Chapters 66-70

Chapters 66-70

I could hear the crowd of hundreds of people cheering for me as I descended from the sky and landed in front of my family and Thor's group. I let out a sigh of relief that the normal human crowd was back so far. Azazel had clearly set up some kind of boundary while I was fighting the Destroyer to keep them all from getting too close. Having people cheer me on was amazing, but at the same time, exhausting. I also know that people can tend to act really stupid when in crowds. There's a very high possibility a lot of people could have been caught up in that fight and ended up as accidental casualties due to their own stupidity had my brother not intervened.

"That was very well done, Layla. I'm proud of you." Penemue said when I set down in front of them. My eight black wings vanished as I touched down.

"And congratulations on becoming an eight-winged Fallen. That's quite an accomplishment." Azazel added.

Thor stepped forward with excitement yet concern on his face. "Your victory over the Destroyer was most impressive, Lady Layla. I can't help but question why it was even here in the first place, though?" At this point in time, Thor had not been given any inclination that Loki wanted him dead.

The beautiful goddess Sif stepped forward and then proceeded to explain that Loki had sent them here just hours ago and informed them that Thor was in danger and had been captured by the mortals who wanted to pry the secrets of Asgard from his mind.

"What?" Thor exclaimed. "The only immortals I've even spoken with are Lady Jane and her friends. Other than that, I spent most of my time with Lady Layla and her family, who are higher-level beings like we are. Who could have been so dastardly as to put my brother under such misconceptions and then try to have us all killed? Was it the Frost Giants? Have they once again infiltrated the heart of Asgard?" Thor asked with indignation. At this point, I felt kind of bad for him. The answer was staring him square in the face, yet he loved his brother so much the thought of being betrayed by him never so much as crossed Thor's mind. That was the same way I felt about my two siblings standing next to me, oddly enough. They had gone out of their way to cross time and space to try and recover me. They stepped through a portal having absolutely no idea what was on the other side with no hesitation... Maybe once upon a time, Thor and Loki would have had that relationship, but it appears to have long since soured with only the latter having realized that.

"Something must clearly be done about this situation." Thor said. "We must return to Asgard at once and remedy this."

"Thor," Sif said solemnly, "you are correct, but I'm afraid that you cannot return with us."

"What!? "The hell he can't!" "That's outrageous. If he's not going then I'm staying here with him!" The three Asgardian Tagalongs all shouted in outrage. Sif didn't seem particularly upset about that last remark as she told them that they should stay with Thor. Something about her tone made me believe that she was not quite as close to the three men as she was portrayed to be in the MCU.

Thor let out a sigh in resignation when he realized that Sif was right. "No, I'm afraid that Lady Sif is correct, my friends." he said to the Warriors Three. "I have not been able to regain my powers yet, which means I am not worthy of yet returning to Asgard in my father's eyes. I will stay on Earth temporarily until that day." The three of them didn't look happy to hear his explanation, but they relented and nodded in acceptance. They agreed to stay and guard him until he could regain his powers. Thor then turned to me. "Lady Layla, you have proven yourself to be a trustworthy friend as of this point. Might I beseech you to travel with Lady Sif back to Asgard and see what is occurring on my behalf?"

Thor wanted me to go to Asgard in his place. That was a lot of trust for him to put into someone he just met yesterday.

"Hah, of course she'll go. In fact, we'll all go. It'll be just like the good old days when we used to crash the Mead Halls during their biggest celebrations." Azazel cut in. There was a gleam hidden in his eye that told me that the famous Mead Halls weren't the only reason for him wanting to go to Asgard. I seemed to have missed something important that had occurred here during my battle with the Destroyer. I'd have to ask him later. I did still want to try the Mead Halls though... Asgardian ale was legendary for a reason.

"If you three are coming, then we must make haste. I have no doubt that whoever sent the Destroyer after us will now be making other plots after this one has failed. HEIMDAL, OPEN THE BIFROST!" Sif said before she yelled out to the heavens. It appeared that she also didn't have the heart to break the news to Thor that Loki had betrayed him, or maybe she wasn't quite as certain as I was. I did have the burden of meta-knowledge after all.

[Maybe she just thinks Thor's an idiot who won't believe her unless the truth is shoved in his face.]

...That could also be a possibility.

I almost expected for nothing to happen after Sif called for Heimdall, but to my surprise, the sky immediately darkened as the Bifrost began to form in the sky above us. It seemed that Heimdall had not been attacked and impeded at this point.

