Chapter 27

A new day, new dawn. And apparently, Atreus snores like a bakeneko slurping on catnip. You know, wet burps and farts. It's weird.

With my eye twitching I wonder how the fuck his snores are so damn loud, we have walls. And he's on another floor.

As I run my hand across my face to take the hairs out of my face, hmm... Perhaps I should cut my hair soon, or style it. Decisions.

I look at the sleeping beauty next to me, she's breathing softly and her lips form a slight smile. That makes me happy, but why does she curl her feet every five seconds or so, it's weird. And funny, but still weird.

We are taking too long to travel to the top of the mountain, and while I could reach it in a day with the vimana, we don't want to face Odin on our own. This is why we're following Kratos, but still, it's too slow and it annoyed us. Luckily Takae found what I asked her to, items to boost Kratos' strength.

Erm... Luckily, I use that word with a huge amount of irony. Because divine providence it's more of a probability... There are random coffers around, with just the items to boost his strength. It's fucking weird. Almost like the narrative of the world is actively assisting him.

Oh, I see you Sun/Söl/Chariot, rising, strong and hale. And here it's more than literal, after all... It's Söl, Norse goddess of the sun, driving her chariot in the morning. She and Mani work a lot huh. She probably doesn't need to ride it to move the sun, just wish for it. It's her domain after all. -sigh- Gods are fickle and weird.

I close my eyes for a second, sensing it all, every single creature in this world, naked to my eyes. Their actions and movements were thoroughly seen by me. From dragons to ants. Such a small world, or dimension I guess. Asgard, it's still not earth. Not yet, after all.

I remember that the only creatures that would survive the Ragnarok on the nine realms were the humans, spiteful and hardy as cockroaches. Always striving, always surviving. That's why I love humans, that's why I hate the Gods.

The boost from Yggdrasil is amazing. Before I wouldn't dare to scout the world like this, now? Now I don't give a shit, no one will sense me unless I allow them to.

I see the mountain, I see threads of fate. Ah... I see. That's not the mountain the mother wanted her ashes to be spread. But she wanted them to go there.

It is where the feather of Ishmallah sits. And where the All-Father tortures Mimir.

He has been experimenting with the feather, for fifty years now. Time is so damn fickle with these feathers. Fuck.

Timing... All I need is timing, I can't go on my own even if Odin is not there, fate wouldn't allow it.

But Kratos and the kid... They're fated to be there when no one else will be.

-sigh- Very well, three Norns, I shall assist him.

I open my eyes, letting a mouthful of air escape my lips. I frown for a second, before looking at Takae, who is looking intently at me. Making me chuckle.

"Hey." I smile as I press my forehead on hers.

"Mornin'" She mutters with a smile as she caresses my cheek.

Briefly kissing her lips I rise from the bed. "The plan shall remain the same. It's annoying but our only chance of getting the feather unscathed is to follow Kratos and Atreus." I shake my head.

"Oh... Well, okay. Despite everything, this world is nice, the air is amazing, the nature... I like this." She smiles sweetly.

"Alright, let's go."

After a brief shower, I walk towards the dwarf that should have made the boots for Takae.

"Yo dwarf, you got the boots?" I ask looking at him with annoyance. He's... Just annoying.

"Hmpf. Of course, but my customer is the kid not you, so kindly leave my shop please." He dismisses me with a wave of his hands.

"You little-" I got interrupted by Atreus Voice.

"Ah, I want the boots, Sindri!" Atreus speaks up, looking at me nervously.

"Oh, hey kid! Sure I got them. Are you sure you want them? They're not your size, after all, I could modify them to be your size. After all, something not your size is useless to you." He smirks looking at me from the corner of his eyes.

I cross my arms and start tapping the floor with my feet. With each tap, the ground shakes.

Sindri suddenly grows still, beads of sweat running through his face.

"Stop antagonizing her!" Atreus whispers.

