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“Right, right! I almost forgot your name, little squirrel,”

Loki looked at the large squirrel that was sometimes seen wandering around the branches of the world tree. The beautiful squirrel was actually filled with a large quantity of divine power and could be said to be a legendary divine beast.

Ratatoskr was the messenger of the gods, sending messages from branch to branch from god to god… however, it suddenly noticed someone sitting on a branch and thought it was some human.

It was uncommon for any mortal to reach the world tree so easily, but there was already a big city down there, made of many mortals across the world that had gone through the turbulent seas and reached this tree, seeking riches and adventures.

However, for a mortal to reach this high in the sky, they clearly required something more than just the ability to fly, as there were several layers of pressure that emerged with the higher altitude they flew, inhibiting those with magic capable of allowing them to fly into the skies from advancing any further.

So those that have reached high in the branches were mortals amongst mortals, powerful heroes of legend… they were uncommon but existed, and the squirrel had seen various of them firsthand.

It was said that those capable of reaching the top of the Yggdrasil Tree would be given the blood of the gods and become gods themselves…

But how many people had been able to accomplish such a feat?

Were the legends true, anyway?

Well, in such legends, every hero that had gone into the higher floors of the Yggdrasil Tree never stepped down anymore, strengthening the beliefs of such a legend.

After all, the World’s Tree could also be considered to be one of the greatest trials in the entire world of Yggdrasil, as its interior was an immense maze.

Gods, of course, were able to do whatever they wanted. If one wanted to sit on the branch of the world tree, there wasn’t much stopping them from doing so.

The God of Chaos enjoyed the view from high in the tree and admired the beauty of the world… a world that has been shaped through eons of history.

“What have you been up to, Ratatoskr? We just had a meeting with the Gods, so I came here to relax.” Said the God of Chaos.

“I-I am delivering some messages…” said Ratatoskr.

“Oh? May I see them?” asked the God of Chaos.

“L-Lord Loki, it would be better if you didn’t intrude in the privacy of other Gods…” said the squirrel.

“Bleh, so boring…” sighed Loki.

“T-Then, I will be going. Please make sure to not… infect the tree branches with your chaos…” said the squirrel.

Loki smiled back at the squirrel, a smile that seemed filled with an eerie dreadfulness that made the squirrel almost feel that time had stopped.

“Fufu, don’t worry~,” he said.

“M-May you have your own fun then…” said the squirrel before walking away hastily.

Loki looked at the squirrel walk away, as he desired to touch that very cute and fluffy tail one of these days, but that might have to wait for another day in the far future.

He looked down into Midgard, sensing the presence of the Calamities…

A smile surged on his lips.

“The Arachneia Empress is growing bigger by the day… I wonder what’s next…” he thought with a smile.



Meanwhile, within the Continent of Midgard, there was a Vampire sitting over a seat while reading many documents over a desk. Despite being an important figure within the entire Vampire Family behind the scenes in the Kingdom of Albraun, he was not devoid of paperwork… after all, he had to do a lot of things behind the scenes, which included illegal transaction deals and more.

His long silver-white hair shone brightly as the moonlight encompassed it from the window. His crimson-red eyes looked into the documents as he signed the last one of the batch. His eyes quickly fixated on the man standing in front of him, a young Vampire Subordinate that had been reporting him things.

He was a resilient young man, capable of resisting his bad treatment pretty well, although being a Vampire already brought a great deal of resilience and regeneration factor, so it was probably thanks to that as well. Who knows…

“I hope you’ve brought me good news. I am very busy here…” he said.

“My lord… Catarina’s team… Well, it was reported that they ended up finding the Ghost woman. Still, they also found the group of Priests and Mercenaries sent to exterminate the Goblin Menace near the Duchy of Affnaria… One thing led to the other and- Agh!”

The young Vampire’s neck was suddenly grasped by an invisible force, making it impossible for him to breathe properly. He felt like coughing now, but he couldn’t really cough either. He felt as if he was asphyxiating at every passing second. The mercilessness of the one doing this knew no bounds.

“Aghhh! P-Please… spare me, my lord! Unngghhh…” he cried.

The man in front of him seemed pissed. This was already… how many times has it been already?

Problems after problems all circling around this one woman…

This one damn woman who he thought he was able to easily get rid of alongside her damned family!

So why? Why was she pestering him even now, after her death?!

This felt like irony.

This one-woman… was she so relentless she wouldn’t let him rest even after she died?

And now that he realized it was that very woman… That very woman… that one that after the revelation in the Duchy of Benettina finally revealed herself as that witch…

“You’re telling me my special Sunlight-resistant group… led by Catarina, lost to her?! But weren’t they A Rank in power?! Wasn’t Catarina able to breakthrough?! Such a useless investment!” roared the man, hitting the young vampire man to the floor mercilessly…

BAAM!

“Ugh… My lord… It wasn’t your fault…” he muttered.

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