For Odin, for Thor, for Asgard Read online

The Destroyers greatest weapon, its disintegration beam hit Tyrant full on just as Thor channelled almost all the energies of the land of Asgard at the same target.

  It is said that the death screams of Tyrant could be heard in all of the nine worlds and even beyond.

  --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  By the time Galactus and Odin returned to Asgard, the world devourer’s partner and creation was dead and his herald was at best injured and off the field of battle.

  Galactus took in the overall situation:

  Odin, with the white hot OdinAxe held high was preparing to launch a skyfather level godblast at him through the axe while Thor from below readied himself for a similar effort using mighty mjolnir. To add to this the Destroyer construct, energies building again atop its disintegration visor have levitated up to his level.

  Near exhaustion the great Galactus, destroyer of worlds, third force of the Universe faced total annihilation.

  Galactus looked for the option of retreat to his partially damaged worldship and then looked at Odin. The titan saw from the look of steel in Odin’s eye that the Allfather would not allow of it. Something had hardened in the mind of Asgard’s Lord and Odin’s intent was clear. That Galactus would perish here today along with his abominable creation

  Then Galactus managed a smile as he saw his fellow siblings materialise at a distance. Great Eternity and Mistress Death.

  Still the godblast energies continued to form and still the disintegration energies built atop the Destroyers visor. Even Eternity could not save him.

  Odin: “After what you have attempted this day Galactus, did you think I would allow your siblings to save you?”

  Galactus: “I will not beg for mercy, Almighty One, such is not the way of Galactus, do what you must, and do it now!”

  Yet even as he mouthed the words Galactus drew forth the ultimate nullifier that had been upon his person all through the battle with Odin. He held it high and threatening.

  No further words were exchanged between the parties yet the look of disgust upon the faces of Odin and Thor said it all.

  Galactus retreated to his worldship then left Asgard without delay. Though exhausted and humiliated he would at least live to fight another day.

  That was all that mattered he kept telling himself. He had survived.

  Both Odin and Thor knew that he would never come this way again.

  End

  Odinforce

  Neandarr the wise, high teacher and last surviving Elder of the Multiverse looked out among the few remaining stars. With him were his young charges, a cherished group of youth comprising all of the “last born.”

  "Please tell us Elder," pleaded one of them "of the first time war."

  "And of the first and second Multiverse wars," whispered another student,

  "And of the second and last time war," implored yet another young voice among the small group.

  "No account of those and the other great wars," replied the Elder of the Multiverse, "indeed no account of the history of the Multiverse, can be complete without a reference to the gods of Asgard. Of the Odinforce, the Thorforce, and the Magniforce.

  The faces of the Elder’s charges lit up just as their voices fell silent at the mere mention of these three awesomely powerful, fundamental forces for good. Their young minds immediately conjured up images of the ancient gods of greater Asgard. Of All Father Odin, All Father Thor, All Mother Sif and the High Lord Magni. Have not young children’s voices throughout history fallen silent at the mention of these great names, these great and noble forces for good.

  Where can I start? thought the venerable one, knowing that the ancient stories had inevitably been distorted over time. Of the few who yet lived only he, and just one other, were capable of unravelling what was fact from fiction. Actual events from the myths and legends that had arisen from them. The truth from half truths and indeed the outright lies promulgated by some. Yet these few before him, the true last born, had the right to know. The right to know what was surely the greatest story of them all.

  *

  "The first of the great intertemporal wars was a direct challenge by the dark fates and their equally dark followers to the authority of Times Guardian himself," began the Elder, his mind drifting back into that inconceivably distant past.

  Neandarr recalled how after the now moment wave was destroyed, Times Guardian had asked the gods of Asgard for help and it had been forthcoming. The Elder remembered it as if it were only yesterday, the sight of great Odin holding the spear gungir high and the mighty Thor holding with both hands the hammer mjolnir and side by side how they called forth the greatest of all the time storms. How the two titans became as one with the great storm and how they took the weight of battle from Time’s Guardian’s shoulders affording him a moment of respite, before he rejoined the Asgardians in thwarting the assault on time.

  At the mere mention of the hammer of Thor, the greatest weapon ever known to have existed anywhere and anywhen, the children huddled even closer together. Not in fear, or because of the cold, but in absolute awe.

  Pride swelled within the Elder’s breast as he related the histories and the crucial role played by Asgard. In almost all of the truly major confrontations Asgard had been the nexus point. No matter what happened elsewhere it was here on the Asgardian axis that any truly Multiversal confrontation would be won or lost. Unlike his fellow Elders, Neandarr, youngest of his ilk, had called Odin, Thor, Magni, and others of the gods of Asgard friend and, in one case, still did.

  Neandarr told his charges of the first of the Multiverse wars. An immensely destructive and yet inconclusive conflict that saw among other things the complete annihilation of the Celestial race.

  He remembered Odin and Thor and just a few other surviving gods returning to Asgard after the war and sitting for days among the debris at the great table in the hall of Odin. All of them exhausted, nursing their wounds, re-gathering their strength, and mourning lost comrades. Too weary to talk about the war or even to consider the rebuilding of Asgard.

