Floating in Bliss
God of War and all associated characters and interpretations are property of Sony Santa Monica. Kingdom Hearts and all associated characters are property of Disney and Square Enix.
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Atreus flopped down onto his back with a groan. "Okay, that's it! I'm taking a break."
Sora, previously striking one of the practice dummies with his Keyblade, walked over and crouched beside Atreus. "Is your magic that tiring for you?"
"Not usually." Atreus slowly sat up. "I usually only feel this drained if it gets broken by attacks a lot in a short period of time." He looked up at Sora. "What about you?"
Sora shrugged and dismissed his Keyblade. "Not quite like that. It's like a separate well of energy for me. If it runs out, it'll eventually replenish itself, regardless of how tired I physically feel."
"Man, you're lucky. You're magic's really useful. You can fly and bend elements to your will."
"Don't count yourself out!" Sora exclaimed as he sat down beside Atreus. "You can transform into animals at will! I wish I could learn how to do that."
"If I could teach it—or at least try to—I would," Atreus said. He leaned back on his hands and stared up at the sky, not a single cloud blocking his view. "But my transformation magic is unique to me."
"How so?"
Atreus shrugged. "Well, changing shape into an animal isn't new. Freya can change herself into a hawk, for example." Sora exclaimed in wordless wonder at that. "But no one else in the history of the Realms can change as freely as I can."
Sora snorted and lay down, hands clasped behind his head. "Well, aren't you special?"
"Shut up," Atreus scoffed, trying not to laugh. Still, as 'special' as he was, from what Angrboda and a few of the semi-revived Jotun had told him, all Giants' magic was different on a personal level. Angrboda had once likened it a large lake that splintered off into dozens of individual rivers. The source was the same, but no individual path was exactly alike, despite any surface similarities.
Suddenly, an idea burst to life like a bonfire.
"I need to go to Jotunheim," Atreus said, rising to his feet.
"What for?" Sora asked as he sat up.
"See if Angrboda or anyone else has any advice for making the shield," he reached a hand down to Sora, who accepted the help up. "She helped me get my transformations under control, so I figure she'll have some advice for this. Wanna come with?"
"Sure." Sora stretched his arms out and yawned. "Jotunheim…Your mom's from there, right?" Atreus nodded. "So…she was a Giant?" Sora brought his hand to the top of his head, then raised it as high as he could.
Atreus chuckled. "That's something of a misnomer, actually," he said, explaining the origins of the name as he led Sora to Tyr's temple.
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"Woah." Sora shivered and rubbed his fur-clad arms as they crossed the portal into Jotunheim, ending up on one of the Giant's Fingers, the highest peak in all the realms. "That's a weird feeling."
"More of that magic energy thing Father mentioned?" Atreus asked, trying and failing to feel it himself.
"Yup. Kinda like Vanheim, but not as…earthy, I guess." He looked over his shoulders. "Also, what's with those stairs we had to climb up?"
"I have no idea," Atreus replied. "You'd have to ask Tyr. Now," he gestured across a drawbridge to the next Finger. "There's an elevator that leads down to the forests, and form there we can walk to Angrboda's home. You know, the long way."
Sora stared at the mountain, before turning to Atreus with a smirk. "Or…"
Atreus stepped back towards a ledge; arms spread out. "Or…we can take the short way." He fell off the ledge, sinking through the air for a moment before righting himself and changing shape, body shrinking and feathers sprouting from his skin as he transformed into a hawk. Sora leapt off the mountain seconds after, laughing uproariously as he dove before calling on the wind to glide.
Watching Sora's carefree glee would have put a smile on Atreus's face, if it were physically possible. Instead, he let loose a shrill cry, and looped around Sora twice before separating.
"Hey, Atreus," Sora called out. "Have you tried to use magic while you're an animal?" He had. But he'd given up on it for the same issue he was currently having—his magic didn't want to be used like that. More specifically, trying to cast a shield while transformed could force himself out of the transformation.
Of course, he couldn't convey all that as a bird, so he just shrieked.
"…I'll ask again when we've landed. Atreus chirped and led Sora down towards Angrboda's home in silence.
