{Near the peak of the mountain…}
Atreus clung to his father's back as they climbed up the last part of rock before the mountaintop. They were so close to the end of their journey, and Mom could rest, finally, with her ashes scattered from the highest peak in the realms.
Then he heard voices from the mountain top. Unfamiliar, save for one.
"You know why we're here. My last visit manage to loosen your tongue?"
They peeked upwards, and saw three people atop a wide ledge just below the peak. One was slim, gangly, and bare-chested, the second blond and muscular, and the third shorter with a wild red beard. They seemed to be talking to some sort of tree. Atreus whispered to his father. "That sounds like the man who came to our house."
"Quiet, boy."
An annoyed-sounding voice from the tree responded to the stranger. "I see you brought company this time. Must be important if the sons of Thor deign to grace me with their presence. Tell me, you two still tripping over yourselves to impress Daddy?"
The gangly man spoke before the sons of Thor could reply. "The tattooed man. Tracks show he now travels with a child. Where will they go next?"
"Why would I know that?"
The muscular blond man spoke. "You're the smartest man alive, aren't you?"
"Smarter than all the dead ones too."
The stranger again. "You help me, I help you. Tell me where they are, and I'll talk to Odin..."
"Your father won't let me go, Baldur, and he won't let you kill me. You have nothing to offer me, so take your questions, take your threats, take these two worthless wankers, and piss off!"
Atreus heard the sound of receding footsteps. The red-headed man leaned towards the tree, speaking in a menacing tone. "When no one's looking, we'll be back for your other eye."
"Don't you forget, we're everywhere," chuckled the blond.
"We really are, aren't we?"
The gangly man, Baldur, it seemed, then called to them from a distance. "Oh, shut up, you idiots! Let's go."
Atreus' father waited for a few moments in silence, waiting for three Aesir to leave. At last, he climbed to the top, and Atreus leapt off his back. The area was rather wide and flat. Opposite the tree was a large stone arch marked with the runes HEIM: 'home.'
The tree that had been interrogated just moments before spoke to them. "Ah, the very topic of conversation. A tattooed man traveling with a child." In the tree, Atreus saw a man who seemed to have partially sprouted from it… or did the tree sprout around his body? His long gray beard flowed wildly, and a multitude of runes and tattoos marked his bald head. Two curled horns sprouted from his forehead, but he had only one eye, yellow and luminous. The other socket was empty.
"Boy, check their path. Make sure we are alone," commanded Atreus' father.
"But we just saw them leave-"
"Do as I say," said his father firmly. Atreus rolled his eyes, and went off to investigate the path. He took not even five steps before a low thrumming sound filled the air. In the space between the tree and the arch appeared a great swirling circle of light, like a door in the air. Atreus's father turned at the sound, and the man in the tree looked on in shock. "Boy…" Atreus ran back and nocked a mistletoe arrow to his bowstring.
What Atreus could have only described as a dark Valkyrie appeared through the magic door. She was clad in armor darker than night. A small group of strange people passed through the swirling purple door after the dark Valkyrie. Two elf children, and the most terrifying undead being Atreus had ever seen in his life.
Atreus had always thought that undead were physically revolting due to being rotting corpses and such, but this undead's bones were pearly white and almost polished clean. His presence was beyond anything he'd ever seen before. Was this the god of death? Mom had told him stories about many gods, but none of the stories told of one like this, nor did they describe what it felt like standing in the presence of someone so powerful. Atreus felt his knees start to shake from both fear and awe. The undead seemed to be mumbling something to itself more than anyone else.
"Interesting… resisted… divination…"
Atreus' father spoke up gruffly, not having drawn his weapon. "Who are you? What do you want?"
"Wait, Father, I think this was the Sorcerer King that Brok told us about. Ains or something? It's been a while since the name was brought," said Atreus, looking to the undead in hopes that he would fill in the gap of his memory.
"Ainz Ooal Gown. Ainz will suffice. These are my subordinates." He gestured to the valkyrie, the dark warrior, and the elf twins in turn. "Albedo, Aura, and Mare. And you must be the two travelers the dwarves told me about…"
"I'm Atreus, and this is my father, K-"
"Enough, boy. What do you want, undead?"
Albedo spoke before Ainz could, clearly indignant. "You will rephrase your question immediately, with respect this time. It is privilege enough for you to gaze upon the form of a Supre-"
"Albedo," sighed Ainz. The succubus backed down.
