A/N: Chap 44 review responses are in my forums as normal. With this, we have ten chapters left. And now, finally, we find out Taylor's true domain.
Chapter Forty-Five: As the Price For Fire
On earth, if a fifty-ton wolfhound attacked Taylor, she could have picked it up, flown it high into the air, and then body-slammed the thing into the ground.
In the domain of the fire giants, where it was an effort to hold even her own weight aloft, this approach not only didn't work, it got her slammed into the fine black sand by the first giant hound to reach her.
"Sinmara spake: There is no escape, godling child! Serve Sinmara well and you shall have shelter when all other realms fall."
The giantess was already reverting to the twisted, fifty-foot tall creature of stone, lava and ash she was before she ate the enchanted apple. The bus-sized wolfhounds were doing the fighting.
They were enough.
The Brisingamen helpfully let her know that one of the beasts was named Gif, the other Geri. They probably had some distinguishing marks to tell one from the other. But since all she was getting was the business end of their jaws, that didn't matter.
After the first wolf bit down on her wing and slammed her onto the soil, the other wolf charged at her and tried to bite her other wing. She pulled both wings closed to her back and rolled desperately away from the bite. While the attacks hadn't hurt per se because of her protections, she saw black blood staining the silver feathers of her wings. The wound healed quickly, but somehow the magic of the place could harm her, even if she didn't feel it as she would if not for her protections.
The first wolf charged after her. Though she lacked leverage now that she couldn't fly as strongly or fast as on Earth, she wasn't without her own weapons. With an angry cry and wings hardened beyond diamond, Taylor spun past the snarling jaws and sliced with her wings as hard as she could against the wolfhound's giant foreleg.
Her wing was not powerful enough to cut all the way through, but it definitely cut it. Lava-like blood welled from the monster, accompanied by a startled yelp of pain.
"Spaketh she; Geri, beloved hound! This godling dares harm my most treasured!"
The fire giantess roared her rage and stomped down a foot the size of Dad's old pick-up. The black soil didn't just shake. The ground under her shot up like the surface of a massive drum. The blow was as powerful as one of Purity's beams. As she flew up into the air from the unexpected blow, she saw a flaming crack form from the tip of Sinmara's clawed toes and run right toward her. Taylor had only a second to desperately flap her wings before the ground directly below her exploded into a small caldera of pyroclastic material. Melted rock, lava and steam shot into her stomach like a hammer, knocking the air out of her, and her out of the air.
She landed just in time to have a pair of powerful jaws snap down on the middle of her body, taking her legs completely inside its foul, hot mouth. It lifted her up with a growl and bit down so hard she couldn't even attempt to recover her breath.
At such an angle, she couldn't even hit it, not with any power. Screaming with frustration and the terrible pressure that squeezed her, Taylor summoned her mother's bow from the Between, drew the string, and shot the wolfhound right into its eye.
The howling yelp sent her flailing across the air. Dragon fire blasted down from the black skies above, ignoring all limits of the realms as her arrow's enchantments struck. The wolfhound howled in agony as a column of scintillating lightning as thick as a car rained down directly into its brain, frying it through the expedient medium of a tiny enchanted arrow in its eyes.
The massive creature crumbled into dust, until at the end a giant, smoking ember with a baleful red glow fell to the sand. Taylor saw the truth of it, and realized that she was looking at an ember of Muspelheim itself.
"GIF!" The giantess fell to her knees beside the ember. Taylor stepped back as she saw lava leaking from the burning eyes like tears. "Spaketh she; oh beloved friend! Oh fates, thou despised whores! Sinmara sees all within her realm! She sees the lies the godling speaks. Kin of Freyr, murderer of beloved Surtr! Your suffering shall know no end! For all the days until Ymir calls his children home, I shall tear your entrails to feed my Geri! You shall…"
Taylor shot her with her bow.
Another thick beam of scintillating dragon fire fell, striking her in the head. The giantess responded by grabbing a volcano and throwing it like a baseball. Except, a baseball the size of the PRT ENE building. As fast as Taylor could move, the projectile was too huge to completely avoid. It clipped her and sent her spinning.
