Chaos God 8, page 1
part #8 of Chaos God Series
Chapter 1
The landscape of Asgard was much the same as it had always been to my eyes, and yet the entire planet was wholly changed.
In just the two days since I’d taken action to reassert balance in this world, and since Surtr’s escape, the magical forces of Asgard had begun to settle into a new era of balance.
I smiled at the calming sensation of peace that radiated from the mountains, the Black Plains, and the forests beyond my castle’s walls as Milo stretched and yawned in my arms.
“Oooh, big stretch,” I cooed to my newborn son.
His eyes didn’t even open, and he promptly fell back into a deep and restful sleep. I’d always wondered about the idea of “sleeping like a baby” since babies were famous for interrupting their parents’ sleep cycles. But as I gazed down at the tiny infant in my arms, I finally understood. Milo woke up every few hours to be fed or comforted, but during those bursts of sleep, he was so peaceful and angelic. I didn’t think I’d ever slept that well, even when I was a baby.
Milo jammed a tiny fist against the growing chub in his cheek, and I turned my gaze back to the state of my world.
Asgard was healing quickly, and I was filled with peace and joy at the state of things here. It hadn’t even been a year since I’d come to this place, but it was entirely my home. I felt a deep sense of ownership and responsibility over Asgard and all the people of this planet, and I was determined to find Surtr and stop him before any more harm came to this place.
“Should we go down for the meeting, my love?” Elora’s voice was as recognizable as my own, and my heart filled with more love. “It’s time we fill everyone in on our plans for pursuing Surtr across the Nine Realms.”
“Yeah,” I said as I turned around.
All five of my lovers sat together on our huge bed, and I marveled at the differences between them.
Elora’s beauty was sharp and bright like moonlight, with her long silvery hair and pointed light-elf ears. Shalanna’s spiky black hair was growing long and a bit shaggy around the edges as it reached her shoulders. Sylmarie’s long wavy hair was so black it shone blue in the sunlight that streamed through the window. Freesia’s bright red curls and vivid green eyes stood out among the group like the last flower surviving among the frost. Lyrie’s charcoal complexion was a stark contrast to the pale and creamy skin tones of my other lovers, and her stark white hair created its own contrast against the deep shade of her cheeks. She was like a movie star from the old days of black-and-white films, but in reverse.
They were entirely different from one another, and yet they all loved me as intensely as I loved them.
For a second, I was overcome by how much good had entered my life since I’d been pulled through that rainbow portal ten and a half months ago. That night had started like any other in my human life until a fucking demon broke into my escape room and trashed the place. I thought I’d lost everything, but now I knew it was only the shedding of an old life that was never really mine.
Now I was Levi, God King of Asgard, with five women who loved me with every part of themselves, and three amazing, beautiful children.
“Ari and Ker are returning as we speak,” Sylmarie said as her dark blue eyes refocused from that far-away place where she saw things.
Milo, Ari, and Ker.
Three children, born of two of the strongest women I’d ever known in either of my lifetimes. While Milo changed every day, and even from one hour to the next, Ari and Ker seemed to have been born exactly as they would always be.
The ethereal twins Sylmarie had birthed just two days ago were beautiful in a dark and mysterious kind of way, and I felt an overwhelming sense of love for them that was as strong as the protective love I felt for the tiny infant in my arms.
“Let me have him,” Shalanna murmured in a soft tone as she reached for Milo. “I will bring him to Ingrid and meet you all in the healing hall.”
“Okay,” I replied as I brought Milo up to kiss his tiny forehead. “I love you, little prince.”
I passed my newborn son to his mother and placed a kiss on her short black hair. I wondered briefly if the child would ever be able to sleep comfortably in a regular bed. He was almost constantly held by someone who loved him completely, and he was rarely put down for more than a few moments at a time. I figured there was no harm in it, though. He was the son of a god after all, he should be treated like royalty.
“We all love you,” Freesia added as she tucked a long red curl behind her half-pointed ear.
