Stronger Together Chapter 229

I'd expected it to be difficult to get the darklings on the plane so  we could leave, but it really wasn't. When I gave the order they just  went. Mina, Sameul, Bernard, Louise, and Benjamin all filed right onto  the plane at my direction, and with absolutely no argument, though  Louise and Benjamin seemed pretty put out. We locked up the castle  before we left, so if Quincy showed up he would have no reason to stick  around. I considered leaving a note but it would have been a huge  mistake to invite a powerful vampire spawn to attack us during a war.

Luckily  the plane could pretty easily fit everyone, even if adding another five  people made things a bit cramped. Samuel of course was the first one to  ask what was going on when we boarded the plane. I think half the  reason the accepted the order so easily was that I was clearly  incredibly worried. "So, not to be that guy, but what's the deal boss  man? You seemed perfectly fine to stick around for a vacation yesterday  and then boom out of nowhere we have to go? What happened?" He didn't  ask it in a challenging way, more out of genuine concern, which I  appreciated more than he knew.

I  nodded. "It's complicated, but suffice to say one of our allies, namely  Inari's sister" I pointed to the vampire girl "is in some serious  trouble. The goddess Hel had brought a force of Draugr to Chicago to  waylay them from helping with another problem, and her brother and  father might be with her. They all probably hate me for killing Fenrir,  so if anything it's kind of my fault Lara will be having problems and I  have to try to help." Not to mention Inari and Thomas were her siblings,  and Thomas was Harry's brother so we were going to be part of this  either way, might as well step in early and get some brownie points.

Mina,  surprisingly, spoke up cheerfully, seeming completely unbothered.  "Draugr are pathetic. Even Lord Vlad's disgusting corpse spawn are more  of a threat after a few centuries that the rotting soldiers. Bringing us  along was an excellent choice. I can't claim to have much hope against  one such as Hel, but I know your power master, and Fenrir was always the  strongest of that brood. Having defeated their most potent I'm sure you  have countermeasures for the others." Man, people would just not stop  assuming that being able to beat Fenrir meant any god would be easy  pickings, despite it really not working that way.

The  god wolf had been a perfect match up for me, but I had no real  confidence in overpowering the Authority of someone like Hel. Fenrir had  baked his into his physical body, allowing my Archangel Armor empowered  self to clash with him with brute force. But as I'd seen with the twins  even a half ass Authority could be pretty damn dangerous. I was  guessing Hel's made those assholes look like bitey puppies, and that was  assuming Loki wasn't there to help, because that old bastard probably  made anyone I'd ever fought look like chump change.

It  was nice to know that everyone here had my back though, the arrogance  that Drakul had baked into the darklings was actually pretty useful  here, especially since they seemed to see lesser undead (though I still  wasn't sure they even counted as undead, since what the hell even WAS  Drakul) seemed to ping their snob radar pretty hard. Luckily I wasn't  alone in this fight, I had my girls with me, and with Yang and I being  straight up nephilim now and Raven and Kara being Raven and Kara, not to  mention Barb's genius and creativity we were a fucking nightmare team  to go up against.

Which  reminded me that Yang was pretty much second or third on the team in  terms of power now, where she had been probably second to last before.  My brawler had pretty much jumped the line in terms of combat power  during our time in hell just by virtue of her massive progress towards  becoming a full fledged angel. I briefly worried about Barb, before  realizing that if anything this would be something she'd be more used  to. She was a protege of the Bat, being the mundane one who relied on  cunning was her bread and butter.

Still  Mina's statement brought up an excellent question. "So, I know a bit  about Norse mythology, but I don't actually know much about the reality  of the pantheon." Which felt so fucking weird to say. "Tell me about  Hel, and anything you know about Loki and Jormungandr too. Hell throw in  some infor about the Draugr just to be safe. It'll be much easier to  make plans to deal with them if I know what the hell is going on." it  was nice to have an actual source now, I was so used to flying by the  seat of my pants I'd almost forgotten to ask.

It  was a tough mindset to shake, even after all my internal monologue's  about accepting my new situation and embracing my attitude as someone at  the top, I'd been neglecting the obvious. I wasn't at the top. WE were  at the top. We were still in this together, and I was making the same  mistakes now that I was stronger that I had when I'd been trying to  handle everything on my own. I had more resources at my disposal than  just my ability to punch really hard. Resources I'd been ignoring even  as i actually acknowledged them.

Take  Barb for example. She was trained to make plans for crews just like  mine. Batman had been the League's strategist, and not having the same  powers as we did didn't change her capabilities there. Despite that I  got all in my head and tried to play leader because I'd had this  childish notion that being in charge meant I had to make every decision,  even after Raven literally warned me against that very thing. I had a  network for information with Mina and the others and someone to put that  information to use all right here with me, and I'd be an idiot to  ignore that.

