Bab 35: Meeting Odin, and Rituals

After the Ancient One leaves alone on the cliff, I sigh and look up. Heimdall was searching for me, and he won't stop. I could sort of feel his sight wash over the Earth, and I could even feel that Odin had sent his ravens out for me.

"Let's just get this over with." I mumble to myself, and drop my invisibility, at least when it comes to scrying. I look up, immediately feeling Heimdall's sight on me, and say, "I'm waiting here, if he wants to meet me. If not, just tell him to leave me be."

I feel the sight leave me, and wait. Barely an hour later, The Bifrost lights drop down from the sky, about a hundred meters in front of me. They dissipate, leaving behind Odin All-Father, wearing his battle armour, and holding Gungnir.

I shake my head, knowing that his first instinct would most likely be that I'm a bastard who's trying to steal the throne, or something like that, and try and kill me.

I let him come closer, and when he's a few meters in front of me, I stand up, and bow. I greet, "AllFather."

Odin stays silent, and keeps looking at my face. He looks at my armour and raises an eye. He says, "Who are you? Eitri would have informed me if he'd made such an armour for anyone, out of Uru, no less."

I smile at him, giggling internally, and say, "Why, father? I'm your son."

Odin snaps his eyes to me again, ignoring my armour for now, and snarls, "Do not lie! I have only two children! And you are not one of them!"

I snort, barely holding back from asking which two he was speaking of. I say, "My name, is Baldur Odinson. God of Sun and Light." Odin opens his mouth to argue again, when I continue, "I am from another Universe, AllFather."

He snaps his mouth shut, and then observes me. He softens his eyes, and whispers out, "You're not lying."

I nod, not saying anything. This situation was different than me simply meeting my own father. This one is Odin, sure, but he's not the same Odin that fathered me. I don't even think Baldur was even an idea they'd considered. I did not look this Universe's Asgard up, much.

"You survived!" Odin whispers.

Wait! What? Survived?

I look to him and ask, "What do you mean, survived?"

Odin shakes his head and hugs me. He repeats, "You survived."

I awkwardly pat his back. What does he mean, I survived? Was I born here too? Was it "me" me, or was it simply a normal Baldur? Was it another Isekai who simply died? What the hell is happening here?

I gently push Odin away, and ask, "Okay, can you please tell me, what you mean by 'I survived'? Because nothing happened in my childhood that could have even remotely kill me."

Odin shakes his head, and says, "First tell me your tale. Why are you here in this Universe? How did you even leave your Universe?"

I nod and motion him to sit at the place TAO just sat. Holding back my Matter Manipulation, I begin my tale, "It all began when I started learning Sorcery from the Sorcerer Supreme of my Midgard..."

"...And then, I brought The Phoenix Host here using that same mirror, and reversed time using the Time Infinity Stone." I finished speaking 20 minutes later, while Odin stayed silent.

He asks, "Where is the Time Stone now?"

I raise an eyebrow, and say, "Where it belongs. Do not try to find it, Father. Asgard already has one Infinity Stone. Bringing two will paint a larger target on us.. Sorry, on you."

Odin glares, but sighs. He says, "You're right. If you think it's safe where it is, I won't try and find it."

I nod, and say, "Anyways, I'm trapped here for now. After Apocalypse dies, or is trapped again, I will leave this Universe and go back home."

"How?" Odin demands.

I shake my head, and say, "I have my ways." He opens his mouth to argue something, when I interrupt him, "Look, AllFather. I am not of your Kingdom. I respect your position as the King of Asgard, and as you are just an alternate version of my Father. That does not however mean I will answer each of your questions, and follow your orders blindly."

I glare at him, daring him to argue. He knows he could take me down, but he's old, while I have a lot of tricks up my sleeve. Plus, he's careful because I have a shard of Phoenix Force inside me, and I told him so. So nope, he won't fight now.

Odin nods, and says, "Very well. I would like to say, don't come to Asgard while you're here. Frigga won't be able to handle the heartbreak of you leaving."

I nod, and ask, "Will you now tell your story? Why you said, 'I survived?'"

Odin sighs. He looks to a side, and says, "Thor had a twin brother, here too. I named him Baldur, just like your father named you. Unfortunately, he died before he even turned one, and we never mentioned him again. Not to each other, not to Thor, nor Loki. We mourned him, of course, but remembering him was much too painful for Frigga."

