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Most of the humans, elves and dvergar were dressed in what Harry mentally categorized as semi-medieval farmer's garb. Those not dressed in such a manner seemed to wear either clothing that looked to be of extremely good quality from the same general era or, in the case of a number of womenfolk, armor, complete with winged helmets. Ah, those have to be Valkyrie. And the others…
Harry's thoughts froze as he spotted a woman standing in an open area near the center of the camp, its focal point being what looked to be an artificial pool of frozen water. She was a middle-aged, woman who even from this far away seemed to exude both beauty and danger in equal measure somehow. Most importantly to Harry, however, was that currently, said woman was wielding a long broadsword to direct spells upward towards Harry and his people, the spells far better aimed and more powerful than the rest of the, admittedly somewhat sad attack spells coming their way.
The others had also seen the woman, and between dodging the pink and dark red spells she was sending his way, Johnny just had to make a comment. "Let me guess! That must be Freya, right? Because damn if she doesn't look like those warrior queens the nerds used to draw in art class," Johnny was also wondering what Crystal would look like dressed up like that… for however long it took him to get her out of it.
"Do you expect me to give you points for that, Fire Man? It is rather obvious that she is a goddess, is it not?" Hela sneered as she darted to one side, dodging blasts of power from the woman who, physically speaking, could almost be said to be her exact opposite now that they were close enough to make a real comparison possible. Where Hela's skin was pale white, her hair as black as night and her body lithe with youthful vigor, Freya was a middle-aged beauty; her skin was a ruddy pink that spoke of robust health and outdoor living, her blonde hair a stark contrast to Hela's own. On top of these physical differences, Hela wore her mask and a faceless helmet, while Freya wore no headgear, not even a helmet, simply a band of gold and silver around her forehead, a symbol of her position as Queen rather than a piece of armor.
Shaking his head at Johnny's joke and Hela's retort, Harry flew forward faster than before. He dodged through a few of Freya's spells, only to run into a whole wall of arrows as one of the Valkyries shouted, "Fire!" and another nearby goddess cast a spell that multiplied the arrows the Valkyries fired in midflight.
Several arrows struck Harry, not penetrating his Crysis Suit but still knocking him sideways in the air. Harry moved with the momentum of the strikes using them to hasten his descent into the camp, rolling as he struck the ground. Once on the ground, he flung his hands up in either direction, creating a shield around himself which stopped the next few attacks that were instantly cast in his direction.
With a thought, Harry thrust his shield outward, exploding in a coruscating blast of light, noise, and magic. In practice, this acted like an extra-large flashbang, stunning the defenders nearby. "Banshee, you make some noise now. Cannonball, change of plans, disrupt the magic-users, they've bunched up enough no. Polaris, do your thing. Torch, keep the Valkyries from getting into the air."
"Cease-FIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIRE!" Banshee bellowed, the words carrying along with his shreak. The auditory assault caused many of the defenders, including several dwarves who had raced forward with hammers to engage Harry, to fall to their knees, clapping their hands over their now bleeding ears. Freya and the other Asgardians merely stumbled back, not bothered overly much by either the blast of light or noise. Instead, they readied for another assault.
But Harry had already created another shield around himself. And then Cannonball struck, blasting through the camp from one side to another before coming around and charging back though. Each time he ended up sending women flying, apologizing as he did. "Sorry, miss, missus, but orders're orders, and you all did start this little fracas."
Meanwhile, Polaris also struck. Thankfully, unlike with the jotun, her power over magnetism worked quite well on the weapons of the Asgardians and their followers. Soon, hundreds of weapons flew out of their user's hands and up into the air, although to Lorna's amusement, several of the dvergar refused to let their hammers go. More stubborn than mules, they clung on with both hands, rising into the air with their precious weapons, flailing and cursing.
At the same time, Jean and the others had come close enough now to make out more of what had been done to the locals to turn them so instantly violent towards the earthers, and Emma spoke up, taking a moment away from parrying the Shadow's mental assaults on the humans to do it. "Harry, the Shadows have attacked them in what looks like two ways. They are pushing down their credulity while also upping their aggression."
"It's a kind of fast mental attack that can work on large numbers of people swiftly. I can break it easily enough, but I sense that isn't the only thing that has been done to them," Charles added.
Harry took a step back for a moment, with Hela moving to protect him from a blow from Freya, grinning tightly as she went sword to sword against the goddess of war and love. While Hela was having fun, Harry cast a spell on his eyes, letting him see magic around him. Doing so let him see the fact the whole area seemed to be covered in a several spells, most benign, others not. Those others were in the form of illusions, making the 'attacking' Earthers look like some kind of strange humanoid-wyvern things. "Well, I can deal with the magical side if you all can negate the telepathic side."
"Done. Call it Harry," Jean responded, and Harry could sense she and the others were within direct line of sight now.
As Banshee joined in again and the Human Torch fired down at the Valkyries, causing them to scatter further, Ororo and Harry gathered their magic. A second later Harry ordered "NOW!" and thrust out his hands as Ororo did the same toward the sky, the two of them shouting out in unison, "Finite Incantatum!"
Whatever strength the Shadows held in magical power, and that strength was considerable, Harry and Ororo were at least equally as powerful. Better, the Shadows were limited in what they could do with that magic, while the Earthers were decidedly not. With Hela still protecting them from Freya's blade, the two were easily able to override the illusions that had covered the eyes of Freya and the other defenders.