It was always freeing, he mused, flying in Jotunhiem. Flying in general was amazing, but there was just something…more about Jotunheim. Part of Atreus supposed it was due to his Giant blood, calling to home. But frankly, he always attributed it to his mother. This was the once her home, the Realm she wanted her ashes spread.
Maybe the journey she sent him and Father on years ago was part of some grand plot for Loki to fulfill his destiny. But she'd always spoken of her homeland—without being specific, he later realized—with such a wistful smile. A love of the land that persisted even though she had not set foot there in ages and would die before she returned.
Now that he was thinking about it, his mother's sad expression whenever she talked about her home was a not insignificant part of why he journeyed outside the Realms for any Giants that had fled the Realms entirely instead of transferring their souls into marbles. The idea that there were other people out there, like his mother, desperate for home but unable to return…the thought stuck with him. Even if they'd died, their remains, or ashes at the very least, should be returned to Jotunheim.
He hadn't found anyone yet—alive or dead—but he wouldn't stop until he did.
"Hey, Atreus!" Sora called out, flying closer to him. "Do you hear that?"
Atreus shifted his gaze to Sora and focused on his hearing. It was faint with the rushing wind, but it sounded like…howling. Before Atreus could even begin to get excited at the cries of his pet, however, a jagged dark green portal formed in the air right before them.
"Woah!" Sora exclaimed, spinning in the air to avoid the portal. Atreus just braked in the air, screeching as Fenrir poked his head out from the portal and barked.
Atreus landed on Fenrir's head, shifting back to his regular form. "Heya, boy!" Atreus hugged his pet and rubbed him behind his ears. "How you doing?" Fenrir barked twice. "I missed you too."
"Wow! That's a big wolf!" Sora said, floating around the portal. "This is Fenrir, right?"
"Yup!" Atreus replied. "He's super friendly."
"I can tell." Sora reached forward and rubbed Fenrir's chin. "You're a real friendly guy, aren't you Fenrir?" Fenrir's tongue lolled and he panted in glee from all the attention.
Atreus clicked his tongue. "Okay, Fen, let's go back through the portal. Don't want you raining saliva down on the forest below. C'mon, Sora!" Fenrir yipped and pulled back through the portal. A chill ran down Atreus's spine during the brief instant he was within the portal, but it passed just as quickly, and he was in Angrboda's treehouse home.
"I was wondering what got Fen so excited." Atreus's heart swelled at the teasing voice of Angrboda. It had only been two days, but even just hearing her was a balm on his soul.
He slipped off Fenrir at the same time Sora passed through the portal. Angrboda looked over her should with a smile, before returning to painting a mural. A new one of Jörmungandr looking over the Lake of the Nine and the mortal villages around it.
Atreus walked up behind her and slipped his arms around her waist. "Hey there," he said, planting a soft kiss on her neck. He delighted in the way she shivered under his touch.
"Don't do that while I'm painting!" she protested, trying to keep the smile out of her voice.
"You know you love it," he countered, planting another kiss on her neck.
"If this is why you wanted to come, I'm just gonna leave," Sora called out with a bored tone. Atreus turned to his friend; he wore a placid smile on his face, but there was a sharp pain in his eyes. But before Atreus could even begin to question it Sora turned on his heel and pat Fenrir's leg. "Hey, Fenrir, mind showing me around?" Fen barked excitedly and bound away, Sora soaring after him with a laugh.
Angrboda hummed. "Now, I don't know Sora at all, but was that…normal?"
"No," Atreus said. "But…that conversation can wait."
"And…he can fly?"
"Using wind magic, yes."
"He can use elemental magic?" Angrboda stared after his retreating form, impressed. "That's a rare talent."
"It's actually common where he's from." He stepped away from Angrboda. "And it's part of the reason I came to find you."
"Aw, you mean you didn't come just to see me?"
Atreus rolled his eyes and ignored the light barb. "Sora offered to teach my and Father how to fly like he can."
"If you're asking for help learning wind magic, you're better off asking Thrúd."
