Episode 193: Even the World is Mortal
Episode 193: Even the World is Mortal
Within the isolated forest the shadows of four majestically monolithic tails of vibrant purple scales descended like falling towers. Those caught in the path of their descent had little room for escape, with a wounded Cadence holding Hel’s arm with one hand, and Spike still locked in place as his Gunwolf poured forth a beam towards Jormungandr’s projected form. Jormungandr himself seemed utterly unconcerned with his body being in the strike zone of the gigantic dragon tails his Anima scales had formed, likely simply because his body being a projection meant any damage it suffered mattered little to the ruler of the Beast Realm’s Tribe of the Sea.
Cadence saw little choice but to try and use Hirenkyaku to drag Hel towards one of the few small gaps between the tails, even knowing that the speed of their descent was too fast for her to make it in time.
Seeing this, and acting on instinct, Spike flipped the Gunwolf’s blazing tail barrel around and aimed the beam away from Jormungandr and instead fired for the gap, hoping to blast a hunk of one the tails off to create a gap for Cadence and Hel to escape through.
However just as he began to do this, multiple streaks of cobalt light penetrated through one of the draconic tails; reishi arrows that flew around and formed a pentagon pattern around Cadence, Hel, and Spike. Thick sheets of reishi rose up from around the arrows, forming a potent dome of almost opaque blue light that appeared just in time to shield the group. Even so, the immense impact of four building sized dragon tails moving at insane speeds was enough to shake the earth, flatten the forest, and leave a broken area of earthen rubble for several hundred meters around.
The barrier itself managed to hold under the impacts, although cracks had appeared across it like a barely intact eggshell. The protective shell dissipated a moment later to reveal the utterly crushed forest and riven earth all around them, but the dragon tails had pulled back now, readying for another strike. Before they could, however, two figures rushed between them, striking in tandem.
One was Sunset Shimmer. She was bearing a few extra wounds from tangling with Jormungandr’s conjured claws, but flames coated her body in white hot fire, some of the worst of the cuts slowly healing. More flame, solidified into a long, searing pillar of sapphire power, cut out of her blade in a wide arc as she slashed past one of the dragon tails. The blue flames turned the binding scales of the Anima construct to ashes of dissipating reishi, severing one of the tails into several pieces as Sunset’s single strike revealed itself to be several, as she continued downward to land in front of Jormungandr with eyes burning with fresh anger.
“Not polite to ditch a lady in the middle of a dance, you ass,” she said, already flashing towards him in a haze of blinding motion. Her flames had returned to burning orange, but were still hot of enough to ignite some of fallen timber as she struck hard at Jormungandr, who smile with an appreciative eye as he brought the odd helix shaped blade he’d forged from the Blanks up to block in a blast of heat and sparks.
“Apologies, but my business is mostly with my sister, and you seem less than eager to hear me out on that front. I am taking her today, one way or another.”
“The hell do you need her for!? You haven’t explained a damn thing!” Sunset pushed with Hokori to knock his blade aside and slammed Hikari forward, trying to get a good head shot in with the shield’s pointed tip. He caught it with his hand, but the tip of the shield still pierced the projection’s “flesh”, causing motes of reishi to float away from the wound as the hand was pierced through. Still, he halted the shield, and glanced away from her for a moment.
He was looking at the second figure that had charged down with her. Shining Armor.
While Sunset had destroyed one of the Anima tails that Jormungandr had created, Shining Armor, who’s arrows had created the barrier that protected those in the forest a moment ago, now went to work on the remaining tails. His spiritual pressure was blasting forth in a seething mass, the man’s face a raw mask of fury as he’d seen his injured wife and now took that anger out in impressive fashion upon the giant constructs of power in the shape of dragon tails.
These enormous tails had targeted him and focused their full attention upon the Quincy Sternritter, flailing through the air with shocking speed for their size. Unfortunately for them, striking a target in the sky was much harder than those on the ground, and Shining Armor was no slouch when it came to speed, even if he was a far cry from the likes of Rainbow Dash. He moved with bright flickers of high-speed motion, leaping over waves of sonic wind force as the tail constructs sailed by him. Every time he vanished and appeared elsewhere his bow fired a swarm of arrows, similar to Lich Regen, yet with fewer, but larger arrows. These arrows pelted the tails, sticking to them, but seeming not to penetrate the scales in any significant manner... at least not until Shining Armor had thoroughly tagged all three remaining tails with several dozen arrows apiece.
He gestured at the arrows, invoking in a resonant voice, “Vergeltungsfeld!” (Retribution Field)
Abruptly each arrow he’d fired into the Anima constructs generated a field of force from its end which connected with one another and started to fuse together until dozens of arrows essentially formed into one massive field of energy that proceeded to then explode with magnified force, detonating one after another. This blasted great chunks out of the three constructs, causing them to fall over. Sunset wasn’t sure how long that would last, remembering that Jormungandr was capable of rapidly repairing the creations had made with his Anima, but also recalling that projecting his power into this world was draining for him. Perhaps he could only do so much, because he didn’t seem to be in a rush to reform the tails. She also noted the draconic claws he’d created were hovering above, but not chasing her down to the ground, as if Jormungandr was content for the moment to face her with that odd blade of his.
What was more, she realized that the number of Blanks floating around the area hadn’t gone down, but had only been increasing, to the point where she wasn’t sure she could count how many were now hovering about.
“You’ve noticed,” Jormungandr said, “Should I tell you what they really are? That they’re a symptom of the sickness at the heart of our world?”
“You’re going to need to be at least fifty or so percent less cryptic and smug before I take anything you say seriously,” she replied, breaking their physical stalemate by kicking off the ground and flipping backwards, while reversing her grip on Hokori so she could point her index finger downward and rapidly invoke a Kido, “Bakudo Number One: Sai!” (Restrain)
Jormungandr looked briefly insulted, but then surprised as his arms shook at the energies of the restraining Kido that tried to invisibly bind his arms behind him. Normally a beginner's Kido like that would hardly affect an opponent with his level of reiatsu, but Sunset was banking on how much energy he was having to expend just to maintain his projection meaning he didn’t have as much to use on pure defense. Also, it didn’t have to hold him long, just a second or two, and indeed even as Jormungandr redirected his reiatsu to push the minor binding Kido off, it still left his arms in an awkward position and exposed as Sunset used Flash Step to push off the air and slam right back own towards him with a heavy overhanded chip that bust to life with azure power, “Aoihi Senko!”
She felt her Zanpaktou, erupting with a potent wave of intense blue fire, strike right down Jormungandr’s chest and then blast his body backwards through the onrushing explosion of flames that burnt a charred and ashen trail for quite some distance.
By now Shining Armor had landed amid the group, immediately checking on his wife, “Cadence, shit, you’re face-”
“It’s nothing, Shining,” Cadence replied with swift assurance, ignoring the still thick amount of blood dripping from the rather horrifying gash across her face, “We’ve more important things to worry about than my looks.”
“That’s not why...ugh,” he cast an angered glance at Hel, “Why is he after you!?”
Naked fear warred with a certain level of divine indignation on Hel’s face as she looked at the mortal man yelling at her, “I... I’m supposed to help him... kill Yggdrasil.”
