Asgard
“I am coming too,” Thor said, getting up from his seat.
“Are you sure? I thought you’d prefer to spend time with Jane instead.” Which was his brother’s favorite pastime activity these last few days. That and regular spars in the Tenth Realm.
“She is busy with her work, and I don’t want to bother her. And I might even get to meet another version of myself,” he said. He had learned much from observing his counterpart.
“Why? The one you met wasn’t enough?”
“He was. I realized that I am too reliant on Mjolnir. I was going to spar with a projection of Father without the hammer, but this is an even better opportunity.”
“Then let us not wait,” he said, opening the portal, letting Cosmo jump through first.
—
Midgard
Well of Urd
“I enjoyed your story, Kratos. Pity it has to end so soon,” Urd said, laughing along with her sisters, mocking the Ghost of Sparta as he left.
Only for them to choke on their joy.
“What is happening?” Kratos asked, watching the sisters suddenly start coughing.
“I don’t know,” Freya said, hesitating with her words.
“Are you alright?” she asked Urd, not even certain if she wanted to know.
“Something changed… our predictions… they no longer seem accurate,” Urd said, her voice distant, as if she were not there.
Kratos looked down at his belt. “Head?”
“Brother, how can I know when even they don’t?”
—
Thor shuddered, feeling the cold bite, which meant it wasn’t an ordinary weather event. They were in a frozen valley with no sign of life around. It was snowing heavily, but none of it mattered to Thor.
The enormous serpent that was using the mountains as pillows did.
His jaw fell, and he latched on his brother’s arm, shaking him. If Loki were still of flesh and blood, he would have been ragdolled by the force.
“Loki, it’s a giant snake!” he squealed like a little girl. He looked up, rolling his eyes, a groan echoing through the valley.
“For the love of…" he started, stopping himself from cursing. If Thor were any less prideful, he would be jumping on the tips of his toes.
“Quick, we have to get a photo.”
“Assuming we are in Midgard, that is most likely Jormungandry, the World Serpent who is prophesied to kill you in Midgardian beliefs.”
Thor waved a hand. “Psh, it will be fine. He must be hibernating because of the weather. If I can change it, he should wake up.”
“How about you don’t cause trouble for the locals?” he suggested with half-lidded eyes. Of all the things they could encounter, it had to be a mountain-sized snake.
“Look around you. What locals?” Thor asked.
“I am certain someone in the distance will see this.”
“Come on, Loki, just help him,” Cosmo said, bumping his leg with her snout.
“Ugh, very well,” he said. Rather than changing the weather and causing panic, he decided to wake the serpent up by increasing its body heat. A gentle shell of warm, circulating air covered Jormungandr—assuming the serpent was him in the first place. The layer of ice and snow began to melt, but it was slow. He didn’t wish to give thermal shock to the serpent, not when they were rudely awakening him because Thor wanted a picture.
He monitored the creature as Thor used his terminal to take pictures. Quickly, he realized the beast was not exactly what he appeared to be. Its body was that of a serpent, but the soul he carried was that of a mammal.
The species was not something he could divine without a more invasive look.
—
The heat slowly brought him out of the deep slumber he was in. Ragnarok had not yet passed; he could feel that much, yet the air around him had warmed up pleasantly. He shook his head, flicking the snow off his hide.
The first noticeable thing his bleary eyes saw was someone flying in front of him, holding onto something, waving a hand with the crackling taste of thunder around him.
The first thing he did was snap forward, his colossal jaw closing down around the God of Thunder.
—
Loki blinked, slapping his forehead.
“Did that snake just eat Thor?” Cosmo asked, her tongue out, breath still.
“He is fine,” he muttered. The serpent’s maw was forced open, Mjolnir pulling the lower jaw down while Thor pushed the upper one up.
“Loki, quick, take the picture." Thor’s voice came from the beast’s mouth. The serpent was just as surprised, stopping as he tried to process what was happening.
There he stood, forcing the maw of a colossal beast open just for a photo.
Loki sighed, taking off, standing before the serpent’s forcibly opened mouth. He raised the terminal on his left wrist, snapping photos from different angles. Done with his task, he gave Thor a very slow thumbs up.
His brother walked to the edge of the beast’s mouth, hands careful to not touch the teeth. Jormungandr didn’t show any resistance, letting the offending god out. Thor flipped out, landing on his snout.
“Hello there,” he said, waving his hand. “Apologies about the rude awakening. I am Thor; it is a pleasure to meet you, great one.”
“You are not Thor,” Jormungandr said, slow and drawn out and deep and loud enough to kill a mortal. Each word was akin to someone dragging a mountain across the ocean's river.