I sigh, honestly tired. Standing up, I say, "Well it was a good talk, but I should get going. I need to keep an eye on Apocalypse, so I can make sure he dies."

"Son." Odin says, stopping me from creating a portal away from here. I look towards him, and he hugs me. He whispers in my ear, "I'm proud of the man you've become, my son. Even if you're the Son of another Odin, I know he's proud of you too."

He pushes me away, breaking the hug, and says, "Do not worry. I'll have Heimdall keep an eye on Midgard. If the Celestials chosen proves tough to beat for the Phoenix Host, and you, then I will bring Asgard's might on him."

I nod at him, and say, "Thank you, Father."

He nods, and turns around to walk farther away to use the Bifrost. I stop him, and say, "Father! In a few decades, an old Enemy will come, seeking the Infinity Stones. Be prepared and make sure Thor and Loki are prepared to fight him."

"Who?" Odin asks, getting grim, probably remembering Malekith.

I simply answer, "The Mad Titan, Thanos." And portal away.

I really hope he prepares everyone for the battle. I have no idea if the mutants will be enough to fight Thanos's army. But my guess was, yup, they are enough.

Not my problem, for now.

~~~A few days later~~~

Finally, I was ready to take part in this ritual. It was going to be a full moon night in a few hours, and I had brought, and prepared every ingredient I was going to need.

Most of the stuff was available in the Room of Lost things, the rest if which, I got by asking the Elves to bring it to me.

What Ritual was I undertaking, you ask? The ritual to gain the ability to speak a language of any one animal, and I mean animal. Non sentient animal. So you can't just learn Japanese, or French like this. But, you can gain the language of the cats, dogs, snakes, birds, etc like this.

One person can use this ritual only once, so a person gains only one language. It requires the tongue, eyes, and blood of a magical animal, who's language you need,

I was going to use a magical snake. Which magical snake you ask? The Basilisk from under the castle, of course.

You see, I had already killed the Basilisk that was hidden in the Chamber of Secrets. How?

It's not a big tale. I used Astral Projection to scout my way down, and entered the Chamber. After confirming that the Basilisk was asleep, I went back to my body, and made a portal directly down, right in front of the snake.

Of course, it was only possible as I was the Master of Wards of my own Hogwarts.

Once I came out of the portal, without waiting for it to wake up, I fired a concentrated beam of my fire through it's brain, killing it intantly.

I then stored the corpse in my PD, checked the Chamber for any other "secret", which there were none, other than a few secret passages that lead outside and went back upstairs after cursing every fanfiction ever.

After that, I surgically cut off it's eyes, and then cut it's tongue off. I did not forget to bathe the Sword of Godric Gryffindor (the flameless one) in it's poison, so it can absorb it.

Now, it was time to set everything up. Drawing the necessary ritual circle, after consulting the Journal of Salazar Slytherin, I draw a septagram within it, which is a star with Seven points. At each of those points I drew the runes necessary, and kept the ingredients.

The tongue at the top, so I can speak the snake's tongue, with 7 drops of blood to the right, and 7 drops of venom to it's left.

The blood will bind the ability to speak Parseltongue to my bloodline, making it so all of my descendants speak the tongue too. While the venom will make me immune to any poison weaker than itself. Yes, even tranquilizers. Potions will still work, obviously, as it uses my own magic to do the job.

Next comes the eyes of the snake, one on each side of the tongue. The Left eye was placed next to the Basilisk venom, while the right eye next to the Basilisk blood. This will give me and my descendants the ability to resist the Basilisk's deadly gaze.

If it was a normal snake, it would have simply allowed me to see in the dark, and given me eyes of a snake. But, since this is a Basilisk, it will simply save me from another Basilisk's gaze.

On the last two spots, were kept two of the bones of the Basilisk. As expected, this will bind the bones to me, making my bones a mixture of my own bones, and the Basilisk's. So my bones will become stronger than before, and even more resistant to harm.

It was not much useful to me, but it was a small benefit nevertheless.

And yes, you must have guessed that this was not just a ritual for learning the language. This ritual was used by a lot of families of old, so they can bind an animal to themselves, gaining their Strengths, resistance to their venoms, and even their language.

This is how most families came to be. Slytherin(snakes), Ravenclaw (eagles), Longbottom(Buffaloes), Gryffindor (Gryffins), Hufflepuff (Badgers), and even Peverell (Thestrals).

Some families tried bonding more than one animal to themselves, which gave rise to the races of Veela, Siren, and Magical Vampires and werewolves. This was all in the Journal.

Finally, 3 hours later, the Moon is at the top of the sky, and I'm ready. I walk inside, naked as the day I was born, and sit right in the centre of the ritual circle.

Once the clock strikes 9, I cut both my palms using a ceremonial dagger I conjured for myself, and slam both my bleeding hands on the Septagram, and chant.

"Magicae O mater, interea haec, et ligabis eos sanguis meus, anima mea, et magicae. Hoc est linguae, et lingua da mihi eum. Sanguine meo sanguine hoc obligat. Hoc fel suum, et da ei non resistat. Hanc oculis, et copulationem, ad me. Haec ossa mea confundantur!"

As I say each of those sentences, one by one the ingredients turn to a green wispy orb. Half of each orb goes down to the Earth, and half comes towards me, revolving around me. First is the tongue, followed by the blood, venom, eyes, and then lastly bone.

Once all 5 are revolving around me, I brace myself, and shout, "SIC EGO DICO, SIC FIAT SEMPER!" which is translated, "So I say, so mote it be." Cliché, I know.

As soon as I shout the last syllable, the 5 green orbs fly into my chest, one by one, while the ritual circles burns with bright red flames.

By all the Gods, Hindu and Norse, did this hurt like a bitch. My eyes were burning, and itching. My tongue was stretching a bit, and even my brain was aching.

My blood was boiling, and my bones, they were breaking and rearranging themselves. It was only 5 minutes of screaming my throat out, that I pass out, due to the intense pain. Well, no worries. I'll just.. lay here.