“What, like the mythological tree?” asked Spike, “It’s real? Wait, why am I even surprised, anymore?”
Sunset glanced back at them, “Wait, if Yggdrasil is a real thing, then why would Jormungandr want to kill it?”
“That’s not so difficult to answer, for someone with an ear to listen...”
The flame and smoke from Sunset’s Aoihi Senko gradually faded as Jormungandr walked amid the remainder of the azure flames clinging to the scorched earth. His projected body was clearly damaged, at least, with a gaping and burned wound down the chest that didn’t bleed any blood, but showed a few motes of reishi peeling off of him. His face showed no pain, but that was hardly a surprise, but it did show a bit of strain as he gave Sunset that strangely a manic yet resolved smile he’d been showing her their whole battle.
“Yggdrasil, the World Tree, is the beating heart of the Beast Realm, and through it, the natural system of this world’s ability to reincarnate souls. A system usurped by Glory and her little helpers, the Soul Reapers. Through her treachery, she perverts the natural order, preventing Yggdrasil from completing its own life cycle... in effect preventing the world from dying its natural death, but corrupting the process of mortality by doing so. All I want... is to force a rekindling of that natural order, by allowing Yggdrasil to die with dignity. For all of us to have a dignified end, and allow the process of mortality to proceed as it should.”
“Don’t listen to him!” Hel shrieked, shaking with either fear, disgust, anger, or a powerful mixture of all three, “His mind is twisted! He doesn’t know what killing Yggdrasil will do! He’s just assuming it will undo Glory’s... modifications.”
Sunset glanced between the pair, first at Hel, then back at Jormungandr. Up above in the sky she could hear the thunderous peals of lighting and thunder that were her friends fighting the draconic host, high above. Rainbow Dash’s and Applejack’s reiatsu remained strong in her senses, so she knew the pair were holding their own, but they were getting worn down a little, and there were still so many dragons. And this new information...
“Look, I’ve got no love for Glory and the Zero Division,” Sunset told Jormungandr, “I intend to stop their plans, whatever it ends up taking. That said, you’re not exactly selling me on bumping off some tree and speeding up the world’s supposedly ‘natural’ death as some kind of solution. That sounds like pure lunacy to me. Is this what your whole Ragnarok thing is all about?”
Jormungandr gave her a look that dripped condescension, even as he continued to wear his smile like some crazy people kept weird bumper stickers on their cars, “An appropriation of purpose, more like. Among the Tribes of the Beast Realm, Ragnarok is our final battle, to be waged in the twilight of Yggdrasil’s natural lifespan, to determine who is most worthy of rebirth. Legend and culture, in part, but Yggdrasil’s eventual death is no less true for it. Glory seeks to suspend death through her mind numbing goal of a ‘perfect world’, and my fellow High Chieftains were too cowardly to sound the call to Ragnarok to put things to right when I declared it the proper path. I tried once to fell Yggdrasil by my own tooth and claw, a loyal army by my side, but we were turned away, partially by desertion among those I thought most faithful. Now I seek to finish my task in another manner. With the aid of my dear sister, who fell to Glory’s influence, but I was able to reclaim and shape into a most valuable seed of destruction.”
Since he was being chatty, and Sunset detected a faint and approaching sense of new reiatsu, some of which she recognized, she decided to keep him talking. Jormungandr might have detected the approaching spiritual pressures as well, but if he was being this overconfident still, then maybe he’d happily keep talking. Sunset sure wasn’t about to stop him, and would gladly prompt more. Besides, she still didn’t understand this situation fully.
“Setting aside why you even need Hel for something like that, specifically, I still don’t see how killing Yggdrasil, and the world with it, benefits anyone. Won’t that just halt the reincarnation of souls, since you’re telling me the World Tree is key to operating that whole process?”
“Sunset, we should just destroy this asshole, not waste time talking with him,” said Shining Armor, but Spike actually stepped forward, putting a paw up to halt the Sternritter from raising his bow.
“Hold up. Sunset’s asking some key stuff here I want to know, too,” Spike said, turning the Gunwolf’s head towards Jormungandr, “Doesn’t mean we can’t put him down like a mad dog, once he’s done telling us what we want to know.”
A rich chuckle came from Jormungandr as he eyed Spike and his Gunwolf, “You even talk like Fenrir. So much bark for so little bite. You, along with Quetzalcoatl and your half-sister Fenris thought it madness to destroy Yggdrasil, but from my point of view it’s little different than putting down a sick and wounded animal. Yes, Sunset Shimmer, Yggdrasil’s death means that reincarnation will halt. Mortal deaths lead souls that in turn will die, yet their essence will not be reborn. Not until Yggdrasil renews itself. Which it will. That is the whole point of it! Be it by my claws today, or millions of years from now through natural degradation, Yggdrasil dies, the reincarnation process halts, the world crumbles... then is reborn as Yggdrasil blooms again. That is our faith. That is our fight. That is Ragnarok.”
“Riiiight...” Sunset shook her head, “Do you actually know this is true, or is this just guesswork based on Beast Realm legends? You know what, don’t answer that one. Even if all you said is true, I’d rather stop Glory, fix whatever she’s done to Yggdrasil, and let those ‘millions of years’ play out rather than let you end it all now just because you’re mad at Glory and the Zero Division.”
“Mad? Hah! I’m beyond mad, Midgardian,” Jormungandr’s eyes, even through a mere projection, burned with a hellish intensity that couldn’t even be called conventionally crazy or furious, “The Zero Division, the High Chieftains, the Soul Reapers, even you ignorant mortal Midgardians... all of you are guilty of allowing the world to become twisted and infected from its natural state. So it falls to me to force a correction.”
It looked like the interlude of exchanged words was about to end, Jormungandr gathering his remaining strength to relaunch his attack. Sunset and all others present prepared for it, but Sunset also sensed that the spiritual pressure’s she felt earlier were arriving just in time. A very familiar female voice chanted out with a powerful tone of focus, “Hado Number Eighty Eight: Hiryu Gekizoku Shinten Raiho!” (Flying Dragon Striking Heaven Shaking Thunder Cannon)
Standing no more than a few dozen meters away, as if she’d appeared there in an instant, which was probably very much the case via an impressive Flash Step, Clover held her right arm outstretched and braced with her left hand. The moment she finished her invocation, a small spark of electric light appeared in her palm, but then instantly exploded into a vast and churning swath of earth breaking lightning and raw spirit energy. The rushing wave of thunderous destruction slammed right into Jormungandr and exploded in a way lightning generally didn’t, the reishi within it seeming to go wild in a fury of pure detonation that resulted in a flaming explosion large enough that it would’ve leveled a sports stadium.
Sunset shielded her eyes from debris flying past her, whistling in an impressed manner. She knew Clover was good at Kido, but the punch she packed nowadays only seemed to keep growing. From her own experiences fighting the likes of Captain Platinum, Sunset didn’t think Clover was in any way behind them in terms of strength of Kido, and probably more skilled than some of those Captains besides.
