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One of the women, the oldest looking of the trio, barked out a dry laugh. "I'm a high school gym teacher, I have to deal with that kind of testosterone laden bullshit for months on end, why the hell would I want to deal with it here?" She gave a Snape-worthy sneer in the direction the thugs had walked away from, looking about this close to spitting on top of it but deciding against it.
"Besides, mobs should never make the rules," Said one of the other men, a wiry fellow with a rather impressive mustache and glasses, his accent that of an educated professor rather than the cowboy he was dressed like. "We all know how well that worked out for Rome."
"I completely agree," Jean replied, looking over at the two younger teens who looked thankful for the reprieve. "Will you two be all right? Those idiots don't know where you live or anything?"
"No ma'am, we don't live anywhere nearby. We came into town specifically for the concert." The two mutants exchanged a glance, using twins speech Harry was ever any judge. Having watched Fred and George for years, he'd become quite good at spotting that kind of thing.
Eventually the girl spoke up, nodding her head slightly towards her brother. "We'll check out of the hotel and see if we can get an early flight instead of the one we planned for tomorrow. We only wanted to walk around tomorrow anyway so it isn't that big a deal. Thanks again for the help," She said nodding towards the other group and then Jean and Harry, before pulling her brother along through the rows of cars.
The other group nodded as well and turned to go, but Harry followed them for a moment. "You mentioned a word I've heard recently, one I've been meaning to look up but never got around to. What is an Althing?"
"It's a major gathering of the Kindreds of the Asatru, those of us to pray to the Norse gods," said one of the women looking at him closely then Jean. When she saw no eye-rolling or derision she smiled faintly. "Jews and Christians and Muslims call us heathens, though given what they've got up to over the millennia I don't think they have any room to talk."
"Though to be fair the Children of the Torah leave well enough alone for the most part and the worst we can expect from most Christians is well-meaning if pushy conversion attempts most of the time," Said one of the men, giving the woman who'd spoken before him a level look. She returned it with one of her own, suggesting this was an old debate for the pair at least, if not the group at large.
"We're not exactly religious," Jean replied dryly, then she cocked her head, recalling the odd method of pronouncing the term the first speaker had used, making it sound almost as if he'd said 'Ultheng.' "What does an Althing consist of?"
The group turned back motioning Jean and Harry to join them as they walked through the parking lot, while the older man, who introduced himself as Ivar explained. "It's basically an annual gathering where we all meet and determine the basics of what's considered 'common law and custom' amongst the various Kindreds that have their own titles and set ups. Keeps us all from turning into the 'Viking' versions of Wiccans. Most of us don't want to tell anyone how to live their lives day to day, but if there's a major change or concern on the horizon, the Althing is the place to deal with it. This one is going to be huge, the largest in memory, thanks to...well you probably follow the news."
Harry and Jean nodded that they did and Harry gave a polite wave for the man to continue.
"Most of the time Asatru will gather in 'blots' on important days for their respective Kindred, where the group will pay homage to this god or that holiday honoring a famous ancestor. These will usually be small meals on the level of picnics or buffets. Next up are the 'Things', which are generally regional gatherings and are, if not rare, than not as common as the Blot. The Althing is usually much bigger on an almost exponential scale, so there's usually a lot more than that. There'll be contests, songs, reenactments, boxing, sword fighting, boat building, sailing, arts and crafts, that sort of thing, the kind of thing you would see if you went to a culture or heritage festival almost, but with a particular...focus you could say." Ivan paused and turned to give Harry and Jean a chance to respond.
"Thor and Balder," Harry nodded at what the older man was driving at. "I've been wondering about that myself," he said, not giving any hint about his real interest in them or his identity, with Jean following along for the moment.
"The one calling himself Thor is the real problem, hence the real reason this Althing is so important," said one of the men, a rather grizzled looking fellow, grumbling angrily. "The one called Balder wasn't around long enough for anyone to get a real read on him, but Thor has appeared occasionally in the public eye since his initial return, and is known to live over in Arizona in one of the cities there, Phoenix it is said."
"With a mortal woman," said one of the women shaking her head in consternation, her voice heavy with skepticism. "I've no doubt she's a damn happy woman, but he was supposed to be married to Sif, Goddess of Fertility, Vegetation on the Earth and...well we don't really know much more unfortunately, but the principle of the thing is the same: Inconsistencies like that bother us."
Harry nodded, remembering how Sigyn had mentioned that, and that their marriage had been a 'ahem' lively one, which was rather fitting for a marriage between a god of the storm and a goddess of the earth and soil. "Can I ask, what are your main problems with him?"
"Other than Thor's supposed to be married and with kids?" Ivan asked dryly. "Well, there are a lot of them ranging from his missing cart and those that draw it, Toothgnasher and ToothGrinder. Thor didn't fly on his own like this...being seems to be, as well as…"
That conversation continued while the group made their way slowly through the parking lot, with Harry asking leading questions here and there, and getting back a lot of the same information that he already had from Dr. Vorlus. However these people went more into the actual religion and culture than Dr. Vorlus had, including the basic tenants of their faith and points they considered societal touchstones, why they call themselves followers and those they revered 'Fultrui'. The impression Jean and Harry got from this was that the Gods were less "worshipped" in the modern sense. Instead they were offered loyalty, respect, and honor as one would a liege lord or lady, held up as examples to live up to by their particular Fultruii. Ivan in particular ended up mentioning a few modern issues.
Specifically the mutant question. It turned out they hadn't just stood up for the mutants out of the goodness of their hearts, though that was certainly part of it. An equal part however was that the Asatru were also stepping up in making a consensus on mutants in general, whether or not they were simply people with 'blood gifts' and therefore human rather than monster, to be judged by their actions rather than their apparent mutations. Although from what the oldest of the women said, that was just the general tone from the various social media outlets and the like, the Althing would truly determine what the common outlook for the 'blood gifted' was.
Harry didn't miss the murmurs from a couple of the men that if the pro-mutant groups that were springing up went the way of the 'False Friends of Humanity' the Kindreds would stand against them as well. Jean couldn't help exchanging a look of concern with Harry at the idea of these people facing new editions of the Brotherhood or worse, but felt a sense of pride in her countrymen and women that they would stand for what was right regardless of the side they faced.
It was an interesting meeting all around and Harry found he liked these people, each of whom seemed an independent sort, with, as Amora had said, a strong libertarian bent which resonated with Harry. But they had little trouble coming together in a manner that reminded Harry of the Ogg clan from the Discworld series he so loved. Although he had yet to meet anyone he could call the Nanny type just yet.
But there were two points that really stood out that they had mentioned which Vorlus had not: that Balder and Thor had both been married and had children, the former's son being full grown and a god of justice and honor in his own right. The latter had at least 3 children if not more with Sif, their ages ranging from a child up to just below adulthood.
Neither of the men in question struck Harry in his meetings with them or in the tales about them as the sort to sleep around or leave their children and wives behind. That made Balder's flirtatious if courteous nature and Thor living with a mortal woman jarring in the extreme.
Indeed, he began to wonder where their kids were, and began to get an even worse feeling about what the Asgardians might be dealing with. Yeah, this whole issue's just gone up my list of Shit That Needs to Get Done. Straight up to number two, tied with the ongoing work on my space-based works and just behind dealing with Magneto. Harry thought grimly.
Eventually Jean and Harry broke off from Ivan's Kindred after a round of handshakes to begin heading back to his car to continue their date in an appropriate fashion. But before they did, Jean asked, "So does this Althing thing sound as interesting to you as it does me?"
"Yep. I wonder if there's any way to invite Hela along?" Harry mused, while Jean began to chuckle at the idea of taking a goddess to a fair created by people who revered her and her brethren. "Could be interesting on multiple levels."
OOOOOOO
Staring through his binoculars, Dr. Vorlus smiled broadly , even though from the ship he couldn't make out any details of the mystery he was here to investigate, "It is definitely some kind of ancient writing, and I think I can indeed make out the symbol of Thor, fantastic!"
