106 — AT THE HEART OF ASGARD
In the day of an endless night, a woman went up some steps in front of an enormous stone statue taken by the snow. Her eyes shed tears that the howling cold wind blew away.
"Why my God? What happens that this land grows worse and the night seems to become more and more eternal? More and more cold! But what is this sin that we have committed so we have to withstand such a terrible ordeal? What cruel fate is this to rule without the means to help your people who are dying of hunger, cold and sadness?"
She drops to her knees on a small platform immediately below the Colossus of Odin. Between her and the stone statue opens an enormous abyss whose darkness is lost at the bottom of the moat.
"Tell me, oh God, what's in this future? Give us a chance to see the sunshine again. Save your people, Odin!"
No one responds to her, as no one had ever responded since she was born blessed with that role. And kneeling down, as she did every day, she prayed for Odin and her Seidr illuminated the Stone Statue.
When, for the first time in her life, her prayer was interrupted by a deep roar that seemed to grow, as if something were rising from the bottom of an abyss. A voice finally answered her.
"Hilda."
The guttural voice echoed by the mountains caught the woman's attention, who got up in front of that huge statue that called her. And repeated her name:
"Hilda."
"Speak to me, Odin, Lord of the Aesir!" she pleaded.
"Take my people to the sun!"
"To the sun, Sir?"
"To the sun."
"But Father Odin, your people of Asgard have endured in this Land-Of-Yours for millennia in your name, suffering the greatest trial of all, which is living away from the heat and sun."
The voice didn't repeat it, as if it were incapable of formulating more complex sentences. And then Hilda was blinded by an intense flash of light that made her close her eyes for an instant. And when she opened them again, the deep voice from deep within the earth spoke to her once more.
"Take my people to the sun! Hilda!" "and repeated before disappearing. "To the Sun!"
Hilda advanced over the parapet of that pedestal as if she wanted to call and cry out to the Almighty, when she noticed a faint glow over the parapet. It was a Golden Ring. The Ring of the Nibelungs, she well recognized among the Treasures of Asgard.
"Odin." she called to the Statue. "There are no words on Earth to thank you for your immense gift. I will take our People to the Sun of this Earth and I will use your gift so that I never doubt your strength again. A Golden Ring. A piece of the Sun. I understood our mission. It's time to free Asgard."
The priestess looked at that ring that, by itself, emanated a certain coldness and ominous presence, but which she knew was unforgivable to depart from a gift from Odin. She took it between her fingers and felt the power emanating from it resonate. It was time to rise.
She placed the Ring of the Nibelungs on her ring finger and felt as if all history filled her chest, and her seidr, once so full and beautiful, filled with strength and vibration.
"Don't do this!" someone shouted behind her, causing Hilda to immediately look in that direction.
A man ran across the outer courtyard of the Valhalla Palace to her; with all due respect, the man knelt down, but he screamed.
"Please, Miss Hilda, don't put on the Ring!"
"What are you saying, Sigmund?"
"This Golden Ring is the terrible Ring of the Nibelungen, which is to be worn only by Odin in the End-Times. This is not the time to use it."
"But this is a gift from Odin!" Hilda snapped.
"That's not true!" Sigmund rose. "There was someone else here, I couldn't see who it was, but it wasn't Odin. You are being deceived, Hilda!"
"Were you spying on me, Sigmund?"
"It's not about that, Hilda, please, you've got to listen to me!"
But Sigmund, closer, saw that the tragedy was already done, for he saw the glint on Hilda's finger in the shape of that Golden Ring, and the crimson gleam that came over her kind eyes; Sigmund climbed the short stairs to that platform and tried to take his mistress's ring by force, but Hilda struggled and her seidr flared violently, cracking the stone on the floor and hurling a black bolt that drove Sigmund away from her.
"Guards!" she called.
"Don't do that, Hilda!" cried Sigmund, with his hand over his right eye.
"Guards!" she returned. "Arrest Sigmund!"
The order took all the guards by surprise, for Sigmund was Asgard's greatest hero, but even greater than he was Hilda, who was none other than Odin's own incarnation on Earth.