  Yet as they sat there Odin could see the anger, the righteous wrath slowly building again within his son. An increasing rage, like the building of a head of steam in a boiler, a rage that would have to have an outlet. Or else become madness.

  At this time Thor the mighty chose to travel forth alone among the stars, returning some days later. He said nothing and no one asked anything of him but Odin saw that the anger had died in his son. At that time many detected the annihilation of a fundamental force of the Universe. That which some had referred to as the Phoenix force and which had sided with the cosmic powers was no more. Thor never admitted to it, but Odin knew and later Neandarr knew. The cosmic powers, war weary beyond all measurement, did not respond, at least not at this time, perhaps they did not care.

  *

  The so called second Multiverse war was really a continuation of the first after the hiatus in which the gods and the cosmic powers re-gathered their strength. Yet the surviving cosmic and abstract powers had been more cunning. Waiting until a bone weary Odin entered the inevitable Odin sleep before recommencing hostilities.

  By staying in Asgard itself the mighty Thor had been able to protect his sleeping father during that second conflict. Yet with its inconclusive end no one, not even Thor himself, had been able to awaken Odin.

  The constant risk of attack on Odin while he underwent the great sleep caused Thor to draw on magics most ancient and ensconce the life force of Odin and the essence of the Odinforce and indeed all that was his sleeping father within the artefact known as the ring of Odin. In actual fact a pocket dimension. The Thunderer wore this on his finger at all times, to hold his father close and in order to best protect him. Though the reality construct offered some protection itself.

  Yet in the second and final time war as the mighty Thor destroyed the dark fates themselves the ring of Odin came from his finger and was irretrievably lost. Buried
deep in the well of time and amongst a complex labyrinth of dimensions and realities. A final act of vengeance by the defeated dark fates.

  Though ultimately the second time war is known more for something else. Weary beyond all imagining Time's Guardian passed on the burden of his responsibilities to the only entity in all of existence that was both worthy and capable. The mighty Thor, now All Father Thor, took up the mantle and became the new Time's Guardian. Yet it was one of those unexplainable mysteries of the Multiverse that even the new Time’s Guardian could still not locate the Odin ring.

  Neandarr remembered the third and final Multiverse war. As Times Guardian the mighty Thor did not, could not, intervene directly in the conflagration. Though Thor moved to contain the conflict, and to prevent it from destroying the time stream. The war led to victory for the gods and the final irreversible defeat of the cosmic powers. Yet at a terrible cost. High Lord Magni and all Asgard paid the ultimate price for the success of the gods.

  The mighty Thor would continue as Time's Guardian destined to fulfil that most lonely role until Time's End. Yet an almost unbearable sadness was upon him. A sadness he might have to bear for eternity.

  *

  As the historical account came to a close, the smallest of the children sitting before the Elder looked up at his teacher. The boy, the last born among the last born themselves, was the first to notice. Why had he never noticed the ring on Neandarr's finger before? It was large and ornate and now seemed to be growing brighter with each passing second.

  It was at this moment that one of those events considered important enough to be witnessed not by one but by the entire race of Watchers came to pass. Except the Watchers could not be there to witness it for down to the last individual, they were no more.

  In a glorious moment with few if any parallels in Multiversal history an entirely unexplainable thing happened. A force which had not seen the light of day in untold eons began to emerge from within the ring.

  Neandarr watched on with just as much wonder as his small charges as his old friend re-awakened.

  *

  Long ago when even the mighty Thor had stopped searching for his father, Neandarr, high teacher, Elder of the Multiverse, had quietly, patiently and painstakingly, continued the search for his old friend. The longest search in all of the history of the Multiverse. That Neandarr now bore the ring of Odin on his finger, was testament to his eventual success.

  Who knows what the reasons were for Almighty Odin awakening now from the sleep eternal? Perhaps it was some divine, unstoppable mechanism of life reasserting itself here so close to Time's End.

  Can you even begin to imagine the power of Odin, one of the truly great powers of the Multiverse, after he has slept for untold ages?

  There to meet Odin as the All Father breathed life anew back into a dying Multiverse was another All Father. Son and Father, Times Guardian and Times Saviour.

  Thor and Odin together again. Who was there to gainsay them? Who would deny the mighty Thor this time of happiness?

  Neandarr looked out at the ever increasing stars in the heavens and the silence gave him his answer.

  *

  Nearby a young boy, knowing intuitively that he would no longer be the last of the last born, cried with tears of joy.

  End

  The Intervention

  The far distant future

  Somewhere in our Universe

  The long search for truth had finally brought the two humanoid types to a remote and cheerless world.

  From their mountainous vantage point they looked out over the ancient battlefield. Strewn across it were the remnants of vast amounts of military hardware.

  Urrle recognized some of the technology. It would have been state of the art for that time.

  Amidst the battlescape two things stood out. A fallen warrior, almost perfectly preserved, and dressed in the light body armour of the Brell. And something else. Something that seemed to have no place in this battlescape. A small hammer with a head large in relation to its relatively short handle. The handle was wrapped in some resilient material and there was a thong of the same material at the base of the handle.

