Hodr, God of Darkness & Winter, Pt 2
[General POV]:
In the Norse universe of Yggdrasil, where the Nine Realms of the Norse mythos dwell, the 9 great realms are each more or less dominated by various but notable races. There was Midgard, the Human Realm; Alfhiem, the Elven Realm and Nidavellir, or the realm of the Dwarves. There was Jotunheim, the realm of giants and Nifheim, the domain of the Frost Giants and Muspelheim, land of the Fire Giants. There were even two Divine Realms, belonging to that of the gods, Asgard(Home of the Aesir) and Vanaheim(Home of the Vanir). And, finally, there is the real of Helheim, or the realm of the dead.
In the realm of Helhiem, where the goddess, Hel, reigned over the dead, sitting upon a throne of bones and frost and darkness, was a woman of unparalleled beauty and power.
Hel was a goddess with a powerful life and deathly aura. It is often said that Hel, goddess of death, was typically depicted as being half beautiful with life and beauty and half hideous with death and desecration. However, this woman had no such hideous a face.
Instead, said goddess had beautiful green hair, lively white skin and eyes as black as the void. She wore a beautiful green dress and was adorned with a crown of bones and emeralds. At her side was her weapon of choice — the Necroblade; a sword born from death and darkness itself, as black as her eyes with an emerald-black aura of death surrounding it so strong, anyone but her who dared get too close to it would quickly decompose to nothing very quickly.
"Interesting," the goddess of death seemed to be distracted, eyes fixed on something far, far away, outside her realm. "I can see the time for great death draws nearer every day. I imagine it will be very soon that— Huh, what's this?"
Suddenly. Hel stopped mid sentence as she tilted her head in a certain direction. Getting up from her throne, she disappeared from it, reappearing many hundreds of thousands of miles away, across her realm of death, instantaneously.
She suddenly stood before a cocoon of darkness, its shadows as pure—or perhaps purer—than those born of her own command over the darkness element. While the object in question was bizarre and alien, the godly aura within it was very familiar — She knew who this "god" inside was, because she was the person who resurrected him to begin with.
"What's this…?" she muttered to herself as she ran a hand over the unfamiliar surface of the cocoon. "This darkness… so pure…".
Turning to one of the guarding spirit warriors she had nearby, she questioned the spirit. "What happened to Hodr?"
"We aren't sure, my lady," said the first spirit. "He was giving orders to us when, suddenly, he began acting strange, my queen."
Hel squinted, not in suspicion. None who's of her domain would ever lie to her, most especially a spirit warrior she brought back. She was, however, curious on what could have happened to her godly resurrection of the god of darkness. "Acting strange how?"
"He began strange mutterings," said one of the spirits. "But we didn't hear anything that made sense.
'It could be a divine possession for one of his children,' Hel thought to herself. 'I know the connection between the soul of a god and her/his child leaves proper linguistic coherency much to be desired, even for the strongest of gods, and Hodr is at the Medial God rank — a feat not many can claim to have achieved. Still, who could have been able to push his child to the extent of forcing them to call Hodr? Is there a new, interesting person amongst the mortals? And, if this is the case, then does that mean whatever the cocoon is, is a direct result of that encounter? Did Hodr lose?'
"There was one phrase we did hear, though, my queen," said the first spirit.
This piqued Hel's attention. "Do tell."
"He said something about a 'Son of Erebus,' my queen," responded the spirit. "Then he was suddenly encased in this strange cocoon."
At the mention of the name 'Erebus', Hel's heartbeat quickened.
Being a child of Loki, Hel has had her own fair share of experiences with getting in trouble, so fear was not a new concept. It was more like a rare instance, at least for her, especially as a more mature goddess — And a primordial one at that[She is the 1st and only god of death in the Norse pantheon, and her realm is a Primordial ranked one that transcends space and time; Technically, she is what one would call a death in the Norse pantheon, and her realm is a Primordial-ranked one that transcends space and time. Technically, she is what one would call a Pseudo-Primordial, an entity whose element existed long before they did and/or a supreme ruler to a realm that lies at the Primordial rank while they, themselves, aren't there.
