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Chapter 103
Technomancer in MCU
Royal Healing Wing, Royal Palace, Asgard
–Ed–
All of them waited for Odin to wake up in the Royal Healing Chamber. All of them were sitting on comfortable chairs that Alfred had conjured in front of the two beds on which Odin and Jane were sleeping.
Multiple spider bots kept hovering over the prone forms of both Jane and Odin, projecting images of their vitals for everyone to see. He was not sure when Jane would wake up, given that her vitals had long since stabilised with her being actively being turned into a pure-blood Asgardian due to whatever was inside her.
He was curious as to what was the energy inside her, changing her from within. He was aware that a God King could, theoretically, turn any being into an Asgardian but doing that would require immense power, something that Odin did have but he did not have the motive to do so.
Not to mention that Alfred himself had confirmed that the energy signature was not Odin’s. It was very similar but not the same. It also felt older than Odin’s energy for some reason. That narrowed the suspect list to just Bor and Buri, the predecessors of Odin.
Alfred was of the opinion of sending Jane to Earth immediately but he had shot down that idea immediately because Thor would not leave Jane out of his sight even for a minute, not even if his father ordered him. He was strangely smitten with her for some reason. He never really understood Thor’s love for her, even if he understood the beginning of it.
They never really had any common ground and with Jane being a mortal human, even Thor should have realised that the possibility of them being in a long-term relationship would dwindle as the days passed by, turning Jane into an old woman whereas Thor would remain the same. Their first encounter with each other was when Thor was at his lowest and Jane was someone who had provided comfort food and housing for him when he had crash-landed on Earth after being banished by his father. That he could understand but everything after that was a huge confusing mess for him.
They had theoretically known each other for over 8 years now but he didn’t think they had spent even a year of those 8 years together.
Odin’s stance, on the other hand, that Thor should just spare himself the heartbreak and leave the mortal woman before it ended badly, was pragmatic and something that ALfred would wholeheartedly agree with but now?
Now Jane herself was turning into an Asgardian, probably the strongest woman in Asgard aside from Frigga herself, once she got the hang of being an Asgardian that is.
“How long, Alfred?” He heard Frigga ask someone, probably Alfred or Eir since both of them were working on monitoring Jane and Odin with their own methods. So far, it looked like Alfred’s methods were giving out faster and more accurate answers than Eir’s methods, something that seemed to excite her more and more instead of angering her.
It was refreshing to see someone who had reached the pinnacle of her field, not acting arrogantly once someone challenges her practice.
“We don’t know yet. Physically, both of them are more than fine. There was a considerable amount of spiritual backlash on Odin when you severed their connection. His body has been healed but there is little CHI can do in terms of healing injuries related to the soul. Thankfully, Odin’s soul is one of the strongest in the universe so he should wake up anytime now. I don’t know what is stopping him but with the trend in his mental activity, we should have results in an hour or so.” Alfred said even as he continued to look at the results he was getting from his diagnosis.
“And Jane?” Thor stepped in to ask Eir who had been monitoring Jane obsessively. He was sure that she had arrived at the same conclusion that Alfred had arrived at earlier, just that the signs of the change happening must have been visible only now to her.
It must have been an unbelievable sight for her, witnessing a mortal transforming into an Asgardian and not just any Asgardian, a pure-blooded Asgardian.
“Sh-She is, this is something I have never seen happen before,” Eir stuttered out her words, something he was sure was a rarity on Asgard.
“What happened to her, Eir?” Frigga asked her.
“I don’t know how to explain it but she is..turning into an Asgardian.”
“What?” “What?”
Thor and Frigga exclaimed at the same time.
Frigga immediately stepped forward and cast her own spells on Jane.
Her brows furrowed immediately once the spells had been cast on Jane.
“This should be impossible and yet…” Frigga said before turning to an anxious Thor.
“This is unlike anything I have ever witnessed but Jane Foster is no longer a mortal and will soon be indistinguishable from a natural-born Asgardian. At least that’s what I am getting from my spells.”
“What? How can that happen? Is she in any danger?” Thor barraged Alfred and Eir with questions before he was stopped by Alfred.
“Don’t worry about her, Thor. She is completely fine. She is in the process of becoming an Asgardian, something that would undoubtedly help you win over your father’s approval. As I understand, the primary reason for your father’s opposition to your relationship with Jane was due to her mortal state. Now that she would soon become an Asgardian, he would not let her leave Asgard even if she wanted to.”
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
The entire room looked at Alfred as he looked at Thor and flashed him a rare smile and clapped his shoulders.
“Congratulations are in order.”
Thor’s smile seemed nervous, “Uh..Thanks?”
Then his smile dimmed as he said, “But Jane has not yet awakened and we don’t know what is wrong with her body until Father wakes up,”
“Ugh,” Odin’s groan of pain brought everybody’s attention back to Odin who was now waking up from the bed. Seemingly annoyed by the presence of the spiderbots, Odin casually flicked his hand and as if something had pressed them from all sides, the bots were crushed into scrap and tossed aside.
“Steady Steady” Frigga said as she helped Odin sit properly on the bed.
