"If the gods are long gone... then what is the meaning of my existence? What is the point of all my efforts?!" The woman looked at her hands and laughed self-deprecatingly, "What Valkyrie?! What messenger of the gods?! In the end, I'm nothing more than a stray dog guarding a graveyard!"
She ripped off the feathered crown from her head and threw it into a corner of the hall with all her might. Unstoppable tears streamed down the woman's cheeks and dripped to the ground.
Todd stood on the high platform, looking at the woman in front of him who was heartbroken because she had lost her pillar of faith, and gently shook his head without saying a word.
Once the other person's emotions had calmed down a bit, Todd walked to the Valkyrie's side, knelt down, and said softly, "The age of the gods may have ended, but your path continues."
“You don’t understand.” The Valkyrie, tears still streaming down her face, said to Todd, “From birth until now, I have been trained by my people to be a handmaiden of the gods. All I have to do is protect the relics of the gods and find their traces… This is my destiny. But now, the gods are gone, and I have no direction to go. Everything is over!”
Todd shook his head slightly: "I once heard you say that Brunhilde is not your real name, but a code name specifically given to the Valkyrie leader. In that case, before becoming the Valkyrie leader, you must have had your own life and your original life trajectory."
The woman paused slightly, then muttered to herself, "My past?"
"Brynhildr's mission may have ended, but that's precisely why you're freed from endless burdens... Do you remember how you became a Valkyrie?"
As the woman reminisced, she said, "When I was nineteen, I received the sword and shield, symbolizing the authority of the gods, and the name Brunhilde from the previous Valkyrie leader. I will never forget that after the handover, the previous leader became a 'nameless one,' choosing to exile herself from the village and never returning."
Todd asked curiously, "The Nameless One?"
“When a Valkyrie passes on power to the successor in her clan, her name is automatically passed on to the next person. This means that she loses her name and can no longer live in the village. She can only choose to exile herself.” The woman said sadly, “At that time, I thought that sooner or later I would be like her, without a name or relatives, dying like a lonely ghost on a wandering road.”
Todd sighed: "Before that, do you remember your past, your name?"
“Before this… I heard from my people that they found me, an abandoned baby, on the altar, and they gave me a name, something like…” The woman tried her best to recall her past memories: “Evie.”
Todd repeated the name several times, then said to her, "Do you remember the promise I made to you?"
The woman looked at the golden palace before her, and suddenly remembered something: "Your promise was..."
“That’s right. When I was in the Valkyrie Village, I made a promise to you that I would rebuild Asgard, and this is my answer.”
As Evie stood up and looked around, Todd slowly said to her, "The Age of Gods has ended, and the old has been reborn. My wish is to establish a new divine realm throughout the entire Northern Region."
The woman turned her head and instantly understood the meaning behind the other person's words: "You hope to end the war between tribes and kingdoms by rebuilding the faith of the entire North, in the capacity of a god?"
Todd frowned and thought for a moment: "What you said is not entirely accurate, but it is not wrong in general."
“I hope to borrow your power.” Todd extended his hand to the woman, looking at her sincerely: “Not as Brunhilde, but as your original identity—Evie.”
The woman looked into the man's eyes for a long time before finally extending her right hand to Todd.
——————————————————
Five, the beach west of Froststone Camp.
Six huge three-masted cargo ships were moored in the shallow sea, while dozens of sailboats were anchored on the distant sea.
A procession of barbarian warriors, gladiators, and Northern Island troops stretched from the forest to the beach, seemingly endless. Thousands of soldiers boarded the ships on ramps, each busy with the final preparations before departure.
Turning his gaze away from the griffins circling overhead, Todd hugged Rachel and Deirdre in front of him and said softly, "Wait for me to come back."
Rachel looked at the ships in the distance and said to Todd, "If the battle goes badly, you should know what to do..."
The latter nodded and then looked at Deirdre.
Even though they had been intimate, this woman remained as shy as ever when facing her lover. In front of everyone, she simply ran up and gently kissed Todd before hurriedly running away.
Todd touched his lips, shook his head with a smile, and walked towards the gangway erected on the shore.
A silver-haired woman stood on the deck, her gaze fixed on Rachel and Deirdre in the distance.
Todd went up to the deck and came to her side. The change in her surprised him slightly.
Evie (Brynhildr)'s originally flowing moon-silver hair has been cut short to her earlobes, and her Valkyrie sword and shield, engraved with runes, have disappeared.
“A few days ago, I returned to the village and made a request to the tribe—to voluntarily relinquish the title of Valkyrie. The elders condemned my crime of desertion and declared me banished forever.” The woman faced Todd, her face showing no sadness or grief: “But rest assured, I haven’t mentioned a single word to them about your plan to rebuild Asgard.”
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