But even Hel, queen of Helheim, goddess of death, knows not to mess with the Great Darkness.
In fact, any smart deity that reigns or partakes in the elements of darkness or death knows not to mess with the Overlord of the Dark Dimension.
"It seems Hodr, or his son, rather, messed with someone he shouldn't have," Hel realized, eyeing the cocoon. "And this is the result."
Hel observed the cocoon more deeply, as she thought back to how she resurrected Hodr. After her father, Loki, tricked Hodr into killing Baldr, son of Frigg and the All-Father, he was punished with his own life by the hands of his own half-brother, Vali, one of the Aesir, seeking to get vengeance for Baldr.
Of course, death wasn't the end for Hodr, as Hel had resurrected the god of darkness and winter to serve as one of Hel's subordinates. He's been one of Hel's greatest allies since... until now.
"Keep tabs on this, report to me if something changes in his condition," she ordered the spirit guards, who bowed in acknowledgment.
"Yes, my queen," they bowed.
"A son of the Great Darkness, huh?" Hel thought, deep in thought. "The Great Darkness has hardly that many children, despite being arguably the oldest of even the oldest of the Primordials… And the ones he does have are quite powerful but are very work-oriented from what I hear. Maybe this one will be a fun one. At the very least, they should be interesting."
Then, with a final glance at the cocoon, Hel vanished from sight.
[Celeste Luminaris]:
BOOM!
Celeste went flying by a large fireball into the arena wall, creating a dust cloud in her wake.
Groaning, Celeste could have sworn she fractured her shoulders, but her werewolf healing kicked in, immediately stitching the injury. By the time she got to her feet and out of the crater her crash made, all that was left of her injury were a few scorch marks on her clothes and a slight soreness from her shoulder.
"You were supposed to counter my Augue spell with one of your own, my apprentice," came the voice of her master, Madea Helios Jr., the Faction Head.
Since the Dungeon incident, Celeste had managed to impress the Faction Head Madea Helios and Rowena Rae—so much, in fact, that they both agreed to take Celeste under their wing. Something of which hadn't happened before, so it was unheard of, really.
Each instructor had three days with Celeste in a week, with the rest left for rest and study for Celeste. And Celeste wasn't complaining. It's been only a few days since the incident, and Celeste was already making progress with both her magic training with Madea and her combat training and tactical training with Rowena. And, as the apprentice of two Faction Heads, no one in the academy was stupid enough to try something against her for fear of getting double the consequences from the Faction Heads.
"I know, Master," Celeste said, as she got to her feet. "I was just… distracted."
Celeste was thinking about how she was a werewolf now and how that would impact her future. She had already begun preparing for the next full moon by training her body to get used to its pull and energy. At night, she would meditate, harnessing lunar energy as a descendant of Luna, and let it surround her whole body. It wasn't the full moon, but it did the trick.
There have been a few instances where she'd completely wolf out for a few moments, her muscles rippling, her canines extending, her form shifting; but considering she had used the Shadow Faction's lower dungeon room—with Faction Head Athan's approval—she wasn't worried about hurting anyone.
And, if that event in the dungeon with Corven taught her anything, it was that she needed to get stronger, faster, because she will not be helpless as she was then ever again. Never again!
"Well then, get focused," came her Master's reply. "The War Game for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd years is about to start, and after that, you have the Dungeon Expedition that 1st and 2nd years will be required to go on. You will be prepared for both, there is no 'ands' or 'buts' about it. As your master, your performance reflects itself unto me. If you do bad during any of these, then I'm a bad master, and I will not have that on my reputation, understood?"
"You're more worried by your reputation than your student…," Celeste muttered under her breath, making a slight face.
