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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.
—
Svartalfheim
He snapped into awareness like the sound of a whip. He wanted to take a deep breath to get oxygen into his blood, yet the usual motion to inhale did not produce the expected results.
He remembered the moment where he succeeded in creating a new particle. One that would give him control over matter.
Then a flash of emerald and nothing more.
He could see, hear, and feel, yet trying to move was akin to attempting to swim through syrup.
Clearing his mind, he finally understood why.
He was nothing more than a cloud of seidr over Svartalfheim. The side of the planet where he was conducting the latest step in his research was gone, exposing the inner layers of the planet, right down to the core.
He felt relieved that no one lived down there anymore.
But his current state turned his mind blank. He couldn't form a thought. The cloud that he had become reflected his mind, going unnaturally still. He tried to breathe instinctively to force himself to think.
What allowed him to finally recover his wits was the thought of his family. He had to get back to them, and it would not be as a cloud of seidr.
"Since I am not dead, I should be able to control this situation."
He could feel every part of the cloud. His consciousness had been spread out, but not destroyed. If he could concentrate the seidr back into his own shape, he could be out of here.
He pulled at the edges. The cloud contorted before springing back. He tried again and again, achieving a greater degree of success each time. It was like training a muscle he never had before. The more he worked it, the stronger it got.
Sighing mentally, he got to work.
—
His perception of time was skewed. The only sights before him were the wrecked planet and the stars. Neither offered him a way to see how much time had passed. He could have been working for weeks or months.
In the end, he managed to pull the cloud into a roughly Aesir-shaped state. A boxy, curveless appearance with thick limbs and no details—he wondered if that was what the Celestials looked like inside their armor.
He had no intention of ever wearing one.
He started small. The outer layer of his body, the dense concentration of seidr particles that enveloped the rest like a blanket, squeezed tighter at his command.
First was his right arm.
It was far more difficult than pulling himself back into the overall shape. It required precision, not power. He pushed on the middle for the elbow, separating the end of his arm into five parts to create fingers. Knuckles and fingers followed.
Keeping one arm in exact shape while trying to reshape the other proved difficult. Splitting his attention even for a second caused it to waver and spread like spilled water. He had to fix it first, which caused another part of his body to lose its shape.
With each countless attempt, it became easier.
—
Asgard
Odin entered the hall of healing.
Heimdall was on the Soul Forge but awake this time.
"Heimdall, how do you fare?" he asked. Eir's report on the Gatekeeper's state made him hopeful for a swift recovery.
"My king, I am well." Heimdall attempted to rise, but a very pointed cough from Eir forced him to lay down. "How long have I been unconscious?"
He grasped Heimdall's shoulders, squeezing slightly. "A week. We had worried you had been attacked to lower Asgard's defenses."
Yet no attack had come on any realm.
Heimdall shook his head. "No, it was not an attack. There was a violent explosion on Svartalfheim. The energy latched onto my sight, and I do not remember the rest."
"Svartalfheim?" Odin's one good eye slightly widened. "What could have happened in that dead world?"
There was only one artifact he knew that was hidden there. If the Aether was targeted….
"I do not know."
Odin turned to the healer. "What of his eyes?"
"They are healing. We will be able to remove the covers soon."
"Good. I shall leave you in Eir's capable hands, Heimdall. Rest for now."
"Yes, my king."
—
"Svartalfheim?" Thor asked, eyebrows raising. What had his brother done now?
"Indeed." Odin smiled. He was delighted to see his eldest understand the gravity of the situation. "Tell the Einherjar to stand down."
"Understood, Father."
"Could it be the Aether?" Frigga asked.
His lips pursed. "That is my concern as well."
Husband and wife waited in silent contemplation. A guard entered, saluting.
"My king, Prince Loki has returned."
"Where is he?" With Loki here, they might be able to deduce whomever was responsible for the commotion at Svartalfheim.
"In the throne room."
—
"My son, you have finally returned," Frigga said, holding her youngest son's hands. Though, she frowned, noticing how cold they were.
Her son smiled. "Father, Mother, apologies for my absence."
"Perhaps you should not sever all communications next time?" Odin asked with a light tone.
There was no assault on the Nine Realms this time, yet it would not always be so.
"As you wish," Loki bowed.
Frigga sought her son's seidr, frowning. She was distracted when her eldest walked into the throne room.
