Capítulo 29: The Story of Kror Part IV
There was something coming.
Odin could sense it, a storm was on the horizon and heading towards Asgard. Every night he came here, looking up to the stars, watching and waiting. The cosmos was changing, empires new and old, rising and falling. It was always a truly dangerous yet magnificent place to behold, one that represented opportunity and destruction in equal measure.
Reach too high and one risked destroying themselves.
Move cautiously and one left themselves exposed.
Time ones rise just right and endless opportunities awaited them upon their journey. Odin was a man who had reached too high too soon, incurring the wrath of the Celestials with his interference upon Midgard. He now found himself pressured by the Lords of the Dawn, without allies to face them should they strike. Now he worked to the whims of the masters above, trying to ensure that Asgard did not meet its end yet forever bound to see Ragnarök come to fruition, the great ending constantly besmirched for the greed of others.
To torture him further, his masters allowed him to see everything, to remember all he had done in his past lives. A reminder that no matter what he did, Asgard would always be stuck in this cycle.
Yet there was hope, Thor Odinson was both a pivotal pawn to his masters, but also his greatest weapon against them. Thor could save Asgard from its destructive cycle if moulded just right and prepared properly, yet he had not succeeded in any of the past incarnations. But he would keep trying, shifting and changing how Thor was raised and treated, influencing the actions of the people around him.
Always creating big or small changes to see which would work.
Odin knew that he would find a way, nothing and no one was unbeatable. Victory would be his and then he would be content to let Asgard go about its proper course. 'Perhaps when I succeed, I shall go into hiding like my grandfather, Buri. Allow Asgard and its King to choose its own path from then on.'
He was old now, not in body but in mind.
Defeat after defeat was making him weary, but he could not give up just yet. Not when there was so much at stake.
"You have spent many a night looking to the stars recently, dear husband." His wife, Freyja murmured, coming to a stop by his side. "Is there something that draws your attention towards them? Perhaps a stirring of the old warrior King, the conqueror."
"Those days are long behind me," Odin replied. "The thoughts of a foolish and ambitious young man, desperate to prove himself worthy of ruling Asgard in Bor's place. I am no longer that man, I live only for the betterment of Asgard and the stars are not the answer. Vast empires are falling, and ancient races are slumbering. If we were to move now, all we would do is earn temporary success followed by immediate destruction."
Freyja nodded her head. "Then what troubles you?"
"A storm is coming. A powerful one." Odin clenched his fists. "Yet strangely, it holds no threat to Asgard, yet we are its target all the same."
No threat to Asgard it posed, but it did not come with peaceful intentions. Battle was its aim but who its target was remained a mystery. Odin had pondered on that question for some time niece but still, no answer came to him.
He was filled with questions but bereft of answers.
The only thing he was certain of was the trouble this storm would bring, a storm that was not aiming for Asgard. A storm, that nonetheless, would sweep Asgard up in its path of destruction.
Destroy it!
Destroy it!
Destroy it!
Jerking away, Odin clutched his head in pain, Freyja quickly rushing to his side. "Husband, what has happened?" She asked urgently, Odin gritting his teeth as he felt the anger and fear of his masters rush through him.
Destroy it!
Destroy it!
Destroy it!
Then a horn blared in the night.
Not just any horn, but the Gjallarhorn.
Whatever was coming, was so great that his masters took control of Heimdall, forcing the Guardian of the Bifrost to call the horn that signified the end of the days, the beginning of Ragnarök.
Then to confirm his worst fears, the sky went dark as the moon and sun were swallowed.
Gjallarhorn had been rung and his masters had brought about the end of days sooner than ever.
Ragarnök had begun.
-X- Line Break -X-
"That horn?" Stror murmured in shock. "It can't be?"
"It is," Makor said, voice dripping with eagerness.
Kror at the front of them all nodded his head. "Ragnarök has begun."
This was not part of the plan, not what they had expected. How was it that their arrival was perfectly in time with Ragnarök's beginning?
It didn't make any sense.
"It changes nothing!" Kror called out, creating a hammer with the energy from the Nega-Band and God-Jewel. The powers of the two mixed together creating a glowing weapon in the shape of Mjolnir, one that was soon coated in sparks of lightning. "We came to save Asgard, now is our chance to change its fate! We not only save it from those who hide above but now from its very own destruction!"
They had already traversed to various locations across the cosmos, searching for an entryway into Asgard. But now they were finally here, their time had begun and they would stop at nothing.
"Gather your weapons! And your courage! Victory shall be ours this day!" Kror roared, the mouth of the Acanti opening as he plummeted to the ground below. Already, it was a mess, hundreds of the thousands of Giants led by Hyrm, Loki and Surtr as they marched towards Asgard.
The golden armies marching towards them led by Tyr and Odin meet them.
Yet here they came, an unknown party of warriors
Falling from the sky, Kror released a roar as he fell upon the flaming giant, Surtr. He swung his hammer around, smashing it into the side of his face lightning burst out, travelling through his body as Surtr fell back. His flaming sword tore through the ranks of his own army as he crushed many more under his knee as he caught himself.
