Reunions Part 2

Upon reading the letter from Lady Death, Frigga relented and led the group towards Odin's private chambers, where he kept the anchor for the seal that trapped his daughter on Hel. With some reluctance, Frigga released the seals over Hel, allowing her stepdaughter to escape. It didn't take Hela long to notice her newfound freedom. In fact, not even 30 seconds had passed after Frigga broke the seal when a swirling darkness appeared in front of them, and Hela emerged from it.

Upon seeing Thor's sister, Hela, Jake's initial impression was that she exuded extreme confidence, which seemed a bit unusual considering her thousand-year imprisonment. The Asgardian goddess of death stood quite tall, almost 6 ft, and shared a striking beauty with long black hair and pitch-black eyes. Interestingly, she appeared to resemble Loki more than she did Thor.

"Well, now this is quite the reception just to greet me. I'm afraid I don't recognize anyone in the room except for General Tyr, along with you, dear stepmother. Since my seal has been broken, I assume Odin is dead… Good riddance, I say," Hela said smugly as she mostly addressed Queen Frigga.

"Father is most certainly not dead!" Thor declared proudly. "He is simply in his sleep cycle."

Hela let out a tsk sound before turning towards Thor. "And who might you be? One of Odin's sons, I presume?"

Thor nodded and declared himself the crown prince of Asgard. Jake could tell from the grimace on Hela's face that she was not happy to hear him say that. He could even feel the slight fluctuations of her huge magical reserves with her anger spiking.

"Is this oaf speaking the truth?" Hela asked General Tyr, who just nodded to her annoyed look. Loki snickered at her brother's indignant look upon not being taken seriously by his new sister. "It seems Asgard is truly doomed… Well, at least it would be, if I wasn't here now," she declared before glaring menacingly at Thor. The latter gulped to himself in trepidation. These last few days had continuously been one humbling event after another for him.

"Easy now," Jake spoke up. "There's no need for any violence here." He decided to step in before Hela decided to start any kin-slaying to take the throne back.

Hela turned and gave the one who just spoke a once-over look. She was surprised by the substantial amount of magical power emanating from him. It made her wonder if he was a new god. Moreover, she sensed another presence in the room that was equally strong—a young woman with twin-styled hair and a very... pink frilly outfit. Yet, what truly caught her eye was the young man's appearance. He stood out from the typical Asgardian, lacking the brawny or brutish look often associated with them...

"Well, hello there, handsome," Hela spoke towards Jake flirtatiously. "Are you here to greet your new queen as well?" She said smugly. She's been in a bit of a dry spell for over the past thousand years, being sealed away and all. She appreciated the fact that there was a handsome young man there to greet her upon her freedom.

"…" Everyone in the room was slightly taken aback by her change in tone. Thor looked grossed out that his new sister was openly flirting in front of him. Loki felt a slight sour feeling as well that she didn't quite recognize…

"Back off, harpy! Jake is ours!" Sarafall said while grabbing Jake and Emma's arms and pulling them away.

"Yeah, that's right!" Emma said… "Wait, what!? No, it's not!" She gave Serafall a pout for saying "ours."

Hela just clicked her tongue in annoyance. The handsome ones were always taken…

"Anyway, allow me to introduce myself," Jake said as he gave her a proper noble's bow. He was greeting another princess after all. Hela just raised a curious eyebrow at the gesture.

"Good bow, Jake. I see Grayfia taught you proper devil etiquette," Serafall commented.

"You never bowed when greeting me the first time…" Loki said, irritated and with that strange feeling slightly persisting.

Jake ignored the two comments as he continued, "My name is Jake Gremory, and I guess you could say that I'm the one responsible for your freedom."

"Hoh? Is that so?" Hela replied. He initially had her curiosity, and now he had her attention. "And what is it that you seek in return for my freedom?" She said with a slight hint of challenge in her voice. She was wondering if he would ask any exorbitant requests for the feat he had accomplished. Her worries were cut off though as he continued.

