Oh man, you guys, Barbenheimer had been kicking my ass lately. Dozens of pink-colored crowds leaving tons of messes for me to clean up, my job being demanding about it and me having to work late hours up until 11:00PM, so you can tell it's probably gonna be difficult for me to write my chapters. But I'm grateful for your patience. It is really tough to juggle my job and personal life at the same time. You guys can probably tell how relatable that is.
Disclaimer: Turning Red and it's characters are the property of (c) Walt Disney Pictures/Pixar Animation Studios.
Elements are borrowed from God of War (2018) and Ragnarök, owned by (c) Santa Monica Studio/Sony Interactive Entertainment.
C/W: Physical graphic violence, implied partial nudity, dismemberment, gore, blood, (temporary) murder
Back in Thrúdheim, Kris Bengtsson was back to being by Thor's side, in spite of his gnawing contempt for his godly ancestors, but he would agree to work alongside them if the fate of the entire world and everyone in it is at stake. So there he was just roaming around the field of Þrúðvangr (sometimes anglicized as Thrudvang or Thruthvang) taking in the sights while up ahead, Egil Skallagrímsson, a former Midgardian farmer, war poet and sorcerer who tends to Thor's goats whenever he's not around, was also there while Tanngrisnir and Tanngnjóstr were frolicking around and by watching them prance around like a couple of dogs, they reminded Kris of two goats he knew back at home. In fact, Kris wondered if Tanngrisnir and Tanngnjóstr were similar to Gnasher and Grinder in some way. And the latter two have been in the Bengtsson family for years. That was a real head scratcher.
Thunder roared in the sky and lightning crackled along with the rumbling storm clouds bellowed like a beast up above Kris, but this didn't faze one bit. This wasn't unfamiliar at all, because everyone else knew what this meant. Kris didn't move a muscle, but instead he just stood there and looked up at the nimbostratus clouds hanging above the land like an alien mothership about to send out an attack on the planet to invade and colonize Earth. Not even did he flinch when a more powerful lightning bolt blasted from down and struck the ground below meters away from the boy in the form of Thor and his mighty hammer. Kris still made no reaction by the God of Thunder's little dramatic entrance. He's already seen it before and it didn't impress him then.
"Nice seeing you again." Kris dyly stated.
"Mastering the elements is no easy feat." Thor remarked. "Perhaps one day, you should try giving Mjölnir a whirl."
"Yay…." That was the sound of disinterest. And then at last, the Asgardian storm god finally took his neutral mood into account.
"I can't promise this, but you'll get your summer break back."
"It's just not about that." Kris sighed.
"You still can't stand me." As brutish as he was intemperate, Thor still knew in his mind that it had to be so. In a way, he kind of wished the boy never visited the Norns and never learned of the unembellished and gritty history. But Kris had a right to know either way, even if he was too young to process such raw particulars about his family background. And that violent tantrum of his was a solid reminder that Thor took in regards to the horrors he had committed under his father's rule and what's most gut-wrenching is that a descendant of his despises him for it.
"Yeah, maybe."
"Still and all, we just need to work together if you don't wanna see your world burn." His thunder-calling ancestor insisted.
"I wouldn't expect anything else." Kris stated, his expression still the same.
"I won't force you to let stuff go, but you do need to try and cooperate with us. Hel will not give us any time to pick roses or get drunk. And Surtr, he'll be ready to strike at a moment's notice and you'll barely know he's coming until it's too late." replied Thor when he hurled his hammer far into the sky like a projectile and the dwarven-made weapon careened into the clouds before disappearing from sight, summoning bolts of lightning in the process as it harnessed their power and as Kris uninterestedly watched, Thor reached his palm out, calling Mjölnir back into his hand. "Before we know it, everything we ever knew and loved will be gone. We'll make a warrior out of you soon."
"I've gotten the hang of my abilities for the past three years." conceded Kris.
"Is that so? Show me, then." Thor ordered.
Kris groaned at him and shot a powerful bolt of lightning at a tree, setting it ablaze and blasting most of its branches off. The easiest way to put it was Thor was solemnly impressed, but this was only one ability that Kris had in him.
"That's one thing, but how about this?" Thor asked when it suddenly began to rain down on them, a strong, tropical rainfall that rained and showered so hard, everything was dripping madly with water. While the thunder god's clothes were completely weather-proof, Kris was drenched.
"I try not to." Kris succinctly answered, annoyed at being rained on from out of nowhere. "That's just not something people do in Toronto. And I've never gotten to that either."
"Leave that to me. It will be proven useful in some scenarios." said the God of Thunder, eyeing the environment while Egil puttered over with the goats after getting drenched himself.
"May be best to watch where you land rainfall. Perhaps a warning." Egil scolded, shaking his dark hair dry while Tanngrisnir and Tanngnjóstr both shook themselves dry, getting the Midgardian farmer more wet in the process, then went to lick Kris's hands. "These goats are as wild as you are."
"At least they're getting fresh air." Thor noted passively.
"What is Surtr like?" asked Kris while he casually walked along the grassy field.
"Cutthroat, vicious, a real reclusive bastard. Has the power of fire and magma at his fingertips." Egil explained. "The first, original and only fire giant of his kind. Brother of Ymir."
"Ever since the murder of his brother and his wife, Surtr swore revenge on the Æsir and to set all of Asgard and the Nine Realms in flames come Ragnarök." Then Thor took his turn explaining it. "The only reminder of his wife, Sinmara, was her heart worn in his chest. He's wasted away in his forge in Muspelheim, hammering away at his sword endlessly and tirelessly day and night until the day Ragnarök came and when it did, he made the ultimate sacrifice. Plunge the primordial energy connecting Muspelheim and Niflheim into Sinmara's heart, forging a sword of great fire and growing to giant size, bigger than any other known giant seen before."
"Did you fight him?" asked Kris.
