Strains and Conflicts

If you want to support me check out my patréon at https://www.patréon.com/athassprkr

I tend to upload drafts of early chapters on there to get people's opinions of them.

I would like to thank my beta, Akisu, for his help in this chapter.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

17th October 2012, Scotland, Earth

(Thor Odinson POV)

The witch gave him a disappointed look, "You should not want to. Power comes at a price, and even should you sacrifice your sight as he did, he was forged in the flames of betrayal and death. He was broken, alone, just as I was. It was why we got along so well, in the first place. His power was impressive, and it far surpassed mine at the time, but he wasn't happy, not really. While he was fundamentally more powerful than you in raw power, due to some special conditions regarding his birth that I won't go into details about, in the end, he lived a miserable life, and died alone. He was a hero, he was brave, and he was mighty, but he never understood the price his power came from until it was too late, and I hope that you will not suffer the same fate."

Thor didn't really understand what the witch was getting at, instead he said the words that he was yearning to ask, "Teach me."

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

9th February 2013, Sayre Manor

(Jasmine Sayre POV)

The last few months were interesting, that I will admit. There was a nice monotony after the succession of crises one after another following my near death during the ritual in Wakanda where I absorbed Ego's seed. I had to fight the fucking Celestial by myself, deal with Arishem and his little minions, and that's not even mentioning the tensions in the wizarding world, especially with the Court of Shadows.

In the end, Thor's little temper tantrum demanding answers on his father's change in behavior was little underwhelming, especially considering how understanding he was when I revealed the existence of 'Those Who Sit Above in Shadow' to him. Truthfully, the Prince was slightly gullible, and I could have tricked him into pretty much anything. But with my deal with Odin, it was in my best interests to turn Thor into a competent king at the very least.

The God of Thunder ended up asking permission to stay here on Midgard to learn under me how to properly control his powers. I have to admit that in terms of martial abilities, Thor had perfected them. His skill with a hammer was without a doubt one of the best I have ever seen, and he had a mastery over pretty much every weapon in Asgard. That's not even mentioning the physical conditioning he went through. In all honesty, I think that Thor could be the strongest Asgardian when it comes to physical strength.

Unfortunately, Thor barely learnt any magic outside the basics which mostly consisted of dispelling or destroying enchantments and curses. At most, he learnt slightly how to channel his lightning with his hammer, and without it, he was pretty much a regular Asgardian guard on steroids.

I could understand why he wouldn't have continued his magical studies under his mother, Frigga; the boy sucked. There's no other way to put it. He was born with immense reserves, surpassing his father's natural ones before he had accessed the Odin force. With such high reserves, he could never have the control necessary for the delicacy of magic. It's why mages on Earth tended to teach their young as soon as their magic stabilized, growing control over years as the magic grows in turn is easier than just controlling it when it's all grown. A mage who hasn't cast a spell before he reaches his majority is probably never going to cast one unless he is an exceptionally weak wizard which would allow him control over a fraction of his magic.

Thor being thousands of times stronger than the average wizard, suffered this a thousand-fold. He preferred martial arts in his youth, and only tried out magic on his mother's behest when he was a century old. He had almost no control over his magic whatsoever, which put him off from learning any more magic.

Fortunately, this issue didn't seem to apply to his elemental affinity, which happens to be lightning. For some reason, the Prince's bond with Mjolnir allowed him to overcharge his affinity giving him a very steep learning curve when it came to controlling lightning. I didn't say it out loud, but I was impressed with his progress.

I think it has something to do with the original Mjolnir helping him somehow, I honestly don't know for sure. That hammer didn't make any sense whatsoever, and after thousands of years of trying to figure it out, I had barely made any progress in attempting to figure out how the damn thing worked.

The thing didn't release any type of magic, didn't hold any enchantments, or any kind of cosmic energy. As far as I could tell, it was nothing more than a piece of rock that happened to be alive, somehow. I didn't even detect it having a soul, so that shouldn't be possible, and yet, every time I touch the damn thing, I could feel its amusement at my attempts at figuring it out. Recently, I could feel its excitement to finally be reunited with its wielder, who was getting closer every day to be deemed worthy by the hammer.

Pushing the thoughts of the hammer to the back of my head, I tilted back and dodged the sword made out of lightning that Thor was holding. It was very frightening how easy he found it to shape his lightning into a weapon.

Today, we were sparring outside the manor where we could only use lightning weapons, which happened to be Thor's favorite training exercise. I duck under a slash of Thor's sword and conjure a rope of lightning that wrapped around his hand and redirected it towards the ground.

I jump behind him, throwing him up in the air, and then slam him into the ground with the rope, which in turn sent me flying up. My lasso turned into a bow and arrow which I used to send three lightning arrows towards my downed opponent, who had a feral grin on his face.