All around him his undergrads grinned before they turned their efforts to loading the two small motorboats with their equipment. At the same time, his coworker focused on navigating the ship, a somewhat large but very streamlined private vessel which they had rented out on his employer's tab through the shoals all around them.
In the distance, well above the fjord the ship was trying to enter was what they were here to investigate, a sheer cliff face with ancient text. A recent storm had knocked down several of the trees, which had previously hid that cliff face from the ocean, and a few Norwegian fishermen trawling nearby had taken pictures, passing them on to Vorlus' university.
At that point he had quickly organized this trip, eager to investigate what could be the 'second home of Thor' hinted in a few of the ancient tales passed on verbally by ancient times among the Asatru. Getting here had been tough by ocean, the shoals and rocks in this region of the Norwegian coast were unmapped since there was no nearby human population. Going overland would have been worse, if it was possible at all.
Hopefully I'll find something that the Christian missionaries didn't despoil burn or otherwise destroyed. Vorlus thought sadly, with a hint of old anger. The idea of willfully destroying religious artifacts no matter their stripe or history bothered him, and as he delved more and more into the mystery of what was hypothesized and believed in about the Asgardians, he had come to loathe the missionaries and the kings who had let them in. From the oak trees at the center of many of the villages to many of the tales and common stories, as much as possible that could dispute the new ways had been suppressed or altered by the missionaries.
Soon enough the ship eased into the fjord, though they began to hit rocks nearly immediately, forcing them to anchor right inside the mouth of the fjord. The small motorboats were quickly lowered over the side, and Dr. Vorlus, his coworker and his eight grad students made their way to shore, leaving behind two men to watch the ship and keep it from being stuck by the tides.
Once on shore, Dr. Vorlus began to organize their camp. Of course they would spend nights on the ship, but they still need to dig a latrine, a cooking pit, a protected area for their equipment and all the other necessities for a potentially long stay in the area if the find proved fruitful. But Vorlus's coworker and other undergrads were decently trained and experienced. Thus it only took them about thirty minutes to get the basics set up. After that, they spread out through the woodland behind the cove, heading off into the crags which backed it. The cliff face was well above the rest of the cove so many of the undergrads split off before reaching it, heading deeper inland and getting acquainted with the area.
They spent the rest of that day and the next on that, with Vorlus controlling his eagerness to head towards the cliff face with the Norse scrollwork and runic symbols on it with ease because of what they had already found with a mere visual perusal. Here and there they found evidence of human habitation, ancient, of course, but still visible and decently preserved from the elements.
A few rocks mortared together here, hidden by a tree from the effects of wind and rain. A few trees growing almost in a row, far closer and more uniform than could ever be found in nature, all of oak and other hard woods that would prove invaluable for ship building. Nails and other pieces of metal were scattered around the general location, including one amazing find which two of his undergrads had spotted and initially not understood the importance of; a small blacksmith's forge. It was rusted and eroded in places to be certain, but still proof that this had been a settlement of some note to warrant the set up and presence of what was, at the time, an incredibly valuable and rare skill set.
By the end of the second day they worked out an estimate of the size of the small community here. And it was small: given the size of the area within which they'd found clues of ancient human habitation, there could only have been four or five families here, making it a hamlet rather than a village.
This was rather strange in the face of the smithy they'd found, although Vorlus supposed that with how isolated the settlement was, it had behooved the inhabitants to entice metal workers or possibly take them in a raid with others in the area. Sometimes Frankish or other smiths would be taken in raids if their work was deemed valuable enough and they would be 'encouraged' to stay with their captors. Not torture or anything of that nature, nor polite at all even at the time, it was often necessary. (not sure what this sentence is supposed to say)
While interesting, they didn't find any evidence as to what this community had been, who had lived here beyond the fact someone had, nor anything about them as people or families. There would be no breakthroughs of the understanding of ancient life in Norway here, although the find itself was nothing to be sneezed at. Leaving his fellow professor and three of the undergrads to go through their various finds, cataloging them and making notes, Vorlus took the others with him towards the cliff face he was here to see.
A cliff face, he was astonished to find, which was actually somewhat further away and far higher above the cove than he had initially thought. It took the group nearly an entire day to move their way through the crags along goat paths and up rock faces heading in the proper direction until they found it. And once they did, again the find didn't quite prove what he had expected.
For one thing the cliff face Vorlus had thought was a piece of solid stone wasn't. Instead, it was a piece of sheer rock sticking out from the ground of a small clearing, blocking much of the cliff face beyond it from the sea. That clearing had another entrance to one side of where they had come up, which was heavily overgrown and seemed to be blocked further along, but which had obviously been made by man in the distant past.
Clearing it out would take equipment they didn't have with them and a lot of backbreaking effort so Vorlus ignored it for now concentrating instead on what was revealed between the two pieces of rock. Underneath the runes and scrollwork on the cliff face from where they had entered the clearing from was the entrance to a cave.
Or that was what he thought until they were close enough to the entrance to see that it was not a natural formation but artificial. Someone had gone to great lengths to create this stone doorway and the tunnel beyond. The walls were not only smooth but uniform as well, with small piles of mold and rust here and there denoting where torches and sconces might've once been placed.
That was all they could see from the entrance however, and it was getting dark out, so Dr. Vorlus made the decision not to enter the cave/tunnel just yet. Instead, he sent two of his undergrads down to transfer most of their equipment up here, setting up ropes and pitons to anchor them in order to help people along the paths they had been forced to traverse. When told about the find, his fellow professor, Nate Price, agreed wholeheartedly with his decision. Setting up the new camp and moving all the supplies and equipment between one camp to the other took the rest of that day and well into the next.
The day after that Dr. Vorlus and his team, with each man holding a high-powered flashlight, entered the cave. Almost immediately after he passed the threshold however Vorlus stopped, staring ahead for a moment at the apparition coming towards him.
It was two men, middle aged or younger, with heavy beards, stripped to their waist as they battled it out in what looked like a training match of some kind with bare fists. One of them pummeled the other into the ground laughing before he reached down to haul his defeated opponent to his feet, dunking him in a bucket of water before walking off with a laugh.
Though there was nothing about either man that looked familiar in their visages or body, Vorlus had to blink in shock as he saw the victor's hands. They were big, powerful hands, marked and bloody from this match and others. Vorlus saw those hands every day, and even had used them in a similar manner when he was younger. Is this my ancestor then? He wondered to himself, though the fists of a prize fighter weren't an uncommon sight, Vorlus still felt a connection that seemed to defy an easy description.
The scene abruptly changed, showing the same man, or possibly his son, since this one looked younger in the body and face. He was rushing toward the entrance Vorlus and his men had just entered, shouting over his shoulder. His hair was black tinted with a bit of red in the beard, and he was wearing chain mail armor over a leather jerkin, with a simple leather cap on his head.
This time Vorlus looked at the hands immediately, hence why he thought there was a familial connection between the first vision and this one, the same hands. But the sword also interested Vorlus, since he knew that in the ancient days, the sword was the most important possession of a warrior and a status symbol at that.
This sword was a broadsword, double edged, coming to a wicked but wide point. It gleamed like well-cared for steel, but it was a different shine to that of modern recreations, somewhat darker of blade, which Vorlus put down to the higher iron content in ancient steel. The blade itself was pocked and dented here and there, but still in very good condition, with a guard just bigger than the users hands in a simple slightly curved 'U' shape.
But directly above the hilt was a very detailed indent right where the hilt met the blade. This mark was of a fist raised upright. Vorlus had to wonder if it was the makers mark or personal heraldry. That was the last thought Vorlus had before the vision reached him, passing directly through Vorlus' body and out of the tunnel, disappearing into the light of day.
Shaking his head, Vorlus stared down at himself where the spirit had walked straight through him and out towards the sunlight. Looking around he noticed the undergrads were staring at him in concern or simply moving around him heading deeper inside the tunnel. From their faces, it was obvious none of them had seen the vision he had, which he suddenly realized made some sense.
