So to let you guys know, me and my family are going away on vacation to Europe next Tuesday and we won't be back until Oct. 15, so I doubt I'll be able to update or write anything while I'm gone because we're gonna be doing a lot of traveling between countries. First we're going to Paris, France, then we'll go to Belgium and then the Netherlands and we'll be traveling by train. It will probably be the long trip I've been on in a long time. I may try to write on my phone, but we'll have to see for sure. I'll make sure to have my next chapter up after I get home. In the meantime, enjoy this new chapter and see you guys soon. Au revoir! Tot ziens! Auf Wiedersehen!
In memory of our beloved Albus Dumbledore - Sir Michael Gambon (19 October 1940 – 27 September 2023); He had filled our hearts with magic!
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: Dismemberment, extreme violence, gore
"What's going on?" Carter shivered from terror when all light had vanished suddenly from the sky. Not like how Hati does when chasing after the moon, but it just simply poofed away, leaving the entire sky completely jet black without the beams from the light of the moon to illuminate the land since the moon was gone and eaten by a large wolf.
All that shone in the sky were the stars, but not even that was enough.
"Uh, who turned out the lights?" asked an edgy Rudolf.
"This cannot be good." Stig was struck by the horror of this disconcerting predicament.
"Oh, no…" Stefan grabbed at his head, the most horrified and stressed out as were the majority of his bandmates. "They've done it. Godammit, they've finally done it. Sköll and Hati have eaten the sun and moon."
"So it's just gonna be nighttime now?" Willow asked as her heart pounded harshly. "Forever?!"
"Now you see why we need to fix this!" Lars argued, jabbing a finger at the darkened, unlit sky above to cement the point. "Who knows what'll happen soon in the real world!"
"Yeah, okay, we kinda already got the point o' that!"
"Moose, please!" Willow growled at him.
"We must regroup with the others at once! We're running out of time!" Diana, helped by the other warriors, desperately rounded the remaining teens up to head back and meet with the gods and try to determine their next move.
Concurrently, Kris and his father were just as flabbergasted and indubitably paralyzed by fear by the sudden darkness that blanketed the realm and all within it. Deep below the uncharted territories of his rationale, it should come to no surprise to Kris that this was the next phase of Hel's plan against the world as she was basically orchestrating a recreation of the events leading to the apocalypse. First there was Fimbulwinter, then this. The infinite of nights all over the cosmos. Whatever comes next will undoubtedly be far worse and evidently even worse for humanity and the rest of the world, which means the end of the world is getting dangerously closer.
"I assume this is bad news." gasped Kris breathlessly, pointing his unblinking, petrified eyes upward.
"Sköll and Hati have succeeded." Loki grumbled, shaking his head, looking more disappointed than afraid. "No more sunlight and no more moonlight either. Ragnarök is almost upon us."
"Uh, right, they did mention that." Kris numbly noted.
"All the more reason for you and the other teens to help us fight." Michael explained to his son. "You understand?"
"But Surtr is gonna-"
"If he comes, we'll be ready for him. You and me." Michael reasoned with him while Kris knew, by the look in his eyes, that he was just as scared for his life as the boy was.
"Can't be any worse than that." Loki pointed skyward and soon father and son noticed that the same claw marks were starting to form in the sky and all around the fabrics of reality.
"I don't like the looks of that at all." Kris shuttered.
For his part, nothing would ever describe the terror gripping Kris's beating heart as his panicking brain indistinctly sorted out the terrorizing scenarios of how this eternal night would affect the earth back in the real world now that it's glaringly apparent to him that whatever happened in the Void happened in real life. If there was no sun, crops and plants would possibly die everywhere. If there was no moon, there would be no tides on the ocean surface. But worst of all, he was worried about how Mei and the others were handling this back home. They must be utterly terrified right now and he couldn't blame them. It scared Kris to think that Mei could be in danger. And Elsa must be worried sick about him.
One thing was for sure. There was no more time to dawdle around anymore.
Things were only getting much worse.
Everyone needed to get serious and it was time they took action more than they did before. Right now, they needed to rejoin the others at once and figure out what to do now. With Michael by his side, Kris ran back over to his friends just as they were approaching the city with Nörthfölk and it's safe to say that everyone was rattled to the core by now, but no one was more terrified than Nörthfölk for they knew exactly what the claw marks indicated.
"We're all seeing this, too, right?" asked a disturbed Roar.
"Yeah, what is that?" Kris spoke.
"Garm." answered Diana darkly. "Hel's unleashed the beast Garm in Helheim."
"You mean that giant white wolf covered in blood?" Stig shrilled, feeling his blood drop to sub-zero temperatures.
"Yes." The valorous and bold Stefan nodded, reaching for his trusty sword. "And that mongrel will chew through the fabrics of reality unless we deal with this immediately. The borders between Realms are becoming increasingly unstable even as we speak. We must act now!"
"Looks like shit just got real." Stig muttered derisively.
Back over at Gladsheim, every one of the Asgardians were lining the streets with burning torches in order to provide some light now that the darkness has come. But as everyone reached the city just outside of Valaskjálf, the situation was only becoming inexplicably more grim by the minute the longer these tears remained the more havoc Garm was causing. The claw marks were growing increasingly out of control and some of the gods were putting their best effort into attempting to hold off whatever came out of them all the while Freya was doing her best to seal them up with her magic. However, this was proving to be inevitably difficult for just one magic-user to close them up individually. Some of the marks were enlarging into these rifts all around, ejecting all from Helheim into Asgard from Hel-walkers to revenants to draugrs to even mound-dwellers, all of the violent undead were running freely from the afterlife thanks to Garm's rampage and with no time to lose, it became a fight to protect Asgard from these deceased fiends. Brunhild and Bödvar were there as well after returning to Asgard the minute they saw the claw marks materializing in the sky and almost automatically flew into fight mode once they saw the walking dead.
"They just keep coming!" Skaði cried, firing arrows at a few Hel-walkers coming her way, but her winter powers were useless against them since they come from Helheim, a realm of an eternal deep freeze.
"Læsa rífa…." Freya intoned in concentration of her magic, trying to patch up the torn-open portal bringing those dearly-departed into the land of the living.
"Willow, go help Freya. We'll keep them busy." Stefan ordered her strictly before going to lay waste to a couple of attacking Hel-walkers now on the loose, slicing and stabbing. The girl, while hesitant and scared, just nodded in obedience and rushed over, narrowly avoiding all of the flesh-hungry parished enemies and didn't stop until she was by her ancestor's side.