Even Jormungandr’s projected body didn’t just walk out of that one unscathed, his body bouncing a few times from the smoke of the explosion, with a missing left arm and a chunk of his side gone, even as he landed on clawed feet and used his right arm to stab the ground with his sword and slow himself to a halt, his whole body smoking.
“Damn, Clover,” Sunset said, smiling, “You need to keep making entrances like that. By the time you get Chishiki back, your Zanpaktou is gonna wonder what the hell’s been going on with you.”
Clover, despite the serious look on her face just a moment ago as she hit Jormungandr with her Kido, blinked instantly and looked rather bashfully embarrassed as she waved her hands at Sunset, “This is hardly the time to be showering me with compliments, Sunset! Not that I’d mind afterward, but for now what in the world is even going on?”
“We hardly had time to explain anything in our rush to get here,” said another familiar voice, a buzzing of Sonido revealing Gaia Everfree appearing beside Clover, her curved, sickle-like Zanpaktou already drawn as she eyed Jormungandr with distaste, “Although I thought I recognized this snake’s reiatsu. Hmph, so the bloody wolf and bird were right.”
“Bird and wolf?” Sunset tilted her head, confused, at least until she heard a loud, piercing bird’s call, followed by the blistering howl of a wolf peal through the air.
She saw the brilliant streak of jade green and ocean blue hues as a gloriously colorful bird the size of a large helicopter flew by at impressive speed. From the bird’s long tail of colorful, peacock feathers a shimmering veil of spiritual power and magic formed, an Anima that became like a luminous rain of shimmering droplets formed of raw energy. Where these droplets fell, broken earth restored itself, and fallen trees grew new roots. Even Sunset felt her spirit energy being restored and her wounds soothed by the rain, and heard the soft gasps of her companions as they clearly felt similar restoration. Yet at the same time the rain seemed to have the opposite effect on Jormungandr, steaming and sizzling his projected body until he shieled himself with a set of conjured purple scales that formed into a protective... wing, above his head? Sunset only thought this odd because the wing wasn’t a draconic one, but closer in shape to that of a giant eagle. Why was that?
Her question fell out of the forefront of her mind as the howl of the wolf turned to a loud snarl as from the sky, slamming into the ground at a low angle like some furry ballistic missile, was a massive and heavily muscled canine with notably red fur. This huge wolf’s fur bristled as red motes of Anima energy rose over her body, which began to glow with the brands of multiple runic symbols. Her fur then grew in length and sharpened like living living blades, gaining a metallic huge as the wolf’s furry coat literally transformed into a covering of curved blades that sprouted from almost every angle of her body.
The bird circled overhead briefly before landing, the shimmering tail of her Anima trailing behind her. “Jormungandr! You do not belong in Midgard, and neither do your ill minded zealots! Withdraw at once back to Niflheim!”
“Simurgh and Asena,” Jormungandr wiped droplets of Simurgh’s Anima off of his skin and gave the pair a look of distaste, “I see Fenris and Quetzalcoatl continue to use you as their personal errand girls. As if you belong in Midgard any more than I do. Let us not make pretenses of civility. If the ancient pacts did not hold literal power over me, I’d have come here in full and not with this sorry shade, but alas, I work with what I can. And what else do we have here...?”
He glanced towards Clover and Gaia, eyeing the former with general disinterest and the later with more curiosity than concern, “I see a Soul Reaper whose name I neither know nor care to learn, and... a vaguely familiar soul. Gaia Everfree. I see your rebirth did not go wholly as you intended. I trust that my people's aid was still appreciated?”
Gaia’s face twitched in a generally more human manner in tune with Gloriosa, her voice tight with restrained emotions, “That’s a matter over and done with. Charybdis arranged those beasts entering Camp Everfree, so if it’s gratitude you seek, take it up with her.”
“Alas, I cannot, for Charybdis is no longer... active,” Jormungandr replied with a look of actual disappointment as he shook his head, “She would have proved a useful alternative tool to use had she not been defeated. With Hel missing for so long, I was rather bereft of a replacement and thought such a desperate mortal from Asgard might serve, but sadly Charybdis proved to be unequal to her own ambitions. But as the Fates seem to spin, not long after losing Charybdis, I discover my long lost sister! As for you, Gaia, did you spend such efforts to be reborn only to now become the lap dog of mortals yourself?”
Gaia let out a short laugh, raising her Zanpaktou in her right hand while her left gave a rather cheeky flip of her hair, “Don’t be ridiculous. I have my priorities straight. I have a summer camp to run, a little brother to look after, and a Chrysalis to kill. Long as I got those taken care of, I’m a happy woman, both as an Arrancar, and a human. I only came here to see if these ladies needed a hand in booting you back to the Beast Realm, but from the looks of things, my contribution would be overkill.”
Gloriosa turned to look at Sunset Shimmer, “You got this, right?”
Sunset smiled at the woman and nodded, “I think so. If you want to do me a favor, could you take Wallflower, er, Hel and escort her back to Discord’s? She’s who this jerk is after, and I don’t want him pulling a fast one. Right now Dash and AJ got things under control up above, but I don’t trust this dude doesn’t have some ace up his sleeve. He’s oozing that ‘overconfident bad guy’ vibe that is really starting to piss me off.”
Gloriosa looked back at where the girl she would’ve normally recognized as Wallflower was, but quickly noted the changes in the girl’s appearance, and being smart enough to add two and two based on what Jormungandr had been saying, grasped the situation fairly fast. “Right, I’ll take care of her.”
“Hold a moment,” said Simrugh, also eyeing Hel, “If she is truly Hel, then it is my and Asena’s responsibility to detain her.”
“Detain?” Sunset said, and Asena let out another growl, not taking her eyes off of Jormungandr.
“Hel is considered no less a threat than Jormungandr himself, and there is a standing order from our High Chieftains that she be taken into custody, if ever discovered. She must come with us.”
Jormungandr laughed loudly, a rough, manic sound as he grinned at Sunset Shimmer, “Do not be so foolish, girl, as to think my rival High Chieftains to be your friends merely because they oppose me. You’ll find the Beast Realm is not so simple a place of friend and foe, especially when dealing with the likes of Quetzalcoatl and Fenris.”
“Tch, what else is new?” Sunset said with a shrug, “Soul Society had its issues, and my friends and I crashed that party, too. The Quincy aren’t a pile of peaches, and neither are the Arrancar, but we’re managing to deal with them in our own way. If you think I’m going to be daunted by Beast Realm politics any more than my own realm’s BS, you don’t know me at all. That said...” she turned fiery eyes towards Simurgh and Asena, “I don’t know who you two are, exactly, but Hel is under our protection. You touch her at your own peril. You want to talk things over, help me deal with Jormungag first.”
Jormungandr let out another chuckle at her nickname for him, while Simurgh and Asena traded looks. Then Spike spoke up amid their silence, his voice cracking like a whip, “Look, ladies, this ain’t a hard choice! Give us a paw, or wing, or whatever, and then we can argue about Hel all we want afterward! But if you get in our way, I’m letting you know right now I’m on my last shred of patients after not getting any sleep for, like, two days straight! So pick a freakin’ side!”
He punctuated his words with a distinctly deep growl, and Sunset felt a rise in his spiritual pressure as the Gunwolf’s eyes flashed brightly.
