Chapter 2

The Forces of Hel

Odin sat upon his throne in his silver palace, Valaskjalf, deep in thought, a grim look on his face. The eye patch over his eye served as reminder of what he had seen when he sacrificed it in order to see the apocalyptic battle of Ragnarok. What he saw then was completely different from what he viewed now as the realm of the dead fell into chaos.

The doors of the throne room opened, and four soldiers marched in, another being chained in between them. They stopped before the throne, the soldiers kneeling, forcing their chained prisoner to kneel with them. With a nod from the King of the Gods, the guards removed the shackles that held their prisoner bound. They then stepped back and gave Odin an unhindered view of the prisoner.

Even for a god, Loki looked remarkably well for the amount of time he was forced to suffer in his imprisonment. The God of Mischief had a very long and bushy white beard that hid his rather young complexion. He wore nothing but a loin cloth, and now looked at Odin, confused as to why he had been freed.

Just as Odin was about to speak, the door opened again. Sigyn, Loki's wife, ran into the room, closely followed by several guards. Odin waved them away, and allowed Sigyn to join her husband before the throne. There was a moment of silence before Loki spoke.

"Oh great Odin! Why have you freed me?" The god asked in a mocking tone.

"Now is not the time for jokes or insults, Loki," Odin answered, "I have freed you because events are taking place that could mean the destruction of all life as we know it."

"And why should that be any concern of mine?" Loki asked, the arrogance in his voice not having dimmed in the slightest.

Odin leaned forward, a small smirk on his face, "The dead have risen from the realm of Hel, and now march in endless numbers towards our destruction."

Loki's mocking grin widened at the news, "Ah, my daughter has finally gained the sense to resist you! I am so proud."

Odin had to resist the smile that tried to show itself upon his face. He knew that the next bit of news would crush Loki's gleefulness, "No Loki. Your daughter, Hel, was slain by one of the dead she ruled. Her murderer no leads the forces of Hel."

Just as he expected, the smile faded from Loki's face. He was visibly shocked, his wife looked worried as she tried to console him, but the god ignored her. He looked at Odin, whose face returned to being grim and serious, searching for any hint of a lie.

"No," Loki said, "Impossible. How could she be slain by a mortal, a dead one at that?"

"The human that killed her is unlike any I have ever seen. He has found some way to retain his body as it was in life, as well as his twisted powers. His objective is unclear, but he is a very skilled combatant, and the armies of the dead now follow him mindlessly."

For once, Loki was genuinely humbled. He looked up at the King, his eyes now filled with anger, "Let me lead a force against them, I will slay this murderer."

Odin gave him a look of approval, "That is why I have freed you. Take your sons, Fenrir and Jormungand, and go to Jotunheimer, that is where you will stop them."

So, here Loki stood, in the land of the giants, at the head of an army of giants, elves, dwarves, and a small detachment of Valkyries. On his right stood the massive canine Fenrir; on his left was the serpent Jormungand.

Loki himself had shaved and cut his hair. He wanted to look as intimidating as possible, and he felt that the beard and long hair depicted frailness. He adorned green armor and a green cape. In one hand he held a sword with a razor sharp blade, and a silver shield in the other. His face was emotionless, hiding the anger that raged within his heart.

Loki's force stood arrayed on a large hill. Behind them a vast forest ended halfway up the slope. Before them was another, slightly smaller hill. This one was crowned by many rocks and large boulders, which Loki hoped would slow their opponents' advance. They could hear the clamber of thousands of feet and the clank of armor as the opposing force approached from beyond the smaller hill.

The soldiers from Hel appeared over the crest of the hill and sprinted down the other side. Loki was forced to act quickly in order to catch them before they got too close. At his command, the sky was filled with arrows. The cloud of deadly missiles was so thick it blotted out the sun. They fell upon the enemy, but did no visible damage to the swiftly approaching tide.

Loki raised his sword and prepared to lead a charge, but as he did so, for some reason his sight was drawn to specific rock on the other hill. There, he could see a single figure walking calmly onto the boulder, which jutted straight out of the ground over the moving mass of soldiers around him. This figure wore a black cloak, which hid his face from view. It was evident that under the dark cloth he wore black armor. In one hand he held a sword with a black blade, while the other was empty. The god felt the enemy commander's eyes connect with his own from underneath the hood, and fury flowed through his veins like water from a broken dam.

The two sides met with a tremendous crash. It was immediately evident to Loki why the arrows had so little of an effect on the enemy. The enemy soldiers were mostly nothing but bones, their skeletal figures sustained little damage from the missiles. Some still had the wooden shafts jutting from their armor as they entered the fray. Loki himself went up against such a creature, easily severing both of its arms and a leg. However, even after it fell, the skeleton tried to worm its way forward to bite at the god's feet. Loki stomped on the skull, reducing it to dust, and the bones ceased all movement.

Loki made his way across the battlefield, his ancient experience and skill far outmatching the undead soldiers. Once, the god clashed with an opponent adorned in full body armor, with a visor shielding his face. This enemy showed more skill than the skeletons, and more speed and intelligence than their zombie counterparts. However, it was still nothing compared to Loki. His sword cleaved the helmet easily away, only to reveal that there was nothing there. Slowly, a ghostly and transparent figure shimmered into sight within the armor. Loki cut the armor to ribbons, and the phantom disappeared, leaving the armor lifeless on the ground.

