Deep sleep.
I know that I’m in that state. So much that I quickly realized that even in my dream, I am also sleeping deeply.
“Rion, can you hear me?”
I heard Solana’s voice.
Knowing I am dreaming yet still opening my eyes, felt strange.
I was startled to see a pair of large golden eyes so close to my face.
“S-Solana?”
“Mm. Sorry about earlier….…”
The goddess scratched her cheek, looking embarrassed.
“We all managed to get back to the gold coin……but we did something wrong to your mother.”
“Uhm, this place is……?”
Solana’s eyes wandered for a moment, but then she cleared her throat.
“Good job, Rion. You are now in a deep sleep. I mean, this is your dream.”
After that incident, we left the house, then……
No, my mind is fuzzy. Maybe my body was exhausted, and I fell asleep as it is.
“Don’t worry, you’re sleeping in a safe place right now.”
As Solana moved, a golden trail passed like a shooting star.
“Well, now let’s start —there are scenes that can only be shown in a dream you see.”
After she said that, there came a loud wind sound. I braced myself. But the strong wind that I thought would sweep me away never came.
“Don’t worry, I’m just going to let you look at the old days.”
“……Old days?”
“Mm, the world thousands of years ago. A story from when the world and the gods were born. And…… It’s probably a story about why you’re being targeted.”
The wind is still howling. But Solana’s voice was clearly audible. With Solana’s help, I’m just being shown somewhere in the past, I’m not standing in a real place.
I squint into the darkness. What appeared before me is an ice field. But the ice seems to move little by little, and they eventually collapse like a waterfall near an edge.
“G-glacier ……?”
It’s a giant glacier I’ve never seen or imagined.
Even if my eyes gradually get used to it, I can’t really believe its size. Solana and I are hovering in the air, looking out over the vast land—I mean only if there was something that could be called land far below.
“Even I can’t describe the size of this glacier correctly.”
“Solana?”
“Well, to call something ‘big,’ you need something ‘small.’ But this was before our world was created. So there’s nothing that can be called ‘small.’”
My head is spinning. That was probably best explanation Solana can give.
“The glacier will drop at the edge, right?”
“Yes.”
Time and time again, chunks of ice fall into a depth of darkness. The sound of ice being separated from the glacier sounded like a cracking bell. The bottom was not visible. It fell endlessly to the very end. On the other side of the glacier, separated by nothingness, I could faintly see the abyss.
Was the faint red color due to a burning fire?
Sandwiched between ice and fire, is a vertical gap. We’re now floating above it.
“Ginnunga Gap —this void, called the Ginnunga Rift, occupied most of the world.”
The glacier began to grow ice blocks at the edge of the rift. The ice blocks continued to grow, drawing in the mist and sleet from the surrounding area.
“….It’s incredible.”
It was an obvious thing to say, but that was all I could say.
The scale is different. The glacier was so wide that it was impossible to see its end. The mist that traced the ice masses could cover the entire country we live in, no, the entire world.
It was a view that could not be measured. If Solana hadn’t been here, I might have gone crazy.
“When I woke up, my memory wasn’t strong enough to show you all this. Now I can show you what you need to know.”
As she speaks, a change occurs in the ice block. Mist and sleet were blown away by a warm wind. Occasionally, summer-like hot air would blow over the mountain range-like ice blocks.
“The other side of the gap is hot, with flame burning. I think hot air was coming from there.”
I wonder if it should be called the encounter between fire and ice. The ice begins to melt, and eventually a drop falls into the rift. Then the droplet took on the shape of a human. His eyes opened, hair grew, and then he floated in the gap.
“It was a collision between cold magic and hot magic. This being was the first living thing to be born into the crack. A titan called Ymir.”
The first cry of a Titan echoed through the rift. I have goosebumps. Even though I told myself that this was a dream, it stirred up some primal feeling.
“Ymir, who was born first, had the ‘power of creation’ to create something.”
As if to show me that power, light gathers in Ymir’s hands.
“Drifting in the gap, he gives birth to titans, like himself. And then, he made smaller beings, he gave birth to the ancestors of the gods. However—”
Solana’s voice trembled.
“Because Ymir was a primordial being, he was also an arrogant titan.”
With his enormous arms, Ymir grasped the gods he had created. Then he brought them into to his mouth.
“H-he ate them…?”
I can’t help but gasp.
“That’s right. He made them and ate them. His lack of kindness sealed his fate.”
Eventually, a particularly eye-catching god was born. With beard and sharp eyes, a fearless looking god stared at Ymir.
