The Collection of The End

——Marvel, 2015——

Niflheim.

This is a country shrouded in fog that persists all year round. Because it is connected to the underworld of Heim controlled by the "Goddess of Death", these fogs have also penetrated into the element of "death", resulting in no optical means to see through this chaotic "world of death". fog".

However, the entire country was not completely dark because of this. The thick fog that shrouded the sky always emitted a dull white light, spawning fungi, moss, and low shrubs on the moist surface, further nurturing various types of severely degraded eyesight. , a small creature with an extremely keen sense of smell and hearing.

The intelligent creature that was finally spawned by this weird environment is a strange creature that looks like a human, but is only half the height of an ordinary person, has sparse hair, and has gray or light green skin. But if the earth with a certain knowledge of fantasy literature is allowed to When people see it, they will probably exclaim "goblin".

Asgard's official name for them is "Nibelung", which means "people living in the Kingdom of Mist". Legend has it that they are the ancestors of giants in other countries, but whether they are giant tribes or Nibelungs, The people themselves don't believe this legend.

The Nibelungen people make a living by raising various blind animals in captivity and cultivating mosses and mushrooms. They live in small oval houses shaped like jars that they built themselves. They have the most basic vision, keen hearing and the ability to feel the fluctuations of fog. And the intuition to detect danger.

Yes, it is dangerous. In addition to these species that have grown and evolved in accordance with the rules, Niflheim is shrouded in dense fog. There are also unknown monsters wandering in the fog, including but not limited to half-human arthropods and two-person amphibians. species, as well as giant soft-bodied species whose entire appearance cannot be seen, suspended in the air, with only arms and legs hanging down.

They have no settlements, nests or migration routes at all. They always appear all over Niflheim out of thin air, preying on everything around them, and then disappear without warning just as they appeared.

Nibelungen people generally believed that they were souls that accidentally wandered out of the "Heim Underworld", so they suddenly appeared, and the reason for their sudden disappearance was that they were recaptured by the "Goddess of Death".

In the process of fighting against this kind of monster for many years, the Nibelung people also mastered an effective avoidance method, which is to hide in the low oval stone house they built, which is enough to resist the attacks of arthropods and amphibians. But if the arms hanging from the sky want to break it and see what's inside, they will have no choice but to consider themselves unlucky.

However, since news came from Asgard, the nominal ruler, that they would use their country to hold a "game", the monsters wandering in the fog have mysteriously disappeared.

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"It seems that my guess is correct. These soft monsters in the legend of the Kingdom of Mist are really your kind." Jade, who was wearing green light armor and a black mask blindfolded, patted the soft and elastic "floor" beneath her. " said.

"I must refute your statement," the young man [Spirit of the Starry Night·JJ], who was sitting cross-legged next to her with smooth, straight silver hair and his eyes tightly closed, replied helplessly: "'Star jellyfish' is not this kind of thing. A freak with octopus tentacles and squid tentacles under a jellyfish canopy.”

"What does it matter? They immediately recognized their master anyway." Jade said, shaking her calf.

"They just need our help to eliminate the strange woman called the 'Drowned Soul' who has occupied the roots of the World Tree. She can completely eliminate the 'Ghost Jellyfish' so that they can never return from the underworld of Helm," the silver-haired young man He responded helplessly: "What we are doing now is essentially seeking skin from a tiger."

"What does it matter?" Jade pressed her forehead, seeming to be receiving some information from the "eye patch": "As long as the 'drowned soul' is eliminated, then the Hogwarts named 'Irene Adler' Once the contestants are eliminated, we can leave this country, and these ghost jellyfish can't find their target even if they want to rebel."

"...I hope so." The silver-haired young man shook his head slightly, then nodded again.

At this time, assuming that there is a brave Nibelungen man in a nearby village who has noticed the aura of the "soft enemy" and has not yet hid in the stone house and looks up at the sky, he will be able to see an unforgettable sight in his life:

From the sky obscured by mist, hundreds of tentacles are slowly floating down. They may have sharp teeth, suckers, or branch out into more tiny tentacles at their tips, while moving in the same direction. , and also habitually rolled up something randomly from the surface and stuffed it back into the covered body.

So, assuming that this bold Nibelung man is lucky enough not to be swept away by the tentacles, and the fog on the surface disperses for a moment, he will see an even more shocking sight:

On the side of the route of the "Tentacle Jungle", on top of a cliff, rows of "Nibelungen" were standing neatly, but each of them had varying degrees of limb mutilation, and some even had Completely turned into bones, the only thing they have in common is that these people are all holding long bows and short crossbows that are usually used for hunting and self-defense.

When the floating "tentacle jungle" finally noticed the anomaly and was about to react, the apparently dead Nibelungs fired arrows of revenge at their old enemies in the sky in unison as if someone was commanding them.

For a moment, all kinds of sounds exploded in the mist, including the sound of arrows piercing the air, the sound of arms and legs slapping, the sound of flesh piercing, the sound of bones breaking, the sounds of arms and legs breaking, and the sound of juice splashing. But the only thing that didn't exist was the sound of... It was the screams and cries of pain from living creatures. Each individual on both sides of the battle was mechanically and efficiently trying to destroy the other side, without any regard for their own losses or retreating when the situation was unfavorable.

If at this moment, this lucky Nibelungen dared to look further and hadn't gone crazy yet, he would have discovered an even more explosive fact:

Without being close to the sea and without any rivers or lakes nearby, the ground has been completely submerged by the dark water, and the water surface that appeared out of thin air is still rising.

When the dark water surface quietly rose to a high enough position, countless pairs of pale hands emerged from the water, grabbing tentacles, arms and legs and incomplete Nibelungs indiscriminately. The smaller ones The Nibelungen will be dragged directly under the water and disappear, and the arms, legs and tentacles will become pale, as if frozen in place and unable to move.

The situation has reached such a state of chaos that no matter how lucky the fictional lucky man is, he will not be able to escape the fate of death. But if he is really lucky, he will have one last chance:

After being caught by countless pale arms and sinking into the deep sea, this virtual lucky man will suddenly feel that he has regained his freedom, and no longer has the feeling of drowning. He slowly opens his eyes and finds that he has appeared in the clouds at some point. , and was locked in a small cage.

Outside the cage, there is a lady with black hair and eyes, wearing a pale green tights and a headdress that looks like a branch growing randomly, but with an extremely noble temperament.

She looked down emotionlessly at the three-party melee still going on below, with only the corners of her scarlet mouth slightly raised:

"【interesting.】"