“What happened out there? And why is the Palace trashed? Why are the defenses in shambles?” Odin asked Frigga who promptly gave him the details of what had transpired outside the Royal Palace when he was under a trance. Gotta hand it to Odin, he figured out what was wrong with the palace within seconds of waking up from a small magical coma that his body had induced itself to accelerate the healing process.
“Dark Elves? I hope they are extinct for good this time?” Odin asked Thor who looked a little conflicted but still nodded in confirmation. Odin then unexpectedly looked towards a corner of the room, not saying anything.
After a while, the corner glitched as Loki undid the illusion he was using to stay hidden in the room.
Loki looked directly into Odin’s eyes as he gave a small nod to Odin.
Okay, something was seriously different from what he knew their relationship dynamic to be. Odin would have never turned to Loki, especially after he had invaded Earth and destroyed the Rainbow Bridge beforehand.
Odin then looked towards the ceiling but it seemed like he was looking farther than that as his eyes glazed over. All of them stood there waiting for him to say anything but even after a couple minutes passed, he didn’t say anything.
That was when Frigga gently shook him, ‘What is it?”
Odin’s eyes gained clarity as he looked at Frigga, “Nothing, my love.”
Then Odin looked at the sleeping Jane and his brows furrowed as he stood up from his bed and placed his hand above her. It slowly began glowing golden even as Odin himself began sweating.
Thor took a step forward to ask what was going on but Frigga raised her arm and stopped him.
What Odin was doing was taking an astronomical amount of energy, judging by the helpful metrics that Alfred had supplied to him using the bond that him and Toby shared.
Soon, the golden glow that suffused his arm congealed to form a small disc in front of his arm which then enlarged to form a blanket of sorts that fell on top of Jane’s form. The blanket of golden light was absorbed by Jane’s body, lighting up her body with a thin golden glow.
Then, as soon as the golden glow receded, Jane’s eyes fluttered open. Thor all but teleported to her side even as Eir continued to cast diagnostic spells to make sure that Jane was fine.
Oh, he was sure that Jane was going to be fine. After all, from whatever scans Alfred was doing, that were visible to him through their link, Jane was now a bonafide Asgardian. Not even a hint of her previous heritage remained.
Odin must have accelerated her transformation using the Odin Force.
“Now,” He looked at Odin as he announced to everyone, “I am sure everybody has their questions. I assume the Throne is fine? Yes? Then let’s go there.”
Saying so, Odin left the chambers, followed by Frigga and Loki, in his cloaked form.
Thor chose to stay with Jane as she was still a little disoriented from her coma and Eir was not exactly the friendliest person on Asgard.
….
…
Once all of them were in the Throne room, Odin banged Gungnir on the floor and as if a hidden switch had been turned on, the entire room was covered in a thin golden barrier that glowed with tiny runes.
Honestly, Asgardians and their never-ending obsession with all things golden.
“I heard that you were responsible for defending the palace,” Odin said while looking at Alfred.
“And you were responsible for vanquishing the Dark Elves, for good this time,” Odin then pointed at Toby who looked as carefree as ever.
“Yes, AllFather,” Alfred replied.
“Yes.” Toby’s response was curt.
It must have been the atmosphere of the room otherwise Alfred would have never called Odin “All-Father” of his own volition.
Odin then contemplated something before abruptly looking at him right in the eyes. He would not lie, it made him flinch minutely at the attention.
Gaining the attention of the strongest being in the nine realms was not a particularly desirable situation for him or anyone for that matter.
Before he could say anything though, Odin looked back towards Frigga and then back at Alfred and Toby.
“Speak. What do you wish in return?”
Alfred and Toby both looked at each other in confusion. It would seem that both of them were also caught flat-footed by Odin’s move. He had expected for Odin to explain what had happened back in the chamber when they had found him or at least about the backlash that he must have suffered when the spell was severed by Frigga.
But no, he simply glossed over that topic as if it didn’t exist at all.
Seeing that Odin had no intention of explaining anything, Alfred stepped forward and said, “I have the same wish as before. I wish for Asgard’s help to heal Ed. I have the procedure down to the last minute detail but having the foremost magical experts of Asgard looking at them will always help. Not to mention that there are some things that can not be done on Earth. For that, I wish to borrow Asgard’s safe space so the ritual can go smoothly, without interruption.”
Odin looked straight at Alfred as he said, “So you still wish to go through with that insanity of a ritual? Do you have any idea what kind of forces you will be playing with?”
Alfred remained steadfast in his pitch. “I am aware and I assure you, things will not go to the point you are expecting them to.”
Odin scoffed, “I will be the judge of that. And what about you?” He then asked Toby.
Toby shrugged and said, “Me? I don’t need anything at the moment. I just need someone strong to fight. That can be you or Ed once he is healed. It’s all up to you.”
Odin muttered under his breath, “I don’t know why I expected anything different from a demon host,”
“Very well, Asgard will aid its allies as its allies had done for her.” Odin declared before slamming Gungnir down on the floor once again, removing the privacy curtains.
Taking the cue, all of them dismissed themselves and came out of the throne room.
“Man, that was intense, huh? Who knew the Old man still had it in him?” Toby said as soon as the doors to the throne room were shut.
Alfred and he both deadpanned at him in reply.
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Word Count - 2178
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