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Fenrir growled the insult, but Dani reached up to her, staring at the wolf as she tossed it aside. Her long black hair came free and ran down her back loosely. Dani took a deep breath and smiled as the miasma didn't hit her. It still wasn't pleasant to breathe in, like the smog of a city almost, but it wouldn't kill her. Heh, and I wonder what Fenrir will think if his brother's poison gas is what kills me, rather than Fenrir's actions.
Pulling out a leather hair tie from a pouch, Dani tied her hair back in a long ponytail, staring up at Fenrir challengingly. "Do you recognize me now, Fenrir, or is the Shadow madness still controlling your mind?"
Fenrir stared, and for just a second, Dani's face and her powers, which had been working subconsciously on him all this time began to make a difference. But then, the mad look bled into his eyes once more, and he snarled at her. "Take your place upon my back, human girl. And let us see if your skills can back the wager your mouth has made."
Dani nodded and slowly pulled herself onto his back, getting a feel for the fur under her hands. For all that it had turned aside spear, Garm's fangs and the telekinetic blades of Betsy, Fenrir's pelt still felt like regular hair.
And as Dani wound Sigyn's Gift around Fenrir's stomach, a surge of excitement went through her. She'd gone riding many a time in her youth and even helped break in a few young colts and fillies. But never had she felt such a beast as this under her, and Dani felt her spirit rise at the challenge to come.
Finally, she was ready and said so. "Do your worst, wolfy!"
In response, Fenrir howled, the sound hammering back into Dani so much that she nearly cried out. But instead, she gritted her teeth, knowing the contest had already begun. A second later, the howl cut off, and Fenrir jeered. "I certainly will!"
With that, he was off, bounding away with the fleetfooted speed of his kind. Whatever his size, Fenrir was a wolf, and he owned the woods. Between one second and the next, they were dozens of yards away from Betsy and Garm, gaining still further speed as they went, leaving the battleground well behind them.
After about forty minutes Fenrir snarled irritably, still feeling Dani on his back. It was time to get clever.
He leaped forward, rolling in midair, trying to bring his back into contact with the ground. With his weight, the human girl would be crushed for certain. But Dani saw this and let go with one hand and a leg, twisting herself to the side hand and holding onto his side instead of his back.
Fenrir crashed into the ground and rolled to one side, but by the time he righted himself, she was back aboard her on his back, laughter and an insane urge bubbling out of her. An urge, strangely, to sing.
Now, this wasn't entirely insane. Many of the experiments Dani had done on her psionic powers proved that things that could evoke strong emotions made her empathic powers stronger, made it easier to bring out visions or befriend animals.
So after a few more tries to throw her off failed, Dani began to sing. While she didn't really have a good voice in terms of the classical sense, she could certainly belt out a heavy metal song with the best of them. "Stronger than the mountains and as sharp as steel, limitless, out on a quest for the glory of the heroes! Greater than the tales of the greatest gods of all. I will take my rightful place in Odin's hall!"
{Play – youtube To the Skies and Beyond – https / www dot youtube dot com / watch? v=z-kl6zsBeXM}
While Fenrir growled at the lyrics, he still cocked his ears, astonished, impressed and interested in turns at the crazy human on his back.
Seeing this, Dani continued to sing. "How far does the sky reach? I will strive to be greater than man! Grow, I'll become the warrior Rising above, sword in my hand…"
OOOOOOO
Much like the Shadows, there was a finite number of things that the three telepaths could concentrate on, under attack as they were. But Jean, despite by this point concentrating more on Harry and Hela, who had just run into the first opposition on their end, still felt this, and her eyes widened. What the… Dani, when we get back to earth I am turning you over to Charles, girl. Your sanity seems to have jumped ship somewhere.
Then she was busy countering a telepathic assault on Hela, and all she could hope was that Tony and Clea could find Dani before she got herself killed. Jean had been able to point them in the right direction, but Fenrir and Dani were moving further and further away all the time.
Others too, oddly, felt what Dani was doing now. Perhaps because of Sigyn's soul in her blood creating a connection between Dani and the Asgardians. Or maybe because of her own Asatru faith, a faith she had taken up after meeting Hela and Fenrir, after knowing the Asgardians were not perfect. Or maybe because of her current crazy action.
