Arc VIII Last days before travel - The future of Asgard

"Hey Eitri, I can see the forge is hot again. How is life for you?" Eli asked with a warm smile.

"The new blood will take a while before they are hammered into shape, but all it will take is time," Eitri modestly replied.

"Among other things, I'm here to personally thank you for the destroyer arm," Eli bluntly stated. He knew Eitri hated people beating around the bush.

"Alright, you did that. What's the next item on your agenda?" Eitri gruffly asked.

"Oh, no hold on a second. I want to thank you with a gesture. I can see your hands have only barely improved. I could fully fix them for you if you like," Eli offered as he looked at Eitri's hands. They were still encased in metal, though two scarred fingers and the thumb on both hands were somehow cut free from the metal. It still looked very limiting and, most importantly, very painful to Eli.

"Hmm, how fast can you do it? I have 'nother group of beginners to whip into shape in a few hours," Eitri argued.

"We'll be done before then, sit down somewhere and stretch those steely mittens to me," Eli explained jokingly.

When the giant dwarf was seated in front of him, Eli immediately got to work. He touched the badly mixed uru alloy that made up the hand casing and flooded it with enormous amounts of magic, because that was the only way he could alter the uru after it was already cast and cooled down.

Instead of prying it off, he forced transformation runes to be engraved on the outside. When he was done a good twenty minutes later, he only poured a minute amount of magic into the stiff gauntlets. With a sick snap, the pinky on both hands was broken as the metal formed into a plate at the back of Eitri's hand. Eli peeled those misshapen plates off and cast a full powered healing spell to fix the break he had caused.

"Sorry about that, I didn't factor in how unevenly thick the metal is," Eli apologized as the pinkies slowly moved into their original, healthy position.

"Nonsense!" Eitri shouted as he stood up and hugged Eli with all his might and tears in his eyes.

"What's a little pain compared to finally having my hands back," Eitri sobbed in a 'quiet' whisper that was still louder than even most of Thor's excited shouts.

Two minutes later, Eitri warmly welcomed the father-son-duo to his main forge room. A few young dwarves were excitedly tinkering on a mold there.

"Everybody, meet Thor Odinson and Eli Thorson. The last two Asgardians alive whose words we can trust," Eitri introduced. And therein immediately lay a giant clue in why Eitri wouldn't even bother talking to Frigga and the two valkyries. The question now was why Eitri felt that way. And he did like it when you were blunt.

"What makes you say it like that Eitri?" Eli cautiously asked as he watched the young dwarves barely acknowledge their existence.

"Hmm? After Asgard was no more, only Thor came to look for us. When you were resurrected, you came here on the same day to thank me for my work and to see if you could help my hands. The others only came for benefits at their convenience," Eitri explained as if it was stupid to think of other reasons.

Naturally, in his many lessons in Valhalla, diplomacy and how to deal with the dwarves were included. Not to mention his vision as Odin during the trial, where he spent days with the Eitri of another ragnarok cycle.

Eli began asking how they were getting their ores these days and what ales they had access to. Both questions fouled Eitri's mood, but that's what Eli was aiming for. Because he, no Asgard, could help with both if Thor would do his part and help out with initial deliveries.

"And safety?" Eli asked once he offered his help on the previous two points of discussion.

"I've been forging weaker versions of the destroyer. Sadly, it isn't cast in only uru, and we don't have enough magics to power an army of them," Eitri noted with a deep frown.

"What do you say about us stationing a group of Einherjar and later, once they are formed, a group of Valkyrie here?"

"And have more mouths to feed?" Eitri grunted.

"Well, obviously, we would deal with that. If you want, we could even station the ark, our escape ship during Ragnarok, here as their living quarters, so they wouldn't take up space on the ring outside their duty. I could even see if we have magically sensitive youngsters in New Asgard and put a library on the ark for them. That way, they could power some of the destroyer armors for you in a time of need," Eli offered.

"You would put your children here and expect them to defend Nidavellir?"

"Of course not. Late teens and adults only, and they would control the armors remotely," Eli countered.

"What do you want in return, Thorson?" Eitri asked with furrowed brows.

"That you don't arm our enemies and in time grant us the honor of forging weapons and armors for our armies," Eli proposed as he extended his hand.

"I will honor our previous alliance," Eitri promised, returning the handshake. The man really disliked long discussions and longer deliberations.

After that, Thor, Eli, and Eitri discussed a little more about cool weapon ideas, which resulted in Eitri boasting about what he could do, now that his hands were his again. As thanks, he even offered Eli a small upgrade to his arm. The dwarven master blacksmith didn't offer a full rework on account of the delicate and frankly amazing runework that covered his creation.

