At Dawn
A sore neck and a headache were the first things to greet Mayari at daybreak, followed shortly by the unpleasant taste of her morning breath. Mayari tiredly straightened her posture, hearing the bones in her back crack as she did so. Sleeping hunched over on a table would do that to you, it seems.
"Beugh… No dreams again," Mayari said, massaging her temples in mild annoyance.
She massaged the back of her neck and looked around the small apartment. It looked exactly as she remembered it, though it seemed somewhat… different. There was nothing obvious, at least not to her, only an underlying feeling of unfamiliarity that persisted throughout the compact living room. Saitama was still the same, though. He was laying on his futon, still asleep. There was even a snot bubble coming from his nose, inflating and deflating with each of his breaths. The sight caused a spark of mischief to flash in Mayari's mind and she smirked. She took a chopstick from an empty bowl on the table. She then took careful aim and threw it like a dart at Saitama's face. The projectile flew straight through the bubble and burst it with a loud and comical "pop", startling the bland man awake.
Annoyed, the bald hero glared at his guest, who only responded with a cheeky grin and a chuckle. "Wakey wakey," Mayari teased.
Saitama simply 'hmphed' at her and rubbed the grime out of his eyes. Mayari then scratched the itch near her lower back. They both fully expected the day before them to be just like all the others: dull, tedious, and seldom surprising…
BOOM!
Mayari was knocked back by an explosion, smoke pouring into the apartment. The goddess just barely managed to brace herself and avoid serious injury, but what she saw soon after shook her to her very core. Saitama was… struggling to break free from a monstrous, glowing hand. She saw her kampilan laying only a foot away from her. Thinking fast, she lunged at her weapon, grabbed it, and chopped the limb at the elbow. The flaming limb fell, releasing Saitama who dropped onto the floor, holding his head in pain. Mayari rushed over to her companion, but she would not make it, as another explosion launched her through the wall and out of the apartment.
The goddess hurtled through the air and bounced off the wall of an adjacent building and rolled for several feet before finally stopping. Scrapes and bruises from her impact littered her battle-worn body and her head was spinning.
"W-wha… who… how…?" Mayari mumbled, trying to pick herself up.
An attack at her side; a sword of some kind, knocked the goddess out of her thoughts. Despite her dazed state, Mayari just barely raised her sword in time to block it. She prevented the blow from cutting into her flesh, but the force behind the weapon was so great that it sent her flying off her feet and crashing into the nearby motorway.
CRASH!
When the dust cleared, Mayari felt like her whole body had been sent through a hurricane. She tried to regain her footing, but with such intense pain, she could only manage to rise to one knee. Heavy footsteps approached Mayari, and she tensed up. Accompanying them were an orange glow and the crackling of fire that slowly grew and grew. They stopped only a few feet away from the goddess, who slowly raised her head and saw a creature that had no place in our world.
It had a humanoid body, but it was massive; far taller than what was possible for any human. Its disproportionately long arms, long bull-like horns, and glowing, fiery body only added to its otherworldly aura. A greatsword rested upon its broad shoulders; flickering and dripping with ash and magma.
"What the hell are you!?" Mayari asked.
It had no mouth, yet it responded with a deep and gravel voice. "What are we? Rather rude, don't you think?" The being bellowed. "We are the jötnar of Muspelheim."
"Jötnar…? Muspelheim…?" the goddess repeated. She had only heard stories of those names, and she knew exactly what they meant. "The fire giants!?"
"I believe that is what you call our kind, yes…" the jötunn said.
"How the hell are you here!?" Mayari shouted. "I thought you guys were just a legend!"
The fire giant only chuckled at her query. "Legends, eh?" the giant said. "We seem like more than mere legends, don't you think?" The jötunn stretched out its free arm to showcase the sheer size difference between it and the lunar goddess. It continued to mock her while she was still incapacitated. "Tell me, girl. While we are on the topic of legends, how familiar are you with the prophecies of Ragnarök?"
Mayari's eyes widened in shock at the utterance of that word, knowing its true meaning far too well. The jötunn noticed this expression of fear in the goddess and chuckled once more.
"Hm. It appears so," The giant gloated over the goddess. Mayari tried once more to stand, only to be forced to the ground. The jötunn laughed at her pitiful attempt at reprisal. "You can not stop the inevitable, girl," he crowed. "Not even the gods can resist what has been predetermined by fate."
