Ah! Who possessed the Element!

Chapter 1

In the realm of Nihogg the atmosphere was saturated with a thick, noxious orange haze that when breathed in took a piece if your life away. Through the orange haze were massive, towering stalagmites that rose into the air like spikes in a gorge. Outside the stalagmites were carved windows of a curious gothic architecture, the doors were of similar design. Most of these towers were the same with little or no difference in them, but there was one that was more impressive.

Near the center of the massive complex of Stalagmite towers was one that was more massive and taller than any. It stood higher than any skyscraper could be found on the face of the Earth. The massive tower rose above the orange haze and had massive carvings inside the rock giving it an elegant, but frightening appearance. Everything about this tower gave it a sense of importance to the sheer mass of the tower to the carvings. Small windows dotted the tower, but near the top was a massive window that allowed any one a bird-eyes view of all below.

Inside the window was a woman, her name was Hild; Hild was the CEO of this hellish realm and all before her was hers'. Hild stood in her massive throne room that was incredibly spacious; there was plenty of room to walk. The floor was smooth as glass with volcanic geo rocks; the fires from the torches reflected the light off the floor. Even with all the light in the room, the room was still pretty dark. Inside this room there were about ten guards that stood ready to defend their mistress at anytime; not that she would really use them.

Hild was more powerful than any being in Nidhogg, and she was going to stay that way. She always had a childish smile on her face, which hid the cold eyes that pierced all who would dare gaze into them. Hild's gaze could pierce the thick orange haze and see all that below as clear as glass; that was what she was doing. Hild stood over at her window and glared down at all that transcended before her feet when something broke her gaze.

Hild turned around from the landscape when a sound erupted from outside the chamber doors. It was soft at first but got progressively louder with screams and shouting erupting in the hallway that signaled from a fight. Hild listened but was rather intrigued as her guards in the hall doubled in front of her throne. Suddenly the large stone doors that lead to outside her throne room were thrown open; and a large guard flew across the room.

From outside a mist flew inside faster than any gale could have taken them; the mist divided and pulled upward in the rafters. Then they dropped to the floor and materialized a few feet before Hild's guards; the mist happened to be two men who were twins. One of the twins was holding a massive ax in his hand; he threw it at the feet of the guards; in response to this the guards lowered their weapons in an attack stance.

A tense standoff prescribed for a few seconds when another entered the room; it was a little girl, who looked no older than nine years old. This girl had her black hair in a ponytail, but that was the only childish part about her. Her skin was deathly pale and seemed to barely smooth over on her skeleton-like body. Her eyes were black and cold, and as she walked by the fallen guard that the two men threw in; she reached down and was about to touch him when Hild cleared her throat.

"Hel, I hope for you and your brother's sake this intrusion has some value that will benefit you." Hild said sounding partly amused. Hel did not touch the demon but instead rose up and walked in front of the row of guards. She opened up her black and gold robe that stretched to her ankles; Hel reached in and pulled out a roll of parchment.

"Yeah it does!" Hel stated as she looked defiantly at Hild. Hel then raised the roll of parchment a little higher to make sure Hild saw it and then crumbling it from the strength of her grip she threw it on the ground in front of her guards. Hild looked through her guards at the roll of parchment and then looked at the three siblings that stood before her.

"Leave us!" Hild suddenly announced to her guards. The guards raised there weapons in military precision and then all turned and left the throne room. Hild walked down from her throne and reaching the bottom she looked at the roll of parchment. The parchment rose and the seal broke; the parchment unrolled in front of Hild as she looked over the parchment at Hel and her brothers and then said, "What's the problem."

"WHAT'S THE PROBLEM!!!!?" Hel screamed at the top of her lungs, her face turned from a pale to a livid red as she looked at Hild, "WE HAVE A CONTRACT THAT REMAINS UNFULFILLED!"

"According to whom?" Hild asked, her voice sounding lax to Hel's problem as she looked at the small child before her.

"According to this!" One of the brothers announced pointing his finger towards the roll of parchment as his frustration growing.

"Yeah, demons are supposed to be strict about their contracts, all we've seen you do...is..." The other brother started, but something suddenly stopped him, the brother grasped his throat and lost his ability to speak.

"Do Nothing?" Hild's voice echoed from her lips; her voice as no longer just childish and piercing, it as stern and cold. Hild's eyes narrowed to thin slits, her cold eyes became bleaker and hallow as she looked at the three siblings that stood before her. "Is it possible that you believe we have allowed your father's contract to just rot?"

