Chapter 101: Chapter 100: A Bad Father
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"Fathers are strangers who merely happen to be related by blood."
- Haruhiko Toyama, (Texhnolyze)
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<(Omniscient POV)>
"Do you know this man, father? Have you met him before somewhere?" Thor quickly tried to interject in an attempt to calm down his father. This level of sudden change in the mood of the King of Asgard wasn't something the God of Thunder had ever witnessed before in his five millennia of existence and thus he struggled to understand what it was that triggered this sudden abrupt change in his father's behavior.
"My love, calm down. It has only been a few hours since you have risen from your Odin sleep. If you put too much stress on yourself so soon, you will end up worsening your health again." Frigga too tried to soothe her husband using the context of his health even though she knew quite well that Odin wouldn't be going weak anytime soon unless he had to fight some extremely powerful being the likes of Galactus or Surtur. The only reason Odin even went to Odin's sleep when confronting Loki was because he wanted to take that chance and have some rest to recharge his powers. As a master manipulator, he knew the path Loki would choose as well as the path Thor would be forced to choose because of that. Going to Odin's sleep was just a way for him to make sure that the events played out exactly like he wanted them to. "My King, tell me what exactly troubles you and we will figure out what to do together. If you are worried about Atem's identity then you should know that he is a guest of Thor, a visitor who came to visit Asgard after saving the lives of countless Asgardians by defeating the Frost Giants. He is a hero of not only this realm but of Midgard as well." Frigga did her best to defuse the situation.
Normally, the All-Mother of Asgard wouldn't trust someone as quickly as she had trusted Atem, much less even try to defend him from her husband. She had lived for way too long to not know the true extent of Odin's wisdom and strength. She knew more about Odin than anyone else in Asgard. She knew it as a fact that her husband the way he currently was, would never try to antagonize someone without any justification. The only few reasons Odin would ever lose control over his emotions would be if the person opposite to him was a major threat to Asgard or if his family was in some major danger. Hell, even insults could no longer seem to rile up the old Sky father as they once did during his youth.
No, the only reason Frigga bothered to try and defend Atem was because neither she nor Heimdall had ever seen the young man before in their lives which as much suspicious as it was also clearly indicated the fact that the man must not be a great danger to Asgard, nor should he be too powerful or important enough to be noticed. After all, there were very few things in the nine realms that could escape Heimdall's sight or the All-Mother's prophetic visions. If Atem had really possessed even the tiniest danger to Asgard, Frigga trusted that her magic would have warned her through her visions.
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<(Atem POV)>
Odin, who had grown quiet after his sudden outburst a few moments ago was now silently observing me with cautious eyes while listening to what his wife and son had to say. His eyes gave a clear indication that despite having been shocked out of his mind, he still hadn't completely lost his marbles. However, the moment he heard his wife's words, his eyebrows furrowed further in vigilance. "Midgard? I see. That confirms it then. You are her spawn, aren't you? The child that she managed to hide from me a million years ago. I can sense it, the godly blood that runs through your veins... godly blood that mutated from the essence of an Asgardian." he asked, his eyes scanning me from head to toe like he was verifying it again through his senses.
"You are right, father. He is indeed an Asgardian, and he is here to ask for our help in identifying his parents.... and also apparently, to find out how to reach Helheim... which if he had just asked me before, I would have told him that the place is just a myth, a story to frighten children and it doesn't truly exist." Thor quickly repeated with a small laugh while looking at me as if I had just made a terrible joke. However, the Queen remained silent this time, not bothering to comment. "But I get it if you are too busy with it, father. We will take our problem elsewhere." Thor cleared his throat before trying to pull me away from the room. It seemed that he could read his father's foul mood and was doing his best to save me from his wrath.
"Why are you here after all this time? To claim your birthright? Or perhaps you want to strike me down for what I had once done? What is it that brought you here after all these years?" Odin asked with a stoic voice, not even acknowledging Thor's words. However, he seemed to have calmed down a lot if one were to judge by the tone of his voice.
"I am simply here to travel through all the nine realms including Helheim. I have been craving a family gathering you know. Nothing more, nothing less. Open a way for me to the realm and you will never see me again. I think that's the least you can do for me... Father." I emphasized the last word, making sure that both Frigga and Thor could clearly hear me.
Of course, my words surprised Odin and Frigga much more than they did Thor since the royal couple now knew what exactly I wanted.
"Oh fuck! Now, this just complicates things, doesn't it?" Polaris muttered to herself; her eyes stretched wide with surprise. "Guess I am not the only one with a complicated family, huh?" She finished with an awkward smile before silencing herself again.
"Did you just say, father? W-what are you talking about, my friend? You are joking, right? Is this some Midgardian humor that I don't know of? Wait, is this one of those famous Earthly pranks Darcy was talking about?" Thor asked, his face looking utterly confused. "Father, what is happening here? Is he really my... brother?" He decided to ask his father directly instead of wondering the answer himself.