"Don't do that, Hilda." he asked, blood streaming from his face.
"Didn't you hear me?" she returned. "Sigmund attacked me. Betrayed Asgard, betrayed Odin and himself! Take him away!"
Hilda's accusation had so much weight that even Sigmund, knowing exactly what he had seen, couldn't help but feel guilty for doubting someone like her. Some palace guards finally approached, divided between shock and duty, as Sigmund didn't seem to contest that accusation and the blood on his face even seemed to have been a sign of some kind of quarrel between the two, which in itself was enough to lock him up in prison.
There was silence among all as Sigmund rose and nodded to the captain of the guard that there was no need for violence in Odin's courtyard. Silently and peacefully he accompanied his captors to the underground dungeons of Valhalla, in disgrace.
Underneath the heaven's vault, the hundreds of stars in the sky of Greece were shining in a dawn clear of clouds, ever since Athena had given a clear message to the God of the Seas about who commanded the earthly plane. Master Mayura was on the mezzanine outside the Temple of Athena sitting in her wheelchair thinking about many different people. Two of them finally presented themselves behind her, kneeling down.
"Master Mayura, Leo Aioria." introduced himself, wearing his Gold Cloth.
"And Scorpio Miro."
"What do you bring to me, Gold Saints?"
"I have just returned from Starhill." said Aioria.
"And…?"
"I am sorry to tell you, but that the Temple was empty. Crater Nicol was not there."
A moment of silence before Mayura took a deep breath.
"What about the Temple of Poseidon, Miro?"
"Asgard has not yet been sealed. Only six of the Relics are unlit on Poseidon's totem in his Temple. The last of them continues to flash intermittently."
Mayura fell silent, swallowing hard.
"Where did you go, my friend?" she asked the stars very quietly, almost just for herself.
"Master, there is something else." continued Aioria between them. "The Crater Silver Cloth, however, was mounted inside the Temple."
"The Crater Cloth?" asked Mayura, and even Miro was surprised.
"Yes." confirmed Aiolia.
"What does that mean?" asked Miro for her.
"Wherever Nicol went, he left without his Cloth." replied Aioria, but that didn't convince the Master, who turned her chair towards both of them.
The sight of the blindfolded Camerlenga was always very disconcerting for everyone, as she conveyed an imposing, mysterious and forceful presence, even confined to her wheelchair.
"I have a bad feeling, Gold Saints."
"Master?" Miro stepped forward.
"Tell me, Aioria, did the Bronze Saints returned from their mission?"
"Ban and the others are already at the Sanctuary."
"Shinato and Mirai haven't returned yet." Miro added. "Jabu and Ichi didn't either."
"I see. Ask the Bronze Saints to stay alert at their posts day and night, taking turns to ensure the Sanctuary is protected."
"Master Mayura, do you believe we will be invaded?" Miro asked.
"Asgard has already attacked us once. Poseidon has yet to be fully sealed. Hades can awaken at any moment." she said, listing her suspicions. "And Nicol wouldn't disappear without his Cloth for nothing."
"Where could he have gone?"
"It couldn't have gone very far." Mayura replied. "I saw him disappear with the Owl Pendant to Starhill and my old friend could not have made the descent alone. Much less without his Cloth."
"The Master is right. With much effort I reached the top of the Hill. Even for a Gold Saint, the climb is not that simple, I'm amazed that Marin managed to get there alive and I'm sure Nicol wouldn't be able to go down the same way."
"Not alive." said Miro ominously, drawing Aioria's cross-eyed gaze to him.
"No, not really. The Voices of the Mountain heard nothing either on the Old Road or the Hills. They would have told me if Nicol had fell from up there."
"But then…"
"Aioria, Miro." Mayura interrupted. "Relay the orders to the Bronze Saints and please summon Shaka and Mu to the Temple of Athena. I will be waiting for them."
"Shaka and Mu?" asked Miro, feeling left out, but Aioria pulled his cloak lightly to make him behave.
"Aioria, I ask you to guard the House of Aries in Mu's absence. Miro, return to the House of Scorpio."
