A Clash Of Gods And Giants

Part III

By C. W. Russette

“Heimdall, collect your sister, the Lady Sif. She must get to the House of Healing with the greatest haste,” Odin, the King of the Asgardians, commanded from Hlidskjalf, his tower. From his high seat he could see anywhere in the Nine Realms.

“Sire, you will be alone. Undefended,” the Guardian of Bifrost, the Rainbow Bridge, countered.

“Am I not the All-father? I am The Presence! I was slaying giants before you dirtied your first nappy, noble sentry. Ymir and Surtur both have I laid low more than once! The battle is out there, Heimdall! I will not lose the Lady Sif because you doubt your liege lord! Go!” Odin commanded.

Heimdall lowered his eyes and bowed his head but only for a moment. “I meant no offense, All-father. It will be as you command, my liege,” Heimdall turned sharply and, shield and spear in hand, dashed to his waiting horse.

“I did not want to be so harsh with loyal Heimdall, Freki,” Odin said to the large gray wolf at his right.

The wolf turned its head to his master.

“Heimdall would stay and die at my side had I not set urgency to his purpose and given him direction. It would be a terrible loss and stab to my heart if we lost Sif. That much was true. A truth, that even Heimdall’s keen eyes could not see, is how near to falling into the Odin-sleep I am. My power has rarely been at a lower ebb. This is the reason Loki set his hate upon the Realm Eternal when he did. I know not who or what will meet us on the wall today. Will it be one of my sons? Hela finally? Will the thing I buried in Hel finally wreck vengeance upon me?

“May your hammer fly true, my son,” Odin sighed and scratched the head of the wolf on his right, Geri.

Thor, God of Thunder, blasted through the final wall of Hel’s sole palace, Eljudnir. The sight that greeted his exhausted eyes shook him down to his boots. Loki, his half-brother and God of Evil, crouched on a stone dais. In front of him was an ancient-looking chest bound in a dozen lengths of chain but a single, elaborate lock. Sparks shot everywhere with each spell hurled by the trickster.

Though he knew not what the chest contained it was enough that Loki wanted it for Thor to need to stop the act which would surely lead to the destruction of Asgard. Thor soared even faster to the dais and raised his hammer high for a blow that might or might not kill his brother. He had to be stopped. Now.

Fast as the thunderer was, Loki managed to dash aside at the last second. No, Thor realized, he did not move aside. Mjolnir swung through the joten-born. The chest disappeared and so did Loki.

They were an illusion. Thor was fooled again by one of Loki’s parlor tricks. One of his oldest tricks at that. Suddenly Thor’s knees weakened. His hammer was becoming too heavy to bear. Thor fell to one knee.

“What is happening?” Thor strained to speak.

“Ever the simpleton, brother,” Loki said stepping around a thick stone pillar. “I have trapped you once again. I am almost sorry to say that I used very little energy doing it.”

“Brother, no! Don’t-” Thor dropped to all fours.

“Don’t what? Kill you? Kill father, that liar? Level the Golden Realm to dust? Why not? I have suffered you accursed Aesir for as long as I could. No more jails and chains. No more punishment at Odin’s hand for trying to take my destiny from the Norns!”

Thor raised one shaking hand, Mjolnir firmly in his grip. Thor could not even find the strength to speak. It took everything he had to lift the hammer over his head. Sweat beading on his face he cast a rage-driven glare at his brother.

“I see what you’re trying to do, brother. It isn’t my spell, however. You cannot hit me with that hammer. You lack the strength. I do like the sound of that! But the spell holding you in place is not mine. It’s likely Hela’s little trap that I lured you into tripping over. I’ll be honest, it did almost catch me. I think the stones themselves have the runes cut into them.

“As the life slowly ebbs out of you, do keep fighting. I honestly can’t get enough of this, your final act. Die, Thor. Just die.”

Thor had never seen such a pure expression of happiness on his brother’s face. Thor drove his hammer-handle into the cut stone floor that drank more of his life with every second that passed.

Hela appeared in the room in a flash of green and black smoke shouting, “Thor! Do not do this!”

Thor slammed his hammer down on the stone a second time and the lightning answered its master’s call!