I stared into the rapidly forming clouds before a beautiful beam of rainbow light slammed down on top of us. And with that, we were off to Asgard. Thor, along with the Warriors Three, had chosen to remain behind with Jane. That was probably for the best because the Warriors Three were pretty incompetent from my memories and would probably have just gotten in our way.

The rainbow lights continued to flash all around, and I let out a gasp as I witnessed what seemed like an entire galaxy pass us by as we traveled far faster than the speed of light to our destination. Within the Bifrost, so many amazing things were rapidly flashing before my eyes that I couldn't even hope to comprehend them. Eventually, the experience ended though as my body jerked suddenly and my feet returned to solid ground. When I looked up, a dark-skinned man in bright golden armor was staring at our group with a look of trepidation.

"Welcome back to Asgard, Lady Sif... and guests." Heimdall greeted us.

"Heimdall!" Azazel exclaimed as he spread his arms wide with a smile. "It's been a minute, my good man. We need to grab a drink sometime and catch up. Are the taverns of Asgard as glorious as I remember?"

Heimdall turned his head to the side. "Hello again, Azazel. The taverns haven't changed but you might find that Asgard has undergone some changes since any of your kind have last been here..." Heimdal said.

XXX

Woah! Asgard was absolutely beautiful. I loved the aesthetic so much! The beautiful golden city sitting above the eternal waterfall looked absolutely amazing in real life. I could also see that the golden city was thriving, as dozens of spaceships were sailing across the skies every second. Had I not started my journey on Earth, I would have absolutely wanted to live in a place like this! It made my multi-million dollar penthouse on Earth look like a joke.

"What the fuck happened!? Heimdall, what the fuck!?" My thoughts were broken from Azazel shouting next to me as he beheld Asgard.

"This is disturbing, to say the least." Penemue added as she also beheld the city. "It's just gone..."

Was I missing something here? I looked over to Sif, and she looked just as confused by their outbursts as I was. Heimdall, though, looked saddened and let out a tired sigh.

"Asgard has definitely seen better days..." Heimdall said.

"What do you mean?" I asked. The place looked thriving and fine to me. In fact, it looked a lot grander than its MCU counterpart.

"What do YOU mean, Layla!? Asgard is gone!" Azazel exclaimed as he spread his arms wide. Once again, I had no idea what he was talking about because the city of Asgard was right there in front of me.

"Ahem," Heimdall cleared his throat. "Maybe this conversation could be continued elsewhere where we are less likely to be overheard," he stated. Azazel and Penemue acquiesced and dropped it. I had no doubt whatever they would be talking about would be brought up again soon though.

One thing that interested me about the Bifrost was that, unlike in the movies where it seemed only the royals could use it, here there were many civilians walking along the rainbow bridge. In fact, there were actually multiple beam devices instead of just the one, and there were other operators working those devices so that Asgardians could teleport to either realms. It seemed much more efficient than just having the one guy. I figured Heimdall was still in charge of them all. That was also why he shut down whatever questions my siblings had brought up as we were starting to draw some curious gazes. There were a lot of people muttering about the beautiful Lady Sif in particular. Asgard didn't have a princess–well it did but not anymore–so Sif was the closest thing they had. A lot of people were gazing at her with reverence.

"Come," Heimdal said. "I will escort you all to the palace where you can inquire about why Loki sent the destroyer. I too would like some answers in that regard."

"What's so complicated about it? He tried to off his brother so he could have the throne. There, case closed. Let's go beat him up and have some mead afterwards." Azazel said as he started marching along.

Eh, sounds good to me.

"Prince Loki tried to murder prince Thor!" I only took one person listening in to start a wave of panic. Something I think Heimdal was trying his best to avoid. Too late now though as more and more angry Asgardians were speaking up in outrage at what they'd just heard.

"Allfather save us! I saw the legendary Destroyer march through here not an hour ago!"

"That's Fratricide!"

"Someone must alert the Queen immediately of such treachery!"

We all decided to skedaddle as it looked like Azazel's words might have started a small riot.

...

"So Loki is the king right now? He didn't mention that when he was talking to Thor earlier," Penemue said as we walked through the palace walls.

"He's not King!" Sif declared with loathing in her voice directed at a certain god of mischief. "He's only the regent until Thor can return and assume his proper mantle!" It seemed that Loki was not well-liked here – at least not by Sif. I do remember there being a story there. It was something about him turning her bald for a while when they were younger.

"So did you and Thor have a thing going on in the past or..." I trailed off as I asked Sif.

Sif looked at me oddly. "Why do you want to know? Are you interested?" Sif asked jokingly.

"Yes," I replied with a straight face. "I am interested in you."

"Oh my, how bold, Layla," Penemue said.

