Chapter 65: Chapter 65: Lædingr
Beta read by n1ch, Shigiya, Solitary heart and 8kagi
This chapter is a bit shorter than the previous one as I was sick when I wrote it. So it couldn't be the same length.
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-Asgard-
The binding of Fenrir.
A tale as old as time, written in the annals of Nordic mythology when Ragnarok threatened to consume all and destroy everything in order to restart the cycle of life. A series of events from great battles between gods and giants, to the looming death of those considered the strongest. Where giants and demons would approach from all points of the compass to attack the gods, who would meet them and face death like heroes. The sun darkening, the stars vanishing, and the Earth sinking into the sea
A few beings were tied to the upcoming Ragnarok. The Æsir, and Vanir all feared the end, yet deep inside them, they knew that there was very little they could do to stop it. This happened countless times in the past, what stopped it from happening again?
But the Allfather and Thor had different plans, a desire to combat this treacherous fate they refused to bow down to and surrender—especially Odin. Known as the strongest, deadliest, and wisest of the Æsir, the ruler of all Nine Realms sought to stop the coming of Ragnarok by any means necessary.
Amongst his current goal, he moreover tried to bound down the son of the god Loki and a giantess, Angerboda—Fenrir. Initially fearing strength and knowing that only evil could be expected of him. Representing savagery that ultimately cannot be controlled, and worst of all, fated to be Æsir's destruction.
At first, they built a fetter named Lædingr to bind the wolf. But to their dismay, the beast managed to overwhelm the chains and break out of them with little to no struggle. His strength ever growing and the approach of winter tolling the end of their fate, they forged another one.
The second fetter, Drómi.
Drowned by arrogance, the beast allowed for the gods to chain him with this new creation. Wanting to prove his strength once again to these fools, Fenrir shook his entire body with unimaginable strength, using greater force and showing a visible amount of struggle; the chains broke in the end as well.
For their third and final attempt, the gods requested the dark elves and the dwarves for help, and through this mutual partnership, forged a fetter far stronger than all past chains. Using materials that defied the laws of creation itself, they forged Gleipnir.
Though they succeeded in bounding the wolf, Odin still remained transfixed with the first two chains. He gathered them up, searching for each fragment across all the different realms one by one, collecting millions of shards; he kept them in his vault for an innumerable amount of centuries. Seeing their hidden potential, he couldn't bring himself to discard them or destroy the precious artifacts.
Time passed, and the war ended as they managed to delay Ragnarok through the combined might of every god and with assistance from other pantheons. Odin lived a life of peace and serenity, choosing to spend the rest of his life reflecting and learning from his own actions which he later labeled as mistakes made by a power-hungry tyrant. At some point, he began seeing the failure of his past beliefs.
He was supposed to be a ruler, one who protected his people and led them to a better future. Yet here he was bringing them pain and suffering with every war. If he continued with such a path, then Asgard would one day end up as prey to one of the many pantheons for their warmongering.
Growing to hate the taste of blood in his mouth, the smell of iron drowning his surroundings, and the many valkyries, gods, friends and family that died at the end of every war—Odin retired.
He became gentle, calmer, wiser– choosing to pursue the simple things in life.
Like boobs and the hidden beauty of the female form.
To preach their magnificence to the following generation during one of his trips to earth.
He lived a quiet life, something which he never experienced once in his long life.
Until an old friend came knocking at his front door.
Azazel.
That old crow came to pay him a visit in his realm, Asgard, of all places. Normally, they would just set up a meeting at a strip club and enjoy the show while talking about any subject. But for him to personally walk through the golden gates while causing Rossweisse a panic attack as due to stressing over the fact how Azazel managed to bypass their defenses in the first place. She nearly had a mental breakdown after reviewing each step of security a few hundred times. He wanted to tell her that he gifted the man a realm key years ago, but just stayed quiet as it was quite the funny scene to watch her overreact to such a small thing.
"For you to stand before me in Asgard, has it finally happened… Has Gabriel finally succumbed to lust and turned into an equally sexy Fallen!?"
It was an important question. That girl stole the hearts of nearly every god king of every pantheon, and several queens, without even trying and that damn Michael wouldn't hesitate to castrate them all if one as much as touched her hair! He was going to touch those boobs one day!
Curse her overprotective brother!
"Hahahaha! As if!" Azazel laughed, finding the Allfather's reaction hilarious. "But no, I came not as Azazel, the Governor of the Grigori, but as a fellow researcher and Sacred Gear enthusiast. I believe that we can help each other out in certain matters."
