Asgard

(A/N: I have nothing against any religion. I'm just following the Marvel Lore and Angels are pretty much evil in Marvel...)

Chapter 39: Asgard

"Please, somebody, help her!" Jake shouted out as the mist dispersed. He was clutching Serafall's limp form tightly as he found himself surrounded by thousands of eyes on both sides. He had transported the two of them to a massive hall of some kind, far larger than the Great Hall of Hogwarts!

"Guards, seize them!" A large blonde man, who was standing in the middle of the hall next to a dark haired woman, shouted out.

Upon the man's verbal order, a small number of the surrounding guards dressed in ornate golden armor, who were busy holding back the crowds, turned around and started marching towards Jake and Serafall.

Jake was internally panicking. Serafall was dying, and she needed help immediately! He didn't have time to fight some random guards! Regardless, they were still marching towards him with spears drawn. Jake was about to summon forth his spell circles and blast the advancing guards away.

"HALT!" A loud voice spoke out, and the guards stopped, to Jake's relief. He turned and saw an old man with one eye sitting upon a golden throne, a king of some kind. He was the one who had spoken out.

The old king got off his throne, much to the shocked gasps of the onlookers, and walked over to where Jake and Serafall had appeared. "The wounds given to this young woman," the old king explained, "They contain the ancient magical signature of an old enemy to our people. What did this to the girl, boy!? Speak quickly, I can tell she doesn't have much time." The old king questioned Jake intensely.

"She was stabbed by the True Longinus," Jake replied. "It's supposedly one of the strongest weapons ever forged by the Biblical God." Jake explained. "Please, help her if you can!" Jake absolutely couldn't lose Serafall!

GASPS

The people in the crowd were frightened upon hearing of the Biblical God! The realm of Heven was one of Asgard's most feared enemies, and the wars against them and their legions of angels had cost them dearly over a thousand years ago…

The old king observed Jake for a short moment, checking for any falsehoods in his words. "Very well," he said, "we shall save the girl." With a wave of his hand, the old king cast some kind of spell. A barrier appeared around Serafall's body, and her shallow breathing stopped. She was frozen in time! The king commanded one of the guards to lead Jake to their healing halls. He told him to go quickly because the stasis spell he cast on Serafall wouldn't last long.

Jake lifted her in his arms and rushed after the guard.

"…"

"Father," Thor spoke out, "what about the ceremony? My kingship!" He asked in concern. It was supposed to be his big day, his crowning moment of achievement!

Thor's sister, Loki, standing next to him, was also wondering the same. She had planned out an entire event to interrupt her foolish brother from inheriting the crown this day, and by chance, someone else had come along and upstaged her. She didn't know how to feel about that...

Odin turned to his two children and let out a sigh. "Both of you were still young children during our war with the angels long ago. Since then, they have been completely sealed away in their own realm, unable to leave. And yet, that girl was recently stabbed by a weapon that was personally created by the angels' old leader. I sensed the burning light from her wounds myself. Do you two know what that could mean?" Odin questioned his children, hoping to make this a learning moment for them.

"No," Thor said bluntly, much to his father's disappointment.

"It means that members of Heven may have possibly found a way to escape their closed realm," Loki responded. Odin nodded to her and told her that was correct.

He told them the ceremony would be put on hold while he questioned the red haired young man.

…

"Is she going to be okay?" Jake asked nervously to the Asgardian healers for the dozenth time. And wasn't that a trip? He was in freaking Asgard, home of the Norse Gods. He thought maybe he was going to travel to the past or future. Jake knew that he really needed to start practicing with the dimensional mist soon.

"For the last time, young man, yes. She will live. I was a healer in the war against Heven 1500 years ago, and I am familiar with the light poisoning of the angel weapons." A female healer who didn't look a day over 40 replied to him. Jake was shocked at her age. Was she a god? Was everyone in Asgard a god?

Before he could ask her, the large doors of the healing hall burst open, and a platoon of guards entered, followed by the old king who Jake strongly suspected to be Odin himself. The king of Asgard walked towards Serafall's sectioned-off healing bed. "Will she live?" Odin asked the healer. She told him that Serafall would but would take a long time to recover. Odin nodded at that before turning to Jake. "Come," he said, "let us walk." Jake nodded and followed along after taking one last glance at Serafall. He was so glad she would be okay.

Walking beside Odin was a beautiful woman who looked to be in her mid-40s. Jake wondered if she was the queen.

"Thank you for saving Serafall," Jake said sincerely to both of them.

"It's no trouble, child. Tell me, do you know who we are?" The woman asked with a smile towards Jake.

"King Odin and Queen Frigga?" Jake guessed.

"Indeed," Odin spoke as they walked the beautiful halls of Asgard's palace. "I am King Odin, and you are in Asgard. Normally we don't allow mortals into our kingdom, but due to this 'Serafall' being wounded by an angel weapon, I decided to make an exception," he said sagely.

"Mortal?" Jake questioned.

"Yes, you see, we Asgardians live very long lives compared to you humans," she explained.

"Oh, I'm only half human," Jake said, "and Serafall isn't human at all." Jake replied, temporarily stumping the two ancient rulers... they had not noticed.

Odin once again magically inspected Jake and was surprised to find that the 'boy' possessed a surprisingly large amount of magical power, far more than he'd ever seen in a mortal. He nodded to his wife, who was waiting for him to finish inspecting the boy to see if he spoke the truth.

"I apologize for that," Queen Frigga said to Jake. "If it's not too rude to ask, what race do you two belong to?"

