Side Story: Skadi Chapter, Snake's Great Escape
Scandinavia, Jotunheim, the land of giants among the Nine Worlds.
A cold, austere castle built against the mountains stood atop a cavern in the cliffs. Under the howling wind, its spires tore through the clouds and looked both solemn and striking. Within its walls, magnificent palaces carved from ice and snow stood row upon row, rich with architectural beauty, like a fairy-tale world wholly out of place amid the brutal surroundings.
Inside an elegant, finely furnished bedroom, a pitch-black young snake lay coiled on a soft bed made from winter bear and frost wolf pelts. Its head drooped, and it was thoroughly depressed.
The world was truly unpredictable.
Who would have thought that he, Samael, the mighty ruler of Orphism and Greek God of Necessity, would fall into this newly born Scandinavian Age of Gods for only a short while before facing the possibility of losing his virtue again?
And the one about to defile him was none other than the mistress of this ice-and-snow castle, Skadi, the Mountain Goddess.
Of course, if it were merely physical "humiliation," Samael could just close his eyes, stretch out his tail, and force himself to accept it.
What he truly feared was that the so-called deeper exchange would not be him stabbing someone, but him getting stabbed.
Samael glanced out the window. On both sides of the path leading to the castle, ferocious Magical Beasts and malformed giants had either been frozen into ice crystals to serve as road markers, or strung up on icicles like skewered meat and left in the wind and snow as exhibits meant to intimidate enemies. At once, he felt something tighten below and could not help shuddering.
This place was called Solheim, a region of Jotunheim where mountain giants and frost giants lived together, and the situation was extremely chaotic.
For giants who mainly solved problems with their fists rather than their heads, local custom usually began with morning greetings such as, "What are you looking at?" and, "So what if I'm looking at you?" as the opening ritual. The day often ended with physical exchanges like, "Try touching me," and, "Fine, I will."
In other words, once giants woke up, they were either fighting or on their way to a fight.
If today's exchange was not intense enough, that was fine. After a good meal and a good sleep, there was always tomorrow.
Because of that, the constant rumbling and shrill roars poured into his ears day and night along with the howling cold wind.
In short, based on what he had heard before and the few days he had spent observing the place, Samael could basically conclude that the customs of Solheim were even more "simple and honest" than Gotham City.
Compared with the outside, however, Samael actually felt this castle was far more dangerous.
Ever since his unexpected wife Skadi had abducted him from Asgard and brought him to Jotunheim to keep him here, every time she returned from patrolling her territory, she came back reeking of blood, and her temper grew worse by the day.
The Ancient Serpent worried that if this went on, one day, if she happened to be in a bad mood, she might drag out her freely obtained legal husband as an offering to the heavens and let him keep the ice sculptures outside company.
After all, he was the son of her enemy, Loki.
Come to think of it, Samael, now incarnated as the worldly serpent Jormungandr, had been an innocent victim in this whole mess.
Originally, he had taken the risk of slipping out of his place of exile in Midgard and into the Golden Hall to meet the God King Odin. He had pretended to be mysterious while discussing the fate of Ragnarok, all in the hope of changing his own situation and avoiding a future where he truly became enemies with the Scandinavian gods as the prophecy said, delaying his return to Greece and Mesopotamia to reunite with the Mother Goddess Tiamat and the others.
But who could have known that just after he racked his brains to convince Odin, before he could even leave and enjoy the good life of quietly growing stronger, Skadi, the Mountain Goddess, would show up to settle accounts with the Scandinavian gods?
The cause had to do with Samael's deadbeat father in Scandinavia, Loki.
Not long ago, Thjazi, the mountain giant who ruled Solheim, coveted the Tree of Youth that allowed the gods of Asgard to retain eternal youth. He therefore schemed to coerce Loki into kidnapping Eden, the Goddess of Youth, and bringing her to his castle.
Without the Fruit of Youth from the Goddess of Youth, the Scandinavian gods began to age, and their divine power sharply declined. After investigating, they finally uncovered the truth.
Loki, having been caught, had no choice but to grit his teeth and make up for his mistake by secretly stealing Eden, the Goddess of Youth, back from Thjazi's castle.
As a result, Thjazi discovered what had happened. The mountain giant gave chase, stormed into Asgard alone, and was eventually surrounded and burned to death by the Scandinavian gods.
To be honest, although the gods of Asgard were hardly clean themselves, this particular conflict really was Thjazi bringing disaster upon himself.
To the gods of Asgard, the Goddess of Youth and the Fruit of Youth were the foundation that maintained their divine power and eternal youth. They absolutely could not allow outsiders to lay hands on them.