"No, I didn't." His ancestor admitted lamely. "I was already dead before that. I fought with the Midgard Serpent and we killed each other in the end and I will admit that I was no match for his venom."
"Freyr had fought Surtr to the death, though Freyr wasn't victorious." Egil concluded with. "Surtr still carried out his final vocation in the extinction of the gods, taking all forms of life down with him. But not everyone died from Ragnarök."
"Thrúd's two children were lucky enough to survive as it was their fate." Thor replied.
"Wow." Kris exhaled, still drinking in this entire history lecture. "So is that all gonna happen again?"
"I fear it will." Egil said worriedly. "And luck wasn't on our side then and if our world ends again because of the same event that ended it in the first place, we may never get a second chance again."
"Why don't you talk to Surtr then?" suggested the Norwegian boy. "I heard you guys saying he and Hel are working together. Maybe she's tricking him or somethi-"
"Surtr won't listen to reason." Thor interrupted him sharply. "He already blames us for what happened to Ymir and Sinmara."
"I hear tell that he hates visitors in his enclave." said Egil. "He is very territorial and he doesn't like to be disturbed."
"Not everyone has gotten over the past, especially Surtr and not even Hel herself."
"Funny that I'm hearing that. So why does Hel want revenge?" Kris asked suspiciously. "Is it because I was saved from her years ago?"
No answer was given because the cawing of Huginn and Muninn interrupted their conversation, which Thor took as an excuse to not promulgate a subject such as that and Kris sighed when he heard the two ravens fly in out of nowhere. And he listened to them speak to the son of Odin in his ears and he didn't bother translating them when his deciphering head already did the job for him. He did notice from his body language that Thor looked way too eager to not answer the boy when his father's ravens entered the picture unexpectedly as if he was trying to hide something personal and confidential.
"You feeling hungry?" asked Thor, dodging the question.
Thrúd stormed out of the private study of Odin in Valaskjálf after she was given a good scolding by her mother and grandfather following her disagreeable encounter with the God of Mischief and she's been reproved of only making things worse even when she insisted she was only acting on the best interests of her people, but she flew into a rage when she was shot down with allegations based on self-pride before leaving in a great huff like a stubborn teenager after being caught sneaking out after curfew. Her nose was no longer bleeding, but it was still taking time to heal itself. Being immortal gods, the Æsir are renowned for their healing abilities, healing faster than normally possible than humans, but only a tad faster as the process wasn't instantaneous.
With venomous insults and execrating expletives drawing forth from her grit-teeth mouth, Thrúd stomped through the streets and walkways of Gladsheim, pushing past the crowds and the inhabitants, ignoring their greetings to the irate daughter of Thor as she stampede her way through without saying a word to anyone or accomplishing direct eye contact. She had just gotten her ass handed to her by the infamous shapeshifter and now her mother's talking down to her like she was a misbehaving child, so she was really in a foul mood now. She and Loki, like most of the gods in Asgard, were not on the best of terms and they were no slouches when it came to delivering harsh words at each other's faces. But there was a time when the two were actually friends. She remembers first meeting him a long time ago and she came off as friendly to him. Unfortunately, time flew by and with the trickster's many pranks, she began to see him as less of an ally and more of a pest and when Loki launched a campaign against the gods after his three monstrous children were taken away because of Odin's paranoia over the end of days, Thrúd was just like everyone else when she saw only a ferocious and remorseless monster whenever she clapped her eyes at him. A monster and a killer just like his children. Jörmungandr, the murderer of her father, Fenrir, the murderer of her grandfather and Hel - sick, aberrant and degenerate Hel who saw the glee and joy out of the pain and suffering of others. Perhaps that was the reason she was banished to the underworld in the first place.
The young Goddess of Thunder stomped over to Valhalla, shoved past the Einherjar and other valkyries and made it over to the kitchen belonging to the chef of the gods, Andhrímnir, a professional huntsman and cook who had slain the immortal, self-resurrecting beast Sæhrímnir for his juicy meat to serve to the Æsir and the Einherjar and prepares mead using the milk from the goat Heidrun (Old Norse: Heiðrún) that consumes foliage from the tree Læraðr. Many days and many times Andhrímnir has hunted and slain Sæhrímnir because there is no finer hunt with a breed thrill of it than slaying the mighty boar and no other meat could compare. Ask around, ask anyone and they'll say that no one else in Asgard can prepare a better meal than Andhrímnir. The angered Thrúd marched past the other servants working and assisting in the kitchen until she was in the same room as a man covered all over in soot, a wool apron and messy hair and beard also stained with the soot from industrious hours of hard labor and food preparation who was busy roasting the body of the boar-like beast - his most famous game - over the burning cauldron, Eldhrímnir like a suckling pig.
"Oh, not so well, I'd imagine?" asked the renowned, soot-covered chef, still hard at work.
"Don't push it, Andhrímnir." She growled and slammed her hands on a table with an aggravated groan. "Fuck, I need something to sink my teeth into."
"Meat of the beast should be done any minute less." Andhrímnir stated, poking at the meat of the roasting Sæhrímnir with a metal fork to see if it was at its required doneness. "Those so-called new warriors All-Father brought in could really use a hearty meal now and then. Up-and-coming combatants need their protein and energy."
"We eat the same thing every single day." Thrúd sighed.
"And every single day, you enjoy the taste." Andhrímnir countered braggingly.
"Yeah, yeah." Thrúd admitted, dragging her voice out and picking up an apple plucked from Idunn's sacred grove.
"What happened to your face?" asked the Asgardian chef, taking in her wounded nose and the dried blood tracks streaming from it.
"Don't ask." She grunted, taking a bite from the apple.