For Freya, it was as if the world suddenly shifted underneath her feet. Reality changed, realigned almost. Her mind cleared of what she now knew was a abnormal level of aggression at the same time what she had seen as a horde of flying lizards of some wyvern variety shifted into a group of men and women wearing armor of outlandish designs. Most were strangers to her but one amongst them she knew, if only in passing. "W-What… what was… Hela! If this is some kind of jape on your part or if you have thrown in your lot with your fell brothers I—"
Ironically, if the Shadows had not instantly moved to retaliate once their illusion and mental control over the Asgardian camp had been broken, Hela and Freya might very well continued to fight regardless of the dire situation. While she might've loathed Jörmungandr, Hela held strong views on how Fenrir, and to a lesser extent herself, had been treated by the Asgardians. She might well have screamed those thoughts into the Queen's face for her remark.
But they did, and a massive telepathic assault slammed down on the camp even as the same illusionary magic from before attempted to reassert itself. Not a second later, two dozen jotun and a hundred dark elves were pulled from the main battle and dumped into the camp. The Fire Jotun, the chief tools for such moves, appeared spread throughout the camp while the dark elves, for some reason, were left outside the camp's walls.
This hardly mattered overmuch as, after a brief moment of confusion, the misplaced dark elves instantly began to pour in through the gaping openings in the palisade made moments ago by Cannonball. While the denizens of Svartalfheim were not knowing tools of the Shadows like the Fire Jotun, they still hated Asgard and would never turn away from such a serendipitous occurrence as the one they'd been provided.
Even as Harry and Ororo shattered the illusions once more, Jean, Charles, and Emma instantly began working overtime to keep the telepathic assualt from taking hold in the minds of the beleaguered Asgardians. Congruently, they continued to bear the brunt of mental and magical assaults, although there, they had help from Betsy, Xian, and Emma Steed. Thankfully, being in the air, they did not also have to deal with jotun or dark elves attacking them.
The same could not be said for the camp's original defenders.
Several dwarves were smashed flat before they could blink, their bodies literally compressed as their bones and innards were crushed by the power of the jotun who were wielding massive clubs. An elf and one of the Valkyries were also slain before the others could react to the true enemies among them.
Luckily, the Earthers responded just as quickly now as they had when they'd been attacked in the boughs of Yggdrasil. As Cannonball and Johnny Torch moved to to strafe the dark elves still outside the camp, Hela launched herself at one unlucky jotun, shrieking out, "For what you have done to my family, I will have vengeance!"
Although they were mere pawns to Those Who Watch Above In Shadow, the fire jotun were still willing ones, and Hela knew it thanks to the time they had attacked her in her very hall. Thus Hela felt her cry of vengeance was fully justified. That, and shouting in the face of her enemies was just much more satisfying than yelling into the ether.
Hela's sword sliced cleanly through the jotun's torso, completely ignoring its obsidian armor, then flashed into the face of another. This one she cut across its face destroying the jotun's eyes, causing it to stumble backward, dropping its club. Two of the nearby dwarves jumped up and slammed their hammers into its knees, sending it collapsing to the ground where one of the faster Valkyries stabbed it through the neck before it could rise. Both she and the dwarves quickly backed away as its molten blood spurted. But despite her speed, the Valkyrie's weapon began to dissolve from the scant amount of lava-like blood that got on her blade.
Alas, time had been an issue even when it came to enchanting the army's weapons. Many of the Valkyries and other scouts or rear-type troops hadn't been issues melee weapons so blessed by the powers of the goddesses of Asgard.
Reminded of this fact by the sight of an elf lose his blade in a similar manner nearby, Freya shouted out orders. "Valkyries spread out, humans, let them into the air. Dwarves and Asgardians to me. Elves, to the walls!"
Her orders given, Freya charged forward, shrieking a cry that sounded almost like a hawk on the hunt. Wielding her broadsword with both hands, the queen chopped one jotun in half with ease. Leaping up over a strike, she brought her sword down and bisecting the jotun who'd just swung at her. Hmm, neither of them have armor, nor are their weapons the expected swords or spears, but clubs. Good to know we are not the only ones facing logistical issues.
Even as she pondered on that point, Freya channeled her magic into her blade. It might not have been a dvergar-master crafted weapon like her husband's spear or Mjollnir, but the blade could still take magic enhancements well and once more it began to glow with her power. Freya wielded the empowered sword almost as if it were as light as a cutlass for a few seconds, slicing several other jotun into pieces, although she wasn't quite as careful as she should have been. The blood of her victims splashed everywhere, and several of the human women nearby cried out in agony as droplets of lava splattered on them even as they tried to flee.
And any wound, no matter how small, let in the miasma of Jörmungandr. Many of the woman who had only taken a few drops of lava blood to their arms or legs succumbed within seconds, their skin turning green then black around the wounds. From there, the rot spread quickly.
Grimacing as she realized her folly, Freya raised a hand to use her seidr powers before one of the human men whom she did not know gestured. In the blink of an eye, a spell solidified, creating shields around several of the womenfolk. Another woman, this one with skin as brown as the odd cocoa substance her sons had brought back from Midgard, appeared around one of the healer's huts. Her eyes glowed white, as pure as snow, and matched her long mane of hair. More importantly, she radiated a kind of power that Freya had not seen before.
An instant later, gusts of extreme cold and wind began to strike the jotun. Those close to the woman's targets slowed to a crawl, their lava-like blood starting to chill within their very bodies. These slowly dying jotun could only move their eyes, widening in almost macabrely comical horror to the watching Freya. But this was still perhaps kinder than what happened to the darkly skinned woman's actual targets, as her wind blasts took their heads off their shoulders as easily as a child would pluck an apple from a tree, freezing the resulting spurts of lava blood into grotesque rock formations.
