The helicopter cut through the grey skies of Norway, its blades beating the cold air above the fjords. Below stretched a vast wilderness of pines and cliffs.
Akyo sat in the back, his eyes fixed on the horizon. The hum of the rotors filled the cabin.
"Akyo, the site's secured. You just need to confirm what's left," came the voice in his earpiece.
"Understood," he said, his tone calm, detached.
The helicopter descended through the mist and landed near the crater — a massive pit where there should have been a mountain. It was surrounded by fractured stone and burnt soil.
Soldiers patrolled the perimeter in silence.
They wore dark tactical suits, a plastron across the chest, and a fur-trimmed pauldron over the left shoulder. They moved with discipline, but unease clung to them — as if they shouldn't be there.
Akyo stepped down. The cold bit at his skin, the air smelled of ashes. A man approached — older than the rest, his hair was brown and combed back, shaved close on the sides. His armor was heavier, a faded fur cloak resting on his shoulders. Despite the setting, he smiled.
"Nothing so far, sir."
"Good. I'll take a look myself. Tell your men to stay focused."
"Of course. Though…" The man's tone dropped. "This place — what happened?"
"We still don't know. We'll look into it," answered Akyo, and without hesitation, he descended. The slope was steep, but he moved with ease — every step controlled.
Akyo was tall and well-built, so much so that he could put to shame even the best of trained athletes, with black hair falling down his neck and up to his eyes in the front. His eyes were like molten gold, reflecting the overcast light. He had a Greek nose, but his facial features suggested Asian roots. Long reddish marks ran from his neck down along his arms. He wore black jeans and a tight black shirt.
His black hair, tousled by the wind, framed a face both sharp and composed.
To his left, he saw an old stone bridge. He decided to step on it, on the sides were remnants of engravings — almost gone, but faint serpentine patterns still ran along the railing, twisting endlessly into themselves. His gaze drifted to the black water below.
He exhaled slowly and crossed the bridge.
He reached the pool, around it stone pillars jutted upward like broken ribs, forming a circle around a central platform.
On the platform, an enormous mural stretched across the stone — a serpent coiled around a circle, devouring its own tail. Heavy chains, half-broken, hung from the rock.
"Jörmungandr," he murmured.
He placed his hand against the wall. The cold vibrated against his palm — a deep, rhythmic pulse that wasn't human.
Suddenly, a raw surge of power erupted from the stone. It slammed into him like a hammer — ancient, primitive, filled with hunger. His own divine energy reacted instinctively, flaring outward in defense.
The air cracked and shimmered as the two forces collided — the two auras were chaotic, but one was clearly suppressing the other.
"How can he be so strong? He's not even here," he blurted.
Dust lifted from the ground, stones trembled, and the surface of the black water rippled violently before everything fell still again.
For a heartbeat, the reflection shifted — and something vast blinked beneath the surface. An eye, blue and immense.
Then it was gone.
He stood frozen, his breathing heavy. Akyo stepped back, eyes narrowing. The silence pressed in.
"I have to report this," thought Akyo while climbing up the pit.
—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sooner that day
He had been sleeping for so long that he didn't even remember who he was.
No dreams. No thoughts. Only the dull echo of voices — distant, hollow, never near.
They spoke sometimes, faceless, their words echoing in his mind, but none ever said his name.
Until today.
A single cry broke through the void — a woman's voice, filled with sorrow.
"Soren!"
Something within him stirred.
'what is that ?
Why does it hurt to hear it?'
Suddenly, rage formed inside the depth of his very being. His eyes snapped open — turquoise light cutting through the dark — and his slumber ended.
He didn't understand what he was; he only felt the storm inside him unfurl.
The anger burst outward — raw, primitive, uncontrollable — tearing through the walls of what seemed to be a prison. Stone shattered, earth split apart. In an instant, everything was erased.