Geri, the giant wolfhound she'd cut, came charging after her with a noticeable limp and a roaring bark. Slamming into a boulder of obsidian, she had only a moment to jump before the creature crashed into the rock behind her. Taylor looked up to see the edge of the black mountain she'd ended up against split, with more lava flowing.
She took her time, drew her bow, and fired at the wolfhound before leaping into the air. The wolfhound howled as the lightning struck, but she'd missed its eye, and like its mistress the creature was too powerful for dragon fire to kill without a direct path to its brain.
A boulder larger than her house struck her mid-air. She had only a crazy moment of spinning before she and the boulder landed against something hard that shattered like glass, and suddenly her world was made of fire. It didn't burn her like the Destroyer's essence, but it was so thick that moving through it was almost impossible. I'm in lava!
A massive, clawed hand reached into the reservoir of molten rock, grabbed her fiercely, and pulled her out into the air. "Spaketh she; you shall know pain like none other before you! For all time before and after, the gods shall sing of your suffering above all others!"
Shouting with the effort, Taylor spread her diamond wings. She'd hoped they would cut through Sinmara's fingers as they cut through Lung's claws. They didn't. Sinmara's fingers did not even move. Within her own realm, the giantess was stronger than Taylor was!
She found herself feet away from the monster's rock and ashen face. Air like the pit of hell itself washed over her, leaving bits of pumice in her face and hair. "Sinmara spake; Foolish godling child. In this land of Muspelheim, none are more powerful than we first children of Ymir. We are the forebears of creation! From our fires was the sun forged, and from our forge the nine worlds burned. Your puny wings will avail you naught! Your Vanir magic will avail you naught! We are the Jotuns of fire! We are the destroyers of Vanir and Aesir alike! For your crimes against us, we shall make you suffer!"
Taylor was beginning to suspect Sinmara didn't like her.
Then the giant bitch began to squeeze. Taylor couldn't scream because she couldn't breathe. She brought her fists down as hard as she could against the stony claws, but barely managed to break off a few barnacle-like protrusions of basalt. In that singular moment, facing a creature she could not overpower or flee from, Taylor realized that her quest could fail at that very moment. If she couldn't defeat a single fire giant, one ancient and weakened by the centuries, how could she hope to defeat Scion? How could she hope to fight the Endbringers, even?
"Why didn't his axe work in Hel, daddy?"
The six year-old Taylor sat curled in her father's lap as he rocked in his chair on the back porch of their house. It must have been a weekend, since he wore his long-sleeved plaid button-up instead of his white dress shirt. Twilight sent waves of orange and purple through the late spring sky while mother worked contently in her porch. Little Taylor was already in her pajamas as it was Daddy's turn to tell her a bedtime story. She fit so perfectly in the crook of his arm, warm and safe.
And the story that night was Kratos' descent into Hel to save his son.
"The winds of Hel are cold, and the Leviathan axe was a weapon of ice. It did no harm to other beings of that element. But the Swords of Chaos were forged in the fires of Hades. To fight the cold, Kratos needed fire."
And to fight fire, I need ice, Taylor realized as the memory faded. She had no leverage to fight-Sinmara's grip on her was too strong for her to break free of her own power. But what she did have was every power in the nine realms that her mother could grant her. Including the power to summon the winds of Hel.
Blue flame flickered weakly along her arms. She stared at it in dismay, realizing just how far Sinmara had gone in destroying her that her own power responded so weakly. But those weak flickers of blue were enough. She reached out to the span of rocky flesh between the thumb and forefinger of the clawed hand which held her, and simply gripped it.
Steam burst from the contact. Sinmara shouted in a voice that made nearby volcanos erupt, and Taylor suddenly found herself in freefall. She spread her wings but had neither the time nor strength to halt her fall before she slammed into the black sands below.
The giantess was not truly hurt-any more than an ant-bite would hurt an adult. Rather, the sudden pain startled her enough to let Taylor go. "Spaketh she: What foul sorcery does the godling child pollute my realm with? Beloved Geri shall rend your body!"
