Valhalla Saga

Episode 49/Chapter 4: The Goddess of warfare Athena (4)

TL: Tsubak

ED: SlowAsLightning

The shrine of Olympus had an appearance that was strikingly similar to the relics of Greece.

There were pillars made of white rock on top of the white tiled rock floor and a white rock roof on top of that. THey were made facing each other so when you looked at it from the front you could look a triangle.

Patroclus had said that it was a small shrine but it was quite big for Tae Ho. It looked like a side of the shrine was more than 30 meters long.

The inside of the village was complete chaos. There was plundering, arson, murdering and kidnapping happening all over the village.

Tae Ho slashed all the ones he faced while heading to the shrine but he never stopped. Rescuing the villagers was one thing but he had to prioritize defeating Orion who was inside the shrine.

‘They are guys with no internal regulation. They will flee as soon as someone defeats their leader. That will rather lessen the damages.’

Cuchulainn’s words were as right as always.

Not only that but he couldn’t ignore Orion gathering the centaurs that were plundering the village.

The shrine was placed on a cliff in the center of the village so you could see it easily wherever you were at. Tae Ho stopped his feet for a really brief moment while Siri fired her arrows and looked at the shrine.

Just like Tae Ho felt Orion’s aura, Orion’s red words appeared at the entrance of the shrine as if he had also sensed the auras of the group.

[Artemis’ battle slave]

[Poseidon’s son]

[Atrocious hunter]

[Has the blood of a God]

[Orion]

Some more words were added.

Has the blood of a God. Son of a God.

Poseidon was the God of the sea and the brother of the king of Gods Zeus. He was a strong God even among the 12 Olympians.

Did he also turn to become someone wanting to destroy the world?

He couldn’t judge it yet. It was because Orion was certainly Poseidon’s son but he couldn’t know if this attack was Poseidon’s will or not.

‘The Gods of Olympus are famous for having a lot of children. Zeus and Poseidon especially, it’s hard to count all of their children.’

Cuchulainn said quickly. Odin also had a lot of children but he couldn’t be compared to the Gods of Olympus.

They had too many children that they couldn’t give attention to each and everyone of them. No, they didn’t pay attention to them.

Except for special cases like Heracles who was praised as the strongest hero of Olympus.

Tae Ho started to run towards the shrine once again. Right at that moment Orion came out of the shrine and looked at Tae Ho.

Orion, who had the blood of a titan flowing in him, was a giant that was as big as Bracky. But compared to Bracky that was only tall and big, Orion had a well sculpted body. His face was so handsome that it seemed like it generated light.

The most handsome hunter.

It was one of Orion’s several nicknames.

But whatever his looks were like Orion was an atrocious being that devoted himself to raping and murdering. He discovered Tae Ho and then let go of the hair of a maiden he was holding and nocked his bow immediately.

Orin’s bow skills could be said to be one of the best among the several heroes of Olympus. It’s power and precision couldn’t allow his opponents to flee.

Tae Ho looked at the arrows pouring down at him. There were three of them and each of them was drawing a different trajectory with time differences so it was impossible to dodge it with normal methods.

That’s why Tae Ho didn’t dodge them. In the first place, he didn’t even think of blocking them.

Because there was no need to do so.

The best hunter that wouldn’t fall behind to Orion was behind Tae Ho!

[Saga: The wolf Goddess]

[Saga: The arrows of the witch never misses its target]

Three arrows flew from behind Tae Ho. They clashed against the three arrows of Orion and exploded.

Orion opened his eyes wide in surprise. Tae Ho charged over the explosion generated by the clash of divine power.

He was fast. That’s why Orion pulled up the maiden that was crumpled down instead of nocking his bow once again. He slashed the neck of the maiden with the sharp golden tip of the arrow and threw her towards Tae Ho.

The maiden hadn’t died yet.

She couldn’t yell because her neck got cut but she was still alive.

What will you do?

Won’t you heal her? Will you leave her behind to die and attack me?

Orion smiled. He tried to create some distance as if he knew how Tae Ho would react.

“Adenmaha!”

Tae Ho yelled and at the same time his saga got activated. ‘The warrior that had a Goddess meet him’ called Adenmaha and she received the maiden that was falling.

