Chapter 783: 772 (2/2)

”Woah, I'm not just going right away,” Nik exclaimed. ”I need to prepare!”

Hela frowned.

”How long will this take?” She inquired.

”Fifteen minutes... that's the quickest I'll agree,” Nik crossed his arms as a bleak expression touched Hela. Clearly, she was more verbally aware than Angela who frowned at the comment.

”Excuse me?” Hela's expression soured, ”this is not a comedy.”

”Oh, really?” Nik frowned, ”Then unlike your other goddess counterpart, how about you tell me what I should do when I get there,” he spat with a mocking smirk.

”What else? Malekith wishes to be relieved of his status as a tortured soul. A Goddess of Death took pity on him and sent an executioner.”

”Come on, I don't know how to kill a soul.”

”You stab him. Or shoot him. Souls, in this realm are as ordinary as mortal flesh. They can be hurt and destroyed,” Hela remarked, ”Of course, Malekith is a beast and you would need to boast outstanding strength, a prerequisite of anyone's status who can make till here.”

'Capture him!' Morgan almost shouted but Nik already had that in mind. This would be his first soul aside from Ray's sister's soul. While the latter was somehow bound to his spiritual world, this one... Nik's gaze flickered. He certainly had no idea to capture a soul. But he had a way to suppress a soul.

”How will you know the task is done? What guarantee is there that you will let me out?” Nik inquired.

”A man who cannot trust a goddess is nothing ordinary. But it is not your trust I require. I stand to earn a group of loyal Valkyries with your assistance. And your group has certainly impressed me with Fafnir's head. Get rid of Malekith once and for all, and I will have rewards prepared for you that Loki can only dream of,” Hela smiled.

'Something that I can only dream of?' Loki frowned. Suddenly, her expression turned that of understanding and amazement.

'Truly, I will fight anyone who says she isn't my daughter even after she proclaimed as such! Such a line of thought... truly, amazing!'

”I see. You just want to get rid of Malekith. Sure,” Nik stepped into the portal but by the time they were chatting, almost everyone had a protection rune etched on their bodies.

One can never be too careful in front of a Goddess of Death, after all.

---

*Fwoosh*

Nik blinked and observed his surroundings.

The portal behind him still stayed intact but he wasn't in a room. Instead, he was in between a narrow pathway with one side blocked by the portal. He could only move forward.

But as Hela had stated, a prison of this magnitude wasn't really a place to explore and Nik didn't have extreme benefits tied to the act of exploration itself. So, he stepped on the moss layered rocks, something unexpected given the icy exterior. The walls surrounding Nik were carved out.

'A mural,' Nik recognized the medium of communication and saw the carving of an infant held by a young woman. Of course, no features were marked in detail. But one thing was made plenty sure that the characters of this story were a dark-skinned race with bright hair.

The dark elves.

Nik slid his fingers across the carving and began walking. Most of the carvings were covered by dark brown moss. With no source of light, it would have been extremely hard for any ordinary being to observe the carvings but then again, no ordinary being could really enter this location.

'A boy... given to someone else by the mother... what is this, dog food? So, a boy sold for dog food? Neat. A corpse digger, a slave, and then a magician. He killed someone and the left side of his face became even darker. Well, the racists will have a field trip on this type of face. Half dark, and half even darker. Then wars... countless wars.

A warring leader, huh,' Nik realized he was almost at the end of the narrow pathway and there, at end of the path was a shackled being with a torch lit above him, allowing the visitors to see the silver-haired man in advance.

”Kreech!” The man cackled.

”Ah... I forgot this guy speaks the native elven language,” Nik rubbed his head. Of course, once he scourged the memory of the man, he did learn the language spoken by the dark elves but it had too many dialects and differences based on the period of time. The elven shaman himself didn't know the entirety of his racial language.

”Eng... lish?” The figure's hoarse voice echoed as he kept his head down.

”No, I can speak a little elven, too...”

”That's a shitty accent...” the figure chuckled while speaking in a perfectly good English accent.

”Oh good... yours is English (British)...” Nik sighed in elven.