Chapter 378

Frozen basically allows freedom of religion.

This means it doesn’t care whether you believe in a religion or not.

In a filthy, cold land abundant in resources, becoming a miner is way better than sticking to a specific religion.

Still, not believing in any religion is not the case. With such an extreme environment, many people in Frozen believe in a god.

What’s interesting here is the leader of Frozen. The prince of Frozen and Reina’s father does not believe in any religion.

However, Reina’s mother is a follower of Gaia, the goddess of life.

To top it off, two of her brothers are worshippers of Gulrak, making for a rather confusing family dynamic.

Lastly, Reina herself is agnostic. She doesn’t have much interest in religion and is more focused on her own strength.

You might think she should worship Gulrak. But Gulrak’s followers don’t just get stronger through prayer.

“Hey, little sister Reina. How about believing in Gulrak, the Lord of Lightning, who reigns from the heavens?”

“Will believing in him let me unleash lightning like my brother?”

“Of course! But you need to pray for three hours a day…”

“Not doing it.”

That’s right. Gulrak’s favor isn’t handed out for free.

There are roughly two ways to earn Gulrak’s favor.

One is to remain sane while fighting like a madman, and the other is to perform sacrifices.

Kara, the priestess favored most by Gulrak, meets all these conditions and receives abundant support.

Conversely, this means that an ordinary person short on time has no chance. How can you manage prayers when you’re just trying to survive day to day?

Moreover, Reina lacked confidence in the most important trait, ‘patience.’ Patience was something far removed from her nature.

Although she is trying to learn the common language, that’s a ‘necessity,’ so she can endure that much.

Therefore, Reina planned to keep her distance from religion her whole life.

“W-What is this?”

But it seemed that the god had a pretty deep interest in Reina.

She opened her eyes wide, staring at the axe in her hand. It had popped up out of nowhere.

Just as Sivar said, she prayed to Chaos, and this weapon appeared in her grasp. The owner of this weapon was well-known.

“Isn’t that Senior’s axe?”

At first glance, it seemed more about style than efficiency. I heard it was originally used for sacrifices.

At the same time, it was an incredibly powerful weapon. Rumor has it that it was made from the blade of Usuk.

What kind of monster is Usuk? A monster with a blade sharp enough to slice through steel like tofu.

No wonder they call it a ‘war elephant’ in the East. It’s not just tough; it’s extremely hard to hunt down.

“Why did it end up in my hands?”

Anyway, let’s skip that. Reina couldn’t comprehend the current situation.

She asked Chaos for something, and now Sivar’s weapon, Ragnarok, was in her hand.

Who is Chaos? Known as the most complex and bewildering of the three gods.

There’s a saying that it’s not the followers who choose Chaos; it’s Chaos that chooses its followers. It’s a fickle god, indeed.

“Why on earth?”

Why would such a god give her this kind of help? And what does Ragnarok even have to do with Chaos?

There were so many things she couldn’t understand, but one thing was clear.

Chaos handed over this axe to provide her with help. It wouldn’t make sense otherwise.

“··· ···”

“··· ···”

Reina held Ragnarok, which was smaller than a battle axe but considerably larger than a one-handed axe, while staring at Sivar.

Sivar also seemed quite flabbergasted by the situation, looking thoroughly dumbfounded.

Even the master didn’t expect this scenario. Reina narrowed her eyes and then broke into a grin.

‘What does it matter? As long as it’s a good weapon.’

This was her simple yet passionate way of thinking. Still, it was no time for complacency.

Whatever this is, she had to at least try. Being forged from Usuk’s blade means it should be effective against Sivar.

Of course, just being effective doesn’t mean that’s the end of it. She would have to breach his ridiculous regeneration too if she wanted a fair chance.

As Reina began to think through her strategy, Sivar silently raised his left hand.

Though he internally tried to recall Ragnarok, it remained immovable. It had no intention of leaving Reina’s hand.

‘W-What…’

She was taken aback and had no words. Could it be that he prefers pretty ladies over hairy men?

Or maybe Chaos has cast some strange trick. In the current situation, that seemed like the most plausible explanation.

‘I find Ragnarok a bit annoying too.’

Even with an unrefined Usuk blade, it pierced through my trait of Steel King.

Moreover, even though it was just a slight scratch, it had pierced through Rize’s solid physique before.

If you factor in Reina’s magic power… that would result in quite a bit of damage. It would be much harder than before.

‘Bored, huh?’

I grumbled to myself as I charged at Reina.

While rushing, I didn’t forget to pull out the battle axe that was stuck in the ground.

Although the handle was broken and couldn’t serve its purpose, it should be sufficient for the time being.

As I approached right in front of Reina, I swung the broken-battle axe sideways.

“Ha!”

Is she trusting Ragnarok? Reina chose to counterattack instead of fleeing.

Thus, when our axes collided, swinging diagonally against each other…

-Screech!

Ragnarok sliced through the edge of the battle axe and passed right through.

I knew that Reina’s battle axe was quite good, but it couldn’t compare to the Usuk blade.

That said, it wasn’t like it had completely passed through to impale my side. As I mentioned, the battle axe was still a weapon made from excellent minerals.