"Fine, Master Mayura."
They bowed and left the room. An enormous anguish was deep in Master Mayura's chest about Nicol's sudden and curious disappearance in the middle of that crisis. The Crater Saint had been absent for some weeks now to study the Atlantean writings he had discovered, as well as the records of the ancient Pope Sion recovered by Mu, isolating himself on Starhill. It was common for him to be absent for a long time before he returned with his findings, but he always returned to the Temple of Athena through the Owl Portal, sharing with Mayura his discoveries, whether big or small.
As the days passed, Nicol's absence became more of a concern for Mayura, since, without her pendant, she couldn't go by herself to visit him in his studies. Aioria found the request strange at first, but it was his duty to obey the Camerlenga and, once he noticed the Temple of the Stars deserted and abandoned, he understood the importance of his mission. Because now that was just one more sign of a mystery to be unraveled in the midst of so much divine crisis circling the Sanctuary of Athena.
Asking Aioria or even the Bronze Saints to go up and down Starhlil to report their discoveries to her would not be efficient or even accurate, so Mayura needed to be on top of that hill herself. Without her pendant, missing along with Nicol, by all accounts, she could even make the climb with the Gold Saints, but she also knew that a faster way to get there and out was needed. Mainly because she knew there was a way.
It would only require her to revisit old ghosts that would touch her memories and feelings very deeply. But, in the position of Camerlenga, she did the unthinkable and finally got the other Owl Pendants in the Sanctuary cemetery, where all the heroes and commoners of Rodorio were buried. It was there where the ancient Owls of Athena, killed by Saga, had been buried.
Even if it had been the work of the impostor, a false tale was told for years that all of them were victims of Aioros, and therefore they had a dignified burial. Beside their graves lay men and women who had died over all these years and, more recently, there were also the graves of the well-known passed Gold Saints, to whom Mayura also paid a brief tribute, stopping for a moment to respect their memories.
A task so incompatible with her role, but the treasures of the Saintias were always buried with their bearers, as they were gifts given by the Goddess herself and should be dissolved in the Earth when they perished. That would have been the fate of that Owl Pendant she had lent Nicol and which now might not have the opportunity to be buried with it when her time came.
"Forgive me, Sofia." she spoke to the grave before closing her old friend's tomb, feeling dirty for desacralizing something so important.
But it was for Athena. Always for Athena.
And back at the Temple of Athena, she found Aries Mu and Virgo Shaka waiting for her. She announced that they would go to Starhill and together they crossed the Portal of the Hill so that both Mu and Shaka could check out the room with their Cosmos, and Mayura could also look for some trace about the whereabouts of her old friend Nicol.
He really wasn't there. His Cloth, however, lay unharmed in the center of the Temple, with its still dark water; no sign or trace of battle. Mu noted that the Sion records she had brought with her were still on top of the desk Nicol seemed to have improvised at the back of the Temple.
"The Atlantean Tome has disappeared." announced Mu, after checking all the books in that place. "Surely Nicol must have taken him."
"I don't think that's the case." Shaka disagreed.
"What do you mean, Shaka?"
"Master Mayura didn't bring us here for our eyes, Aries Mu."
Mu looked at Mayura, leaning against the side of the Silver Crater.
"Shaka is right." she said. "I suspect Nicol may have been attacked."
"Attacked? But no one could make it this far without the Pendant, and surely if anyone had climbed the Voices from the Mountain would have known." Mu said.
"Perhaps someone able of crossing dimensions." Shaka said.
"Dimensions?" Mu was startled. "You don't think that… Saga is dead. We buried him!"
"Asgard has a God Warrior capable of manipulating ice as well as Aquarius Camus did." Mayura said. "It wouldn't be a surprise to suspect that there is someone loyal to Odin who can also bend Dimensions like Saga."
Mu and Shaka were silent, but then they understood for what purpose they were summoned to be there. Aries Mu placed her hand delicately over the bowl of the Silver Crater and made her Seventh Sense spread throughout the small Temple, while Virgo Shaka sat like a suspended lotus at the entrance of the Temple, also spreading her Cosmos throughout the region .