None of them are Norwegian or Asatru, so most likely they feel nothing. So what was that? Magic, a genetic memory of some kind triggered by this place? Asgardians were known to be able to do that, to send someone into the past to see their ancestors, to better understand their orlog. I wonder if this place will tie into the Asgardians currently living among us here on earth. Nonetheless, I am beginning to think that Potter might have had more reason to look into the Asgardians than simple curiosity…
For the first few moments of looking around the small, what first appeared to be, hall with a slightly long entranceway Vorlus was gravely disappointed. There didn't seem to be anything here, nothing momentous at any rate, nothing to explain the vision he had just had other than this being someone's home. The fact they had carved it out of stone rather than building their home elsewhere in the small hamlet was a surprise, but nothing important, nothing to connect to the sign of Thor above the mantle of the entrance.
He said so aloud, ending the chattering of the undergrads as their professors looked around. This startled one young man so much he stumbled sideways into one of the larger piles of rust in the room. The large brazier did not break or fall sideways however. Instead it canted halfway and stopped. Immediately thereafter there was a low deep creaking sound and a distant click.
"No one move," Vorlus ordered quickly. "Shine your light around at your feet and ankles, then around at the walls. Do not move, but be ready to the moment I say."
"I did not think the Vikings went into booby-traps," Nate murmured, standing up from having just flashed his flashlight over his legs, turning to do the same to nearby grads.
"They don't, but they were masters of sail-work, ropes, tackles, weights, and all that entails so it's better safe than sorry. Not to mention they were also very decent stone workers when they needed to be, although wood was their preference."
"Which probably explains this Professor," said one of the youths standing directly across the room from where the brazier had been. He was flashing his light down a short flight of steps that hadn't been there a moment ago. "Though I'd love to learn about the mechanics behind it."
"Be cautious, watch every step you take and don't move far from your fellows," Vorlus cautioned strongly, taking the lead as they moved down the formerly hidden steps, excitement once again welling up inside him. He frowned suddenly, waving his hand forward. "Curtis, Marsh, Nate, flash your lights at the ceiling and around where the ceiling meets the walls."
The men he'd named did so, and after making certain the tunnel floor was uniform with no traps apparent he stepped forward staring up at the carvings revealed. There were a lot of them, scrawling rune work and connecting scrollwork moving along the roof and to where the roof met the walls. And he couldn't read a word of it.
"Actual Norse runes, but I can't follow them. Damn missionaries, too few examples of this art has remained to this day," he muttered, pointing out two runes he knew. "That one is the Ansuz, and the other Thurisaz and that third one, I think is the one meaning 'hall' or Othala but they are all...different if only minutely." Othala had been found previously on or associated with several dwellings that could trace their origins well back into the Viking era, and the others were used in ancient carvings or to mark famous battle sites or places of judgement.
"This is amazing!" Nate gushed, moving forward slightly so that he could stare straight up at the carvings and ceiling. "There are more Norse runes right here than have ever been reported before! If we could figure out what a few of them mean, we might be able to translate the entire thing!"
"True," Vorlus mused absently, "but it is how they are laid out that interests me right now. It looks very… focused and directed, this isn't something that was simply for decorative purposes or for general enhancement."
"Couldn't it be one of the sagas of Thor?" asked one of the undergrads hesitantly, even though most knew runes weren't meant to be used primarily as a written language, or at least their originals weren't.
"Yet we've seen no evidence that they would be writing that kind of thing out, certainly not on the ceiling in a spiral pattern like that with offshoots leading all around…"
"Professor," said one of the others who had moved beyond Vorlus slightly. He was kneeling on the floor, shining his light deeper into the tunnel which Vorlus noted seemed to be slowly going downwards. "The runes appear here too, in fact, I think they're all connected. Also-" the young man went on, straightening up and moving back towards him, shaking his head. "It's getting colder the further we go. I mean, I know that it's supposed to be colder underground like this, but cold enough for me to see my own breath in here while outside it's still warm enough to go around in short sleeves?"
"Really?" Vorlus moved around the undergrad, striding forward down the tunnel. He stopped when he too noticed that his breath was beginning to show in the light of his flashlight. "That's strange and rather disturbing." He also saw what the younger man had seen. There was a line of runes on the floor that traveled back up into the rest of the writing.
But Vorlus also saw what wasn't there, that is to say that some of the lines of ancient script seemed to start to branch off going further down into the tunnel, only to disappear into the stone. He came to one such spot, and as the young man held the flashlight up, Vorlus began to play a brush along the wall for a moment, getting rid of dust and cobwebs, but revealing nothing. "Hmm…"
"Maybe whatever it was is unfinished?"
"Doubtful, they would have started something like this by working on it as they carved out the tunnel."
A tunnel, Vorlus realized suddenly, which was very uniform. There were patches here and there that were as smooth as skin! No stonemason could've done that. And something was telling him that the runes were very important. I think I need to call this in. With that thought Vorlus turned, and motioning the young man to join his fellows.
A hasty conference with Nate saw them all spreading out in the living area they had originally found within the cliff or outside making notes about the writing above the mantle, and the first few feet of the tunnel. They began to make copious sketches and rubbings where they could, brushing away the dust of millennia slowly but surely and setting up lighting as they went to ensure no detail was missed.
At the same time they were doing that, Vorlus went back to the ship. Once there, he tried to use its antenna and onboard phone to call Harry Potter. However out here he couldn't get any connection, the phone networks simply didn't have enough coverage here even with the ship's boosted signal unfortunately.
Just as he was about to give up, which would have left him with a very tough decision to make, he turned, startled at a low 'preck' from behind him. Sitting on the table by the door leading up to the deck of the ship stood an owl. But its presence down here in the bowels of the ship wasn't the most surprising thing. What was surprising was that it held in its beak a pen, and under its claws there looked to be a roll of paper. That set the owl's presence out of the realm of the unusual but natural and into the realm of the mystical.
Vorlus stared, all the old legends going through his mind, with the thought Well at least it's not a raven, oh wait it isn't a raven, craaappp… coming to the fore for more than a few moments as his mind percolated with possibilities before he could control himself. Taking a hesitant step forward he asked hesitantly, "Um, and where did you come from miss?" How Vorlus knew the owl was a female he didn't know, but he was willing to go with it for now.
The owl seemed to glare at him for a moment, then over at the phone before turning away dismissively, before thrusting the roll of paper at him with one talon. How she did that or how he knew that was what that look meant Vorlus again didn't know, but his intuition hadn't failed him yet. "I see...you, you want me to write something?"
Again the owl looked from him to the radio and back again. "To, to Mr. Potter?"
The owl actually nodded, and Vorlus hesitantly reached for the pen it was holding in its beak. The owl let him take the pen, then hopped backward lightly, letting him grab the roll of paper. Still staring at the owl, Vorlus began to write a short note, trying to tell his employer what they had run into without taking too much time about it. He wouldn't put it past his young redshirted-minio-er students to go further down the corridor they had found without his permission.
OOOOOOO
Not half an hour after the call Dr. Vorlus was somehow not surprised to hear a few thumps coming from the deck of the ship, as if someone was landing lightly on top of the ship's upper deck. Heading up there, he found the two grads on watch staring at five newcomers. All of them wore armor of some kind though it was by no means uniform, with two of them clad in steel bodies underneath the armor. Vorlus had of course watched the news, and knew who these people were. "The Custodes Mundi, I must say when Mister Potter agrees to send help, he does it with style."
"Thank you," Guardian said drolly. "Now, why don't you show me these ruins of yours?"
Moments later, Guardian and his team entered the tunnel, ignoring the grad students and Nate for a moment as the Custodes Mundi stopped to watch Guardian work. "Hmm… I recognize some of these, but not all." This drew looks of surprise, interest, and even confusion from the grads, Vorlus and Nate, but Guardian ignored them as he examined the rune work closely.
Could the differences I'm seeing be because of lingual shifts, the differences between one dimension and another, or something else, the ever growing mystery of the Asgardians? Some of them do almost look like another language, but not quite. And why am I not getting any sense of magic from this array? Hell this entire place feels like any other nonmagical site, it's not even on a ley line. Could they be powerless then?