When silence returned, he stood amidst ruin — almost naked, trembling, breathing for what seemed the first time. The world around him was vast, cold, unfamiliar.
'Where am I?' he thought while clutching his head.
He was standing inside a crater; it was so deep that he could not see the outside of it from the center of the hole.
'Why is there nothing? Is it because of me?' he muttered under his breath while starting to climb the crater, seemingly searching for something.
What he saw was a breathtaking view — trees as tall as the eye could see and stones as big as himself.
'I don't remember anything, but i have to move forward' he thought while putting his hands above his head to shield himself from the sun.
Then he decided to turn to see where he came from, and what he saw terrified him — a hole so gigantic he couldn't even guess its size.
"How could I ever come from that thing?" blurted Soren, taking a step back from the sheer shock of the vision.
He ran.
As fast as he could and as far as possible.
'I don't know what did this, but I know that I shouldn't be here,' thought Soren while following the road carved into the forest.
Barefoot, he stumbled through the wilderness — across moss and stone, through the mist-choked pines of the Norwegian fjords. The air bit at his skin; the ground was slick beneath his feet.
He didn't know where to go, only that he had to move. Chains no longer bound him, but he did not feel free.
'Why can't I remember anything? Why was I there?' shouted Soren, still running as fast as he could.
After running for a while, he stopped.
'What is this sensation I feel? Am I hungry?' While having this feeling, he searched for something that could relieve him.
He caught the first creature he found — a deer.
'I'm so hungry I could eat it raw,' he thought before diving into his meal.
'I don't even find it repulsive; it's more like it was what I was meant to do,' he thought while wiping the blood off his lips.
'How can I still be hungry even after eating all that?' He didn't even know what to do to satiate what he thought was hunger.
After that, he kept searching for food the whole day without finding anything.
Night fell, cloaking the forest in silence.
Through the veil of mist, he saw a cabin — old, wooden.
'I hope there isn't anyone inside. I don't want to sleep outside for the night.'
The door hung slightly open, creaking in the wind. Inside, the air was still. He searched through the rooms — opening drawers, cupboards, anything that could indicate where he was.
In a small chest, he found a green cloak. It was worn and rough but large enough to cover his shoulders. 'I guess I could use that.'
There was no food in the cabin, but curiously, the hunger had already faded.
'Why did it suddenly disappear?' He didn't understand why, but he didn't keep thinking about it too long — it's not like he would have an answer for the time being.
He wandered to the bathroom. A small cracked mirror was perched above the sink, and when he looked into it, he froze. For a long moment, he simply stared.
What he saw in the mirror was himself — long hair, tangled, a deep, vivid violet. His skin was fair, his chin chiseled, and his eyes turquoise in color.
He leaned closer. The reflection didn't move.
'Who am I?'
He whispered the only word that came to him — the one the woman had cried.
"Soren."
That night, he slept beneath the green cloak, the fire long dead, surrounded by the scent of dust and pine. Outside, the wind moved through the trees like a whisper.
The sunlight hitting his eyes woke him up.
He hadn't thought he'd be able to fall asleep — but he was glad he did.
'Now I have to find something that could tell me where I am. I can't wander aimlessly like this forever.'
He left the cabin. He didn't know where to go, but staying here wouldn't give him any answers. So he wandered.
After what felt like eons, he finally spotted something from afar that wasn't part of the forest.
He stepped out of the forest and found himself on a concrete road.
'I've never seen that before,' was all he could think before he heard something strange, a low hum approaching rapidly.
Looking in the distance, he saw what looked like a big chunk of metal moving toward him with a man inside of it.
'What the hell is that thing?' he thought as the car nearly hit him and passed by.
Not knowing what else to do, he decided to follow the road — in the same direction the car had gone.
After several hours of walking, he saw a large city in the distance — the first place where he could see other people since he woke up.
To his left, he read a sign:
"Bergen."