While Harry concentrated on the defense of the noncombatants, he'd let Ororo, Hela, and the locals take the fight to the giants. Now, he focused on the Shadows, stopping them from using more magical illusions to muddy the waters further. In a melee like this sudden brawling battle, especially with all the camp material and everything else around them, illusions could prove deadly. This was especially true because he could tell that the Shadows kept on trying to use their powers to force the Asgardians into seeing the Earthers as enemies.
As he worked, the light elves and the noncombatants started to gather around him, realizing he was the source of the magical shields protecting them. Occasionally, his magical shield grew as he pumped more power into it, and more individuals moved to shelter under it.
Above the camp, Banshee and Polaris worked together. Banshee launched his sonic screams at any jotun he could target without striking any defenders. Polaris, after returning most of the blades she'd previously stolen, now used her powers to grab up every discarded sword, hammer, axe, and spear she could, sending the gathered weapons at jotun causing trouble at various places throughout the camp.
Witnessing what happened when several hammers were hurled into a jotun with all the power of a hurricane, Freya had to admit, Whatever these humans are, they are powerful indeed! Although, I must wonder where they came from and, more worrying, why they are here now.
The battle within the camp was frenetic. Thanks to the number of tents, temporary longhouses, and other obstructions it was impossible for Harry or Freya to follow in its entirety from their positions on the ground. However, Ororo realized this and pulled back into the air, where she directed the other flyers into enemy concentrations.
In particular, The Human Torch was proving to be a true terror to the dark elves. Their arrows melted into non-aerodynamic blobs long before they reached him, such was the heat he generated just by being in his powered form. And his return blasts turned the dark elves into torches in bunches, killing the dark elves within seconds just as it would a normal human.
But for all of the of the battle in the camp, it was even worse on the Astral Plane. There, blackness roiled, seeping in from all sides both around the Asgardians' camp and the expeditionary force, which had slowed their advance toward the camp, waiting for an all clear everyone in the tumult was too busy to give. Tentacles of fear and power lashed out from that mass of writhing darkness, trying again and again to get past the defenses of the six telepaths.
The magical assault striking the main human formation also pushed the magic users hard. Even Dr. Strange felt the pressure of fighting off the Shadow assault. He wasn't used to near-constant medium-scale use of magic; his battles were short, explosive uses of high-end magic for the most part.
But Strange, Clea, Amora and the Scarlet Witch were handling it. The Scarlet Witch's Hex bolts seemed to be able to disrupt illusions with ease, even the act of firing them could disrupt nearby illusions. Amora was less useful, being slow to noticed what was illusion and what wasn't. Clea, also somewhat unused to this manner of combat, was learning quickly.
This was good because Harry, Ororo, and Hela were having trouble given Harry's need to split his attention. The trio were soon joined by Clea, who flew forward to aid their efforts on Strange's orders. When she arrived and added her might to theirs, the Shadows' constant attempts to use illusions broke for a few precious seconds.
Harry, had waited for just such a moment. Now he thrust his hands out to either side, staring at the ground past his shields before bringing both hands down onto the ground. "Shi Jundai!"
Throughout the camp, men and women alike yelled in surprise as large clay men rose up out of the ground. They were simply made but wielding massive clay blades and moved to attack instantly as Harry barked out, "Armed golems target the blue-skinned ones with long hair and the giant men with no necks who are wielding clubs."
Almost instantly, any jotun who saw the golems roared as one, even more furious than normal. It almost appeared as if they somehow took the golems as an insult. But clay or no, when the golems struck, both dark elves and jotun felt it. Meanwhile, other golems who didn't have weapons picked up the noncombatants who had been unable to find hiding places. Cradling them in their arms they began to carry them towards Harry's defensive area, protecting them as they did so.
The Shadows responded by bringing in still more troops from the other battle and doubling down on their attempts to use illusions to mess with the minds of Asgardian and earther alike. This tactic pulled Hela away from the physical fight to help Clea solely on the magical front. But with Harry's golems in play, the Asgardians and humans were still holding their own.
Thankfully, the magical defenders didn't need to protect the rest of the Earthers from the illusions and aura of fear the Shadows were sending after them for much longer because not more than twenty minutes later, Captain America and the rest of the expeditionary force arrived. "By squads, Oh Damns! Heavies, remain in place once in range, lay down suppressive fire. Husband your mortar and rocket ammo for now. The rest, weapons free! Weapons free!"
"You heard the man, move!" Sean and the other company commanders roared in response. The order was passed down to the squad level quickly, and a second later the ODMs erupted out from the flying carpets, using their jet packs to spread out like a garden in bloom.
The ODMs fell upon the jotun and the dark elves outside the palisade like a rain of death, accompanied by shouts over their radios.
"Woo, get some!"
"Say hello to my little friend!"
"Conscript reporting!"
The dark elf formations, if they could be called that at this point, completely wilted under this new assault. Boomsticks or Bolters, whichever you called the rifles of the regular Orbital Drop Marines, could not even be slowed by the dark elves' armor. Once they struck a target, the small gyro-rockets exploded, turning the dark elves into so much offal.
However, the ODMs didn't have it all their own way against the dark elves. While the majority of the night elf forces were breaking, a few weren't. Instead, they fired back at the ODMs, their hands blurring as they sent volley after volley towards the armored soldiers far faster than any human could see.
