Arc VI God of Storms - Trial of the Allfathers

"I always knew you were destined for greatness, my boy," Amora said in a loving voice as she sat down in her own home. Eli and his mother had just come back from Odin's reveal of the driving force behind the Ragnaros cycle.

"It's a lot to take in... do you think I have what it takes?" Eli asked as he lazily lounged in a chair and played some music for his own distraction.

"I did not raise you to wallow in mediocrity. If you can't do it, who in this reality possibly could?" Amora said, raising her nose up high.

"That's... only raising the stakes, mom," Eli replied with a sigh.

"Good. Let them raise high above. My son would never waver," Amora spoke with pride.

Eli closed his eyes with a smile and faintly shook his head. He didn't lie to Tony all those years back at the Battle of New York when he told Iron Man that his mom thought he was special.

"That's a nice song," Amora spoke a few minutes later.

Eli hummed in agreement.

"When will you bless the world with some offspring?" Eli's fingers froze on the strings.

"Well, are you so eager to have someone call you grandma?" Eli asked after a few moments of regaining his wits.

"Hmph! Not only will I be the most beautiful grandmother this world has ever seen. I will also make them call me 'big sis' like that Natasha lady did with you. It has a nice ring to it," Amora haughtily argued back.

"Well, for that I would still need a willing partner, and I never really tried anything after Jessie," Eli sighed, though he put emphasis on the word willing. Amora shortly smiled wrily at that.

"You never told me why you didn't drown the world in blood after what it took from you. You certainly didn't learn it from me," Amora mused.

"What was the point? I would have only caused more sorrow. I dealt with those who were irredeemable, so they couldn't do it again. Anything more would have just resulted in me feeling not feeling better, guilty even," Eli explained with a distant look as he resumed softly playing music.

"And where would that guilt come from? You had every right to take everything," Amora argued with scrunched eyebrows.

"Don't frown, mom. Even in the afterlife, you could get wrinkles," Eli quipped.

"You already changed the topic once, I will not allow you to do it twice," his mother shot back sternly as she threw a pillow at him.

"You're talking about Tony, right? Truth be told, I was not satisfied with the result either. It was exactly as I told Nat... in the end, it was really only a free therapy session for him. But despite all of his faults, Tony tried being a hero. I couldn't take that away from the world... from him," Eli explained.

Amora's eyes regained their softness as she regarded her son. She had learned a lot in these years she spent with her son. His need for fighting for the good of others, though a weak seed grown out of Amora's own lonely passing, bloomed in full when he was together with Jessica. The girl wanted to be a hero with the powers she had been granted, and it resonated with her son.

Eli had lost himself when she was taken from him, but even then, he didn't become a villain, honoring his memories with her. He took a while to regain his light, and it happened because of his father, and that boy called Peter Parker. Had that not happened, his only driving force during Ragnarok would have been revenge, and it might have caused him to lose his life trying to fight Hela for her sake.

She had miscalculated when she left him that diary her son picked up during the convergence. Hela was much more powerful than anticipated, and Eli, while he amassed a group of powered individuals, would not have been her match. It was a selfish wish of hers to get revenge on the goddess of death, and it nearly cost her her only son.

A few weeks later, Eli was in a clearing next to Hela's home. Odin stood between Eli and Hela. He would be the referee for this 1.539th spar just like he was at the rest.

"Fight!" Odin shouted as both combatants nodded to indicate they were ready.

Hela conjured a blade in one hand and pointed the other hand forward to shoot a blade at Eli. Eli, in turn, released Shatterstar and blocked the blade, shooting toward him with his uru arm.

What followed was an intense melee sword fight between Hela and Eli that lasted for several minutes, a far cry from the near-instant defeats the young Asgardian suffered years ago.

"Your swordsmanship is finally up to par, but you won't beat me with just swordsmanship," Hela taunted.

Two clashes and a feint later, Eli had charged up his destroyer arm, as Odin called it, and shot it point blank at Hela with a short sweep. He had learned long ago that Hela was too fast and had too much battle experience to just take such a shot straight. As Hela was pushed away and conjured some more blades to shoot at Eli, his eyes started glowing in a pale green light. But the glow was different from before.

Before, only his iris would glow, but now both of his eyeballs were fully enveloped in the light. His mother had seen the change when Eli had a breakthrough years ago in his divinity.

The change in eye color was not the only thing that changed. Coupled with a few windblades that shattered Hela's blades, a cluster of energy formed not far from where Hela would land.