The man in the tree joined in. "As an ambassador by trade, I think I might be of some use here. I have to ask, are you all here to consult me?"
"And who might you be?" asked Ainz.
"Mimir, Your Majesty, the Smartest Man Alive. And I've got the answer to almost every question," he said, as he glanced at Atreus' father sullenly.
"I see. Can you tell me, is this a Jötunheim gate?"
"That it is, Your Majesty. The last one in all the realms, in fact. Take a look." Mimir's only eye glowed brightly, and a vision filled the empty space of the arch. A great bridge leading away to a great mountain. "That path into Jötunheim will take you to the highest peak in all the realms. Once you open the way, of course."
"Excellent. I know a spell to open the path. Let's see…" Ainz turned away to work his magic on the doorway.
Atreus looked perplexed. "Wait… but isn't this mountain the highest peak in the realms? That's where Mom wanted us to scatter her ashes…"
"Afraid not, little brother. What you're looking for is in Jötunheim as well."
"What?! No!"
"That could not be what she meant…"
Mimir looked back to the illusion in the arch. "You see that mountain, like a Giant's fingers scraping the sky? That's the highest peak in all the realms, not here."
Ainz came back from the gateway, puzzled. "It does not open. Can you explain this, Mimir?"
"Aye, Your Majesty. Like I said, that there's the last bridge to Jötunheim in all the realms. When the Giants destroyed all the other bridges thereto, they locked this one up with a secret rune. If it still exists, only a giant would know it."
"And they all left Midgard a long time ago…" sighed Atreus. Ainz continued to listen.
"True, but today, the winds of fate have kicked up a strange vortex of coincidence. The fact is, there's only one man alive who can get you all where you need to go. And luckily for you," said Mimir with a smirk, "my schedule's wide open."
Atreus' father looked at the doorway to Jötunheim, holding a small cloth pouch in one hand. Atreus put his hand on his father's arm. "We're going to Jötunheim, right?"
"It's your best and only move from a tactical standpoint. It's the one place the man who can't be killed won't follow you," advised Mimir.
Atreus' father decided. "What do we do?"
Atreus cheered. "Yes!"
The Smartest Man Alive was quick with his answer. "First, you need to cut off my head."
"Wait, what?" The answer stopped the boy in his tracks.
"Odin made sure that no weapon, not even Thor's hammer could break my body free of these bonds. Fortunately, you don't need my body. We need to find someone who can reanimate me using the Old Magic… Would His Majesty happen know of such-"
"Old Magic… There is a witch in the woods. She knows the old ways."
"She'll help? Might do, worth a try. How skilled is she, though?"
"She gave us a protection rune so people wouldn't spy on us. And even if she doesn't want to help us, we could ask him," said Atreus, looking back at Ainz."C-can you reanimate Mimir? Please?"
The Sorcerer King thought to himself, as the Guardians looked to him to decide. This witch they speak of gave them protection magic that blocked [God's Eye], a 9th-tier divination spell. That's really powerful. I could try to resurrect Mimir myself if things go wrong with the witch, but I want to see more of her powers first hand before I spend any irreplaceable resources to raise him. If she manages, I could try and recruit her to my side along with Mimir, especially if she has an axe to grind with Asgard like everyone here seems to. If she can reanimate a severed head, I wonder how she would do with an entire corpse. I could have her to raise Nigun first and extract more information about the Theocracy as an experiment. Maybe Ninya next. I think Tuare would be happy to reunite with her sister…
"I could reanimate him, but only as an undead thrall, which I doubt any of us would find appealing. We will be better off asking this witch in the woods."
"If she fails, you will be dead," said the father to Mimir.
Mimir paused. "He tortures me, you know. Every day, brother. Odin himself sees to it personally, and believe me, there is no end to his creativity. Every. Single. Day. This… this isn't living."
"Very well." Atreus' father readied his axe.
"Oh, I can't watch this…" Atreus walked a short distance away. Ainz and the others watched to ensure the deed was done.
Mimir whispered something unintelligible to Atreus' father, and the grizzled man muttered back. "I am going to cut off your head now."
"Fair enough."
With a single swing of the axe, Mimir's head fell from his body, the glow of his golden eye fading away. Atreus' father picked up the head, and cinched it to his belt.
"Now then. To the witch." He moved towards a path leading down the mountain.
"Can you see where she lives from here?" asked Ainz.
"I think so," said Atreus, jogging to the cliffside. He pointed out. "There it is, in the red forest."
"Pointing will not shorten our journey, boy," stated Atreus' father.