"We're known as devils," Jake said. He was actually a bit confused that Queen Frigga asked what he was. Shouldn't she know... wait? Wasn't Queen Frigga supposed to be dead? Jake specifically remembered that fact when he was given some lessons on the other factions. Did he travel back in time to where she was still alive? That was possible, he supposed. Jake also speculated he could be in another dimension entirely. The sacred gear he took the ability from was called Dimension Lost, after all...

"Hmmm, devils... I don't believe I've heard of that being a race," she said, glancing at Odin next to her. He shook his head that he hadn't either. "Would you mind telling us a bit about your race?" she asked.

"No problem. We're basically an immortal race that primarily specializes in magic," Jake explained. It wasn't like any of that was a secret.

"By immortal, do you mean...?" she trailed off.

"We won't die of old age ever," Jake said.

Odin and Frigga had a sour look on their faces when they heard his short explanation. Immortal!? Here they were calling him a mortal when in truth they were the real mortals in this situation. Asgardians could live for thousands of years, but what was that compared to forever?

"W-well, that is quite informative, thank you, Jake," Frigga said with a small stutter she would forever deny occurred. "But do you mind telling us more about how you two arrived in the middle of our hall?"

This is where Jake realized he had to skirt the truth a bit to hide his bloodline. He explained to the two of them that he and Serafall were ambushed on an outing by the wielder of the True Longinus... which he supposed they sort of were. Then he told them that as Serafall lay dying, he basically sent out a Hail Mary prayer to any higher beings that were listening and activated a teleportation spell with completely random coordinates, hoping she could be saved by a miracle. It was a quick story he had to think up on the spot.

"Hmmm," Odin pondered Jake's story. The first part seemed believable, but he wasn't quite sure about the teleportation part. Although Odin did know of many nosy beings in the universe who could very well have sent Jake and Serafall to his domain, one of the few places that could actually save the girl in time. He chose to accept the story for the time being.

"I'm sorry that happened," Queen Frigga said sincerely. She completely bought his story, which made Jake feel a bit bad for having to lie to her. She seemed really nice, after all. "You two are welcome to stay as guests of Asgard for as long as you like, even after Serafall is healed if you want to." She did have a slightly selfish reason for this. There weren't many magic users in all of Asgard, and she thought it would be nice for her and her daughter to discuss magic with two members of a race that supposedly specialize in it.

Jake thanked them both as they finished their short walk, which had surprisingly led them right back to where they started. The king and queen left Jake shortly after, and he returned to Serafall's bedside.

...

Healers came and checked on her every few hours. Each time they told Jake that she was looking slightly better and that she'd wake 'soon'. They did say she wouldn't be fully healed for a while, though, due to the lingering light poisoning. What they had apparently been doing to her was healing her stab wound and purging as much light from the wound itself to make it non-lethal. By that point, though, small amounts of light poisoning had already entered her bloodstream and traveled throughout her whole body. She'd be in for a slow and painful recovery, they told him.

BANG!

The doors to the healing hall burst open, and the man Jake recognized as the one who initially called to have him arrested barged in. He was followed by an entourage of three men and two women.

"You there!" The man called out a bit arrogantly, pointing at Jake. "Do you have any idea what you did!?"

"No," Jake replied bluntly.

The man huffed. "You interrupted the coronation of me, Thor, Prince of Asgard. I was to be King!" He declared proudly. Jake now knew what all those people were gathered for. He kind of did ruin that whole event, didn't he?

"Listen, Prince Thor," Jake started to apologize before he was cut off.

"No, you listen here," Thor declared. "You have wronged me, and I demand an honor duel!"

"That's right!" The fat follower cheered.

"You tell him, Thor!" The blond follower said.

"Teach this fool a lesson." The samurai looking follower added.

Jake felt like the three men behind Thor were really well in sync. Definitely some of the better lackeys he'd seen recently. Although, weren't these Asgardians supposed to be super old. Had they been lackeys for over a 1000 years? Jake felt that was kind of sad…

"Thank you my loyal friends!" Thor bellowed out to them. Jake noticed the two women just scoffed at the display.

Jake sighed at being challenged to ANOTHER duel though. Why did this keep happening to him? "I refuse." Jake said plainly to the Asgardians looks of shock.

"I refuse your refusal!" Thor replied.

"Nope, too bad. It's not happening" Jake said again. "We don't always get what we want after all."

"On the contrary." Thor replied smugly. "This is Asgard and I am a prince! I always get what I want!"

"..."

Jake wondered if he had just run into Malfoy 3.0. He thought he'd have at least some time away from arrogant young masters after Riser, but apparently not...

The prettier of the two girls in his entourage started snickering at Thor, drawing the attention of the group.

"What are you laughing at, Loki?" Thor asked cautiously. Whenever his sister had that laugh, it meant he'd be made a fool.

Jake was surprised the trickster god Loki was actually a girl! Although there was that story about Sleipnir, he supposed...

"I'm laughing at you challenging a child to a duel. And then arguing like one yourself when he said no."

Jake took offense to that. "Hey, I'm not a child! I'm almost 17!" He declared proudly.

Thor looked like he swallowed a lemon. "...17..." he muttered to himself. "Nevermind, forget about the duel," he said with a quickly turning red face as he turned around and left the healing hall. Most of his entourage followed after him. Loki, however, stayed behind.

"What was up with that?" Jake asked.

Loki just giggled. "For an Asgardian, 17 would be considered a toddler. Thor probably thought it wouldn't look good for the future king of Asgard to be seen fighting you in an honor duel," she finished explaining with another laugh.

Jake took offense to being compared to a toddler. But at the same time, it did save him from the annoyance of yet another duel... He felt conflicted.

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