# 1354
Chapter 1354
Chapter 1355: 「The Eternal Secret Garden」
"Idun!?"
At the sight of the glowing mass, an expression of wild joy spread across Bragi's face.
He quickly set down the [Holy Grail] in his hands, his form shooting into the sky, flying directly toward that orb of light!
As the light gradually faded, Lin Qiye and the others finally saw the figure within the radiance. Sun Wukong's eyes flickered with a golden gleam as he nodded and said:
"That's right, it is Idun... though only in a soul state."
When Bragi made the wish earlier, he had said "return to my side" rather than fully resurrect, so it made sense that only a soul would appear... If he truly wanted to bring back both body and soul, even the [Holy Grail] might not have been capable of it.
"To be able to call back the soul is not bad either." Gilgamesh narrowed his eyes, staring at the pale eyeball trembling in the vortex of dark clouds, and said in a low voice,
"However... what exactly is that thing?"
Thunder roared across the heavens, sand flew wildly through the air.
Bragi was like a blood-colored bolt of lightning, surging from the ruined earth up into the sky. Not far above him was Idun's soul in its spirit state, and above that, the pale eye peering out from within the swirling vortex...
That eye gazed at Idun's soul falling from within itself and trembled violently. The pitch-black lightning dancing around the dark clouds raged wildly, like an angry giant beast descending from the heavens, pressing down toward Idun's soul below, as if trying to swallow her back into its belly!
A series of dense, menacing cracks spread across the surface of the eyeball, instantly forming into a grotesque pale giant mouth, biting toward the earth!
In the dim world, the tiny Bragi and that massive mysterious eye both closed in on Idun at the center!
"Get lost!!"
Bragi roared as the giant mouth was about to swallow Idun's soul. Fury blazed in his eyes as the battered warrior released a torrent of divine power like a wild beast driven mad!
He had finally reached this point, finally gathered enough offerings, finally brought Idun back before his eyes...
How could he possibly let some monster devour her again?!!
Bragi's speed skyrocketed. His form pierced through the void, instantly flashing to hover above Idun's soul!
The blood-red robes billowed in the wind. He cupped his hands before his chest as if grasping an invisible harp, then struck the strings with tremendous force!
Ding ding—!!
Two spheres of blood-red light erupted from Bragi's palms. At the same time, two fresh gashes were sliced open across the surface of the pale giant mouth that had been closing in!
Squeal—!!!
The mouth within the vortex screamed in agony. A sharp, piercing sound echoed between heaven and earth.
Lin Qiye felt his ears tighten, and two streams of blood immediately began flowing from his ear canals. Everything around him seemed muffled, and the sound rapidly faded...
He wiped the blood from his temple, his eyes narrowing slightly.
This shriek had actually deafened his ears instantly?
Beside him, Sun Wukong also frowned, covering both ears. His eyes stared fixedly at that狰狞巨口, teeth gritted; even the soul-state Gilgamesh was affected, his form flickering before turning into a streak of white light that returned to the Asylum of the Gods.
But the most severely injured was still Bragi, who had been closest to that giant mouth.
This scream instantly tore through Bragi's body. A burst of blood mist bloomed in the air. The flickering green divine power began rapidly repairing his body.
But in the next instant, that 狰狞巨口 bit down, swallowing the tiny Bragi and the Idun soul behind him entirely.
The world fell into absolute silence.
Lin Qiye's pupils contracted slightly. In his field of vision, the furious Sun Wukong beside him bellowed something, then raised the Ruyi Jingu Bang and transformed into a streak of light, charging upward!
Beneath the heavens, the vortex spun. Black lightning gradually dissipated.
After swallowing Bragi and Idun's soul, the giant mouth within the vortex slowly retracted upward. The lead-colored clouds shrouding Asgard began to visibly thin.
Whatever this monster was... it was leaving.
Even as Sun Wukong rode the Somersault Cloud at full speed toward the sky, he still couldn't match its fading speed.
Clang—!!!
Just as that giant mouth was about to escape into the clouds, another resonant chord echoed from within them!
A blade of cold light slashed open the pale giant mouth from the inside. Within the gushing blood, a figure of flesh and blood clutching a sphere of light pierced through like an arrow!
The blood-red robes dyed the sky crimson. Bragi, with only half his head remaining and his upper torso shattered, eyes burning like gold, roared as he broke free from the giant mouth's grasp and fell from the heavens to the mortal world!
The presence within the vortex seemed to have never expected Bragi could escape. Another sharp shriek pierced the air, but its form was already gradually fading, slowly vanishing into the dark clouds...
Clatter!
The dark golden [Holy Grail] on the ground exploded violently, as if an invisible hand had torn it into fragments.
The shards from the shattered [Holy Grail] sliced across Lin Qiye's cheek, leaving a deep gash, but he seemed completely unaware of the pain as he sprinted at full speed toward the falling Bragi and Idun!
Lin Qiye shouted Bragi's name, but couldn't hear his own voice. He rode the Somersault Cloud across the sky, steadily catching Bragi's scattered remains.
He had never seen Bragi like this... blood-soaked, at death's door, yet that broken handsome face was smiling.
In the howling wind, Lin Qiye called Bragi's name again and again, but the latter's eyes gazed intently at the palm of his severed hand—Idun's soul, which he had torn from the monster's jaws. An unprecedented tenderness and joy appeared in his gaze, as if she were his entire world.
Lin Qiye landed in the ruins, gently setting Bragi's broken form on the ground. The surging youth divine power attempted to repair his body, but he was wounded too severely. The speed of his physical regeneration was nowhere near sufficient to compensate for the loss of his life force.
With the injuries Bragi had sustained, even if it had been Odin without Cthulhu contamination, he would have died beyond recovery long ago.
The only reason he could survive until now, persist until he broke free from within that vortex-mouth, was the result of Infinity pushing the law of youth to the extreme.
Sun Wukong rode the Somersault Cloud down right after. He stared at the blood-soaked Bragi, his fists clenching involuntarily...
"Bragi, hold on... I'll take you back to Great Xia for treatment right away!" Sun Wukong suppressed the fury in his heart and said in a low voice.
"...No need." Bragi, lying in a pool of blood, smiled faintly.
He gazed at the Idun soul in his arms and spoke softly:
"It's time for me to go."
"Go? Where are you going?" Sun Wukong asked coldly.
"Idun's soul is too weak. If this continues, she'll dissipate soon... I need to take her to a place. Perhaps there, we can reunite."
Bragi glanced at Lin Qiye standing nearby. His lips parted slightly, and his voice directly echoed in the latter's mind:
"I'm leaving now, Headmaster... We'll see each other again in the future."
As Bragi's voice fell, a hazy green radiance surged from within him, wrapping around Asgard's origin like a gentle palm, cradling Idun's soul.
In the gazes of Lin Qiye and Sun Wukong, this green radiance grew increasingly brilliant. When its glow became so bright that Lin Qiye had to shield his eyes, it suddenly scattered, transforming into countless pale green motes of light that drifted gently toward the sky...
Sun Wukong stood frozen in place, watching these green motes of light gradually disappear.
After a long while, he murmured to himself:
"Where... exactly are they going?"
As if understanding Sun Wukong's lip movements, Lin Qiye was silent for a moment. Then, with blood, he wrote several large characters on the ruins:
——【The Eternal Secret Garden】