Thor blocked his ears, feeling the voice shake him down to his bones.
“Not the one you know, but I am Thor Odinson, God of Thunder.”
“Explain,” he snarled, searching for an angle to strike again.
“We are from another universe,” Thor said, rubbing the back of his head. There was a significant chance the last word didn’t make sense to the serpent.
“Wait, how do we explain it to him?” he said, turning to his brother, who had simply appeared next to him.
“We don’t,” Loki said, holding his hand out.
“If you would allow me, I can show you what my brother means,” he spoke, not with words but in the serpent’s mind.
The massive head moved back, nostrils and eyes widening. “Very well,” he replied in kind.
Information on matters and subjects he had never considered before flooded his mind. He saw the existence of the infinite, of that which could be, was actually happening in branching timelines and faraway universes.
“This is…” Jormungandr said, looking to the sky, to where countless stars and worlds lay.
“Awe-inspiring?" Loki asked, smiling at the beast’s expression.
“Perhaps.”
“We are simply traveling,” Thor said, hanging Mjolnir on his belt. “From your reaction, it is obvious that there is bad blood between you and my brother’s counterpart. We just want to say there is no need for the animosity to take place between us.”
“Brother? Are you Baldur?” he asked, remembering the unkillable son of Odin and how he was summoned to aid in battle.
He shook his head. “I am Loki.”
The serpent tilted his head, realizing why he felt like trusting this Aesir. “Loki, son of Odin?”
"Adopted, but yes,” he said, hoping that the particular belief concerning Jormungandr’s parentage was not true here.
The beast’s body rumbled, sending tremors through Thor’s body. “Your Odin would raise another’s child as his?”
“I am getting the feeling Asgard here isn’t exactly like back home,” Loki said. From that response alone the beast did not hold the Allfather of this universe in high regard.
“Me too,” Thor said, swinging his hammer without even looking, slapping a projectile away. He leaped down, landing on the ground with an eruption of snow and mud. Loki floated down next to him, watching their assailants. Cosmo had already taken her stance, baring her teeth and growling.
Two gods, both flesh and blood, yet wildly different. The ashen-skinned one was muscular and bald but sported a lush mustache and a beard. A red tattoo is going around his shoulder, back, and down his left eye. His garb consisted of hides stacked over his right arm like plate armor, leaving his left arm bare, and the hide of a beast wrapped around his shoulders like a cape.
His weapons were an axe that radiated chilling frost with the screams of creatures mixed in while the twin chained blades exuded primordial fire.
His companion, a goddess with disheveled hair and a blade in her hand, was dressed far more gracefully. Her brown tunic was held together by sashes and a circular metal piece over her belly, acting like armor.
Both seemed angry.
“You are not Thor,” the bald one said, a layer of frost creeping up his axe’s blade.
“Though he seems to have gone to great lengths to look like the wanker.” A voice came from behind him, though; upon a closer look, they saw a talking head hanging from the god’s waist.
“I am Thor, just not the one you know,” he said, raising one hand in peace, while the other held Mjolnir by the handle.
The goddess twirled her blade once, pointing at Thor. “I am certain there is only one Thor.”
“Yet more than one universe, where the Nine Realms, similar to this one but different in most aspects, exist,” he said. They both draw blank looks. Explaining the existence of different universes to these medieval gods would be difficult with how hostile they were.
“Enough. What do you seek here?” Kratos asked, still not lowering his axe. He didn’t exactly understand the explanation. What he understood was that this Thor was indeed not the one he fought. He didn’t carry himself with the reckless abandon and drunken rage the Thor he knew did.
“Traveling,” Loki said, inspecting the man’s weapons. The axe was well-crafted, but it was the blades that had his interest. They carried the pain of loss, the anger of a god wronged, and the blood of countless innocents, as well as the guilty.
Freya’s eyes flickered up to the World Serpent. He was still glancing towards the sky, ignoring the standoff. “Did you wake Jormungandr?” With how cold he was, it would take an exceptional amount of magic to wake him.
She felt nothing from Thor’s companion.
“He loves snakes and couldn’t help himself. I simply helped so he wouldn’t disturb the weather and cause the locals to panic,” Loki said, trying to discern their identities from the myths.
“Why don’t we sit down somewhere and introduce ourselves rather than resorting to violence?” Thor offered.
The ashen-skinned god glanced at his companion, both nodding at the same time. A Thor who offered diplomacy rather than Mjolnir at full speed only made it more difficult to believe his claims.