"All I want you to do is read this letter," Jake said nonchalantly as he pulled out the second letter from Lady Death addressed to her former assistant.

"..."

Immediately upon seeing the letter in Jake's hand and sensing the lingering aura of death around it, Hela gulped in trepidation. Her smug demeanor completely vanished. "I-is that from Lady Death?"

Jake just gave her a knowing smile. "Yep, it's from your boss, Miss Assistant," he added, her job description teasingly.

…

Hela cursed to herself after finishing reading the letter from her lady. She admitted that before being sealed away, she had been neglecting her duties to the other side, spending more and more time conquering realms. So, she wasn't exactly surprised when her lady demanded she start helping out again. What Hela wasn't expecting from the letter, though, was that–

"Well now," Hela's apparent sister, Princess Loki, said smugly. Trying to get her new sister back for making her feel jealous. "What happened to that attitude you had earlier? It's almost like you've seen death or something." Loki tried to joke.

"..." "..." "..."

…No one around her laughed…as it fell flat. "Oh, come now, everyone, that was funny!" She pouted.

"That was like a 2 out of 10 on the haha scale," Jake commented, much to her displeasure.

"Tell me, Jake Gremory," Hela spoke to him, ignoring the interruption. "Do you know what this letter said?"

"Get your shit together, or else death will strip you of your domain and powers?" Jake summarized with a laugh.

Hela just looked to the side, annoyed a bit. "Yes, that was in there," she said begrudgingly before continuing. "But that wasn't all. My lady also explained the current state of the cosmos as well as the current state of Asgard." She turned towards Tyr and Queen Frigga. "Excellent work there, might I add. Asgard now lies in near complete ruin on the verge of being conquered by the realm of Heven. The only thing currently holding back another invasion are our strong wartime wards, which we all know won't keep them out forever!" She exclaimed while leveling a glare towards the pair of them. How much blood, sweat, and tears had she suffered to bring Asgard to glory all those thousands of years ago!? And now it was almost all for nothing as she was left forgotten and her home near destruction.

Jake had not been in Asgard long enough to know whether or not Odin and Frigga were good rulers, so he couldn't make a decision on whether or not Hela was being overly harsh. He could tell from the sour expressions on the General and Queen's faces, however, that she might not be that far off from the truth.

Hela just shot the two oldest people in the room one last glare before turning back to Jake. "My lady apparently promised you a boon in return for freeing me. She asked that I train you in the art of combat as compensation." Hela finished with a sigh. It wasn't that she was against taking a student. Now was just a pretty terrible time for it. She had so many other things to do in the meantime… building up her home's forces, disposing of her old man from the throne, and recruiting more soldiers—her lady had expressly forbidden her from raising the dead and using them as her soldiers from now on. According to her lady, Hela killing everyone she disliked and raising them as loyal and obedient undead slaves was part of the reason she went crazy with power in the first place… Who would have thought?

"Hold on there, Missy," Serafall, next to Jake, spoke up. "What exactly makes you qualified enough to teach him?" Serafall wasn't about to let some unknown arrogant princess train Jake to fight without proving herself first!

In return for Serafall's provocation, Hela just smirked at the devil challengingly. She wasn't about to let someone know and question her about her abilities. The two incredibly powerful women—although one of them was currently weakened—continued to glare at each other in provocation while slowly raising their respective magical auras, causing most of the inhabitants of the room to break out in sweat at the power!

"Holy shit!" Emma exclaimed in shock from the raw power she was feeling. There was a massive difference between seeing it in Jake's memories and experiencing it for herself. As a woman who had unashamedly craved all types of power her whole life, she never felt like she made a wiser decision than becoming a devil queen, especially due to what she was feeling right now. Jake took hold of Emma's hand next to him and started letting some of his magical power flow through her to steady her panting breaths. She was quite thankful towards him for that.

