The Nidhogg Pact

DanMachi: The Dragon's Return

Thank you to all those that reviewed! I hope you enjoy the next chapter.

Chapter 3

The Nidhogg (1) Pact

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Loki overlooked the city of Orario from a balcony in Babel. Her red hair, tied in a small ponytail, was pushed slightly by a small rush of wind. It was chilly, as high up as they were, which was easily a good seven hundred feet, maybe closer to eight hundred. The levels that mere mortals were allowed to go in Babel stopped with the six hundred sixty-sixth floor. After that, only the gods were allowed, and only Ottarl, Freya's level seven captain, was the exception. The mansions of the gods started at the ninth floor, and those mansions, becoming more numerous with each floor, climbed the tower ever higher and higher until clouds could be seen both above and below the tower's windows.

"You do love to watch everything around you, Freya," Loki muttered. "Are you actually Zeus?"

"Zeus and I do share a deep for beauty," Freya giggled, "but our tastes for beauty are different."

"I'm sure you didn't call for me to tell me what a pervert you are," Loki grumbled before turning to see her rival goddess. "Why am I here, Freya? I'll repeat myself when I say the top of Babel is not the place you would talk about whatever mortals you plan to seduce and steal kids from other Familias."

"Oh? Are we straight to business, then?" Freya smiled. "I'm a little disappointed, Loki. I was hoping for your snide remarks!"

"You must be troubled if you're asking for my humor," Loki frowned. "So? What's the problem?"

"We have a friend in Orario," Freya said plainly, walking over to the window and next to Loki. She leaned on the windowsill, resting an elbow on the sill and her chin in her palm. "Not a friend we want, mind you."

"A friend?" Loki echoed. "Does it have anything to do with an odd sense of power I felt inside the city yesterday?"

"I'm afraid so," Freya nodded, sighing. "There's a Titan in Orario."

"Y-you're kidding me," Loki gulped. "What would a Titan be doing here? Don't those boring sticks-in-the-mud have the spirits of the dead to deal with?"

"I would have thought so, too," Freya narrowed her eyes at the city far bellow her. "But one is here, nonetheless. So I asked Ouranus to meet us here… as well as the Titan."

"Ouranus?!" Loki cried, her head quickly whipping around to look at the goddess of beauty. "Are you crazy, Freya?! Ouranus is the one who keeps the seal on the Dungeon from breaking and monsters flooding back into the world!"

"He is," Freya nodded, not looking back at Loki. "But, ever since the Titan came, the Dungeon has gone quiet. It knows, somehow, the Titan is near to it. I think Ouranus is thankful for the rare break."

"Thankful?" Loki scoffed. "Remind me again: why he hasn't just ordered the capture of this Titan to put a permanent stop to the Dungeon?"

"The Titan would kill us all, I'm afraid," Freya almost smiled at Loki's obvious question. "And not even the Dungeon wants the wrath of the High God."

"I can't help but wonder what the High God does for the Lower World," Loki muttered.

"Far more than you, Loki," a deep voice said gently, though firmly, to the goddess of mischief. Loki and Freya turned behind them to see Ouranus, hooded and wearing a black cloak, along with another old man in grey robes, leaning on a staff. The old man's eyes pierced Loki's, as if he were searching her soul. He smiled kindly as Loki grimaced.

"Oh, right," Loki muttered fearfully. "Now I remember why."

"It is good to see you two are well, Freya, Loki," Michael chuckled. "I'm sure you both have had a pleasant time in the world."

"It would be a lot more pleasant if you left," Loki growled suspiciously. "What do you want, Michael? Come to reap souls from kittens?"

"The High God has willed me to seek aid for Asgard," Michael said, ignoring Loki's snide question.

"Asgard is in trouble, I fear," Ouranus muttered with concern. "Odin is dead. The North needs as much help as we can give."

"Thor is plenty capable of handling the dragons of the North," Loki shrugged, taking a seat near a lone table before propping her feet up. "And while he may be just as stupid as Odin for joining the fight against monsters personally, the guy wields one of the most powerful weapons in all of Heaven!"

"Thor's Familia is impressive," Michael agreed. "And Thor is greatly skilled. However, his Familia is not as large as Odin's was, nor as powerful. Asgard, I fear, will be overrun by the dragons of the North, especially if the Black Dragon aids the dragons' siege on Asgard."

"Siege?" Freya frowned. "How had Orario not heard of this?"

"I knew," Ouranus sighed. "Or, at least, I suspected. About a month ago, I received word from Odin, through means that is not unlike using Arcanum to communicate, that he planned on invading the Dragon Valley. A week ago, through that same communication, I learned that Odin's invasion failed, and Odin was slain."

"What communication?" Loki demanded. Ouranus looked at Michael, who simply nodded at the old lesser god.

"It is something I gave to a friend of his," Michael declared. "Before Celestia and Gaia were torn apart from each other, there were Elves that learned smithery from you lesser gods. Those Elves left behind knowledge in a secret place. I showed that place to the friend of Ouranus, and he made a device that allowed Oranus to communicate without the use of Arcanum."

"Fels, is the name," Ouranus sighed. "And the device is called an 'occulus.' (2) It is a pair of crystals that allows to see and hear anything that other crystal is able to pick up. However, each crystal can only have one partner. Fels has not been able to make the crystals commune with other occulus crystals."

"Not even your mage has the strength and skill of the ancient Elves," Michael said. "And even if he did, he would not have had the materials needed to make them as he wished. Sheol and the Dragon Valley saw to that."

"I remember Fels," Loki muttered, furrowing her brow. "He has helped my kids on a number of occasions. But that doesn't explain why you were meddling with the world. You may serve the High God, but the Titans are neutral for a reason."

