Chapter 4: The Enormous Golden Book

"Odin!!"

Nicole's heart twisted in her chest, and her throat tightened when she saw Odin collapsing backward and landing awkwardly on the cold pavement. Without any consideration for her safety, she quickly jumped out of the Ford Ranger and was soon by Odin's side.

"Odin! Odin..." She whimpered, her eyes moistening. "Are you okay? Please be okay..."

She was terrified to see Odin's form twitching intermittently on the cold pavement. She felt dizzy and stunned. She had to close her eyes just for a moment to calm herself down.

Over the past year, she'd secretly come to love Odin. She liked his gentle demeanor, quick-wittedness, intelligence, and everything else about him. However, she was an old-fashioned kind of girl — and so she felt she couldn't confess her feelings.

She had instead connected him to the research assistant job under one of the professors so that she could spend more time with him. But after barely six months on the job, he was lying prone and prostrate on the ground within a park after suffering life-threatening injuries. Where was the justice in that?

Waves of panic washed over Nicole as she knelt beside Odin's side, observing his handsome face, framed by thick jet-black hair. At that moment, his skin was a very pale white, with seemingly no blood underneath. It was as if he'd mysteriously turned into a corpse that'd been frozen in a mortuary for weeks. She was even afraid to take his pulse for fear of what she would discover. What if he was dead? The very notion terrified her and kept her from taking any action for the next few seconds.

"What exactly happened?"

Many questions flashed through her chaotic mind as she tried to make sense of the situation. The wolf was attacking their vehicle when a lightning storm descended upon the area. Then, a streak of lightning flashed across the sky before shocking the wolf to death. But what had then happened to Odin? And where was the dead wolf? How could such an enormous beast disappear into thin air? All the answers to the questions were mysteries since she had been so scared to follow what was happening outside the haven offered by the truck right before Odin collapsed.

"Odin! Odin..." she said, after taking a few more deep breaths to calm herself down. "Are you okay?"

On failing to elicit a response, she could no longer hesitate as his life was on the line. Without losing a second, she placed her index and middle fingers on his wrist, right at the base of his thumb, to check his pulse.

"Ahh!"

The next moment, she couldn't help but withdraw her hand at lightning speed as if she'd just been shocked by a powerful current. The situation was beyond her understanding — no, it was beyond the realms of known biological principles.

Odin's skin was emitting a deep chill akin to that originating from a ten-thousand-year-old glacier. By her estimate, his bodily temperature should have been less than -20 degrees Celsius, yet, his skin wasn't showing any signs of freezing. What kind of notion was that? What the hell was happening to him? Nicole was growing more and more confused. She was terrified in every sense of the word.

What to do?

Nicole knelt there, glancing at Odin's face worriedly for a few more seconds. She even forgot about the terror of the wolves as the very notion of losing Odin was even more frightening. Her mind blanked out for a few more moments until she latched on to one thought that might save Odin and pull him back from the menacing jaws of death.

Call 911.

The thought grew upon her like wild weeds in an abandoned garden, crowding out all her fears and indecision. Without any more dilly-dallying, she rushed towards the Mitsubishi star wagon to fetch her phone.

**** ****

Odin felt as if he'd fallen into a torture chamber. His sense of self was in a messy state, seemingly as if it was being slashed apart by thousands of knives. It was a strange feeling; quite painful and very daunting. It was as if his entire being could disappear the next moment, scattering his life into the unknown. But by some miracle, his consciousness endured through the torment until he felt like it'd touched a thin film.

"Break for me!"

Odin pushed out with all his willpower, yearning to escape from the hellish domain. But the next moment, his consciousness seemed to have touched upon a mysterious realm. Before his chaotic mind could make sense of what was happening, he felt his consciousness quiver and cross a boundary into a new space.

"Where is this?"

Odin's felt a numbing chill crawl upon him on looking around. At that moment, he was standing in a pitch-black space that seemed endless. It reeked of a savageness that caused his mind to momentary freeze in terror. Moreover, he could hardly see anything as the only source of light in the entire domain was a very tiny golden star far off — in the distance.

"What has happened to me?"

Odin tried to fight off the dread as his mind worked in overdrive to make sense of the situation. He wasn't even sure whether he was alive or not.

He recalled that he'd just been about to observe the beastly wolf's corpse. But it was sucked dry abruptly by a black orb which then turned into a streak of black light and entered his body. Then what followed was a period of suffering and misery before he touched upon some weird boundary and descended into this endless space.

"Could this space be related to the pitch-black orb?" Odin wondered as he glanced at the tiny golden star in the distance. Although it was minute, it was the only source of light throughout the entire pitch-black space.

"What a weird star!"

At that moment, Odin had a strange feeling telling him to get closer to the star if he needed some answers. As his mind cleared, the thought continued growing upon him as if it was his only belief and his only purpose for living. He couldn't disobey it. He started striding towards the star at a moderate pace.

Step by step, he cut through the pitch-black darkness, heading towards it. Maybe a minute had passed, or maybe centuries passed, while he was walking. However, the star wasn't getting any closer. His mind gradually turned dizzy from all the monotony until he almost gave in to sleep.

But once again, his base instinct warned him against the notion of dozing off. He had another strange feeling telling him that he would never wake up if he dared to sleep while within the dark space. He just steeled his mind and continued walking as he slowly made his way towards the star.

After a long time, he didn't even know why he was still treading forward. His mind had already emptied, without any coherent thoughts. At that moment, he would not have been able to compute 1+1. But fortunately, he'd already hypnotized himself to endure and never give up until he reached the golden star. Otherwise, he wouldn't survive. So, with the support of his strong will, he slowly but gradually approached the source of the golden light.

Odin had no way to keep track of the passage of time. But one moment, he was still walking in a dazed state, and the very next, the golden light appeared to be brighter. With every step he took, its radiance grew more intense before his vision until it pushed away all the darkness in the vicinity.

"Am I about to reach?"

He could hardly contain his excitement as he quickened his step. After enduring what must have been a long period of torture in the monotonous black space, he was about to reach his destination. His entire being was brimming with energy due to anticipation.

Nothing could beat the sense of fulfillment one felt after accomplishing an almost impossible goal. So, when Odin finally set his eyes upon the source of the golden light, he cried tears of joy. He couldn't think of a time when he'd ever been happier.

However, he soon realized that what was before him was not a golden star as he'd initially thought. Instead, it was a gigantic golden book, roughly a meter or two in thickness, and hovering within the pitch-black space. It was so majestic and bounded in an ancient aura that could elicit a feeling of awe within any soul that chanced upon it.

"What a strange book!"

Odin was utterly in wonder. He narrowed his eyes, trying his best to study the details on the cover of the golden book. But his vision couldn't take in much due to the intensity of the golden light emanating from it. So, he took a few more steps closer until he was only about a dozen yards from it.

"Codex Infinitus!" He mumbled after reading the blood-red words inscribed on the cover.

What the hell was Codex Infinitus? Odin was even more confused. He tried taking a few more steps towards the golden book with the intent to study it up close. But the next moment, a savage aura, thousands of times more terrible than that of the wolf that had been in Lamar Valley, descended upon him. It was like a raging Tsunami as it yanked him backward like an almost weightless piece of cotton fluff.