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*****
Although Thor had agreed to bring Fenye along, he still lacked the nerve to formally report the matter to Odin. He resolved to utilize the exact same methodology as their previous joint deployment: slip away covertly first, and plead for royal forgiveness upon their return.
After all, drawing from his past experiences, he knew the resulting administrative punishment wouldn't be excessively severe.
As night fell, Fenye and Thor made their way back to the Bifrost observatory. Fenye intended to map out the logistics for their transit to Nornheim the following morning, while Thor was simply leveraging Heimdall's piercing vision to check up on his mortal girlfriend back on Midgard.
"She is faring well. Aside from occasionally unleashing a torrent of vicious curses at your expense, her daily life is quite comfortable," Heimdall reported.
Hearing the gatekeeper's briefing, Thor broke into a thoroughly goofy, love-struck grin. He genuinely seemed ecstatic at the mere prospect of being yelled at, leaving Fenye struggling to look him in the eye.
From a strategic standpoint, Fenye harbored zero long-term confidence in Thor's current romance. According to the progression of the original events, while the specific underlying variables remained unverified, Jane would ultimately choose to walk away from him anyway.
"I intend to accompany Thor to Nornheim tomorrow morning," Fenye stated, breaking the silence once Heimdall finished his routine surveillance of another man's girlfriend, officially logging his upcoming deployment.
Heimdall shifted his gaze toward an exceptionally fidgety Thor before looking back at Fenye, asking directly, "A repeat of the prior deployment?"
"Yes," Fenye nodded.
In truth, exchanging data with Heimdall was always a highly enriching experience. The gatekeeper's baseline knowledge repository was exceptionally vast; when an individual commands a sensory matrix capable of seeing and hearing across the entire cosmos, a wealth of insight is practically an inevitability.
Observing how smoothly and unconditionally Heimdall had acquiesced to Fenye's logistical request, Thor found himself entirely at a loss for words. Had he not known it was a statistical impossibility, he would have seriously suspected that the gatekeeper was operating under a form of latent psychic manipulation orchestrated by the young sorcerer.
The trio spent a considerable amount of time exchanging dialogue within the observatory. Ultimately, a thoroughly love-sick Thor managed to drink himself into complete inebriation, forcing Fenye to unceremoniously drag him back to his quarters by the ankle. Consequently, when the vanguard prepared to deploy the following morning, Thor couldn't shake a distinct, uncomfortable sensation radiating across half of his face.
---
The geopolitical territory of Nornheim was exceptionally small, failing to meet the conventional parameters of a sovereign state. By Midgardian administrative standards, it functioned essentially as a localized province under Asgardian jurisdiction.
The moment Fenye and Thor made planetfall on the battlefield, Fenye immediately noted that the overwhelming majority of the Nornheim insurgent vanguard was comprised of female warriors.
Yet, while they were biologically female, their individual physiques were far more intimidating than their male counterparts. Standing at a baseline height that scaled evenly with Thor, clad in dense musculature, and sporting rugged, hardened facial features, their presence drastically revolutionized Fenye's baseline perception of women.
Furthermore, beyond their terrifying visual profiles, their functional close-combat output was exceptionally formidable. In isolated, one-on-one skirmishes, a vast number of elite Asgardian vanguard soldiers were being systematically overwhelmed.
Fenye refrained from launching an immediate offensive. Having locked down the data regarding the one-thousand-enemy cap, he had abandoned the practice of recycling high-volume trash mobs, shifting his focus entirely toward capturing premium, high-quality targets instead.
Meticulously analyzing the female warriors through his heightened perception, he could subtly detect that their psychological and physical states were highly anomalous. Their attributes had clearly been forcibly accelerated via an external catalyst to achieve this brief surge in combat efficiency.
On the other vector of the battlefield, the God of Thunder had lunged into the fray the absolute moment his boots touched the ground, raising Mjolnir high as he barreled forward. Driven by an intense desire to finally secure a definitive victory over Fenye, he was channeling every ounce of his raw stamina into the assault.
Under Thor's explosive display of martial prowess, the localized skirmish within their perimeter concluded with remarkable speed. Fierce as the Norn warriors were, they simply lacked the baseline parameters to withstand a prince who was ravenous for a competitive win.
Nevertheless, the drop zone they had secured was merely a minor frontier settlement. The true epicenter of the high-intensity military insurrection was concentrated around the coordinates of the Nornheim Royal Palace; the conflict would only draw to a definitive close once Karnilla herself was systematically neutralized.
---
"Legend has it that Asgard once commanded a legendary vanguard brigade known as the Valkyries. Every single member possessed the martial capacity to single-handedly match a hundred foes, and enrollment was strictly reserved for the absolute elite of our warrior class. Yet, for reasons lost to history, the entire order suddenly vanished from existence," Thor remarked, turning his gaze toward Fenye as they rested by a crackling campfire, consuming a few Violet-Brand Fried Chicken Rolls to restore their stamina while keeping watch over a cluster of bound Norn prisoners.