~~~Mindscape~~~

"Anyone got the plates of the truck that hit me?" I groan out, getting up from where I was laying down. MyMy head hurt, a lot. It was the same like when I had gotten drunk and bedded Amora and Lorelai. Except no sex to wake me up this time.

"You are an idiot." A trilling voice says from in front of me.

"SOL!" I shout, in happiness, and go to hug her. Unfortunately, I pass through her, and fall down on my face.

"I'm in your head, Baldur." Sol says, rolling her eyes.

I get up, and dust myself off. So I'm in my head then. Meaning I'm still unconscious. Why am I unconscious though? Last I remember is conducting a... Ritual!

"My ritual! Sol, please tell me you did not interrupt the ritual?" I say, looking at Sol, pleadingly.

Sol puffs her chest up, and flaps her wings angrily. She says, "I'm a phoenix, you dumb brute. I know better than interrupting a Ritual! I simply flashed you to your room once the ritual was done, and then came here to talk to you."

I let out a sigh of relief at that. Thank God. Wait a minute. I look at her, and ask, "How and when did you get to this Universe?"

Sol snorts out, and says, "I heard your cry of pain, so I simply came to wherever you were. And it's been 10 minutes since that mirror of yours shut down. Be grateful you have me. Your master was getting scared, and I had to calm him down."

I slump down. It's only been 10 minutes there? What's it been here? 2 days? Weeks? No idea, time travel was involved.

Shaking my head, which brings some more pain to my head, I say, "Well, it's good to see you, girl. Now I'm sorry to say, but my brain needs sleep, to get through the ritual. I'll talk in the morning."

Sol simply huffs, and flashes out. Drama queen. I nod and focus on exiting the Mindscape, so I can properly sleep.

The next I wake up, I hear a lot of bird noises, and the trill of a phoenix. Along with that, is the smell of sweet red velvet cake. I sniff my nose, and wake up. Following the smell, I'm met with Sol, who was eating the cake, while the cake was kept near my head.

"Sol, I'm really hoping you leave some of that cake for me." I say, yawning and then looking at the red cake.

Sol pulls the cake towards herself, making me scowl, and says, 'Get your own cake. This one's mine.'

I shake my head, and move towards the bathroom. My body feels.. heavier, denser, and with it, my magic has also improved, along with my eyes. I couldn't sense any changes in my tongue.

A few hours later, I gather the changes that have occurred to my body. Firstly, as I expected, my bones have gotten denser. I don't know how dense, but they are denser.

Next were my eyes. While before, I had to use my Light Dimension energy to see an enhanced sight, I am perfectly able to see the entire visible spectrum, clearly, along with Infrared when I wish it.

