https://youtu.be/r4o94jEXUmA

This morning, Fafnir was furious, so for that, Midgard had to pay.

He remembered Ragnar's orders given to him at the crack of dawn. Gather souls by killing mortals, he was told. But don't get too destructive, because there was a point to this. This naturally meant Fafnir had not been permitted to bring his dragons. And that pissed him off, so he took that anger and channelled it into a deadly weapon of destruction - himself.

He was not alone, of course. Being closely acquainted with Delfolno, he had managed to secure an army of demons for cases like this when his true potential was unfairly stifled. So he arrived at a humble village, clad in his usual red armour, and stood next to the wooden sign at the entrance reading "Volsung Ed" in white paint. His eyes lingered on the word 'Volsung', briefly changing his usually enraged countenance, before shaking his head with a "Tch" sound and turning behind him.

Behind him, his horde followed. Tall, emaciated figures with long, dark and stringy hair and wide, blank yellow eyes. Their skin was a dark purple, and their arms had black shackles hanging off them. And the look on their face was furious. Hungry, even, as though they had given up any attempt at feigning sanity. Uncaring for their disorganised formation, Fafnir gestured behind him and yelled out, at the top of his lungs, "My Barbarians, leave no survivors!"

With a cacophony of crazed screams, the Barbarians charged past their leader into the village with only one objective - seek and destroy. Fafnir watched them, smirking sadistically with a soft chuckle. All that blood, death and screaming - it was such a lovely melody. He watched as they latched onto the walls of various structures, tearing them apart to reveal the stunned humans within. A demon invasion had not been on their agenda today, that was for sure.

Not all of them cowered behind a chair or table, he observed. Some of them ran away, presumably to call for help or just out of sheer self-preservation. Some of them even picked up whatever was nearby or drew weapons, determined to make one final stand in defiance of death. These ones were particularly entertaining, since if the saying 'exercise in futility' had a picture attached to it, it would look something like this. No matter how they tried to run or fight, the result was the same; the Barbarians had their feast, and yet another soul was claimed.

He let out a joyously wicked laugh. This was where he was most at peace with himself and his shackles. Perhaps a dragon would be too quick - he couldn't savour all the little details. He watched happily, only for his laughter to stop as he saw a sight that, distressingly, was more common than he would have liked. Out of seemingly nowhere, an arrow flew through the air, nailing a Barbarian in the chest and pinning it to a wall. Attached to the arrow was what looked like a lit fuse, sizzling and crackling right up until it exploded inside the demon.

https://youtu.be/jvloGyb7Wu8

Fafnir looked where the arrow had come from and saw a man cutting a bloody swathe through the demons, a crossbow mounted on his arm while his hand held a longsword dripping with demonic blood. It was a mere human, same as the rest, with dark skin, his violet eyes shining with fury. His hair was black and somewhat spiky, while being long enough to be tied back in a back-length ponytail. His body was covered with a dull-looking, serially-tweaked set of lamellar armour, which didn't impact his speed as he charged in Fafnir's direction.

Fafnir clenched his teeth and his fists as a freezing energy welled up inside him. How dare this human get in his way? And this one in particular...he just made him want to break everything in the area, starting with his spine. "So, you've followed me all the way out here, Siegfried?"

He inhaled deeply, calling upon the ice within and allowing it to rise up, before opening his mouth wide and exhaling. Like a dragon breathing fire, only his breath was a fiercely cold mist, blowing quickly in the human named Siegfried's path. Siegfried, watching with an air of familiarity, raised his arm out in front of him, and the crossbow began to change shape in a rapid configuration of moving parts. It formed a tall tower shield, which as he held it up, protected him from the mist - if not the cold associated with it.

Once Fafnir's breath attack ended, Siegfried, who had persevered through it all, continued to run, his shield turning back into a crossbow as he took aim. "That's my line." he retorted, firing a pair of explosive bolts at the dragon-man. "Not that I didn't expect you to attack my home at some point."

