Chapter 10: Asgard Part II
The Royal Palace of Valaskjalf is easily the tallest structure in Asgard. It acts as the main residence for the Asgardian royal family and stands at several multi story high tall. It's exterior is made from pure gold, uru and other rare metals. And it's interior is filled with many rooms and chambers. These chambers and rooms each served a unique purpose. From the Throne Room which served as where Odin held court most days and presided over kingly matters. The War Room which was where Odin and his generals met privately to discuss matters of war and conflict. And the Great Hall was where great celebratory feasts and galas were normally held. With many other miscellaneous rooms and chambers.
Beneath it all, hidden under several layers of enchanted granite lies Odin's vault of treasures. A place filled with numerous relics and weapons of such great power, Odin himself felt it necessary to lock them away, so they could never be used for general evil or against Asgard. Guarding this vault filled with powerful artifacts was the equally powerful Destroyer Armor. A twelve foot tall, automaton made of pure uru and further enhanced with powerful dark magic. The hulking humanoid was a creation of the dwarven craftsman Eitri, and is said to be loosely inspired in terms of looks, by the powerful and mysterious cosmic giants known as the Celestials. Thus the name Destroyer was ironic considering the Celestials it was modelled after are know more for their acts of creation than destruction.
But the name "Destroyer" is still quite a fitting one. Not only is it stronger and more durable than the combined strength of one thousand Asgardian men. The beams of energy it fired from it's face region, were embers of the neutron star that powered the dwarven forge of Nidavellir. And even though the automaton was currently dormant, should it detect a thief and is unable to immediately vanquish them, the automaton will not rest and will relentlessly chase after the thief, even to the ends of nine realm if necessary, in order to retrieve the stolen artifact and terminate the thief.
In short if Thor and Hyperion could secure this weapon it would be an indispensable asset in the upcoming war with the deviants. But the problem is the Destroyer Armor only follows the instructions of the current ruler of Asgard. Or the person who wields Gungnir ,the gold colored uru spear which serves as the symbol of Kingship in Asgard. But both Odin and the spear were somewhere on Musphelheim quelling an uprising and they would be nigh unreachable whiles in the middle of battle there.
The All Mother Frigga ,a powerful witch in her own right, could possibly dispel the enchantment that restricted the use of the Armor. But it would take at least a week of incantation and preparation on her part to do so. Time Hyperion and Thor did not have.
So for two entire days Thor and Hyperion were forced to sit back and simply watch as Frigga tried in vain to muster up another army for them to use from their allies from the other nine realms. Jotunheim, the realm of frost giant obviously refused. Same for Nilfheim and Musphelheim who Asgard was currently directly at odds with. The remaining realms claimed they could not offer any troops as they had no standing armies. Their reasoning being they had grown so accustomed to Asgard fighting all their battles for them, that they no longer saw the need for a standing military force of made up of their own.
Things were beginning to look hopeless, as the duo barely had hours left to find a substitute army, before they had to reconvene with the others back on Midgard. But they were saved from the humiliation of returning back to Earth empty handed by an unlikely ally. Loki.
Thor and Hyperion had been avoiding Loki for the past two days using the excuse that they were busy searching for a fighting force. But really they were just embarrassed about their last encounter whiles under the influence of the truth serum, and weren't ready to deal with him yet. The truth serum had long since left their system and with it the desire to spew out the truth, but the damage it had wrought was long lasting. Hyperion and Thor as much as they tried to pretend otherwise knew their friendship had undergone a drastic upheaval and things were a bit awkward between the two.
It was as they were sat awkwardly eating a simple meal in the empty Great Hall, attempting to brainstorm ideas for an army, when Loki showed up. He casually walked in and nonchalantly plopped himself down in the space between the two of them, on the bench they sat on. He then began to help himself to food from both their plates without asking. Neither of them got a chance to react before he began to talk "I heard you two need help with the Destroyer Armor. I think I can help with that" he said as he munched on a piece of bread stolen from Hyperion's plate.
"How could you do that? Mother herself said she would need a week to override the enchantment on the destroyer armor" Thor asked suspiciously. Loki picked up Thor's chalice of mead and took a noisy slurp from it before replying. "I never said I could override it. Only that I could help. So do you want my help or not?"
Confused by what Loki was saying Thor opened his mouth to ask more questions but Hyperion cut in asking "What do you want in return?"
"Nothing. Why would I need a reason to help my dear old brother and his...associate" Loki replied smiling innocently but his eyes glinted with mischief. Thor didn't believe this for a second, but he was desperate. He sighed already knowing he would regret this before saying "Tell us".
Gleefully Loki did. And immediately Thor knew why Loki wanted no reward. Regardless of whether this worked or not Hyperion and Thor would definitely be hurt or even worse in the course of this plan. But as risky as the plan was, it just might work. Not long after offering his advice Loki got up having polished off both their plates whiles they had been talking and left. Not showing any signs that he intended on helping them carry out his plan.