A bifröst; a great circle of light rimmed with an ever-shifting rainbow, appeared behind the giant as he spoke. Other voices came from within the light and were followed shortly by more fire giants! Each one was bearing their own weapon; all bathed in fire and smoke. More and more emerged from the light like a blazing tsunami, until Mayari was hopelessly surrounded by growling, savage fire giants. Each jötunn was brandishing their own unique weapon that was bathed in smoke and liquid brimstone.
"Already several realms and pantheons have fallen to our flames," Came another jötunn from the horde. "Understand that your death has been predetermined by fate. There is no avoiding it."
"However, this is peculiar," said one of the giants from the horde. This one was calmer and older in its tone. "You are the first being we encountered to have survived the onslaught of our weapons. Moreover…"
Another giant came forward, but it was much different from the others. His posture was low and his muscles tensed up at the sight of Mayari. His left arm was gone; in its place was a freshly bleeding stump, dripping with crimson magma.
"… You are the only human to have inflicted considerable damage to us," the giant continued "Therefore, you are an unprecedented obstacle and must be dealt with post-haste."
A final gleam of hope and determination lit up inside Mayari's heart, and she once again found the courage that had served her so well for eons. She got up, slowly and deliberately. "I had the same thought," she said, smirking. "You know, it's been some time since I had a chance to really let loose…"
She entered her signature battle stance: one hand placed on the pommel of her sword and the other holding the grip tightly. She uttered only a singular phrase in a challenge to the giants. A name that, for a jötunn, was the gravest insult one could offer them."Fire Trolls."
The first fire giant's eyes lit up a furious red. It raised its great sword over its head and brought it down on the young deity with full force. "WE ARE NOT MONSTERS!" It screamed.
Mayari quickly sidestepped the attack; avoiding the shrapnel from its impact with the ground. She stepped towards the giant's abdomen and with all her strength, struck the giant's midsection with her sword. With a mighty yell and a tight grip, she cut straight the giant's torso, cleaving the beast in two. The upper half of the jötunn was sent flying into the air, landing in front of the fiery horde, who all were completely taken aback at the brutality. "What!?" one exclaimed. "Impossible!" another shouted.
"You wretched human pest!" one of the jötnar yelled in fury. It charged at Mayari with its war hammer, ready to splatter the goddess' head across the ground. "Die!"
Mayari dodged the strike by jumping over the monster's head, where she followed up with a cleaving blow at the giant's neck, beheading it. Before any of the giants could even react, Mayari struck another giant and split it down the middle. She jumped off the giant's corpse and flew upwards and onto the roadway. Three giants had followed her and they blitzed towards the goddess with their weapons. One after another, they attacked the goddess who dodged and blocked each attack and answered each one with a fatal counter of her own. The jötnar came in droves, wildly slashing and swinging their weapons, and she cut them down as they charged. One giant jumped behind the goddess to catch her off guard, but its efforts were met with a swift hook to the jaw that disfigured its face and dazed it. Mayari then grabbed the disoriented giant by the horn and hurled the creature into another of its kind.
A warcry erupted from Mayari's throat and towards the giants, who still came forth to attempt to kill her. But another giant, three times the size of the others appeared from nowhere in front of her. Wielding two bearded axes, they set ablaze with an intense blue flame and it swung both weapons down onto the goddess. Mayari raised her kampilan to block the attack, but the effect of the blow was far greater than what she could have prepared for.
BOOM!
Upon impact, she and the entirety of the surrounding city were consumed in a cataclysmic blast that toppled or obliterated every building for as far as the eye could see. The sky above was darkened by the ensuing ejecta cloud and rendered pitch black. The melted debris was the only source of light, resulting in everything being coated by an ambient orange glow. More giants of varying sizes emerged from the rubble, having been buried by the explosion. They looked at the aftermath of their strongest attack and calmed down, confident in their victory.
"We finally killed it," one of them said with relief.
"What was that human?" another asked. "How was it so powerful?!"
"I'm not human, dumbass."
From the epicenter of the blast came the voice of Mayari, the goddess who they had falsely believed to have perished in the blast. She burst forth from the rubble, completely unharmed and kampilan in hand. "I'm Mayari," she proclaimed. "A goddess of war, strength, and the moon."
The giants readied themselves to face the lunar deity once more; they unsheathed their swords, raised their axes, and gripped their hammers tightly, growling and snarling like beasts. Mayari grimaced back at them.
"I won't lose," she said, clenching her fist and holding it over her chest. "Because this world is under my protection!"