About an hour later, the teens were sitting together at a table munching down on some of that Sæhrímnir meat and some mugs of milk, it being the only non-alcoholic drink they could find for them. And as long as they didn't bother asking where the meat came from, then it won't be a problem because they will not enjoy the story behind this mystery meat. Stacy was diabetic, so she was afraid of eating the meat, unsure of what kind it was, so she focused on the vegetables first instead. They sure did work up an appetite being pulled into the Nine Realms against their will, learning some familial history and getting to know their ancestors that they've only learned about a long time ago. Aside from the food on their table before them, there were a lot of Einherjar around them, chatting in languages most of them never heard of and behaving crudely like they were at a pub during the football season or even at a nightclub. Stacy herself was getting the willies just from gazing at these peculiar people all around them.
"Are you saying all these people are….dead?" She shakily asked the goth boy at the table sitting on the other side from her right.
"Yeah, you bet. And this is the afterlife where they go to. But only the people that die a heroic death come here." Stig explained to her, cutting up his meat. "You could say this is like heaven."
"Well, a Viking heaven." Roar corrected, adjusting his glasses.
"How do people here eat like this?" Willow complained, eyeing the food on the plate lacking cutlery, save for a knife. "I feel like a fucking caveman."
"We are in ancient times." Rudolf pointed out.
"This Dungeons and Dragons shit is ahlready givin' me a headache, but the food here is worth it." Moose took a big bite of his meat with his fingers, which grossed Willow out.
"Pig." She grumbled.
"I feel like this is game meat." Toshio wondered out loud.
"I sure hope not." Carter claimed.
"Don't count on it. They didn't have grocery stores in medieval times." Kris told him, popping a bite out of a potato. "It's not like they can just buy their meat pre-made."
"So how are we all doing so far?" asked Stig, looking around the table at everyone's faces. "I'm sure this is all still quite a shit show for you. Gods, magic and stuff."
"I still can't believe I'm related to a goddess!" Stacy cried. "And a goddess of winter? I'm, like, having an aneurysm. I might blackout soon and this will all be a weird dream."
"Some dream." Stig spat.
"Don't worry, Stacy. I'm just as confused about all this as you are." said Toshio to the blonde girl.
"Really? Oh…" This statement resulted in a mad blush on the girl's face and a giddy chuckle, making her do that thing when one is speaking with their crush like brushing her hair.
"This is cute and all, but what's bumming me out is that they're gonna make us into tough fighters." Carter commented, looking a bit worried.
"Ooh, like the Power Rangers?" beamed Rudolf. "Like we're all a big superhero team. Snow Queen, Magic Girl, Mr. Smart, Water Boy, Musclehead, the Seer/Hearer, Shape-Changer, Thunderstrike…"
"Imbecile?" Stig sarcastically suggested, tired by his friend's comic book nonsense.
"We'll work on it over time. I'm open to other names." Rudolf replied. "But to think that we're all descended from the gods, that's on a whole new level of awesomeness! It's like we're destined to be together!"
"I won't disagree on that." Kris shrugged with a smile. "Fate brought me to this place and it's where I learned where my family came from."
"So what happened the last time you were here, if I may ask?" Carter brought up, invested in the story behind the truth of Kris's coma.
"Oh, yeah. Totally." Willow smiled grimly.
"So you were in a coma fer seven months, right? So dat means you were stuck here fer seven months." said the Moose, devouring his whole plate.
"Yes." Kris sighed deeply. "So I blacked out back at the concert and I woke up here in Midgard - which, again, is the mortal realm - in the middle of the forest. I've been wandering those damn woods for days, I climbed a tree, fell out of that tree, knocked myself out…"
Everyone winced when he told them that part like it hurt, which it did.
"...then I ran into two guys who let me stay with them until Thor came knocking and I was taken to Asgard where I met the gods for the first time. It was really taking some getting used to. They showed me around the realms from Vanaheim to Svartalfheim until I learned the horrible truth from the Norns. The two guys from before took me to them and it was there that I not only learned that I was related to Thor, but the awful things the Æsir gods had done before the first Ragnarök. And to be honest, I was…..really mad about it. I actually attacked Thor about it and after that, I found myself in Helheim. That's all I remember before I was saved."
"Holy shit!" Moose gasped with both shock, horror and mild surprise. "Ya seriously went apeshit on a god and lived?! That's friggin' nuts!"
"Was that really necessary?" asked Willow.
"No, but I was really in a bad state of mind. After all I've been through, you'll get it." Kris expressed, though he omitted to hide that tiny hint of remorse in his tone.
"We met a lot of crazy characters saving Kris along the way." Rudolf chimed in eagerly in this vivid storytelling. "There was a giant serpent big enough to wrap around the globe, a giant wolf that tried to eat me, a fish man from a swamp that also tried to eat me, because as you can tell, I'm a delectable hors d'oeuvre."
"You say that with the most unreal confidence." Toshio remarked.
"And there was an even bigger wolf guarding the Gates of Hel." Rudolf continued. "You don't wanna meet him."
"Gosh, I sure hope not." shivered Stacy fearfully.
"You guys don't really believe in it? Ragnarök?" asked Roar skeptically.
"No!" Stacy admitted without a single denial. She had only been humoring everyone up until this point. "Of course not! I wanna believe that this whole scary end-of-the-world thing is really happening soon, but how do I? Just because I believe I have powers, doesn't mean I'll believe everything else!"
"Call me batshit crazy, but I kinda believe it." said Willow in her usual low tone. "I've had a cousin who's always believed that the world would end soon, which scared the shit out of all of us, but not me."
"Was he a junkie?" asked Moose reproachfully.
"Shut up." Willow glared at him contumeliously. "It was a she."
"Real or not, how do the gods expect us to learn how to be tough and formidable warriors in time? And how can we even expect the apocalypse to happen?" said Roar, gleaming with seriousness. "What I'd like to know is how will we really stop that from happening?"
"They're gods, right?" asked Carter. "Surely, they can't expect us to do it all for them."
"Don't be too surprised if they are." Stig grunted. "Us humans are always doing their dirty work."
SLAM!