Thor continued round, joined by Stror who unleashed two beams of burning energy from his eyes that cut through swathes of warriors. He himself came down storm clouds above erupting with power as lightning rained down upon the army below.
Yet as Kror plummeted to the ground, he suddenly found himself gone from his place. Where he had initially intended to deal a crushing blow upon the ever-growing Fenrir, he suddenly found himself descending upon the Asgardian army. Quickly he slowed his descent only to then see Odin looking up at him, Gungnir aimed directly at him.
'Fuck!' He cursed, summoning a shield just in time to protect himself from the blast of energy that fired out from the tip, engulfing him entirely. It knocked him back, but the shield held firm and with a shout, Thor released a wave of energy from the Nega-Bands dispersing that beam around him.
Looking down though, he saw Odin was gone from sight, the Asgardian army charging across the fields to meet the forces of Ragnarök. However, he was unable to pay that much in the way of attention as he was suddenly struck from behind, a deep cut opening up on his back as he cried out, plummeting to the ground that erupted outwards from the force of his impact.
Odin didn't give him a moment's rest, descending down, Gungnir pointed down his intent to finish him off easy to predict. Rolling just out of the way, Thor was still caught in the explosion that resulted from Odin impacting the ground.
Still, he righted himself easily, floating in the air as he looked down to Odin below. "I'm not your enemy," Thor told him, yet he quickly had to summon another more powerful shield as he was surrounded by hundreds of magical glowing orbs. All of which converged upon him in the blink of an eye, smashing into his shield which held firm. 'Damnit, Odin was never this quick to attack in the past. If his opponents were willing to talk he was willing to entertain them. And we just aided him, so why is he attacking us?'
Despite those questions, Thor knew he wouldn't be receiving an answer and so, he reached out. He could feel it in the distance, the comfortable feeling of his trusty weapon held within the bowels of the golden city.
Yet just as Mjolnir responded to his pull, Odin appeared behind him, spear thrusting towards his back. A shield sprouted between the strike, Thor spinning round and parrying the golden spear that continued through towards him. Then he responded with a blow, Odin parrying it with the butt of the spear just in time, yet he was still knocked back.
Rushing forwards, Thor came at him more, unleashing dozens of powerful strikes that Odin masterfully parried and blocked. Both were forced to break apart moments later when Mjolnir came flying through the pair of them directly into the hands of Stror.
"We are not your enemies King Odin!" He cried out. "We want the same as you, to save Asgard!"
Kror nodded his head. "He lifts the hammer, he is worthy of the enchantments you have placed upon them." The previous stone-faced look of Odin broke momentarily at that moment, surprise prevalent. "We wish to save Asgard from the cycle of destruction it finds itself in. Trust us and we can not only avoid Ragnarök but also save our people from those above."
For a moment, Odin looked vulnerable, like he wanted nothing more than to believe them. To trust that their words were true. However, then he jerked away, clutching his head in pain and reflexively, both Kror and Stror moved towards him, intending to give aid.
Yet both were flung away by the explosion of power that erupted from within Odin.
He was engulfed in a golden light, one hand clutching the spear of Gungnir and then in the other, the Sword of Ragnarök. Both Thor's shared a glance and affirming themselves, turned towards Odin, prepared to fight their most potent foe.
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Overwhelming power.
That was Odin Borson when wielding the Odinforce. A force of overwhelming power that no foe of Asgard could hope to match. He rarely unleashed his true power, always responding with just the appropriate amount of strength to defeat his enemies. Adjusting his power in accordance with their own.
Some enemies required trickery to beat.
The Odinforce provided that.
Others required brute force.
The Odinforce provided that also.
It was the power Odin had risked his life to achieve, a power he spent his entire existence cultivating. There were always new ways in which to use its power, new ways to make himself stronger. And yet, despite all that, Odin knew he was powerless to save his people.
His enemies were not foes who could be defeated through brute force or through trickery. Odin had tried many times over the course of many cycles of death and rebirth. Each time was met with failure, his enemies growing more powerful with every one of his failures. But for the first time since being stuck in this cycle, Odin felt hope.
He clashed against his two foes, a Strontian and an Asgardian. Both wielded incredible strength, one wielding the mystical hammer of Mjolnir that would have become the weapon of his teenage son, Thor Odinson. The other wielded the power of storms freely, commanding great physical strength and strange gauntlets each with immense depths of power. Above all that though, Odin touched upon their souls, it was small, a fragment of a greater whole.
A whole that he knew to be his son, Thor Odinson.
What was even more surprising than finding fragments of his son's souls making up these beings, was the touch of Death that surrounded them. Not the touch of Hela, but the touch of Lady Death, the figure all Death Gods derived their power from.
