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: Neck injury, blood, decapitation, stabbing
It was finally over.
All of this effort, all of this pain and all of this suffering. Everything they had punched their way through and it was all worth it in the end. They had destroyed the monster attacking Asgard, put an end to Ragnarök for good and they've saved everyone from certain doom. Kris will be able to head back home after all, see Mei, Ming, everybody. And to think after everything everyone's been through to reach this point in his journey; getting abducted by Huginn and Muninn, almost killed by a dragon, reuniting with his father whom he thought was dead, training day after day with his friends to become fearless warriors, met a four-winged bird giant, fought a root-gnawing lizard beast and the hound of Helheim, dueled with Surtr, battled the army of the undead, tussled with the Ragnarök giant and finally put him in his place, it had finally paid off. What a summer vacation this was.
Kris would undoubtedly be fired from his house sitting job, though that was the least of his concerns right now. And as everyone celebrated there in the ashen field with Stacy and Toshio finally sharing a first kiss - though they pulled back with a mad blush and dopey smiles - others came over to check up on them from Odin, Thrúd, Brunhild, Bödvar, Sif, Ratatoskr, Svir, Thrum and Nörthfölk after getting a good close assessment of the ash in the desolated area they were situated in, it's clear from the get-go that Ragnarök has finally been vanquished.
"Some father and son activity, huh?" Kris asked his father with amusement.
For sure, this definitely wasn't something every other father and son would do together, so Michael just chuckled softly and agreed with him saying, "Yeah, I guess so."
"Can't believe it, but you actually did it." Sif told Kris and the rest of his friends. "You've defeated Ragnarök."
Ratatoskr exclaimed with happiness as he zipped over to hug Rudolf, glad that he's alright.
"You truly are a hero." Odin congratulated Kris.
"Oh, well, thanks. I couldn't let everyone down." He responded humbly.
"Come here!" Svir came over and hugged him hard as did Thrum with both dark elf brothers bringing him into an uncomfortably tight embrace.
"Celebration hug!" cried Thrum, hugging the boy tighter.
"That's enough, you two." sighed the All-Father.
Reluctantly, they freed the poor boy from their clutches and gave him his space back before Thrúd approached the boy, also impressed, but also quite astonished that he had actually willingly risked his own life for all of them.
"To think you actually almost got yourself killed for all of us." She reminded him.
"Hey, I only did it for my girlfriend. But you guys were worth saving, too." Kris honestly answered.
"Well…" To be fair, Thrúd wasn't too sure about that, no matter how grateful she was that her own descendent helped save their lives.
Meanwhile, Hel arrived after realizing that nothing cataclysmic had occurred yet and she arrived at the scene further away from the group and eyed the ashen environment with dismay and increasing anger. She knew that all of the ash meant that Ragnarök had been destroyed, despite being sure that no one would be able to defeat him. She was counting on it.
Her whole plan was counting on it.
And worst of all and it only ignited her fury even brighter, everyone, especially Kris, was still there, dirty and worn out from battle, but still alive nonetheless.
And it.
Made.
Her.
Angry.
"Well, you should really be proud of yourself, boy." Stefan reminded Kris gratefully. "Your bravery and determination helped save billions of lives. Wouldn't have done it without you."
And Kris was grateful, too, to hear that from his favorite band member from his favorite band in the world. In fact, he did feel proud of himself that he managed to save the lives of everyone in the world from the apocalypse. This was the work of a hero and an act that would forever be remembered in his honor by the gods of old. However, he can't help but think of something, something that they were forgetting. And then all of the sudden, he got his answer and it nearly made his heart stop.
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
On the contrary, it made him bolt from his spot on the ground and nearly froze his blood when it pierced the calm and still air like an air raid siren. Everyone else who heard as well had similar reactions of their own when it rudely interrupted their moment of congratulatory success for they all saw Hel standing there, completely livid at having her plan gone to ruin. For three years, she had worked tirelessly in piecing together every bit of her master plan for revenge against those who imprisoned her. Meticulous sculpting and careful thought process and a mixture of manipulative dark magic, kidnapping a descendant of the Goddess of Bowhunting, freeing her nephews and sending them both on a chase, waking up Surtr and forcing herself to murder him when he refuses to cooperate, assembling an army of undead monsters to do her bidding, all of it ruined and words aren't enough to describe her fury.
