The System Awakens: Rise of the Champion

Damian looked at Shiru, Maria, Ana, and Yuki.

"You guys should go back to Earth. You have better things to do than follow me everywhere."

"It's alright, my lord… we want to go with you," Shiru said with baby eyes, as if trying to appeal to her king.

Damian smiled and patted her head. "You have work to do. You guys should go."

He looked at everyone, including the five countesses and the six werewolves.

"All of you should attend to your duties."

"Do we have to?" Kathryne asked with puppy eyes. Not just her, none of them wanted to be separated from him.

"Geez, they're acting like children," Amelia muttered.

"Oh, you're one to talk. Weren't you even worse than them?" Lenora added, grinning.

"Why do you have to remember every single thing?" Amelia asked, rolling her eyes.

"Well, someone has to remember every cringy, embarrassing thing you did to keep you in check," Lenora said, smiling.

"Don't act like you didn't do them yourself," Amelia shot back, as if trying to provoke her into an argument.

"I know I did embarrassing stuff as well, but I don't try to act like I didn't," Lenora said, shrugging her shoulders.

"That's because you and Avaline are shameless, unlike me," Amelia said, grinning.

"Seriously? You're calling me shameless?" Lenora narrowed her eyes as a white divine aura began to envelop her figure.

Just as it seemed a fight between the two wives was about to break out, Damian stepped in between them, holding their hands before they could strike.

"Calm down, you two," Damian said, sighing.

"She started it first," Amelia said.

"That's my line, you bitch," Lenora growled furiously.

"Okay, that's enough." Damian shook his head, rubbing their heads.

As if by magic, they calmed down.

"Maybe you two should return and rest as well," Damian said as he looked at everyone.

"All of you, go back. I still have to see Hela and return to Biblical Heaven to take care of some things. It'll take a few days to complete…" Damian continued.

"I'll be gone for a few days."

"But darling, what about the ceremony?" Lenora asked.

The ceremony she referred to was Damian's return to the Upper Plane, where he would take his throne both at the Family and at the High Order, not as king, but as the one true Emperor.

The ceremony was to begin in just a few days.

"I'll be on time." Damian gave her a small kiss on the forehead before looking at everyone.

They all nodded, and in the next second, Damian used his authority to open a transportation portal that sent them back to the New Earth, Nightingale, and Vargheim.

That left Damian with the two Norse goddesses, Freya and Frigga, who were watching him nervously.

"Can I call you darling as well?" the goddess Freya asked without a shred of hesitation.

Frigga just blinked, unable to believe Freya would be so bold.

Damian observed Freya for a few seconds.

He could practically see the manifestation of her divine concept of Love swirling around her like atoms, hearts radiating with light.

"Sure," Damian replied.

As stated before, the divine concept of Love had the potential to transcend time and space.

The reason Freya's concept of Love was reacting so strongly wasn't because she was currently in love with Damian, but because some version of her, at some point in time, would fall in love with him.

Since Love transcended time, all versions of her across all points in time would react.

The Divine concept of Love, while seemingly simple, was one of the most complicated divine concepts.

There was a reason why gods and goddesses of Love almost never truly fell in love: because if they did, their love would be too overwhelming, even for gods.

The reason Freya's divine concept hadn't reacted like this until recently was because Damian hadn't yet attained the Law of Love.

Even though the concept could transcend time and space, it needed an anchor to pull it through.

Damian's comprehension of the Law of Love became that anchor.

In the future, the version of Damian who Freya fell in love with might also be a god of Love.

At that point in time, both of them as gods of Love would share a true love so overwhelmingly powerful that its effects rippled back through all of time.

Even now, before Damian had officially become the god of Love, his mastery of the Law of Love was enough to serve as an anchor for her.

As soon as Damian comprehended the Law of Love, goddesses of Love, Freya, Hathor, and Avaline, began to feel their divine concepts stir, leaving them restless, unable to sleep or find peace until they were near him.

Damian could easily imagine the Egyptian goddess Hathor dancing restlessly in her chambers, unable to suppress her divine concept of Love.

But she wasn't alone, her alternate self, the goddess Sekhmet, was with her.

Their combined strength should be enough to keep Hathor's Love in check.

"Shall we go to Niflheim now?" Damian smiled.

In the next second, a transportation circle manifested, opening a gate to the World of Mist.

