Chapter 140: Goddess Freya's Scheme
—
While Aqua's fight with Thor had come to an end, the Nordic Brothers against Ai and Ichigo was far from done. They were nearly equal in power, with Ichigo standing a bit under Baldur in power, while Ai stood quite a bit above Vidar.
If not for having to help Ichigo now and then, Ai would have beaten Vidar by now.
Ichigo wasn't weak, and in fact, was nearly unbeatable if energy attacks were used against him, so Baldur stopped most of his solar energy attacks when he realized that. He rather used the vigor of the sun to amplify his strength. He kept Ichigo busy with his fists, and that had Ichigo on the back of his foot.
In his backup, Ruby shot beams of light from inside the barrier, toward Ichigo—the energy submerging into his body which he used to amplify his next attacks.
Ai, on the other hand, did not require such assistance. She wielded two holy swords, borrowed from Irina and Xenovia, that she used to parry Vidar.
[Image Here]
Her twin swords clashed against Vidar's heavy longsword, a chime traveling the air, as light shone after each of their clashes.
Their swords locked against one another, and Ai used that opportunity to kick the Nordic God in his stomach. He was sent flying backward, and she took that as a chance to cross her two swords in an 'X'.
"[Birth of a New Star]!" she shouted, and pure solar energy concentrated where the two swords crossed. A hyper-hot beam of plasma shot toward Vidar, which he blocked by shouting a spell that created a defensive barrier in front of him.
– Dham!!
The barrier shattered like glass and the beam slammed into Vidar. The god let out a scream of excruciating pain, his tolerance against heat far weaker than his Light God of a brother.
"Vidar! Tell me if you want to switch!" Baldur sounded enraged as he yelled for his brother's opinion, but Ai didn't give the younger brother a chance to reply.
She ended the beam and rushed toward Vidar with her swords chiming as they cut through the air. Vidar tried to block but he was too slow, the swords sliced into his chest.
"Argh-!" he shouted in pain as two deep injuries gushed out blood.
Ai found it satisfying, allowing a pleased smile to cross her lips. She was about to go for an ending attack when the sky lit up in the distance.
A rainbow light shone and went away just as fast, and a moment later the world thrummed with the sound of conclusion.
Everyone turned their heads to look in that direction, knowing that something had… gone wrong. Someone was defeated.
Ai felt her heart growing heavier as she focused on her eyes to activate long vision. Just as she did, she caught the figure of a Warhammer being carried on the shoulder of a white-haired deity, the tail of a white tiger swinging behind him. Her heart skipped a bit, fear etching it, before she recognized the face as her son's.
Just when she let out a sigh of relief, her son closed the distance and appeared in the nearby sky, the hammer of his enemy swinging backward.
"WHAT?!"
"W-why does he-!!"
Baldur and Vidar shouted in shock, Aqua rushing toward the former to slam Mjölnir into his face.
That's when the Bifrost opened in the sky again. Aqua grinned, letting out a laugh, as he let out another command: "Close."
This time, however, it was opposed by the voice of an old man coming from behind the Bifrost. "No."
The Bifrost opened, and though Aqua was about to command again, it shone down on the two Nordic Brothers at the speed of light and vanished just as fast.
The light ceased to exist, and the figure of the injured Baldur and Vidar vanished.
The Instant Dungeon collapsed immediately, it couldn't hold on any longer. The aura of the world shimmered for one last time, passing over the ruins of Tokyo, replacing it with the unharmed reality.
Aqua clicked his tongue in annoyance, while Ichigo and Ai let out sighs of relief. While Aqua found this to be a missed opportunity, annoyed that he didn't get to fight the two Gods when the whole reason he was holding back against Thor was to conserve his resources, the two adults were pleased to finally be able to let their guards lower.
The battle had ended, as abruptly as it had begun.
And it resulted in the fate of Norse's great loss. Not only did they lose their strongest God after Odin, but they also lost their most iconic and legendary weapon, Mjölnir.