Sif seemed taken aback at my declaration. This woman seemed pretty straightforward, so I thought I should be the same with her.

"OH!" Sif exclaimed with a slight blush. She seemed to be at a loss for words. I figured that was a good sign. She turned her gaze away from me and started marching down the hallway towards the throne room faster.

"Dang it, Layla!" Azazel mock-lamented. "You're all grown up and stealing all the beautiful women for yourself now. What will your poor older brother do now?" He said with magically conjured crocodile tears in his eyes.

"Maybe appreciate what you have already," I said as I pointed to our sister. Penemue blushed when I pointed out that I knew about their relationship – whatever it was.

"I suppose you heard us last night..." She said with some embarrassment. "The thing is, Layla, well – I wanted to have a child, and..."

"Believe it or not, I don't actually have any children despite the many...MANY women I've been with," Azazel continued for her.

[I do not believe it.]

'Me neither, system...but I might as well humor him.'

"Anyway," Azazel continued. "We both wanted a kid, and with the upcoming peace talks, we figured, why not make one together?" He said as if that was a completely normal relationship. Although, as far as Fallen Angels go, it kind of was. Not many Fallen end up getting married. Most of my nieces and nephews pretty much besides Akeno were the results of happy accidents.

I smiled at both of them. "I'm happy for you two."

"If you all are quite done with your family discussion, we are here," Heimdall said as we finally arrived at some large ornate golden doors. We were right outside the throne room where Loki was probably waiting for us to put on some kind of intimidation show.

"Hey, where are all the guards?" I asked, noticing that so far we hadn't come across any soldiers at all after venturing fully into the royal palace. That was weird.

"Please Lady Sif, tell me what has transpired as of late. I feel like i've missed so much and yet it has only been but a few days." Frigga turned towards the other goddess and asked.

Sif started explaining the events of the past few days to the queen. By the end, the queen was not happy to hear about everything that had transpired the last few days, to say the least. Sif further went and explained that it was Loki who originally forced Thor and their group to storm Jotunheim after his coronation had been interrupted by the would-be Frost Giant thieves.

Frigga wasn't a multi-thousand-year-old goddess for nothing. It didn't take her long to start putting the pieces together, and the conclusion she arrived at was that Loki had planned the entire thing from the start to get Thor removed from his position as Crown Prince.

"Oh, Loki, how could you have fallen so far? What happened to you? Where has my slightly mischievous but still sweet sun gone ?" Frigga lamented solemnly.

"I'll tell you what happened," Azazel cut in. "Someone went and seriously messed with his memories–All of your memories actually. Thor, Loki, Sif, and even you, Queen Frigga. All of you got absolutely mind-wamied. And yet there was one person who seemed to recognize me on sight, no problem." Azazel said as he turned to Heimdall, who was looking nervous at the implications.

"Someone messed with our memories, that's preposterous!" Sif declared before pausing momentarily. I noticed that she looked like she was in pain, and she started clutching her head. "Isn't it..." she trailed off almost incoherently now. She started to sway a bit and looked unsteady on her feet. I walked over to her and gently grabbed her hand. I led her over towards the throne stairs, and we both took a seat on the steps. Sif rested her head on my shoulder and closed her eyes in pain.

Across the room, Frigga looked like she had come to an epiphany. She turned towards Asgard's watcher, who had served the royal family loyally for thousands of years—or had he. "Heimdall, is what this man says true? Someone manipulated all of our minds? And Odin just let them?"

Heimdall let out a tired sigh. "It was Odin himself who did it, using three of the Infinity Stones..." He trailed off. "Mind, Space, and Power. With those three, at great sacrifice to his own health, King Odin was able to manipulate the memories of every single being in the galaxy that knew about the previous Asgard."

"The previous Asgard? What are you talking about?" The queen asked.

"This city isn't Asgard. Asgard was an entire planet." Penemue explained. "In fact, the city we're currently in wasn't even Asgard's capital city. I remember it being at least ten times bigger than this one..." 10 times bigger!? This place was already gigantic as it was!

Sif and Frigga looked shocked at the revelation.

"But that's..."

"Impossible..."

Heimdall then started explaining to the whole room what had happened. Shortly following the Great Sundering—as the Goblins like to call it—Odin somehow ended up getting into a fight with a Celestial. Heimdall told us he wasn't exactly sure how the fight started, as it was so long ago. All he knows is that using the Power Stone to drastically amplify Gungnir, Odin was able to do what many thought impossible up to that point and permanently killed the Celestial. That opened up an entire can of worms across the entire galaxy—no, universe. Celestials being killable by beings that weren't other Celestials was thought to be an impossible concept. And up until that point the Infinity Stones were thought to be nothing but a myth. With it confirmed that the Infinity Stones did exist and were in Asgard's possession and could kill the previously invincible space gods, there was a mad rush to acquire them from many different parties all over the cosmos. The Celestials, in their panic at the death of one of their own and feeling that the whole universe was about to rise up against them, declared war on Asgard and tried to seize its three Infinity Stones for themselves.