Fafnir raised his hand, which was exposed by his armour, and as crimson scales and claws formed over it, he swatted the bolts away, only for one to explode on contact. He growled, lunging towards Siegfried and preparing for melee combat. "You are a far greater man than this settlement in the sticks, human!"

Claws met steel, with Siegfried keeping his distance and going on the defensive while Fafnir swung his arms wildly, the blue traces of ice magic trailing off his claws as he tried desperately to close the gap. Siegfried wasn't having it, though, his fury simmering as he parried each hit. "After taking my home, where do you get off telling me where to live?" he spat. "This village is the embodiment of my hard work - it won't fall to the likes of you."

"Then fight, Siegfried! Fight and die in the name of those who don't matter!" Fafnir roared, stepping back and unleashing a goading howl. Several of the Barbarians looked where he was and spotted Siegfried, immediately turning away from what they were doing and swarming him. Siegfried held up his blade, preparing for what was coming next, and as the first one reached him, he plunged it into its chest, before returning to cut into the others.

He used their attacks as opportunities for his own, staying just out of reach. When one moved in to bite him, he punched its mouth, firing exploding bolts into its maw, and the rest was history. When he was scratched by them, he'd riposte to cut off its hand before using the shock to behead them. In due time, the job was complete, just in time for Fafnir to charge up and fire another breath attack. Siegfried knew he couldn't just stand and take it, so he ran away from the freezing stream of mist, suffering a little damage as he dove behind a building.

Once Fafnir was done, he looked at the path ahead, seeing it was completely frozen with ice - and that Siegfried was nowhere to be found. This was news to him - if he'd been hit, he would be standing there, ice burns all over his body without the ability to move. "Show yourself, Siegfried!" he exclaimed, a frosty aura beginning to form around him as he punched the ground with his draconic fist. "What a joke! A warrior like yourself cowering behind the insignificant?"

Siegfried, who was putting away a walkie-talkie, simply smirked. Nobody in this village was insignificant. As he remained hidden, Fafnir opened his mouth, about to use his ice breath again only to be nailed from behind by a moderately-sized ball of fire. He snapped around, spotting a young magician in red robes, holding up a twisted staff. The dragon-man charged towards him, ready to tear the lad limb from limb, only for a similar-looking girl clad in blue to jump out from a window he passed and cling to his back.

Taken aback by this, Fafnir tried to shake her off, thinking it would be quick, but she held on just long enough to deliver a powerful surge of electricity into him before letting go and scampering off. Fafnir gritted his teeth, shrouding himself in a cage of giant ice spikes to ward off any further attackers. "I tire of your magical children, Siegfried!"

"Now."

Siegfried stepped out from behind the building and swung his blade, his strike quick and strong enough to shoot the air like a sharp blast of wind as it shattered the ice. Just as Fafnir laid eyes on him, he charged towards the knight, forming a blade out of ice and attempting to slash the human. The two locked blades, struggling against one another's strength - when all of a sudden, Siegfried let go of his sword. Fafnir moved in to finish his slash only to see a fusillade of arrows blotting out the sky above. Each twinkled with a magical light, and at once he began to panic.

Siegfried wouldn't let him go, though. Having changed his ammunition in the meantime, he fired a pair of bolts at Fafnir's feet, which exploded in a burst of slime. It coated the dragon-man's leg, sticking it to the ground. Fafnir struggled to break free, just long enough for him to be caught in a rain of fire and lightning. The arrows repeatedly assaulted him, and he hissed as the magic struck him repeatedly. Once the arrows stopped falling, he was on his knees, glaring up at Siegfried.

"Defeated...by the nondescript? I cannot allow this!" he yelled, watching as an army of archers revealed themselves, rallying behind Siegfried. The knight shook his head, pointing his blade at him.

"We don't always get what we want out of life." he said. "I hope your path of destruction has been worth it. It ends here."

"Damn you, Ragnar! If only I could break these chains you put on me..." Fafnir declared, pounding the ground angrily.

"Don't feel bad. I personally oversaw the training of this entire defence force." Siegfried said, half-mockingly. "In a way, it's like you were defeated by me."

