Daily Life and Collapse in the Divine Realm
Heer's voice was neither hurried nor slow, "You have seen me, in the underworld."
"Then I have been to the underworld? Impossible." Lin Bai blurted out.
Heer didn't answer, but slowly closed his eyes.
At that moment, the entire Valhalla was silent for a moment, as if even the firelight had dimmed a little.
The noisy gods quieted down, and Odin spoke: "The banquet is over, everyone should go home."
"Let's go," Freya said softly, "This is only the first banquet."
"What's next?"
"The games of the gods, the disputes of the gods, the secrets of the gods." Her voice spread out layer by layer like the water in a lake at night.
"You will witness it all until your memory returns."
——
When Lin Bai woke up, the temple was just welcoming the morning light.
The Memory Palace was nestled in the clouds, and outside the window was a vast sea of fog. Sunlight streamed down from the crystal dome, filtering through the pure white gauze curtains, casting a fickle golden light across the ground. She stretched lazily, the quilt still lingering with warmth, a faint blend of rose and herbaceous fragrance. She rubbed her eyes and rose to wash.
Loki was already sitting on her windowsill, a quill in one hand and a delicate parchment scroll in the other. He looked even more dramatic today than he had yesterday, dressed in a deep purple cloak embroidered with stars and soft woolen slippers.
"Good morning, my dear Miss Recorder." He bowed to her, his tone like a bard from the Aegean Sea. "Last night I dreamed that you turned into a little lark, chasing Freyr's eagle. Tell me, is this what you dreamed of last night?"
Lin Bai smiled helplessly: "Can you dream more normally?"
"Normal?" Loki's eyes widened, looking as if he had been severely shocked. "You actually asked a god to have a 'normal' dream? You are really too normal, Lin Bai."
She ignored him and walked straight to the balcony. Clouds and mist swirled beneath her feet. A few golden kites flew across the sky, their wings leaving streaks of brilliant color. Lin Bai took a deep breath and felt a sense of peace he had never felt before.
Freya also stood up. She chuckled and raised her hand to pull Loki away. "Don't bother the recorder here. Don't play pranks on her. I'm here to protect her."
Lin Bai looked at the deflated Loki, chuckled, and hid behind Freya to peek at Loki.
Loki put away his quill, dusted himself off, turned around and slid away. The farther he got, the faster his steps became. It could be said that he was running away in desperation.
Freya muttered a few words as if she was angry, turned around and took Lin Bai's hand, insisting on going to her back garden for a picnic and spending some leisure time together.
"I still have work to do." Lin Bai waved his hand, not wanting to be so lazy.
"It's okay. These days don't change. There's no need to record them. It's just an excuse to find you back." Freya insisted.
Lin Bai was no match for Freya's fierce attack, and the two of them eventually went to the back garden.
Lindbergh and she knelt beside the flowers, each using a shovel to dig a small pot of newly planted blue roses. Sunlight streamed through the branches, dappling the backs of their hands. Freya wore a wreath of vines, her hair falling loose over her shoulders.
“There weren’t originally so many flowers in the divine realm.” Freya said softly, pointing to the flower she had just planted.
Lin Bai was very puzzled: "The singing of birds and the fragrance of flowers in the divine realm are a common understanding among everyone."
"Someone brought flower seeds, and everything is coming to life." Freya smiled.
She handed him a cup of scented tea, brewed with Dew Bee and Morning Glory vine leaves, both unique to the divine realm. Its fragrance permeated his bones, and after consuming it, his entire being exuded the aroma of tea from the inside out. Lin Bai held the tea, leaned against the tree, resting his head on Freya's shoulder, and slowly closed his eyes.
The wind is very light and the birds are singing in the distance, like a melody spreading across the lake of the heart.
Lin Bai heard in a half-asleep state, "Do you like it? Stay forever."
——
When Lin Bai woke up, the sun god Su had already driven away, Mani's moonlight car was fleeing over the realm of gods, and the giant wolf Hati's fangs touched the corners of Mani's clothes from time to time.
The shrine holds a small starlight banquet every seven days, and all gods are welcome to attend. The venue is set on a glazed platform floating in the air.
It just so happens that it happened tonight.
Lin Bai was wearing a chiffon dress hand-picked by Freya today, the color of the sky after sunset. Loki feigned surprise upon seeing her: "Is this still the Record Keeper?"
She didn't want to pay attention: "Stop talking nonsense."
"I am the god of honesty and wisdom."
"You are the god of cunning and nonsense."
Loki clutched his chest and wailed, "You've hurt a god's most vulnerable part: his sense of self!"
Their verbal spat attracted little attention.
At the banquet, Heimdall played the Lyre of the Nine Realms, Odin raised his glass and sang a victory song for the Valkyries, Thor competed in drinking with the giants, and Lin Bai leaned against an amber pillar and drank alone. How nice it would be if life could always be so comfortable.
Such peaceful days lasted for a long time.
Lin Bai recorded the legends of the gods and copied the book of fate in the memory palace. He also laughed to tears at Loki's mischievous games. Sometimes he was dragged to participate in the "healing meditation class" held by Freya. Amid the fragrance of flowers and light and shadow, he never recalled the past.
