The Previous Chapter

In the previous chapter, the Battle of Ragnarok began! Fenrir swallowed Odin the Allfather, fulfilling his rage for revenge. But things didn’t go as foreseen, as Jormunganr that was hiding still, deep inside the ocean, observing the whole battle saw something he did not believe would ever happen. He saw himself, the younger version of him from this timeline, die after Thor’s deadly hammer strike! While Thor drew his last breath, poisoned by the serpent… Jormungandr was Unable to act while observing the whole thing.

His older Brother

Odin’s son, Vidar, the silent god, the reliable god watched his father’s death. Vidar strides forward, as Fenrir gloats over Odin’s death and thrusts his foot into the wolf’s lower jaw. Vidar’s two feet are different. One of them has a normal show on it. The other wears a show that has been constructed since the dawn of time. It is assembled from all the bits of leather that people cut from the toes and the heels when they make shoes for themselves and throw them away. This shoe will hold the great wolf’s lower jaw down, so it cannot move. Then with one hand Vidar reaches up and grasps the wolf’s upper jaw… and rips its mouth apart… Vidar avenged his father and, in this way, Fenrir died.

Jormungandrs’ eyes filled up with rage! He couldn’t believe how his older brother was defeated… Now was the time to act! To reveal himself and crush the gods once and for all! But Jormungandr waited hidden in the ocean, observing the battle. He froze, and didn’t know what to do. He just stood there and watched as the events were happening in front of his wide open eyes.

On the battlefield, the gods will fall in battle with the frost giants, and the frost giants will fall in battle with the gods. The undead troops from Hel will lie beside the noble Einherjar in their final death, beneath the lifeless misty sky, never to rise again, never to wake up, never to fight.

His Father against Heimdall

Of Loki’s legions, only he himself was still standing, bloodied and wild-eyed, with a satisfied smile on his scurred lips. Heimdall, the gatekeeper of the gods, was standing on the battlefield as well, with his sword Hofud, wet and bloody in his hand. They walk towards each other across Vigrid, treading on corpses, wading through the blood and flams to reach each other.

“Ah,” Loki says, “The muddy-backed watchman of the gods… You woke the gods too late, Heimdall. Was it not delightful to watch them die, one by one?”

Heimdall didn’t react, he was just looking at Loki with an emotionless face.

“Nothing to say, Heimdall of the nine mothers?” Loki continued “When I was bound beneath the ground, with the serpent’s poison dripping onto my face with poor Sigyn standing beside me, trying to catch what venom she could in her bowl, bound in the darkness with the intestines of my son… All that kept me from madness was thinking of this moment. Rehearsing it in my mind, imagining the day when my beautiful children and I would end the time of the gods and end your world!”

Heimdall was still emotionless with nothing to say. He was the first to strike. With Loki striking back. They fought hard. Heimdall was crashing his sword against Loki’s armor, and Loki counters as he attacks will fierceness and intelligence and glee. They fight and slash and stab and hack at each other. They will fight and they will fall, Heimdall and Loki, fall beside one another, each mortally wounded.

“It is done…” Whispers Loki, dying on the battlefield. “I won…”

Father’s Death

But Heimdall will grin then, in death, grin through his golden teeth flecked with spittle and blood.

“I can see further than you.” Heimdall tells Loki. “Odin’s son Vidar killed your son Fenris Wolf and Vidar survived. So does Odinsson Vali, Vidars brother. Thor is dead, but his children Magni and Modi still live. They took Mjollnir from their father’s cold hand. They are strong enough and noble enough to wield it!”

“None of this matters. The world is burning.” Says Loki “The mortals are dead. Midgard is destroyed. I have won.”

“I can see further than you, Loki, I can see all the way to the world-tree. Surtr’s fire cannot touch the world tree, and two people have hidden themselves safely in the trunk of Yggdrasil. A woman and her man, whose descendants will populate the earth. It is not the end. There is no end. It is simply the end of old times, Loki, and the beginning of the new times. Balder will return from the underworld and the surviving gods will once again rule under new leadership! Vidar will take Odin’s place, Magni and Modi will take Thors’ daily tasks and Balder will help them as well. Rebirth always follows death. You have failed.”