The ever-so-altruistic and overenthusiastic Andhrímnir came in out of nowhere, just carelessly slamming most of Sæhrímnir's half-sliced roasted carcass onto their table with a cleaver in hand, scaring the wits out of the teens when it happened unexpectedly and most of them were now pulling horrified faces when they all of the sudden realized like a gunshot to the head where the meat they were eating came from. Devouring the meat from a freshly-killed animal; wild game.
"Bless my heart to see you're enjoying the fresh meat. I knew you'd be impressed. Sæhrímnir is worth the hunt any day and no other meat can compare in all of Asgard." Andhrímnir grinned dumbly as the boisterous Asgardian chef lifted his cleaver so dangerously high over the cooked beast. "Hope you youngbloods have room for seconds."
CHOP!
…and lopped the head off of Sæhrímnir with just one, single, swift slice of that massive blade, making the decapitated head lifelessly fall in front of them until it was facing all of them with its sewn-up eyes. And this was a chilling sight that proved too much for poor Stacy to handle for she suddenly fainted from the shock and fell over on her back on the front while Toshio pluckily rushed over to the girl's aid.
"Ideal knife skills." Carter nervously perplexed.
And as he chopped away more slabs of that delicious pork, Kris decided that he'd eaten enough and stood up from his seat as he backed away, cringing at the sight.
"No thanks, I'm full." He blurted, leaving his plate and walking away to sit somewhere else, but Stig got up also and followed his brother when he walked away from the table. Pushing through the crowd of Einherjar, Kris searched and searched until he found his father sitting by himself at a table far away from the loud swarm of undead soldiers and warriors and the boy sat down next to him. Stig, however, sat on the other side, keeping his distance.
"Hey, dad." Kris greeted him.
"Oh, hey, Kris. So how are things going? You and, uh, Thor catching up?" asked Michael.
"It's going smoothly, but I'm still warming up to him."
"I get that." Michael shook his head. "But he isn't too bad when you get to know him a little more. And Stig, I'm just as surprised to learn you are related to Loki."
"I'm not." The dark boy shrugged.
"Is the world really ending?" asked Kris worriedly.
"Sadly, yes." His father confessed. "But the sooner we are prepared, the better. Believe me, I wouldn't want to bring you into this situation if it was up to me, but the gods are insistent. They don't want our world to go down in flames a second time. And trust me when I say, it wasn't pleasant learning about Ragnarök to think that it really happened years ago."
"And now it's gonna happen again." said his adopted goth son monotonously.
"But no unless we learn to fight together. And I hope you'll be by my side." The bear demigod asked of his two sons.
"Of course, I will." Kris nodded quickly.
"But enough apocalypse talk, tell me about what's been happening in Toronto, Kris." Michael turned to look at Kris, chilling him when he saw the look in his eyes. "Because Stig tells me that it's not really been very good for you."
"Not-...?" Kris shot a look at his brother, who was unrepentant. So he just sighed, giving up before speaking. "Okay, so remember when I said I used to work for Ming Lee. Well, it gets worse than that after the three years ago, Mei wanted to go to a concert for her favorite boy band called 4*Town with her friends."
"4*Town…" Michael furrowed his eyebrows in confusion.
"But Mei couldn't go because she needed to complete a ritual to seal her red panda away, but she cou-"
"Red panda?" sputtered his father, now even more befuddled. "What do you mean by that?"
"Mei has his family thing where all the women in her family turn into giant red pandas." Stig explained it to him. "It causes their hair to turn red."
"You didn't know this?" asked Kris in disbelief as he was initially sure that Michael knew of this factor as well.
"No. Ming never said a word about this before." Michael was the most nonplussed he's ever been in his life to hear from his sons' own mouths that Ming Lee had the power to turn into a red panda and she's never once brought this facet up to her once since they've known each other back in high school. Now he can still remember things when he's running wild in bear mode, so he can distinctly remember encountering a giant red panda long ago after being rudely awakened a second time and he thought back to that women he saw with the red hair that Stig was tied up with at the berserker compound. By putting two and two together….
"So that red-haired woman was…Ming?" asked Michael incredulously.
"Yes, it was." Stig nodded. "And you should've seen her red panda like we did for the first time."
"And about that part…" Sucking in air through his teeth, Kris continued with a heavy heart. "So Mei's friends took us to the concert at the SkyDome - well, technically it's called the Rogers Centre now - and while the concert was going on, Ming turned into giant red panda as big as the arena itself on a rampage when Mei refused to do the ritual I mentioned and then she picked me up in her giant paw and shouted insults in my face in front of everyone before she tried crushing me to death, but thankfully Stig stopped that from happening."
"You're welcome." Stig smiled smugly.
"But I made the mistake of bringing my guitar to the concert, the same guitar you gave me before you…killed. And then Ming crushed it to pieces with her giant foot to spite me. That's the last thing I remember before I passed out and woke up here in the Nine Realms. But from what the others tell me-"
"He turned into Thor and started beating the living crap out of Ming until she shrunk down and returned to normal, but even then, he still wouldn't stop pounding the hell out of her. Luckily, we were able to sing a song by Nörthfölk to calm him down before Thor turned back into Kris and he's been in a seven month coma after that." Stig interjected abruptly.
"My god…."
Michael inwardly shook with terror when the idea of his own son turning into a violent murderer, but him turning into the God of Thunder was the most disquieting, which made his heart skip more than one beat. But by now, he couldn't conjecture thoroughly on which was the most troubling for his conflicted mind. His son turning into Thor and going on a murderous rampage like a savage beast or his old high school sweetheart turning into a red panda kaiju and lace into his son as a far cry from the shy, but dedicated, calculating and slightly flirty girl who helped tutor him, would cheer him on along with Elsa at his basketball games and even took him to the janitor's closet to give him a 'reward'; the kind that children at ages 10 and below are not permitted to hear about.
