Chapter 254:
A few hours later, the celebratory parties across Asgard were all in full swing. It hadn't been a very big battle, but a victory was a victory.
Asgardians loved any excuse to party after all. It also bolstered spirits that we had slain hundreds of Flame Demons without taking a single loss. A few of the less experienced Asgardians had been seriously injured, but not a single one had died. It only took me a few minutes to heal them all.
After giving me a passionate kiss, Sif ended up having to depart from my side to go and celebrate the victory with her soldiers. As one of Asgard's newest generals, it was important that she was seen in these public events. She needed to be taken seriously and didn't want to be known as the "woman who always followed Thor and his friends around" anymore. At least she made plans to return with me to Earth the next day.
While the city was busy partying, Hela, Azazel, and Kokabiel had moved to a large room in the palace to make introductions with my guests and catch up with me.
"It is nice to meet you, Queen Hela. Thank you for hosting me." Carol Danvers introduced herself.
"It is lovely to meet you as well, Lady Danvers. Or do you prefer Lady Marvel?" Hela responded with a genuine smile.
I didn't miss the wink Hela sent me as well as she greeted Carol. Hela definitely approved of the beautiful space Superhero being in my company.
Carol clearly wasn't used to being addressed as a "Lady" judging by her confused expression. She snapped out of her confusion though, and switched to a more political smile. "Either is fine with me. I'm currently on a vacation of sorts, so feel free to call me Carol."
"Welcome to Asgard, Carol." Hela then turned to the other guest I had brought with me. "And who might you be, my Lady?"
"Tsk, I'm Nebula." Nebula introduced herself bluntly. She chose to stand closer to me and was eyeing everyone else in the room–not warily–but with a hint of caution. It would take a while for Nebula to get over her paranoia and social awkwardness.
Hela giggled, she didn't seem to mind Nebula's attitude at all. "It's lovely to meet you as well, Lady Nebula." Hela said before turning back to me. "You certainly know how to make an entrance, Layla. That warship you brought back with you nearly gave us all a heart attack." She said playfully.
"Where did you come across such a vessel?" Azazel asked. "I would love to take it apart and see how it ticks."
"You're free to do that, but I'd like Tony and Andrea to join you when you do. Earth's technology could take leaps forward with everything on that ship." I said. "As for where I got it, I took it from a genocidal alien warlord. He was going to use it to attack the Nova Empire after he acquired the Power Stone. He was never able to acquire the Stone though."
"The Power Stone!" Hela's eyes widened in surprise. "That was one of the stones that used to belong to Odin! What happened to it?" She was eager to know.
I smirked and reached into my inventory. When I pulled my hand out, a small glowing Purple Stone was held in my grasp. The Stone became much longer after I had defeated Arishem and advanced so many levels at once. I speculated that I could now hold it barehanded for around 10 minutes.
"I still can't believe you're just holding that thing in your bare hand. No one should be able to do that…" Carol commented hesitantly while shifting away slightly. She was nervous around Infinity Stones after what the Space Stone had done to her.
"Layla is a true Goddess! Of course she can hold it! If she couldn't, then there is no one else in the cosmos who could!" Nebula declared with more emotion than I'd ever seen her express before! She gave everyone else in the room a challenging glare to see if they would try and refute her words. No one did, of course.
I did receive a couple of snickers from Azazel and Kokabiel. Nebula's blatant devotion made me blush in embarrassment. Hela also smirked at me and mouthed the word "fangirl."
"Thank you, for your…enthusiasm, Nebula." I told my blue companion.
Nebula nodded at me. "Of course. I was only speaking the truth."
Azazel broke the awkwardness of the situation by letting out a whistle of appreciation. "I haven't ever seen the Power Stone in person. It's definitely the real deal. The power coming from it is amazing. It almost feels like Ophis did before she disappeared, actually." He commented to himself curiously. Azazel then asked me what I was planning to do with the Stone.
"I'll be hanging onto it for now. It's a nice little power up to have on hand for emergencies. Especially after I had to burn through my entire supply of Faith to handle my most recent enemy." I said. Ideally, I wanted to find some kind of method to eventually fuse with its power permanently.
[Without it eventually blowing you up of course.]
"What!? You spent all your Faith Energy in one battle!?" Azazel asked in concern. "Who did you fight?"
I started explaining everything that occurred the past couple days. I started with Akeno's request to help Jean. Then I moved onto my meeting with Lady Death and the Phoenix Force. I told them how I defeated the Collector and then Ego back to back. Finally, I mentioned how Arishem had shown up afterwards.
"Arishem!?" Hela exclaimed in shock. "One of the strongest Celestials!? What was he doing there!?" She ran over and started inspecting me for injuries. I had to reassure her multiple times that I was ok.
"I issued a direct challenge to the Celestials across the Galaxy when I called out Ego. That's why Arishem showed up. I suspect that he was there to put me in my place–or something like that." I speculated to everyone.