"Ah...haha, 'tis but a joke, m'lady. Here you go, the wonderful weaponized, dragonhide boots!" He exhales, and with amazing showmanship, he waves the boots around, before presenting them to me.

I just keep looking at him. He's still on one knee, with the boots in his hands, extending the boots towards me.

The more I look at him, the more he sweats. He started shivering.

"Ah, thanks for that! I am sure Teacher's lover would like them very much." Atreus said pointedly. Damn, the kid is good.

"Hehe, alright. Thanks for the boots." I throw him a few gold coins and leave with the boots in my hands.

I swear I can hear a thump behind me. But who cares!

With an amused smile, I spy Takae stretching. I will the house to disappear.

"Come here, we are gonna enchant the boots." I grin at her.

"Ooh! They're done! Alright. What do we do?" She bounces slightly, excited at the prompt.

"Easy, sit with the boots in front of you, close your eyes, and think what enchantment you want them to have. I'll do the rest. I will teach you how to enchant things later." I smile at her, as a glowing hammer and a chisel appear in my hands.

"Uh... Alright." Takae does as instructed, placing the boots on a table and extending her arms.

Fast as lightning a golden bubble surrounds us, thunder and lightning striking at the chisel and the hammer. I redirect the energy as I carve directly into the boots. I write Takae's name on Japanese kanji. It's her own enchantment after all. While "speed" or "indestructible" or anything else, really, would be useful. This is her first try. I am not sure they will last a lot. But now, as her first weapon, they will be something important to her. And that's all that matters to me.

-Clang!- The last hit of the hammer signaled the bubble to disappear, and Takae to open her eyes.

"Here!" I smile at her.

Takae open her eyes in wonder, the boots at first were just leather boots with blades on the spine. Now, they are black metallic claws. Fit like a second skin, from the front to the knees, to the back to the calves. After sending a surge of her mana, the boots cover the entire leg to the upper thigh. After touching it for a bit, it feels like dragon skin. I know it's made of dragonhide, but it's not the same. This one feels alive like she's part dragon. Amazing.

"Amazing..." I say distractedly. "What was the enchantment?" I ask.

"Hehehe..." She replies with a bashful laugh. "Well, I just wished to be at your side." She scratches her cheek.

"Cute. But I don't know how that's an enchantment... Most curious. Oh well, it worked, didn't it?" I smiled brightly. "Let's test it." I tease her.

As we exit the house, it dissolves into the ground. Trees and flowers sprout where once stood a two-story house.

Kratos and Atreus are no longer in sight. Well, here's hoping they don't lose the bell once more.

I summon the vimana, as Sindri looks at me with barely hidden fear. "Let's go." I grin.

As we fly away on the vimana, I spot the perfect place to test her new legs. Because that's what they are. She can move the fingers even, that's a foot. Not a boot.

The vimana disappears and we land in the front of a cave. "What are we doing here?" Takae asks as we enter the cave.

"Well... I can feel despair from here. And also terribly, terribly bloodlust. So, whoever you're gonna fight here, it's kinda crazy." I shrug. Looking around, the cave slowly became a huge tomb. Metallic floor and walls. "I can feel Odin's aura from here. He probably has something to do with the crazy person." I smirk.

"Ah... He's as bad as you said, is he not?" Takae mutters sadly, despite that her legs suddenly cover her legs and her eyes gain a determined glint. Ah... She's just too nice.

"He's probably worse in this reality." I look around as we dodge another trap. And with a tug of my hand the door that needed some sort of trial opened by force.

"I can feel despair everywhere, you know? This realm... Midgard is on the verge of destruction. Ragnarok is coming for a reason. The main one is probably because Odin is a piece of shit." I shrug. "I say we can even count how many people are alive on this world, a small list I bet."

"Well... I don't know if we are gonna face him. But at least we'll take the feather from him." Takae nods at me as we descend an elevator towards a desolate arena.

I rest beside the door, crossing my arms as Takae enters the arena. Suddenly the sound of wings pushing the wind resonates. And a rotten Valkyrie appears. Her helmet looks like an owl. Geirdriful then.