He wandered into the city until nightfall. He discovered many other blocks of metal like the one from earlier and many other things that felt strange to him, like poles that could light the surrounding area like flames.
As he navigated around the city, he chose not to meddle too much with the people he saw.
'I can't trust anyone. There's nothing telling me that the pit wasn't their doing'
Soren had made his choice and was trying his best to hide from the people.
As he continued to walk, he came across people in a somewhat narrow alley — two men and a woman. The men were well-built and seemed like your typical thugs; the woman, for her part, had a terrified face.
'Why is she looking so scared?' thought Soren, and then he heard them speaking.
"You're cute, aren't you?" said one of the men while approaching the woman, who took a step back.
"Don't be mean now," said the other one, grinning, then adding, "If you scream, you're screwed."
He stared at them.
His eyes filled with shock and rising hatred.
Something was building inside him.
—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Not far from there, at the same time
Akyo walked alone along the waterfront, hands in the pockets of his black coat. His gaze wandered, then suddenly, as if speaking to someone, he said, "I've checked the entire radius around the impact zone — nothing, no traces, no readings of Jormungandr , there's nothing."
A voice resounded in his earpiece — charismatic yet oddly amused at the same time.
"Nothing? That's not what I'd say. Your little clash earlier wasn't exactly nothing. You just haven't searched enough."
Akyo's brow furrowed slightly. "You mean the energy spike ?"
"That's right," the man replied. "When you touched the mural, the energy in that crater wasn't dormant. It reacted to you — a fellow god. The amount of divine residue left behind was immense — enough to trigger your powers. You didn't release them by choice. It was self-defense. That's called resonance."
Akyo stopped under a streetlight. "I could feel it," he murmured. "Its power was immense, unlike anything I've ever seen. I guess I'll need to stay here longer than we thought," he muttered.
The man chuckled softly through the line.
"Exactly. But I'm sure you enjoy sightseeing while on duty. Bergen's a nice city — bet you're blending right in."
Akyo's jaw tightened. "You think I'm out here for pleasure? You sent me here to work, Tachi."
"Relax, I'm kidding," Tachi laughed. "Knowing you, I don't expect you to be lax while on duty."
Akyo rolled his eyes and was about to respond when a scream tore through the night — desperate, and close to him.
He froze. The street around him fell silent.
"Hold on."
"Wha—?" Tachi questioned, while Akyo cut the connection.
Without hesitation, he turned toward the sound — sprinting through the narrow streets. 'For someone to scream like this, it's probably something serious,' he thought, his shoes splashing through puddles, the echoes of panic guiding him.
And then he saw it.
At the end of a dark alley.
Two men down, blood spilling from pretty much every spot possible. One lay still, facing the ground. The other was half-crushed against a wall, one arm missing, the imprint of an impact marking the stone like someone had just crashed a car into it.
And between them — a figure. He was cloaked, but he could see he had medium-length purple hair and was wearing a green cloak with ripped pants. He too was covered in blood, but it didn't look like his. In front of him, a woman — trembling, pressed against the wall, eyes wide with terror.
Akyo's voice cut through the scream of the woman.
"Hey!"
The man didn't move. The woman seized the chance — stumbling past Akyo, sobbing, disappearing into the city.
" Wait a second!" said Akyo, but it was already too late — she was already gone.
Through the hood, Akyo caught a glimpse of his face, eyes hidden, boiling with what seemed like rage.
His voice was low and you could hear the curiosity in it.
"You're not with them… are you?"
Akyo's muscles tensed. The sound of rain filled the silence between them.
—---------------------------------------------------------
Jörmungandr — The World Serpent
Born from Loki and the giantess Angrboda, Jörmungandr was cast into the great ocean by Odin, where he grew so vast that he encircled the entire world, biting his own tail. His presence keeps the balance between sea and sky, and when he releases his tail, Ragnarök — the end of all things — will begin. He is the eternal cycle of life and death, of creation feeding upon itself.