Surt was looking down with an evil smile, no doubt pondering the best way to kill.

"I have to admit it was a clever way for you to infiltrate my palace using the ash cloud," Surt admitted.

"Wait, you knew we had infiltrated your palace, and you didn't do anything to stop us?" Fishlegs frowned.

"Loki warned me that I might expect some unusual guests, but he never said what you are looking for. To think that you are still very alive to get your hands on a very common ore."

"Common to you but rare to us," Hiccup counted.

"True that ore can't be found anywhere else, but it is virtually useless. It's too weak of metal to create weapons, and it's extremely brittle."

"You mean to say we risking our lives for useless ore," Astrid fumed.

"Don't forget what Jurtag said about paradoxes," Hiccup whispered.

"Ah, so you're running errands to a dwarf. Now it makes sense," said Surt.

"What we're up to is no concern of yours," said Astrid.

"If you're trying to prevent Ragnarok, it is my concern," said Surt narrowing his eyes. "Anyway, now that I know why you're here, I think it's time for me to kill you."

Surt then created a sword out of thin air meet of flames and cleaned it directly at them. He began plunging it towards them, but Astrid quickly fired a bolt of lightning from her axe. The lightning collided with the sword pushing it back, but Surt kept on pushing against it.

"Do you really think you can defeat me?" Surt laughed. "I am destined to destroy Asgard itself, and you think that the puny daughter of Thor can stop me?"

"I'll show you puny!" Astrid roared.

More lightning shot out of her axe, and Surt pounding was quite surprised that Astrid was effectively holding him back.

"You're only delaying the inevitable!" Surt roared. "There was no way you could escape!"

"That's what you think!" Astrid yelled.

Hiccup just stood there stunned, looking at Astrid as sparks shot out of her axe, illuminating her. She looked incredibly beautiful, and the glow from the lava only enhanced it.

Fishlegs then suddenly shook his shoulders, shaking him out of it. "Hiccup, whenever you are ready, we can do an escape plan?"

Hiccup suddenly remembered that he was then the emergency exit plan. He quickly raised his hands and began creating a portal for them.

"No!" Surt roared as he began to advance towards them, cutting through the lightning with his blade. "You will not get away!"

"Oh, I think we will," said Astrid.

"Come on!" Hiccup yelled as Fishlegs jumped into the portal.

Astrid then quickly disengaged and dashed towards the portal, but naturally, without underlining, there was nothing to hold Surt back. He began to plunge his flaming sword towards them, and Hiccup could already feel the heat from the flames.

"Jump!" Hiccup yelled.

Astrid had just jumped into the portal, and Hiccup was just to follow just after her when Surt's sword collided with him. Fortunately, that was just a premonition, so the moment Astrid jumped into the portal, he quickly spun around and summoned his shield.

The moment his shield bracelet was activated, there was a blinding light which blinded Surt for a few seconds. His shield was a gift from his brother Balder; he had enchanted and developed the ability to spread his light and make him immune to the blinding light that emanated from it.

Sadly it didn't affect Surt that much no doubt, due to the fact that he was a Fire Giant who quickly recovered. Hiccup quickly jumped into the portal, but not before Surt unleashed a powerful burst of flames. The flames struck him in his back. He cried out in agony as he was thrown right through the portal.

He soon found himself landing on a smooth flaunted here a number of frantic voices.

"What happened?" Heather's voice cried.

"It's Surt; he must have landed an attack before Hiccup could escape," said Fishlegs.

"We need a medic now!" Astrid cried.

Hiccup tried to stay conscious the best he could, but then everything went black.


Hiccup found himself in a throne room, and it seemed to be very familiar. It only took a few moments to realise that he had actually been here before; he was standing in Freya's throne room.

"This means I'm not dead," he said.

He then heard a giggle and spun around to see Freya herself. Being the goddess of love and beauty, she was possibly the most beautiful woman ever to exist. She had this golden glow that took all his troubles away, and he had a lot of them. However, this seemed to be different this time the last time, she resembled Astrid a great deal, but now she seemed to resemble Astrid, Heather and Jill all at once.

"Lady Freya," Hiccup bowed.

"Hiccup, it's wonderful to see you again and do not worry, you're not dead," Freya assured him. "Though it's not from an act of trying on your part."

"Why am I here?" Hiccup asked.

"So that I can tell you what you're up against," said Freya as she sat on her throne.

"We already know what we're up against," said Hiccup. "We have to fight against scores of undead to close the Gates of Helheim."

"While that is true, you still don't know who is going to be in your path."

"It's not Hel, is it?" Hiccup asked.

"No, she's still maintained a neutral stance, and she has even pulled Garm from his normal position, so you will have a somewhat easier time getting to the gates."

"Okay, then what or who will we be up against?" Hiccup asked, not sure he was going to like the answer.