"You little brat!" She growled, pointing a finger at Kris, making him freeze in place when her ire was sharply directed at him, almost reminding him of Ming when he used to work for her. "You little fucking, impossible brat! You and all your meddlesome friends! Do you have any idea how long it took for me to put all this together?! How long I had to work by myself just to finally get my revenge?! Three years! You got that?! I've spent centuries rotting away in the darkness of the underworld thanks to some one-eyed old geezer too afraid to even look at me! This was my one and only chance to finally show each and every one of them how I felt!"
"By what, huh? Ending the world? Killing off the world's population? Destroying everything?" Kris shot back bravely. "What did you even expect to gain out of it anyway?"
"It's not about gain! It was never about gain!" thundered the death goddess furiously. "It was about getting even!"
"Yeah, well, you sure went to the extreme just for that, lady!" Rudolf shouted back.
"You kidnapped me and tortured me! Made me see things I wish I could unsee!" Stacy complained, glaring at the goddess with contempt, not even a little afraid of her half-dead appearance.
"And you tried to kill us all!" Willow stepped in, feeling angry herself. "We hadn't done anything to you!"
"So what?!" Hel shot back. "I spent my whole life with nothing and nobody! I had nothing left to lose!"
"That's your excuse?!" Kris scoffed. "We're supposed to pay for you having no life growing up?! Can I suggest taking a good long look at yourself for a change?! Maybe then you'll actually see how fucked up you really are!"
"Oh, I'll show you fucked up, whelp!" Hel growled as her eyes glowed a bright and eerie, ghostly shade of green as did her hands. "Vekkja!"
Then she slammed her hand on the ground, really smacking it into the earth to allow her magic to flow through and do its work by making green wisps of her dark magic to spread around the ground, creating a shake in the ground. But what exactly that spell did, they were about to find out and it would make jaws drop. All the ashes that covered the ground, minus them, floated upwards like they were fluttering in reverse. And as everyone watched the shower of grayness fly up into the sky like a massive swarm of insects, their confusion turned to horror when they saw that Hel was using her magic to reconstruct the body of Ragnarök out of the ashes, the itty bitty pieces of its burnt flesh, reforming only the top half of him with the arms, the torso and most importantly the head. However, since it was only an empty body with no soul, only Hel's dark magic controlled it now as its eyes and chest glowed green.
Even the gods standing below were stunned to see that the Goddess of Death was even capable of such power of this capacity, though strictly speaking, she did, in fact, had the power to control and manipulate the corpses of the dead; take possession of lifeless organic beings and use them as she saw fit. It then started obeying its creator's commands by raising its hand and preparing to slam it down onto her victims on the ground.
"Oh, that is so not fair." Stacy whined.
Everyone moved out of the way just as the hand came slamming down on the ground just barely missing them by a hair. The quaking slam knocked them away, but it didn't affect them at all. However, now their guards were up now that Hel was controlling the corpse of the world-ending monster to put an end to them all no matter the cost. All bets were off now for Hel and it no longer mattered to her if they live or die. Her rage clouded her mind and she was out for blood now. Her plan was ruined, Surtr didn't kill Kris, the world didn't end and she was royally pissed now. Her rage would scare the hairs off of even the toughest out there. The possessed Ragnarök beast with no legs kept attacking them regardless of his lack of legs and it proved to be a stronger threat than before, if not lesser.
Kris screamed as he fired lightning at the beast's face, but Ragnarök blocked the bolts with his hand and smacked him away, sending poor Kris rolling away painfully on the ground until he was flat on his hands and knees. Angered by this, Thor whipped out Mjölnir and flew into the monster's face, striking him square in the face with his powerful weapon and it managed to stun him, but only for a few seconds or so. Thor flew all around his head, hitting him with more lightning bolts while Stacy and Skaði both froze his left hand to the ground, making him madder. He raised his hand about to smack them again, but Stig came in and blasted his hand with jets of flames from his palms, burning the giant appendage to pieces.
Unfortunately, it only grew back anew via the ashes.
"Wonderful." Stig grumbled.
Ragnarök punched Thor out of the air and ripped his other hand free from the ice on the ground and started to pound the ground in fury, shaking the ground, trying to flatten everyone with his fists and even began to crawl after them with only his arms. The rampaging monster corpse tore away trees and such standing in his way while the group scattered away with him in hot pursuit. Björn, in his bear form, guided some of the children away from the path of one hand trying to crush them like flies while Fenrir came in and lifted Stig up with his teeth and tossed him on his back with Loki and Angrboda as the giant wolf galloped them away to safety.
"I thought we killed him already!" Svir shouted as he and his brother ran for cover.
"Well, he's really mad now!" responded Thrum.
"It's not 'him' anymore!" Ratatoskr bellowed, scurrying from one tree branch to the other.