Holding up a finger, he began to trace a few of the runes he didn't recognize, trying to think of the runes they later became. Contain, channel, but then, where's the unifier, or the target?
In this manner Guardian moved down the tunnel, stopping when he ran into where the runes disappeared into the wall. "Hmm." With a wave of his hand, Guardian tried to summon up a Lumos, only to blink behind his mask as the spell didn't do anything.
Frowning, Guardian turned down the tunnel, thrusting his hand out and casting a wordless Reducto down the passage. Or he should have, instead nothing happened. Trying again, Guardian concentrated on feeling the magic within him. He felt the magic begin to leave him shaped as the spell demanded, only to suddenly dissipate the moment it left his fingers. "Huh…"
"When you make noises like that I become worried tovarishch," Colossus quipped, coming up to place a metal hand on the shorter man's shoulder. "What is it?"
"Just a second mate, I'll tell you after I conduct a few experiments." Guardian tried several different types of magic, ranging from the color change charm to a few 'dark' attack spells, but every time the magical left his body it dissipated immediately.
Guardian felt the magic surge within him, responding, but the instant it left his body the flow was redirected, dissipating without accomplishing anything. Even when he called for the weapons in his pouch the magic didn't work. However the magic was still within his body, which made Guardian assume that his Magia Erebea spell would be unaffected. What was even stranger was he couldn't see wherever the hell the magic was going, it just wasn't there anymore even to his mage sight, just seeming to not exist the moment it left his body.
"You know from this perspective it just looks like he's just making random gestures like a crazy person. Kind of funny really," Husk said, smirking over at Ghigau who snorted as she saw what her teammate meant.
"These runic arrays are cancelling my magic. Colossus, try to punch out some of this wall. Husk, you see if you can destroy a few of the runes up by the entrance."
"So these really do contain magic? Magic really does exist?" Vorlus asked, then sighed as his students and even Nate began to talk excitedly to one another. "Ah well, there goes my neat concept of reality. Really I'm surprised its lasted this long given what Potter has had me researching."
Ignoring all this, Husk tried to smash her fingers into a few of the runes along the walls, but her finger bounced off. At the same time Colossus punched one of the walls with all his strength, only to be thrown backwards into the opposite wall. "What in the world!?"
"So we have three little mysteries here," Guardian pondered helping Colossus back to his feet, still staring at where the runes disappeared into the rock of the tunnel, then down into the dark behind the reach of their flashlights. "In that case, I suppose we'll need to fall back on physical means. Let's head back outside."
Once the team had retreated back outside, each of them began to pull out their weapons from their various bags of holding, a name that Guardian had tried, and failed to keep from sticking. Vanguard frowned, staring down into the hole then pulled out a plasma rifle rather than his regular gauss. The gauss rifle could fire quickly in a pinch, but it really wasn't meant to, whereas the plasma rifle was. He also pulled out a few Cold Steel submachine guns, strapping them to his back, directing the others to do the same, while also adding a knife and placing his shield on his forearm.
Colossus put a knife at his side and took two submachine guns, and a few 'Jean Special' grenades Jean had given him this morning. They hadn't been tested in battle yet, but she promised they would make a 'big bada boom'. He was a little leery about such booms occurring underground where the force would be more focused but decided to take them anyway. He, like all the others, also fitted night vision goggles, just in case.
For her part Ghigau tooled up as much as she could, strapping various types of arrows around her armored body, as well as a few more 'Jean Specials'. She had a knife strapped between her shoulder blades, but didn't expect to use it, unless she lost her primary weapon. She had tested Sigyn's Gift extensively by this point, and knew what to expect from her mainstay weapon, which turned out to be a lot. Next to her Husk followed Colossus' example but instead of a knife she had a small club, whose weight had been magically modified to be twenty times what something its size should, thus ensuring that whatever she hit would feel it in the morning, assuming whoever was struck survived the experience that is. Like the grenades, this would be the first time she had used it in battle, and Husk had to wonder if it would perform as expected.
Guardian followed Vanguard's unspoken advice, taking out a submachine gun, the sword of Gryffindor, and funneling 2/3rds of his magic into his Magia Erebea. As a final touch he changed his eyes, using the same spell he had used in London on Ororo to give her the eyesight of an owl. With that done he wrote out a small message to Storm for Hedwig, telling her to pass it on then come right back, a superfluous order which earned him a sharp nip on the fingers before she left.
He wanted the rest of the team on standby just in case. He hadn't intended it, indeed he had thought this little trip more of a break from the intense training they were going through in preparation for facing Magneto's faction, but that runic array changed his perception of the danger here.
After consulting with Dr. Vorlus, Guardian reluctantly agreed the man could come along so long as he stayed out of the way, and even gave him one of the Cold Steel guns. When the undergrads asked to come along however, he ordered them to pull back down to the ship. Their protests fell on deaf ears and Price at least didn't argue, simply chivvying them along the way. "Just because we like to call you our minions doesn't mean you get to die like them."
When the oversized-kids were out of the way, Guardian turned to his team. "Alright people, let's move. The instant we get to where the runes disappear entirely, be ready for anything. Advance in pairs, and cover one another as we go."
At Guardian's gesture Colossus took point with Husk and Guardian followed right behind him, Vanguard behind him in the sniper's position in turn. Ghigau used her hover boots to skate along the top of the tunnel, upside down but apparently comfortable with it. Sigyn's Gift was in her hands and an arrow on the string as she glared ahead of them.
For several hundred more feet the slope of the tunnel seemed to carry them slightly downward, but within a few dozen yards the runic array disappeared into the rock entirely. It was like someone had transfigured the walls, after those runes had been embedded in them, burying the runes in the very fiber of the stone cliff. It was a fascinating technique, one which Guardian wondered if he could reverse engineer somehow. The use of this technique was literally endless in potential applications.
At the same time, Ghigau tested her weapon, and was happy to note that whatever was blocking Guardian's magic did not stop Sigyn's Gift from being able to transform. She had no idea why, nor did Guardian when she asked, but neither were going to look a gift horse in the mouth.
Guardian also noticed that with every few steps the temperature began to drop from being able to see your own breath to actually feeling cold, almost freezing in fact. Still mulling on the runes Guardian nearly bumped into the back of Colossus, who had suddenly stopped, staring ahead of them. "It might just be me, but it looks as if this tunnel is coming to its end."
"All right everyone get ready. If something is going to happen, it'll happen soon."
The rest of the Custodes Mundi nodded, spreading out as much as they could in the tunnel to give each other fighting room, with Colossus and Guardian still in the lead. There wasn't that much room however, so Husk and the others couldn't get past the two of them. By extension, any foes would face the same bottleneck, which hopefully would be a good thing.
"Are you sure you can't do something about the runes? With them out of the way we might be able to widen this tunnel if we needed more elbow room," Ghigau asked, getting a very bad feeling from the area up ahead.
Guardian shrugged. "You saw me try Ghigau. My magic fizzles out and the walls themselves are protected by something which acts almost like Vanguard's shield, though I don't know if that is from the runes, something done specifically to the stone, or a spell on the area at large. I'm looking forward to finding out though!"
His listeners, even Vorlus, chuckled at his animated tone, but Guardian smirked at Ghigau, the twitch of his lips showing slightly through his mask. "I could try doing the same thing now that I've activated my Magia Erebea I suppose. Then again, I might just bring the whole tunnel down on top of us. Still want me to try?"
"No, I'm good thanks," Ghigau groused from above them, and the group moved forward amid further laughter, this time at her expense.
Colossus had been right, the tunnel ended abruptly about another twenty feet in front of them, exiting out into a smallish cavern that Guardian estimated was about the size of a tennis field. The darkness of the cavern seemed to suck away the light from all of their flashlights, making estimating its size difficult at best.
Seeing this, Guardian frowned darkly before snapping out orders. "Ghigau, Vanguard, Vorlus, remain here and provide cover. Colossus and Husk with me, advance into the center of the cavern, then cover the others as they come forward."
With that Guardian moved forward with Colossus next to him, then Husk after them as they moved out from the tunnel entrance, spreading out quickly to allow one another fighting room while still close enough to go to each other's aid.