“A certain god fought him, and eventually killed Ymir. Then he stole the ‘power of creation’. Only then did he finally begin to create the world.”
That fearless god wield the “power of creation” that he took from Ymir. Light then filled the void of Ginnunga.
“The later chief god saw the successes and failures of Ymir. His success was when he gave birth to the gods. His failure was when he was killed by a god.”
Solana paused.
“I mean…… the new god thought, ‘I can do better.’”
The sea, land, and stars are created in a place that was empty. It seems that other gods and humans were also created at this time. The sun rose from the farthest reaches and illuminated the world of birth as if to bless it.
“If the special power that resides in God is called a skill, then the ‘power of creation’ of the titan Ymir would be called the first skill.”
Then time rushed before my eyes. Hundreds, thousands, or tens of thousands of years unfolded in my dream.
In the beginning of the newly created land, there were only rocks. But once god created a tree, humans starts growing them too. When god released fish into the sea, humans made a boat out of wood and sail. The blessings of the wise god are multiplied by human beings through effort, ingenuity, and cultivation.
“…… It’s amazing.”
“Maybe the Chief God knew that the more creatures there are, the more interesting this world will be.”
The world is now enveloped in lush greenery. The place where the huge rift used to open its mouth and swallow things into darkness is now inhabited by many creatures.
“……Solana”
“Yes?”
I rubbed my eyes. Most people on earth are human, but from time-to-time small figures appear. Something as tall as a child. They are doll-sized and has wings on their back.
“Ah, that’s a dwarf, Aalv, Dwerg—they are also called fairies.”
It seems that there were races other than humans a long time ago. The land of the gods, the land of men, the land of fairies. All of them seemed to shine brightly, but I noticed that there was a black country in a corner of the world.
“It’s the land of titans.”
The black part of the world is simply ominous. It’s as if something that has been driven out of the light is solidified.
“Ymir wasn’t completely out of power, the titans he created in the rift secretly hid him and finally revived him after many years.”
Red-black flames erupt from the land of titans. A black wave swept over me like a ripple. Then the horn sounded.
It was Gjallarhorn’s sound.
“M-monsters…..?”
“It’s not just good creatures that have multiplied with humans.”
Goblins, skeletons, kobolds, orcs and many more monsters. Accompanied by monsters, titans approached the gods and humans. The land was quickly engulfed in the flames of war.
“The humans and the gods tried their best to defend themselves, but eventually they were cornered. Then the gods, humans, and fairies could barely defend their respective countries.”
I looked at the scene with courage.
Like beings swallowed up by a big tidal wave, human resistance disappears. The towering city walls crumbled. The lush fields were trampled.
“It’s awful……”
The attack is carried out thoroughly and it was as if the titans were doing the right thing. For the people, the last stronghold was underground. A lot of people are fleeing.
“It’s more than just fighting….…”
“Yes, a place to hide and survive.”
My throat moved slightly.
These shelters unfolding before me must be the dungeons we know now. Most shelters were built underground to survive the war.
“In the end, the underground was also invaded by monsters, as you know.”
The world is already dyed black. The greenery grown by the gods and humans is nowhere to be seen. A reddish-black flame flickers in the center. In the midst of the hot air, there are countless vague humanoid figures.
“Ymir’s spearhead, the Flame Titan, was going to burn the world to the ground with anger and hatred—but he couldn’t.”
A spear was thrown from the sky. The spear pierces the center of the giant, spreading a sealing ice over the entire earth.
“It was God’s decision at the last minute.”
The world is now being enveloped in ice. Not on fire, but on ice.
“Postponement of defeat by sealing, the Kingdom of Asgard was born after this.”
For a long time, I stared at a world engulfed by ice. It happened thousands of years before I was born. The gods who defeated the monsters gave the land to humans –this is far from the myth we are proud about.
Originally, “Asgard” was the land of the gods. I have also heard from my mother that the kingdom of Asgard inherited its name from the gods.
But with what I saw, the kingdom of the gods and the kingdom of men perished in the same way. The land, which was once enveloped in greenery, is now covered with ice. I guess the real myth ends here.
After the sealing ice covered the world, a small light is born from the sun. Then it disappeared as if it had burrowed into the ground.
“……That was me.”
Solana laughed sadly.
“My mother, who was in charge of the sun, was eaten by a monster in this battle, and I was left in the gold coin and went to sleep.”
The gods could not defeat the monsters. That’s the real myth.
Then the rest of the story continues to this day.
“Until you wake me up.”
This is translated by Yume Neiji. Kindly read at yumeineijiworks.wordpress.com.
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