[Loki Odinson POV]
Delightful news.
Something, or rather someone, had laid waste to the armies of the Mad Titan.
Under normal circumstances, an event like this should not have bothered the prideful gods but the fact that it did was more telling.
And then there was father's warning of staying away from Midgard for the time being, not Midgard as a whole per se but a Midgardian.
Normally these two things had nothing in common but I was someone who knew about the God's cautiousness to the man known as Draul, even my father paid heed to his actions.
If Draul was responsible for the decimation of Thanos's army, and also was considered a threat that father was hard pressed to make a decision and also was a potent force that forced those bullheaded Gods to invoke a council, then maybe my bets had been a foresighted one. Truly, very few could match my intellect.
I think the reason why some of the Gods were panicking was due to the fact that they knew that he had an Infinity Stone with him, the Power Stone precisely. That stone alone was enough to make one raze a planet to the ground with a flick of their fingers.
But him having an Infinity Stone shouldn't have been the reason for the gods to commune. The most likely fact would be him possessing more stones than just the Power Stone which begs the question – what other stones does he have in his possession?
He wielded the Power Stone which enabled him to block Odin's strike rather easily, a testament to the might of a universal relic of creation. What however didn't make sense was his dominion of space during our last encounter.
Yes, the human called Draul did possess many abilities but during our recent encounters, he never once used any form of spatial abilities other than magical spells of the spatial variety which he used in conjuring portals which was vastly different from what I felt when he took us to Mars. It felt as if Earth had been an illusion ever since and Mars was where we had been standing since our arrival.
There was no bending of the universal laws or weaving of any magical matrices that would have indicated that magic had been used, instead it was as if whatever he did was in conjunction with the universal laws. Earth was Mars and Mars was Earth, the distance between them negligible.
'I see, the Space Stone.'
If would also make more sense of he indeed were to one to lay waste to Thanos's fleet as there would have been no way he would have gotten to Thanos all the way from the Earth's solar system, vanquish the Titan's army, erase whatever was left of them out of existence and then go back to Midgard, all in the span of a 24 hour cycle if he had the Space Stone.
"Space and Power, huh. That alone should make him one of the universe's most fearsome warriors. Imagine him paving the way to my glorious ascension like the obedient mule I will make him to be. This also calls for caution. There can be no mistake or else not only him, but me and Asgard could pay for any of his mishaps."
I still had quite the time left to set my plans in order and ensure that my participation would, could, only be seen as a freak coincidence. I would also try to keep Thor out of his way since his friends did manage to walk out of the scuffle with only some injuries.
Maybe not Hogun though, while he might have had his hand fixed, whatever that beam Draul had used to cut off his arm as spoils did some extensive damage to his nerves. It was kind of funny to see how all their faces paled when they realized that Hogun would never be able to use his hands to fight like he did before.
Speaking of Thor, he had changed.
He had somehow become a calmer version of who he once was – The Boisterous Prince of Asgard. The consequent defeat he had suffered at the hands of Draul somehow mellowed him down. It was not that he wasn't as loud as he was before, but when the occasion comes, like with Hermes in father's throne room, he at least now knows when to keep his mouth shut.
It's progress if anyone asks me but no one has.
I think I need to go for another visit, hmm, maybe confirm his possession of the Space Stone and also see if I can glean any of his future plans though I reckon that it would be very hard to accomplish and that was withstanding the fact that he could just make the decision and kill me on a whim.
Since we are now both in an alliance, a pitiful one if anyone asks me, or at least the façade of one, I think I am entitled to ask him of his plans and maybe even advise him on some matters.
I doubt the brutes, the red head and the little imp would make fine advisors to a man of such strength. I can also educate his ignorant self on the wider universe and the powers that be and then maybe, just maybe, I can usurp any information he has on the location of the other stones.
I am not stupid enough to go against a being who may or may not, a high probability that he does, have multiple Infinity Stones. If I want to level the playing field then I would either have to find the stones myself or somehow prevent him from gaining more stones until I am able to utilize the power of the stones for myself and then take the ones he has for myself.
A well thought out plan but one which the feasibility of it working was leaning towards the negatives. Trying to prevent him from the stones and at the same time getting on his good side would prove a far more harder task than anything trial that the Allfather could give.