"Not that. Besides, she can't use wind magic on her own either, she needs to use Mjolnir as a medium." Atreus pulled up a stool and sat down next to her. "You know that magic shield I can make? We got to thinking that I can use it as a platform to launch myself off of in the air. I'm trying to form it without using the tool Sindri made for me, but I'm hitting a wall." He described the progress he'd made under Sora's brief instruction, as well as his struggles to maintain the shield.
Angrboda furrowed her brow in thought as she painted on. When she finished, she put her tools away as she spoke. "Well, I've never been able to use my own powers too well without a medium either. Even my prophecies don't become clear unless I paint them out." She walked over and pulled him out of his chair. "We can ask around, though." She cupped her hands around her mouth and sang a short, melodious tune. Within moments, a dozen animals bearing Giants' souls came over to them.
Atreus shrugged. "Eh, why not?"
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In the end, one deer and a goat, who were once twin giants named Fenja and Menja, pointed Atreus in the right direction. It was simple advice, in the end, and a little embarrassing that he hadn't thought of it before.
'Your entire body is a tool for magic', they had 'said'. Atreus had previously thought of his body like a vessel, something that simply held the power, and needed a tool to direct it outward. But, according to the twins, that wasn't true. Rather, it didn't have to be true. While it was certainly the easier option, it didn't have to be. He could just substitute his body parts for a medium. Imagine that his veins and arteries transported his magic energy, instead of an outside tool drawing it in, and the pores on his skin portals to expel the magic.
It made little sense in his eyes, but then, growing up, his parents had only ever expressed magic through the use of objects, be it the Leviathan Axe, or the paint and trees Mother used to create the protection stave around their woods. The people he met following his mother's death—the foes he fought—did the same. Well, except maybe for Baldur, after he'd lost his invulnerability. And even then, it tied into the dangers the twins had warned him of. That if you weren't careful, your magic could become too wild and practically explode out of you. They described it as an incredibly painful process that could put you in recovery for weeks, if not kill you—following that thought, it spoke a lot of Baldur's manic glee at being able to feel something again that he just went all out like that. Fenja and Menja had said this method of magic use wasn't widely used because of those risks, outside of the rare talented individual, and most everyone just used some sort of medium to cast magic.
As such, Atreus took their advice to heart, and focused on the feel of his magic moving through his body. It was certainly a lot more comfortable than trying to force it all out.
He took a deep breath and ceased his exercises, turning to Angrboda, who was also attempting to use her magic as the twins had described just a few feet away from him. With a much more lackadaisical approach, he had to say. "Any luck?" he asked.
Angrboda took that as her cue to relax. "Nope," she said as she flopped onto her back. "I'll figure it out later."
Atreus smirked, laying down next to her. "Later, you say. What happened to the go-getter I met before Ragnarök?"
Angrboda giggled, rolling over on top of him. "Loki happened," she said, and pecked him on his nose.
"Oh, so it's my fault, then?" He pulled her close and nipped her neck. "Big bad Loki came in and wrecked your life?"
Angrboda purred in delight. "Like a storm," she whispered, before gently kissing him. Atreus moaned, clutching at her waist as she gripped his shoulders. He would have done a little more—but nothing too crazy, Sora was here—had a steady stream of stomps and a loud bark not interrupted them.
Atreus and Angrboda pulled apart and looked up to see Fenrir, Sora riding atop his back. "Practice looks like it's going great," Sora drawled with a teasing smile.
Angrboda huffed and rose to her knees. "Oh, you're just jealous." She dragged Atreus up and hugged him tight. "I mean, just look at this little guy!"
"Little?!"
"He's practically pocket-sized!" She planted on obnoxious kiss on his cheek. "So cute and lovable."
"Get off!" Atreus shouted, trying not to laugh. He was successful, but his joy at Angrboda's antics died in the face of Sora's crestfallen expression.
Sora immediately plastered on a smile on his face. "Please," he said as he slid off Fenrir. "With that hair?" He tried to laugh, but when neither Atreus nor Angrboda joined him, he just sighed. "I, uh…I wanted to get a better look at the place from the top of the treehouse so…" Sora quickly leapt up into the air, bounding up the treehouse before vanishing from sight.
