Odin couldn’t fathom why, but for some reason he absolutely believed Seras was going to make his death as painful as possible.
And even though he had never been afraid of any woman, he could not help but think that this one above him every bit as terrifying as her husband.
Though, he couldn’t exactly say why he felt this way since she clearly wasn’t; atleast appearance wise.
Finally, the itching started.
It was small at first, and really hardly noticeable.
And then… his whole body started to feel that hopelessly annoying itch, which in turn shifted to needles of pain as the seconds ticked by.
His whole body began to feel like he was being pricked by countless sharp objects, yet he had no idea what was happening.
The pain was becoming so mortifying that he couldn’t even talk, and only choked gasps escaped his throat.
Seras’ smile became wider and wider as she felt Odin’s distress rippling off of him in waves.
“You’re lucky I said that I would make this quick… I would really enjoy the time to savor this pitiful state of yours.”
Giving a mental command, Seras shortened the timeframe and gave her opponent one of the most brutal deaths that she could imagine.
Hardening the god’s blood, she created billions of tiny hooks no bigger than the ones used for fishing.
Once they had solid shape, she began to pull them from every corner and crevice of his body.
The hooks dug into whatever flesh was near them on their path to escape, and punctured through whatever they could on their route.
Within a few moments, barbed red hooks started to come out of Odin’s eye, mouth, chest, and any other part of his body that had access to blood.
When they broke through the skin, Seras smiled and made a yanking gesture and ripped all of her bloody fishhooks free.
With their escape came the end of Odin’s life, and his mangled body became unrecognizable by any sort of metric.
A golden ball started to float up from the mutilated body of the deceased god.
‘Oh..? I forgot about this.’ Seras thought in embarrassment.
During her lessons with her daughter Gabbrielle, she learned that gods are notoriously hard to kill.
Even when their body is destroyed, their souls ascend back to the heavens and their body reforms after a few years of inactivity.
This was decided as something that was for the best as gods are notoriously famous for getting into disputes with each other, and if they were capable they likely would have all killed each other by now.
Therefore, to truly cause the death of a god requires destruction of the soul, and not many have a power like that.
However, all ten of the Tathamet’s did.
Seras instinctively grabbed onto Odin’s soul and held onto it.
She stared at the golden ball for a long time and it seemed like she was weighing certain options within her heart.
“Are you thinking about something?”
Seras looked over her shoulder and found her sister Audrina walking towards her, dragging two unconscious animals alongside her.
“What… did you do?” Seras asked.
“You and husband were bullying me, so I beat up these animals to alleviate my frustrations.”
“We weren’t bullying you, sister, we are just concerned for the new baby you’re carrying.”
“Oh, and when we tried to show concern for you when you were pregnant, how were we rewarded?”
Seras started looking everywhere but Audrina and whistling unsuspectingly.
“That’s what I thought.” She replied with rolled eyes. “So since you both insist on relegating me to the sidelines, I had to do something in the meantime.”
Audrina was planning on taking Garmr and Sleipnir back home and feeding them to Entei and Bagheera.
She tended to dote on the pets the most out of all of the wives, and they were something like her second set of children.
“Are you going to do something with that?” Audrina asked as she nodded towards the soul in Seras’ hand.
“I’m… not sure what the right thing for me to do is.” Seras admitted. “Our family could gain more than a few benefits if I destroyed this soul. 𝑜𝗏𝔩xt.𝒞𝑶𝑀
And yet… my first collision with a god was so unsatisfying. I want a do over someday. Is that selfish of me?”
“It may be, but none of us will resent you for whatever decision you chose to make. Lucky for us, strength follows us no matter where we might travel.
This will not be our only opportunity to gain power, and this is your kill. You should do what you want with it.”
Seras nodded silently as she looked over towards her husband’s battle.
“I will ask our love once he is finished.”
Audrina followed her gaze and smiled lustfully.
“Well what do you know? It seems like he’s just about done.”
–
Abaddon stood over the defeated body of the goddess of death Hel.
The return of Nidhoggr’s power had increased the output of his godly powers to a whole fifteen percent.
It gave him more than enough power necessary to defeat Hel in splendid fashion.
Even now, the goddess was trying to climb back onto her feet, yet a single firm hand placed upon her shoulder prevented her from budging an inch.
