Chapter 350: Caught Odin off guard

After seeing Diana off, Lin You felt a little lost; fortunately, there was a little girl named Minerva in the manor.

Naughty kids are born masters at ruining the atmosphere. No matter whether you are happy or sad, you will forget your emotions in their noise; Minerva is no exception. That afternoon was the first time in her memory that her brother completely left her behind.

The little girl was so angry that she almost became autistic, the kind that even the old housekeeper couldn't comfort her.

Lin You was holding the Athena's divine head and dangling it in front of Minerva like fishing, but the little girl was able to resist the urge to pay attention to him, only leaving her brother with the back of his head.

"If you don't eat it, then I will!" How could he not have some countermeasures after raising a child for several years? Lin You tore off a small piece of the divine power and pretended to put it in his mouth.

The little girl was silent, but she couldn't help but secretly turn half of her face away, using the corner of her eyes to monitor her brother's actions. Lin You saw it, smiled in his heart, and suddenly sped up his originally slow hand movements, pretending to throw the fragment of the godhead pinched by his fingertips into his mouth.

"Ah..." Minerva let out an unwilling scream, turned around and threw herself on her brother, using her hands and feet to climb up his shoulders with ease, and stretched out her little hand to reach into Lin You's mouth; Lin You was amused and laughed, and pulled the little girl down, and waved his big hand in front of her eyes, with the fragment of the divinity that was "swallowed" still firmly held on her fingertips.

The silver-level microcosm allows Lin You to have a reaction speed dozens of times the speed of sound. Isn't it easy to perform a magic trick?
Minerva was stunned for a moment. Although she couldn't figure it out, she realized that she was being fooled by her brother. Her face immediately turned red and she reached out to pull his hair. However, Lin You pinched her cheek and forcefully fed her. Her attention was quickly drawn back to the fragment of the Godhead.

Hmm... those chubby baby cheeks feel really good. Lin You stuffed the remaining Athena godhood into Minerva's hands, half bribing and half tempting the little girl to "forget" the anger of being ignored in the afternoon.

Only after coaxing Minerva to sleep did Lin You leave and go to the Garden of Eden to resume his duties as writer.

After communicating with the will of the big world, Lin You deduced that Patrick Morgan might betray his allies again, and the biggest suspect of this "ally" was the Norse gods. However, although the author made a very clear analysis, he had no ability to intervene in the specific investigation, so he could only leave it to God and Chronos. When Lin You returned to the big world, he happened to help Wonder Woman clean up the mess and captured her old enemy, Cheetah.

Now, a whole day had passed, and when the writer returned to the Garden of Eden, he saw the figures of God and Chronos at a glance, and asked, "Are there any clues?"

"It is not easy to investigate two powerful pantheons, writer." God's expression was gentle, and his relaxed tone did not sound like there was no gain at all.

Lin You asked: "But what?"

"But we caught Odin off guard," Chronos interjected; the discoveries of the past day made the God of Time quite pleased, because although He did not find substantial evidence pointing to the Norse pantheon, after preliminary investigation, He was able to greatly reduce the possibility of the Olympian pantheon being involved to a certain extent.

Due to the rebellion in the "God of War" story world, all the fighter systems affiliated with Mount Olympus have been dormant, and no fighters have been selected so far.

The only thing that activated the microcosm was the Ophiuchus constellation that the writer possessed.

The mysterious microcosm discovered by the author does not belong to Olympus; thus, the suspicion of the Norse pantheon is greatly increased.

After listening to Chronos' explanation, Lin You was still puzzled: "I understand this principle, but what does it have to do with catching Odin off guard?"

"Because Odin didn't know that we had suspected him." Chronos explained, "We came to visit him suddenly, which was completely unexpected for him. It turned out that several main gods were missing from Asgard."

“Which ones are missing?”

Chronos listed them one by one: "Thor, the god of thunder; Tyr, the god of war; Loki, the god of lies and tricks; oh, and Hela, the goddess of death. She has also disappeared, so that some of the dead have escaped and are wandering in the other eight realms. These are the easiest ones to find out. The others cannot be confirmed yet."

