Eternal Thor Part II

It was difficult for him to believe what his life had become.

He remembered what it used to be like, being the Prince of Asgard. It was a time filled with merriment within the golden halls, drinking and feasting and partying to his heart's content. Hunting and battling against foes of all kinds.

In his time, Thor had faced many foes, the greatest of which had been the cause of his death, Jörmungandr.

Yet he had faced many more in his long life.

Some of which, had been the Eternals, a result of the Celestials experimentation upon the Midgardians. Many had been amicable and friendly, but some had been prideful and mayhap's, he to had been too prideful to leave things be.

Thor had not lost, but he would admit that the Eternals possessed incredible power enough to make the fight enjoyable for a time.

Yet many had died or disappeared by the time the Aesir led by King Buri had arrived in Asgard. By the time his father had begun his conquest of the Nine Realms, the Eternals had been long gone with only a few remaining as protectors of Midgard. However, in the face of the power of the All-Father, they had not stood a chance.

But yet here he was, on Midgard and amongst the Eternals when at the height of their power. He was back in time, before his grandfather Bor ascended to the throne, before his father, Odin followed and before he was even born.

'I need to wait. Gather my strength and then when father arrives in Midgard, I shall tell him the truth. I shall warn him and together, we can stop those that Death warned me about from gaining power.' Thor thought as he sat comfortably within his seat amongst the council chambers.

All around, the Eternals of their village sat listening to the debate taking place down on the floor. A debate between the two ruling figures within the Eternals, Kronos and Ouranos.

Leaning over the railing, Thor watched with bored eyes as the two men argued over their different viewpoints. He had never been very diplomatic, the closest he had come to diplomacy was when Thrym stole Mjolnir, but that had ended in much the same way all of Thor's meetings with the Jötnar went.

With Mjolnir raised, battle and a great deal of death.

Thor was a blunt weapon and was used as such by Odin to great effect, Thor was well-aware of his faults. It was why he had focused so much time on enhancing his strengths, making him the strongest warrior in Asgard.

Debates such as these never caught his attention, even back in Asgard, preferring to leave it to his brother, Baldur. This debate especially confused him, on one end was Kronos, who idealised neutrality and pacifism. Thor could respect the Eternal for his power, but not his mentality. On the other end, there was Ouranos, an Eternal who despite not being as powerful as Kronos, desired war and domination.

Two men Thor could respect for different reasons, but he could not respect the reasons behind their debates.

Both men wanted one thing and one thing only, to prove themselves to their 'Gods,' the Celestials. They had been given three orders by the Celestials, both brothers desiring to fulfil their orders but how they went about it differed. Their orders were simple:

Protect the Celestials.

Protect the Great Machine, the Archive.

And correct excess Deviation.

For many years the Eternals had followed the rules and leadership of Kronos, his brother, Ouranos serving as his right-hand. But the divide that had been a long time in the making was finally coming about. Thor had seen it coming over a decade ago when he was but seven years old.

He may have been in the body of a child, but Thor still possessed the centuries of experience and knowledge he had accumulated in his time as Prince of Asgard. While not a gifted diplomat like Baldur, yet he didn't need to be to see the divide forming between brothers that had once been close. Thor had said nothing on it, spending his time growing and improving his powers.

Compared to the power he once possessed, what he had now was nothing in comparison. At least his powers were similar to what they had been before and this time he had experienced. He knew what worked and what wouldn't and therefore his progression was far greater than what it was before.

"The Deviants have grown in number far more rapidly than we had realised! For centuries they lived beneath the surface, out of sight and now they possess hordes in the millions!" Ouranos exclaimed to clambering cheers of agreement from his supporters. "Now they have set out to conquer the entirety of Thuria while we remain in seclusion!"

"War is not the answer!" Kronos argued but despite his position as leader, Ouranos had worked the people into a frenzy that whatever else he said was overshadowed by the jeering and cries of outrage.

Yet when Ouranos spoke once more, people listened. "War is the answer!" Again cheers sprung out. "One of our duties was to quell excess Deviants and we have failed. Negotiations have never worked with their kind and I see no reason why now will be different! We must go to war and purge the Deviants to their original numbers!"

Ouranos was a good speaker, Thor could admit that.

He knew what to say, how to say it and when to say it. When the longtime enemy of Makkari and first of the Deviants, Tantalus had returned to his throne as King of the Deviants, many amongst the Eternals had been worried. After all, Tantalus had made it no secret his distaste for Eternals nor his desire to see them all dead.