Regardless, Freya, goddess of war and leader of the Valkyrie looked up, feeling as if a kindred spirit, was doing something heroic. "Such a spirit should have some help…" With that she closed her eyes, and sang a spell, sending a pulse of deific magic towards whoever was out there, proving worthy of joining her servants.
OOOOOOO
Dani grinned as Fenrir's attempts caused her to stop singing for a bit, the wolf bucking rolling and smashing his back against rocks and trees, something filling her for a moment, washing away her tiredness, if not her pain. She flipped to the side, then back onto Fenrir's back, laughing. "Well, you made me stop singing, but if you're trying to get me off your back, you're gonna have to do better than that, Wolfy."
That term seemed to infuriate Fenrir, and he snarled, turning in a different direction and heading towards a tree. This he crashed into and through, splintering the massive oak tree as if it was deadwood.
Branches and pieces of wood lashed at Dani's face and body. But most of her body was still covered by her power armor, and even as a piece cut her cheek and the side of her neck, Dani moved her hands in such a way that they were covered by Fenrir's fur, digging her thighs into his side and crouching down further. "Better, but still not enough… hmm, now… where was I?"
Fenrir howled again and sped up still further, his pace devouring the miles. This time, he simply sped up, hoping the cold of their passage would force Dani to lose control of her grip. This went on for another hour, interspersed by further bucks, heaves and rolls, and for a time, Dani could not tease or sing.
But as time passed, Dani's power finally began to work on Fenrir. While her other psionic abilities could not get through, her empathic ability to befriend animals was coming into its own, now aided by direct contact as she had hoped. Soon, he felt some of his fury, his hunger-fueled rage against Tyr and Odin and all the rest slowly dissipating.
Yet that was a slow process and as time passed, the ride taking it's toll on Dani, her earlier burst of energy fading, still there, but not helping as much as it had originally. Then one time Fenrir whipped around, crashing his back into a boulder and Dani wasn't quite fast enough. Half of the boulder's length crashed into her shoulders and back.
"UGH," Dani grunted, something inside her cracking even as the armor, already quite battered, buckled further.
A second later a tree flashed by, and a branch thick as her own waist smashed against Dani's shoulder, numbing her arm despite her armor. But even as she clung on and they moved further and further away from any aid, Dani's psionic powers started to make serious headway at pushing through the Shadow madness within Fenrir.
This was aided by simple admiration at how well Dani was doing and the fact that the Shadows could spare no attention to this sideshow, busy as they were trying to slow Harry and Hela down. While the Shadows' ability to concentrate on many things was godly, their ability to influence events was finite. And they were learning as this war went on, so too was their power finite. And now, it began to tell even as Fenrir's course brought them into far denser woodlands.
Finally, Dani's body began to give out. The cold of their passage, the impacts she'd taken and her earlier wounds began to overcome the Cheyenne warrior.
Fenrir sensed it and looked back over his shoulder to eye her. "You're at the end of your rope, human. I can feel it in your legs, in your hands." Where it would have come out as a taunt several hours ago, now it came out almost respectful. Respectful and concerned. "You have proven yourself, warrior, and I hope your strength aides my own when I eat you."
Dani shook her head. Her hair tie had been torn away, along with quite a chunk of hair at some point in the mad ride, giving her an even wilder, if exhausted look. Yet still, she clung on. "…Won't let go," she grunted. "Won't stop. Not until you have had enough." she then grinned, her voice no longer up to belting out lyrics but falling into a cadence as she finished her earlier, oft interrupted song. "Do your worst, wolfy. I will be greater than all, fierce as a fireball, burning free, my destiny! I will be fearless and strong, into the sky… and beyond!"
Admiration, concern, shocked respect. Those were the emotions going through Fenrir as he wordlessly obeyed. Time and time again he flung his back into boulders or rolled. And this time, Dani could not dodge. she just clung, as Fenrir's full weight crashed down time and time again. But every time he looked back, Dani was still there, still holding on, murmuring, "Not gonna give up. Not until you've had enough."
Finally, on the very lip of the world, the mountains that bordered Utland where you could leap out into nothing, Fenrir's hunger-driven madness broke completely. The memories the Shadows implanted were still there, but Fenrir had control of himself once more.
