17-Time To Return

Frigga left her room to go to the kitchen for dinner. She wandered around the labyrinth-like palace for a short while before reaching the huge kitchen hall.

It would be unfair to call this place a kitchen. This hall was as big as a football field and there was a dining table in the middle that was almost twenty meters long.

This dining table was designed for large meetings and feasts, but there was only one person sitting at the head of the table right now.

Odin was sitting upright at the golden-embroidered, long dining table, waiting for Frigga without touching the food in front of him.

"Am I too late?" Frigga asked, seeing Odin waiting for her as soon as she entered the hall, with a playful tone.

"I just sat down." Odin said, with a small smile on his face.

Frigga walked slowly and steadily to the side of the dining table and sat on the chair on Odin's right.

"There were some unexpected troubles in Hela's mission. She won't be able to join us." Odin said, informing Frigga.

Frigga nodded to show that she understood and took a knife and fork from the table in front of her and started eating.

There was a big sparkle in her eyes and her smile never changed.

Odin smiled too, seeing Frigga's smile, and started eating.

...

The two finished the food in front of them in less than an hour.

Frigga's plate was very clean and it was obvious that she ate her food in a polite and tidy way.

"You lose yourself when you eat." Frigga said, giggling.

Odin's plate was a complete mess. The meat on the plate was scattered around and Odin had a leg in his hand that belonged to an unknown animal.

The meat on the leg was neatly cut by Odin's teeth.

"You know better than anyone that I love eating." Odin said, smiling.

He put the bone piece in his hand on the table and wiped his mouth with his left hand, then gently waved his right hand in the air.

A yellow-colored, calm and peaceful-looking energy circulated over the entire dining table, erasing all the food and leftovers. Then it turned around Odin's body and cleaned his clothes and the corners of his mouth.

Odin had been a glutton since he was born and ate many times a day.

The ironic thing was that he didn't have to do this.

Odin would never feel hunger or thirst even if he didn't eat or drink for a whole year.

He could feel like he had eaten and drank by consuming a small amount of his divine energy.

After Odin's divine energy cleaned the entire dining table, the smile on Odin's face disappeared and was replaced by a serious expression.

Frigga noticed the change in Odin's facial expression and also put on a serious expression.

"Is the problem the frost giants again?" Frigga asked.

There had never been a good relationship between Asgard and Jötunheim, and Asgard had fought with the frost giants many times.

These wars were usually small-scale wars and did not last long.

"Yes! They crossed their boundaries, and even dared to threaten Asgard!" Odin shouted, angrily, and slammed his fist on the dining table in front of him.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

The table cracked with the force of his fist and a noise echoed throughout the palace.

"Don't they always do that?" Frigga asked.

"This time it's different..." Odin whispered.

"What do you mean?"

Frigga had a puzzled expression on her face. The frost giants always challenged Asgard. This was not something to exaggerate.

"They are trying to start a large-scale war." Odin said.

"And they succeeded. A big war will break out soon." he added.

Frigga frowned and fell into thoughts when she heard these words.

"If they are so confident, they must have an important trump card." Frigga whispered.

"The winter coffin." Odin said.

Frigga raised her eyebrows in surprise when she heard this.

The winter coffin was a divine artifact made by the frost giants. This artifact could only be used by the frost giants and contained eternal winter inside.

"What do you mean? The use of the winter coffin was banned long ago. Don't they care about the reactions from other realms?"

"Apparently they don't. Asgard will soon send an envoy to other realms for an alliance."

The winter coffin had been used once by the frost giants before and the other realms had joined forces to suppress the frost giants.

Both sides had suffered great losses and as a result they had signed an agreement.

According to the agreement, the winter coffin would remain with the frost giants, but if they used it again, the other realms would not remain silent.

"Very bad timing. Swain will return in two days." Frigga said, frowning.

"I thought about this beforehand and I think it's time for Swain to join the war. Even though I try to keep him away from the eyes, this will become impossible in the future. Besides, I plan to send him as an envoy to another realm." Odin said.

