A new age of Divinity: Theomachy

Preparing for the Finale

Beth fell asleep while Nate rode Gulltoppr back to Asgard. Part of it was because of the insane heat of Muspelheim, but a larger part was because of the intense battle she had just had with an enraged thunder God. Nate had never been in Muspelheim before, the only reason he was surviving was because of a spell Odin gave him to keep his body cooled. How Beth was surviving, he didn't know, but his best guess was because she was related to an Olympian. It wasn't a strong theory, but it was literally the only thing he could come up with. Gulltoppr was sweating until they got into the sea and he let out a long sighing growl as he could cool himself down. During the swim back to Midgard, Nate heard something moving in the water. It sounded big, and it sounded long. He looked down and saw a massive... thing moving in the water. He tried to see it all, but the titanous creature just seemed to keep on going. For a moment, he thought it was Jormungandr, but this thing was different. It was much smaller and had strange ropes trailing behind it. When he finally noticed the ropes, he finally realized what it was. He made Gulltoppr stop and just waited for it to pass. In all the madness with Thor and Tyr, he had forgotten about the other monsters in the realms. He had just come close to having a confrontation with the mythical kraken, the titanic squid which was famous for destroying unlucky ships and dragging the passengers to a dark, cold death.
"Whooh... okay, that-'' And the moment he thought he, Gulltoppr, and Beth were safe, the water began to rumble "Oh... what the Hel!?" Fog began to roll in as something began to rise from deep within the water.
All of a sudden, waves crashed all around them, throwing Bulltoppr this way and that. Nate really just couldn't get away from these kinds of situations, could he? The crashing waves only lasted for a moment before they calmed. Gulltoppr had fallen onto a rock and Beth had woken up, clearly having to hold on for dear life.
Nate got off of his furry friend and pet his head while asking "The Hel was that?" He looked down at the rock they were standing on... it felt weird, like it was moving "What... is this?" The rock was smooth and felt like it was breathing "Wait... are these scales?" Just as he asked this, something else right in front of them began to rise out of the water.
As the massive creature rose up, its humongous eye opened, glaring down at the three. The being was a snake of incredible size, likely long enough to wrap around every realm at once, and powerful enough to crush them all in a single squeeze. The snake continued to rise out of the depths, but the part of its tail they stood upon didn't move whatsoever. This thing was so massive that it could comfortably stand as tall as the Bifrost bridge without even using all of its muscles. This was Jormungandr, and this was not good.
"What the fuck is this thing!?" Beth yelled, the crashing of the water being too loud for her normal speaking voice to be heard over.
"That... that's uh... he's..." Nate was frozen, petrified with fear as if he had just been turned to stone by Medusa.
"Oh, shit, his fear of big things," Beth realized "Wait... what's that in its mouth?"
She directed Nate's gaze up to where hers was pointed, and it seemed to just make it worse for him. Beth tried to see what he was eating, but then she noticed the tentacles. They were squirming and trying to fight back by sticking onto his face. The suckers had serrated edges so that the Kraken could fight off the very few predators it had. But now they weren't getting through the armor like scales on Jormundandr's face. He seemed to be slightly annoyed by the slapping, but that was about all the reaction he showed. The Kraken let out a pathetic cry as it finally fell down the monstrous serpent's throat and into his stomach. Once he finished, he let out a long, deep growl and glared down at the Demigods again.
"Wwoooooo aaa'yy oooo!" He roared down at him.
The way he spoke was completely foreign to both Beth and Nate, but it sounded to be a type of english. His voice shook all three of them and the water of the sea. Beth fell to her knees and Nate had to lean on Gulltoppr to stay standing. He glared down at them, expecting one of them to respond. The two powerful Demigods glanced at one another, unsure of who should speak. Nate was still clearly more terrified, so Beth stood back up. She took a breath and looked up at Jormungandr's humongous face. His head must have been the size of the Olympian throne room, if not bigger.
"We are just simple travelers!" She called up "We did not come seeking a fight!"
He glared down at her for a moment before slowly lowering his head and roaring "Trrrroulllll aaar d'aaaammme!" The more he looked at her, the angrier he seemed to get "Faaaaaar i'oooonnn. Beeeesss yyyyy'ooohherr!"
"Wait... I think he said... because of your mother!" Nate yelled as he shakily took a step forward "I can make out... some words!"
"Could you tell what he said before? The trowel are dame?"
"Trowel... are... could you ask him to repeat that part?" she nodded and he repeated it, clearly irritated even more by having to say someone over again "I think he said trouble already came! He must know what happened in Asgard!"
"But how does she know she is my mother!?" She asked.
"I dunno, ask him!"
"Right!" She turned back to the massive snake's head, but Nate just kept looking at the body, likely to try and recollect himself "How do you know Athena is my mother?"
"Yyyyyy'rrrr blood rrrrrrr'kkks Oooooolllpan!"
"Did he say your blood reeks of Olympian?" Nate askew- wait, you can-d
"Wwwwwyyyy s'faaaaf omom!" Beth looked back at Nate, who just shrugged.
"Thhhhhaaaasssrrr wwwwiiiiaaaaallll natat."
"Um... the Aesir will fall no matter what?" Nate guessed "I mean, yeah. So will he and most of the Jotuns."
