Chapter 551

I read over the ‘invitation’ letter; my lips thinned further with each passing moment.

After giving it considerable thought, I came to a simple conclusion. “Clearly, this isn’t meant for me.” And I tossed it up into the air.

The Ancient One snatched it before it hit the ground, giving me a leveled, dry look. “Clearly.”

“I’m glad we’re in agreement.”

“Quite.” She nodded. “Perhaps Miss Jeanne will also be in agreement?”

Well, fuck.

I looked at her with eyes narrowed.

And she raised an eyebrow towards me.

With unspoken words between us, we knew what was going to happen.

I moved first; I used Shunpo as fast as I could; my senses picked up on Jeanne not far away.

Unfortunately, I was a breath too late, and she was already there, handing Jeanne the letter.

And she was so smug about it.

“Will, look, they invited us to dinner!” Jeanne held up the letter; no doubt, she had it explained to her for obvious reasons.

A family dinner, how could that possibly go wrong? It’s not like I had one of those not long ago that went off without a single hitch.

I internally groaned, but it was in no way directed at Jeanne.

And I suppose I should act like an adult here, as much as it pains me to do so.

Even so, I raised my middle finger towards the Ancient One where Jeanne couldn’t see. She, of course, just responded with a little smirk before trotting off.

And now, I was alone with Jeanne, who had disappeared since before because she was embarrassed and shy about the whole…thing that happened.

She also just realized that too and immediately became bashful.

“I have something I want to say.” She finally spoke after several moments of silence.

“Yeah?”

She cleared her throat and stood up a little straighter. Confident Jeanne appeared, the same Jeanne I would see when she’s doing something important. “I like you!”

I felt my lips twitch, trying my best not to laugh. “You don’t say?”

“Neh!” She hit my shoulder.

Regardless, Jeanne was always cute.

“I like you too.” I wasn’t going to tease her too much about this. Like before, it takes a lot of courage to say those kinds of things openly.

This was the point where she deflated a little. “I—I just wanted it to be clear…in case there was a misunderstanding…”

“In case I misunderstood you, did you call me your boyfriend before running away?” I asked.

Her cheeks puffed up cutely again. “Don’t make fun of me!” She pouted.

I took her hand into mine before bringing it up to my face and giving it a kiss. “I like you too,” I repeated. 

“Hehe~” She giggled to herself, swinging her arm and mine together happily. 

Well, she’s not running away this time, so progress has been made. I can’t blame her; I remember when I was younger and tried to confess to my first crush. That embarrassment, shyness, and self-doubt—I think everyone remembers it vividly their first time.

Heck, it made me never try again until, well, I got stabbed in the chest and found someone who stole my heart.

Honestly, I felt like I was back in school again—in a good way—experiencing that feeling with Jeanne here. The others, while no less important and heartfelt, had less of an innocent feeling to them.

I guess it’s not surprising; all my other girls are more ‘mature’ in age. While Jeanne is technically hundreds of years old, she only lived a life up to adulthood.

And that assuredly made me want to give her everything I could.

I unconsciously pulled her into my arms, kissing her forehead. “I’ll take care of you from now on, okay? I’ll do whatever I can to make you happy.”

“You already do.” She gave the brightest smile that made my heart quicken.

But if you think I’m going to stop bullying you, you better think again.

“Want to wait until we get back to tell the others, or do you want to do it now?” I asked.

“Eh?” Her eyes widened as if she remembered the fact that I had a harem of women behind me. “I forgot about that!” There was the slight tinge from panic. “D-do you think they’ll be mad at me?”

Again, I felt my lips twitch, trying to hold back a laugh. “Why do you think they’ll be mad?”

“I didn’t ask for permission, and then I came in and… and I did something like this, and they were going to be surprised and upset.” She stammered along.

…Does she think that the others don’t know?

That’s adorable.

I kissed her forehead again. “I’m sure it’ll be fine.”