From there, Heimdall went on to explain about a war that took place on a scale that I could barely fathom. Billions of Asgardian soldiers, all at the level of at least high class, along with many ultimate class beings, clashed with over a dozen monstrosities the size of entire planets. The battle was brief but incredibly brutal. In the end, the planet Asgard was completely ruined, and all that could be saved was a single city. Six more Celestials perished, and the remaining half of them fled back into the greater universe in fear of the same happening to them. Odin had severely taxed his own body by channeling three Infinity Stones at once repeatedly throughout the course of the war. On top of that, as the Sky Father, he drew his power from Asgard, so with Asgard destroyed, his power had drastically plummeted, along with all the other gods who did the same. Further putting an enormous tax on his body, he used the power of the three Infinity Stones one last time to purge the memories of that entire battle along with the deaths of the Celestials and the existence of the Infinity Stones as being anything more than a myth from the rest of the universe.

I personally thought it was pretty amazing that using just three Infinity Stones, Odin was able to pull something like that off. It also made sense why he couldn't use their powers to bring back Asgard, as none of those stones would have been able to do that. In order to restore Asgard, he would have either needed the Reality Stone or the Time Stone. The latter is in possession of the Masters of the Mystic Arts, and the former is still hidden somewhere on the Dark Elf World, just waiting to be rediscovered.

"Even now," Heimdall said, "Odin is forced to hibernate routinely because of the strain those stones put on his body. That's the only thing that staved off his death from overusing them."

That was pretty insane. I understood why he made the decision to erase the memories from everybody though. With him and Asgard severely weakened it wouldn't have taken long for other forces to attack them and seize the stones for themselves. What I can't understand is why he chose to so heavily modify all the memories of those closest to him.

[You won't know unless you ask him or someone who he didn't mind wipe.]

XXX

"Hahaha! Serves the old bastard right for lying to all of us all these years!" Loki said as he finally stood up gleefully. He had been listening in on Heimdall's story the entire time—from down on the floor.

"Loki, that's your father you're talking about..." Frigga scolded him. She looked a bit conflicted, however.

"And that's your husband... or is he? How do you even know he didn't implant that memory falsely as well?" Loki sniped back. "Is anything real anymore!?" He screamed loudly towards the ceiling.

"My love for you as my son is real..." Frigga said quietly. Awe... she hit me right in the feels with that one. I was jealous of Loki as I technically didn't even have a mom. I would have run over and given her a hug, but I was busy comforting Sif at the moment, who was currently mentally checked out from Heimdall's revelations.

"He hid my true parentage from me! I'm not even his son and I'm not even yours! I know the truth! I'm a frost giant runt! I'm the son of Laufey!"

"That man was never your father!" Frigga shouted back. "He abandoned you at birth and left you to die. And I have always been your mother!" Frigga finished with tears in her eyes.

"Not cool, Loki!" I shouted out. "You're lucky to have such an amazing mother, and only a true scumbag would make such a wonderful woman cry." I yelled out to him. "Apologize to her or I'll kick you in the balls again!" I threatened Loki, who flinched at my declaration. Next to me, Sif, who had been going through an existential crisis, questioning everything she knew, started giggling from my threats to the prince.

"Yeah, so what if your dad was a dick. Join the club! You think these wings are black for the LOLs?" Azazel asked as his twelve wings manifested behind him and a powerful magical pressure fell over the room. I felt myself sweating at the insane display of power he was putting off. This was the power of a twelve-winged Fallen!? Why was it so much stronger than me!? Wasn't I at the peak of high class!?

[Wait, Host, don't!]

[Azazel -Leader of the Grigori- Level 85. ?]

I used observe on Azazel and felt my jaw almost drop. WTF!? He was level how much!? And here I am sitting at level 8 thinking I was hot shit for reaching the peak of high class... What was with this gap!?

[The difference between high class and mid class was never that high. Ultimate class and higher is a bigger story though. And that's just a ten-winged angel. Twelve wings are a whole different kind of beast altogether. You should ask your brother and sister later about the true power levels of such beings. Also, I told you to wait because Azazel detected your observe.]

...fuck. Azazel turned to me and gave me a puzzled look and a weirdly proud grin before he turned back towards Loki and Frigga. I knew I was going to have to answer some questions about what I just did to him later...