“You bastard… You think you’re the only one who has been aggrieved by a god..? The lot of us have! But that is no reason for you to drive an entire race into extinction..!”
Again, Abaddon remained unbothered by Hel’s attacks on his motivations.
Instead, he tightened his grip on her shoulder until he could hear the bone breaking underneath.
“When you find a problem and do not correct it, you are enabling it, and therefore become a part of it.
I’m not short sighted enough to think that every single one of you was responsible for the poor behavior of a few.
But because not one of you bothered to clean up the mess to begin with, you all must be swept away so that reality may be truly cleansed.”
“You wish to cure evils with evils… You are an atrocious creature.” Hel spat.
“To you.” He reminded. “To my people I am their protector and beacon. To my children, I am their idol. To my wives, I am their other half as they are mine. Nothing else matters today, tomorrow, or in a million years from now.”
Hel fought to keep her head upright as she stared into Abaddon’s eyes hatefully.
“Tell me this… will you truly spare none of us?”
Abaddon paused as he stared up the dark red sky overhead and put on a thoughtful expression.
“How does ten percent sound?”
“It sounds like a joke…”
“It is the furthest thing from.”
Hel chuckled dryly for the first time since their meeting. “Might I be among those ten percent? Seeing as how you’ve already defeated me and all.”
“You might have been… that is, if you did not use my son as a flying carpet and keep him on a leash like a fucking dog..!”
Hel felt a chill run down her spine.
Though she had seen Abaddon furious before now, the way he became upset when he mentioned Nidhoggr was downright horrifying.
It was enough for her to break out in a cold sweat.
Abaddon shifted his grip from Hel’s shoulder to her neck, and dark tendrils of shadow encircled her waist, arms, and legs, locking her firmly into the kneeling position on the ground.
“You were a worthy first clash, god. Our battle was most informative.” He said coldly.
*spits*
Abaddon smiled dangerously at her display of uncooperativeness and tightened his grip around her neck.
“I am grateful that you did not show me mercy. How was I to grow this much if you didn’t?”
Using the bare minimum of his strength, Abaddon yanked Hel’s head free from her shoulders, and held it proudly in the air as if it were no more than a trophy.
Two things happened in quick succession.
First, a golden ball left her headless corpse and started to float upwards before he snatched it out of the air with his other hand.
He said a small farewell before he set the golden soul on fire, and watched it burn out of existence permanently.
As it happened, a handful of dark marbles appeared within his palm.
Secondly, a familiar warm feeling encompassed every corner of his being, and he became enveloped in a column of pure light.
Just like always, he had an immediate difficulty maintaining his consciousness, and his mind was transported back to the past.
–
When he emerged from the boundless darkness beneath the realms, he wasted no time feasting.
His mind was focused only on cutting out all of the lights, so that his friends who sat below could be happy with him and offer him praises.
The number of realities he ate was in the billions, and he savored not only the power that eating them gave him, but the satisfaction that came with being emersed in the darkness afterwards.
He likely would have gone on until there was nothing left for him to eat, had a man not appeared to stop him.
He could not recall the man’s face exactly…but for some reason the sight of him filled Tathamet with unpleasant emotions.
Because he hated those feelings, he did not waste a single second and attacked the man.
–
The pillar of light died down, and Abaddon was revealed even larger than before, with a new seventh head among the rest and the eye in his chest coming a bit closer to opening permanently.
In synchronicity, all seven heads let out a devastating roar that shook the world tree much more violently than before.
When he finally calmed down, he opened all twenty eight eyes in his skulls and stared at the woman floating in front of him.
As always, he could not see the face of the mother goddess, only a blue veil that she wore constantly and her delicate pale hands that were interlocked in front of her.
“Tathamet… it seems we’re reaching the end of our road sooner than expected.”
“…?”
Asherah reached out and touched the snout of the head nearest to her.
“I’m sure you know by now… Since you are no longer residing within my world permanently, I can no longer help you to evolve.”
Abaddon had already expected something like this and wasn’t that surprised to hear her admit it, but he was curious as to why she seemed to be wrestling with something.
“I… would not normally make this offer to you due to the danger but… If anyone can survive from this it would only be you.”
“Survive what, Asherah?” Abaddon asked in a monstrous voice.
Underneath her veil, Asherah bit her lip as she fought to let her words spill out.
“Tathamet… do you want to become a god today?”