Stupid Odin

Perhaps Odin's leadership had resulted in enough bloodshed. Downs didn't overly criticize the remaining Vanir, only dealing with Njord's direct human servants and letting the rest go.

Downs treated Frey well, not only deifying him as the god of dew, sunlight, and earthly fruits but also allowing him to rule Alfheim, the realm of the Light Elves, directing the elves to help flowers and plants grow and prosper, and instructing the bees and butterflies to work diligently to aid humans.

Furthermore, he exceptionally redeemed Beyla and her husband Byggvir as Frey's attendant deities, both revered as the gods of beer and mead.

Just when everyone thought this was the limit, Downs seemed to think of something and ordered the division of divine duties, making Frey also the 'God of Swordsman'.

This decision surprised the Aesir gods considerably.

Frey, after all, was a war god among the Vanir. For a god who had surrendered like him to retain a combat-related divine duty was undoubtedly a threat.

In the epic 'Edda', Odin deliberately made Frey change his profession, indirectly weakening him. As a result, in 'Ragnarok', Frey fought the fire giant Surtr to exhaustion and death with a deer antler.

From this perspective, Frey, as a foreign god, had done his best for the Aesir.

Considering this, directly abolishing Frey was a bit of a pity.

Therefore, Downs split off the 'sword' branch of the 'combat' domain for Frey.

The 'war' divine duty was mainly held by Tyr, shared with Downs and Thor.

It was impossible to give this to Frey.

A specific, small-scale 'combat' divine duty could be split off for Frey, which could enhance his one-on-one combat ability, so as not to bury his talent.

In any case, Downs' handling of the situation was the best possible outcome for the surviving Vanir.

For the Aesir, seizing a large number of goddesses and wealth was also a significant gain.

Apart from the fallen Vanir gods, everyone could be said to have a bright future.

Downs perfectly handled everything.

That night, the feast at Valhalla was naturally grand and solemn.

The cheerful music was almost completely drowned out by the clamor of gods and giants.

Despite her shyness, Freya still led her sisters in dancing for the gods on the stage.

The fiery dance and deliberate flattery made this feast, themed around 'conquest', a true revelry.

After a few rounds of drinks, the gods began to let loose.

In such an occasion, Downs couldn't avoid it either.

He personally received the close assistance of two Vanir goddesses.

After an unknown amount of time, the wise god Downs saw a drunken Odin and Loki walking over arm in arm.

"Brother, drink!"

"Brother, drink!"

Downing a large cup of strong liquor that would be enough to drown a normal human, Odin finally opened up: "Brother, I once hated you."

"Hated me for what?" Downs squinted.

"Hated you for being stronger than me, smarter than me, and getting everything better than me."

Downs remained noncommittal: "And now?"

"Now I don't hate you anymore. You deserve it!"

Downs was unconvinced: "Brother, it's good that you've figured it out."

"In any case, I'm going to Jotunheim, and I'm going to make a career out of it. When the time comes, I will build a tower of skulls with the heads of those damn frost giants!"

"Good ambition! Then Asgard will be much safer."

With Odin's strength, it really had the feel of a God-King guarding the nation's gate.

Was it really that simple?

"Don't worry, if Odin can't handle it, there's still me!" Loki was always so familiar, even though Downs had never liked him much since childhood, he still felt that he had a good relationship with Downs.

Perhaps because of the alcohol, Downs seemed to vaguely see a black aura of fate surrounding Odin, while a gray-white cement-like aura of fate was缠绕缠着 Loki next to Odin.

As the saying goes, women are water, men are mud, Loki can be cement!

For some reason, when Downs saw Loki's slightly feminine face, that was the sentence that came to mind.

Downs turned his head, ate a peeled grape that Freyja had brought to his lips, and chewed it: "Brother, have you thought about who to take to Jotunheim? Gods and giants, as long as they are willing, I can let them go."

Odin was a little embarrassed, and he said a few names in a row.

In the end, the only one who could be named was the wise giant Mimir, and the rest were all third-rate trash gods, especially three Vanir gods. Downs felt that they were being coerced by Odin to work for him.

How interesting, Mimir, the old man who tricked Odin out of an eye, Odin still wouldn't let him go?

Downs didn't care about this.

If the historical trajectory recorded in the epic 'Edda' were to be followed, there would be no major crisis in Asgard until 'Ragnarok' broke out and the demons attacked the Rainbow Bridge.

However, Downs, who had glimpsed part of the future fate, always felt a little uneasy, but couldn't say what was wrong.

After all, fate was still under control up to this point in time.

Downs comforted Odin: "Odin, go in peace. As long as you put the interests of the Aesir first in everything, I will support you in whatever you do. Anyway, there's the Rainbow Bridge, so come back and see your mother more often when you have time."

"I will."

The next two years seemed uneventful.

The biggest news within the Aesir was Thor's marriage to Sif; Odin's birth of the god of poetry Bragi with the giantess Grid, and the birth of the god of darkness Hodr with Njord's daughter.

Then, on April 1st, the cow Audhumla licked out a super giant.

In the age of the previous giants, the story of the frost giant progenitor Ymir was still widely circulated within the Aesir. His story was widely spread, from the upper Alfheim to the lower Svartalfheim, and all races had legends of the frost giants.

But no giant was as tall and burly as this one today.

Eighty meters of terrifying height, a body as thick as several houses, his appearance reminded Downs of the Titans in another mythology.

Everyone thought that everything related to Ymir would only exist on the murals of Valhalla, or be evidenced by the two huge giant eyes of the Rainbow Bridge.

But unexpectedly, another exaggerated giant reminiscent of Ymir seemed to walk out of the long river of history and reappear before the world—

"Damn it! How is this giant so big?" Odin once again resented the lack of power of Gungnir. He pierced the giant's chest 15 times, but still couldn't stop the giant from climbing all the way to Asgard along the World Tree.

It wasn't until the flying Thor led the gods to take action that they barely managed to kill this thing halfway.

In the following month, two more giants of this size appeared. One of them even broke into Asgard and destroyed a mortal district.

A brand new issue was placed before the Aesir gods: whether to build a huge city wall and fortress hundreds of meters high on the continent of Asgard to protect the safety of Asgard.

At this critical juncture, a mysterious architect came to Asgard, saying that he could help the gods achieve all of this within three seasons.