And so Eitri removed two platings from near the wrist that held the arrowhead's indentation and the black uru arrowhead itself from the arm and got to work. To show off to his new students, Eitri even held up the items in question into the energy beam from the neutron star with tongs instead of putting the metal in a furnace. Once they were heated enough, Eitri began hammering his ideas into the arrowhead and plating.

When he was done not even half an hour later and used some tools to perfectly fit the altered pieces into the arm that Eli had taken off, the Asgardian duo was once again marveled by Eitri's genius.

First off, through all that hammering and heating of the metal, the king of the dwarves didn't even remove the rune work on the outside of the plates. Secondly, he reforged the arrowhead, which only mistakenly entered the mold for Eli's arm not completely heated and alloyed into the regular uru. Eitri turned it into a slim, double-edged hollow dagger without a fuller and only the edges. That way, the uru was enough to form two blade edges only a little shorter than his forearm, where the dagger was sheathed in.

Eitri handed over the arm shortly after he was done, and the young allfather eagerly put it back on. With an instinctive mental command, the black dagger shot forward out of his wrist from below his palm.

"A concealed wrist mounted blade, it feels more like the weapon of choice for assassins instead of future kings... but I'm not complaining. This is amazing work, Eitri," Eli praised as he began carving in the runes on the black uru blade. The arrowhead didn't follow him to Valhalla, so he hadn't enchanted it yet.

With a drop of his blood that sizzled on the still hot blade, the enchantment was finished. The blade softly shone in Eli's typical green magical energies for a moment before he sheathed the blade, pleased with the upgrade.

"Where did you even learn to do that, boy?" Eitri asked with a raised brow, impressed with the swift, unaided runecrafting.

"Oh, I spent the five years after the snap as a decade in Valhalla..." Eli started explaining how he came to learn more about his powers, magics, and runes in his decade in Valhalla, learning from the powerhouses of Asgard. Eitri could be trusted with this sort of information, and it would strengthen his bonds to Asgard.

"Guess I should stop calling you boy then, Allfather Eli," Eitri mocked.

"Just call me like you usually do. You allowed me to drop your titles when I was just a boy, too," Eli waved away Eitri's words.

"Well, makes sense then that only you talked, and your dad kept mum. Since you're his king now," Eitri stated to Thor's embarrassment.

Eli defended his father. Since he wasn't actually king and the three wrapped up their meeting. Eli and Thor teleported back to New Asgard in Stormbreaker's bifrost, and the two began talking along the shores. It was night by now, and the stars were visible.

"This power to bestow divinity, how do we use it?" Thor eventually asked as they neared New Asgard.

"Hmm, for the original All-force, I'm afraid it will take some time. Ragnarok only just happened, and then half of our remaining people were whisked away. Without people, it won't refill the reserves, so to speak," Eli explained.

"I was afraid it was like that," Thor weakly muttered under his breath.

"But I'm glad you brought it up. Since my own All-force is still bound to me only, touching the infinity stones greatly powered up the seed. I'm allowed to bestow four divinities right now, and I would like to seek your counsel on who this honor should fall to," Eli offered and Thor's eyes lit up, but he quickly stopped himself speaking.

"Do you have someone in mind? Because right now, I can only think of Misty and Val. But that leaves two. For my quest, I even thought about keeping one bestowal, just in case," Eli continued. Thor deflated further. He quickly threw out his idea and began to think who else would be worthy of the gift.

"Lady Sif and Lady Anya have proven themselves worthy and loyal to Asgard in this time," Thor said after some deliberation.

"So we're blessing women only? People might think us perverts, father," Eli reacted with a good-natured chuckle.

"Let us blame the men for slacking off in these past five years," Thor offered with a chuckle of his own.

"Yeah, I will," Eli said, losing his chuckle as he narrowed his eyes at his father, who quickly lost his laugh and started sweating a cold sweat.

"Oh, by the way, if you want to try to court Jane again, I might have something else for you to fix that longevity gap," Eli shouted as he left his father where he stood and quickly flew to his own new mansion.

Eli didn't need to sleep quite as often anymore, but it was his first day back in the world of the living. He fought Thanos, ended a war against Thanos' forces, and reconnected with his family, friends, and associates. He even traveled to another realm just to mend diplomatic relations. He deserved a few hours of sleep.

The next morning, he woke up to someone sitting on his upper body.

"You have the makings of a cat burglar with your silent footsteps, Eliza," Eli spoke as he opened his eyes to find Eliza looking at his face from really close.

"Hihi, cats are cute!" Eliza accepted Eli's first words this morning as a compliment. Not for her sneaking but her cuteness.

"Uh, I mean they are, but that's not really what cat bur- never mind," Eli stopped himself after seeing the bright smile the misunderstanding put on Eliza's face. He lifted up his arm from under blanket to pat her head.

"Are you always this early? It sounds like something Steve would teach you," Eli eventually asked as the little girl pretended to be a cat and purred on his chest after curling up into a ball, like a cat would do.