Angrboda hummed and help Atreus up. "I think that conversation waited long enough, yeah?" Atreus nodded, shifting forms into a bird and flying through the air.
Sora was on the opposite edge of the tree, sitting down and staring into the distance. Atreus shifted back to his normal shape and sat down beside his friend. They sat in silence—awkward and stifling—until Sora broke it.
"Sorry," he said, "for being…weird."
"It's fine," Atreus replied. "But…I've noticed this isn't the first time you've been like this. First when me and Angrboda arrived at Tyr's temple before heading to Muspelheim, and then with Sigrún and Mimir in Alfheim and back home.
Sora sighed and slumped over. "That obvious, huh?"
Atreus lay a gentle hand on Sora's shoulder. "This is about…Kairi, right?"
Sora's face fell, before he shrugged Atreus off and ran a hand through his hair. He looked up to the sky. "I've known her since we were five. I think I fell in love with her the first moment I saw her. I'll never forget that day. She was wearing this white drees with seashells patterned all over it like stars, the sea breeze flowing through her sunset red hair, her bright, nervous smile." He chuckled. "Not that I even knew what love was, back then."
"Does she…love you back?"
"Yes." Sora let out a breath. "I think she always has, really. The first time the idea came into my head was back when we were fourteen and building our raft, and she suggested that she and I just take it by ourselves and leave Riku behind. She played it off as a joke, but I think I knew after that. Subconsciously, at least."
Atreus snorted. "I still can't believe you and your friends wanted to leave your World on a little raft."
"It was a good raft!" Sora protested, a smile on his face. They shared a laugh, the mood lifting considerably.
Sora tilted his head back towards the sky. "There's this special fruit on my island, the Paopu Fruit. It's shaped like a star, and only grows on one tree on the play island." Sora closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "There's an old legend around it. It's said that when two people share it, their destinies are tied together forever."
"That's a nice legend," Atreus said. "Were you and Kairi able to share one? Before you, you know, were banished by your Worlds?"
"Pretty much right before. Me, Kairi, and Riku all went to Destiny Islands the day before we all went to fight Xehanort." He sighed deeply. "To be honest, she surprised me. I'd always wanted to share a Paopu Fruit with her, but the timing just…never seemed right."
"Guess she got tired of waiting," Atreus said with a playful grin. A smile ghosted over Sora's lips, before a frown took its place.
Sora swallowed thicky. "I held out for as long as I could. I felt myself slipping away with every passing moment, but I couldn't leave her until she was safe on Destiny Islands. But the Worlds got tired of waiting, I guess, cause the minute we landed on Destiny Islands—the second we sat on our tree—it was over. I faded away right before her eyes." He took a deep breath, and his lips slowly spread into a smile. "But I'm going to return to her. To everyone. I promised." Despite his previous despair, Sora spoke with an incredible level of confidence. Atreus wondered if he could uphold that certainty if he were in Sora's place. He hoped he never had to find out.
Sora hummed and scratched his chin, a bashful smile on his face. "Hey, Atreus. Uh…thanks for listening."
"No problem, Sora," he replied. "And if you ever need to talk about this again, I'll be here."
"I appreciate that." Sora rose to his feet. "So, did you get any further with your shield?"
"A little," Atreus said. He entered his shield stance and said, "two of the giants here, Fenja and Menja, helped me think about how my magic works."
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"Okay Atreus, you ready?" Sora called from outside the corral he'd practically thrown Atreus into.
"No!" Atreus shouted back.
"Too bad, you need this!" Sora said with a cheeky grin, two of Angrboda's paintbrushes in his hand, the tips drenched in red paint.
"You're gonna get my clothes and armor all stained!"
"Not if that shield works," Angrboda called out, holding a bag full of her colorful powder.
"You're both terrible!"
"Would you rather we throw rocks at you?" Angrboda asked.
"…No…"
"Then shut up and take it!" she shouted. And with that, they began!
Angrboda struck first, hurling a fistful of powder at Atreus before entering a jog around the corral. Atreus instinctively ducked under the arcing clump, but before he could berate himself for his mistake, Sora darted in like lightning, painting a line along Atreus's left leg.