Geri limped toward her; fiery eyes narrowed with bloodlust. Taylor drew her bow and fired as the bus-sized wolfhound charged at her. The arrow struck and the dragon-fire fell as the massive beast collided with her. Taylor found herself desperately holding massive jaws just inches from her face when the dragon's fire hit them both.
Despite the fire, the wolfhound did not relent. It howled and growled at her in pain, but it did not stop. And so even as the lightning struck her as well, neither could Taylor afford to stop her struggle. She found herself staring down the gullet of the massive beast, and could see hints of the fire within.
Wait.
Trembling with the effort, Taylor pushed the beast back enough to stand, and then with a scream launched herself not away, but directly into the wolf's mouth. She lashed her wings out straight as she turned sideways, and in that very instant set her wings like spears against the closing jaws of the wolf. It was not Taylor's strength that drove her wings through the creature's snout and mandible alike, it was Geri's own powerful bite. More importantly, Taylor found herself underneath the soft tissue that separated the creature's mouth from its brain.
The cold winds of Hel came at her desperate call. As the wolfhound whimpered from its damaged muzzle, Taylor positioned her feet against its writhing, wing-speared tongue and slammed her fists into the roof of the creature's mouth as hard as she could. Both fists were cloaked in blue flame. The soft tissue froze and shattered like ice, layer after layer as the giant beast spasmed and howled in agony, until she broke through to the base of its brain and spinal column.
Cloaked in the burning fluid of its skull, Taylor grabbed the base of the spinal column in one hand and used it to anchor her most powerful punch with the other.
The bone froze and shattered. Around her, the beast made a last whimpering gasp before falling still. Before she could do anything else, the body around her ignited into white hot fire before quickly turning to ash. She stumbled back to the black sand as another giant ember smoldered just a few feet away from her.
The fire giantess stood staring down at Taylor with two orbs of fire. Her jaw hung open, revealing massive fangs of obsidian and basalt. Even as Taylor watched, lava began to pour from her various sores and scabs. All around them, the volcanos of Muspelheim exploded, sending columns of fire into the Stygian skies and clouds of pyroclastic material filling the valleys.
Sinmara did not spake or spaketh. She reared her head back and screamed, and the sound was like continents being ripped apart. The sky above lit into a ceiling of billowing fire as the last fire giant's rage spread across her domain.
Grabbing her mother's bow, Taylor flapped her wings as hard as she could, rising into the air until she had a clear shot. Mouthing a prayer to her mother, she fired the arrow. The streaking missile flew straight and true, slamming into the roof of the screaming monster's mouth.
The lightning came as it always did, billowing straight down Sinmara's throat. It would not be enough, Taylor knew. As powerful as the dragon's fire was, it remained fire. And while fire could kill a wolfhound in the right circumstance, it could not kill a fire giant.
No, what it did was give Taylor an opening. She flapped her wings and flew as fast as she could through the thick, sulphureous air. The pillar of dragon's fire drove Sinmara to her knees and forced her gaping maw open, but nothing more. Speeding up and knowing she would have only one shot, Taylor brought her wings close and dove down the last few yards. The moment the dragon's fire ended, Taylor flew into the giant's cavernous mouth.
Sinmara snapped her jaws shut with the sound of boulders crashing together. Taylor didn't care. Summoning all the winds of Hel she could, she cloaked herself in the blue flame like she did to ward off the Destroyer's essence. She anchored herself with her wings, and with a scream of her own, she punched up through the rocky tissue of Sinmara's gullet.
Flaming wind bathed Taylor as Sinmara opened her mouth and screamed again. But Taylor refused to stop and punched up again, going up to her elbows this time. A massive claw reached into the mouth, and the tongue itself twisted in an effort to dislodge her. Taylor punched again and climbed further up, using her hardened wings as anchors the entire time.
Sinmara slapped her jaws open and shut. She shook her head violently. Below, lava filled the mouth as the giantess swallowed it to try and burn Taylor out.
She punched again and climbed. Until, finally, she burst through the rocky tissue to a stream of lava and black bone. She summoned her Hel fire and punched at it, only for the streaming red lava to force her fist and blue fire back. Around her, Sinmara must have fallen into convulsions of pain.
