Chapter 1 A Solemn and Glorious Valhalla

The solemn and glorious Valhalla—more than two thousand years ago, this place was the most magnificent and sacred place in the hearts of the people of Northern Europe. People yearned for this place even more than they did for Odin. This was the only place where “mortals” could directly connect with “gods”: the bravest and most determined human warriors would, after death, become the chosen of the “gods,” forged into eternal steel armor in this Valhalla, becoming the tireless guards of the sacred Asgard. For the people of that era, this was an unparalleled honor, meaning they could ascend to the altar—even if only as a consumable.

In fact, this kind of fanatical loyalty exists at any time: it’s just that in that barbaric and cruel mythological era, this blind fanaticism was even more moving.

However, no matter how sacred and great Valhalla was back then, now it is just a cold and silent ruin.

This resplendent palace is better preserved than other buildings in Asgard. From the outside, it seems almost unaffected by the twilight of the gods, but its interior is just that: empty and desolate, covered in dust, with scattered weapons and armor everywhere. Walking in the deep, long corridor, every step feels like entering an ancient, cold tomb.

The corridors of Valhalla are towering yet oppressive. At the top of the high walls on both sides is a metallic roof that converges in an almost triangular shape. The slanting alloy roof presses down from both sides, causing those walking below to have the illusion of being stared at by some authoritative force. On both sides of the corridor, there are exquisite relief murals. These reliefs depict the daily lives of the Aesir gods with superb techniques far surpassing those of humans at the time. There is no lack of simple and straightforward self-promotion and self-beautification, and after filtering out these embellishments, Hao Ren can vaguely reconstruct the social life of an alien civilization that unfortunately ended up on Earth, its technology tree almost completely broken, and forced to explore and bully the local aborigines at the same time.

And this kind of social life is almost a common microcosm of all the aliens on Earth in the age of mythology.

Gala卓尔 (Gala Zhuoer) and Hao Ren walked at the front of the team. The Dragon Queen was empty-handed, with only faint golden scales appearing on her exposed arms, while Hao Ren carried two spears: a plasma battle spear and the divine spear Gungnir. Originally, he wanted to familiarize himself with the Godslayer Sword, a divine weapon, but unfortunately, the sword was so noisy after entering combat that it was unbelievable. Hao Ren had no choice but to temporarily throw the thing into his personal space and instead use the newly acquired Gungnir: Anyway, they are both new equipment, and fiddling with either is the same.

Hao Ren now feels more and more like a professional spearman, the kind with maxed-out proficiency in cold weapons and a talent for dual-wielding polearms. Whether it was the combat experience of the past three years that forcibly honed his skills, or whether the physical fitness that Du Ya (Du Ya) 12345 instilled in him was taking effect, he can quickly become familiar with any weapon he uses now. Waving two battle spears in both hands, he feels like a martial arts master.

At the rear of the team, Izhaks and Anthony were guarding the rear.

The group walked deeper and deeper into the long corridor, heading towards the Valhalla control center under the vague guidance of Vivian's memory. However, they did not encounter any enemies along the way, nor were any automatic warning traps activated.

The eerie scream when the door first opened seemed like a hallucination, scaring them for a moment without any follow-up.

"These armors won't suddenly activate, will they..." Lily held two claw blades and followed Vivian, looking nervously at the armor fragments and damaged weapons that could be seen everywhere in the corners of the wall. "These look like Einherjar parts..."

"They are soulless Einherjar armors. Some are completely scrapped after being taken off the battlefield, and some are waste materials from failed forging," Vivian shook her head. "These armors were originally piled up in the Ying Ling Dian (Hall of the Slain) cemetery, but when the twilight of the gods came, Odin ordered these defective armors to be sent to the battlefield as well, preparing to use one-time rune to forcibly activate these solid iron lumps to serve as cannon fodder. But later, the Valhalla control center went offline, and all his arrangements became bubbles. These Einherjar disintegrated directly in the attack channel."

The group continued to move forward in the lifeless corridor. Just as Hao Ren felt that this journey was too uneventful and the unease in his heart was growing, the data terminal suddenly jumped out of his pocket: "Partner, detecting Einherjar reactions ahead."

In the previous battle, the data terminal recorded the energy wavelengths of the Einherjar warriors, and now its radar system has been updated and can serve as an early warning system.