Once more, he started to slow, looking behind him, one eye staring into the eyes of the huntress, who stared back unflinchingly, even as blood poured down her mouth into his fur from where she clenched her teeth. Even now, with one of her legs no longer responding, flopping uselessly against his side, even when her body was mangled within her armor from head to toe. Still the mortal woman refused to give in.
Seeing that glare at him, Fenrir slowed a stop, bowing his head in defeat. "You have beaten me, human. Your life is still your own. Nor will I eat the old one. What would you have me do instead?"
"I, I would have you turn your hunger on those deserving of it," she whispered, her voice weak, but still discernable. "Take the battle to the dark elves, into Svartalfheim itself. I k, I know you can't eat the fire Giants, but surely you can eat them."
"You know what," Fenrir said with a wide, wolfish grin. "Suddenly, I do have a hankering for elf flesh."
Dani nodded, and then as Fenrir slowly began to pick up speed once more, she watched as he changed direction, seemingly heading south around the edge of Utland toward where Svartalfheim was closest to Asgard. Seeing this, Dani smiled even as she finally lost the battle with unconsciousness, Sigyn's gift tied around her arms to keep her from falling off, her head slumping forward into Fenrir's fur. I, I've done my bit, my Jarl, Jean, everyone. The, the rest, the rest is up to you…
OOOOOOO
Harry and Hela were still more than a hundred miles from the Bifrost Bridge when they came under attack.
At first, Harry thought that the stones hurled up at them were illusions. Surely the Shadows knew by this point that Giants wouldn't weren't going to stop them. No matter how strong they were individually, He and Hela could easily overwhelm them with either magic or skill.
But to his surprise, when he smashed one aside with a Magia Erebea-enhanced blow, the stones proved real enough. "Huh."
"I do believe the first layer of the shadow's defense of Odin is upon us, as anemic as it might seem."
"Then let us respond in kind," Harry answered, smashing another bolder aside as he flew over a spear. "After you?"
"Thank you, my Seidr Man," Hela answered graciously. Then she reared one hand back, a sphere of black and green lightning coalescing there which she hurled down towards the ground. The ball lightning flashed into the side of the mountain, blasting out in every direction. The illusion hiding the jotun there faded instantly, as several of them spasmed.
Other illusions attempted to assail their minds, trying to hide the truth under so much dross, but true to her word Jean was there. Her fire raged all around Harry and Hela's minds on the Astral Plane and none of the mental attacks could get through.
But there was a more dangerous enemy here, and a moment later, a simple but expertly wrought arrow lashed through the air to one side of Hela. Another nearly took her in the eye and she gasped, seeing it pass her head by a hairsbreadth as she jerked out of the way. Another arrow quickly followed, passing through the air like an artillery shot from a battleship.
"I don't think that is coming from any giant in existence," Harry stated as he experimentally put up a shield while dodging to one side, only for two arrows to be shot in quick succession at him. The first pierced the shield like it didn't even exist, blasting through and continuing its trajectory away from him. The second nearly took them in the new position, forcing him to batter it aside with one hand, which deadened that hand up to the elbow. "Grah, flipping heck that hurt like being punched by Ben! That would be Heimdall wouldn't it?"
"Indeed. It often confused me when I was researching what humans knew of us Aesir that none of the depictions I found of Heimdall showed him using a bow.," Hela answered as she began to dodge in midair, a series of arrows bracketing her position which she dodged by the skin of her teeth. Only being able to see them coming from so far away allowed her to do so at all, so fast and accurate were the shots. "It is always the horn of Gjallarhorn, which admittedly is a particular weapon, or a sword. But Heimdall's powers make him perhaps the greatest sniper in existence."
"Down to the ground, we'll fly nape of the earth from now on," Harry ordered, and the two of them flew almost directly above the terrain for a few moments, zipping through crevices and over crags. This moved them out of direct line of sight, or at least direct line of 'hit'. Heimdall could probably still see them given his deific powers, but even he couldn't fire through several hundred meters of stone with any accuracy.
Heimdall didn't even try. Instead, arcing fire came down, from above. Each arrow exploded above them via some enchantment placed upon them, with each arrow becoming several dozen. This forced them to keep an eye on the sky even as they came under attack from more stone jotun.
