Chapter - 29 . Loki's sons.
Aatreya began. Trickling the fire in the fireplace.
" Stiggs. The fourth born of Loki and Angerboda and sixth child of Loki." Both Dia and Dhira listened tentatively, Dia more so than Dhira.
" Styggs's elder sister is Hella, the goddess of death. As her name said, she has domain over life and death. Half of her body is dead and half of her body is alive, and she symbolises the struggle between life and death. Legend says when she was being born heaven and earth gave warning of something beyond was being born. The whole Asgard and all the nine realms shook when she arrived. The planet she was being born on was declared dead. Legend also said Odin himself tried stopping her from being born that caused her state to be like that, half dead and half alive."
" People say Loki cursed her with a death vow, that whoever kills her will die with her. She surpasses her mother in physical and war talent, toys with death and life itself.
" Her second child, the World Serpent Jormungandr, the serpent that coils the entire Midgard and all the nine realms. Legend has it that Jormungandr has the ability to summon cosmic storms and has the ability to devour light itself. He can increase and decrease his size, capable of swallowing the stars. His venom is second only to Nagraj Vasuki, the cosmic serpent who rests in Lord Shiva's neck."
" Jormungandr is also the mortal enemy of Thor. People say when Jormungandr was being born, Thor in his young mind summoned a massive thundercloud to welcome him, but Thor, unable to control his power, accidentally struck him with lightning. In the records of Ragnarok it is said that in the end they will kill each other."
" Third, the hellmount wolf Fenrir, a giant black wolf that is rumoured to be able to swallow the sun and moon, and can cause a world-ending catastrophe. No magic of any kind works on him, and according to Ragnarok, Fenrir will be the cause of death of Odin. Odin imprisoned it in Helheim, where even gods don't like to tread."
" The fourth child, Stiggs. The youngest of them all. Stiggs is well-versed in illusion and charm magic, has the ability to decay and is immune to all physical damage and magic damage. It's a bipedal creature with a stag's head with a black maw, but the most striking feature of his was a human-shaped face trying to claw its way out of the stomach and two pairs of human hands that belonged to a male and female protruding from the sides, bones jutting out of the spine and a very distorted appearance. If a mortal sees it, it will feel fear instinctively, and if a God, it will feel disgust and repulsion. And he also has a trait that allows that whoever feels fear or disgust towards him couldn't kill him."
" The other two, Narfi and Váli, were later adopted by her after her husband's passing. Both are dead, one in the hands of the other and the other in the hands of Loki."
And Aatreya finished explaining about Loki's terrifying family records.
Dhira, hearing all this, asked, "He said he was the bastard child of Loki? And his illusion wasn't that strong." Aatreya replied, his gaze fixed on the flickering flames, one finger idly tracing the edge of the fireplace stone.
"Loki thinks that. So does everyone else. He was born after the death of Loki's husband. Many believed it was illegitimate. And when he was born, due to his appearance, even Loki his mother didn't accept him as her son. And discarded him in the wilderness. There he suffered untold hardship, and also learned many things. But that's a story for later."
And hearing all this, Dia was a little dazed, her thumb unconsciously rubbing against her knuckle. Dhira said while eating his meal,
"Can't deny that, he was pretty different." And this time Dia asked, after thinking a bit,
"So Stiggs, how did he end up so ugly and why didn't Loki defend herself against all this allegations? And why did she discard him? Her other children weren't much better than him."
And hearing this Aatreya said, "Each child of Loki represents a part of her personality. Hella, her inner desire and thirst for chaos. Jormungandr, her desire to destroy and encompass everything. Fenrir, her desire for control."
" You can say there are just different versions of Loki, and we are talking about Styggs, he represents her inner hatred and ugliness hidden under her beautiful skin."
" When Stiggs was being conceived, her mind was filled with hatred against everything. That soon shifted towards the child that she birthed. She is a goddess, even a slight fluctuation in God's emotions can cause a natural fluctuation, and the amount of haterate she had was more than enough to affect the child in her womb. Stiggs wasn't supposed to look like that. You can call it his cursed form."
And hearing this Dhira asked, "After I killed him he did transform into a handsome looking man. He also gave me a boon and these clothes."
And then he put down his meal and asked, "And he also said Loki has an ability called God's Might! That can kill anyone, and I should avoid it at all cost. Do you know anything about it?"
And Aatreya turned and said, "Yes."
" No one has ever survived after getting hit by God's Might ability, not even Gods themselves. Loki has it. Many Gods have it, but not all Gods have this ability, and using it is not simple. It costs a lot for a God to use it. He won't use it recklessly. The stronger the enemy, the stronger the consumption becomes."
And hearing this Dia asked, "No one has survived, is it that strong?" And Aatreya said,
"It's a condensation of years of accumulation of God's divine power. They have lived for eons. You can understand the accumulation of it."
And then Dia asked, "Then how can we survive this?" And Aatreya said, "You don't. The only way to survive is not to get hit. Because no armour, no spell, and no weapon can block that attack." And this time Dhira asked,
"And how will that attack come?" And Aatreya looked at him and said, "No one knows. Each God has a different way to unleash it, but one thing is common: you will have a precognition about it, a signal that it's coming."
And hearing this the room went quiet.
They are called God's for nothing.