“Come, the chancellors will be gathering,” Sylmarie said with an indulgent smile for baby Milo. “Sleep sweet, little prince.”
Shalanna walked past Elora and Lyrie so they could both give our baby boy a kiss, and it made my heart warm to see how easily my lovers had brought Lyrie into the fold. The sexy dark elf had confessed to me that she’d been nervous about how my lovers would react to our new relationship, but Elora, Shalanna, Freesia, and Sylmarie had welcomed Lyrie into their hearts.
Now it felt like she’d always been a part of our unique little family.
I smiled at my ladies as Shalanna moved gently out the door to deliver our sleeping child to my elven housekeeper.
Sylmarie smirked at me as she ushered the rest of us out the door behind Shalanna, and I chuckled at her.
“We have much business to attend to, your majesty,” Sylmarie teased.
“I thought you might start calling me ‘Allfather’?” I joked.
“Does that include us, too?” Elora giggled as she paused at the top of the stairs.
“No,” I laughed. “You can call me whatever you like.”
“I rather like Allfather,” Lyrie laughed lightly. “It has a lovely ring to it.”
“I think so, too.” Freesia grinned. “I believe I overheard Chancellor Finnern use that title with one of the dwarves yesterday.”
“Oh, good,” I chuckled. “It’s catching on, then.”
My ladies laughed playfully at me as we made our way down the stone stairs and into Freesia’s healing hall. The room had quickly turned into a meeting hall for me, my chancellors, and my ladies to plan out the events that lay ahead of us. It was the largest room aside from the dining hall, and in here, we were out of the way of the people.
The former dwarven king, Sir Finnern, sat chatting comfortably with Freesia’s father, the horsemaster of Svören Village. The scarred Valkyrie, Nae, sat comfortably beside the powerful dark elf, Emneth, and my twin demi-god children, Ker and Ari, stood silently near the windows.
My ladies and I found spots among the group as we all greeted one another, and we settled in to wait for our other companions.
My best friend, the big, blond warrior named Ayen arrived next. He was soon followed by the beautiful blonde huldra, Innay, and her sister, Nenna. My half-brother Vidar was the last to arrive, and he shrugged his broad shoulders sheepishly.
“My apologies for the delay,” he said as he found a seat beside Nenna.
The green-eyed huldra leaned over to give him a kiss on the cheek, and I couldn’t help but see the slight eye roll Innay offered at the display. She smoothed her hands over the soft yellow material of her ankle-length dress, and I indulged in enjoying her beauty for a moment.
The ever-present purple flowers circled around the crown of her head like they grew right from her scalp, and her straight blonde hair was a lovely ashy shade. Her silky locks fell well past her waist, and she brushed a long strand behind her bare shoulder. The braided straps of her dress wound behind her shoulders and looped back around the front to crisscross under her breasts, but the rest of the dress was simple. Her feet were bare as usual, and I wondered if her toes ever got cold.
During the two days that my Aesir brother, his lover, and her sister had been at Castle Levi with us, I’d discovered that Innay was the older sister. She’d always tried and struggled to protect her younger, more carefree sister, but Innay had long since given up trying to change Nenna’s mind about anything.
“It’s no problem,” I assured him before I addressed the group as a whole. “Sylmarie, will you recap the plan we’ve decided on over the last couple of days, to make sure everyone is on the same page, please?”
“Yes, Allfather,” Sylmarie said with just the tiniest smirk. “We will pool together all the magical resources we have at our disposal to open a rainbow bridge in order to follow the primordial giant, Surtr across the Nine Realms.”
Fuck yeah, we would.
The more human parts of myself felt stunned all over again to hear such a wild concept laid out before me, and my mind reeled with amazement for a moment.
Despite all the time I’d spent on Asgard, and all the magic I’d learned and mastered, I still felt wide-eyed about the idea of planet-hopping across rainbow bridges in search of a primordial giant.
If someone had told me a year ago this is what my life was going to become, I would have laughed in their face. But here I was, God of Asgard, Loki reincarnate, and about to track an enormous monster across the galaxy with my unique family made up of light and dark elves, dwarves, half-humans, a Valkyrie, and a Völva.