"On the contrary," said Ainz. "I can use my magic to bring us there with haste."
"Are you gonna bring us through that magic door?" asked Atreus. "It looked cool…"
"Unfortunately, no. I can only use that magic every so often. I have other magic I can use instead. Have you ever flown before?"
"You can make people fly?! Even better! I've always wondered what clouds feel like to touch…"
"Well, now is your chance to find out. I will need you both to let me cast the spell on you for it to work. It will take only a moment to cast. Will you let me?"
"Yeah! Uh, Father? Can we?"
"Hmph."
"Please?"
"Hmph. Fine."
"Yes!"
Ainz readied himself for spellcasting, extending a hand towards the two of them.
"Get ready, then. [Mass Fly]."
Atreus felt a rush of adrenaline as he, his father, as well as Ainz and his group launched off of the ground, soaring high into the sky in a matter of seconds. The air grew slightly thin and chilly as they flew up. "Wow…" whispered Atreus. He could see everything from here: the Wildwoods he called home, and the nearby ruined temple, all within Mom's protection stave, and the Witch's Sanctuary Grove and its orange and red leaves, the Lake of the Nine, cold and dark, the elegant, obsidian Temple of Týr, and the pale, mighty World Serpent coiled around the lake. Beyond to the south, he could just see a large city with three concentric walls. A cluster of low rolling hills lay just to the east. A small village brushed the eastern edge of the forest. To the west, he saw a deep ravine just beyond the edge of the lake, filled with ice despite the sunlight and green forest around it."You said you were a king, so you have a kingdom, right?"
"Indeed. This land you see is all my kingdom. That city there is its capital: E-Rantel."
"Wow… what kind of people do you rule? Are you a good king?"
"Boy…" grunted his father in almost embarrassment.
Ainz chuckled aloud at the question. "It's fine. I'm not offended. I mostly rule humans, but there are other peoples in my land as well in steadily increasing numbers. Dwarves, elves, dryads, lizardmen, goblins, orcs, and more."
"Hmph. Dryads."
"You know what those are, father?"
"Forest sprites, boy. Annoying."
"Correct on both points," said Ainz coolly.
"Oh, so they're like hulderfolk?"
"I believe so…" came the reply from Ainz.
"Enough. To the witch."
"Of course," acknowledged the Sorcerer King. "The forest with red leaves, you said?"
"Yeah, just over there," said Atreus, pointing to it, thousands of feet below. The descent began slowly, as Ainz thought of a question to ask.
"I wish to know… who was Mimir referring to as 'the man who cannot be killed' earlier?"
"Baldur…" said Atreus' father. "Son of Odin… He claims he feels no pain."
"I still can't believe that you fought him and won, father!"
"Hmph."
"Interesting…" mused Ainz.
"Ainz… How do you rule so many people without them fighting each other? It seems like so many tribes end up hating each other just because they think the other tribe is different from them somehow, but it's all just differences on the outside: Aesir and Vanir, Aesir and Jötnar, dark elves and light elves. Wouldn't everyone be happier in the end if they could help each other instead of fighting all the time?"
"I told you, boy, that is the way of the world."
"But it shouldn't be…"
"I agree with you, Atreus. No one under my rule can challenge me, nor is old age a concern for me," proclaimed Ainz. "If anyone tried to overthrow me, they would understand it to be a fool's errand."
"Isn't that what a tyrant does, though? Beats down anyone who opposes them?"
"That's where the differences between myself and a tyrant begin. For while a tyrant unjustly exploits his people for his own personal benefit, my rule is fair, if harsh. And besides, I demonstrate my strength by using it on enemies, not my subjects."
"You must be really strong… You can summon undead to fight, make people fly, you can even show up wherever you want, when you want!"
"There is more to it."
"What do you use the undead for? Brok said you had a lot of them when you met him. Why do you raise them?"
"Those ones he saw were Death Knights. They serve as bodyguards, and they also keep the peace in E-Rantel and the surrounding areas. The vast majority of my undead summons, however, are simple skeletons who work mostly menial tasks, like farming."
Atreus snorted at that, to the audible chagrin of the Guardians. "Sorry… it's just kinda weird imagining skeletons working on a farm. I didn't mean to be rude or anything."
Ainz shrugged. "It's efficient, despite its appearance. An undead laborer can work non-stop in fair weather and foul. They have no maintenance costs, like a living person might. No need for food, water, shelter, wages, "
"But aren't they supposed to be dead? They're still people…"
"Summoning the undead is merely an infusion of negative energy. The soul of the living person is in no way involved. Imagine using a puppet, as it were. It's simply an efficient use of resources to raise the dead, rather than let their bones waste to dust."