When a spear smashed into his hip, and another one impacted Hela's head, causing her to flip in midair and start cursing violently, Harry decided it was time to stop playing passive. Twirling around in midair so that he was looking straight up, Harry concentrated for a brief moment, then summoned into being hundreds of thousands of birds via the Avis spell, sending them upward almost as if they were a living rooftop above himself and Hela.
The birds absorbed the arrows, exploding in huge welters of gore, which was quite disgusting. But the spell was quick and expanded quickly, which allowed Harry time to touch down on the ground for a brief moment and use one of his old standby spells. "Shi Jundai!"
From out of the stone of the mountains all around him for nearly three miles in every direction, several thousand golems began to shift and stir out of the mountain side, with Harry's simple order of "kill the jotun," ringing through their heads along the enchantment.
Dozens, then hundreds of tiny battles began all around Harry and Hela as they zoomed forward, lashing out with spells and swords occasionally. The golems were quick, easy, and effective in numbers against the larger, stronger jotun. But Harry did not want to get bogged down here. He wanted to free Odin from the Shadow enforced sleep as fast as possible. That meant closing with the Bifrost Bridge and its eagle-eyed sentinel.
But then, the Shadows attention shifted to this battlefield from the battle for Fenrir. Telepathic assaults were completely beaten aside by a now furious Jean, who reported on events in that battle, causing Harry to become even more furious than he was before. As the shield of hundreds of thousands of birds dissipated, Harry flexed his magical muscles once more, shouting out, "Protego Maxima!"
A simple shield spell that depended on the power you put in it, the shield rose above him and Hela, moving with them, protecting them from the arcing fire coming from Heimdall. This allowed Hela and Harry to concentrate on moving forward and dealing with any jotun that got in their way.
Harry let Hela deal with that for a few moments as he checked in with Jean on the health of everyone involved with team Hunter, very, very unhappy that Dani had decided to keep the mission going. That was, until Clea passed on a report about Fenrir. "Wait, are you saying that his saliva or something was able to completely negate magic?"
"Clea says yes," Jean reported. "She says Fenrir was able to bite he even negated some attacks spells that way."
"Well, I suppose we should have perhaps seen that coming. He is supposed to eat Odin during Ragnarök, and Odin wouldn't just be protected physically from such attacks but magically," Harry mused, trying to keep his concern for Dani under control as he watched Hela slice a jotun in half, banishing the pieces into two other jotun. One half smashed into its target so hard he fell off the ridgeline, tumbling down the side of the mountain.
But all around them more jotun were appearing, some of them in illusion, some of them not. And Harry shouted out a spell once more, spreading his hands to either side as he bellowed the spell to the sky. "Vide modo verum (see only the truth)!"
This was an illusion specific finite Incantatum that Harry had, somewhat ironically, learned from Dumbledore back in his old world. Many times magnified in strength, of course.
As the spell ended however, Harry grimaced a bit, as more illusions instantly appeared again, covering the jotun assault and even Heimdall's ongoing artillery attacks. Thanks to the shield spell following them, that at least didn't matter much, but the jotun were an annoyance. Harry was forced to use another Shi Jundai spell while Hela merely slaughtered any who got in their way, but this still slowed them down.
Annoyed, Harry decided to try something slightly new. He cast the same spell again, before mentally grasping the shape of the spell, and instead of casting it like someone tossing a spell, he tied it to himself. Instead of being a one-shot spell therefore, the anti-illusion magic was sustained around him and Hela and traveled with them going forward.
Feeling this, Hela looked at Harry in shock. "How did you do that? I know that spell was in your repertoire, but you just shifted it from a spell to in enchantment." As she spoke she idly lashed out to one side, green and purple blasts of cutting magic slicing into several jotun as they charged out of the cave to one side of where the two of them were flying. Few of them were able to escape, and those died as a piercing spell was launched towards them like a snake, stabbing into each one in turn.
"It's not just our enemies that have a lot to learn," Harry admitted with a shrug. "It's hard to do, to make the jump between spell in enchantment, but it is doable."
