Early the next morning, Devil left his room, closed the door behind him and went down the corridor towards the dining hall for breakfast. He was very hungry but also in high spirits. Last evening had been a great success. Hela had opened up to him emotionally, and they had shared a romantic moment which even would have culminated into a kiss if Thor hadn't interrupted them. Well, that was no problem, progress indeed had been made, that was the important factor, and it was probably even better when things were not rushed into but instead built up slowly, but therefore also stably. After all, he wanted intensity, yes, but also sustainability. Not just a short blaze, but instead an immense fire as strong and also as enduring as the sun! He sat down at the table, a moment later the chef came to him and asked for his wishes regarding the breakfast. Devil ordered mead, bread, ham and eggs. He really missed his favorite beverage: Black coffee! Devil planned to return to earth in the next couple of days to get certain things, not only a huge backpack filled with clothing, a toilet bag, cartons of his favorite cigarettes and storage jars filled with his favorite coffee powder, he also wanted to retrieve a certain item from a certain alleyway. "Devil!" Thor, obviously also in a cheerful mood and smiling widely, entered the room, approached Devil, patted him on the back enthusiastically and then sat down on the seat beside him. The chef brought Devil's breakfast and then took Thor's order. While Devil began eating, Thor looked at him and then said: "You know, I think that you have a very positive influence on my sister." Devil looked up from his plate. "You think so?" Thor nodded. "Indeed, I do. I never thought that I would ever witness my sister demonstrating an emotional affection towards anybody, let alone a romantic one!" Devil smiled but remained silent. Thor continued: "I initially thought that Asgard was now doomed to eternal war due to the fixed idea of my sister to conquer the entire universe and to eventually perish because of that. But now I have hope that my sister will probably orient herself more towards constructive and healthy than towards destructive and dangerous goals." Thor looked into Devil's face and waited for an answer. Devil swallowed the last pieces of his breakfast and then shrugged his shoulders. "I want Hela to be happy and to find fulfillment. And I believe that the overall situation for everybody involved looks brighter now than it possibly looked some time before." Thor laughed: "A pretty vague statement, don't you think? Also, you forgot to mention that you want Hela to become your girlfriend!" Devil looked intensely at his interlocutor and raised his eyebrows. Thor laughed again and raised his hand defensively: "Don't worry, you have my blessing. In fact, I am all for it." "How about your brother?" Thor grinned: "I told him about what I witnessed yesterday evening..." "Of course you did." "...and he found it hilarious. I also think that he found it somewhat comforting ...that Hela's murderousness will now probably be a little bit mollified due to being occupied rather with romance than with genocide." "Ha! And what if it will be just the other way around?" Loki had entered the room and grinned deviously. Thor exhaled deeply: "Brother, please don't make such kind of jokes!" Loki chuckled. "Well, in all earnest, I am relieved that the focus of Hela's mindfulness seems to linger more and more on Devil instead of us, so I don't see myself going to the chopping block anytime soon. I find that pretty relaxing." Devil looked thoughtful: "I am glad that you both feel that way. And, what about your father?" Thor and Loki quickly exchanged glances. "We have not informed him yet about our sister's ...fondness for you." Devil gazed for a moment into thin air with an unreadable expression, then his face and eyes became determined: "Don't bother! I want to inform him myself that his oh so monstrous daughter now shows clear signs of humanity and of a romantic heart! Is he in the condition to be spoken with?" Thor shrugged: "His physical condition is stable now. According to the healer I spoke to yesterday, Odin most likely he will be able to leave the infirmary this evening and then return to his room, which is by the way between Loki's and mine. If you want, then I will ask him if he is willing to give you an audience then." Devil nodded: "Thank you, please do so." Thor nodded also: "I will."
