章節 44: Chapter 44) – Turn Back Time

To cut a long story short, the announcement was boring.

It was essentially the same procedure as the private ceremony except the fact that it lasted 6 times as long.

Odin and Frigga did all of the talking - of which there was a vast quantity.

It was a very, very, longwinded way of saying exactly what was said at the official adoption, but apparently for the general public there were a lot more theatrics required.

Since both of our parents knew that there would still be some Asgardian's alive that had knowledge of their first daughter, they took the initiative to give a brief overview of who Hela was, what she did, and what happened to her.

To roughly summarise it, Hela fought alongside Odin in the many wars they waged against the 9 realms in the pursuit of uniting them.

During that time, Hela wasn't just Odin's firstborn child, but also the wielder of Mjolnir and the mightiest Asgardian - other than the king himself.

Once the 9 realms were officially united under Odin's, and subsequently Asgard's, banner, the king decided to put a stop to his warring ways at just the 9 realms.

Hela, however, wasn't particularly font of that idea.

In fact, she thought it was in Asgard's best interest to wage war against every world and bring everything under Asgardian rule.

Since Odin was king, it was his word that mattered and with him making his stance a firm 'no', Hela decided that Asgard was in need of a new ruler.

In a turn of events that pretty much no-one could have foreseen, Hela attempted a coup against Odin for rulership.

Shocker, I know.

Considering Odin was still king, and Hela was banished to somewhere called Hel – most likely named after her – it went without saying how well her coup went.

Odin reassured his people that Hel was bound to his very lifeforce, and that Hela would be unable to escape so long as he was still breathing.

Unfortunately, that wasn't the entire truth.

See, Hela had tried to break out of her prison before and was almost successful.

The first princess wasn't the type to take being banished without lying down, and with how strong she was her breakout nearly succeeded.

The cost of ensuring that Hela stayed imprisoned was the lives of the Valkyrie that Odin sent to stop her.

Every single Valkyrie was slain - with the sole exception being Brunnhilde who had been missing, but presumed dead, ever since that fateful day.

Odin chose to honour their sacrifice by letting their name turn into legend even amongst the Asgardian people.

Therefore, rather than re-form the organisation, father integrated any future female warriors into the Einherjar's.

Once the general populous was caught up on who Hela was, what she had done, and what happened to her, Frigga explained the reason why they were informing everyone of the information about Hela when they had essentially completely wiped the princess from record.

That led into the explanation of my host's claimed identity.

The Asgardian's that remembered Hela personally showed themselves at that point... Rather vocally at that.

In lieu of arguing with the crowd, out mother just indicated to Mara.

Understanding the signal, I created the same necrosword I had only a few days before.

The sword shut up those protesting who had seen the weapon before – either out of fear or acknowledgement of our supposed identity.

Those continuing to protest after-the-fact were the new angry voices.

They were the individuals that didn't know who Hela was before the announcement, but were then blaming us for Hela's wrongdoings.

Needless to say, Frigga shut those voices up swiftly and elegantly.

The more we got to see of our new mother, the more convinced we were that she was as close to the perfect Queen as one could get.

I mean, she still had a little room to go in terms of being a mother, what with her stepdaughter wanting to kill her husband, and her adopted son wanting to do pretty much the same thing.

Although, from our experience, we were more inclined to put the blame on Odin in those regards, and give Frigga the benefit of the doubt.

But I digress, Frigga did a stellar job in silencing those protesting which meant that Odin could perform the adoption ceremony without any opposition.

Again, the public showing wasn't the official adoption, and we were already officially part of the family, but a grand spectacle with minimal opposition was essential in allowing us to enter the family from the public's point of view.

After performing the Knésetja again, Mara was finally part of the Asgardian royal family in the eyes of the public.

Proceeding that, there was a whole lot of clarification and information which essentially boiled down to; Mara would not be eligible to inherit the throne, she wasn't required to permanently reside in Asgard due to her upbringing on Earth, she would have limited authority over other Asgardians - so her word was not law - and some other inconsequential bits about military duties which royals would typically have to deal with.

It might not sound like a whole lot happened, but the entire announcement and faux adoption ceremony took over 3 hours.

3 hours to do the same thing that a 20–30-minute private affair did.

Anyways, after the drawn-out event, Odin declared the day a national holiday in celebration which meant every Asgardian had the day off.

To be expected from the depictions in Norse mythology, and the aforementioned private revelries, the Asgardian general public celebrated by drinking and eating to their heart's content.

Rather than join them, for a 3rd straight day of drinking, Mara dodged the various celebrations and instead opted to head towards the training grounds in the hope that a few Einherjar also decided that they didn't want to drink all day.

As it turned out, there weren't any Einherjar in the training grounds, but there was a certain lone warrior maiden, "Isn't this a nice surprise? Is it your head or the happy couple, dear Xena?"

