บท 443: 443: The All-Father’s Body

Chapter 443: The All-Father's Body

—

Besides Neji, Momo crossed her arms as a killing intent of her own filled the area. An intense clash of willpower happened, and Neji waited until it calmed down.

"...Explain yourself," Thor's jaws squared as he demanded, letting loose of his aura.

His two brothers stood cautiously now, ready for a battle. Loki held back a snicker while his daughter just raised an eyebrow.

"It is as you heard." Neji decided to be direct. There was nothing to hide anyway, as the situation was dire. "If you give me Odin's body, I can consume it to strengthen myself."

"You want to eat Father's dead body?!" The youngest brother of Thor, Vidar, yelled in anger and shock.

"Ah. No. I am not going to eat it - sorry if my wording gave you the wrong idea. You can rather imagine it as assimilation. I am going to merge my body with his, and by doing so I'll gain his powers. At least the amount that remains in it." Neji lied. It was not a merging — [Mine] was really just going to devour the body.

Thor wore a deep frown. Unlike both of his brothers, he didn't reject the idea right away. He put some thoughts into it.

A moment later he grunted, "What is the success rate?"

"Hundred Percent," Neji replied. "I'm just not sure I'm going to gain all the powers he had. But the procedure is guaranteed to be successful."

"And you'll be able to defeat Trihexa with the power gained?"

"Well, I'll try. Your father was one of the guys who brought that thing out of the end of the world. His power might as well be enough to make me defeat that thing. But I will roam around a bit more, and only after that will I attack Trihexa again." When he brought up the fact that yes, he knew Odin was one of the people behind Trihexa's sudden freedom, the others stiffened.

Loki looked at Thor with a frown; he didn't know about this, from the looks of it. He grew pissed when Thor didn't deny the accusations and trembled on his spot. But he held back whatever complaint he had for later, and just observed the scene.

"Hah," Thor sighed, his grip around his hammer lessened. "I apologize in his stead. It was a mistake, I warned him, but he did not listen. Fine, we shall… give you his body. As the Gods of Warrior Gods, he would be proud to serve in the defeat of that abomination even after death."

"I'm glad you're so understanding." Neji smiled. He was glad that Thor didn't have to end up like his Prime variant.

* * *

Neji and Momo were led inside the wood mansion. They stayed on guard, in case the half-dozen Gods decided it was a good idea to attack them in this closed space. To their luck, they didn't try anything.

Thor led Neji to a room in the center of the structure, where Odin's body was laid on a bed covered by flowers.

"You guys sure you want to watch this?" Neji asked just out of respect, but the sons nodded. Loki just shrugged, and Hel didn't even bother with that. She rather eyed Neji with peculiar interest.

Neji nodded. He walked over to the bed and stood by its side. He reached out a hand and delayed. He wasn't exactly weak when he used [Mine] but if these Gods decided to interrupt him midway, he wasn't sure if it would affect the procedure badly. There was Momo, but she could only stop so many of them.

Just in case, he kept his thoughts close to his Omnipresent skill. In under a moment, he should be ready to pop a few.

Neji's palm hovered over the face of the old, bearded man. He had a wrinkly face and one of his eyes was clad with a gold eyepatch. Neji took a deep breath and… activated [Mine].

Eldritch tendrils of darkness leaped out of his hand. Hunger rushed out of his palm and slipped into the body of Odin. The dead body managed to shiver, jolting for a moment as the tendrils began to feed. The darkness grew, and in a moment, it clad over Odin's entire body.

Unlike what Neji did with the Boosted Gear, just absorbing the ability, he was going to absorb Odin's entire body. The powers, memories, and everything it could offer.

'Sisty, sort out the memories. I don't want the entire package, just keep the parts that would let me use the powers flawlessly.' Neji advised Sisty when he felt power rush inside him through his hand.

After cladding Odin, a surge of power rushed into Neji's body. It picked up pace in a few seconds before blasting into him at high speed. Aura blasted out of his body as the Gods and Momo slid back onto the floor.

The room trembled, and the light flickered. Dust rose and the wind grew violent, the Gods watched in awe as Neji's veins went white from all the power. He took a long, shivering breath as the last bit of Odin's existence poured into him.

"Haaah," Neji let out a long breath just as the process ended. The black tendrils on his hand, hunger satisfied, slithered back into his palm.

[Ding! You've gained a Divinity Branch. Many divinities are stocked into this.]

[Divinity "Odin Force" has been added. Click to view the list of divinities it has.]

From the looks of it, the body had lost a lot of Divinity. The All-Father Divinity was one of them - but a good one, the big one, remained. Odin Force.

"Ah… Great." The feeling of power was delicious. He could never have enough.

* * *

Thor looked odd after the process ended. Perhaps he was hoping to see a sign of his father in Neji after the so-called 'merge' or maybe it was something else, but his face was quite melancholic.

"I expect you to take care of Trihexa with this much," he managed to say at last. "I know it's arrogant of me to say this since it's somewhat Norse's fault, but make this worth it."

"I will try,"

"The other Pantheons should be coming together by now. In a few days, they will erect the Isolation Field Barrier around the Beast. That should be a good time to attack it since the battle won't damage anything." Thor added. "Now, you shall go and do the other plans you have for power. This much might be enough, but perhaps not."

Thor said and Neji agreed with a nod. He yanked Momo by her waist and decided to try out his new powers.

[Divinity: Bifrost]

Bifrost was destroyed, but Odin's divinity carried a personalized version of it anyway - that's what meant to be a Chief God. In a bright flash of seven colors, Neji vanished from the mansion with Momo by his side.

Their next destination was Egypt.

Neji decided to pick up Ozymandias, the child of the Egyptian Sun God — one of the stronger Gods amongst the Chief Gods.

The God Eater, Amon-Ra.