* * *
The three of them landed back inside the barrier that was slightly cracked from the impact of attacks sent its way.
Aqua let his Icons vanish from the sky, but not entirely. It remained connected to him by a thread, causing him to hold the appearance of a tiger. His family had let their guard down, but he didn't have the luxury to.
'I'm too used to things going wrong just when it all seems alright.' he noted.
Although this time around he was fairly confident it wouldn't be the same, he didn't want to take the chance.
"Onii-chan!" Ruby threw herself into his arms, shaking. She had fought powerful enemies in the past, but this was the first time she was so helpless—the power gap was too much, and she could barely do anything to help her mother and uncle.
"It's alright now," he ruffled her hair and kissed her head. His eyes met the other Cat Yokai/White-Tiger behind Ruby, Tsubasa's mother seemed to have regained her energy after a long time.
Even in this situation, she licked her lips as she eyed him like candy. 'Weirdo.'
"Aqua, some of the girls have passed out earlier. Will they be alright?" Ai stepped to his side and asked, her tone bearing the grace of a queen.
He looked into the house, his perception focusing on the unconscious girls in there, and nodded a few seconds later, "It's just a spiritual pressure blackout, they're fine."
"But what's going on here anyway?" Now it was Ichigo's turn to ask, his crystalsapien from changing back to human. "Am I the only one, or were those Nordic Gods?"
"They were," Aqua nodded at him. "And they are incredibly strong. I'm impressed seeing you handle them on equal grounds."
"Well," Uncle Ichigo took the compliment by looking at the hammer on his shoulder. "Surely you have done better. Is he dead?"
"He is,"
"Does Odin exist in this world? Wouldn't he come for revenge?"
"He does, the 'No' you guys heard earlier was from him. And he'll probably be here for revenge in the future." Aqua said and silence fell in the area.
Ai sighed, rubbing the side of her head, "But why is all of this happening? Have you done something to offend them? You should be careful with these Gods, Aqua."
"It was not me, mother," he looked at her. "It was you."
"What?"
"Your ex, Ruby, and my biological father," he paused for dramatic effect, "That man is the 'World Spirit' of Norse."
"....."
* * *
Far from Japan, in the higher dimensional skies of Germany, Asgard floated in the cosmic emptiness. The royal castle was a source of rage and loud shouts now, as the Gods were agitated by the earlier events.
"Father! How can you pull us back at that moment?! We would have killed that little bastard who dared take Thor's life!" Baldur was Thor's older brother, he had taken care of his little brother for hundreds of years till Thor grew stronger than him. So he felt incredible rage right now, learning that his younger brother was gone and killed.
Vidar, however, had another idea. "While I don't agree with brother Baldur's words," he said, knowing it wouldn't have ended well if Odin hadn't called them back, as he said, "I don't understand why you wouldn't let us bring an army to Japan and ravage that stupid household!"
There were a dozen more Vikings in the room, and double the Valkyries who were related to Thor in one way or another: admirers, lovers, and daughters.
They were not openly yelling at All-father Odin, they wouldn't dare to, but their harsh expression said they agreed with the two Princes.
"Silence!" All Father Odin, sitting on his throne, with the spear Gungnir on his hold, let out a shout while tapping the floor with Gungnir's end. The room went silent in an instant. "You think I don't want to?! Who do you fools take me for?!"
"...."
"...."
Odin the One-Eyed, Killer of Giants, the God King of the Nine Realms. Of course, he was no coward. He just didn't want to lose his sons, that's why he pulled them back at the last moment.
His two sons calmed down and lowered their heads, beginning to kneel down. The forces standing behind them followed right away, all kneeling before the All-Father.
"We apologize, father." Baldur, the oldest, the one who had seen his father in action the most, apologized as he recalled the old days. How dare he raise his voice toward a man who can split the earth with his spear?
