《The ravings of a lunatic》


 Prologue - an ending and a beginning

    Prologue


    I stood there, knee deep in the corpses of thousands, tens of thousands of people....strangers.....friends....family members, all dismembered and their blood and guts scattered about like dry leaves in the autumn. Their bodies lying there like broken toys, their eyes staring wide but seeing nothing. The face of men and women, the children and the elderly all stuck in a perpetual mask of fear and pain, the essence of pure agony that they felt as their lives were snuffed out by an uncaring blade still etched into a death mask that mocked me and taunted me as if to drive home the fact that my actions in the end were ultimately futile...meaningless.


    I stood there waiting for judgment from the gods themselves. My heinous crimes were unforgivable, my sins had no absolution. My existence had been deemed an abomination that needed to be exterminated.


    From among the crows and vultures who were circling around , feasting on the grand buffet that I had offered them, other flying creatures started to emerge. The Valkyries had finally arrived to deliver my sentence by the edge of their swords.


    I didn''t try to escape. I didn''t try to hide. I didn''t even even try to fight. I simply opened my arms wide as if to welcome a long lost lover. The sword of the first Valkyrie lanced through my chest, jammed through my heart with the force of her flight. I knew I should be feeling pain but it had been so long since my heart was broken that the sword inside of it barely made any difference. Besides, pain was my only friend and my one constant companion. This paltry imitation, a mere shadow of what real pain is meant nothing to me.


    A second blade passed through my gut but the third one passed straight through my right eye socket and lodged itself deep into my brain.


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    I had decided to accept my fate and die quietly this day but observing these pigeons trying to kill me and failing miserably started to enrage me. The fire within my soul that I thought was forever extinguished started to burn again. The cold ashes slowly turned into embers which eventually turned into small flames.


    My right hand slowly rose up from my side . Almost as if they were no longer under my control, my fingers caressed the beautiful face of the Valkyrie who had a sword jammed into my eye. I looked into her ice blue eyes as I gently run my fingers up her jawline until they reached her blonde hair. Blonde hair that was exactly the same as my wife''s.


    I hated my wife.


    I roughly grabbed her hair and threw her on to the ground where I violently stomped on her head until it broke like an eggshell, splattering her brain everywhere. I took out her sword from my eye and decapitated the one that had her sword deep in my gut, sending her head flying through the air and soaking the last one in her blood. The final Valkyrie tried to fly away at this point, but it was much too late for that. I grabbed her hand before she could take off and started to rip off her armor piece by piece.


    Odin sent three of his fucking pigeons to kill me?


    After everything that had happened he wouldn''t even take the time to smite me himself?


    You know what? Fuck the gods.


    I hope Odin uses his all seeing eye to see me fuck one of his pigeons at the doorstep of where his temple used to be , among the rotting bodies of his former followers.

 chapter one - Loki

    Chapter one


    Twenty four hours of violent rutting later the once proud and beautiful Valkyrie was lying curled up on the ground, her wings bent at awkward angles where they were broken to accommodate various positions that were impossible with wings. She was sobbing quietly, afraid to draw my attention , afraid that I might continue to violate her but I had already had my fill. I had taken out my anger at the gods on this pitiful creature and as I saw her covered in bruises, blood and other bodily fluids I even started to feel sorry for what I had done.


    I suddenly heard slow clapping coming from my right and a voice said, "You sir are a fucking artist. I mean look at this , I wish I had a camera to take a picture because this is a fucking work of art, truly inspired. I honestly don''t think there is a single thing I could do to make this scene more perfect."


    I turned around and standing there was a breathtakingly beautiful woman. She had bright green eyes like a pair of emeralds with hot coal smoldering inside them, her face was different from the Nordic idea of beauty , she didn''t have the strong jaw line or pale complexion that was normal in our women  but her well sculpted features and bronze like skin combined to form a beauty that was special instead of garden variety, the fact that she was exotic and different making her even more attractive. Her long hair fell down her bare back all the way towards her ass which was large without being too big. She wore a backless gown that was the same shade of green as her eyes. The tight dress struggled to contain the enormous globes on her chest while exposing a generous amount of cleavage that drew the eyes. Further down her tight dress continued to hug her figure showing off her slim waist and wide hips. The tight dress ended mid thigh displaying her long long legs that had dainty feet that were wearing open toed sandals. The woman was like a living embodiment of sex , she made everything sensual. When she inhaled her chest pushed out stealing your breath as she got hers. When she talked the way her juicy red lips moved begged to be kissed or put to use in other ways. The way she walked while swaying her hips could drive any man wild. In one word she was divine, quite literally in this case.


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    "Loki."


    "Antony , you recognized me? I''m so flattered!"


    I quickly picked up a sword from the ground and in a flash I was in front of her slashing at her neck. The sword was traveling so fast that mere mortal eyes could not even see it move but Loki wasn''t mortal. She grabbed the blade between her index finger and thumb stopping it cold, " Looking at your actions I could almost believe that you weren''t happy to see me, but I know better," I was still naked from my time with the Valkyrie and she reached down and grabbed my engorged member and started to stroke it,"you are definitely happy to see me." She grabbed the hand holding the sword and lifted it over my head and behind my neck bringing her closer to me and pressing her chest onto mine in one smooth motion,"Is this the way you greet the one person who is willing to talk to you without trying to cut your head off?" Her face was so close to mine that I could feel her hot breath on my face, all the while she continued her stroking. My voice was strained as I answered her, "What are you doing here Loki, come to gloat?"


    "Nonsense , I came here to offer you a job."

 chapter two - back story

    Chapter two


    "Nonsense , I came here to offer you a job."


    "Is this one of your oh so funny jokes? Because it isn''t very funny. I have killed more members of your cult than anybody out there, hell I killed your champion. Why the fuck would you want me?"


    Her stroking hand suddenly stopped , it traveled upwards gently touching my chest then cupped my chin, "That was all in the past Antony, you were one of the many idiots duped into following the so called ''gods''." she let me go then started to walk around me affording me a great view of her backslide, the sultry smile she threw back at me made it clear that she had noticed me looking, " You truly believed that the gods created you and the world around you, that they somehow kept the balance keeping all the nine realms safe. You believed their stories about how I was the ultimate evil and you acted on that , I can''t fault you for doing something that you thought was right."


    "Are you telling me that you have suddenly become a paragon of forgiveness ? That you are willing to give me a second chance because I had good intentions ? Spare me the bullshit Loki."


    "Oh this isn''t bullshit Antony, let me tell you something that I would consider truly bullshit. Once upon a time there lived an honorable man who lived in peace with his beautiful wife and new born baby. This honorable man also happened to be one of the greatest warriors in the country some would even argue that he was the best, he had distinguished himself in several wars and made a name for himself before he had decided to retire and settle down. One day while he was working in his carpentry workshop where he now made a living, a priest of Odin paid him a visit. The priest claimed that he had received a vision from the gods themselves that said that the man must journey on a great and noble quest to defeat a great evil that threatened the lands. The man being not only honorable but also devout agreed to do as he was instructed. He was taken to Odin''s temple where he was given a cup of what he thought was ambrosia but was actually something more sinister."


    I raised my hand to stop her, "I know how this story goes, why are you telling it to me?"


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    She just smiled and flicked the end of my nose with her finger," Shush you, it''s getting to the good part. Now where was I ? Oh , yes, the sinister cup. What the cup contained was an unstable concoction that had been abandoned because it was too dangerous to use. Now this naive man drank the concoction and it changed him forever. The man''s strength , speed , and endurance soared. His body developed the ability to heal that made him nearly indestructible, but there was a tradeoff. The honorable man became unable to control his most basic impulses. At first he funneled all his rage and intensity at his enemies, he committed unspeakable crimes , things that he would never have been able to do before. He killed women and children, he burned entire villages and murdered innocents just because of their association and proximity to the ones he had condemned but he told himself that it was all in the god''s name so it was alright. The man who was no longer so honorable completed his grizzly mission and returned to his home town. He was so devoted to his mission that the first thing he did was to go to the priest to report what had happened. Oh and this is my favorite part, he entered the temple only to find his beloved wife being fucked by the priest while he bent her over the altar. The man unable to control his rage exploded in fury not only destroying the temple but also the whole town killing everyone he knew and loved. The end. Now that is what I call bullshit, the biggest load of bullshit I have ever heard."


    "What does that have to do with anything?"


    "I am sure that you have realized by now that the gods don''t give a fuck about what happens to you. They have literally taken everything from you just for their amusement. What I am offering you is the chance to kick down the golden gates of Asgard itself and jam your sword into Odin''s one remaining eye."


    "You were not so different from them in the past, why should I listen to you? Why should I trust you?"


    "Because everything that you care about is gone and you no longer have anything to lose."

 chapter three - yes

    Chapter three


    "You no longer have anything left to lose."


    Her words hit me like a ton of bricks, I almost felt it like it was a physical impact. It resonated with what I was feeling inside, I was hollow, empty of anything meaningful. All that I valued and thought was important like honor and religion , like love and family, all of it stripped from me, and for what? To entertain the gods?


    I looked at the temptress before me and considered her offer. She was offering me something impossible. The gods have always been beyond our understanding, beings that wielded powers beyond our ken. We were mere mortals who languished in Midgard. Mere mortals aren''t allowed to enter the fabled halls of Asgard but that was exactly what Loki was offering me, a chance to destroy the gods themselves in the heart of their power. It was a beautiful dream but I feared it was too fanciful to ever become a reality.


    "The offer is tempting Loki, but I am a mere mortal with only a little more power than the average man, I do not imagine myself an equal of the gods just because of that. As you have already demonstrated I am no match for a god. I might not have anything to lose but I am not foolishly wasting my life."


