Red reflected Van's eyes as the cracks that crawled like a web on the infrastructure that guarded the River blew up in flames. With all the bridges of light all disappearing at the same time, Van no longer had the choice of traveling to any of the other realms.

The only thing he could do was run back, dodging the small pieces of gold that spew from the sudden explosion. He gritted his teeth as he jumped from one huge debris to another, trying not to be swallowed by the explosion.

Outside the River, Lorei could not help but also run for her life as the explosion threatened to burn her. If it wasn't for the other giants that were there, who managed to pull her when she tripped, then she would have definitely become one of the Ash giants, and not in a figurative way.

It was a good thing that there weren't any stalls near the gate, as their treasures, as well as their lives, may have been forfeit there and then. But even though they were able to escape and avoid certain tragedy, the expressions on their faces still held a certain sense of dread as they all stared at the clouds of smoke and eruption of fire.

"W… what happened!?"

"Are we under attack!? Has the Aesirs forsaken us!?"

"N… no, are we all going to die!?"

"Move! Get out of the way!"

The 4 dwarves that Van and Lorei encountered earlier slipped their way through the crowd, as they could not see what the commotion was about. All they heard was a roar of thunder. At first, they thought there was some sort of storm, as the vicinity also went dark. But when they felt the ground tremble beneath them, they quickly made their way to its epicenter.

And now that they have managed to slip through the legs of the giants, their eyes could not help but tremble.

"W… what is this? What happened!?"

"You! What happened here!?"

The four dwarves then quickly ran towards Lorei as soon as they saw her, "Weren't you escorting the High Human? Why did the gate suddenly explode, did… did you do something to the High Human!?"

"I won't dare!" Lorei quickly shook her head as she stood up. Her expression was agitated at first as the dwarves were insinuating something grave, but after a few seconds, she quickly looked back towards the expression, "Oh no… Van is inside!"

"Van?"

"A High Human? A high human was caught in the explosion!?"

When the crowd of giants heard their conversation, the fear that had already manifested in their eyes turned into shock.

"N… no! What are we going to do!?"

The Vanirs, even though they held almost the same abilities and powers as the Aesirs, were at least kind to them. There was an open secret among them that the people from Vanaheim were offering them a helping hand from time to time, and whenever they needed it.

But if a High Human, a minor Vanir, and one of the residents of Vanaheim were to die in their realm, they do not know how the Vanirs would react. It was possible that they might lose their only ally in this silent oppression that was happening to them.

"Shit!"

Suddenly, all of their thoughts and whispers of demise were disrupted as soon as a voice came from the crumbling gate. Every noise stopped at that instance as they all looked towards the direction of the voice, only to see a tree in the shape of a human right in front of all the debris, its legs emitting a trickle of lightning.

There were embers flying around the human-shaped tree, but soon, its head opened up, revealing the true owner of the silhouette.

"Van!"

And as soon as Lorei saw who it was, she quickly ran towards Van with a smile on her face, "What… what happened!?"

"I don't know," the agitation in Van's voice was obvious, as the roots that covered him slowly withered away, "But… I saw an old man disappearing before the explosion happened."

"...An old man?"

"Hm. He looked somewhat familiar to me," Van said, "But before I could talk to him, he suddenly disappeared… he was standing on the river to Asgard."

"Asgard?"

"One of the Aesirs did this?"

"Why!? Have they truly forsaken us? Do they want to kill us all!? What about the treaty!?"

"We paid everything they wanted, why are they doing this to us!?"

The whispers and clamor once again reverberated in the air as they heard Van's words. Although they were relieved that the high human was fine, the words he had just cast over them made their worries expand in a different direction.

"Is there any other way to Asgard?"

Van was initially going to travel to Vanaheim, but the appearance of the awfully familiar old man completely changed his goal. If that old man was indeed from Asgard, then that is where he would be able to get his answers.

"With the River gone… I am afraid the only way to get to Asgard is by using the Branch," Lorei breathed as she turned to look at the ruined gate. Even though she saw it happening, she still could not believe it. When she was still a young giant, she had dreams of traveling the River, it had always been a part of her life… and it wasn't only her that had the same sentiment, every other giant that was looking at the destroyed gate had their eyes slightly shivering.

It was as if the debris and the remains of the once illustrious golden gate were telling them that all of their dreams were irrelevant; that everything they had worked hard for was meaningless. The hundreds of years that their ancestors toiled in mining the crystals, gone.

Without a doubt, this was Asgard's way of saying that they were done with them. This was it… All they could do was wait for the wrath of the Aesirs to dawn upon them.

And with that collective thought, the fear and dread that clouded their eyes slowly disappeared, replaced by a certain rage that was gradually being ignited inside of them. The gentle expressions on their faces, completely gone; replaced by the fervid fury that equaled their towering stature.

Seeing this, the four dwarves that were at the front of the crowd slowly backed away. One of the reasons for their unrelenting courage against these towering figures was because they knew that they had the Aesirs' backing.

But if the one who burned down the gate was truly from Asgard, then that would mean that they were declaring war against the giants. They, as the one in the middle, were definitely in trouble. They were in the enemy's territory, with their numbers completely overwhelmed by the giants.

But alas, before they could even take 3 steps, one of the giants blocked their path.

"Move!" The dwarves roared. But it was as if their authority was no longer being heard, as more and more giants surrounded them.

"N… no! By the order of the Aesirs, I command all of you to--"

Before one of the dwarves could even finish his words, he was mercilessly stomped on by one of the giants. The one who stomped on the dwarf then let out a loud roar, igniting the rage inside of the other giants as they filled the entire market with thunder, loud enough to shake their entire realm.

But even with all this noise, Van, on the other hand, still could not shake the feeling that the old man looked familiar to him. The old man had a slightly grey beard, so he couldn't see the face clearly… but the fact that he called him 'Evans' was proof enough that Van knew him.

"When is this Branch going to be here?"

Lorei, who was shouting with the rest of her kind, could not help but abruptly stop as she looked towards Van, "In a few weeks or so."

Lorei then pointed towards the largest Fragmented world, Midgard.

"The Branch rotates around Midgard as its center, then passes through the different realms."

"...Like a clock?"

"Yes, exactly," Lorei said, "After it gets here, it will remain here for a few days before once again moving towards the next realm."

"Which is?"

"...The realm of the fire demons, Muspelheim."

"Can you take me there?"

"I… I can't leave--"

"You can," Van did not let Lorei finish her words as he stepped towards the ruined gate. He then grabbed one of the gold debris, before crumbling it into pieces with his bare hands, "As long as you're with me, no one can tell you where you can and can't go, Miss Lorei."

"Van…" Lorei could not help but take in a deep breath as Van looked her straight in the eyes, "Even though you are the smallest one of us, you stand taller than any of us…

...I will follow you, High Human Van."

"...Right."

***

"That… that was Evans, wasn't it?"

In a place filled with the lush green of trees and grass, the old man that Van had seen before the gate of Jotunheim exploded was currently talking to himself, walking back and forth endlessly as he pinched the bridge of his nose.

"He… he's here. I am sure it's him, wow. What a development… after all this time, he is here. What--"

"Who is here, father?"

Before the old man could finish his words, a woman with long dark-brown hair suddenly approached him.

"Who is here?" The woman repeated her words.

"I don't know if I should tell you…

...Victoria."