ALL NOVEL Chapter 67: Chapter: 67
Chapter: 67
Woah! Asgard was absolutely beautiful. I loved the aesthetic so much! The beautiful golden city sitting above the eternal waterfall looked absolutely amazing in real life. I could also see that the golden city was thriving, as dozens of spaceships were sailing across the skies every second. Had I not started my journey on Earth, I would have absolutely wanted to live in a place like this! It made my multi-million dollar penthouse on Earth look like a joke.
"What the fuck happened!? Heimdall, what the fuck!?" My thoughts were broken from Azazel shouting next to me as he beheld Asgard.
"This is disturbing, to say the least." Penemue added as she also beheld the city. "It's just gone…"
Was I missing something here? I looked over to Sif, and she looked just as confused by their outbursts as I was. Heimdall, though, looked saddened and let out a tired sigh.
"Asgard has definitely seen better days…" Heimdall said.
"What do you mean?" I asked. The place looked thriving and fine to me. In fact, it looked a lot grander than its MCU counterpart.
"What do YOU mean, Layla!? Asgard is gone!" Azazel exclaimed as he spread his arms wide. Once again, I had no idea what he was talking about because the city of Asgard was right there in front of me.
"Ahem," Heimdall cleared his throat. "Maybe this conversation could be continued elsewhere where we are less likely to be overheard," he stated. Azazel and Penemue acquiesced and dropped it. I had no doubt whatever they would be talking about would be brought up again soon though.
One thing that interested me about the Bifrost was that, unlike in the movies where it seemed only the royals could use it, here there were many civilians walking along the rainbow bridge. In fact, there were actually multiple beam devices instead of just the one, and there were other operators working those devices so that Asgardians could teleport to either realms. It seemed much more efficient than just having the one guy. I figured Heimdall was still in charge of them all. That was also why he shut down whatever questions my siblings had brought up as we were starting to draw some curious gazes. There were a lot of people muttering about the beautiful Lady Sif in particular. Asgard didn't have a princess–well it did but not anymore–so Sif was the closest thing they had. A lot of people were gazing at her with reverence.
"Come," Heimdal said. "I will escort you all to the palace where you can inquire about why Loki sent the destroyer. I too would like some answers in that regard."
"What's so complicated about it? He tried to off his brother so he could have the throne. There, case closed. Let's go beat him up and have some mead afterwards." Azazel said as he started marching along.
Eh, sounds good to me.
"Prince Loki tried to murder prince Thor!" I only took one person listening in to start a wave of panic. Something I think Heimdal was trying his best to avoid. Too late now though as more and more angry Asgardians were speaking up in outrage at what they'd just heard.
"Allfather save us! I saw the legendary Destroyer march through here not an hour ago!"
"That's Fratricide!"
"Someone must alert the Queen immediately of such treachery!"
We all decided to skedaddle as it looked like Azazel's words might have started a small riot.
...
"So Loki is the king right now? He didn't mention that when he was talking to Thor earlier," Penemue said as we walked through the palace walls.
"He's not King!" Sif declared with loathing in her voice directed at a certain god of mischief. "He's only the regent until Thor can return and assume his proper mantle!" It seemed that Loki was not well-liked here – at least not by Sif. I do remember there being a story there. It was something about him turning her bald for a while when they were younger.
"So did you and Thor have a thing going on in the past or..." I trailed off as I asked Sif.
Sif looked at me oddly. "Why do you want to know? Are you interested?" Sif asked jokingly.
"Yes," I replied with a straight face. "I am interested in you."
"Oh my, how bold, Layla," Penemue said.
Sif seemed taken aback at my declaration. This woman seemed pretty straightforward, so I thought I should be the same with her.
"OH!" Sif exclaimed with a slight blush. She seemed to be at a loss for words. I figured that was a good sign. She turned her gaze away from me and started marching down the hallway towards the throne room faster.
"Dang it, Layla!" Azazel mock-lamented. "You're all grown up and stealing all the beautiful women for yourself now. What will your poor older brother do now?" He said with magically conjured crocodile tears in his eyes.
"Maybe appreciate what you have already," I said as I pointed to our sister. Penemue blushed when I pointed out that I knew about their relationship – whatever it was.
"I suppose you heard us last night..." She said with some embarrassment. "The thing is, Layla, well – I wanted to have a child, and..."
"Believe it or not, I don't actually have any children despite the many…MANY women I've been with," Azazel continued for her.
[I do not believe it.]
'Me neither, system...but I might as well humor him.'
"Anyway," Azazel continued. "We both wanted a kid, and with the upcoming peace talks, we figured, why not make one together?" He said as if that was a completely normal relationship. Although, as far as Fallen Angels go, it kind of was. Not many Fallen end up getting married. Most of my nieces and nephews pretty much besides Akeno were the results of happy accidents.
I smiled at both of them. "I'm happy for you two."
"If you all are quite done with your family discussion, we are here," Heimdall said as we finally arrived at some large ornate golden doors. We were right outside the throne room where Loki was probably waiting for us to put on some kind of intimidation show.
"Hey, where are all the guards?" I asked, noticing that so far we hadn't come across any soldiers at all after venturing fully into the royal palace. That was weird.
"He fired them all after they refused to acknowledge him as anything more than king-regent," Sif said with disdain. "He also fired all of father's advisers and generals. Any nobles who have protested his reign have also been stripped of their status.
Wait…So is Loki just sitting in a completely empty palace right now!?" I exclaimed. What was he even king of if he had no one supporting him?
Sif and Heimdall just shrugged before moving to push the large doors open. There was a loud drawn-out creaking noise as the doors moved.
[Someone needs to hit those hinges with WD-40.]
'I don't think that's a thing here.'
[Fine, they can use space lube.]
I did my best not to start randomly laughing out loud as we entered the royal hall. And there he was…Loki. He was sitting all by his lonesome upon the golden throne of Asgard. He had a smug look on his face and looked really proud of himself. I'm not exactly sure what he was proud of – he hasn't exactly done anything so far. He never even tried to destroy Jotunheim… My interfering completely scrubbed that situation away. That was a good thing too, because destroying
the Bifrost would trap us on Asgard until my sling ring skills were good enough to get us back to Earth.
"Welcome back, Lady Sif. And Heimdall, what brings you here today? Shouldn't you be sitting on the edge of the world being the voyeur we all know you to be?" He mocked the two of them before turning to us three. "And you all… I don't believe we've had the acquaintance. Although I would very much like to." He said as his eyes raked me over up and down.
"No thanks, I like girls," I said dryly to him before turning to Sif and giving her a wink. I smirked internally when she blushed again and looked away from my gaze.
"Tch. All the beautiful ones always seem too…" He muttered out. "Well then, what brings you all before the king of Asgard this day?"
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