Chapter 314: Asgard Falls No More

13th May 2013, Realm of the Shadows

(Loki Odinson POV)

It was a mad idea, but it was the only chance he had. The question is whether there's enough chaotic residue to power the spell.

The King stood up once more, releasing far more power than before, "I will enjoy killing you, pest."

"No, you won't," Loki answered with a smirk, "after all, I was never here."

The God of Stories relished the look of surprise on the King of the Shadows' face when reality changed suddenly. Loki made it as if this encounter all happened to a solid clone of his, that he created just before the void was resolved.

Meanwhile, his real body clouded itself and left towards the throne room, met with the Morrigan and left the realm the moment she activated her trap. As soon as the narrative was over, and Loki set foot on Svartalfheim, Loki felt himself being drained like he never had before, before giving his mentor a smirk, "it worked!"

That was the last thing he uttered before darkness consumed his vision and he fell unconscious.

(Jasmine Sayre POV)

My time in the realm of the shadows was weird. I understood that when I stepped foot in such a foreign realm. It was not connected to the cosmic energy of the universe, and yet it was filled with energy derived from it. It was like a battery that gets charged for a brief period but was disconnected from the rest of the universe otherwise.

It was such an ingenious design, a truly eternal battery to contain all of the energy released by each cycle of Ragnarök while staying disconnected from the world tree at large. If it wasn't for the Convergence and its odd dimensional properties, I would have never been able to find it. No wonder Rune King Thor had explicitly instructed me to wait until the Convergence event to attack them.

For all their abominable behavior, I had to admit that the mechanics and dimensional manipulation to create an independent pseudo realm to act as a battery were ingenious. It could never be filled, no matter what. The more it's filled, the bigger the realm becomes. Currently, it was around the size of a small city, but if I had to guess before Rune King Thor had weakened them, it must have been larger than a planetary system, if not more. After all, the cosmic energy that contributes to the expansion of the universe was absorbed here.

Of course, the glaring issue was the fact that it was not connected to any constant source of energy and the dimensions of the realm depended fully on the power stored inside it, centered on the Throne Room. Should they somehow not have enough energy, the dimensions would shrink until the realm itself disappeared into oblivion.

Although with that said, the Shadows were significantly weaker than I thought. The knife filled with death energy that I had given Loki worked too well in killing the remaining Shadow. It was too quick; the explosion of life force was too small, too contained.

Oh, Those Who Sit Above in Shadow were strong, the weakest one of them would probably be able to surpass me in terms of raw power, and demolish me in terms of experience. They were weaker than they have ever been, but it just didn't make sense. These parasites absorbed energy that was fit for an entire universe. I have been operating under the assumption that these beings would crush me with a sneeze, and they should. They probably would if they weren't weakened. But the question was where did all that energy go?

I didn't have the luxury of caring, after all, these people could return at any given moment. So, I used the flexible properties of the realm to start my trap. I had to design it first and implement it, until Loki arrived from his trap.

It was a masterpiece if I say so myself. I was able to remove the internal dimensions of the realm entirely through two extra dimensions using the Convergence event as permanent property of the borders. It was like the physical surface of a sphere but in a higher dimension. You could never find an ending. If you go too high, you'll find yourself in the lowest part of the castle. It was an infinite prison with no way out.

I did the same to the external dimensions, making it impossible for someone to even enter the realm. With that done, and the runic array fully planned, I just needed to power it, and for that, I needed to wait for Loki to return.

Immediately, I felt a shiver in the reality of the realm, where Loki had always been next to me. It was like two external timelines that happened at once. It didn't matter much since it was in an external realm with no true connection to the natural laws of the universe, and no paradox happened. I was able to feel the two timelines thanks to my sensitivity to cosmic matters ever since my ritual, which is what allowed me to understand the nature of the Convergence this readily.

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How curious, Loki was able to somehow alter his own personal timeline without creating a paradox. I'll need to ask him about it later, as for now, we needed to leave. We ran out of the portal, and I activated the trap while leaving.

Of course, to be extra hateful for the misery they caused my oldest friend, Thor, I chose to power the ritual itself using whatever energy they had left from the last cycle of Ragnarök, shrinking the dimensions slowly as the ritual progressed.

It was a vicious move, for all the harm and manipulation they had done. Honestly, it was their fault for assuming that no one would be able to use the flexibility of their dimension to remove power from the realm and channel it in a spell. How fitting, they are trapped by the energies of the cycle that empower them.

