Mindscape

Even as Vali walked towards the throne room, he didn't remove his suspicions towards Odin, as this involved his most sacred mind. No amount of paranoia was sufficient for something as important as this. Odin was a key suspect as well, but he had a very poor way to check if he was bluffing.

As Vali entered the room with his mind churning, he found Odin on his throne speaking with a dwarf who was stood a few meters away from him. As soon as he saw Vali enter, the dwarf excused himself before walking away in a speedy manner.

Vali channeled magic into his eyes and asked Odin, with 'worry' on his face as he went straight to the point with an unsure tone in his voice, "Father, I feel like someone or something, has tried to control or influence my mind."

[Vali POV]

'I'll have to be subtle when I probe him, and even though I have a zero chance of going unnoticed, it wouldn't matter if I was punished or imprisoned. Since, I'd be screwed either way, whether it was by him or an even higher being.' I pondered seriously.

As I inspected Odin, I found nothing of significance in his body language but just when I was about to probe him deeper, I saw Odin's eyebrows shoot up as he looked down at me and questioned seriously, "Since when, boy?"

I didn't hesitate to think and spoke what was on his mind, "I think I've been subtly influenced from the day of my birth"

'I haven't actually noticed any external presence, but I can't exactly tell him that I analyzed the difference in my personality by comparing it to my previous life and came to the conclusion.' I thought inwardly.

Odin's demeanor suddenly took a turn, his aura leaking before he spoke with a serious expression on his face, "Stand still, boy!"

Odin then raised his spear, Gungnir and used the base of the spear to slam the floor. As soon as the weapon hit the floor, magic filled the atmosphere in tides and soon circled around me and I found myself unable to move.

I felt the magic probing my body and soul, leaving nothing out. As much as this made me severely uncomfortable, I knew that it had to be done.

The magic soon settled down, and it was clear that Odin was done 'frisking' my body. Odin suddenly went silent drowning in his own thoughts, before leaning back on the throne and said with confidence in tone, "You're alright, Vali! I have checked your body and soul thoroughly."

As if noticing the doubt in my eyes, he soon followed up with, "Once you have done forging your mind, you can double check on your own if you want, so go in peace."

I was surprised and even relieved inwardly, as this confirmation helped settle down my riled up emotions, even if I didn't completely trust it.

Odin soon followed up and changed the conversation with, "I was planning to give you a good weapon as a gift in a few years, since it's time you left to roam the nine realms. I know that you said you would forge your own before, but I have decided that it would be better for you to use the gift for now, and later as a spare, once you forge your own. No son of mine, would use an inferior weapon in battle!"

'I had told him about my desire to personally procure the best materials across the universe, and design my own weapon before taking it to the dwarves to forge in Nidavellir.' I thought of the matter I mentioned in passing, when I came to help Thor get Mjolnir in advance.

"Thank you, father; then I shall wait for the weapon to arrive. I shall leave now to hone my mind. Pardon me for the intrusion." I spoke hurriedly as I made my way out of the king's throne room after receiving his permission.

[POV Ends]

Odin who was on his throne, was having deep thoughts at the moment. 'Only after deeply probing him, did I notice how fast he has grown. He's always training and he's already honing his mind at such a young age. It's almost as if he's being chased by something and is pressed for time.'

Odin suddenly paused in his thoughts, his eyes shot open as he thought of Vali's divinity and he pondered inwardly, 'Perhaps he knows it's coming and he's attempting to overcome the inevitable. It seems I've severely underestimated this child of mine, I'm too old and my mind has clearly started rusting. Even Mimir himself admitted, that I was about as smart as him and I still missed this. Maybe it's time for me enter my sleep and recharge.'

---

'The atmosphere always gets tense when speaking with the Allfather' thought Vali as he walked out of the palace. He had finally calmed down a little, and was able to process everything about the conversation that had just taken place.

Unbothered about the other problems, he had to get his mind free from all external influences, and so he rushed back to begin his meditation. This time he wasn't going to take a break for years if needed, he was adamant on reinforcing his mind and making it solely his, with only his own thoughts.

He soon thought of all the progress he had made with his mind since he started, 80 years ago.

[Flashback]

Vali walked towards the string of mountains where he usually trained and sparred. He had just finished collecting all the required knowledge on the mindscape, and now selecting a place to calm his mind.

In his previous life, he had meditated in the mountains of Nepal and it was refreshing experience that stuck close to him. So, he decided that he'd choose a mountain to meditate while he started building his mindscape.

He selected one of the most isolated mountains that was smaller than the rest, and farther away from his sparring spot. The mountains were dark brown in colour, and like every other location on Asgard they had magical properties to it. They were extremely resilient and even Vali, wouldn't have an easy time completely destroying it.