"Son, brother, niece, these are all relatively powerful gods in the Nordic pantheon." Lin You silently recited a few gods' names, but he couldn't guess the clues. "Do you know where they are going?"

"It's only been a day. We are lucky to have discovered that they are missing." Chronos said unhappily.

Lin You asked again: "Have you asked Odin? What did he say?"

"We didn't ask directly, but only hinted at it. Odin explained that the gods went to different places. Some were looking for a solution to Ragnarok, and some simply didn't like the current situation of the Nine Realms freezing time, so they went to the big world or other story worlds to play." Chronos sneered, "Who knows which of his words are true? Maybe none of them are true."

"I don't like freezing time... this reason is actually very convincing." God interjected slowly, seemingly making excuses for the Norse pantheon and Odin, but Lin You knew that was not His intention.

On the contrary, the reason of not liking to freeze time is probably the most powerful motivation for the Norse pantheon to collude with Patrick Morgan.

Why do we say that? To understand the reasons, we have to start with the reason why the Norse pantheon is "frozen in time".

There is a well-known doomsday event in Norse mythology: Ragnarok. Because of the existence of "Ragnarok", Norse mythology has become a very rare and unique story.

Looking at human history, among the myths and legends of various civilizations that have been handed down to date, there is almost no other story structure like the Norse mythology, in which the entire pantheon inevitably ends up in complete destruction, completely tearing down the mythological world and starting over again.

Later researchers also have different opinions on this.

Some people believe that this story structure is derived from the harsh natural conditions and living environment in Northern Europe. Volcanic eruptions, ice storms, and the Little Ice Age climate have caused the Nordic Germanic tribes to migrate all year round. Each migration means that life has to start all over again; and generally speaking, the Germanic tribes along the Baltic Sea migrated southward. The reality is reflected in the myth that the new world after "Twilight of the Gods" is restarted at the southernmost end of the universe.

Some people also believe that the evolution of Norse mythology reflects the process of Christianity replacing indigenous mythology. There is also clear evidence for this statement; on the one hand, Norse mythology was originally collected and compiled by Christian missionaries, and it was easy for missionaries to do something with it. On the other hand, it is because of the new supreme god who cannot be named directly after "Twilight of the Gods" - this description is very similar to the wording used by Christian missionaries to describe God.

Regardless of the reason, the ending of the myth is certain: the old Norse gods, led by Odin, are destined to die, and the Norse pantheon will be inherited by the new Supreme God and the few survivors of Ragnarok. How could Odin tolerate such a horrible ending?

Therefore, ever since the gods of the virtual dimension saw through the truth of the dimension, the Norse pantheon - the nine realms with the world tree as the core - has been deliberately frozen in time.

After time was frozen, the story of Norse mythology stopped at a point in time that all gods could accept and no longer developed forward; time stopped moving, the gods who were supposed to have died survived, the gods who were supposed to have been injured, disabled, and suffering were now safe and sound, and the ending of Ragnarok would never come.

The only problem is that the entire Norse mythology world has fallen into silence, completely lost its vitality, and is dead. Although the gods are not bound by time, the mortals and other living and non-living things in the world cannot do this.

The frozen time makes the entire Nine Realms appear to be "the same day repeating itself over and over again".

The sun always rises and sets at the same angle, the star map you see at night is always the same, the flowers and plants around you always look the same, the wind blowing at the same time must come from the same direction, and mortals and the dead repeat the same experiences every day...

It's a bit like the movie Groundhog Day, where the protagonist is stuck in a time loop of the same day. At first, the Norse gods would be interested in making changes and adding a little new variety to daily life; but after a long time, this interest disappeared completely.

Seeing that no matter how the world changed, it would "return" to its original state the next day, the gods fell into inexplicable irritation and anxiety.

This feeling is very uncomfortable. Not only can the human protagonists in the movie not stand it, but the true gods also find it difficult to tolerate.

