Arc VI God of Storms - The training arc
One moment, he had his own sword in his gut, was tired from battle, and gave his last wishes to his father. The next moment in a flurry of golden motes of light, he appeared on a bridge surrounded by mist.
Eli looked down to his stomach, expecting to feel the pain again. Instead, he saw his armor in perfect condition. Everything was clean and perfectly polished. The only thing missing was the black uru arrow from the indentation on his new arm.
"My son," a voice he didn't hear in years called out from behind him.
Eli snapped out of his musings and turned around sharply.
"My beautiful boy," his mother called out to him with a quivering voice.
There were other people there, all dressed in silvery, immaculate robes. There were giant, incomparably majestic buildings surrounded by breathtaking nature in his line of sight, but Eli ignored it all. He only looked towards Amora, the blonde, green-eyed beauty that gave birth to him.
"Mom," Eli said in disbelief as he slowly walked forward to envelop the woman in a tight hug. They both enjoyed the hug for a few minutes before another female voice broke the silence.
"What does a grandma have to do to get a hug, too?"
Eli looked toward Frigga and was confused. If he was correct about where he was, why was his grandmother here already?
"I thought... is this not the afterlife? How are you here? Did the Ark get raided, too?" Eli asked as his eyes widened in horror.
Amora caressed the back of Eli's head gently to calm him down.
"Calm down, little Eli. Your grandmother has been here for a few years already. And time flows differently around these parts. I'm sure the Ark is fine. Well, as fine as anything can be after the mad titan snapped his fingers," Amora soothed her worried son.
"Your mother is right. The ark will make it to Earth just fine. Your father will wallow in self-pity for a few years, and Brunnhilde and Krista will govern our people in his stead. They will receive plenty of help from your trusted butler, Anya, and... me," Frigga explained with a patient smile as she stepped forward and replaced Amora in her hug with Eli.
"But...how?" Eli asked in wonder.
"Time travel," Amora whispered with a wink as if revealing some monumental secret.
"Didn't we agree that we would wait a little to reveal that to him?"
"Hmph, you and that old oaf agreed! I know my little Eli better than any of you. Why would he do anything other than play his beautiful music for me if he didn't know, he would be able to go back!" Amora argued back as Frigga just slumped into Eli's arms in defeat.
"I.. what?" Eli looked more and more confused.
"Yeah. This is not your end, my boy. In the world of the living, the Avengers, Frigga, and Misty will go on a quest to do undo Thanos' snap via time travel. We only know so far, but we'll just assume they succeed. They have to. Your grandmother offered her life in exchange for the soul stone, and Misty couldn't have screwed up bringing it back to their timeline. Frigga offered her life in the past. That's how she's here when technically she didn't die yet," Amora explained.
"I... I'm sorry, grandmother," Eli didn't think about going back just yet. He only felt sorry for his grandmother.
"I am where I am needed most. My sacrifice may help countless others. There is nothing nobler I could have done with my old bones. Getting to meet you here in Valhalla again is just the icing on the cake as the Midgardians say," Frigga softly replied from his embrace.
"How come you have both of your arms by the way, and I don't?" Eli wondered as he felt Frigga pat his back and brush his hair at the same time.
"Ohhh, you have your mother to thank for being incomplete here in Valhalla," Frigga quipped, trying to get back at Amora for unilaterally spilling all the beans. And now it was Eli's turn to be confused once more.
"Don't listen to the ramblings of the old crone. You're here like this in your full armor because of me. I didn't come back from the land of dead once to not learn a few tricks. I did that because we will train you to be the best you can be," Amora shot back, not taking any chances with Frigga's try to sow dissent between her and her son.
"You knew I would come here? I thought you couldn't see the future past your death?"
"Huh? No, that's just a lucky coincidence. Originally, your earring would mean you get to keep your powers as a soul, so you could rule whatever land of the dead you would land yourself in," Amora sagely concluded.
"You planned that far ahead? What if I lost the earring in the possibly millenia I spent living?"
