For Odin, for Thor, for Asgard
Page 27
Zdahlin knew it had to be Asgard City.
With all three of them levitating above the magnificent city Magni escorted his charges to the high place of Hlidskalf.
“This is my father” he said simply, though there was great pride in his voice. He might have said “this is my father the lord of all Asgard, and the greatest warrior god that ever drew breath” but such was not the way of Magni. Why wax lyrical when a few words would suffice?
Even to the man mountain that was Zdahlin Tihler, Thor was imposing. Older, heavier than when mortal man knew him. Yet his body was not old. His white hair though, testament that even now the Asgardians were not true immortals. Something the son of Odin could have changed but had chose not to and with good reason.
Thor motioned Zdahlin and his sycophant to sit before him and a small assemblage of gods whom Magni joined. The other gods meant nothing to the dictator though he took stock of them.
There was a god who seemed almost to glow with light and reek of inner nobility, a goddess with a beauty that would forever evade any mortal women or even younger goddess, and one other, a god, unsmiling, grim faced with an unyielding hardness. Zdahlin looked into those eyes, and then looked away.
Thor took stock of his “visitors”
The son of Odin had known evil intimately; human evil, the evil of gods, of cosmic and abstract entities and evil at the highest possible level. Yet before him now stood another kind of evil. In some respects worse than anything Thor had heretofore encountered.
“We of Asgard do not usually interfere in the affairs of this Universe” boomed Thor “yet in your case we have made an exception.”
The Odinson waived slightly and a huge visual image appeared before the assemblage, of a large blue green inhabited world. Thor motioned again. It was the same world after de-terraforming, brown, arid, no oceans and lifeless.
“Do you recognize this world?” he asked of Zdahlin.
The questioning continued. Images of suns forced to go nova, inhabited worlds stripped to their molten cores for mining purposes, worlds vaporized by planet busting super weapons.
Zdahlin Tihler humored his inquisitors. Oddly the purpose of the assemblage did not immediately occur to either him or his prime mystic.
It couldn’t be could it?
It was simply inconceivable.
That the Emperor designate of the most powerful empire in existence was on trial for his life.
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Finally the mighty Thor finished detailing the catalogue of crimes and there was silence.
A time for all present to ponder on the enormity of what had been presented.
Then the Lord of Asgard rose and walked a little away from the assemblage hands behind his back.
He addressed the Emperor designate. “In this place, Hlidskalf I can see all things that transpire, that have transpired, and that will transpire.” Thor continued “I have seen the alternate futures for you Zdahlin Tihler and your prime mystic and not a one of them provide any grounds for your redemption.”
Then as Thor motioned, Magni arose and pronounced judgment.
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Zdahlin Tihler and his prime mystic found themselves in another place. A totally unfamiliar place. One for which, even with their combined mystic skills, they could find no frame of reference. Yet both knew it was not some form of after life.
All about them was destruction at a level far beyond anything they themselves had caused. A confrontation between great powers of the first order was in progress.
Somehow their sensory capabilities had been enhanced to the point that they were aware of all the conflict about them for a radius of many, many light years. So they could sense acutely and at first hand all of the death, all of the destruction, all of the pain, all of the agony, all of the bitterness, all of the hopelessness, all of the sense of betrayal. It was all but overwhelming and getting worse with each moment.
At the edge of their physical sight a small planetoid or detached continental mass seemed to be the main focus of the conflict. Resisting an attack totally out of all proportion to its size.
The Emperor designate and the mystic focused on this. Moving physically closer to the battle.
Though they still did not know it the dictator and his mystic were witnessing the final stages of a Universe wide confrontation between an alliance of gods and magical/mystic powers on one hand and an alliance of cosmic entities and abstract powers on the other.
They did not recognize any of the warring factions, including the monstrous humanoid shape corpses still spewing the last residual energies from their armored forms, nor the partially armored titan with the winged helmet and the small human size silver form near it.
Until they recognized the drifting continental mass and three human shape forms fighting side by side above it. Younger versions of Magni and Thor and what could only have been he whom Thor himself had referred to during the trial as the Allfather.
“Somehow Thor and Magni have sent us back in time, Lord” said the prime mystic “to that time of the end of their Universe.”
Then an entity brushed past them moving toward the continental mass, they did not know the entity, could not know it. Yet as mystic powers they saw it for what it was. The embodiment in a single living entity of this entire Universe.
From out of Asgard, he who was the Allfather, now mystically vastly increased in size, came forth to engage the entity. Zdahlin thought he heard the Allfather call to the entity that it was not too late using the name Eternity.
Then Zdahlin Tihler screamed and kept on screaming as the two titans clashed and the Universe about them and the entities themselves died.
Yet as his master screamed amidst the total and absolute carnage the prime mystic looked on through the destruction and saw Asgard partially intact. Something reforming from the Odin/Eternity clash moving to protect Asgard, even against the destruction of a Universe.
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Magni escorted Zdahlin Tihler and the mystic back outside of the Asgard anomaly. The mighty Thor accompanied them. Both Asgardians were dressed in full battle armor. As Magni carried Mjolnir so Thor held the OdinAxe.
The Narsson flagship was no longer alone. Its escorts had arrived and many other starships with them. Yet more were arriving every few moments.
An attack had begun on the Asgard anomaly with the Narsson fleet using others of the same living anti-god weapon that Magni had been exposed to. The level of the attack could only increase over time as more starships arrived.
Thor the mighty raised the OdinAxe as Magni raised the hammer supreme. Energies flowed from god to god, from hammer to axe then were unleashed.
Not to destroy the star fleet but simply to gain their attention. A kind of massive electromagnetic pulse yet on all levels: human sensory, electronic, mystical, and many other levels. Bringing all activity of the starfleet to a grinding halt.
It served two purposes, an unmistakable demonstration of power but also, as the Narsson starfleet recovered, it most certainly got their undivided attention.
In time a large shuttle craft approached Thor and Magni from the Narsson flagship and took the Emperor designate and prime mystic aboard.
“What will they do father, when they discover the truth?” asked Magni
“That they have both been driven utterly and irretrievably mad?” responded Thor. “Even where it is physically possible, as when the Odinpower saved us, there are few minds that can survive the destruction of a Universe.” “Zdahlin Tihler’s and his prime mystic’s minds are not among them.”
“In this nexus point some call the Asgard anomaly and that is the link between the two Universes we were able to send Zdahlin Tihler and his sycophant back in time.” “Their puni
shment is complete.”
Magni realized that Thor had not answered his question yet as father and son watched on and the huge starfleet began to depart, the Thorson saw that the question had been answered.
"I think the mystic realized just before his mind was destroyed" said Magni.
Thor looked at his son.
"That Asgard can never die!" responded Magni.
"It is why I have kept us as less than true immortals" responded Thor "That we may all the more appreciate that Asgard is truly the realm eternal!"
End