"If my memory serves me correctly, didn't you desperately desire to enlist in their ranks during your youth?" Fenye asked, vaguely recalling a line of dialogue Thor had voiced in the original timeline.
"How could you possibly possess that data?!" Thor blurted out, a sudden wave of intense embarrassment washing over his features. He rapidly offered a frantic clarification: "I was merely an unverified child at the time! I lacked the baseline awareness that the brigade's charter strictly mandated an all-female composition!"
"There's no need to stress over it. I am confident that Asgard's cutting-edge bio-tech infrastructure can easily resolve that minor structural limitation," Fenye remarked, a bright, mischievous smile playing across his lips as he offered a playful suggestion: "You could even rope Loki into the workflow. Before you know it, the cosmos will be cheering for the Three Sisters of Asgard."
"The Three Sisters?!" Thor blinked, looking thoroughly bewildered by the phrasing.
"Never mind, forget I said anything. Just a minor slip of the tongue," Fenye replied, shaking his head. He had zero intention of prematurely introducing the historical parameters of Hela to the prince at this juncture.
Thor didn't press the matter, taking a massive, savory bite out of his chicken roll before murmuring around a mouthful of food: "I previously petitioned my father to unearth the true fate of the Valkyries, but every single time the topic materialized, he systematically derailed the dialogue. He displays an absolute aversion to discussing that chapter of our history."
It would be a miracle if he actually wanted to discuss it! Fenye thought to himself, subtly twitching his lips. Opening a dialogue regarding the Valkyries would inevitably trace back to Hela, and unearthing Hela's legacy would lay bare the unadulterated history of their ancient campaigns of total slaughter and planetary conquest.
For an aging Odin who was actively trying to rewrite his legacy, reform his character, and present himself as a benevolent father and a peaceful All-Father, that chapter constituted a dark, classified history that had to remain buried at all costs.
Then again, if my data logs are correct, there is still a lone Valkyrie drawing breath out in the cosmos, Fenye mused. According to the original events, a surviving member of the order was currently stationed on Sakaar under the Grandmaster's jurisdiction, utilizing heavy alcoholism as a coping mechanism to evade her past.
"Shifting back to tactical parameters... the structural state of these Norn warriors appears remarkably unstable," Fenye remarked, gracefully steering the conversation away from the Valkyries to focus on the immediate operational environment.
"They are almost certainly operating under the active influence of Karnilla's sorcery," Thor confirmed, nodding in agreement. "Her unique casting matrix allows her to exponentially scale her own baseline attributes or project that enhancement onto her vanguard. However, the modulation operates strictly within a brief temporal window and extracts a heavy physical toll afterward—not unlike the mechanical feedback loop triggered by our Berserker Staves."
Fenye marveled internally at the diverse arcane methodologies present within the Nine Realms, finding his anticipation of encountering Karnilla surging to a new peak.
Because their initial deployment had materialized during the late evening hours, the surrounding environment had plunged into total darkness by the time the skirmish concluded. Navigating treacherous, unfamiliar terrain under zero-visibility parameters carried too many structural risks, forcing the vanguard to establish a secure perimeter and encamp for the night.
Although Nornheim was administratively categorized under Asgardian jurisdiction, Fenye could distinctly sense that the ambient resistance opposing Golden Derivative Magic here wasn't nearly as absolute or suffocating as it was within the golden capital.
Sitting quietly inside his tent, Fenye began executing a series of controlled calibration tests on his magic.
After exerting a measured amount of mental focus, he watched a beautifully structured, comfortable bed smoothly manifest before him. A wave of intense satisfaction washed over his chest.
The higher the baseline efficacy of Golden Derivative Magic, the more devastating his overall combat output became. Facing an unverified enemy with raw, reality-warping mechanics operating at high capacity was a phenomenal tactical advantage.
The following morning, Thor rapidly organized the vanguard columns and initiated a hard march toward the epicenter of the conflict.
Given that Nornheim's geographic perimeter was remarkably compressed, the vanguard successfully breached the primary combat zone by early afternoon. It was there that Fenye caught his absolute first look at the sovereign of the insurrection: the Norn Queen, Karnilla.
She was a towering, colossal figure standing nearly two meters tall, clad in an exceptionally vibrant, multi-colored ceremonial armor matrix. She was systematically orchestrating her defense, unleashing high-density offensive energy volleys with one hand while effortlessly maintaining a massive arcane shield with the other. Watching her structured workflow filled Fenye's chest with a wave of profound, professional comfort.
After wading through endless physical brawlers and brute-force warlords, he had finally encountered a conventional, textbook ranged spellcaster.
(End of Chapter)