01: The hidden son of Laufey

"Weak," commented a crisp voice with disgust, "Such a weak thing is undeserving of being my son!" The man was Laufey, king of Jotunheim, a blue-skinned being with madness-filled, blood-red eyes. In his hand, he held a tiny, equally blue-skinned baby. This was his son, Loki Laufeyson.

With a snarl, he threw the baby toward one of the guards and instructed them, "Send him out in the cold, to never be seen again. Never speak about what happened today! I NEVER had any son!" he then looked at a lying exhausted woman.

"Die!" he coldly spoke without an ounce of hesitation and killed her with a chunk of ice-penetrating her heart.

The guard quickly nodded. He knew his King was cold-blooded—no pun intended—but this was on another level. He just killed his wife because she birthed a small Frost Giant and had instructed them to 'dispose' of his son.

A good hour later, as the guard arrived at a safe distance from the ominous temple, he gently placed the baby in the snow and uttered with sadness, "Goodbye little prince, I am sure you would have made a wise king. I—" he could not continue speaking as a golden spear pierced through his stomach.

"What?" he uttered in confusion, looking at the tip of the spear coming out from the other side of his blue body. Without any strength, he looked behind himself.

An old man with a white beard and equally white, shoulder-length hair held the golden spear. He wore a blood-painted armor and a gold eye patch on his right eye. Behind his back was some sort of casket.

"O-Odin" pronounced the Frost-Giant as his last words before falling on the cold, white snow and splashing it with his blood.

Ignoring the body in front of himself, Odin looked at the small baby in the snow. "Laufeyson," he murmured intrigued, he hadn't heard about Laufey impregnating someone. "What a strange coincidence that both of our son's birth was at the same time."

"Is it fate? Are both of them destined to rule their realm like me and Laufey and our parents before us? Is there a way to stop this circle of destruction?" He thought about what he could do. Should he kill him or find a way to peacefully resolve this situation?

After a second, his eyes widened. He had found a solution! But it was a somewhat dangerous one. For he didn't know if raising a Frost Giant as his son was really the best option. Besides, even though he was the king, he could not take that decision alone. After all, his queen would be the one who would mostly raise them.

As the king of a powerful and influential realm like Asgard, Odin didn't have much time to spend with his family. Especially since he had just ended the years-long war with the Frost Giants.

A cold gust of wind passed through the cold realm of Jotunheim while Odin stayed there looking at the small baby that he had just picked from the ground. The wind ruffled through the blueish-white leaves and swept them to the freezing soil.

High in the sky, the sun shone brightly with a reinvigorating light, as if announcing the peaceful times to come. The sunlight revealed the disaster that had passed by Jotunheim to the world.

Its name was Odin, and he had just killed more than half of the Frost Giant's population with the help of his small army. He had defeated Laufey and had forced him into surrender in less than an hour—the battle between both of them didn't last that long, the Asgardian Army had, however, long before already infiltrated the realm and fought in the shadows.

—(Line break)—

What the fuck!

Why is there a giant with a strange resemblance to Sam Neill, the actor of Odin, holding me in his hands?

And is it me or he just killed that wonderful cosplayer?

Ok, ok let's just think about what just happened. I woke up being held by a gigantic man cosplaying as a Frost Giant. He then placed me in the snow and murmured some strange things. He looked quite sad. And then this old man barged in and struck him with a spear.

I reincarnated, didn't I?...

To understand why I said reincarnated and not traversed, one would need a flashback.

—(Flashback)—

Today was the 28th of March 2023, the day was beginning like any other day for Maxime. He started his day with a small one-hour jog under the gray clouds that completely blocked the rays of the sun. He then took a cold shower, he always took a cold shower, as it made him feel more energized for the entire day, and then drank a warm coffee in front of the window.

He spaced out, looking at the clouds slowly drifting by. Maxime wasn't your typical nobody. No, he was a genius, but a really bored one.

He was someone who had lost all of his motivation to live in this boring world. He had no care about his so-called friends—that he used to not spend his time in college alone. In reality, Max had no one he would miss. He was parentless and a self-proclaimed borderline sociopath.

He took a sip from his coffee while uttering in loneliness "The real world is so boring; I wish I were born in an anime." Even if it were a tragic one, Maxime would prefer it, as he would not feel so void anymore.

As he was lamenting about life, white lightning bolts flickered in the sky. They pierced the clouds with divine might. A thunderstorm roared, and the wind swept the trees away. Houses quickly started falling, and water engulfed the city.

'Oh, the apocalypse is coming,' thought Maxime, his lips curling up, forming a demonic smile.

On the horizon, the sun became white and scorched the earth with untold power. The humans only lasted for a few seconds before disintegrating from the face of the universe.