    Her mouth curled up into a smile and then she started to laugh," You still believe that those buffoons living in their shiny golden castles are gods? Haven''t you been paying attention to what has been happening to you ? They are liars. They lied to you about everything. They are no gods , they are remnants of what used to be a great and powerful civilization. They are using advanced technology to make themselves look like gods to you. Odin''s ''all seeing eye'' is nothing more than a sophisticated surveillance system and do you really think that that drunken oaf Thor is the only one ''worthy'' of Mj?lnir, fuck the only thing he is worthy of is a shower which he never seems to take. They keep you mortals cowed with false stories of heroism and might while spending their time drinking and fucking their ''pure'' Valkyries. Do you know what the Valkyries are ? They are nothing more than genetically engineered whores for your so called gods. That''s right, they are so dedicated to fucking they made a new species exclusively for that purpose. They have spent so many years drinking and fucking that they have become lazy arrogant fucks. Don''t be intimidated by them, I can show you things and give you things that would make you just as powerful as any ''god'' in Asgard. All you have to do is come and take it."


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    She sashayed over to me and grabbed my face between her hands to bring me tantalizingly close to her juicy red lips as she whispered," Just say yes and together we shall make all the nine realms fall at our feet. You and I together will be unstoppable, you can have anything you want. Power,fame, revenge , women you can have it all, just say yes."


    Her intoxicating scent entered my nostrils and my head was filled with lust for the woman in front of me. I was barely able to keep myself back when she leaned forward and kissed me with her soft lips , softly at first but then more aggressively invading my mouth with her tongue that expertly wound around mine and coaxed it to react. Before I knew it I had grabbed her well shaped ass and was violently kissing her back.


    When we separated from the hot steamy kiss and I looked into the alien green eyes of the most beautiful woman I have ever seen , all I could do was whisper "yes" before bringing her lips back to mine.


    At that point I wasn''t even sure what I was agreeing to anymore.

 chapter four - torture

    Chapter four(WARNING- THIS CHAPTER CONTAINS EXPLICIT SEX SCENES PG18+)


    I was so absorbed in kissing the woman in my arms that I barely noticed the scene around me begin to shift and change. The destroyed husk of my former home town and the rotting corpses of its inhabitants were replaced by obsidian walls and low burning torches of a wide windowless room.


    Loki placed her hands on my chest and pushed me back gently but firmly, my knees hit an obstruction from behind and I fell over backwards onto soft satin sheets, apparently Loki had pushed me onto a very large four poster bed that looked like it was carved from a single piece of ebony. The four vertical columns were adorned with erotic scenes of men and women performing a variety of depraved sexual acts, the images were artistically etched upon the wood with expert hands.


    I was looking at the images on the columns  , fascinated by possibilities I wasn''t even aware of, when silver chains shot out from each of them and slithered around my arms and legs , binding me so I couldn''t move. I struggled with all my considerable might but I couldn''t even budge. Loki slowly crawled over me and started to kiss my neck and nibble on my earlobes while whispering in my ears, "Don''t struggle, there is going to be plenty of time for you to have your fun but first I''m going to have mine."


    She lifted herself off me and left the bed, that was when my torture began.


    She stood at the end of the bed and lifted her hands over her head. The low burning torches lighting the room created very little light but all of it seemed to have concentrated upon her revealing her perfect hourglass figure, then she started to slowly sway her hips as if she was dancing to music I couldn''t hear. She continued to sway as she leisurely lowered her hands, deliberately caressing her curves and casually cupping her breasts. Her hands finished their long odyssey around her body and grasped the hem of her skirt. She lifted the hem of her already short skirt and ever so slowly revealed her magnificent body. She had my complete attention as she unveiled herself before me, I even stopped blinking because I was afraid I was going to miss something.


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    She finally got the dress off her and dropped it to the ground. She was now wearing nothing but sheer green underwear that served more to emphasize than to conceal. It consisted of nothing more than three strategically placed triangles held in place by string. As my eyes feasted on her luscious curves and large round breasts, she continued to sway and even started to move around the bed forcing me to strain my neck to keep her in my sight. She bent over displaying her well shaped rear then started to bend and twist her body in various contortions to show exactly how flexible she was. She grabbed one of the bed posts and danced around it before she started to slowly grind up and down against it making this the first time I have ever been jealous of a wooden post.


    She let go of the post and then removed her bra in one smooth motion. I expected her giant breasts to sag without their support, but she was a goddess and her breasts were literally gravity defying, they stayed round and perky, her large dark areolas and erect nipples pointing in almost opposite directions.


    She ripped off her last piece of clothing, her panties and I was able to see that she was completely hairless from her neck down. Loki saw my hungry expression as I gazed upon her and smiled. I knew that she was really enjoying this, being the center of attention and holding all the power. She loved that she was driving me mad with her sensual torture and I couldn''t do anything about it.


    What I didn''t know was that this was only the beginning....

 chapter five - satisfaction

    Chapter five


    A.N. Warning: rated PG 18+ contains scenes that I''m not even sure are allowed on this site so please don''t snitch to the administrators.


    Loki strutted and sashayed to the bed I was laying on making sure to put a little extra sway to her already gyrating hip as she approached the foot of the bed. She sprang onto the bed  on her hands and knees and crawled or more accurately stalked towards me as if she was a predator, some sort of hunting cat and I her helpless prey.


    She positioned herself so that she was in between my legs that had been spread wide by the chains. Her head lowered towards my erect member, which was almost literally vibrating at this point. Her lips, those juicy red lips came tantalizingly close to it making me think I was finally going to get some satisfaction but when her lips were just about to make contact she stopped and looked up at me with an impish smile on her beautiful face. For nearly five minutes we stayed in that pose. I felt her warm breath envelop me making tingles go up and down my length while she just enjoyed the expression on my face as I was unable to find satisfaction even as I got more and more aroused.


    Finally as I thought that I was going to explode from frustration her pink tongue slipped from between her lips and lazily licked me from root to tip sending a shockwave up my spine. For a moment she just continued to lick me from base to tip increasing my arousal even more. She never put me inside her moth or sucked me off, just licked me until I was glistening in her saliva then she placed herself over me and impaled herself on my throbbing dick. As I was planted deep inside her warm core watching as a look of ecstasy crossed her face I thought that the games were over and I was finally going to fuck her but again I was mistaken. She slowly worked my tool out of her tight wet channel then worked it slowly back in , she repeatedly did this , never speeding up but continuing on with that same leisurely rhythm. I saw her come many times and she made sure I knew when she did, she moaned and screamed , her channel tightening around me. She made it as erotic as possible by rubbing her own breasts and twisting her own nipples. Her face contorted into a mask of pure pleasure while mine was twisted into one of pure frustration, her pace was fast enough to be stimulating enough to take me right to the edge but not enough to tip me over. After she came again for like the thirtieth time her bronze skin was covered in sweat and her chest was heaving as she panted heavily making her even more sexy if that was possible. She looked at me and said, "You have been a good boy waiting for me to finish my fun without complaining, I think you deserve a reward." then she leaned down and kissed me roughly and started to piston quickly up and down my shaft.


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    I had always thought that foreplay and delayed orgasms were only good for women, that day I learned different. After two minutes of her pistoning I had my first orgasm of the day and it was one of the most intense experiences in my life. I came so hard that my mind was blank for a second as shock after shock of pure pleasure coursed through my entire body. I felt myself spray my seed deep inside her womb and I was surprised she didn''t bloat because of the ridiculous amount that came out.


    I lay down on the bed , spent. My frustration from before was replaced by absolute awe at what I had just experienced. I just lay there intending to just enjoy the afterglow but Loki had other ideas. She jumped off the bed, leaned on one of the walls and bent over, she looked back at me with her divine ass sticking in the air and said, "Does this give you any ideas?" The chains restraining me suddenly slithered back to the bed posts , releasing me. I quickly got up from the bed and rushed towards Loki, I mean who was I to keep a lady waiting?

 chapter six - errand boy

    Chapter six


    I was sitting in a smoky dimly lit room with people strewn haphazardly all over the place. The sign outside claimed that this was the sunset tavern but I was seriously doubting that fact as I looked around the place. After our marathon session of sex was over , Loki had sent me here to Svatalfheim to receive an object from a contact she had among the dark elves. I had thought that she could grant me the power to become a god very easily using her own powers but apparently I had misunderstood what she had said. She claimed that she needed a few objects before she could make me and I quote ''her greatest masterpiece'' and since she was a wanted criminal among the Aesir she couldn''t retrieve the objects herself without putting herself in jeopardy. According to her even coming to talk to me in Midgard had been risky. Because I had killed most of her followers there weren''t a lot of people she could send, so I was forcefully volunteered for the task.


    The first object she wanted me to get was a dark violet jewel named the heart of darkness, it was the center piece of the crown of shadows that had adorned the head of every ruler of the dark elves since the great dwarven blacksmith Sindri forged it from a fallen star. Loki said that the jewel was a remnant of the place where she and the rest of the gods had originated from, which was destroyed by a cataclysmic event she had called an ultranova, a truly fearsome event if it was able to make the gods themselves flee. Although I didn''t understand most of her explanations from what I did understand she was going to use the heart of darkness to give me some form of magic.


    So here I was in the middle of what I was sure was a drug den trying to remain inconspicuous but failing miserably. All the people around me had ebony skin , pure white hair and stared at me with eyes that had red irises. I hid my pale skin ,yellow hair , and blue eyes under a cloak but what the cloak couldn''t hide was my figure. All the elves around me were slender and graceful, I on the other hand have always been large and blocky even amongst my peers, it had even earned me the nickname ''the bear''. Needless to say I had been getting curious looks from all directions since I walked through the door. Their curiosity had only intensified when I had asked for ale when the hostess asked me what I wanted. The pretty elf had smirked at me and told me that they didn''t serve ale. In an effort to not stand out even more I gave her a couple of gold coins from the pouch that Loki gave me and asked her to bring me whatever that could get me. The way she was smiling when she walked away made me think that she was going to bring me something bad.