Garm came in with a fierce snarl as he bit down on one of Ragnarök's arms and bit on it hard to hinder him. But Ragnarök didn't take kindly to that. He just shook the hound around until he grabbed his head and pounded him on the ground several times, making him whine in pain and then throw him across the landscape far away and out of sight.
"Garm!" Willow shouted with worry for the hound's wellbeing.
From behind Ragnarök as he mindlessly laid siege to all the tiny ones panicking in front of his view continuously as Hel watched from afar on top of a hill with a sick grin, it disappeared from her face when she noticed Kris. He climbed on top of him and ran up on his back, then jumped high into the air and delivered a solid hard drop onto his head, punching it into the ground with his feet before he jumped back onto the ground.
"Auka!" Willow fired a sigil arrow into Ragnarök's eye just as he was lifting his head up, casting a magic sigil over it.
Stacy glared with determination while reaching for an arrow of her own and just like before, she froze up the arrow the second before she released it and let it fly into the sigil like a bullseye on a target board and the combined magic turned the entire half of the monster's face to solid ice and Thor tossing his hammer into it shattered the ice to pieces, destroying the half of Ragnarök's face. Thankfully, his head didn't regenerate this time.
"We're so close!" Kris announced. "He's getting weak!"
"Only one thing left." Loki spoke and then shouted into the air, "Mooooooog-taaaaaaaaaaay-oooooooooom!"
"What are you….?" But Stig quickly realized what it meant. He was calling out to his other son, the bigger one to be exact.
The sound of rumbling in the distance gave way to his awaited arrival and now was the time for his help and this was that precise time indeed for they were all out of sorts at the moment. Jörmungandr erupted from the mountains upon hearing his father summon him for his assistance and he knew it was important by how desperate his call sounded the minute it grazed upon his strong ears. Once he saw the attacking black charred humanoid beast, the Midgard Serpent lunged at Ragnarök with his maw wide open and much like a snake enmeshing its fangs into its prey before swallowing it whole, he snatched the rest of the beast's head with his mouth, sinking his teeth deep into his torrefied flesh, almost nearly swallowing his entire head in just one single bite before the serpent's bite became to unbearable. The head gave in, bursting into a cloud of ashes while the others below took cover as the rest of the monster's body exploded into a huge storm of blackened cinders as if a volcano erupted and the explosion did, in fact, create a black avalanche resembling a pyroclastic flow that made everyone down to the ground to shield themselves and to avoid being blown away as it hurtled down towards them all. The wind brought on by it was truly a devastating gale force, but nonetheless, everyone was okay. It barely did them any sort of harm. Only now a near blinding fog was left in the wake as they all rose from the ground and almost couldn't make each other out and only did so when it gradually began to diminish.
Ragnarök's body was finally gone at last. The bite thanks to the Midgard Serpent's intense jaw strength helped reduce the attacking goliath's body into nothing more but a cloud to be blown away by a gust of wind. Not even ash was left behind this time around. There was literally nothing left but the fog.
It was done. It was all over now.
Ragnarök was no more.
"Now I know what an erupting volcano feels like." Carter moaned, waving the fog away from his face.
Loki hopped off of Fenrir with Angrboda and maneuvered through the cloud to join up with the rest of the group and Thor of all people lumbered over to him panting excessively.
"Not bad, God of Mischief. I won't deny it." He acknowledged, actually paying him his version of a compliment.
"We can't live without each other." Loki replied as that was the only thing he could come up with by admitting solemnly that even though he hasn't had the best relationship with the gods, Asgard was his home too and he couldn't bear to see it go a second time.
"So you give a shit after all." remarked Thor just a tad teasingly.
"You know, you Æsir are a real pain in the ass, but I suppose you are tolerable." Angrboda said with humble surety. "And you, fat boy, maybe you're not the same giant-killer you once were."
Thor let air escape through his nose as his reply to that, letting no words convey his conflicted emotions. There was a time long ago when he saw giants as nothing more than vicious monsters and a threat to his own kind. It's been this common knowledge instilled in his brain by his tyrant father that pushed him to slay every giant he saw without question nor hesitance and he couldn't deny the satisfying feel of the metal of his hammer impacting the skull of a giant each time, but thinking about it now made him wonder if maybe he and the remainder of his Æsir were the true monsters all along.
"He isn't." Kris answered, joining the discussion. "I'm starting to understand him more completely now. Sure, not many of us are made into remorseless killers since childhood, but still. None of us are perfect."