"How can I help?" She asked.
"Just recite with me. Læsa rífa." Freya commanded, solemnly casting the galdr along with Willow.
"Læsa rífa." Willow calmly followed her steps and together, both of their magical Vanir energy unified to muster all the power needed to help seal the rifts in the area while the others were busy vanquishing the undead.
"Zombie apocalypse! Nice!" Moose cried with delight while wrestling with a couple of revenants unlucky enough to surround him.
"Moose, focus!" Willow screamed at him before resuming the spell with Freya. "Læsa rífa…"
Carter, now making himself more useful in battle, charged at a Hel-walker and slashed a couple of them off of Moose after stealing one of their swords and this started to fill him with more confidence as a combatant. In no time, Thor came crashing down with Mjölnir from the sky above, sparkling with lightning, Týr came stampeding in with Mímir tied to his waist acting as his eyes behind his head, Sif used her more earthly magic to summon vines and deadly plants as well as generating concussive blasts from her hands, Thrúd was ready with her sword in hand, Baldur was just as unbeatable as Rudolf in terms on their shared invulnerability powers, expect that Baldur was more seasoned, Loki, despite his anger, zeroed in on the fight with his own magic and shapeshifting prowess and even Heimdall was getting in on the action, armed with his sword Hofund (Old Norse: Hǫfuð).
It's becoming an unyielding free-for-all between mortal, immortal and dead.
Michael assumes his bear form and fights several Hel-walkers and revenants coming his way, using his claws and teeth to his advantage, even magically enhancing his melee attack by allowing his jaw strength and claw swipes to have a much more effective and damaging effect on his adversaries. He had unleashed all of his Berserker Rage on the frozen zombies that were extremely relentless and when his claws and bites weren't enough, he had another attack he called the 'Call of the Wild', where he let out a very loud roar, triggering an uncontrollable sense of fear, terror and paranoid in his enemies, which forces them to back off, weakens their defense mode and prompts them to put their guards down and gives Michael the upper hand.
Kris helped out by summoning more lightning bolts, punching and socking some mound-dwellers and he used his Draupnir spear to shoot multiple projectile copies at dozens of undead all at once and pounded the spear on the ground, causing all nine of them to explode. Then one draugr came at him and tackled him through a wall of a building, growling and snarling, dropping all over him and before Michael could think to come to his aid, Kris kicked the frozen corpse off of him, grabbing him by the arms before Michael came in from behind and grabbed at the draugr's legs with his teeth, creating a tug-of-war that threatened to dismember the growling draugr, even when the foe wouldn't relent, no matter how painful it looked. That's when an Einherjar showed up and chopped the outstretched draugr in half through the middle with his ax, spilling the entrails on the ground, to which Kris had to avert his eyes. Regardless, Kris had to eye the dead corpse that was sliced into two halves and watched it dissolve into a flurry of ash.
"I mean, they're already dead, right?" Kris feebly reasoned and his bear father only shrugged with a moan. At least, in Kris's mind's eye, Stacy wouldn't have to worry about any of this right now. Poor girl was probably traumatized enough as it was.
Roar and Rudolf were putting their backs into it, fending off the undead enemies coming at them from all corners. A certain mound-dweller ambushed the Inuit teen with his sword, but it had no effect on him. So Rudolf retaliated by slapping it in the face over and over again before accidentally knocking its head clean off its shoulders, making him yelp.
"That's nasty!" He complained.
"Don't worry, they're not alive anymore!" Roar assured him while lopping off the arms and legs of some other revenants.
"Skjálfa!" Stig quickly drew his own arrow and fired it at some draugrs that climbed on top of a building, destroying them with the blast, sending their disembodied limbs showering down.
"Læsa rífa…"
"Læsa rífa…" Willow and Freya kept at it and it seemed like it was working finally. The opened portals were starting to slowly evaporate until what excruciatingly felt like forever, the rifts were finally closed up, but the undead were still running amok. Luckily, there wasn't that many left since most of them have been torn to shreds at this point.
"Behind ye! Watch oot!" Mímir hurriedly warned the God of War, seeing a mound-dweller coming at Týr from behind so he turned and smacked it in the face with his bare fist.
"For Asgard!" Brunhild screamed while hacking and slashing at several other Hel-walkers with her weapon of choice before spinning around again with her wings to create a chainsaw effect, which proved useful now that her wing had finally grown back.
Bödvar went buck wild when his own Berserker Rage kicked in in response to his battle lustful instincts and he screamed while tearing some Hel-walkers and mound-dwellers apart with his ax, not caring how much grave injuries he sustained in the process. Not even a dismembered arm would slow him down.
All members of Nörthfölk were no slouch when it came to combat, either. Stefan fought off the incoming enemies with Gram and when he came face to face with Brunhild, she only glared at him hatefully and said nothing to him, only focusing on the battle at hand. However, Stefan didn't blame her anger towards him given their past together. Loki shape-shifted into a stag and charged at a couple of Hel-walkers, impaling them on his antlers, killing them instantly and turning them into more ash. Then together, Kris joined Thor in electrocuting several other draugrs and mound-dwellers with their lightning abilities with wild abandon as the Einhejar and others had to duck for cover, both of them screaming war cries as their enemies instantly turned to more ash as a devastating result and it was at this rate that Kris was beginning to feel more and more like a powerful, mighty warrior.
That was the last of them, by the way. It was finally over.
For now.
"Oh, thank god, that was intense." Carter sighed with relief. "Almost as much as the giant lizard thing."
"Damn." Moose curiously picked up a severed Hel-walker limb on the ground, unafraid and without disgust while playing around with it. "Dead man walking."
"Put that down!" Roar hissed.
"There will be more of those things coming soon. I know it." Freya groused with terror.
"But you got magic, don't you? Why can't you just use it to undo all these cracks?" Willow asked her desperately.
"I'm only powerful enough to patch up one rift at a time and with that mangy Garm on the loose thanks to Hel, it'll be damn near impossible for me."
"Garm?!" shrieked Mímir, eyes widening in horror since it now made sense to him. "Great bleedin' fuck, she's freed Garm!? Och, this is a conundrum o' mountainous proportions!"