"A woman who started the war between the Aseir and Vani, the witch Gullveig."

"Who?" Hiccup frowned.

Hiccup had never heard of which name Gullveig; there again, the true account of the Norse gods wasn't terribly clear. Vikings weren't, and big readers or writers, plus any tales they would tell, would be poets which were difficult to translate. Plus, the rise of Christianity did distort a few views.

"I'm not surprised that you know nothing of her," said Freya. "She was once the ruler of Vanaheim, and in fact, it's a name that we of the Vanir would like to forget. You see, she once came to the home of the Aseir to teach them the ways of our magic. At first, the Aseir welcomed her, but she then began turning them against one another.

In time the Aseir realised they had been tricked and learned she was trying to destroy Asgard from within. They immediately grabbed her and set her ablaze, but they did not realise that she was the leader of the Vanir. In turn, the Vanir did not realise their beloved leader was a manipulative witch. So in retribution, they immediately declared war."

"You know, I'm still shocked that the Vanir were able to put up a strong fight against the Aseir, considering that they were gods of fertility."

"Whereas the Aseir were gods of war," Freya nodded. "I am ashamed to admit that we Vanir have a fierceness of our own. While we did lack in terms of martial prowess, we made up for it with our magic. The bloodshed went on for centuries, and none of us realised that we were, in fact, pawns in a game.

Gullveig, you see, had indeed been burnt at stake and was observing everything from the shadows. She had heard the prophecy of Ragnarok and was trying to prevent it. She believed that the Aseir gods would be the ones that brought about the twilight of the gods and used her own people to destroy the Aseir."

Hiccup knew where this was going. "And as often when you try to prevent a prophecy, you end up creating the circumstances that bring it about."

Freya nodded. "Odin, desperately trying to find a way to end the bloodshed began travelling the nine realms away to end it. It is during those travels that he encountered Loki, who managed to charm his way into his confidence. Loki then began to investigate the war and discovered Gullveig's deceptions and brought it in front of both the Aseir and Vanir, ending the war. Interest with Loki, Odin and publicly announced to make him his blood brother and Gullveig was exiled from Vanaheim."

"So in an attempt to stop Ragnarok, she ended up bringing one person who would set the events in motion to Asgard."

"And now she has re-emerged, no longer wanting to stop Ragnarok, but to start it."

"I don't get it. Why is she working with Loki? He's the one that exposed her treachery," said Hiccup.

"Hiccup, you know as well as I that Loki has quite the silver tongue and is able to get himself out of mischief. It comes as no surprise to me that he managed to make Gullveig bury the hatchet."

"So guarding the Gate of Helheim is an immensely powerful vengeful sorceress," Hiccup concluded.

"In a nutshell, yes."

"Any more bad news?" Hiccup asked.

Freya merely smiled and shrugged. "That's more or less it, but I do have a question for you."

"And what's that?"

"How's my daughter doing?"

Hiccup was quite taken aback. That was not the question he had been expecting. "Uh, she's doing fine from the last time I saw her."

"That's good to hear, to be honest I was concerned that she was going on her first quest after single day of training," she said placing a hand over her heart.

"I didn't think gods were this concerned about their children," said Hiccup before he could stop himself.

Fortunately, Freya didn't take this the wrong way. "We always keep an eye over our children, only because you do not see us does not mean we are not there watching. None of us truly forget our children or those we love, but maintaining a permanent attachment is dangerous not for us but for them.

Your poor mother discovered this the hard way with Balder, and that soon became a cautionary tale what would happen if you become too attached to our children. If we stay in constant contact with them it only attracts our enemies who wish to do us harm. They cannot do a lot against us, but they can really hurt us by attacking our love ones and children. I know it may seem difficult for you demigods to understand, but we do keep our distance because we love you."

"Doesn't feel like that sometimes," said Hiccup.

"Sometimes ones we love most can hurt us the hardest and his only natural for our children to try to get our attention. A child wants nothing more than to be acknowledged by their parents, becomes equally true if they so happened to be gods."

Hiccup didn't know how to respond, he after all only met his mother once and though he understood her reasons for keeping her distance she would still very much like to see her every now and then.

"It would still be nice to see you every once in a while though."

"Hiccup, I don't pretend understand what you demigods go through, but you must see it from our perspective. We're immortal, we are forced to watch as our love ones get older and die stay by your side it would only remind you that we don't age."

"Yeah, I get it. Doesn't mean we have to like though."

"Anyway when you return its best warn your friends about Gullveig. I can only imagine how strong she has become over the centuries since her exile and freezing temperatures of Niflheim will make life unbearable for you all. Just remember that love can keep you warm even in the coldest of winds."

Hiccup had no idea what she was talking about, but before he could get more than explanation everything began to fade around him.