"Thor, have you told the Einherjar to stand down?" Odin asked. They would have to depart for the realm of the Dark Elves once Heimdall could report, but for now, there was no need to keep the soldiers on alert.
"Yes, I have."
Loki held out his arms, taking a step towards Thor. "Brother, how have you been while I was gone?"
Thor blinked at the question. He approached Loki, peering down at his brother. Loki tilted his head. He could not react quick enough to the hammer striking his face, sending him flying off.
"I do not know what you are, but you are not my brother, imposter," he growled, lightning dancing on Mjolnir.
"What?" Odin raised Gungnir, one eye on Loki. "Explain yourself."
"I would recognize my brother anywhere. This is not him," he declared, pointing at the pretender with Mjolnir.
The imposter chuckled, rising while dusting himself. "How observant of you." Odin was about to demand answers when guards barged through the door, charging at Loki. "There he is! Stop him."
"Enough," he raised his voice. The golden room fell still with the Einherjar surrounding Loki, or whomever it was that pretended to be his son.
"You, stay put," he growled, spear pointing at the entity taking his son's face. One wrong move, and he would reduce him to ashes.
"Explain," he demanded from the guards.
"My king," a young scholar stepped forward, heaving for breath, "we have been using the simulation room to create a personality of Prince Loki in order to receive his advice on seidr craft research. We made the personality too intelligent by mistake, and it took over the room before escaping."
Odin blinked. Now that he looked closer, the seidr emanating from the imposter was too mechanical and unfeeling compared to his son.
"So you are Loki, just a simulated copy?" Frigga said. She wondered at the bond between her sons for Thor to realize this was not the real Loki, which even she and her husband could not.
"Correct enough," the hologram said, a lopsided grin on his face.
Odin took a breath. "Return control of the machine and dispel yourself," he ordered at the holographic facsimile of his youngest.
"Why? Too afraid to do it yourself?" the copy winked. The guards raised their weapons, ready to strike it down.
Odin tapped Gungnir on the ground. "Now."
The fake Loki raised his hands and broke into seidr particles.
"Secure the room and ensure there are no more issues," he ordered the scholar, waving her and the guards away.
"Yes, my king." The throne room was vacant once again, leaving only the three members of the royal family.
"I never imagined those rooms could produce something such as this." He shook his head.
"I remember Loki putting restraints on the system. The scholars must have deactivated them." At the time, he did not understand why it was necessary.
Now, he did.
"Well done," Frigga praised. "Even we had not realized something was wrong until the last second."
"He is my brother."
A brief smile tugged at Odin's lips. "Yes, now if only he were to return."
—
Svartalfheim
He had finally done it.
Pressing, pulling, and squeezing, he had finally merged the cloud into an exact replica of his body shape. Which left him to handle the finer details.
A small lump grew out of the center of his face; three lines, one beneath the lump and two above it, appeared.
The lines split apart, revealing the brighter shade of emerald inside. Two holes opened beneath the lump. His eyelashes grew next, then eyebrows, and then hair.
Each one crafted with painstaking details so he could be himself once more.
Knuckles, the imperfections on his skin, the bodily hair, and his toned abdomen and muscles followed. He still had no idea how much time passed in deep concentration. Each second meant his family would be worried more and more.
Especially upon Heimdall reporting what happened at Svartalfheim.
Once he stopped, there was only the cosmetic left. He still had to concentrate to hold his shape, or it threatened to break apart. His eyes went from an emerald glow to white sclera. The green irises appeared. Now that he had his eyes, he guided the omnidirectional vision to gather there. Seeing everything around him at once was wearing down on his mind.
The green strands of his hair faded to black.
He corrected the skin tone but stopped. Rather than the cream tone he had known all his life, the color he touted now was a deep blue. He frowned, thinking how this was possible.
He certainly did not care much about his Jotnar ancestry. It must be a subconscious effect on his desire to return to his original shape. Slowly, he switched the color.
Looking down, he rolled his eyes. Of course he forgot the most important part.
Once the mistake was rectified, willing clothes to appear was the easiest part of his work.
—
Asgard
He raised the Gungnir, blasting a hole through the chest of the cursed Dark Elf. It broke into flecks of seidr, only for another one to take its place.