Now, this was interesting, Odin read about his friend's attempts at recreating Yahweh's famous creations with similar effects in the past. 'A Fool's errand!' he thought at first. Many pantheons tried to replicate the process. Wanting to create an army of powerful Sacred Gear users, but failed in the end—including himself, but without the basic blueprint, all of them had failed in their task.
"You got any interesting scraps lying around? I remember you once scoured the human world for a piece of chain a few centuries ago."
"I cannot hand you Gleipnir, Azazel. That is a sacred artifact that I try to keep away from those with wicked intentions." Especially his son, Loki. His current ambition did not come with good intentions, seeking to return the Nordic faction to its former glory and take the seat of the Allfather. Gleipnir was the only weapon he had against one of the few beings who could kill him.
Unfortunately, Azazel wasn't so easily dissuaded. "Tell me, old friend. We both know why you're keeping Gleipnir hidden in your vault. But it's a pointless endeavor as your son knows of their existence. He saw it being used in the past, and what's to say that he hasn't prepared for it? Fenrir as well, the wolf that continues to grow stronger as time passes. He will break them the next time those chains get used on him. If not, then Loki will surely find a way to strengthen his kid." he said with certainty.
Odin sighed, feeling a sort of headache he hadn't experienced for a long time. Of course, he knew about the current reality of things. Being called one of the wisest beings in existence did not just happen like that, he predicted that even Gleipnir would lose to Fenrir's strength one day.
"Then what do you want me to do? I tried to recreate it in a Sacred Gear form, so that one day, a valiant warrior with the will of a dragon could push the chains beyond their might and grow stronger. But after 3 deaths and 9 failures, I have given up."
Thor mentioned how this was an impossible feat even for Odin.
"Hehehehe!" Azazel laughed. "You gave up too early! Failure is creation's father, to successfully create something you must first fail. Even if it is thousands of times, as long as you don't give up, you will have achieved your goal in the end." Azazel spoke out loud, trying to win the King of gods with his words.
"Humph, then I guess you can create one with that tone of yours. You're still working with Fafnir yet all I hear is the little progress you've made throughout the years."
A smirk formed on the Governor's face.
"Funny you should say that… wanna have a bet?"
That got Odin's interest. He gained a lot of pleasure from things like gambling and bets, no matter how small the reward might be.
"I'm listening."
Hopefully, Rossweisse wouldn't hear about this and snitch him to his wife.
Azazel extended his palm, showing five of his fingers to the Allfather. "5 years, that's all I ask. Lend me all of your stored fetters and I will make your past dream come true. If I fail, then you can have this." He pulled out a dark crystal sphere from his pockets the size of his hand.
Odin's all seeing eye saw right through the item in less than a second. His aura flared dramatically, for the first in years, he felt his heart point with exhilaration. All of Gladsheim shook from his power, the shockwave spread across all of Asgard—even reaching the far away realms.
The valkyries ran to the main throne room with their weapons drawn.
Had an enemy engaged in combat against their king?
"Lord Odin!"
Rossweisse was the first one to barge through the giant metal doors. With her black and white armor shining with her own magic and a silver sword, she was shocked to see smirking Azazel standing in the middle with a laid back stance and Odin's magical powers drowning the hall with enough pressure to even make her feel afraid.
She had never seen such a side of him.
With a large maniacal grin on his face, the Allfather laughed loudly.
"Interesting! Marvelous! So you finally managed to do it, old crow! Hahahaha! I don't care, take them! Take whatever you want from my vault and let me spectate the end product when the time comes!"
The poor valkyrie was lost.
'Just… what happened here?'
Forget it, they weren't paying her enough for this.
{Break}
"Bind Ragnarok, [Lædingr!]"
Saji's voice pierced throughout the battlefield, somehow drowning Jeanne's Stake Victim Dragoon's roar.
To everyone watching the fight, an enormous magic circle formed near where Kiba was and up in the sky above Jeanne. With the symbol of a wolf's head in the middle and thousands of runes that Hachiman would recognise from Scáthach's lesson.
Saji flew right in the middle, now wielding his new Artificial Sacred Gear. Unlike his previous one, [Absorption Line], who took the form of a gecko head attached to the back of his hand—his current Sacred Gear looked far different. A bronze coloured pauldron on his right shoulder with three chains wrapping around his arm.
From the magic circle in the sky, a single chain made of white light shot out and wrapped around the sword-dragon's body. Another one came from the ground and shut the creature's jaws. Both kept the dragon suspended in the air, immobile. No matter how hard it tried to move, the dragon couldn't free itself from Saji's Sacred Gear.
"What kind of Sacred Gear is this!? I never heard of anything like this!" Jeanne shouted out, shocked to see her strongest creation stopped.
Clash!