As an ancient being among mountain giants, Thjazi was extremely powerful, basically the uncrowned king of the mountain giants. His own curses were even able to toy with Odin, Thor, and Loki.
The gods of Asgard were wary of his strength and had not originally intended to become his enemies. Their method of handling the matter had mainly been to take things back by cunning, which was already showing the mountain giant plenty of respect.
But Thjazi's stubborn greed left the gods of Asgard with no possibility of reconciliation, so they hardened their hearts and joined forces to eliminate the threat.
And so came the scene of Thjazi's daughter, Skadi, the Mountain Goddess, coming to seek revenge.
According to the fixed course of fate, this reasonable Mountain Goddess would call a truce with the gods of Asgard once the two conditions she proposed were satisfied.
At the time, Samael, who had been blocked inside the Golden Hall, took the opportunity to propose a strategy for reconciling with Skadi. He wanted to use the advantage of knowing the future to sell the gods of Asgard a favor, while also deepening the sense of Mystery around him in Odin's mind.
Unexpectedly, although the ending did not change, the path of history shifted because of his intervention.
Skadi, who was supposed to choose the sea god Njörðr as her husband from among the gods of Asgard, instead abducted him, an innocent young snake, and brought him back to Jotunheim to keep him.
To be fair, it was not as though Samael had never considered having a somewhat different connection with this beautiful, aloof Mountain Goddess, but definitely not in this way.
Skadi had made the gods cover their faces and chose her husband by looking at their feet. From among them, she had pulled out him, the one with a snake tail and the most conspicuous figure in the entire hall.
If anyone tried to claim that was love at first sight, Samael swore he would spit in their face.
He was not stupid. Skadi had come seeking revenge, and his deadbeat father Loki had been one of the key causes behind her father Thjazi's death.
Even if Skadi's anger had been calmed through mediation, if she were really going to fall in love at first sight, that kind of nonsense would not fall on him.
Revenge was far more likely.
If Samael remembered correctly, in the future, after Loki murdered Baldr, the God of Light, he would be judged by the gods, bound to a massive stone, and have a venomous snake placed above his head, dripping poison onto him without end.
According to legend, that venomous snake was provided by Skadi.
With the cautionary example of his deadbeat father Loki before him, Samael had been on edge every day since entering Skadi's den.
Because of this, Samael had done his utmost recently to lower his presence and behave very obediently.
The Ancient Serpent was afraid that one day, this unexpected wife might find him unpleasant to look at, stew him to vent her anger, and comfort the spirit of her father Thjazi in heaven.
At first, he had hoped time would slowly dilute the hatred caused by this whole mess.
Unfortunately, this mountain palace occupied a vast area, and to the giants who spent their days hiding in caves and ice caverns, it was as conspicuous as a firefly in the dark.
So ever since Thjazi's death, giants wanting to move in had kept coming to provoke her, constantly reminding the Mountain Goddess:
Hey, little girl, your father is dead. You have fallen on hard times.
Most of those blind fools had underestimated the Mountain Goddess's strength and ended up as road markers and exhibits outside the castle gates.
Even so, they still annoyed Skadi to no end. Every day she came back covered in the smell of blood, her expression darker than the day before.
Samael worried that if this kept up, his unexpected wife might lose it one day, skin him clean, and toss him into a pot.
Fortunately, his days of playing obedient had not been wasted.
The Ancient Serpent had already secretly figured out the routes in and out of the castle, as well as the Magecraft traps set along the way.
On top of that, Solheim had been in constant turmoil recently. This afternoon, Skadi had hurried out with many of her people.
Since she had not returned by this hour, she had most likely been delayed by a troublesome opponent.
So, with the castle's defenses thin and Her Majesty Queen Skadi absent, this was the perfect chance to escape.
Mm, the shift is about to change!
As the moon climbed to the middle of the sky, the pitch-black young snake, having estimated the time for the sentries to change shifts, immediately shook off the laziness and obedience he had shown while coiled in the soft furs. Full of energy, he slipped off the bed, his slender body melting into the shadows.
The mountain giants and frost giants, burdened with inferior bloodlines, slow senses, and clumsy movements, did not notice the queen's young husband slipping away from the darkness along the base of the wall.
Moving silently, Samael, who had long since memorized the terrain, skillfully passed through obstacle after obstacle and slipped out of the gloomy castle gates without serious danger.
Freedom! Ahahaha, finally freedom!
Having escaped alive, the Ancient Serpent breathed in the fresh air outside the castle and could not help wagging his tail on the cold mountain rock in celebration.