"So to make a long story short, Ming came along with us to the Nine Realms to help save Kris from Helheim." concluded Stig. "She really wanted to help because felt bad about what had happened and she was willing to admit it was her fault. Also, I helped her fix the guitar with magic."
"That's clearly messed up." Michael exclaimed, referring to the SkyDome obviously. "But you two made up, right?"
"Uh, sort of." Kris attempted. "I don't think I can get over everything. I don't know how. And she's wanting to rehire me, but I don't want that. I've put up with too much from her when I used to work for her."
"But you both said she's changed, right? Didn't you?" Michael asked, looking at his other son.
"It was implied, yes." shrugged Stig.
"I can't forgive someone like that." Kris admitted sourly. "I mean, I'm thankful for her coming to my rescue and repairing my guitar, but she still has a long way to go. How would you like it if someone tore into you for, like, two years, fired you just for going to a party and going Godzilla on you while almost straight-up murdering you in front of a large crowd of people?"
"Well, look, I may not have been there to see for myself, but it's like you just said, if she felt guilty about her actions and worked hard to make up for them, that should be enough to show you that she's not the same bully you remember her as. And I'm assuming that for the past three years, Ming has provided for you since. But you know what, sooner or later, you'll have to learn to get over the bad parts of the past and not let it define someone forever. Ming may not have the best for you, but I know she isn't incapable of change. And if there's anything that I've learned from the gods here in these Realms, it's that sometimes, everyone deserves a second chance." Michael explained to his son in a nigh-philosophical manner like a wise savant.
Kris tightened his lips and looked away, but didn't ignore his father's words and the general meaning and context behind it all. Sure, Ming was a total bitch to him as a manager in the past, but she had already shown to be merciful, compassionate and someone willing to acknowledge and correct the error of her ways, even if it risked her life. And the guitar. She may have destroyed it, but she repaired it for him as a gesture of forgiveness and so far for the past three years, she has yet to receive it.
Now all of this processing was starting to make him feel regret for rejecting her offer and screaming at her face.
The woman was trying. He could at least be magnanimous.
(FLASHBACK): Many Years Ago….
The girl sat there in the fetal position for far too long, anxiously fidgeting and thrumming to herself.
The darkened interior of this reclusive hall far away from society provided no comfort and no warmth. It was no home to her, because it was psychologically and scarcely stark in that hall far up in the northern moors of Midgard.
Nobody there to offer her company.
She couldn't remember the last time she was with anybody because she had pretty much grown up in this isolated hall and denied any form of contact from others from the outside. She couldn't remember her parents' faces, who they were or what their names were. She was just a baby the last time she saw their faces, so everything had been a painfully obscured blur. Her life was empty and bereft of color and life. The gods needed her shut up away from the eyes of the outside world, deeming her too hideous and too unsettling. But why? Why was that her fault?
She can't help it.
The thumping sound of hooves of a dozen galloping horses graced her ears alarmingly. The gods were approaching her area and she was filled with hope. Maybe they'll take her to meet her parents like they had sworn to her. The only visitors she ever got were them and then alone. But soon, she would get to be around other people and maybe live a life without being pushed aside like a danger. Her two brothers, the only people she's ever known, were already taken from her. The wolf, Fenrir, bound by unbreakable chains deep below the earth and the giant serpent, Jörmungandr, thrown into the ocean like a fish out of water. The trotting got closer and closer until it stopped.
"Hela Lokisdottir." called out a voice.
And that was the only clue she had of her father's name. Loki.
Getting up from her spot on the ground was only slightly problematic, but she managed it fine. Although there was a limb in her left leg, she was walking without any trouble when she approached the opening of the hall and slithered out of the darkness until Týr and Thor, her physical appearance made known for all to see within the light of the day. The right side of her body was of a glowing and beautiful young woman with pale, blemish-free skin and flowing black hair while the other side was of that of a moldering, decaying corpse with skin flaking and bones snapping and cracking with almost every little movement from pronating of her wrists to the wiggle of her toes. She was completely naked if not for black wool cloth wrapped around her crotch and waist.
"What is it, gods of Asgard?" Hel asked with her good eye undressing them both.
"It is time." Thor replied simply.
"My parents. Are they expected to see me?" asked the half-dead girl optimistically.
"All in good time, my dear. If you'll just come with us." Týr calmed her down before she got her hopes up and presented an open hand out.
Hel did not hesitate to grab his outstretched hand as she was much too eager to return to society after many countless millennia of isolation and loneliness for she would have gone completely mad if the rest of her long-lasting life would've been destined to go to waste inside of a dark, secluded hall right in the middle of nowhere where civilization was lacking and no sign of life was to be seen a mile away. Hel allowed the God of Thunder and the God of War escort her all the way back to Asgard via the Bifröst and the half-dead girl wound up before the All-Father himself in all his glory inside his hall of Valaskjálf before his all-seeing throne with Huginn and Muninn perched on his shoulders.
"Odin, All-Father, forgive me, but I do hope you could see fit to-"
"You have no place here, Lokisdottir." The King of Asgard interrupted her rudely. "Amongst the gods in Asgard is no fit for a demoness like you."
"W-What are you….saying?" Hel stammered, her hope shattering like shards of glass.
"Every night, I've been besieged with dreams of you and your brothers. Dreams that haunt me every night as I shut my eyes and every night, I receive warnings of the true dangers you pose, you and your siblings."
"I don't….I don't understand, wise Odin." The girl's voice became fragile. "What sort of peril would I bring upon you and all the gods? Why would you assume I'd want to cause you ill will based on some dreams you've had."
"My dreams are never wrong!" Odin argued. "The God of Mischief has birthed you, so you have only one true destiny that lies before you. The destruction of Asgard and all its people. But I will not sit her and take any such risks while danger lies in waiting. There's only one place for you."
"Where?" Hel hesitantly asked.
"The only place you'll truly fit in, where you won't cause any harm to anyone. Hela Lokisdottir, I hereby banish you to the deepest and darkest regions of the underworld where only your fellow corpses await you."