To his credit, Thor was quite grateful to be hearing this from his own descendent, feeling a bit of closure if you will. He didn't blame Kris for his anger and resentment against his godly ancestors for their unspeakable actions in the past. He only wished Kris could see past his murderous persona that he has long abandoned and see something more to the gods that how they represent at first glance.
At that very second, unfortunately, there was still one thing left that required their attention.
Hel, snarling under her breath, staggered into view as the cloud of fog cleared. With Ragnarök destroyed into nothingness and everyone still standing, there was no denying that she was at her wit's end with them all. As their attention focused directly onto her, their guards were up once more and Hel looked like she had enough.
"You are resilient, I'll give you that much." She hissed towards Kris standing before her with his spear while she activated all of her magical energy from within. "Very well then. If it is to be, I'll deal with you myself!"
With dark magic sparkling in her open palms, Hel hollered as she charged right at Kris, who charged her as well, using his spear to whack her in the head, but she retaliated with a lethal magic spell that make thorns jut out from the ground in a straight line directly toward Kris, but he jumped out of the way in time to avoid getting impaled from beneath and fired a couple spear copies at her, though she impressively swatted them away before they hit her with only a simple swipe of her hand. She even caught one aimed at her head by the tip and threw the spear back at Kris, which he, too, caught with agile dexterity. Then when Hel prepared another magical attack, Kris ran at her and plunged the spear copy right through her stomach before grabbing at her head, kicking her in the face with his knee and tossing her to the ground before he pounded his spear on the ground. The resulting explosion really looked like it should have been damaging enough to do the trick. However, Hel was still alive after that because she rose back to her feet with barely a tiny scratch on her.
Then others came in to join the fight against the Goddess of Death. For instance, Stacy took that moment to enact her revenge against her for her capture and horrendous torture. She screamed furiously as she amplified the full force of winter and cold weather, summoning up heaps of freezing ice and snow on the ground as she viciously struck Hel with the chilliest winds with blinding snowfall from out of nowhere, creating giant icicles with sharp tips similar to the thorns from earlier as Stacy conjured them up out of the ground to stab at Hel while the girl fired shots of blistering ice and frost to damage the death goddess without ceasing for a second.
"This is for abducting me!" Stacy yelled, shooting her with more skin-chilling frost. "This is for scaring the shit outta me!" Then conjured more giant icicles until they held down every spot on Hel's body, forcing her in place and preventing her from moving. "...and this is for ruining red pandas for me!"
She took a deep breath in and exhaled really hard towards Hel, shooting a powerful gust of wintry wind right in her face, covering her entire body with ice and freezing it completely over with her icy breath until she was frozen into a statue.
However, since Hel comes from Helheim, the realm of unyielding ice and cold, this deep freeze did very little to affect her. So Hel broke free from the ice, shattering it to pieces until she could move her body again. She didn't even feel cold at all, not even numb from it. The cold was nothing new to her since she's been stuck dealing with it her entire lifetime of ruling over the afterlife. She even shattered all of the icicles holding her down to pieces, knocking Stacy on her butt in the process.
"Grow up, girlie." Hel deadpanned, coming over to lift her up. "I come from a land of ice. Did you really think that would work?"
Then she caught Stacy's fist from flying into her face. Suddenly, Toshio came to her rescue, conjuring up a whole body of water, splashing at Hel and washing her away to the ground before coming over to sock her in the face multiple times, then kicking her a good long distance away before now being at the mercy of Carter and Ingrid. For his inactive weapon of choice, his shield, which he proceeded to pummel her again and again with unrelenting vigor like a madman while the sword Ingrid sliced and diced her, which actually made her feel some pain. But now she was getting angrier by the minute. But when she summoned some roots from the ground to entangle the boy, she was suddenly shoved aside out of nowhere by an unseen force, surprising Carter and the rest.
Hel was flabbergasted. But then it happened again. Someone or something that nobody could see picked her up and slammed her into the ground, then grabbed her by the ankle and pounded her on the ground like a ragdoll over and over and over again, then threw her right into a nearby tree.
At that moment, Moose materialized out of thin air, revealing himself to be the unseen attacker, holding one of the Draupnir ring copies in his fingers.
"Invisible ring. You actually came through with that?" Carter looked at him awestruck.
"Those dwarves ah geniuses!" Moose spoke with admiration.
"Oh, dirty trick, fat boy." Hel growled, picking herself up. "Now how about this?! Rót!"
Using her powers, she brought the roots in to function like the tentacles of a large sea monster coming out of the sea and as such, they entangled themselves tightly around Moose's legs and then lifted him up high into the air. The wrathful Hel made them swing the rotund boy all around in all directions and then slamming him all over the ground to hurt him as payback.