Mayura patiently sat in the chair that Nicol seemed to have used for his studies before and leafed through what appeared to be the last diary of Sion that the Crater Saint had studied. It was not possible to specify how much time had passed, because that meticulous investigation by the Gold Saints seemed to happen in different planes, to which only Shaka or Mu seemed to have access.
The Master felt when the Cosmos of Mu calmed down and she took her hand away from the Silver Crater; from the back of the Temple, Shaka also walked towards them when Mu seemed to give the terrible verdict.
"You're right, Master Mayura. Crater Nicol was attacked here."
"And murdered." Shaka confirmed.
Athena's Owl felt an ice apple sink into her stomach, but her blindfolded eyes and her calm posture did not show the enormous sadness in hearing that her old friend, whom she had already imagined dead, but who had returned free and alive from Cape Sounion Prison, it now really seemed to have found its final destination.
It was time to return to the Sanctuary, raise the defense forces and report to the Goddess Athena that one more of her faithful defenders had fallen in that mysterious battle.
In the deepest valley of Asgard, the group led by Shaina seemed to have finally reached the end of the trail that seemed endless or bottomless. They descended one last natural step, and the rest of the trail they found flattened out into the cave, until they finally emerged from it into what was undoubtedly a dark valley in the open air.
Above their heads rose the face of the extremely even mountain, as if the mountain had been split apart by a single sword stroke. The light from the white sky of Asgard did not reach that depth of the valley and only a very distant sliver of it could be seen, like a white strip far away, above their heads.
"Is this the Corridor of Old?" asked Shun as they walked through the dark valley.
As they followed, Hyoga looked up, the lack of light was remedied by the torch that Shaina still carried and, groping the stone of the mountain on the right, they walked unsteadily through the valley. At one point, the Master-at-Arms noticed that the rough stone that lined the dark valley had given way to careful stonework carved into a beautiful mural. The torch revealed some very old mosaics.
"Look up." Hyoga guided his friends.
That stone wall was the base of a long and almost infinite staircase that zigzagged along the face of the mountain of that depth until it was lost to sight, connecting the top with the bottom of that abyss.
"Shaina!" Shun called.
She turned her body and lit the back of everyone, because on the other side of the valley finally opened a fabulous dark tunnel where many precious stones were suspended from the ceiling and the walls of the corridor had a number of artifacts and trinkets that Shaina's torch briefly lit up. There was no inscription or ceremony, but everyone was absolutely certain that they were in front of the Corridor of Old.
"That's beautiful." said Shun when seeing how the fire reflected against those precious stones.
Everyone's fascination was interrupted by a flash that seemed to light up the Corridor of Old from the back of the Cave to the entrance, as if a switch had been flipped, but in fact it was the natural glow of the stones that intensified, creating a mesmerizing kaleidoscopic effect. And more fabulous than the Corridor taking light was the apparition of an incredible Valkyrie.
"Who's in there?" Shaina asked, putting herself in front of everyone.
Footsteps were heard from within the Corridor of Old until, illuminated by the thousand-colored lights of the tunnel's precious stones, a woman appeared in her Black Valkyrie Robe; a very tight and shiny torso protection, the purple dress dragging against the ground and a winged helmet on the head. In her right hand an ebony spear and in her left hand a golden ring. Fabulous.
"Hilda." guessed Hyoga, swallowing hard.
Shaina looked at the woman and she had a smile drawn on her face.
"Saints of Athena." she began in a strong, high-pitched, menacing voice. "You are way beyond where you should be. You stepped much deeper than Asgard's kindness allowed you."
"You will deceive us no more, Polaris Hilda!"
"Well, well, if it isn't the traitor to Asgard." she began, recognizing Hyoga. "I gave you the Phecda God Robe to protect Asgard, and here you are bringing these foreigners to plunder our land. Is this the value you place on your Master's promises?"
"I won't let anyone else use my Master to deceive me!" Hyoga shouted back.
"There is no honor among the Saints of Athena."
"Get out of our way." Shaina threatened.
