00114. Meeting the Goddess of Death

Time passing in this place was hard to track and Hela found that time seemed to blur together in Hel. There was no day night/cycle here, just a pale gray light from the fog covered sky. She did have a vague idea how much time she was imprisoned for though. 

For over a millennia Hela's view never changed and was filled with a few consistent things. A hazy gray colored fog covered the sky, while cracked gray dirt dotted with trees, scorched black from fire spread out around her. The immediate area around Hela was surrounded by the fallen bodies of her soldiers, while she was covered almost completely in golden chains that bound her in place.

Well former soldiers actually, the same soldiers who turned against her and helped imprison her in this god forsaken place. She thrashed against her chains, testing the bonds once again. After an hour she stopped, they were just as strong as when they were first placed upon her.

She let out a tired sigh and tried to relax inside her prison. She knew one day that her treacherous bastard of a father would die. On that day she would be set free from this prison and would be free to claim her birthright. To be able to sit on the throne of Asgard as its rightful ruler.

vvvvv

Theo created his normal clones for the night, before he made a small group of special clones for the night and henge'd himself into Ezekiel. He looked at his clones as he asked, "Everyone knows the plan, correct?"

Minato smiled as he said, "S rank mission to protect two masters of the mystic arts and a civilian."

"I'm not a civilian." Ezekiel said with a slight frown.

Hashirama grinned as he said, "Compared to us, you might as well be."

Tobirama, Hiruzen, Tsunade and Sakumo all nodded in agreement before Ezekiel said, "Whatever, go eat and get your chakra reserves up."

Ezekiel went to work on his computer as his bodyguards went to eat food and fill up their chakra levels. After a couple hours Ezekiel went to check up on them and asked, "How are you guys doing? Chakra levels adequate?"

When everyone nodded in agreement, Ezekiel said, "Alright, lets gear up"

Ezekiel moved with his clones to a storage area filled with gear. As everyone started to gear up, Ezekiel couldn't help but smile slightly. It was the first time he was going out himself to do something somewhat dangerous. Well it honestly wasn't that dangerous and he had some of his strongest clones with him.

He could have brought a few others, but their power set or temperament wouldn't be good for what should only be a conversation or possibly a negotiation. Otherwise he would have brought Madara, A the Fourth Raikage, and a few others. Actually when he thought about what he wanted to do, he jokingly thought about sending Naruto to see if talk-no-jutsu was real and would work… But his better judgment stopped him from doing that.

After everyone was geared up, Ezekiel made a portal and teleported everyone to Genosha to meet up with Tao and Agatha.

Once they arrived, Tao and Agatha turned to greet Ezekiel before Tao asked, "I'll ask one last time, are you sure you want to try this?"

"Positive."

Teo let out a sigh before she handed Ezekiel a pendant as she said, "Fine. You can contact me with this when you're ready to leave."

As Ezekiel placed the pendant over his neck, Tao glanced at all of Ezekiel's clones as she said, "Make sure he stays safe."

Ezekiel glanced up from the pendant as he asked, "You aren't coming?"

Tao shook her head as she said, "That place has nothing of interest for me or Agatha, it's basically a dead astral plane cut off from the rest of the universe."

Ezekiel gave a nod and smiled as he said, "Understood, don't plan my next vacation to the place."

"Just because it's a dead plane doesn't mean you should let your guard down. Always stay alert and call immediately if you need help."

Ezekiel gave a proper bow as he said, "Yes, master."

"Good, I just want you to take this seriously."

Tao glanced over Ezekiel and his clones as she asked, "Are you sure this will be enough clones?"

"My hope is for them to not be needed. But if something does happen, they should be able to handle it."

Agatha held out a small bracelet as she said, "Take this with you, it should shield you for at least five seconds against someone of our power."

Ezekiel smiled as he placed the protective bracelet over his wrist and said, "Thank you, master."

"You're welcome."

Ezekiel glanced at Tao who nodded and opened up a silver lined portal. His clones all moved through it first. As he was stepping through the portal himself Tao said, "Good luck, see you in a few hours."

Ezekiel was through the portal a moment later and it snapped closed behind him. He glanced at his clones who were spread out around him and asked, "Which way?"

