The side entrance was a narrow archway carved from black ice, unmarked by guards or visible wards. It was too suspicious as it was too perfect. Too inviting.
My mind flagged it immediately as a potential trap, calculating an 87% probability that it was monitored.
"Wait," I whispered, placing a hand on Rose's arm as she moved toward it. "Something's not right."
I studied the entrance more closely, focusing my senses. There was a faint shimmer in the air around the archway. I would have missed if not for my enhanced cognition allowing me to take all minute variables into consideration
"Trigger runes," I murmured.
Rose nodded, already examining them with experienced eyes. "They're woven into the structure itself."
"Can you bypass them like with the barrier?"
She frowned, tracing invisible patterns in the air with her fingertips. "No... this is different. We'll need to find another way in, or..."
She paused, her eyes lighting up with an idea. "Or we disguise our intent."
"Meaning?"
"Norse runes are heavily intent-based," Rose explained. "These are designed to detect hostility or deception. But what if we approach as if we belong here?"
"Camouflage," I said, understanding immediately.
Rose nodded. "Exactly. I can modify our existing concealment to make us register as minor functionaries of Hel's realm."
"Do it."
As Rose worked her magic, I kept watch, scanning for any sign we'd been discovered.
The temple remained silent, its black spires reaching toward the churning sky, in the distance, more lost souls drifted across the frozen wasteland, their hollow faces turned toward us with empty curiosity.
"Done," Rose finally said. "We should register as servants of Hel now. Well, minor spirits tasked with maintenance duties."
"Will it hold if we encounter anyone inside?"
"Against lesser guardians, yes."
"Let's move."
The runes around the archway glowed faintly as we passed through, but no alarms sounded. We were in.
The interior was colder than outside, if such a thing were possible. A bone-deep chill that seemed to reach for the warmth of life within us, hungry for it.
The corridor descended in a gentle spiral, taking us deeper into the heart of the temple as the air grew heavier with each step.
Occasionally, we would pass niches carved into the walls, each containing what appeared to be frozen statues, but they were not just statues. They were souls preserved in ice, their faces contorted in eternal expressions of surprise or despair.
"Hel's trophies," Rose whispered when she caught me looking. "Important souls she didn't want to release. Such as kings, heroes or seers."
We continued downward, encountering no guards or servants. The emptiness was unsettling, a fortress this size should have had some inhabitants—some sign of activity.
After what felt like miles of winding passages, we reached a vast circular chamber with multiple corridors branching off from it. The center of the room held a pool of what appeared to be liquid darkness.
"The Pool of Transition," Rose explained. "Souls pass through it on their way to their final destination. It connects to all the Soul Chambers."
Her encyclopedic knowledge of Norse mythology and the Nine Realms continued to impress me. It wasn't just academic understanding—she spoke with the familiarity of someone who had walked these realms, studied their secrets firsthand. Another reminder that beneath her sometimes awkward exterior was one of the most accomplished magical scholars in any realm.
I approached the pool cautiously, It was like looking into the absence of everything—of existence itself.
"Can we use it to locate Koneko?"
Rose hesitated. "Possibly. If I cast a seeking rune using the pool as a focus... but it's risky. The pool might react to a search for the living."
"What other options do we have?"
"Check each chamber individually," she replied. "There are twelve of them, connected to this hub."
I weighed our options, calculating risks and probabilities. "The seeking rune is faster. Time isn't on our side."
Rose nodded, moving to the edge of the pool. "Stand back. This will take concentration."
She knelt at the pool's edge, as her hands moved in practiced manner as she whispered words in a language that seemed to resonate with the very structure of the temple.
I watched as she manifested the runic patterns, her silver brows furrowed in concentration. Sometimes I forgot just how brilliant Rossweisse truly was. The anime adaptations and stories did her no justice—portraying her as little more than Odin's nagging assistant, a comic relief character obsessed with sales and lacking a boyfriend.
The reality was so much more impressive. Rose was a magical prodigy even by Asgardian standards, with a mind that could dissect the most complex runic arrays in seconds. Her understanding of Norse magic was comprehensive enough that Odin—for all his faults—had chosen her above all others as his personal bodyguard. Not for her combat skills alone, but for her analytical mind and magical expertise.
As her spell built in intensity, the surface of the pool began to stir, folding in on itself impossibly, like reality being crumpled. Tiny motes of light appeared within its depths, swirling in complex patterns before organizing themselves into what looked like a map of the temple's lower levels.