Both Simurgh and Asena reacted rather intensely to this, Asena especially turning around fully to ignore Jormungandr as she almost seemed to reflexively bow her head, “This spirit...! Lord Fenrir! Is it truly you!?”
Simurgh shook her feathery head, “No, it cannot be him in full, Asena. A portion of his spirit, at most, but... such a large quantity! It should not be possible for so much of Lord Fenrir’s soul to reside in a mortal body.”
“You are sensing the same thing I am, you birdbrain,” Asena growled, “This spiritual presence belongs to Lord Fenrir. I would never forget his scent. Fragment or no...”
“Ugh, more of this Fenrir talk,” Spike sounded faintly irritated as he popped the cockpit hatch on the Gunwolf and poked his cute, purple and fluffy head out, “Will you all just give it a rest!? Focus less on me, and more on that jerkwad over there!” He pointed with a paw at Jormungandr, whom Sunset had already noticed was entirely too calm, given circumstances.
He’d already been outnumbered, and that numbers ratio had only increased now. She’d been holding her own well enough against him already without even using Bankai, besides. And with so many allies present, it was far more likely they could keep him occupied while Gloriosa got Hel far away to safety. So why was Jormungandr still just standing there... looking menacingly smug? Sunset didn’t sense any extensive spiritual pressure from him that suggested he was building up a powerful move, so what was he so calm about? What was she missing?
Asena and Simurgh both appeared to take Spike’s words to heart and started to slowly flank Jormungandr, who made no move to avoid the pair.
“Lord Fenrir speaks true enough, we can sort out more complicated matters after the far simpler matter in front of us is dealt with,” said Asena, while Simurgh ruffled her wings and tail, energy pour off of her in droplets.
“Indeed. Jormungandr is mighty, but in this projected state, not so much. However it is strange... should not his Anima, even in this diminished state, be creating more of his malefic shades?”
“Hold up, do you two know how his power works?” Sunset asked, but Jormungandr snorted at that moment and a combination of magic and spiritual energy surged out of him. The floating horde of Blanks all around shuddered in response and flowed towards him, and wrapped further around the helix blade he’d created as he spun around in a circular slash. The blade extended and roared with power, forcing almost everyone present to have to leap upwards or duck down to avoid the wide, severing wave of force that cut out around him.
Asena raised a blade laden foreleg to defend herself but was struck back and sent reeling through the ground like a nail driven by a jackhammer, while Simurgh was a bit slow on taking flight and received a rough gash across her tail. Clover, like Sunset, managed to Flash Step up in time, while Shining Armor grabbed Cadence and hauled her up with Hirenkyaku. This left Spike to shield Hel, deploying the Gunwolf’s mouth-held blade to receive the wave of cutting force and hold firm against it until the energies split around him and Hel.
Jormungandr raised his free hand upward after his attack, and Sunset felt his energy pulsate among the Blanks, “Did you all think I was being talkative simply to enjoy the sound of my own voice? Two can play at the game of buying time, and I thank you all for being complacent enough to not notice my intentions, now that it is too late for you to do anything about it.”
The Blanks started to billow upward like a cyclone of pale phantoms, spreading out into eight different tendrils. Sunset saw that their destinations were the conjured draconic claws that Jormungandr had left flying up in the sky. She had thought he’d left them there to conserve energy or to wait until the fight took to the air again before employing them, but it struck her hard that she probably should have paid closer attention. Jormungandr had been so willfully chatty to keep her attention off of what was happening up above, and on top of that he’d been using the clash of reiatsu from Rainbow Dash and Applejack fighting to further mask that he’d been slowly positioning those eight, translucent dragon claws into a octagonal position around the entire area.
Now the Blanks merged with these claws and they shifted shape, becoming clad in what looked like rune-etched gauntlets of dark steel as their clawed fingers spread and currents of purple energy ran over them in arcs. However, rather than some attack of energy beams or elemental blasts, what Sunset saw begin to form was a wide, crimson opening in the air between the eight claws. It was a portal, the same as the ones that had brought Jormungandr and his Dragons here, but much larger and exuding a greater degree of energy.
“If you will not let me take Hel with me back home, then I’ll just have to drag all of you there, all at once!” Jormungandr declared with a fanged grin as he laughed and slammed his hand down on the ground in a gesture that was mimicked by the eight empowered claws that now had a humongous portal formed between them. That portal slammed downwards at high speed, wider than the forest itself had been, and ready to swallow all of them.
There was next to no time for Sunset to react. In terms of speed she could have easily flown herself right out of the portal’s area with a Flash Step, but that would potentially leave behind Hel, or Spike, neither of whom might be able to move fast enough to avoid the descending portal, and she wasn’t in a position to grab both of them. There was also no guarantee that a wounded Cadence or Asena could readily avoid the portal, too, and Sunset wasn’t inclined to leave either behind.
In that instant she heard Simurgh’s voice call out in an avian screech, “Destroy the portal! Otherwise it will pull us to Niflheim!”
Sunset wasn’t sure if actively screwing with an interdimensional portal was the greatest idea in the world, but she agreed that it was a better option than just letting the portal drag them to wherever Jormungandr wanted. With her superhuman speed she gripped the cloth at the hilt of Hokori and spun it above her head in an instant cyclone of motion, charging her Zanpaktou blade with a coating of dark red flames.
“Akai Shobo-shi!” (Red Fire Destroyer)
With a flick of her wrist she flung the now solid disc of intense ruby flame upward at beyond lightning speed. She hadn’t used this technique in quite some time, and had a much better understanding of it now. The red flame was essentially the weaker, Shikai version of her black flames, fueled by her wrath. While the red fire didn’t possess the same quality of the black flames to utterly almost any kind of matter or energy particle it came into contact with, it did have immense severing force, despite a rather high trade off in terms of fragility. It wasn’t an attack to use on an opponent who could readily counter it with another energy attack, but as long as it struck its mark, its ability to cut through targets was exceptional.
Including the now steel clad, Anima dragon claws Jormungandr was using to generate the expansive portal he was sending at everyone.
The fiery red disc flew up and sliced clean through the fingers and palm of one of the dragon claws, dicing it like a huge, fresh carrot under a ginsu blade.
This had an immediate and noticeable impact on the portal, which slowed its descent, tilting and bubbling like a piece of melting plastic. Jormungandr, for once, lost his smug look and actually blinked in a stupefied manner at Sunset.
“Crazed Midgardian! Do you have notion of what you’re doing!?”
“Nope,” Sunset said, and shouted to everyone else, “Get clear, now!”
She’d hoped that disrupting the portal would cause it to collapse, and the fact that it had slowed down at least bought the others time to run. She saw Shining Armor holding Cadence’s hand as both started to take to the air. Clover followed her as she started to Flash Step towards Asena, the big wolf only now digging herself up from the ground where she’d been knocked down. She saw Gaia grimacing at the situation and gesturing with her hand, the beginnings of her own dark portal, a Garganta, forming behind her. In a streak of lighting and a burst of golden light, she saw Rainbow Dash and Applejack rush like meteors from the sky and land at the edge of the destroyed forest, both apparently having seen what was happening and coming down to either help or at least figure out what was going on.