Behind them Vanguard knelt in the doorway as he used both his hands for his rifle, covering the right flank. With no words needed Ghigau swiftly moved to cover the left side, bow raised and ready. Vorlus too raised his gun, aiming toward the center, while placing his flashlight down on the ground and pulling out several more for when they entered the cavern.
"Keep your eyes peeled and your back to one another or the tunnel," Guardian said rather unnecessarily. All of them were tense, anxious and beginning to worry about what was hiding in the shadows of this strange, underground cavern. Worse was how little of the cavern their night vision really illuminated. They could see about twenty feet in front of them, but that was all.
The three of them made their guarded way forward, but nothing happened. Soon they had reached the center of the cavern, and yet everything remained calm. While Guardian was looking around them warily Colossus and Husk both began to relax slightly.
Then the ground seemed to leap up at them, as something burst out from beneath Colossus' feet, slamming him to the floor. All around the cavern along the floor, and even from the ceiling sharp, shattering cracks or a rumbling sound could be heard as things ruptured out of the rock which had encircled the cavern, surging through it almost as if it had been water. Blasting out with his gun in one hand even as he punched out to help free Colossus from whatever had grabbed him, Guardian caught a glimpse of the creatures currently attacking them.
And promptly wished he hadn't.
Some were children, others women, many more were men. But even the children were so warped and corrupted they were objects of fear and horror instead of pity. The bodies underneath their ragged, ancient clothing were black with age and swollen in places, seemingly frozen in others. The smell of decay came with them like an almost physical force that caused almost all of them, save Ghigau and Guardian, to gag.
"What the hell are these things!?" Husk shouted, sounding close to panicking even as she opened up into the dark around them.
"Draugr!" Vorlus shouted from where he was crouching next to Vanguard, firing his own gun wildly as his voice rang out taut with awe and rising fear. "Norse undead, stronger, faster and far more durable than most modern interpretations of zombies, they are also somewhat intelligent in some tales. Don't underestimate them!"
This statement was proven when Colossus threw a punch that should have shattered the Draugr creature in front of him into so much offal. Instead the beast took it on its shoulder, turning slightly before bringing its own hands down, smashing Colossus to the floor with a grunt and shattering his night vision goggles in the process.
"They hit harder than Husk!" The Russian shouted, kicking hard at the Draugr while Harry smashed another aside. "Don't try to go hand to hand with them!"
But worse than the strength of their emerging enemies was the incredibly poor visibility plaguing the defenders. The cavern was so dark that even their night vision goggles could only do so much to illuminate it, making all of them save Guardian unable to see more than ten feet around them. Colossus was practically blind now, having to rely on the flashlights set up in the doorway to see anything. The only thing that saved them in those first few moments of the ambush was that the Draugr didn't work together, and the ones directly beneath their feet had attacked before the rest of them.
Guardian slashed at one Draugr with the sword of Gryffindor, the blade scoring across the flesh of its arms for a few inches, before he pulled back, assuming the poison in the blade would kill the zombie like it would an Inferi. Twisting around he engaged another one that had just been about to bite him in the back of the neck. A short punch in the solar plexus threw that one backwards, and a slash from his blade opened up its chest.
Then he went down with a yell of pain as the one he had thought dead body-slammed into the ground. It was only Shiang Chi's lessons that allowed him to throw it off, and he winced after several blows had landed on the back of his head and shoulders. Not enough to break through his Magia Erebea, but they still hurt like blazes.
By the entrance Vanguard began to blast out on full auto with his plasma rifle. The pulses of plasma lit up the dark of the cavern something fierce for a few seconds before impacting their targets. Those impacted by the burning shots howled in pain, their cries inhuman in timbre and volume but kept on coming. The darkness and their sheer numbers made this one of the most terrifying moments in any of the Custodes Mundi's life, and the Draugr were not shy about pressing those advantages.
Colossus rapidly found himself surrounded, nearly blind, and desperate. The Draugr were strong, but thanks to his durability their blows couldn't do much damage outright. But despite that, they were still dangerous to him which he found out the hard way when he got a finger stuck in one of the Draugr's eyes as he attempted to squash its skull. Another one seized his wrist, wrenching it sideways, and Colossus could feel the metal of his wrist bending and twisting. A desperate kick got him free, but he stumbled backwards to dodge another blow, only saved by Guardian's hand on his shoulder keeping him upright.
Guardian forced the metal-clad Russian to turn slightly keeping Colossus facing outwards. "Back to back! Aim for their heads! Take out their heads, crush their brains and the body should stop moving!"
"That's the way it always works in zombie movies, but I-AHH!" Husk shouted from nearby, her words turning into a yell as one of them smashed her to the floor while more pulled themselves out of the ground, trying to pin her in place. One of them even moved back into the very ground itself, grabbing at her from below.
Rolling away, she kicked out at the hands trying to grab her, but her night vision goggles were smashed to pieces by a lucky blow from one of the Draugr, leaving her nearly as blind as Colossus with only the light from the flashlights letting her see anything. Luckily her frantic dodge had brought her close to the entrance, and she took up position to its left, grabbing at the club from her back. Swinging it out vigorously, she sent one Draugr flying while the others faded away slightly, trying to get around her defense. "But these things don't seem to be cooperating!"
Vanguard continued to fire into the horde around his friends. Thanks to his own goggles and the lights of their flashlights he had the best vision of them all, and used it as well as he could, cutting down a Draugr with each plasma burst now, aiming exclusively for their heads. Whatever durability these things had did not extend to plasma fortunately, but even so he had to spend several blasts in order to confirm a kill thanks to the speed of the undead monstrosities.
Hands emerged from the dark to the right side of the entrance, grasping for him. Letting his rifle fall to the tunnel floor for a second, Vanguard grabbed the Orihalcum blade from his belt. A second later he swept it forward, cutting off the hand thanks to the blade's supernatural edge. But behind that Draugr more of them came, and he quickly pushed Vorlus backwards. "Go! Get out of here!"
"Find my owl!" Guardian shouted back, cutting at the neck of a female Draugr trying to grapple with him. "Tell her we're in trouble and to find Storm! She'll know what to do!"
His last words cut off in a grunt of pain as another one of the Draugr caught him in the center of the chest with a punch that flung him backwards. Thanks to his Magia Erebea technique, the blow didn't actually hurt much but that spell didn't make him any heavier and the blow took him off his feet.
Several other Draugr immediately tried to pile on top of them as their fellows had Colossus and Husk. Two of them lost limbs to his sword before another grabbed his head and began to pound it down onto the ground. Several more clawed at his crysis suit from above, another Draugr coming up from beneath him, pulling and tugging from below.
Even with his Magia Erebea technique Guardian couldn't get enough leverage for a moment to free himself as more Draugr grabbed him, crushing and grinding him against the ground as though they'd decided if he couldn't be beaten, he'd be pulverized. Jerking and thrashing Guardian tried to throw them off or cut at them with the Sword of Gryffindor but to no avail, he just couldn't get enough leverage or room to maneuver. "Ghigau a little help here!?"
In response to his radio command she dropped a grenade into the group covering Guardian. The explosion took several of the monsters off their feet, loosening their grips enough for him to throw them off. Getting to his knees Guardian grabbed two of the Draugr hurling them into their fellows. This gave him enough room to regain his feet and once more put his back to Colossus, covering his friend's back as Colossus continued to punch, kick or hurl the Draugr around him aside.
Guardian took a second to look up about to thank his savior, but what he saw caused him to instead quickly fire his machine gun up at the numerous Draugr still half in, half out of the ceiling. His bullets struck a male Draugr through the head before it could grab onto Ghigau, and the skater quickly put distance between them, trying to stay ahead of the Draugr.
"Vanguard, switch fire to helping Ghigau!" Guardian ordered, trying to feel out the battle as well as he could despite the chaos everywhere. "Switch to knives Colossus, cut off their limbs instead of trying to smash them, they seem more susceptible to cutting edges! Keep your back to the sound of my voice whatever happens! Everyone, keep one eye on your feet!"