I couldn’t take away the chance for the others to tease her as well.

“Don’t you think it’s kind of ironic?” I changed the subject. “A saintess with the son of Lucifer?”

She puffed up again. “I don’t care about anything like that. You’re a good person; that’s enough for me.” She paused for a moment. “Momma liked you too. S-she said that she approved when we were in France….” Her eyes slowly moved to the side, away from mine.

Mmm, I didn’t hear anything like that; it must have happened when they were talking privately.

“I guess it’s a good thing she didn’t know I was a Devil.” I chuckled; I wouldn’t want to have spoiled that reunion.

“Actually….” She looked like she was hiding something. “I told Momma that you were a devil when we met back in France. I didn’t know what to talk about, so I just told her how we met and how we got to know each other”…

I sort of just blinked in surprise. “She wished me well and wasn’t scared of me at all.”

“Ah…Momma said she approved after I told her everything.” She covered her face in embarrassment. “She said that she still expects a bunch of grandbabies even if they have horns and tails.”

“I guess… I should call her Mom the next time I see her, huh?” I was taken aback by how accepting she was, knowing full well I was a literal devil. “I suppose it’s not surprising; if she was accepting of your proclivities, then me being a devil is a minor issue.”

“What’s that supposed to mean!?”

“It means the patron saint of bondage is a lewd girl.”

“I’m not lewd!” She stood up on her tiptoes and poked my nose.

In response, I pulled on her thong that peeked up out of her booty shorts, making her yelp in surprise.

“Stoooop, you’re not allowed to do that!” She cried out, though she didn’t really make an effort to stop me.

“Bondage Saintess. The penniless saintess likes to be tied up~”

“I don’t!” She whined.

“Lewd Saintess is Lewd.”

“Neeeeeh!” She finally jumped at me.

@***@

It’s funny; despite things changing, they remained the same.

Jeanne was still my Jeanne even after she became my woman.

I fixed my ponytail from where Jeanne was tugging on it in response to me pulling on her long braid. And I made sure to dust myself off after Jeanne tackled me.

At least I escaped having to explain certain things about the ‘letter.’

Yes, we had been invited to dinner, as politely as that sounds, when it came down via Bifrost in the middle of Kamar-Taj. Though, it was less ‘We would like you to attend’ and more ‘You will be here tomorrow.’

So yeah, that’s something to deal with.

I’m sure Ddraig is having fun.

Probably.

Hopefully.

Well, I did what I did, and I accept the consequences that come with it. However, I hope they don’t expect an apology from me because after what Loki pulled, I am fresh out of fucks to give.

If it weren’t for Jeanne, and possibly Ddraig, I may have just ignored it entirely depending on my mood.

Oh well.

I put those thoughts to the side for now; I had something I needed to take care of. One of the only reasons I even came to this world in the first place.

I knew where I was going because I saw the rooftops not long ago and made a mental note of it.

On the east corner of the temple, there was a building that…looked like it hadn’t been used in a great many years.

It was neither locked nor ‘forbidden’ as I had been told; only a few places were labeled as such. And the Ancient One pretty much gave me free access anywhere here, which was very kind of her. So I wasted no time simply walking up and pushing the doors open.

It was a forge, a very old one.

Cobwebs were everywhere; dust had settled with a thick layer across all surfaces.

I even noticed some rust on some of the tools.

I ran a finger on the anvil at the center of the room, and it was just completely covered in dust enough that it made me scrunch my nose as I wiped it away. I went to take a look at the tools; I picked up a hammer, and the head fell off of it from rotten wood.

The tongs had a rusty rivet that made it a challenge to pry them open fully without using more than human strength.

There were a few pieces of iron cast aside, and looking at their sizes and shapes, they were small weapons or tools.

This wasn’t a forge for making armor, rather obvious in hindsight considering everyone here walks around in robes and such.

Frankly, I wouldn’t be surprised if this place hadn’t been used in hundreds of years. 

