Hela

Within a world of fire and lava, a giant slept in a pool of flames to recover from its injuries. This giant was one of the strongest lifeforms within the 9 realms... well, the 8 realms since it was the cause of Asgard destruction. But currently, even after thousands of years going by, it has yet to recover from that near-death experience. 

It was currently asleep, but its eyes slowly opened as it sensed something. Standing up, it looked towards the sky while a sword of flames gathered in its hands.

"Odin!" It roared sensing the fool who dared to enter its domain, it took a moment, but a laugh sounded from all around the giant, and slowly, Odin who stood on top of a raven appeared.

"Surtr, you son of a bitch. Shouldn't you have died when you destroyed Asgard?" Odin asked with crossed arms while looking at the huge fire giant below him. Surtr glared at Odin, although Odin looked different and was much younger than the Odin he remembered, he couldn't mistake that divinity

"Calm down big guy. Odin of old has died, and with his defeat, a new Odin has been born to take his spot. What you see here is the new and improved version of Odin, a pleasure to meet you." I said with a smile, leaving Surtr stunned for a moment. but after looking closely, he realized my words were true

"What do you want?" Surtr asked coldly, to which I just shrugged slightly.

"Well, I just came to learn what happened since Odin's death. For one, were you not fated to die? how are there so many humans, shouldn't there have only been 2 humans? adding the fact Mana disappeared... well, you see why I'm confused." I said calmly, to which Surtr gritted his teeth thinking about the new god who had risen.

A little historical fact about this world, Odin was considered a 5th generation god. that being a mortal who went on to rise to godhood.

the first generation was the Primordials, the second was the Titans, the 3rd was the Gods, the 4th was the God's offspring, and the next was the Odin generation.

During the era of the primordial, some lifeforms embodied a part of the universe, but due to some war, the universe was broken. It was Odin and his brothers who used the dead body of a primordial to heal the universe, creating the 9 realms. 

"Odin, yours and mine era are long passed. the new god will take over." Surtr said his sword of flames disappeared. at those words, I frowned. it was clear that there was a new generation of gods.

"the gods are no longer needed. anyone can now rise to the level of gods. due to Ragnarok, something happened that caused this world to go through great changes. mortals if talented enough and put in the work, can even become gods. You were just among the first sign that this world was heading towards such a path." Surtr said calmly

"They are stronger and more talented than you," Surtr said with a smile, making Odin think for some time before shrugging.

"what about the dungeons?" I asked to which Surtr shrugged as he didn't know and didn't care. at this, I sighed softly.

"then... we have nothing to talk about," I said with a shrug, Surtr just watched as I left. 

He had no reason to fight this new Odin, so he just watched. Although he was powerful, he was far weaker than his prime. Plus, he sensed a battle with Odin might not be so simple.

'Odin in the past only became a god after drinking from the well of wisdom and hanging himself. If Surtr's words were true then others should also be able to become a god now, but without the need to go through all of the steps Odin went through.' I thought while leaving Muspelheim, and entering Earth once more. 

"First thing first, let's summon another raven," I said to which Munin nodded slightly. Landing on a mountain. with a wave of my hands, I summoned another raven, this time being the second strongest raven on earth. Munin turned into a normal-sized raven, looking at the new guy with an interested look.

"The name is Odin. little guy, you want to follow me?" I asked while looking at the scared Raven who didn't know what was going on. but hearing my words, it was stunned as it could understand me. It looked at Munin who was sitting on my shoulder, waiting for its answer

"... w-what do you mean?" The raven asked fearfully, rubbing my chin I explained everything to the raven, and in no time the Raven nodded. smiling, I went on to form the bond. Once again I felt that pain as me and the Raven became one. 

The Raven's body broke apart, its being being transformed to embody my thoughts. My memory was strengthened thanks to Munin, allowing me to perfectly recall everything without trouble. It was mainly thanks to this that I could hold the huge amount of knowledge Odin held, without being overwhelmed.

Now, with my thoughts going through the improvement, it allowed me to go through my memory at blinding speed, think of countless things, and many more. My shirt began to burn, as on my left side, a parallel image of the raven on my left back appeared. 

"Well... I might never get used to that pain." I said while sitting on the ground, the pain seemed to have grown. removing the sweat on my forehead, I smiled slightly. the Odin of the past although bonded to the Ravens, the fusion wasn't as good as mine.

For one, the Odin of the past couldn't have his ravens embody his thoughts and memory. since mine did, it meant that my mind would only grow stronger as I grew stronger. But with this in mind, there was one more thing I wanted to bind to my mind. Something to embody my willpower.

But I couldn't help but wonder about the side effects of having my memory or thoughts so powerful. Would one day I have the power to just think, and a being would be erased from existence? well, if so... that was going to be fun.

