Pain.
That was all that existed for me, and that was all my existence revolved around: sheer, neverending pain.
Time became meaningless and my body became immaterial before it.
I was stuck in a limbo where only it remained, and it was agony.
But slowly, so very slowly, I started to feel something other than it.
Cold, all around me.
Soreness, I couldn't place where, although I wouldn't doubt if it was everywhere.
Warmth, inside, not out, but trying to break free.
Rage, outside, but trying to break in.
I snapped my eyes open, drowning everything else in favor of glaring at the one attacking my mind.
He was staring up at me, his one eye coldly assessing me as he took a step closer, his brows furrowed and his grip on his spear tightened as I felt the Rage press harder on me.
But it was useless, no matter how much he knocked, Odin would never be able to break past the door in my mind.
He seemed to realize it too, as with a sigh he turned back to a bonfire a few meters away, in the middle of a snowy clearing we were on the edge of.
Then, everything came rushing back: the pain, the cold, the soreness focused on my neck.
That last one gave me pause, now that I was conscious the sensations were manageable, and I could understand the source of the first two.
'But why would I be sore on my…'
I was hanging, from a noose, stuck in a branch, hurt by Odin's spear, and my limbs were bound.
"Realized it, didn't you?" Odin's gravelly voice came from the clearing.
"That you're forcing me to recreate what happened to you?" I asked. Because despite my ignorance of Odin's history, I remembered his Aria well enough that the similarities were obvious.
"Ah, I hoped you'd be more perceptive," Odin sighed. "But I should have known, your inability to win against me even while holding back was proof enough."
"What are you talking about!?" I exclaimed, trying to shift my position to get a better look at him, but the noose around my neck tightened, cutting off my breathing until I stopped moving.
"Don't resist, the sorcery affecting you doesn't take kindly to those trying to escape," Odin said, moving closer.
He stopped in front of me, but this time he looked resigned.
"To think, one of my Chosen could be stolen by that Roman rat, that he'd go so far to change history to make it happen…" He sighed again. "Perhaps I'm further along my change than I knew, to have missed the signs…"
I ignored his ramblings and looked at my Door to find the closest point to escape and recuperate a little before coming back to the fight.
But… All of the Doors to Schroeder had a one-week cooldown. In panic, I looked for all the Doors I could remember back home, all the same. As a last-ditch effort, I looked for the ones in Luna's world, also one week.
I was just starting to focus on apparating the furthest distance possible when I heard Odin's laughter.
"Haven't I told you to not try to escape?" He smirked. "The punishments only get worse the longer you try."
I stared at him, focusing on a spot behind him far enough away he wouldn't be able to find me so easily. Hopefully, it'd buy me enough time for round 2.
Noticing my silence, he made to speak again but I was already gone.
I appeared in the air and immediately started to fall.
I looked down but there was no ground to land, only clouds. I looked up and the vastness of space greeted me, galaxies shining while lazily spinning.
I looked around me and finally, I understood.
Behind me, big in a way I've only ever seen stellar bodies described was a tree.
It was the most beautiful tree I had ever seen. It's wood a rich, earthly brown that brought comfort and warmth, its leaves of varying shades of green depending on the branch, all of them shining bright with life.
I could still see the branch I apparated from, the only one close to me with snow, so with a few moments of focus I managed to apparate on top of it.
With a grunt of pain for landing on top of the exit wound for the spear, I let myself rest for a few seconds before searching for the last Wiggenweld potion in my jacket.
Thankfully, it was still intact, so I drank it quickly and focused my magic on healing myself.
I slowly got on my feet when I deemed myself healed enough.
I didn't know how long it took, but the hole in my chest was significantly smaller and I could move my left arm, albeit slowly and painfully.
Unfortunately, I couldn't focus as much on my leg, so I still had a slight limp.
Moving deeper into the forest, I searched for a stick or branch big enough to take the weight out of my bad leg, until I found Odin at least.
The only decent one that I found was around my height and thick enough that my hand almost couldn't circle it, but it'd do the job for now.
Walking through the forest atop one of the branches of Yggdrasil, I wondered what Odin meant about his Chosen being stolen by a Roman. Was it one of the people that died in the Colosseum? Or maybe one of the men who disappeared there? Maybe it didn't involve that at all, although I'm doubtful that it wouldn't.
What concerned me more and hinted at the Colosseum event being what he was talking about was his mention of changing history. Janus' tricks with time travel were not subtle and plenty of people from different times got involved in it, so something changing is a definite possibility, but the problem is: would I even be able to tell?
I shake those thoughts off for later, deciding instead to focus on how I'd kill Odin.