"Neutral?" Michael turned his eyes to Loki, and she shrunk under their soul-piercing gaze. "You confuse neutrality with orders. The High God has seen it fit that we guide the dead and deal with the unseen powers. Sheol still has terrors lurking in her pits that even you are unaware of. The spirits of the gods who were thrown down to Lower World, what do you think became of them if their draconic bodies were slain? Do you think they went to Celestia and begged forgiveness? No, we have protected the souls of the dead from them, and they descended further, into the uttermost depths of Sheol to worship their Dark Queen, Enyo, gathering spirits to them that have been corrupted by their own evils. Have you not seen? They are growing stronger, breeding monsters with evil spirits, becoming demons made of pure magic. How long until Enyo decides that she has the strength to finally push out of the Dungeon?"

There was silence in the room. Loki looked down and gritted her teeth, but Freya simply stared at Michael and Ouranus. She studied them with a blank face, trying in vain to read their thoughts.

"You made the Nidhogg Pact with Zeus and Hera," Freya said at last, slowly, but with power behind her lovely voice. "Zeus, perhaps, was not as overconfident as he seemed, if he was willing for such diplomacy."

Michael smiled at Freya's words and nodded. The Nidhogg Pact was usually made between many gods to form an alliance against something that was likely greater than anyone could fight alone. The Pact, however, was complex, and almost required the involvement of everyone, both god and adventurer, in Orario. Even more so, the Pact was considered sacred to the gods, and breaking the Pact meant permanent exile, both god and Familia, to the Dungeon. As such, given the unspoken rule about gods not entering the Dungeon, the Pact had never been used. Freya, however, kept her surprise hidden behind her blank face.

"But why would Zeus and Hera not want to publicly announce their use of the Nidhogg Pact?" Freya continued. "They could have had all of Orario supporting them."

"The Pact was made with me," Michael said, keeping his smile. "Perhaps the two thought I, alone, offered them enough power to destroy the Black Dragon."

"And what was your part of the deal?" Loki demanded.

"To enter the Dungeon and gather information on Enyo's strength," Michael said. "Zeus and Hera went to track down the Black Dragon and hold it until I could return to them, though they should have waited. Given the power that the Dungeon holds, I was unable to use my ability to teleport; though I was able to keep myself hidden by traveling the Dungeon through the spirit world. Enyo has been slowly preparing. The spirits of the dark gods lay in her tomb, sleeping, but she is waking them, dressing them in power, giving them bodies once more through her vile magic. Demons, they have become, made of shadow, earth, water, air, lightning, and flame, and those who are awake are teaching the corrupted spirits. She is close now, I fear."

"And what are we to do?" Freya asked, showing some concern at last.

"I am here to reinstate the Nidhogg Pact," Michael said. "What I ask, however, is a small number of Orario's children to join me on the way to Asgard. And I already know who I want: three members of the Loki Familia, one member from the Freya Familia, one from the Oranus Familia, two from the Hestia Familia, and one member from the Zeus Familia."

…

1. The Nidhogg, according to Norse mythology, was known as a giant serpent that gnawed on the roots of Yggdrasil, the World Tree, though it would be more accurately described as the "Tree of the Cosmos." During the events of Ragnarök, the Norse version of the end of the world, Nidhogg succeeds in destroying Yggdrasil, bringing the true end to all of creation by setting Yggdrasil to flame. Nidhogg, however, is often confused with another massive serpent known as Jörmungandr, which was said to encircle the whole of Midgard (Earth). Jörmungandr helps in destroying Midgard, though he is slain by Thor. However, Yggdrasil is reborn of its own fruits, and Nidhogg is banished to a lake of sulfur (called "Hvergelmir,") under the old roots of Yggdrasil, and made to harass the dead that dwell there.

a. According the Book of Job, in Judeo-Christian text, there were two massive and mysterious creatures God made reference to known only as Behemoth and Leviathan. Some Jewish and Christian scholars think of these creatures as references to a hippopotamus and a crocodile, but Scriptural texts describes such animals to be monstrous in size and raw power, God calling them His "first works" on the Earth. It would be more plausible, therefore, that Behemoth and Leviathan were truly dinosaurs, if you consider the possibility that Job's story takes place somewhere during a pre-flood (or, at least, pre-Babel) Book of Genesis. Genesis also, when observing its description of the Garden of Eden, (namely, the locations the four rivers pour into,) seems to highly support the scientific idea of Earth's seven continents being conjoined as the supercontinent called Pangea. In either case, the Book of Job, from its description of Leviathan in Job 41:1-34, (Behemoth described in Job 40:15-24,) paints the image of fire-breathing sea dragon. Its description also somewhat suggests that it has some small power over storms, calling down lightning through its sneezes. The first verse of the 27th chapter of Isaiah also suggests that Leviathan is the serpent that deceived Eve in the Garden of Eden.

2. Occulus comes from a Latin word (oculus) that meant "eye," or "to see." Some stories on the oculus gives the idea of a majorly overpowered pair of binoculars or a telescope. Other stories make claim that an oculus can be a device to see glimpses of the future or what your heart truly desires. The most powerful version of an oculus in fiction comes from J.R.R. Tolkien's works, that that version was a particular device called the "palantir." The palantirί, seeing stones, were eight overpowered black-crystal orbs that were nearly indestructible. Not only could the stones allow the user to see far away, but they allowed visions of the future, communication, mind control of another user, as well as being a powerful military strategic and tactical tool. The only two major drawbacks of a palantir was that it could only be used by someone of sufficient strength of will, (unless the magically bound owner gave special permission,) and the stone was incredibly weak to fire.

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Hey, everyone! I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Please review! Also, if anyone has questions on lore, please ask in the review or send me a message. I would love to try to answer any questions you might have that will give further insight into the story! Have a great day!