Summoning the new raven, it shot from my back and flew into the sky. its loud cry filled the heavens, while it flew all over the place at blinding speed. I looked at the Raven and was stunned at how fast my thinking speed was. Calling the new raven over, it landed on my finger while its size was the size of a bus shrunk.

"I will call you... Hugin." I said calmly

"what's the point of thinking if you're just going to give me the same name as the old one," Hugin said with a roll of its eyes. which I ignored while looking at it.

"You're faster than Munin, but at the cost of your durability not being as powerful," I said calmly, embodying my memory, Munin was stronger. but Hugin embodying my thoughts, Hugin was faster. The faster Hugin was, the faster my thoughts. the same was true for Munin, the stronger he was, the stronger my memory.

Of course, Munin was still powerful, he was at the S rank, the same for Hugin. It was just that Hugin had greater speed and lower defense. Munin had higher defense and lower speed. but their attack power should be the same, Hugin moving at full speed and attacking, would greatly increase his attack power. Munin although slow, attack power should be lower than Hugin's but not by much.

My thought speed was currently unmatched, at the rate things were going, I wouldn't need long to fully comprehend all of Odin's knowledge. Thanks to Hugin and Munin, the two can help me perfectly focus my mind on an object, this would only speed things up.

"Go out and explore... just make sure to stay out of danger," I said to which the two nodded before flying off. As the two left, I sat back to recover my energy. I didn't want to fall asleep. So, while resting, I went through my next plans.

'I should go to Hela... well, entering her domain wouldn't be a good idea. but there are a few things I want to collect there. until then, I need to strengthen my divinity of death.' Thinking this, Odin closed his eyes and went through Odin's old experience with death. from when he hung himself, to the many years he lived seeing the death of countless lives... I went through them all, looking at every detail one by one, before looking at the whole picture. 

My thinking speed was truly fast, adding just how perfectly I recalled information, plus the understanding I had on death thanks to the many anime and shows I had watched, I had many theories and questions on this concept that were proven true and answered as I studied death.

As I studied, I couldn't help but summon forth a skeleton from Helheim. Next, I summoned a random animal, which was a rat. I went on to study the undead and the living, while also trying to turn the rat into an undead.

it took some time, but slowly he got the hang of converting the living into the undead. the undead were pretty much the state between living and dead. it was like a fusion of the two sides.

it was an interesting state of existence. for one, the undead could be considered to be alive. it's just that they didn't need air or hearts, and even some didn't need brains. all they needed was the body, with nothing of the living. they were dead and living at the same time

from my understanding of death, and thanks to the many stories I have read. I understood death to be the end. If the end never comes, you are still living. life goes beyond simple birth and becoming a corpse. thats just the basic, death goes beyond.

existence is life, and death is the end of existence... Well, at least thats what I understood. this was what Death from DC seemed to follow, and at the same time, there was an anime called Instant Death which had the MC embody the very concept of the end. He gave meaning to the concept of death.

But to understand such high levels of death... well, I will try and do that soon. for now, I just wanted my understanding of death to be somewhat on the level of Hela, the goddess of death. Her name was Hel, but I rather called her Hela. Of course, the more my understanding of death reached, the stronger I became.

The stronger I became, the stronger my mind and thoughts became, the stronger my mind and thoughts became, the faster my learning speed shall be. the next day, I let out a deep breath while looking at my creation.

The huge building-sized rat. Honestly, my quick learning speed was mostly thanks to the Odin force. the fact it could do anything I could picture allowed me to quickly understand things by watching the Odin Force at work.

"How long are you going to watch me?" Odin asked calmly, he didn't need to look behind him to see a beautiful woman. she had long smooth black hair which covered one-half of her face, hiding the fact it was that of a skeleton.

"I was wondering why you never appeared in Helheim. I thought your soul was destroyed, but it seems like you found a way to escape your fate at my brother's hands." Hela said softly, odin death was at the hands of Hela's brother... well, at least thats what Odin tried to make it look like. his fake death was his attempt in trying to escape the reach of fate, leading to his defeat and his soon choosing me.

"The Odin you knew is long gone... can't you see I'm far better than him?" I asked with a smile, making Hela's eyes narrow. Unlike Marvel, the Hela here was Loki's daughter. In fact, Loki wasn't Odin's son and was instead close friends with Odin. pretty much brothers, but Loki turned evil.

Loki gave birth to powerful lifeforms, he even birth to Odin's horse. but the main person he birth to was Hela and 2 others. Although Hela did act during Ragnarok, Hela didn't play that much of a role. She rather stay in Helheim, so she didn't take part in that battle, just supported her father by giving him an army of undead. So, she managed to live while most of the gods died.