While Michael changed shape to return to his son's side once the fight was over, Odin and Frigg were just arriving at the scene to check up on everyone and see if the monsters were finally taken care of when they overheard that dreaded name they feared most of all, even more than Hel and were instantly paralyzed with fear.
"Garm?!" The All-Father looked like he was gonna be sick and for good reason. "Damn it, no wonder about the claw marks everywhere! First the sun and moon are gone and now Garm is free!"
Then suddenly an earthquake occurred, almost knocking everyone down which was a result of the roots of Yggdrasil being chewed through like the wires of a time bomb of a certain two-legged reptilian beast.
"And now Níðhögg's devouring the roots of Yggdrasil, wherever they are!" screamed Frigg.
"What's gonna happen then?" Kris asked, just as scared.
"If he keeps gnawing at the roots, the Tree of Life will most surely die." explained Baldur.
"Worse than that, now that Garm is free, he'll be eating through the veils of reality itself and everything in it. Hel-walkers are only the beginning." Týr claimed. "Soon, everything, literally everything we've ever known and heard of will no longer exist."
"And how long before Ragnarök comes?" asked Stig, gripping his bow.
"It's drawing nearer at the moment." answered Skaði, pale in the face. "Hel will be raising her army of the dead to storm Asgard's gates and then Surtr will have taken form to plunge the world in flames. Life as we know will be over."
"But first, she'll have to get Jörmungandr to let go of his tail that's holding Midgard together." Loki explained, putting his hate aside for now. "His spiritual form, that is. And now with darkness all around us and the rifts between Realms being scratched up, Hel will finally be free."
"But we can't let that happen, right?" asked Rudolf.
"Of course we can't." Odin declared sternly. "That's why we must deal with Garm and Níðhögg at once before they make their messes any bigger."
"Garm hasn't left Helheim just yet, but he will eventually." Heimdall reported to them. "I suggest we send one team there and the other to find the roots. But if anyone knows where those damned roots are, it's me. I remember every movement that lizard has ever made."
"But who's gonna be batshit crazy enough to head down into Helheim?" Thor asked, looking all around.
"Not me." Kris shook his head, immediately thinking back to when he mindlessly stepped into that unforgiving realm of the dead and got trapped down there. "I've already had my own bad experience in the land of the dead myself. I'm not gonna risk getting stuck there again."
"Good, that's why you need to be here with us in case Surtr shows up." Michael agreed with him, placing a hand on his shoulder.
"I'll go, then." said Stig bravely.
"Stig!" Michael objected with a cry, his shock turning to instant alarm when his adopted son said that.
"You will certainly not! That snarling mutt will tear you to pieces!" Sharing the same sentiment, Freya argued against it, fraught with fear for his life.
"I've dealt with that guard dog before, I can do it again." But Stig was not letting up.
"What do you mean by that?" demanded Michael.
"Even if you went, how will you even be able to stand a chance against Garm anyway?" asked Thrúd, hands to her hips. "That thing is vicious. Relentlessly vicious. He'll kill anyone he sees, including you. Are you really willing to take that chance?"
"I just wanna make up for what happened with Stacy." Stig admitted remorsefully, looking down.
"This won't-"
"I want to try." Stig interrupted Týr with a vice in his words. "But I won't go alone."
"Fine, then I'll go with you." Willow sighed, stepping over to him, armed with her bow and arrows. If he's going into Helheim to challenge a rampaging guard dog, then she may as well join him since she had magic on her side as did he.
"Me too. Ain't no hungry dog gonna scare me." And Moose was on board as well.
"This is insane." Michael was not about to allow his own adopted son and a couple of teens to put their own lives in any more danger, but they were really running out of time and options. And with the blood-stained hound of Helheim running loose and causing untold chaos and disarray, they needed to act fast and time was for too important.
"I'll go with them and I'll make sure they don't get eaten." Stefan volunteered.
"Well, alright. For the record, I still think this is a dumb idea, but there's really much I can do about it, I guess." Michael relented reluctantly before he turned to face Bödvar. "You best go with them, too."
"My lord?" The berserker tilted his head in confusion.
"You won't die as easily and you're the strongest fighter I know." said the bear demigod.
"I will do so with aplomb." Bödvar nodded like a soldier on the front lines before his lord turned to face his adopted son, looking him directly in the eye with his most seriousness, the most seriousness Stig had ever seen from his father.
"You stay safe, understand? Do what they say and above all, don't die. Got it? I'll never forgive myself if you get killed."
"I promise, dad."
So Stig gave him a hug to give him the calming reassurance that he's perfectly capable and that his father shouldn't be too concerned. After their embrace, the goth marched off with Willow and Moose, armed with their weapons - Stig had the Bifröst longbow, Willow had her own bow and arrows while Moose had his own bare hands - as they followed Stefan and Bödvar to go take care of the Garm dilemma while Brunhild vehemently led a team to find Níðhögg and put him out of his misery, followed by Skadi, Freya, Týr and Mímir. Michael took Kris will him to protect him when and if Surtr comes to make his attempt on his son's life while Roar and Rudolf went to go check up on Stacy and Toshio and keep them company for the time being.
Loki, meanwhile, was overtaken by a gleaming thought in his head. Maybe if he could go and find Hel and try to talk some kind of sense into her, maybe they can have something of a chance to end this disaster before it even reaches the end. But he'll need Angrboda's help, of course as they are both her parents. But the lingering question remains the same. How are they gonna be able to convince her to stop all of this or that they were even her parents at all? Hel hadn't seen her parents' face for a long time since she was but a little baby.
"Loki?" Odin stopped the shapeshifter just as he was about to take off.
"Yes?" growled Loki impatiently and angrily.
"Heimdall told us about what you've been staying earlier." explained the blue All-Father, lowering Gungnir. This caused the God of Mischief to pause curiously and pensively. "And it really got me thinking so much about that day. And honestly, I think I'm starting to get a better perspective now. Why you did what you did, why you murdered Baldur and allowed Ragnarök to happen. I realize now that maybe it is our fault this is happening again."
"Well…." Loki began calmly. "I know I've been a real agonizing pain in the past with my antics, but if you hadn't attacked my family, my children, then maybe the world wouldn't have ended. Baldur's life would've been spared, the Realms wouldn't have been destroyed and humanity wouldn't have suffered."
"I know that now." The old, one-eyed man nodded. "Perhaps I had been too irrational, too paranoid and too quick to jump to conclusions, even if it meant for the safety and preservation of our world. Hel didn't ask to be tossed into the underworld, helpless and alone. And everyone was so afraid of her, but it's not her fault she looked that way."