Loki would say something, something cutting clever and hurtful, but his life had gone and all his brilliance and cruelty with him. He laid still and cold beside the lifeless Heimdall on the battlefield that was surrounded with death.

Ragnarök’s End

Now Surtr, the burning giant, looks out the vast plain of death and raises his bright sword to the heavens. Then it was heard a sound like a thousand forests turning to flames, even the air itself began to burn. The world cremated in Surtr’s flames. Black ash falls from the sky like dark snow. In the twilight, where Loki and Heimdall’s bodies once laid besides one another, now nothing can be seen but two heaps of grey ash on the blackened earth, the smoke mingling with the mist in the air. Nothing remained of the armies of the living and the dead, nothing but ash. Everything living will be forgotten under the sunless sky. That is how the world ended, in ash and flood, in darkness and in ice. That was the final destiny of the gods and of the giants…

After the end there is a beginning

That is the end. But there is also what comes after the end. From the burning battlefield of ash, the earth cooled down and ice began to spread, cleansing the earth from its ash. The Sun may have been eaten, but the Sun’s daughter will shine in the place of her mother and the new Sun will shine even more brightly than the old!

Asgard is gone but now stands Idavoll in its place. Odin’s sons Vidar and Vali will arrive in Idavoll. Next will come Thor sons, Magni and Modi. They will bring Mjolnir between them because now that Thor is gone it will take both of their arms to hold its weight. Balder returns from the underworld with his brother Hod. The six of them will sit in the light of the new sun and talk among themselves, remembering mysteries and discussing what could be done differently this time. How should they rule the world and build it from scratch?

The new Gods

They will talk of Fenrir, the wolf that ate the world, and of the Midgard serpent, and they will remember Loki and every other Giant. Vali will suggest that in the past, the gods did not act fair with the giants. Their rebuild should be fair among races and species. As they were talking and throwing different opinions to each other, Balder notices something on the ground

“Hey, hey what’s that?”

“What?” asks Magni

“There! Glittering in the long grass. Do you see it? And there! Look, it’s another of them”

They go down on their knees, like children looking for their missing toys. They found more of those pieces. Here is a pawn looking like Thor holding his hammer. There is another small sculpture appearing to be Heimdall with his horn on his lips, Frigg, Odin’s wife is the queen. They were chess pieces! That of the humans used to play with. 

Balder holds up a little golden statue. 

“That one looks like you, uncle!” Modi tells him

“It is me…” says Balder. “It is me long ago, before I died, when I was of the Aesir.”

“What do you mean? You still are Aesir!”

“No! No Modi. The Aesir is no longer… They died at Ragnarok with their mistakes and unfair decisions. We are no longer Aesir. We must be better…”

They found more pieces in the grass, some beautiful, some less. There is a frost giant pawn. Here is Surtr and Loki’s Children 

Soon they found all the pieces they needed to make a full chess set. They arranged the pieces onto the chess board.

“Let’s play” said Vidar to Balder

Balder smiles, and nods. The sun comes out and reaches to the sky. Balder moves his first pawn.

Words from the Author

Hello there, Chris here and I wish to speak to you about something…

This Chapter was inspired and had a lot of similar events from the norse mythology, in which Child of Ragnarok is highly inspired of! I have read a lot of books talking about Norse Mythology, I played video games like the new God of War. The skandinavian mythological world captivated me. Anyways, for the creation of the couple of previous chapter and this one there was one book specifically that helped me the most. That being The Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman. I would like to notice my bibliography as honorable mention

We have reached the middle of the Child of Ragnarok! The story is finished by me in draft. I will try to focus on this book so we can publish it in a couple of months!

Expect the unexpected in the next chapter!

Thank you for your support, keep reading and be happy! 😉