"That's troubling but not unexpected." Azazel said with a frown. "The minds of beings like that don't operate at the same as ours do. Did you have to use all of your Faith Energy to escape him?"
"BAH! Do you have no faith in our sister!?" Kokabiel berated Azazel. "Layla obviously defeated Arishem–whoever he is–and proved the superiority of Fallen Angels across the cosmos!" Kokabiel declared while walking over and patting me on the shoulder. "Good work, Layla!"
I gave him a beaming smile. Kokabiel's statement came off as mildly racist, but at least he believed in me.
Azazel shook his head at our pointy eared brother. "You don't know how powerful a being like this is, Kokabiel. He could wipe out planets and stars as easily as he breathes!"
"Hmph! So what if he can. Layla defeated him! I watched the entire battle from the bridge!" Nebula cut in and told everyone.
"I saw it as well. I'm not sure what happened to Arishem, but he was defeated. He ended up completely vanishing after Layla used her final attack." Carol also added.
Their words had Azazel and Hela both looking at me in utter shock!
"Unbelievably!" Azazel declared.
Hela grinned widely. She engulfed me in a big hug. "I knew you were amazing, my love, but you have truly reached another level with this victory! No doubt, the rest of the Galaxy will think twice before challenging our might now! This is stupendous news!" She declared. "We must take advantage of the situation and start spreading the news and propaganda as fast as possible!"
"Er…about that. No one else saw my fight happen." I muttered over Hela's shoulder. Hela tensed in my arms.
"Wait, what?" Azazel asked.
I explained how the second Arishem showed up, every single vessel, without fail, had fled from the space sector. No one else has actually seen me defeat Arishem…
"Watching everyone run away was certainly strange. They all left so fast that they didn't even think to leave any recording drones behind." Carol explained as well. "At this point, half the Galaxy might actually be assuming that Layla is dead…" Carol trailed off when she noticed the glare Hela and Nebula sent her. "I was just telling the truth!" She pouted!
"Cowards!" Kokabiel spat out. "They are presented with the opportunity to witness the strongest beings in the Galaxy face off…and they flee!?" He exclaimed in disbelief and indignation. That grated his pride as a warrior.
Hela let go of me and also muttered a few Asgardian curses as well at all the non-existent spectators. "Damn, we could have gotten Jotunheim and Muspelheim to both surrender to us immediately."
I, for one, was a bit thankful that no one important had witnessed Arishem's defeat. The other Celestials would definitely not take it lying down. It could have blown up into a full scale war that I just wasn't ready for quite yet. I wouldn't mind letting them think I was dead for now. It would give me time to grow, possibly even figure out how to absorb the Power Stone permanently.
"That's just how things go sometimes. It is what it is," Azazel shrugged. "Why don't we move on for now?"
Once everyone was caught up with my latest adventures, we switched to lighter topics–like war.
Hela called a servant girl to come and give Carol and Nebula a tour of Asgard's palace halls while the rest of us had our discussion. I trusted the two of them, but I understood that the others would need more time to start doing the same.
"Now, onto the topic of the war."
Hela explained how we were individually vastly more powerful than our enemies, but we were still dramatically outnumbered.
I couldn't just go to Jotunheim or Muspelheim and blow up both of the planets either. For one thing, I would be considered a genocidal monster for milenia if I did that. For another, the nine realms held a greater significance than I was aware of. Hela did her best to explain it when I asked her.
According to her, the nine realms were intrinsically linked together…as some kind of MASSIVE seal! What was on the other side of that seal? Hela didn't know, so neither did we. Odin had taken that information to his early grave. Furthermore, If a single one of the nine ends up completely destroyed, the whole seal would break! All she knew was that things would be very bad if one of the nine realms was destroyed. That meant that we had to fight this war while severely holding back our true power.
[Odin was really bad at planning ahead. Asgard would have been screwed if Hela didn't return to rule.]
"Do you think Surtur or Laufey know what's on the other side of the seal?" I asked Hela.
"It is possible. I doubt they would tell us though. I fear bringing it up to them as well. They might end up trying to destroy one of the realms out of spite. They would happily doom themselves if it meant taking us all down with them." Hela explained to us all. Surtur and Laufey didn't give two shits about their own people either.
"If we want to win this battle sooner, then we either need more firepower or more soldiers. Layla's Warship will help quite a bit with our firepower at least. I wish we had more ships like it." Kokabiel commented.
"I've noticed that Asgard is missing its warships of old. What happened to them?" Azazel turned and asked Hela.
"All of our own warships were lost with our original planet." Hela said bitterly. "No one left alive knows how to reconstruct them. The knowledge has been lost."
"I suspect this war will be very long and drawn out." Azazel started to explain. "The minor probing attack from today pretty much confirmed it. Surtur and Laufey both know that their worlds are inhospitable to most of our own forces. There's the fact that most regular Asgardians simply can't handle the drastic temperatures. Only its Gods can. Also, only Fallen Angels with six or more wings will be able to stay on either of those worlds for a prolonged amount of time." He elaborated. Asgard didn't have that many gods, and Fallen Angel's with six or more wings weren't actually that common either. We only had a few thousand of them at most.