“Come to me, giants of ice and storm! One and all, does Magni call you! Who shall be first?” Magni dared while safeguarding the fallen form of Lady Sif.

The damned sorcerer of the giants had somehow managed to strike her with a bolt of lightning. In Magni’s home dimension, so similar to this one, the Lady Sif was his mother and Thor his father. Odin asked that he keep this information to himself for now. Magni did not know why but his grandfather had always been a riddle bound in a knot. Magni’s Asgardian gifts were strength and endurance, not wits.

A club made from a large ash tree swung for Magni. He raised his mace, Thunderstrike, and blasted the weapon to splinters. Magni spun Thunderstrike, like he had seen his father do so many times, and loosed the weapon. Griping the chain loop fixed to the hilt he took off! This was no idiot frost giant. This was a storm giant from the highest peaks of Jotenheim. The giant caught Magni in the air and beat him mercilessly. It took only one strike from the young god and the giant’s hand was broken.

“Not yet, giant!” Magni, while dazed, freed himself and jumped onto the chest of the giant.

He pounded the giant until he began to fall from the devastation visited upon him by the son of Thor. Then a great blade tore through the air and squarely slashed Magni. The young god fell to the ground. He stirred but could not rise. Not even the sight of the Lady Sif, unconscious and burned, could move Magni to action.

The great storm giant raised his vast sword high and took aim on the smaller target. He was no runt of the litter this joten. He was a chief. He was called Goreslash in the common tongue. He was the giant that made the deal with Loki to finally march on Asgard and settle old debts. A moment before Goreslash cut down Magni a spear ran him through.

“I think not, giant!” Tyr shouted.

The spear throw was perfect and split Gorebash’s heart in half. Still the giant stood. Again he made to attack with his sword. Two of the fingers that were holding the sword fell off after when Tyr’s axe flew true and severed them. The giant raised a foot to stomp the smaller god. Tyr thrust his sword upward and let the giant impale his foot. Goreslash screamed like he never had before in all his decades of fighting.

Magni rose and smashed the giant’s foot then struck again and again at Goreslash’s leg until he fell to the ground howling.

“Was it this one that felled, Lady Sif?” Tyr roared.

“Nay, Tyr. That sorcerer on the top of the hill is. He was impaled by Sif’s spear. It was what brought her to his attention. She slayed him,” Magni informed.

“Look again! He has not left the fight yet!” Tyr shouted.

“That is Eluf Furymane. The greatest of the Joten sorcerers,” Balder interjected.

“Balder! You bring sorely needed relief with your troop’s arrival. Eluf who?” Magni asked.

“That is Eluf, plague of the mountain. He is great indeed to survive Sif’s spear. More so because I think the blow did kill the sorcerer, but he has returned!” Tyr informed.

Eluf Furymane slowly opened both eyes, now glowing green as any emerald. He raised a hand and lightning arced down to strike his hand. The joten was not destroyed. If anything, he was invigorated. He reached for the spear shaft, one hand behind him and the other before him. He broke it in two easily and cast it down.

“He is a drauger now. Dead but still killing. Come back to finish that which he started today,” Balder added.

“I say we move as one to take him down. Signal to our captains to march on this drauger so long as it doesn’t leave them exposed. And kill anyone that gets too close. Go!” Tyr commanded.

“What of you, warlord?” Balder as he left.

“I will return the Lady to the rear of this battlefield where a healer can begin their work,” Tyr stated.

“No, warlord. You will not,” someone said behind them.

“I won’t be questioned, Guardian,” Tyr said.

“I do not question you, warlord. The All-father himself orders me to the field to collect my sister. I must obey as must we all,” Heimdall offered.

Just then Goreslash came to. Heimdall sensed this and aimed his spear. Tyr leaped into the air, drawing his runesword and thrust deeply into the giant’s brain. Goreslash’s foot shook twice and was still.

“Heimdall, take your sister as our King commands. Magni and Balder, obey my command. I will meet you at the top of the hill. Move with speed!” Tyr ordered and charged the hill.