I went around and opened all the windows and the door and just snapped my finger, creating a compressed ball of air right at the center and letting it explode as the majority of the dust and grime was blown out of the small building.

It wasn’t perfect, but it’d do.

Let’s see….the bellows were in bad shape; those would have to be tossed. I suppose I don’t technically need them; I can just make do with casting some wind spells.

The furnace was, thankfully, intact and looked like it could still be used. With another sigh, I unbuttoned my vest, untied my tie, and tossed both of them to the side. I even took off my shirt and set it over with my other clothes because I knew I was going to get dirty.

I wiped out the old crap that had been in the furnace, old charcoal or coal or whatever they used previously.

Luckily, I was a hoarder, and I had some stuff to put right back in, ready for use. I piled it high and shot a small flame into it, letting it ignite and start burning.

It needed time to warm up.

With a few minutes to spare, I plopped my chunk of vibranium onto the ground. The giant chunk of anti-magical metal. Ironic that I stored it in my magical storage, but technically, I would sort of wrap it up in a pocket of space and deposit it into my ring rather than actually performing magic on the thing.

I took out Greed—my poisonous anti-mage sword.

Truthfully, even I was getting a bit concerned with this thing. It wasn’t something I would normally make, but often certain needs trump personal preferences.

All the work I put into it so far, if one day it could stab right into the chest of that bastard, then I would consider it time well spent.

I set the sword on top of the metal chunk and crossed my arms, hoping for something to happen.

Was I expecting it? No, but I think I’m allowed to at least try the most direct—albeit stupid—method of adding Vibranium to my anti-mage sword.

Logically, of course, simply placing Greed on the chunk of metal wasn’t going to have it eat up the thing.

Unfortunately, I’m going to have to smelt the Vibranium, probably sort of… half cast it over the sword itself so it can ‘consume’ it properly.

“Oh my, I haven’t seen smoke coming from here in a long time.”

I glanced to see the Ancient One at the entrance; she wasn’t alone; Hela was with her too.

Now that I think about it, I and the Ancient One sort of just…abandoned Hela to find Jeanne.

Whoops.

“Are you going to attempt to smelt your vibranium?” Hela asked, specifically using the term for it we were familiar with.

“Yes?”

“How amusing; it will be fun to watch you fail.”

I scrunched my nose. “How do you know I’ll fail?”

“Do you think this forge of yours can produce the heat needed?” She scoffed. “And what’s this weapon? It gives me a vile feeling. But something strangely familiar.”

Both she and the Ancient One were looking at Greed.

“It’s poisonous.” I replied. “It’s made of Goblin Silver—it contains a very concentrated concept of greed, and it can take in things that make it stronger. I’ve fed it all the poisons and venoms I could get my hands on. I was going to add Vibranium to it.”

“She speaks the truth.” The Ancient One chimed in. “It’s unlikely you will be able to smelt it here. It’s unfortunate; I would have loved to see this old forge get some use.”

“Then how do the Wakandans do it?” 

“I believe they use some sort of sonic frequency that seems to destabilize the metal enough to become malleable.”

Hela scoffed again. “How primitive. Such a wasteful method; it would ruin the metal, making it less upon forging.”

I was confused for a moment, then I took out the Vibranium Spear that I had cut in half when I visited Wakanda, setting it on top of my giant chunk.

Hela unceremoniously grabbed both ends of it, inspecting the weapon. “It’s not poorly made, surprisingly. But it’s a substantial waste of such a good resource. They had to compensate for the fact that they made their own Vibranium ‘destabilized,’ as she put it. Compared to a properly forged piece of the same stature, I wouldn’t even call it half as good.” She tossed it back down like it were trash.

Hmm, learn things every day, it seems.

“Then what do you suggest?” She was apparently the expert here.

She raised an eyebrow, seemingly taken aback by my question. “You’re asking me for assistance?”

“.....yes?”