Jake, meanwhile, was pretty surprised with himself. He had bathed in Serafall's full aura before, and it had left him shaking, but now it didn't. Jake even noticed that Princess Loki, who had basically manhandled him in their spar a few days ago, was trembling from the clashing auras during the two women's stare-down. He also observed that the princess's magical power was no longer hidden from his senses, and he could tell that she was at the peak of high class. They should have been evenly matched during their spar, but that just went to show the difference between someone who had trained in combat for over a thousand years and himself.

"I accept your training," Jake said, drawing the attention of Serafall and Hela. The latter smirked in victory while Serafall just pouted as their respective auras receded.

"Excellent," Hela declared. "I shall come and visit you on Midgard once or twice a week for our lessons."

"Midgard?" Jake asked. He had just made it back to Asgard, and now he was already being sent back to Earth?

"Indeed," she replied. "You, yourself, still have a mission to fulfill, after all. The Tesseract was lost to Midgard centuries ago, and no one has seen it since. If you wish to return home to your dimension, then you're going to have to find it. I would also prefer it being in your hands than it finding its way into one of our enemies'. The last thing we need is Heaven attacking us while wielding an infinity stone," Hela explained as Jake nodded along.

"Before you go," the Queen spoke up, "I do have one last request for you. I have already violated one of my husband's decrees by freeing Hela, and I have no doubt that he is quite furious right now as he watches us, even while he sleeps…" She trailed off and paused for a moment. "I would like you to take Thor back to Midgard with you, at least until he finds his hammer and has his powers restored to him," she said, gesturing to her son who was on the ground, collapsed. Thor, who was currently no better than mortal, had immediately passed out upon feeling the clashing auras of Serafall and Hela…

"Okay then," Jake replied, "I'm sure we can find someplace for him."

His Queen, Emma, nodded along. "He can just stay with Jake and I at my family's mansion in New York."

The Asgardian Queen nodded gratefully to the Devil Queen as she thanked her for her future hospitality.

After that, the impromptu meeting and reunion came to an end as everyone in the room split up and went their own ways. Hela wandered off, stating her intention to find a witch who could help her break the spell Odin had cast on all the older Asgardians to make them forget her existence. Frigga grimaced but decided to follow after her stepdaughter. Meanwhile, Loki hefted Thor over her shoulder and headed towards the healing halls. She instructed Jake to come and collect Thor once he was ready to head back to Midgard.

…

With his letter delivered and a future combat teacher gained, Jake was spending some time alone with Serafall, touring the palace… Well, it wasn't quite just them. Emma was with them as well. She wasn't about to let Jake leave her alone in an alien city while he went off gallivanting with the Maou.

The trio ended up at a nice terrace that was overlooking the entire alien city. Down below, they could see reconstruction efforts were ongoing.

"So, Lady Serafall," Emma started, "Are you going to be coming back to this dimension's Earth with Jake and me? I assure you that my family's mansion has plenty of room."

Serafall turned to the two of them with a pout. "I want to, but I can't," she said solemnly. "Those angels were surprisingly strong, and their numbers were no joke. I'm actually thankful you weren't here for the invasion, Jake." Serafall said sincerely.

"Yeah, but what does that have to do with us?" Jake asked. It's not like he wanted to abandon the Asgardians in their time of need or anything, but Serafall had pretty much already repaid her debt to this Asgard after they healed her.

"..."

"It's about what happens if Asgard falls, am I correct?" Emma questioned aloud. Serafall just nodded at that.

"That's right," Serafall said. "I definitely wouldn't classify the angels in this dimension as good.… If anything, they're closer to the Old Satan devils. These angels also have an insatiable thirst for conquest. If they defeat Asgard, they won't simply stop here; they will attack this dimension's Earth next as well." She started explaining.

Jake was starting to realize the implications of Asgard's defeat. Could humans defeat the angels? Jake figured that they probably could, but not without expending millions of lives and maybe even having to resort to the use of nuclear weapons on their own soil…full scorched earth tactics.

Serafall continued, "If they conquer that world and secure the Space Stone before we can, then we'll be trapped here…" She trailed off with a somewhat worried look. Jake could understand where she was coming from. Serafall had told them that she was best off in Asgard, training their soldiers and teaching them tactics for combating flying enemies.