Only once did one of the troopers apparently decide not to bother dodging the incoming arrows. A moment later, the man was smashed out of the air as if he'd been hit by a cannonball.
The man's Corporal cursed the man out volubly even as he moved to assist the battered trooper back into the air. "Private Warner! If you are still alive after this son, you won't be for long once I get my hands on you! What kind of damn fool takes a blow when he can dodge!?"
"Sorry sir," the younger man grunted. "Those arrows must have some kind of black magic fuckery to them. I think I've got a broken rib at least, and that was just a grazing shot!"
now the squad's sergeant now got into the act. "What part of dodge do you fools not understand?" "Dodge is the name of the game! You will be on KP duty for the rest of your pathetic little life for that stunt, Warner!"
As proven in the initial battle, the effects of the Bolters on the jotun weren't as dramatic, but the armor of the few jotun wearing any still couldn't stop the Bolter rounds. The armor would explode, taking large chunks of the jotun donning it along with it. It took an average of three rounds to down a single jotun, while only one round was needed for a dark elf, but that was all.
Snipers like Vanguard, Uzume, Coyote and Ghigau stayed in the air, freely firing down at the masses of jotun within the camp, completely ignoring the now fleeing dark elves. Shots through the eyes or mouth killed jotun throughout the camp, although again, such railgun rounds didn't do much damage otherwise. In contrast, Cyclops' optic blasts shattered any jotun they struck, hurling their broken bodies backward like broken toys.
Minutes later, Colossus led the rest of the Custodes and X-men down to the ground, taking the fight to the remaining dark elves and jotun within the camp. With these reinforcements, Freya and her fellow goddesses fell back, adding their powers to protecting the camp from the illusion magic they could now feel surrounding them, although with great difficulty. None of the women had any real experience dealing with indirect, unaimed magic, and the raw power of the attacks put even Freya to shame, plus actually spotting the illusion was worryingly difficult.
Yet, now that the two battlefields had merged, the magic users from Earth were able to beat off the Shadows assault with surprising ease.
Twenty minutes after the ODMs and Custodes had arrived, Charles reported that the telepathic assault too had begun to wane, much to the relief of the other telepaths. Only Charles and Emma had experienced this kind of long-term telepathic warfare before. But unlike Steed, Xian or even Betsy, Jean still had power to spare and quickly began to recover despite her pregnant state.
"My thanks for your help strangers," Freya said once the last of the jotun were put down and the dark elves dead or fled. She stared at Harry, discerning with ease who led this group that had rescued them from certain doom.
Her attention turned away for a second as Tony Stark landed nearby, along with several others. Tony had taken part in the battle out in the woodland beyond the camp with Colossus and many of the others, making sure no dark elf or stray jotun escaped. Now finished with that task, he had rocketed over the palisade to make an entrance and now on the ground he shook his head as he looked around, his visor retracting over his eyes, leaving the rest of his helmet to act as a respirator around his nose and mouth. "Really? Dwarves, elves, and a wooden palisade. How quaint."
The playboy genius caught sight of Freya and blinked before regaining himself and bowing grandly before beginning to flirt, the action as automatic and natural as breathing. "Do forgive me, dear lady, but we on Earth are a bit past the stone and wood construction phase. Although, I would say true loveliness such as yours would never be out of place. But that vision has yet to be seen in its full import where I come from. Would you like to return to Earth with me to correct that? I could have artists by the dozen knocking at my door to pain or sculpt your form."
"A well-turned line from a silver tongue does not mean ought to me metal clad one. Especially since I can see that you are already in love with someone else," Freya countered dryly, waving Tony off, causing to stumble in shock. Although if that was because Freya used the word love to describe the relationship between him and Pepper, or her uncaring, dull expression at what he thought were some good lines Harry didn't know. "I am the goddess of love, not just war and magic. Think you I know not the hearts of men? You would do best to embrace your heart's desire rather than remain circumspect out of fear."
Each word Freya spoke struck like a tiny dagger, Tony winced, the truth of them spreading through his mind, just as the goddess had wished. It was true after all. He and Pepper weren't perfect, but she got him on a level none of his fuck-and-forget buddies ever had, and in many ways she was the kind of girl he could see himself marrying. But at the same time, that whole idea still terrified him, and occasionally that and his old habits reared their heads.
Chuckling, Steve laid a hand on Tony's shoulder. "She really is the goddess of love in Norse mythology Tony. Just be glad she didn't take your flirting with a married woman as something to get angry about. She could just as easily have made you fall in love with a toad."
"Nay. As I said, I can sense the love between him and his woman, and I would never muddle with such," Freya demurred. "Well do I know that habits can be hard to break. Still, I also know it can be most rewarding to you if you take the leap, much like it was for me."
Leaving a now introspective seeming Tony, Freya turned back to Harry, addressing him as others began to move through the camp nearby, helping the locals recover from the chaos. "While your assistance is much appreciated, unlooked-for aid often carries a price one is unwilling to pay. Pray tell me good sir, what brought you and your army forth from Midgard? And indeed, how did you arrive here at all? I know my lord husband's order that all contact with the Middle Realm be broken has not been rescinded."
Staring back at her from behind his visor, Harry debated with Hela via the mental link Jean sustained between them on whether they should come clean about the Shadows. After thinking on it, Hela decided against revealing the puppeteers for now.