Orion fired more arrows after having created some distance. The arrows weren’t headed towards Tae Ho but to Adenmaha and the maiden. Tae Ho had jumped over the maiden while believing in Adenmaha and then gritted his teeth and controlled his position. He executed the wind slash of Scathach’s style tehcniques and pushed away the arrows.

Orion laughed once again. He, once he had dropped his stance and created some more distance as soon as he fired the arrows, nocked a special arrow. He gathered his divine power to deal a strong blow.

Adenmaha hurriedly used her mystical powers to heal the maiden and glared at the front. She transmitted her thoughts to Tae Ho.

‘Jump when I give you the signal!’

Her thoughts were transmitted with mystical powers so the meaning was transferred even before she uttered a word. Tae Ho didn’t become doubtful at Adenmaha’s sudden demand.

‘Jump!’

Tae Ho leaped. Orion tried to let go of the pulled bowstring.

And right at that moment.

Nidhogg, who was sitting next to Rolo, rolled in front. She didn’t have her 100 meter armor body so the roll of a frail woman was really powerless. No, it had to have been powerless.

But that wasn’t the case.

Because it wasn’t a simple roll.

It was an action to activate her saga!

[Saga: Rolling disaster]

A huge shake of the earth was generated with Nidhogg as the center and the entire village was shaken over.

There was no way to dodge this as the entire ground was shaking. Orion’s stance, right about to let go of his bowstring, was broken.

The only one that wasn’t influenced by the saga was Tae Ho who had surged to the air.

[Saga: The charge of the warrior is like a storm]

Tae Ho kicked the air. Orion tried to enter a firing stance hurriedly but it was impossible. His concentration broke because of the earthquake and the divine power he had accumulated had also scattered.

Orion made a fast judgement. He cursed out and swung his bow. It was a strong and fast attack that wasn’t poor at all.

But it was too simple. Tae Ho grasped his attack perfectly even without having to use ‘the eyes of the dragon’.

Tae Ho moved below the trajectory drawn by the bow. He closed the distance with Orion in an instant and swung his sword.

Blood surged out.

Orion’s skill didn’t have the capability to block Arondight’s blade that was filled with divine power. Orion screamed and twisted his body and Tae Ho swung his sword in consecution.

Orion’s arm holding the bow got cut off cleanly and surged to the air. Orion screamed once again and Tae Ho kicked Orion’s leg and made him fall. He stabbed Arondight in his left shoulder.

“Growl!”

A huge hunting dog appeared in the shrine and charged towards Tae Ho. It was the hunting dog that had accompanied Orion all his life and could be called his best friend.

Tae Ho didn’t even turn to look at it. He looked down at Orion and activated ‘The warrior that had a Goddess meet him’ and the fake Heda and Scathach that were summoned stopped the dog’s attack.

The hunting dog was so huge it seemed like it could gulp down a person whole but it couldn’t defeat Heda who had a completion rate that made her close to the real deal and Scathach who had the best abilities among the fake Valkyries. It just got trampled on the ground and whined.

Orion tried to stand up however he could but it was impossible. Arondight pierced his shoulder and stabbed the ground so it didn’t even move.

“Agh!”

Orion screamed once again when he was about to curse. It was because Tae Ho took out more weapons to pierce Orion’s other shoulder and also his chest and thighs.

Tae Ho was planning on letting Orion alive and interrogate him. If Cuchulainn’s help was added on top of Bragi’s rune, he would be able to obtain quite a lot of information.

But it was right at that moment.

Orion twisted his body and started to release a strong divine power. It wasn’t his own divine power as a son of Poseidon.

The Goddess of hunt and the moon Artemis.

It belonged to her.

“Who are you! Why is it that you are obstructing me!”

The voice clearly belonged to Orion but it was different. The owner of the voice that transmitted directly to Tae Ho’s head and also shook the sky was clearly Artemis.

Orion trembled. It seemed like he would rise himself at any moment.

“You are not a hero of Olympus! Valhalla! Why does a bastard of Valhalla oppose me! Whose warrior are you!”

Orion’s eyes started to get bloodshot but then started to release white light. It seemed like a similar resemblance would occur like when the strength and will of the real Achilles was held on the fake Achilles.