"You have courage." she commented back. "But you don't know the danger of facing Odin."
Her seidr crackled in small bolts of lightning around her body, which caused the gemstones in that Corridor to also ignite with light.
"Wait, Shaina!" Shun asked. "Listen to me, Hilda. All we want is to seal away the Relic of the Seas that's at the bottom of this cave."
He showed the Seal of Athena as if to demonstrate his true intention.
"You want to curse our land." she said. "More than that. You, Saints of Athena, were responsible for the death of valiant Warriors of this land. Time for Mercy ended the moment you killed the first Warrior son of Asgard."
"I'm very sorry…"
"Enough!" cried Hilda.
And Shun was hurled against the stone wall behind them, apparently just by the force of that Valkyrie's voice. June called his name and ran towards the boy, while Shaina and Hyoga placed themselves in front of Hilda.
"We won't stand a chance against her, Shaina." said Hyoga, who knew that woman's stories.
"That's what we'll see!"
Shaina leapt forward, but her violent Thunder Claws were stopped just inches from Hilda's face, and when Shaina looked down she saw that the ebony spear had pierced her spleen. Hilda reached out and touched Shaina's already trembling face before saying close to her ear.
"Your corpse will be another Odin's treasure in these Caverns."
She removed the spear from Shaina's body and used the Ring of Nibelung to generate beams of terrible light that threw Shaina out of the Corridor, beside Shun. June realized that they were both in pitiful condition, even in the face of an attack that seemed so simple.
"That ring is terrible." said Shun between his teeth, with enormous difficulty.
"We won't stand a chance against Hilda while she's wearing the Ring of Nibelung." Hyoga said. "Only the Balmung Sword will be able to stand up to her."
"The Balmung Sword?" Hilda was surprised, letting out a huge laugh after hearing that name. "Don't tell me that you intend to awaken the Balmung Sword to defeat me?!"
"That's exactly what we're going to do." said June, putting herself next to Hyoga to fight, if necessary. "As we speak, I am certain that the last God Warrior will be defeated and then we can gather the Seven Odin Sapphires to take this ring from your finger and seal the last Relic of the Sea."
Again a laugh from Hilda.
"Saints of Athena, you are too foolish. Siegfried will never die and your friends will fall one by one before the Dragon of the North. And even if a miracle put all of Odin's Sapphires in your hands, you could never awaken the Balmung Sword either. The Balmung Sword, like the Ring of Nibelung, Mjölnir and any and all gifts from our Father Odin, can only be used by a Son of Asgard who has sworn allegiance to the Almighty."
Again the strident laugh of the governess of that land.
"Your hope is in vain, foolish Saints of Athena."
The seidr completely enlightened her and, as if she had run out of patience, she decided to finish them off right then and there. Her fist advanced in the air shooting the terrible and powerful lights of the Ring of Nibelungs, crossing Hyoga, June and knocking them out together with Shaina and Shun.
With the ebony spear, Hilda walked towards them and, in front of everyone, crushed the golden cylinder that held the Seal of Athena, stepping on it with her golden heel. The cylinder, when destroyed, let out the Cosmos that before imbued the papyrus with its ancestral magic. Before passing out, Shaina felt like her mission had failed.
And Hilda abandoned them in that dark valley, climbing the steps of that enormous climb to the outer courtyard of Valhalla, where she could already hear the clangors of a terrible battle being fought between the greatest of the God Warriors and the Athena Saints.
ABOUT THE CHAPTER: The ideas surrounding Hilda and her possession are used from the classic series, where Alberich is the one who sees her being taken, while in Soul of Gold, it is said that Sigmund was actually the one who saw her and tried to interfere, thus being arrested soon after.; I wanted to honor that inspiration. At the Sanctuary, we finally see the Gold Saints doing something at Mayura's behest in Nicol's mystery. Having Shaina and the others face Hilda was something I needed to do to demonstrate to the reader the strength of the Valkyrie. And she's strong, right? =)
NEXT CHAPTER: THE DRAGON OF THE NORTH
The Athena Saints finally face the greatest of the God Warriors.