She used her rapier on the chains, and tried to break or pierce them apart. But even with dozens of strong attacks, she only managed to cut a small part of the chain links. To her dismay, they even reformed faster than she could damage them.
"That's awesome!" Issei screamed, cheering for his friend. "Teach that bitch a lesson!"
"Way to go, Saji-kun!" Even Irina joined, not caring that the blond boy was a Devil.
Truth be told, even under an intense battle, Saji still felt very flustered with their cheers. It wasn't every day he would get such a treatment, so he didn't know how to handle it. Still, he would think about it later, now he had to hand a fake dragon beat down!
"So, you like my new Sacred Gear? You should, it's stronger than my previous one and perfectly counters yours!" With another hand gesture, a third chain appeared and caught Jeanne's foot. The latter was too distracted with the fact that someone managed to immobilize her Balance Breaker to react to the chain.
"Let me go!" she demanded, finding herself incapable of freeing from Lædingr's restraint.
"Humph, as if! Idiot!." Saji insulted the girl, enjoying her enraged face. "Oi, Kiba! Are you okay? Can you stand?"
"Hngh!"
Pushing the rubbles away, Kiba limped out of the broken house, using his sword as a crutch to stand. Panting heavily while ensuring the many injuries around his body, he gave Saji a thumbs up. "Ha… Ha… I-Im… fine." he said, panting heavily. "I… I can… can still fight!"
He tried to create another sword but had his knees give out and nearly fall if it weren't for Irina coming to his aid.
"You look more miserable than the last time we fought." she said jokingly, putting his arm around her neck and acting as his support.
"..."
"Come on, we need to get you back to Momo-san, Ise-kun has a single boost available and we can use it to heal you."
It felt weird, just a few days ago, he wouldn't hesitate to pierce his sword through her heart and kill her for his revenge. Yet this same person was helping him when she didn't need to.
"W-why… " his throat felt like sandpaper, probably damaged from the fall. "... he-help… me." was all that he could manage to mutter.
Kiba let her guide him towards Momo, as he wasn't even confident to make it on his own if he insisted.
"Hehehe," Irina laughed with embarrassment. "We started off on the wrong foot. When we first met, I was quick to judge you and the Black Dragon King. Seeing you as enemies even though we never met and even tried to downplay the horrible consequences of the Holy Sword Project. Though I still think that it was brought into the world, I can't ignore the bad things it has done to you and your family."
She hesitated for a bit, "But I'm largely doing this because of Sister Asia."
"—?"
He gave her an inquisitive stare, confused on why she was bringing up the nun into this matter.
"As Hikigaya Hachiman mentioned before, Sister Asia is someone of pure heart and intentions. She forgave both me and Xenovia even after our misdeeds. I wondered, why can't I be like her? So here I am, not helping a Devil but someone who needs help out of goodwill, just like her. Something which will most likely get me branded as a witch if the others were to hear about it." Even though her tone was somber, Irina continued to smile brightly. "You know, if both Xenovia and I come out alive from this mission, we'll help you get revenge on Valper!"
"..."
Why did he feel ashamed?
He was fine when they established a deal to let him destroy some of the swords in exchange for helping them get the swords out of the Fallen's hand. Her current words hit differently as it wasn't made out of necessity, but out of her own desire. She was being nice and helpful to him.
Back with Jeanne and Saji, the former still tried to free herself from Lædingr while Saji continued to throw harsh insults and mockery at her face. She had a high tolerance for such a thing, but this man was so annoying!
"You have more dick in your personality than you do in your pants!"
Not being able to take more of his abuse, she threw her own jab at him. Saji flinched at the counter, feeling both offended and hurt.
Crash!
Out of nowhere, a fog portal appeared on the opposite side of Momo and the rest and Irina's horror, she witnessed a beaten up Xenovia fall out from it and crash in a similar fashion as Kiba through another house.
"Xenovia!"
She was heavily injured as well, barely being conscious and covered in burns.
"What happened to her?" Saji and everyone else wondered as they didn't expect for there to be another enemy aside from Jeanne.
Through the fog portal, a single person walked out.
A young man with jet black hair and spectacles. He wore a combination of a Japanese school uniform and a mage-style robe over his uniform with a feathered cape. Just like Jeanne, be walked into the air with relative ease, using the same spell as her.
"You seem to be having some trouble, Jeanne. I expected more from the descendant of the Maid of Orléans. Cao Cao will be very disappointed with how much you're struggling against weak opponents." he spoke condescendingly, further worsening her mood.
"Georg… finally decided to come out of your little hole I see. I thought you would remain hidden from view during the whole battle like a coward."
This was not good, Saji was already struggling to keep Jeanne's dragon under control, but he wouldn't be able to handle another enemy in a battle.