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    I looked around around again and there was far less attention focused on me than before, most of the elves had gone back to to what they were doing before I entered , drinking small canisters of colorful liquids, smoking from hoses connected to fancy looking instruments with bubbling liquid inside or simply snorting powder up their noses. I turned towards the center of the room towards what I thought was the most interesting sight in the whole room. Through the different colored smoke that shrouded the whole place giving it a surreal look,  I could make out an old dark elf who was bald except for tufts of white hair near his pointy ears playing a tall string instrument which had hundreds of strings and dancing to the strange resonant music he was producing was a light elf scantily clad in a few pieces of sheer silk with a metal collar around her neck. She had smooth white skin like the first snow of winter that almost seemed to shine in the middle of this poorly lit room , her head was decorated with a waterfall of long golden hair as if someone had spun the light of the sun itself and bestowed it upon her, her eyes were were also golden but a slightly darker shade as if they were pools of molten gold. I have heard legends about the beauty of light elves but I couldn''t believe what I was seeing , even though I thought that all my feelings were dead even I felt sadness when I saw the heart breaking expression on her face as she danced, slowly removing layer after layer of clothing until she was completely naked. I felt no arousal as I saw her beautiful body laid bare , I only felt like I was doing something wrong and that was saying something coming from a man with no conscience.


    As I was wondering if it would be worth it to blow Loki''s mission to rescue this light elf , a man in a dark cloak similar to mine sat at the same table as me and said, "What does the snake eat when it is hungry?"


    It was the code phrase that Loki had taught me so I replied, "The snake eats its own tail."


    "So you are the champion that Loki sent? You do look rather imposing. Well met stranger , I am Selanus second prince of Svatalfheim."

 chapter seven - dragons breath

    Chapter seven


    "I am Selanus second prince of Svatalfheim."


    The guy was a pretty boy just like the rest of the elves, he had a handsome and well sculpted face that would stand out even among the elves and he had a stuck up expression on his face that clearly showed that he knew this fact. He was looking at me as if he was looking at feces he had just stepped on and was doing the disgusting job of scraping it off. My first impulse was to punch him in the face, my second impulse was to cut him open and use his own intestine yo strangle him. After several moments passed as I contemplated the best way to kill the bastard I remembered why I was here in the first place,


    "Good for you, now do you have the jewel or not?"


    The prince sneered exposing teeth that were all sharp canines just like the rest of his kind, "Well would you look at this, the beast can speak. I thought that all humans can do was fight and fuck like wild animals but I guess that you have enough intelligence to string a few words together, I mean if my pet parakeet can learn to ask for crumbs I guess Loki can teach a human to do something similar but I am afraid you didn''t even do that right. The deal is for you to get me the crown so that I may give you the jewel."


    I was seriously getting pissed off at this whole situation. Loki had not mentioned that I had to do anything for this asshole, she just told me to get the jewel from her contact and sent me here.


    "Really ? And how am I supposed to do that , kill your father ? Rob the royal vault?"


    "Luckily for you my father is already dead, he decided to bed a frost giant who just happened to roll over at the wrong time."


    "Why would he want to bed a frost giant?"


    He looked at me as if I had asked a stupid question, "Because he could of course! Imagine fucking a woman several times your size, dominating her even though she could easily crush you. Not much can make you feel powerful after you have been a king for a while but that would make anybody feel like a god, but I digress , I don''t expect your primitive mind to understand such complexities so let us get back to the original subject. My father is dead so the crown will go to whoever shall become the next king and that is decided in the only civilized way to decide such things, armed combat to the death. Each candidate who can prove that they have the blood of the previous king in their veins can choose a champion to enter the tournament to represent them, you shall be my champion."


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    As he was speaking the waitress finally came with my order, she had two dwarven slaves carry a large golden case with bubbling liquid inside that was glowing an eerie green. The waitress stood there with a vicious smile on her face, "I bring to you the most expensive thing we have in our establishment, the dragon''s breath."


    The entire place went silent as everyone in the room turned their attention towards our table, even the prince had paled a little when he looked at the glowing green liquid. Under everybody''s expectant gaze I raised the hose attached to the golden box which was shaped like a small dragon''s head and took a long pull. I saw the glowing green gas go through the hose, into my mouth and then into my lungs, for a second my ribs were visible as the green smoke filled my lungs and made them glow the same eerie green so that you could clearly see them from the outside.


    When I exhaled the smoke came out of my mouth looking like green flames leaving the mouth of a dragon.


    The evil smile on the the waitress''s face was replaced by one of shock while the snobbish expression on the prince''s face was replaced by one of grudging respect, "You truly are a worthy champion, you shall make me king!"


    I took another pull of the glowing green smoke and blew it in his face, "If it means that I need to make you king before I could get the jewel then so be it, but if you insult me again or condescend to me in any way I will chop your head off and search for another way to get the jewel, do you understand?"


    The prince paled again as he finally understood that I was fully capable of killing him and that there was nothing that could save him at that moment. He quickly nodded before running away so quickly that he knocked over his chair as he left.


    I turned to the waitress , "You just tried to do something very bad to me , I usually torture and dismember those who try to screw me over but I have a much better punishment in mind for you..."

 chapter eight - Hero?

    Chapter eight


    The waitress might have been a conniving bitch but she sure knew how to fuck.


    After I had smoked the dragon''s breath I thought that I would punish her by forcing her to have sex with me but her attitude towards me had taken a drastic turn , I have heard that the thoughts of women were as fickle as the winter winds brewed by Aegir the god of storms himself but this was ridiculous. Instead of trying to escape from me the waitress literally dragged me to a room upstairs and disrobed faster than I could have imagined. She pushed me back against the wall , kissing me ferociously while at the same time she undid the strings of my pants and grabbed the beast that lay beneath. She inhaled sharply as she felt what she had awoken but it was too late to back away now, I grabbed her shoulders and pushed her against the wall, reversing our positions then I entered her in one smooth motion. In response she thrust forward just as forcefully while she bit my shoulder embedding her sharp fang like teeth into my skin. I grabbed her white hair and pulled her head back so I could see into her red eyes and then I started to pound her into the wall.


    It was rough, angry , and violent. What we did wasn''t an act of love, it was a plundering of each other''s bodies in search of immediate sexual gratification. It was raw animalistic lust, with her ebony skin shiny with sweat and her pointy teeth dripping with my own blood how could I not feel boiling lust for this woman?


    In the end I fucked her so hard that she was embedded into the wall but she wasn''t hurt, hell the bitch actually had a smile on her face as I picked up my robe from where it had fallen and left the room. Her last words to me as I left were, "If you ever come around this area feel free to call me up anytime."


    I shook my head as I walked away, that bitch was crazy. I will definitely try and find her again when I find the time.


    Downstairs the ''tavern'' was still the same as I had left it and the light elf was just starting her performance again. I walked over towards her and snapped the metal collar around her neck, I was immediately surrounded by five dark elves holding their swords in such a manner that it was clear that they were experienced warriors. They moved with the supernatural grace of the elves combined with the sure strides of a seasoned fighter. They had death in their eyes as they slowly circled around me before rushing at me at the same time from five different directions.


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    They must have thought that they could take me down easily with their five on one advantage but they were wrong, dead wrong. They might have been experienced warriors but I lived and breathed battle, I entered my first battlefield when I was eleven years old and the battlefield has been my home ever since, the battlefield was were I belonged.


    My movements weren''t smooth and agile like theirs ,instead it was direct and precise . I didn''t perform any of the fancy flourishes with the sword or use complex footwork , instead my techniques were basic and simple. I did not know how to fight, instead I knew how to kill.


    It wasn''t even very difficult for me, with my experience fighting countless foes I just used simple steps to position myself properly and swung my sword precisely, then I repeated the process four more times. In less than ten seconds five dark elf bodies lay on the floor with injuries to various very fatal locations , the arterial spray from the two I had decapitated had caused their blood to paint the wall , floor , and even several patrons of the ''tavern'' but they didn''t even bat an eye they continued to smoke or snort whatever they were smoking or snorting.


    I grabbed the arm of the light elf and walked out of the place before more trouble could find me. After we had put what I felt was sufficient distance between the tavern and us I turned to look at the light elf, she was shaking while she was looking at me but it wasn''t from fear. Surprisingly she was looking at me with curiosity in her eyes.


    I took off the cloak I was wearing and gave it to her, it wasn''t like it was doing a damn thing to hide me anyways, she gratefully accepted the cloak and then spoke in a voice that was sweet and clear like a bell, "Thank you stranger, you put yourself in harm''s way to save me from slavery. My name is S¨®l of house Sunna, may I know the name of my hero?"


    I couldn''t help but burst into laughter, "I am no hero lady, in fact I am the furthest thing from hero you will find in this realm and that''s saying something since this is Svatalfheim. This is just a momentary bout of insanity on my part so I would advise you to run away before the moment passes and I decide to keep you for myself."

 chapter nine - companion

    Chapter nine


    "Run away before the moment passes and I decide to keep you for myself."


    She raised her golden eyebrow in a perfect arch, "And where should I run away to? The streets of Svatalfheim where I would be caught and made into a slave again in less than an hour or do you have some alternative I don''t know about? No I think I will take my chances and stay with you instead."


    I was starting to get irritated by her attitude," Don''t the elves have special magic that allows them to travel great distances and even across different realms?"


    "You mean the Wyrd ways? All the passages close to Svatalfheim are carefully monitored and guarded by squadrons of dark elf soldiers, I would have a better chance of escaping through a swarm of bees covered in honey than going through the Wyrd ways from Svatalfheim."


    "That is your problem , not mine."


    "That is not a problem at all, I have decided to follow you on your journey and help you however I can to repay what you have done for me."


    I was so angry at her that I grabbed her shoulders and roughly put her against the closest wall, "This is not a joke nor is it some game, I could rape you right here right now and there would be nothing you could do to stop me. I am trying to help you by telling you to go away, so get away from me while you still have the chance. You probably have family and people waiting for you at your home, if you run away now you have some chance however slim it might be of seeing them again but if you stay close to me the only things I can guarantee are pain and death."


