Seeing the hopeful look in Circe’s eyes, Fenrir smiled wryly as she shook her head.

“I don’t have any memories of you. I want to apologize since I know you helped my Edward quite a lot.”

Circe stood back up after performing her salute and shook her head as well.

“No need for any apologies, I understand. The reason I helped Edward initially is that I saw great potential in him. I was not aware he was your host for a long time, but I can’t say that wasn’t a pleasant surprise.”

Fenrir nodded and said: “Can you tell me more about yourself and this world? There are many things I, we, don’t know.”

“No problem, but my knowledge is also scarce.”

“After we won the war at the end, your defeat at the hands of Yggdrasil and Vidar gave the two the leeway they needed to do anything they wanted.”

“The ones who raised against Asgard and Odin during the war were captured and killed one by one. I was one of the first ones that were caught, but since I was an immortal spirit, they cursed my soul, just as they did with you, and sent me here.”

“Your sister? Is she related to the curse?”

Circe nodded and said: “She’s not my sister, she’s just me, a part of me. I got injured by Yggdrasil and incarnated into a human body, but I was afraid I will become a prisoner of the curse, so I split my spirit in three.”

“The heart, the mind, and the power.”

“Indeed. I was looking for a host that could contain my spirit and found these two twin girls, just as they were about to be born into the world. Since I didn’t want the curse to escape my sight, I used this body to host the mind, Eddena’s body to host the heart, which also contained the curse, and let my power freely drift off, hoping it would find a host of its own.”

Fenrir nodded in understanding. She herself thought about breaking her spirit apart, but her curse was one of the mind and power, so she had no choice but to abandon that plan.

“When I arrived here, this place was already a prison, locked inside a seal that altered the space laws. Since I didn’t want my curse to spread and bring more death to the rest of the world on the outside, I left the seal untouched. Every three seasons, my curse will take over and I will end up bringing both death and winter to the continent.”

“This imprisonment and life of endless murder bestowed upon me were apparently not enough for Yggdrasil. When she forced her consciousness here to read the fate of this world, she first used her power to strike at the worldly laws. She removed winter completely from the continent and forced me to find a host for my lingering spirit.”

“After taking possession of this body, since my power was gone, I was forced to rely on Yggdrasil to slowly increase my strength as I also sought to gather as much information as I could about this place.”

“I know that your brother also appeared in this world about the same as I gained this body and made his lair with the dragons, but I didn’t want to get too close to him since he is one of Yggdrasil’s loyal dogs, so I know little other than that.”

“You know that this strength of yours won’t help you against Yggdrasil, don’t you?” asked Fenrir after noticing Circe had stopped speaking.

“I know, but I also had no other way. I kept gathering more knowledge to find a way of growing stronger independently of her, but I found nothing. Humans are really such weak creatures. Now that I know you are back, I hoped for your help in gaining my revenge on that tree.”

Fenrir chuckled and nodded. “I don’t know about leading you, but I’ll not rest until I feed on her very core.”

Circe smiled as well, remembering something and asking: “What about Edward? He’s also using borrowed strength to fight. Doesn’t he know about your plans on fighting Yggdrasil?”

Fenrir sighed and said: “He does. We found some clues about a way to increase a human’s strength, but our research didn’t lead too far. Maybe you two can work together to figure something out after he wakes up.”

“Wakes up? Did anything happen to him?”

Fenrir nodded and said: “I’m in control of his body, but something happened with the curse when he saw you injured in the dragon prison. He lost control of his anger and somehow fused his consciousness with the curse. Now, after getting beaten up by Jörmungandr, they split apart. Edward’s soul is in slumber and the curse returned inside my soul, but I don’t know what will happen next.”

“What are these curses? Do you know anything about them? There’s no way for Yggdrasil and Vidar to create two such powerful and resilient ones.”

“I do not. I initially put little thought into it, but after what happened in the dragon kingdom, I’m forced to reconsider everything I thought I knew about it. It seemed to be a mindless will that prayed on everything it lay its eyes upon, but with the way it spoke and acted, there was definitely a genuine soul behind it.”

“I also thought about mine as a will to kill that slowly worked to corrupt my soul...” Replied Circe with a pensive look.

Fenrir looked toward the desert in the distance and said: “Never mind that, we won’t find anything else here. We need to make our way back north. Edward has left the dragon to roam the mountains next to the City of Ashes for quite a long time and getting a chance to ask Jörmungandr about it might get us some clues. He seems to know a lot more than we do.”

Circe nodded and looked at the desert as well: “Are we in the far south?”

Fenrir nodded, and her form changed into that of a wolf again. “Long story. Let’s rush north.”

Circe nodded and started floating after Fenrir, her speed not a bit slower. The barren dunes of the southern desert were flooded by beasts, but all of them run away as Circe and Fenrir appeared in their sight, making their journey quite an easy one.

