Athena's heart pounded wildly—a physiological reaction caused by intense desire and excitement.
She walked step by step towards the well, her eyes fixed only on the clear water containing infinite wisdom.
She remembered Odin's sacrifice—he gave an eye.
So how much would she need to pay?
Just as her fingertips were about to touch the cold spring water, and her thoughts were churning, a voice sounded directly in the depths of her soul:
[Late...]
[You thirst for wisdom...]
[Then...]
[At what price... do you want it?]
Athena's hand froze in mid-air.
Her gray-blue eyes met the surface of the spring water, which seemed to reflect the very essence of her soul.
Price... What was the price for obtaining this wisdom, to glimpse the roots of the world?
At the same time, Odin, far away in Ásgarðr, sitting on the high throne, suddenly opened his one remaining eye, piercing through space as if he could see what was happening in the hidden canyon.
The corner of his mouth curled into an elusive arc.
The Well of Wisdom was never given freely, no matter who came.
Countless thoughts flashed through Athena's mind.
Blindly giving was not the act of wisdom at all.
Odin had sacrificed a part of himself and endured nine days and nights of suffering as a 'sacrifice', in exchange for wisdom from Mímisbrunnr as a 'beneficiary'.
So was there a possibility that Odin, having sacrificed himself (as God-King, he was both the executor of the sacrifice and the beneficiary, and the judge), had obtained the runes...
She could also use a certain identity to complete this sacrifice?
She was not Odin, and could not sacrifice herself as a God-King.
However, she had a unique identity—she inherited the power of the Goddess of Wisdom in the world of Chaos.
What Mímisbrunnr demanded was a 'price', a 'precious thing' that the sacrificial victim paid for wisdom.
What if... what if the 'object' of the sacrifice was wisdom itself?
If she sacrificed herself as the 'vessel of old wisdom' and benefited as the 'master of new wisdom'?
This idea was mad and dangerous, almost touching upon a paradox of being.
But Athena's gray-blue eyes grew brighter and brighter, and she saw the possibility of twisting the rules contained within it!
She hesitated no longer.
Athena withdrew her hand from the water, took a step back, stood by the well, and took a deep breath of the majestic breath of wisdom.
She opened her arms, not to accept the well, but to offer her own existence.
Her clear and solemn voice sounded, no longer a plea to the well, but a declaration, a redefinition of her own divinity and fate:
"I, Athena, hereby offer a sacrifice to wisdom—"
Her words echoed in the well, and the water began to churn violently, countless runes and images flickering wildly, awaiting the arrival of the sacrifice.
"I offer—" Athena's voice sharply rose, with a resolute sharpness.
"—the old 'me' as the 'vessel of wisdom'! I offer the form of wisdom by which I am bound and defined by the laws of the world of Chaos! I offer all my dependence on and limitations from the existing system of knowledge!"
She offered this 'concept' of 'Athena' as a vessel of wisdom!
"This sacrifice,"
she continued,
"in exchange for a new life that 'transcends the vessel and sees the source'! In exchange for the power of wisdom to understand the laws of this world and comprehend the root of all things! I, in the name of the master of wisdom, reforge myself!"
She appointed the beneficiary—still 'Athena', but the 'new' Athena freed from old shackles and integrated with the wisdom of this world!
The sacrifice was the 'old' Athena (as a vessel of wisdom).
The sacrificed-to was the well of wisdom (Mímisbrunnr).
The beneficiary was the 'new' Athena (as the Master of Wisdom).
This was tantamount to a great gamble—staking that her essence could withstand the rupture and restoration of this concept, and that the law of Mímisbrunnr would recognize this ultimate pursuit of 'wisdom'!
All of Mímisbrunnr boiled over!
This was no gentle ripple, but a tsunami!
Countless ancient runes, fragments of history, the light and shadow of the future, the whispers of the world...
All the currents of wisdom hidden in the well water frantically rushed towards Athena with an unprecedentedly violent momentum!
They no longer merely imparted knowledge, but tore her apart, destroyed her internal structure as the 'Goddess of Strategy of Chaos', while simultaneously forcibly reconstructing her soul with older, more original wisdom!
Ugh——!
Athena let out a pained, muffled cry, feeling as if her soul had been thrown into the world's furnace.
Every cognition, every logic, every imprint belonging to the 'old Athena' was being burned and shattered, while at the same time, endless, cold, and majestic Norse wisdom was poured into her.
Such pain was far stronger than physical torture; it was the shaking and restoration of the foundation of being!
Her seven orifices began to seep golden divine blood, and her body trembled violently, nearly falling to her knees.
But she gritted her teeth, and an unyielding flame burned in her gray-blue eyes—this was the desire for wisdom to find the ultimate answer, and the absolute will to surpass herself!
She saw it!
In the endless torrent of pain and knowledge, she saw the veins of the World Tree, the hidden workings of the laws of the Nine Realms, the suffocating trajectory of the fate of Ragnarök, and...
A faint light of a variable, different from the established fate! This was the influence of 'Narcissus'!
After an unknown amount of time—it seemed like a moment, and it seemed like an eternity.
The water level receded, and the spring water calmed again, even deeper and more restrained than before.
Athena still stood there.
Her appearance had hardly changed, but her gray-blue eyes were completely different.
The sharpness and wisdom of the past still existed, but deeper within were the vicissitudes and calm that seemed to pierce eternal time and space, like Mímisbrunnr itself, calm on the surface but hiding infinite mysteries.
She had succeeded.
At the cost of sacrificing her 'old essence', she had deceived the law of the well, successfully absorbed the wisdom of Mímisbrunnr, and merged it with her own origin, completing a transformation.
She had paid the 'price'—the old form of wisdom was completely destroyed and reprocessed; she was no longer the Athena of Chaos, her divinity integrated into the roots of wisdom of the Norse world, becoming a more complex being.
She raised her hand, and her fingertips no longer lingered with pure Olympian divine light, but with the emerald-green veins of the World Tree's leaves and the silvery radiance of the Runic runes.
She looked towards Ásgarðr, as if looking at the one-eyed god who was spying on this place.
"Odin..." she whispered to herself, a note of weariness in her voice, but even deeper.
She had gained wisdom, but also bore new yokes—a deeper connection to the world, and a clearer understanding of the fate destined for twilight.
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