    Her two eyes that were like molten pools of gold looked up at me with intensity, her delicate chin raised defiantly, "Do your worst, it isn''t the first time I have been raped."


    That made me even more furious. In my fury I raised my fists and punched towards her face , but even in my rage I was able to change the course of my fist ,missing her face by a couple of inches and punching the wall next to her head instead , causing cracks to appear like spiderwebs on the hard stone. She stared wide eyed at my fist that had almost ended her life. She suddenly started to cry, her tears like liquid crystal jewels flowing from her eyes were somewhat able to cool my rage. I grit my teeth and said, "Why are you being so stubborn?"


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    She looked at me and this time there was no defiance in her, it was like a mask had been removed and I could see the raw pain and anguish in the depth of her golden eyes, "Because you are the only person in this universe that cared enough to free me. You say that I have a family waiting for me but I won''t be accepted back among the glittering throng even if I somehow made it back by some miracle. To them I am forever tainted , unworthy of even stepping on the hallowed grounds. You could kill me right now and I would die willingly for all I have known for years is pain and misery and it has left me hollow and empty of anything else . I can''t even remember what joy , happiness  or love feel like, all that is good and bright has been drained from me in the darkness and despair of that hell hole . The only reason that I have for living now is to repay my dept to you for rescuing me from the worst fate imaginable but if you find that I am a useless burden to you then go ahead , end my life, I will not blame you. In fact I will die with thanks on my lips and gratitude in my heart because I didn''t die a trollop in a den of anguish as a plaything for those motherfuckers but I die as a free woman." she then closed her eyes and waited for me to end her life with an expression of serenity on her angelic face making her look even more radiant than usual.


    In the end I couldn''t bring myself to hurt this woman, "Fine, you win. You can tag along but you do so at your own peril."


    She opened her eyes and smiled for the first time since I met her. She stretched up until she was on the tip of her toes and kissed me lightly on my cheek and said in that clear voice that sounded like crystal bells, "Thank you."


    For the first time since I was tricked into drinking that cursed concoction I felt the ever burning fire that raged in my soul cool down just a little.

 chapter ten - Colosseum of Bones

    Chapter ten


    We went to a nearby inn where a dark elf attempted to deny us access because we weren''t dark elves, in fact I believe his exact words were , "This is an upper class establishment, we don''t cater to vermin or wild animals."


    He continued to berate us for even considering getting inside his inn while being lower life forms, his favorite adjectives for us included dirty , stupid , ugly and inbred. His tongue was very sharp as he told us exactly why he was better than us and that we should be sterilized for the good of the nine realms, unfortunately for him my sword was sharper than his tongue, a fact he discovered when I decided to remove said body part. I passes over the dark elf as he rolled around on the ground chocking on his own blood and gave him a swift kick in the balls as I passed for good measure. The dark elf woman behind the counter was much more accommodating than the man and even gave us a room for free, how very considerate of her. She asked us how many beds we wanted in our room and I said one making Sol raise her eyebrow at me but she didn''t say anything or try to correct me.


    We entered our room and Sol immediately took off the cloak I had given her and dived into the bed. I on the other hand dragged a chair that was in the room to one of the corners and sat down. Sol''s head emerged from beneath the covers and she said,


    "Why are you sitting there, aren''t you coming inside to get some sleep? It is getting pretty late."


    I answered her question, "I can''t sleep."


    "Is it because you have nightmares ? Its alright, I have nightmares too sometimes. I''ll help you go to sleep and I''ll wake you up if you look like you are having a bad dream."


    "You don''t understand, I am physically unable to sleep, I haven''t slept in over three years. Every night the hours slowly pass by and even when I close my eyes I am unable to escape the rigors of life and find some relief in the sweet embrace of dreams, Nott(god of night) denies me even that small reprieve. Every night I feel myself slip a little more into madness as I lose a piece of myself for I have discovered to my woe that without sleep the mind starts to break down a small piece at a time. It is one of the many things that the gods have taken from me , one of the many things I plan to make them pay dearly for. "


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    She got up from the bed and walked towards me. She sat on my lap and looked up at me with tears in her eyes, "I''m so sorry. I have been in so much pain and suffering that sometimes I forget that there are people who have been through much worse things than I have. I am sorry that you have to go through something that nobody should ever go through. I have seen a girl go insane because of a lack of sleep and it only took her two weeks to break, you are an amazing person to have stayed three years without giving into the madness."


    I looked at her and smiled a sad smile, "Who says I haven''t?"


    *       *       *


    The next morning I slowly carried Sol over to the bed, she had fallen asleep on my lap and I had let her stay there all night. It felt strange having a woman in my arms and not fucking her but it didn''t feel bad, just strange. I gently placed her on the bed and covered her with the blanket but she still woke up which was just as well because there were a few things I needed to tell her. I warned her not to go out of the room and told her that I had some business to take care of today.


    As I left the inn I made it clear to the clerk that if anything happened to Sol I would find her responsible. She vehemently assured me that she would make sure that Sol would be safe.


    I walked out into the dim purple glow which was what passed for sunlight in Svatalfheim and headed towards the place that the tournament would be held today. The prince had managed to tell me the place and time of the tournament before he ran away with piss in his pants.


    I approached a large white structure, the only white structure in this gloomy black city and the only reason it was white was because it was built entirely from bones. It was one of the landmarks of Svatalfheim, the aptly named Colosseum of Bones.


    It was the tallest structure in Svatalfheim, even taller than the royal castle and every year it would get taller because every person that dies within the Colosseum donates their bones to make it larger.


    And I was sure that before the day was out it would be a couple of inches taller.

 chapter eleven - first round

    Chapter eleven


    The prince was waiting for me at the entrance of the Colosseum.


    He was in a golden litter being held up by slaves and inside he was lounging on a large bed with three naked dark elf women , one was licking his long ears, one was caressing his chest while the last one was busy going down on him. He was surrounded by soldiers in shiny armor and that seemed to have restored some of his cockiness,


    "I see that you have made it , for a second there I thought that you had chickened out of our arrangement."


    He was being cocky but I noticed that he was being careful to not insult me outright, I guess I wasn''t going to get to kill the disgusting lowlife, at least not today, "I doubt that there is anything in here that would make me chicken out. You said that only the direct descendants of the king can participate so that''s what, six or seven champions I have to defeat? I''ll be done in less than an hour."


    "While your confidence is commendable I think that you are underestimating the caliber of the combatants that will be participating in this tournament and as for the number of participants normally you would be right in assuming that a king would have six or seven children , hell an elf is blessed if he has one or two children but my father was a rather virile man and took great joy in fucking as many women as he could get his hands on. Now that he is dead his bastards have been popping up like worms after a rainstorm. I believe by the last count there are over fifty people with a claim on the crown."


    I sighed and said, "It doesn''t really matter , it might take me a little longer but I will win this tournament, just make sure that you keep your end of the deal."


    I walked past him before he could respond, seeing his smug face made me want to harm it in some fashion and that would be too much of a hassle at this point. One of the princes guards led me to an empty room with nothing but a chair and a closed gate. Apparently all contestants are given their own rooms and the gate will open when it was their turn to fight.


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    I could hear screaming and applause coming from the gate but it was cleverly built so that I couldn''t really see anything. In the end I stopped trying to peek and just sat down and waited for my turn. About half an hour later my gate creaked open revealing a giant circular arena. As I stepped out onto the sand that had already been stained red with fresh blood I looked up to see stands filled with black elves who were booing and jeering at me, it seems they didn''t approve of me.


    A noise from the other end of the arena drew my attention and I saw a gigantic iron gate that was many times more massive than mine being raised by heavy chains that were being drawn by teams of horses.


    When the heavy iron door was fully raised it revealed a large cavernous room where something large was vaguely visible in the darkness. Slowly a scaled snout emerged into the light and snorted, the breath from the nostrils turning into steam in the brisk morning air. After sniffing in my direction for a moment the rest of the creature emerged.


    It was a large sinuous creature that was covered in pitch black scales. It had red spikes running down its back and four red talons coming out of each of its six legs, it had four translucent dragonfly wings which immediately started vibrating to lift the creature up into the air. It looked like a cross between an insect and a snake as it twisted in the air to fix its yellow beady eyes on me. This creature was probably one of Jormungandr''s numerous progeny. Whenever Jormungandr decides to have children with something , it does so regardless of size , gender or species which resulted in some very weird creatures, most of whom had the scaled and serpentine look of Jormungandr. He had so many of these children that they were given their own special designation, dragons.


    My first battle was to be with a dragon.

 chapter twelve - I hate...

    Chapter twelve


    I hate fighting dragons.


    Obviously most people hated fighting dragons but I hate fighting them for a completely different set of reasons.


    The dragon in front of me stretched its slim long neck towards me , fixed his yellow beady eyes on me and then roared , displaying a veritable forest of spine like teeth that he had somehow managed to keep contained in his mouth without skewering himself. As the warm breath of the dragon enveloped my whole body I was reminded of the first reason why I hated fighting dragons, they have the worst smelling breath in all of the nine realms. Many large predators get large chunks of meat stuck in their teeth which then putrefies over time making their breaths smell fetid but the dragons seem to have special saliva that facilitates this process giving them a uniquely disgusting breath that has been known to knockout fully grown men. If you want to know what a dragon''s breath smells like, use your slaughterhouse as an outhouse or vice versa for a week . That was the kind of smell I was experiencing as the dragon''s breath washed over me.


    Done with its intimidation the dragon turned to the stands which were now protected by a glowing blue barrier. It opened its mouth again but this time instead of roaring it used its serpentine tongue to talk in a loud booming voice, "Is this to be my first opponent or is he merely an appetizer Princess Lashina?"


