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Asgard, the Hall of Light.
Inside the grand temple with its rugged Norse style, a tall, slender figure sat poised upon the throne. Unlike the rough surroundings, this presence exuded a noble elegance, wrapped in an aura of ancient dignity that spoke of immortality—like a nobleman straight out of an old epic.
Graceful, refined, and faintly divine, he looked every bit a god.
Because he was one.
Baldr, the Norse God of Light—one of the Twelve Aesir.
At this moment, the god opened his eyes. But instead of the usual detached godly calm, his gaze held a rare self-mocking glint that didn't quite fit a deity.
"Honestly, I don't even know whether to laugh or cry," he muttered to himself.
He hadn't just transmigrated—no, it was more like awakening after reincarnation.
During a battle with the Thunder God, he'd taken a blow to the head, accidentally unlocking memories that belonged to his former self, his original wisdom, or in other words, the memories of a past life.
Only after fully absorbing all those memories did the new Baldr truly come into being—a complete and reborn God of Light.
In his previous life on the blue planet, he was just an ordinary person, but he'd known a fair bit about Norse mythology.
Baldr wasn't just any god—he was one of the Norse twelve principal gods.
Unlike the Greek god Apollo, who was also a god of light among the Olympians, Baldr's status and power were far greater. Among the Norse gods, Baldr was firmly in the top five, vying for third place, right behind Odin the Allfather and Thor the Thunderer.
And unlike Thor, who was mainly known for his fighting prowess, Baldr was famous for both wisdom and strength—almost the perfect god, and a serious contender for Odin's throne.
Being reborn as such a figure should be something to be proud of, right?
At first, Baldr thought so.
But after absorbing all his memories, he discovered a huge problem.
Here, the Thunder God wasn't called Thor—it was "Thor," sure, but this world wasn't the Norse mythological realm he knew.
There was a supreme sorcerer named Ancient One, whose power rivaled Odin himself.
And above dimensions, there was the demon god Dormammu.
This world wasn't some pure Norse myth world at all.
It was the damn Marvel Universe!
Reincarnated as one of the Norse gods was great, but to be reborn as one in the Marvel world...
Well, you know how it goes—Thor gets beaten up by mere humans, Loki's a sneaky backstabber, and the so-called Norse Three Warriors fight just like regular guys.
The Norse gods in Marvel? Just a bunch of joke characters.
Forget about exploding stars or world-ending power.
Even when Thor goes full force, he barely levels a street.
Gods? Ha! They're just aliens who live a bit longer.
The real gods in Marvel are the Celestials, the Eternals, and the Five.
Rubbing his forehead, Baldr frowned.
"The Asgardians in the Marvel universe are embarrassing enough—and I'm supposed to be Baldr?"
In his past life, he liked Marvel, so he knew more about it and even searched specifically why the Norse gods were incomplete in the comics.
He found that gods like Tyr, the god of war, or Hodr, the dark god, were almost non-existent.
As for Baldr? The only mention was that Scarlet Witch one-shotted him.
And then they dropped him, basically scrapped the character.
With so many parallel Marvel universes, who knows which one this was, but it felt like a discarded draft.
Which universe it was didn't matter.
What mattered was that Baldr was weak—and he'd likely face Scarlet Witch sooner or later.
That thought made his scalp tingle.
It was frustrating.
Taking a deep breath, he tested the power inside his body.
Honestly, it wasn't as weak as he feared—there was a surge of energy—but it didn't compare to the mythic Baldr who could shatter mountains or cleanse the earth with a glance.
"In the Marvel universe, the only way to really become strong is to cross the threshold called the 'Celestial Level,'" he thought.
"If I reach the Celestial tier and push further into the 'Elder Celestial' stage, then I might truly gain power comparable to the gods of old, maybe even surpass them."
Like the Celestial-level fire giant Surtur, who destroyed Asgard and brought Ragnarok.
Or Laufey, the Frost Giant, who with his Frost Aegis could freeze an entire planet.
Marvel's power scale was actually high, but it was the Asgardians who were weak.
This didn't even count Odin, the Allfather, who could take down Surtur and steal the Frost Aegis himself—definitely a star-busting level.
"To leave the weakling stage, I have to reach Celestial Level.
Then if I ever face Scarlet Witch, she won't one-shot me."
As for how pretty Scarlet Witch was, that could wait.
Without that level, she was like a big boss.
Get to the Celestial Level, and you can start having some plans.
Reach Elder Celestial, and you can act on those plans.
Surpass that and enter the realm of the single-universe tier—true supreme beings—then Scarlet Witch? She's just a spicy girl you toy with.
Baldr was clear about power and ambition.
"This world has no real cultivation or training system to grow stronger.
Almost everything depends on mutants or technology."
"Fortunately, as an Asgardian god, there's a clear path—Asgardian gods' divine power naturally grows with age, peaking around 5,000 years, when their bodies can no longer sustain it and they die."
In theory, if an Asgardian could overcome their physical limits, immortality was possible.
Baldr didn't care much for that.
He cared more about this:
"By normal growth, living four or five thousand years, with my bloodline and status, I could probably reach the Celestial Level.
Even Elder Celestial might be possible."
But it was too slow.
He and Thor were about the same age—just over a thousand years.
Two or three thousand years from now, they'd likely be long dead.
And other than that, Marvel had no clear way for him to get stronger.
Mutants or tech didn't suit him.
Asgardian magic and combat skills were just techniques, not a path to power.
Just as Baldr frowned, pondering his future path, a strange feeling flickered through him.
"Huh? What's that?"
"....."