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Do you like Loki's creations, dangerous experiments, and willingness to challenge enemies that appear above his league? Then you will definitely like Thairon, the protagonist of my original story, Arrival : Ruptures. Comments, likes and reviews are appreciated. Here are the links for : AO3, Spacebattles, Royal Road and Webnovel.
—
Asgard
1500 A.D.
"This pod is supposed to put us inside this digital world of yours," Thor stated. He was currently inspecting the device, which, when it was operational, would change the way the people of Asgard lived.
"Yes," he nodded. "A larger, better version of Realms of Valor."
It would be more than just a game. The Tenth Realm would be a new planet for the Aesir. One that existed inside Asgard. They could live, learn, and do everything they desired within a compass of morality.
Thor's eyes shone. "When can we go in?"
"I need to see if live tests succeed first. I don't want to send you in and accidentally turn you into a woman," he muttered. Turning his brother into a female would be the last of his worries in the event something went wrong.
"Ha, ha."
"Is that why you need these rats?" His brother asked. There were six rats in individual cages that Loki had chosen to be his test subjects.
No one was going to cry after rodents.
"Better than anything else."
"Digitalizing the first specimen." He floated the rat inside, and the door automatically closed. There was a green flash. The pod scanned the rat first. It then turned the DNA to binary code and created a digital version of it.
All in the blink of an eye.
The rat appeared on the lush green plain. It looked around for any dangers. Seeing nothing, it began to smell the area.
The in-world scans showed no genetic anomalies. The rat was perfectly fine. Seeing no reason to wait, he sent the rest of the rodents inside. Each one appeared inside the digital realm without a single error.
"Does that mean we can go in now?" His brother was twirling Mjolnir in his hand. A clear sign that he was raring for a fight.
"Digitalizing rats and an Aesir are not the same thing," he explained. He could not just show the first Aesir that he came across inside the scanner.
"What is that?" Thor gestured to the petri dish in his hand.
"Flesh sample grown from my DNA. We can't just send one of our own forward without assurances." The flesh sample was permeated with his seidr. If anything went wrong, he would know without risking an Aesir.
The dish floated into the scanner. The process took longer compared to the rat. The scanner had to be able to digitize seidr in addition to flesh.
With the signature flash, the dish entered the simulated realm. He had already conducted preliminary tests, both in turning the samples to binary code and back. This was merely to test how prolonged exposure in the simulated realm affected the Aesir.
"What now?"
"I still have to test if anything goes wrong with bringing the rats to the real world," he said. He launched fireballs at the vermin one by one. Their virtual bodies broke into pixels. Each one came out wholly intact.
Putting them back into the cages, he conducted the necessary medical scans. Any change in DNA could potentially trigger cellular degeneration. Yet, the rats were fine.
"The rats are healthy. We shall have to wait and see what spending a long time inside the realm does."
"Let me know how that goes. In the meantime, I shall find something to amuse myself."
—
Midgard
Turns out, Midgardians had seidr practitioners. They called themselves the Masters of the Mystic Arts. Based in Kamar-Taj, the sorcerers operated in secrecy. Naturally, it had his interest.
The city was well populated, and the streets were bustling. Tracking the sorcerers was easy. It was easy to detect the small breaches into different dimensions. Rather than an innate source of seidr, the sorcerers drew power from those dimensions.
But first, he had to deal with some irritants.
"Are you speaking to me?" he asked the ragtag of humans surrounding him. They kept speaking, but he did not care enough to listen. At least, until one of them got too close.
"Your clothing is rather nice," the disheveled human grinned, revealing rotten teeth.
He snapped his fingers, sending seidr to over energize their atoms. The would-be muggers were splattered on the ground and the walls, leaving nothing behind except blood.
"Honestly, mortals," he shook his head. Turning back, he gazed at the figure watching him. Her attire was far different from the ordinary denizens of the settlement. Sand-colored layered robes with a black sash and pants. Her clothing was meant for ease of movement. Her stance showed that she was a warrior.
"That was impressive," the unknown woman said.
"Against them?" He gazed at the remains of the humans. "It was a waste of my talents."
She must have decided that Loki wasn't hostile and removed her hood. "What brings you here?"
"Imagine my surprise when I discovered your planet had sorcerers. Though, it is rather different from how my people do it."
"You don't draw power from other dimensions then," she summarized. There were different sources of sorcery, though, they all came with prices.