With his piece being firmly said, Odin recited a galdr on her and called forth his ravens to swirl around the girl right as she was about to argue against the All-Father and beg for him to reconsider his decision and plead her case, but it was no use now. No one said a word in her defense, no one made a move to stop Odin from sending her way. The shower of black feathers disappeared as did Huginn and Muninn. Hel gasped and jerked her head all around and realized she wasn't in Asgard anymore. She had been schlepped down into the frozen, unbearable cold realm of the dishonorable dead. With this revelation that being forever condemned to life in the afterlife coming crashing down on her head, Hel was, without a doubt, devastated.
No, she was furious. Heartbroken, even.
For her whole entire life, she's been confined in a remote dark establishment away from everyone and everything, growing up in the shadows without anyone to talk to, anything to befriend and without anyone to offer her comfort, food or even friendship. For as long as she could remember, she had nothing and nobody. The gods were the only ones to visit her, but only once every nine years and each time they did, they'd promise her that one day, some day, she would be reunited with her parents. And poor Hel had clung to that rumor with ease and prayed that it would come true. But when the gods called her to their kingdom and instead, banished her to the underworld all because of some nightmares their king had, it left a sharp knife through her heart and filled it with a poison that spread everywhere, filling her with a corrosive blackness.
And it pained her greatly.
It was a pain of a great measure.
All this time they've been telling her that she'll finally have a life in the outside world again. All this time, they keep telling her that her parents were waiting for their children to come back to them one day and that she'll be back in their arms once more.
Had that all been…a lie?!
The gods played her like a fiddle, toyed with her feelings and crushed her hopes without a second thought.
Hel's breath hitched, came in and out harshly, her eye twitched and her hands balled into fists and her teeth ground against each other and she let out a scream. A blood-curdling, anguished and enraged scream at the god's betrayal and their deceit for tossing her aside and left her sentenced to a life in the underworld that would now be known as…Helheim.
.
.
.
.
…..the home of Hel.
Hel panted and took a second to slow her breathing down after the scream she just let out from remembering that fateful day. The day when that bumbling fool of a king sent her down into the dark pit and left her to rot. The day when all her dreams of being part of a society were crushed in a heartbeat and was forced into the afterlife by her lonesome again and left to fend for herself. There was nobody down there but the remnants of the dead, other full corpses who weren't half-alive like she was and yet, they had come to look up to her as their queen, their ruler, their figurehead. She had been gifted vast powerful magical abilities that only continued to grow in power and cogency the longer she ruled, being bestowed the power of a goddess of death and pain and the power to hold dominion over the deceased.
But she never asked for this life. She didn't ask to look this way. She didn't ask to be lied to, played like a fool and dumped into the underworld and left to rule over the walking dead. Maybe if they had just accepted her for how she was, if they had just given her the life she wanted and maybe if-
No.
No time for that.
Not going to bother mulling over what could've happened. Hel wasn't going to let these thoughts and memories get in the way of her revenge. They tried to get rid of her to stay safe from the end of the world. And now they can just sit around and watch as she lets Ragnarök take it all away from them, just like they did to her.
"They made me a monster…" She hissed venomously under her breath.
Even though Thor made it clear that speaking with him wasn't going to work, he nonetheless agreed to a plan to enter Muspelheim anyway and have a few words with its ruler in person and see what was going on between him and Hel. Thor knew in his large gut that this was going to go sideways fast without any tolerable results, but he would humor them for now. With him were Brunhild, Bödvar and Vidar and they, together, ventured into the boiling realm of primordial fire and lava. Thor wasn't the least bit bothered by the heat, the flames, not the running magma rivers that flowed, not even the smoke that filled the air above.
"For the record, I still think this is a dumb idea." He stated honestly.
"I need to know what the endgame is." Vidar replied.
"It's my first time here in the land of the first fire." commented Bödvar, looking all around. "It's exactly how I imagined it as."
"Try to focus, berserker." The God of Thunder warned him. "We're just here to speak with him and leave. That's all I'm here for."
"But if he tries anything, so will I. And I will not guarantee I won't." Brunhild strongly bristled. "I shall not risk Surtr eliminating our world once more."
"I think we're getting close." said Vidar, keeping an observant eye of the path ahead until he was starting to make out a familiar sight. "His forge is just-"
Suddenly, a giant figure slammed against him from out of nowhere, catching him unawares in a situation not even he was prepared for and he was sent slamming against the rocky wall by a towering, hulking golem made of molten rocks and what's worse is that there were three of them.
"Ancients!" Brunhild screamed in terror, thrusting into battle mode at once, quickly brandishing her halberd and attacked the one rock monster that attacked the God of Vengeance. Then the rest of them launched onto the assault together as a team. The two more Ancients fought back against their opponents and with their rock-made bodies, it was nigh impossible for anyone to even weaken them with a single blow, but that was no match for the thunder god and his mighty hammer. Thor let out a battle cry as he swung Mjölnir at one of the Ancients, challenging it to a one-on-one duel and while the two traded blows, parries, cuffs and uppercuts, the God of Thunder persisted and increased his melee thanks to unleashing the full extent of the storm within his hammer, amplifying its strength with each strike.
"Is the ruler behind this?!" Bödvar complained while he helped Vidar battle the other Ancient with his axe and his own unmatched warrior's strength.
"Focus! He is the guardian of this realm! It's his right to defend it!" shouted Thor while keeping his focus solely on his Ancient adversary before throwing his hammer at it, but it dodged it perfectly. However, Thor punched at it's stomach with great full vigor and unrelenting fury until the rock golem was reaching its knees before summoning Mjölnir and when the warhammer came flying back to his open palm, it smacked against the Ancient's back in the process and in that process, the fallen Ancient was blasted into pieces, rocks flying apart like an explosion.