Odin gruffed and scoffed, "We can't make rash decisions. It was already pushing it by sending three of you instead of just one to Japan." And it was stupid how they were somehow defeated by a 15-year-old mortal turned Demi-God. How did that work?! "If I send an army now, that will be declaring war on Shinto. Can we afford that in these dire times? Right when we are playing with Aztecs on the side? Hah, just say you want Ragnarök at this point!"
"...."
"...."
His sons kept their heads low. Of course, just like him, they must also have a hard time following the situation. After all, did it make any sense?
How can a mortal become a demigod?
Putting that aside with the excuse of his origin, as the son of Yaggdrissil, even if it was a vessel body that conceived him, how did he defeat Thor?
And how did he override the command of Bifrost from opening?!
"We'll get an opportunity, we have all the time in the world," Odin said in the end, his pride as a God unbroken. Rather than fear that a young man was this strong in such a short time, he felt cold and calculated rage. "Why must we rush it? We already did so and lost Thor, we can't be making the same mistake." he ended with a huff.
"What about Yggdrasil?" it was Loki who spoke, walking into the chamber with his daughter Hel by his side.
Odin frowned, glaring at him for openly speaking of this matter in front of so many people, but he answered anyway, "We will have to hold on to that as well. We'll provide him with other sources of power than that woman and boy. Preferably out of Japan. The boy has grown strong fast, he ought to hit a ceiling soon. We'll wait, even if years pass until we're ready."
To begin with, Odin wasn't excited to go along with Yaggdrissil's plans. He only did what he did because it was necessary for the sake of preserving the Nine Realms.
"Fine with me," Loki shrugged. Odin felt his fingers twitch at the nonchalance of the Evil God; he must be happy that Thor was gone. It irritated Odin beyond belief.
But he didn't say anything, which allowed Hel to speak. "Annoying. I've been waiting to have my hands on that brat for a while now. How incredibly annoying…!" She complained before taking note of Odin's cold stare. She scoffed and looked away.
"What of Aztec? Quetzalcoatl?" changing the subject, Loki asked. "Has Rossweisse returned?"
"She has yet to," Odin said. "But earlier she contacted us, and it's safe to say things haven't delved into chaos. This was just bait, a false report anyway. They did get mad when they realized, but we pretended we didn't know either."
Not all mythologies prophesied their own end, but both the Norse and Aztecs do. In Norse, the end of the world is dubbed as [Ragnarok], which is said to come after a series of events and actions. In Aztecs, the end of the world is predicted to be brought by earthquakes and is tied to their belief in a cycle of creation and destruction. It's dubbed as the [End of the Fifth Sun]. The current era, known as the Fifth Sun by the Aztecs, is believed to come to an end with catastrophic earthquakes after a series of events tied with one another.
Odin sent Rossweisse to give the Aztecs a scare. The Valkyrie was ordered to tell the Aztec Gods that Ragnarok and End of the Fifth Sun are related, and that the day will be coming soon—that's why Quetzalcoatl, the God King of Aztecs, had no choice but to hear the report by herself. That was why she was forced to leave Japan for a bit.
But what did that achieve?
Nothing.
After taking all these risks, things ended in a foolish display of defeat for the Norse.
Bad days were coming, and Odi had little ideas to salvage his realm from them.
"....I've heard your explanation my king, but," it was then that the Queen of Asgard walked into the grand hall. Most people were bowling already, but even Loki and Hel lowered their heads when she entered. She was Loki's master, after all. "Are you saying you're not going to take any active approach to get revenge for my son?"
"...."
"If you allow me to suggest something," Freya, the Nordic Goddess of love, beauty, fertility, sex, war, gold, and seiðr, pointed a graceful finger at one of the Valkyries who were bowing.
"I'd like to send this girl, with Rossweisse once she returns, to Kuoh High School. They'll be dubbed to have fled Asgard, and we will actually cut them off our ranks for the foreseeable future to make that appear true, and they'll work as spies to trap that boy. He likes women, I hear, and I'll use that weakness of his against himself."