And if this person managed to beat Xenovia without even getting hurt, then not even Irina would be able to help out.
'We are royally screwed.'
"I had this under control!" Jeanne argued. "I can handle a newbie like him!"
She pointed at Saji.
"Oh yeah, you're the one trapped by a low class Devil like me! And you call yourself a hero, you're nothing but a phony!"
That blew her fuse.
"That's it, I had enough!" Jeanne gave up trying to break her bonds, she instead summoned another rapier similar to the ones he used as her main weapon. Her first sword pointed toward Kiba and the rest while the other one at the unconscious Xenovia. "I'm giving you five seconds to deactivate your Sacred Gear before I skewer everyone here!"
"Oh, this is interesting." Georg said while he decided to take the role of a spectator and just see how Jeanne could get herself out of this situation without his help.
Holy energy amalgamated around both of her rapiers, using the same beam attack she used against Kiba.
"Oi, what kind of hero are you!?"
Everyone couldn't believe her actions, she claimed to be a hero and now was using them as hostages to win. That was downright heinous and cowardly!
"Where is your pride as a Holy Sword user!?" Irina screamed at the top of her lungs. She was confident at blocking the attack on herself, but that would mean leaving both Akeno, Kiba and Momo unprotected. And if Saji tried to protect them, then Xenovia would be left defenseless.
"God will never forgive sinners like you!"
That caused Jeanne's expression to sour, she gave Irina a disgusted face. "Don't talk to me about a being that has left us." Her attention returned to a stressed Saji. "Now, choose one!"
"Tch!"
He was stuck, if he let her go, then he wouldn't have enough stamina and magic left to hold down the dragon once again. He could only defend one group at a time, even if he trusted one of the sides to be able to protect themselves, Jeanne was someone who played dirty, she could fire at both sides at the same time and have Georg help her out!
"Two!"
Damn it, damn it, damn it!
"Three!"
"Saji!" Momo called him. "Don't worry about us, keep her chained and focus on Xenovia."
Issei shared the same opinion. "As she says, I got a trick up my sleeve!"
Really? Did Hyoudou really have a way to help them out in this situation?
'He's a man of his words, maybe he's onto something here.' Saji thought to himself, really hoping that the dragon user had a plan.
He cursed himself for not being strong enough to use his Sacred Gear at its fullest. According to Azazel, Lædingr had many hidden capabilities which he hadn't unlocked yet. Including the ability to achieve a Balance Breaker form. At a certain point, he would even be able to use it in an offensive way rather than his current style—but he still hadn't reached that stage.
"Four!"
He had no choice, he begged Issei in his mind to not let him down.
"Five!"
"Alright, you better not fucking let me down, Hyoudou!"
On the ground, a large grin appeared on Issei's face, glad that his friend chose to believe in him. He called everyone to stand behind him, his next move was something he talked about extensively with Ddraig and he only had ten seconds in that form. His Boosted Gear shined once again, with another boost power up added to his total.
This was a back up plan in a life or death scenario, something Ddraig wished that he should save for when facing Albion. But this was an emergency, and if he didn't use it, then he and the rest would probably die.
That should be enough to defeat both Jeanne and Georg according to the dragon!
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Crack!
The loud and distinct sound of something breaking spread around.
"Huh?"
Georg looked above at the source of the noise, his eyes widened when he saw the delicate hand of a young girl ripping space apart like it was made of paper! The other side being a realm of pure darkness, a void he was familiar with. His Dimension Lost, a top tier Sacred Gear, was one of the strongest powers in the world, powerful enough to be labeled as a Longinus. Considered to be one of the biggest cheat-like abilities and world-class powers capable of destroying the world if used to that extent—very few beings could casually break it apart like that.
And who else aside from the girl they were searching for all this time to be the only one to rip it apart.
Faster than he could blink, a black figure descended at high speed towards the unsuspecting Jeanne who was about to use her Holy Sword beam attack.
"Look out!"
It was too late.
Giant black wings appeared above her head, with what sounded like a thunder strike, a black gauntlet punched the hero right in the stomach, folding her body into two as she was sent crashing through the ground below. The chains which were holding her foot broke loose.
"Revenge really feels good, doesn't it?"
Both Kiba and Saji sighed in relief when they saw the familiar Prison Wings belonging to a single person.
"You sure took your time, senpai!"
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The next 5 chapters of Snafu, Harry Potter and my 2 Fate fics (Fate Coiling Sword having 3 chapters) are already available on my P@treon. With 4 more Broly chapters at /NimtheWriter. Also, I post monthly commissioned arts on each story, already posted a few on an Archer's Promise and Snafu.
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