"I do not think he cares. I just think he wants the Asgardians to fall, even if it means everyone else does too."
"Goooooooo!!!" he roared, the first word they could truly understand "Leeeemaii seeeeaaa."
"Think he wants us to lea-" WIth that, Jormungandr retreated back to the sea and created a tidal wave so powerful it pushed all three back to the frozen shore of Midgard "His... sea." Beth wrung her hair out while Nate spat out the water he had inhaled "Alright, let's get back. Hopefully whatever Grandpa wanted, we could make it happen."
They rode Gulltoppr back to the Bifrost and up the wall, Beth not being in the mood to climb it again. Gulltoppr climbed down the other side and they came back to Odin's fortress. This time, they could simply walk in the front door instead of going around the back. Neither were too keen on walking by the place where they fought to the quite literal death, so this suited them just fine. As expected, Marc and Mikayla had stayed in the dining hall, and were of course drunk. Luckily, it looked like they were just a little buzzed, so they would still be able to... do whatever it was that Odin was going to have them do next if needed. Eden was found sitting on the floor in Odin's library with a large book in her hand about plant based magic. While she wasn't one for learning magic, some of the spells looked very similar to techniques she hoped that she would be able to pull off. When she saw her friends, she got up, and put the book down while she followed. Kenneth was with Odin in his personal study, both still trying to figure out a plan of attack on Olympus.
"So, if you don't have a way directly up to the mountain's peak, is there a way from the mortal world?" Odin asked, still seated in his chair while Kenneth paced back and forth.
"No, but we have a quick escape if we need it," Kenneth replied "We would go through the bottom of Hephaestus' forge, but-"
"You don't know where the furnace leads, and you'd have a very likely chance of being lit aflame," Odin finished.
"Yeah... so, that will not work," Kenneth sighed.
"Talking about approaches to Olympus?" Nate asked as they walked in.
Odin stood up and exclaimed "Grandson! I'm glad you were able to return. And Beth, I'm sorry for what happened. I knew if I told you directly to go fight Thor, you probably wouldn't, seeing as you had just battled Tyr... however, I needed that fight in him back. I needed tha alcohol in his blood gone, at least for a little while." Beth nodded, understanding that the plan was never for her to get hurt, Thor was just a rare commodity in the world of the divine, a powerhouse, a behemoth of a God who can barely be stopped by anything "However, now is not the time for that." The wise old God sat back down and looked down at Gungnir "We've been attempting to figure out a way for you to sneak up on Athena, but we've come up with nothing."
"Yeah... that's probably gonna be the hardest part about this next phase," Nate sighed as he put his palms on his grandfather's desk "I see an idea board over there. Looks like you've been busy."
"We assumed it would be just like any other landmark in the Mortal Plane that leads to a Realm of the Divine. Just enter through it and you're there, but this one's different," Odin explained "When Zeus heard of my ex Freya's magic, he had requested her put a spell on Olympus... and then proceeded to try and force himself upon her."
"Hah!"
"That was my reaction," Odin agreed with Beth "Probably why he never tried again. But back to the spell. It made the mountain... ust a mountain to humans. Go anywhere, dig, tunnel, climb. Do whatever you want on it. There's no way to reach the mountain of the Greek Gods."
"Even if we did have a way to Olympus, aren;t there a bunch of Gods, not including the Agents of Zeus which are still loyal to Athena and would put up a hell of a fight?" Mikayla asked.
"Yeah... the Fates are on her side," Eden sighed. "I read about that once, thought it was neat to have fate be able to be told to you. Now, what? Do we need to go after them?"
"No, we can handle Athena before we even think about fighting the fates," Beth told her sternly "They have powers much like Nate's although much more precise, and they are Gods, so killing them would be even harder."
"And there's three," Nate sighed. "I do remember hearing that Fates can only read what you're doing in their realm or the mortal one, though. Maybe we can use that, stay here for a bit until we come up with a plan."
"Wait... I think we do have a way," Kenneth finally remembered.
"What? Fly up?" Marc asked.
"What? No, no. You were not there when we went to Hades."
"Why... were you-"
"It's a long story, I'll tell you later," Eden sighed.
"Right, but what I am saying is, we know a way up to Olympus, but it would be the longest way. Hades, or Hayden now, has a door leading up there in case he ever needed to."
"So... what? We just go to Hades, walk up to the king, and ask to be let into the most heavily fortified mountain in any divine realm?" Marc asked... to which everyone just looked around at each other.
"Yeah."
"Sounds about right."
"What other plan do we have?"
"Alright... if you've all agreed to this, then allow us to help you in this." Odin stood back up and picked Gungnir back up as he walked around his desk "As I said, I will not join you, nor will any of my family. However, I'm sure, taking a weapon or two couldn't hurt." He held Gungnir out to Beth, who stared down in awe.
"All... Odin. i do not think I can-"
"Of course you can. Trust me, you won't be able to unlock all its power, but you should have enough to put that blasted megalomaniac down." Beth hesitated for a moment, then grasped the bone pole of the spear "You all go ahead. I've already commissioned armor for Athena's daughter and the two of us have much to discuss. Perhaps the rest of you would like to see your new weapons and armor be made right in front of you."