Halting the sword strokes that she had been performing on the training dummy in front of her, Sif turned 180-degrees and answered Mara, "The latter. Why are you 2 not partaking in the festivities? They are taking place due to you after all."

Continuing on her walk towards the Asgardian, my host shrugged her shoulders and replied, "Meh, drinking for 2 days straight is more than enough for me. Just because the alcohol doesn't give me a hangover doesn't mean it's good for me. Besides, we've only got a few more days here so I want to make the most out of them."

With Mara coming to a stop a few feet away from Sif, the Asgardian responded, "Understandable. Drinking too much does negatively affect the body, and a warrior cannot let their condition deteriorate. I presume you are here to train?"

Knowing what my host was going to ask, I pre-empted her by creating the necrosword with blunt edges as to not cause any harm, "That was my aim, and considering El has already made me a sword it appears that they have the same intention. I was going to ask any Einherjar's that were here to train us, but since you're here would you mind helping us out?"

Agreeing to the request, Sif questioned, "Of course. Do you have any particular area you want to improve upon?"

Shrugging her shoulders once again, Mara stated, "We've got no idea really. Our training is extremely limited, like only a handful of sessions, so just give us the complete workout."

Taking a few steps back and pointing her sword at Mara, Sif smiled slightly as she commented, "You asked for it. No quitting until it is over."

------

Once again finding herself lying on the ground, exhausted, Mara came to the conclusion that everyone we seemed to train with was actually a closeted sadist, "Haah! You know, haah, we've only trained with a handful of people, haah, but basically all of them work us to the brink of passing out. Is everyone that fights insane or something?"

Since Mara was catching her breath, Sif had moved back to the training dummy and replied while hitting it, "The art of battle and war is both painful and exhausting. If one can become comfortable in those conditions - survival on the battlefield increases exponentially."

Still lying down, Mara quipped back, "Yeah, yeah, practice how you play. If you don't practice like the real thing, don't expect to perform any better during the actual execution. I know the spiel. That doesn't explain why everyone seems to drive us so hard though."

Hesitating in her sword stroke for a split second, before resuming the action, Sif answered, "Most likely the others you have trained with have seen friends, those that were close to them, or innocents perish during combat. Knowing that someone could have been saved if they, or yourself, had trained just that little bit harder tends to eat one up inside. For a long time."

Recognising that she might have encroached onto a sensitive subject, Mara stood herself up off the ground to change the subject.

Preventing my host from speaking, however, I created a head and asked the insensitive question that Sif's statement alluded to, "Is that from experience?"

Snapping her head to face me, Mara was about to scold me for my question when she was again prevented from speaking – but by Sif this time, "Yes, it is. If only I had been stronger, I might have been able to save my first love. Although I may currently be enamoured with Thor, I am still haunted by what could have been all those centuries ago if I had trained just that little bit harder."

Punctuating the last of her words, Sif slashed vertically down at the training dummy with her blunt training sword and nearly split the thing in half.

Leaving the sword where it had ended up, the Asgardian turned to me and expanded on what she was saying, "I won't go too in-depth into the details, because they are both unimportant and still painful, but a woman known as Lorelei used her powers to enthral my first love Haldor and made him her toy. He forsook his family, his friends… me. Eventually I was able to apprehend her, but not before Haldor's death."

Shifting her gaze to my host, the woman continued, "I still feel melancholic when I think about it, but I realised that dwelling on the past and not learning from it would only result in it repeating. So, I trained, and I trained to the point that I could easily despatch something like Lorelei. Currently she is locked in the dungeons under the palace, and, since she is still alive, there is a chance I might need to despatch her again. Truth be told, I should have killed her rather than imprison her, but I was young, in mourning and easily persuaded by my king to keep her alive."

Stepping towards Mara, Sif's gaze became even fiercer, "Don't make the same mistakes I did. Train until you hurt. Train until you bleed. Train until you fall to the ground. Train until you cannot move. And then push yourself to train beyond that. Break your body down. Shatter it into the smallest of pieces. Then force the remnants into the mold of the warrior you want to be. Use your mind and willpower to forge your body. Never, NEVER, let someone take what is yours because you were too weak or too lazy to stop them."

At the end of her rather aggressive sounding speech, Sif had come to a stop about a foot away from Mara.

Opposite to what one might expect, my host wasn't so much intimidated or afraid of the domineering tone Sif that used, [Fuck, El. She's so hot when she's fierce. If only she was this overpowering in bed.]

Mentally rolling my eyes, I had to make sure Mara didn't embarrass herself, <Yes, yes, she's sexy, but you need to answer her instead of just leaking and staring.>

Snapping out of her infatuated gaze, Mara did indeed reply without breaking the heavy mood, "We'll make sure we learn from your experience. Now is also probably a good time to tell you that Lorelei is dead. El ate her."

Caught off-guard by the statement, which anyone would really, Sif's eyes went wide as she questioned, "And the Allfather allowed that? Wait, of course he allowed it, otherwise you would not have been granted access to her. For what reason if I may ask? I only stopped begging for her head after I realised my feelings for Thor and did my best to move on. The entire time up until then, the Allfather would only tell me that she had more use alive than dead."