I don’t know why that caused her to pause like that.

“I’m afraid I never learned the intricacies of weapon crafting.” Her tone…was more gentle? Less haughty and commanding compared to normal. She had an air of authority to her; even in casual conversation, it felt like her words carried a certain commanding aura to them. But here, she was oddly soft-spoken. “If it were me, I would simply take it to the dwarves of Niðavellir. They are the greatest smiths in the universe. And with the Star Heart they utilize, melting it would be simple.”

“Star Heart? What’s a Star Heart?” I asked, unsure of what she meant by that.

Hela furrowed her brow. “The remnants of a star after it dies, the heart of it that remains.”

“Wait, are you talking about a neutron star?” I asked her incredulously.

“If that’s what you call it here.” She shrugged. “Their forge is built around it and utilizes it to light their forges.”

I stared at her, my mouth wide open.

That was one of the most awesome—but absurd—things I’ve heard in a long time.

And honestly, I fully believed her, despite how ridiculous it sounded. Why would she make something like that up?

“And they’d help me?”

“Oh, no.” She laughed. “They dislike outsiders by nature; they despise demons.”

I felt my eyebrow twitch. “Thanks, you’re very helpful.”

She grinned a little; I think she was messing with me intentionally. “Very well, there is another way if you’re so inclined.”

“No stars I need to use for this one?”

She rolled her eyes. “Simply steal the Eternal Flame from the All-Father’s vault; it possesses enough heat to raise the dead, much less melt your metal.”

“Are you doing this because I said you smell?”

She looked at me expressionlessly, but I could read her.

She was definitely fucking with me because I called her smelly.

Though, she had been helpful. I did learn quite a few things that saved me trouble. And now, I did have an idea of what I could do; I formulated a few hypotheses that I could test out.

I wonder if Dragon Fire is good enough.

And conveniently, I did know of a good smith and a good forge that could handle that sort of thing.

“Are you intending on attending the dinner invitation that Asgard so gracefully delivered?” The Ancient One asked, completely ignoring the whole topic of my metal and forging.

I suppose she had her own purposes for finding me again.

“Don’t want more Bifrosts being dropped on Kamar-Taj?”

“I would very much appreciate it if Bifrosts opened upon my temple and remained to a minimum.” She said dryly.

Yeah, yeah.

“So…how angry do you think Odin is going to be?” I asked, Well, to either of them.

“For what? Taking the Casket and the Destroyer, or setting a Dragon loose on Asgard?” The Ancient One questioned in return.

“You did what?” Hela nearly screeched.

Right, that’s about what I’m expecting.

@***@

“Are you ready?” I hummed as I heard Jeanne in the other room.

“Almost ready!” She called back.

Time had passed rather quickly; well, it was a single night. The letter was very…direct in that it wanted us there the next day. 

In a normal situation, a request without a proper warning or time given to prepare was seen as extremely rude and inconsiderate.

In this instance, I’m assuming it was more displeasure that laced the intentional faux pas.

Jeanne came out of the room a moment later; she was wearing that same dress again. 

She looked absolutely stunning.

She wanted to look her best, she said.

Urge to kiss rising.

Though, instead, I took her hand and spun her gently as her dress twirled with her. She let out a little giggle as she ended up in my arms. “I’m conflicted.”

“About what?” She looked up at me smiling.

“Do I like your dress more or your booty shorts more?”

She gave me that look again and hit my shoulder playfully. “Are you ready to go? I know you’ll love it; it was beautiful, Wilhelm! I could see the stars, and there were other bright colors, and the castle was enormous and golden!”

“Well now, don’t spoil it.” I booped her nose. 

As much as I was…not happy about a ‘family dinner,’ Jeanne was excited, so I would do my best to keep myself playing nice.

“Should we just portal over there…?”

“Um, I think it might be more polite to have Heimdal bring us over?” Jeanne responded. “And you never got to ride on the Bifrost before!”

True, that did sound interesting.

