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Odin raised his hand and brought it down. "Kill him."
The battleships hovering above Dante opened fire simultaneously.
A hundred rotary plasma cannons bombarded Dante. Wave after wave of energy cannons roared and shook the entire Asgard.
Dante just kept walking. The plasma dissipated against his skin without leaving anything behind.
The Destroyer turned its faceplate at Dante and gathered the Odinforce in its core. The tiny hum climbed in pitch until the air around its face shimmered and distorted. Then it discharged a beam thick enough to swallow Dante whole.
Even that couldn't stop him.
Odin descended from his throne and shot blasts of Odinforce at Dante. "Attack! Everyone, attack!"
The Einherjar—every elite warrior—moved as one and stabbed their spears at him. The Asgardian-tempered metal struck Dante's skin and bent. The warriors stared at the ruined spears in their hands for a moment, then abandoned them and closed in with bare hands, throwing their weight against him from every direction.
Dante didn't entertain their idea of burying him under a mountain of bodies. He vanished, leaving the warriors grappling with each other in confusion. A clatter of metal brought them back to their senses as Gungnir hit the ground.
Odin's feet rose up as a single black-sleeved arm closed around the king's throat and lifted him. The king's hands flew to Dante's wrist, his legs kicking helplessly. The eye patch remained in place but the eye behind it was wide open.
Every spear in the courtyard turned toward Dante simultaneously.
Just as the warriors were about to rush, a green glow enveloped Odin and forced everyone to shut their eyes. And then they saw an absurd sight.
In the space where Odin had been hanging, there was a woman.
The Queen of Asgard, Frigga, hung in Dante's grip with her feet above the floor, both hands wrapped around his wrist. She wasn't panicking at the situation.
Dante set her down and stared into her eyes. "Where is that coward?"
She revealed a triumphant smile, relishing in his confusion. The magic spells of deception and shapeshifting were her pride, and even Odin had been helpless in front of her witchcraft.
"Don't feel lost, child," she said in a warm voice. "Everything will be revealed in time. When the moment of your doom arrives."
As though waiting precisely for her delivery, two columns of rainbow light descended from the sky.
Frigga revealed a beautiful smile. "Ah, my husband is here."
Odin hadn't returned alone. He had returned with the hope of Asgard, the only person who could save Odin and the nine realms from the terror of Death's Apostle.
Hela Odinsdottir.
Her eyes found Dante immediately, and her hand moved. A Necrosword materialized from nothing and left her grip. The black blade unleashed a deafening boom and hit Dante's chest.
The Necrosword pinned him to the wall of Asgard's palace.
Hela aimed her hand and hurled four Necroswords. All four of his limbs were stabbed and fixed to the wall. The unstoppable calamity hung there, blood pouring from his wound like a river. A thin line of it escaped the corner of his mouth.
The place fell absolutely silent.
Frigga had a lingering sense of uneasiness at how easy Dante went down, but that was overpowered by sheer relief. Perhaps the thousand-year hatred had made Hela stronger than she had ever been. Which was why she had easily slain Death's Apostle.
"Feast on him, my crows," Hela said, pointing at the pinned figure.
A murder of crows dove from the air and engulfed him like a dark storm. The noise they made when fighting over Dante's flesh was not pleasant.
Frigga held her breath, waiting for the moment the crows left. When the moment came, Death's Companion was left as a splatter of blood around four Necroswords.
She heaved a sigh of relief, releasing with it the pressure which had been eating away at her for the entire day.
They had been pushed too far this time. Odin had taken a massive risk in bringing Hela to Asgard. To fight a greater evil, they chose the lesser evil. Hela hated Odin, but she despised Death far more. The hatred between them wouldn't end easily.
Utterly irreconcilable.
The strategy had gone well.
Everything worked out.
The calamity had been… delayed until Death chose a new Apostle, which was the only way Death liked to act, or so Hela had revealed before.
