That night, the family chatted by candlelight until late.
Thor and Loki pestered Mavuika to tell the stories of conquering the Nine Realms back then; although they had heard them many times, this time it was different.
Queen Frigga prepared many of Mavuika's favorite snacks, as if trying to use food to keep her daughter by her side a little longer.
Odin, for his part, rarely shared some of his experiences exploring the Universe when he was young—adventures that even Mavuika had never heard of.
When the moon of Asgard rose to the zenith, Mavuika stood up.
"I should set off," she said.
No one held her back; everyone just followed her out of the bedchamber and came to the plaza in front of the Golden Palace.
The night wind blew, the starry sky was brilliant, and the Bifrost Bridge flickered with a soft halo in the distance.
Mavuika turned around, hugged her mother for the last time, patted her two younger brothers on the shoulder, and nodded to her father.
Then she stepped back a few paces and drew the sun-blaze thousand suns.
The Sun runes on the sword body lit up one by one, flames flowed, and the Bifrost Bridge fragment at the end of the hilt began to rotate, emitting a colorful shimmer.
"Wait for me to return; of course, by then it should be with Hela," Mavuika smiled.
She held the sun-blaze thousand suns high above her head, the tip of the sword pointing to the sky.
The Bifrost Bridge fragment erupted with intense light, and a slender yet solid beam of seven-colored light descended from the sky, enveloping Mavuika's figure.
In the beam of light, her long hair flew, her platinum-colored robe danced in the energy flow, and her amber eyes looked at her family one last time, deeply imprinting their faces into her heart.
Then, the light retracted, shot up into the sky, and disappeared into the vast starry sky.
The plaza returned to silence.
Thor sniffled, Loki turned his face away, and Queen Frigga leaned on Odin's shoulder, sighing softly.
...
Midgard, or rather, Earth.
When the light of the Bifrost Bridge dissipated on a remote coastal cliff in northern Norway, Mavuika's first feeling was—the wind.
Unlike the Eternal, gentle breeze in Asgard that carried the fragrance of Asgardian Divine Power, the wind here was coarse and damp, carrying the salty scent of seawater and the fishy smell of soil.
It whistled across the cliff, whipping up her long hair and robe, as if declaring that this was a wild and vibrant World.
Mavuika put away the sun-blaze thousand suns and looked around.
It was the eve of dawn; the sky showed a gradient of deep blue and ink black, and a hint of fish-belly white appeared on the eastern horizon.
Underfoot were jagged black reefs, and the waves beat against the cliff, splashing up white foam.
In the distance were rolling, forest-covered mountains, and further away, the lights of human towns could be faintly seen on the horizon.
A World completely different from Asgard.
Mavuika closed her eyes and expanded her perception.
First was the land underfoot, ancient and heavy, as if containing some kind of great power.
That was the pulse of the God seed, slow and heavy, like the heartbeat of the Planet.
Odin had warned her not to easily disturb that sleeping existence unless it was absolutely necessary.
Then came the breath of life.
Densely packed, like stars, the vast majority were weak and short-lived; those were the mortals of this World.
But in this sea of mortals, a few points of light were particularly striking—
To the west, about thousands of kilometers away, several powerful energy sources were gathered together.
Their energy characteristics were different from Asgardian Divine Power, and the strongest one among them had an energy level that almost reached the level of Hela.
"Eternal..." Mavuika whispered to herself.
Odin had told her about the existence of these ancient creations; they were the products of the God's experiments, and their mission was to guard this World until the God awakened.
As long as one did not actively threaten the entire Planet, they usually would not interfere.
Mavuika did not intend to contact them now.
Then, she perceived another power, more secretive and more profound.
It came from near the highest peak of this World, as if there was a door leading to a space where dimensions overlapped.
"The mages of Midgard..." Mavuika realized.
When Odin participated in the fight against the God back then, he had fought side by side with a group of mages.
They established this sanctuary, guarding this dimension and defending against external magic threats.
A complex and wonderful World.
Mavuika withdrew her perception and opened her eyes.
The morning light had now dyed the clouds in the east red, and a red Sun was slowly rising from below the sea level.
She looked at that Sun and chose to walk east.
She did not fly, nor did she use the Bifrost Bridge to teleport, but instead set foot on this strange land on foot.
Every step landed on real soil, rocks, and grass, feeling the texture of this World and breathing the air of this World.
Passing through the coastal pine forest and crossing the stream, she squatted down in a meadow full of wildflowers and lightly touched a small blue flower with her finger.
The petals were soft, carrying morning dew, and when they touched her fingertip, they actually turned slightly towards her, as if paying tribute to the Sun.
She continued to move forward; as the Sun rose, the temperature gradually warmed up.
Occasionally, she would encounter traces of humans: an ancient stone path, an abandoned wooden house, a flock of sheep grazing on a distant hill.
Mavuika cleverly avoided them all; she did not want to make contact with the mortals of this World yet.
At noon, she climbed to the top of a hill.
From here, she could overlook a wide river valley, a large river meandering through, with neat farmland and scattered villages on both banks.
Further away, the outline of a city was faintly visible, with cooking smoke rising in wisps.
Mavuika stopped to watch; the lives of mortals were so ordinary yet so vibrant.
They farmed, grazed, built houses, had children, and pursued their own meaning in their short lives.
But it was precisely this ordinariness that all life yearned for.
After a simple stroll, Mavuika arrived at a coastline where steep cliffs plunged directly into the deep blue sea, and the salty, damp sea breeze whipped up waves, beating against the rocks and splashing up a sky full of mist.
Mavuika stood at the edge of the cliff, firmly inserting the sun-blaze thousand suns into the ground, with half of the blade submerged in the rock, and golden-red runes flowing in the crevices of the stone.
The moment the sword body touched the rock, it emitted a slight "hum".
Mavuika held the hilt with both hands, closed her eyes, and sank her consciousness into the Bifrost Bridge fragment embedded at the end of the hilt.
Under the stimulation of her divine power, the fragment began to rotate, releasing a soft, colorful shimmer.
These lights did not spread outwards, but flowed into the ground along the sword body, extending and exploring in the Earth's veins like tree roots.
Mavuika's consciousness also swirled along with it, crossing the rolling waves, passing through thick soil layers, skimming over the lights of the mortal city, penetrating the dimensional barrier, and reaching the cold and silent Helheim.
After a moment of searching, she "saw" that long-lost figure there.
"Hela," her consciousness transmitted a gentle call: "Long time no see."
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