After all, the feeling of having his life held in someone else's hand was far too suffocating.
He was not a masochist. In this situation, running from the marriage was the wisest choice.
After escaping the shadow of being turned into soup, Samael wound his way down the rugged mountain path in a cheerful mood, thoughts racing as he calculated where to go next.
Asgard? Pfft!
That old bastard Odin, whether out of a desire to test an ally or because he was happy to see it happen, had actually sold him to Skadi without even trying to keep him there.
And his nominal father Loki was no good either. The moment he heard it had nothing to do with him anymore, he practically beat drums and struck gongs as he handed his son over to Skadi as part of the reconciliation.
If Skadi had not simply picked up his poor, helpless little snake self and carried him onto her chariot, Samael suspected that Loki, who had eagerly brought out a curse rope at the time, might have performed a bondage show for the gods on the spot.
This was family, damn it. Blood was thicker than water!
Sure enough, in any Age of Gods, fatherly treachery and filial smiles were a fine tradition.
In any case, as long as he did not lose his mind, he would never throw himself back into the net by going to Asgard.
Worst case, he could go seek refuge with his younger sister, Hela, the Goddess of Death, and hide out in Helheim for a while.
After all, he was more than familiar with the environment of the underworld.
Just as the Ancient Serpent made up his mind, one careless move sent his leaping body hanging in the air for several seconds before he fell heavily into a hollow pit.
Below him were several sharp stone spikes. As far as he could see, the surrounding rock walls bore crude chisel marks, and shallow frost-blue suppression curses had been carved into them.
It can't be... this much of a coincidence, can it?
Samael sensed the divine power inside him becoming sluggish, and his pupils sharply contracted.
With a rustling sound, two frost giants drawn by the noise gathered around the edge of the pit. They drooled as they stared straight at the prey that had fallen into the trap, belly turned up, body sprawled out, head tilted to one side, and began muttering to each other.
"Boss, this snake is too skinny. There won't be enough to split..."
"Then let's make soup."
A quarter of an hour later, a certain limp dead snake was carried to a haystack to await the pot.
"Bang!"
Just as the frost giant brothers, ice axes in hand, were about to head toward the nearby bushes to find firewood and pick some moss and mushrooms as side dishes, a pale purple figure of light fell to the ground.
As the light faded, a cold whisper sounded.
"You..."
More food delivered to our door!
Before the other party could finish speaking, the two starving frost giants' eyes lit up, and they could not wait to throw their ice axes.
But as the newcomer took a step, the surrounding temperature plummeted. Clusters of purple-white ice spread in the blink of an eye to the feet of the two frost giants.
"Crack!!"
Their frozen blood instantly pierced their blood vessels and muscles, turning them into solid ice sculptures.
Reddish ice fragments drifted onto the dry grass with the wind.
In the darkness, a long, slender shadow quietly rolled over, intending to move behind a protruding mountain rock.
"Tap!"
However, as a crisp footstep fell, that long, slender little thing instantly froze in place.
"Did I step on something?"
Under the cold moonlight, the goddess with crimson eyes and purple hair, wearing snow boots, looked around while lightly parting her lips, as if talking to herself.
Her purple-white battle hunting outfit was slightly disheveled. The trim woven from Magical Beast fur was almost dyed red with blood, and scraps of flesh could faintly be seen between the gaps in her metal armor plates.
Clearly, this goddess had gone through a fierce battle before arriving here.
In the shadows, the long worm twisted several times but still failed to pull its tail free from beneath her toes. In the end, it resigned itself to fate and stiffly turned its head, forcing a naive, innocent smile onto its snake face.
"Lady Skadi, out for a walk this late?"
"Oh, so it's you, my dear husband..."
The Mountain Goddess glanced down calmly, lifted her toe, bent over, and picked the long worm up from the ground, holding him in front of her eyes as she spoke faintly.
"So, do you have any last words?"
"L-last words? What last words?"
Samael, who had thought he had escaped disaster, went rigid. Pretending to know nothing, he desperately blinked at this ill-tempered unexpected wife, trying to look cute.
"You fled my castle and violated our marriage pact. That is disloyalty to me, and I have the right to execute you."
Skadi's scarlet eyes, like rubies soaked in blood, stared at him indifferently. A clear ice spike gathered between her fingers, its tip pressed against the runaway groom's vital point, killing intent spreading in every direction.
"If not love, then death!"
I'm dead, I'm dead, I'm dead!
Wild warning bells buzzed in the Ancient Serpent's mind, and the sense of crisis that followed made the scales on the back of Samael's neck stand on end.