With Hela protecting Harry once more from physical assault, not that the attacks of the jotun to really mattered much given his Magia Erebea but they could at least knock them off course, Harry turned his attention back to the conversation with Jean, finding both her and Emma waiting. Emma was only there briefly to report on the ongoing mental attacks on Thor. "I've been beating them off, but the magical illusion assault on him is picking up Harry, we need to get a magic user out to him Damn it, he's been flying over the same damn area for the last hour!"
Harry scowled thinking about that, asking if the magical illusion assault on the base camp and the main army had died down. Emma reported that it had somewhat, again showing that the Shadows were coming up to a hard limit on the number of battlefields they could concentrate on equally. The telepathic side of the campaign however was still going strong, as it was clear that the Shadows had realized that was the weakest link.
"Stephen reports that he is almost finished putting up anti-teleportation arrays, at least, and he has several of the local goddesses helping him now. It's not a type of magic they are used to, but all of them can carve runes at least. Were also practically done re-arming the ODMs and most of the wounded have been seen to," Jean took over from Emma.
Harry took a brief moment to lash out with a piercing spell at a jotun high above them on a cliff face, who had been sending boulders down their way. The piercing spell smashed the boulders and slew the jotun even as he flew on through a break in the mountains and finally saw the first glimpse of the Bifrost Bridge ahead of them. As he did an arrow flew from that direction, causing him to jerk aside watching as it slammed into the stone of the mountain face, creating a large impact crater as it did.
"Were nearing Asgard now, so I'm not going to have much time to communicate, but can you still sense Dani?"
"Yes. One of the good aspects of Asgard being so sparse in terms of people is that it's easy to keep track of everyone's minds. She still alive, but she isn't responding. She's concentrating all she can on well, riding Fenrir. I still can't believe she's trying that!"
"I can," Harry and Hela answered at the same time, with Harry going on as Hela took the lead between them, using a sound-based tone of magic to shatter incoming arrows coming from Heimdall, who could once more both see them and take them under direct fire. "For now, track her. I think we need to put some trust in Dani to know what she's doing. But be prepared to back her up. Besides that, have Clea take over for Doctor Strange. Send him out to meet with Thor. That'll combine one of our biggest magical hitters with one of our biggest physical type hitters. That will either force the Shadows to concentrate completely on that, and let the rest of us steal a few marches on them, so to speak, or will bring the fight to Jörmungandr that much quicker."
"Which magic user should be sent with the group to follow Dani?"
"Doctor Druid. Let him rest for a few hours, and then send him on with them, until Team Fishermen is relieved by Thor and Strange" Harry sent as they finally broke out from the mountain passes and to the entrance of the Bifrost Bridge. Feeling this, Jean pulled back, still watching for telepathic assault on the two and beating off several but relaying his orders without further discussion.
In terms of design, the Bifrost Bridge looked simple. It had no rails, or structure below the bridge to support it. But that was because the bridge was magic given physical form, and once you took in that fact, simplicity went out the door. It was if someone had taken a rainbow and shape it into stone, with the color changing as you looked at the bridge. There were no cobblestones or any other king of joint, the whole bridge was a single piece, connecting Asgard the city to the rest of the dimension.
Asgard the city itself was set into what looked for all the world like a floating island, connected to the rest of the dimension by the Bifrost bridge and massive hawsers. These were not made of rope, but steel and stone intertwined, connecting the lower workings of the island, which looked like the lower portion of a glacier, to something far below. But where they crossed the gap between Asgard and Asgard the city, they disappeared from sight, like someone had just folded a piece of paper. Nothing could cross the Between Asgard the city and the rest of the dimension without crossing the Bifrost Bridge.
And at the far end, was the home of Heimdall, Himinbjörg and the entrance to Asgard. This was a large, rocky fortress set into the outer wall protecting Asgard like a blister set to one side of the Bifrost bridge. Why the city needed an outer wall all around it like that when no enemy could fly over the dimensional gap, Harry didn't know, but it was there.
And also there, standing athwart the end of the bridge, was Heimdall himself.
He was a tall man, as powerfully built as Thor with a shaggy beard, and long dirty blonde hair falling straight down to his shoulders, visible as tufts of hair on his shoulders underneath a full face helmet. thankfully for Harry's sensibilities that helmet did not have long forward thrusting horns like that of an ox ,unlike in one or two pictures Harry had seen of him. He wore well-made chain mail armor, with simple hauberk over it.
