mischevious

Chapter 24 (Loki)

I watched as Abigail fell to the ground clutching the wound at her chest and dropped to my knees to cradle her to my chest. She was getting cold and I could see a viscous black liquid seeping from the wound along with her own red blood, it smelled of rot and decay and I knew at once that it wasn't a good thing.

"Hold on my love, we'll get you somewhere safe Kitten."

"Brother!"

I looked up at Thor's voice and saw the creature lumbering towards me. It was tall and humanoid in appearance. It wore a black suit that appeared painted on and his skin was already rotting and sloughing off in places to reveal the decrepit corpse underneath. On its chest was the same symbol that Heimdall had described and I saw black energy swirling around it's hand, a black ring was at the center of it on his finger.

My blood ran cold at the sight of it and I began conjuring weapons to throw at the creature. My arms flew out as knife after knife went flying into the creature's chest and face. Each one drove it backwards a step as it began pulling the blades free and used the ring to create a black construct to knock some of the blades away. Its lips, what was left of them, turned up and into a grotesque smile.

"Son, take this!" Odin shouted and tossed something at me.

Reaching out I grasped the item he threw me and as soon as it touched my flesh I felt the wave of cold rush through me and I could feel my skin turn back to it's normal coloring. The Casket.

Turning I aimed it at the creature and sent a blast of cold at it, freezing the undead in its tracks as it tried to summon a construct and as the ice covered it and froze it in place. Conjuring a blade I stared at the black ring on its hand and I lifted the blade and sliced clean through the creature's hand and it fell to the ground, the creature's black eyes going dark. The ice contained it but as I looked down at the ring it began to melt into a black puddle.

"Detach the ring from it's hand, then it'll die for sure." I yelled. More of the creatures were coming at us and I looked down at Abby, wanting to make sure she was safe, but seeing all of the blood she was losing I worried she was going to be gone soon.

"Freeze them, we will take her to the chamber." Odin declared as he and Thor bent down to pick her up and carry her away from the carnage.

I knew at once what he was planning and with a look at her face I knew if I could keep the way clear she had a much better chance of making it to safety. The hallway was filling with undead Asgardians as they raced towards us, the casket fired again and they were frozen in place, half a dozen of them stopped, frozen in their tracks as we went past them easily. While they were still frozen I tried to slice their hands off, tried to detach the black rings from their bodies, but a few were frozen in a different position that they weren't able to be detached.

We raced through the halls as quickly as possible without disturbing Abby's wound and made it finally to the third level up, the room next to where mother and father slept. The chamber room.

Making it into the room I stood by the doorway to keep the area clear of the undead. Thor and our father lay Abigail on the podlike bed and began touching the sides of it in a specific manner so that the healing work would begin. A golden light appeared around the pod and encased it, Abby strained as the light made everything inside glow, the pillows and the cushion she lay on.

This was what was used every year during the Odinsleep when father would take his rest and leave the protection and safekeeping of Asgard to Thor and the military.

"I am not sure if this will work on her, but it will do everything possible to slow the rot and save her life if possible." father said as he walked over to us. "With this in place we need to make sure the room is safe, I will stay here to keep it that way." He brandished Gungnir, his staff, and stood tall as he waited for what I would say.

"Thank you father. I'll do my best to help beat back the undead."

"I shall go with you brother." Thor said, hefting his hammer.

"Ah, glory. War, glory, fame and fortune." Odin mentioned.

"Let's just settle for getting our world back." I said. We left the room and walked towards the screaming. I wanted to find our mother, to make sure she was alright. And to see if Abby's friend was safe as well. But I needed to figure out what was causing the rings to appear here. As we walked outside we saw Lady Sif and the Warriors Three fighting a losing battle against a great deal of the undead.

Fandral danced around the undead, his rapier flashing as he sliced and stabbed. But with each attack the creatures regenerated the lost limbs and closed their wounds. Volstagg swung his double headed battle axe decapitating two at a time, only to have the black liquid snake out of their bodies and reattach their heads quickly.

"How do we stop them?" Hogun asked.

"We keep fighting them until they can't get back up." Sif explained.

"Move aside!" I yelled and sent a blast of arctic cold at the creatures, freezing a dozen in place at a time. "Slice off their hands, whichever one has the ring on it has to go for them to truly die." I started moving along the rest of the battlefield and continued freezing them as I could before we heard a collective scream of pain.

YOU WILL SUFFER ME AGAIN

That same voice echoed as the undead put their hands into the air and their rings flew from their bodies. Their flesh became dead once again as the black rings detached from their hands and they fell in droves onto the ground. All around them dead bodies lay strewn and rotting like they'd been dead for weeks in the hot sun.

"This is so not going to be fun to clean up." Fandral said as he sheathed his rapier.

"No, no it is not." I said and turned to head into the castle again looking for mother to see if she was okay. I got a few feet into the castle when I heard her voice.

"There you are!" she shouted and raced to grab me in a hug.

"I'm so glad you're safe." I said holding her close.

"Where is Abigail?"

I looked down and away from her. "She's in the chamber, father put her into the sleep so she could heal. She was attacked by one of those things and it left a black goo inside of her."

"I pray she heals."

"So do I."