble, flapping helplessly like a piece of paper.
“What… have I done?”
The hero’s hollow muttering scattered across the vast crevices of the terrain.
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