Sometimes she played the piano on the terrace, sometimes she read a book while lying on a rattan chair in the suspended garden, and sometimes she counted stars with Hull on the stone steps beside the divine light fountain.
There is no worldly noise here, no questions about one's life experience, only the eternal and unchanging fleeing sun and moon.
——
It snowed in the divine realm, and in the netherworld as well. Balder, the god of light, had fallen.
"What should we do with these poor flowers? They are so afraid of the cold that they are all withering." Freya held up an umbrella and tried to save some flowers, but it was of no avail.
At the same time, a new person came to the divine world, and no one knew where this person came from.
The man was wearing an old cloak, his face was weathered, and he walked barefoot on the hot stone pavement in front of the temple, muttering to himself:
"Ragnarok is coming...you are all doomed..."
He had an extremely loud voice, as hoarse as the howling of the fjord wind.
On the first day, the gods were shocked.
The next day, the gods were restless.
On the third day, Loki squatted behind him and imitated him, rolling on the ground with laughter: "You are all finished, you are all finished!"
"Stop learning!" Freya grabbed Loki's collar and carried him away, throwing him a piece of cake. "Eat something and stop shouting."
But he didn't thank me, nor did he eat. He just kept on shouting, "You all don't believe it! But I've seen it! The fire of dusk rises from the depths of the glacier, the dragon climbs up the sky from the well of the underworld, and the gods will burn to ashes!"
Now, even Odin's face darkened.
"Who is he? Who let him in?"
"No one brought him in," Heimdall said, standing in front of the Rainbow Bridge, his hand on his sword. "I checked the records, and he didn't enter through the passage to the Nine Realms. He seemed to appear here out of thin air."
Lin Bai finally couldn't help but go over and talk to the man.
"You said you've seen Ragnarok? Are you a prophet? Or a time traveler?"
The man glanced at her, and suddenly there was a very clear light in his eyes.
"You are not them, you are new. You haven't chosen a side yet. Very good, very good." He murmured softly, then suddenly turned around and disappeared into the clouds, as if he had never existed.
The next morning, Lin Bai saw him again in front of the shrine gate. He started shouting again.
"Ragnarok is coming...you are all doomed..."
This time, Thor passed by him and stuffed his spare hammer into his hand: "You're shouting so hard, why don't you practice using the hammer? At least you can beat Fenrir."
The man actually took it, weighed it, and carried it on his shoulder, continuing to shout: "You are all finished!"
Hammer once, shout once.
On the third night, Hull secretly sent someone to deliver a thick cloak: "Wear more clothes, it's quite cold recently."
Lin Bai sat by the window in his room, listening to the usual screams coming from afar. For some reason, he felt that this person was not a madman, but might be saying the truth, and disaster was approaching.
She suddenly remembered that there was a crystal ball in the library that could observe other people's future.
Lin Bai immediately rushed to the Tibetan museum.
The crystal ball was glowing faintly, and Lin Bai seemed mesmerized, unconsciously touching it. In an instant, memories flooded back into her mind: the fall of the gods, the long winter, the sun and moon devoured by a giant wolf.
She remembered everything. It was just an illusion of a game, but Lin Bai didn't think it was just an illusion constructed by time slices.
She wanted to save it, but everything was already decided and the crystal ball would not lie.
——
Glinbind chirped incessantly from the top of the World Tree. The gods were disturbed by the noise and came out to play in the snow, as it had never snowed in the God Realm before.
But that night, bad news came. The giant wolf Fenrir escaped, and the sun god Su and the moon god Mani were both eaten. The world of gods and the human world fell into eternal night.
The man who had been shouting all day long disappeared, but the gods were truly panicked. The human world fell into chaos, and the world of gods was not at peace either.
The gods kept quarreling, and the world became a purgatory. Until a cracking sound came from the World Tree, the guards ran to see that it was a poisonous dragon gnawing at the roots of the World Tree.
Disputes continued to break out, Jörmungandr awakened, and the gods went to battle, but the world tree, which had been hollowed out long ago, collapsed, and the world sank to the bottom of the sea. Lin Bai had no time to be sad, and everything had returned to silence. When Thor and Jörmungandr died together, the conditions for passing the level were triggered, and Lin Bai entered the answering space and wrote her memory.
This was the most difficult question Lin Bai had ever answered. Every scene of Ragnarok was engraved so clearly in her mind.
"Bingo, congratulations to the challenger 'Mask' who wrote 'Twilight of the Gods' for successfully completing the level."
"Entering the battle phase."
"Due to a shortage of challengers, an opponent will be automatically generated based on your strength—Jörmungandr."
This was an ocean battlefield, with the auditorium floating on the sea and a crumbling giant tree in the center. Lin Bai remembered it, the World Tree.
The audience began to arrive, and the noise was overwhelming. Lin Bai calmed his mind and prepared for the battle. The bell rang, and a giant python emerged from the seabed. Lin Bai knew the way well: "Lift high the hammer of Thor and call down the storm. In the name of Asgard, summon the embodiment of thunder and strength - Thor."
A familiar figure emerged from behind him. Lin Bai looked at Thor, only to see him looking at him with a smile on his face, his mouth forming the shape of "Recorder, nice to see you again."
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com