"She was just a little girl." murmured Loki, somberly.
"Yes, she was." Odin nodded, breathing a sigh. "And she was still your child. And your other children had to suffer as well. Fenrir, Jörmungandr, Narfi and Vali."
"Can you please not-" Even though Loki didn't enjoy hearing about it, Odin needed to plead his case.
"Listen to me. I know what you're planning. I know you all too well more than anybody else." Odin made him look him straight in the eye. "Hel could really use her parents right now. More than anything."
"She won't recognize me anyway."
"Try. That's all I ask. I only wish she had received a better life than she did before." With this said and done, Odin marched away to join Frigg and the others in deciding what they'll do next while two of their main biggest troubles were being dealt with.
"That's putting it mildly." Loki sardonically mumbled to himself with lack of confidence before toddling off himself. For everyone's sake, he could at least try to reason with her, but for him, he truly missed having her in his arms. He had visited his other monstrous sons before, but it's Hel he missed most of all for he was never allowed to see and even speak to her at all during her confinement in Asgard before her banishment. Although he couldn't bear to admit it, he wouldn't dare allow his home to be destroyed again.
Huginn went with the first group into Helheim to transport them there since all mystic gateways there had been sealed off. In all honesty, Stig wasn't too afraid of revisiting Helheim for starters since he's faced all his demons there and he's braved every obstacle it threw at him and his friends, so he was prepared for anything this time. He was ready to face the underworld a second time. When they arrived, even the realm of the deceased wasn't safe from the eternal night because it was pretty dark there now that the sun and moon were gone. To Stig, it reminded him of the unlit territory of Hel herself, except now the entire realm was unlit. They could still see, but just barely.
Stig just hoped that Hel wouldn't try to ambush them and attempt to pull any tricks to stop their process since they were entering her realm. However, there was this likely possibility that maybe this was part of Hel's plan when she freed Garm from his shackles. To distract them in order to give her the opportunity to work on the next phase of her end-of-the-world plan. Perhaps they were only doing what she was hoping they'd do. For all they know, Hel was waiting for the right moment to strike them once they've let their guard down and there's no telling what that half-dead witch was capable of. One thing Stig remembered was that she possessed powerful dark magic like no other
And regarding Garm; he was very vicious even in his bindings and could be even worse now that he's been released. Like he could easily bite your head off with just the snap of his gnarly jaws.
"And you sure about this?" asked Willow skeptically.
"Like I said, I've dealt with him before." Stig reiterated with a nod. "Only he was in chains then."
"Well, he isn't now. I just hope you're prepared for that." Stefan reminded him warningly while the group careened through an icy canyon following Bödvar's lead as he, once again, assumed bear appearance to sniff out the trail that would lead them to the wayward hound thanks to his enhanced animal senses. Right now, the scent was growing stronger the further they went and everyone kept up so they wouldn't lose him in the darkness.
"It's gonna be hard if we can see too well down here." mentioned Willow, failing to catch a glimpse of anything in the thick blackness everywhere in every corner. None was too easy to spot and that was to be expected.
"Can this even be killed?" Moose asked with worry. "Ah mean, he was chained up for a reason, right?"
"I used my exploding arrows on him before, but all it did was piss him off." Stig surmised.
"Well, how do you expect to beat him this time, then?" Willow demanded with a huff.
"You know, just pointing this out to help get our minds off of the insanity right now, Garm was indeed chained up for a reason and not just for tearing rifts in reality. He was infamous for devouring known concepts, like you know, time, creativity, abstinence and the like. For instance, there used to be a season that occurred between winter and spring."
"Are you serious?" chuckled Stig.
"That can't be right." Willow denied, frowning.
"I know. But then Garm consumed that particular season, the entire nature of it and everything else about it. And just like that, it was just…gone. Like it never happened to begin with."
"So there was a fifth season long ago?" The pink-haired goth girl gave this some thought, rubbing her chin.
"What was it? What was it called?" asked Moose.
"That's the thing. I don't know." Stefan shrugged his shoulders. "Nobody knows, because Garm ate it. That's what happens when he eats concepts. Nobody remembers literally anything about it, not even its name. All we know is that it used to be a thing at some particular point."
"Damn. Ah hope he's havin' menstruation for lunch." Moose jabbed mockingly, which made Willow growl and shove him harshly in the face for that rather insensitive remark. "Hey, relax."
"Suck it."
"Hey, so you're Moose, huh?" Stefan asked the rotund boy, changing the subject.
"Yeah, that's what they call me. My real name is Melvin. Melvin Monroe." Moose explained.
"And why do they call you 'Moose', anyway?"
"'Cause he's big, fat and heavy as a moose." Stig bragged with a mocking laugh, which made Moose glare at him.
Then the ground shook, cutting off their conversation. It made the teens nearly lose their balance, but Bödvar froze in his tracks when the scent made his nostrils flare before transforming back to normal.
"He's near. Be ready." He informed them softly, brandishing his sharp weapon as did Stefan while the teens stayed close behind.
The rumbling, booming and jostling about continued on and got louder and louder as they all got closer, keeping their eyes peeled and placed onto only the path ahead and kept together. Turning around the corner, even in the pitch darkness, they saw him there in all his gruesome visage with his ghostly white horripilated fur, the horrifically crimson blood spilling from his drooling lips down his chest, the many other chains tightly fastened around his body, his razor-sharp teeth and claws and finally the lifeless glaring eyes that displayed nothing - absolutely nothing.
Garm was really making a huge mess of things there in Helheim, tearing apart the glaciers all around him, creating avalanching boulders of hard ice that even the undead nearby were terrified of him. Even they were running from him. All the while, Garm was throwing a real fit, pounding the ground and jerking his head all around.
Possibly from being confined to chains all his life.
"Holy shit!" Moose cursed in horror from just the gaze upon the mutt's massive size alone.
Then Garm looked toward them, pointing his soulless glower into their own eyes, but didn't attack them. He only snarled threateningly towards them and stampeded away to cause more damage elsewhere. But they can't let him get away lest they risk lives and safety of all the Realms and everything as they know it.
"Come on! We can't lose him!" ordered Stefan, already charging down a direction where the beast could be heading.
"Thanks for telling us he was that huge, Stig!" The annoyed Willow hissed at him sarcastically as they raced after the monster together in a group.
