System: Daily login!!, jackpot on the first day!!!-Chapter 502 - Origin

"The threat is immeasurable, Dafient," Odin's voice dropped, stripped of pride. "I once ignored your words," he admitted. "I believed we could handle it ourselves"

He bowed his head slightly.

"But this time… I ask for your counsel." He looked up. "Tell me, Dafient… what would you do, if this were your world?... Your own Universe"

"Nothing," Taufik replied calmly.

The word landed like a stone.

"Nothing?!" Odin snapped, his composure cracking. "Dafient, do you even understand how serious this situation is?!"

"Odin. Calm down"

"How do you expect me to calm down?!" Odin shot back. "I've already used the last Verdant Star! And still, there's nothing we can do about the Shadow Realm! Ragnarök is one thing, we prepared for it, we accepted it. But the Shadow Realm..."

His voice tightened.

"... It's an anomaly in the script. Something that was never meant to exist. We-"

"I told you to do nothing for a reason," Taufik interrupted, his voice steady, unshaken. "The gift I gave humanity in your Universe, in Yggdrasil is already enough"

Odin froze.

"…Enough?"

"Enough for both Ragnarök and the Shadow Realm"

Silence followed.

"…How?" Odin asked at last.

Taufik leaned back slightly.

"Who remains on Yggdrasil right now?"

"Heimdall is one of them," Odin answered immediately. "I ordered him to stay. He watches all realms"

"And he can report directly to you?"

"…Yes"

"Has any report reached you?"

Odin frowned.

"…No"

Taufik nodded.

"Then it hasn't appeared yet"

Odin's expression sharpened.

"What hasn't appeared yet?"

Taufik clicked his tongue softly.

"You're asking too many questions, Odin"

He straightened.

"Listen carefully. I'll tell you this only because you once helped me"

His gaze hardened.

"What I'm about to say stays between you and me... Do you understand?"

Odin did not hesitate.

"I swear upon my Name," he said solemnly. "Only you and I will know of this"

"Good"

Taufik nodded once.

"The Harbingers are not the only gift I gave humanity in Yggdrasil"

Odin's breath caught.

"…There is another," Taufik continued calmly. "It is connected to the Harbingers, but it is something deeper. I placed it there because I knew this day would come"

He paused.

"With the Harbingers alone, humanity can survive both Ragnarök and the Shadow Realm, at least, they won't go extinct"

Odin's eyes widened slightly.

"But this gift…" Taufik's voice lowered. "… It can go even further"

"It can oppose fate itself"

The room seemed to grow heavier.

"But since no report has reached you," Taufik continued, "it means it has not yet found a suitable vessel"

He met Odin's gaze.

"When it awakens among the Harbingers, give it time." A quiet certainty filled his words. "Even Ragnarök can be stopped"

Odin stared at him, disbelief written plainly across his face.

"A power… that can defy fate?"

"Yes," Taufik answered simply. "It's a fraction of my origin... And the very first power I ever possessed"

Odin swallowed.

"…What is your origin?"

Taufik's expression did not change.

"The One Who Defies The Fate..." A pause. "That is my origin"

Silence fell like a held breath.

Even the runes carved into the temple walls dimmed, as if unwilling or unable to bear witness to what had just been spoken.

Odin did not speak.

For the first time since the dawn of Yggdrasil, the Allfather found no words.

"The One Who Defies Fate…" Odin repeated the title slowly, tasting each syllable as though it were both poison and revelation. His single eye widened, not in fear, but in dawning comprehension.

"So that is why," he murmured. "Why the Norns could never read you properly. Why even the Well of Urd refused to show your end"

Taufik leaned back in his seat, one arm resting casually against the chair, as though they were discussing the weather rather than the foundation of destiny itself.

"Fate was never written for me," Taufik simply said. "I write it myself"

Odin's hand trembled.

He had stared down Fenrir. He had sacrificed an eye for wisdom. He had witnessed the first echoes of Ragnarök in prophecy and in his dreams.

None of it compares to this.

"You placed…" Odin swallowed. "You placed a fragment of that into humanity?"

Taufik shook his head slowly.

"Not humanity as a whole." His tone remained calm, precise. "You must remember, humanity in your universe and humanity in my universe are fundamentally different"

Taufik continued evenly.

"In my universe, the first humans(Adam) were created directly by the Creator itself. In yours… You already know the truth of their origin"

Odin did not interrupt.

"To give such a thing to humanity indiscriminately," Taufik went on, "would have been reckless"

He tapped the table once.

"So I anchored it instead"

Odin leaned forward.

"…Anchored it?"

"To the Harbingers," Taufik replied. "And not to all of them"

His gaze sharpened.

"Only to one..."