The whole room seems to echo Hild's reaction to the allegations from the small group in front of her. The room grew dark as all the light from inside the room went out; even the windows would not allow the light from outside. The only light that was left in room was a hellish green glow that radiated from Hild as she stared into the three siblings. The stone creaked under the pressure that grew in the room; small little chips broke form the rafters and rained in a trail of dust to the floor.

"No." One of the brothers weakly said, as Hel and her other brother could only shake their head.

"I certainly hope not because that would mean a lost of trust, and with a lost of trust means a lost of a contract." Hild said her voice still sounding threatening as she continued to speak, "And we will not allow a contract to be lost after all the work we have put into it."

After Hild said this, the room came back into view as light was allowed to return and the light filled the room. Hild stood up and walked down from her throne towards the three siblings that stood before her. She walked to the one brother she had silenced and pointing her finger at his throat released his voice so he could speak.

"It would do well for all of you to remember not to tread on someone's hospitality, especially someone who is willing to hid three fugitives from heaven." Hild said her voice still cool as she looked at the siblings who stood in her throne room. "Remember that you are only allowed to remain here because of a simple clause in your father's contract. So if you want to declare the contact void I would not hesitate in voiding out your asylum."

"No we do not wish to void the contract." Hel said her voice finding its strength, but she was able to control it.

"Then do not come in here and question our honor like that ever again. All of you should have known that better than any living organism." Hild said as she took a few more steps away form Hel and her brother Vali and Narfi; who still looked uncomfortable in front of Hild.

"Then what are you doing with my contract?" Hel suddenly asked, in her voice could be judged with respect, but it also held some of the same cynicalism that Hel came in to the throne room before. Her brothers took a step away from their sister as Hild looked directly into Hel's eyes; and Hel looked right back with not the slightest hesitation in her eyes.

"Your Contract?" Hild said sounding amused in both the tone of her voice and the bravery of Hel. "To think you would claim something that was your fathers as your own I am quite surprised."

"I am simply trying to finish his noble work." Hel explained, but her voice hid the truth.

"You're lying Hel!" Hild said looking at her, "You want to use the contract to get revenge on the one who got your father expelled from Heaven!"

Hild hit a nerve in the siblings, with this simple sentence Hild had lit the fires inside them and their anger swelled inside them hotter than hell could contain. Hel's mark's on her head glowed as power coursed through her as she was upset; Narfi and Vali fist burned white with small flames that flickered between their fingers.

"Yes we do!" Narfi said through his gnashed teeth, pure venom could be heard in the words. "We want him to pay for what he's done."

"So in other words you think that your vigilance alone will bring down an Element like Njord." Hild asked still sounding amused by the prospect of these three on there own.

"That's why we have the contract." Vali said sounding angry at Hild's comment and tone.

"A contract is just one piece; you need more than that to destroy a power like Njord." Hild said, smiling more and more as the three siblings tried talking her down.

"That is where you come in! You can destroy him in a single flick of your wrist and that's the end." Narfi said sounding completely laryngitic in his explanation to Hild.

"So naïve, and so simple minded! If I try and personally destroy Njord you can imagine the nastiness of the whole affair? Not only would it be Ragnarok and millions on both side would die it would be completely pointless." Hild said looking at Narfi and getting tired of hearing his voice and complaining. Hild looked at the silent siblings and then took one step closer to them and then raising her hands she said, "No I have a better idea, in fact it has already been put in motion for quite some time now."

Hild snapped her fingers and two small balls of light flashed across the air between Hild and the siblings, forming a symbol. When it stopped the symbol glowed hellish red and was the size of a platter that hovered in the air. A square was the center of the mark and inside the square was a small dot that on two sides had small 'T' letters. Outside the square was an octagon that touched each corner, and on four sides of the octagon were shapes as well. One two sides were two triangles both of the same design, and on the opposite sides were two acute angles both measuring at about forty five degrees, but neither one of these shapes touched the octagon or the square. The only shapes that were touching the octagon was a set of acute angles similar to the ones on the sides of the octagon, but these were flipped upside down and fitted around and above the bottom line of the angles. Above these upside down acute angles was one small line that also did not touch the angles. Between the triangles and the upside down acute angles were triangles as well, but they were also upside down. On top of the upside down triangles was an obtuse angle that measured one hundred and forty five degrees. Finally after all this at the top of the original triangles a ray line went down the side of the triangle and down to the original acute angle, but did not touch either.

"What is this?" Vali asked confused as he looked at the symbol the floated before him.

"It's a mark that is on Njord right hand; do you know what it is?" Hild said looking at the siblings through the symbol. The siblings shook their heads in unison to Hild's question. "It's a virus!"

"A virus?" Vali asked sounding skeptical to this.

"This is your master plan!" Narfi piped out sound as unconvinced as his brother; Hel remained silent.