Soon Vali settled down, and attempted the magic of entering his own mindscape. This magic required a lot of patience, and a serene state of mind so it took while for it to work, but it eventually did.

He soon found himself drowning in a completely wet dark space which seemed to be a dark ocean all around him. He swam upwards strenuously pushing his greatest asset, his body which seemed to have failed him. The dark ocean attempted to erode his will little by little, and drown him making him feel like a mortal, but it seemed to have underestimated the will of Vali, who soon surfaced with a composed face and maddening glint his eyes.

He regulated his breathing and soon found a source of light, which looked like a tiny island. It was quite the scene watching an extremely tiny island with little lighting, surrounded by this all-encompassing dark ocean that seemed to hold untold terrors.

As he swam towards the light, he found that it was a lot harder than swimming away from it. He felt some resistance when he swam forward, akin to moving against a riptide but a lot harder. He seemed to have swum for days before he found the source of light, it was a comic book store on top of the island that stood completely alone in this darkness.

To be precise, it was the same store he had worked and lived in his previous life. As he relaxed his body and gasped for air, he started walking through the entrance after unlocking the wooden door. He found a young 13 year old, silver haired boy with shaggy hair, who was going through all sorts of books. He seemed to read with one hand, while he sorted the rest of the books and comics on the shelves.

The young boy seemed to completely ignore Vali, as he went through his books and even a few hand-held video games. Vali seemed to have paused ever since he entered the store, as he watched the young boy and reminisced.

Vali finally seemed to have found his inner persona in this messed up mindscape. The first and most important step to constructing his mindscape, was to find his inner persona and anchor it. It would be the core of his mindscape, from which he could build outwards.

He soon followed the steps and approached the little boy, before fusing with him. This process took was slow and took a few months, since it was the most crucial step.

If a powerful being wanted to take over someone's mind or possess them, then finding a person with a floating inner-self that wasn't anchored, was making its life easy. Since, that meant that this mind was common ground, and the owner of the space hadn't made it his own yet.

Soon Vali could feel changes happening to his mind, and he could sense everything in his mindscape. As he sat on the floor of the store, his senses expanded outwardly but he could see no end to the ocean. He could see that his mindscape was already tethered to his soul, and shockingly, the ocean he had traversed to get here was a part of himself, that was slightly seeped with the divinity of vengeance.

The island seemed to have been a lot bigger before, but every time he tapped into his divinity to train in the last few years, it was flooded by the water from the ocean. He found it laughable that he had assured his mother that his divinity wouldn't influence him. Well, it wouldn't have anyway owing to his monstrous will, but there could've been a few erratic effects in the future.

With his will, even if the ocean swept away the island, he could maintain his sanity with some difficulty. Now, that he saw a seemingly infinite ocean of vengeance, he knew that he had his work cut out for him.

But he saw the positives as well, he would make the same ocean into a layer of defense. Now that he had full control over the core of his mindscape, he disassembled the entire store and expanded the island with no regard. When it was big enough, he constructed an enormous mountain similar to the one he was meditating on.

He was pretty much a divine creator in his mindscape, and his goal now was to expand the island below him little by little, as creating a mountain had taken quite the toll on his mind. With the knowledge he had, every session of expansion had a limit and so he could only construct his mindscape slowly.

So, he spent the following years expanding the island, as his goal was to create a planet. With his mountain as the core, he spent decades creating an atmosphere with seemingly insane gravity. Asgard had knowledge on all kinds of planets and places, and it was pretty easy to access as it was open knowledge.

When he hit his limit, he would take breaks and do some sparring or even train his brothers. He even spent some time with his mother, as he had spent a lot of time meditating, isolating himself that many people forgot he existed for a period.

In the end, he created a planet that was 99% ocean and 1% land, which was the landmass on which his core, the mountain resided. He even named it Mt. Core for convenience, and he was almost done with the finishing touches on the planet.

As he built his mindscape, it was like his mind was the entire ocean and his thoughts flowed freely as the ocean churned. He was left with the optimization, and defenses of his mindscape which is where the greatest changes to his mind would take place.

[Flashback ends]

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|| Thanks a ton, Austin, for the coffee. Hope you have a splendid day! :D ||

[A.N.] In the next chapter, he'd be completely done with his mindscape for now, and also gain a few strong power-ups ;)

[ P@ treon.com/7rox ] or [ buymeacoffee.com/7rox ]

Won't be posting any advanced chapters there, though you can donate 3$ and buy me a cup of coffee for the time I've spent writing, if you're interested. Peace.