I took Jeanne’s hand and opened a portal, but not to Asgard. It was out in the middle of the desert again, not far away from where we were in the United States.

I specifically did not want to have the Bifrost land in Kamar-Taj again; that would be exceedingly rude to the Ancient One, who had been nothing but a phenomenal host for us thus far.

“One second.” I took out my phone and sent Agent Coulson a message that we would be taking a Bifrost ride to Asgard and not to worry, along with the estimate of where it was going”. He didn’t respond just yet, but I think it was more than enough effort on my part. “So how does this work?”

“Mr. Heimdal, can you please bring us?” Jeanne asked politely, looking up at the sky.

It took a moment, but I could see time and space get twisted as the familiar pillar of rainbow light crashed down on top of us.

It was…disorienting.

I could see the universe being bridged—no pun intended—by creating a hole in space-time and the Bifrost acting as a connection to link two spots. It was less like being washed down a stream and more like someone throwing a lasso around you and yanking you to another spot.

Though strangely, it wasn’t horrible. It was nowhere near as bad as the method by which the witches and wizards where Kunou is learning use their method of ‘teleporting.’

I would take this any day of the week over that nonsense.

It was very fast, mostly because distance was immaterial. I had a faint feeling that the time spent inside the Bifrost didn’t change but a few moments regardless of where it shot out to.

Despite my knowledge and experience with this sort of thing, I couldn’t just eyeball everything that happened. We were moving at something like the speed of light, and as I said, it was disorienting.

A moment or two into the pull of the Bifrost, I lost my presence of mind, and we were deposited out onto a hard floor, nearly stumbling forward.

I looked up, hearing the clanking of machinery, and the vast array of magical energy that wafted off everything nearby.

“Welcome back, Princess.”

“Mr. Heimdal!” Jeanne smiled brightly. “Thank you for the help.”

“It is my duty.” He smiled back. “And be welcomed, Wilhelm Schweinberg, guest of the All-Father.”

I looked him over; he was a head taller than me, thereabouts. He wore golden divine armor, but my eyes were drawn to his sword—I could feel the divine nature of it. A divine construct if I’ve ever seen one. 

Lastly, I looked him in the eyes.

He stared back into mine.

From his tone, he was a lot less…enthusiastic about my presence compared to Jeanne.

He did something; it was as if I could see into the vastness of the universe through his gaze. The birth and death of stars, the currents of the cosmos, the mechanisms by which the universe operated, and strived for each day.

I felt myself twitch.

Was I being bullied?

This felt like the equivalent of doing a handshake with someone, and they squeeze really hard.

Though, it wasn’t me who responded with contempt.

I heard my Zanpakuto Spirit snort dismissively, and spiritual power surged into my eyes. The familiar sensation of when I use my Shikai to release my Zanpakuto, my eyes now changed for a brief moment.

He wanted to use the vastness of the universe in his gaze to intimidate me; I let him have a look at the infinite.

The Kaleidoscope surged.

And he was the one who blinked.

His intense gaze dissipated, and my eyes returned to normal.

“Be welcomed.” The God said again, but it held a firmer tone of respect this time.

Did I pass some sort of test?

I shook my head, not bothering with it any longer. There was no need to think too deeply on it; this was Asgard, and I knew how the Norse gods operated. Hidden schemes or agendas? No, if Heimdal had a problem with me, he’d much sooner tell me with his sword or fist.

“Why are boys so bullheaded?” Jeanne huffed, clearly having some idea of what happened.

Heimdal chuckled, and I found myself cracking a small smile.

I had a moment now to take in the surroundings more. We were in a strange circular building, a mechanism running throughout it that I couldn’t quite discern by a quick glance alone. Though, outwardly, I could see what Jeanne meant before.

We were certainly not on Earth anymore, and it’s not like a sub-dimension. It was another spot in the universe.

It was beautiful.