The smaller fire giants charged at the goddess in an attempt to dogpile her, where they were met with the deities' vicious steel. Now only the largest of the giants remained for the goddess to kill. "Impudent, half-breed wretch!" They shouted. "Even the gods must bend to fate!"
Belying their difference in size, Mayari jumped and rocketed high into the air until she was at eye level with one of the giants. She swung at the jötunn, who narrowly avoided her weapon by tilting its head, only losing its left horn. But the goddess would strike again at the giant's throat, killing it. As she floated in midair, another giant came forth and slashed at the goddess with its sword. But its attack struck just an inch away from her, allowing Mayari to cleave the giant in two. A heavier, bulkier giant with a great bearded ax trudged over collapsed buildings and dismembered corpses to kill the lunar deity, only to have its face caved in with a kick before it could even raise its weapon. Mayari's kick sent her flying through the air and into the range of another giant, this time wielding a flaming warhammer. Mayari spun herself to face the giant and slash it in two, only to witness the giant raise its weapon over its head and slam with blinding speed onto the goddess and smash her into the ground, where she bounced off the floor.
The impact from the hammer dazed the lunar deity; she drifted in and out of consciousness as the giant raised its weapon once more to attack. But she would not be so easily defeated.
"No…" Mayari said, coming to her senses. "NOT YET!"
When the hammer came down upon her again, she pulverized its head with a single punch. She then sliced the giant's right foot off, causing it to fall to the ground. The goddess jumped high above the fallen giant to finish it off, but two more giants, wielding shields and axes, lunged at her as she fell. Taking a heavy step forward, they punched with their shields, to crush the goddess between the edges of their shields. She raised her arms to block the attacks, barely holding back the shields. Her sheer durability allowed Mayari to withstand the blows on both sides.
"I can't die yet," she said internally as the pressure from the giants increased. "The world still needs me!"
Mustering all the strength she could, Mayari pushed the giants away with tremendous force, shattering their shields and blowing off their arms. After that, more and more giants came forth, and Mayari would cut them down as they appeared. She had spent so much time killing giants, that the debris cloud had dissipated by itself, giving way to a great deluge.
Mayari stood atop a mountain of jötunn corpses, the cool rain soothing her wounds and extinguishing the fires. She breathed heavily, fatigued from the drawn-out battle. But that weariness was soon displaced by relief and pride. She had just saved the world… no, the whole universe! No one else could have done what has. She was powerful. She is important. She had meaning! She was-
"Insolent."
A great pillar of rainbow light erupted from the clouds and struck the ground, blowing away the debris and corpses of the fire giants. Mayari shielded her eye from the blinding light until it finally dissipated. From the light, one final jötunn emerged. It was many times larger than the giants that came before it, with long and straight horns and jagged spikes atop its head arranged in the rough outline of a crown. It bore a greatsword atop its shoulders that shined with the intensity of a star. "Ragnarök is inevitable!" it shouted furiously in a deep gravelly voice. "I am inevitable!"
Mayari only smirked at the massive monster and readied her blade in defiance. In turn, the giant slung the building-sized sword from its back and onto the ground, and its blinding light changed from burning orange to a radiant and brilliant blue.
"I, Surtr, Lord of Muspelheim, shall kill you and bring about the end of days," Surtr proclaimed.
With that, the two divine beings charged at one another and swung their legendary weapons with all their might. The ultimate fate of all that exists hung upon the shoulders of the victor. A fierce battle waged, the likes of which the no being, divine or mortal, had witnessed or ever will witness again…
Trrrrrrrrrrriing!
SMASH!
Mayari yelped in fright and jolted awake, tumbling backward onto her back. Feeling something foreign touching her, she frantically squirmed and rushed to her knees to see what it was. But she calmed down just a little when she saw that it was just Saitama's "OPPAI" hoodie, presumably left there by him. Her brow furrowed in confusion and she looked around what she expected to be a destroyed apartment, but instead, the room was completely untouched. Nothing had changed from how she remembered it last night, save the table's shifted position due to her jolt. Her eyes moved from the room to her right, and she saw Saitama sitting awake on his futon. He looked no worse for wear, and equal confusion was displayed on his face.
"S-Saitama?" Mayari said, relieved that he was alive. "You're…"
On Saitama's right was a hole broken into the floor, his knuckles on his right hand were also emitting smoke. Apparently, he had absentmindedly destroyed his alarm clock.