"Damn it, they're finally here!" Hao Ren's first reaction after hearing the news of the enemy's approach was not tension, but relief, as if a stone had fallen from his heart: Unease comes from the unknown. It was the fact that the enemy had not appeared that made him feel conflicted, but he was relieved that the enemy was finally popping out!

Obvious opponents are always easy to deal with.

The team had dealt with the Einherjar once before, so everyone looked confident at this time (except for Nangong Wuyue, who said that she only had dish soap in her chest now, and all she wanted to do was blow bubbles). Without anyone commanding, everyone immediately dispersed and formed a formation to meet the enemy.

They didn't plan to detour or avoid: because there was only one route forward from here, and any other direction would only lead out of Valhalla. Having gone so deep, it was meaningless to avoid the battle any longer.

"Crack, crack..."

After waiting for a while, the familiar sound of metal friction really came from the direction indicated by the data terminal.

Hao Ren immediately tightened his grip on the two battle spears and stepped forward: "Everyone, be careful, they're coming!"

"Crack... crack..."

The sound of metal friction was getting closer and closer. Finally, four tall Einherjar armors with a faint golden glow all over their bodies walked out of the shadows. These armors were the same as the Einherjar warriors they encountered in the Jin Gong (Golden Palace). They wore full-body heavy armor engraved with runes, and there were only two wandering points of light flickering in the empty helmets. They held door-panel-like charging giant swords in their hands, and every step they took carried a heavy metallic echo.

The plasma spear in Hao Ren's hand emitted a dazzling flame in an instant, and Gungnir made a slight hum: Hao Ren was not yet clear about all the abilities of this spear, but after the data terminal's initial decoding, he could now control the basic form of Gungnir. As a weapon alone, this spear was also very useful.

However, just as everyone was preparing to welcome a battle, Nangong Sanba suddenly spoke: "Wait a minute! Something doesn't seem right..."

Gala Zhuoer also noticed the anomaly: "Why didn't they rush up?"

The Einherjar armors in the Jin Gong launched an attack indiscriminately when they encountered intruders, but the ones that emerged now did not make any movement. The four armors just stood quietly at the other end of the corridor, the light under their helmets flickering erratically, with no signs of attacking at all.

After another few minutes of confrontation, just as Lily was about to lose patience and prepare to take the initiative to test them, the armors suddenly moved.

They maintained the same speed as when they were patrolling just now and continued to walk towards them.

Everyone immediately became more vigilant, but the expected attack still did not come. These Einherjar were just walking forward along their established patrol route, as if they hadn't seen the intruders in front of them at all. They walked straight past Hao Ren and his group, gradually walking away with "crack, crack" sounds.

By the time these Einherjar disappeared at the other end of the corridor, Lily still didn't understand what was going on: "What's going on here?"

Hao Ren pondered for a long time, then suddenly looked at his hand thoughtfully: "Could it be... this thing?"

Gungnir emitted a faint silver light in his hand, and this was once Odin's weapon and symbol.

Vivian's eyes lit up: "It's possible! Odin could use Gungnir to command the Einherjar army back then!"

Hao Ren suddenly realized: "It seems that those Einherjar can still recognize Gungnir, but I don't know how to use this thing to give them orders, so after waiting for a while, they chose to continue patrolling according to the program."

"I'm going... If I had known this, we wouldn't have had to fight that battle in the Jin Gong," Lily grabbed her hair. "Landlord, you should have taken this thing out earlier."

"How would I know this thing has this effect," Hao Ren was also quite innocent. "I wanted to test the Godslayer Sword just now. If I had known that thing was so annoying, I would have changed weapons for sure."

Vivian interrupted the conversation between Hao Ren and Lily: "In any case, this is good news. It seems that Gungnir's influence on the relics of Asgard is still there, and Odin's personal authentication has also failed. This spear..."

Before Vivian could finish her words, a strange scream suddenly interrupted her. This scream seemed to pierce into people's brains, making them dizzy. Hao Ren immediately looked around in horror and saw a dazzling white light suddenly explode from the depths of the corridor, followed by a woman wrapped in blazing light rushing out of the white light.

This woman wore a tattered, strange armor, covered in scars, with disheveled hair and a crazy look. As soon as she rushed out, she stared at Gungnir in Hao Ren's hand and suddenly let out a shrill scream: "Ah!! Invaders! Return the Holy Father's relic!"