Hela stared thoughtful towards the heavens. Now she had to find another way to get to Asgard, and considering that her two brothers most likely were already busy with organizing a resistance and making passionate speeches to drag the armies of Asgard over onto their side, she had to get there fast. But first, she wanted to deal with this strange human to come to a conclusion about what to do with him. She turned around and began to walk back towards the mysterious figure, who in retrospect of the events so far since her return, appeared to her like a wild card in this entire game. The human was just standing there passively and looked relaxedly towards his approaching counterpart. Who was he, what did he want and did he represent a possible advantage for her in the future? She had to admit to herself, that Odin's plan to unleash Surtur, the king of the fire demons, to initiate Ragnarok, the prophesized destruction of Asgard, through bringing Surtur's crown which held his essence to Asgard and then reviving and feeding him with the power of the Eternal Flame up to incredible power and to gigantic proportions, after she would have conquered Asgard and while she would have been fighting with her brothers, probably would have posed a significant threat to her and her ambitions, possibly even to her very existence. This man had single-handedly eradicated this danger, which had lurked inside Odin's treasure vault and which she had been completely oblivious to. Had Odin probably installed further alternative plans and traps to destroy her, which were now already beginning to set into motion, as his initial plan had failed? If so, then this man could constitute a crucial role as a backup. If such further plans against her were indeed set in place and were waiting for her in Asgard, did he possibly already know of them? Hela intended to find out.

Hela stopped a few steps in front of the mortal, looked him up and down with a piercing glance and then addressed him bluntly: "Mortal, who are you and what do you want?" The man, face unreadable but with an amused glint in his eyes, met her gaze and slightly shrugged his shoulders. "Your father called me a devil, so I assume I have to be one..." The ancient Goddess of the Primordium Age waited for a moment, but no further explanation was coming forth. Hela did not like it when people did not immediately comply, so she suddenly reached out to him, grabbed him by the throat, lifted him up into the air and shook him. The physical contact to his skin felt to her like steel scratching the surface of marble. She hissed into his face: "I ask you one more time: Who are you and what do you want? Why have you been helping me?" The man stayed completely calm and looked her deep into the eyes. "I tell you. You can put me down again." She did as he wished. Her counterpart seemed to collect himself for a moment, as if preparing for a dramatic speech. "I know what you have been through and how your father treated you your entire life. I know that initially you were nothing but a disappointment to him because you were not born a son, a male heir. I know that looking at you, he just saw a nuisance and even an insult, but then he became aware of your developing power, which already at young age far exceeded that of your peers. But instead of realizing his fault of not seeing you as an adequate heir, he then formed a plan to turn you into his weapon to gather riches, to slay his enemies and to expand his empire, a disposable weapon he already then planned to get rid of after his ambitions as a ruthless warlord were fulfilled. Because after that, he would recreate himself into the role of the benevolent ruler of the nine realms who would act as if his subjects had freely chosen him as their sovereign instead of actually having been forced brutally into submission. I know how coldly he always looked at you, just seeing an instrument of war in the making before his eyes and not acknowledging the person, the sensitive child you really were. Odin couldn't exorcize your childhood fast enough out of you, to turn you into an efficient war machine as quickly and as completely as possible. In fact, you were never allowed to be a child and Odin being your father just meant being your taskmaster all day long. Every interaction a test and a training lesson. I understand what that abuse did to you, how you longed for the appreciation of your father, but no matter your accomplishments, you never got it, you could never do enough, you could never be enough. Your destiny as his disposable tool and your inescapable fate of being erased eventually had been written in stone right from the start, he would use you for his ambitions and to accomplish his goals, then he would get rid of you and then he would beget sons, male heirs, as he had always intended. Your birthright as a person, to have the chance to gain happiness and fulfillment, was ripped away from you already in your childhood. Well, I decided that I will not accept that." He paused for a moment and seemed to search for words. "I want to stay by your side to help you to gain true happiness and to achieve all of your goals. I want you to light up and shine as the bright and wonderful star that you really were destined to be, and not to continue as what your father distorted you into through constant cruel abuse, that nobody should have had to endure. I know that this sensitive and kind heart you once had as a little girl still beats inside your chest, it is just chained, buried under all that inhumanity Odin forced upon you!"

Hela was taken aback. This must have been the most childish and deluded nonsense she had ever heard in her entire life! Did he really believe what he just said or was this an absurd strategy to manipulate her into letting her guard down? His shimmering eyes were sparkling with infatuation and his cheeks were blushing with a glowing red, like an infantile twelve year old girl who had just gathered all her courage and declared her undying love to her several years older first teenage heartthrob! If this was all just acting, then he was very good at it...but it was rather likely that he was simply honest and that he was truthfully telling her what he thought and how he felt about her. Concerning what he said about her, she was what she was now and Hela accepted it. It was true, Hela once wanted nothing else more than the love and the affection of her father, therefore didn't resist anything he did to her and succumbed to his will. But at some point when she had finally accepted that she would never get those things, she closed with such aspirations completely and since then, an eternal winter had set in inside her soul. The only sort of relationships she now was interested in were those of complete subjugation, obedience, respect and loyalty to her based on fear and on the knowledge, that any sort of insubordination or resistance let alone revolt would inevitably result in immediate extermination. In her life was no room for wasting time with romantic imbecilities. Concerning her happiness, she was convinced that she would be happy once she had conquered Asgard, became its ruler and crushed all her enemies under her heel. Also, she felt that she was grateful to Odin for having forged her into the vicious force of destruction she was now, otherwise she possibly wouldn't have the abilities she needed to achieve her goals. With narrowing and calculating eyes, she looked at her counterpart. Dazzled by his idealistic illusions, he did not realize that he was face to face with terror incarnate. He should be trembling with dread, like a little bird transfixed by the death stare of a gigantic snake. Instead, he was smiling at her in delight and with dreamy eyes, reminding her at a joyful puppy. He obviously had not the slightest fear of her...could possibly this unheard-of absurdity in any way pose a threat to her? Was it conceivable that he would eventually try to sabotage her plans? If so, then she should probably kill him off, swallow him whole, right now. On the other hand... Maybe she could use him. He could play the role of a compelling herald, thanks to his seemingly imperturbable delusions about her alleged intrinsic goodness, he would convincingly persuade the people that she was in fact just misunderstood, redeemable, that she had a submerged inner core of benevolence and that all the devious cruelties she would commit in the near future to brutally force through her ambitions were actually fully justified acts of righteousness, despite all evidence to the contrary. Still... he had not told her his name yet, but she didn't really care.

Hela looked the mysterious mortal in front of her up and down. Then she asked him: "And what exactly do you expect from me in return for you helping me long-term to achieve all of my goals ...or to attain true happiness, as you call it?" The man looked at her with an unreadable look. "I only want from you, what you give me out of your free will, and with your honest heart." Hela blinked, then threw back her head and laughed out loud, almost maniacally. She had not been that much amused in a long time.

"Very well. You have already done me a valuable service by finding out and preventing my father's plan to attack me and to destroy my home. I will gladly accept you and take you into servitude. Devil you say, well, I guess that is what I would call a watchdog if I ever had one, so that is what I will call you from now on."

Devil's mouth slowly turned into a smile. So it was set then.

There was a barely audible groan coming from Odin's motionless on the floor lying body. Hela and Devil turned around. Apparently he was not fully dead yet.