What the fuck had my life become?
“Right,” I said in as casual a tone as possible. “Since we have no way of knowing which realm Surtr has gone to, or where he is now, I figure the best course of action is to go to the realm closest to us and begin there. Hopefully we’ll find a clue to his whereabouts if we don’t find Surtr himself. Does anybody disagree with this plan?”
It felt a bit like the week I’d spent in the model UN in m iddle school. Back then, I’d been trying to get the attention of a girl I’d had a crush on, but I’d very quickly learned there was no point in pretending I was interested in things I wasn’t just to impress a girl.
But apparently I’d gained a tiny bit of useful knowledge from that one week, because now, everyone around me nodded in agreement, and we carried on to the next point of business.
“Great,” I said, and I turned to Emneth and Finnern. “How’s the progress on the personal conduits coming?”
We’d come up with the idea of creating miniature versions of the dark elves’ conduit altars to carry with us on the journey between realms. My dwarven blacksmith, Hezzig, had assured me he could create something along with the dark elf’s assistance, and they’d been locked away in his shop ever since.
“Very well,” Emneth reported, and Finnern nodded beside her. “We have isolated a structure that is small enough to carry on our persons, and yet strong enough to contain enough energy to fuel our magic during the journey ahead of us.”
“That’s great,” I said. “How much longer will it be before they can be completed?”
“Hezzig assures me he is very close,” Finnern said. “But he is still a few days away from perfecting the totems.”
“Please remind him we don’t need perfection,” I said in a wry voice. “We just need them to work.”
“Hezzig would argue there is no difference between those,” Finnern chuckled. “But I will remind him, Allfather.”
It was still weird in my ears to hear Finnern so naturally addressing me as the Allfather, but I couldn’t deny that I liked it. “God King of the Nine Realms” was a mouthful, anyway, and it wasn’t exactly true.
Yet.
But there was also a connotation of familiarity in the title of Allfather that felt good.
“Thank you, Chancellor,” I said, and I turned back to Sylmarie. “We’ll use the dark elves’ altars as well as the inherent magic in the core of Asgard to open the rainbow bridge, right?”
“Yes, my love,” Sylmarie said in a warm tone. “I will combine the magic that flows from the chasms and channel it through the dark elves’ altars.”
“And that will be enough?” I asked as I thought back to what Sylmarie had told me just days ago about the rainbow bridge that had first brought me to Asgard.
I hadn’t known it at the time, but Sylmarie had used the energy of the moon to bring me home to Asgard. It had wiped her energy out, and she’d spent months recuperating from the exertion.
I recalled the dullness of Sylmarie’s presence when I’d first met her. She’d always been completely gorgeous, but she’d seemed dirty and muted. Then, as the weeks and months passed, her light returned, and she became brighter in every aspect.
“Asgard’s energy alone will not be enough,” Sylmarie said simply. “But we will combine it with the magic inherent in you. Now that you have unlocked all the aspects of your former self, you radiate with power. It will be most useful once we reach the other realms and the time for another rainbow bridge comes.”
“And you won’t be drained like after you brought me home?” I checked.
“No, my love,” Sylmarie said with a loving smile. “The occurrence of pulling you from Midgard to Asgard was so draining for me because I had no choice but to do it alone. Now that you are here to provide the strength we need in addition to the dark elves’ and what now flows more freely from the chasms, it will be no more taxing than an invigorating hike through the mountains.”
“Good,” I sighed with relief.
I didn’t want to put Sylmarie in a place of overdoing it, and I was glad I could provide my strength for her to lean on.
“So we’ll hop over to the first realm and begin our search for Surtr,” I said more for myself than the others. “Let’s finalize the list of who we’ll bring with us on our search.”
