Devil glided down out of the sky to an elevated rostrum at the fringe of the town square and let Hela dismount. Hela stepped forward nonchalantly and then threateningly planted herself in front of the crowd, head held high and hands on her hips. "I am Hela, commander of the legions of Asgard! The rightful heir to the throne and the Goddess of Death," she shouted toward the assembled soldiers. "You murdered the King of Asgard!" came the reply from Thor. "In fact, Odin is still alive...," Devil said casually while unfastening Odin's limp body from his belt behind his back and carefully letting him down to the floor. "Father!" Loki and Thor shouted in unison. "Actually, things are quite different," Devil addressed the crowd of armed warriors while stepping forward, "Odin transferred his powers and with them his right to rule to his second born child, Thor, intending for him to become the new King of Asgard. Yet," he raised his hand in a theatrical gesture, "according to Asgard's holy law, the right to rule has to be given to the firstborn child, if still alive, and only in case of death of the firstborn to the second born instead. In other words: Odin clearly broke the holy law of Asgard in probably one of its most important and also most well-defined aspects!" The soldiers were beginning to become uneasy and were taking glimpses at each other to the left and to the right. "The legislation of Asgard is eternal and is above the will of any temporal ruler of the realm!" Devil's voice was now raising and becoming louder. "All that Hela did when attacking her father, was trying to defend and to enforce Asgard's law! As Odin at this point in time already had transferred his powers, and with those the right to reign over the Golden Realm of the Norse Gods, wrongfully to Thor, his second born, no one can even claim that she attacked the actual King of Asgard!"
The whispering of the gathered soldiers became louder, they were now clearly confused. Hela, who quietly had been watching the reactions of the soldiers, now turned her head to the side and considered Devil with an appreciative look. She was deeply impressed how easily her companion manipulated even the most entrenched of situations and how he was able to turn the tables to her favor against all odds. It almost felt as if he was warping reality. Thor and Loki looked baffled over to the now undecided and discussing soldiers around them. Thor became angry: "Don't listen to this detractor! Before you stand two enemies of the Golden Realm!" Devil took a glimpse at Hela, then lifted the All-Father up into his arms and descended the stairs to the asgardian warriors. "The future queen has no ill will towards her father! May your healers step forward and take Odin to the infirmary," he declared. Hela's mouth distorted, and she looked piercingly at Devil. Her servant clearly took a lot of liberty there. But she remained calm to wait and see how this move would turn out. If she didn't like the result, she still could slaughter them all easily and the old man as well...and then she would discipline her minion for his excessive proactivity.
The soldiers didn't attack Devil but instead stepped aside to let the healers come to the front. Everybody else stood still and watched them as they carefully lifted Odin on a stretcher and then transported him away. The soldiers did let Devil go up the stairs to Hela again without trying to seize him. Thor was initially relieved to see that his father was still alive, but the passive behavior of the soldiers infuriated him. "Enough! Attack them," he yelled at the warriors. The most prominent and elite asgardian combatants Fandral, Hogun and Volstagg, the Warriors Three, and also the Lady Sif, Thor's best friends who had fought countless wars alongside the god of thunder and his brother, stepped forward with determined faces, but were quickly seized by the other soldiers. Thor and Loki looked with shock at that scene, not understanding what was going on. A commandant of the army climbed up on the platform Thor was standing on and addressed him and Loki: "Princes of Asgard! We, the soldiers of Asgard have discussed the matter, and we decided, that the testimony of the servant of the princess has a certain validity. Also, they could have used Odin as a means of pressure, but they did not." Thor was stunned: "Are you mad? This is military disobedience!" The soldier was unmoved. "The claim to reign of the princess, in case she really is who she claims to be, is seemingly at least as valid as yours, most likely even more valid. As long as this matter is not fully cleared up, the military will not interfere, in case that you, the children of the All-Father, should decide to attack each other to settle the matter with force!" Thor and his brother looked to one another. "This is not happening...," Loki muttered with flickering eyes. The commandant turned around, raised his arm and gave a commando to his soldiers, then he descended from the platform, and he and the other warriors, still having seized Thor's four protesting friends, stepped back and positioned themselves into a ring at the rim of the market place. Thor stared at them. It was clear that there would no help come forward from them. He and his brother would have to take things into their own hands. He looked around for Loki, but he had disappeared from the nearby platform he had been standing on and was nowhere in sight.
"Great!" Thor didn't know what Loki's plan was or if he had just fled. As usual, he didn't fully trust his brother, even if this was a matter that involved their father, who, that at least Thor was sure about, was as loved by Loki as he was loved by himself. "All right, then!" Thor turned around towards his sister and her strange companion, who he had identified as the mortal from the alleyway back on Midgard. This person obviously had special powers, at least the power of flight, but Thor had not the slightest idea how he and Hela had succeeded in coming to Asgard, despite Asgard being in Earth's orbit and being protected by allegedly unbreakable and very powerful shielding and cloaking spells. Was the mortal a wizard, like the one he and his brother had encountered earlier that day and who had led them to their father? He intended to find out later, but now he first would take care of his sister. Thor enforced his grip around Gungnir, Odin's spear. Thor had not forgotten how easily Hela had destroyed his trusted war hammer. Gungnir was an even more powerful weapon than Mjolnir, although Thor would have preferred to feel the heavy weight and the familiar steady vibration of his reliable thunderbolt of metal in his fist. The God of Thunder had no experience with Gungnir, he wielded his father's mighty spear now for the first time, which was a serious disadvantage in a battle with an extremely formidable foe like his sister.
Devil had climbed up the steps to Hela again and then taken the place besides her again. Devil and Hela shortly exchanged glances without words. Hela's face was unreadable, but Devil winked at her with a small smile. Hela didn't react, instead, she then turned her head forward towards her brother Thor and gave him her full attention. Now, she would do battle, and she could hardly wait! Thor raised his arm with their father's weapon in his hand, Gungnir, which now belonged rightfully to her, and declared loudly: "Hela Odinsdottir! I, Thor Odinson, challenge you to a duel for the claim to power over Asgard and the Nine Realms!" Finally! With puffed out chest, Hela walked forward towards the steps down to the market place. "I accept your challenge, little brother!" Her voice rumbled like rolling thunder and seemed like the harbinger of punishment beyond anything that had ever been witnessed in Asgard and which would shake its very foundations. The soldiers surrounding the place held their breath and watched mutely and with intense suspense the thrilling scene unfolding in front of their eyes. Only the Warriors Three and Lady Sif, who still were hindered by the soldiers from interfering, raised their voices and cheered their best friend. Thor had jumped from the platform and awaited in battle-ready stance the arrival of his sister, who just had walked down the last steps and who now approached her brother with the controlled elegance of a dangerous jungle panther while materializing two mighty swords in her hands. She and her brother were now standing a few feet apart in the middle of the plaza turned battle arena, wordlessly staring each other down. It was the silence before the storm.
Devil was still standing on the rostrum, watching mesmerized the staring contest between Asgard's two mightiest warriors. Suddenly, in the exact moment when Thor and Hela were mutually jumping into action and attacking one another with raised weapons and fierce war cries, out of the corner of the eye, Devil saw a movement and just reacted in time to dodge a stab in the back with a graceful pirouette. Loki, who seemingly had appeared out of thin air right behind Devil, immediately regained his balance from executing the swift attack and took up a threatening pose, holding shining daggers in both hands and carefully eyed his opponent. "Let's see what you are made of, mortal...," Loki whispered with bared teeth.