Like most gods and goddesses, Freya was prideful. If she had no knowledge of the Shadows before this encounter, then attempting to convince her that she and the rest of Asgard as a whole, Odin in particular, were ensnared in the thrall of another would not go over well. It would be best to lead up to that idea slowly.
"Lord Odin released one of his aspects to Earth in preparation for the Ragnarök, my lady. He helped us in the past to find and release Hela from durance vile. Since then Hela has become one of my—"
Freya interrupted then, clapping her hands together and for a moment, the goddess looking almost like a teenage girl instead of the middle-aged queen she was as she gazed between Harry and Hela, then to the nearby Ororo, Jean, and Emma. "My word! A pyramid! How fascinating to see the bonds of affection and love span between you all. It's magnificent, in fact!"
Freya seem to fight with herself, pushing the aspect of her nature that dealt with love which had temporarily flared to the surface. Once more controlled, she returned to the semi-grim-faced war leader that the Queen of the Asgardians needed to be at present.
As she did, Freya caught sight of Amora, and her eyes widened, at the same time the sorceress's did. For a few fulminating seconds, the two blondes stared at one another, and then Amora turned away hastily, shuddering as Freya swallowed thickly, also shivering.
It was clear something had passed between the two just then, but Harry, despite having his magical senses on full blast, wasn't quite certain what.
"Perhaps, my heart, we have just witnessed a meeting between an aspect and its main existence?" Ororo guessed, communicating through Jean's telepathic powers. "Amora is not mentioned anywhere in Norse Mythology, and by the same token, Freya's magical prowess is supposed to be as good as Lord Odin's, which I do not feel is the case now. At least, not in knowledge, anyway."
Having read up on Norse mythology since meeting Hela, Emma quickly agreed. Hela did as well, although she added the caveat, "If that is the case, then I believe that at this point in time Amora has diverged so much from Freya that the two reconnecting is aught but impossible. Whether that is for good or ill depends entirely on Amora's deeds, and Freya's response when we reveal the full truth to her."
By the time their private conversation had completed, Freya had fully regained control of herself once again and looked back at Harry in a wordless request for more information. Harry spent the next few minutes explaining how they had arrived, the destruction of Wander-Odin, and the various strengths and abilities that they would bring to the battle for Asgard.
"Although I am concerned about the miasma in the air. We weren't prepared for that, and I have no idea what could be causing it. We were able to provide defenses against it quickly enough, but I saw its effect on your wounded. It is… concerning," Harry grimaced.
"The poison in the air? That would be the breath of the great serpent," Freya answered, her face pensive as she went over all the humans had faced so far. "This is the Ragnarök, Jarl Potter, and all our enemies have come to tear us down while monsters we had banished long ago now come for our blood once more."
"Or, you know, for the first time," Dani grumbled from nearby as she settled her rifle on her back, Sigyn's gift at her side. "Harry, I've been looking around with Logan and Laura. There's no signs of Fenrir around here at all. Or if there were, the battle's covered them up to the point I can't see it."
"You search for the Dread Wolf?" Freya asked, nearly scoffing while shaking her head. "Believe me child, if it had been upon this battlefield, the battle would not have gone nearly as well for us. Naught can stand against the Beast of Doom when it—"
Freya found herself interrupted quite rudely as Dani snapped around to glare at her through her helmet's visor. "And why would you expect anything different? You banished Fenrir. You treated him like a monster because of the prophecy, not because he was born a wolf of tremendous size that kept growing, or because you could tell that he would become a danger. Oh no, you banished him because of a prophecy," Dani spat the word, venom dripping from her tongue. "How dumb is that? All you accomplish when you do something like that is make the prophecy come true."
Freya sighed shaking her head. Normally she would be incensed after being spoken to like that, but on this topic, she actually agreed. "So I thought as well. We should have done more to befriend Fenrir, to be proactive regarding his future in a positive manner, just as I had done when I ensured my son Balder's defense against aught that could harm him and thus begin the Ragnarök. But I was overruled. My king and husband, Odin. He, and indeed others, including Loki, Fenrir's own father, believed exiling him, as we had the great serpent who had already proven a terrible danger, was the smarter play."
The queen looked over apologetically at Hela, who simply shrugged in response. "I agree with the treatment of the serpent. He was always mean-spirited and hungry. But Fenrir could indeed have been treated far better. He and I kept in contact over the millennia, and I did my best to help him deal with his anger. Though, I cannot say I had much luck."
Not with the Shadows playing their games, Hela added mentally. "But that is neither here nor there. Tell us of the war."
The war council was interrupted just then as one of the dwarves leaned over and smacked his hand against the thigh of Tony's suit. The short being listened for a moment before shaking his head at whatever he'd heard. "You don't have the mixture here quite right human. Not enough aglrea. Not for the mobility and strength I witnessed you using during the battle at the very least."
"Excuse me!? I went through hundreds of experiments to figure out what kind of metallurgical alloy was best for my armor. I don't care what magic you have, little man, my armor is perfect," Tony scoffed
"Bah! Nothing is ever perfect boyo, nothing! Perfection is what you strive for, to drive you to always improve. And I say that this leg at the very least is of poor quality to what it could be in terms of the materials involved," the dvergar retorted.
"Gentlemen, we are all on the same side. Perhaps putting smithing and metallurgical matters to one side would serve us best for now? Tony, get set up somewhere with the repair, resupply, and assembly stations we need." Harry waited until Tony moved away still arguing with the dwarf before looking back Freya. "Sorry for the interruption, Lady Freya, but you were saying? What exactly is going on with this Ragnarök?"