For she, who's the God of Love and Sex, it was a perfect plan.
Odin, however, saw a problem. He looked at the girl whom Freya pointed at, a blonde-haired and blue-eyed goddess of a woman with a hammer in one of her hands.
Brigid Thorsdottir, Daughter of Thor.
[Image Here]
He was unsure if sending Thor's daughter to avenge her father by using her body was the most ethical option for revenge here.
"I accept," However since the girl raised her head and showed no opposition, why must he judge?
Indeed, they shall wait for an opportunity in the future, even if it were to take them years. But at the same time, they will be attacking the young man where he showed weakness already.
Odin felt pleased at his wife's wisdom.
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Author Note: 😔Top 6 is crazy, so I'll post 1 chapter. Here, enjoy. Next day's goal too is Top 3, since we're so close it shouldn't be an issue. Goodluck!
Read the next chapter right away, along with an entire month's worth, ahead in my Patreon.
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Chapter 141: Congratulatory Honeymoon? Or a Battle More Dangerous?
Author Note: 😔🖐️I'm being too generous but, since we're so close to Top 3, I'll post the promised chapter. This will make this week a 5-chapter-week. For more, let's FR reach Top 3 for a update tomorrow too. Enjoy!
—
Morning birds chirped overhead as I walked through the school gate with a frown of detachment on my face. Ruby and Tsubasa walked beside me, but they didn't bother me. I was busy thinking, so I appreciated that.
I'm curious. How did they get in here?
It's one thing to get attacked, and another to get jumped so conveniently and abruptly as it happened with me.
Goddess Amaterasu did say that not all of Japan was under the direct dictatorship of Shinto. If not, the devils and fallen angels wouldn't have been camping in Kuoh.
Some land-related god politics were going on here that I wasn't aware of, nor did I care about, that was the cause behind this attack.
Obviously, it wasn't the Shinto Pantheon who let the three Nordic Gods inside their own country to wreak havoc, that'd ruin the entire purpose of Amaterasu telling me about it from earlier.
It couldn't be the devil faction either. This region's devils are Rias and Sona, and the former is too much in her female fantasy romance with me to do something like this. There is a slight chance that it's Sona, but she'd have discussed such a big thing with her big sister first—and Serafall would've had to discuss it with Sirzechs first before proceeding with this since Rias also lives in this area.
I met Sirzechs just half an hour before the attack happened, where he saw my insane potential and power. He practically gave me his sister's hand, he wouldn't have done that if he had set up Gods to assassinate me half an hour later.
Which left only one candidate behind.
The Fallen Angels.
As I had expected back when Sona told me about the Fallen Angel's odd pattern of behavior a few days ago, they have teamed up with the Nordic Gods.
It is such a pity that they didn't try their luck to fight with me besides the Norse. I'd have loved to eradicate their entire ranks last night. Now, they must be scared of me instead. But where will they hide? For how long?
Azazel has made a big mistake this time, and he should be ready to pay for it.
'It seems I need to skip the beginning classes today.' I walked into the school gate, separated from my sister and cousin, and headed to the Occult Research Club.
I found the door closed, knocking as I waited. Footsteps came from the other side and the door opened a moment later; instead of the girls, it was Kiba Yuuto today.
He showed an amicable smile when he saw me, "Ah, Aquamarine-kun. Fancy seeing you here this early, did the President summon you?"
"She didn't," I showed him a polite smile. "But I do have some business with her, as well as the Student Council President. It's about the Fallen Angels, as well as about the Nordic Invaders last night. I'm unsure if you guys know about this."
Kiba blinked and then frowned, "Come in, I'll call the president and bring Sona-san here." I'm glad he was quick-witted on the danger.