That’s why Tae Ho made a decision. He pulled Caliburn from the air and said.

“The warrior of the most beautiful Goddess.”

“Freya?”

That was Orion’s last words. Caliburn cleanly cut off his head. The divine power of Artemis that was surging up like it would explode at any moment dissipated like a lie.

‘Are you hiding your identity?’

‘That wasn’t my intention.’

Because the most beautiful Goddess for Tae Ho wasn’t Freya.

Tae Ho answered Cuchulainn briefly and spread his palm. It was because surprisingly, runes started to surge up from Orion.

‘The rune system changes the divine power and magic power of the foe you defeated and changes it into a rune so that you can absorb it. The efficiency would be worse than defeating an enemy in Asgard but you will still be able to obtain runes.’

Thinking about it, he had also acquired runes from the fomoires, that were beings of Erin. There was no reason he wouldn’t be able to obtain runes from the beings of Olympus.

Tae Ho absorbed the runes and looked at Adenmaha. She had placed down the maiden and nodded towards Tae Ho with an exhausted face. It meant that she had somehow managed to save the maiden.

Tae Ho was relieved and looked somewhere else. The bow that Orion used was rolling in the ground with his hand that got cut off still attached to it.

‘How thorough.’

“Looting is a basic thing in hunting.”

In addition, Tae Ho’s principle was that he would first retrieve even the japtem(like useless equipment and items) and then see.

But compared to what he said, his feet didn’t move to the place the bow was at. He rather stood in place and looked at the sky.

[You have finished the quest from Apollo.]

[Your talent on poetry and music has grown.]

[Your hidden talent in playing instruments has awoken.]

[Your reputation has gotten higher.]

[It seems like Apollo will give you a reward.]

[Apollo is satisfied with you.]

[Apollo’s mood has become good.]

[Apollo proposes you become his hero.]

Voices were heard in his head in consecution.

It was quite bewildering but Tae Ho was already accustomed to voices ringing in his head thanks to Cuchulainn. He expressed his thought clearly instead of becoming bewildered.

“I’m a warrior of Idun.”

He had no thoughts of becoming a warrior of another God.

[Apollo expresses displeasure at your decision.]

[Apollo wants to punish you for your arrogance.]

[Apollo exhibits his rational power.]

[He understands that you are already a hero of another God.]

[He has also understood that you have an independent divine power.]

[Apollo takes back his displeasure.]

[Apollo expresses good will to you, a God of Asgard.]

‘He plays well alone.’

He gets angry alone, calms down then acts friendly.

The voice talked back with an absent minded voice as if it had heard Cuchulainn.

Cuchulainn agreed with Cuchulainn as he always did.

‘It looks like a roguelike game.’

Olympus was a world that was similar to Asgard yet different. The relationship between Gods and humans was also different from Asgard and Erin.

The voices of the Gods.

The humans of Olympus would rely on the Gods when making an important decision more so than the humans of Asgard or Erin.

And that was an obvious thing. That was because the humans in Olympus could hear the voices of the Gods.

‘So this is a quest.’

It wasn’t related to battles but he had still acquired a new power. In addition, there was a probability that his talent in music and poetry would increase Bragi’s runes and synergism.

‘Let’s test it on Adenmaha later.’

If Cuchulainn had heard it he would have said that it would be pointless as the result of the experiment was already decided but fortunately he hadn’t heard him.

There were still many things he had to investigate about the quest. Just like if the others also obtained the effects of the quest or if there was another quest beyond what he understood now.

And must of all, a conversation with Apollo was urgent.

Tae Ho wanted a direct conversation instead of an indirect one.

“Orion has died!”

Tae Ho raised the head of Orion and yelled. The centaurs, that were already getting pushed back by Bracky’s group, didn’t even turn to look back and started to flee. In the first place, it didn’t seem like they even wanted to check Orion’s death properly.

“Master.”

Adenmaha stood up while holding the maiden. Tae Ho read the green words above her head.

[Apollo’s maiden]

[Sybilla]

Tae Ho approached her.

< Episode 49 – The Goddess of warfare Athena (4) > End

TL note: Thanks for reading~