"Moose!" His friends called in terror.
He really took a beating like a champ, though this was far more intense than any beating he's received in the past, mainly from his father, as the vine-like roots continued swinging him all around the air and bludgeoning him against the ground, the trees, a boulder or two before another solitary root wrapped around his neck and together, both ends started to slowly pull against both sides of his body, threatening to pull his head off.
"No!"
Coming to his aid was Thor, who chucked Mjölnir at Hel, cutting off her magic and forcing her to drop Moose as he got to work on her next and he was really beating the crap out of her now. While he delivered blows with his hammer, Hel delivered some of her own to his face and his exposed gut. Then she recited a spell that made green-colored energy explode from beneath his feet, disorienting him while she performed a swinging kick to his face, then swiped her feet underneath his, sending him flat on the ground. Thrúd came in from behind, tackling her and wrapping her arms around her throat to choke her and keep her from hurting her father, but Hel grabbed at Thorsdottir and threw her over her head, but the Asgardian girl landed perfectly on her hands and feet right in front of the goddess, reaching for her sword.
"You should've stayed in Helheim." She snarled before engaging Hel in swordsmanship combat. Not being one to do melee combat without landing a single hit, Thrúd succeeded in hurting Hel by slashing at her skin, both undead and less so, then she gave her a solid right hook to the face, making her bleed from the mouth. But as the irked Hel just nonchalantly wiped the blood from her lips, Thrúd punched her so hard square in the face that she easily broke her neck as a result of her unmatched strength, leaving her whole head dangling backwards upside down in a truly gruesome fashion.
However, Hel only started punching Thrúd back in response. Even with her neck broken and her eyes facing an opposite direction, she did not fail in hurting the Asgardian girl for all she's got. In fact, she blasted Thrúd in the face with a telekinetic spell that left her crumbling to the ground, actually injured from that move. Meanwhile, Hel grabbed her head and fixed it effortlessly, aligning it back in place to allow her to see in front of her and she smirked, seeing Thrúd on the ground with a cut on her arm.
Thrúd drew blood on Hel, so Hel returned the favor.
"Now we're even, brat." She snarked.
This made the daughter of Thor furious. She forgoes her sword for her fists instead, which she charged up with electricity. The girl was in a blind rage now, landing blows on Hel, which she casually dodged every single time, unfazed by her rage.
"Oh, typical." Hel sarcastically droned, continuing to avoid the girl's punches. "Is that always your answer for everything? You really are Thor's daughter after all."
"You don't get to attack my home and my people and just walk the fuck away!" Thrúd roared at her, not slacking her storm of sparkling throwing hands until she landed one on that half-dead face of hers.
"Strinnr!" Hel shouted, catching one of Thrúd's fists with her open hand, casting a spell that triggers rigor mortis in her arm muscles, making her headstrong opponent wail in agony from the biting feeling in her right arm from the sudden growing numbness, like a thousand tiny knives were puncturing her all over, leaving her right hand useless.
With her weakened, Hel punched Thrúd in the stomach and then in the face, giving her left and right hooks, drawing more blood from her mouth, then grabbing her by the throat with one hand.
"You really need to get laid. Maybe ask your viking boy toy for example. Perhaps he'll be more cooperative this time." The Goddess of Death snarled in the girl's face spitefully before Sif came in to save her daughter.
"Get away from my daughter!" The wife of Thor ordered, bringing in elemental attacks and melee combative moves of her own before Stig came in and took the form of a bull, charging at Hel with his horns out and catching her by surprise. Then he returned to normal and shot his hands out.
"Elgr hríð!" Stig hit her with the power of the storm of elks, with spectral elks thundering and barrelling into her.
"Skjálfa!" Willow hit her with her concussive arrows.
"Ljósta!" Hel hit them both back with a strike spell, but Stig didn't give up as easily.
He transformed into a falcon and flew into the air, soaring back over to Hel and diving into her before turning into a lynx that lept at her and clawed at her face, scratching her skin until Hel threw him off, then he turned into a moose and charged her again with his antlers out, but Hel anticipated it this time. She moved aside and tackled him to the ground after grabbing onto his antler, making him turn back human form. Hel angrily jumped on him, wrestling him and grabbing at his hands to twist them around and hold them there in that position until she conjured a spell to incapacitate him, but Stig set his own hands on fire, burning Hel's hands and managing to seriously hurt her. Since she hails from the realm of cold, fire is her weakness.