"No. We are born with it."
"Perhaps I can offer you some tea, and we can discuss whatever has your curiosity."
"Lead the way."
—
The sorcerer took him to the abode of her order. It was densely packed with other sorcerers and students. He could feel that this place existed for a long time, even before he was born.
She took him to the garden, offering him a seat. She created portals to somewhere and pulled out a teapot. She filled his cup first.
"They call me the Ancient One."
"Loki of Asgard," he said after taking a sip. The aroma was earthy, meant to calm the nerves.
The Ancient One, who was definitely younger than him, raised an eyebrow. "Loki? The trickster god himself?"
"It's the god of seidr, actually," he said. It was the title given to him by his father. "Most of what you Midgardians knew about me is through the seers who had consumed one too many magical mushrooms to expand their horizons."
He and Thor had visited the lands where the humans worshipped the Aesir in secret. Some of the people carried sparks of seidr. Through rituals and herbal mixes, they tried to divine the secrets of Asgard.
Hence the whole mess with the myths.
"So, Sleipnir, Fenris, Hel, and Jormungandr. None are real?" she asked. There was truth to the myths, in that Asgard most likely existed. She had just never had a reason to confirm it.
"Sleipnir is my father's steed, and he is far older than me. The rest don't exist as far as I know."
Odin had ridden that horse to battles centuries before he was born. The rest of his mythical children were nonexistent. He had yet to meet Angrboda and most likely didn't have a reason to.
"As far as you know?"
"My father keeps a lot of secrets," he said, taking another sip. Secrets that he did not dare to pry into yet.
"Then since you are Odin's son, may I assume you are not a Jotun?" She knew enough of the myths about Loki's origin as the God of Mischief. He could be lying, but she did not feel any deception.
Not that it would be easy to see if an entity worshipped as a god was deceiving her.
The garden felt chilly for a second. His skin turned blue, and his eyes were blood red for a short while. "I am a Jotun. I was adopted as a baby at the tail end of the war between Asgard and Jotunheim."
"A war? Over what?"
"The Jotnar invaded Midgard. Asgard, as the protector of the Nine Realms, intervened and drove them off."
The Ancient One refilled the cups. "Fascinating." There were no records of Frost Giants invading Earth. Either it had taken place long before the Sanctum existed, or the Asgardians had managed to keep it a secret.
"What do Masters of the Mystic Arts do around here? Simply learn?" Since he had revealed enough, it was his time to ask questions.
The Ancient One was forthcoming with the true purpose of her order. There were entities from other dimensions that would lay waste to Earth. The Masters of the Mystic Arts kept them at bay.
He had never heard of Dormammu, the Destroyer of Worlds. With how the Ancient One described the entity, Earth would be in grave danger should it manage to access this dimension.
"It appears I am not the only one dealing with world-destroying entities," he mused. An idea struck him: to bring a Celestial into a confrontation with Dormammu. Though, there were too many unknowns for him to conceive such a plan.
"Oh?"
"Ever heard of the Celestials?"
"I am afraid not."
It was his turn to explain another threat Midgard faced. He had already detected the nascent Celestial incubating inside the planet. But refrained from approaching it. There could be any number of security measures.
He didn't know if he could be strong enough to fight a Celestial.
"How long does this Celestial have before Earth is gone?" It was one thing to keep Dormammu from reaching Earth. She could not possibly stop a Celestial from destroying the planet inside out like a creature hatching from an egg.
"A millennia or two, give or take a century," he said. His prediction was based on scans he had taken from the Celestial. There seemed to be a limit to the life force it needed. Under the current circumstances of Midgard, it would take over a millennium for the entity to be conceived.
Yet with the industrial revolution, the population would skyrocket. It would certainly cut down on the time. For now, Earth's population was around half a billion. In slightly over five centuries, it would rise to over eight billion.
"That is not much."
"Midgard seems to attract an unusual number of threats."
"Do you plan to do something about this, Celestial?"
"Currently? Fighting a planet-sized entity is out of my league. Even my father could not possibly do it." For all the terrifying strength his aging father carried, the Celestials were out of his league.
"In the future?"
"We'll see."
Once the mutual exchange of information was over, the Ancient One took him on a small tour. He watched the students train, saw some of the artifacts, and even gave pointers.
The sling rings acted as bridges to the different dimensions. The Anulax Batteries worked in a similar fashion. If they could store some of the energy, it could give the sorcerers an edge.