"Tell the scholars to cut the power to the simulation rooms," he ordered. The Crimson Hawks surged forward, cutting through the enemy. The army of Jotnar, Dokkalfar, Aesir, and even the creatures of Muspelheim did not seem to have an end to it.
Thor leaped and struck the ground. The shockwave of concussive force and lightning dispelled dozens of enemies at once.
"At least they don't have seidr," Frigga commented, flowing like water behind a Jotnar, stabbing it through the neck.
"Yet they are endless," Odin replied, the golden beam tearing through enemies like paper.
Thor grunted, backhanding the head of a Dokkalfar warrior off. "We'll make do."
"I can tire you out through sheer numbers. Do you really think you will succeed?" The mocking imitation of his brother's voice called.
He grabbed a Jotun by the leg, slamming it into a Muspelheim demon. "If you were actually like my brother, you would know the answer to that."
—
Svartalfheim
Once he manifested his body, it was a matter of keeping himself from dissolving back into seidr. Seidr was like any other activity. Repeated enough times, the act became a habit.
His hunger made it difficult to focus.
He did not want food, but something. He could not describe it. He felt empty, as if a part of him was missing. His mind churned as to what it could be, which made the starvation worse.
It dawned on him when he gazed at the planet below. The explosion must have depleted a significant amount of his seidr. His cells would usually replace it over time, but currently, he did not have a body of flesh.
He needed more seidr, and figured out just how to acquire it.
He targeted a small asteroid, a remnant of the world he had just torn apart. The dead rock itself did not contain any seidr. He fired a burst at it, aiming to convert, not destroy. It was the purpose behind his research after all.
The particles struck the atoms, infecting them as a bacteria would a cell, and transformed them to seidr particles.
The conversion was slow, but each second made him feel fuller. The asteroid was small, which meant he would need a lot more.
—
Asgard
Frigga wove the spell to the power lines carrying seidr to the simulation rooms. The renegade holographic representation had spread its control everywhere, but the powerlines were a different matter. It did not possess the seidr to control them as well.
She disrupted the array with miniscule changes. The seidr surged forward, more than the line and the machines could handle. If they could not shut it down, she would fry the whole system.
A quarter of the forces assaulting her position disappeared in an instant and did not return.
"No!" the cheap copy of her son screamed. The remaining holograms increased the intensity of their attack as desperation settled in.
She repeated the spell, burning another line, leaving only two more to go.
Thor came down from the sky, striking into the middle of the enemy. The shockwave cracked stone like glass and bent metal akin to tin.
He did not stop, striking a Jotun into a group of Einherjar holograms. His hammer rippled, and he pivoted on heel, cutting a cursed soldier in half.
"Enough!" The holographic Loki's voice came, screaming with a high pitch like a petulant child. The remaining holograms broke into cubes, merging into one.
If there was one thing he learned regarding battle, it was to not wait like a fool while the enemy prepared. He summoned the thunder, darkening the skies of Asgard from one end to the other. He leapt, slamming Mjolnir on the enormous, growing cube.
It shattered into countless pieces, leaving nothing behind except a fading scream.
Frigga fried the last powerlines, causing every holographic enemy across the golden realm to disappear.
—
Odin kicked the door, tearing the thick, sliding door out of the wall and into the room. His guards were inside in a heartbeat, searching for the enemy.
The room was powered down, but this particular enemy proved to be elusive.
"Summon the scholars. I want certainty that the enemy is gone." They had been fooled once. He assumed the hologram would do as commanded, since it was a replica of his son, yet it had chosen to attack instead.
Theoric nodded, weapons still drawn.
The scholars were escorted inside, quickly diagnosing the system. When one of them sighed in relief, so did he. Now, they had to repair the damage done to the palace and punish the scholars responsible for this mess.
"At least there were no casualties." Odin thought, dispelling his armor.
—
In the next chapter:
When he finally returned to Asgard, it was to his hidden little laboratory beneath the palace. He made it outside, only for several guards to rush at him with weapons drawn.
He flicked his hand, sending the guards flying away.
"I hope you have a good explanation for your actions, or I will not wait for my father's verdict to kill you," he said. He brought his left hand behind him, feeling it start to unravel.
"My prince, is it really you?" the one who charged at him first asked, sheathing his weapons.
"Yes, who else?"
"Please forgive us. The simulation room went out of control. A replica of yours took control and started attacking everyone."
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