Sakumo pointed in a certain direction as he said, "I feel something faint in that direction."

All of his clones nodded in agreement as Ezekiel said, "Good, let's go see if it's our target."

A moment later they all disappeared from view as they started to body flicker towards what Sakumo sensed. The scenery around them was mostly gray with hints of black from burnt up trees.

After half an hour of traveling they came to a stop. In front of them was the corpse of a woman and it even looked fresh. The blood pool on the ground surrounding the woman didn't seem to be absorbed into the gray dirt yet.

Ezekiel studied the woman for a few moments before he said, "She's one of the valkyrie, but why is her body still here? Shouldn't she be just bones or something at this point?"

Tsunade moved first, reaching down to check on the woman, before she quickly shook her head and said, "She looks recently killed, but she's been dead a long time. Her body is ice cold to the touch and seems to be in a complete state of rigor mortis."

"Ice cold? The temperature here shouldn't cool the body that much." Tobirama said before he crouched down and touched the pool of blood around the body.

As he pulled up his fingers to examine it he said, "Weird, her blood is also really cold, but still feels fresh. Tsunade, could you double check it?"

Tsunade nodded before she used a diagnostic technique on the blood and frowned. She ran another technique over it before she said, "You're right, this blood is testing like freshly drawn blood. You could theoretically use it for a blood transfusion."

As they checked the body, Minato and Sakumo scouted around the area. While Hashirama and Hiruzen stayed close to Ezekiel as guards. Minato came back from scouting first and said, "I've found signs of fighting and more bodies in the same direction we're traveling."

Sakumo arrived a few minutes later and said, "I've found some signs of fighting, but no bodies."

Ezekiel glanced down at Tsunade who was still examining the body and asked, "Find out anything else?"

"No, but I want to bring the body back with us to study in the lab."

Ezekiel nodded as he said, "That's fine. I was gonna suggest we collect all of their bodies anyways. We can at least give them a proper burial later. Also make sure you collect any weapons you find in a different scroll and the same thing goes for anything else you might find. I am pretty sure there should be some Pegasus around here too."

Minato moved next to the body and opened up a scroll over it. After a moment the body was pulled into the scroll and sealed away. Afterwards they moved forward with Minato, Tobirama, Tsunade and Sakumo running around sealing every single body and weapon they came across. After an hour or so, they came to an area with a massive amount of bodies.

In the middle of the area they could see a woman bound in golden chains who was currently looking at their group. Actually she only seemed to be looking at Ezekiel and was ignoring everyone else with him.

Ezekiel glanced at his group as he said, "Collect everything here, I'll go talk with Hela."

Minato pulled out a three pronged kunai and handed it to Ezekiel as he said, "Just in case."

Ezekiel nodded and hung the kunai from a clip on his belt before he walked towards Hela. After a few minutes he stood about twenty feet away from the golden chains. Hela watched the clones as Ezekiel approached her and she said, "It's been so long since I've seen another living being. You must be powerful to get past my fathers sealing wards."

Ezekiel shrugged as he said, "Not really. We kinda cheated to get here."

Hela glanced at the clones once again as she asked, "We? You came with others?"

Ezekiel pointed at his clones as he said, "They came with me."

"It seems like they did, but they're soulless and don't count as being alive."

Ezekiel wanted to argue with her, but decided against it before he said, "Fair point."

Hela turned her gaze back to Ezekiel as she asked, "So who are you and why did you come here?"

Ezekiel smiled as he said, "My name is Ezekiel and I came to chat with you. But depending on how things go, I might even free you."

Hela's eyes narrowed slightly as she asked, "You really think you can break through my fathers power and free me from these chains?"

"No idea actually, but I have some ideas on how to bypass them. But it depends on a few things." Ezekiel said with a slight shrug of his shoulders.

"Name your price."

Ezekiel shook his head as he said, "I said it depends on a few things. The first would be on you. I know some of your history and have a decent idea of why you were locked away here by your father. But I want a better understanding of that before we go any further."

Hela let out a light laugh before she said, "You want me to tell you about my life? We would be here for years if I did that."

