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Chapter 106
Technomancer in MCU
Royal Court, Asgard
–Odin–
“In short, it has a very chance of failure, My King. The ensuing backlash from the failed ritual will ensure that neither Asgard nor the surrounding space would exist. As much as it pains me to say it, not even the powers of an Infinity Stone would allow us to survive as the mixture of energy would overwrite any protection any of us could cast. My recommendation, backed by the Scholars would be to not even entertain the notion of performing the ritual on Asgard and evict the Infinity Stones from our realm as soon as possible,” The Lead Scholar, Alvis, completed his report that he had been ordered to compile within the span of the night.
Despite the short span of time he had to complete his research, he could see that Alvis had covered almost all the aspects of the ritual thoroughly and had highlighted all the areas where it could fail.
He had known about most of the failures but it never hurt to have another expert take a look at it. Frigga had also come to the same conclusion even if she was able to figure out a few more flaws of the ritual and even had come up with some possible solutions for said problems.
He nodded at Alvis, dismissing him.
“By your will,” Alvis bowed and left the room.
As soon as the doors closed, he sighed, resigned to the situation.
“You know, I really hate the current situation,” He said to Frigga who sat beside him, going through the thorough report that Alvis had compiled for them.
“Uh-huh,” Frigga said noncommittally as she continued reading the report. He sighed internally. She was really invested in it and she had every right to be. If the ritual succeeded, they would have a surefire way of dealing with Hela once and for all, without burdening Thor and Loki with his past mistakes. The temptation was understandable but they had to be very careful with the ritual. One small mistake and they could unleash enough energy to even harm the Yggdrasil, something that should be impossible, considering its all-encompassing nature but even Ygdrassil can be temporarily harmed. Well, before it healed itself with ease, of course.
“We can’t go into this blindly, Frigga. More than just Asgard is at stake here,” He said to her, hoping to convince her to look at his thing from all angles.
Frigga sighed and kept the report on the table and looked at him. He was internally startled at the tears in her eyes.
“You don’t think I know that?!” She said before wiping off her tears. She then stood up and started pacing around in front of him.
“It is all your fault and now my sons will have to pay the price for it. Sure, the future told me that Thor would be fine and Loki would find his purpose, his oh-so glorious purpose but-” She then pointed her finger at him as she continued, “-It also showed me my death and I had accepted that.”
His eyes widened as he realised that Frigga was supposed to die in the Dark Elves invasion and he would have been unable to save her, despite all his powers. The mere thought of losing her to all those scoundrels made his blood boil.
“.And yet, here I am, alive and well. Now, I don’t know what is supposed to be happening but I do know one thing and that is, that Hella will soon be released from her prison.” Frigga continued.
“There is no one here who is capable of beating her. Certainly not while she has her connection to Asgard. Toby might have had a chance had he not been shouldering Ed’s soul but even then, it would have been completely uncertain, who would win or not,” She said as she once again sat back down in her seat, completely depressed about the upcoming situation.
His fists clenched as he thought of the situation. Back then, he had had no solution to the problem that was Hela’s ever-increasing bouts of madness that always led to an indiscriminate slaughter. In the initial days of the war, it was actually beneficial for Asgard as Hela had the sense to just jump into the fray and utterly destroy any enemy army they were facing at the moment, and then, came the day.
The day when he had been holding a meeting with his war generals on how to further proceed with the war, as he had been thinking of involving civilisations outside of the nine realms back then when he had received the news.
The Slaughter of Alfheim.
Alfheim had been one of the last realms they had ventured into simply because it was not worth it. The Light Elves were an inherently peaceful species and as such, had no inclination to fight them, posing no threat to his regime. Even then, he was going to make sure that Alfheim bent the knee to his rule but not in the way Hela had done.
In the first place, it was forbidden to enter Alfheim because the leader of the Light Elves was someone who possessed complete awareness of his realm. Not even a single soldier could sneak into Alfheim without him knowing about it. In such a situation, considering the control he possessed over the light of Alfheim, it was no use in sending an army that would only be destroyed within moments of them touching land.
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In such a situation, where Hela was supposed to stay still until they had decided on further direction, she had experienced another one of her bouts of madness and had unilaterally decided to go on to the one realm where no allies lived, at least in her mind she thought that.
Unfortunately, the leader of Alfheim was absent from the realm that day, the reason he did not know and thus, there was no one in the entire realm of Alfheim who could contend with Hela. On that fateful day, Hela proceeded to slaughter over half of the population of Alfheim with her darkness-fueled necromantic powers before he could stop her.
The Leader of the Light Elves, after coming back from wherever he had gone to, saw the state of his people and instead of flying into a fit of rage and fighting a dying battle with Asgard, chose to transmit the deeds of Hela Odinsdottir, damaging Asgard more than he ever could have if he had just chosen to battle him.