"Early? It's like, super late! I was sent to wake you for lunch," Eliza spoke with wide eyes.

"Wait, really?" Eli sat up despite the girls protest and looked toward his Sovereign phone. He used telekinesis to float it over, which elicited excited claps from Eliza, who quickly forgot her earlier protests.

"Hmm, it says here the sun just barely came up. That sounds like breakfast time to me. Were you sure about that whole lunch thing?" Eli asked with a raised brow.

"Oh no, I'm busted! By the way, Tuuli took your arm, not me!" Eliza shouted as she ran out of the room with giggles.

"What does she mean, my arm?"

Eli looked toward where he placed the uru arm he took off for bed and found it missing.

'Mjolnir's worthiness enchantment. I need Mjolnir's worthiness enchantment,' Eli thought about how to get his arm back and keep it from getting stolen, as a prank or otherwise.

Eli used a pulse of his psychic powers to scan the mansion for his arm and found it with Tuuli and a giggling Eliza on the balcony of Natasha's bedroom a few rooms away. He quickly caught the two pranksters, played with them a little, and took his arm back to his room for the enchantment process and for his morning routine.

Anya had prepared an outfit for him already, his go-to outfit of dark-grey chinos and some form of a green shirt. He put on his armor pieces in jewelry form, even his breastplate that now came in the form of a chained belt with leather threads. It was a tricky enchantment process he learned from Amora, who had decided on the look of the belt. It wasn't his first choice, but Amora did have style. It looked good on him.

After that, he took the guitar Anya had tuned and placed for him in his room and called over Eliza to play a little bit of music in the living room until breakfast was ready. This morning, Thor didn't come over, but the two Valkyries did. Eli was surrounded by women as they ate, sharing funny stories to keep Eliza entertained.

Once they were done with breakfast, Eli took Anya and they used a spell to teleport to New York, where it was currently the middle of the night, around 4am. Eli floated down to the roof 'entrance' he usually used to get inside, undid the locking charms, and made his way to his old bedroom. Anya left him alone and entered Misty's old study to gather some things from her W.I.B.E. foundation work.

Eli began packing up some things in the two big trunks he had in his room. One trunk was filled with old clothes, little magical knicknacks. Thankfully, his countless instruments were already all in New Asgard. He would have had to move those in a different way if that wasn't the case.

In the second trunk, he put important artifacts and memorabilia left behind by his mother. That included a sack with five golden apples he had hidden under an illusion under his bed. Next to it was an equally hidden third trunk that was already packed with the hidden books from his mother estate in Asgard. With eyes glowing in emerald green, he sent the three trunks to his mansion in New Asgard when he was done packing it all up.

"I'm done here. It's not like we're permanently moving out," Eli said as he walked into the study Anya was in. The woman was currently reading through some documents on her computer, but that wasn't what Eli concentrated on. It was a scroll with a broken seal on it that laid on the table.

Anya didn't say a word as she looked up at Eli, who had cautiously picked up the scroll. He unrolled it and out fell a picture of him and his mother when he was about eleven years old. He was asleep in his mother's arms, and she looked at him with eyes full of love. Misty must have taken it some time before his mother's death.

He began to read the letter out loud in a quiet voice after he softly put the picture on the table.

"My dear son, if the seal on this letter broke, something dire must have happened to you, and you somehow managed to make it back to this reality. I do not know where you went or how you got back, but since you left this plane of existence, anything could have happened to you. Even things that could have changed who you are..."

As he continued reading this sealed letter his mother left behind, that was much, much longer than the one he received for the convergence, Eli gained a fond smile. His mother kept reminding him of who he was and how he was loved. It was a very sweet letter that only turned oddly manipulative at the very hand.

Since he now found a way to get back from somewhere normal people couldn't come back from, Eli shouldn't be stingy and help get his mother back from the afterlife. The letter completely ignored all the character growth his mom and he himself went through, but he vowed to himself that he would try to do exactly that once he became much stronger.

"I wish I could have met her, your mother," Anya spoke once Eli was finished reading.

"Oh, you would definitely like to meet her now. She grew a lot since her second death," Eli replied with a soft chuckle.

"Are you done then, Eli?"

"Almost, mom and I hung up a bunch of pictures downstairs and hid them with magic so only she, Misty, and I could see. Once I take them down, I'm good to go. What about you?"

"I sent out all the message I wanted to, so I'm ready, too."

"Alright, meet me downstairs when we can hop back to New Asgard," Eli said as he packed the scroll and the picture in a bag as proceeded downstairs.

When he was done packing and Anya came down with just a small bag slung around a shoulder and a futuristic computer tablet in her hand, they teleported back to New Asgard. Eli and Anya stored everything they just packed and Eli asked Anya to follow her to the valkyries house.

