After the lack of proper vacation I used my second week and set it up for around three months after the last week off that I took. This time I took a trip overseas to Europe. Taking a tour of old Scandinavian ruins. The area I went to was thought to have once been the largest settlement of the time. I actually managed to get there and be moving along with the group. I was worried as soon as Friday work had ended and I was walking I'd end up in the Shroomlands again. But maybe that would have been better off, because I found myself feeling the pull in the middle of the day while I was with my tour group. Once on the other side I found myself in a peaceful field of grass. A flat plain with scattered trees as far as the eye could see. In one direction however I saw a massive stone wall with a huge chunk taken out. In the gap someone had placed a wooden wall with an area to walk on and a door. This place used to be a near impenetrable fortress before what I could only assume was a MOAB slammed the wall. I knocked hard on the large door. "Hello, anybody here?"

After a bit a man poked his head over from atop the wall and spoke with a bow and arrow in hand. "Don't attempt to come any farther outsider, or I'll be forced to turn you into a pincushion."

I sighed "I'm unarmed... Mostly. I'm not here to hurt anyone. I just need a safe place to pass out. If it makes you feel better you can take my little brush clearing and wood chopping tools while I'm inside the village. Also if you could tell me where I am that would be great."

"You mean.... You don't know?"

"I'm not from around here, I just kind of pop up in strange places randomly."

"Where are you from?"

"Uhhh.... I believe you know it as Midgard."

There is a long pause and he goes behind the wall for a bit. "I'm going to open the gate and let you in. I'll allow you to keep anything on hand as I take you to our leader."

I verbally confirm I'll wait and eventually the door opens and he lets me into a village of log cabin looking homes with fields. Farms and other homes are well spread inside this giant circle of a wall. The guard then greets me properly once I'm inside. "Welcome Midgardian, to the verdant fields of Idavoll, the place where palaces once stood."

"Simple but neat. Everything looks primitive compared to that massive wall that's missing almost an entire side. I mean that thing looks like one solid piece but is absolutely massive."

"You should have seen this place in its prime, when the glorious palace of Asgard stood here. Golden buildings adorned with silver and jewels filled every inch of the inside of that wall. The regular people lived in a settlement just outside the wall back then. Such [rif raf] would have never been let inside back in the golden age."

"Oh and let me guess, your current leader wants to "Make Asgard great again" right?"

"Our last King, All-Father Odin, only wanted to unite the realms under a single rule to prepare for a future conflict he foresaw, one that would bring an end to all the realms. King Vidar wishes to do the same, but he wishes to avoid the mistakes of his father. Once we have realm travel again he promises not to take any realm by conquest."

"Not everyone is going to bend the knee, what's he going to do when they say no?"

"He may not ask to be King of the Realms, but simply propose an alliance of sorts. United under a cause rather than a ruler."

"Yeah, good luck with that."

"Vidar is an honorable ruler who only wants the best for his people."

"That was probably also true of Odin at one point too. His intentions may be good now, but history has a bad habit of repeating itself. I fully expect him to paint a road straight to hell with those good intentions of his."

There was silence for a while until he brought me to a huge and elegant wooden building.

"This is the King's Hall." He declared simply to me.

"Guess it's time to meet the *other* son of Odin."

"You've met another?"

"No, I was making a reference to- you know what, never mind. Let's just do this thing "

He led me inside to the king's chamber and bent a knee before a man sitting on a wooden throne. "Your highness, this outsider was found outside the gate. He claims to be of Midgard."

The man at the throne was svelte, but clearly muscular. On his head a jagged metal crown adorned with bone. In his left hand a large ornate spear with a wicked jagged tip stood as a scepter and on his right side a large hammer with engravings and a short handle laid on the arm of the throne. He wore a pier of large thick leather boots with the leather layered like scales, they looked like they were a size or two too big due to how thick the leather was. He had long hair and a long beard both braided with a salt and pepper color from the gray in his hair.

The king shifted in his humble looking throne before speaking in a deep almost booming voice. "From Midgard you say? Tell me mortal, how is it you came to be here?"

"Not exactly by choice. I shift between realms and have no control over when I shift and where I end up. I quickly got in the habit of taking survival gear everywhere I go."

"How long has this been happening and how many realms have you been to?"

"Counting Midgard this makes five, a total third of the fifteen that apparently exist. My first shift was almost a year ago but my shifts tend to be spread out. The longest I've spent in a single location is a week. That was three months ago and the place was Alfhiem."

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"Where else have you been?"