Odin's breath hitched.

"The one meant to bring hope," Taufik continued. "Hope for humanity... And hope for Yggdrasil itself... To the Harbinger of Light, yet to be chosen"

A pause.

"It does not manifest as power," he added. "Not yet"

Odin frowned. 𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚

"…Then what does it manifest as?"

"Rejection"

"…Rejection?" Odin echoed.

"The rejection of inevitability," Taufik said calmly.

"The refusal of outcomes. The instinct to step forward when fate says 'you cannot'"

Odin's breath caught.

The pieces aligned with brutal clarity.

"That explains it…" he whispered. "The failed readings. The blank spaces in prophecy," His voice lowered. "... The Harbingers of Light dying before they can awaken…"

"They weren't killed because they were weak, that's never the case," Taufik said, his tone sharpening just a fraction. "They were killed because the Shadow Realm sensed something it could not predict"

He met Odin's gaze directly.

"And fear makes predators careless"

Odin pushed himself to his feet, pacing now. Ancient boots echoed against stone worn smooth by centuries of oath and sacrifice.

"So you're telling me," he said slowly, "that somewhere among humanity... among the Harbingers… there exists a seed capable of denying Ragnarök itself?"

"Yes"

"And the Shadow Realm?"

"If it fully awakens," Taufik replied evenly, "it won't repel them... It will invalidate them"

Odin stopped.

His shoulders sagged, not in defeat, but in a relief so profound it bordered on grief.

"Then why," he asked quietly, "did you tell me to do nothing?"

Taufik's eyes softened.

"Because fate hunts resistance," he said. "The moment you act, the script adjusts"

He leaned forward slightly.

"And understand this, Odin, there is never only one script. There are countless variations... But the ending remains the same"

Odin listened, unmoving.

"Fate does not care which path you choose," Taufik continued. It only cares how the story ends"

A pause.

"But this gift… It does not merely alter the scenario. It allows the ending itself to be rewritten"

Silence followed.

"If the gods act," Taufik said softly, "fate reacts. If you prepare, fate prepares in return"

His voice lowered.

"But if you do nothing, if the gods remain still, then the awakening occurs without prophecy, without anticipation, without opposition, so coming to my universe is actually a great choice"

A long moment passed.

Then Odin exhaled, the sound like wind passing through dead branches.

"I spent my entire existence preparing for the end," he said quietly. "And you're telling me… the answer was to wait"

"Not wait," Taufik corrected gently.

"Trust"

Odin turned back to him, his eye burning, not with fear, but resolve.

"Then I will," he said solemnly. "I swear it. I will hold the realms steady. I will silence the Æsir. Heimdall will watch, but he will not interfere"

He bowed deeply.

"On my name as Odin Allfather… I place the future in your hands"

Taufik rose from his seat.

He placed a hand on Odin's shoulder, firm, grounding, unmistakably real.

"No," he said quietly. "You place it in humanity's"

His voice did not accuse, yet it carried the weight of inevitability.

"And you must remember, none of this would have happened if you and your brothers had not slain Ymir. The emergence of the Shadow Realm is the consequence of that choice. And severing humanity's connection to Mana only worsened it"

Odin did not move.

"On one hand," Taufik continued calmly, "you sought to delay Ragnarök. On the other, by cutting mankind off from Mana, you strangled their potential and allowed the Shadow Realm to grow unchecked. I understand your position. Those were not easy decisions"

A pause.

"But return to the beginning. If Ymir had not been killed, none of this would exist. Auðumbla would never have returned to the Void, and balance would have been maintained, for that is the very purpose of the Aboriginal Being's existence"

He withdrew his hand.

"I am not here to condemn you," Taufik said. "Only to ask you to think... truly think"

His gaze sharpened, just slightly.

"One final piece of advice, Odin. In the far future, when you stand before Yggdrasil once more… I hope you will give humanity back what was always theirs"

Odin's jaw tightened.

"I know," Taufik went on softly, "that humans are the nest of countless evils. But time and time again, the brightest light is born from within that darkness"

A breath.

"This is a gamble. But one you will not lose... because if Ragnarök and the Shadow Realm reach their final stages…"

He met Odin's eye.

"What else will you have left to lose?"

Odin said nothing.

And for once, Taufik did not press further.

He turned toward the temple doors. The air around him distorted, folding inward, as though space itself yielded passage.

"All right," he said lightly. "Our private talk ends here"

He paused at the threshold.

"And about the gift, when it awakens," he added over his shoulder, "you will feel it"

"Not as power"

"Not as destruction"

A final pause.

"But as silence"

And then...

He was gone.

Leaving behind a god who had prepared for the end of the world… And had just learned that the end was no longer guaranteed.

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