I made my way to a training ground filled with memories of Thor and I, long before his friends came along, one where Thor and I would battle each other or other Einherjars of our father, striving to get better and earn his approval, but now the raucous of brutish shouts filled it.
Unlike other times, Thor was the one seated on one of the benches while Sif was fighting against three soldiers, trying to find a challenge I presume.
"You won't find it." She must have heard my mutter as she turned to glance at me with a scowl before turning around to focus on her fight, or at least the mockery of one.
She easily disarmed the first one, then proceeded to block a slash from her second opponent then used her newly acquired weapon to halt the slow third in his steps as he aimed at his throat.
Taking her win rather easily, she walked towards me, a scowl still present on her face not that it would faze me.
"What do you mean by that?"
No matter how I made it a pastime throughout the centuries I've known them to tease and prank them at every chance I get, doing it now no longer amuses me like it used to.
While I normally would use lies and schemes to get them to do what I want, lying to them now did nothing but produce a sour taste in my mouth.
The truth does hurt more.
"You can't find the fight you are looking for with these poor soldiers, my dear Sif. You feel as if your growth has stagnated and a true battle where your life is at stake should help you cross this great chasm, right? Truly the spirit of a Valkyrie."
Now I won't lie, seeing Sif glaring with such defiance in her eyes did amuse me to no end which was why she was the most recipient of my pranks after Thor.
Our little talk didn't escape the ears of those concerned so I just made my way to them with Sif following behind, trying to stare a hole through me like that beam did to her.
"What do you mean, brother?" Thor for some reason seemed calm and for all of me and every thing deceitful, I hated this new Thor with passion. He felt like a stranger, not the brother I grew up with for centuries.
"I meant it like I said, dear brother. I reckon you feel it too, don't you?"
"A mental block?" Thor asked.
"Aye." I don't think I would ever get comfortable with the sight of a seriously thinking Thor.
"The reason why you lot feel as if you are weak is because you are no longer growing, or rather not growing at a pace that you can notice. Fighting the Midgardian just made that fact clear and now since you all have made him this high peak that you would need to overcome, you will never feel the sufficient growth you crave until you defeat him."
They all fell silent, musing on my words no doubt while my mind went in a different corner. If I were to conquer Asgard or lead Asgard to conquer the other Godrealms, then I need to ensure that my useful pieces were as strong as possible. I would after all need their strength to consolidate the pieces of the broken power structure that would be left in this universe after whatever titanic war was coming. They would all need to earn their keep, Thor included, if they wanted to be a part of my empire. And for that sole fact, I needed to be strong, Hel, they lost against Draul's warriors who weren't even half their age.
"And how do you suggest we overcome this trial?" Sif finally stopped glaring at me and asked a truly wonderful question.
"Oh it's quite simple really… challenge him again until you lose that deep seated fear of him in your heart, and try not to die. You know as the Midgardians say, third time's the charm."
Oh, I was so going to enjoy this. I wonder what the human beast will do to them when he finally loses his patience with them. I would have to let father know of their movements subtly so that he can bail them out if anything should happen because something will.
I might have left out the part about him possessing the Infinity Stones but I don't think they need to know about that, I doubt their brains could even comprehend what kind of power the Infinity Stones give to its welders.
"You are becoming more wise as the day goes on, brother. Now I know what I must do to overcome this setback." And like that I fixed smart Thor and converted him back to brutish Thor, my favorite kind of Thor.
"Of course I am. I am the God of Lies. I would need to know the truth to tell the perfect lie after all."
Now with that done, I no longer have to dawdle with them. The Mystic Arts won't learn themselves after all.
Leaving Thor and his friends to their devices, I made my way to Mother's library, her public one which she granted access to very few people, me included.
"Loki, I see you have finally made the decision to go back to your books." Ah, that soothing and pure voice could only belong to one person in this entire realm, my mother.
"Yes, mother. It was my hubris and also my arrogance that made me think I had learnt all I needed. I think it's high time I leave the tricks aside and go into real magic." She immediately understood the meaning behind my words which made her face lose the soft smile it always bore.
"The ways of the Arts aren't forgiving to the frivolous, my dear boy. Are you sure you are ready?" She asked, to which I answered without hesitation.
I would need to close the gap between myself and Thor in the aspect of battle prowess… and then him.
[Draul St. Cross POV]
After sharing a rather long and deep kiss with Ororo, we then found ourselves cuddled in a couch while the others went around with their business.