Tyr, god of battle and justice, charged up the hill with his rune sword in one hand and a shield mounted where his left hand should be. The hand was bitten off when the Asgardians bound the monster wolf called Fenrir. Tyr shook the memory from his head. He let nothing stop or slow him. The giants quickly noticed the warriors merely injuring storm giants and leaving when possible. They avoided conflict if it did not come to them. Most of the Asgardians were inside the ring of giants, spending the minimum troops needed to hold the giants advance while the remainders marched on the sorcerer. Frey, Volstag, Balder and Magni lead their bands of battle-hungry Asgardians.

The closer the warriors drew the more difficult it was getting through their joten enemies. Tyr threw his last axe through the giants face and out the back of his head. Onward he charged.

I have not seen Hogun or Fandrall since I joined the battle, Tyr thought. A shadow dashed into the light behind Eluf Furymane. The sorcerer did not notice Hogun rise up behind him. He had actually snuck up on the drauger!

Tyr remained well beyond even axe throwing range. He ran on, killing as he went.

Hogun raised his mace and in a two-handed grip brought it down. With no time to spare, the drauger turned and blasted the weapon from Hogun’s grip with a bolt of lightning. Weaponless but for his rage Hogun smashed a fist into the drauger. Eluf’s head rocked back then settled on Hogun again with a look of curiosity. Hogun did not wait but continued slamming his forearm into the drauger’s face again and again.

The sorcerer drew shapes with his hand. He raised it, after a crack that broke his jaw, he summoned wasps and hornets of every kind into Hogun’s face. The grim Asgardian made barely a grunt despite being under a blanket of stinging creatures. He cleared his eyes of insects only to discover his eyes were swollen shut from the venom. The drauger backhanded Hogun who fell to the ground in ever growing agony.

“No you will not, creature!” Voluminous Volstagg declared. “Warriors Three!”

Eluf Furymane raised both fists to the darkening sky. Volstagg raced up to the sorcerer. Eluf pointed his fist at the largest of the Warriors Three. Hail the side of a giant’s head fell. Specifically, Eluf took ahold of a large hailstone with his magic, and blasted Volstagg in the face.

Tyr hurled an axe when he was just within range. It took the sorcerer in the chest. Eluf barely noticed and did not pull the weapon out.

The Lion of Asgard stood a moment as the blood poured from his destroyed nose and fell back. The dozen warriors that followed him were driven back by ever-larger hailstones in greater numbers. The storm giants were ready for them.

The sorcerer-giant would not have heard Vidar the Silent but the joten whose leg the god tore free howled appropriately. When the giant fell, Vidar cleft his skull down to the teeth. No one

stood between the Asgardian and the Drauger. Vidar charged the sorcerer and immediately a boulder of the hailstone took him from above.

Vidar appeared not to notice. He charged. More hailstones came down in greater sizes and numbers. The Silent God used his shield until it was smashed to nothing. His sword cleft many in half before the biggest, taller than the god himself struck him down swiftly and covered him completely.

The war god threw his final axe. He was moments away from any sort of melee range with the sorcerer. Eluf summoned winds strong enough to blow away the hurled weapon. He tried to dislodge Tyr from his climb but the god would not stop. Eluf pointed at Tyr who looked around quickly for some attack. It came from above. A blistering, enflamed, hailstone had arrived from high in the sky. Tyr might have been able to jump out of the way but he did not. He refused to be deterred. He sheathed his sword and watched the weapon come. The burning hailstone was larger than Tyr but he caught and held it aloft just the same. The god’s hands and chest burned. His hair singed and his moustache burned away completely. Tyr did not drop the hailstone but threw it back at the summoner, Eluf Furymane took the blow completely and fell back, down the hill.

Hogun brought his mace down with a satisfying crack into the sorcerer’s face. The silent one spoke no words but brought down his mace a second and third time. To have lost Fandral then almost losing Volstag was more than Hogun could accept. The frustration was too great! The joten’s skull proved more durable that guessed due it no longer being among the living. The drauger caught the mace on the last strike and blasted Hogun in the ribs shattering most of them. Hogun collapsed in a heap.

Magni and Tyr crested the hill that evermore would be called Eluf’s Doom . Hogun fought valiantly but fell none the less.