Thor dismissed his sword and created a lightning version of Mjolnir which he sent at me. I blocked it using a shield but was still sent back from the impact. I righted myself and landed on my feet and dodged the hammer wielding Asgardian leaping at me. Deciding that this was enough for the day, I created a staff out of lightning, which I used to strike the Prince of Asgard in his stomach. The staff slowly turned flexible and started to bind Thor, who impressively, seemed to almost break free. I didn't let him though, and conjured a giant hand of lightning which grabbed him and pressed him to the ground.

I watched as my opponent struggled until he sighed in defeat and grumbled, "I yield!"

I smiled at him. He was getting a lot better in fighting with his head and not trying to smash everything with a hammer like some discount Hulk. Honestly, if it wasn't for the fact that I was physically stronger and faster than him, he would have defeated me in a purely martial spar like this one. His technique far surpassed mine, especially since I mainly used my magic to fight, or in this case, cosmic energy, and while I could hold my own in a martial fight, Thor was just a natural as a warrior.

In the end, I give him a warm smile, "You're improving by the day…"

He grumbled, "And yet you defeat me so easily…"

"It's a matter of experience, Odinson, not of talent. You have just begun to learn how to use your powers creatively. It's only right that someone who has been doing it for thousands of years would surpass you. But continue as you are, and I can see you surpassing even your father in might."

His face brightened. He kinda reminded me of a golden retriever a bit. I stifled a snort at the comparison, "Yes, I will. I will surpass my father, I will wield Mjolnir, and save my people."

To be honest, I admired his optimism and his charisma. It was at times like this that in my mind, his blond hair turned red, and a beard appeared on his face, it was at times like this that I could see my dear friend in him.

Unfortunately, I had my doubts if Thor would ever come close to surpassing his predecessor. My friend wasn't a regular Asgardian even by the standards of his predecessor. He was Odin's gamble, his hail Mary. The boy was conceived here, on Midgard, in a place that was soaked in the elder goddess Gaea's essence. In a way, he had three parents, one of which was an elder goddess. He, of course, didn't have even a shard of the goddess' power, but everything that made him special was enhanced to a ridiculous degree. According to legends, his punch could shatter mountains, he could cover an entire continent with lightning storms, and he had apparently destroyed armies on his own after his Asgard was destroyed, but he had control over the Odin force by then. Honestly, my friend was ridiculously overpowered, and that's me saying it.

Removing my thoughts of my student's predecessor, I gave Thor a smile and walked towards the manor, to talk with Selene. She had sent me a message in the middle of the spar telling me that she wanted to speak with me about something. I left my pupil to his devices and went inside.

Selene was waiting for me in her office, where she was probably working on something for the company. When she looked at me, she gave me tired smile, "So, how was your workout?"

I shrugged, "He's getting better, but not nearly strong enough to deal with something like the Shadows, let alone, Entropy."

She let out and exasperated sigh, "So, why is he here? Why would you waste your time training him?"

"I told you, I gave my word to his predecessor. I will help him save Asgard."

"And yet your time is better spent dealing with Entropy…"

I restrained my anger at the question, "And how should I do that? I don't know what he's planning or what he wants. He's one step ahead of me, since he already went through this before. I am as powerful as I'm probably ever going to be, and I have no idea how to prepare myself for something like this. I did my best to find allies, and honestly, there's nothing else to do…"

I was honestly frustrated by her displeasure ever since I brought Thor to train. She understood that I was doing my best to get Asgard as allies for the inevitable confrontation between me and Entropy. I had also done my best to get the Celestials' help, although, I didn't hold out too much hope on that. I just don't really understand how they think and their priorities are weird, so I don't know if I was convincing enough for them to grant me their help. But with both Asgard and the Celestials behind me, I could have a real chance in stopping Entropy before it's too late.

Selene responded, "What about the Court of Shadows? They're actively hunting you down. You would do well to not underestimate them. They've already made things troublesome for Rose when they revealed your existence to the magical world, and we both know that they're working on a ritual to bind you…"

I suppressed a frown; she was right in a way; the Court was a lot more troublesome than I thought. The British branch had subtly released the fact that 'Jasmine Potter' was one of the fighters in the battle of Hogsmeade, and that she defeated the older man and killed him. They probably thought that this would draw me out, by getting the entire magical world to look for any sign of me, a witch who was supposedly the second coming of Merlin.

I ended up sending Rose to deal with the Court months ago, as a small test. I will admit that the situation was very complicated and required a delicate touch, but it didn't seem to be working at all, considering that I lost contact with the American branch of the Court for some reason.

In contrast, Wanda and Jean were doing very well under Emma Frost's leadership in Genosha, so I could afford to focus on the wizarding world for a bit since Rose seemed to be a bit out of her depth. Thor could also use some time off training for a few days while I deal with this mess.

I nodded to Selene, "You have a point. I'll go check on how Rose is doing and decide how to proceed with this."