Yesterday we had decided to bring a small army of fighters with us on our initial scouting missions, and then once we found Surtr’s location, we would bring the rest of our people over on a final rainbow bridge. That way, we would leave warriors behind to defend my people who weren’t fighters. We had plenty of regular people among us, and I wasn’t going to leave them undefended for longer than absolutely necessary. Besides, Sylmarie had explained that the more people we brought across a rainbow bridge, the more energy it took to stabilize it.
“Obviously Emneth will come with us,” Nae said with a nod at the dark elf in question. “And Kine and Ivaran are also excellent choices.”
“Of course,” I agreed and looked at the short-haired dark elf. “Emneth, you’re one of our most powerful warriors, I wouldn’t dream of leaving you behind.”
Even just thinking about trying to go on this journey without Emneth’s powerful light beam attacks was impossible. There was no way I would dare to go to unknown worlds without the brutal strikes of the bone-staff’s wielder.
“Kine is a powerful archer,” I agreed as I pictured the red-eyed dark elf. “But I think he’ll be more useful here with the archers. I want him to lead the dark elf warriors we leave behind. They respect him, and they’ll follow him without question.”
“He will be pleased to hear that you believe in him so, Allfather,” Emneth said with a little nod.
“And Ivaran?” Nae asked.
“I would like him to accompany us, yes,” I said. “Ivaran’s magical shadow blade will be a useful addition to our scouting team, and he’s a reliable fighter.”
“Very well,” Emneth said.
“Nae, I’d like you to stay and look after the dark elves like you have,” I said.
“I am relieved to hear that, Allfather,” the scarred Valkyrie said with a sigh. “I would come if you require my presence, of course.”
“I’ll want you for the final battle,” I said. “But I’m sure you would enjoy a break from the fighting for now.”
Nae gave me an emphatic nod, and I smiled at the old warrior. Elora had told me that few Valkyries reached old age, and Nae was well beyond the age of an honorable retirement. I couldn’t agree more, seeing as she hadn’t had a single break, or any of her sisters by her side, for decades. If not longer.
“What about Halrond?” Elora asked. “And Cedoric?”
“I think Cedoric would be better suited defending Castle Levi while we’re away,” I said.
The gentle giant was good in a fight, but he didn’t have the taste for battle like some of the other fighters. I knew he would feel better about defending our home than potentially invading someone else’s.
Halrond on the other hand, with his almost comically large sword, was a perfect selection for our mission. He was the sort who enjoyed heading into battle.
“Halrond should come with us,” I said. “I’d like Sontar and Vulmar to stay here with Cedoric.”
“Really?” Ayen asked with uncertainty. “They’re very good fighters. We could use them.”
“They are,” I agreed as I thought about the boisterous elven friends. “But they’re also not particularly stealthy.”
“Hmmm,” Ayen hummed. “That is a good point.”
“We’re going to want to be able to go undercover if we need to,” I said. “Those two are pretty loud and even a bit showy in their fighting.”
“They will be helpful in the final battle,” Sylmarie observed.
“I insist on bringing Sassa along with us,” Ayen said.
I chuckled at my best friend’s boldness. We hadn’t discussed whether he would come with me or not, and I loved that he just assumed he would be at my side for the entire journey.
It was a correct assumption, of course. I couldn’t imagine doing this without him. He and Elora had been at my side from the very beginning.
“Are you sure?” I asked. “This isn’t some holiday trip we’re taking here.”
“I am sure.” Ayen nodded.
“I would like Sassa along with us as well,” Shalanna said. “She has been very helpful with Milo, and he will feel safe in her arms while I fight by your side.”
I hadn’t really considered whether Shalanna would come with me or not, but she was a powerful fighter, and I knew she was aching to get back onto the battlefield. She’d been sidelined for a while now, and I didn’t see any good reason to argue with her about it. I wouldn’t win, anyway, so I nodded with a rueful smile.
“Alright,” I said. “Sassa as well. So, we have Elora, Shalanna, Sylmarie, Freesia, Lyrie, Emneth, Ivaran, Ayen, Sassa, Halrond, Ker, Ari, and Vidar? Is that everyone for our initial scouting journey?”