Taylor punched again, and again her fist bounced back. Sinmara's shrieking made her ears ache and forced her to lash out with her wings again to steady herself. Again, she punched, and for the first time a shadow appeared in the lava around the black bone. Again and again, one after the other, Taylor slammed her blue-flaming fist against the thick spinal column of the fire giant. Black blood began to well along her knuckles as her mother's protections weakened and strained to sustain her in this realm. She felt a terrible pressure in her hands as she realized her own bones were breaking and healing, again and again, but she did not stop.
Until, at the very last, she broke through. Taylor screamed herself as Sinmara's essence burned her, as thoroughly as the Destroyer's. But she didn't stop until she grabbed the black bone of Sinmara's spine. With every ounce of effort she'd ever used, she set her feet against the spinal column itself and pulled. Her wings slashed against the weakened column, as much for leverage as anything. Around her, Sinmara's screams of agony and powerful convulsions echoed both within and without her body.
Finally, with a massive snap like artillery fire, the spinal column broke. The release sent Taylor blasting through Sinmara's neck and out into the black sands.
Gasping for air and nursing her badly burned hands, she looked up to see the giantess collapsed on the ground, twitching as the last remnants of fire left her eyes. The body began to collapse into massive clouds of ash and dust, leaving little sparkling motes behind. With a gasp at the effort and using her wings like crutches, Taylor pushed herself back to her feet.
Even her fight with Lung didn't leave her so beaten. She stared at her charred hands in fascination. She felt a terrible pressure, but not anything she could call pain. Even here, her mother's protections kept her from feeling pain. But her protection to keep Taylor from harm evidently had limits-at least within another godly realm.
Yet, every step somehow made her feel a little better as her own magic began to restore her. She was able to bend over and send the first ember into the Between without too much effort. When she walked to the long line of ash and broken rock where Sinmara fell, she saw what looked like glowing green orbs.
Life essence. The truth of the little orbs left her speechless. They were like the distilled essence of an enchanted apple. Taylor stood over one for a moment before stepping on it. It crunched under her foot with a tinkling sound, and abruptly her hands were healed. She stepped on a second, and her body was fully restored as if she'd never been hurt at all.
"Huh."
Suddenly the sand began to vibrate under her feet. Taylor looked up and saw, in the far reaches of the realm, volcanoes going out. Utter darkness followed in the way of the dying light.
The realm was collapsing, just like the domain under the Newfoundland Sea.
Which meant Taylor was running out of time. She ran toward the second ember, secured it Between, and then ran toward the massive clay and wood mansion. With her crystal eyes she could see the shards of a sword whose handle was as long as Taylor was tall.
"Not sure how I'm going to use this," Taylor muttered. She grabbed each piece of the shattered, massive sword and sent them Between. Around her, the vast, cavernous structure began to shake violently. Pieces of clay larger than her house fell from the ceiling far overhead. Taylor ran out of Gastropnir onto a plain of utter darkness. The rivers of lava, the ranges of volcanos had gone completely dark. Even with her crystal eyes, she saw nothing but the void closing around them.
The vibration under her feet turned into a deep, grinding rumble. From the void, Taylor heard a suspiciously familiar sound. "Well, this is going to suck," she said, moments before millions of tons of cold water slammed into her with the final collapse of the realm of Muspelheim.
~~Theogony~~
~~Theogony~~
Golden lines ran across the heavens, forming a latticework that was impossible to make out from within. From without, though, Taylor knew instinctively that the golden streams were the spiritual lines of a constellation. The stars that shaped the lines were bright balls of light the size of a tree, even if their physical version was thousands of light years distant.
Beyond the spiritual boundaries of the world, Taylor felt chaos and void. The constellations somehow served as a barrier to keep the world below safe from the monsters without. With her crystal eyes, though, she could see where those protections were rent and torn by the intrusion of the Destroyer.
Taylor couldn't quite remember how she went from the collapsing domain of Muspelheim to a golden spiritual thread hovering over the blue-green sphere of her world, but she'd come to accept that sometimes being divine just didn't make sense.
"I never got it either," the girl sitting on the golden string beside her said. Taylor felt no surprise to have company, as if she'd always known the girl was beside her.