With a shriek she flies around the arena, fast as the wind, several chakrams filled with her energy are launched toward Takae like missiles.

Takae tracks the chakrams and with a single powerful round kick, she bates them away. Using her other leg she impulses herself from the ground, to where she thinks Geirdriful will appear based on her circular path. But Takae didn't calculate enough, she was too obvious, the Valkyrie pauses for a second as Takae passes her by, and grabs Takae from the back, plunging herself and the struggling Takae to the ground.

-Crack- The arena shatters, and I smile. A flap of wings and the dust generated by the attack disperse, instead of Takae falling to the ground face first, her leg stopped the fall. Cracks all around where her leg stands.

Spinning suddenly she catches the cursed Valkyrie off-guard. Punting her towards the wall.

Another screech and the Valkyrie surged towards Takae, sword in hand and chakram in another.

Like an arrow flying through the sky, the Valkyrie flies with the sword extended to stab Takae. With a side step Takae dodges the stab, and suddenly punches downwards, forcing the hand slashing with the chakram to drop it.

Fast as lightning Takae's heel kicks the Valkyrie in the face, sending it to the ground with a grunt.

As the Valkyrie tried to stand, Takae appears in front of her, clad in lightning, the claws of her boots shining red.

After performing a textbook high-kick, suddenly three red lines appear on the valkyries face. Suddenly the floor and the walls slid off, a perfect cut. A cut that separated everything by fifteen meters. Good. We need to test the actual strength of her kicks now.

As the mortal body of the Valkyrie disappears, the spirit of Geirdriful appears. Beautiful, but sad. Relief poured from her eyes.

"Thank you, warrior." She whispers as her body disappears. The helmet is all that remains of her.

Takae grabs the helmet and it disappears inside her ring.

"What was that?" She looks at me.

"That was Geirdriful, the master of arms of Asgard. She's supposed to train Odin's einherjar. Valkyries are a race of spiritual women. They are not supposed to have a physical body for long. That would make them crazy. And... Well, since the energy of Odin is all around the place, we can safely assume he cursed her. Yep, he's a crazy bastard." I say with a grunt as I cross my arms in front of me.

"So... I helped her?" She asks me.

"Yep, you saved her. Good job." I smile when she beams at me.

"I can feel more of them. Now that I have felt Geirdriful's energy I think the others are Valkyries as well." I say towards Takae.

"Let's go, let's save them all!" Takae looks determined. Even in a deathworld such as this. Because in the end, no matter how many we save, the Ragnarok will come and only humans will survive.

-sigh- "Alright." I smile exasperatedly at her. "By the way, how did the boots feel?"

"I don't think I used even 5% of their strength." She said seriously. "That cut from before was just molding my mana on the nails. I didn't do anything. Just... Added mana and waved. And it cut everything in its path. It's kinda scary, but at the same time it's amazing." She's almost in shock.

"Hmm... I say you did well. You could have defeated her in an instant with your speed but you tried the boots. So it was good. Next fight, I want to see you parry attacks with your boots." I tell Takae with a grin.

"Eh... I prefer to dodge but... What are you willing to give me if I parry all attacks?" She grins at me.

"Hehe... I can think of something~" I say with a wiggle of my eyebrows and a smug smirk as I slowly look her up and down, eating her sight.

She blushes slightly but puffs her chest out.

"Let's go!" I grab her hand and he appears in front of the next Valkyrie. My figure disappears as if it was an illusion and I watch the fight sitting above the arch of the entrance, near one of Odin's green ravens.

The Valkyrie opens her wings, sending dust across the arena in a wave, her armor, resembling a standing bear. Eir then.

As the wave of dust approaches Takae she just stomps on the ground, sending her own wave, canceling the dust coming at her.

This time Takae blitzed Eir, without using her super-speed she's still extremely fast.