"You would dare lose the last gift I ever gave you?" Amora asked with narrowed eyes.
"Well, not if I can't help it," Eli said. He was finally released from the hug with his grandmother as the three began talking for a while.
"Okay, I guess making them wait any more would be rude. Who else did you bring to watch me get here? I can only make out Heimdall at the end of the bridge. Who are those three old dudes on the hill that were watching us from the start?"
"Don't let them hear you calling them 'old dudes', they will be teaching you anything non-magical in the upcoming years. Your grandfather Odin Borson, his father Bor Burison, and his father Buri Ymirson," Frigga scolded.
"And you two will teach me some new tricks?" Eli asked with raised eyebrows.
"Yes, the two of us and your great grandmother Bestla. She has agreed to show you some giant's magic. It includes some very nifty illusion magic. I know your invisibility magics are very advanced, but illusions can be so much more. You'll see," Amora explained as she guided her son forward.
"Greetings, Thorson."
"Heimdall! Thank you for sending me to Earth after Thanos' attack!" Eli loudly exclaimed as he stepped forward to give his father's best friend a hug.
"I only did what I thought was right," Heimdall humbly responded.
"I'm apparently allowed to go back soon. Anything I can do for you when I go back? Any last regrets?"
"Hmm, I'll tell you how my eyesight works. How about you and your father teach my son how it works?"
"Of course! If you think of anything else, don't hesitate!"
"I will, now go meet the Allfathers. I don't think they've all left their dwellings here at the same time ever," Heimdall joked good-naturedly as he pushed Eli to the hill.
"I, Elias, son of Thor, greet the Allfathers!" Eli saluted with an Asgardian military greeting after he walked up the hill to greet his paternal lineage.
"Hmph, not even kneeling? Is this how the younger generation shows respect to their elders?"
"Oh shut it, you old goat. If he kneeled, you would have found something else to bicker about."
"Hello, my boy. Please ignore my father and his father. I'm very proud of your accomplishments. Despite fate trying to hinder you every step of the way, you overcame all odds and managed to save more of our people I thought possible with the emergence of Ragnarok," Odin praised.
"It was just a higher number for Thanos to cull anyway," Eli said with a sigh.
"Your mother has already told you of everyone's fate, no?" Odin chuckled, and Eli scratched the back of his head.
"Then you know that is not really true. And when you get back, you will have all the power to protect our people. We will all see to that," Odin proclaimed in an unusually domineering voice. The other two oldies even stopped bickering to look at Eli with intense glares.
"We'll start off with combat. That brat, Hela, will be the final test to see if you learned anything," Buri explained.
"Hela is here?" Eli asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Where else would she be? She was the last warrior of Asgard trying to stop Ragnarok in an honorable battle," Bor argued.
"Haaa, I was a little biased, I guess. I always thought of her as the reason my mother died," Eli admitted with a sigh.
"And she is the reason your mother died. She's still here because that is how Valhalla works," Buri stated.
Eli tried to ask how much time he had in Valhalla since not only did they not tell him how far in the future his grandmother traveled from, they also mentioned that time works differently here. But he never received a straight answer from anyone.
In his first year, he learned from everyone. Sometimes, they would teach him in groups, sometimes alone. In groups, the three Allfathers taught him politics, diplomacy, warfare, and lastly, about divinity.
"Your mother told us you don't see yourself as a god," Bor stated in one of the lessons a few months in.
"Well, I grew up on Midgard, as you know, and no matter how old or how strong I was, I always had similar needs to those of the 'mortals'. I needed to eat, to sleep... when my mom died before I even grew up... thinking of myself as a mortal is much easier to swallow. Also, my father Thor told me on my year-long trip that Odin also liked to remind him that he, too, lives and dies like a mortal," Eli answered. Odin kept quiet as he reminisced about the times he spent with his son.
"How did you explain your divinity over storms then?" Buri interjected with narrowed eyes.
