All eyes turned toward him. His charisma was overwhelming, his presence even surpassed Odin's. Most of the gods didn't know what to expect, and the tension began to rise.
"The Norns are not liars. I stand against you, Odin."
A heavy silence settled over the hall. Some of them instantly understood the weight of Baldr's choice.
The ground rumbled.
"And again, you stand against me." He rose abruptly, carried by anger. "You're putting more trust in the Norns than in me?"
He raised his hand. The sky darkened. "Then I will simply get rid of them."
In the distance, at the edge of the floating islands that formed Asgard, where the lost forest of the Norns stood, an immense rift appeared.
"Baldr, you disappointed me once before. I was merciful when I let you keep your kingdom and ignored your whim. I gave you everything, and yet you still wish to humiliate me before my people?"
Njord stood up. "What are you doing, Odin?!"
They heard a deep, dull sound coming from where the rift had opened.
"Baldr! I banish you from Asgard and condemn you to wander far from our realm. And as for your precious Norns… I condemn them to die!"
He closed his fist, and in the distance the devouring of the Norns' forest and hall began.
All the gods present rose to their feet.
Tyr shouted, "Odin, stop! This will lead to nothing!"
The electricity in the air intensified.
"I am sick of this."
Leif stood up, grabbed a small object attached to his belt, then raised one arm into the air.
Lightning struck him, shattering the golden ceiling of Gladsheim. In his hand appeared Mjolnir in its true form.
He walked toward Odin. "You're nothing but an old man with dementia. If you think I'm going to let you do this! I am not afraid of you, Seidr!"
He lunged at Odin. The stride of the god of strength was so powerful that the walls of the greatest and most beautiful building shattered, and the lightning stripped the ruins of their shine.
"NO, LEIF!" Tyr shouted.
Runes appeared on the ground, and chains burst from them, wrapping around the thunder god's arms and binding his limbs.
"If you think this will stop me!" Leif kept advancing despite the chains restraining him.
Odin stepped back and stumbled.
Just as Thor was about to smash his head into him, Tyr, Vidar, and Forseti threw themselves onto him.
Vidar swept his legs out from under him, Tyr pinned him to the ground, and Forseti held his golden axe against his throat.
"Stop! Now!" Tyr shouted.
Leif was overflowing with rage.
"What are you doing?! Do you see what he's doing?! Look at that! Don't you care about Skuld, Verdandi, and Urd?!"
Tyr lifted his head. The horrific sight in the distance tormented him. "Odin! Do not kill them, please. Do you want everyone to turn against you?!"
Odin, still on the ground, had a brief moment of clarity and realized, at least partially, the consequences of his actions.
"The Norns will not die. But they will not stay either. You will pay for your insubordination. They are now banished from Asgard and will live within Yggdrasil's deepest roots, close to Nidhoggr."
The black rift that had been swallowing the entire forest of the Norns, surrounding their magnificent hall, transformed into a white portal, into which their entire world disappeared.
"Loki will take Baldr's place in Breidablik. And as for the others, do as you wish. But do not ask me for any favors, traitors."
With those final words, Odin withdrew, leaving the remaining gods in shock as the sky above Idavoll slowly turned blue again.
—----------------------------------
"After these events, Skadi and I left. Thor cut all ties with Asgard, and some of them stayed. My beautiful kingdom of Noatun was given to that piece of trash Heimdall. And as for Baldr… I never saw him again," Njord finished.
Everyone was silent, especially Magnus.
'Am I such a horrible king?' he thought. 'I'll need to try to be a better person. Maybe reincarnating was a gift.'
Tachi was also questioning himself, thinking about someone Njord had mentioned.
'Maybe I judged him too quickly… I kind of see why he wants to avoid every god and drown himself in alcohol.'
"That is… extraordinary…" murmured Gellahan.
Sigurd heard him and asked with a smirk, "What's so nice about all that?"
"The story itself is tragic, but we just heard a story that would have been told back when the legends were transmitted orally. Angry gods, an entire world displaced, Thor confronting Odin and being stopped by other gods, it's simply beautiful!" Spencer explained, carefully making sure he didn't forget to write anything down.
"Well, that's one way to see it! Personally, I'm glad I wasn't there," Hodr replied.
Akyo spoke up. "Do you think the prophecy of the Norns was what happened? Odin's death, betrayed by Loki?"
Njord thought for a moment. "Maybe. He didn't exactly tell us what it was. As Skadi said, he liked to keep things to himself."
"I doubt it," Skadi said. "If the Norns had told him Loki would kill him, he wouldn't have hesitated for a second, and never would've allowed him back. It must have been something else."
"Or maybe the Norns weren't very explicit," Tachi said, slumping into his chair and putting his feet on the table. 'Something like: 'Something really bad is going to happen in Asgard.' I've met them, and they're quite… particular girls. You know them, don't you?"
"Not that much," Njord said. "Leif was very close to them, Tyr, Vidar and some others too, but we didn't really have the opportunity to speak with them."
Tachi stood up. "Well, anyway, this story teaches us something very important: don't mess with the old guy who does magic, or he'll just send your house to another dimension. But more importantly, we can now be sure that Soren is alive. Loki needs Baldr, and apparently he's not coming back anytime soon." He said. "We're not in a rush, but we'll still attack soon. We'll need to be fast, smart, and stick to the plan as much as possible. The plan being: let me fight Tyr, and don't get backstabbed. For that, we'll need to fight almost all at the same time. Is that right?"
Everyone in the room answered in unison.
"Yes."
"Good. I'll have to leave the base soon, I have something to do before we go. Use this time to prepare yourselves however you want: mentally, physically, it's up to you. You may go."
Tachi walked over and opened the curtains again, blinding everyone sitting near the windows.
Everyone stood up. Sosuke ran out of the room, shouting that he was going to train. Akyo joined Ana and Nicolo, and they all left together.
Tachi approached Njord and Skadi, who were about to leave. "Wait, can I talk to you for a second?"
Njord and Skadi exchanged a glance and waited for everyone else to leave.
"What's wrong?" Njord asked.
"Well, when I went into Yggdrasil to save Akyo, it felt like I was in there for only a couple of hours. But I was actually gone for eight days. Is time different in Midgard and Asgard too?"
"A couple of hours? That's strange. Time moves about three times slower in Asgard. The Norns' world is probably similar since it comes from there," Njord said.
Skadi frowned. "Did you end up in another world, per chance?"
"I may have been lured into Niflheim."
"Don't think about it too much. Niflheim is very different from the other realms. Time there moves insanely fast. I don't know how many years you lose in Midgard by spending a week in Niflheim, but it's a lot," the goddess explained.
"Wait… you were lured into it?" Njord asked.
Tachi sighed. "Yes. And someone was waiting for me, a Jotun named Byleistr. We fought. He was impossible to kill. Ratatoskr came to help and got me out of there. He said Byleistr was Loki's brother."
Njord slammed his fist against the table. "Damn it. Loki is really using his own brother as a tool… Byleistr isn't a bad man, but he can follow his brother blindly. I don't even know if Loki considers him anything more than a weapon."
'Wait, Ratatoskr helped him?' thought Skadi.
Tachi froze for a moment. 'I feel like I'm forgetting something… but I can't remember what.'
He searched deep in his mind. He was sure Ratatoskr had told him something else, something important, but every time he got close to remembering it, it felt as if a black fog clouded his thoughts.
"You good?" Skadi asked.
"Yeah. Sorry," Tachi replied. 'I must be mistaken,' he thought before giving up.
Njord, finally calmer, asked, "And you said you're leaving. Where are you going?"
"I'm heading to the U.S."