Eir wings suddenly cross in front of her, protecting herself from Takae's flying kick. Extending her wings, she counters Takae with a swish of her mace to pound Takae to the floor.

And while Takae is sent to the ground, she managed to parry the attack with her other knee.

A spinning kick later and Takae raises from the ground. This time she watches her enemy.

Eir, flies towards her, and feints a hit with her mace, only to attack with the edge of her shield.

Takae redirects the attack with her heel, pushing the shield away, only for a mace to rush at her face.

Takae grunts as she jumps and blocks against the attack crouching in the air with her legs. As Takae is sent flying, Eir pursues her enemy.

Takae grins and bounces from the wall, a flying knee crashing on the Valkyrie's helmet.

The Valkyrie responds with a wave of her wings, disengaging once more and hiding behind her metallic wings.

Takae grins and her legs are surrounded by lightning. A lightning kick later, and a laser shoots from the base of her foot, blowing a hole in Eir, who screeches in pain.

Eir chases Takae in abandon, with an intent of a grapple. However, Takae just dodged and perform an ax kick, breaking the Valkyrie in half.

The spirit of Eir appears, tears running through her face. "Thank you, Warrior." She smiles and then disappears.

"That was Eir, The Healer," I say as Takae grabs the helmet and stashes it in her ring. She was supposedly the only Valkyrie that preferred calm and quiet to battle and duty. She healed mortal and god alike without distinction. I wonder what was their slight for Odin to punish them all..." I tilt my head.

"It doesn't matter! We'll rescue them all." She smiles at me.

"Hehe, alright. By the way... That laser?" I ask her.

"Ah... I don't know, I just wanted to perform a lightning kick and felt a buildup from the bottom of my feet. Let me try again." And Takae demonstrated that it was not a fluke, each lightning kick she made shoot a laser that punctured everything on its path for about 20 meters.

"Huh... Well, you needed ranged options. Now you have them, the claws and that. You gotta try more things." I nod at her, happy that she's gotten stronger.

And then we spent the whole day hunting the Valkyries of Midgard.

"Hmm... Something is missing." I say as we sit on the Vimana watching Sigrún's Valkyrie throne.

"A few skulls, maybe?" Takae teases beside me. "Are you sure there are no more Valkyries on Midgard?"

We only managed to hunt four Valkyries in total, but there are nine thrones.

"Welp, they are probably in other realms. That's a problem." I say. "Hmm... Kratos went to Alfheim not too long ago. Let me check something." I close my eyes and feel the dimensional wall. It answers easy, after all, one of my principal powers is to leave this dimension, this body was made like a key after all.

Oh, there it is. "Alright, grab my hand."

A flash of light and we appear in Alfheim. Ugh, the smell.

"Welcome to Alfheim," I say as we look around.

"It looks like a forest," Takae mutters beside me.

"A very colorful forest. With abundant and weird flora. That flower just ate a turtle." I deadpan.

"There are... Many shiny crystals floating around. And too much water as well." Takae notes.

The vimana appears beside us and we ride it, slowly, watching Alfheim.

"It's so small..." Indeed. It seems Alfheim is barely half the size of Midgard.

"Odin probably stole most of the land." I shrug, thankful for my sunglasses, as Takae is forced to look away from the bright ray of light from the temple in the middle of the water.

"Oh... Is that an elf?" Takae asks me with wonder as a white silhouette runs above the forest looking at us with trepidation.

"It does smell like one," I mutter. "Also, who is she trying to deceive? With all that light magic around her. Acting like she's a ghost?" Pfft. I point at her and her light dissipates.

In her place, instead of a silhouette of a lightbulb in the form of a woman, a slightly alien woman stood, her skin pale as marble accented by her red makeup. Hell, even her clothes are white. What a bunch of fools, those elves.

"Ah, they look weirder than I thought." Takae nods.

"I can feel the Valkyrie that way," I say pointing towards the beach. "You know, this place is beautiful. Like a vacation spot."

