Ragnarok

Chapter 26 - Thunder God

Micah ... no, Thorin, opened his eyes to a cool, white void. It was peaceful here, like being swaddled within a cloud. Then, a streak of lightning shot down in front of his vision, and as he blinked from the afterimages, a figure cloaked in white with a wide-brimmed straw hat appeared before him. His hair was long and silver, his face weathered and wise with untold centuries.

Christopher Lambert, really? Thorin mused, then bowed his head in respect. "Raiden, I presume. Not the god I expected to meet in this storm, I must admit," he said aloud.

"All gods are one, in the end," Raiden said in Lambert's legendary, gravelly voice. "You can think of me as the Highlander instead, if you want. You're here to unlock your true potential, I take it." Without any outward change in his stance, the mirror sheen of a katana had appeared in Raiden's hand. "I think you know what comes next."

Without a further word, Thorin raised Mjolnir to block a wide slash with Raiden's katana, lightning snarling between the blade and the head of the great warhammer. He lashed out with a sweeping kick, his speed and strength enhanced by the belt. His attempt at knocking Raiden off of his feet was met with the god of lightning simply flying straight up and kneeing him in the face as Thorin turned back around.

Thorin was dazed, and Raiden smirked as he swept his katana in another killing arc. This, too, was blocked by Mjolnir, the hammer seeming to react to the danger even faster than Thorin himself could. The crackling blade covered an inch away from Thorin's neck, causing his beard to stand up on end, and with a grunt he shoved it away with his hammer.

The two battled furiously, the rest of the world ceasing to exist for him as he wrestled with the lightning. Frozen arcs of electricity wrapped them in an eternal, unbreakable cage. If he had been able to look around him, he would have seen the entire scene slowed to a crawl. It a single, eternally stretched moment of time, the sky lit by the flaming meteors and bolts of lightning falling all around him. It took all his concentration just staying alive, however, let alone noticing the scenery.

Finally Thorin was able to tangle Mjolnir's strap around the hilt of Raiden's katana, and with a shout he yanked the blade up and out of the old god's grasp. In a flash, the head of his hammer came sweeping around and then back down, in an arc that ended millimeters from the rim of Raiden's straw hat.

He extended his other hand, and caught the katana as it fell. He looked at it curiously, finally noting that the scenery around them had come to a complete halt. "Nice sword ... not sure if it's really Thorin's style, though."

Raiden smiled and shrugged. "It is whatever weapon you need it to be. In Japan, they called that weapon you hold in your hand Kamishini no Yari ... Spear of God-Slaying. In your tongue, you might call it Gungnir." He inspected his straw hat, which now bore an almost imperceptible tear along the brim, and then tipped it with a grin towards Thorin. "Use it well."

Lighting exploded from the sword, blinding him, and when the afterimage faded, Raiden and the katana had both disappeared, and now he held a gigantic spear, with a tree-trunk like shaft that was even longer than Avril's huge dragonslayer blade. The head was tremendously heavy, and gleamed with a fine enough edge to pierce the hide of any creature, be it man, beast or god. The arm that held it was now clad in thick, golden half-plate, connected by a thick adamantine chain to his new spear. He could barely believe he was actually lifting the tremendous weapon, but it seemed to weigh almost nothing in his new armor.

Blinking the afterimages out of his eyes, he saw that the fire wolf was raging about fifty yards away, directly in front of him. The flaming beast was using the chain that entangled its limbs to hurl Hiro away from it, then with a grim smile, used the chain to sling the red samurai into a nearby building with bone-crunching force.

The building crumbled, then collapsed on top of Hiro's head; or would have, if Vladimir had not interposed himself at the last moment, snatching them both out from under a collapsing roof with mere moments to spare. He deposited the battered warrior at Selif's feet, as Thorin steeled himself and then launched Gungnir at the flaming metal monstrosity, while it was still untangling its limbs from Hiro's chain.

It gave a deafening howl that shook the very walls around them, as the tremendous spear ripped through its flaming steel body and seared it in twain. Its two halves fell in opposite directions, as the spear continued onwards to bury itself deep in the same rubble that had nearly swallowed Hiro. The maddened metal beast snarled and grasped with its razorwire claws, trying to find the source of its pain. Or, barring that, something soft and squishy to tear into pieces.

Thorin slammed his hardened boot down onto the creature's spine, driving it back down into the stone ground, and ignored its dying snarls of rage. He reached down with his armored arm and grabbed it by the throat in a rear naked choke, wrenching the head up and back. The hot metal of its skull seared him even through the padded armor, but he ignored the pain and smell of cooking flesh. With a ragged cry, he tore the skull clear off of the beast, the flames of its body guttering and dying almost as soon as the neck snapped and its head came loose.

He tossed the metal skull to one of the wide-eyed onlookers, a young girl clad in apprentice gear, and she almost let it fall to the ground in her shock. She looked at the metal skull in her hands with terror and fascination; apparently the metal was already cooled. Or she was a forgesmith's apprentice, and was used to handling things straight out of the fire.

"Have a souvenier," he quipped, turning back towards the building where Gungnir's tether disappeared into the rubble. That was going to be an irritant to dig out. He started to sigh, but then Thorin saw that the cooldown on his 'Gungnir Strike' had switched to a different picture, with the words "Retrieval" underneath it.

Thorin extended a hand to give the chain a swift yank, and Gungnir leaped back into his hand, ripping itself out of the rubble and flying back to his hand like an obedient mutt. He planted the butt end of the gigantic spear upon the ground, panting as the adrenaline rush finally ended and the gigantic spear faded back into the aether.

Selif and Avril were suddenly at his sides, helping him stay on his feet. Catching his breath, he pointed with Mjolnir to the gate, now finally unguarded, and managed to draw enough breath to shout to the onlookers.

"The way is clear. To Midgard, hurry!"

Thus the Aesir did flee Asgard, leaving corpses and ruin behind them.