When he had left Midgard, the Eternals had been able to breathe easy, Tantalus seemingly drifting into legend. Becoming a bedtime story that his bodies mother, Daina had told him as a child.

Now he had returned, setting out to conquer the Thurian continent and turning it into a Deviant Empire. It was no wonder that Ouranos was seeing such a large amount of support from the Eternals that would normally follow the orders of Kronos. They were afraid of what Tantalus could do if he succeeded.

He on the other hand, to him the only thing that mattered was saving his people. What happened to the Eternals was of no bother to him.

-X- Line Break -X-

War.

It was something Thor was intimately familiar with, it has been a part of his life for as long as he could remember. A constant that brought a sense of familiarity to him, yet this was not a war he needed to take part in.

He held no stake within its outcome.

His goal was simple and entirely separate from the future of the Eternals. While they waged war against one another, he would focus his time purely upon training. Just as he had done for the last two decades, Thor would push himself harder and harder, working towards regaining just a fraction more of his old strength.

Plans, they were never his strong suit.

Strength was all he had ever needed, Thor would wait till Odin arrived, then rely upon him to come up with the plan. It was his duty to just get stronger in order to face anything that could come his way until that moment.

Calming his breathing, Thor took a powerful step forward, foot cracking the ground beneath it as he took a strong stance. One hand simultaneously swiping out and a blast of wind rushed forth.

Before him, the trees and the land before him erupted upwards, carried on by the wind. Yet Thor continued on, stepping forward once more, his free hand encased in a glowing ball of cracking energy. He thrust it forwards, a large lightning bolt firing forth and striking against a nearby cliff face. Upon impact it exploded outwards, debris raining down to the ground as smoked wafted from Thor's extended hand.

"Doran." Hearing his name called, Thor raised to his full height, his large muscular frame on full view as he turned to the woman approaching. A beautiful red-haired woman clad in form-fitting armour and spear resting carefully in her hands.

"Mother." He greeted, the words sounding strange upon his lips even after so many years. Jörð or Gaea as she was more commonly known had been the one to give birth to him, by the time he had grown older, his father had married the Vanir Queen, Freyja. By that point, he has grown out of the need for a mother's love and so, to be thrust into the body of a babe with a loving mother had been an awkward situation to deal with.

"Are you not going to war?" She asked him, coming to a stop before him.

Thor shook his head. "I do not have any intention to do so, no." He told her and it was the truth, though she often interpreted his decisions as to the influence of something else. Unknowing of the real reason why he refused, nor why he acted the way he did.

"Do you truly hold such a distaste for your father?" Thor frowned, Kronos was a kind man, but he was not his father. His father was Odin Borson, the All-Father and King of Asgard. Kronos was not he, but that was not the reason he did not follow Kronos, nor why their relationship was so strained.

Kronos was a devout follower of the Celestials much like all First Generation Eternals. Thor on the other hand was not, his actions had influenced many of the Second Generation Eternals, especially his younger brothers, Zuras and A'Lars.

This had led to Kronos almost shunning Thor from his people, separating him from A'Lars and Zuras in order to 'spare' them from him his 'heresy'. Their strained relationship was purely one-sided, it was his father who held distaste for him, Thor didn't.

"I don't hate him," Thor told Daina as such. "I pity him. Every day, we saw the humans kidnap, steal, rape and kill one another. The Deviants are doing the same now, that is no different to what the Celestials did to us. I pity all those who cannot see the truth of how we gained our powers."

Daina frowned. "You don't understand, Donar. You don't know what it was like before the Celestials came to us before they gifted power to us. We, the Eternals are their greatest successes and tasked us with ensuring their greatness lives on."

"You're right, I don't know what it was like before. Perhaps that is why I can see the truth where you are blinded." Thor continued, knowing full well that they were repeating an argument that they had many times prior to this. "And if we truly were the Celestials success, why would they allow the Deviants to kill us. In fact, why, if they are so great and powerful, did they allow the Deviants to live?"

Daina said nothing, mouth opening to speak before closing. She shook her head and left then, not saying a word as Thor turned his back also, returning to look upon the destruction he had caused from his training.

'It's not enough, I need to be stronger.' Clenching his fists, Thor moved forwards back to his perch and prepared himself once more.

The war between the Eternals and the Deviants was none of his concern. Only saving the Asgardian people mattered and he would stop at nothing in order to succeed, even if everything around him burned to ashes. Asgard and his people, his family, his sons, his wife, they were all that mattered.

And nothing would stop him from saving them.