With this, Stig pushed her off and shot forth jets of flames at her, making her move away out of fear of getting burnt. Catching her unawares was Björn who grabbed her hair with his teeth and thrashed her around, jerking her head side to side and then finally throwing her to the ground as he slashed at her with his claws to severely weaken her. Then Roar came in with his ax, going for the head, which she narrowly avoided. Roar pinpointed her every move with his gift of foresight and he still managed to get her with his ax no matter how hard she tried to stand clear of the sharp blade. Rudolf came in screaming and football tackled her, slapping at her side. However, he wasn't much for her as Hel pushed him right off and got back up.
Brunhild and Bödvar stampeded in next. While the valkyrie came in from above for an aerial attack, the berserker came swinging in with his ax, roaring a war cry as his Berserker Rage kicked in. Brunhild gave her what for with her halberd and her spinning wing attack, slicing her like a buzzsaw, but Hel caught her wings and threw her away, leaving her alone with Bödvar when he swung his weapon at her. Hel impaled him with more thorns, but he kept fighting regardless. Breaking away from the pricks, the berserker warrior kept at it with his ax until Hel stole it from him and chopped his head off with it, even though he still wasn't defeated yet.
Then Odin joined the battle finally, bringing the one person whose life he had robbed of in direct combat for the first time.
"All-Father." Hel growled as her eyes narrowed frighteningly and her eyes twitched and her hands shook furiously as she stood before the one who banished her to the underworld in the first place. The one who took her childhood away, the one who stole her away from her family, the one responsible for her eternal loneliness.
"Hel, please don't make me do this. Let's just talk about this." Odin tried reasoning with her, starting off in a non-confrontational manner while trying to be diplomatic and understanding.
"It's a little late for that, old goat." hissed Hel back at him.
"If anything, your anger should be at me."
"Oh, I couldn't agree more." Hel then conjured up a magic spell that thrusted Odin straight to her telekinetically, bringing him for a sock to the face by Hel with a surprising amount of physical strength against the old man, getting him to the ground. With his attempt at reasoning failed, Odin had no choice but to fight back.
With Gungnir, he twirled it around in his hands before thrusting the tip at Hel, but she hid him with a dark magical blast, but he used his own magic to send it back to her in the form of blinding black feathers.
"Íssprengja!" Odin shouted as he dashed at her and whacked her with his spear and together, he and Hel traded blows, magical or otherwise. Odin lit up his staff and illuminated a deep purple glow from himself and the ground beneath their feet and caused it to blast upwards, tumbling Hel, who only flipped in mid-air. He called upon Huginn and Muninn to distract her with both ravens cawing and fluttering around her while the All-Father readied his next move.
"Glettings bára!" He jumped high into the air and struck the ground with the sharp end of Gungnir to immobilize the death goddess, but Hel shot frosty magic his way that only proved worthless against the elderly Æsir king.
"Getting tired yet, All-Fucker?" Hel taunted him.
"You're making me do this! Íssprengja!" Odin implored as he shot more purple dark magic in her direction with Gungnir, leaping up to smite her with his trademark staff.
"No! You started this! All of this! Nista!" Hel made more prickly thorns shoot up from the ground to impale the Asgardian king and while it did hurt him, it did no help in wounding him in the least.
"Fly! Drifa!" Odin sent his ravens out at her again, but Hel blasted them both away then controlled them with her own magic, forcing them to attack their master head-on and with him blinded by their pecking beaks and cloud of feathers, Hel charges at him and with a fierce and bold swipe of her hand, she pushed the All-Father against the ground, separating him from Gungnir and relinquishing Huginn and Muninn from her hypnosis.
On the other hand, Kris now started tapping into the uncharted territories of his storm powers, awakening their full potential to the behest of this battle against Hel. He hovered into the air and roared as he summoned the might of the thunderstorm up above the heavens, bringing in storm clouds to his will, making winds roar in from all sides and rain to shower them all as he also made powerful lightning rain down from the skies toward Hel. One by one, lightning bolted down dangerously close to Hel when Kris slammed his fists onto the ground, making a strong bolt of lightning hit Hel, electrocuting her massively and forcing a yell of anguish out of her. Now that he has her at a disadvantage, Kris uses his Draupnir spear to summon more powerful winds to create a huge cyclone around him and her. Hel forced herself free from the bolt just in time to see Kris running at her and jabbing at her body all over with the spear violently before he gripped her throat and used his electric powers to shock her some more, then he clobbered her to the ground, sending the cyclone away. Kris didn't stop hammering her and then the other came in to help him as most of them ran in from all sides, blocking all escapable paths from Hel as she found herself caught in the middle of a dogpile of fighters, using everything they got to beat her down with all their might. Finally, Hel was reaching her breaking point with them all.
"Aaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!" She screamed into the air, creating a huge blast of powerful magic to knock them all off of her and leaving them to crumble to the ground in pain. By now, Hel was starting to feel a bit exhausted, most of her energy nearly drained from her as she held herself up at her knees, panting and trying to catch her breath. She has never done combat before in all her life.
"Enough!" She ranted at them all, especially Kris as he struggled to lift himself up. "Enough! Why don't you all get it!? Huh?! Do you even know what it's like to be casted aside by society? To live your entire life hoping and longing for decades, longing for the love of a family, the feel of a mother's touch? To grow up with nothing and nobody by your side to tell you everything will be okay? I'm not okay! I get stuck with dead people and human remains! It's not fair! You call that fair?! I don't! But you know, perhaps you're right! I don't deserve anything! I am a monster!"
But as he listened, Kris could sense something beyond that twisted and sadistic façade of hers to find a tortured and self-loathing soul underneath that resented what life threw at her. Sure, she did inexcusable things and sure, she had gone mad during her isolation and imprisonment, but it was too bad that she never had a chance to feel loved or accepted. At that moment, Kris felt his heart reach out to her. Despite her shortcomings and her despicable actions, Hel was suffering. Badly.
"No, you're not." He finally spoke up.
"Excuse me?" Hel blinked.
"No, you are not." Kris arose and stood to face her with no animosity, even dropping his Draupnir spear to the ground. "You are not a monster."
"Yes, I am!" Hel argued. "Ask anyone!"
"Forget about what they think for a change!" Kris insisted, slowly making his way over to her. "Sure, they may have been afraid, but that's not your fault. You didn't ask to be born the way you are. You didn't ask to be taken away. And you didn't ask to be tossed away and forced to rule the dead."
"What is this?" Hel knitted her eyebrows, looking skeptical.
"I know now that all you wanted was a family. Someone to love you and care for you. And you would've had that if it wasn't for Odin. But you need to understand that none of that justifies ending the world or killing all of humanity or what you did with Surtr. And when you kept me trapped in Helheim with you, you just wanted company. Real company. I get that, but lying is not okay and neither is holding me hostage."
"But you had family and friends, I didn't!" Hel thundered, though Kris could make out her eyes getting misty.
"Hel, give me a moment to show you that it's not too late for you." He said in a softer tone, putting his guard down and taking a deep breath in through his nostrils.
"Just what are you taking me FOR!" The woman was absolutely caught by surprise but what just occurred next that very second.
In his moment of bravery and despite what she was capable of, Kris instantly threw his arms around her body and brought Hel into a big warm hug, much to her surprise and confusion. The most confusing of all in fact was the glaring consideration that although she had tried to murder him out of anger and spite, although she had trapped him in Helheim three years back, Kris was actually hugging her.
Everyone eyed the scene with awe as they couldn't believe their eyes. The boy was no longer fighting her with violence or aggression. He was choosing to resort to compassion instead. And what a baffling spectacle it was indeed. After all, it was the Goddess of Death they were dealing with. The perpetrator behind the end of the world, queen of the deceased and ruler of the cold and frozen Nordic afterlife, having spent her lifetime in the darkness. As for Hel, she was speechless. Beyond that, even. This was certainly unexpected. To see the boy whom she caused so much pain and misery and tried to murder was embracing her as if she were his mother. This…this never happened to her before. She had never been hugged before. No one ever wanted to hug her. No one even wanted to be near her. Her first time, it felt…
No. She couldn't let this distract her. Kris needed to suffer the consequences. He ruined her plan and now he must pay. Hel raised her hand and turned it into a claw with sharp nails and was ready to stab Kris in the back, sink them deep into his flesh and scratch a bleeding wound and yet, Kris still hugged her, not reacting once even as he felt it from behind. Those around them were ready to jump to the boy's rescue if needed, but Hel's claw hand lingered there for a moment, thinking it over. No matter how hard she tried making herself angry and forcing herself to commit to it,...she just….she just couldn't bring herself to do it.
She couldn't.
For some inexplicable reason to her, it just didn't feel right. Somehow, hurting the boy felt….wrong.
Hel had no control over herself. She just accepted the hug and even slowly, but cautiously brought her own shaky hands around him as well, hugging him back.
Then Kris did something most unexpected.