  “Does either of them mean anything to you?” Urrle enquired of his companion.

  The venerable ancient, Leandarr, the oldest living of all among the Tolden super power empire, thought for a moment. “The soldier is probably the last soldier of the Brell to have died in battle during the great war, but the hammer, I don’t know, something is tugging at my mind but I cannot say what it is. Though I feel that it is, or at the very least once was, an object of great importance.”

  “Arcane energies abound here,” said Urrle “even I can sense them. You, you must be overwhelmed by them,” he added looking with concern at his friend.

  “I recognize some of the residual mystical energies,” responded the old man fearfully “the energy signature of that which we never speak. As to the other energies, they appear to be associated with the hammer and I do not recognize them.” Yet even as he said this, the elder felt something again tugging at his mind. Something from long, long ago.

  Urrle was thoughtful. How strange that that, of which they never speak, an entity which had not even been sighted for so long, could still evoke such fear even in the minds of the Tolden. Would they ever be entirely free of that fear?

  “There is something more Urlle,” the Tolden elder’s voice was very soft, “perhaps you do not sense it? Residual elemental godpower. Gods of some kind were once in this place.

  *

  “Looks like it was a fair fight then,” quipped Urrle, almost changing the subject “one single Brell soldier against a well equipped technically advanced army.”

  “Only if you also count the downed star fighters and the starship we saw on the way in,” said his friend, pulling up several over the horizon three dimensional images simultaneously. “I’d say he took them down as well.”

  “Of course there’s the hammer,” said Urrle quietly and with a respect that he just knew was appropriate “we don’t know what part it played in the battle here. Like the Brell armour, the hammer seems totally undamaged, even in this fearsomely hostile environment,”

  Both of the male humanoids knew that Brell body armour could survive civilizations yet perhaps the hammer could to.

  “There may have been two separate battles here, at around the same time” speculated the Tolden elder, after a long and thoughtful silence. “That between the Brell soldier and the army he destroyed. Yet also, I think, something else, something of an even greater order of magnitude.” Urrle was silent for quite a while. The elder had never seen him so subdued.

  “Whoever or whatever wielded that hammer at the time,” concluded the old man “fought in this place against that of which we do not speak.”

  Urrle just nodded, knowing that the residual mystical energies and godpower could only lead to that conclusion. Urrle’s head started to hang a little lower out of respect.

  *

  Under the elder’s watchful gaze, Urrle moved first to touch the hammer and then to lift it. As a highly enhanced humanoid his own natural strength would enable him to lift huge machineries, even a Tolden star fighter. With the exo-skeleton implants in his light body armour this natural strength was multiplied many fold. Yet he was unable to budge the hammer even minutely. His Tolden companion smiled as if somehow, he was not at all surprised at Urrle’s lack of success.

  Unaccustomed to failure on any level Urrle, military adviser and, at times, enforcer for the mighty Tolden gave up in frustration. His ancient companion ran a small instrument over the hammer. “I fear it will require far, far more than your strength to lift this hammer,” he smiled, almost apologetically. Intuitively the old man knew that no force, no matter how powerful, other than the rightful one, would ever be able to lift this ancient weapon.

  Then the old man’s mind drifted to the past. To a time that he was still old enough to remember and to the events that had led to the answers that they st
ill sought.

  *

  He remembered the Brell as they had been. A race that, for long millennia, traversed the stars and even the dimensions as easily as ordinary men might walk to a house in the next street. A benevolent, near omnipotent race, that took it upon themselves to make up for what they perceived as Gods failings.

  But even God had enemies.

  Those many enemies formed an unwieldy alliance. Brought together with a single purpose. By a dark, vast and manipulative intelligence that may not even have been native to our plain of existence. Intelligence possessed of inconceivable power in its own right.

  Even the mighty Brell were surprised by the level of coordination between such disparate alien races, cultures and technologies. It became such that the attackers were everywhere at the same time, overloading even the Brell capacity to respond. An endless stream of starships of all shapes, sizes, and designs moved inexorably onwards and inwards to the very heart of the Brell Empire.

  The once many friends of the Brell were conspicuous by their absence and lack of support. In one of the darker, if not darkest, times of our Multiverse it is to the eternal shame of us all that no one raised a hand in their defence.

  With just one exception.

  *

  It is a matter of irrefutable historical record that the inevitable destruction of the Brell home worlds never took place. A power, unquestionably of the first order, intervened on behalf of this great race and saved it from destruction.

  As the vast star fleets bore down upon the Brell home worlds a series of cosmic storms, the like of which have never been seen before or since, spread across their advance not merely stopping the advancing fleets but in fact annihilating them down to the very last star ship, troop transporter, and star fighter.

  The old man, the Tolden elder, knew that the historical record was sketchy beyond this point. Still, it was generally thought that the saviours of the Brell then turned their attention to that dark entity that had sought the destruction f that super power empire. At that time some speculated it was a battle that moved on to a higher plane. A battle that, for all anyone knew, might still be in progress now. A forever war.