"Uhh... I've been to Jotenhiem twice, three days non consecutively and Vanahiem three and a half days consecutively."

King Vidar sat pensively in thought for a while before waving his hand at the guards. "Leave us."

The guard that took me here spoke up "Are you sure that's wise m'lord, we have no idea how the humans may have changed in the last fifty centuries."

"Yes I'm sure, now leave. Don't you dare question me again."

The guards all left and it was now just me and him alone in the throne room.

Once the guards were gone the King spoke up once more. "What is your name, human?"

"Hunter Ericsson."

"Alright Hunter son of Eric. I Vidar, son of Odin, as the current king of the realms of Yggdrasil, hereby declare you a threat to the Aesir empire. You are hereby sentenced to death by execution."

"Wait, what? Your dad may have once ruled over most of what he thought were all the realms but after Ragnarok your empire was reset. You have no claim over any other realms. Humans see the old gods as myths, they won't recognize your authority."

"The realms of Yggdrasil are mine by birthright. This is why I don't have to conquer. My father already controlled all the realms. His empire I inherited."

"Called it. You are just as much of a tyrant as he was. I'm not going to take this lying down. I hereby demand a trial by combat. No weapons, no armor. If you knock me out you can execute me or whatever. But if I win I'm a free man."

"You have no chance of beating a god in fair combat. You'll die either way."

"Then you have nothing to lose, big guy."

"Fine, when I win, no one will remember your name."

"And when I win, no one will ever forget."

"The trial will be in the arena tomorrow. I'll have you placed in a cell till then." The king called for a guard to have me placed in a cell, taking my backpack and even the goggles to be held in a chest.

I simply sat around waiting for a while, when it eventually got dark I went to sleep. The fatigue that hits me a few hours after I shift not being enough to make me pass out this time around. The prison bed was less comfortable than my bed roll. When morning came I was woken up and taken to an arena.

The King spoke to the crowd. "This mortal has been charged with crimes against the Aesir empire, and has requested trial by combat. This combat will be unarmed and unarmored and will go until one of us can no longer continue. Upon his loss the mortal is to be executed, In the extremely unlikely event the mortal somehow achieves victory he is to be considered absolved of all crimes and granted his freedom. If either one of us makes use of an artifact of any kind the match is considered forfeit."

I readied myself for battle, somehow a part of me knew that I probably wouldn't be able to handle more than a few direct hits from him. He rushed towards me as soon as the horn blew.

I didn't move my feet, I stood in one spot as he approached me with an almost superman speed. Once he got in range and made for a punch I simply moved to the side and dodged it. Then I grabbed his arm and used his own momentum to throw him down the area. He slid and quickly picked him self up, a clear expression of surprise on his face. I couldn't help but smile. "Are you even trying your lordship? This isn't a game, my life is on the line. I'm not here to play games." It was a false bravado, a facade. Designed to stoke the fires of his anger. The more angry he got, the more wild his attacks would get. I needed to keep him off balance and avoid taking damage. He growled a bit as he rushed in for another attack. This time I side stepped and punched him right in the face. My fist connected with a nice thud as he stopped in his tracks. My punch didn't even seem to faze him.

"I hope that wasn't your hardest punch mortal, because if it was I'll quickly put you in your place like the worm you are." He then punched me, square in the sternum with a loud thud that echoed in the arena. I slid back, but the punch didn't hurt as much as I expected it to. He then drew back his hand and shook it a bit. "What in Hel's name? That's definitely a surprise. It's like your bones are made of steel. No matter, I'll just have to hit you harder, in the squishy soft spots."

I knew I wouldn't win fighting clean and fair, but I didn't exactly have any weapons on hand. The closest thing to it would be my work boots. Steel toed with an ankle guard. I decided to act fast before he could recover from the surprise of my unusual durability. I'm not exactly proud of it, but I gave him a swift and hard kick. Straight to his junk. A collective sound went through the crowd and Vidar crumpled slightly as he grabbed at his wound. "You dirty little-" I didn't let him finish his sentence as I sent my fist as hard and fast as I could right into his head knocking him to the ground where I proceeded to kick him in the ribs. He then grabbed my foot and flipped me to my back as he got up and threw me some distance away. When I got up I could tell he was livid. "Alright you maggot, play time's over. I'm going to squish you under foot like a wine grape."