"... Yes, this boy is indeed my seed... But it was a mistake. I was young once and I was a fool. In all my stupidity, I created something that should never have existed. It was only after I drank from the Well of Mimir that I realized I was never meant to have a child that young, I was never meant to have a son from the womb of that woman, I was not meant to have him. He is... an abomination, a monster, an oversight that I tried to correct once but fate was unfortunately not on my side." Odin explained, using some quite harsh and insulting words to describe his attempt of trying to kill me when I was still inside the egg.
Honestly, I had expected Odin to not react well to my existence. But this was just excessive. His choice of words could make anyone realize that he absolutely hated me. I could understand that he had been affected by his brother, Cull's power of fear a long time ago. Cull had used the prophecy that his child would one day betray him to try and corrupt Odin's mind in his attempt to beat him and take the throne for himself. But Odin still persevered and won that war. He vanquished his evil brother. So, even if he was under Cull's influence at that time, even if he hated me at that time because he thought I would be the one who would take away his throne one day, he still freed himself from Cull's control, didn't he? I even heard that the All-Father killed every human who had ever heard of Cull to keep his brother's existence a secret, to make sure that his evil brother would never return.
Also, I was pretty sure that Odin had been betrayed by his children twice already, once by Hela and once by Loki. He should have already considered the prophecy fulfilled by now. Being the god of wisdom, he should be smart enough to try and ally himself with me as any wise King or father does instead of antagonizing me, so why was he so wary of me... Why was he so afraid?
"My king, I think we can discuss this issue peacefully like civilized gods. If he is truly your son, then he belongs in Asgard just like Thor and Loki. He has a full right to be here. He hasn't done anything wrong to be subjected to your wrath. As for his wish to go to Helheim, we can surely make him try to understand why that is a bad idea." Frigga advised with a frown, trying to keep the peace while also trying to figure out why Odin was behaving so weirdly. It seemed that she was just as confused as me.
Being encouraged by his mother's words, Thor also regained some amount of confidence as he tried to plead with his father. It seemed quite apparent from his face that he was quite happy to know he had another brother now, one that wouldn't turn into a snake and try to stab him. "Yes, indeed father. If he is my brother, then this changes things. We should celebrate that there is another mighty son of Odin to protect Asgard now. We should tell Balder and Loki..."
"NO. You all don't see the problem in his existence, but I do. If he was just my son, I would have gladly accepted him with open arms. If he was my son with a high or elder god or even a normal human, I would have been happy to declare him as one of my heirs. But he is not. No, he has the essence of a cosmic being in him. He is my progeny with an avatar of the Phoenix force. He has inherited more from the celestial bird than just its power. He has inherited its unique nature as well, which puts him beyond the reach of the strings of fate, time, and space. Even the Web of Life and Destiny has no hold on him." He interrupted Thor with a frown, his hold clenching even more tightly around Gungnir.
"What if I promise to never try to take over Asgard as you fear? I'll simply stay on Earth. You and your people will have no threat from me. All I want in return is a map and coordinates to the nine dimensions for me to explore. How about that?" I asked with a forced smile. It was my last attempt to keep the peace, to at least make an effort not having to fight my own father.
"You might not want this realm, my crown, or this throne..." The All-Father started with an ominous voice.
However, I already knew the All-Father's answer even before Odin uttered it. I knew what he was going to say, I could tell what he was thinking from the way his gaze scrutinized me as if I was his greatest shame and failure.
"You might swear to never be a threat to Asgard and to never return here..." The All-Father continued.
No, truthfully, I wanted him to say no. I wanted him to fight me. Even if he was stronger than me, I wanted to see how much I measured up when compared to someone like him. I had never expected too much from him as his son, but his words were still harsh to hear... I wanted to make him eat those words. He had called me a monster, so I wanted to show him just what a real monster I could be. Odin might never acknowledge me as a son, but he would have to respect me as a warrior and as an Emperor.
"However, your very presence endangers my grand plan of the future, my quest to liberate Asgard forever..." He declared.
However, above all else, I wanted to make Odin regret ever underestimating me.
"For Asgard, for my family, for the people, for the realms, and for the greater good, I will have to make sure that your existence would not impede my plans, they would not obstruct the grand design. I apologize young one for what I am about to do but this must be done. Forgive me if you can." Odin announced, the last few of his words almost seeming to contain some amount of pity directed towards me. Then faster than most eyes could see, he pointed his Gungnir towards me before releasing a beam of golden energy from the tip of his spear which headed in my direction with a velocity many times faster than the speed of light.
BOOOOOOOOOOM A deafening blast destroyed the throne room and a large section of the palace, with the roof vanishing amidst a cloud of smoke and dust, while small fragments of gold rained down like a hailstorm.
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