"What did you say?" Madea's brow rose in annoyance.
"I said 'yes, I understand,' Master," Celeste said with a smile.
"Mmmhmm, right." Madea looked Celeste up and down suspiciously. "Let's go again. As my apprentice, you will know the basics of magic by the end of our sessions, no matter how many beatings you take in the process. This is what I require of all my apprentices, no matter their potential."
"R-right," Celeste got into position, her mana ready.
For the rest of that day, she practiced basic defensive and offensive spells with singular incantations, mostly getting bodied and magically flung around by her Master like an honorary ragdoll. It was a humiliating experience, but the road to power was never an easy one, and neither was hers. She understood that and would take even the most humiliating road if it meant getting stronger.
[Corven Orpheus]:
Descending on the cobblestone streets of Lucid Dream Meadows from the back of Nightwing, the winged black unicorn, Corven caught the curious gazes of many—some curious as to who could own such a mount, others envious that they didn't. Either way, Corven ignored both.
He had just finished his second Adventurer's Guild mission a few hours earlier—the poachers had been dealt with, their decapitated heads resting in Corven's Shadow Space. There were roughly ten of them behind the illegal poaching operation, all of them between mid-legendary rank to low Demigod rank, so they weren't much of a problem for Corven to take on, let alone end their whole operation.
Not only did this allow Corven to finish the mission, but there were some beast cores and corpses that he can use as resources. to aid in his cultivation. He even took their storage rings, but there was only roughly 10,000 flats (silver coins) total, so in Corven's spoiled eyes, this was barely a dip in riches. He did manage to use a Progenitor Seed on the leader of the operation, though—an alchemist at mid-Demigod rank. Her cocooned body rested inside Corven's Shadow Space with the other Shadowborne-to-be.
Corven knew he needed a dedicated alchemist for the plans he intended to pursue, especially since having one would make his cultivation progress skyrocket. It just happens that this one had basically given themselves to him…against their conscious will, but he wasn't complaining.
As he strode atop Nightwing towards the Adventurers' Guild Hall, he couldn't help but think about how he had found more of those Cultivation-Boosting Plum Fruits inside the Shadowflame Bears' former cave—14 more in fact—along with 2 Shadowflame Bear cubs and 3 Shadow Wolf cubs.
Corven was probably going to sell 3 of the fruits, leaving him with 20. He'd give 2 to Celeste, 2 to Cimon, 2 to Achlys, 2 to Jabari, and 2 to Marxes, leaving himself with 10 in the end. He's such a generous friend!
As for the 3 Lightning Wind Mountain Lion kittens and the two Shadowflame Bear cubs? Corven would decide what to do with them later. Maybe he'll sell them or give them to his friends; he'll think of something.
Entering the Adventurer Guild Hall, Corven turned in the sac of heads from his shadow as proof of his mission with the poachers…much to the dismay of the receptionist. He also turned in the corpses and cores of the Lightning Wind Mountain Lions and the Shadowflame Bears he turned into Shadow Undead.
The receptionist was shocked that the monsters' auras were that of Tier A and Tier S respectively, not Tier C or Tier B as the mission requested it being. And after both the receptionist and Guild Hall Chapter Manager apologized for the incorrect level of mission, Corven got to keep the beast cores and was rewarded with 150 Quarts (gold coins). He was also upgraded from a Level 1 Adventurer to a Level 3 Adventurer due to the mission being a Level 3, and not a Level 2 mission.
This was a plus in Corven's book, as it meant he was at the peak of Blue Rank as an Adventurer now. A few more missions, and he'd be able to graduate to Red Rank and enter legally Red Dungeons.
Anyway, he got his coin reward and left to go to the forest, where he would meet with his Master's temporary replacement. He wasn't sure who they were, nor what business Master Athan had to need one, but he hoped they were worthy enough of a teacher. Then again, they were Athan's protégé before he started teaching. They had to be quite worthy, right?