"I WON'T ALLOW IT!" Fafnir roared, unleashing a freezing gale from his body and forcing Siegfried to draw back. Standing on one knee, he shook his head. "I will accept a defeat by your blade, Siegfried. Anything less...than him...is unacceptable."

He closed his eyes, sprouting a majestic pair of crimson dragon wings on his back, and as they flapped, kicking up a mighty draft, he took to the skies, soaring far, far away and out of reach of any projectiles that were fired at him. This mission was a complete failure! But at least he could try again, with a different village - one that didn't have that dastardly Siegfried in it!

.........

https://youtu.be/8mwWJjB749E

When one dies, everyone has their own beliefs regarding what comes next. Heaven, Hell, a set of scales, or even just...nothing.

Ginnungagap. The void that laid between life and death. A black limbo, so featureless that it was a feature in itself. Naturally, it was silent - no sounds, not even the slightest breeze. All that could be seen was a parade of aimless souls - brilliant flames shining brightly in multiple different colours without making a single sound.

To the right of the parade of souls, a golden rift in the void appeared, and out from it waltzed the god Forseti. A seemingly middle-aged man with shimmering silver hair that stopped right above his shoulders, dressed in billowing white robes that concealed most of his form. In his hand, he twirled a long, ivory staff, while in his other he held a thick paper scroll. Looking over all the souls, he sighed slightly - this was going to be a long day.

"Alright, you poor, unfortunate souls." he said, an air of resignation tinting his otherwise flamboyant voice. "Let's get this show on the road."

He slowly unfurled his scroll, reading from it while looking through the crowd of souls. Today, it was up to him to decide which realm each of these fallen mortals would end up going to. The colour-coding did help somewhat, at least, but it was still by no means an easy task, least of all because of the sheer volume of souls. And then he had to make sure not to mistake them for those who had already come from the other realms. He had to round those up and send them back to Midgard to live life as someone entirely new. Existence was pain whenever the other psychopomps were on break.

No point complaining, Forseti told himself. It was time to get started. His job was an important one; perhaps moreso given the recent times. So many people were dying with no rhyme or reason - surely the Hel's Angels, who opposed Odin himself, had better things to do than terrorise a realm that was, at best, a secondary interest to him. No, thought the God of Justice. They had to be after the souls themselves. But for what?

Before he could follow up that line of thought, he paused as he felt Ginnungagap itself shaking, and with the chime of a bell, his eyes widened with a gasp as he knew exactly what was coming. Someone had set it free - but where was it coming from? He looked around frantically, raising his staff in preparation for conflict, and as he did, another rupture appeared right in front of him, a great pair of claws eking out and ripping it wide open.

The god clenched his teeth, fully steeled for battle as a grayscale dragon slowly emerged from the opened void. "...just my luck. Won't you return to your binds, Nidhogg?"

He knew he couldn't let the creature anywhere near the souls. Even now, it gazed hungrily upon the diverse platter of quintessence that laid before it. Lure it out, knock it out, and carefully put it back, he thought. Easier said than done, but it could be done.

.........

And that he did. While they were busy sorting out Nidhogg's gluttony, a third portal opened up where the souls had been left - this one swirling with black and white energies as the armoured, helmeted figure of Ragnar stepped out. He gazed upon them, his expression indiscernible and his mannerisms professional and polite as he extended an arm to them, a grey pulse of magic forming in his hand.

"Die. Live again. Die. Live anew. The cycle endlessly continues." the commander of the Hel's Angels mused, while the souls began to vibrate, seemingly in excitement. "Come, be my men. I cannot break you free, but you will live and die gloriously in service of ultimate freedom."

As if physically compelled, the souls quickly gathered around him, moving towards his arm as what resembled a black hole formed in his palm. It slowly sucked in the souls, leaving nary a trace of their presence. Once the last one had vanished into the void, Ragnar closed his fist, leaving no trace of it as he bowed his head.

"Apologies, god of justice." he said, before turning back into the portal he'd formed, now leaving Ginnungagap. He'd accomplished what he came for - now it was time to lay low until these souls could be put to use.