Vampire Thor Part IV

A slave.

The thought was funny.

Thor had thought that he was free, Asgard was freed by Kree- and Stront-Thor, the need for him to do anything was no longer required. He was supposed to be free to do what he wanted, to live how he wanted and yet, that was not the case.

Lady Death, the very aspect of it that all Gods of Death served and drew power from, was the master that held the whip used to keep them in check. An unkillable army that would be constantly reborn upon their deaths to serve the will of Lady Death. Nothing he did, nothing he ever could do would mean anything, ultimately he would serve Lady Death's will without a say in the matter. He was a pawn in the grand game that all Cosmic Beings like her played.

'I wish I had never gone to that island, never sought the power I sensed that day.' Thor thought to himself with a frown, looking up to the moon that was clear as day, the stars around it lighting up the sky.

Meeting the first Thor, the one who came before them all, even the Founder of the Citadel was at first, an exciting prospect. The Thor radiated power in a way that Odin never had, not even the final hours of Ragnarök. Except, what he had for a brief moment thought would be a chance to redeem his failures and save Asgard, turned out to be false. The First Thor was not stronger than Odin was, he wasn't even stronger than Thor Odinson had been before the very first Ragnarök.

All this time, he had thought he had an understanding of Odin's power. They all had, and yet that was all a lie. They were working towards a goal that was but a fraction of the real power Odin Borson possessed. He never revealed the true depths of Odinforce purely because what was the need? Whether he fought with all his might or not, Ragnarök would still happen, all the power of the Odinforce could not change that.

It was a realisation that hit him hard, more so than being a slave to the ambitions of Lady Death. That he could handle, even enslaved he possessed his freedom. But there was something about knowing that Odin had hidden his power all this time, that he spent his life working towards surpassing his father but that goal being so completely out of reach had shattered something within him. He had thought at the height of his power, during those final hours of Ragnarök that he had come close, that he could rival his father, the man he respected the most. Only that was not the case, all his hard work, none of it mattered because he had not even come close.

Not even for a moment.

'What's the point in any of it?' He asked himself, laying back against the soft grass. 'No matter what I achieve, it will mean nothing. If Odin doesn't think that he at the peak of his power can change anything, then what chance do any of us have?'

All it would mean was working towards a goal, a level of power they didn't even know the limit of. To Thor that was a strange thing, all his life he had worked towards the level, or what he thought was the level of his father. But now he didn't even have that and if he didn't know where that line was, how could he cross it?

Conquest?

Battle?

What did it matter when nothing he did would change a thing? The Thor's would spend their lives fighting for an unseen goal, never achieving anything. What was the point? They might as well just wait, do nothing just as he was doing.

The sun would rise eventually.

Perhaps it would be amusing to see what race he would be born into next. Perhaps a horse? That would be amusing?

It would be a few hours now, the moon still high in the sky, but Thor was content to wait. Maybe he would convince himself that he could live? Maybe not? He was never one to think about these things, always one to follow his gut and just do whatever came to his mind. If that happened and he continued to live in this body, so be it. If not, then he would see where he would end up next.

However, just as he thought that he noticed a strange movement of the clouds in the sky. They were moving, quickly, far too quickly. He may no longer control the storms, but he understood them, he understood the way they moved. Even now he could tell by the wind and the smell in the air when a storm was coming and when it would subside. He could tell when it was going to rain and when the sky would clear.

That connection he shared with the storm could never subside, even if he could no longer control them. Whatever that was, it was not a cloud, not one of any kind Thor had encountered in his life.

And as if to confirm his suspicions, the cloud sharply turned and descended towards the ground, directly towards him. "Shit!" Quickly, Thor shot to his feet and ran, he didn't know what that cloud was or what its aim was. But it didn't take a genius like Loki to figure out that it was not good.

The world around him became not but a blur as Thor rushed across the land. He didn't stop to avoid trees just barrelling straight through them. There was not a moment to waste and he couldn't afford to slow down to make sharp turns and avoid every obstacle in his path. So he did what he always did best, barrelled straight through everything in his way.

But as Thor looked over his shoulder, he saw the black cloud only drawing closer and closer, engulfing everything in its path just to reach him. Tendrils themselves reached out and drew closer to him than the main body.

Desperately, Thor dug deeper within him, feeling his muscles tear themselves apart as he tried to put more and more distance between him and the cloud. But it was not possible and one tendril danced along his skin, seeping into his pores. Instantly his body seized up and the cloud surrounded him, rushing up his body and entering into his mouth, nose, ears and eyes. Every opening it could find along his body the cloud entered through and Thor choked upon.

Grasping his neck as he tried to free himself from its grasp, only to collapse to his knees.

There was no escape.

-X- Line Break -X-

Sitting upright, Lady Death looked out across her chamber. Something was wrong, that much she knew deep down within her, something had happened and she knew who was connected to it. Thor Odinson, her pawn to bring those who dare besmirch her into her grasp, one of his fragments was connected to it.

A basin of some kind of liquid formed before her eyes, it shimmering to show an image of the Thor in question. 'Gaea, of course.' Lady Death thought to herself. She had seen the rise and fall of many universes, the deaths of many and the adventures of thousands. But there was not one planet in all her existence that was as deeply routed in the future of the Cosmos as Gaea.

The body of the Elder God was behind many incidents and would be responsible for hundreds more. Lady Death could not say what, the history was never clear nor certain, but she knew how much it would impact the Cosmos in the future.

Thor Odinson would always play a key part, even without her limited interference. Now though, there was not one figure within the Cosmos with a future as uncertain and impactful as he. Thor Odinson would be the key to everything, Lady Death was certain of that. It was for that reason she took interest in a few of his fragments more than the rest.

The First is the first of them all.

A fusion of the first and second fragments, the one who fought against the Celestials, allied with the Watchers and defeated the First of the Fallen. The one who waited patiently upon Gaea, guarding the great hammer, Mjolnir that lay dormant waiting for its master.

The second was the founder of the Citadel of Thors, the shape-changing being with vast jewels that gifted him immense power. The slayer of the Xorr the God-Jewel and the Wanderer of the Cosmos, ever searching for more Thor's and power he could use to free his brother, Loki.

The final one is the third, and the newest of them all. One that started off as the weakest of all the Thor's to exist, but to suddenly gain his old power thanks to the aid of a Cosmic Cube. One who failed in his siege of Asgard, but now set out once more, upon a new and darker path.

This Thor she laid her eyes upon, the one who caught her attention and caused the disturbance upon Gaea was neither of these three. But her connection to him waned with every passing moment, something within him eating away at it and the damage done now was irreversible. He was different to the rest, no longer could she freely return him to the fold of the Cosmos like the rest.

A separate entity no longer bound by her and within him, a vile and corrupt power she had sensed only once.

A power birthed at the same time as the singularities that formed six powerful gems sought by many in the Cosmos. Lady Death could intervene, perhaps she should, yet the future once more changed before her eyes. This Thor would play a role, a key role much like the three Thor's that caught her attention.

Whether it be to her advantage or disadvantage, was a matter of how the other Thor's responded. Especially the first Thor, would he intervene and stop this Thor before he became corrupted by the power within him. Or he would simply stand by and watch, doing nothing as he always had?