A spear stood upright beside him, a sword was tied at his waist, and Heimdall held a bow in hand. That bow was larger than even he was, made of wood Harry had no doubt came from Yggdrasil, and he held it sideways. On Heimdall's back was a quiver of arrows, which didn't seem to decrease as he continually fired at the two 'invaders'.
That was an obvious magical item, but to Harry's magically enhanced senses, the horn at his side blazed with even more magic. Physically it looked from this far away like a regular horn, the kind any century could be given to sound a warning. But on the magical level, that thing gleamed in Harry's eyes with as much magic as Hela's sword or Mjolnir. This was the legendary Gjallarhorn, which Heimdall was supposed to blow when the jotun appeared to invade Asgard during Ragnarök.
Why he wasn't blowing it now was a question, although Harry supposed the man might just have realized there was really no point. Asgard's main host after all was thousands of leagues behind Harry and Hela, not within the city. Or perhaps whatever mental commands or control the Shadows had over him were showing him not a full invasion, but just to enemies that he could therefore engage without warning the rest of the city?
This quickly proved to be the case as Heimdall's bellow reached them. "Loki, you and your foul get will not enter Asgard so long as I draw breath!"
"So he sees me for myself, but believes me in league with you, my father," Hela mused redirecting several arrows coming towards her with blasts of tornado forced air. Her words were interrupted by a grunt as two of them one after the other punched through and nearly struck her, crashing into the stone beneath as she leaped away. "I suppose that makes sense considering the enmity between Loki and Heimdall, but still is somewhat disturbing given our actual relationship."
The next instant, whatever quip she might have followed that one up with ended in a cry of pain as a hasty shield was shattered by the next arrow coming towards them.
While Heimdall was not the most powerful physically of the gods, he was another son of Odin like Balder and Thor, although the legend wasn't quite clear who his mother was. Most mythologies stated that he had nine of them. Regardless of his maternal heritage however, he was a formidable opponent, his mind completely overtaken by the Shadows like Freya and the base camp had been when they arrived.
"Do you think there's any chance of reaching him?" Harry asked as Heimdall's hands seems to disappear as he fired an arrow after arrow, almost as fast as a machine gun could fire bullets. To Harry and Hela, however they were still moving at a pace they could respond to and the two of them were able to batter them aside or block them entirely, although the impacts routinely shattered magical shields. This close even Harry's strongest anti-physical attack type shield broke after a few strikes.
"If by that you mean using words to get through whatever enchantment is on his mind, no," Hela answered brusquely, as she started to race forward, on her feet now rather than flying forward. From this point on, they wouldn't be able to fly at all, not without significant risk and overcoming the ancient enchantment all around Asgard designed to halt such flight and cast flyers out into the eternal void between dimensions. "Words alone would never have reached me, and that was with Garm and my own emotions somehow signaling to me that you were someone I should trust."
Scowling Harry followed behind her, expanding the anti-illusion enchantment, the edges flashing Heimdall across the Bifrost Bridge. The outer bubble hit Heimdall and kept on going doing nothing unfortunately. Whatever mind-control the Shadows were using on him, it wasn't purely illusion based magic.
A moment later as they were halfway across the bridge taking fire even worse than before and jotun tried to attack them from behind, Jean reported that this was the case. "It's like what Emma reported Hela was like Harry. This is a very specific kind of mental control, with memories implanted instead of any short-term illusion on his mind. He sees you as you, but believes you physically are Loki, with Hela as your ally and daughter. I can't get through to him from this distance, not with the Shadows pressing is hard here at the base camp. You're going to have to knock him out!"
Grimacing Harry acknowledged that point as he launched a spell forward. "Piercing fang!" This was followed by a lightning spell, as Harry decided to put Heimdall down hard and pick up the pieces after. Something inside him was telling him that every second counted, and they couldn't just pussyfoot around any longer.
He conveyed this to Hela, who grimaced, but acknowledged the point, and waved her hands forward shouting out her own enchantments. Snakes and wolves of fire and ice flashed out towards their enemy.
