182 Chapter 182: Misdirected Puppies

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On the day of the signing of the peace treaty between the four factions, Odin, God-King of the Nordic pantheon asked for a guide to the city. That would not have been suspicious if he didn't have asked for a specific person to be the guide of his small delegation, which because of some old misunderstanding of Odin with the Shinto pantheon could not direct teleport to Kuoh. Issei Hyoudou, the chosen guide, was sent together with his King and peers to guide the Nordic pantheon delegation to Kuoh.

On the way to Kuoh, the group was attacked by discontented people of their own faction led by Loki. The god of mischief had managed to escape Asgard's Prison after some good time incarcerated because of his murder attempt at Frigga. But Loki was surely not expecting to see his own daughter, Hela, as one of the people chosen by Odin to participate in this delegation. And she surely was not chosen by Odin. Frigga, when prompted by Odin to come with him to the signing of the treaty, had immediately appointed Hela, her adopted granddaughter, as part of her entourage besides the daughter of her now-retired bodyguard and friend Gandul, Rossweisse, much to the whining of her husband who still didn't trust the daughter of Loki.

"Hela!"

Loki exclaimed at seeing her daughter there.

"Father."

Hela replied simply to her father.

"What are you doing by Odin's side?"

Loki asked while the fighters from both sides kept glaring at each other. His mind was running a thousand different scenarios of what could happen now with this new variable on the battlefield.

"I am not at Odin's side. I am at Frigga's side."

Hela replied to Loki. It was not that she didn't like Odin or something like that. The only thing that she held against the old god was that he discriminated against any children of Loki, had they done anything to deserve it or not. The most recent case had been the incarceration of her brother, Fenrir, because of some nonsensical prophecy that talked about a wolf that would devour worlds made by a crazy old hag. It was then that Loki started to madly laugh.

"The Fates seem to be on my side today!"

Loki said while smiling widely. He then opened his arms.

"Come, daughter. Come to my side and let's together end this farce of a peace treaty once and for all."

Loki said arrogantly, putting Odin on guard of Hela together with his guard. To the surprise of Odin, Frigga and Rossweisse didn't move and kept their positions near Hela after Loki had called her to his side. The goddess of death's first response to Loki's invitation was the raising of a single eyebrow.

"Are you stupid?"

Hela asked Loki after some time of silence, greatly shocking the god of mischief.

"First: why would I not want peace? And second: why would I fight against one of the few people that showed me some love in this world?"

Hela said again, denying even more strongly Loki's invitation, shocking Odin, who finally seemed to understand that it was not because she was a child of Loki that she would be like Loki. The god of mischief took some time to understand what had just happened, and when he did, the look on his face morphed into one of contempt.

"So be it! If you will not join me, then you will die with them!"

Loki said and two magic circles shoe behind hind. After some seconds, the figure of two wolves of the height of a person appeared in the middle of motes of light, making Hela squint her eyes at that. She, of course, recognized them immediately. It was her nephews and the sons of Fenrir, Sköll, and Hati.

"Sköll, Hati, attack!"

Loki said in a commanding voice while pointing to the Nordic delegation and the guiding group. The two wolves, just like the rest of his small group of marauders, started to run in the direction of the enemies. Hela, seeing her two nephews running in Odin's direction, decided to intervene before it was too late. In a strong burst of speed that could only be seen by Odin's single eye, the goddess of death appeared in the middle of the path of Sköll and Hati to Odin.

"Sköll, Hati!"

Hela said in an authoritative tone that made the two big wolves skid on their hind legs trying to stop their charge. When they did stop, they were meters away from Hela, who glared at the duo. Sköll and Hati, seeing her aunt glaring at them, lowered their heads without even knowing what they had done wrong.

"I thought that I had taught you both better than this."

Hela said while putting her hand on the side of her waist. The two big wolves whined at that.

"So your grandfather promised to free your father? That is why you two are helping him?"

Hela asked, seeming to have understood the two wolves' whines, who replied with more whines that made the goddess of death sigh in defeat while lowering her arms.

*sigh*

"You two big dumb wolves."

Hela said while walking to the duo. It seemed that she had offended them, but there was no malice when she called them 'dumb'. On the contrary, there was a tone of caring mixed to it. As she arrived by their side, Hela raised her hands and started to caress the fur of Sköll and Hati, whose tails started to wag in response.