* * *
When I finally sat down with Rias, her brother, as well as Sona's sister, joined us in this meeting. As they should—being Satans in charge of this area, it's an insult to have an enemy faction come raid my house right under their nose.
"It's obviously the Fallen Angels," Sona fixed her glasses behind which a frown hid. "Issei-kun from my peerage has been dealing with Azazel of the Fallen Faction for a few months now. Ah, right," she looked at me. "I'm assuming you don't know how we operate. As devils, we take commissions from human patrons to garner demonic energy by completing the tasks."
"And Azazel has been pretending to be a normal middle-aged man for the last two months," Serafall followed. She had her eyes on the smartphone in her hand, a frown of disbelief on her hand, before she showed the phone to Sirzechs beside her who took a look with surprised eyes. She let him take a longer look and turned to me. "Sona told me about it before, I told her to rest assured as he wasn't making any moves, he might just have been here for a vacation. Plus, we were not sure from the beginning if it was Azazel. I am sorry, we should have dealt with him from the moment we found out."
"No, it's fair to not engage him when he wasn't showing any hostility," I looked at her and said, "I hope to deal with him as soon as possible, however."
"We shall," Sirzechs put the phone on the table and looked at me. "But before that, will you brief us on what happened last night with the Nordic Gods?"
"I wish to ask the same thing," Serafall said. "Once again, it's our incompetence that we didn't notice Bifrost firing into our area, we had no idea about this incident until you told us about it today. But with your source to work with, I've confirmed that the Nordic Gods have indeed invaded Kuoh last night, but," she once again took a look at her smartphone, her eyes registering the text for a long while, before she looked up at me, "Did you really… kill Odinson Thor?"
Every head in the room snapped to look at me. To start, the room was filled with all of Rias' peerage, and a part of Sona's peerage. Issei Hyuudo wasn't here, so I failed to see his reaction, but the others' looks were pleasing enough. Despite how old I am and having experienced similar scenes a thousand times before, this look of absolute surprise which shattered the idea of me being the underdog in a situation still pleased my heart to this day.
But of course, it's an incredible feeling when the world recognizes your worth.
Rias' surprise turned into a happy grin a second later, women loved it when their man turned out to be greater than they showed, while Sona began to sweat. Sona and her little peerage had picked a fight with me just a couple of days ago, she must feel lucky that I wasn't angry that day. Her Queen, Tsubaki Shinra, who stood behind her couch placed a hand on her chest and sighed in relief. She was glad for the same reason Sona was scared—that her little mischief with me hadn't caused the end of her peerage.
Of Sona's peerage, only one other reaction stood out. Loup Garou, the Werewolf. His fingers twitched, and due to his default expressionless face, I failed to pinpoint exactly why. I sensed excitement, fear, and a little rage? Odd.
Ah, and, while Issei wasn't here, his good friend Saji was. He, who was a part of Rias' peerage now, stood with his fists and jaws clenched, and head down. Nobody else but Koneko noticed it, and I let him be. I couldn't be bothered with a weakling at this time.
"Aqua!" Perhaps Rias felt a need to show off as she got off her couch and jumped into my arms. I was wondering why she hadn't sat on my side from the get-go today, perhaps my serious expression scared her earlier. "I was so worried earlier when you mentioned the attack, but you killed Thor! That's incredible! Won't you tell me what happened exactly?!"
I endured her attention-seeking behavior because she's cute, and nodded. "Well, after I left the Clubroom yesterday…"
I narrated the story briefly, though I didn't bother to mention all the events, such as when I connected with two Icons at once. I finished the story with how Bifrost opened another time to take away Baldur and Vidar back to Asgard.
I kept it short. There was no need to give them too many details; even the Shinto Gods who watched the battle from heaven yesterday didn't get to see everything. They caught the important events, such as me connecting to two Icons, but that was not a harmful thing. It didn't damage me to show off my extraordinary talents, at this point I had few things to hide.