The valkyrie Brunhild screamed mightily as she reigned terror onto her Ancient opponent, even performing a good swirl of her sharp wings, chopping at the Ancient's rock-made legs as the tips of a valkyrie's feather blades were so incredibly sharp, they were absolutely guaranteed to slice through anything, even rock. And she shouted in Old Norse while she landed a dive-bomb right on top of the beast, shattering it to pieces. Meanwhile, Bödvar, even without his Berserker Rage, was still an unstoppable force on his own and with Vidar, the two were giving their Ancient hell, punching at it from all sides, even ripping some rocks away from its body one by one until the Ancient reached a point where it couldn't keep up with them and when they grabbed at it from two different sides - Vidar held onto the place where its head would be and Bödvar, its legs - they both screamed into the air as they ferociously ripped the Ancient in half, killing it instantly and both halves of their enemy disintegrated into loose rocks on the ground.
"Vidar for the wind." He said, raising the Ancient's head up like a trophy before tossing it aside.
"He won't stop me from getting close." Brudhild snarled before taking flight into the air, leaving the three men on the ground as she decided to take matters into her own hands.
Surtr was there at his forge, same as he's always been. Standing there in that spot in a mess of ash-covered weapons of fallen warriors that he has collected over the centuries and hammering away at his sword with his hammer, beating the metal over and over again and listening to that resounding clang each time the hammer slammed against the blade monotonously with no end. This he has done for years leading up to Ragnarök as he swore to himself that never would he abate his work until he was fully prepared for the final battle that decided the fate of the gods. And never would he leave the forge until his weapon of destruction was at last completed to plunge the world in a global fire that destroyed everything it touched. Because it was his mission to see the end of the Æsir after what happened to Ymir and most importantly, his beloved wife, Sinmara. Every day and every night, he would hear her voice in his head, whispering sweet nothings into his ear in an ethereal tone that allowed her heart to beat inside his chest…..the heart that he no longer had.
"Don't let them win, my dear. Don't stop until they've suffered as I have. And soon, we will be together again. Do not rest, do not waver, do not surrender. I will be there for you, beloved. Nothing will separate us ever again."
Surtr grunted, shutting out her voice, because he knew it was all just in his head. His mind telling him something he'd want to hear. A figment of his absurd imagination. A way to help him persevere. This may not be what Sinmara would really have wanted, but if was to reunite with her again, he would comply.
Nobody thought it was possible, but a noise finally disrupted his work and it made him snarl. There came the sound of feet slamming against the ground and the flapping of giant wings and he knew it to be so.
Brunhild was here, standing inches away from him with her halberd in hand.
But that's not all he felt.
He felt the presence of three others. Thor, Vidar and a berserker from Midgard, here in his realm of Muspelheim.
"Surtr." Thor called out to him as the three were standing at the far bottom where the forge was located with a mountain of swords, axes and the like separating both him and them like a gate composed of the gallant and the victorious who had surrendered their own lives for the sake of glory.
"The gall you Asgardians have to come into my territory." Surtr growled, keeping his back to them and his eyes on his sword, refusing eye contact with the ones responsible for the demise of his wife.
"You know why we've come?" asked Vidar.
"I know."
"What has Hel promised you?" asked Thor. "Because she doesn't have the power to give you what you want."
The air became filled with the low, sonorous dry chuckle that the fire giant emitted from his lips, banging on his sword some more as if pretending they weren't there.
"As if the likes of you Æsir would know what I would want." He scoffed.
"Whatever it is Hel claims, it's false." Thor reasoned while keeping his guard up. "She's only feeding into your rage, using you as a means to an end."
Then Surtr slammed the hammer he was using down to the ground, letting it pierce the sound barrier with its echo before he grabbed the sword by its handle and slowly, ominously and dangerously turned around with the tip of the sword pointed upwards while Brunhild aimed her halberd at him the moment he began to move. Surtr figuratively and literally boiled with hellish heat as he now faced the three below with a scalding hatred.
"Don't tell me you actually think you can just come waltzing into my domain and tell me I'm making a mistake." He retorted menacingly, steaming. "The only mistake I ever made was standing by while you took her from me. Took everything from me."
"We understand your anger at us." Thor told him, trying to be reasonable. "But none of this is going to bring Sinmara back."
He had gone and done it.
He had to bring up the name of his love to him and hearing her name pass the lips of an Æsir was the breaking point for Surtr. Like lava, he bubbled hotly under is collar and all of the sudden, he takes them by the element of surprise when he swings his arms out toward them, telekinetically shooting all of the swords from the pile and sending them at the Asgardians and Midgardian, with them also being blow back by that bodiless, unphysical push, leaving them shielding themselves as the clutter of swords rained down upon them. Even Brunhild wasn't affected.
Surtr let out a roar like a monster as he leapt from his spot at his forge and punched the ground, quaking the ground as a result. With no other choice, the group nonetheless accepted the fire Jötunn's challenge to a fight. Thor lit up his hammer with lightning and tossed it over and over again at Surtr, but he kept deflecting Mjölnir before it finally hit him in the face, knocking him on his back. This gave Brunhild the opportunity to fly straight down and bring her halberd downward to chop at him and hopefully decapitate him with a single swipe, but Surtr caught it just in tip before the blade touched his skin and broke it in half with his fierce strength.
Thor and Vidar came at him, both shouted out with determination. Even though Surtr saw it coming, he still kept up the fight and wasn't letting them knock him down this time. Despite the heat of his lava body, both Asgardian brothers attacked him with everything they had with lightning and strength combined. Thor beat the shit out of Surtr's face with Mjölnir repeatedly and finally got him to the ground while he and Vidar restrained him - Thor holding onto his throat. The strength of the Æsir was unparalleled at best and it was thanks to their half-giant nature they were able to obtain the upper hand. Unfortunately, Surtr was all giant himself and he had all the power that they did not possess, coupled with the fact that he was far older and more experienced than the two of the strongest gods. So Surtr summoned up his ultimate power move. His entire body glowed as it heated up at an alarming rate, reaching volcanic levels of hotness that strikingly resembled the energy of the core of the earth and then he went off like a nuclear bomb, exploding with immense heat and fire as he screamed in heightened anger, successfully knocking the two off of him. With them down, Surtr held out a hand to summon his sword. The weapon materialized out of lava on the ground as it appeared handle-first and dragged itself across the ground and into its owner's hand.