"Shut up!" Stig fired back.
They made a quick haste, but not without caution since it was still pretty dark to see where they were heading, but Bödvar's nose never lied to him before, so it was the scent they trusted to help them locate the giant hound before it left Helheim. Garm couldn't have gotten too far. But now they suddenly had a new problem. A band of Hel-walkers standing in their way.
"This would be easier if I could see!" Stig complained when a couple of the dead enemies had him pinned to the ground since the lack of light was limiting and hindering their combat. Luckily, Bödvar came to his aid in bear form. Quickly, they made sure to lay waste to these undead ghouls slowing them down until Stefan chopped the head off of the last one with Gram.
With that obstacle out of the way, they continued on their way. Not stopping for a second to spare. This needed to be taken care of now. But by now, Stig was beginning to have second thoughts about all this. If he couldn't take down Garm before with his arrows, could he even be taken down at all? Garm just took that explosion to the mouth like it was nothing. But theoretically, Stig would just have to hit him harder now that he had his abilities and the help of others. They were getting much closer now. Just peeking through and past the frozen stanchions and stanchions and the hardened ice formations stood the massive, towering form of Garm over there in the distance, now just standing there, minding his own business. He seemed calm for the moment as if to take a breather, which the group decided to use to their advantage.
"How are we gonna do this?" asked Moose, looking anxious.
"We'll just have to keep hitting him and hitting him until he's down. And then the finishing blow." Stefan spoke on like a commanding officer in the military.
"Do we really need to kill it, though?" Willow asked, almost feeling something for the soulless creature.
"What choice do we have?" The lead guitarist retorted. "We can't take any chances."
"I'll go first. I won't go down that easily." Bödvar grimaced, readying his ax and after a few seconds of mental preparation, he darted across the frozen ground, he scaled the icy mass, jumped high into the air and grappling onto one pillar, then jumping from one pillar to the next like a jumping spider and emitting a furious warcry from his thundering mouth, lunged right at Garm's face with his ax, puncturing it directly into his snout in front of his eyes, drawing rivers of blood.
However, Garm growled in pain and in anger after being caught by the element of surprise, this sudden attack from the berserker punching at his head prompting him to shake his head everywhere while taking off running, even smacking his head against several pillars and frozen walls in his desperate attempt to knock the tiny man off of his face until he at last succeeded, tossing him right to the ground below where the others had caught up. An enraged snarl from Garm pulled out the fight within all that came before him to challenge him to the death and so the hound attacked them at every single chance he had.
"Skjálfa!" Willow fired some concussive arrows at him to stun him while Stig fired arrows of his own with his Bifröst longbow.
"Blæst!"
Neither had any damaging effect on the hound, only serving to anger him more.
Stefan jumped onto Garm's back and tried stabbing at him with his sword over and over, drawing more more, which made Garm spin around in circles while trying to turn his head to see behind him, in the process causing the chains that were still attached to the shackles on his ankles to swing around and almost hit those on the ground.
"Watch the chains!" Willow shouted.
Then Bödvar grabbed one of the chains and fiercely yanked on it to pull the hound off his balance and shove him against the ice rocks to the far corner on the ground, temporarily knocking him down while Stefan jumped off of him. However, this didn't last long for the Garm returned to his feet and was now madder than before. He snarled and swiped at them with his claws while they did their best to dodge and avoid his every move. Willow kept hitting him with magic arrows and every spell she was taught.
"It doesn't need to be like this!" Stig screamed at the mongrel.
"This is beyond reason, Stig!" Stefan reminded him sternly, avoiding Garm's claws.
Then Garm lunged his head at some of them with his open mouth, now trying to snap at them with his fangs and sharp teeth. When it lunged at Moose next after setting his eyes on him, he jumped out of the way of the teeth coming at him and punched at the mutt's face really hard, which only pissed it off some more.
"Fálki lið!" Stig summoned the spectral falcons to dive bomb into Garm's face, disorienting him, but then he retaliated by slamming his chains down at him, but he got out of the way in time for the bolt stuck to the end to embed itself into the ground, leaving Garm stuck.
Bödvar took advantage of this to pull the chain really hard, bringing the mutt's head closer to him and proceeded to punch his head extremely hard, right hook, left hook, uppercut, even slicing up his face with his ax before Garm had had enough before grabbing at the berserker's arm and ripping it clean off, horrifying the other teens before Garm grabbed his feet with his teeth and thrashed him all around like a chew toy before he threw him far away.
"Bödvar!" Stefan cried in despair.
Garm then pounded the ground at the remaining two, sending out waves of icy energy to knock them off their feet and only Stefan remained standing thanks to his shield. After that, Garm started shooting ice from his mouth at them, which were fired from his maw like frozen projectiles which impacted the ground very hard like large cannonballs. Willow and Moose were caught by those impacts, but Stig stood defiant and hit Garm repeatedly with his exploding arrows, those collections of explosions managing to blast him back and almost put him down.
But Garm only roared right into Stig's face with his mouth wide open before lunging his teeth at him, only Stig transformed into a sparrow at the last second before he could get ensnared and started pecking at the hound's eyes to annoy him.
"Alright, ya mangy mutt. Time to end this." Moose made a break for the chains and without effort, tossed the bolt right over Garm's head, wrapping the chain around his neck, catching him off guard. Transforming back, Stig caught on and grabbed the bolt before running over and tossing it over to a stone wall, lodging it into the hard exterior.
Suddenly, Bödvar - still alive and in one piece again - jumped back into the ring to stab Garm in the head with his ax, making the snarling mutt roar in agony and toss him right into the stairs next to the wall where the bolt was stuck, much to the amazement of the teens who thought he was done for.
"How are you not dead?!" Moose screeched, wide-eyed.
However, there was no time for an answer because Garm was charging right at them like a bull in a bullfight and rammed his head right into the wall. At that instant, Stefan continued on the offense whilst Willow and Stig latched onto the other bolt from Garm's other leg and gave it a good yank, forcing Garm to the ground.
Then Moose yelled maniacally as he ran and jumped right onto the creature's neck, making it wail. He grunted in determination, not letting the hound shake him off this time since he held on really tight this time and while the others held onto the chains to keep the animal immobilized, Moose got to work in wringing Garm's neck with all his fierce might. Garm bit, snarled and growled, but his own efforts were in vain for the burly boy pulled onto the furs on his head and gave them a damn good sharp tug to the side, turning his head all the way to the right side until he heard a hollow crack.