As we left, I heard a large angry roar, as the King of the Shadows realized what was happening. Quickly, I killed the connection between Loki and the realm, causing the young Jotun to fall unconscious. He was already drained, and the shock must have knocked him out.

I made sure that he was alright and watched as the portal closed fully. It was the final connection there was between this universe and the realm of the shadows, outside of the cycle of Ragnarök that kept them anchored to the world tree.

Suddenly, a giant hand made its way through the portal trying to crush us all. I instinctively created a giant energy shield around us, protecting us. And Odin, with a look of dark glee on his face, used his Odinsword to channel the power of the Space Stone to cut the entirety of the Shadow's hand. He smiled maniacally at the howls of pain as the portal fully closed, and the arm disintegrated into nothing, its very nature contradictory to the universe.

The King of Asgard looked at me, "Is it done?"

"There's only one thing left to do," I replied.

He gave me a nod and I started my final spell, the final part of the trap. The Shadows were trapped, but technically, if we left it there, they could escape in time. I didn't know their exact powerset, but with enough power and persistence, they could destabilize the trap and open their realm back to the World Tree, allowing them to start their plans anew. Although I doubt that they even had the energy required to do so, it's better to make sure that they do not return, and the best way to do it would be to remove their connection to our universe entirely.

Using the Convergence as an anchor, I create another portal. Although, this time, my target is not to the inside of the realm – not that I could break in anymore – but the outside. The remaining Asgardian soldiers, their opposition having been massacred, were gaping at the scene, at the world tree in front of them.

Of course, it wasn't the actual World Tree, the eternal border of the universe. That thing was inconceivable, especially to beings that are hardwired to only think and even imagine in three dimensions. I don't think that even I would be able to look at it before falling into madness. No, it was its conceptualization from the Asgardian's belief that I matched using an illusion so that Odin would be able to channel the attack. In front of us was an eternal bark of a tree that seemed to go through forever, with branches that showed a realm each. It looked beautiful, even Nifelheim did, but there was a small rot. It was a realm that rooted itself to the tree using dark chains that seemed to slowly poison the tree itself, something that was almost sacrilegious, compared to the beauty of the rest of the tree. This was the realm of the shadows, and this confirmed more than anything that they did not originate from our universe.

Noticing the realm as well, Odin grinned while his Odinsword was glowing in power, ready to start the attack, "After so long, so many lifetimes, this is it. I have dreamt of this moment for millions of years, hoping that I would one day see a time when Asgard, when the entire Nine Realms, were truly free again. It took some time, some patience, and a lot of suffering, I even lost hope for a while, but Asgard is free, we are free. This is the moment I have been waiting for all my life, and I am happy to share it with my sons. For Asgard."

With that little speech, a gigantic wave of power appeared from the sword. He obviously used everything he had. He used the Space Stone itself to power the spell, used his entire Odinforce and runes to manipulate the outcome, and amplified it using the Eternal Flame, which was more than willing to destroy something as unnatural as the Realm of the Shadows.

With that done, Odin slashed his sword, directly at the abomination of a realm, and the world froze for this moment. I had never felt anything even coming close to this kind of power. It was completely unbelievable, and the beam of blue light erupted from his sword and struck the realm in a gigantic explosion.

The realm seemed to stop the beam for a second before it started getting pushed away, still connected through the black chains.

Odin wasn't satisfied and channeled even more power, screaming all the while, and finally, the attack gave way, and in a gigantic explosion, the chains snapped and turned into dust, and the cursed realm flew away outside of our universe, through the void itself.

Curiously, the Odinsword was unable to channel power on that scale and was shattered into pieces. Odin himself looked pale, drained by the attack, and almost fell forward, barely being held up by Thor.

I closed the portal and sighed. The Shadows were gone and Asgard was free. Slowly, Odin gathered himself and stood up on his own, "This is a momentous day for all of us. Asgard is free, we are all free, in this life and the next, we will remain free. And for that, Morrigan, you have the eternal gratitude and allegiance of Asgard for this lifetime and any future other. We will forever be in your debt."

I gave him a warm smile, "I was not the one who came up with the plan. Your son did, I just executed it."

"It doesn't matter who came up with it, what's important is the outcome. And you have fulfilled your side of the bargain. It's only right that I do the same."

Before he could do anything, he was stabbed in the heart from the back, with a black sword that seemed to swallow the night itself. Odin froze in disbelief at the attack and fell as the hidden attacker revealed himself.

I snarled the moment I recognized the man. How could I not; he was my worst enemy, after all, "Entropy!"

The cosmic entity gave me a malicious smile, "Well hello there, Morrigan. Did you miss me?"

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