"What about your necromancy, Hela?" I asked. Lady Death had returned that ability to Hela.
"I emptied Asgard's catacombs of every single corpse. For now, it shall remain as our secret army. We will deploy it only at the most opportune time. It currently sits around 100,000 strong." Hela said with a smirk. She definitely felt more powerful after having her full powers restored.
[The Goddess of Death, Hela: Level 101]
I nodded to myself after observing her current level. She could even give Captain Marvel a run for her money now.
"100,000 is good, but not enough." I speculated. "You should ask for help from Alfheim or Earth. I'd personally recommend asking Earth for some soldiers." I suggested either calling in help from Shield or hiring mercenaries. I also suggested enlisting the help of the more powerful mutants. Mutants like Storm could be devastating if used properly in this war. I wondered if she would be able to make it actually rain on Muspelheim? I don't know if that world has ever experienced rain before. I also suspected that she could naturally counter any blizzards the Frost Giant's employed on Jotunheim.
My suggestion drew mixed opinions. Azazel was all for asking for help of course. Kokabiel was opposed because it would "make us look weak." Hela was on the fence about what to do as Queen. She didn't want to look like a "weak" Queen either, but she knew that logically Asgard could use aid.
Our discussion ended a few moments later. Hela said she wanted to consider her options before making a final decision. She was planning on taking a walk to think. I offered to go with her but she shook her head.
Once I left the room, I inquired from a nearby servant about where Carol and Nebula had gone off too.
"They have both been given their own quarters for the night, Princess." The maid told me. "Would you like to be shown to your own quarters?"
"I have my own quarters?" I asked.
"Of course you do, Princess Layla. You are Queen Hela's betrothed and the mother of the heiress to the throne, Princess Hilga." She told me as a matter of fact. Since Carol and Nebula were already in bed, I decided not to disturb either of them.
I asked the maid to show me to my quarters. My room in the palace ended up being right next to the Queen's room of course. I laid my head on the incredibly soft pillow and decided to go to sleep for the night. I hadn't slept since before I set out with Jean. That had been days ago. When I woke up tomorrow, I would finally return to Earth and the rest of my family.
…
"Welcome back, my Champion."
I opened my eyes and found myself back in Death's realm. It looked like I wouldn't be getting a peaceful sleep tonight either. The second I passed out, she was able to pull me to her realm.
"How is it so easy for you to keep grabbing me whenever I fall asleep?" I asked her.
Lady Death smiled at me cryptically. "Sleep is a small hint of Death." She didn't say anything else.
I pouted at her. "Fine then, keep your secrets. It's nice to see you again, Lady Death. Did you call me here for business, or maybe something more personal~?" I asked her while fluttering my eyes. I also pulled down my dress a bit teasingly to show some extra skin. If I wasn't getting any sleep, then I deserved to have some fun~.
I smirked when Lady Death actually gulped. Her eyes dilated, she clearly wanted me. "Oh, how you tempt me so, my Champion..." Lady Death said breathily before calming herself down. She shook her head. "Before any of…that…I have news for thee." She said with a sigh.
I pulled my dress back up and sighed as well. Business before pleasure. "Of course, what news do you have for me?" I asked her.
"The Universe has been thrown slightly off balance by the machinations of an interloper." Lady Death started to explain why she called me to her realm. It sounded pretty important.
"Thrown off balance?" I asked while tilting my head. "How so?"
"Arishem was not supposed to visit you after you defeated Ego. The Phoenix Force herself had requested the living planet's destruction." Lady Death explained. "Arishem was actually manipulated into appearing before you, not that he was aware of it at the time…"
I raised a curious eyebrow. "Arishem was manipulated? Who would be able to do that?"
Lady Death frowned. "I…do not know." She admitted.
That surprised me. There were very few beings that could hide from her gaze. Of course, that made the list much shorter as well.
"I have suspects, but that is all. Whoever did it knows about your connection to me." She said. "As for the Universe being thrown off balance, that is exactly as it sounds. Arishem ended up being forcefully sent forwards in time by your final attack. Time and Space have ended up being damaged on a fundamental level."
"Is that what happened!?" I exclaimed. I hit him so hard he was flung through time? That was actually pretty awesome! I didn't mean to damage Time and Space though. I'd have to be more careful in the future. Hitting someone so hard they fly away faster than light is apparently a bad thing…
"For a short time, until Time and Space naturally correct themselves, you might find strange things occurring around you. What those things are, I also couldn't say." Lady said with a frustrated pout. I could tell she wasn't used to feeling so useless.
Her warning was appreciated, but it didn't sound like there was anything I could actually do about her warning.
What I could do was comfort the beautiful upset woman in front of me. This time, my dress completely slipped off my body and pooled at my feet. I confidently strode over to her throne and plopped myself in her lap. "You sound upset, Lady Death, how about I make you feel better~?"
XXX
oWo