"You guys have to understand that while your grandfather is very knowledgeable in magic, he could not free your father from the place in which he is imprisoned. Only Odin could do it… And maybe Erik."

Hela said to the duo while continuing to caress their fur, adding the last part about Erik after a small pause in her speech.

"And it will not help your case if you attack the old man, ok?"

Hela said again, receiving another pair of whines as the answer.

"Yeah, I know. Now, it is better if you two wait for me at my home, ok? I should be back before the day ends."

Hela said again, receiving more whines as an answer, but by the wagging of the duo's tail, others could see that it was a positive answer. Sköll and Hati then approached their big heads near Hela's and started to lick the woman's face.

"I love you two, too. Now go back to my home and wait for me as the good boys that you two are."

Hela said again with a smile on her face, receiving a strong bark this time as her answer from the duo. A black and purple magic circle appeared under them and, after a moment of goodbye, Hela walked back some steps, exiting the area of her magic circle and activating it. Soon enough, Sköll and Haiti disappeared in the middle motes of black and purple light, leaving behind a flabbergasted Odin and Loki, and a proud Frigga.

"What have you done!?"

Loki exclaimed while Hela calmly walked back to Frigga's side.

"I just sent two misdirected kids back home. Or do you want to screw with the lives of your grandchildren too? Wasn't your own children enough for you?"

Hela asked Loki, who the people on the 'battlefield' could swear had smoke coming out of his ears in a show of rage at what had just happened. Not that she expected any answer coming from the man or anything like that. She just wanted to vent some frustration with him.

"Give up, Loki. You are alone in this nonsensical quest."

Odin said in his booming voice, waking up Loki from his rage-induced blindness. The god of mischief looked around the battlefield just to see that the group of Devils that were serving as Odin's guides had already made short work of the meager forces that he had managed to amass for this incursion.

'Damned be that Kaos Brigade!'

Loki swore inside his head. He had been promised, a long time ago, help for when something like this happened from a hidden group that, much like him, wanted to disseminate chaos to the world. But just recently they had to go and get the great majority of their members arrested and executed, virtually ending the group. The only people left couldn't care less about helping Loki's cause. According to them, they had bigger problems to care about than Loki's petty revenge.

"Fine, I will do it myself then!"

Loki said angrily and started to walk in Odin's direction. What followed was not a fight. If one had to describe it in one word, it would be a spanking. Loki's strong point was never his fighting abilities. It was his misdirection skills and magic. In a direct fight against Odin, the god of mischief had no chance whatsoever and was quickly overpowered and sealed without much of a fuss. Incredibly enough, Odin had asked Issei Hyoudou's help with 'distracting' Loki while he prepared the sealing array. Frigga, Hela, and Rossweisse looked at that while squinting their eyes. The two goddesses and Valkyrie knew the old god well enough to know that he was planning something that had Issei Hyoudou mixed in it.

With Loki sealed, Hela received a promise of a talk from Odin about a lot of things, which she agreed with. Odin then asked Hela how she could use teleportation magic in Japan without being punished by them. Hela smiled at the old man and replied to him that she, just like Frigga and Rossweisse, was very good friends with Amaterasu and Yasaka.

It was then that Odin remembered that there was a group of very powerful women that liked to get together to have tea and talk and that Hela, just like his wife, Amaterasu, and very much every strong woman of the supernatural world was part of it.

After that, the group continued with their 'walk' to the place where the ceremony would be happening, arriving at it without more problems.

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With the time for the start of the ceremony arriving, Erik was ready for anything that could happen. His protections around the place had already caught four Devils, two Fallen Angels, and five rogue exorcists that had tried to enter the location with bad intentions about the ceremony. He had felt the 'ambush' of the Nordic delegation and was ready to jump into action and help them just for everything to be solved without any problems. He internally commended Hela's behavior in front of Loki and the way that she had handled Sköll and Hati. He remembered very well when the goddess of death had looked for him to help her with the manufacture of some gifts for the two big puppies. Due to their special ability to 'eat' anything, Erik had a very good challenge in creating some enchanted giant chew toys for them.

When the group arrived, it was almost time for the ceremony to start, and since he was responsible only for the protection of the place this time, he just sat back together with Joan, Calypso, and Selena, and watched as people started to arrive to witness such a historical moment happening.

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