Speaking  of, Mina seemed ready to answer, after spending a minute or two  formulating her response. "Well I'll start with the Draugr. A type of  undead known to form in burial mounds and norse tombs, as well as  frequent Hel, the plane not the goddess obviously. They're stronger than  average for an undead and they never tire which isn't uncommon in the  risen, but where they really shine is loyalty and tenacity. They're  grunts. You throw waves of them at a problem until it goes away or kills  them all and softens itself up."

That  sounded...bad. "How many would she have? Like there has to be a limit  to how many she could bring over right?" The idea of a goddess drowning  Chicago in implacable corpse soldiers was far from comforting to think  about. If she didn't have a limit we were fucked or we needed help,  because even we couldn't fight forever. Though Kara might be able to  take care of an army of bad guys assuming we could let her cut loose.  That said the actual goddess backing them made it a risky plan, making  our kryptonian vulnerable. I glanced at Barb, who was listening quietly.  "What do you think?"

Barb  seemed pensive. "I have a few ideas for how to handle mass attacks.  Preparation would be the best way, if we can set some things up before  we have to fight them, otherwise location will be key. Involving Kara  might work, but honestly I'm against exposing her like that. Their  goddess is going to be around and Kara is worth more than waves of  pissed off soldier zombies. She could just distract her with tons of the  things and take a potshot when she isn't looking. Especially if her  Authority is stronger than the twins, which it definitely will be." She  turned to Mina. "Are they all the same?"

Mina  shook her head. "No. Well, yes and no. There's a baseline there, most  of them having been humans when they lived, but Draugr rise after  passively absorbing necrotic magic for a period of time. Different  amounts of magic and time spent absorbing means they spawn at different  levels of power. They're mainly the same kind of being, but there's a  pretty wide spectrum of ability. They also get stronger with age. The  really old or powerful ones are more intelligent too, and keep more of  their battle prowess, so some of them are decent in a fight. A Draugr  lord is a canny foe, but they aren't common."

She  shook her head "But you asked earlier if she had a limit. The answer is  yes, but not as defined as you might like. It isn't a number limit,  more of a limit of ambient death magic. Places with a strong death  attunement can support the crossing of more Draugr, but their passage  will drain the ambient power. She can also use her own power to  facilitate the crossing but it would mean draining her personal strength  and no god does that lightly." Well that meant we knew where the army  was going to pop up at least. Graceland cemetery was dripping with that  kind of power and would be my first pick for a spawn point for an evil  Norse zombie horde.

She  continued on. "That brings me to Hel herself." She paused. "How to put  this. Hel is the worlds biggest daddys girl. She is obsessed with  proving to Loki she's worth something. Hel was born with half of her  body a freakish mummified corpse and almost everyone who sees her is  disgusted. Loki doesn't care about looks because he's a sociopath who  sees everyone as tools so ironically he's one of the only beings to  treat her like a person. Hel loves her father and brothers more than  anything, and will do pretty much anything they want her to do. I've  actually met her a few times. Lord Drakul had dealings with several of  the infernal planes and underworlds."

Barb  seemed interested. "That might be to our advantage." I raised an  eyebrow and she smiled. "Even though it may not seem like it, knowing  what will set a person off can be a huge piece of leverage. If we know  her buttons we can push them when we need to, use them to get her where  we want her and make her lose her mind when we need her to. Calm and  logical people may be less overwhelming that angry people but they're  also much more dangerous. The trick is knowing when to trigger an enemy  and when to wait for a better time."

Mina  continued on, filling us in on what other details she had, which sadly  wasn't much. Loki himself was something of a mystery. He was old as dirt  and tended to kill most things that had any insight into him. All she  knew was that he wasn't as crazy as people liked to portray him, but he  was definitely a sadist. She also confirmed his extreme affinity for  fire, but warned me not to make the mistake of expecting his flames to  be the run of the mill kind. Loki didn't use hellfire or soulfire, but  he did have his own unique brand of magical blaze that was more  effective than most.

Speaking  as someone who DID use soulfire I wasn't too worried, but I didn't  dismiss the warning out of hand either. We spent the rest of the flight  in council, talking over strategy, but I let Barb take the lead and she  seemed ecstatic for it, so I felt like I'd made some good progress  there. Finally we started our descent, heading into Chicago proper to  touch down at a nearby air strip. We were safely home, now we just had  to make sure home stayed that way. For everyone in the city. No pressure  right?