Frigga smiled at the warriors of the Einherjar and moved toward her husband. Her steps slowed when she felt a strange flicker around Odin. Before she could ponder over that, Odin beamed a happy grin—the smile was too warm for Odin's face in the immediate aftermath of a battle.
"My precious warriors," Odin spoke in a celebratory voice. "My dear wife. Listen to me."
He opened his arms wide as he continued, "Today, we have an announcement. An announcement that concerns the future of Asgard itself."
Frigga's steps had stopped entirely. Odin stood before Hela and rested his golden lance lightly on Hela's shoulder. This was the precursor to a ceremony. They had discussed nothing about it, which was strange considering Odin usually revealed such matters to her.
"My dear daughter, Hela," Odin said gently. "Kneel for us."
Frigga felt like losing grip on reality itself.
'This must be a dream. An illusion.'
Hela—who had been sentenced to Hel by this man's own hand, exiled, erased from Asgard's history, stripped from even the mouths of its people—lowered herself to one knee and touched a hand on the ground.
Hela's head lowered in complete submission.
"My king," Hela said. "My father. Asgard's greatest protector. The nine realms stand because of the strength of your reign. I was forged in that strength."
Frigga pressed her fingers to her mouth.
Hela looked up with a smile. "It is an honor to serve you still."
Odin's chest puffed up with pride. He turned to address the assembled court.
"The Nine Realms need a strong hand. And strength requires wisdom enough to know its own limits. Thor is mighty—more than mighty. He will be a great king." Odin's voice reached far and wide across the crowd. "But he is not yet ready. Today proved that clearly."
Thor wasn't even here to refute Odin's claims.
"I have ruled for longer than most realms have existed. My bones remember wars that have no names left," Odin continued in a seemingly exhausted voice. "This crisis has reminded me that I am not inexhaustible. That what I owe my people is not my endurance. It is my wisdom."
He looked at Frigga as he said the next part.
"I wish to live quietly. To walk beside my beautiful wife. To be her husband before I am anyone's king." He held her gaze with a gentle smile. "She has waited long enough. And I—I have been too proud to admit she deserved better than what I gave her."
Hela slowly nodded her head. "You are wise, father. And Thor will be greater than either of us, in time."
"That will be the future," Odin said and held Gungnir upright in the ceremonial position. "Hela Odinsdottir will serve as Protector of the Nine Realms and ruler of Asgard—until Thor is worthy to receive the throne he was born for."
There was a deep silence before cheers exploded from the crowd. They loved Thor, but they loved the heroic firstborn of Odin even more. She had saved them from a walking calamity that was bound to consume Asgard and all the other realms.
Frigga took one step forward to call out Odin's uncharacteristic behaviour, but a hand covered her mouth from behind.
"Shhh. Why would you want to ruin a joyous occasion?"
The familiar voice sent a shiver down her spine. It was the voice of the man who had given her husband nightmares. The man who had thrashed Thor like he was a child.
Death's Companion lowered his hand from her mouth. "Okay, you can scream now."
Frigga screamed without the dignity of a queen; it was full of fury and despair. She screamed until her voice cracked, but not a single person noticed her.
The cheering continued.
Hela stood at Odin's side, accepting acclaim from warriors.
Her chest heaved as she glared at the celebrating crowd with a red face. "WHY WON'T YOU HEAR ME?!"
No response.
Dante stepped around to her side. His black long coat fluttered as he watched people cheer for the woman responsible for "killing" him.
She looked at the figure Dante held loosely at his right side. "ODIN?!"
"Yup, it's him."
The man declaring Hela as the next ruler wasn't Odin.
It never had been.
Something clicked in her mind.
"Loki…" She never thought that mentioning her dear son's name would ever bring her such pain in her chest. "He betrayed us…"
"Don't blame him. Blame your husband," Dante said coldly. "He did it to protect your worthless life."
"My life…?"
Dante chuckled. "Only you will try underhanded methods to avenge Odin. I was going to get rid of you."