Not giving out any thorough details, I explained, "Our powers allow us to consume those with abilities and I can then analyse them with the chance of replicating said abilities. Father decided that the possibility of us having her power was better than it going to waste in the dungeon."

Just as Sif's eyebrows became narrowed, Mara interrupted before the Asgardian could speak, "I know what you're thinking, but trust us okay? If we're able to replicate Lorelei's Will Domination, as Odin called it, we'll only use it on enemies and can guarantee we won't repeat what you went through, for anyone else."

Taking a second to process what Mara had said, Sif nodded her head once and replied, "I trust you, the both of you. You have not done anything to convince me you are unworthy of such trust. However, know that if it is broken, it cannot be made whole again. This is my line, please do not cross it."

My host opened her arms and smiled as she acknowledged, "Understood loud and clear. Now give me a hug and then we can get back to training. My body still isn't broken or shattered yet, so I need an energy recharge in order to try harder."

Sif closed her eyes, shook her head and huffed, but still walked into Mara's open arms for the hug.

Joining the hug, I wrapped some tendrils around the Asgardian as well so that we were all embracing.

After longer than was probably necessary, I absorbed all of my form back into Mara's body as she released the goddess, "Now we're all energised, let's get back to the warrior stuff."

------

After the initial session that resulted on Mara lying on the ground, Sif also got me involved when the training resumed.

Since my form was malleable, and the necrosword imitation Mara was wielding for the sake of training was made from said malleable form, Sif occasionally yelled for me to use my adaptability to wrap around her weapon and disarm her.

For three-quarters of the training that followed, I was unable to disarm the Asgardian as the grip on her weapon was too tight.

My form wasn't particularly weak, but my species relies on empowering our hosts, as opposed to individual strength. As such, outmuscling a warrior species such as an Asgardian was still above my limits.

Learning and adapting, as was my species' speciality, I instead redirected my focus to Sif's hand rather than the weapon itself.

Although they had different DNA, humans and Asgardians were fundamentally the same in terms of anatomy which meant that the nerves were around the same places.

I still made sure that when Sif commanded, I wrapped up her sword but rather than try to disarm her with force I extended my form down to her wrist and probed for the exact location of her pressure points.

Within only a couple of probes I had a map of Sif's hand and wrist with all of the pressure points that roughly matched a humans.

Executing my plan, I once again caught the warrior's weapon in my form, but when I enveloped her hand I pressed hard on the crease of her wrist, the base of her thumb muscles and between each of her fingers and thumb.

Clearly not expecting the technique Sif's hand naturally relaxed which gave me enough leeway to remove the weapon in her grip.

The first time I disarmed her, Sif was shocked and impressed.

After the 5th time however, she became more curious and enquired, "How do you do that?"

Creating a head to reply, I didn't hide anything, "Weak points in the construction of both the human and Asgardian body, sometimes known as pressure points. Humans have weak points on their nerves, between muscle layers, or ligaments. By pressing on certain areas, parts of the body can be weakened, forcefully reflexed or relaxed."

With Sif nodding to show that she understood what I was saying, I continued, "Humans are close to Asgardians in terms of physical composition, so, with a little tweaking to compensate for the differences, the same techniques can work on your people."

As I handed her sword back to her, she grabbed it with her non-dominant hand and held out her dominant one – open and palm up, "Show me, please."

Rather than just show the Asgardian where her pressure points were, I created extremely thin tendrils to display a map of the inner workings of her hand.

Using other tendrils to point with, I highlighted the areas I had targeted, "The crease in your wrist weakens the strength in your hand. Between each finger weakens said fingers and, if pressed harder, causes pain which someone naturally want to avoid out of pure natural reflex. The base of the thumb in conjunction with the point between the index finger and thumb make the thumb straighten and severely limit the strength that can be exerted."

Staring at the map on her hand with sparkling eyes at the information she was being fed, the goddess put together all of what I had told her, "And when they are all utilized together it renders the hand nearly inoperable. Fascinating how such inconspicuous actions can cause such an effect."

Swapping from looking at her hand to look directly into my eyes – with hers still sparking - she requested, "Teach me, please."

Not seeing any reason to reject the request, I happily obliged, "Since you have helped Mara and I train, of course I will help you. There are a lot, so it'll be a gradual process. Do you have any area you want to prioritise?"

Not hesitating for even a second, Sif instantly answered, "Combat."

Knowing that it would probably be a long road ahead, I started with the obvious weakness points that Sif would already know; things like joints, the throat and solar plexus, but made sure to explain how and why they were specifically weak before delving too deep into the more obscure weaknesses.

Mara also learned alongside the Asgardian since it was information that she wasn't well versed in either.

That was how we spent the remainder of the training session as it wasn't long before night fell on the alien world.