While the two leaders spoke, the rest of the camp was put right and the expeditionary force set up their own base camp. Moira and the other doctors set up the aid station as Tony went to work with the dvergar and set up the necessary machinery to repair or rearm the troops. This last was a major issue already two fights into the campaign. Emma, Charles, and Jean moved to the camp's center, where the professor was made comfortable in his wheelchair and the two women gathered around him in chairs of their own just in time to see off another psychic assault with the aid of the other three telepaths. Betsy and the other two didn't make themselves comfortable though, as they would be moving on with the assault team.
Freya explained what had been happening since Surtur's invasion. She covered everything, ending with the plan to force a large-scale battle of the Einherjar's choosing. Freya finished with the sad news of the dark elves attack from the rear, which had destroyed the enchanted catapults and which was no doubt causing havoc for the defenders.
As if to emphasize the queen's words, the ground underneath them started to shiver and quake, although the news of the Odinsleep was disturbing to Harry and the others who knew anything about Odin, or indeed magic at all. Steven Strange was called in at that point, and even he was deeply concerned by the idea of a Sky Father being so ensorcelled.
"We need to free him from that slumber. The longer Odin is so deposed, the more of his power the Shadows can leech. And worse, they might be able to twist his mind against us as he did Lady Freya," Steven nearly demanded.
Harry had gently suggested the existence of the Shadows before this, and Freya had not reacted as badly as if they had just stated it bluntly from the first. Still she made to protest the idea that the Odinsleep was the work of enemy contrivance. But Harry simply asked her, "Even if this Odinsleep is as natural as you say, madam, this is Ragnarök. Something could happen to Odin when he's defenseless, so we should check on him at the very least. And we have already proven that we have magic and abilities that you do not possess."
The Queen of Asgard could not gainsay that, and soon Harry and Steve were going over a map, arguing quietly with Freya about their priorities with this new information in mind. Both men wanted to concentrate on eradicating the army of jotun as well as setting Odin free, but Freya was just as concerned about Jörmungandr's role in ending the world. "His poison has killed more of my people, especially women and children, than the jotun invaders have so far. He is not the in-your-face problem, but he is the greater one, for certain."
Harry had to agree to that at least. Any damage that penetrated the ODM's armor or indeed most of the rest of the team's, could prove fatal despite their medical aid thanks to the world serpent.
Eventually, after another half hour of discussion, Harry reluctantly agreed to break off more than just the one team that had already been set to search for Fenrir, which Freya in turn had felt was not a priority. "Ororo, you'll take the strongest members of the team with you to deal with Jörmungandr now. You don't have to kill him. Just stop him from releasing his miasma into the atmosphere. We've thought about how to go about fighting him before this, so just follow the plan and hold his attention until Thor or I can assist."
"Be warned, where Jörmungandr breathes out his special toxin, it spreads quickly. He has also set about creating an unending cycle of massive waves, which have destroyed numerous hamlets near or on the shorelines," Freya said, taking a moment to think about all of the lives lost due to the great serpent's actions. "And of our people, naught but my husband or Thor could deal with him, and even the Thunderer is prophesized to die in the doing. Needling him, taking his attention away from breathing his foul gas could be doable, but is very much like poking a bear the size of a mountain with a needle."
The team members who had been on the mission to retrieve Sigyn's body could well believe that. There was nothing on Earth that even came close to matching Jörmungandr. In fact, Yggdrasil notwithstanding, the only thing any of them had come into contact with that would be even close to the same scale was Galactus.
"And you're positive that we need to free Odin as fast as possible?" Jean asked telepathically, worried about that facet of the discussion, which had also led to changes in their plans moving forward. She'd been listening in on the conversation through Harry's senses until now and was becoming deeply concerned. Yes, they'd brought a shit ton of firepower. But still, diluting said firepower into smaller teams? "You couldn't go with the group dealing with Jörmungandr and then free Odin?"
Instead of answering Jean's concerns directly, Harry looked to Freya. "Tell me, did you have any hint that all of you were acting under the grip of an illusion or mental manipulation when you were attacking us?"
"None at all," Freya answered instantly, a scowl on her pretty features. "Indeed, the transition from reality to falsehood was so smooth that I did not even detect a buildup in magic around us. Sensing such spells being cast during the battle was also difficult. As for the mental aspect, nay, I could feel the difference after the fact, but not when the mental domination was in place within me."
Freya allowed a faint smile to wipe away her scowl as she said this. Despite the seriousness of the discussion, she was still somewhat amused at a man beyond her husband and Loki–whose gender had always been quite… fluid—willfully using magic spells. Every Asgardian used magic to a certain extent, either to enhance their bodies or their weapons or interact with their purview, such as Thor did with the weather or Balder the sun. But that was vastly different from using actual spells and manipulating magic beyond the limited, instinctual scope. Such work had always been seen as the domain of women.
"And if the… individuals… who were able to cast those spells attempted to do so on Odin, and were also able to wake him up, would he be able to see through that magic?" Harry asked slowly, building up to his question.
"…I wish I could say with confidence that Odin would see through such trickery. Part of his sphere is to discern truth from fiction, after all. And yet, when it comes to magic, he and I are closer in terms of how we can manipulate it than otherwise." Freya admitted. "I do not think that he would be able to see through these invisible spells quickly enough. Nor would he have any defense against the mental aspect caught in his Odinsleep."
