Kree Thor Part VI

Overwhelming power.

That was Odin Borson when wielding the Odinforce. A force of overwhelming power that no foe of Asagrd could hope to match. He rarely unleashed his true power, always responding with just the appropriate amount of strength to defeat his enemies. Adjusting his power in accordance to their own.

Some enemies required trickery to beat.

The Odinforce provided that.

Others required brute force.

The Odinforce provided that also.

It was the power Odin had risked his life to achieve, a power he spent his entire existence cultivating. There were always new ways in which to use its power, new ways to make himself stronger. And yet, despite all that, Odin knew he was powerless to save his people.

His enemies were not foes who could be defeated through brute force or through trickery. Odin had tried many times over the course of many cycles of death and rebirth. Each time was met with failure, his enemies growing more powerful with every one of his failures. But for the first time since been stuck in this cycle, Odin felt hope.

He clashed against his two foes, a Strontian and an Asgardian. Both wielded incredible strength, one wielding the mystical hammer of Mjolnir that would have become the weapon of his teenage son, Thor Odinson. The other wielded the power of storms freely, commanding great physical strength and strange gauntlets each with immense depths of power. Above all that though, Odin touched upon their souls, it was small, a fragment of a greater whole.

A whole that he knew to be his son, Thor Odinson.

What was even more surprising than finding fragments of his son's souls making up these beings, was the touch of Death that surrounded them. Not the touch of Hela, but the touch of Lady Death, the figure all Death Gods derived their power from.

Slowly, answers came to him as he withstood the assaults from both figures, magic power exploding all around him, flinging both opponents back, he closing in upon the Strontian. The weakest of the two, his aim to eliminate him and focus purely upon the stronger. A simple divide and conquer tactic, one that focused on removing the weakest link first.

Yet as he did this, his body ran purely upon instincts honed from many millennia of war over the course of many lifetimes. Gungnir and the Sword of Ragnarok coated within the power of the Odinforce thrusting and swiping through the air, Mjolnir blocking and parrying many strikes, but not all. Many slipped through and the Strontian was just barely able to avoid them all. The Asgardian came from behind, both fists clasped together and swung down together.

Yet a shield sprung to life, blocking the blow that caused the surrounding land around them to explode outwards. Not even a crack formed upon the shield as Odin pushed it outwards, the Asgardian trying to fight against the pushing force only to end up failing.

As his body fought, his mind slowly began to connect the dots as to what had truly been happening under his nose. His enemies, his self-styled 'masters' were at war with one of the most powerful and dangerous beings to exist within the cosmos, Lady Death. Her duty was to ferry souls to the afterlife, ensure that no soul could exist to cause harm and destruction in the future, to ensure that no wayward soul could change the course of the future. However, she was also denied the ability to directly intervene.

Instead, working through the Death Gods of various godly pantheons who could work with more freedom than she could.

Those Who Sit Above In Shadow through constantly killing and reviving the Asgardian people and all those within the Nine Realms were interfering with that mission. In fact, they were directly offending her and so, she moved to remove them.

Just as he had recognised how important Thor was to saving Asgard from their grasp, so had Lady Death. His son was no longer simply a pawn for him to use, but also a pawn used by Lady Death to remove the Asgardians from the grasp of Those Who Sit Above In Shadows. And she had been splitting his soul apart, perhaps upon every cycle of the Ragnarök. This means, there were many out there, more than what was gathered here.

The question remained though, what happened when a Thor was killed? What happened to that fragment of his soul? Did it disappear or did it move elsewhere?

Those Who Sit Above In Shadows wanted these people dead, recognising them for what they were. Odin wanted to know whether he should be truly killing them, or whether he should simply force them to leave Asgard.

Reaching out with his senses, Odin came upon the feeling of a much weaker version of Thor, the weakest of those gathered. With a final heavy swing, Gungnir clashed against Mjolnir, throwing the Strontian away and then he disappeared from sight, just as Asgardian Thor came swinging down other the top.

"Where'd he go?" Stront-Thor called out, both scanning their surroundings for any sight of Odin.

They need not look far as mere moments later, they saw him, Gungnir piercing through the chest of one Thor. "No!" Both cried out, rushing down, but it was too late, the Thor was already dead, Odin blasting off the ground. One hand gripped hold of Thor's face, while Gunginr swung round, Stront-Thor just barely able to raise a guard.

In a single instant, all three went flying backwards, Odin the aggressor as he carried them through the sky before knocking them down to the ground. As the two pushed themselves up out of the crater, Odin meanwhile looked down at the fragment within his hand curiously.

All he felt was a cold chill up his spine before the fragment seemed to dissolve within his hand, it disappearing from his grasp. 'But it's not gone. No, it's returned to the one who has marked it with their power.' He thought looking up to the sky where he could sense the eyes of Lady Death upon his battle. 'So the fragment does not die but simply return to Lady Death. Meaning she can probably return them to life once more.'

It was a genius plan.

Thor Odinson was a powerful soul to possess, a determined one also. If given the chance, he would grasp power and use it for his own agenda, one that was usually in the best interest of Asgard. Just as Odin had raised him from the moment he was born. Even if they were killed, they would be reborn to gain power and work towards Asgard's betterment.

An undying army.

Odin felt his lips twitch up into a small smile, that was something he could use to his advantage. Now he could truly experiment upon how to raise his son. Perhaps the way to succeed was not with an honourable warrior, but a power-hungry tyrant? Perhaps a monstrous villain? Or maybe a cunning and cruel Thor?

Perhaps in order to save his people, Thor had to be everything but who Thor was? Odin didn't know, but he could keep trying until he eventually succeeded. After all, every failure would inform him of the future and only add additional Thor's to Lady Death's army, an army that would be allied with him due to their shared goals. Even if that meant training those Thor's with darker ambitions to desire Asgard for themselves and not for the people.

It would be a small price to pay for their freedom.

One Odin would be happy to pay.