“How come your level is so low? I imagine you could have got a lot stronger.”, asked Fenrir.

“I’ve only gathered enough strength to survive as I searched for a way to increase my power without using Yggdrasil. Even having to look at her roots disgusts me, so I didn’t feel like feeding her any more life force.”

“Haven’t you thought of breaking the spacial seal and seeking power on the outside?”

“I did, but as most beings from Asgard and other worlds found their way here, in this spatial prison, I didn’t want to miss the chance to gather as many allies as I could, so in the end, I let it be.”

“What about the other powers in here? Don’t they want to break it?”

“The elves couldn’t care less. The dragons also didn’t seem to have any interest in the outside. As for the humans…. they barely have any knowledge of the seal.”

As they were talking, a giant sand scorpion blocked their path. It was the first beast that ever dared to not run away at Fenrir’s sight.

Stopping in their tracks, Fenrir and Circe stared at it with the same look of surprise.

“Have the beasts in the south gone mad from all the heat?”, asked Circe as she looked back at the beast blocking their paths. She could feel she was no match for it, but she knew Fenrir would make quick work of the scorpion.

Fenrir didn’t say a single word as chaos energy escaped her body and she increased her size to the same one as the scorpion. As she dashed towards it, small chains made of earth rushed from the ground, trying to bind her legs.

Fenrir didn’t even pay them any mind as the chains broke apart in mere seconds after coming into contact with her chaos energy. The beast didn’t seem to care about its spell getting destroyed either, as it moved its enormous claw to clasp on the charging Fenrir.

Undaunted, Fenrir opened its huge maw and let the claw enter her mouth. As the scorpion was about to pull back, she bit on it, causing a pained growl to resound in the area.

She moved to bite on its head next when a pained voice resounded throughout the area. “Please, have mercy.”

Fenrir stopped with a curious look in her pure black eyes as she asked: “You can speak?”

The scorpion quickly nodded its giant head before trying to perform a bow, the same way a human would. When its head reached the ground, a swift stinger came from its back, heading straight for Fenrir’s head.

With an amused chuckle, Fenrir’s body dissolved into pure chaos energy, causing the stinger to hit the ground beneath.

The energy took Fenrir’s form again next to the stinger and opened her maw, taking a large bite out of it.

A tragic scream sounded through the surrounding mana, followed by more pleading, but Fenrir ignored it completely and slowly devoured the entire beast piece by piece.

Once she was done, she looked at Circe and said: “I’m not sure if these beasts grow smarter or dumber after gaining a human form.”

Circe chuckled and flew towards Fenrir: “How much of your strength have you recovered?”

“Not much, but I should be able to fight up to level 70 beasts with no issue. If they can’t deal with my energy form or devouring abilities, maybe even higher level ones.”

Circe nodded, and they continued traveling north. They only encountered one more beast that looked like a snake that dared to fight them, but the same fate befell this beast as well, ending up as nothing more than food to satiate Fenrir’s hunger.

When they were getting close to Oasis, according to Circe at least, Fenrir’s body suddenly shook and a sigh of relief sounded in the area.

“He’s awake.”

“Edward?”, asked Circe as she landed just behind Fenrir.

Seeing her nod, Circe said: “Wait, can you not tell him about me?”

Fenrir frowned and asked: “Why?”

“Because I’ve grown quite attached to this student of mine, and I don’t want him to treat me any other way. I’m also afraid of how he would react when he hears about what I did to Eddena. He’s quite an emotional one compared to us.”

She heaved a brief sigh before she continued: “At least give me some time to find a chance and explain things to him myself.”

Fenrir sighed as well and said: “I promised him I will not lie to him, ever, so if he asks anything I will answer him honestly, but I will mention nothing myself. This is the most I can do.”

“That is enough. Thank you.” Said Circe with a nod.

Fenrir closed her eyes and all the chaos energy started getting absorbed back inside her body. Her wolf form went away until a completely naked Edward was left to lie on the sand below.

Edward opened his eyes and looked around, confused about all this sand in the surroundings, when his eyes landed on Circe. Seeing her uninjured and smiling towards him, Edward smiled back and jumped up to hug her, only for Circe to quickly fly upward.

“It’s not that I’m not happy to see you, but you should consider covering yourself first.”, said Circe with a chuckle.

Edward looked down and noticed that he was completely naked. A small curtain of water appeared on his lower body and he grinned at her.

“Done. Our clothes also match. Will you come down now?”

Circe smiled back and floated down gently before giving Edward the hug she denied earlier.

“Hey, kid. Thank you for coming to get me out.”, said Circe in an honest tone, already aware he did it for her sake.

Edward nodded as he hugged her back and closed his eyes.

“You’re welcome, master. I'm happy you're alright.”