“Wow!”

Reina was in awe as she saw Ragnarok sinking halfway into the blade of her battle axe. She didn’t expect it would do this much damage.

But there was no time to marvel. I took this moment while Ragnarok was halfway embedded to spin the battle axe.

Naturally, Reina’s wrist, having let down her guard, turned, and in that state, I pushed Ragnarok away.

-Thunk!

The axes entangled fell to the ground. Reina, even if she was Reina, couldn’t hold on with her wrist twisted.

Caught off guard, Reina hurriedly tried to counterattack, but it was already too late. I reached out and grabbed her by the collar.

-Boom!

“Ugh!”

I threw her against the wall while holding onto her collar, and she let out a noise of discomfort.

Hitting the wall seemed to cause her only mild pain. After all, her body was sturdy.

In the meantime, I dropped Ragnarok, which was stuck in the battle axe.

-Whoosh

Then I tossed it towards Reina, as if it were meant for her. Reina, emerging from the wall, widened her eyes as she caught Ragnarok.

The look on her face of wondering why I was throwing this at her was quite impressive. I shrugged my shoulders and spoke.

“It’s a gift from Chaos. So use it.”

“Really?”

“Yeah.”

If I end up using Ragnarok, it would be boring for the god who would lose faith in me.

If that’s the case, raise my faith, will you?

[Faith is increasing!]

See? I smirked, raising one corner of my mouth.

Chaos wants Reina to use Ragnarok.

Whatever the outcome may be, one thing is for sure.

It’s going to be interesting.

-Crash!

My fist crashed through the wall. Reina barely managed to turn her head to dodge.

She chose to escape the wall instead of retaliating. But that didn’t mean she wasn’t going to attack.

-Whoosh!

Reina seized Ragnarok with both hands and swung it fiercely. Because it was slashed diagonally, I had no choice but to step back.

The size was ambiguous, making it feel more like she was swinging it like a battle axe instead of a one-handed axe.

Just to be clear, Ragnarok isn’t that heavy of a weapon. With Reina’s strength, one hand should be enough.

-Swing! Slash!

Just like now. Maybe she figured two hands wouldn’t cut it, so Reina started using one hand to wield Ragnarok.

Now, the one with a headache would be me. If I got hit by even one of those swings, it would really hurt.

More than that, not knowing its power was the biggest issue. Just to clarify, I’m the owner of Ragnarok.

…Sure, it’s actually Hector, but the current owner is me. This means I shouldn’t be getting hit by it.

‘That’s going to hurt, right?’

It won’t just hurt a little bit. It’s going to hurt like hell.

Ragnarok is practically a final item for a believer of a god.

Now that it’s been enhanced with the Usuk blade, it must be close to a final item for a warrior as well.

-Thud!

So, I’ve got to avoid getting hit by Ragnarok as much as I can. I grabbed Reina’s wrist.

Just in time, as she was about to bring Ragnarok down from above, an opening appeared.

Even though Reina was caught by me, she remained unyielding and went for her next move.

-Whoosh!

Even with her right hand restrained, she still had her left hand left. In an instant, she moved Ragnarok to her left hand and brought it down.

I barely dodged just in time, but it was still a headache. It looks like I’ll have to rely on my regeneration.

‘First, I need to gauge how painful it is.’

Yeah. That might be better. I charged towards Reina.

Then I threw a clean kick her way. If it’s straightforward, it is straightforward.

It would be natural for Reina to dodge that kick. What comes next, you ask?

“Ha!”

-Shwoosh!

What do you think it is? A counterattack. I hesitated while trying to withdraw my right hand.

As mentioned before, getting hit once isn’t such a bad option. So…

-Thud!

“Huh?”

What could that unsettling sound be? I blinked in confusion.

Reina seemed to have heard that clear sound too because she widened her eyes.

-Splat!

But that silly response didn’t last long.

Soon, blood spurted like a fountain from the wrist where Ragnarok was embedded.

Since it had sunk halfway in, there was no avoiding cutting an artery.

“W-What? Are you okay?! Professor!”

In shock at the sight of her wrist, which was freshly exposed to bone and gushing blood, Reina called out to the professor in panic.

Usually, she recklessly charges in, but she seemed to have the sense to show discernment in such a dire situation.

By the way, Ragnarok really is impressive, huh? Now that I realize its power, I need to be more cautious.

‘I guess being an axe makes it stronger in a way.’

The curve of the edge itself is sharp, so cutting like this would be hard. Reina’s physical abilities are extraordinarily strong as well.

I gently stitched together the loose wrist while Reina was panicking.

Before long, the areas where we touched went ‘clack!’ and merged. Having had my hand severed before, this wasn’t surprising.

“Wait, is my hand… back together?”

Reina asked in shock, her voice mixed with all kinds of emotions at my overly natural action.

Amazement, disbelief, all contrasting yet culminating in wonder.

My answer was succinct.

“Yeah.”

“…Excuse me, but is one of your parents a troll?”

She didn’t hold back on the snarky remark. I looked at her with a flabbergasted expression.

“Or a demon? Or are they both?”

“… ···”

I felt a little hurt, no, a lot hurt.

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