"I was thinking of that, to be honest. But those elves smell weird. And I am kinda leery of them. Is that racist?" Takae asks.

"Nah, it's normal. Fuck elves." I nod. There's nothing worse than an elf in any race. Pompous bastards.

"... Probably racist then," Takae mutters and looks sideways with a smirk.

"What's that? Did you want to run behind the Vimana to train? Alright! Good idea!" I say with a sly smile and suddenly push her. However, she dodged me and kicked me in the ass. Literally sent me flying.

"... Shouldn't have taught her anything." I reason as I slowly fall to the ground. No matter. The air solidifies under my feet and I walk towards the Vimana in the air.

"Ohohohohoho, Takae. You don't know who you started a war with!" I smile triumphantly.

"Oh, I do know." She answers with a smile of her own.

"That so? Who, then?" I slowly crawl over her.

"My one and only love~" She purrs and kisses me. "You're going to teach me how to walk in the air, right?"

"Eh, I guess? It's not that hard. I think you can already do it. It's just an exercise of mana control. With enough quantity of mana to affect the world, just solidify air where you want, and that's it." I shrug.

"Sometimes you're a great teacher, and others you suck at it. It's really weird." She looks at me with a pained expression.

"Eh? Really? Ah, whatever, just go and fight that Valkyrie, I can sense Atreus ringing the bell." I shrug at her.

"Fine, fine."

The Vimana disappears, and I sit cross-legged linking my soul to the echo of the bell. Getting ready to jump dimensions and pinpoint where the bell rang.

A few seconds later, Takae appears in front of me. "Done."

"Here." I open my arms, Takae jumping on my lap without hesitation, and hugging me as I trap her between my arms.

A second later we reappear to the sound of screams and roars. To boulders crashing on the ground, and to the annoying dwarf scream.

We get up in a second and look around, Atreus is beside the dwarf, hiding under a boulder as Kratos fights a dragon on a plateau.

"Yo, whatcha want Atreus?" I ask leisurely.

"Teacher! Look, father is fighting that dragon, you have to help him!" He shouts at me.

"He doesn't need help." I wave dismissively. "But... Hmm, I guess we can see how much damage can those boots of yours deal with an actual dragon, won't we?" I smile at Takae, who nods and disappears in a flash of lightning.

Kratos is holding the teeth of the dragon, preventing him to bite him, suddenly lightning strikes, and the face of the dragon is sent away.

From the spot where the head of the dragon was, Takae appears with her legs extended. Hehe, did she drop-kicked a dragon? Cool.

"You are a coward teacher! You always send Takae to fight, you never fight yourself!" Atreus exclaims with anger at me.

"Aaah... Stop it, kid, she's a monster, remember?" The dwarf helpfully whispers to him.

"Brat, shut up when you don't understand shit. First of all, Kratos didn't need help, Takae is only testing her boots. Second, I am too strong to fight the things here, and Takae needs experience and to get stronger. So I teach her and have her fight things as I observe. Besides, no one loves her as much as I do, I would never allow harm to pass her. Is. That. Understood?" I point the last words with a finger on his chest.

"Ouch! Alright, I am sorry" He meekly answers as he watches Takae and Kratos kill the dragon.

"You're too emotional Brat, you need a cool head if you're gonna be a warrior," I say as I ruffle his hair.

However a shadow appears before us, the Dragon decided to take a bite of us since Kratos and Takae are beating his ass.

"Oh noooo," The dwarf cries.

I roll my eyes and put my palm forwards, a bright mana shield appears in the air, bashing the lizard in the face and sending it toward Kratos and Takae.

"See?" I tease the brat.

"You're way too strong... Why do you even need us?" He looks at me with suspicion. Huh. This brat can think, who would have known.

"Don't overthink it. First, Takae is a bleeding heart, and she wouldn't be happy if I let a kid and a mourning father journey alone like that. Also, I am teaching you magic. There's nothing I want from you or Kratos. You're both too weak." I roll my eyes even as I can feel his shame and anger.