Slowly, answers came to him as he withstood the assaults from both figures, magic power exploding all around him, flinging both opponents back, he closing in upon the Strontian. The weakest of the two, his aim is to eliminate him and focus purely on the stronger one. A simple divide and conquer tactic, one that focused on removing the weakest link first.
Yet as he did this, his body ran purely upon instincts honed from many millennia of war over the course of many lifetimes. Gungnir and the Sword of Ragnarok coated within the power of the Odinforce thrusting and swiping through the air, Mjolnir blocking and parrying many strikes, but not all. Many slipped through and the Strontian was just barely able to avoid them all. The Asgardian came from behind, both fists clasped together and swung down together.
Yet a shield sprung to life, blocking the blow that caused the surrounding land around them to explode outwards. Not even a crack formed upon the shield as Odin pushed it outwards, the Asgardian trying to fight against the pushing force only to end up failing.
As his body fought, his mind slowly began to connect the dots as to what had truly been happening under his nose. His enemies, his self-styled 'masters' were at war with one of the most powerful and dangerous beings to exist within the cosmos, Lady Death. Her duty was to ferry souls to the afterlife, ensuring that no soul could exist to cause harm and destruction in the future, to ensure that no wayward soul could change the course of the future. However, she was also denied the ability to directly intervene.
Instead, working through the Death Gods of various godly pantheons who could work with more freedom than she could.
Those Who Sit Above In Shadow through constantly killing and reviving the Asgardian people and all those within the Nine Realms were interfering with that mission. In fact, they were directly offending her and so, she moved to remove them.
Just as he had recognised how important Thor was to saving Asgard from their grasp, so had Lady Death. His son was no longer simply a pawn for him to use, but also a pawn used by Lady Death to remove the Asgardians from the grasp of Those Who Sit Above In Shadows. And she had been splitting his soul apart, perhaps upon every cycle of the Ragnarök. This means, there were many out there, more than what was gathered here.
The question remained though, what happened when a Thor was killed? What happened to that fragment of his soul? Did it disappear or did it move elsewhere?
Those Who Sit Above In Shadows wanted these people dead, recognising them for what they were. Odin wanted to know whether he should be truly killing them, or whether he should simply force them to leave Asgard so they could return again, strong enough to save Asgard.
Reaching out with his senses, Odin came upon the feeling of a much weaker version of Thor, the weakest of those gathered. With a final heavy swing, Gungnir clashed against Mjolnir, throwing the Strontian away and then he disappeared from sight, just as the Asgardian came swinging down other the top.
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"Where'd he go?" Stror called out, both scanning their surroundings for any sight of Odin.
They need not look far as mere moments later, they saw him, Gungnir piercing through the chest of one Thor. "No!" Both cried out, rushing down, but it was too late, the Thor was already dead, Odin blasting off the ground. One hand gripped hold of Kror's face, while Gunginr swung round, Stror just barely able to raise a guard.
In a single instant, all three went flying backwards, Odin the aggressor as he carried them through the sky before knocking them down to the ground. As the two pushed themselves up out of the crater, Odin meanwhile looked down at the fragment within his hand curiously.
All he felt was a cold chill up his spine before the fragment seemed to dissolve within his hand, it disappeared from his grasp. 'But it's not gone. No, it's returned to the one who has marked it with their power.' He thought looking up to the sky where he could sense the eyes of Lady Death upon his battle. 'So the fragment does not die but simply returns to Lady Death. Meaning she can probably return them to life once more.'
It was a genius plan.
Thor Odinson was a powerful soul to possess, a determined one also. If given the chance, he would grasp power and use it for his own agenda, one that was usually in the best interest of Asgard. Just as Odin had raised him from the moment he was born. Even if they were killed, they would be reborn to gain power and work towards Asgard's betterment.
An undying army.
Odin felt his lips twitch up into a small smile, that was something he could use to his advantage. Now he could truly experiment with how to raise his son. Perhaps the way to succeed was not with an honourable warrior, but with a power-hungry tyrant. Perhaps a monstrous villain? Or maybe a cunning and cruel Thor?
Perhaps in order to save his people, Thor had to be everything but who Thor was, Odin didn't know, but he could keep trying until he eventually succeeded. After all, every failure would inform him of the future and only add additional Thor's to Lady Death's army, an army that would be allied with him due to their shared goals. Even if that meant training those Thor's with darker ambitions to desire Asgard for themselves and not for the people.
It would be a small price to pay for their freedom.
One Odin would be happy to pay.
REFLEXIONES DE LOS CREADORES 
Carrots123
Carrots123 So, another chapter is done and with it, the Citadel of Thors are invading Asgard, coming into conflict with both sides of Ragnarok. Those Who Sit Above In Shadows, triggered such a thing in order to prevent the Citadel of Thor's, forcing Odin to fight against what would have been excellent allies for his goals. But what it does accomplish is the forging of an unspoken alliance between Death and Odin, with Thor being their weapon against TWSAIS. I hope you all enjoyed and if you have questions or suggestions, please let me know.
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