Chapter 321 - 321: River Once Again
"I will destroy Midgard myself…
...and including everyone in it."
"...Father."
"How quaint. The apple never really falls far from the tree."
Gerald let out a small smirk as he turned to look at Van. For Vanya, this was the first time he was seeing his father like this; he had always held a soft tone towards her, only raising his voice when it was his only choice. Granted, she had only been with him for a month or so, but she hadn't left his side even once since then.
Artemis had told her stories about Van, how he doesn't hesitate to do anything extreme when it involves anyone close to him-- and it would seem that she wasn't lying. She felt a slight happiness growing inside of her, of course, since her father chose her and the other forest giants.
If she heard it right, then this golden-haired man and the people in his story were her father's friends, who he had known for quite a while now. For him to choose her over them truly warmed her heart. She had lived for tens of thousands of years; she might have been asleep for most of it, but her mentality should be multiple times more mature than her father… and yet she could not help but somewhat instinctively act like a child in front of him.
It was a weird feeling that even with her age, she could not find an answer-- but if there was one thing she learned from her mother and brother, is that the number of years you have lived does not truly equate to the level of your emotions.
Her mother was emotional; perhaps even too sentimental as it caused her her death. As for her brother, along the way, something inside him snapped that made him the way he was in his final years.
The Aesir were the same-- they could just be considered as people; driven by their emotions and needs, skewed over time. As for the Vanir, they were the tamer ones. If the person that Gerald was trying to find truly was the leader of the Vanir, then Vanya was also interested in meeting her, as she had heard about her before.
"This Latanya person, I think mother had mentioned her to me before," Vanya muttered, "She said she evolved from a weapon that came from her original world?"
"...I suppose," Van shrugged his shoulders, "She's supposed to have been owned by Hermes, but the dynamics are a little complicated."
"Hermes… that's grandfather?" Vanya's eyes could not help but light up as soon as she heard Hermes's name being uttered.
"Long story, but you could say that," Van let out a short but deep sigh before turning his attention towards Gerald, "So how do we get to Vanaheim?"
"Unless you're authorized to use the River, then the Branch is the only way to go," Gerald then quickly answered, no longer minding the fact that Van threatened to kill his brother just a few moments ago, "The River here in Muspelheim should still be intact, you should try using it. We've all tried, but none of us could successfully use it."
"That is because you need to have the blood of the Aesir," Vanya mentioned, "Mother, and even Athena are not able to use it. But perhaps we could use the bones of Mag--"
"Did you just say Athena?"
Before Vanya could finish her words, Van suddenly interrupted her, "Athena was with Artemis?"
Of course, it made sense. Athena was only a few feet away from Artemis when Hermes's body exploded. Even if they were sent here at a different time, it should only be a few years apart at most.
"...Yes? But she disappeared a few hundred years after I was born; saying she wanted to find out more about this world."
"...How old are you, exactly?"
"12,200… I forgot the specifics. But I heard mother and Athena had been here millennia before I was born."
"Millenia?"
"It means thousands of years, Van."
"I know what it means," Van quickly waved his hand, "But I am a bit confused, Vanya. When we last saw each other, your mother said that she could already feel you growing inside of her. It took… thousands of years for you and Ymir to be born?"
"Oh shit," Gerald quickly commented on the side, "Could it be they aren't really your children?"
"Stop that nonsense!" Ymir once again furrowed her eyebrows as she looked at Gerald, "Van is my father, I sense a connection with him!"
Hearing Vanya's voice once again increasing in volume, Gerald only raised both his hands in defeat as he shrugged his shoulders.
"The biology of those that were sent here are entirely different," Vanya let out a short but deep breath before continuing to speak, "That you and the other so-called System Holders could live more than hundreds of years means that your aging process has become slower in this time is enough proof of that. Whatever it is that affects your growth, affected my mother as well, and that would include the time she would have supposedly given birth to us. My father should know it as well, that the circumstance of which an Olympian is born is also completely different from--"
"It's fine, Vanya. We get it."
Before Vanya could completely defend the authenticity of her relationship with him, Van once again waved his hand as he once again asked her about Athena. But alas, she hasn't seen her since she left to find out the truth of this world. But if she was still alive somewhere, then Van was sure that they were bound to meet sooner or later.
"She did say something that I could still remember until this day," Vanya then mentioned, "She said that if she just finds the woman who is called Evangeline, then she would have all the answers. Do you know who she is, father?"
"...I don't."
"Isn't that your mother?" Gerald quickly said, "Seriously, man. Just how much of this world are you truly involved in? Next, we're going to find out that this place was specifically made for you."
"Your… mother?"
"It doesn't matter," Van said, "We should focus on the matter at hand. You said that there was a River nearby?"
"Yes," Gerald then completely changed his tone as they got back to their original topic, "With our speed, we should get there in a few hours."
And without even waiting for the two, Van immediately stood up from his seat and patted his pants, "Let's go then. I want to see if I could pass through it. Charles bombed the River that was connected to Jotunheim before I could try to use it."
And a few hours later, just like Gerald had mentioned it, the three arrived in the River of Muspelheim. And unlike Jotunheim, which had a market leading to it, the Gate of Muspelheim was completely empty. It wasn't just here, even with them running for hundreds of miles, Van had not seen a single sign of civilization-- it was as if Muspelheim was some sort of wasteland.
But just like Jotunheim, the Gate was covered and made with a combination of wood and gold. Whoever built them was probably the same person, Van thought. He couldn't really take a good look at the white streams of light connecting the different realms back in Jotunheim, and now that he had a clear view of it, he could not help but let out an exclaim of awe.
The streams of light truly did look like a river, with even a sort of ripple and wave on them as they sort of wiggled, seemingly alive.
"Nope, still can't use it."
Van's amazement was then quickly disrupted as he heard Gerald, who was trying to take a step onto the River that led to Vanaheim. But it was as if there was a sort of invisible wall in front of him, not allowing him to go further.
Gerald even tried to punch through it, causing a sort of light to ripple from his punch. Seeing this, Van could not help but slightly raise an eyebrow. He had seen this happen before, back when Hercules also punched the edge of the Pit. If this truly was Earth, then was it possible that what happened to the Earth of Olympus happened to his world as well?
"I also can't use it. There's this mysterious force that is stopping my movement."
A long and deep sigh then whispered into an's ears as Vanya also tried to step on the River. She was currently holding Magni's bones, but even then, the River gave her the same treatment as it did to Gerald.
"What about you, father? You haven't tried yet."
Van did not really have any hopes of being able to pass through the River, so he just shrugged his shoulders as he lifted his foot, moving it towards the edge of the platform…
...without any resistance or whatsoever. Even more, he could feel his foot being sucked into River. Van, however, retracted his foot instead of fully extending it on the banks of the River.
"..."
"How is it, father?" Vanya quickly asked, "You can't use it as well?"
"...No." Van, however, lied. If he were to use the River, then that would mean leaving her daughter behind. And that was something that he would never do, no matter how short.
"Well, at least now we know," Gerald shook his head as he let out a sigh, "Guess you're not so special after--"
Before Gerald could finish his words, the look in his eyes completely changed as he turned his head to the side.
"Isn't this a coincidence," he then said as he looked towards the old man that suddenly appeared out of nowhere, "Did you come here to destroy this gate…
...Charles?"