After all, it was laughably easy to disarm their rings.
One thing that put a damper on his mood was their portals. Compared to the ones he had spent painstaking years creating, the sorcery here allowed the creation of portals with a frightening ease.
The only downside was that they did not possess a site to take them to other worlds.
Then, he saw something truly interesting.
"What does the amulet do?" he asked. He could feel the power in it, something ancient and infinite.
She turned to the metal amulet kept inside a glass display. "The Eye of Agamotto. It is an artifact only usable by the Sorcerer Supreme."
"An infinity stone," he said. With the Tesseract already on Midgard, it made two Infinity Stones on one planet. A rather dangerous prospect.
She nodded. "You know of them."
"My father defeated a warlord that sought all six stones," he revealed. It made him wonder if Thanos ever targeted Midgard.
Seeing as the reason his father hid the space stone on this planet was due to the obscurity of it, it was unlikely.
One stone was dangerous enough. To gather all six? It spelled catastrophe. "For what purpose?"
"To kill half the population of the universe at random as an act of balance." The titan's plan wasn't even well thought out. On most worlds, if half of the population were gone, it would just create periods where the people had more children. Half the population gone meant the available resources for the existing people had just doubled.
A couple centuries and the populations would recover after the trauma had passed.
"How did your order come to acquire the Time Stone?" Now that he knew it was in the Nine Realms, the possibility of a connection between the gem and the Eternal Flame had increased.
There still wasn't any definitive proof, though.
She raised her shoulders and dropped them. "That is a secret only Agamotto knew."
"I wonder if my father had something to do with it. I know that he hid two of the stones," he wondered. His father would be unlikely to entrust it to a mortal.
"It is possible that Agamotto discovered the stone and chose to protect it."
It was possible, as she said. Though, he could never know without using the stone.
For all he knew, it always was on Midgard.
Once they were back at the garden, it was time for him to return home.
"This has been a most enlightening experience for me," he said, holding out his hand. While he did not learn much in the way of sorcery, what he had seen was fascinating.
And eye-opening.
"I can say the same," she said, taking the offered hand.
"This is a communication device." He handed her a bracelet he had just modified to only have one purpose. "Should you need assistance to protect this realm against Dormammu, or any other threat, do not hesitate to contact me."
She took it without hesitation. "Generous of you."
Allies against Dormammu and other threats that plagued Earth were always welcome. Someone as strong as Loki would be of great assistance, should it be necessary.
"Midgard is under Asgard's protection. However, it would be counterintuitive to the growth of humans if my father had to bring down Asgard's armies down here," he explained.
The Midgardians had a plethora of religions. If the Aesir suddenly showed themselves, it would cause mass confusion across the planet. Hence, his father's reasons for keeping out of Midgard.
"Fair enough. Do visit whenever you want, Loki of Asgard. I am sure there is much we can learn from each other," the Ancient One said.
The history lesson alone shed light on many mysteries.
Loki gave a shallow bow. He opened the portal and was home in the blink of an eye.
—
Asgard
In the short time he was gone, Asgard had received quite the interesting visitor.
Angrboda of Vanaheim.
He considered that the name itself might be a mere coincidence. One look at her disabused him of that notion. Her enchantments were master class. If he didn't suspect her, he wouldn't even think to check.
A Jotun disguising herself as a Vanir.
The premise was rather similar.
Her reason for visiting? The witches that had raised his mother had sent her to Asgard so she could learn the intricacies of the Nine Realms from her.
"She is rather beautiful, don't you think?" Thor winked. It was rare for his brother to gaze at a female for so long.
"She is a Jotun in truth," he muttered back.
Thor's eyes widened, and he gripped Mjolnir's handle. "How is that possible?"
Had she come to steal the casket?
Loki narrowed his eyes. "I would like to know that as well." He had no intention of sleeping with her, ever.
So why had the witches sent Angrboda to Asgard?
—
In the next chapter:
"Lady Angrboda, excuse our tardiness. Please accept our belated greetings." Thor, as the more social of the brothers, was the first one to greet the guests. Loki followed along, and once his brother charmed the guest, he left quietly to work on his projects.
"No apologies are necessary, my prince. I am sure you two are busy."
"We appreciate your understanding."
"Were you working on one of your creations again, my prince? Your fame and the word of your wonderful creations are frequent topics of conversation."
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Note: I changed Asgard Online's name to the Tenth Realm.