One fortunate bonus, was that I could petrify anyone that looks in my eyes, for 3 seconds, with a cool down period of 45 seconds. I counted. After I accidentally petrified a House Elf, whom I repeatedly apologized to, I practiced it for a few times using a rat they caught for me.

I think, Salazar either didn't know about it, as he had used an Ashwinder for his ritual, or he did not want to mention it in the Journal, or this was a unique case for me. Whichever it is, I'm happy with it.

I tried poisoning myself with the Sword, but nothing happened. The outer wound closed up quickly enough, but the Venom inside me was immediately neutralised by the rituals effects.

Finally, my tongue. I had the elves find a snake, any snake, and had a lengthy conversation with it. It basically asked for mice, and then sung my praises.

That was it for the ritual, and it was enough for me, for now.

While I was busy with staying unconscious, Apocalypse had simply been learning about this new world with the help of Storm. In Poland, meanwhile, Erik just saved the lives of his fellow workers using his magnet powers, a few hours ago, which means that his family is going to dies soon.

"Welp. Gotta start making changes somewhere." I mumble to myself, and make a portal to Communist Poland, right in the forest where I remember seeing Magneto kill the soldiers.

I become invisible, and wait for the soldiers to come, and I don't have to wait long. About a dozen or so of the local police, come carrying wooden bows, and arrows with stone tips, and move in the direction of Erik's, or as he's known here, Henryk's house. But, they don't have to go far.

Erik's daughter, who was named Nina, came running into the forest, chasing after a small rabbit.

"I recognize her. She's Henryk's daughter." One of them says, stopping and looking at the small girl, barely 10 years old.

"Are you sure Jacob?" another one asks, looking at the man, Jacob.

Jacob nods, and says, "I'm sure. He brought her to my house, when he came for dinner last week." And then grimaces.

Sure, talk about kidnapping a small girl but grimace about the fact that her father, the man you had dinner with, threatened to kill a man. That really makes sense.

I ignore them as they sweet talk Nina into staying with them, and Jacob, being the only one she knows, holds on to her.

Barely a minute later, Erik, and his wife Magda come running along, looking for their daughter, and stop seeing Nina captured by the police.

I silently watch, as the police let Nina go, which was a plus point in my mind, and as Erik surrenders himself.

"No! Papa! Come back!" Nina shouts, while her mother holds her back, and her father try to calm her from the distance.

Finally, what I was waiting for, happens. Nina activates her mutant powers, which is something related to animals, and nature, and sics all the birds, and animals on the police, to save her father.

Acting quickly, as I see the arrow being mistakenly fired by a police man, I block the arrow, still invisible, and cast an illusion of the arrow striking true, passing through the mother, and then the daughter.

Meanwhile, I quickly knock the two out, remove the necklace, and all the jewellery that the pair was wearing, and put them on the copies of them, that I conjured, or more accurately, created using Matter Manipulation.

I then quickly store mother daughter pair in the mirror Dimension, while the animals scatter away after Nina was knocked out. All this happened in barely a few seconds.

The copies looked, and felt exactly the same as human bodies, only dead. Using Telepathy, I manipulate Erik's mind to ignore the lack of heat, and make him see his family breathe their last breath.

This makes him snap, and he uses the necklace Nina is wearing, to kill each and every Police man. My job done, I go to the Mirror Dimension, and take Magda and Nina to Hogwarts. I will let them decide what they want to do later.

I could have stopped Magneto from joining Apocalypse, but then he might change his plans, which might make all of my planning useless.

No Police killing means no Magneto news, which means Raven never hears about Magneto and goes to Charles for help, which in turn means Apocalypse never encounters Charles. So, he never kidnaps Charles and destroys all the Nukes, which was necessary in my opinion. So yes, I manipulated the events so Magneto joins Apocalypse, while also saving his daughter.

Am I a manipulative bastard? Definitely. Will I do it again if it means I get to save a young girl? Yup. Most definitely.

Now, in a day or two, Apocalypse will come find Magneto, and then kidnap Charles. Finally, the boss battle is near.

~~~

A/N: The dialogue in Poland happened in their language, but Baldur simply understood it thanks to AllSpeak.

I know, I said I would finish Apocalypse arc right here, but this chapter took too much space. Next chapter, definitely Apocalypse is over, and he goes home.

I also know I've said that Canon MCU is closer, so I would like to again say that my guess was wrong. I still have a lot planned once Apocalypse arc is over. He is to go to space soon! I'm taking suggestions for the planet he's to visit.

Ciao!