"You're not supposed to do~odge" Sora crooned, chuckling as he dodged the jab Atreus sent his way and fled outside the corral. Atreus huffed but spied another mass of powder. This time, instead of dodging, Atreus held up his left hand and called upon his shield spell. It sparked to life within second, but just a hair too slow to block the attack, purple powder staining his sleeve.
"There we go!" Angrboda cheered, already lobbing another clump of powder at him. This time, Atreus was able to block the whole thing. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Sora dash in from the other side, paintbrushes poised to strike. Atreus dropped his shield and summoned a new one with his other hand, the spell activating just as Sora struck.
"Alright!" Sora stepped back. "Let's keep that speed up." He darted forward, stabbing with the speed of the wind. Still, Atreus was able to keep up, his shields forming near instantaneously and holding under the assault.
Sora broke off from his assault, and after blocking one last throw from Angrboda, the two began cheering and whooping. Atreus blushed despite himself, looking down and rubbing his neck.
"Now you just need to make it with your feet, and solid enough that you can jump off it."
"…With my what now?"
Sora looked at Atreus like he was crazy. "You need to make a shield with your feet. So you can jump off of it." He spread his arms out. "The whole reason we're doing this in the first place?" Sora tilted his head. "I mean…I guess you could spring off the one with your hands, but you use a bow, and that could get awkward to move and attack with. For that matter, can your shield even handle your full weight?" Sora gestured for him to summon a shield. Wordlessly, Atreus did so, and leaned against it with his free hand. It shattered when he poured a bit of his godly strength into it.
Atreus slumped over. "Two steps forward, one step back, huh?"
"Woah now, 'two' steps? Someone's getting big for his britches."
"Britches?"
"It's another word for pants."
Atreus arched a brow. "I'm getting big for my pants?"
"It means you're getting ahead of yourself."
"You should've just said that," Angrboda called from the corral fence, inspecting her nails.
Sora rolled his eyes and clasped his hands behind his head. "Forming the shield was just one step, if that. But since you've got that whole veins and pores method down, it should be easy enough to translate that to your feet."
Atreus sighed and crossed his arms. "Guess I can't complain. Took me a year to even make the shield the first time around. At this rate, I should be hopping through the air at the end of the week."
"Yeah, and then we can have a real fight!" Sora said with far too much glee.
Atreus chuckled. "You'll have to check with Father for that. I'll just be happy to travel through the air without wings." He rubbed his shoulders. "It can get real tiring."
"Oh, how terrible," Angrboda mocked, pressing the back of her left hand to her forehead, and fluttering her eyes. "The plights of flight!"
"She does have a point, Atreus," Sora said with a nod. "Since most people can't fly at all, it just comes across as bragging." He sniffed. "I remember when I told Leon and the others about my first time flying. Cid blew me off, Yuffie was openly jealous, and Leon told me to focus back on the problem. Aerith listened, but I think she was just being nice." He sighed. "I miss those guys."
"Who're they?"
"The first people I met from another World after I got the Keyblade," Sora replied. "They were actually like me, originally from a world that had been cast into Darkness by the Heartless and were lucky enough to land in Traverse Town."
Atreus, having gotten used the Sora's insane comments, merely nodded.
Angrboda, who had not steadily developed an immunity to such insanity, blinked twice before saying, "He didn't start speaking another language, right?"
"No." Atreus sighed and draped an arm over Sora's shoulders. "You've just borne witness to the kinds of nonsense that have made Sora Mimir's favorite puzzle to bash his head against."
Angrboda hummed. "So…you're telling me that there's a puzzle out there that the 'Smartest Man Alive' hasn't been able to solve?"
"He's getting close," Sora replied.
Angrboda's lips curled into a positively demonic smirk. "Then…if I solve it first, he'd be dethroned, right?"
Sora and Atreus exchanged dubious grins. The latter led the pair forward, "Angrboda, if you can figure all this"—he gestured to Sora—"out, then I think Mimir would gladly kiss the ground you walk on."
"Then what are we waiting for?"
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A/N: Good luck Angrboda. You're going to need it.