    Which brings me to the second reason why I hate fighting dragons, they are one of the few beasts that have the ability to speak, the problem was that they seemed to lack the ability to shut the fuck up. There was nothing a dragon likes to hear more than the sound of its own voice. It was like all dragons are afflicted by the same disease, verbal diarrhea.


    "It doesn''t matter if I''m fighting a frost giant or this weakly human, our deal is that I get fifty beautiful young virgin brides for each fight I win and when I crush this puny insect you will owe me fifty young maidens, do we still have a deal?"


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    Which brings me to the third reason, they are cocky sons of bitches with absolutely no respect for their opponents. They believe themselves to be superior to every other race except maybe the Aesir themselves. The fourth reason isn''t actually a reason why I hate fighting dragons but more of why I hate dragons in general, they are all male and all of them have these very tiny dicks that seem to mock their great sizes ,the only way they could get any satisfaction for their tiny dicks is by fucking a virgin maiden and when they are finished they devour the maiden whole as a tasty snack. This in itself isn''t bad but since they go through thousands of maidens to satisfy their lusts that leaves less women for the rest of us to fuck which makes all men hate them on principle.


    The dragon must have received some signal from the princess that she agreed to his terms because he shifted his reptilian gaze towards me, "It seems that you are going to die puny human but you should be proud that you died by the claws of the mighty Grimdar, the mighty dragon whose very name inspires awe and fear in all the races, master of the Turmian mountains , destroyer of countless nations, the scourge of the dwarves..."


    I just couldn''t listen to the stupid bastard talk anymore. I unsheathed my sword, rolled forward and used the momentum of my roll to throw the sword at the dragon. It flew straight and true, right into the insufferable bastard''s left eye. The sword had enough power that it was able to penetrate the eye. It easily broke through the eye socket and then lodged itself deep into the dragon''s brain.


    The dragon was dead before it even hit the ground.


    As the dust cleared after the fall of the giant dragon I approached the dragon''s head and started to claw through the ruptured left eye and dug through the broken eye socket to get to the brain.


    Which brings me to the last and main reason I hated fighting dragons, I had to go digging through their brains to retrieve my weapon after I was done.

 chapter thirteen - round two

    Chapter thirteen


    I didn''t have to wait long for my next fight to begin, in fact I had just finished wiping of the stubborn gray slime that was from the dragon''s brain off my sword when the door from my personal waiting room to the arena opened again.


    I must have pissed somebody off because my next opponent was a frost giant. Both a frost giant and a dragon would usually be deadly to most solitary combatants but I am not like most combatants and I am actually better at fighting such creatures. If somebody truly was trying to bump me off and make me lose , a frost giant was a very poor choice to do it. As their name suggested frost giants were indeed exceedingly large creatures and they did indeed posses a modicum of frost magic but not only were they slow and clumsy , their magic was uncontrolled and manifested itself randomly, although there was a constant aura of cold around them that caused an armor of ice to form on their skin and could cause problems if one was to be inside of it for a prolonged period of time.


    In the end it was a short and straightforward match, I quickly run behind the lumbering fool and swung at his ankle. My sword passed through his armor of ice and thick blue skin then severed his Achilles'' tendon which caused his right leg to buckle. As he was on his knee I jumped upon his ankle and using it as a springboard I catapulted myself to his thigh where I sank my sword into his flesh to hold on. I then braced my feet against him and used the leverage to pull down at the hilt of my sword which was deeply imbedded into the frost giant''s thigh, the sword bent until it reached a certain point then suddenly straightened when I pulled back my feet that were braced against his thigh. The recoil from the sword straightening flung me up towards the base of the frost giant''s spine and I savagely stabbed into the small of his back , severing his spine.


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    The frost giant who no longer had any control of his legs fell face first onto the sands. I ran up his back ,which was now horizontal , and stabbed at nerve clusters near the his left hand and right hand , robbing him of his ability to use all four of his limbs.


    By the time I was finished I was starting to feel frostbitten so I quickly distanced myself from the frost giant who was now laying prone on the ground.


    It was a lot more work than the dragon but unlike the dragon with its unprotected eyes, a frost giant has layers of clear hard ice protecting its sensitive blue eyeballs. It also had a thick skull and strong almost impenetrable protective membranes around most of its vital organs. It has very few weak spots and they were the Achilles'' tendon and to a lesser extent the small of its back. Using this fact I had completely disabled the giant but even with him completely unable to move it would be hard to get to any of his vital organs to finish him off. Thankfully I didn''t need to finish him off, the weight of a frost giant is so large that it couldn''t breathe once it was was lying face down on the ground.


    I just stood back and watched as the giant slowly suffocated under its own weight.


    The crowd that was unanimously screaming encouragement to the frost giant gradually went silent as they realized that the frost giant wasn''t going to get up off the ground ever again, at least not under its own power.


    Once it was clear that I had won I turned around and went back into my waiting room, I had to wipe off the blue blood of the frost giant that was staining my sword before my next fight.

 chapter fourteen - shadow

    Chapter fourteen


    My third opponent was a bit of a surprise.


    The doors opened and just like last time I stepped into the arena but unlike the last two times it wasn''t a massive door that opened to to release my next foe ,instead a door identical to mine opened and a person completely covered in black clothes stepped out.


    The person was tightly wrapped in black bandages that were covering his entire body leaving only a tiny slit for his eyes which were large violet orbs that looked very familiar for some reason. Looking closely at the bandages, I saw that there were multiple black knives that were secreted in between the bandages making them almost invisible if you didn''t know where to look but this wasn''t the first time I was seeing someone dressed in this fashion, in fact I think that I might know this particular person. I carefully inspected this person''s body and sure enough although the bandages were doing an admirable job of trying to compress flesh I could just make out two bumps near the chest area and the flaring at the hip, the person who I thought was a guy was actually a woman.


    "Allisandra , is that you under those bandages?"


    "Hello Tony, fancy meeting you here. What are you doing in Svatalfheim?"


    I couldn''t help but smile when I heard her deceptively sweet voice, "The same thing you are doing I reckon, trying to win this tournament. "


    "I was afraid you were going to say that. Is there no chance of you backing away and letting me win?"


    "I''m afraid not, and you know that you can''t kill me. I can''t die, trust me I''ve tried. And even if you had the ability to kill me you know that you don''t have the skill, you remember what happened the last time you tried to kill me don''t you?"


    "Yeah, I couldn''t walk straight for a week but I''ve already taken the contract and that means that I have to try to kill you, I mean trying couldn''t hurt can it?"


    "On the contrary Allisandra, trying can hurt very much."


    Allisandra then melted into the shadows. Allisandra was one of the Doortha''ag , an elite group of assassins famed throughout the nine realms for their almost spotless record. They would take any contract as long as the price was right and more impressively they would complete almost all their contracts. But the Doortha''ag were more than just a league of assassins , it was more like a cult. The members all sell their souls to the darkness and are irreversibly merged to the shadows, whatever creature Allisandra might have been in her past life , she was now a shadow walker with the ability to enter and exit any shadow big enough to fit her.


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    As Allisandra disappeared into the shadow behind her, I moved forward to the center of the arena where there were no shadows and raised my sword in preparation of what was to come. Suddenly she reappeared in a shadow to my right and threw a knife at my neck but I was prepared and deflected it with my sword. She disappeared and reappeared , this time to my left but I was able to deflect this knife too.


    We continued our little game for a while, I knew that she wouldn''t run out of knives because she had an enchanted sheaths and the knives would reappear inside of them a few minutes after they were used, I also knew she was a tenacious bitch that would never give up so I needed to end this.


    As the minutes dragged on I studied her movements until I could almost predict which shadow she was going to come out of next. After several failed attempts I was finally able to guess right and used my shiny well polished sword to reflect the dim Svatalfheim sunlight onto the shadow she was coming out from.


    When she made it out of the shadow that had been bisected by the light reflected off of my sword Allisandra was also bisected into two, her top half fell backwards and her bottom half fell forward. It was a strangely clean cut because shadow walkers didn''t bleed although some smoke was coming out of her exposed innards.


    She managed to use her hands to turn towards me and said, "Are you going to finish me off this time?"


    I laughed and replied, "I told you that trying would hurt, but no I am not going to kill you. You are just too much fun to kill off plus I''m not done fucking you."


    I went to both pieces of her body and picked them up while she continued to speak to me, "You know I tried to fuck other men? Just wasn''t the same. You ruined me Tony, not only did you ruin my career by refusing to die but you also made me unable to enjoy sex with anybody else."


    I held her up so that I could look straight into her eyes,"After you get yourself back in one piece and you ever feel the itch , come find me, I will be happy to scratch it for you anytime. Goodbye Allisandra."


    I threw both parts of her body into a shadow where they vanished into it like smoke.

 chapter fifteen - final opponent

    Chapter fifteen


    Unlike my match with the dragon which ended with gray slime on my blade and the match with the frost giant which ended with my blade covered in blue blood , my match with Allisandra had been completely fluid free meaning that I didn''t need to clean my sword as I waited for the next round so I simply sat on the seat provided in my waiting room and started to think about what I might face next in this tournament.


    I was deep in thought when the door to my waiting room opened, not the one that led to the arena but the one l came through when I first entered.


    I rested my hand on the hilt of my sword, wondering who could be coming to visit me at this time. My question was quickly answered when a familiar golden litter was carried into the room. Two of the slaves pulled back the curtains of the litter to reveal the smug face of Selanus , second prince of Svatalfheim.


    "You, my friend, are the greatest fighter I have ever seen. The way you went through opponent after opponent so easily as if they meant nothing to you, no wonder Loki chose you as her champion. The look on my bitch of a baby sister''s face when you defeated her dragon in one move was priceless, I wish I had thought to hire a painter to capture the look on that spoiled little brat''s face when her hopes of getting her greedy little paws on the crown were shattered into a million little pieces."


    The prince was jumping up and down in excitement while giggling happily. I hated to be the reason that he was so happy but I had a mission so I suppressed the impulse to kill the scumbag in front of me once again and said, "Is there a reason you came to visit me other than to gloat?"