"Roaaaaar!" The dragon screams as a wing fall off, Takae's kick separates her wing in a flash, and Kratos used the chance to plunge his hand in the dragon's eye, and with a pull, the dragon stops moving, and Kratos waves his hand to push the bits of brain from his arm.

"Ew." I grab the dwarf and the brat and teleport towards the plateau, where Kratos and Takae are waiting.

"Thank you for protecting Atreus." He said as his voice rumbled like a mountain.

"Eh, he's my student after all. Say, can we take the core of the dragon? I can use the rest to make armor for you and the brat." I offer Kratos in exchange for the core.

Sindri suddenly started walking around. "But-But-But... No one has killed a dragon... In hundreds of years!" He trembles at the sight of the dead dragon. "Not since the grand culling of the wyrms!" He explains.

Ugh. Pretentious asshole. Perhaps he's a half-elf.

"And unless I'm mistaken, you did all that... for me!" He said pointing at Kratos. Of course, since Takae and I don't exist.

Kratos just huffs and turns around. "You are mistaken, the dragon was simply in our path. Nothing more." Oho-I can feel it, he's feeling shy! OOOH IS HE A TSUNDERE?!?

"You deny it all you want..." Sindri started walking behind Kratos. "But you saved me!" He exclaims as he waves his arms around. "And that... Deserves compensation." At that Kratos stopped and turned around. Kratos is Tsundere and pragmatic! As a pragmatic man, free things are good. And as a tsundere, he must accept the gift like it's compensation! Aha! I finally understand that man.

He reaches to his pouch and brings twenty... Mistletoe arrows. Cunning little dwarf.

As he presents the arrows to Atreus, he asks bewildered. "What are these?"

"Braided mistletoe arrows. Straighter than Heimdall and perfectly weighted!"

"Oh. Thanks?"

At that Sindri's face falls. "Oh... Okay. Hold on!" He starts taking random different things from his pouch. "Ew, not that. Umm... You see my brother again?"

"Yeah, he said you lost your talent!" Atreus said with a laugh.

"Oh, and that I am selfish! I'm sure. That I value weapons look over its purpose" He exclaims as he takes item after item. Is that a bag of holding? Haven't seen one in years. "That I am pretentious and uptight!" I nod at that. Something that made him grumble. "Fussy! I know what he thinks!" And then takes a live fish from his bag. Which he throws in disgust. "Ah!! Burn that thing!"

Kratos grunts and turns around. "I do not have time for this."

"No! No-no-no-no-no, wait! I have a better idea!" He whispers.

"What?"

"I just need a tooth from that dragon." He whispers and looks at me.

I just shrug and all the dragon teeth float towards him. "Go on, take one."

"Oh, the smell... Oh, the dirtiness. Ugh. I am gonna puke."

Rolling my eyes I will my magic to clean the teeth.

"Perfect..." He grabs one and blows his dust on it. Turning the white tooth to an amber color. "Now... Run it along the bowstring of your son." He nods at Kratos, who doesn't move.

"Just... Humor me. Please?"

"Fine. Atreus." And then, the bowstring becomes yellow. Huh. Lightning arrows.

"That will probably only work for a few shots, and then you need to use your mana to recharge the lightning enchantment. It's okay I guess." I shrug at the snubbed face of Sindri.

"Huh. Cool! Thanks, Sindri!" Atreus smiles and runs to try his arrows.

"Hey, Kratos, a word?" I say to him as I walk to the side. Kratos came with me and a bubble surrounds us. "Relax, that makes no sound leaving us. Listen... Try to save at least one of those arrows... The only weakness of Baldur is mistletoe. I don't know what the dwarf is planning, but he's not as stupid as he seems."

"Hmm... Very well." He nods and leaves. "Atreus, we gotta keep moving."

Hmm... We're near the top of the mountain all things considered. We should follow him. The feather is near. I nod towards Takae.

"We're coming with you, the top is near here, after all." I grin at Atreus.