"I know. You could also lie to me about it. Which is why I would rather see how you lived your life instead."

The chains binding her began to shake as she struggled against them. A second later there was a flash and Minato, along with the others were in front of Ezekiel in a defensive stance. Ezekiel smirked slightly as Hela struggled more against her bindings, even making the ground around them shake as she tried to rip free of them.

After almost ten minutes Hela stopped, but her face was contorted in fury as she cast a death glare at Ezekiel. Ezekiel raised his hands in a surrendering motion as he said, "Sorry, it seems I might have misspoke."

"Misspoke?! You… Misspoke?!" Hela's whole body shook and the golden chains groaned slightly as she yelled out, "You questioned my honor! I might be a prisoner here, but I have never besmirched my honor!"

Ezekiel moved in front of his group and gave a formal bow as he said, "My deepest apologies, Hela Odinsdottir, rightful heir to the throne of Asgard. It was not my intention to question your honor."

As Hela settled down slightly Ezekiel stood back up straight and said, "I didn't think you would intentionally lie about your life… It's just recalling memories about your life can be fuzzy sometimes and doesn't really give you the complete picture. At least that's from my own experience as a human. I am not really sure if Asgardians share that same trait though."

Hela was quiet as Ezekiel told everyone to continue collecting everything. Once everyone left Hela said, "Your apology is accepted Ezekiel of Midgard."

Ezekiel bowed his head and said, "Thank you."

"Now tell me how you plan to see my life, if you don't wish for me to tell you about it."

Ezekiel smiled slightly as he said, "You would have to let me into your mind and show me your memories from there."

Hela's eyes narrowed as she studied Ezekiel again. He wanted free access to her mind which could be a dangerous thing if she wasn't careful. She had formidable defenses in place and should be fine. But was it a risk she was willing to take…

As she looked at Ezekiel she noticed something about him was off. Being the goddess of death, she had the ability to see a person's soul easily and something about Ezekiel's soul was weird. After about a minute Hela's eyes widened in shock as she said, "You've been touched by death before."

Ezekiel smirked and nodded as he said, "Yup."

Hela spent a few minutes carefully looking over Ezekiel's soul before she said, "You've been touched by death… But it wasn't any god of death from our universe or even the aspect of death itself. Each one leaves something special behind and it's easily recognizable. But you, you have nothing like that… Where exactly did you come from?"

"That's more of a sharing an apartment together type of question. It's definitely not a first date type of question." Ezekiel said as he smirked.

Hela tilted her head slightly to the side as she asked, "You're not making sense, what're you even talking about?"

Ezekiel shook his head and said, "Nothing important. As for your question, I've only shared that with people I completely trust."

Hela studied Ezekiel some more as he glanced around and noticed that most of the area around them was already cleaned up. A few of his clones were already going farther out to search for more bodies and weapons. Only Minato and Hashirama stayed behind, but they kept a respectful distance as they quietly talked with each other.

Hela finally broke her silence as she asked, "If I share my memories with you… Will you answer my question?"

Ezekiel shook his head as he said, "No. But I could share something important with you about your future."

"You're an oracle?"

Ezekiel gave another shrug as he said, "Not exactly. I don't see prophecies or anything dumb like that. I've seen the actual future and I know what'll happen if I don't interfere in it. You allow me access to your mind and I'll share what I know about your future."

Hela thought quietly to herself as Ezekiel waited. Almost an hour passed by before Ezekiel's other clones all returned from their task. Ezekiel glanced towards them and Minato nodded at him after collecting the scrolls from the other clones.

Hela also noticed the return of Ezekiel's clones and finally broke her silence as she asked, "What do you plan to do with all of them?"

"Their souls should already be in Valhalla, so I was planning to give them a proper burial after my companions thoroughly examine their bodies. Something about Hel affected them and made them not decay properly. We want to figure out why."

Hela smiled and struggled to raise her right hand from the chains. Ezekiel's clones tensed up slightly as Ezekiel focused on the hand Hela raised. In it was a small globe the size of a baseball. She locked eyes with Ezekiel as she said, "Unfortunately those that die in Hel can't escape from it. I was able to capture their wandering souls and currently keep them contained within this."