Across from them Heimdall took a sharp step backwards, stepping into the entrance to his dwelling, using the sides of it as a defensive bulwark. He popped back out to shoot an arrow at Hela, but Harry deflected the arrow upwards into the nothingness between, and the two of them charged forwards.
At the same time, several more jotun appeared from all around Heimdall, roaring and charging towards Harry and Hela. The Shadows had teleported them in just to help slow Harry and Hela down, the speed of their advance through the mountains having taken them by surprise.
Harry cut them down with a single "Drill of Light!" and Hela leaped up over their bodies, bringing her sword down before Heimdall could fire his next arrow. She cut through his bow with a metallic sounding clang, despite the fact that the bow was wood. Her return stroke was blocked as Heimdall with court quick, grabbed at his blade and blocked it.
"You! I should have known, Lord Odin should have known not to trust you! Your father has joined Surtur and so have you! The blood of the parents will always will out!"
My father is rather too intelligent to be brought to heel as the Shadows have been, nor would he be so easy to trick to see or hear what is not there as you are, oh straight-laced one," She taunted, shaking her head lightly even as she ducked under another blow from his sword, blocking a third with her own riposting and then lashing out with a magic spell, which was absorbed by his armor.
She then ducked out of the way, letting Harry hit Heimdall with a spell of fire that fizzled out, absorbed by his armor. He in turn grabbed his spear from the ground, rolling under Hela's attempt to brain him with the side of her sword launching his spear toward Harry at near-point blank range. Harry grunted as the spear hit nearly hurling him off his feet despite his Magia Erebea. Thankfully the sticking spell, grossly overpowered and cast threw his feet, kept him where he was, the spear shattering as it struck him, doubling Harry over in pain.
A single-handed blow from his sword took Hela's legs out from under her, dumping her to her rear on the stone of the bridge, although Heimdall looked surprised that the blow hadn't taken her legs off. She leaped up, and the two exchanged several blows each crashing blade causing a sonic boom sending sparks of magic cascading out like a firework going off. One strike from Hela caused her to overextend, and Heimdall dodged to one side, viper quick, his sword coming up to stab her in the chest.
But then Harry there, his sword blocking the blow for Hela, then he ducked aside, letting Hela lash out with a magical blast that caught Heimdall in the chest, sending him crashing backwards into the doors leading into the city. Harry followed up, with a lightning blast right into Heimdall's chest. The Piercing Fang overcame his magical defenses, and the chain mail heated up quickly, ringlets melting and snapping off like popcorn in a microwave.
Harry slid underneath the return blow, getting behind Heimdall, who twisted around, lashing out at Hela, battering her to her knees with an overhand strike before lashing out backwards with a punch that Harry had to duck under. Dodging it, Harry leaped up, using a spell to push Heimdall's sword backwards, as he grabbed the helmet off of Heimdall's head, tearing it free while kicking out hard.
With a noticeable percentage of his magic reinforcing the Magia Erebea enchantment on his suit, the mule kick sent Heimdall tumbling end over end across the Bifrost Bridge with a cry of pain. "GUUH!"
Before he could right himself, Hela landed on top of him, her hands on either side of his head as she lashed out with a curse right into his skull. "FAALLL!" The spell went on for several minutes as he struggled trying to buck her off, but eventually, his fighting subsided, and Heimdall's eyes rolled back in his head as he collapsed into unconsciousness.
Hela stood up, looking over at Harry, who was Harry, who was touching his chest gingerly. That spear had hurt, blast it. I definitely need to set aside a few months to look into that Titan evolution. I can't redirect my magic into the Magia Erebea quickly enough sometimes, and it could have cost me. "Well, that was bleeding annoying."
Hela thought much the same about the battle in general, having been hit several times when they closed with Heimdall. "I believe our plan to not kill him hamstrung us a bit more than I would normally condone," she growled. "If he awakens, I will not be so constrained."
"Best get used to it," Jean reported remorselessly. "I'm sensing a lot more minds within the city. And if they were messing with Heimdall's mind, there's no doubt that they'll have done the same to the civilians within."
At that, Jean's mental voice abruptly cut off. The telepathic assault being launched against the main army and base needed all of her attention as my and Charles called for help.