Then the portal’s energies bubbled outward, moving instantaneously in a manner so swift that even the fastest of those present would not have had time to react. Sunset felt everything around her spin as it felt as if the world itself was tossed into a laundry dryer and set on high spin.
Then...
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Sunset Shimmer groaned and sat up, rubbing her aching skull. A rather large crack in a wall of natural stone nearby told her that her head had probably made quite the imprint. Thankfully she was tougher than the wall, giving it more of a mark than it had left on her. The wall was rough and naturally uneven, telling her she wasn’t in a man-made area, but rather somewhere like a cavern. Light glittered from luminous stones poking irregularly from the walls, and the ceiling as she looked upward to see a very high, curving ceiling stretching upwards. This caused her to look over her shoulder and realize she was standing on the slanted cusp of an uneven cavern wall that led down to a floor of a much larger area, with a gleaming pool of water in the center. Various underground foliage such as lichen and mushrooms grew around the pool, some of the mushrooms glowing so bright they may as well have been fluorescent lights. Their size was a lot bigger than anything that should’ve existed on Earth, as well.
She saw the others laying around as well, all either unconscious or gradually waking up. As she scooped up the fallen form of her Zanpaktou, Hokori no Hikari having reverted back to their sealed katana shape, Sunset took a quick head count.
Aside from herself, it looked to her as if most of those present when the portal had gone crazy were here, but she didn’t see Jormungandr, Gloriosa, or Clover. Rainbow Dash and Applejack were slowly sitting up together near the opposite end of the pool, where Asena also lay on her side, grunting as the huge wolf opened her jaws and yawned. Simurgh’s brightly colored form was half submerged in the pool, but was blinking awake and shaking water off of herself. Spike’s Gunwolf, presumably with Spike inside it still, was humming back to activity as well, with Hel clutched protectively in his claws. This left Cadence and Shining Armor, both stirring from where they had fallen further back in the cavern, away from the pool.
So if that was everyone, then what about those who weren’t here?
“Oh, good, the rest of you are waking up.”
Sunset didn’t quite jump, controlling herself as she turned to see Clover emerging from a small opening the cavern wall, apparently leading to some tunnel going elsewhere. Clover looked at Sunset with a mixture of relief and fresh concern as she walked up, “Are you okay? I used some healing Kido on you, although I think the cave took the worst of it.”
Sunset rubbed her head, managing a small smile as she glanced once more at the crack in the wall her skull had made, “I’m fine. Where are we? And what were you doing?”
Clover looked back at the tunnel entrance she’d come out of. As she did so she almost seemed to unconsciously touch a scroll case now tied to the sash of her Soul Reaper uniform, which Sunset wondered at but held off on asking about. “I was scouting,” Clover said, “After making sure everyone was in stable condition I thought I’d make sure there was no immediate danger nearby. The tunnel goes on for a while, however, so I came back to check on the rest of you. I’m... not actually sure where we were.”
Asena raised her snout to the air and sniffed deeply, shaking herself and letting out a throaty grumble, “Svartalfheim. Deep inside the realm, by the scent of the mana in the air.”
“Svartalwhat?” asked Applejack, dusting herself off as she and Rainbow Dash walked over to Sunset and Clover, “Seriously, what n’ tarnation just happened? Me n’ Dash were cleanin’ them Dragons’ clocks, then saw that big ol’ portal open up. Figured we’d come down ta help out, but next thing I know everythin’ is goin’ topsy turvy on us, and now we’re walkin’ up here in some kind o’ cave?”
“Kinda my fault,” Sunset admitted with a small grimace, “I didn’t realize Jormungandr was pulling a fast one on us, and he caught me off guard with that portal move. Then I sort of destroyed part of it, which made the whole thing go wonky and swallow us up.”
“Don’t blame yourself, young Midgardian,” said Simurgh, dragging herself out of the pool of cave water and shaking her feathers off, “I told you to do so, and if you had not, we’d have been dragged into the portal anyway, taken directly to wherever Jormungandr intended. No doubt the depths of his territory in Niflheim.”
“Where is that dude, anyway?” said Rainbow Dash, “He was right there in the middle of it all, so why hasn’t he gotten tossed here with the rest of us? Also, where’s Gloriossa?”
Jormungandr was nowhere to be seen, despite being in the center of the disrupted portal. Sunset didn’t imagine for a second that he was any worse off than them, and his not being present could readily be explained by the fact that his body had been a projection, and it may have been disrupted as much as the portal had been. Simurgh confirmed this a moment later, saying, “He was using a spell to channel a portion of his power into a simulacrum. It would have relied on a link to his true body, and once pulled into the portal, that connection would have been severed, ending the smiraculum’s existence.”
“Okay, that explains why he isn’t here, but what about Gloriosa? I saw her, I think she was opening up a Garganta?” Sunset said. Everything had happened so fast she hadn’t really gotten a good look at Gloriosa, but she did see her forming what looked like one of the Hollow gates just before everything went haywire with Jormungandr's own portal.
"I saw the same,” confirmed Simurgh, “I believe she managed to step inside before we were all drawn here.”
Sunset breathed a small sigh of relief, “Well, at least one of us managed to avoid getting tossed into the Beast Realm. Means she can tell Discord what happened. But why are we here? I mean, you told me to mess with Jormungandr’s portal, and I figured I shouldn’t question it, but did you know what would happen?”
With a bit of a bashful glance aside, Simurgh cleared her avian throat, “I knew we’d be better off than if we allowed Jormungandr’s portal to swallow us uncontested. I have some familiarity with the magic being used, so a disruption would not cause the portal to harm those taken in by it, but it would alter its intended course and randomize the target destination to a degree. I was hoping we might luck out and end up closer to Alfheim, but... well at least in Svartalfheim we shall be difficult for Jormungandr to locate quickly.”
“You n’ the big bad wolf over there seem ta know a whole heck o’ a lot,” commented Applejack, “Ain’t had the pleasure o’ introductions, yet. Ya’ll from the Beast Realm?”
“Simurgh, loyal vassal of High Chieftain Quetzalcoatl of the Sky Tribe,” Simurgh said, spreading her wings and inclining her head in a graceful bow.
“I am Asena, personal attendant to High Chieftain Fenris, of the Land Tribe,” said the wolf, nodding a little less graciously, her hackles rising as her nose sniffed the air again, “And we shouldn’t linger in one place for too long. Svartalfheim is not the most dangerous territory of the Beast Realm, but it is far from the safest, even in powerful company.”
“Hold on,” said Shining Armor, having now gotten his bearings alongside Cadence, whom he had torn off a portion of his uniform sleeve to make a bandage for her face while the rest of them had been talking, “We need to get back to Earth. Can neither of you make a portal like Jormungandr did?”
Asena barked out a laugh while Simurgh simply shook her avian head, “Portals of such inter-realm potency are beyond the skills of many, including myself and Asena. If you wish to return to Midgard, you had best travel with us to Alfheim, where the boughs of Yggdrasil reach to the sky.”
“No simple task,” Asena muttered, “Simurgh fails to mention how far one must go through the cavernous depths of Svartalfheim to even reach the surface, then we must journey through Vanaheim and Jotunheim before we even see the leaves of Yggdrasil. Even for ones such as we, many dangers await. Especially as we still have her with us, and Jormungandr will be hunting us.”