Frigga knew that he was telling the truth. Thor was too honor-bound to chase revenge from the shadows. Loki treated Odin more as a stranger than a father. However, as a former witch, she would use every spell, even the forbidden craft, to get back at anyone who hurt her family.
There was no line she wouldn't cross for family.
"What do you get out of that?"
She looked at Hela hugging Odin like she loved him dearly.
Dante tapped one finger on his skull face. "You still don't get it?"
Frigga shook her head. For someone of her age, shame was a nonexistent concept.
"I defeated Hela when your husband sent me to Hel. I made her submit." He nodded as though proud of his achievement. "Heimdall never saw anything, though. He is too pussy to stalk us personally."
Frigga recalled Heimdall mentioning that Hela screamed in frustration when Dante departed. They had read it as her failure to allow Dante to escape. Which was why they had allowed Hela to spend some time in Asgard to recover her powers for a confrontation with Dante.
Their assumption couldn't have been more wrong.
"I visited Hela last night," he shamelessly admitted to sneaking around the palace at night. "Then I saw Loki."
Frigga gritted her teeth. "Hela will rule Asgard, and you'll control her from the shadows."
"Me and your son Loki." Dante laughed gleefully. "Loki can be bratty at times, but he is quite the intelligent man. I'm sure you know that better than me."
Even with a stabbing pain in her chest, she nodded. Where Thor excelled in being a warrior, Loki had always been great at using his mind.
"Loki…" Her voice broke slightly. "My foolish son gave away his own realm for what? What did you promise him?"
"Your life. He didn't want anything else."
From the direction of the palace entrance came the court musicians in full celebration.
"Let us feast in celebration!" "Odin" raised Gungnir and yelled. "For an entire month, everyone in Asgard shall celebrate the glorious return of Hela."
The cheers were deafening.
Dante grabbed Frigga's hand and dragged her inside the palace against her will. Frigga felt her heart bleed as she was treated like a prisoner in her own palace.
In the throne room, he released her arm and threw Odin on the floor. The All-Father tumbled across the shiny floor and came to rest at the base of steps leading to the throne.
Frigga wanted to run to Odin, but she knew better than to anger the demon and suffer grave consequences.
"Sit there."
Frigga sat, though the rage inside her was bubbling up.
In a few minutes, "Odin" entered the throne room. The moment "Odin" saw Frigga, the magic dissolved.
The face she had looked at ten thousand times in ten thousand different lights. She had never once looked at Loki with a wounded expression.
Loki rushed to Frigga's side. "Mother."
"DO NOT CALL ME THAT!" Frigga roared, nearly hyperventilating from overwhelming feelings. "I did not raise a traitor like you!"
Loki's face twisted in pain. "I had no choice, mother."
"There is always a choice," Frigga growled through gritted teeth. "The only question is how much the alternative costs."
Loki put a hand on Frigga's shoulder and pointed at Dante. "Then tell me how we can defeat him."
Frigga suddenly had no words to speak, whether profound or coarse. She couldn't offer a solution or an alternative one.
Loki burst into laughter. "Father invited this calamity, but I'm sacrificing everything to fix his mess. Where is the justice in that?"
A look of guilt crossed her face. Those words couldn't have been truer. They only had to allow Dante to leave. He was happily leaving with his wife. But no! Odin carried too much paranoia about Death. He had doubts of Dante scheming something behind his back.
And these were the consequences.
They had nothing to defeat Dante. Perhaps only the full power of Bifrost might be able to harm him. Now, with Hela on his side, who would be able to touch him?
Nothing.
Asgard's throne had been taken over by a man of Midgard, the companion of the very being who Odin despised. Nobody outside this chamber would even know of this shift in power.
Dante looked over his shoulder. "Take her away. She won't appreciate what I'm about to do."
Frigga saw Dante walking toward Odin and sucked in a deep breath. Written across her face was despair in its purest form.
***
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