Garm shrieked, his icy breath bellowing into the dark air until…his whole body fell limp.
Stig and Willow both stared onto the scene wordlessly and owlishly. While everyone panted harshly to try and catch their breath from that immense battle with the hound of Helheim, Moose on top of the canine beast's lifeless body, feeling proud of himself for actually managing to kill such a colossal creature without armor or a weapon.
"Ah ain't no pussy." He growled at Stig, wiping the sweat from his forehead.
"Yeah, I thought so." The goth agreed.
Meanwhile back in Asgard, Kris and Michael were on the outside of the wall surrounding Gladsheim, hiking through the woods just about a mile away from where an Asgardian village lay delicately. During that time, Kris needed to voice his thoughts.
"What if we're only doing what Hel wants?" He asked.
"What do you mean?" His father said, looking at him.
"All of the gods could've tried to stop her at any given time or at least tried to and prevent her from trying to end the world, but they didn't." The boy explained thoroughly. "Instead, all they've done is make us train and stay ahead of her. We're pretty much playing her game."
"If the gods could stop Ragnarök from happening at all, you would've." His father genuinely hypothesized. "And if I had it my way, you wouldn't be stuck here, training so hard to stop a world-ending event."
"But we're here now."
"Yeah, we are."
At that very moment, they picked up the smell of smoke nearby. They looked all around and finally noticed that the trees near them were on fire. Moving careful near them while avoiding the flames, the two examined the scene gobsmacked while the fire helped illuminate the area. Only they couldn't find what could've caused it in the first place. Then came the heart-stopping sound of loud footsteps coming towards them, slowly and unpropitiously like a T-Rex closing in on its prey.
"Young boy. 15. Long chestnut auburn locks." boomed the sour voice of the one and only Surtr as he came lumpering toward them with his burning sword in hand. "...Kris Bengtsson."
"Stay with me, boy." Michael instructed his son, bringing him to his side.
"Björn." Surtr sneered, gripping the handle of his sword tightly. "King of the bears. Lord of the berserkers. Now standing here in my way."
"I know what Hel told you." Kris attempted, summoning his spear. "But you don't need to do this."
"I disagree."
Then Surtr yelled as he stormed forward, shouting as he raised his sword his into the air to strike it down on the boy, but Michael charged at him and grabbed at the sword, ignoring the burning pain in his palms and throw the fire giant at one of the burning trees, which broke upon impact. But Surtr used his sword to get back up and growl in anger. So when he was about to march toward them again, Kris shot a spear at him, which Surtr caught in mid-air, but Kris let it explode in his face, allowing him the chance to run directly at him and punch him meters back.
Michael and Kris both stood before him while the furious fire Jötunn stood back up after regaining his bearings and his fury boiled brighter than his body and his sword, which was set ablaze, then he charged them again and swung his sword at them, making them duck out of the way before Kris punched at his side and Michael clawed at his other. Then Kris jumped onto his back and started to punch him.
"Stop!" Surtr ordered him angrily, grabbing him and throwing him off his body. Michael, having assumed bear form, caught his son before he could hit the ground.
"You won't stop what must be done!" Surtr yelled as he continued his offense relentlessly, swiping his sword at Kris more times before slamming it onto the ground, creating a burst of flame onto the ground. Michael came at him from behind and slashed at his body with his claws, effectively hurting him and making him wail in pain, then Michael bit at his arm to make him drop the sword, but Surtr landed a hard blow to his face twice before he ripped his teeth off of him and tossed him aside.
"Killing me?!" Kris argued, shooting lightning bolts at him. "Is that really gonna make everything better?!"
"Don't patronize me, boy!" roared the ruler of Muspelheim, smacking him down with a slap of his wrist, but Kris got back up in no time. Michael returned to human form to imbue his hands with mystical energy, creating humanoid bear claws out of them, which he used to deliver blows of his own.
"You won't kill my son! None of this will bring your wife back!" Michael thundered, each blow of his claws, sending Surtr back with a powerful blast.
"Hel made her case very clear to me! This IS the only way!" Kris jabbed at Surtr with his spears, the fire giant took more swings of his sword and Michael slashed him with bear claws.
"Sinmara won't allow herself to be reborn! She wouldn't want this!" Michael pleaded with him now as they continued fighting. More dodges, swipes and parries and it almost seemed Surtr was close to gaining the upper hand.
"You don't get to tell me what my wife wants!" The magma-infused towering man thundered in their face. And then he slammed the tip of his sword down into the ground so hard, he telekinetically sent the father and son duo flying back kilometers away, leaving them both almost stunned until Surtr came in, leaping high into the air, ready to stab Kris. However, he rolled away just before the flaming blade could impale him and he blasted Surtr back with his lightning and roared into the heavens, summoning an entire cascade of lightning bolts from thunderclouds in the sky and sending them raining down on Surtr.
Even though he blocked them with his sword, Kris brought forth the wrath of the storm and unleashed a massive amount of lighting to combine against each other onto Surtr, making him shout from the electrical sting of many bolts electrifying his body. Then an explosion occurred, nearly weakening him.
"Don't you get it?! She's using you! Hel is lying to you!" Kris kept trying to convince him otherwise, but he wouldn't listen.
"Enough!" Surtr energized his sword with fire and was about to hit the boy with them when Michael latched onto his arm and the two fought for dominance over the other while Kris came in and stabbed at him with his spear, helping his father in restraining their flaming adversary.
"Even if you do go along with this, you still die just like everyone else!"
"It matters not!" Surtr grabbed at them both and threw them both to the ground, still stronger than them both combined. "I'll still be with her again. Only Hel can let me be with her again."
"Hel can't do that!" Kris yelled at him. "She doesn't have the power to bring back the dead!"
"And how would you know, Kris Bengtsson?! Humor me, if you will." dared Surtr, indignantly bringing his sword up.
"I know what it's like to lose someone you love and everyday you wish they were still there with you." Kris explained, putting his spear away to try settling this with words. Michael looked at his son sadly when this brought back the memory of when he was murdered in front of him. "I already lost my father long ago to a maniac when I was just a boy and every day, I kept seeing his face in my nightmares. Every day, I missed seeing his face. But as much as I want to hate the man that took his life, sometimes we need to learn to let go. They're with us no matter what."