The king lowered himself in a stance that resembled a professional runner about to break into a sprint. His oversized leather boots gave off a glow. An instinct triggered almost like a voice whispering to me: "oh no". His leg muscles tensed just before he launched himself at me with blurring speed. A loud whoosh sound came from him and he was on me almost faster than I could think. I managed to move one arm over my face and one arm to block low leaving only my chest open on my upper body. I heard a popping sound just before I felt the impact. A loud cracking thud echoed in the arena as I flew backwards into the arena wall leaving a crater as I quickly fell into a crumple in the debris. The crowd made an audible sound similar to when I kicked Vidar in the dick. He then shouted at me angrily. "If you are somehow alive after that and know what's good for you, you'll stay down maggot. If I hear so much as a word out of your likely broken body I'll stomp on your skull and splatter it like a watermelon."

Everything in my body ached, I coughed and groaned. The possibility of me dying had been lingering since I first started shifting worlds but that never bothered me. Even back home a freak accident was all it would have taken to kill me. I wasn't ever in any more danger than on earth, even if the threats themselves changed. But at this moment it was no longer a possibility of my death, I was now faced with it as an absolute certainty. I just went from a battle that although unlikely I could win, to being totally and unequivocally screwed. After everything I've been through, after everything I've endured before and since these trips, I was about to have my skull Gallagher'ed by an egotistical tyrant with a god complex wearing leather clown shoes.

I dug deep for any strength I could find as I struggled and wobbled myself to my feet, barely able to stand. While digging deep within myself I felt something and I dragged it out. I felt as a warmth and strength started to move from my chest to my limbs as I steaded my wobbling. Vidar stood there, a bit stunned before speaking. "I'll give you some acknowledgement, but you should just submit. You never had any hope of winning. What did you expect to happen when you challenged me? Did you expect to somehow win by sheer willpower and determination? I am a god, I was born a god and will always be a god. You, you are a maggot. Born a maggot, destined to die a maggot."

I clenched my fists hard as the hidden strength I found continued to well up as my fists shook violently. "You keep calling me maggot because to you I'm nothing more than an insect you could easily crush. You think you are entitled to power because as gods you are simply born above us "mortal maggots". But there is something about maggots you are forgetting, something that makes them special." My head rose up from looking at the floor to meet his eyes with what I hoped to be an intense glare before continuing. My voice changed in my last sentence and sounded almost unrecognizable as my fists clenched even tighter. "Maggots can learn to fly."

I rushed at him, with everything I had. I was on him in a blur, my new strength and speed must have caught him by surprise as much as it did me because he didn't even do much as flinch before my fist connected with his jaw with a loud thwap. His head moved to the side with my attack and saliva was forced from his mouth. I didn't even give him enough time to register the attack before following up with a gut punch and then grabbing his arm and tossing him down the arena. He quickly got up and rushed me and we started exchanging blows like two boxers going full boar. The fight became a bit of a blur after that for a while until at some point after I landed a series of blows he spat out blood. He whipped off his face and after noticing the blood I responded with "So he can bleed." While trying to catch my breath.

He also huffed, breathing heavily and shaking while looking at the blood. He let out a quiet but audible "This is madness."

I feel a small amount of shame in this but I couldn't help myself. I shouted "Madness?! This is Sparta!!!" Before kicking him square in the chest and sending him into the arena wall.

Vidar climbed out of the ruble looking absolutely livid. "That's it, I've had it with you and your impudence!!!" He then rushed at me with blinding speed, faster than he had moved before in this fight and started wailing on me. I was able to block most of the hits but I was forced on the defensive. When I saw an opening I took a swing at his head but he ducked under it. As he crouched his boots lit up with energy, brighter and more energy flowing than any other point in the fight. He sprung up, gripping me by my collar and taking me with him. The rushing air was defining until we started to slow down. He then spun us around, aimed his feet to the sky, then jumped. He jumped off the air itself sending us down at blinding speed. The city below was just a speck when we started but we were closing on it fast. "Go to Hel!!" Vidar screamed at me angrily. I started hitting him as we fell before giving my retort. "Sure thing frog face, but I'm taking you with me."

In the struggle I managed to be above him with him facing the floor. I then concentrated, thinking about Helheim and picturing a swamp while also trying to force that feeling I get whenever I shift. The ground was closing fast with us aiming to land near the outer wall. I felt something almost ripping inside me when things seemed to get dark. When my eyes adjusted I saw it was now night and black swamp water was now below me. "I did it? I fucking did it!" I managed to say right before Vidar impacted the water. It must have been like hitting concrete at terminal velocity. He was unconscious but I managed to hold onto him.and swim him to shore. I wobbled around barely able to stand. I threw up and before everything went black I saw the blurry outline of a figure approaching us.