Solitary Sword Sovereign

The Raven's Grin

Modus turned his attention to Hou Yi and Jingsung Ha. "Odin has many Restricted Avatars acting as spies, collecting valuable data for us. He is one of the few gods who are on our side. As you know, his transformation, disguising and magical abilities are top-class in the cosmos. He is the greatest magic user even among the Norse gods. The number of deities that can use runic magic on his level equals the number of fingers on an ordinary human's hand."

Although this Odin was well known, Jingsung was still surprised. Many deities used magic and runes. He had heard of the All-Father's prowess, but hearing rumours and listening to Modus were two different things entirely. Meanwhile, Hou Yi's eyes had a brief flash of wisdom but he said nothing.

Modus continued, "This allows him greater freedom in designing Restricted Avatars than others. Including myself. I love bragging, so I'm sure you understand the seriousness of what I just said." Modus was many things, but humble he was not, especially in front of other powerhouses.

Modus had sent almost all the information he had on Will to Wodin, or rather, Odin. Hence the deity already had a rough idea of what the boy could do.

'He is quite a talent, but they exist in millions all over the system. Since he summoned one of my main Avatars here, he must have a serious play to make.'

"In that Scenario Dungeon of Olympus that the boy is fighting in, Odin had planted a Restricted Avatar called Wodin. Wodin's main mission there besides gathering information was to find more wisdom-type battle deities to train and join our cause. He is close to convincing Odysseus' true body through this connection. But he came across our young friend.

Prince Hercules and his cohort wanted to recruit the boy into their party headed to Fafnir's grave, but I cancelled their access before the observers saw the boy release his...unbound vector.

Odysseus has an especially keen eye, not to mention that Hercules is especially astute. So I couldn't take any unnecessary risks. I contacted Wodin and asked him to relay a message to the true body. Then this Avatar received the message and approached us.

Don't worry about this being traced to us. Wodin is an Avatar of this raven, while the raven, as you all know, is an Avatar of Odin, in other words..."

Hou Yi interjected with a sombre frown, "In other words, Wodin is an Avatar of an Avatar."

Hou Yi could not believe his own words. Every time a Deity or Immortal created an Avatar, they had to split a piece of themselves, mind, soul and body. Such a strain created many limitations.

'This one-eyed geezer is a freak of nature. But then again, since when does Modus have normal friends.'

Jingsung Ha was fast becoming numb to shocks that day, not to mention that Will was giving him plenty of surprises during their ongoing battle on Olympus. Jingsung was doing some simple multi-tasking, but he was facing shocks from all sides.

Nowadays, the raven was Odin's most commonly seen form, but at the end of the day, it was just another Avatar. Like his son Loki, Odin rarely ever appeared anywhere with his real body. This was why few people wanted to become his enemy. You were never guaranteed that you had killed the 'real' Odin.

Odin saw the scar on Jingsungs face, but he said nothing. Modus had already sent him a live feed of Will's battle. Putting two and two together he figured out the gist.

'Anti-divinity with quantum entanglement. This is serious.'

But the ancient sage kept silent and waited for his old friend to make his move. He was one to speak less and listen more, that was his mantra.

Modus then turned his head to the bird, "Old friend, you were already going to take Odysseus under your wing. How about adding one more?"

Wodin's eye glinted but he said nothing. Modus saw this and said with a playful tone "He will make a good priest." 6 words had never struck Odin with such shock before.

"Why do you say, old friend."

It's not so much what was said, but rather who said the words. Priest was not a word spoken lightly by the people present.

"I'm sure you have realized already that the boy has anti-divinity. But what you might not know is that he has fused two empyrean Intents and he materialized two totems."

Odin's eyes shined for a moment. This was new knowledge that Modus had 'conveniently' left out. The raven revealed a glint of contemplation. Thousands upon thousands of thoughts ran through the mind of this primordial deity. After a moment of hesitation, he opened his beak and said, "What exactly do you expect me to do?"

Modus smiled, this was exactly what he was waiting for. Odin was not hard to convince, so long as the decision was backed up by hard evidence and logic that benefitted him. He knew more than Hou Yi and Jingsung and hence did not need much hand-holding. Modus liked dealing with selfish beings, they at least had a clear-cut objective, like him.

"As you know the boy will soon embark on a short quest to Fafnir's Grave. How is your spirit of adventure like these days?"

Odin was a bird with a beak with no lips or teeth, but Hou Yi could have sworn that in that brief microsecond after Modus spoke, the bird savagely grinned.