"But I can't let her go. I can't." Suddenly, the rage in Surtr's voice simmered down to a gentler, but rough voice as he lifted his beard to show them Sinmara's heart inside his chest. "I have her heart. This is all I have left of her now."
"Sometimes loving someone means having to choose…the lesser pain." Michael came in next, speaking sagely. "What I mean to say is, well, our loved ones wouldn't want us to waste our lives over what we don't have anymore."
"She…..she was my life." Surtr actually stammered, actually allowing their words to sink in.
"And so is Mei, the love of my life." counseled Kris calmly. "I love her. She's everything to me. And right now, Ragnarök is going to end the lives of everyone I know, including hers. I don't wanna lose her. I can't lose her. It isn't fair. Do you understand me?"
For a moment, Surtr settled down and glanced longingly at the ground, suddenly feeling his grip on the sword start to loosen. All this time, he never considered that the boy he's been made to kill has a lover of his own, much like he did eons ago. And this made him see himself in the boy in a way.
"You truly love her?"
"Yes, I do. Please don't make me lose her." Kris begged him.
Silence now and only the sound of his breathing that Surtr heard over the crackling of the flaming trees. All of the sudden, a feeling of queasiness entered his system and threatened to overtake his senses. He may have lost his love a long time ago, but this boy was no danger to anyone, not even to him. And Kris was in danger of losing his own girl in an apocalyptic event which reminded him about how he lost his own. He had wasted years and years of hard, tiresome work in his personal forge, awaiting his revenge on the Æsir.
And now he began to realize how much the boy's life truly meant. How precious it seemed. If what they're saying is true, then Hel has in fact been misleading him for her own needs. He had been a pawn to her game all this time, using his loss and his pain as a tool to manipulate him into serving him so she could destroy the gods and all of mankind.
Finally, he lost his grip on his sword and let it drop to the ground.
"I mean, ah kinda had to, right?" Moose tried rationalizing the situation to his friends while the group headed off down a hallway to a decrepit building away from Garm's corpse to go look for Huginn. "That thing was tryin' t' kill us."
"I still wish we didn't have to." Willow whined.
"Well, at least it's over now." Stefan assured them, sneaking a brief glance to them. "Garm's done for, so let's just head back to Asgard if we can."
"You know, when I looked into his eyes, I saw nothing." Stig said, thinking aloud to them.
"Nothing? You mean…" mused the pink-haired one.
"I mean, he didn't look like he had a soul." theorized the black-haired one, his mind trying to make sense of his newfound diagnosis. "And if he doesn't have a soul, then-"
BAM!
They were certainly taken by when a bolt crashed through the stone wall in front of them, creating a huge hole that revealed on the outside, to their indistinguishable disbelief and voiceless horror,….there he was again.
Garm.
Snarling at them.
Even more furious than ever before.
"What?!" Willow's heart thumped with insane speed and her eyes turned wide and she felt sick as did the rest.
"How….?" Bödvar, too, was flabbergasted without any chance of wrapping his head around it while everyone was certain he was just dead a moment ago. Moose had just snapped his neck. His body was limp.
"Didn't ah just kill that guy?" Moose stuttered, shaking in his boots.
Garm, apparently alive again even after having his neck broken, turned to face his fiery hate right onto Moose, the one that took his life mere seconds ago and there were no words to describe the fury he felt or even the terror Moose felt when he felt his glare target directly at his own eyes.
"Nice doggy…..?" This didn't help at all.
Nobody had any time at all to react or prepare themselves for what happened next in seconds flat. Garm thrusted forward, blasting himself through the wall and right at Moose with his teeth to chomp down on him to get his revenge. Luckily, Moose caught his teeth in teeth before they could bite down on his body and Garm ran through the wall, past the others and charged directly into a wall, slamming Moose's back against it while he strainfully kept the hound's gaping mouth open to avoid getting swallowed whole.
"Alright, ya wanna go again? Fine by me!" Moose challenged it bravely.
In falcon form, Stig flew through the gap between the teeth and flew directly into Garm's eye with his talons, forcing the wrathful mutt off of Moose, sending him to the ground.
And so it was now onto the second round.
Bödvar threw a giant stone boulder into the canine beast's face, turning his attention and making him fire ice blasts at him with his mouth, which the berserker bravely took each one like a man. Not even ice was gonna deter him. Then Garm roared at him and snapped his maw at him, but he jumped away and stabbed his nose with his ax, which brought another excruciating pain to the Helheim hound.
"Skjálfa!" Willow fired an arrow at him, which only pissed him off like before. Then he grabbed his chain with his teeth and swung at her like a bullwhip and when she tried dodging it, she was sent to the ground until something fell out of her pocket.
It was the dagger that Freya helped her use to encase the dying wolf's soul, which gave her an idea.
Garm was still attacking, sending out shockwaves in the ground with his paws, trying to get them with that sinister mystic energy that would surely do them a great deal of harm. After shooting ice blasts at them again, Garm swung his chain down onto the ground to swat them like annoying flies.
"Aim for the shackles!" Willow ordered.
"What?!" Stig balked.
"Just do it!"
"Fine!" Stig nonetheless obeyed, but still wondered what she was up to when he fired his arrow at the shackle on the left leg. "Blæst!"
Just like that, the shackle was broken, freeing Garm's left leg from the first chain. The hound jumped over them, but Moose caught the bolt to the next chain and lodged it right into the ground, causing the enormous mutt to fall down, allowing Stig to fire an arrow at the last shackle.
"Blæst!" Both shackles were gone and in pieces, freeing Garm from his chains, but what this was supposed to mean for them, nobody knew since Garm was still on the rampage.
"Get me onto his head!" demanded Willow.
"You better know what you're doing!" Stig snarled, irate. "HEY!"
Garm roared at him when he shouted at him and when he lunged at them with his teeth, this time, Moose and Stig both grabbed onto the blood-soaked mongrel's snout and clamped it down as hard as they could. Bödvar helped them out while Willow took the opportunity to climb onto Garm's head while he struggled against their hold and then she impaled his head with the dagger shouting…
"Vekja!"
With his last bit of strength, the mutt shoved all of them off with Willow flying helplessly off his head until he was caught by Moose in his arms, but then she wrestled out of his hold and they all watched as Garm suddenly laid onto the ground, his snarling and growling dying down and his furious shaking and vigorous, relentless body language went away and with it, his murderous and psychopathic demeanor.