"Well, for starters, I call it my 'source', as in the source of my powers. And nowadays, there are many powered people in Midgard. I was more powerful, especially for how young I was, but in the grand scheme of things, I wasn't all too special," Eli explained with a shrug.
"That's only because you didn't have a full grasp over your powers. Yes, they are a source or come from the source of your being. But divinity is absolute. Unless a god with a stronger divinity over lightning comes along, that brat Thor would never be hurt by lightning. Do you understand?" Bor explained as he stood up from his seat. He raised his fist and hammered down on the ground. The mountains began shaking, changing, Eli couldn't believe what he was seeing.
"God of earth. Nothing, not even Valhalla can stop me," Bor said in a domineering fashion. Eli looked excited. That was certainly something new. He looked toward the other two allfathers, but they shook their head.
"I won't tell you my divinity. Maybe at the end of all of this," Buri declined.
"I was bestowed with two divinities upon birth and gained another in life, but they are not for show," Odin explained as he brushed his beard.
"That's possible?" Eli looked shocked. Just how powerful would someone be if they had and could control two divinities or more. No wonder Asgard was unchallenged for so long.
"My boy, there are two types of divinities, minor and major divinities. As a true god, you have one major divinity, but if luck allows it, you could be born with or gain countless minor divinities. I know of a Kronan God, Ninny of the Nonny, who has as many as forty-two minor divinities. He gained them through his believers. The Kronans are terribly uncreative, so they thought up one god and attributed everything to him," Odin explained with a scoff.
"How would I know if I have more than one divinity?" Eli mused.
"Oh, us Asgardians find that out at the roots of Yggdrasil. After Odin had a falling out with my brother Mimir, a magical well was created that gathered the waters of life and wisdom. Mimir's cursed form lives there. Drink a drop from the roots or the well and naturally, you will know," Bor explained.
"And how do I do any of that?" Eli asked.
"Oh, now that the bifrost is gone and Asgard destroyed, it's impossible to reach the roots," Buri quipped.
"Would the bifrost created by Stormbreaker, my father's new axe, not work?"
"Eitri really did create his masterpiece, huh?" Odin mumbled, stroking his beard in contemplation.
"Yes, sure. If you or your father know how to find the roots," Buri answered with a shrug.
"Oh... I mean, if you don't want to tell me, that's okay, too. Right now, I have enough on my plate with learning magic, fighting, and all the other things. Training my divinity over storms will likely eat up all my remaining time anyway, no?" Eli argued back with a laugh.
And it rang true. He did not have much time left. Bor and Buri taught him how to tap into his 'source' to gain better control over his powers from that conversation onward. And thanks to his mother's efforts in bringing him to Valhalla 'whole', Eli's training advanced very fast.
At the start of his second year, he fought Hela for the first time. His aunt lived all alone on the outskirts of Valhalla. Only Odin came by regularly to keep her company.
The first ten fights that year were a resounding defeat. Eli didn't even come close to defeating Hela. She proved why she was one of the fiercest warriors to ever come out of Asgard, a weapon meant for war. It took him to his second year to land a solid hit on her instead of glancing blow, but she only grinned and made the rest of the spar pure Hel.
In his third year, Eli was 'abducted' by his mother. At first, Eli thought it was so they could spend some more time together, but it was to teach him a spell that she had spent decades 'perfecting' in Valhalla. That gave Eli some reference for the time difference they wouldn't tell him about. The spell, it turns out, was Amora's try to get out of the land of the dead once more... by moving to a different reality. Sadly for Amora, the spell was a bust. It didn't work when cast in Valhalla.
It took Eli months to get all the principles behind the spell, it would take him weeks to actually cast the spell, but worst of all, Eli and Amora had no influence where the spell would lead. The destination was random.
Six years later, Eli's ninth year in Valhalla, Eli had learned everything the Allfathers and the three witches wanted to teach him. The only thing he could now do was work on his battle experience, control over his divinity, and spend time with his mother and family.
