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Ethan and the Warriors Three stood in the throne room of the Asgardian royal palace. The royal court had adjourned moments ago.
With Malekith reduced to charred meat in the middle of the room by a concentrated blast of the Odinforce, and Loki locked away in the dungeons for the foreseeable future, the realm was still reeling from the Dark Elf invasion that had ravaged them just days prior.
One thing Ethan noted was the behavior of the "commonfolk" toward Thor.
They seemed to almost revere him—the prince who not only lost his mother but also defeated the villain and his army before more harm could be wrought. Truly, a hero's tale.
Ethan looked toward Thor, who stood near the throne, staring at the charred remains of Malekith. He hadn't expected his father to execute him in such a fashion; death was not out of the question, but the manner of it disturbed him—it was a side of his father he had never truly seen.
After all, it was dishonorable to kill a man while restrained.
Jane stood beside him. She had recovered enough from the Aether extraction process to attend the proceedings, though the way her body shook betrayed that she had not expected an execution.
Ethan and Thor locked eyes for a moment across the hall. Ethan gave a slight nod and motioned toward his back, where Jane stood.
Thor moved toward her, immediately engulfing her in a hug, casting one last look at Malekith's remains and then toward his father.
Odin was already stirring. "The court is adjourned," he announced before promptly leaving the throne room.
As Ethan prepared to leave and find Thor, one of the Einherjar guards approached him. "The All-Father would have a word with you. This way," he spoke, in a no-nonsense voice.
Ethan raised an eyebrow, but the guard was already moving, so he followed. Soon, they arrived at what appeared to be a small but classic library, intended more for personal use.
Odin could be seen standing there in his armor, Gungnir held firm in his right arm, while he flipped through the pages of a book.
"Do you have kids, Sorcerer?" Odin asked suddenly.
"No," Ethan spoke after a pause. "I am not that blessed."
"Or cursed. Heh 'When I'm king, I'll hunt the monsters down and slay them all, just as you did, Father.' Thor said those words to me when he was but a child..." Odin stated, not even looking up from the book.
Ethan looked around the room. To their left was furniture made of aged wood, lined with books. The room itself was like standing in a gold mine; everything was plated in, or colored like, the precious metal.
The Einherjar who brought him there had already left. He made to speak, but the All-Father continued;
"How do you tell a child that the monsters they have been taught to slay there whole life is their own father?" Odin spoke, looking directly at him, and nudged his neck to tell Ethan to move toward the balcony.
"The crimes for which I punished Loki are nothing compared to the atrocities I committed in my young days—but you already knew that, didn't you? You are her ward, after all," Odin added, as they made their way to the open balcony.
The entirety of the Asgardian capital city was visible, and there were chairs made of gold and fruits to dine on.
Ethan didn't answer his question. "From The God-King Odin to The Good-King Odin." he spat the title out. After all, it was a title earned in blood.
Ethan had read through the non-aggression pact that the Earth's Sorcerer Supreme of old had managed to secure with the Asgardian Royal Family—that is, Odin himself. However, the pact was not binding; it was just a sheet of paper with Odin's signature.
The loose agreement was that Earth would willfully come under Asgardian protection as one of the Nine Realms; in return, they would provide Asgardian forces to help during natural disasters and even with interdimensional threats—which was, of course, never honored.
The only form of help they had received was Thor helping clean up after Loki, another Asgardian.
"May I ask why a meeting between us is being held here?" Ethan asked.
"Speak candidly, Sorcerer. I do not want to stand on tradition this close to the end," Odin said, as he made to sit on a nearby chair.
"The end?" Ethan asked, as he plucked a red grape and sat down.
There was a pause. With Odin looking directly at Park and Ethan simply enjoying the view.
"Ragnarok," Odin finally spoke. "It is coming. I can feel it."
Now that word caught his attention.
"Since you told me to stop standing on tradition, what the hell are you going to do about it? Preparing a 'glorious end,' maybe? Now that would be something I would pay money to watch." Ethan sensed the Odinforce spike at his words; this wasn't an attack, just a reflex.
A lesser being would have been panting on the ground just from being in his presence.
Odin hadn't expected me to stop being traditional, Ethan thought.
Clunk.
The Mahoraga wheel spun. Years prior, Ethan had adapted to the Odinforce blast and facets of the power itself, but the force possessed a versatile range of applications—from simple energy manipulation to teleportation, matter transformation, mind manipulation, and even reality warping.
As Mahoraga analyzed the Odinforce, information flooded Ethan's brain. He realized the connection between the force and Odin wasn't as vast as he had initially expected—despite the force bearing his name. It was surprisingly diluted; Odin acted more like an anchor than a conduit.
The vast majority of the power flowed through Asgard itself, with the rest branching toward hundreds of distant realms. What remained in Odin was a mere sliver of his original capacity.
This discovery presented Ethan with a potential solution for his Shikigami deployment. He shared a link with all his summons, but over long distances, once a Shikigami exhausted its Cursed Energy, it dissipated back into his shadow.
If Mahoraga could provide a model to channel his Cursed Energy to his Shikigami remotely, similar to how Odin channeled the Odinforce... that would be a game-changer.
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A/N: So how was the chapter?