    His excitement subsided a little and he had a small frown on his face as he spoke, "Yes, there is another reason I came here. There are only two contestants left with enough limbs to continue the tournament. That means that the next fight is going to be the final fight. Unfortunately your last opponent is going to be your toughest opponent. He is the best fighter that the dark elves had ever seen. His movements are like those of a hunting cat, elegant and beautiful. The scimitars that he dual wields are precise and deadly. My late father was so enthralled by his prowess that he gifted him one of the royal treasures, the anklets of Njord the god of wind. Now he moves so fast that he is not even visible to the eye. I have seen you fight and your might is undeniable but I don''t see how you are going to defeat this monster."


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    He actually looked worried by the time he finished talking, he truly believed that I couldn''t win against whoever this person was.


    "Don''t worry about it prince, I will uphold my end of the bargain and get you the crown. You just need to remember my payment afterwards."


    The prince looked at me skeptically, "What makes you so sure, what gives you such confidence? Do you have some enchanted object that you plan to use? Do you have some strategy to nullify his speed? I was not exaggerating when I said that he moves so fast that you can''t see him, I meant that literally."


    "I understand but I''m still confident I''m going to win."


    The prince was reassured by my unflinching confidence and left my room with his optimism restored. He continued the happy bounce he was doing in his litter when he first entered my room, as he left being carried on the back of his slaves.


    I on the other hand felt very unhappy. The opponent that the prince had just described sounded like a perfect counter for me, the worst possible enemy I could face. Of course this didn''t mean that I was going to lose but it meant that this next bit is going to hurt really really bad.


    The door opened just like the last three times and I walked into the arena knowing that I was probably going to experience a lot of pain but you know what?


    Fuck it,


    It''s not like it would be the first time that happened and it probably wouldn''t be the last.


    A.n. Does the final opponent remind you of anyone?

 chapter sixteen - the damned

    Chapter sixteen


    I went into the the arena to raucous cheers but the cheers were obviously not meant for me. Across the arena was a muscular dark elf with two identical scimitars strapped to his side, both with shiny blades glinting in the dim sunlight and intricate hilts with pommels adorned with jewels the size of a chicken''s egg.


    The elf himself was wearing scale male armor that was pitch black like the darkest of winter nights when even the stars are not visible. It looked sturdy yet it also looked like something you could move around in easily.


    Well at least that''s how it looked from behind, that was all I could see because the cocky bastard wasn''t even looking in my direction as I came out into the arena, he was too busy waving at the crowd and basking in the attention he was getting. He looked like a triumphant victor who had already won instead of someone who was just about to start a battle.


    I knew his type, he was probably a skilled fighter but he had gotten swept up in all the fame and glory that his skill has brought him. He was no warrior, at least not anymore. He was now nothing more than a petty entertainer, doing tricks to entertain the crowd. He probably was good enough that he wins all his fights easily which made him forget a very important fact, there is always someone out there better than you, a fact I would be happy to remind him.


    The glory hound finally turned towards me and smirked at me. He was completely confident that he was going to win and his expression made it clear that he had no respect for me as an opponent. As soon as the signal to start the fight was given he suddenly disappeared leaving behind nothing but a long furrow in the sand , at the same time I suddenly felt excruciating pain in my neck as the cold steel of his scimitar bit into my spine.


    My vision started to rotate as my head went spinning off my body when he decapitated me. The bastard then picked up my head by my long blond hair and raised me up like a trophy to the happy cheers of the crowd. He was so busy celebrating his victory that he didn''t even notice the crowd suddenly going quiet, he didn''t notice that the head he was holding up wasn''t really dead, he didn''t even notice that the ''dead'' body behind him was slowly getting up.


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    He didn''t notice anything until he felt a sword go straight through his back and into his heart. He was still holding me up so that I could see the shocked expression on his face as he stared at the sword sticking out of his chest. I saw the realization that he had died slowly creep upon him as he lightly touched the sword coated with his blood as if to check if it was real. Finally his knees buckled and he fell face first onto the ground, dead.


    Meanwhile I had been concentrating very hard on trying to control my body. The hardest part was moving with no vision or any sense of balance, thankfully this wasn''t the first time I had been decapitated so I have grown accustomed to operating a headless body and mister showoff had been holding me up so I could see what my body was doing which made the whole thing much easier. After some fumbling I finally retrieved my decapitated head and jammed it onto my neck until the flesh knit back together and the bone reconnected.


    After I was whole again I walked over to the dead body of the dark elf and stomped on his head until nothing was left but an unrecognizable red pulp. Then I cut off his feet and retrieved the shiny anklets he was wearing, these will come in quite handy in the future.


    I felt a sense of relief as well as sadness as I walked out of the arena. I have been decapitated or have been dealt otherwise ''fatal'' injuries hundreds of times now but I have never died. A fire was lit in my soul when I drank the potion ''gifted'' to me by the gods and as long as it burned I couldn''t die even if I wanted to, even when I tried my hardest to destroy myself I just couldn''t die.  Once I had been cut into small pieces only to grow back my whole body just from one of the pieces which made one thing very clear, I am not going to die.


    I am forever denied my rest,  forever cursed to wander the nine realms bathed in blood and pain , both my own and my enemy''s. I am no longer human, no I am now one of the undying.


    I am one of the damned.

 chapter seventeen - a bath

    Chapter seventeen


    I made my way through the streets back to my inn. I had talked to the prince and he had said that he would give me the jewel right after the coronation ceremony that would be held tomorrow at the palace.  I walked briskly on the hard stone of the cobblestone street and even though it was the middle of the day and the street was crowded everybody stayed out of my way. It might have been the fact that I was larger than everyone around me, it might have been the fact that I was openly armed, it might have been the grumpy expression on my face but most of the dark elves were giving me a wide berth when they passed me, of course it just might have been the fact that I was still in the clothes I was wearing in the arena and I was completely covered in blood.


    Putting that aside, I eventually made it back to the inn where I had stashed Sol. When I entered I was greeted by the woman I had threatened just this morning. Her eyes were wide in fear as she looked at me but she quickly wiped that expression off her face and put on a fake smile,


    "Are you alright esteemed customer?"


    I could almost believe that she cared about my well being but the hopeful tone in her voice ruined the act a little.


    "I am fine."


    Her smile dimmed a little at that, "So the blood isn''t yours?"


    "Oh, the blood is mine but blood matters very little to me, what does matter to me is the fact that I stink. I would be ever so grateful if you could send a tub of hot water to my room."


    She grit her teeth as she heard my mock polite request, "Of course esteemed customer. My husband usually used to do that but now that he is dead I shall personally see to it."


    I went up the stairs without saying another word. When I made it to my room the door was flung open and a golden streak crashed into my chest, I looked down to see Sol hugging me as hard as she could,


    "Thank the gods you are okay!"


    "Why wouldn''t I be okay?"


    She let me go and actually started to shout at me, "You inconsiderate person! How could you just leave without an explanation? I wake up only to find you gone and when I tried to go out to look for you the inn keeper wouldn''t let me! I was worried sick that something had happened to you! I had to stay in that empty room thinking about the million things that could have happened to you!"


    If anybody else had shouted at me I would have cut off their tongue and shoved it down their throat but as I heard Sol shout at me I only thought that it was incredibly cute. The fire in my soul that had been raging after my fights in the arena started to calm down a little.


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    Sol finally calmed down a little only to notice the blood stain on my clothes and she went off again, berating me for getting into trouble this time. I just stood there with a small smile on my face and watched her shout at me, it was almost cathartic for me.


    Her rant was interrupted when the inn keeper dragged a heavy looking iron tub towards us. Sol hurriedly went to help her and after seeing Sol struggle I went over to them and carried the whole thing by myself to the room. The innkeeper lady brought pails of hot water to fill the tub and Sol dragged me into it where she proceeded to scrub me clean with her own scarf. She was scrubbing a rather intimate area when she noticed that my penis was hard like usual.


    "It is alright if you .....you know. If you really need to so badly I wouldn''t mind. I mean it would be pointless for me to mind after everything that has happened to me."


    Her offer was tempting and I really did feel very horny but one look at the sad look on her face was the only thing I needed to dissuade me.


    "It''s okay, I''ll be fine."


    She looked even sadder if possible then turned away from me, "Of course you don''t want to be with me, I''m soiled goods."


    I cupped her face gently and turned her back so that she could face me, "That is not what I meant, in fact to me you are purer than any virgin. That is why I won''t be with you, you deserve someone better than me. You deserve someone good that loves you and is willing to give you everything that a sweet girl like you needs. I wasn''t kidding when I said I am a bad person but I am not evil enough to use you to relieve my lust."


    After I said that I leapt out of the tub and quickly left the room. I locked the door from the outside and rushed down the stairs. There I found the innkeeper woman speaking to a customer. I grabbed the man by the scruff of his neck and threw him out. I closed the door to the inn and barricaded it using nearby chairs. I then turned to the surprised innkeeper and bent her over the counter. I then hiked up her skirt and proceeded to fuck her with all of the lust I had accumulated while Sol had been washing me.


    And I had accumulated a lot of lust.

 chapter eighteen - anklets

    Chapter eighteen


    The dim violet sun of Svatalfheim was just peeking through the window when I finally finished with what I was doing, or more accurately who I was doing. I looked around at what used to be the reception room of the inn, satisfied with my handiwork. Last night when I had accosted the inn keeper I thought that she would try to fight me off or refuse to participate as I fucked her, boy was I wrong. She had put up a token resistance at first but then she had turned into a wild beast who gave as good as she got.


    The counter had collapsed a few minutes after we started to fuck like animals and then we had proceeded to demolish the rest of the room. Now the room was a complete mess,  there were several holes in the walls where we had slammed each other into it in the heat of passion, the chairs were in pieces that would only be useful as firewood and our crowning achievement, we had managed to bring down the chandelier and a piece of the ceiling. It was fucking awesome.