"We need to free Odin as soon as possible then," Harry said with a sigh. "Which means Hela and I need to break off here. And that means it will be on Ororo and the others to bait the serpent from the sea."
"None of the Asgardians don't have any natural defenses against telepathic assaults. Especially from the Shadows. Or are you saying that the three of you would be able to figure out and stop an assault against Odin wherever he is in Asgard while also being attacked here?" Silence answered Harry's rhetorical question, and he sighed while going on aloud. "This Odinsleep has complicated things tremendously, as has the fact that Jörmungandr is having such an impact already. We need to wake Odin to stop their mental manipulation and help him deal with the other before he can be somehow turned against us."
Freya snorted, but Ororo just nodded, having heard both sides of the conversation. "Indeed. Luckily, we have tools available to combat Jörmungandr. Whether or not we will win is a question, but if you're certain that you need to be the one to wake Odin, Harry?"
"I'd like to send Wanda and Amora. But I doubt they'd be strong enough," Harry admitted. "Amora doesn't have any natural defenses on the Astral Plane either, and I don't know if even combined they'd be powerful enough face a raging Skyfather even if they did manage to break whatever enchantment Odin is under. And Steven needs to be here to defend the camp and the assault team if I'm not. Between us all, I've got the better chance of freeing Odin and then surviving whatever happens next."
"Verily. I can feel your power, seidr man, and I know it is immense. In truth, you could be more powerful than even I, in terms of raw magic at any rate," Freya admitted with becoming grace. "But if there is indeed a spell on my husband as you say, it would require someone of not only your strength but one with superior skill to remove it. That is, of course, if such a thing is in truth there at all. Do recall that I have said several times now that the Odinsleep is a natural event. It is just its timing at this moment that is most distressing."
"I understand that you believe that Lady Freya, but we do not. Nowhere in the tales and histories of the Aesir or Vanir is such a cyclical event ever mentioned." Hell, I'm just glad that the Shadows didn't have time to place any greater mental-controlling frameworks inside Freya or the other Asgardians. It would've been very bad indeed if they'd pushed it to the point we couldn't even argue about this with them.
"We took them by surprise Harry, both arriving as we did and in such strength. They have been scrambling ever since, and I don't think that the Shadows are good scramblers," Emma said even as she, Jean, and Charles sent out a pulse of their power into the Astral Plane once again to ward off yet another attempted assault from that angle. 'You're right though, we need to strike at Odin and get him freed from this Odinsleep thing before using him against us occurs to them. I don't think any of us want to see that happen."
Eventually, it was decided that only Harry and Hela would head to Asgard the city. Even with Team Fishermen breaking off along with the quintet of Team Huntsmen—Garm, Dani, Betsy, Clea and Johnny—the main force would still be left with enough firepower, both mundane and not, to aid the Asgardians against Surtur's hordes.
Leaving Freya for the moment, Harry and Ororo put their heads together to decide on who would go with her to attack Jörmungandr. This turned out to be relatively easy, as the side mission simply built on the plan they'd already had. But the reality of the pressures they'd discovered in the realm meant that the original plan did have to change slightly. That change came in three women: Wanda, Xian, and Emma Steed. Having two telepaths with the team would add to the protection they could call upon against mental attacks, and Ororo could balance that by helping on the magical side of things.
Of course, this demanded that Emma and Xian, along with Rogue and Thundra from the original plan, needed to be given a means of transportation. There weren't enough magic carpets to go around, not when they discussed providing for drawn-out aerial combat. But Harry and Kitty had prepared for such a too, and Harry had decided to take a page from his old world to solve the problem.
Emma and Xian stared ruefully at the broomsticks in Kitty's hands, then at one another, an odd moment of camaraderie passing between the two young women whose backgrounds could not be any more different. "I realize that we have practiced with these things… but, even with my forced association with that bitch Selene, I can barely fathom that we will actually be using broomsticks of all things to fly into battle. 'Cauldron burn, and cauldron bubble' indeed."
Xian snorted. "At least you come from a culture where magic and broomsticks like this came together. Witches and broomsticks have never been part of Vietnamese culture."
"Stop complaining. At least you two can ride those things without them creaking every time you try to shift position," the Thing muttered, shaking his head from where he was pouting as he looked at the broomstick in Thundra's hands. "Damn, but I bet I could perform some mad turns on that, you know, if I wasn't stuck looking like this."
"Face it, ya big lug, someone as heavy as you could never fly like me," Johnny chortled as Ben's girlfriend whooped, flying straight up into the air after mounting her broomstick.
The rest of Team Fisherman soon followed on their own broomstick and smaller flying carpets. Clea and Ororo, the only natural flyers among them, stayed behind a minute more to bid farewell to Steven and Harry respectively before racing after their fellows.
Freya wrote out a note, a formal missive to the Fenrir was the last time he was spotted? That would give me a clue to start with."
"He was spotted to the northeast of here, gorging on a herd of reindeer. Wait a moment, I can give you something that will help you find Fenrir." Freya turned aside, whispering a few words to one of the other goddesses, who hurried off. She came back quickly, and Freya took the item she'd brought, a wolf's fang. "This was smashed out of Fenrir's mouth several years ago, but it is still his, and I can still use the signature within it to connect to the whole."
Dani nodded, having seen Harry do similar things before. After a few moments in Freya's hand, the fang began to glow. Then, it jerked hard, so much so that it almost it fell out of Freya's hand. She caught it, thankfully, and Harry conjured up a bit of rope to tie around it. So leashed, he handed the end of the rope out to Dani.