It took a bit of effort to tear my gaze away from it as Jeanne grabbed my arm. “Look, there’s Asgard!” She called, pointing the other direction.

There was a sort of bridge, a rainbow bridge...funnily enough, that led to a large golden city in the distance.

The bridge itself, well, it reminded me of how my Mirage was crafted with various metals running through it like circuits to help facilitate the magics I needed to cast.

Actually, putting together some of the evidence, this whole thing seemed like a large, scaled-up version of my Mirage.

How interesting.

Across the bridge, we could see someone flying fast; accompanied by the boom of thunder, Thor slammed into the ground just outside the building.

“Sister! You have come!” He looked happy to see her, even more for that matter. “And my friend, you join her; welcome to Asgard.”

“Hello, Thor!” Jeanne waved at him enthusiastically.

“Friend now? Not ‘Demon’?” I questioned.

He chuckled a little awkwardly. “Tis rude of me to refer to you in such a way after all the help you provided. I have had...much to think about these past days since we last met.” There was a hint of melancholy in his tone.

Well, I suppose after shoveling shit together, friendships are born.

“Come, both mother and father await your arrival, dear sister. And you as well, my friend. With better tidings, I would have given you a warm reception and a tour of Asgard, but my parents were most insistent on…meeting.” Thor spoke. “Come, follow me.” Without warning, Thor shot off into the air and flew away.

“Um….”

I turned to Heimdal. “Does he not know that Jeanne can’t fly?”

There was merely a ghost of a reaction from Heimdal, and if he were alone, I believe he would have facepalmed. “Please forgive the prince. Due to the actions of Loki, he has had much on his mind and weight in his heart. He means well, and it is no intentional insult from him.”

“You can just say he’s an idiot; that would be enough of an explanation.” I snorted.

“I believe the Midgardians have a saying.”

“And what’s that?”

“If the shoe fits.”

Okay, I liked Heimdal.

“Jeanne, would you like a lift?” I offered her my hand like a polite gentleman.

“I would be delighted.” She returned, acting with ‘proper etiquette’ as she placed her hand into mine.

In one swift but gentle motion, I scooped her up into my arms and used several bursts of Shunpo to catch up with the idiot prince.

We had skipped over a considerable amount of Asgard, much of what I would like to see when we had time.

I found him standing at the large gates before the giant castle.

Though, oddly enough, there were quite a few craters, burnt buildings, and otherwise destroyed walls.

Thor stood there, looking awkward again as we arrived. He cleared his throat a couple of times. “Mayhaps, I had forgotten to deliver upon you the horses as is proper to guests arriving by Bifrost.”

“It’s alright.” Jeanne was quick to dismiss it. “We’re here now. But…what happened?” She looked around.

“Tis certainly a question to ask, my dear sister. My father was beside himself upon awakening, and my mother was fraught with bewilderment.” Thor pushed open the large gates, and I now knew what he was talking about. “For it is not every day that a dragon comes to visit Asgard.”

Lying down in the middle of the courtyard was Ddraig.

He was snoring loudly.

There were hundreds of Asgardians around the perimeter, looking as if they were ready to make a move if Ddraig did anything.

Ddraig seemed to wake up upon our arrival. Just lifting his head and yawning made all the Asgardian soldiers tense up.

“What say you, my friend? You wouldn’t happen to know why a dragon attacked Asgard, would you?” Thor looked at me.

Jeanne looked at him, looked at me, then looked at Ddraig.

“Will.” She put her hands on her hips.

Ddraig and I shared a look; no words needed to be spoken between us for us to know what the other was thinking.

“I’ve never seen this dragon before in my life.”/“I’ve never seen this person before in my life.” Both Ddraig and I spoke at the same exact time.

Nailed it.

@***@

A/N

Wilhelm meets Odin for the first time in the next chapter, and some blanks are filled in on what’s happened to Asgard since Ddraig arrived and all that.

Next up is Cyclops that I’ll be getting started with in a bit.