Hela felt the savage and chaotic heat behind her and shot a blade from the ground to use its momentum to land somewhere else. Eli had anticipated that and had flown in another direction while moving this energy cluster to where Hela would land. The goddess used several big blades to counter the energies gathered at her new landing spot, and it blasted her away. Again.

This time to where Eli was already waiting with an emerald green glowing Shatterstar. Hela raised her arms to block, but Eli bypassed her block and hit her heavily in the face with the flat of the sword. His aunt landed heavily on the ground, and Eli pointed his sword at her throat.

"Played a little dirty and hit a beautiful lady in the face. I'm almost proud of you, Thorson," Hela joked from her lying position.

"Consider that and the next ten to a thousand slaps in the face payback for my mother," Eli spat with no real heat behind his voice.

"So you think that wasn't just a fluke? Don't forget we're now 1.538 to 1," Hela said, moving Eli's blade away and getting up.

"We shall see the next time," Eli countered with a smirk. Finally winning felt really good.

Odin looked toward his daughter with a nod and a faint smile.

"It's time then, Eli," Odin said as he began guiding Eli away from the sparring ground but not in the direction of their homes.

"For?"

"You just won your final test in combat. What follows is the test of the Allfathers," Odin declared.

Eli followed Odin, thinking about what that test could be. He did not see that Frigga, Bestla, Amora, and even Hela looked at him from atop a hill next to Hela's home.

"Watching that slap was very satisfying. It even left a mark," Amora said in a calm voice as Hela joined them, looking toward Odin and Eli.

"That brat really doesn't know how to treat a lady," Hela replied softly.

"You're hardly a lady, my child," Bestla offered in her soothing voice.

"What do you think, Amora? Can your boy satisfy those three stubborn goats?"

"They would be fools to not deem him... worthy," Amora scoffed.

Eli and Odin reached a cavern he had never been to in this decade. Bor and Buri were already waiting there. In the middle of this roughly circular cavern room, an altar covered in runes was faintly glowing in golden light. Bor held an ornate dagger, while Buri held a plain white cup carved from the horn of an animal in hand.

"Before we are satisfied and reassured of your success in ending the cycle, we have on last test for you son of Thor."

"Should you be judged as worthy during this trial, we three Allfathers will grant you our blessing," Bor solemnly concluded.

"What is the trial?" Eli asked.

"Choose one of us, relive a mistake of our lives from past cycles and... be better. Be worthy of our blessing," Buri said.

Eli took a deep breath and began to think. Buri, as the son of a primordial God, Ymir, surely had a hard life every single time. But ultimately, all he really did was create Asgard. There was no intrigue or politics that could make him worthy of anything by fixing a mistake. Bor was the first true king of Asgard from the stories he was told, but while Bor admitted he made many mistakes, they were easy to solve, compared to Odin's, that was.

But Eli didn't want easy. He wanted to be worthy, so he turned to his own grandfather. "I choose Odin Borson."

Odin's steely gaze didn't waver, even if he could guess why his grandson chose him. He took the dagger from Bor's hand, made a deep cut in his palm, and let all the blood flow into the cup Buri was holding.

Eli was made to sit on the altar and told to drink everything in the cup. With another deep breath, Eli did as he was asked and gulped down the contents of the cup. It didn't taste like blood, Eli thought it didn't taste like anything. But he quickly grew tired, and Odin guided him to lie down on the altar.

"Good luck, my boy," Odin said with a faint smile, which was the last thing Eli heard before he fell asleep.

Years and years of Odin's life were pressed into Eli's mind when he came to. It felt like he relived 40 years in the back of his grandfather's mind. But when he was made to visit Midgard in one of those memories and saw dinosaurs instead of humans, Eli was sure this was Odin from a cycle long in the past. In this cycle, Odin Borson held the divinity of war. His brother Cul Borson held the divinity of fear.

On the day Eli was finally in control, Odin was asked to enter the throne room. His brother Cul was already there, kneeling in front of their father.

"The frost giants have found the casket of winter. They are about to claim Nidavellir as their own. I need one of you to lead our armies to Yotunheim to remind those frost giants of their place and another to lead the defenses of Nidavellir," Bor proclaimed.

"Allow me to drive fear into our enemies, father!" Cul immediately shouted.

Both Bor and Cul raised an eyebrow to look at Odin. Usually, he would have long shouted along with Cul.