    I was starting to sense a connection here, the waitress at the drug den had been bitchy but she was fantastic to fuck now the inn keeper was also a bitch and she had taught me a thing or two I''ve never seen before. Maybe all dark elf women were bitches but also really good in bed. I wasn''t sure that my hypothesis was  right but I was eager to fuck some more of them to find out.


    Unfortunately I couldn''t do my little experiment today since I had to attend Prince Selanus''s coronation and get the heart of darkness from him, in fact I think think that I might be late for the ceremony. I hurriedly put on my pants and shirt before going upstairs to my room and telling Sol that I had an errand to run, I told her that I had something to retrieve but didn''t tell her any details. I just told her that I''ll be gone for a few hours and that she shouldn''t even leave our room let alone the inn.


    After I made sure that Sol wasn''t going to do anything foolish I headed out of the inn and started making my way to the palace. I had never been to the palace before but I didn''t need to ask for directions to get there, the giant complex was clearly visible from anywhere in the city. It was a strange building with two oddly shaped main buildings with ten crooked towers sticking out from them and the whole thing was built from shiny black stone so it was entirely pitch black. From where I was standing it looked like a gigantic pair of black hands were sticking out of the ground as if some titanic creature was about to burst from the ground at any moment.


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    It was a fair distance from the inn I was staying at to the strange palace and I was already late so I decided to test the enchanted anklets I had obtained from my last match in the tournament. I took out the silver anklets and took a closer look at them, what I thought were simple chains turned out to be countless very small metallic wings that were connected together into interlocking chains. Even though the wings were tiny each one had detailing that made it look like each wing had very fine feathers, it must have taken many years and a lot of effort to craft such a finely made trinket.


    I finished my examination of the anklets and put them on my ankles then waited for something to happen but I didn''t feel any different. I took a tentative step forward but nothing was happening so I tried putting some force into my legs so that I could run. Immediately the world around me blurred and I found myself embedded into a wall at the end of the street I was walking on.


    I extricated myself from the stone wall and dusted myself off. It seems that the anklets were more powerful than I thought they were. For the next hour I tried to get used to the anklets but by the time I made it to the palace gates I had demolished quite a few walls and had barely gained control of the anklets, they required a fine control that I was having trouble with but I had just managed to go five consecutive minutes without running into anything so I am going to tentatively say that I had some modicum of control over the anklets.


    I suddenly lost control and crashed into the palace''s black gates.


    Make that zero consecutive minutes without crashing into anything.

 Real life is a ...

    Some things have come up in real life that will slow down my release speed considerably. I know that my release speed is already slow because I have been working on five books simultaneously while editing the heretic but now the releases are going to be sporadic, if they happen at all. I will try to work as hard as possible so that the stories don''t stagnate but some serious shit is going on in my life so I''m not sure how successful I''ll be. Things should go back to normal in about two weeks to a month but until then please be patient.


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    Sorry for being such a flaker.

 Chapter nineteen - The new king

    Chapter nineteen


    I felt countless splinters enter my skin as I sank into the hard ebony gates that led into the palace like they were made out of soft mud. The two dark elf guards in matching uniforms who were standing on either side of the gate didn''t even blink at my misfortune, they just wedged their spears underneath me and pried me loose. They didn''t even ask if I was alright before they started to berate me.


    "Hope you have some gold or you are going into the dungeon. The gates you just destroyed are made our of ebony from the forest of nightmares. Unless you want to go get the ebony yourself, you better cough up some money."


    "What makes you think he has any money? Look at him, I''ll be surprised if he has two bronze coins to rub together. I''m more concerned with how he ended up in these doors. Did some warrior throw you?"


    The chortling guards pointed at me and said, "Is that what happened to your clothes? Or did you get mauled by some beast?"


    I looked down and saw that my clothes were in tatters. I guess that it was to be expected, I did go through several walls on my way here but I didn''t have time to explain things to the rude guards. I was just about to take out my sword to remove the two idiots when a third guard came running from my right.


    He quickly bent his waist in a formal bow and said, "I am sorry for their conduct sir, be assured that they will be severely punished. I''ll call one of the maids and she will take you inside and find you appropriate clothing."


    I was still pissed because of the two guards so the answer I gave was a little irate, "What makes you think I want appropriate clothing?"


    He suddenly turned pale which looked really strange on a dark elf''s ebony skin.


    "But sir, the crowning ceremony is a formal ceremony..."


    "And?"


    He made an audible gulping sound and his shoulders slumped in defeat, "And nothing sir. The maid is on her way, she will guide you to the ceremonial chambers."


    I was slightly mollified by his apology and I decided that it would be too much of a hassle to kill all of them. The third guard sent the two idiots away and brought a pretty woman to guide me into the castle.


    The woman led me into the palace and it was as lavishly decorated as one would expect , with jewels adorning every magical light fixture , paintings hanging on every wall and golden statues placed at every corner but I cared little for such things so I just ignored them.


    After going through a maze of corridors we finally arrived at an open door where the maid stood to the side and motioned for me to go through.


    Inside there was a crowd of dark elves who looked even more pompous and stuck up than your garden variety dark elf which was an impressive feat since a garden variety dark elf is already pretty pompous and stuck up. In the middle of this crowd, sitting on a raised chair was the most pompous looking one of them all, Prince Selanus. Or rather King Selanus now.


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    I must have missed the coronation because the asshole was already wearing an intricate looking crown made of some silver metal and several large jewels, chief among them a fist sized chunk of glowing violet rock which was probably the heart of darkness Loki sent me to get.


    The moment I entered the room his eyes zoomed in on me and his smug smile turned even more smug before he spoke in a loud voice that carried through the room,


    "You made it my champion! Have you come to congratulate me?"


    I started walking towards the prince while I replied, "You know why I''m here. Give me the heart of darkness."


    Everybody in the room broke out into whispers and there was a lot of pointing at Selanus but nobody made a move and I could see why, there were five large guards standing behind the royal asshole.


    "Hmmm....We shall discuss that a little later but first let''s talk about your attire. Isn''t it fitting that you are dressed like a pauper and I a king?"


    "That crown is on your head Selanus, it will do little if I decide to cut your neck."


    "Stop being grumpy, it was just a joke. Your clothes are torn up because you were using the anklets, right? Well, I would like you to return them to the royal treasury. They were gifts bestowed to our best fighter and now that he is dead they will go to our next champion."


    I scoffed at his request, "The anklets are spoils of battle, they are mine by right," as I spoke I continued to walk towards the prince, "I won them in a fair fight," the dark elves in fine clothing who were surrounding Selanus only a second ago scattered like mice, "I took them from the cold dead body of their previous owner. If you want them , feel free to try to do the same with me. Now stop harping on about the anklets and hand over the damn jewel."


    By the time I was finished speaking , I was only a few steps from Selanus and my voice had transformed into a growl. Strangely Selanus didn''t seem very worried, in fact he was still flashing that annoying smug smile.


    "Do you like enchanted objects so much? Fine, I''ll give you these bracelets to go with your anklets."


    Selanus threw two bands of unadorned silver towards me but as they traveled through the air they seemed to turn into a liquid and this silver liquid started to flow towards me. I tried to dodge it but it just shifted its direction midair and headed straight for my hands.


    The silver liquid completely encased both my hands up to my wrists. When the silver stuff finished covering my hands, two streams of silver came from both hands and connected, forming a chain between my hands.


    My hands were now trapped and shackled together.


    A.n. Sorry for the very late release and the poor effort. Real life is still a bitch.

 Full steam ahead

    Good news! Things seem to have blown over in real life and I should start updating my fics more regularly now. Thank you for being patient.


    Yours truly,


    Habeshabro


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    P.s.   Please take a look at my new fic and tell me what you think. http://royalroadl.com/fiction/6863</a>

 Chapter twenty - bitch slap

    Chapter twenty


    Once the shackles enveloped my hands I suddenly felt as if a giant hand was pressing down on my entire body. My back bent and I forced to bend forward in a half bow as the massive weight settled around my shoulder like a cloak made out of tons of iron. I became so heavy that my feet actually sunk into the hard stone floor like it was made out of wet clay.


    The newly crowned king continued to gloat and spoke jovially with a large grin on his face, " Ah, finally noticed the effects of the bracelets, did you? You see this crown isn''t the only thing in the royal treasury created by the legendary blacksmiths Sindri and Brokkr, they also made those bracelets. Those bracelets are very special, you should feel honored to be wearing them. You see, they were commissioned by my great great grandfather during our war with the j?tun. The brothers Sindri and Brokkr were making Thor''s hammer Mj?lnir at the time but because of a mishap at their workshop they accidentally made the handle too short. Since the handle was short and they had some leftover ore, they created those bracelets. They are called Tung, the bane of giants. They work by multiplying the weight of your entire body until you can bare it no longer and die, crushed beneath your own weight. For a giant this process takes minutes since they are so heavy to begin with but for humans the process is slow and excruciating. Your muscles are slowly ripped apart as your bones are ground to dust , but worry not my champion , this isn''t the fate that awaits you."


    I grit my teeth and interrupted the insufferable bastards monolog, "You dare to betray me? You dare to betray Loki? Has all sense fled from your mind when you donned that crown?"


    "Now now, don''t interrupt when I''m talking. Where was I ? Oh yes, your fate. You see I have arranged for you to be useful to me even as you perish. I have made a deal with the gods to hand you over to them. They seemed positively thrilled when I offered you to them and even more so when I informed them that you were Loki''s new champion. They have promised to reward me handsomely for handing you over to them."


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    "Why don''t they come and get me now?"


    "Luckily for you the bifrost is experiencing some difficulties but worry not, they have assured me that they will have it fixed in a day or so at which time they will come and collect you."


    "I think that crown might be too tight."


    "What did you say?"


    "I said that I think that your crown is too tight and it is putting pressure on your head , making you stupid."