Behind him Colossus did as ordered, and began to perform better against the undead monstrosities in short order. The darkness and numbers were still a major problem though, as were his opponents speed. Even stranger as well as perilous, the larger ones could somehow change their body shapes such as becoming larger at need, and the Draugr began to fight better and smarter as well.
It was as if their brains, or whatever passed for them, had taken longer to come awake than their bodies. While the men and women kept on attacking the Custodes head on for the most part, the undead children began to try and ambush them from below at every opportunity, forcing the group to have to split their awareness over more avenues of attack.
Realizing this Guardian silently sent more of his magic into his Magia Erebea spell, and could feel the increased strength and durability flow into him in response. Now every blow he landed crippled or killed one of the Draugr. The crippled Draugr were still dangerous, but they like their fellows couldn't take Guardian off his feet any longer and could only hope to delay or distract him.
The rest of the team continued to struggle however, and the horde's numbers showed no signs of declining. There were hundreds of them now, with more and more appearing out of the walls, moving through the same rock that Colossus had been unable to damage like it was water. Occasionally they tossed a grenade into a larger than normal group, but the explosions only slowed the monsters down unless the grenades actually hit one of them. Even so, it let them survive for a moment.
Near the entrance Husk was grabbed from below, and nearly lost her head to a blow from another Draugr when she hesitated to kick the first due to it being a child. Thankfully her training allowed her to dodge the blow at the last moment, grabbing the giant undead monster and tossing it over her shoulder into a nearby wall before stomping down hard, crushing the 'child's' head in before it could escape back into the rock.
With that done she picked up and let loose with her gun once more, peppering and blowing off chunks of bloated flesh from dozens of the Draugr who actually retreated for just a second. To add to her assault she hurled her last two grenades forward, backing up as they exploded, sending several Draugr shrieking backwards.
As she did Husk noticed something. "They aren't trying to move through the rocks near the entrance, it's safe there!"
On the ceiling, Ghigau continued to use her hover boots, skidding backwards from the first rush and down the wall, dodging the hands of the Draugr coming out of the wall, dropping grenades as she could into groups of Draugr below. But then as she raced back onto the ceiling, more of them had come halfway out of the stone of the ceiling, grabbing at her and blocking her way forward.
The one Harry had killed was only the first but luckily for her there didn't seem to be as many Draugr in the ceiling as there were in the walls and floor. And they had to leave their bodies halfway in the rock of the ceiling in order to prevent themselves from falling as they attacked her, which badly hampered their maneuverability, as did the fact most of them seemed to be children.
After but a few moments Ghigau was in dire straits once more, swiftly losing any room to dodge as the Draugr quickly boxed her in, showing far too much cunning for her liking. Her explosive arrows took out the nearest ones but then she felt something grab one of her feet, pinning her down. Before she could fit another arrow to her bow she was completely surrounded. Desperately she cut the power to her boots at the same moment Sigyn's Gift shifted into a glaive, its heavy blade slicing the head off the shoulders of the child Draugr holding her boot.
Ghigau fell like a rock from the ceiling for a second while she twisted in midair, putting her feet below her before activating her hover boots again. The hover boots let her skim over the heads and shoulders of the Draugr horde for a moment, and she sprinted forward before they could get a hold of her again, dropping the last of her grenades behind her.
But one of them was faster than she thought, reaching up quickly to smash a fist into the side of her boot, sending her tumbling out of control into the ground. It was only the boot's armor that saved her from receiving a broken leg but even so she was swiftly encircled, a dozen Draugr reaching for her. "Fuck!"
With his owl-eyes Guardian saw this, and charged forward to save his comrade with consummate Gryffindor recklessness. "Colossus, keep falling back towards Vanguard, Vanguard lob some grenades in front of me then guide him in until he's within the light of the flashlights. Hold the entrance!"
As the grenades went off clearing the way for Guardian's charge, the Draugr in the ceiling began to drop towards the ongoing battle. On the ground more and more of them piled in towards the entrance where Vanguard's rifle chose that moment to run out of power.
Grimly Vanguard flipped his rifle behind him, pulling one of his small submachine guns into one hand and his shield in the other as he stood there doggedly trying to hold the entrance. "Colossus, head right and backward, I'll cover you!"
Beside him Husk continued to pepper the horde with her own covering fire. Hers was nowhere near as accurate as Vanguard's thanks to her personal skillset and her lack of goggles, so she hit on a plan. On full bore her submachine gun cut into the legs of the Draugr trying to close with her, dropping them where they stood to crawl on and through the earth. This bought her enough time to turn her attention to helping her teammate and she began to do the same to the Draugr between the entrance and Colossus. "Come on big guy you're almost there!"
By the time Colossus entered the ring of the lights, Guardian had reached Ghigau, slaughtering his way through the host, killing several Draugr that had pinned her to the ground and pummeling her all the while. Her armor was badly dented and even ripped away in places, her helmet just as badly damaged if not worse.
Despite that Ghigau was still game. She went back to back with him, Sigyn's Gift having changed into a long double-ended pole arm which she whirled around her head and body in a defensive posture, cutting off the limbs and heads of any Draugr that moved too close.
"Move toward the entrance by step count with me!" Guardian ordered. "One, two, step! Ready, now!" Then he grunted as a child Draugr came out of the rock directly below him, grabbing his leg behind the knee and twisting.
His durability held, but he lost his footing for a second. Lashing out with his sword, he slew the midget Draugr, but used his gun to block an overhand blow from a larger member of its brethren, its arm enlarging to twice its size right before impact. The gun shattered, and a second blow from an equally large fist landed right on his eye piece, flinging his head back and making his ears ring for a moment. His durability held again however, and Harry lashed out with sword, fist and feet, slaying several Draugr before they could retreat out of range.
The two moved slowly but surely towards the entrance. But all the while, there were more cracking and shrieking sounds as more Draugr emerged from the stones all around them.
OOOOOOO
"Eyaahhh…." Hela groaned in agony her back spasming slightly as a feeling of wrongness filled her, a feeling of distortion and corruption that seemed to scrape along her spine and awareness. The feeling was very hard to describe with any single portrayal. In some ways it felt as if someone had dipped her soul in sludge, a wrongness filling the connection between Hel and Hela, warping and debasing what made her a goddess of Death. Another part was as if she had just suddenly remembered she had a limb, or a finger, only to find at the same moment that it had long festered with gangrene. A sickness which, once she became aware of it began to spread to the rest of her body with all the speed of a crashing wave.
Someone had abused her powers or her charges, those dead given over to her to be returned to the Weave in time. Worse still, the feeling grew, expanding to make her feel as if ants were crawling underneath her skin, pulling and tearing at her power and sanity, the impression growing with every passing second without pause or relief.
After a second Hela ground her teeth against the anguish, gripping her throne's armrests with crushing force as she sent a thought out to her scrying globe. Because just as whatever was going on was abusing her power, so too she could use that to discern whatever was going on.
To one side Garm had stood up the instant the sensation of foulness struck his mistress, feeling her pain, anxiety and fury. He did not have Hela's connection to her realm, but rather was connected directly to her. "Mistress? What is going on? Tell me who has hurt you my Queen, and they will feel my fangs, I swear it!"
"Something is wrong, not as it should be, tainted!" She hissed through clenched teeth, her face a rictus of pain behind her half mask. "Someone has created Draugr!"
These were not Draugr who had been made so by their own desires or malicious hearts after death. Such was right and proper in the grander scheme of things, and most Draugr would remain after death to guard the treasures they had accumulated in life or the site of their fall with equal fervency. Some Draugr became wild and fed on people, especially shepherds, since they feared being shepherded to the afterlife, but their numbers were never great and they never attacked guarded halls or towns.
If either of those had been the case now, it would not have been such a perverse twist on her rightful powers. No, these felt even more evil and twisted, than even a normal Draugr could ever be. A few of them might have been such, but the others had been victims their bodies and souls being abused into creating these things in some fashion.