At Spike’s side, Hel groaned awake and slowly raised her head, blinking in incomprehension, “Huh...? Where...?” She saw the Gunwolf looming over her and yelped, scrambling backwards until she spotted Sunset, “S-Sunset? What’s going on?”
The manner of speech, along with that particular nervousness and fear, lacking the same haughtiness of Hel... “Wallflower?” Sunset immediately Flash Stepped over, kneeling next to Wallflower and touching her shoulder, “That you, Wallflower?”
“I... I think so?” Wallflower was blinking, her hand going to her forehead in a pained rub as her eyes clenched shut, “Aaah, my brain feels like someone’s taking a cheese grater to it.”
Sunset kept a comforting expression on her face, but inwardly she was definitely worried. Wallflower’s body still had the changed appearance that had overtaken her when becoming Hel, with the same increased size and altered outfit. Her spiritual energies felt the same as Hel’s as well, so Wallflower clearly hadn’t reverted back to being a normal girl, but rather it was her personality that was currently in control. At least for now.
“Look, it’s hard to explain, but things went wrong with the Memory Stone,” Sunset said, feeling a hard stab of guilt at having to say this, but knowing she couldn’t afford to ignore the truth of the matter, especially not where Wallflower was concerned, “The memories inside it that went into you, they belong to an ancient soul, a ‘goddess’ in a sense. Hel.”
“Who?”
“Errr... not up on your Norse mythology?”
Wallflower blinked once or twice, “Academics aren’t my strong suit. Sorry.”’
“No offense,” said Rainbow Dash, “But do you have a strong suit?”
“Dash, not now,” said Applejack, elbowing her friend. Sunset cleared her throat and held Wallflower’s attention by putting a reassuring hand on the other girl’s shoulder.
“I’ll bring you up to speed in a bit, but right now we’re... in possibly hostile territory. Once we find a spot to rest, I’ll explain everything. For now, can you stick close to Spike here, and if you feel anyone or anything trying to talk in your head, just let us know, alright?”
Wallflower looked more than a tad taken aback and scared by the situation, but she seemed to trust Sunset enough to nod and stood up on shaky legs, glancing at the Gunwolf, “Right, I remember you. Talking dog in a scary robot.”
“That is no way to speak of Lord Fenrir,” said Asena with a harsh growl, causing Wallflower to yelp and jump behind Spike, who in turn fixed Asena with a glare from the Gunwolf’s crystalline eyes.
“Chill out, lady. I keep telling you, I’m not this Fenrir dude.”
“You say this now, but already I sense your spirit and mana flowing freely from the core of your soul, my lord,” Asena said, “You’ll feel the changes happening soon enough. All of the Midgardians will.”
“Changes?” Cadence spoke up before any of them, a hand unconsciously straying down towards her stomach, “What kind of changes?”
Clover responded before Asena could, her expression contemplative, “Beast metamorphosis. It’s a phenomenon documented by the few expeditions and diplomatic missions the Soul Society dispatched to the Beast Realm. Those who are not native souls to the Beast Realm begin to undergo a series of changes the longer they remain, taking on beastly traits depending on their personal nature. The longer one stays in the Beast Realm, the more akin to the beasts one becomes.”
“And if one remains in our realm for too long,” said Simurgh, “Then one runs the risk of these changes becoming quite permanent.”
“Permanent...” Sunset looked at her hands as if wondering if she'd see fur start sprouting. Granted, for her that wouldn’t exactly be new territory, for she’d started life as a hooved, four-legged unicorn, but she’d grown so used to living as a human the thought of turning into a different form was actually a little uncomfortable. Besides, who knew if the changes that occur to her in the Beast Realm would result in anything similar to her unicorn form? And for her fully human friends this had to be an even more unnerving concept-
“Cool!” Rainbow Dash said, “Do we get, like, awesome beast powers to go along with our new forms?”
Sunset held her forehead, “Rainbow, you did hear her, right? If we stay here too long, any changes might become permanent. Do you plan to spend your athletic career as a cat girl?”
“Eh, I’d manage,” Rainbow Dash said with a blasé shrug, “Besides I’m hoping for something more along the lines of an awesome bird like a hawk.”
“Ya could at least pretend ta be takin’ this seriously, Dash,” Applejack muttered, “I fer one ain’t lookin’ ta grow now tails, horns, paws, or hooves, er... no offense, Sunset.”
“None taken,” Sunset replied, then glanced back at Simurgh, “How long do we have, exactly?”
The statuesque bird bent one of her wings to her beak in a rather human motion akin to chin stroking, “Hmmm, were you normal Midgardians I would say the changes would occur within days. With your increased levels of spiritual power, it will take longer for the Beast Realms inherent aura of mana to seep into your souls. I would say you will probably see the first changes in a few days, but bigger changes will take longer. Weeks, perhaps. Permanency will be even longer, at least a month or two, I’d estimate. Assuming you don’t indulge in, as your friend was so apt to put, ‘awesome beast powers’.”
Rainbow Dash blinked, “Waitwhat? I was half joking! We actually will get beastly powers?”
Asena responded this time, her rough wolfen voice barking out an amused laugh, “What do you think our Anima is, girl? The Beast Realm breathes with an intense mixture of magic and spiritual energy, a form of ‘mana’ we weave into our Anima. As this energy gradually infuses our bodies and souls, you too could learn to manipulate it into Anima. Hah, of course this would accelerate the rate of the changes to your bodies, so perhaps you might choose to avoid it.”
“Yeah, I think we’re good,” said Shining Armor, “Not planning to toy around with some weird powers I don’t understand. I’ll stick to my Quincy techniques. Cadence?”
“As if you have to ask,” she replied, taking a deep breath and eyeing Asena and Simurgh, “The sooner we can return to Earth, or ‘Midgard’, the better. I... am in no position to be dealing with even more changes to my body.”
Asena sniffed at Cadence, nodding with a sudden lack of aggression, but rather intense understanding, “You are with child. Rest assured the initial changes should not harm your offspring, but I give you my word as a warrior and mother to my own pups that I will see you safely escorted back to your realm, Cadence of the Quincy Tribe.”
“I...” Cadence blinked a bit at Asena’s rapid change in demeanor and simply nodded her head, saying with sincerity, “Thank you.”
“Asena, Simurgh, since we’re unfamiliar with this realm, we’re going to be relying a lot on you two to guide us,” Sunset said, offering the pair a small, respectful bow, as it seemed the appropriate thing to do, considering the position they were in, “So thanks in advance. That having been said... I need you to understand that when it comes to her,” she pointed at Wallflower, “She’s still under our protection. Whatever else happens, I want that made clear.”
“We understand,” Simurgh said after she and Asena shared a moment to look at one another, “Know that our High Chieftains do not wish to harm Lady Hel, but she remains a potential threat to Yggdrasil by virtue of Jormugandr’s plans for her.”
“Do you even understand what those plans are? What he did to her? Because quite frankly I understood maybe a third of what that nutjob was saying,” Sunset stated in a blunt tone, “Can either of you elaborate?”