Walking through the gate, they appeared in a grey, rocky world covered in ice, hidden by mist that blinded even gods.

Damian raised his hand, gathering [Nature Essence] before releasing it in waves.

Instead of a concentrated attack, the waves converted all mist and ice nearby into wind for hundreds of meters around them.

"That's one handy ability, to transform one element into another with just a wave of your hand…" the goddess Frigga muttered, clearly impressed.

"Well, you can do the same with magic," Damian replied.

"I know, but abilities are still better than spells."

"I can't argue with that," Damian agreed.

"It's been a long time since I was last here," Freya muttered.

"Good to see Hela hasn't changed anything."

"Hmm… how long has it been since you last saw her?" Damian asked curiously.

"About seventy millennia," Frigga muttered.

"That long, huh?" Damian nodded.

"What can I say? She loves her alone time a little too much. I think she's been in closed-door training or something. I don't really know, though," Freya added.

"She's probably one of the scariest goddesses to ever exist. None of the other gods even dare disturb her, or come here," Frigga said.

"Wait… are they here?" Freya asked with wide eyes.

"They're here. Don't worry, they won't hurt you," Damian said, smiling as he looked toward a certain direction where he sensed a monstrous presence racing toward them.

Far away, beyond the mists Damian hadn't transmuted, a pair of massive red eyes glowed with bloodlust, fixed on the intruders.

"Um… he's here," Frigga muttered, stopping in her tracks.

Hundreds of meters away, hidden behind the veil of mist, stood a towering figure.

"D-D-Darling, are you sure he won't attack us?" Freya stammered as she tightly hugged Damian's arm in fear.

Frigga clung to his other arm, equally nervous.

It was an instinctive reaction, something ingrained in all Norse gods when faced with one of the beasts of Ragnarok.

The pair of glowing eyes gleamed even brighter as a massive beast, towering three hundred feet tall, emerged from the mist.

Its fur was black as night, glistening with divine power, fangs sharp even for its size, and claws that could destroy cities with a swing.

Its snarl warped the space around it, its gaze locked onto its prey.

But it didn't attack immediately.

It sensed something strange, something in one of its prey that shook its very core.

Its gaze locked on Damian.

Though hundreds of meters away, Fenrir, the beast of Ragnarok, felt as if Damian was standing right before him.

The moment their eyes met, Fenrir's perception warped.

The world melted into a sea of blood, the sky darkened, and Damian's figure distorted, growing larger and larger until it towered above Fenrir himself.

That distorted figure shifted into the image of a wolf.

A wolf hundreds of times more monstrous than Fenrir.

Hundreds of times more destructive than the beast of Ragnarok itself.

Fenrir felt like an ant before it.

This being wasn't prey, it was the true beast.

In that moment, realization dawned.

"The progenitor?"

Fenrir's consciousness snapped back to reality.

He continued to stare at Damian, who only smiled.

Damian didn't need to speak aloud to communicate with him.

Fenrir's fury softened, the bloodthirst faded from his eyes, and carefully he approached Damian.

The ground trembled with each step.

But as he neared, his towering form began to shrink until, at last, Fenrir stood only fifty feet tall before Damian.

The giant wolf lowered its head before Damian, showing submission.

Damian smiled and rubbed its soft fur. "Have you been well, Fenrir?"

"Yes, we have been well…" A voice came from Fenrir, though he didn't open his mouth to speak.

"You recognize me?" Damian asked.

"Yes… you are my sister's master. Forgive me for looking at you with hostility," Fenrir replied.

"Hm… I have a present for you," Damian said.

In the next second, his aura flared, releasing the presence of the progenitor of countless races.

Through his hand's contact with the wolf, he channeled his energy, infusing a fragment of his racial essence containing various traits into the world.

Immediately, Fenrir's figure began to glow with a red light.

Something within him started to shift, and outwardly, his body distorted rapidly.

In an unassuming moment, the wolf's form transformed into that of a human male with long dark hair and red eyes, radiating the same presence Fenrir once had.

The man collapsed to the ground, unable to control his limbs.

"W-What just happened?" Frigga asked, staring at the human lying on the ground completely naked.

Damian waved his hand, and in an instant, clothes materialized, wrapping around the man's body to cover his nakedness.

"What did you do, darling?" Freya asked, still clinging to his arm.

"I gave Fenrir human form," Damian replied.

The man looked at him with a mixture of shock and astonishment upon realizing what had just happened.