"It gets better! Njord has been infected with this virus since his battle with your father." Hild said as the symbol vanished from between Hild and the siblings.

"Njord's probably already got the virus out if him by now." Narfi said also sounding skeptical.

"Yeah." Vali said without holding any of his skepticism in his tone. "We know that we can't beat Njord but we also know he's not a fool; he would know it was a virus and he would know that you put it in him."

"Yes he would know it was me, if he could actually remember." Hild said sounding pleased with herself.

"What do you mean?" Hel asked after being silent during this exchange.

"This virus has an interesting side effect on the victim: amnesia." Hild said looking at the newly captured attention of the siblings. "Njord does not remember that I put the virus inside him. He thinks that the mark is a wound from his fight with Loki."

"Okay, Njord doesn't remember that he got a virus; but what about those around him wouldn't they know that something is wrong with him." Vali spoke up as he looked at Hild, his skepticism was still in his tone but it was lighter.

"If Njord told them, but Njord doesn't want others to be concerned about his problem, he prefers to work out his problems on his own." Hild said as she turned and looked out the window as she continued, "So as Njord clasps at the small pains that continue to inflict him, he ignorantly fails to realize that it is a virus that will soon over take him."

"What does this virus do?" Vali asked softly, dreading to hear the answer.

"Simple!" Hild said as she turned back towards the siblings. "The virus will sweep over his body and Njord becomes your personal puppet."

"Wait, you mean we will be able to control him!" Narfi said. Hild smiled and nodded in accent; Vali and Narfi faces turned sour at this prospect, but an evil gleeful smile grew over Hel. "We want to destroy him, not control him."

Hel's face dropped from happiness to annoyance at her brothers' question, she turned quickly to her brother and said, "If we can control him then we can destroy him."

"Hel, she's talking about controlling an Element!" Vali said, trying to back his brothers' viewpoint to her.

"Duh!" Hel said sounding frustrated with her brother's persistence in this matter.

"First of all, we understand that Njord doesn't know that the virus is put in him; but what about when we send him to do…whatever!" Vali said looking at Hel and Hild. "How do we know he won't remember that?"

"Because when the virus takes effect, when you decide to control him that lovely 'side effect' kicks in." Hild said answering his question. "Njord will not remember what he did and if you work the situation just right, no one else will."

"Okay, problem number two!" Narfi brought up, "The goddesses that are there at the house with him. I'm sure that they will know something is wrong with Njord when he starts doing things that they know he doesn't do. Plus we also have all of heaven to keeping an eye on him as well because what ever Njord does all of heaven will know it as well."

"I will handle that factor personally; I have someone already there who can help us." Hild said confidently to the siblings; Vali caught on quickly.

"Velsper!" He said still sounding skeptical of the whole thing. "You're going to use a banished demon that has been reincarnated as a kitten to try and cover heavens eyes." Vali struggled to hide his laughter.

"Velsper is more than capable of doing this, and all those who are banished from my realm know that once a demon always a demon." Hild said; before any of them could ask another question Hild clapped her hands and the massive doors opening. "Well, your time is up, don't worry about the small details just plan how your going to have your fun because it takes hold in less than a few weeks from now."

The siblings turned and left the throne room in a different manner than when they first entered. Once they left the massive stalagmite that housed Hild's throne room, they spoke more openly with each other. "Can you imagine a plan where whatever can go wrong will go wrong?" Vali spoke up.

"Damn, Vali!" Hel chimed in, turning and facing her brother, "We have been trying to come up with a plan for months, but nothing else we can think of comes any where possible to actually working than this."

"Look Hel!" Narfi said, "We both want revenge for father as much as you do, but we only get one chance to get this right."

"You think I don't know that?" Hel said sounding angrier at the thought of being called lazy, "We have been here for months and nothing is happening, and now we have our chance and I am not going to wait any longer!"

"Hel, all Vali and I are suggesting is to lets wait a few more months and think of at least a fall back plan in case this one doesn't work!" Narfi said.

"No!" Hel said sounding final, "I am taking this opportunity and if I have to do this alone then, so be it!"

"Hel we are not going to let you ruin our plans so you can conduct a personal vendetta against Njord without us!" Vali said taking a step towards his sister and towered over her.

"Hel, if you try to pull this off and you fail, you will take us down with you any hope we have for father, and we will not let you do that!" Narfi said defending his brother.

Hel looked directly at her brothers and then whispered to them, "If I fail, I will not be the only one going down." Hel paused as a wicked smile spread over her devilish, child face as she announced, "As long we can pull Njord with us then that will be the sweetest revenge for me that I can savor for all eternity."