"There," Rose said suddenly, pointing to a pulsing light near the edge of the map. "A strong life signature in that chamber. It has to be—"
The pool erupted without warning, liquid darkness shooting upward like a geyser. Rose threw herself backward just in time to avoid being engulfed, scrambling away as the darkness formed into a humanoid shape.
"Intruders," it hissed in a voice that seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere. "Seeking that which is not yours."
"Guardian spirit," Rose gasped, already on her feet and backing away.
The figure was vaguely female in shape, composed entirely of the same lightless substance as the pool. Where its face should have been was only a deeper darkness, a void within a void.
"You do not belong," it continued, advancing on us. "Your intent is revealed. Your deception unveiled."
So much for our disguise. I stepped forward, placing myself between Rose and the guardian.
"We seek only what was taken from us," I said firmly.
"Nothing is taken in Hel's realm," the guardian replied. "All comes here by design or destiny."
Its arm extended, elongating impossibly toward me. I dodged sideways, already calculating attack vectors and potential weaknesses.
Normal physical attacks would likely be useless against something like the guardian.
Without a word, I released a controlled burst of my aura, directing it solely at the guardian spirit.
The spirit faltered, its formless body rippling under the assault. "What—what is this?" it hissed, recoiling.
I advanced, each step deliberate. My aura intensified and became more focused. I wasn't just exerting pressure, I was exerting will, dominance, the ancient hierarchy that placed dragons near the top of supernatural existence.
"You will not delay us."
The guardian spirit trembled, its shadowy form losing cohesion at the edges. It tried to rally, extending tendrils toward me, but my aura burned them away before they could make contact.
"Begone"
The spirit let out a keening wail that vibrated through the chamber. It folded in on itself, collapsing back toward the pool in jerky, unwilling movements. With a final, resentful hiss, it sank beneath the dark surface, which immediately went still once more.
Rose stared at me, her eyes slightly wide. I reined in my aura immediately, not wanting to affect her as well.
"That was..." she began.
"Let's go." I interrupted. "We're running out of time."
She nodded, recovering quickly. "This way," she said, pointing to one of the corridors branching off from the chamber.
We raced down the passageway, which descended even deeper into the temple. There the corridor ended at a massive door made of the some kind of black stone.
There there was some kind of runes inscribed on the wall.
"Containment runes," Rose said, studying the symbols.
"Can you open it?"
She nodded, but her expression was concerned. "Yes, but it will alert whoever placed them."
"Loki."
"Most likely."
I weighed our options quickly. "We're already compromised. The guardian will have alerted security by now. Breaking the runes won't make our situation significantly worse."
Rose nodded and began to work on dismantling the runic barrier.
I watched her work with renewed appreciation. This was advanced rune knowledge in action that would have taken lesser mages hours to execute, if they could manage it at all.
Rose was doing it in minutes, under pressure, in hostile territory. She was truly amazing and remarkable.
The final rune faded, and the massive door swung inward silently, revealing a circular chamber beyond. The walls were lined with alcoves, each containing what appeared to be a cocoon of translucent material. Within each cocoon, a faint human shape could be discerned, they were souls in transition, neither fully here nor gone.
And in the center of the room, suspended in a cage of green energy
"Koneko," I breathed.
She hung motionless within the magical prison, eyes closed, her small form appearing even more fragile against the oppressive darkness of the chamber. She was alive as I could see the faint rise and fall of her chest but she was unconscious or perhaps under some kind of spell.
I started forward immediately, but Rose caught my arm.
"Wait," she warned. "Look at the cage. It's connected to something."
I forced myself to focus past Koneko to examine the construct holding her. Threads of green energy extended from the cage, connecting to a complex array of runes inscribed on the floor beneath.
"What is it?"
Rose's face had gone pale. "A soul-binding ritual." Her voice faltered as she studied the intricate patterns.
My expression turned grim.
Soul binding ritual. I encountered them in my studies, trying to learn the magic of this world.
"Can you disable it?"
"This is... this is beyond my capabilities."
The admission clearly cost her. Rose wasn't used to encountering magical problems she couldn't solve.
"What happens if we just break the cage?" I asked, studying the barrier.
"If the binding ritual is triggered?" Rose's voice was grim. "It would bind Koneko's soul permanently to Helheim. She'd never be able to leave, even in death. Her spirit would be trapped here for eternity."
I swallowed hard, looking up at Koneko's unconscious form. So close, yet unreachable.
"There has to be a way," I insisted.
"Maybe if we had more time, I could—"
"Time is something you've run out of, I'm afraid," a voice interrupted from the doorway.
We both spun around to find a figure standing in the entrance.
Loki.
"Welcome to my daughter's home, Leon Mishima. I've been expecting you."
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