After Loki left, the two discussed it briefly among themselves. Concluding that it was dangerous but they simply did not have a choice.
They decided not to let Frigga or Heimdall know what they were planning as they wouldn't agree with something so risky. And so the duo went down into the Vault by themselves.
They walked around a bit hashing out final details of their plans, before settling on a nondescript looking dagger sitting on podium. With one brief moment to gather themselves and steel their nerves, Hyperion picked up the the dagger off the podium. Immediately there was ominous hum and a wall peeled back to reveal the Destroyer armor standing in an alcove.
The metal giant took a loud series of steps forward before stopping to scan the room. It zeroed in on Hyperion holding the dagger and began to march towards him.
"Go !!! Just as we planned." Thor barked to Hyperion. With a resolute nod, Hyperion began to levitate off the ground before jetting out of the vault still wielding the dagger. The Destroyer despite it's bulk managed to quickly turn his head towards the fleeing form of Hyperion and unleash a powerful stream of energy from it's face. The beam likely would have hit it's mark if not for Thor smacking the Armor hard enough that it's attack went wide and missed Hyperion.
The Destroyer turned back to face Thor and retaliated with it's own smack sending the god of thunder flying backwards and denting a wall in the process. The armor then turned it's attention back to Hyperion and began to chase after him, it's heavy metal feet causing loud booms as it run.
Thor quickly recovered from the hit and wiped a trickle of blood that had formed from his mouth. Despite the situation, Thor couldn't help be impressed by the strength or the Armor. It's no easy feat to make the god of Thunder bleed with one hit. Thor quickly spun his hammer around to gain momentum then he flew after the quickly moving Armor. He had only been down for a few seconds but already the armor had covered a lot of ground. A testament to it's surprising speed. But left in it's wake was smashed walls and scorched structures. Thor winced as he passed by the destruction, hoping no one got hurt by the errant attacks from the Armor meant for Hyperion.
The Armor was relentless in it's pursuit of Hyperion, not caring about the collateral damage it was wreaking and only caring about retrieving the stolen artifact and exterminating the thief who took it. And as bad as this was, it was what they wanted and the thing their plan hinged on.
The plan was simple. The Destroyer will chase after any stolen artifact taken from the vault, annihilating anything in it's path. Thus if Hyperion could stay alive along enough they could lure it down to Earth under the pretext of it chasing after the stolen dagger. Then, once on Earth they toss the stolen relic over to the Deviant King Kro, effectively making him the new target of the Destroyer's wrath. From there the Armor would hopefully kill the deviant or at the very least severely weaken it. But this plan only worked so long as Hyperion wasn't killed or dropped the dagger.
Thus Thor's job was to prevent the Armor from getting clean hits on Hyperion. Being the heir to the throne of Asgard the Armor might knock him around but never go for a killing blow. Hyperion on the other hand had no such protection and was very much at risk of dying, so he needed to move quickly. He couldn't engage the Armor in direct combat because he would likely lose and die. And he might end up dropping the dagger during a skirmish. So for now all he could do was fly around and keep out of reach of the automaton and maybe fire off some of his own golden energy beams from his eyes to distract or stall the suit.
Thor soon caught up to the Destroyer, once again smacking it hard with his hammer, but this time hitting with Soo much force the automaton was sent flying away through several rooms and chambers effectively giving the duo a moment of reprieve.
"Are you okay" Thor asked. "I should be asking you that" Hyperion said in reply.
"This is harder than I anticipated" Thor admitted as he cast a furtive look in direction he had sent the Armor flying.
"Don't worry. So long as we stick to the plan we should get through this" Hyperion assured.
Suddenly from the direction in which Thor knocked the Armor to, a wide beam of energy swept towards them. Both Thor and Hyperion barely ducked the attack but that only meant the orange beam cleaved through several pillars instead. Those pillars being the main support for the many floors of the Royal Palace of Valaskjalf. With them gone the palace was at risk of total of collapse. And it being that it was the tallest structure in Asgard if it fell it's entire length would likely fall across large parts of Asgard city. Killing hundreds if not thousands.
Without hesitation both Hyperion and Thor rushed over to takeover the loads the pillars had been supporting. The both grunted and strained from the effort but, ultimately they managed to avert the collapse for awhile by acting as living pillar replacements. But that meant they had to stay still to support the entire weight.
Meaning, they were easy targets for the Armor. And sure enough, the Armor was emerging back into view walking slowly towards Hyperion.
"Go!!, You are a sitting duck like this. I'll handle this" Thor urged through gritted teeth.
"I'm not leaving you to carry this entire palace. Besides, without you to stall it, I'll be dead soon enough anyway." Hyperion yelled back.
"Odin's beard this isn't, going anywhere like planned" Thor said as the Destroyer Armor slowly grew ever closer to them. Eager finish what they had started.