Some time later, Devil walked onto the balcony, lit himself a cigarette, took a deep drag, and while slowly exhaling the smoke he looked over Asgard's palaces and trees and watched the golden rays of the sun slowly evaporating the morning mist in between them. Hela entered the great hall and saw Devil standing outdoors, arms resting on the balustrade. Hela stepped outside and joined him. The fantastical fiend didn't react but continued to stare at the comforting play of soft mist and warm luminosity in the landscape before him. For a while, Hela just delighted in the splendor as well, then she asked calmly: "Are you going to tell me your true name now?" Devil turned his head towards Hela and returned her look with unfathomable eyes. "You already know my true name. It's the name you baptized me with. From that moment on, my old name and life became history." Hela smirked. "Well, technically my father gave you that name." Her curious companion smiled. Hela raised her arms. "So, don't you want to tell me anything about yourself? I am curious." Devil let out a deep breath and stared again into the swirling glow over the city. "When I was a young boy, back then on Midgard, I found in our local library an old book about the norse gods. In that book was depicted an ancient ink drawing of you." He gave her a glance from the side. "In retrospect, I must say that it truly was a realistic representation of your appearance. It showed you in full action in midst a dramatic battle scene." Then he sighed. "Ah, I remember the picture very well. It portrayed you in a graceful and martial pose, riding on the back of a gigantic wolf, smashing your enemies with a powerful war hammer, your mouth opened in a wild battle cry." Devil dramatically raised his hands, seemingly imitating the pose of the drawing. Hela raised her eyebrows. "In the distant past before Odin banned me, I actually wielded Mjolnir." Devil nodded. "Yes, the hammer looked in fact like Mjolnir. Well, for some strange reason, I was absolutely thunderstruck and completely mesmerized by that picture of you. So I borrowed the book, took it home with me, locked myself in my room, and stared at your picture for hours." Devil laughed. "My mother must have thought that I was watching porn." Hela frowned. "What is porn?" Devil gave her an odd look. "Ah, never mind. Anyway, from that day on, you became my obsession. I made a magnified copy of the picture of you and hung it on the wall over my bed." For some reason, his ears became red. "Well, I didn't even know if you truly existed, but I became completely obsessed with the fixed idea to meet you one day and..." He trailed off. Hela raised her eyebrows. "And...?" For an extended moment, Devil just stared at her with a strange expression in his eyes, which made her feel that curious tingling feeling from yesterday again surging up in her lower abdomen. Being slightly confused, she shook her head and tried to clear up her mind. "Alright, so you were once a common mortal, how did you get your magical powers?" Devil looked thoughtful. "These powers are not magical, they are alchemical and warp reality. They are the result of an ancient way of Alchemy. Alchemy fuses two lesser principles or opposite polarities and transmutes them into one higher principle, thereby transcending beyond any polarities. Like fusing lead and mercury and thereby transmuting them into gold, or like fusing matter and spirit and thereby transmuting them into prima materia or into the philosopher's stone. Now, every being in existence, may it be an ant or a god, has a personal reality field, a personal or subjective perception and perspective of existence, and which is a part of common or objective reality, which exists objectively by itself but also includes all personal subjective realities of all beings in existence. Usually, those personal realities only mirror existence passively, are rather mechanical and just perceive but don't act. But my personal reality field became cognizant, sentient, awakened and alive and acquired or developed the power to actively influence common and objective reality to a significant degree. From just being a presumed abstraction, it changed into a concrete and powerful reality-warping force. This happened during my intense alchemical training through my originally inanimated personal reality field fusing with my subconsciousness into one and thereby becoming animated, being transmuted into an eldritch personal reality field." Hela thought for a moment and then raised her eyebrows: "What exactly do you mean with the word subconsciousness...?" "My soul, if you will," Devil explained. Hela licked her lips. She was very excited to learn finally more about Devil's secrets. "And...how do these powers work?" "They just happen." "What?" Devil thought for a moment: "Experiencing reality for me is somehow like dreaming ...or rather like lucid dreaming." "Lucid dreaming?" "It means that a person is dreaming, but is aware that he is actually experiencing a dream. During lucid dreaming, the dreamer may gain some amount of control over the dream characters he encounters, over the dream narrative, or over the dream environment." Really! Hela angrily folded her arms in front of her chest. So, that's what actually had happened when she had felt that strange arousal a minute ago, and most likely also yesterday evening, Devil had manipulated her into feeling it and the sizzling attraction to him that came with it. That explained everything. Hela huffed: "I knew it! So you are manipulating reality, are you manipulating me as well?" Devil straightened up, his face became very serious and his gaze into her eyes became very clear and firm: "Absolutely not! I would never intend or try to manipulate you or even to puppeteer you. Yes, I want your affection, but only your honest affection, coming from yourself, from your very heart, naturally and absolutely by itself. I have no intention whatsoever to delude myself into believing that you want me honestly, while at the same time just manipulating or forcing you into doing so. Then everything between us would only be a lie and our relationship would have failed and be an empty shell of an illusion right from the start. Like being caused by a love potion. I would rather die than allowing an insanity like that to happen! And believe me, I am absolutely sure that my soul knows that very well and acts accordingly, in other words, it keeps its influence completely away from your mind, from your emotions and from your physical sensations." Hela took a good look into his eyes. What she saw was complete honesty and resoluteness. Yes, she believed him. Then she tilted her head: "But you exercised a certain control over the soldiers on the market place that day?" Devil smiled: "That might be true. I certainly had the intention to do so, but I have no direct conscious control over this ability, so I don't know for sure. But interpreting the results in retrospect, I would possibly assume that this was what happened there." Hela thought about what he just said: "So you don't control it directly, like wielding a weapon, like performing an aimed blow with a sword?" Devil shook his head: "No, it's more like I have an intention and reality reacts somehow to that. I can't really foresee the result or how things will ultimately unfold. Reality still happens by itself, autonomously. Well, sometimes I even think that my intention has not necessarily something to do with it and that my personal reality just does what it wants anyway. You know, like me being the protagonist in a fairy tale who is walking through a magical forest where practically anything can happen anytime." Hela looked thoughtful at her mysterious friend: "Curiouser and curiouser!" Devil grinned like a Cheshire cat: "Indeed."