Chapter 482 CH 468: NEXT STEP
Hugrúnulfr.
If he had to be honest, at first, Adam wanted to choose a name related to a specific mythology when he thought about naming her. There were innumerable names among the mythological figures, names that would perfectly suit the girl.
But then, Adam remembered the prompt which mentioned that names had power in themselves. He had seen it in the quest he had received not long ago. It probably wasn't even 2 to 3 days since he received that quest but it already seemed quite distant to him.
[Minor Ordeal: How to become a great parent…
Description: The first step to becoming a great father is to name your new race. Be careful. Names have meaning and power embedded in them and will thus influence the direction that your future race will tread upon. This is a simple yet very important step that you must take.
Reward: 1000 Karma points and satisfaction of becoming a good father to your cute children.]
The meaning behind a name could influence an entity if it was given with enough meaning and power. Adam had been thinking about many names with this information in mind, such as the one he promised to give Genesis and the one he needed to give to the shadows that were like his children. To be honest, many names came to his mind once he started dabbling on the meanings and origins of names.
But he realized that all those names already had ties to one mythology or another. He had been hesitating, wondering if he should go for them despite that constraint being already placed on them. Something in his mind stopped him from going through with this thought, however.
He had the impression that going through with this thought would without a doubt link them to different myths and this was something he did not want. Not even in a million years.
This was why when he created his own official organization while talking to Lucia, he told her that the name of his Organization would be Pantheon.
He would create his own myth, his own story, if necessary… and the start of his myth would start right here, right now— with the gigantic wolf pondering to herself in front of him.
[Hugrúnulfr.]
She pronounced the name in a quiet tone – a soft note accompanying her childish voice – as if savoring it carefully, tasting it from all possible angles and digesting the meaning of the name with relish.
The Beautiful and Courageous Wolf.
Not a monster.
Not a calamity.
Not something that needed to be purged and destroyed at first contact.
She…
[I like it.]
Her voice was quaint and quiet, hesitant even as she was spelling the name… It was easy to notice that the name's spelling was hard for someone like her who did not have much experience in talking with others. But there was no doubt that she liked the name.
She was not simply Natasha's alter ego. Nor was she Fenrir's Shadow.
She was—
[I am Hugrúnulfr. Yes, that is my name.]
She repeated this again and again to herself, as if engraving this very name in the deepest part of her soul. This was her identity, this was who she was. She was the beautiful and courageous wolf who ruled over this snowy landscape in her loneliness.
It was then—
[You have completed a new achievement! Congratulations!!]
[Achievement: Everything has a start and you, started very big. Congratulations, you named a new entity with great weight on the axis of this world. This entity could have been part of Asgard's mythology, but by accepting the name bestowed by you, she broke out of this pre-determined fate and started to walk a completely new road. One forged by you and traveled by her own volition.]
[Reward: 10000 Karma]
Adam opened his eyes wide at this unexpected reward that came, quite literally, out of nowhere. He would have never imagined that simply giving a name to this poor soul would be so groundbreaking that the Book of Genesis would reward him with such a whopping number of Karma.
Sadly, he was not even given enough time to enjoy the reward that was bestowed on him. Something else, something significant transpired right that instant. The pages of the book turned swiftly and stopped on a certain dark page as words were transcribed on said page.
[Warning! By naming Hugrúnulfr, you will share a deep bond with her. Her story will become tied to yours and not necessarily for the best. Be very careful in naming powerful entities in the future. The more you mix your Karma and destiny with others, the more variables may occur in your path, leading you astray.]
Clearly, the book was reminding him that all would not necessarily be roses and sunshine with this decision of his but Adam was already used to these things. Simply having her by his side as his supporter would be enough for him. He would cross the bridge when he got there for any problems that may occur down the line.
But then—
[Warning! Though you managed in slightly bringing the entity named Hugrúnulfr over to your side, you are still yet to complete the initial Ordeal given to you. Do it swiftly! The primary mind may soon fail and be swallowed by the Wolf.]
Adam's eyes twitched ever so slightly as he remembered his first and main goal in coming to this place. He became so engrossed in trying to befriend the Wolf in front of him that he had completely forgotten the person he had been trying to save in the first place.