“Not very much,” Simurgh admitted, eyes flicking towards Wallflower, who remained partially hidden behind Sunset and Spike both, biting her lip in unease. “All we know is that Hel was a willing accomplice to the actions of Glory and her cohorts in the Zero Division, but Jormungandr got a hold of her and kept her in his court in Niflheim for a long time. It was known that while he failed to destroy Yggdrasil through force of arms in his war against the rest of the Beast Realm, dark rumors from Niflheim suggested he had found an alternative means to kill the World Tree, and that Hel was a key component.”
“Why n’ tarnation didn’t ya’ll Sky and Land Tribe folk just gang up n’ finish off this Jormungandr if we was bein’ such a dang problem?” asked Applejack, and Asena growled, not aggressively but more in frustration.
“His full power and that of his Cult was such that even in open war, it took the greatest measure of the other Tribes to push him and his ilk back into Niflheim’s frozen seas and glaciers. In that war, we lost much, including our...” the she-wolf cast her eyes towards Spike, “Our dear Lord Fenrir. Now Fenris, his younger sister, rules in his absence. Jormungandr lost too many of his forces to mount another war, yet we lack the strength to face him in the heart of Niflheim. Hence a long stalemate that has lasted centuries.”
“Huh, not so different from our war with the Hollows and Soul Reapers,” Cadence said with a soft, bittersweet laugh, “It seems the Beast Realm Tribes and us share a similar problem.”
Sunset’s mind blazed with an unpleasant thought, “And somehow I wouldn’t be shocked if Glory and the Zero Division didn’t somehow plan to bring that stalemate about. Keep the Beast Realm out of affairs on Earth by ensuring they had their own deadlock to maintain.”
“A dire notion,” Simurgh agreed, then ruffled her feathers and let out a soft, screeching cry, “But we spend too much time in talk. Rest assured, Sunset Shimmer, we shall not attempt to steal Hel from your charge. On my own word as a vassal of Quetzalcoatl, I shall ensure this party in its wholeness shall be delivered safely to Alfheim, and then to Midgard. But we must begin moving soon. The longer we linger in any one place the greater the danger, not only from the potent and wild denizens of the Beast Realm, not all of whom owe us allegiance, but also Jormungandr’s search. If we are found, even if he does not come from Niflheim himself, he has his own elite cadre of servants, his Einherjar.”
“Like that Ormir dude me and AJ kicked the crap out of?” Rainbow Dash asked, but Simurgh shook her head.
“That name is known to me. Ormir is a Jarl, a Clan leader, of the Land Tribe. Jormungandr’s Cult has loyalists among all the Tribes, which is partly why his war was so devastating, and some Clans remain outcast for siding with him in those times. No, the Einherjar is a special name given to the greatest warriors serving a High Chieftain, which Jormungandr remains, despite his infamy. Neither I nor Asena or Einherjar, merely favored vassals, suitable for many errands. Einherjar are unleashed only for war, for destruction, for slaying.”
“Lovely,” sighed Sunset, “So just how many of these guys can we expect Jormungandr to send after us, and are they conveniently numbered by level of strength like the Espada?”
Simurgh’s had cocked to the side to look at Sunset more intently with one eye, a curiously avian gesture that gave off an air of incredulity, “You are quite nonplussed by these circumstance, aren’t you?”
Sunset shared a look with her friends, seeing Rainbow Dash’s cavalier smile, Applejack’s rock-solid resolution, and Clover’s quiet and firmly supportive gaze. While she couldn’t see Spike’s features, his Gunwolf remained protectively close to Wallflower, who certainly looked fearful, but she was neither fainting nor panicking. Meanwhile Shining Armor stayed by Cadence’s side, the two holding hands in unconscious reassurance of each other’s presence. Sunset returned her gaze to Simurgh and Asena.
“We’ve all been through it. Not about to quail at the thought of dealing with the Beast Realm’s best. Or worst, for that matter. So what do you know about these Einherjar?”
“Einherjar are not numbered, as you find with Tirek’s Espada,” Asena said, “There is no system by which they are ranked. Each High Chieftain chooses which of their warriors are worthy of being raised to such an honored position, above the Thanes who are recognized champions, or Jarls who lead Clans. A High Chieftain could name many Einherjar, but that would be foolish, for only the greatest should be so named.”
“As it happens, this means each Tribe usually only has a few Einherjar,” Simurgh added, “My Tribe of the Sky has but six, while Asena’s Tribe of the Land name’s seven. In the past war, Jormungandr’s Tribe of the Sea boasted thirteen Einherjar, but most were slain in those mighty battles. As far as I know, it is believed only three remain alive.”
“Just three, huh?” said Applejack, “That don’t sound too bad.”
Asena looked at the farm girl with flattened ears, “Do you think Tirek and his hordes of Hollows keep at bay, or the Quincy King never thought to expand his domain here, because the Beast Realm was not ‘too bad’? An Einherjar matches any Captain, Espada, or Sternritter, and that still leaves countless other warriors and loyal beasts at Jormungandr’s beck and call. You may be able to defeat many lesser Dragons like you demonstrated back in Midgard, but did you think Jormungandr came with the full measure of his army or his strongest servants? The pacts prevent those of great power from emerging in Midgard or Asgard.”
“He did mention something about old pacts or whatever,” Sunset said, “What are those, exactly?”
“Accords between the Three Tribes and the other realms, writ in both the power of soul and magic, and sealed by the power of the High Chieftains in the Zero Division,” Simurgh said plainly, eyes downcast, “Before Jormungandr’s rebellion, there was the greater wars between what you mortal Midgardian’s would have thought of as ‘gods’.”
“Right, the whole conflict between the Hollows and Glory,” Sunset said, rubbing her head, “Was the Beast Realm a part of that?”
“In the earlier stages of the war, yes,” Simurgh replied, shaking her head, “A conflict of pure devastation, and so the High Chieftains brokered the Beast Realm’s neutrality, as to not escalate it nor allow it to spill into our realm. The pacts merely enforce some of the rules, ensuring that neutrality. We stay out of Midgard’s affairs, and the powers of that realm stay out of ours.”
“Soul Society has tried a few times over the centuries to get the Beast Realm Tribes to revise those accords,” put in Clover, “I studied most of those records back when I was a student at the Academy. Every single diplomatic attempt to negotiate the Beast Realm’s help against the Hollows or Quincy was a spectacular failure. The only exception was the mission led by the previous Captain of the Ninth Division, Captain Blueblood’s predecessor. His diplomatic expedition resulted in not only a revision of the accords to allow the Gotei 13’s forces to enter the Beast Realm under specific, emergency situations, it also had the, um... unusual result of Soul Society gaining two powerful candidates for the Soul Reaper Academy.”
“Really? Who?” asked Sunset, to which Simurgh was faster to reply than Clover, speaking with an enthused air of formality.
“Ah, she speaks of the Princesses of the Tribes of Sky and Land, the Daughter of the Sun and Daughter of the Moon, whom I only now realize Asena and I have rather failed to contact now, as we were sent to give them a message from their mothers.”
“Okay, kinda lost now,” Rainbow Dash said with a scrunched up face, “The heck you talking about?”