“Hogun has fallen, he fought well. Furymane being able to turn himself into a dead man wasn’t something we could have foreseen,” Tyr observed.

“Time is short. Vidar, Balder and the others are tied up with many giants yet. The drauger will find his footing again soon,” Magni stated.

“Then we must act now. Put distance between us then we strike as one. It’s doubtful he can hit both of us at the same time. Whoever isn’t killed will slay Furymane,” Tyr suggested.

“Not much of a plan, warlord.” Magni smirked.

“We have neither time nor soldiers besides you and I, stripling. Now go!”

Magni and Tyr drew weapons and leapt.

Eluf Furymane the drauger summoned the lightning.

Energy and everything Thor could generate came down on the rune carved protective stone. The impact cracked the stone and the blasted spells exploded in concussive force. Thor, Loki and Hela were knocked to the ground by the power. Smoke and dust floated lazily as debris settled. A black, impenetrable smoke roiled from the crater that Thor created with his hammer.

“What have we here?” Loki stood and knocked dust from his attire.

“Thor, you imbecile! You have no idea what you have done this day,” Hela said and floated to a vertical position.

“I’m certain that my brother can enlighten us,” Thor suggested.

Loki cast a spell. Green energy shot from his hand and went straight down into the hole, center of the black smoke.

“Whatever it is, I assure you that it is mine.” Loki grinned maliciously then his brow furrowed, and the grin became a grimace.

The green energy Loki manipulated turned back near the cloud and traveled up the beam until it reached Loki himself.

“Loki! Stop the casting! You don’t know what you are-” Hela shouted.

Loki screamed like Thor had never heard him before. The energy surrounded Loki like a lightning sheath that paralyzed the God of Fire and kept a steady flow of pain maintained a grimace on his face.

There came a sound like something between crackling fire and flowing electricity from the black smoke. A large cat-like eyeball surrounded by black lightning levitated into view from the smoke. Sounds like language came from the eye.

“Hela! Loki seems none too pleased with his much sought-after weapon. What is this thing?” Thor demanded.

“This is the thing that Odin locked in my realm. I took an oath to never speak of it before the All-father and I have not. I know as much as you do, Thor,” Hela rasped.

“Where am I?” the Eye asked.

“You speak. Tell us first who you are and I shall tell you where you are,” Thor offered.

“I don’t give something for nothing. I see my captor in you,” the Eye said to Thor, “But you are not accursed Odin.”

Thor pointed his hammer at the Eye, “You will not take my father’s name in vain while I draw breath, nameless creature!” Thor exclaimed.

“You are a son of Odin? This other one that would search through my being for knowledge has the stink of Odin as well but his blood is wrong. The female that fears me is half a relation and half a corpse. What an odd gathering for my re-birth day,” the Eye stated.

“Creature, know that I am Hela and this is my realm of the dead where Odin buried you a millennia ago. I am master here!” Hela warned and drew closer.

There was a definite reaction within the Eye and the energy that surrounded it. The Eye kept its bearing. Loki struggled and the Eye turned on him. The black beam intensified, and red spikes burst through Loki’s skin. He screamed though none could hear it.

“Release him, demon! He will suffer our justice and not yours. You have no authority here! Surrender!”

The Eye fired a burst of energy that rocked all three gods.

“I bow to no one, Odin-son. But I will teach you and everyone you know to serve your betters with your eyes cast to the ground,” the Eye stated flatly.

“Attack as one!” Thor commanded.

Thor set the chamber alight with the lightning he poured into the Eye. Hela released her most deadly bolts of energy at the same time. The spikes withered and withdrew from Loki then he too launched eldritch attacks at the Eye. He lacked the passion of his comrades.

“Do not falter! Strike with all you have! This is no simple demon we face!” Thor ordered.

“Thor, you dolt! This is NO demon at all! Rather-”

Loki was cut off when beams of black energy lanced from the Eye striking the gods and laying all low. The Eye burst and cracked with red energy erratically and shot out of the chamber and the palace into the bleak sky of Hel.

“Follow the creature!” Thor spun his hammer and took off using the wind to give himself greater speed.

