Thor's Power

Egeskov Castle was made of brick and constructed atop a foundation of countless oaks.

Great effort had gone into constructing that fortress and, even five hundred years later, it was a great boon to Odense and other nearby cities as a tourist attraction.

But the castle itself was not what mattered to those gathered there.

They cared about the lake.

Long before the giant castle was built, Othinus had used that lake for “something”. The castle had been built with no knowledge of that, so not even the front line magicians had noticed the traces of the enormous ritual that had occurred there.

However…

“Well, I guess I shouldn’t be surprised,” said the woman known as Hel from the white wasteland next to the lake.

“Even if the coalition didn’t catch on, we were all part of Gremlin,” said the boy named Jörmungandr. “We might not be able to reach the level of magic god, but we can guess what she’s thinking.”

“I’m glad I didn’t leak the information for fun,” said the young man named Fenrir. “It looks like they still haven’t figured it out, so we’re the first ones here.”

They were the direct combat members of Gremlin and each of them could singlehandedly battle an entire army, but they were not alone. Dozens if not hundreds of figures could be glimpsed in the white curtain of snow blown into the air.

“Is Loki here too?”

“Even if he is, he’s probably hiding behind someone. That’s just the kind of guy he is.”

“It’s hilarious that the rear guard such as Iðunn and Sif are here too. It looks like we’re all pissed.”

The members of Gremlin did not understand the purpose of that lake.

They did not know she was trying to cast aside her power. They thought it contained the key to some “true plan” that she had hidden from them.

That was enough of a betrayal.

They had all helped Othinus become a magic god and fought so she would grant their wishes. No matter how cruel the task, they had dirtied their hands. They would make her pay for dangling that dream in front of them and then snatching it away. And that payment might include physically tearing her to pieces.

Suddenly, a new figure walked up through the snow.

The many figures beyond the curtain of blowing snow parted to create a path. The person who boldly made his way to the center was not someone Fenrir, Jörmungandr, and Hel could ignore.

“Thor.”

“Yeah, it’s the real one this time.” He raised a hand in greeting while grinning. “This is pretty amazing. Are all of you waiting here to kill Othinus? It’s kind of sad that no one’s sticking with her.”

“You’re here to kill her too, aren’t you?”

“Well, yeah. But I’m not doing it out of hatred. It sounds like a fun fight, and that’s all that matters. I’d be lying if I said I was never interested in the experience points I’d get for defeating her.” He spread his arms and made a suggestion. “But if we’re gonna present our complaints to her, why not come to an agreement first? Let’s decide on a representative. If we all start shouting complaints from every direction, it’ll just be a deluge of noise. You want your complaints to actually reach her, don’t you?”

They all perked up at the word “representative”.

For better or for worse, Gremlin had always been gathered underneath Othinus’s absolute charisma. Now that they had lost her, who would lead the organization? Would they go with the standard and choose the lightning god? Or would they prepare a new position?

“How exactly will we decide on that?” asked Hel.

“Did you think I was going to use anything as boring as tradition, influence, connections, or assets?” asked the other god while closing one eye. “Let’s figure out who’s strongest in a giant free-for-all. That sounds like the most fun.”
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While taking shallow breaths, they somehow arrived on the edge of the lake surrounding the castle.

But then they noticed something.

Something they would much rather have not noticed.

“Hi there,” said a voice.

A giant stairway and throne lay beyond the white curtain of blowing snow. No, it was not a throne atop a stairway the boy was sitting on.

They were humans.

He was sitting at the top of a pile of fifty or even one hundred people.

“Lightning God Thor!?”

“Oh, these are all Gremlin members. If you ask Othinus, she’ll probably give you an explanation on each and every one of them. She can be arrogant, but she loves explaining things while looking down on you. They were planning to gang up on you, but I went ahead and crushed them all because that sounded boring. I didn’t even get all that much experience for my trouble.”
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To Aru Majutsu no Index NT Volume 10