With slow strides across the ground, he moved his feet in circles across the ground along with her in a harmonious rhythm with her still in his arms, bringing her into a slow dance. And just like that, Hel involuntarily accepted that as well. He and her were starting to move around, following each other's steps and imagining a type of music in their heads to help set the mood. All eyes were on them and they were, without a single doubt, taken aback. Just standing there watching with utter disbelief. For reasons they couldn't think of, Kris was dancing with the Goddess of Death in the middle of all this.
Hel, however, felt something…new to her. A new type of feeling that wasn't insidious or poisonous like she normally felt.
This new feeling was like a swarm of fluttering butterflies, a blooming rose in the spring, a bright ray of sunshine scaring away the darkness of night at the break of dawn.
At this,...a smile appeared on her lips. Not a sinister smile, not a malevolent smile, but one of…..pure happiness.
What was this feeling?
How was she feeling it?
.
.
.
.
And why did it feel so…so….
.
.
.
.
….nice?
THUMP!
Just then all of the sudden, a harsh thumping was heard inside of Hel's chest and a great, paralyzing pain seized her entire body, making her yelp in agony. At that instant, she let go of Kris as she fell onto her knees on the ground while the boy stayed by herself as the painful feeling in her chest continued each time a thump came. Her thorned crown even fell off her head. It sounded like the beating of a drum. However, Kris had an idea of what it was.
It was her heart, which had not beaten once ever and it was finally beating for the first time.
And each time it did, it caused anguish for Hel, making her scream bloody-murder every time. Even the others started coming close to check to see if she was okay, even though she tried to kill them all just now. More thumping was heard and for her as she twisted around on the ground, it was like she was being stabbed in the chest with a dagger. Loki and Angrboda rushed over to her aid like the desperate parents they were, hoping that their dear daughter wasn't dying.
"Hel?" Kris asked worriedly. "Hel? Stay with me."
After a couple more thumps, the pain subsided. After a couple seconds, it didn't hurt anymore. However, Kris noticed something else. As he held her left hand from her half-dead side, her exposed flesh appeared to be growing fresher skin, beginning to take on a more living appearance as did her other hand. Something about feeling this new positive emotion was doing something to Hel. And as she laid there on her hands and knees panting heavily and rigidly and while everyone watched, Hel looked very different.
No longer did she look half-dead and half-alive, she looked…..fully alive.
Yes, it was indeed for a fact that her frightening appearance melted away to bring a more lively one in its place. Her skin tone changed from ghostly pale to a brightly caramel color, her face was more perfectly round with no cheekbones, her lips were softer and pinkish, her eyes were like cerulean jewels in white space, she now had a full head of hair and she had a light noticeable pair of freckles dancing around her nose and cheeks. Gone was the dreadfully scary death goddess and replacing her was someone more…..beautiful.
Looking up, she looked as if she had awoken from a terrible nightmare and all were visibly stunned to see how much Hel had changed. For once in their lives, they didn't feel afraid of her.
"She really does have your eyes." Loki whispered to Angrboda, who smiled warmly.
Hel hesitantly turned to face Kris with tears in her eyes.
"W-W-...Why?" She delicately asked, unable to comprehend the boy would want to show someone like her love.
"Because you deserve it more than anybody." Kris said to her comfortingly, clutching her hand and holding it tenderly, even brushing back a strand of hair from her face.
It only took her moments to realize it, but Hel at last understood that for the first time in her life…..
.
.
.
.
….she felt loved.
And now for the final boss fight. The one who started it all; Hel herself.
Of course, she proves to be a most powerful and formidable adversary than all the rest. Obviously, it would be tough to win a fight against a death goddess. And although, everyone is a tough contender on their own, they are still no match for Hel. But after fighting her relentlessly and failing miserably, Kris sees that Hel, in spite of all her fatal flaws and her faults, is still a poor soul longing for a true connection. Hel wanted revenge for all the pain and agony she was given no thanks to Odin and the rest of his pantheon by ending all of life just to get even with them. While her trauma doesn't justify her actions, it should be worth noting where she's coming from. It was still never her fault she became how she was. She was, above all, a victim of irrational fear. Growing up with love or companionship can really mess someone up.
But now, Kris sympathizes with her despite her actions and uses compassion instead of violence to try reasoning with her. And by feeling love for the first time in her life, Hel's iconic half-dead appearance turns to more living one, making her more alive than dead. And all of it because the boy she had tortured with nightmares and lies chose to hug her instead of fighting her as an act of forgiveness.
Next Chapter: Loki and Angrboda finally have a real conversation with Hel after she accepts that really are her parents and they convince to let go of her hatred. Inspired by this, Kris returns home to go have a heart-to-heart with Ming and finally resolve his issues with her.
Next Update: Nov 17, 2023