67 Odin's move, the congregation

Another two weeks passed. I had somewhat grasped my innate understanding of lightning and its possible applications.

Then the day of reckoning had arrived. After today this grudge between Odin and Loki would probably be written off. As for me... Odin certainly hated me but I had no real grudges with him.

Why did all of this look like my fight? Why did I even join this fight?

"Bad news Eldar, Odin got the elves, the jotuns, the fire giants, and the Aesir. Now, he is marching on us from all directions."

I felt like I had just thought of something important. What was it again? Never mind, it couldn't have been that important.

They were approaching from all sides. Jotuns from the north, fire giants from the west, Aesir from the south, and elves from the east.

'Barrier up. Units one to twenty, battle positions.'

My twenty savage beasts each was accompanied by a group of beasts and my subordinates. What a shame that many of them would die.

'Also, Loki, aren't the Jotuns under your command?'

"I kind of led them by the nose and Odin revealed my little trick..."

'So you made more trouble. Let me see if I can at least dissuade the elves from taking part in this madness.'

Amplifying my voice with magic, I called out towards the east.

'Are the elves here to participate in this attack? I've heard of a prophecy that should make you think twice before marching troops over here.'

For a while, no response came from the elves. Then a cocky, female voice boomed in response.

"Such a prophecy does indeed exist but it was made by a young and unreliable girl. Seeing as you are hungry for power and kill without mercy, we will take the initiative and unroot you before you grow further."

'I am not power-hungry! I only ever defended against enemies trying to attack me or got revenge on people who killed my own child. All these actions were just!'

This time the female voice, presumably the elven queen, didn't respond. Instead, Odin's aged voice reached me.

"If you getting revenge for your child's murder is just, then how can you stop us. Was it not you who killed both my sons?"

Damn, that was some solid argumentation. However, it was not entirely true.

'I have done no such thing, Odin. I have killed Thor in self-defense but Balder's death is not on me.'

"Have you not created the arrow that took his life?"

'Since when can you fault the creator of a weapon for the deaths caused by his creation. That is simply nonsense!'

"Then why did you attack the muspel clan? They were not the ones who killed your child. They merely created the weapon that made it possible."

'They sent the one who killed my child. I didn't send the one who killed yours. Don't try to justify your act of ganging up on me. You will regret it!'

"A feeble excuse! And an even feebler threat. We have you surrounded and even with all your beasts you can't pose much of a threat to us."

'Are you determined to go through with this then? Hundreds of lives will be lost and you will gain nothing. All you do is waste lives! Wait, waste lives?'

I didn't get to continue this train of thought as the leaders of every group took to the skies. I let them pass the barrier unobstructed, after all, a cage served to keep things inside not outside.

Now that their leaders had charged in, the four armies followed suit and quickly approached the barrier. They seemed quite confident, outnumbering the enemy gave them courage.

Two battlefields had come into existence. One in the air between grand duke and king magi and another on the ground between those below.

At first, the battle below looked like it would end in a landslide victory for the attacking party. However, the barrier quickly gave them a nasty surprise. Their charge was completely halted by the lightning arcs dancing around the barrier. To make matters worse, the undergrowth behind the aesir troops burst and 80 wyrms commenced a pincer attack. They were all mutated to lightning wyrms, one of the possible applications of my innate understanding. The other three armies each found 2500 ordinary beasts of all kinds at their backs.

The tides of the battle below turned in an instant and the attackers were greatly flustered as their formation began to disintegrate.

The fight in the air hadn't even begun yet when it already came to a stop. Odin seemed devastated at the sudden turn of events.

"How can this be? You were clearly limited in the number of beasts you could control."

'I evolved and the limit increased. Too bad you didn't know about that. Also, do you guys know what an allergy is?'

"Yes, but what does this have to do with anything?"

'Nothing much... just that you've been doing some pretty heavy breathing just now. That may not have been the best thing to do...'