The two were disheveled when he entered and Val gave him the stink eye when Eli and Anya entered. The valkyrie even mumbled something along the lines of snapping him back to Valhalla if this continues. But she soon stopped her antics when she heard what Eli came here to do.

"You can make us goddesses? Did I hear that right?" Val asked in disbelief.

"Yeah. I don't choose your divinities, but I have the power to do what I just described. I can make four people ascend right now and more when I have more time. If you want to wait, Allfather Bor said something about being able to choose once you're more familiar with the process," Eli explained with a shrug.

"That's a big deal, are you sure?" Misty asked in concern.

"Yeah, you three have proven your worth, your loyalty, and your dedication to Asgard. I would be a fool to choose someone else," Eli defended his choice.

"And the fourth?" Anya asked timidly.

"I will leave soon, I will keep the fourth chance for an emergency during my travels. When I'm back, I'll probably be able to bestow this power to more people again. You may recommend more people at that time," Eli answered as he stood up and lifted his hand to touch Val's head.

"Wait, wait! You're just doing it here, like this? Out of the blue?" Val spoke up in panic.

"I won't do it in public, and I have no reason to wait. Anybody not up for the blessing?" All three women looked at each other, a little overwhelmed with the situation, but eventually, they nodded to Eli.

"Please not goddess of dance, please not goddess of dance...," Val softly whispered as Eli's hand began to glow, and bands of golden runic energies manifested around his hand as they began entering Val's body, starting at her head.

Roughly ten minutes later, the last band of energy entered Val's body and Eli just kept standing in front of her. A moment later he lifted his hand and left it in front of Val, trying to help her to her feet.

"Rise then, Goddess of Rhythm," Eli proclaimed in a serious voice.

Val's eyes turned vacant hearing about her divinity, but since Misty saw the glimmer of mischief in Eli's eyes as he said that, she began laughing uproariously, even Anya had to laugh.

"Just joking. You're the first one I ever blessed, so I'm not entirely sure about this. But if the feeling in my head is to be trusted, you're now the Asgardian Goddess of Blades, a fitting title and a powerful divinity in the right hands," Eli explained.

Val looked at her hands and began feeling the changes this blessing brought forth. Misty was the first to speak up and complimented the tanned beauty on her glowing, healthy looking skin, but Val barely listened.

Val put both palms together and then, keeping them parallel, moved one palm up diagonally and one palm down the other way. From the edges of her palm, a blade construct connected the palms that she was able to grasp. It was close to what the Hela was able to do, but instead of the ominous energy Hela's 'necro-blades' radiated, these blade only screamed 'sharpness'.

"Oooh, neat trick," Misty sarcastically clapped. She was a little salty that her now even prettier girlfriend would just ignore her.

"Stop bickering, let's do you next," Eli said as he put a hand on Misty's shoulder.

"Do me?" Misty shot Eli a provocative look.

"Ugh, come on. Sit down," Eli ordered as he ignored Misty's taunting.

Ignoring the others in the room, Eli repeated the process with Misty as the target. It took the exact same time and looked exactly the same, except Misty didn't mumble what divinity she didn't want, she mumbled the divinity she did want.

"Please Goddess of War, please Goddess of War, please..."

"Well, close enough. Your blessing is a little more versatile, but at the same time, a little weaker for battle than Goddess of War, I guess. And probably not as showy as Vals, but that's not your style anyway. I think it is a fitting divinity for you. Well, you kind of seemed to luck out and got a two for one. Rise, Asgardian Goddess of Victory and Strategies," Eli proclaimed as he lifted Misty up. She, too, looked a little radiant, but as Eli said, her divinities didn't come with a lot of potential for showmanship like Val's divinity over blades.

"Shit, Misty, you look so much younger. Like the day you joined the valkyries," Val spoke in an incredulous voice.

"Yeah, you look even prettier than before, Misty," Eli agreed.

"Oho, even prettier, am I? Still not doing me?" Misty asked with a raised brow. Eli only shoved Misty into the arms of her girlfriend in response and turned to Anya.

"You ready?"

"Are you sure?" Anya asked meekly.

"Yeah, you have earned this," Eli praised as he held up his hand for Anya to come over.

The process repeated, and both new goddesses looked on in rapt attention. This time, the process took much longer, likely because even a trained human was much weaker and fundamentally different from an Asgardian warrior on the caliber of two valkyries. However, Anya kept quiet. She didn't know what divinity could possibly suit her most, and she would take anything that would help her stand at Eli's side for longer.

When the process was eventually done, Anya, especially her physique, looked different from before. She was already muscular and tall, but her body grew slightly bulkier and taller by almost a full head. She truly had the physique of a trained Asgardian warrior now.

"Rise then, Asgardian Goddess of..."