Eli had already dreamt about the actual limits of storms back when he had touched the Aether. In these nine years in Valhalla, under the guidance of the Allfathers, Eli learned to control more than winds. The essence of storms was chaos. Chaos in movement and energies, chaos in the outcome. With his divinity, he could control that chaos to some degree.
He had taken to learning this control in waves. From creating chaos in bursts to controlling the outcome of these outbursts, Eli took four years to consciously control something other than winds. But it all resulted in him being able to cause enormous amounts of damage. His current goal in learning control was limiting the area his attacks affected. Fighting in space with these powers was no problem, but if he faced anyone together with allies, anything he would do would result in friendly fire.
"Eli, it is time for your last lesson," he heard his grandmother Frigga say as she approached him on the mountain he was sitting on.
"Oh? And then it's time to get back to the land of the living?" Eli asked, standing up to face his grandmother.
"Not yet, you haven't even beaten your aunt yet. Do you truly want to leave already without getting revenge for your mother?" Frigga asked with a smirk. The two were walking down the mountain at a fast yet relaxed pace. Valhalla was really weird about distances. You could be miles away, but just thinking that you wanted to go there, you would reach it in a few steps, as if you were walking to the kitchen in your home.
"I suppose. I think I'm getting close on that front or Hela isn't taking me serious," Eli responded with a thoughtful expression.
"She is, just the other day I have seen her smile. I don't think she ever did that since coming here," Frigga gossiped.
"I see, that's not... really my goal... So what is this last lesson all about?"
"Fate."
Eli turned serious at that, and the two remained quiet as they continued walking. They eventually entered Odin's and Frigga's home. His mother and Odin were waiting for him there.
"Sit, my son," Amora said, patting a seat next to her on a couch.
"Today, my boy, I will reveal to you one of the biggest secrets I have uncovered in my long life: The truth of the Ragnarok cycle. Rightfully, as any naturally born true god, us Aesir should be immortal. We told you that in our lessons years ago. Instead of immortality, we Asgardians are reborn. Asgard is destroyed during Ragnarok, and the moment the last of us falls, Asgard is rebuilt in the generation of my grandfather Buri," Odin explained in a grave tone.
"And grandmother said this lesson is about fate because fate is the reason this is happening to us?"
"Yes and no. You see, believing in something is giving it power, and the belief of a god can grant that something immense power. Before the first cycle of Ragnarok, Asgard stood unchallenged. Every citizen wielded at least a minor divinity. At that time, belief in a higher power, a guiding force was spread. The Gods of the Gods," Odin continued in his grave voice.
"They figured out how to gain more power by causing Ragnarok instead of the belief of the Aesir?" Eli concluded.
"Yes, because only a few believed in them. When they first caused Ragnarok, they used all that energy to empower themselves, but it nearly cost them everything. They were still confined in their subspace and desperate to gain more power to set themselves free. So they sacrificed a lot of the power they had just gained through Ragnarok, bound Asgard to the royal bloodline, and restarted Asgard, just so they could destroy it again, millenia later. Everyone remained blissfully unaware because of their interference," Odin agreed with a nod.
"And how did you learn about it?" Eli asked.
"I sacrificed something for knowledge. I used that knowledge to banish my son to Midgard without powers, severing his fate with Ragnarok. But he was still influenced by the Gods of the Gods, same as you. Same as all of us. But now that Ragnarok was caused but you and Thor remain, we have a chance to end them when they are at their weakest."
"Right as they recreate Asgard? But wouldn't I and Thor have to die to end the royal bloodline? So that Asgard can be reborn?"
"Through various coincidences, you, my boy, were born on Midgard. You have no ties to the Ragnarok cycle. And your father was freed from it by being banished."
"Asgard is already starting another cycle? How can I end them then?" Eli asked in disbelief.
"It will take a few decades, but yes. There will come a day before the end of the century that Asgard is remade. As you are now, you cannot possibly hope to end them. It's why we had your mother teach you that spell. Go out into the multiverse, fight powerful adversaries, gain more strength. And when you come back, end Those Who Sit Above in Shadow."
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