Adam's heart nearly missed a beat but he did not hurry nor did he change his expression even though he was slightly panicking inwardly. Currently, the Wolf in front of him was nothing short of a small child— an oversized toddler who knew nothing of the world. And he knew that one of the worst things to do was to let a kid feel that she was being ignored and discarded for someone else.
It would be stupid of him to waste all the progress he had made now just because he was being pressed for time.
"Hugr…"
[....]
"Hugr…"
[Oooh! Hugrúnulfr is my name. So my nickname should be Hugr. Yes, I understand. I like it. It's cute. Hugr is here! What do you want!?]
Adam smiled at her cheerful and childlike demeanor. She really was like a small child. Moreover, he could even feel that the pressure on his soul was easing considerably with time. The poison that had been plaguing and corroding his mind was advancing slower by the second and had become far less potent than before.
This was a good sign. This meant that she had enough trust in him to lower her guard somewhat and consciously slow the poisoning of his mind.
— This, however, was also a bad sign for him. Since it meant that she still did not have complete trust in him. Otherwise, she would have just stopped the corrosion of the soul killing poison altogether.
In this situation, what he had to do was quite simple.
"What do you want to do later on?"
The past could not be changed and with her new name, she had a new present. Hence, it was now time to speak about the future ahead.
———
In the material plane, while Adam was busy swindl— *Ahem* gently encouraging a naive young girl to open up to him; the fight outside was not exactly going in his favor. In short, it was a disastrous scenario.
However, it more or less depended on the perception with which you would see the scenario.
Takoda was swiftly approaching his limits, and he was succumbing to his injury and was steadily approaching the doors of death. And once this event occurred, keeping his realm active would be impossible. No realm could remain activated without the caster.
Adam could also distinctly feel that the tug of war that was going on on the outside— the one between the Phantasm Realm of Hugrúnulfr and Tsubasa's realm was slowly leaning toward the Wolf's, meaning that there was not much time before she too would collapse.
This would make the situation even worse than anything that could happen now.
However, the most problematic phenomenon in this whole situation, at least at this very instant, was undoubtedly fending off Lycaon.
'How many times has it been now?'
Adam sighed as his body slowly regenerated after he died once again under the claws of his so-called big brother.
"Shouldn't you be at least hesitant in killing me?"
"Heh. If you could truly die then Father would have died long ago as well. Why should I even hesitate then? Seems like a dumb thing to do."
"Father, huh…"
"Heh. I guess the title of Father has very little meaning for you. Even that of siblings too, I bet. I suppose that for you, I am just an annoying bastard that is stopping you from saving your girlfriend."
"..."
"Not even going to deny that, huh."
"Is this the moment when you start spelling all the dark secrets I do not know about and I get shocked and have my outlook on life completely broken or something? Let me guess, perhaps you are going to say something like my blood mother, Mei, and Cain actually liked each other? That they were in love and I am the fruit of their love… That Cain doesn't want to harm me and so on and so forth… All that bullshit."
".... So you managed to guess, huh?"
Adam couldn't help but scoff at those words, "Just how fucking stupid are you guys taking me for?"
After all the hints that were left for him in plain sight, it was easy to see that whatever relationship his biological mother, Mei, may have had with Cain… it was at the very least not that of enemies.
He even had those weird dreams in recent times whenever he closed his eyes to take a rest— dreams where Cain seemed to be trying to teach him something. There were also multiple hints left by Eve to make sure he did not hate his father or his siblings. It was all too simple to defer what they meant.
However—
"So what?"
Adam gritted his teeth, as his body had finally regenerated enough for him to move.
"My mother is Cecilia Gospel."
He stood up quietly,
"The one who had to die for me was none other than Mei Kaminari."
His aura started to rise exponentially.
Adam was angry. In fact, he was absolutely seething with rage.
He hated this. He hated all of this to his very bones.
"Why do you guys have to meld in my life?"
Adam was not blind. This whole situation was clearly orchestrated once again by his family. Most likely by Eve to reach a goal that she set in stone for him.
"Why do you guys keep acting as if you know what is better for me, huh!? What the fuck do you guys even know about me?"
Lycaon could only smile a bitter smile as he saw that even some traces of Death were mixing in with his aura. It was clear for him to see that Adam was truly angry right now.
'Is his mind unstable because of all the multitasking he is doing?'