"Your mother was correct, brat. Laufey was never your father. First of all, I know Frost Giants are technically genderless shape-shifters, but Laufey preferred to be a woman... Laufey was your mom!" He said with a laugh. Now that Azazel mentioned it, in mythology, that was what Laufey was supposed to be. Kind of weird that the MCU decided to gender swap him–er–her.

"Liar! I am no sniveling woman!" I felt the temperature in the room drop before a wave of ice surged forward from the entrance of the throne room where the doors were. The wave of frost smashed into Azazel and completely froze him solid!

"Azazel!" Penemue screamed in outrage before spinning around and glaring at who dared to attack our faction leader! Faster than I could see she had manifested a light Spear and hurled it forward. To my surprise a wall of solid ice formed in its path and the spear was actually halted on contact. Seeing her lightning fast retaliation failed Penemue, rapidly flew over towards me and stood in front of me protectively. I felt my pride take a hit that she thought I needed her protection, but at the same time someone had managed to land a successful sneak attack against Azazel.

[Unless he let the attack hit him on purpose just so he could be all edgy and dramatic later and say something like–'That was chilly'–as he emerges from the ice unscathed.]

'That was true as well...'

A small group of Frost Giants lumbered into the room. In their hands was a recognizable casket.

"The Casket of Ancient Winters!" Frigga exclaimed upon seeing the greatest relic of the Frost Giants returned to them.

Laufey had a glare on his blue tattooed face as he looked towards us all. "That puny Angel lies!" He glared at the frozen Azazel. "I am no woman! I am Laufey, King of the Frost Giants." He declared proudly.

Next to me, Sif snapped out of her funk and stood up suddenly battle-ready. A sword materialized in her hands as she rushed forward and stood in front of the queen protectively. "Not another step forward, monsters. Asgard will not fall to you all today." Sif said as she brandished the weapon at the oversize blue man group.

"Hah, I'm afraid Asgard has already fallen this day. I was wrong to cast you out so quickly, my son." Laufey praised Loki, who suddenly was sporting a look of dread. "You know, I half thought it was a trap; you came to Jotunheim and stood before me, claiming you desired vengeance upon Odin. I did not believe you. And yet, when we snuck into the palace, there was not a single guard anywhere to be seen. Even then, I was weary. And then we snuck all the way into the Allfather's place of rest... and we slew him where he slept!" Laufey declared as the other Frost Giants cheered.

"Odin is dead!" One giant cheered behind Laufey.

""Vengeance for Jotunheim at last!"" The other two joined in.

Oh fuck... I had severely messed up the timeline hadn't I? Loki was supposed to arrive at the last second and save Odin from being killed by Laufey. Instead, Loki had been busy confronting us and had spent the last few minutes rolling on the ground in agony. And then, Frigga, sensing our arrival, came to see what was happening in the throne room. Odin was left completely alone in his chambers and now he was dead.

[Welp... that's unfortunate. Also called it–]

'Huh?'

The ice that had engulfed Azazel began to crack all over. A few seconds later, it shattered as Azazel spread his wings. "Man, that was a bit chilly," he said nonchalantly as he brushed off some leftover ice shards on his shoulders. He was hit by a weapon that could freeze entire continents and emerged completely unscathed. Damn, that was OP...

Laufey looked shocked that someone managed to survive his surprise attack with their race's WMD Casket. "We have achieved a great victory today. We will retreat for now." The group of Frost Giants with him all grabbed onto the casket, and an instant later, they had all vanished in a flash of blue light. They were able to easily teleport right through the wards of Asgard and escape.

"The Allfather is dead!? Where did they go!?" Sif exclaimed as she left the queen's side and ran forward to the spot where the Frost Giants disappeared from.

Frigga just stood there stunned at the revelation that her husband was dead. Loki looked the same. This was all his fault after all—mostly. 'Who even knows? All I know is that it wasn't MY fault. How was I supposed to remember that Laufey was supposed to be here!?'

[Thor's gonna be bummed you let his dad die...]

'...Fuck.'

"The Casket grants them the power to always teleport wherever there is winter. Even the strongest wards cannot hold it back. They've returned back to Jotunheim... for now," Heimdall exclaimed as his eyes glowed and he stared off towards the distance for a moment. "We have bigger issues right now, however... With the Allfather dead, Asgard is weak, and it won't take long before..."

"Well now, are you all here to greet me? I'm flattered." A new voice called out into the throne room. A shadow manifested in the middle of the hall before it morphed into the form of a tall and beautiful woman.

'Double fuck...'

XXX