"Indeed... I see, you devoured Odin. the foolish old man tried to escape fate." Hela said softly,

"So, Hela. I want the souls of Thor and Heimdall." I said with a smile, to which Hela's face turned cold.

"Don't think because you replace that old man you can disrespect me. My name is Hel, you lowly Mortal." Hela said angrily, to which I shrugged while standing up to look at her.

"Hela suits you better... and the last I checked, I was no longer a mortal," I said with a smile, making Hela's eyes turn colder. but before she could attack me, I spoke.

"Anyways, I wish not to be your enemy. with my current understanding of life and death, I should be able to put up a fight against you over the domain of the ruler of death." I said with a smile, in my palm, the power of death gathered, making Hela's eyes narrow. She looked at my palm and her palm shrank the next moment

"Impossible," Hela said in shock, not even the Odin of the past had an understanding of death this high. yet, here I stood before her, with the power of death... No, it was the power of Life and Death.

"You only know how to take away life, I just learned how to take and give life," I said while snapping my finger. The Odin force gathered. the huge skeleton rate grew muscles, blood, flesh, and other things. transforming into a living, breathing lifeform. breathing life into something that already had a soul wasn't hard.

All I needed was one thing. a soul, once the soul was there, I could have the soul regain its body. This sounded simple, but that was only for someone like me. the Odin force played a huge role in what I just did.

"You're stronger than me for the time being, but once I start to fight you for the position of ruler of Helheim... well, you and I both know I will quickly regain my old power," I said making Hela grit her teeth, 

"Of course, you can try and kill me. but let's face it, I will just bring myself back to life. As time goes on, I will perfect and improve my powers over life and death. Soon, A thought would be enough to be reborn." I said with a smile, 

"what do you want?" Hela asked hatefully, to which I held out my palm.

"I will reach the peak of power... no, I will be stronger than the likes of Thor, and even the past generation of gods," I said softly.

"You can't grow stronger... I give you the chance, to work for me, and you would have me as your backing. I will make you stronger, and give you the power of death and life." I said making Hela quiet. She closed her eyes for some time, this right here was just an avatar she created. So, if she wanted to kill Odin, it wouldn't be so easy.

"Alright." She said while taking my hand. I nodded with a smile, understanding why she would accept. Hela was in a bad state right now, with the chance for mortals to become gods, sooner or later someone would overpower her and sit on the throne of the ruler of Helheim.

One should know, that Helheim used to be known as the Underworld, or Hell, ruled by Hades. Hades' existence was another reason for Hela to take my hand. Hades, Zeus, and the other 3rd generation of gods were still alive, it's just that they were injured from that battle that almost destroyed the world.

they should be returning soon, returning to take the throne of the supreme rulers of this world. Was she able to take on the 3 siblings? Of course not, Hades alone was stronger than her and had a deeper understanding of death. He was the God Of Death, the Dead, and The Underworld.

Hela was the god of death and Helheim. Helheim was the former underworld. but once Hades returns, he could easily take this away from her. this is because the Helheim of today was nothing compared to its past when it was considered the underworld, the world was just in a damaged state right now.

So, we formed a contract, otherwise Hela wouldn't trust me. Once the contract was formed, she gave me the two souls while I went on to give her my word that I would come tomorrow. after, I sat back and looked at the souls of Thor and Heimdall.

Why did I want these two, nothing but for the sole reason of studying Heimdall's soul and seeing if I could get his ability? Heimdall had the unique power to see and hear all within the 9 realms, back then he stood guard, looking for the signs of Ragnarok. He was the one who killed Loki, but Loki also killed him.

how did he get such sharp senses? Heimdall drank from the Well, but instead of wisdom, he gained sharp senses. Odin left behind an eye, and Heimdall left behind an ear... I of course had no interest in bringing Heimdall back to life, he might even try and kill me for trying to kill Odin.

I slowly devoured the soul while using the Odin force to gain the soul's abilities. It took some time, but when I opened my eyes, they were burning with golden-like flames, 

"Haha!" I couldn't help but laugh, how couldn't I when I was seeing it all? Sight beyond sight, across all of the realms, I saw it all. I heard it all... it's just that it was too hard for my mind to adapt. it took some time, before my mind adapted, allowing me to be able to focus on things that caught my interest.

'... what am I doing? Why am I limited in my strength? I should have an animal that embodies my senses, willpower, Strength, speed, and so on. As they all grow stronger, I will grow stronger... no. I should even link them. Have them empower each other.' I thought with bright eyes at the idea

"I'm sure this shit going to hurt like hell," Odin said while breathing out, his mind racing with the perfect animal to embody each part of me. But he needed to rest before he could go on with that... for now, he put away Thor's Soul.