"Aha," Sirzechs sounded impressed. "That's incredible. I congratulate you on your victory, it's a grand achievement. I think you can already guess, but don't worry about Norse coming to your tail anytime soon anymore. If they had the luxury to do so, they would have done it last night."
"That's what I thought," I nodded.
"This is incredible though, as he said," Serafall gave me a seductive smile. "Now I'm starting to get serious about that marriage thing, I doubt I'll find a better husband. Do we hold a proper honeymoon to establish the marriage?"
[Image Here]
I allowed myself to laugh to ease my fury for a little, "We can go to Source d'Argent, in Seychelles after we deal with the Fallens?"
"Oh, you're really making me consider putting off my work for vacation~" with a dramatic sigh, she bit her lips and looked at me. She wasn't playing anymore, her eyes were truly hungry as she looked at my lips. Strong women liked strong men, it was a natural thing, did learning about my feats kick her womanly instincts into action?
"Jokes aside, I say you get a vacation," Sirzechs supported her fellow Satan, though he failed to see that his friend wasn't joking about it. "You've been in non-stop work for the last couple of years, take a break. I'll take care of things for the few more days you'll be away for, if you agree."
"Really?"
"Yup."
She jumped to give Sirzechs a hug, "My Sirzechs-chan is such a good friend."
"I can't go, Onee-sama," Sona suddenly said, making her sister turn to her. "Exams are soon, and-"
"Ah, it's alright Sona-tan, I was planning to go by myself this time~" she cut off her little sister and walked over to me, ignoring Rias as she sat down on my lap. "I might be too busy with him to take care of you if you tag along…"
"Oh." Sona blinked, blinking again as she opened her mouth and then closed it. This must be the first time Serafall wasn't begging her to come to a vacation, I guessed.
"But," I put a finger on her nose and said, "after I take care of Azazel."
"Sure thing, honey~"
Sona frowned and opened her mouth when a louder voice cut through the room. "Uh, bad timing?" It came from the window, where a man with blonde-black hair sat.
Azazel of the Fallen Angels, the culprit who we were discussing, was here.
"It seems you've been mentioning my name a lot, so I decided to visit." He showed a friendly smile, "Before you guys say anything, I haven't done anything this time. Just earlier I heard about what happened, and I've come to explain myself that-"
My hand grabbed him by the mouth as I appeared in front of him after Blinking from under Serafall's ass, as I shot toward the sky with my jaws clenched.
"Funny of you to come to my doorstep!" my other hand drew back into a punch as it slammed into his nose the next second.
The sound barrier shattered, causing the glass of nearby buildings to crack, as he was shot high into the sky. He was hurled through the air like a bag of garbage until six pairs of black wings erupted behind him to stabilize him.
Azazel held his bloody nose with one hand and erected an Instant Dungeon with the other, chuckling, "My, my, I heard you were a cheery and humorous young man, but looks like you have a bad mood today."
"I wonder who's behind that?" I was already in my White Tiger form, my speed in the sky tens of times faster than a bullet, as I rushed to continue my assault against the crow bastard.
"Calm down! I'm not an enemy~" he raised his hands in defense, but I didn't give zero fucks. There was a chance that it was Kokabiel who was after this, but there is no way that Azazel wasn't aware of it even if he didn't actively take part in it.
He should have stopped it if he feared for his life.
"Haah," he let out a sigh of defeat when I was just a few meters from his face, not bothering to slow down. "Have it your way, then."
A silver blur rushed in front of me and blocked my punch. A loud thrum filled the sky, and I felt a significant amount of energy leave my body.
Sure, I wasn't using all my attributes in the punch, but that punch had all my physical strength behind it. Plus the power loss from a single touch was also alarming.
A knight in shining armor stood in front of Azazel, all protected and covered, yet I didn't miss the glare from the helmet's blue eyes.
"Stay back," the White Dragon Emperor dared warn me. "If you don't want to die."
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