A high shriek brought his attention to the sky. There he saw the Valkyries dueling with incorporeal beings in ragged, black cloaks. The creatures had black hands, some armored, some just mottled flesh and bone. They carried any of a myriad of weapons, but seemed to favor scythes. They battled the Valkyries with skill far beyond any of the ground troops, enough to cause the female warriors to fall back.

Overall, the forces Loki led were by far more skilled than their enemy, with an exception to the wraiths. Despite this great advantage, Loki could tell that they were losing. No matter how many of the enemy soldiers fell, three more arrived to take their place. The dead were overwhelming the living with sheer numbers, swarming over everything.

Loki snapped out of his reverie to notice the predicament he was in. He looked around and found that he was surrounded by the enemy. They slowly pressed inward, closing the small pocket around him. Suddenly, as if they all had the same thought at the same time, the dead started to charge forward.

Before they could run even a few steps, the evil ranks were crushed beneath the force of two giant beasts. Jormungand struck like a giant, green, scaly bolt of lightning, dismantling all the bony figures on Loki's left, while Fenrir tore through them on his right. The giant dog and snake growled and hissed menacingly at their foes as they moved away from the trio, deciding to take part in the battle somewhere else.

A shadow fell swiftly across Loki and his sons, causing them to quickly jump out of the way of a falling giant. The towering man crashed to the ground, his last breath escaping him. His head landed mere feet from where Loki stood, and the god watched as a black, cloaked figure presented itself as it walked across the dead giant's forehead. Loki and his sons stepped back, preparing to fight their new foe.

Now that he was so close, Loki could tell that there was definitely something different about his daughter's murderer. This man walked with an air of confidence, evil and power seeming to seep from him. He stopped after stepping onto the grass, dark red blood dripping from his black blade. His voice was deep and cold when he spoke.

"Loki, the God of Mischief, the wolf Fenrir, and the serpent Jormungand; so, Odin sends his enemies against me to test my strength. He is very clever. Are you lot really blind to his trick?" The hooded man asked.

Loki glared at him as he raised his sword, "Trick or not, you will meet your end here. I will make you pay for what you did to Hel."

The man chuckled slightly, "Tsk, tsk. Don't make the same mistake she did. She assumed that I would be nothing more than a worm to her, and yet I am here and she is not. You would be wise to join me, Loki, not fight me."

"I've had enough of this," Loki spat, "kill him."

Jormungand struck first, his body a blur as his lightning-fast reflexes brought him to his enemy's position within a second. However, all he got was a mouthful of dirt. Pain seared across his neck as the mysterious attacker dug his blade into the snake's scales. He swiftly withdrew the sword and jumped into the air as Fenrir attempted to bite him off of Jormungand's neck. The man landed on Fenrir's head, and somehow sent a large ball of fire from his hand into the giant wolf's back. Fenrir howled in pain as the flames burned hair and skin.

The man jumped from the wolf's head to the ground below, where he quickly engaged Loki in a fierce duel. Several times Loki tried to break away so that his sons had enough room to strike, but his opponent was quick and stayed right on his tail. Their blades sent showers of sparks and chips of metal flying with each blow.

Finally, Loki found an opportunity to strike. Before his opponent could prepare to block the attack, the god plunged his sword into the enemy's chest, right where his heart would be. The man gasped and staggered back, his face turned to the sword jutting from his body. He fell to his knees, and disappeared into Jormungand's mouth as the snake struck again. At first, the snake turned to his father for his approval, but then he began to writhe in pain. The snake lifted his head into the air, where it completely detached from the rest of his body. The man jumped from the remains of the serpent as its body crashed into the ground. He landed in front of Loki, the god's sword in one hand, and his own in the other.

"Ha ha ha ha," The man laughed, "Did you really expect that to kill me. You can't kill me with such mundane means Loki, because I am already dead."

In the blink of an eye, he was in front of the god, stabbing Loki with his own sword. The God of Mischief collapsed, gasping for breath. He watched with increasingly blurring vision as his opponent turned, firing some sort of black cloud of swirling dark matter at Fenrir. However, he did not live long enough to see what the cloud did.

The black cloud hit Fenrir in the side, and it spread along his body, abandoning the somewhat spherical shape it had held. A large gash formed at the point of impact, and the gas began seeping into his body through it. The wolf suddenly convulsed, his mouth opened to emit some sort of noise, but nothing came out. The burned flesh from the previous attack suddenly got much darker, and he fell to the ground. The man watched the life leave Fenrir's eyes before looking around.

The remains of Loki's army were now in full retreat. Giants with Valkyries flying around their heads could easily be seen running from the battlefield, while the elves and dwarves were concealed by the trees. Though they could have pursued the defeated army tirelessly, the man silently commanded his soldiers to halt. It was unnecessary to chase the crippled force. Now nothing stood between him and Midgard, the realm of Man.

Sorry it took so long, I had a small case of writer's block with this chapter. For a while, I was considering skipping it because of how short it would be, but I decided against it. I'll update again soon. Please review!

Darkguymelef