While Kratos, Zelos, and Atreus stayed in Jotunheim, the flow of time passed differently there than in the other realms.
In the realm of Midgard, Freya, being a highly magically attuned person, felt the massive shift in the world the exact moment Zelos stripped the God of Light of his divinity. Freya incorrectly assumed that something entirely fatal had happened to her son.
But before grief could fully take over her heart, a bright shooting star suddenly appeared right above the highest peak of Midgard, near the very place where Mimir had been previously imprisoned.
Freya saw the shooting star move across the sky, and it then shot straight towards the direction of her own forest.
A loud impact was soon heard echoing throughout the entire realm, mimicking a massive explosion that encompassed the entirety of her magical forest. She had lived through centuries of strict isolation and caution, but a very strange feeling was permeating her heart.
Freya decided to investigate the crash site immediately. She wanted to take full advantage of her curse being weakened, as it was nearing its breaking point from Odin's grasp thanks to the magical sample of what Zelos had done for her previously.
'What is this strange feeling of familiarity?' Freya thought to herself as she slowly approached the specific part of the forest where the shooting star had landed.
What she saw there was a deep, smoking crater, with the brutal impact mostly destroying the entire surrounding landscape of her beautiful forest.
Freya then approached even closer. She quickly summoned the sword that Zelos had gifted her into her hand, while a shield made out of pure magical energy appeared on her other arm to protect her. But what she saw inside the crater completely surprised her.
It was the lying figure of a passed out person. It was someone she knew so fondly, but strangely, he felt like a complete stranger to her other magical senses that did not involve her physical sight.
"MY BOY!" Freya yelled in panic.
She immediately unsummoned her sword and shield as she frantically approached the passed out figure of Baldur.
If Zelos were present at that moment, he would surely laugh at the notable coincidence, as Baldur was lying in a position highly reminiscent of a certain defeated fictional earthling warrior, especially with the deep crater depression present all around his body.
"What happened to you, my sweet boy?" Freya could not help but ask loudly.
Baldur felt extremely different to her touch. Once, she had felt Baldur's presence like a radiating sun, completely untouched even by his madness, and it provided light for the entire realm.
But now, where Baldur felt exemplary before, his presence just felt like a common Asgardian. It was not even that; he was actually slowly transforming into a mere mortal.
Mortals have a very distinct feel to their own souls, which is something that Freya is extremely familiar with, being the previous Queen of the Valkyries who sorted the dead.
But before her thoughts dwelled any further on this mystery, a deep frown reached Baldur's face. Suddenly, Baldur threw a violent punch towards Freya.
She unconsciously blocked the strike with her summoned energy shield, a reflex she still retained thanks to her countless experiences as a warrior queen.
However, blocking it did not mean that her shield completely absorbed the sheer force of the impact that Baldur had sent towards her.
Despite slowly transforming into a fragile mortal, Baldur still possessed the base physical attributes of his former godly self, only losing his access to his actual divinity.
When Baldur finally gained his senses and opened his eyes, he saw that the person he had just sent flying was his own mother.
Freya had transformed into a hawk midair to break the backward force of the blow, and she gracefully transformed back into her normal human form as she landed on her feet.
"Where is your right arm?" This was the very first question that Freya had asked towards her son.
Baldur was looking at her, still brimming with immense anger and animosity stemming from all of his cursed hatred towards her.
"Have you forgotten, you bitch? I was born with no right arm," Baldur said with such an intense, genuine anger that it almost made Freya jump back in pure surprise.
"What are you talking about? You have a right arm. You have always had both of your arms and legs. Why are you telling me that you do not have a right arm? Are you bewitched? What in the realms happened to you?" Freya then began to ask a rapid barrage of her worried questions.
Her interrogation just made Baldur more and more angry, so much so that Baldur recklessly attacked his mother once again.
But this time, Freya quickly used a sleep spell to make Baldur lose consciousness. The spell surprisingly worked much better and faster than she had initially expected.
She had used an intense amount of magic to affect Baldur, because her prior knowledge of him dictated that Baldur was the God of Light and possessed absolute invulnerability to all threats, whether they be physical or magical.
"What truly happened to you out there?" Freya asked towards the limp body of Baldur. She caught her son gently before he could drop onto the hard ground.
This was the truly terrifying part of the ability of Voltan, the primordial demon wielded by Zelos. It possessed the profound ability to rewrite reality so that whatever it cut had always been that way since the beginning of time.
No matter what the object or concept was, once Voltan had conceptually cut it, reality would always treat it as if it had been in that severed version forever.
The blade was even capable of rewriting the entire reality of memories within everyone across the realms. The only exceptions were those who had direct connections with the absolute Singularity. The only true Singularity in this entire Norse realm is the great World Tree, Yggdrasil.
Considering that Freya's cruel curse from Odin involved her spirit being fundamentally tied to the roots of Yggdrasil, her mind was completely shielded and she was not affected by the memory altering powers of Voltan.
But to everyone else living in all of the realms, and even within the historical written texts, Baldur had always been a one armed person.
Of course, Baldur's stolen divinity was not included in Voltan's memory altering ability despite being severed from him, because divinity itself is always an intrinsic part of the Singularity of the World Tree, no matter who currently possesses it.
Freya then lifted the heavy body of her son. She began to walk carefully back towards her hidden cabin.
She was not caring anymore if her son would wake up and attack her again, as she was more than desperate to study him and know the full extent of what had just happened to her precious boy.
'Is this your doing, Zelos?' Freya's thoughts drifted into suspicion.
This strange phenomenon, along with everything else she could not logically explain lately, could easily be attributed towards the mysterious young sorcerer and his terrifying capabilities.
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Meanwhile, back in the quiet caverns of Jotunheim, Zelos, Kratos, and Atreus stood gathered around their strangest new companion. This new ally was a magically floating warhammer that called itself Ragnir.
The small group had been engaging in a deep conversation while Ragnir was stubbornly trying to establish a magical connection with the other spectral selves of Ratatoskr scattered across the branches of the World Tree.
"You are wasting your time trying to reach them. This realm is completely cut off from the rest of the realms,"
Atreus said to the floating weapon with a sigh. "We practically had to solve the greatest mysteries that even Odin did not discover for hundreds of years just to be able to step foot in here."
However, Zelos did not silently agree with his brother's logical assessment. In the mind of the young sorcerer, Jotunheim was a place overflowing with ancient, untamed magic.
If anything, this specific realm felt like a much more intimately connected place toward the deep, ancient roots of the World Tree compared to the corrupted lands of Midgard.
"Your fickle mortal mind would not understand true greatness even if it sucked you dry right now," Ragnir replied sharply, hovering in the air.
Despite intentionally separating himself from his other energetic personalities and going so far as choosing to take on a completely different name to establish his independence, Ragnir was still extremely proud of the sacred duties his original self held within the branches of the great tree. He refused to believe he was fully cut off.
"My, my. What a pleasant surprise," a sudden, unfamiliar voice echoed softly through the cavern.
This new voice was heard clearly by everyone present. It caught the entire group completely off guard, bringing a wave of genuine shock to their faces.
Even Zelos, who usually anticipated every possible outcome with his vast magical perception, was visibly startled by the sudden intrusion.
His rare expression of genuine surprise served as a true testament to exactly how sudden and completely undetectable this mysterious voice's appearance truly was.