The Record of Unusual Creatures

The journey home for Purgation was about as exciting as watching clothes dry, and after a jaunt in hyperspace, Hao Ren and the rest returned to Earth.

They did not head home immediately, instead, he brought Odin and Ymir’s head to Athens.

The Shadow Council had now formed, and the millennia-old war between the demon hunters and the otherworldlings had come to an end. In the new world order, the otherworldlings in the Athens Sanctuary could finally stretch a little and did not need to slither in the dark like they used to. While their ‘freedom’ was still limited, the change was already apparent, the most obvious being the entrance to the Sanctuary was now not limited to Hesperides’ Shadow Gate, and now the Sanctuary found itself as the focal point of otherworldling industries within the human populace.

There was this one particular eye-catching building in the prosperous central business district of Athens, and the owner of the building—at least in name—was very ancient renowned family. Their business empire spans multiple countries but they had always been low-key. While they were amassing massive wealth, none from the family had joined national politics or appear on the public stage. AS this family had a very strict ancient creed that forbade them from showing their faces. Outsiders could never understand how such an unassuming family could be this wealthy, but for those within the family, they knew they were in the good hands of a leader that was beyond imagination.

Standing on the top of the skyscraper’s observation deck, Odin looked around at the unfamiliar sight of this prosperous world, his brows meeting as he fell into deep thought. Vivian’s voice broke his train of thought. “So how’s it like being back on Earth again?”

“If you had not told me yourself, I would not have believed this was Earth even if Fenrir was going to devour me.” Odin shook his head. “Such fantastic change… This city is even bigger than Asgard… but dare I say, it does not look as pretty as her.”

As Odin finished, a shrill voice rang from the elevator behind. “What? What? Did I just hear something about my building isn’t all that pretty?!”

Turning back, Hao Ren saw a mini Vivian walking out quickly from the elevator and as soon as she got about ten meters away she pounced. “Lady Vivian! I miss you so—”

Vivian rolled eyes as she flicked a lightning orb towards Hessiana, and zapping the little runt back onto the ground. She then pointed sideways. “Behave. This is Odin.”

“Good day Mr. O.” Hessiana waved casually at Odin as she got up, her eyes still hooked onto Vivian. Putting her legs together, she tried to pounce again. “Lady Vivian! I Mi… Unfff!”

Vivian swatted her clone aside with a brutal fist, her face dark. “Why does this brat never learn?”

“You don’t have to be so hard on her.” Hao Ren felt that Vivian was overreacting. “I think that she has a good heart by nature, and have helped us a lot. She probably just miss you a wee bit too much.”

Hessiana was picked plucked by the collar by Vivian and struggled to turn back as she heard what Hao Ren said. She looked rather touched. “So step-daddy isn’t a full-on bastard after all. Even you can be so understanding…”

Hao Ren’s expression turned immediately. “Ugh, forget what I just said. Vivian, you do your worst.”

Only after Vivian and Hessiana had finished their “mother-daughter ritual” did Odin speak. The old man was dumbstruck as he saw the little Vivian. “Ugh… old friend… since when did you have a daughter?!”

“Oh hush you.” Vivian immediately explained, “She was a bat that I forgot about after throwing out, and she had gained her own sentience. I’ve told you this before, and I bet you’ve forgotten about it.”

“…”

“Wait, Lady Vivian did you call that old man Odin?” Hessiana was still laying on the floor nursing her wounded pride before realizing something. “Mr. O, your given name is Din?”

Everyone around had a defeated look, and only Y’zaks could actually muster a response. “Why does she look like she got a little dumber after not seeing her for some time? Ugh… little miss, what’s with the black rings around your eyes?”

Only then did Hessiana fully recover. Her blushing was obvious on her pale face. “Ah, pardon my pathetic display earlier. I’m overwhelmed by the matters with the Shadow Council. The Hessiana family is one of the founding families of the Council, and I have to ensure that my family’s position in the council. Adding on to old man Ymir disappearing at the worst possible moment, and the Council has so many issues… I’m bloody spent…”

As she went Hessiana scanned Hao Ren a few times, before gnashing her teeth. “While I was bending over back at work, where have you went to? Not only you disappeared with Lady Vivian, you even kidnapped the council chief?!”