After a few moments of sheer torture Hela was able to find where this impression was coming from, and she let loose a wild, almost frenzied laugh somewhere between a chuckle and a sob of distress as she noticed Harry in his Guardian personae along with several more of the Custodes Mundi. "Of course, why does that surprise me?! They're not the ones who caused this thankfully, but they certainly unearthed whatever it was. But it is not their duty to deal with this, it is my duty, and my pleasure!"
And since Draugr fall under my purview, I can legitimately break Odin's law and appear on Midgard physically! I just hope that whatever foul entity has created them still resides there... Snarling with wrath Hela practically threw herself out of her chair, gesturing slightly.
At this gesture a bastard sword of black steel appeared in one hand while a heavy wood and steel shield appeared on her other forearm. At the same moment her normal armor shifted slightly, becoming no less feminine, but covering her body more thoroughly. Even her mask shifted slightly, coming down to protect her cheeks and nose but leaving her mouth free, it's contours changing to form the visage of a wailing skull.
With a wave of the sword Garm too was layered in armor. His nails and fangs were suddenly covered in metal sheathes, his body with light chain mail from neck to tail tip. His head too wore a tight helmet, protecting his ears and throat and enhancing his already daunting features into a countenance that had made grown men and giants wet themselves with fear at the very sight. "Come Garm, there is work that needs doing!"
Garm took one look at his now armored mistress, his own body, and the scrying globe before chuffing slightly as he turned to follow. But not before having noticed Guardian's image in the globe. Hmph, protective females. Still, the Mistress is right and it has been a long time since I killed one of the wretched dead.
OOOOOOO
Colossus grunted in pain as another blow landed on his chin, twisting his head around trying to move with the strike. But another Draugr kicked him hard in the side of the knee while a third grappled him from behind, pulling him backwards as his balance wobbled. He could feel his metal body beginning to creak in agonized protest as more and more of the Draugr piled on, doing their very best to tear him apart or bend him into breaking. Regaining the lights by the entrance had helped him immensely, but he had lost his knife somewhere along the way, and was back to flailing around with his fists again...to predictably poor results to his dismay.
Elsewhere Guardian and the rest of the Custodes Mundi were not faring much better. Husk had lost her machine gun and worse her club was stuck in a Draugr's head somewhere in the piles of corpses surrounding them. She'd killed it, but that had left her weaponless as it had fallen backwards, her weapon lodged in its skull. One of her arms was badly gouged, the metal in it warped and dented, and one of her legs had almost been wrenched off completely. Husk knew she could heal from any damage done to her skin, but she doubted that would extend to replacing a whole limb.
Guardian was still going strong. He stood back to back with Ghigau, cleaving limbs and heads with his sword whenever the, now much cagier, Draugr launched themselves out of the stone or tried to grab him from below. But he couldn't cut his way through the massive horde back to his friends by the tunnel entrance, and all of them were out of grenades now. Ghigau and he were held in place several dozen yards away, unable to break through the wall of foes thanks to the sheer number of undead between them and the doorway held by their companions.
Worse yet, the Draugr now seemed the cream of the putrid crop, faster, bigger, stronger than their fellows and more intelligent to boot. Even the children seemed larger than they had been, and far swifter. Thankfully the flood of new Draugr had stopped, but even so they were in a bad way and getting worse by the second.
By the entrance Vanguard groaned in pain as a Draugr launched itself at him, tackling him to the earth. Vanguard was able to get his shield between the two of them in time however, and his mutant power activated, turning or redirecting the blows back at the Draugr, allowing him to regain his feet. But one of the creature's first blows had trashed his submachine gun, and he had lost his goggles to the second blow despite having dodged it enough to avoid having his head caved in before his mutant power could activate.
This left him with only the knife at his belt and his shield to defend himself with. Vanguard knew he was neither strong nor durable enough to last against these beasts, but still he stood, refusing to fall back and abandon the others. Another Draugr lost his arm to the knife, but a second slammed a blow into the back of Vanguard's head, bypassing Vangaurd's mutant power thanks to the hit coming from outside of the Russian's line of sight.
The blow sent him flying forward several yards deeper into the cavern, his head only remaining attached to his body thanks to the Orihalcum scales in his body armor, and the thing having slightly overreached itself, diluting much of its blow's power. He landed painfully half in and half out the area illuminated by the flashlights by the entrance, his senses swimming as he tried to collect himself as fast as possible.
Two Draugr were on him immediately. They grabbed his feet, and before his powers could activate began to pull in different directions, apparently trying to split him apart. "Gahh!" he yelled aloud in pain as he felt his bones begin to twist, the tendons coming apart despite Vanguard's power now activating, trying to protect him from the force of their grips and their steady pull. But his power couldn't break their hold on him, and they simply kept heaving in different directions slowly as if savoring his agony.
Husk tried to come to his rescue, sliding under one Draugr's snatching grab at her to kick out at one of the ones holding Vanguard. It worked, but she found herself on the ground and more of them instantly piled onto her, bashing her down and battering her with punches the strength of which knocked the breath from her lungs, denting her steel body as if her ribs were giving out. "Help!" She cried out desperately, flailing away at her tormentors to little effect.
Guardian saw the defenders by the entrance being overwhelmed, and took a bare second to look between them and where he and Ghigau were still fighting. He knew if he left Ghigau she would be overwhelmed, the girl had been battered already and was slowly losing strength. But the choice was to stand with her and let the tunnel entrance fall, possibly letting this undead horde out to attack Vorlus and his students or let her possibly die before he could return.
Before Guardian had to make that choice a howl of frothing rage rose up from behind him, a warcry that had not been heard on Earth for millennia. "Your bane is nigh!"
Hela leapt forward out of some kind of dimensional gate on the back of Garm, her sword swinging out the moment its mistress could find a target. That sword spelled doom to the undead abominations, the Draugr falling like puppets with their strings cut at its barest touch, their bodies decaying into nothing even as they fell.
At the same time she raised her free hand, gesturing forward, but nothing happened and she snarled angrily. "Some kind of seidr trap?" Hela cursed as more rapid gestures proved as fruitless as Guardian's had earlier. Pointing ahead she continued to shout. "Garm, head for the girl with the bladed staff!"
The dark of the cavern was no detriments to either Hela or Garm. They saw exactly what they were doing, and the numbers they were facing... They were undeterred and unimpressed at least at first.
Garm's feet and fangs flashed out, slicing, bisecting, and hurling Draugr aside, all aimed to either knock down or disorient their fellow abominations. Hela was just as deadly with her blade as he was with his natural weapons, her sword flowing and gliding through air and Draugr flesh with equal ease. Her shield was either deflecting their retaliatory strikes or launching her own bashing heads and fists aside to create openings for her blade, her entire form constantly moving and shifting with the flow of battle.
They quickly cleared a path around Ghigau and Guardian, whereupon Hela slid off Garm's back, pushing him towards the girl. Just then however, a child Draugr popped up out of the floor, clawing and snapping at her legs with enough strength to shake even a Vanir.
She kicked it away only to stop and stare, only now realizing the enormity of the horror in front of her. Her eyes flashed behind her mask as she let loose wordless, wailing shriek of pure fury, bringing her sword up and around to bisect two of the larger Draugr in one sweeping blow and cutting further into the horde, grief and ire fueling her assault.
It might have been highly inappropriate, but Guardian couldn't help but feel he had rarely seen a sight so beautiful as Hela on the warpath. Shaking that errant thought away he shouted, "Form triangle with these two Ghigau, let the two of them take the brunt of the combat for now!" With that order given he leaped backwards towards the entrance, taking to the air in an arc that carried him the rest of the way to his teammates there.
Upon landing he smashed into the horde, knocking them off Vanguard first then aiding Colossus in freeing himself with several well placed swings and punches. The trio moved swiftly to aid Husk, who was reaching her limit, Harry and Colossus ripping them off her or splattering their heads against the floor, with Vanguard following behind aiding as he could, which, given his injuries wasn't much. Soon after they moved to regain control of the entrance, pushing back a few Draugr who had begun to move into it. With the three of them now firmly back in control of the entrance, if badly battered, Guardian left them there, leaping over the heads of the undead horde once more to rejoin Ghigau and their welcome allies.