"How long do you think it'll be before Asgard and Heven clash again?" Emma asked. That's something that Jake wanted to know as well. That was basically their worst-case scenario timeframe of how soon he had to find that stone in case everything went to hell in the inevitable war.

"General Tyr and I were discussing that earlier, and it's estimated that the war wards will last for about a year. It will be shortly after they fall that the fighting will kick off in earnest again."

"A year?" Jake asked. That seemed like a long time to him and Emma.

Serafall corrected their misconceptions though. "That might seem like a long time to you two, but for long-lived beings, it's really not. When you reach hundreds and thousands of years old, you'll find that a year could feel like a couple of weeks at most as your sense of time starts to change…"

...

They continued to have small talk for the next few hours. In that time, Emma took the opportunity to ask Serafall all kinds of questions about devil society that couldn't be answered from Jake's memories alone. Things she'd need to know as his Queen. Eventually, though, Jake figured it was time for them to depart. He figured it would have been rude to stay the night and draw upon Asgardian hospitality during their current trying times.

He was preparing to give his final momentary goodbyes to Serafall before Emma decided to ask one last question that had been on her mind for a while.

"Before we depart," Emma said, looking at Serafall somewhat intensely, "I would like to know the truth about what happened during Jake's last duel between him and Riser."

Serafall looked momentarily taken aback before she scowled. Jake was a bit puzzled at what Emma was hinting at. Was there something that he had missed?

"You really got yourself one smart Queen there, Jake," Serafall said with a sigh. "This isn't exactly an easy thing to say, though…" Serafall had a sad expression on her face as she looked at Jake.

"What are you talking about?" Jake asked her.

Serafall continued to give Jake a sad look. She really didn't want to tell him her suspicions. If they were true, then the punishments for such actions were so much worse than a simple house banishment.

"Don't go keeping secrets that could put Jake in jeopardy in the future!" Emma demanded. "Your mind might have some strong defenses, but you are currently weakened, and I will force my way in there if I have to." Emma not so subtly threatened the strongest woman in the Underworld.

Serafall just looked at Jake's new queen, a bit gobsmacked. She was mildly impressed by the backbone this girl had shown to be threatening her of all people. Serafall couldn't even recall the last time she was actually threatened by anyone.

"Fine…" Serafall said with another sigh. "Before the duel between you and Riser, the current Lord Phenix, who happened to be Riser's father, and your father Zeoticus came to your brother and me's VIP box. They were both acting strange as they gloated to each other and to us that Riser's victory was 'all but guaranteed'..." Serafall explained as she used finger quotes for the last part.

Jake ground his teeth at hearing that his father had probably been plotting against his own blood…again. Just what was it that was driving the man to constantly keep going against him!? Was it those hidden enemies of his mother's side of the family? Or possibly something else…

"Wait a minute?" Emma asked. She was a lot more experienced with nefarious familial plots, after all. "That arena was owned by the Phenix clan. Are you implying that the two of them helped Cao Cao and Georg sneak in to murder Jake during the duel, thereby making Riser win by default?" Serafall just nodded to Emma's speculation.

"Dammit!" Jake cursed in anger as he punched a nearby wall, "Why won't that shitty old man fuck off and leave my life alone!?" He pulled back his hand, which was uninjured from the punch. The wall, meanwhile, had a deep dent where his fist landed.

Serafall whistled at that display of strength. Those walls were gold-plated, after all. She was proud that he had reached ultimate class so soon. Not even his brother reached such a power level at his age! She didn't like seeing him stressed, but she was proud of how far he had come in such a short amount of time.

"Neither of you have to worry about that," Serafall said, changing her sad tone into a happy one. "When we return home, I promise you that Miracle Girl Levia-tan will investigate the truth of the matter and mete out the necessary justice!" She said with enthusiasm as illusionary rainbows and sparkles started hovering all around her.

Jake thanked Serafall for her honesty and gave her one last long hug. With that, he and Emma headed towards the healing halls to collect Thor before they returned to Earth.

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