Frigga's expression turned to anger when she heard these words.

"Have you gone mad, Odin? Putting Swain in a war will make him stand out and attract attention. And you're going to send someone who is associated with the Demon of Secrets as an envoy for an alliance? If you do this, they might think you're declaring war on them." Frigga said.

For five hundred years, Swain's name had become blurred and was on the verge of being forgotten. Also, people thought he was very dangerous and a real demon.

"Don't worry, there is someone in the realm I'm going to send Swain to who is old enough to know him." Odin said.

"Also, a voice inside me tells me that if I put Swain in a war, I can get him away from Asgard." he added. As he said these words, golden sparks appeared in the depths of his eyes.

Frigga couldn't say anything when she saw the sparkle in Odin's eyes. She knew very well what that sparkle meant.

Future prediction.

It was one of the many abilities that Odin had and it was undoubtedly a big factor in Asgard's strength.

Frigga bowed her head and spoke with a worried voice.

"I'm just worried about him. What if he's not the same when he comes back? After all, you sentenced him to five hundred years of exile even though he was innocent..." Frigga said and paused for a moment.

"What if the one who returns is not our son but a real demon?" she added.

Odin gently reached out his hand and lifted Frigga's chin.

"Don't worry. Even if he is, he will be Asgard's only hope." he said and wiped the tears that flowed from the corners of Frigga's eyes with his finger.

"I hope so." Frigga said.

"I hope..." Odin whispered, uncertainly.

------------------------------------------------

"Finally, the time has come." Swain said, leaning against a wall.

His upper body was completely naked and there were big scars all over his body.

Even though his regeneration was amazing, the scars caused by the big wounds remained.

"The last four hundred years were very boring." he said to himself.

He had no one to talk to for five hundred years, so he often talked to himself.

He had tried to chat with the lizard men a few times, but he had never succeeded in these attempts.

In the first hundred years, he destroyed the lizard man kingdoms and the lizard man empire and absorbed the souls of all the lizard men he killed.

Unsurprisingly, Dormammu's avatar was the emperor of the lizard man empire.

Swain killed him easily. Actually, this disappointed Swain. He thought that Dormammu's avatar could match him at first, but the reality was a disappointment.

The only good thing about the avatar from the other lizard men was his physical strength and some magical abilities.

Dormammu's avatar's power was not as the others said.

"I guess Dormammu didn't care about this planet or the lizard man's physique was not enough to get more power. Either way, this was very easy for me." Swain said. He had a smug smile on his face.

After destroying the lizard man empire, he left the lizard men alone. His first reason for killing the lizard men was to find the avatar quickly and he had completed this task.

Also, the lizard men's souls no longer increased Swain's reserves, so there was no need to chase them.

So Swain started hunting Hollows.

He struggled a bit at first, but as he gained experience and strength, this became very easy.

Swain was attracting Hollows to himself for some unknown reason.

Whenever he went down to the depths of the cave, Hollows would flock to him.

Swain was not bothered by this. In fact, this was useful for Swain.

He absorbed the souls of all the Hollows he encountered. He stayed away from the Gillians, though.

Swain had no information about them and it was too dangerous to approach them to get information.

Five hundred years passed by quickly.

"My demon energy must be equal to a third-level divine being." Swain said to himself.

During all these years, by killing lizard men and Hollows, his demon energy had increased a lot and had become more destructive.

The only bad news was that his demon energy stopped growing. His demon energy seemed to have reached a limit and was not increasing anymore.

According to Swain's estimates, if he wanted to increase his demon energy and break the limit, he had to assimilate more quality souls.

...

Swain was leaning against a wall, with his eyes closed, while time passed by quickly.

When he felt a foreign energy, he slowly opened his eyes and looked ahead.

There was a portal in front of him that made him smile. This portal was very similar to the portal that Odin had created when he sent him here.

"It's time to return." Swain said and got up and walked towards the portal.