"But… Where'd you get so many? You'd need a lot of dead people to get enough farmers to feed an entire kingdom…"
"War, boy," said Atreus' father. "One of the fastest ways to obtain corpses of the strong."
"Oh… I see." Atreus seemed disappointed. "I guess becoming a farmer after dying is better than becoming a draugr. At least the farmers can help people get food."
"Indeed. We can talk about this later," said Ainz. They landed softy in the midst of the red trees Atreus had pointed out. "Now, where is this witch?"
"Her house is just up this way. She's friendly, but I think we should let her know you're coming along too, so we can all be introduced," pointed out Atreus. "Her house is really cool. You'll see what I mean just up here. We can go on foot!" Atreus jogged off eagerly.
"Slow down, boy."
"Yes, Father." They turned a bend in the wood. "See, that's it there!" In an open glade, a massive tree, larger than all the others, towered over the forest from the low hill it grew upon. The hill shifted and rose up, for it was no hill at all, but the shell of a gigantic turtle. The great beast stood up on its mighty legs. Atreus ran up to it and called out. "How's it going, Chaurli? Is your witch friend here?"
"What is that name?" asked the boy's father. It was more out of shock than anything else.
"That's what he told me it was, or that's what it sounded like in my head, anyway."
Aura looked singularly impressed, as she, Ainz and the others approached the giant turtle. "This'd be a cool pet, Lord Ainz. I don't have any of those back home…"
"I don't think we will."
"Aw…"
Atreus rushed towards a small wooden structure attached to the underbelly of the beast. "The witch's house is just under Chaurli's belly here, we'll go see if she's inside." He opened the door, and went in, followed by his father.
"We will wait here then." Ainz regrouped with Albedo and the twins. He spoke as soon as Atreus and his father were out of sight. "Well done, all of you. Your restraint around the relative indecorum of our two friends will pay off wonderfully. We will soon have access to perhaps the most knowledgeable source of YGGDRASIL lore, even more so than the encyclopedia, and an extremely powerful spellcaster. Now then, what did you make of those two?"
"The boy is an altruistic fool, like that Calca woman," declared Albedo without hesitation, her smile unwavering. "Only a person with Your level of patience could converse with such a nauseatingly pathetic being without strangling them immediately afterward. The man displeases me as well, given his blatant disrespect for You. He has fathered one irritating deformity. Given the chance, I will ensure he can create no more."
Ainz felt gratitude for his emotional suppression at this moment. Now that's why I leave Albedo behind to manage Nazarick when I go out… "I see. Bear in mind, Albedo, that they have connections of interest to us, so it would cost us dearly at present to alienate them. All the same, I was mainly asking for tactical evaluations. I used [Life Essence] and [Mana Essence], and they seem rather powerful, at least based on their HP. They don't have MP to speak of, unless they were using [False Data] spells."
Albedo nodded thoughtfully. "Being a warrior myself, I was able to perceive the father's killing intent. It was fully tangible, even in what I would guess is his stoic emotional state."
"Could you elaborate on that?" asked Ainz. I went over this with Cocytus at some point but… I can't remember the details. Got a bit sidetracked with my plans to visit the Dwarven Kingdom…
"Of course, my lord. Murderous intent emerges only in combat or similarly stressful situations. This person is an outlier in the sense that his intent to kill is always present, and to an extremely potent degree."
Ainz pondered the advice. Does that guy have aggro management skills? Present himself as the larger threat to enemies? Makes sense, since he's carting his own son around. Wouldn't want anyone ganging up on the kid during a fight…
"Also," added Aura, "before we left, Fenn filled me in on the scent of the people we tried chasing in Alfheim. These two have the same scent. I think they might be behind the missing Death Knight. They might be powerful enough."
"If that is so," reasoned Albedo, "Lord Ainz, would that not release You from Your promises to the dwarves?"
The twins nodded in agreement with Albedo. Ainz stroked his bony chin as he decided. "Technically, it would release me as you say, but it would be overly petty for us to break an oath over such a trifle, especially just after meeting them. The lost Death Knight is easily replaced anyway. As it stands now, we have more to gain from this alliance of convenience, and likely a common enemy: Asgard."
The door of the house opened before any conversation could continue. Atreus popped out. "Okay, you can come in!"