The Eye flew faster than Thor with all his mind behind the pursuit. It shot straight as an arrow for Yggdrasil, The World Ash, and entered the trunk. The old wyrm Nidhogg continued to chew, though not on the tree, while it watched the Eye fly overhead.

Thor hovered with the power of the wind holding him up. If his hammer could track the unique energy of that creature, he could follow him. He was exhausted and Loki was still loose. Would it not be better to collect Loki and return to Asgard and seek the All-father’s counsel on this matter? Thor nodded once and turned back to the Palace of the Dead.

“Woe be to Hela should she try me,” Thor uttered.

Eluf Furymane loosed the power of the storm but only hit Magni. The young god tried to spin his mace as he had seen his father do so many times. The mace could not keep back the ferocity of the blast. Bolts of red lightning scarred Magni horribly. Smoldering, almost on fire, Magni crashed into the hillside.

“Asgaaard!” Tyr roared and brought down his rune carven sword.

The drauger brought up his staff just in time to parry Tyr’s attack. When staff met sword there was a concussive burst. Tyr attacked with his sword scoring half a dozen strikes. The change was recent enough that Furymane bled, if minutely. The sorcerer raised his left hand. It was a maneuver Tyr had witnessed before. It laid out mighty Vidar with a hailstone. Tyr faked a strike for the staff and thrust through the joten sorcerer’s throat. The drauger stopped and shook slightly. Tyr took his head with one strike. He broke the staff over his knee. Tyr took up the severed head and threw it as far as he could.

A missile flew over his head. He thought it was comet from Ginnugagap Gap or the Sea of Space. The thing seemed to change course, however. It was certainly magic. Thor was in Hel trying to stop Loki from getting a weapon, was it? What if Loki succeeded? Odin stands alone in Asgard!

Tyr raced over the hill and leaped back onto the battlefield. He charged with all the speed his legs could deliver. He wished he had a mount of some kind. Sleipnir would be perfect save for the fact he only lets Odin ride him.

“Balder! Vidar! The field is yours. Slay your foes and join me on the Wall! I fear the enemy has escaped Hel and seeks the All-father!” Tyr commanded.

Pray I am wrong, Tyr thought and ran on.

The ages wear on Odin. He is long aged enough for millennia to slip by and only his brown beard turning gray lets him know time has passed. His father Bor and his grandfather Buri have all done things to protect what they hold dear during their reign. After Ragnarok, a new cycle begins and new gods must do what is best for the Now even if it will prove dangerous to the Future.

The primordial evil came to Asgard looking for new places to plunder for its people. Odin saw it for what it was. He knew it might take everything he had, everything that Asgard had, to destroy the Evil. There had to be another way. There was no one to ask for help. To ask would be to show weakness. That would just lead to future attacks from other pantheons. No, the Evil chose Asgard and it was Odin who was to be tested. The Evil was powerful, perhaps as powerful as Odin but fundamentally different in its sorcery and manipulations. It was flawed though. It was arrogant and proud. That was the hole in the armor that Odin could and did use to his advantage.

Odin once tricked the Evil into a trap and there it was held fast. That would not have been enough. Other gods can be foolish and malevolent and care little for how others suffer for their acquisition of power. Odin had cast the most powerful runes he could into protections that might keep the Evil in place and hidden away.

How unfortunate that Thor could not stop his adoptive brother from unleashing the monster that Odin secured in Hel so long ago. From on high, on his high tower Hlidskjalf, Odin saw the primordial being freed. Odin saw the attack and heard their exchange. It was then that Odin appeared on the great wall of Asgard. There was no reason to endanger the population of Asgard over this.

From the edge of the Asgardian city Odin stood with his spear, Gungnir, in one hand and Thrudstok, his scepter, in the other. It was only a moment before the Evil appeared. It wore one of its favorite forms, he noted. The black comet with an eye as its nucleus shot straight and true from The World Tree, Yggdrasil, to Odin. The All-father made no move but stood stock-still as the Evil gained speed the closer he came.

The Evil stopped immediately. Odin remained, unmoved, just out of reach.

“Odin! I will flay all you love while you watch!” the Golden slitted eye promised.

“I say thee nay, Amatsu-Mikaboshi!”

TO BE CONCLUDED