"What of you, Odin?" Bor eventually asked. Odin, or rather Eli, was out of his element. Was Odin's mistake going to Yotunheim or Nidavellir? Was it going at all? The ten realms of Yggdrasil, yes, there were ten at this time, were in disarray. Asgard was surrounded by enemies, and only Alfheim and Nidavellir were currently allies of Asgard. From the speed-run through this Odin's memories, he knew that Odin had planned to form an alliance through marriage with Vanaheim because he was smitten with Freya Freyrdottir, the daughter of the current leader of the Vanir.

After some more deliberation, Eli concluded it wasn't anything of the latter. This test, this vision, it would not have started with this summons to the throne otherwise. Following that thought, it was easy to deduce what would make him worthy. At least, that is what Eli thought.

"Please, allow me to defend those we are sworn to protect, Allfather," Eli-Odin eventually said with a bow.

"Oh? Tell me, brother, why would the god of war choose to defend rather than attack?" Cul asked with a taunting smile. Bor seemed to be interested, too.

"My dominion is not over being the vanguard in battle. Your powers over fear are much better suited to make sure the Yotuns learn their lesson, brother. I will make sure that no necessary bloodshed weakens us or the noble dwarves."

"Well spoken, boy. It is decided then. Cul, make the Yotuns realize their folly. Odin, protect the dwarves and let the Yotuns shatter at your mighty defenses," Bor declared as he stabbed down his weapon, a ridiculously long scythe, into the ground and a dull thud rang through the palace.

At first, Eli was glad with his choice, but then he realized that this was too easy. There had to be something else. The trial couldn't possibly be over with just that. And if the original Odin was sent to defend Nidavellir anyway, he still had to look out for something unexpected. A twist in the story, so to speak.

Despite his musings, Eli-Odin quickly prepared and led his forces to the bifrost. He was sent to Nidavellir by the current sentinel of Asgard, Agnar the fierce. The Nidavellir of this time looked entirely different. Even Asgard didn't look quite the same, but Nidavellir was not even a ring surrounding a neutron star at this point. Instead, it was a lush planetary plane, like the present Asgard before Ragnarok, with gigantic volcanic mountains. The dwarves had made their homes inside those volcanoes and used their heat for their forges.

Eli was amused to see that the dwarves of this time were actually dwarves in every sense of the word. If his best guess was correct, living in the rings of present-day Nidavellir and its low gravity allowed the dwarves to grow so much taller over time in his present. But that didn't help with how Eli-Odin was supposed to prove himself more worthy.

Eli-Odin spent two days in Nidavellir, among other things, talking to Brokk, the current king of the dwarves and older brother of Eitri, who was just a wee little lad right now. He also kept reinforcing the defenses. He stayed awake both nights to make sure no lazy guards would miss obvious holes in the defenses, but nothing happened.

Eventually, Eli-Odin used his powers over war to check on how his brother Cul was doing. He wasn't quite at the level of an aspect of war, but Odin still knew how to project his consciousness to battles he was related to. Like a fight between Asgard and their enemies.

What Eli-Odin saw in Yotunheim made him sick, and he was beginning to get a glimpse of what this trial was about. The forces of Asgard were slaughtering the frost giants, torturing them in their homes. This wasn't war. It was genocide. And the Aesir didn't even look like they would think they were in the wrong.

Assuming that the original Odin saw what he did, what did he do? Did he tell his father Bor to stop his brother? Would he even need to since his father should see what is happening? Would he confront his brother and stop this atrocity from happening? Would he somehow wield this chance not to aid the frost giants but instead make sure he would be the next ruler of Asgard instead of his brother? Oh, no... it was probably the last one, wasn't it?

Now, Eli-Odin had to weigh his options. Going to Bor for help might end this from happening, but it wouldn't make him worthy. If he confronted his brother, would he need to fight? To kill? Could he even kill Cul? Exile his own brother and let him fester into becoming a problem for later generations like present day Odin did with Hela?

What if he yielded the throne so that Cul didn't need to feel like he needed to prove himself to their father? But if he did that and Cul didn't change, would he help a tyrant gain power and make everything worse? There was still Mimir left among the sons of Bor. He would make a fine king in Eli's opinion. But would his sacrifice really make him worthy if he did manage to take down Cul in pyrrhic battle?

Eli-Odin called for Agnar and asked him to send him to Yotunheim after he made sure the defenses of Nidavellir were the best they could be. The sentinel complied and sent him outside of the camp his brother Cul was staying at.

"What brings you here, brother?" Cul asked after he exited his tent.