"Remember, your mission is not to engage Fenrir in a fight," Harry warned. "If you must fight to escape him, do so. But all of you have emergency teleport arrays for a reason. They will return you to right here." Wanda and Kitty had seen to the anchoring of the arrays as part of their preparations while Freya and Harry had spoken earlier. "Do not try to fight that wolf on your own."
Dani nodded, but Harry and Hela both saw a certain look in her eyes that she betrayed how much the huntress didn't like the order. But that was fine by Harry. She didn't have to like it. She just had to not get herself killed trying something stupid.
"Oh, that is so rich coming from you, Harry!" Jean howled telepathically, having to bite her lip to keep from breaking out into laughter as she heard Harry's thoughts.
Harry winced internally, admitting that, but shot back with the fact that Jean was in no position to point it out either. Ororo stepped in and ended the argument by pointing out that all of them "Lack in self-preservation instincts. It is part in parcel of becoming heroes, is it not?"
"I would rather that we had Skadi here to aid thee. But she is busy trying to break up a force bent on flanking our main army," Freya said worriedly, staring at Dani and interrupting the mental communication.
There was something about the girl that bothered the queen. That something, whatever it was, both called to Freya and demanded that she mother the girl, while also whispering to her of hidden strength. Yet for the life of her, Freya, for all her magical abilities, could not see why. It was similar to the recent issue with the illusions, but also very much not. Something deep, something powerful is in this young woman. But what it could be, I cannot say.
In this, Loki's skill in obfuscation and trickery beat out Freya's ability with general magic. Of course, it had had to. The enchantment to pass his wife's soul into the blood of a specific believer had been designed to not only beat out Freya and Odin's senses, but also Those Who Watch Above In Shadow. If his abilities hadn't been up to snuff, many things would've happened differently.
Dani shrugged. "I have a way with animals and people occasionally. And if nothing else, I can also use my mutant power to scare him off." I wouldn't want to though, last resort only. Fenrir has been treated poorly all his life for something he had no control over. But I will if we need to get away.
The young huntress shifted her attention back to the world around her and moved over to where Betsy, Clea, and Garm were waiting. The four of them boarded one of the smaller, faster carpets that had been brought along, and with the fang already tugging them in the proper direction, set off with Johnny flying alongside them.
"We're all set up," Amelia Voight reported, walking out of the general hustle and bustle of the camp and moving over to Harry. She nodded politely to Freya as she came to a stop. "I'm very pleased by the amount of help we've received. All the locals seem to understand that we have a much better understanding of medicine than they do and are willing to follow our suggestions in how to deal with the wounded, especially those who have been infected by this poison in the air."
"We use healing magic for most things, but there aren't many of us who can use it. This has led to occurrences where, after large scale battles, there are always warriors who cannot be healed before they pass on. The poison has made this fact all the worse. If you can help us with that, then what you have done is a greater service on top of the great service you have already done by breaking whatever spell we have all been under," Freya answered.
"Good. James, Ororo, everyone ready to go?" Harry asked, toggling his helmet's microphone so that he could be heard by all the unit commanders at once. He was answered by a series of affirmatives and looked over to Piotr, who would be backing up Scott and Steve in the main battle. He and Paige were the only super-strong members of the X-Men or Custodes who hadn't gone with Ororo.
Harry's face became deadly serious, and he reached forward to tap the innocent-looking box that Piotr was carrying at his side. "Get that to Thor. That is your main priority, Piotr. Everything else is secondary."
Freya frowned at that, staring at the box strapped at the tall human's side. Full of curiosity, she ignored for a moment the fact that the young man looked as if he were an example of a living metal golem. Stretching out her magical senses, Freya's frown deepened. She couldn't feel anything from the box. It looked like a simple wooden box from all she could tell, and while a part of her wanted to ask about it, ultimately she decided against doing so.
That box was anything but simple of course, for within the plain container laid two items. First was the belt they had found in Thor's old domicile on Earth, where they had fought the enhanced Draugr and gotten to know Hela and Garm. The second was the real Mjollnir, which had been hidden within the Tesseract. Thankfully, while none but Thor would ever be able to lift the mythical hammer, Harry had been able to magically put it inside the runic-expanded box. Various enchantments absorbed the properties of both magical items and kept anyone from realizing what was within.
Piotr nodded firmly, reaching out and grasping Harry's hand. "You can trust me, tovarish. I will deliver it to Thor, no matter what."
Frowning, as no one seemed in any particular hurry to inform her about what was in the box, Freya shrugged as the human in an odd red, white, and blue outfit shouted for the assault companies to muster. Within seconds the armored soldiers rose into the air on the enchanted carpets the humans had arrived in. Once a quick headcount had been reached, they headed towards the front.
Harry and Hela left shortly after, racing through the air towards Asgard the city under their own power. Behind them, Tony and his new helpers continued to create the needed materials to repair and rearm the troopers, arguing all the while.
The last thing Harry heard on the intercom from the main combat companies before he left the channel was Sean saying, "No dammit, we're not going to go into battle with some kind of freaking medley going on from all corners! Each of the captains will pick one song, and all of you are going to listen and like it, dammit! And the first person listening to his own music when he should be listening to his superior's orders isn't going to get written up. He's going to get my boot up their ass!"
"Ah, young men. They truly are the same the world over," Hela quipped, having heard the whole thing.
"The world would be a far different place without such men in it," Harry chuckled. But soon, the two of them were silent, zooming towards their destination, and whatever was waiting for them there.