Clover coughed politely, “It is something of a taboo subject in the Gotei 13, but still widely known among the officers that, um... Captain Celestia and Captain Luna are the daughters of Qutzalcoatl and Fenris, respectively. Half Beast-Realmers via their shared father, the former Captain of the Ninth Division, who apparently, uh...” Clover blushed, “Really, really impressed the Beast Realm High Chieftains during his negotiations.”
Sunset blinked at Clover. So did every other human present, save for Wallflower, who was so lost she didn’t even blink.
“Duuuuude,” Rainbow Dash broke the silence, “Who the blue blazes was this guy that he hooked up with the top chicks of the Beast Realm at the same freakin’ time!? How much game can one person have!?”
“Nevermind that,” Sunset said, “Why would Celestia and Luna be sent to Soul Society instead of being raised in the Beast Realm?”
“Being born as only half-beast, it was decided by their mothers that the Daughters of the Sun and Moon would find greater purpose and happiness in the realm of their father, and that in so doing they would remain as a bridge between Soul Society and the Beast Realm to help maintain the peace,” Simurgh said, to which Sunset slowly nodded.
“Okay, makes sense to me.”
“Still kinda want to know who this father of theirs is,” said Dash, “Dude sounds nuts.”
“Its not really any of our business, Rainbow,” Sunset said, although she was pretty curious too, “At any rate, we should probably get moving now. If we’re going to be hunted, let’s not make ourselves an easy target.”
“The tunnel I scouted widens up a few dozen meters along,” Clover said, “Then I believe it branches out in different directions.”
“I’ll take the lead,” said Asena, already padding towards the tunnel in question, “My nose is sensitive enough that I can scent where the air is fresher, and hence the passages most likely to lead closer to the surface.”
In short order the group as a whole assembled and began to follow the giant she-wolf down into the dark passages of Svartalfheim. Light was provided by a combination of Kido from Clover and Sunset that could produce small orbs of illumination, and Rainbow Dash’s ability to generate soft arcs of electricity that lit up the area ahead of them brightly. Shining Armor and Cadence could similarly produce small motes of blue reishi to add to the light, and Spike’s Gunwolf had plenty of internal sensors to allow easy navigation. Wallflower kept close to him and Sunset, holding herself.
Sunset worried about the girl, especially whether Hel would take over again sometime soon, but for now all that could be done was to give Wallflower a reassuring nod and press onward.
It was a long, grinding walk of an hour before one of the tunnels curled upward and snaked around, exiting through a sharp and tall opening onto a wide ledge of rock. There was fresh light to be seen, but not the comforting warmth of daylight or the soft grace of moonlight.
“Whoa...” said Spike first, as the group gathered on the rocky ledge and gazed outward. Sunset more or less figured he nailed the sentiment.
Spread out in front of them was a vast underground landscape, as if an entire world was carved out of the dark hewn stone of the Earth, but none would mistake this land for being anywhere on Earth. Mushrooms as tall as skyscrapers filled patches of the uneven hills and underground mountains of rock that spread before them. Rivers and lakes of glittering purple and black spotted the valleys of jagged rock. Waterfalls filled the echoing land with a gentle hiss of endless water. Gems bigger than houses encrusted a ceiling that was like a black sky, revealed as unyielding stone from the sight of countless stalagmites and stalactites that rose up or down like forests of rock. Some such pillars of stone connected fully between floor and ceiling of this underground world, so large and thick they were mountains unto themselves.
A loud cry like a thousand breaking logs sounded out somewhere far above, and Sunset saw a centipede so large it’d make a kaiju blush, its chitinous plates gleaming black and green. It skittered monstrously across the ceiling... miles distant, unknowing and uncaring of the small strangers in its realm as it let out another chattering cry and crawled into a vast tunnel out of sight.
Other, more distant cries of numerous other creatures now echoed up from down the shear cliff all the ledge Sunset and her companions stood upon. This massive landscape was inhabited, and if Sunset’s eyes weren’t deceiving her, in the greatest distance amid the shadows she could make out the shapes of what might be some manner of fortress carved into one of the mountainous rock pillars.
Licking her jaws, Asena looked back at them, “Look upon it well, for it is to be our first gauntlet, children of Midgard. Welcome to Svartalfheim.”
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Okay, I agree with Sunset, Jormungandr needs to be stopped, even if he's right about undoing Glory's modifications. Hope these side effects of the Beast Realm stay manageable at least. Keep up the great work! First!
Ah, I seems our heroes have entered the Beast Realm a bit sooner than expected. Now it's a race against time through hostile territory, almost like the excursion to deal with Charybdis, only in reverse, since they already have Wallflower/Hel and are trying to avoid the 'big bad'. Also, Rainbow Dash totally stole the scene there with all her guileless comments, lmao.
So that’s two more
I wonder what will happen with pinkie and fluttershy
Oh wow, didn't think that visitors to the beast realm would turn into furries. I wonder if Sunset is going to turn into an anthro-pony. I always imagined that an anthro-pony would look pretty disgusting from a pure pony's point of view.
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you know Rainbow is going to be called Thor at some point in this, also Rainbow thunderburb is gooooooo
I was hoping the whole group would be here but can’t complain. Considering Sunset is from “Asgard”, and the whole group has a mixture of magic and spirit energy; wouldn’t that affect how they change? I would consider that the girls are already half beast-folk because of their mix of magic and soul energy.
I wonder if the changes will begin with an involuntary pony-up as it were.
Man, the 10th just got a new captain and now she’s trapped in the Beast Realm. Talk about a rough first week without Celestia.
Every new chapter is a pleasure to read. Can't wait to see more of Svartalfheim. Looks fun so far. Hope there'll be dwarves?
Place your bets in what, who will turn. Rainbow into some kind of bird seems obvious and so Sunset into a pony, but maybe something also fitting like Phoenix or better,
A Dragon?
So either Quetzalcoatl (which is the way in Mythology) is a woman or can turn into one to have children. Or it's a Sea horse situation. I mean, no one said that the 9th Captain couldn't swing both ways.
On the more serious note... who will tell Rarity's family about her situation?
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Kind of like the split. It gives every character a chance to shine on their own. The only downside is the BR group has all the front fighters (and Dash and AJ always fight together, though it seems they gonna need a lot of fire power in BR) while Hueco Mundo has both the Bard and The Healer (though Pinkie can tank a lot and has a huge hammer while Shy doubles as a Monk).
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With Sea horses, the female lays eggs in the male's pouch. A female is still required here. It's likely that its one of the soul society versions of Chancellor Puddinghead, or Smart Cookie. Maybe even one of the soul society version of the Pillars of Equestrtia. I wanted to say Discord, but I had to retract that. Since he had Star Swirl's position originally.
Another thing is, if I remember correctly that its mentioned that during Ragnarök, they would assault the realm of hell. If that's the case Sunset might need to cause it to save Rarity.
Thanks for another excellent chapter
And so we get our first look at the beast realm and I am already loving it.
I mean just read this it sound so cool and mysterious. It great.
Gotta agree with Dash no this one. That's just impressive. Definitely interested in hearing more about Tia and Lulu's dad.