Cassandra

Year 820 | Month 4 | Day 19

The boat rocks as the waves crash into it, the cold night air filled with the lights from dozens of strange Tier 3 monsters, all of which are rushing to the other side of the ship in their fruitless attempt to avoid me. And just like the ones before them, I eliminate them all by turning them into red ash. But before I can mentally celebrate the influx of EXP they give me, every monster in the vicinity suddenly freezes.

Right when I’m about to look out over the water to see what has them spooked, I sense something massive entering my aura.

My eyes widen and I immediately shout, “Leviathan!!!”

Everyone on the ship freezes at that before bursting into motion towards the edge of the ship, ignoring the various monsters that are currently disengaging with them and flying or swimming off on their own, escaping the massive beast as it slowly makes its way up from the depths of the ocean. And not even a moment after everyone reaches the sides of the ships, we all watch as the enormous sea monster’s head breaks the surface of the water, followed shortly after by its serpentine body.

The creature is often described in folklore as a mini World Serpent, despite its size spanning a couple hundred meters in length. It has two rows of razor sharp teeth, golden serpentine eyes with pitch black pupils, and scales that are supposedly some of the hardest materials in the world with the exception of some materials the Sacred Beasts and the Protector have, along with the World Serpent itself.

“Shit,” I hear the King swear, almost making my jerk my head around to openly stare at him. But the massive serpent approaching us makes it so I don’t do that. Instead I send a bolt of Wrath lightning at it, only for it to shrug it off as if it were nothing.

Shit is right.

I think we’re gonna-

A massive wave of flames suddenly shoots down from above, enveloping the serpent and turning it to ash before our eyes, making us all cover our eyes as waves upon waves of heat envelop the entire ship. And after just a few seconds of this, the flames vanish, showing us nothing but ashes in the place of the front half of the serpent after we uncover our eyes again, the back half charred and slowly sinking down into the ocean.

-not die?

I blink in surprise before raising my head to find a massive dragon simply floating in the air dozens of kilometers above us. The dragon has black scales and glowing red eyes with four legs, a long tail ending in a sharp point, and two enormous wings that aren’t moving at all despite it floating midair.

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Name: Nidhogg

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Species: Ancient Dragon

Level: ???

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Nidhogg. The ancestor of the Sacred Beasts, and Protector of our realm.

Also, this is the first time I’ve seen something with three question marks for its level. And I know he’s level one hundred, since that’s the level Protectors should be at. But does the three question marks signify that?

“Welcome to Yggdrasil, young princess,” the ancestor speaks directly to me, making me look around to see if the others have heard. And it looks like they did, considering how everyone’s looking at me. “You may all rest now.”

I look up at him again, just to find a strange ripple in the air between us, following which we all find ourselves, along with the ship, docked at the World Tree’s territory docks.

He… the ancestor killed the leviathan? In a single breath… why didn’t he do that before?

Also, he only referred to me when he greeted us. Why didn’t he talk to the King?

Is it because he needs me to deal with Fafnir for him?

That’s the only reason that makes sense.

My thoughts are interrupted when I continue looking around to find three other ships already moored at the dock. And on one of them, I find my father barking out orders to the soldiers manning the ship, along with both of my brothers there as well.

I can’t help but smile at the sight of it.

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Name: Archibald de Luna

Species: Human

Level: 24

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Nice to see that dad is Tier 3 already.

I look at my brothers to find that they’re both also Tier 3, unlike the prince that is currently approaching me.

“Looks like your people are here,” he says with a nod, only to smirk a little when he sees my smile. “Don’t forget you still have some of your stuff down below. Mind helping us out for a second before you head over to greet your father?”

“Sure,” I tell him, glancing once more at the ship dad, Rodrick, and Charles are on before going down into the depths of the ship. And as I move about below deck, I can’t help but wonder what my family has been through since I last saw them.

And how they’re gonna react when they see my new appearance. Since my eyes kind of give away that I’m not exactly human anymore. Even if my claws and fangs are retractable.

I move around gathering all of my stuff up before helping the hunters a little bit to get everything ready for docking until the King shouts, “Wrath! We’re leaving!” and I quickly make my way above deck again to find him jumping off of the ship onto the dock. So I follow right after him with the princes jumping alongside me.

The dock itself is rather extravagant, made out of metal and stone instead of wood. And it is large enough to accommodate an entire fleet despite there only being four ships here – each ship docked at one of the four massive sections of the port. There’s also a large staircase in front of the port leading up to the massive forest surrounding the World Tree.

“Cass!!!” I hear a familiar voice shout, followed by two others as I turn my attention back to dad’s ship to find him and the two idiots having finally noticed me.

I can’t help but smile as I wave at them.

It only took almost half a year, but I’m finally back with them again.