"What was that?" asked Stig, looking at the girl.
"What did ya do?"
Saying nothing, Willow just cautiously walked over to Garm to get a look at him.
"Be careful, please." Stefan urged her with fear.
But when she got closer, the mutt wasn't giving off that dangerous aura anymore and Willow saw that he wasn't looking very much like that bloodthirsty monster that tried to kill them milliseconds ago. He wasn't making a move to attack her or to try to make an attempt on her life. He just sat there and let her come. Garm turned to look at her and in his eyes, yellow wolf-like pupils.
She gasped. It worked.
"A soul transfer spell." She spoke in a breeze-like tone of voice. "It's what Freya taught me."
"Are you serious?" Stig was amazed himself, now feeling safe enough to step closer. Garm didn't attack or growl. Instead, he just sniffed the boy curiously and hesitantly, he patted his nose.
"So he has a soul now? But who's soul?"
"I guess that wolf that died in my arms." Willow guessed with a shrug.
Then Garm arose to his feet and nobody made a move to defend themselves or even to stop him. Garm wasn't dangerous anymore. He looked at them all, inspecting them and then walked away, jumping over ice and stone structures until he was out of sight. And everyone was the most gobsmacked by this turn of events. For it was for a fact that Garm, the vicious, carnivorous and blood-soaked guard dog of Helheim….was now a curious and perpetually harmless animal roaming the afterlife freely.
"You're welcome!" Willow called out to him.
At the same time, a rift left open in Asgard somewhere far away, the dark and direful figure of Hel loomed in from the portal from Helheim that she had found outside of her hall by some striking coincidence and she was left stepping out of the afterlife for the very first time in her life and into the living realm of the gods smiling deviously. With the eternal darkness plaguing the lands, she was now free to traverse the environment all on her own, thanks to the absence of light.
And she breathed in the cool, brisk air, feeling a sense of nostalgia from that air after spending generations in the deathly cold of the underworld and there was no denying it.
She was free.
Hel was finally free.
"Time to face doom, Asgard. I hope you're ready for me." She quipped darkly with a cold, black sneer. All that's left of her plan now was to get her serpent brother to release his tail in his astral form and thus starts the beginning of the end. Looking skyward, she used her night vision and her magic to see a giant, serpentine body spirit in the sky even in the dark night and it was obviously who this was.
"Hel?"
With a gasp, she whipped her head over to see two faces she's never seen before in her life. Loki and Angrboda were standing there, having waited by the rift after they knew where it led to. And it took every fiber of his being for Loki to not shed tears when he saw her again in the flesh. His own daughter standing right before his very eyes. And this sentiment was naturally shared with Angrboda, who was saddened to remember the day her daughter was taken from her when she was born and never saw her again. If it weren't for the messy circumstances at hand, this would be a warm welcome for the three of them. However, Hel didn't share the sentiment since it was only strangers she saw.
"Who the fuck are you two?" She growled.
Their faces fell drastically by that cruel question. It was unfortunate that their own daughter doesn't know who they are, but it wasn't unexpected either. Hel's spend her whole live without a single clue who her birth parents were.
"Hel, I know this may be bit of a shock, but...I'm your father." Loki began gently and delicately, struggling not to let his tears show.
"What did you say?"
"It's true, baby." Angrboda begged her, trying not to let her voice break. "You may not remember us, but we're your parents. It's me, your mother."
"You're...my parents?" asked Hel in confusion.
"Yes, we are." nodded the giantess painter, taking a step closer. "I remember the day I gave birth to you. I remember when you were just a cute little baby. I didn't care if you didn't look normal, you were still my child. Then the day when the Æsir took you away and I was helpless to do anything about it. I really missed having you in my arms. I never stopped thinking about that."
Hel didn't know what to say. To her credit, this was a most unexpected surprise. And yes, she had longed to see her parents again one day during her confident, but she had given up hope when Odin casted her down into the underworld like spoiled fish. She just stopped caring about that and focused only on her fury at the gods for subjecting her to endless torment of loneliness in the afterlife, surrounded by rotting, frozen corpses.
"But if you're really my parents, why didn't you ever come visit me?" Hel asked them suspiciously, crossing her arms.
"We couldn't." Loki regretfully stated. "The gods forbade us both from ever even coming near you. Odin made that perfectly clear. I couldn't question him then. But I really wished I had."
"Well, I..." Hel lost her words. She couldn't think of what to speak next.
"Baby, look at me." Angrboda gestured her daughter's attention over to her as she held her hands out welcomingly, trying to bring her little girl out into the open. "You're not wrong for being angry at the gods. I have never forgiven them for taking you and your brothers away from us. It wasn't fair. You never asked for the life they gave you. You always wanted to see your parents again and we could never be there for you then, but we're here now. It may be late now, but it won't stop me from seeing my girl again. Please, Hel, don't do this. This won't change anything. Listen to me, Hel."
Hel listened, but...what could she even do?
As if things weren't bad enough, Garm is running amok chewing through the tears of reality itself and Níðhögg is gnawing on the roots of Yggdrasil like crazy. And tears causing Hel-walkers to spill into Asgard from Helheim. So now they have to split into two group to look into the two problems before they get worse. Stig, Willow and Moose go to Helheim to help stop Garm before he does anything worse. Of course, this is easier said than done, but that won't stop them. Garm is tough and formidable all on his own, but they have powers and strategy. But Garm can't even be killed since he is amortal, which means he cannot die because he was never alive to begin with. But thanks to the dagger she got from Freya and the spell she learns, Willow gives Garm a soul to end his rampage for good.
Surtr has caught up to Kris in Asgard to finally do away with the boy so he can finally be with his wife, but Michael is there by his son's side and helping him survive. Without a little reasoning and sharing his own experience with loss, Kris gets Surtr to finally accept that he's being used as a means to an end. But will this truly stop Ragnarök from happening? We'll see soon.
Loki and Angrboda have at last reunited with their daughter after years and years apart. However, it won't be the happy family reunion they were hoping for because Hel doesn't recognize them at all due to be placed in isolation against her will since infancy, which is really dark.
Next Chapter: Surtr has a change of heart while Hel refuses to listen to reason with her parents and proceeds with her plan anyway. Back in Asgard, everyone gets ready for battle and Heimdall signals a call-to-arms to the other Realms with Gjallarhorn.
Next Update: Oct. 20, 2023