It'd have to be by surprise, which I hopefully have what with my falling out of the branch and getting back on it again, add to that the fact that I'd already dealt with his familiars and this is the best position I've been in this entire fight. If you discount my injuries, that is.
No, the bigger problem is how I'd finish him off, I knew plenty of spells, but very few of them were made for actual combat, much less for killing outright, and, as I learned from my last attempt, any opening I gave him was enough for him to finish me off.
That he didn't when he had the chance was another thing I was willing to leave to think about at a later date, or never.
While I thought about which spells to use, I set about preparing for one that I knew would come in handy.
Using my wand, I conjured doors throughout my path, not nearly as densely packed as in Schroeder, but good enough for a quick getaway or, if I manage it, to catch Odin unaware by circling his position while conjuring first.
I heard him before I saw it, his cackling laughter coming from a distance somewhere to my right.
I looked at it and all I could see were faint flashes of light. Noting the distance from it I started slowly circling his position, conjuring doors along the way.
Even though my leg had healed during my walk, I held on to the stick, the notion of using it as a weapon to bash Odin's head in just as appealing as it was moronic, he'd already shown me who was the best fighter between us, and a stick wouldn't tip the scale in my favor.
But, it was a good stick, its wood strong enough to handle me gripping it with all my strength, and its weight heavy enough to do some damage in the right circumstance.
All that I needed was an opening.
Odin was dancing around the bonfire, a bottle of wine or mead in one hand and his spear in the other.
His dance involved lazily moving his spear through the air in tight patterns, lights flashing from its tip before coalescing into runes that faded from view shortly after.
The air around the clearing was heavy with divinity, the closer I got the harder it was to move.
Not because of its pressure or anything like that, but because I was fighting my instincts to not forsake my plan and just attack with everything that I had.
Thankfully, I already knew the results of attacking without a plan in place to finish him off so I managed to stamp my instincts down.
I took a deep breath and prepared myself for what was going to be our final confrontation, my timing had to be perfect otherwise I'd die in my first step.
When Odin reached the position I needed him at I released my breath, apparating at his back and instantly casting a Severing charm at his heels with my left hand and a massively overpowered Eradication spell with my right.
It was almost not enough, he was already turning when I hamstrung him so his fall made him miss his attack with the spear, the Eradication spell dispersed most of the divine magic he had been gathering in the area so I didn't have to worry about traps.
I didn't let the opportunity go to waste, I caught his spear by the haft with my right hand and used it to leverage my advance toward his falling form, putting my left hand over his chest and casting the Gouging spell on it before instinctively jumping back.
The reason for that quickly became apparent, the runes I couldn't eradicate around the clearing were eerily glowing, bathing the area in a discordant mess of colors.
Odin was glowing with the runes, and soon he was getting on his feet again, although his movements were stilted and unnatural.
"Ha, ha!" He laughed and wheezed, the hole in his chest leaking a froth of blood and air.
I took a step back.
"This… Is what… I'm… Talking about…" He said, wheezing after almost every word.
"What?" I asked.
"This!" He exclaimed, spittle and blood flying everywhere. "The gore… The bloodshed… The frenzy of battle!" He stopped to cough out more blood.
"I came… to remind them… of who I am…" Odin said. "Before the Allfather… Before Odin… I. Am. The. Lord of Frenzy!" He screamed, his movements perfectly smooth once again as he ran at me speartip first.
I barely managed to dodge his first attack, throwing a Reductor curse at his wounded chest as I tried to backpedal.
The curse hit but he didn't stop, expertly aligning his spear for the next attack.
I quickly cast a slowing charm on him to no effect, so I threw myself on the ground to avoid a combo of slashes and thrusts he sent my way.
I kept backpedaling and he kept attacking until he was in the same position he was in when the fight started, the opening was obvious, so with a sigh of relief I finally let the spell holding my stick go.
I thought it was similar to what happened to me before getting caught by Odin: one moment he was there, preparing his next swing, and the next he was gone, shortly followed by the sonic boom of my sharpened stick boosted by a constant outpouring of magic in a Locomotion spell.
With a tired sigh, I let myself fall to the ground as everything surrounding me seemed to fade away back to the streets of Schroeder.
With a sigh, I closed my eyes to finally rest for the next little while.
A/N: And that's that for this year, folks!
Not as action-packed as the last chapter, I know, but this is an important moment for Alex to learn where he really stands when it comes to fighting in his league.
As for how Odin acted, well, his name is derived from the proto-Germanic word for Lord of Frenzy, add to that the fact that the modern depiction of him as a Just and Fair king is not historically true and you have a very pissed off God-King.
Like my writing? Want to be able to read a full two chapters ahead? Then check me out on P a treon . com (slash) NickKane.