Ororo was far more powerful than the last time I saw her which made me realize that whatever journey it was that she went through must not have been easy or it could just have been as easy as a simple meditation. In this universe, anything goes.
To be honest, it felt as if I hadn't seen her in a year, which was understandable due to the number of crazy things that had happened in the month that she was gone.
I mean, for fucks sake, I had acquired three Infinity Stones in one month and I was also very close to fusing with my second one.
"So tell me about all the adventures I've missed out on." She asked after a very long moment of us just laying on the couch.
"'Missed out on?' I never got the impression that you wanted a piece of my type of adventure. What changed?" I am not proud of myself for always trying to read through the lines of anything someone tells me but it was an interesting choice of words coming from Ororo.
"Hmm, I guess you can say my world view changed." She hummed, far too engrossed into my embrace to get out any clear words.
"How so?"
"Tata, I asked first." She blocked my lips with her finger causing me to roll my eyes at the teaser she just gave out. How was I not supposed to be curious when she said her worldview changed? Quid pro quo I guess.
Just for the sake of knowing what changed about her, both mentally and physically, I told her all what she missed out on and also those that she wouldn't have missed out on.
Starting from me going back to explain the lore behind the Big Bang and then moving from there to the Infinity Stones, explaining each of their domains and the powers they had in respect to the universe. If she had been surprised about that whole explanation then she damn well sure didn't show it except hum at intervals to tell me she was listening.
After explaining the story behind the six Infinity Stones, I then went further and told her about me sneaking into S.H.I.E.L.D for over six months, sometimes even when I was in Kamar-Taj, and absorbing bits of the abundant energy the Space Stone had.
It was when I got to the part of me fusing with the Space Stone, which was actually a day before she left did she show any reaction and it was one I had no idea what it could mean.
All she did was raise her head a little to stare at me with those blue eyes of hers, her face showing no hint of what she thought, before resting back down and humming for me to continue.
It was rather easy for me to go from there which included me fighting the Asgardians once again, this time almost completely destroying Mars in the process due to my clash with the Allfather.
My days had been rather bland, not that I was complaining, only consisting of me absorbing or Adapting to the Power Stone and then baptizing my axe with both Space and Power energy. I also worked on some small pet projects here and there which included me experimenting with the others' suit, furthering my study on runes and also some magic practices. To be perfectly honest, while Strange was a prodigy and consumed far more knowledge which gave him an entire library arsenal of spells, I easily topped him in overwhelming magic energy. Sure I didn't know half the amount of spells the guy did, maybe I did but I wasn't actually making an accurate calculation, but if it ever comes to me vs Strange… well even he knows the likely result.
I also realized that other than those demons we fought that one time, I've never really battled anyone in magic after leaving Kamar-Taj. Not to blow my own horn but the spells I knew were the type that would make you want to pull your hair out in the middle of an intense battle, literally.
I was more used to simply blasting everything and everyone that faced me to high heavens or cleaving their head off their necks. Blasting holes through them, breaking bones, beating them until they lost all hope of victory and then give them a swift death.
Anyway, my story to Ororo continued with me moving up to finally snatching up one of the universe's good deeds to me and completely annihilating Thanos. Given how Marvel characters were known to cheat death a lot, I wouldn't be surprised if the chin monster crawled up from under my bed.
I knew how averse she was to killing but still told her about me and the others basically annihilating tens of thousands of aliens. I also told her about Thanos and his goal and also his past deeds of massacring half the population of a planet before moving into the others. I told her that just to score some points for myself.
After my rather extensive storytelling, we devolved into another bout of oppressing silence.
She took in a deep breath before turning over to look at me for the second time and asked something I wasn't expecting.
"How did you feel? After everything. From your evolution to killing Thanos and his armies."
I don't know why she would ask such a question but I nonetheless indulged her. "Other than the illusion of being Omnipresent after my evolution with the Space Stone, I didn't feel any different. The Ancient One did warn me of the most likely possible scenario where my mentality would change to accommodate the essence of the stones, turns out it was a rather valid concern but it's being real subtle so I don't feel any different. Holding the Power Stone however was one of the highest trips I've ever been on but I held it down pretty well…"
I paused to gather my thoughts on what I felt when I massacred tens upon thousands of aliens and I can't say I was surprised when I didn't even feel any sort of thing that would have indicated that I did that. "Thanos? That I felt nothing. That was no joy, remorse, sense of victory or justice, sadness at the lives lost or any emotion, whether on the high or low spectrum, that would have indicated that I basically just wiped out people I couldn't even count. To be honest, I find going clothes shopping more bothersome than what I did less than an hour ago."