Brunhild took her chance and shouted as she struck him with her halberd, managing to cut Surtr with her blade, making him bleed and seethe. He swung his fiery sword at her as well in retaliation, their weapons colliding against each other, the two of them landing hits and slashes at the other's flesh before Bödvar came in and even managed to slice off Surtr's left foot, bringing him down and slashing at his throat. However, Surtr's foot regenerated and his throat healed up and as payback, he punched at the berserker's face, burning his skin with each pop, but Bödvar grabbed at his fist, his clouded warrior's mind ignoring the searing pain of his burning hand as he socked at Surtr back and kept punching him until the fire giant was being forced back a few steps until Surtr easily smacked him away with just a slap at his wrist.
With her comrade down, Brunhild flew up into the air, about a meter above the ground and was ready to dive-bomb him just like she did to those Ancients before. However, she wasn't too lucky this time around because Surtr took a good swipe at his flaming sword and sliced her right wing off just as she zeroed in on him, sending her tumbling to the ground, screaming in great agony. Her severed wing fell to the ground and her wound bled profusely, spilling crimson all over the ground. Brunhild couldn't think of any words to describe the pain she was in right now. It was worse than any pain anyone would ever feel.
Then all of the sudden, Bödvar's imminent Berserker Rage kicked in and it came in with the snap of a whip, all of his known inhibitors vanished and all his restraints gone just like that and his inner beast was unleashed, freed from the confines of its cage.
He rose to his feet and growled like a wild animal and charged at Surtr like a bull and barreled right into the fire giant, knocking him straight to the ground, then pounced upon him with his fists as he pounded at him resiliently. Surtr punched him back as he got back up and the two duke it out like mad. Even Surtr was no match for him. Bödvar was blinded by the most blazing rage ever and it was true what they say; that nothing would ever stop a berserker in its destructive rage. The ruler of Muspelheim socked him in the face, the chest, kicked him in the knee, broke his bones, he even sliced off his arm with his sword, but no matter what he tried, Bödvar kept attacking him, ignoring all of his injuries, the pain being but a simple construct. Having enough, Surtr lifted the berserker up and breathed a torrent of lava upon him like a dragon as he bellowed like a raving beast. The lava burned and melted Bödvar's body until some exposed skin tissue was shown, but even still, he didn't cease his vengeful, animalistic wrath.
So Surtr raised him up and smacked him hard against the ground and then punched his head with the strongest force imaginable, it reduced the berserker's head into a mashed pile of bloody paste. At this, Bödvar finally stopped and fell lifeless on the ground. Panting harshly from the fight, Surtr stood up and faced Thor, laying flat on the ground.
"If you kill me now, Ragnarök comes early." He warned him. "Hel's plan is already set in motion and there's nothing stopping it. Leave now or die."
With that, he turned away and marched off with his sword in hand, leaving the four to recover from that insane battle. Brunhild was still wincing in pain after having her wing severed off, nursing her bleeding stump. Thor rose and helped Vidar to his feet and during all this, Bödvar's head grew back due to green witchcraft-like magic. The bloody mush reversed itself until time was undone and every other injury he sustained healed as well. All that was left was his missing arm, which he picked up and put back into place. With his arm back where it belonged, he picked up Brunhild's wing and offered to help her up. She showed some hesitance and didn't always enjoy being helped out. However, the berserker was showing some decency for a vicious wild man and she accepted his help with a tired, pained sigh.
"I told you this was a bad idea." Thor expressed matter-of-factly, looking at them all in disappointment while they all took off away from Surtr's territory back to Asgard.
"Eir will patch me up. Hopefully." spoke Brunhild. "Within reason, I need both of my wings to fly."
"So what now?" asked Bödvar. "If Surtr won't hear us out, what can we do?"
"Hope." Thor answered with a short and grave response.
After getting comfy with their ancestors, the teens are back together to have a meal together. In fairness to most of them, a few of them don't really believe in Ragnarök and can you blame them? Aside from Kris and his friends, the others were pulled into this random situation out of nowhere (at least in their eyes) and you can't really expect them to believe everything they hear. But the gods are desperate. They need everyone's help. They were given this second chance for a reason. They don't want that second chance to go to waste. And now Kris and Stig bring their father up to speed about the SkyDome fiasco three years ago and Michael quickly surmises that Kris still hasn't forgiven Ming yet, but he assures him that sometimes, we all need to give people a second chance, even the people who hurt us. Also, before you guys say anything - no, Michael and Ming didn't have sex. 'Nuff said.
We are shown a flashback of Hel's past to when she was cast into Helheim (before it was called that) by Odin and the gods in his attempt to avert any potential disasters and how it had driven her to insanity ever since, leading her to assume the gods build her hopes up only to purposely crush them. So you can tell that her mission is VERY personal. Thor, despite knowing the outcome, agrees to try and reason with Surtr, but the fire giant is adamant that he will be with Sinmara again if he helps Hel and he proves to strong and powerful fighter against even Thor.
Egil is two things; a reference to Egil Skallagrímsson, the Icelandic Viking Age war poet, sorcerer, berserker, farmer and the anti-hero protagonist of Egil's Saga and is the name of the farmer who looks after Thor's goats during his trip to Jötunheim to visit Hymir in the poem Hymiskvida.
Next Chapter: The following two days, the teens are trained to master their abilities. Concurrently, Mei and the girls struggle to deal with the QRQs back at camp, but their rivals only spoils the fun for the both of them.
Next Update: August 4, 2023