DIVINE CHAMPIONS 6: A FINAL CONFLICT

SUN: SWEET VENGEANCE

The first turn around the Jan Mayen volcano brought the champions face to face with a few things. Mikael said that this island was barely seven hundred kilometers south of Iceland. No wonder it only took them an hour or so. But ever since he had found out that Amsvartnir was actually a salt-less part of the Atlantic Ocean, his idea of using Jan Mayen's high speed internet went astray. Now, Mr. Nyqvist was busy coping with the fact that his mythology had lied to him. Rick was helping him accept it. "Look, Lyngvi is a moving island, right? What if it keeps moving from one place to another from time to time in Midgard?"

That seemed to calm him down.

Now, to the few things they faced. The first one was definitely Amsvartnir. Well, if you ignore the colour, it does look like a lake. There was no wave, no immediate ecstasy of the ocean. All there existed was a calm section of the ocean. The second thing was, however, something that boiled Ishaan's blood. His fists turned to flames, which Rick and Mikael noticed. They came running towards him. Ishaan just pointed towards the two men on the beach.

"Fjalar and Galar." Mikael said, in a voice of complete malice, "The ones who killed Kvasir."

"And almost killed Ishaan." Rick crammed his teeth.

"Stay back." Ishaan stood between them, "They die at my hands."

"Aren't they immortal?" Rick asked.

"Nope, they are just reliving." Mikael said, "They must have escaped Helheim when, you know."

"Yeah." Rick understood.

But there was something different about the dwarves. They were not the same vicious ones from two years ago. They seemed weak, dejected and defeated. Fjalar was lying on the ground, as if his limbs had stopped working. Galar's shoulder bled as if something had bitten off his flesh. Yet, they somehow sat with no idea what to do next. "I hate the deserted beach. Why here?" Fjalar mumbled.

"So that you two could face me." Ishaan replied. His mind went through a lot of thoughts. He wanted to kill these two. It was easy. They were unmovable. They had no weapon, no strength, and definitely, no determination. This was the easiest time to make them go through what they had made him go through. It was that simple.

But had they not done so, Ishaan would have never met Eir. What drove him in this more than anything else was making sure that Eir was safe after this war. A few days of meeting each other and they had fallen so deeply in love. Nothing like this would have happened had they not done what they had done.

And what bravery was it killing two dwarves who couldn't defend themselves at all? And hold on. They were here on a beach, in a position where not many people visited. "Wow, would you look at that?" He said, his mind clearer than ever, "You are exactly where you are fated to be everytime. Was it a wave last time?"

"Champion of Sol." Galar said, cramming his teeth.

"Would you divine champions not leave us alone today?" Fjalar mumbled again.

"Today?"

"We met two in Jotunheim. One turned into this wolf, and bit me."

"That same one broke my arms and legs."

"Rishi and Aitri." Ishaan said to the others, "Oh, good, so you met the boss. Congrats. Serves you exactly right. Do me a favor and stay like that. Not that you can do anything else."

"You aren't going to kill them?" Mikael asked, "Then allow me."

"Ah, let it be." Ishaan said, "They are undefended, not worthy of being killed. They are exactly where they need to be to die again. Why should it be me anyway?"

Ishaan went and sat beside Rick and Mikael, as they awaited Rishi and Aitri's return. "We gotta figure out how to get to Lyngvi. Maybe, build a boat?" Ishaan asked. "We could use their bones." Mikael said. His anger was an unseen one. He was never this angry ever, that he wanted to kill in cold blood. "I'm still wondering how Rishi let the chance go to kill these two."

"He would have, perhaps." Rick said, "But Aitri might have stopped her."

At that moment, the water before them bubbled. The bubbles spread for at least a mile. If there was something coming out of the water, it was going to be huge. And suddenly, the air was met with a low rancid smell, mixed with that of saline water. That was weird, since Amsvartnir, this particular section of the Atlantic Ocean was salt-less. "Oh no." Rick said, maybe guessing, "This may be interesting." Mikael, though, seemed to have a loss for words. "No no, not interesting. That is dangerous. We gotta take off."

"No, no." Rick said, "He's with us this time. He is not here to kill us." But they stood up.

And then, it came out. Perhaps the last fabled Norse creature other than Fenrir that had yet to influence their journey had appeared. To say that he was humongous would be an understatement. He was, perhaps, four hundred feet tall. But barely fifty feet of him was out of the water. From what could be seen, he looked behind and said something in Old Norse, and judging by his tone, it was not something nice. Maybe he could see his own brother there on the other end, and was being slammed at for siding with them. It was a good thing that only fifty feet, so only his head and one-tenth of his neck were out of the waters. More would mean the arrival of Ragnarok (yes, Ishaan did the math).

Jormungand's face and whatever was out of the water was a mixture of every monster nightmare he had ever had. Toxic green scaly neck like that of a snake, and the head of a majestic dragon. His yellow slit eyes were bigger than footballs. Each spiky hornlet on his forehead seemed like a dagger, and the two bigger spikes on the back of his head were equal to swords. His fangs were off-white, and each dripped toxic green venom. His mouth was so venomous that it smoked of venom. And matching the rest of the red mouth, the red slicked tongue. The Midgard Serpent was unbelievably scary. And he looked at them with pure hate. As if to say, "You are lucky I'm against Berg." He turned towards the dwarf twins, and said something in Old Norse. Rick looked at them and said, "Not great with Old Norse, but what he is saying is that Berg already has the Time Crystal. Apparently these two did something mischievous to distract Jormungand, while Berg had his men steal it."

"And now he is mad." Mikael said.

"Precisely."

"Which means..."

"Fjalar and Galar are dead." Ishaan said. As soon as he did, Jormungand barely breathed close to the dwarves. The dwarves caught their throats, as their skin turned red. They screamed, but could barely breathe. They hadn't received a death this painful the last time. Fjalar could only barely move. Galar's wound only got more and more painful.

As the torture happened, Jormungand turned to the champions. Mikael almost sunk back against the volcano. Ishaan stood and closed his eyes. But before he did, he saw Rick match the beast's eyes. The Midgard Serpent kept a distance, and roared (if a snake could roar). Then, he went back into the waters. And he did that with a huge splash, so big that it engulfed the dying dwarves. All that was left in that place was blood of Galar's shoulder.

There was a certain level of satisfaction in Ishaan's heart, now that Fjalar and Galar were dead. They didn't die by his hands. He had controlled himself from murdering two people in no condition to fight. And yet, the two people who had made him suffer so much were dead, and he had nothing to do with it. Nature had its way of paying back debts. "Kira isn't picking up." Mikael's words brought Ishaan back to the present, and sent a chill down his spine. If Berg had the Crystal of Time, he must have gone for the one in Vespasa. Ishaan hoped everyone there was fine, and really hoped that Rishi and Aitri came back as early as possible.