Her eyes were on me the entire time and not once did they flutter nor did her heart beat out of tune. She just took what she heard and kept it somewhere, not letting any tell show on her, maybe because she knew I would see it even without me looking.
I waited for her response, not because I was afraid of it, why the hell would I be?, but because I wanted to hear what she had to say. In simple terms, although she hated killing, it doesn't mean she didn't tolerate other people doing it. All she had was a trauma because if she had problem with killing people in general then she wouldn't have been able to work with Logan for however long she did. And besides, this wasn't the first time I'd told Ororo about some of my killing sprees.
"Then that's good." Was all she said before resting head back.
I said nothing and just caressed her hair. I don't know if she had always been this way but being around her did make me… calm?
It was a very soothing feeling, one that could make us stay a full hour without saying anything and just enjoyed each other's presence. This air of serenity that she had over her was one quirk I loved about her.
"So are you finally going to tell me what happened after you went home? You… feel different than the last time we were together."
She chuckled but did acquiesce to my request and started her telling of her part of the month, which was even more mind blowing than me fusing with the stones, at least to me.
"So mine started the very next day with me praying to one of the shrines that the elder led me to, and I was able to meet the Mother Goddess, Gaea…"
What the hell was this type of story that started right with a climax? How did you going home and waking up the next morning get you an audience with Gaea?, was what I wanted to ask her but I remained silent and let her get on with her story since she did give me the basic courtesy of at least letting me finish mine.
So basically what she did was just pray and then she suddenly got spiritually juiced up?
"Gaea told me a lot of things, mostly about the structure of the universe, some powerful beings and also about Gods. She told me about the Celestials, who for all intent and purpose, govern and judge the universe and it would be wise not to run afoul any from their race. She also told me, although parts, of how the universe came to be as well as the creations of humans and the war that happened between the Elder Gods at one point…"
The more she spoke the more I felt uneasy. It was just a phantom feeling but I don't think that there should have been any reason why Gaea would have told her all this. It wasn't exactly some sort of secret knowledge that the Primeval Mother Goddess of the Earth greatly favored Ororo, but that was in no way an excuse to let her know of things that she normally wouldn't know. I don't know why this thought came to me but it set off all kinds of warnings in my head.
"Did she tell you why she told you all these things?" I couldn't repress my curiosity, so I asked.
"Yes, she did. According to her, 'The Great Chaos will once again permeate all of reality.' I tried asking her for clarifications but she said that was all she could tell me for now."
And like that, I knew shit was about to go down.
From my knowledge, Gaea was birthed from the Great Chaos, or she emerged from it, whatever way the story went, along with her siblings which were some named and unnamed Elder Gods. If she or any of the remaining Elder Gods know what is in the Great Chaos or who is the Great Chaos, then if it suddenly decides to 'permeate' 'reality' then that's Ultimate Universe level shit.
I feel like I've been complaining way too much recently without meaning to. First of all it was the Ancient One who started something about the Great Old Ones and though I had an inkling what that might have meant, to prevent my sanity I decided to actively forget it and act ignorant.
And now comes Gaea.
Why is nothing ever simple in the Marvel-verse? Everything just has to be something.
Not to mention that Dormammu is still going to come for Strange's ass and now I have to worry about a Great Chaos? Even Chthon with all his badassery was called the Lord of Chaos, not Lord of Great Chaos.
If she had been talking about an event like Biblical Armageddon then I wouldn't have been worried because sometimes we just gotta go, but I know for a damn that she wasn't just talking about an event… and she told Ororo… and Ororo told me… I hate my re-do.
"Draul? Are you still listening?"
"Oh I wish I wasn't, 'Ro. I wish I wasn't."
I swear on whoever is Most High that the day I catch the motherfucker who thought it would be some sort of fun therapy session to bring me to the Marvel-verse, I would punch him so hard that it will leave a crack in the multiverse.
Head over to my pa.treon if you want to read up to 35 chapters ahead
*con/Draul_TheOminous.