Then, he burned his life and soul to sever the connection of Alfheim to Yggdrasil and cut off their realm from the universe, hiding their homeland from the universe. To this day, neither he nor anybody else has found the Light Elves.
The repeated transmissions of his daughter’s actions served, more than anything, a wake-up call to the senseless war he had waged all over the nine realms. So, that day, he chose peace and decided to unilaterally end the war. Everybody was surprised with the decision because they had all the reasons to go ahead and spread the war even more but in the end, even Asgardians had limits so most of the people were very happy that the long war was over once and for all. Hela, on the other hand, was not a normal Asgardian. Ever since she could fight, all she knew was war. It was his fault really that he had not expected such a reaction from her. She had openly rebelled against him, threatening to destabilise his regime as the only Heir rebelling against him would have made him the laughing stock in the universe.
Thus, he sent the Valkyrie ahead, fully knowing that most of them would die, just so he could prepare a large-scale ritual that would affect the entirety of the nine realms. The ritual was such that in addition to severing Hela’s connection to Asgard, and using his Odin Force as the catalyst, it also made sure that Hela Odinsdottir was forgotten from history. Nobody would remember her and over time, the rest of the universe, save for the old civilizations, forgot about her as well.
And now, here they were, sitting on the cusp of Hela’s freedom because, in his zealousness of banishing Hela, he had forgotten that he too would grow old one day. He had underestimated the tenaciousness of his daughter because, to this day, he could feel her magic knocking on the metaphorical walls of the prison he had imprisoned her. He could already envision her elation at figuring out that the magic was weakening day by day, bringing her day of freedom closer and closer.
None of his sons were a match for her. Sure, in the future, once they were allowed to grow into their respective powers, they would surely be able to hold their own against her but they had grown up in a time of peace. Fighting against Hela, who was born in war, bled in war, and learned in war, they would stand no chance as they were now. It was no wonder Frigga was despairing about the situation.
No. He would not allow it. He will not allow his visions of Ragnarok to come true, not if he had a chance of stopping it.
“We will stop her,” he said to a surprised Frigga. He looked at her and banged Gungnir on the ground, creating a bang that sounded throughout Asgard.
“In the name of my father and his father before, I, Odin AllFather, swear to vanquish Hela, The Goddess of Death,”
The vow, cast upon the very source of his pool of powers, the Odin Force, reverberated across the Nine Realms, heard by every being of considerable power.
In the Guest Wing of Asgard
Alfred was in the middle of recasting the spell of darkness around the barrier that he had constructed around Toby when he stumbled forward as the magical impact of Odin’s vow was felt by him.
In the barrier of the darkness within, Alfred could feel Toby stirring awake by the impact of the vow as well.
Ed could feel something happening but was not able to understand exactly what had happened.
Loki, who was standing on the Rainbow Bridge with Heimdall, something that he had found soothing, was surprised as he saw Heimdall staggering. He went forward to help but Heimdall steadied himself with his sword. He was about to ask what happened but the question got stuck in his mouth as Heimdall immediately turned tail and began running towards the center of the observatory, looking far more frantic than he had ever seen him in his entire life. Soon, the Rainbow Bridge Observatory was closed down in front of him as Loki wondered what exactly was happening. He looked back to the Royal Palace in concern as he began his journey back.
The same thing was happening across the nine realms, as the erased memories of Hela Odinsdottir began returning to beings of exceptional strength and old age.
Odin’s vow had a cascading effect across the universe as the universe was once again introduced to the terror that was The Goddess of Death, Hela Odinsdottir.
Royal Court, Asgard
–Odin–
“What have you done?” Frigga asked him as she helped him sit back on his throne.
He had done the thing he should have done ages ago, vowed to solve a problem he was responsible for.
“We will help Alfred heal Ed. That is the best solution to all of this mess. For that, I am willing to risk everything because if I die and Hela wins, Asgard will not survive anyway,” He said to Frigga, already thinking of places where the common populace can live while they deal with Hela.
Frigga looked shocked but nodded nonetheless. She stood up, “I will ask Alfred for ways to make sure that the common population can be safely evacuated to Earth. I am sure that with their influence, they can easily accommodate our people.”
“Very well,” He nodded to her.
She left the room, leaving him alone to ponder on his failures and the various mistakes that he had committed throughout his life.
“Huh, look at me, regretting my life like a mortal. I, Odin Borson, have lived a full life and will go out dying like a star. Nothing can stop me from achieving that.” He chuckled wryly and leaned back into his throne, feeling truly free of his burdens for the first time in centuries.
It felt good.
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Word Count - 2110
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