    He stood up from his throne and shouted, "How dare you! I have outsmarted you, bested you without even drawing a sword! How dare you, a complete simpleton, call me stupid!"


    I looked up into his eyes from only two steps away and smiled. The fire within my soul suddenly blazed and my whole body was infused with strength. With some effort I extracted my foot from the stone floor it had sunk into and used the free leg to knee the tip of my sword which was in a scabbard resting on my left hip. The sword jumped into the air and I caught it with my mouth. Before anybody could react, I had sawed off my right hand with the razor sharp edge of my sword.


    Now I had a new weapon which consisted of my right hand still encased in the silvery material hanging from a chain that was still attached to my left hand. I used my left hand to swing the shackles , and my right hand flew at the shocked king''s face.


    When my improvised weapon made contact with his head it produced a satisfying *crunch* sound. Selanus was still standing but he was obviously dead since there was nothing but a red ruin where his face used to be.


    When I saw the result of my handiwork, I was quite satisfied. I had finally done what I had wanted to do since I met the insufferable bastard, I had wiped that smug look off his face.

 Chapter Twenty - Who wants to be king?

    Chapter Twenty


    The whole room was suddenly very quiet, nobody even dared to breathe. Everybody was frozen as they stared at the headless body of their newly crowned monarch which was still standing, still unaware that it had met its end but I didn''t give a damn about the reaction of the people in the room. What I did care about was the fact that my hands, both the one that was still attached to me and the one I had cut off to kill the little prick in front of me, were both still encased in the shackle type magical artifact and I didn''t have a clue as to how I was going to get free. Sure I could just cut off both my hands and regrow them later but that would take a little more than a day. That would mean that I had to walk around without hands for a whole day which would be really inconvenient so I decided to do something different, I turned around to look at the dumbstruck people behind me and made a simple announcement,


    "It looks like your king is no more which means that you will need a new king. Whoever steps forward first and removes these shackles gets to be the new king. Hurry up and make a decision, I don''t have all day."


    The shocked people around me just continued to stare in disbelief, nobody was willing to step forward which would mean getting closer to me but surprisingly a small woman walked forward without a trace of hesitance. By the time anybody realized what was going on, she had rummaged through the headless body''s clothes and retrieved a round plate of metal that was the same color as the shackles covering my hands. She manipulated the plate somehow, making the shackles turn liquid and flow through the air like metallic streams before entering into the plate in the woman''s hands.


    I picked up my amputated hand from where it was laying after it had been freed from the strange shackles and carefully looked at the small woman in front of me as I reattached my hand.


    The first thing I noticed was that she was very small. She was thin and willowy like all the other dark elves but she was also very short, her height not even reaching my chest. Her ebony skin didn''t seem as dark as the other dark elves and it had a slight glow that the other elves lacked. Her pointed ears were even more pronounced , the slender tips nearly reaching the top of head. Her features were very delicate and pleasing to the eye, she had a small delicate mouth , a small delicate nose but she had large eyes framed by thick lashes. Her right eye was blood red just like the other dark elves but the left one was actually bright green making her appear a little strange. Overall she looked like a doll, not a doll for a child to play with but something a master craftsman would make and would end up in the display case of some rich collector''s collection. She looked very cute but from I knew better, from the way she had acted decisively and the way she didn''t flinch when she was searching the corpse, I knew that she wasn''t the delicate flower she was pretended to be.


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    Once my hand was properly reattached, I picked up the crown from where it had fallen a few steps away near the feet of the large and heavily armored men that were supposed to protect the king but had failed miserably. None of them even drew their weapons as I leisurely bent down to retrieve the crown right in front of them. I then forcefully removed the heart of darkness jewel out of the crown and handed the crown over to the small woman who had removed my shackles while keeping the jem.


    "There you go. You are now the new queen of Svatalfheim, congratulations."


    The woman stared up at me unblinkingly with her large mismatched eyes then she spoke in a melodic voice that sounded like wind chimes, "It is not that simple great warrior. Most of the people in this room have a claim to the throne, once you are gone they will question the legitimacy of my rule and this crown will be meaningless."


    "You don''t have to worry about that unlike that scum over there , my word actually means something."


    I then unsheathed my sword and started to kill everyone in the room. Some tried to escape, some tried to fight back but there weren''t any truly strong warriors that could delay me let alone stop me and it didn''t even take long before there was nothing in the room besides me and the strange little dark elf woman who had a small sweet smile on her face as she looked at the dead and dismembered bodies of her siblings.

 Chapter twenty two - return

    Chapter twenty two


    I left the castle and I was halfway to the inn when I noticed that the strange little dark elf woman was following me.


    "Why are you following me? I got the heart of darkness jewel from you and I helped you to successfully eliminate all your rivals. You have now become the sole heir to the Svatalfheim throne, your way to becoming queen is unobstructed. I have fulfilled my promise to you so our relationship ends here."


    She pouted like a little girl when she heard my cold tone of voice, "Queen? Why would I want to be queen? I want power! True power! Selanus was king and what good did it do for him? You reaped his life like a farmer reaping wheat. Sure I could stay here and enjoy all the trappings of being a monarch but I believe that I would gain something greater by following you. I believe that I can get an opportunity to be truly powerful."


    "I don''t remember inviting you to follow me. My path is mine to walk and I have no wish to babysit you along the way."


    "Don''t be like that. You don''t need to babysit me. I can help you! As you have already seen, I''m quite gifted when it comes to manipulating enchanted items. I have already raided everything from the royal treasury so I am equipped with numerous powerful enchanted items. Please, just give me a chance and you will see that I can be useful."


    I was going to reject her again when a voice said, "Let her come my champion, I rather like her."


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    We had just reached the inn and inside instead of the innkeeper, Loki was waiting behind the counter. She looked incredibly alluring in a red backless dress that had a slit on the side that stopped at her calf.


    I threw the heart of darkness to her and she caught it gracefully, "Good job Anthony, this will be very useful to you in the future but we better leave quickly. I have disabled the bifrost for a while but those buffoons should figure out how to fix it anytime now and we better be gone before they arrive."


    "Wait, you were the one who broke the bifrost? Did you know that Selanus would betray us?"


    Loki smiled a crooked sly smile, "That idiot thought he could outsmart me? That he could double cross me? Really? What an ignorant Dumbass. Alright, enough chit chat. Its time to go now."


    "Wait! I have someone I would like to take with me."


    "You mean your little light elf toy? I have already taken the liberty of sending her back ahead of us."


    Without saying anything else, Loki waved her hand and all three of us; Loki, the strange little dark elf princess whose name I didn''t know and I were all enveloped in spheres of multicolored lights before our surroundings blurred and changed.


    When our surroundings finally stopped moving and stabilized, I could see that we were back inside Loki''s secret hideout.

 chapter twenty two - friends and toys

    Chapter twenty two


    As soon as we appeared in one of the antechambers in Loki''s secret hideout, I saw Sol crouched in the corner, weeping uncontrollably and quivering like a frightened baby deer. I quickly ran over to her side and started to gently pet her head, my fingers passing through the long natural tresses of her golden hair without any resistance.


    "It''s okay Sol, don''t be scared. You aren''t in any danger here."


    Loki stared at me as if I had grown another head and it had started singing and telling jokes,"What is this my champion? Tenderness and care? From you? Why are you wasting your time on this broken doll? Granted, broken dolls do have their own unique charms but you seem insistent on not playing with this one. Honestly, I''m not really into second hand goods but maybe you can give her to me and I can show you how to properly play with her."


    "This is my friend and my guest, not your toy. If anything happens to her, if a single hair on her body is harmed, I will immediately become your enemy. Is that clear?" my voice had become cold, so cold that they were like frost spikes that could skewer a person''s heart and make them tremble in fear. It was the voice I use when I was truly angry and on the verge of doing something violent.


    Loki was impervious to my intimidating voice, she didn''t even blink when she heard me. She just looked at me with her head slightly tilted and her eyes flashing back and forth between me and Sol. She had the tip of her tongue stuck between her teeth and she had a slight frown on her forehead as if she was trying to think of the answer to a particularly difficult question or solve a complicated puzzle,"Is this love Tony? Do you think you love her? Well I can tell you right now that you are incapable of feeling love. You have purged that emotion from system when the gods gave you your ''gift''. The chemical has destroyed everything inside of you that it had perceived as a weakness and that included your ability to feel love. You still feel loyalty and possession, that is why your wife''s betrayal hurt you so much, but apart from that you are biologically incapable of feeling love."


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    "I did not say anything about love, I just said that she is under my protection and you should keep away from her."


    Loki shrugged noncommittally like she had stopped caring about the whole thing, "Fine, if you don''t want to share your toys then I won''t insist. You can keep her in your area of the hideout but make sure she doesn''t wander into any of the restricted areas or I will punish her without caring if she is your toy or not, understood?" She then turned around pointed at the strange little dark elf princess, "You, pixie girl, I have observed you for a while and I must say that I am impressed with you. You have the perfect amount of intelligence, insanity and insatiable ambition. How would you like to become my apprentice?..."


    Loki pulled the flabbergasted princess away while speaking to her about unlimited opportunities and unimaginable powers which made the princess''s eyes shine with yearning. Eventually they were out of earshot and I was left alone with Sol who had slowly stopped trembling. She slowly raised her head and her golden eyes looked straight into my dark ones.


    Her beautiful soothing voice was very quiet when she said, "Tony? Is that your name?"


    Surprisingly, the first thing she asked me wasn''t about what had happened but about my name which now that I think about it, I had never told her, "My name is Anthony but my friends call me Tony."


    She looked towards the corridor in which Loki had disappeared into, "And is she your friend?"


    "I''m sorry about whatever she did to you. Loki has a peculiar personality but she isn''t particularly bad."


    She looked at me with incredulity, "You say that the queen of lies and the mother of monsters isn''t particularly bad? I wonder what qualifies as bad in your book."


    "Trust me, you don''t want to know."