It's just that when faced with the bigger choice of "survival or death", no matter how unbearable it is, you have to continue to endure it. If you want to die, you would have died long ago. Why would the Norse gods participate in the big world plan?
If there were no other variables, the Nine Realms of Northern Europe would probably have been repeated day after day; but the "unknown" appeared, and the author showed great subjective initiative in dealing with the "unknown".

For the Norse gods, seeing the "unknown" events is like seeing the dawn of a new destiny. By using the "unknown" to change or even erase the ending of Ragnarok, can't they get rid of the frozen time and this damn repetitive life?

Isn’t this the driving force behind the collusion between the Norse pantheon and Patrick Morgan?

For gods, the biggest limitation in doing something is not ability but motivation.

When faced with a matter, the biggest question for the gods is whether they want to do it, not whether they have the ability to do it. With a clear and powerful motive, even if the evidence is not sufficient, the matter can be more certain.

"But without evidence, it won't work." Lin You suddenly poured a bucket of cold water on him; having a motive is only a suspicion, which can provide a direction for investigation. If you want it to be convincing, you have to find strong evidence.

"Now that we have a direction for the investigation, it will be much easier to find evidence." Chronos didn't care; in his opinion, removing Olympus' suspicion was the top priority - this task had already been basically completed. As for uncovering the possible conspiracy of the Norse pantheon, that was the common task of all the gods, and there was no need to take all the responsibility on himself.

In contrast, God's attitude is relatively more reliable: "Our temptation today will certainly alarm Odin; it's like throwing a stone into a metal water pipe and now waiting to hear the echo. The more intense Odin's reaction is, the easier it will be for us to catch him."

"I just hope I don't end up making things worse." The author is the most pessimistic one; as a mortal, he always has a real sense of powerlessness. Most importantly, every time the big world plan has problems, the task of solving the problem often falls on him.

Chronos could not empathize with the writer's feelings. He said in a relaxed tone: "Instead of worrying, why not think about it, if Odin reacts, where will he choose as the starting point?"

God held up two fingers: "There are only two directions: one is that He continues to move closer to the will of the universe, and the other is to destroy our relationship with the will of the universe."

"If it were me, I would choose to do two things at the same time." Lin You opened his mouth and made the most pessimistic guess, imagining the worst possibility.

"One thing at a time." God comforted him gently, "We have already established contact with the will of the great world. As long as we don't mess around, the relationship with the will of the great world will not deteriorate easily."

Chronos nodded in agreement, "Then Odin only has one thing left to do, continue to create the 'unknown' and continue to flatter the will of the great world. Oh, and maybe he will go and settle accounts with Patrick Morgan, provided that He has realized that He has been betrayed."

"Leave the search for Patrick Morgan to you. I'll monitor the Harry Potter story." Lin You suggested, "The only chance to create the 'unknown' is still the Harry Potter story. I'm responsible for locking the chain I loosened."

"What are you going to do?" God did not object, but seriously asked the writer what he thought.

"I don't have a clear idea yet, but I will go to the school first." Lin You said, "The closer you are to the center of the story, the greater the impact of the 'unknown' on the big world; Hogwarts Castle is the core of the entire Harry Potter story."

God nodded slightly, approving the writer's judgment.

At the same time as the decision was made in the Garden of Eden, Hogwarts Castle also welcomed two groups of distinguished guests. Teachers and students from two other European magic schools will visit the castle today; with this as the beginning, the Triwizard Tournament has officially kicked off.

Minister Cornelius Fudge came to the castle for the first time - at an occasion where his personal appearance was not required, he came anyway; the ostensible reason was that something had happened to Barty Crouch Sr., and the Ministry of Magic needed someone to replace him as a representative to welcome foreign guests.

But everyone knows that the Minister has other intentions than drinking!

Too many things have happened in the British wizarding world in the past few months, and Minister Fudge urgently needs to create an atmosphere of "peace in the world".

Even if it is just a false peace.

(End of this chapter)