Hela swung her dark sword powerfully, cleaving one violated soul after another from this plane of existence with every hit, dodging and blocking as many of their own strikes as she could. Even so, the sheer numbers of Draugr were horrendous, and her form suffered badly due to the continuing sense of corruption permeating through her body.
Every time she faced a child Draugr she hesitated slightly unable to overcome the sheer revulsion and dismay their existence evoked in her, and it often cost her. In the few moments since her arrival Hela's body had become littered with bruises and small cuts from these continual distractions. But she could not help it, the contamination in the former children simply washed over her, and she let lose a frenzied cry of rage and loss every time she was forced to strike one down.
Garm was not feeling anything of that sort and raged and howled unhindered, smashing without pause through the Draugr mass. He took blows in turn of course, one of which nearly took out his eye despite his helmet. But his armor turned most of the blows and strikes effectively, even as it was being slowly torn to shreds through the sheer desperate strength of his foes.
And still the Draugr came on, their numbers still formidable in spite of their tremendous losses. "Pull back to the entrance!" Harry shouted, pushing Ghigau up onto Garm's back. Normally this would have caused Garm to turn and rend both of them into shreds for the sheer impudence of using him as a beast of burden. But a gentle touch from the battered mortal girl to his neck right underneath his helmet caused him to calm slightly, as did the slight nod of approval Hela gave him where she was still locked in combat.
The three of them moved back as one, covering one another, something which came in handy a second later. As Guardian decapitated another Draugr he saw another one slammed the stump of its arm into Hela's face blinding her for a moment. Before the thing could capitalize his blade sent it to the afterlife. "Careful there Hela! Can you tell us anything about these things?! And, not to sound ungrateful, but I thought you said you couldn't appear physically on Midgard without making a deal with Odin?"
Hela growled, stepping behind him for a moment to clear her face and eyes of the foul black puss. "I can appear here because whoever did this manipulated some of my powers to do it. They are Draugr, tainted souls who refused to leave their bodies upon death due to some great malice in their hearts and souls. But for children to be so, and for there to be so many in one place, held in stasis and hidden from me, that speaks of fell magics and power most insidious. Now, less talking, more killing!"
Just then two child Draugr burst out from either side of Harry, clawing at his legs while two more Draugr pressed in hard. His sword bisected one of the child Draugr and stabbed another of the opportunistic ones while Hela caught the second child, the blade of her sword passing straight through it. But the blow from the fourth caught Guardian in the same spot on his mask where he had been hit earlier in the eyepiece.
His mask's eye shattered, and he grunted as the Draugr grabbed him by the flaps of it, hurling him down to stomp on his back as two more burst out of the ground, clutching him with limbs of steel, pinning him in place as several more jumped on his back. Once more Guardian couldn't get enough leverage to use his prodigious strength to lift himself up and he lay there helpless for a few seconds until Hela cut enough of the limbs holding him away for him to surge back to his feet. The instant he was free his legs and feet lashed out, smashing their targets into offal, including one who would have taken Hela from behind.
"Le, less talking, more killing, right…" Guardian muttered in between panting breathes, moving back to back with the Norse goddess of death, guarding her wolf's back as Garm carried Ghigau to the entrance through the horde.
Hela snorted slightly, before gritting her teeth as a Draugr tried to smash her blade out of her arms with a piece of stone. "We need to find a way to somehow destroy the seidr trap or whatever it is. Get me my magic back and I can deal with these creatures all at once, but until then, we're stuck doing this the hard way!" Her blade lashing out to cut off the offending rock wielding arm at the shoulder only served to emphasize this point.
Just then a voice from inside the tunnel shouted, "Let's rock!" Led by Storm and Phoenix the rest of the Custodes Mundi appeared, piling into the fray.
Phoenix had point flying forward with Storm trailing behind her before exiting out into the cavern. Storm's flight wasn't as straight as normal, showing the effect of the cheering charm on her concentration, but without it, she would never have been able to overcome her claustrophobia enough to follow their teammates underground. Even so the sonic boom of their arrivals flowing outwards flung the Draugr away from the entrance, knocking down Vanguard and Husk. But both of them recovered as quickly as they could given their injuries, falling back into the tunnel as their places were taken by their teammates.
Blazing like a small supernova Phoenix lit the underground cavern with enough light to finally let the humans see completely. Their skill and ability to fight back immediately rose despite their injuries, and the Draugr at last began to lose ground, seeming to cringe away from the light of the Avatar of the Lifebringer.
Next to her Storm paused in her own assault when she saw Hela here. She shared a single startled glance with Phoenix then turned her attention to the mass of undead. Time for questions later, now there was a battle to win. But something else caught Storm's attention, and for a moment she simply hovered there in the large cavern, shock, horror and fury overcoming her lingering questions about Hela or the bit of fear that could get through her cheering charm at being underground.
Because she had spotted the former children among the Draugr. Ororo did not have Hela's connection to the realm of the dead, she couldn't actually feel the foulness of what had been done to the children to create the undead monstrosities, but she didn't need to. Thanks in part to her beliefs and thanks in part to her powers Ororo had a connection to the natural order that went well beyond the norm, which more often than not gave her a nurturing, caring side when dealing with children and the innocent.
The sight of those little bodies so distorted awoke a rage in her fit to remind all that saw Storm that she had once been worshipped as a goddess. "This shall not be!" She howled, lightning and blasts of wind shear enough to slice Draugr in two flowing down from her into the horde in such numbers that the Draugr almost seemed to melt away.
Beside her, Phoenix flung fireballs and telekinetic blasts of sheer force which ripped the Draugr apart regardless of their durability. Her attacks lacked the sheer rage of Storm's but her own anger at this distortion of nature lent her attacks just as much force.
At the same time, Magma, Psylocke, and Banshee followed on their heels, moving in front of their battered fellows. Charging forward, the Custodes began to push the Draugr back towards the center into the killing ground under Storm and Phoenix, catching the un-living mob in a deadly trap they could not escape from.
Hela and Guardian formed the center of the line, with Garm anchoring one side and Magma the other, the newcomers and Colossus set behind them, killing any Draugr that attempted to attack them from below. Vanguard and Husk grabbed up new weapons, and dug in at the entrance, providing renewed covering fire and support despite their injuries and weariness.
After the entrance was cleared Banshee joined his fellow flyers, raining down sonic screams on the hateful dead below, but when his sound based assault didn't seem to add much to the attack he switched to two submachine guns instead. Even the guns couldn't do much damage, not even if they hit the heads of his targets, but they at least weakened the Draugr a bit and made the task easier for those on the ground. He concentrated on attacking any of them attempting to regain the ceiling in an effort to attack the flyers from above, calling in strikes from the other two as needed to great effect.
"Press them!" Guardian bellowed, pushing forward. "Don't give these moldy bastards an inch!"
To one side Garm howled a challenge of his own charging ahead, and the rest of the line pressed forward under the cover of their flyers. Unable to use surprise, unable to hide in the dark or attack from below any longer, the Draugr had to attack solely head on now. And with the newcomers there, they couldn't hold. They didn't go quietly or easily, but their numbers at last began to dwindle as the battle went on.
Until finally the last of them, a giant of a bloated monster twice the size of a normal man, fell to a combination of Magma's tectonic energy balls and Garm's fangs, making a very satisfying thump when it hit the floor.
Standing in the center of the cavern, Guardian gasped in breath, staring at first at Hela, then up to his ladies as they began to descend, then around the cavern itself as he began to feel a sort of shiver of magic beneath his feet. It was as if the death of the last Draugr had broken the invocation or whatever it was that had held the runic array and the anti-magic siphon in place.
The broken, shattered remains of the stone walls all around the cavern splintered like glass, turning into dust as they watched, to be replaced by more stone, sconces and murals covering the walls from one end to the other. The torches in the sconces burst into life, giving the hall a bright, almost cheery atmosphere despite the carnage of moments before.
For a moment Guardian was silent, staring about him like everyone else. Then, as he looked from the murals to the dead and to Hela and his ladies, he simply shrugged his shoulders. "Well… there's a thing."