This left Hela and Harry looking at one another speculatively. "Mass incarceration and stupefy spell?"
"Most assuredly," Hela answered with a nod. "I will protect you in close, while you concentrate on blasting out those spells as wide an area as possible."
With that, Harry looked at the doors, then Hela, and as one they pushed on them, throwing them open.
Asgard was not what Harry expected, nor was it like a human city, even setting aside the types of construction material used. For one thing, there were not nearly as many buildings as there would've been in a human city. And each building was set apart from another, spread out. Each natural building was massive, each the hall or home of the different Asgardian. Those worshiped by humans, Odin, Thor, and so forth, had even larger homes, larger by far than any similar construct Harry had ever seen.
And despite the size of the city and its houses, there didn't seem to be any people around, at first. The two of them had several moments to make their way forward, racing along by foot through the city before they started to see actual people. Temporary habitats had been thrown up between several of the larger permanent buildings, seemingly to house the refugees from out in the rest of the dimension, getting people away from both Surtur's army, and, Harry noticed, Jörmungandr's poison. There was no miasma here.
But as they passed these dwellings, hundreds suddenly started pouring out shouting, "Death to the traitors!" for some reason. Civilians, children, the elderly, and hundreds of women young and old were following some script of the Shadows.
Harry wondered what they were seeing, but also didn't particularly care. "Incarcerous! STUPEFY!"
The simple, but once more grossly overpowered spells flashed out downing hundreds, binding them in place. But the spells were thus absorbed, allowing the next batch of maddened civilians to charge forward. many got close enough to attack with weapons that were not the makeshift variety they should have been and Hela stepped forward to deal with them.
Again and again the same spells flashed out from Harry as Hela protected him from the crowd, using a conjured staff with the ends contained in soft padding to batter aside those elderly or women who came close, using simple telekinetic-based spells to push back on the children before they too succumbed to Harry's stupefy or incarceration spells. Then Harry had to use levitation spells to move the people ahead of them out of their way, so clogged did the street become.
Several of the goddesses of God's had to be put down with point-blank spell work. And at one point, a screaming woman, some Vanir that Hela had never seen before leaped out from a second story window to land on Harry's back.
He grunted under the impact, stumbling, but thanks to his Magia Erebea the impact didn't throw him to his knees. Instead, Harry reached behind him, grabbed her shoulders in both hands and hurled her over his head to crash back first into the road in front of them. Hela cheerfully smacked the woman upside the head with her staff, so hard that even the padding couldn't contain the force of the blow, sending her into unconsciousness the old-fashioned way.
But still there were more people coming, more people from the side streets and from various Asgardian dwellings, most particularly the dwelling of Thor. As the defender of the common man, his house was the favorite dwelling place for those who had fled Ragnarök.
All this, and the lack of any side streets that didn't dead end at another hall, served to slow down their progress tremendously, along with the continued attempts by the Shadows to conjure up illusions. But eventually, they came within sight of Valhalla, and both of them stared up the stairs leading to it, just as Hela became a victim of a sudden pounce by a Vanir goddess. She went down, but for the moment, Harry ignored her plight staring upward at Malekith.
For at his feet was Odin, sprawled unceremoniously on the stairs. There was no wound on him, but he had been divested of most of his clothing by a somewhat manic-looking Malekith.
With a bellow of fury and rage, Harry lashed out with several attacks spells, uncaring of collateral damage or even if he hit Odin. None of the spells he could use so quickly would overcome an Asgardian's magical defenses without a direct hit.
Malekith, on the other hand, Harry hoped to overwhelm, shattering the magical defenses on his armor. Like Heimdall's armor, there was a limit to what enchantments like that could absorb even if intended to do so rather than reflect.
But before the spells struck, Malekith raised a shield spell around himself, pressing it out to either side. He ground his teeth under the strikes from Harry's magic but kept the shield up as he finished his work. The last bit of armor, a vambrace, was pulled off of Odin, leaving him in his undershirt and leggings.
As he finished, Malekith shouted out mentally and physically, "We're done! Teleport him now or..."
A moment later, this proved to be enough. Malekith and Odin disappeared.
Odin Allfather, the strongest of the Asgardians, was gone, spirited away, still under the Shadow's fell influence.