Hao Ren was wondering what position did Hessiana meant by bending over back, and only belatedly realized that she was going for ‘I’m working my ass off, you bastard.” by twisting the meaning of the word. He just could not get angry at Hessiana’s bratty outburst, and just smiled. “I have just settled the issue of the Nine Kingdoms of the Norse, and about a million refugees, and maintained the world order along the way(not done yet). Oh right, I suppose I’m now the main tender of Yggdrasil too…”

“…”

The little bat familiar pondered for a bit before turning towards Vivian. “Lady Vivian… Is that a big bluff or a small bluff?”

Vivian tugged her arm as she glanced at her familiar. “So, which is it? You smacked your head silly or had you eaten something bad? You sure have no idea what Hao Ren’s job is eh? And he’s just putting it lightly.”

By then Hessiana had already dismissed all non-important personnel and the human servants and her blood kin were all sent to the other floors to allow the meeting to take place. Ymir’s head then popped out of Hao Ren’s Dimensional Pocket and the two-meter tall head took a few deep breaths of fresh air before smiling at Hessiana. “It’s been a while, chief Hessiana.”

“Council Chief Ymir, I thought you were gone for good.” Hessiana forked her arms on her waist. “The Shadow Council is a mess of paperwork now, and every day there are applications to join human society. Some even started fighting because of it. There’s even demon hunters making contact, that White Fail… uh no, White Flame girl had even come to this building in person. Had me in cold sweat for a bit—”

“White Flame? What’s she doing here?” Hao Ren interjected.

“Buying some limited edition game.” Hessiana looked slightly pained. “I have a floor in the building that is rented out to a video game distributor, and by my blood, I would never expect a demon hunter to be into that. That plague-bringer had even brought a blanket and started queuing from ten in the night to nine the next day. Just to get her hands on the merchandise first. None of my servants and kin dared to sleep that night. Everyone was afraid that she was up to no good.”

“…”

Seems like the cultural gap between these two factions will take a quite a bit to bridge…

“So, what about the two guests I had you take care of.” Hao Ren looked around and noticed that no one else was around aside from Hessiana and her aides. “No one home?”

“Oh, they will be here soon.” Hessiana was a little reluctant in answering Hao Ren, but in view that Hao Ren actually spoke up for her, she relented. “The Shadowy Divide still needs people manning it, and there is some chaos within the Sanctuary, so order is needed. They’ll come after they’re done.”

As Hessiana’s voice trailed off, a loud ‘DING!’ from the elevator rang. As it opened, two female figures walked out of it.

One wore a dress with a very demure aura, it the familiar Hesperides, while another was a gloomy figure in black, her face expressionless, and was the other guardian of the sanctuary, Hel.

A previous member of the Norse pantheon, and one of those who wrote in rebellion with Loki during the Twilight of the Gods, the one who led hundreds of thousands of the dead to fight Odin. The goddess of the Underworld, Hel.

Hel’s usually expressionless face twitched a little the moment she saw Odin and the goddess was paralyzed on the spot as she could not believe her eyes.

Odin too was dumbstruck for a bit, but the grizzled old man was clearly much more ready to adapt. After a while, he actually broke into a smile towards Hel. “It has been a while.”

“Bugger me, that got awkward real quick…” Nangong Sanba muttered to himself.

“Ahem, seems like you two have quite a bit to talk about.” Hao Ren coughed dryly.

Hel walked forward, her expression stiff. As she came before Odin, the goddess sighed. “Allfath—”

“Don’t call me that.” Odin immediately raised his hand to stop her. “This world has a real god, and any thoughtless speech may invoke a thunderbolt from above.”

“Actually that’s not a problem.” Hao Ren quipped cheekily. “That goddess is just too busy that she doesn’t have time to even bother when someone wrecks her place.”

As he sensed that Odin and Hel probably have a lot to go through, Hao Ren left the two aside and walked towards Hesperides.

“So any traces of the Olympian pantheon in this world?”