"Cul! I have seen the atrocities you are committing. You need to stop! Their leaders have planned an invasion, yet you are slaughtering innocents before their forces even left their planet!"

"What of it? If only a plan will result in these actions, would they ever think of going against Asgard ever again?"

"Yes! Not now, but generations later, you will not have bred fear. You will have bred hatred! If your goal is to rule Yotunheim, this is the wrong way!"

"So you have a better plan, brother?" Cul spat as he grew angrier with every sentence from Eli-Odin.

"We find out why they chose Nidavellir as their first target. But it's obvious why. They want weapons! We could allow them access to weapons... at a price," Eli-Odin argued.

"You want to arm our enemies?" Cul countered, barely containing his fury.

"If we had used this as an opportunity to forge an alliance, they wouldn't raise their weapons against us!"

"Enough! You're colluding with enemies of Asgard! Return to the palace or your station at the defenses of Nidavellir or be struck down!"

"Cul, please reconsider! Our own mothe-"

Cul interrupted Eli-Odin's pleading with a mighty swing from his hammer. It was too fast for Odin to block, and he was planted in a glacier a good distance away.

Eli sighed in his mind. This was not going like he had hoped, but he didn't expect it to.

They fought for hours, decimating the landscape around them. Eventually, they even exchanged weapons, though not by choice, and Cul was wielding Gungnir, Odin's trusted spear. Their fight led them to a settlement, and Eli-Odin wanted to quickly lead the fight away when he noticed.

Trying to test the limits of how far his brother would go to defend the enemies of Asgard, Cul readied the spear for a throw right into the crowd of cowering frost giants.

Everything froze for Eli. Or at least everything halted right this moment in his mind. This feels like the point in time where his actions would decide if he is worthy. Defend the innocents? Use this opportunity to overpower the weaponless Cul? Prolong the fight by doing a glancing parry and therefore putting the innocents in more danger and being indecisive?

Mentally firming himself, Eli chose the most drastic option. He ignored the spear and used this opportunity to mortally wound his 'brother' with his own hammer. As Cul lay dying and Eli-Odin instead used this time to do what he could to save the frost giants, the bifrost came crashing down next to Cul.

Bor looked at his dying son with narrowed eyes, and soon after, he called over Odin.

"Explain," Bor said with steel in his voice.

"I judged that Cul would never change his ways. Someone who abuses his power to gain more power over the torment and corpses of others must be ready to forfeit their lives in the same manner," Eli-Odin softly replied.

"You...judged?" Bor asked, this time with clear anger in his voice.

"I take responsibility for my brother's imminent death and my actions. Exile me if necessary, kill me if you must. I did it for the good of Asgard," Eli-Odin explained as he bowed his head.

"You would choose death over your brother being alive?"

"I am reluctant to die, so I would do everything in my power to escape if your sentence is my death."

Bor looked toward his son Odin without betraying any emotion for a few minutes.

"I judge you... worthy," Bor spoke, and suddenly everything around Eli broke apart.

Eli was back in his own body, lying in the cave in Valhalla he had laid down a lifetime ago.

Bor and Odin looked toward Buri, so that's what Eli did too as he sat up.

"The tragic tales of your grand-uncle Cul are seldom one with a good ending. As we have taught you in our lessons, fear is a powerful driving force. Sadly, it is seldom used for good. And so, in almost every cycle, Cul chooses tyranny over sovereignty. His powers have a limitless potential for good if he just used them for the wellbeing of our people instead of warmongering," Buri started explaining.

"You could have used that last moment to capture him but judged that Cul remaining alive after your short lifetime growing up together would be harmful to Asgard. You are smart enough to know that even that action could have dire consequences. Since Odin would have been exiled and Cul died, Asgard would have been weak to outside forces," Buri continued. Bor and Odin nodded along.

"Because you chose at all instead of leaving Asgard at the mercy of someone you judged a threat, I judge you... worthy," Buri concluded. Everyone looked to Odin.

"In this life and my lasts, I have been forced many times to make choices against my will but for the good of our people. At least, that's what I thought I was doing at the time. Oftentimes, I thought myself benevolent by choosing a middle path, and only recently, one of those choices caused Ragnarok. You stood firm in your will, and therefore, I judge you worthy," Odin concluded.

Odin pressed his hand on Eli's head, Buri and Bor each put a hand on one of his shoulders.

"Receive our blessing, my boy," Odin proudly announced as the cave was lit up in golden light.