“Follow us,” Kratos said. Whether a deceit by Odin or not, they would get to the bottom of this. Better to keep their enemy close as they did.
—
“Fascinating,” he said, running a hand over the tree. “So Yggdrasil actually exists as a tree in this universe.”
Freya stopped in her tracks, not sure what it meant. “Does it not in yours?” How could he know the World Tree if it did not exist as a tree?
“No. It is a well of energy that includes the Nine Realms within it. There is no actual tree,” he said. The pulses of magic he sent came back with wildly different results. Each branch led to a different realm, with a void between them.
Thor threw his arm around Loki, pulling him along. “Maybe you should leave your research for later, brother?”
“I suppose so,” he said, letting himself be dragged.
“Brother?” The goddess turned to him sharply. “Are you Baldur?” she asked. Her voice, tight and uneven so far, had suddenly become so quiet.
“Loki,” he said. Given how she had reacted to the name, it was possible this was Frigga, the counterpart to their mother. The tenderness in her voice at uttering that name was nothing short of parental longing. Still, the universal differences made it virtually impossible to confirm anything.
Now it was her companion’s turn to stop, his voice falling just as silent. “Atreus?”
“No,” he said, having a feeling where this was going. It was possible both Baldur and Loki were dead. Which meant they arrived at a bad time.
Freya rubbed her head, pacing around. “This is getting confusing." Each word from the mysterious unknowns made her question their decision to take them to their sanctuary.
“There is a method to resolve it, but I doubt you would allow me to connect to your minds as Jormungandr did,” he said offhandedly. In truth, it would be so much easier if they could be convinced of such. Whatever his brother’s counterpart and Asgard had done to them obviously made them enemies.
Who the villain in this story was remained to be seen.
“Bloody hell,” the talking head cursed. “He let you do something like that?” He knew enough about the other pantheons to know whatever his race was, it wasn’t from theirs.
“Yes. There is obviously some sort of familiarity between him and this universe’s Loki. Given what the Midgardian myths say, it is kind of expected,” he said, still praying it wasn’t true.
“Really? What do they say?” the head asked. He too wanted to sit down—figuratively in his case—and talk. This was either a brand new trap by Odin, one that was too obvious, or the promise of something entertaining.
Enough to give the Norns a stop at least.
“That he is my son with another Jotun, Angrboda, along with Fenrir and Hel, the Goddess of Death,” Loki said.
The gods and the head fell silent while Thor snickered.
“Brother, you did give him the talk, right?” the head said to the bald one, prompting him to grunt and swipe his hand at him.
Cosmo burst out laughing, her voice echoing in their minds.
—
Sindri’s House
“Sit,” Kratos ordered, standing before the table, fists clenched.
Thor shrugged, taking the offered seat, even if their host was a tad rude. Loki followed along, inspecting the room.
“Who are these?” a short, blue creature asked, strolling up to them.
“Didn’t know we were having guests. Should I get something to drink?” another person, possibly a dwarf, asked, his voice soft where the blue one’s was harsher than sandpaper.
He approached Thor, scratching his beard, narrowing his eyes. “What’s with that look? Are you trying to look like that fat pig Thor or something?”
Loki snorted. “Fat pig? Brother, it appears you will be disappointed at meeting your counterpart.”
Thor rolled his eyes.
“Counterpart? Kratos, Freya, what is he talking about?” a third god, the tallest by far in the room, asked, scanning the newcomers.
“We don’t understand either,” Freya said, shaking her head. "However, something left the Norns speechless, and right after leaving, we found them. They promised an explanation.”
Loki caught on to the part about the Norns, but he was occupied with the real god beneath the illusion.
“Is there something on my face, young one?” Tyr asked, finding the scrutinizing eyes unnerving, as if they were seeing deeper than anyone else could.
He smiled lazily. “No. Just examining the technique of your transformation.”
The dwarves and the gods turned towards Tyr. “What illusion?” Brok asked, eyes shifting between Loki and Tyr.
Loki gave the blue dwarf a blank look, waving his hand towards the tall god. Golden dust burst around him, leaving a much shorter and less impressive-looking person in his place.
“Odin!” Freya screamed, leaping at the one-eyed god with pupils dilating, her face setting into a snarl.
Odin Allfather, who looked so weak that both brothers were left speechless, slammed his hands towards the ground, creating a blinding flash. When Freya’s sword cut through where his head used to be, he was gone, leaving nothing behind but the cawing of ravens.
“No,” she scowled, stomping her right foot on the ground.
“What was that?” Kratos growled, brandishing his axe once more.
Loki smirked. This was definitely going to be fun.