Fenrir's poison was not just for show after all, and though the one this puny little Wolf could use was extremely diluted in nature, Lycaon was more than a bit surprised that Adam was not screaming and rolling around on the ground due to pain right this instance.
Even so, there was no way in hell that multitasking at such a high level and being bathed in poison would not affect him mentally.
All those feelings, all those grievances, might have been deeply buried in his heart and suppressed by his logical mind, however, now— right this instant, when he was at his most vulnerable state, his emotions were about to explode…
Adam's aura continued to climb as his mind grew clouded with wrath.
His anger seemed to seep into his very bones.
"Five weeks. Five fucking weeks. Do you even understand what I had to endure during those five weeks?"
He had tried to ignore the judgment that he had been dealt with by the grim reaper of Takoda's Phantasm Realm but the felonies, crimes, deaths, and mortalities that he had done with his own two hands were way too shocking for him. He had even lost count of them at this point but the merciless Grim Reaper quite literally slapped the numbers on his face.
Twenty thousand people.
This was the number of people he had massacred for one reason or another.
Even though the great majority of this number came from the Dreamscape, this did not alleviate the weight of his crimes.
Fighting, killing, stealing, and so many things he had done. So many things that he would have never imagined himself conducting.
Those weeks had been nothing short of hell. There was never truly a day he could truly rest; events after events happening one after another without showing any signs of stopping.
Adam felt like he was going mad. He wanted to scream, to rage, to explode, and cry.
But the worst was— he was not even able to go mad.
Nowadays, even killing barely shuffled his feelings any longer.
The first thing he thought when meeting Tsubasa was how to use her and even though Hugrúnulfr had touched his sensible cord with her childish innocence and the breadths of her loneliness and pain, he was still thinking of using her to meet his goals rather than just a show of his goodwill and willingness to genuinely help the poor soul.
His values were changing rapidly. His mind did not feel like his own anymore. Sadly, he was forced to embrace those feelings as they were the only means for him to survive.
Because… that way of life was the only one which would allow him to grow at the fastest pace. He had to grow to survive, to save his loved ones, to validate his existence.
"— And despite all this, despite everything, you still want to test me?"
Slowly, the emotions left Adam's face, light gathered in his right eye, slowly dyeing it gold.
His aura became like a calm sea hiding the tumultuous waves, that were roaring to destroy everything in its path, beneath its surface.
"I am fucking pissed."
He said in a calm and cold voice and somehow— this made the situation all the more threatening.
"So please… Don't make me kill someone dear to me."
'Well~Well~Well…'
Lycaon grinned when he felt goosebumps cover the skin of his current host.
The aura around Adam was completely changing into a deep dark gold and Lycaon could feel tremors even down to his very soul.
Adam was very unstable currently but because of his curse, rather than becoming raving mad, he became overly rational. A being of cold and calm intelligence without a hint of emotion.
Lycaon could feel it. If he attacked once more, Adam would make a choice and this choice would most likely end in Fedora's true death.
'This wasn't in the plan but —'
The goal was never to antagonize him, to make an enemy out of his youngest sibling. He was his brother after all.
Slowly, Lycaon lifted his hands and smiled helplessly,
"I am beat. Bravo, you have won, li'l bro."
There was no joy nor happiness on Adam's face as he gazed at him and for an instant, Lycaon felt that Adam was truly gazing at him and not just the body of Fedora which he was inhabiting.
He could see the boy lift his face and slowly look at the horizon,
"I see… So this is what you mean by the strings of Karma."
'Oh…'
"Goodbye, brother. It's time for you to stop inhabiting this body."
Adam slowly lifted his hand, covering it entirely in black aura, and then,
— Delivered death to the connection between Fedora and Lycaon.
Watching all of this with muted awe, Lycaon opened his eyes in his castle. His mouth and eyes started to bleed slowly and he coughed up even more blood before finally sighing.
Even though the damage was minor, he could feal even his healing factor struggles slightly.
He could only feel a faint connection remaining between him and Fedora. Rather than missing it, it seemed more like Adam internationally left a strand.
'He want to use me later I guess.'
He laughed,
'I guess I had it coming.'
He was not angry. Indeed, Adam had perfectly the right to snap in the given situation.
Now all he could do was sleep again until he was called.
———
(AN: Heh, Adam is slowly becoming more broken as time passes. At the same time, we are already basically 500 chapters in. This feels both slow and fast in a way.)
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