The girl reminded Taylor a little of Sarah-small, pale and young. She had blue eyes instead of Sarah's green, and her hair was more brown that blonde. She wore a tunic of hand-woven cotton and a skirt that left her torso, legs and arms bare. Her skin was painted with blue lines almost in the same way Taylor's runes ran down her limbs and bodies.
"I feel like I know you," Taylor admitted.
The girl shrugged. "I've been within you your whole life. You could say you wouldn't exist without me."
Taylor nodded and looked down at the blue orb of the world. She could see the twisted, angelic form of the Simurgh hovering over the western coast of Africa. If she focused further, she could see Leviathan and Behemoth as well. And there?
"I can see him," Taylor said.
The girl nodded, her chin propped in her hands, and her elbows on her knees. "I remember the first time he fought Zeus. If they fought now, Zeus wouldn't have a chance. He's so much stronger now."
"Will it be enough?"
The girl shrugged again. "He's not the one destined to save the world."
"What about you?"
The girl snorted. "I was the one destined to damn it. And, maybe, save it too."
Taylor knew. Not from her Brisingamen, but some deep and abiding instinct, Taylor knew this girl beside her. "Pandora."
The girl nodded. "At least, that's the name your father knew me by. A lot of the world calls me Eve. I get blamed for all the bad that happens to humans in the world. Have been for thousands of years."
"But...without the bad, life would have no meaning!"
Blue eyes streaked with tears turned and stared at her. "I know. Hesiod made it sound like I was a punishment. That Zeus had Hephaestus craft me as the price Prometheus and humanity had to pay for the theft of fire. But not even gods always understand why they act as they do."
Pandora looked down at the world, her eyes glistening with the glow of the constellations they sat on. "So much pain and suffering, for so long. And yet look how far they've come. Would man have created the plow if food were given to him for the whole of his life? Would he have crafted weapons if not to defend the fruits of his labors? Would he have developed the tools that changed the world around him if not to try and recreate his ancestral memories of a paradise that was lost? Would any of their souls grow and excel if not for the pain and anguish of a hard life lived well? I gave them that. I always would, and I always did, and I always will. It was my telos. I gave their lives meaning and purpose. And through my hand, more than any other, I gave them you."
"Me? I don't understand."
"I know. Your father told you my story, but he never understood himself. He tried to save me, when he was young and still raging against Olympus. He saw me as a victim, like his own daughter. Even in his rage, there was some kernel of good in him. He never understood that the power of hope never left him; I never left him. It was that power that drove him ever onward, to grow and aspire to be more than he was. To become at once more human and more divine. He calls himself a god of war, but like Tyre he has in truth become a god of peace."
"And what am I a god of? I can summon the winds of Hel and the magic of the Vanir. Am I a death goddess?"
The girl nodded, and then leaned over to kiss Taylor's cheek. "No, you silly girl. You're me made divine. You're the goddess of hope. And it's time for you to wake and go save the world."
~~Theogony~~
~~Theogony~~
Taylor opened her eyes to see sunlight shining down. Her senses told her it was late morning, though she could not guess the day. She floated in cold, brisk ocean water. She had a briefest feeling of deja vu when she looked down at herself and saw that her tinker-tech Wards costume had been burned completely off her body by her battle with Sinmara, leaving only her runes. She reached up a hand and touched at her neck-somehow her Brisengamen survived, but of Sunny's charm necklace, she felt only a single charred tooth left. The power within the necklace was fading quickly. She heard a sea horn and turned to see a pair of fishing boats approaching. Unlike Newfoundland, though, this time she had her wings.
She closed her eyes to sense the Between, and felt the trophies of her trip within. She had what she needed, and time grew short.
With a flap of her wings and a laugh at the light shining on her face, Taylor launched herself into the air like a missile and flew west.
Notes: Pandora was a major character in God of War III. While I never played the earlier games before God of War 2018, I did watch the cinematics. Even in the earlier games, they managed to capture a note of empathy with her character. Her story does differ from the actual mythology, so my reference was to her game character.
And, with her second rebirth and the completion of her quest, Taylor has what she needs to prepare for the final battle.