"Mayari… you…" said Saitama, seemingly dumbfounded by something he saw. Both of them stared at each other in confusion and relief, wondering what the other was thinking. A brief moment passed and they came to a sudden realization.
"Did you have the same dream?" they asked the other in unison.
A loud crash sounded off outside the apartment, followed shortly by a familiar, yet slightly higher-pitched voice. "BEWARE STUPID MIDGARD!" it shouted, its voice cracked on the latter half of 'beware'. "YOUR INEVITABLE DESTRUCTION IS AT HAND!"
Mayari and Saitama scrambled to their feet and rushed to the balcony. There they saw the bifröst levitating in the middle of their street, and out from the mystical portal poured forth a horde of the dreaded jötnar. Only, they were much different. The giants were in fact much smaller and skinnier than how they appeared in their dreams. From what they could judge the giants were, at most, only slightly taller than the average human. They behaved much differently as well, much calmer and organized and less like feral, vindictive animals. A taller (though not by much) jötunn with slightly larger horns and a soot-colored body was standing at the front, screaming and flailing around an old and battle-worn greatsword.
"I AM SURTR!" said the… unimpressive fire king. "AND IT HAS BEEN PROPHESIED THAT I AM TO REDUCE THIS WORLD AND ALL OTHER WORLDS TO ASH." Mayari and Saitama looked at each other and nodded to one another in determination. They dashed back into the apartment as Surtr raised his sword above his head.
"Now prepare humans…" muttered the fire king as his "mighty" blade flickered to life with blue flames. "FOR YOUR DIVINE CONFLAGRA-"
SPLAT!
The jötunn king was suddenly and violently flattened into the ground by a mighty double-drop kick from the two heroes, who were dressed in their iconic uniforms (Mayari's clothes were still riddled with old patches of black blood). His burning innards were splattered everywhere upon impact. All the rest of the giants gasped in shock and froze at the gruesome sight. The heroic duo landed in front of the freshly destroyed corpse and entered their distinct fighting poses.
"Alright, now bring it on!" Saitama yelled while holding up his fists.
"HRRRAAAAGH!" Mayari let out a prolonged and terrifying shout, pointing her sword towards the horde of giants.
The invading army stood still as the goddess continued to scream at them. Eventually, she ran out of breath and was coughing from the strain on her throat. She and Saitama then braced themselves, expecting the jötnar to leap at them to avenge their king… but they didn't. Instead, the giants simply continued to stand there, murmuring amongst themselves as the duo looked on in conclusion. They didn't even appear too bothered by the fact that their leader had just been abruptly silenced. A few moments passed, and a hand was raised above the horde. Slowly the giants shifted and moved aside and one of the giants stepped forward. He seemed to bear no hostile intent as he had laid down his weapon and approached the two heroes slowly with his hands above his head.
"Hi, erm…" the giant began. His voice sounded oddly… normal, almost human-like in its tone. "We don't want any trouble, ok? We're not gonna fight you or anything like that; we're just gonna leave."
"Huh!?" the two heroes exclaimed.
The giant slightly flinched at their sudden burst of noise, but he slowly eased into a more casual slouch as he continued to speak. "Yeah, we're only here because that guy said we had to fulfill this crazy prophecy he heard from some crackhead jötunn in a cave," he said, pointing his thumb toward the rest of the horde, who all nodded in agreement. "None of us actually believed in that nonsense. But he said he'd execute us if we didn't, you know, murder everyone else."
Mayari and Saitama were completely and utterly dumbfounded by what they had just heard. They couldn't even formulate a response, so the jötunn took their silence as a sign of settlement.
"Right, so no hard feelings?" The giant said. But he still received no response from the duo, so he merely shrugged. "Ok… see ya later, I guess." With that, the horde of fire jötnar turned and departed through the bifröst. They all began to talk amongst themselves; some were even rejoicing for their newfound freedom now that their apparently mad king had been slain. Some time passed, and the bustling and jovial conversing of the giants had disappeared, overtaken by the serene ambiance of City Z. And the blinding white light of the bifröst had given way to the warm glow of the late morning sun.
"Oh… " Mayari said, still regaining her breath. They had just saved the world, once again, with little to no effort on their part.
"So now what?" she asked no one in particular.
Damn, that took a while, didn't it? Sorry about that. Lots of things happened between the last chapter and this. Between college, job-hunting, story revisions, and completely redoing the cover, I didn't get a whole lot of time to write. The good news is, I finally got it out! Hope to see you in the next chapter.