Asgardian Twilight

Unearthing the Past

Skurge followed Hela as she led the way to the palace. The streets were silent and the once bustling city appeared abandoned. Terror gripped Skruge and he reminded himself that he was safe, having sworn allegiance to Hela. They climbed the steps into the palace and approached the throne room. Hela smiled up at the ceiling. The frescoes shone above them, depicting Odin's peaceful protection of the nine realms. There were panels depicting harvests, parades, parties, and general merriment. Images of Odin, Frigga, Thor and Loki looked down upon them happily.

"This," Hela muttered with disgust. "This is a lie! This is not how it was or how it will be." She stalked toward the throne and shook her head. "Odin was proud to have all of this but ashamed of how he achieved it." She flicked a wrist and several sharp daggers ripped up from her hand and tore the ceiling apart, ripping the frescoes down to reveal the true history of Asgard beneath them.

Skurge looked up and felt his skin crawl from the imagery. Dark, sinister images of blood-soaked battlefields greeted his sight. A younger Odin was riding out into battle, his sword drenched in the blood an entrails of his enemies. At his side, Hela rode on a giant wolf, Mjolnir raised high above her head.

"You see how unstoppable we were? I was the weapon in the conquest that built the whole of Asgard. We traversed the realms, claiming them one by one. But then my ambitions outgrew him and he banished me. And even with that task he didn't do it himself. Only after I slayed his precious Valkyries did he deem it necessary to banish me himself."

Skurge found his voice, though it was tremulous. "Where did he banish you to?" he asked. He wanted to prove he cared. He wanted to show this terrifying woman that he was in her thrall.

Hela's lips curved. "He sent me to Nifleheim."

Skurge felt a chill pass over him. Nifleheim- the realm of the dead. Just hearing the word conjured up images of a shadowy, misty realm of eternal cold. It was said to be overrun with the ghosts of the wicked. Skurge had feared damnation to this place all his life. Now, as he stood beside Hela, he began to feel a terrible fear returning. Was he damning himself by allying with her? Would Valhalla open its gates to him upon his death? Or would he be cast into the cold blackness eternally?

"I can still remember when he cast me out. I woke on Náströnd, the shore of corpses. And when I stood, the sound of a thousand screams drew my attention to a castle to the north. A castle filled with an uncountable number of venomous serpents. Do you wish to know what was in the castle?"

Skurge wanted nothing more than to remain oblivious to the deadly secrets of Niflheim. Despite this, he found himself nodding his head.

"The spirits of murderers, adulterers, an perjurers were trapped within its walls, damned to the eternal torment of the snakes. Can you imagine being bitten and filled with venom again and again. For all eternity?"

"No. Nor do I wish it."

Hela smiled again. "A wise goal. But the castle was not the most terrible of delights Nifleheim holds. While the snakes bit the spirits of the wicked, a dragon named Nidhogg sucked the blood from their bodies."

This preview of Nifleheim disturbed Skurge so greatly that he found himself near begging for a change of subject.

"In my time, Asgard's warriors were honored and buried beneath this palace," Hela said, granting Skurge's internal request. She turned and walked down a corridor, leading him down several steps and into Odin's Vault.

Skurge had never been in this place before and was immediately astounded at the riches and artifacts that lay before him. "Odin's treasures," he gasped.

Hela walked leisurely toward a large golden glove and smacked it off its pedestal. "That is a fake," she gloated. "Just like the cheerful Asgardian history fed to you by Odin."

The Casket of Winters met her next and she passed it by without uttering so much as a word. Skruge presumed this to mean it was weak, of no consequence. Surtur's Crown was the next artifact she happened upon. She cast a discerning eye upon it and shrugged, unimpressed. "A bit small, isn't it?"

The Tesseract glowed, casting a brilliant blue over Hela's face as she came upon it. "That's not bad," she said with a laugh. But then something else caught her attention, drawing her away. A chalice with flames rising up from it was her true aim. "The Eternal Flame," she spoke reverently.

"The Eternal Flame," Skurge whispered.

Hela reached into the fire and it began to flicker in a sharp green light. She removed her hand and held some flames in her palm. From there, she approached a large, circular relief etched in the floor. She clicked her tongue and conjured a clawed hammer, driving it down into the floor. A fissure formed and the sounds of rubble falling to the ground deep beneath the vault met their ears.

"Would you like to have a glimpse at true power?" Without waiting for an answer, Hela jumped into the dark abyss, the green flame illuminating her descent into the dust-filled crypt. Innumerable rotting corpses clad in ancient Asgardian armor surrounded her, but it was the gigantic skeleton of a wolf wrapped in chains that arrested her focus entirely.

"Oh, Fenris," she spoke in a voice barely above a whisper. "My darling. What have they done to you?" Something like sadness passed over her face and she shook her head and stepped back.

In a sudden, powerful movement, she slammed the flame into the ground and it expanded, washing over the entire crypt. The corpses responded immediately, their bodies jerking and convulsing as they suddenly became animated with life once more.

"Yes, awaken," Hela spoke loudly as she slowly spun around and watched her army awaken. She looked up into the hole above and spired Skurge's frantic expression. She winked playfully and then turned to Fenris. The wolf was now alive again and covered in his black fur. He stood proudly before his mistress, his eyes burning with a terrible ferocity. A ferocity only Hela could wrangle.

"My army. My butchers. I've missed you. I've missed you all," she said as she laid her hands on the wolf's snout and kissed him. "Let's go and do murder and conquering, shall we?"

Fenris reared back and howled.