Chapter 318: Valhalla

Chapter 318: Valhalla

If you want to support me check out my patron at /athassprkr

I tend to upload drafts of early chapters on there to get people's opinions of them so you can read up to 20 chapters ahead as a bonus.

I would like to thank my beta, Akisu, for his help in this chapter.

---------------

13th May 2013, Svartalfheim

(Jasmine Sayre POV)

I stood proudly in front of my opponent with my staff raised, hiding how much that took out of me. The cosmic entity glared at me, "this isn't over."

I ran at him to finish the fight, only for him to use the reality stone and summon a cloud of darkness. I dispelled the cloud and my enemy had disappeared. I couldn't sense him, but I could tell that he had left this realm.

Suddenly, I felt the actual weight of what I had done today. I fought Entropy on equal ground and managed to get him to run, even if he ended up escaping with an infinity stone in his hands. Absentmindedly, I opened a portal to Asgard's healing chambers, and the moment I entered, I let the darkness consume me and fell unconscious.

I woke up with a gasp, feeling suspiciously uninjured. Even the gash in my chest had disappeared, something that should have been impossible given the fact that it was made by the Necrosword, which means it would take months to heal, and that it would definitely scar.

I looked around and found myself in the familiar white environment that was slowly shaping up to look like Atlantis. The fact that my heart did not ache at the sight was further proof of how much Selene's actions have changed me, and I don't know if I am better off or not. I could feel some nostalgia at the place that I called home for centuries, that I gave my freedom to save the remnants only to lose it centuries later because of the ambitions of its remnants.

I could easily infer that this was the void that made up the soul scape, which is usually inaccessible unless some higher power uses it to speak to people. This meant that someone is trying to speak with me. Looking around, I spoke up, ready to meet my summoner, "I know you didn't bring me here just to watch me wander around, so can you just reveal yourself to get on with it."

"I was told that you were perceptive, I didn't know how much," a voice replied behind me.

I turned and watched an unfamiliar being reveal himself. He took the form of a pale man with black hair and eyes and wore a similarly colored robe. He looked too similar to Entropy for me to ignore but he was very different in the way his energy felt.

Where Entropy felt like decay given form, where Death felt like the emptiness, this man felt like chaos. It was beauty and ugliness, Love and Sorrow, creation and destruction, it was everything yet nothing. I couldn't isolate which entity this man represented, nor how it could even contact me with the universe being closed off. Instead of guessing and accidentally offending the obviously cosmic entity before me, I asked, "Who are you?"

"I am imagination and creativity, I am ideas and stories, I am memories and forgotten, I am the king of Nightmares and reverie. I am Dream," the man answered me in a monotone voice.

I was still confused; I didn't know why Dream would come to visit me. I hadn't ever involved myself in his matters in any way, "Why did you bring me here?"

"To speak to you, of course."

This was really starting to grate me, "About what exactly?"

"The Living Tribunal ordered that you are to deal with Entropy and that no outsider may interfere in your task. Death did not protest, and thus it is now your duty."

"And if I choose not to fight?"

Dream's answer made me freeze, "Your world would be consumed by darkness, and turn into ash. The multiverse would soon follow, and not a single entity will lift a finger to stop it. Fading into nothing is a far kinder fate than those who disobey the Living Tribunal."

I glared at him. He was serious. The cosmic entities expected me to deal with their problem and wouldn't lift a finger to do it themselves. It was such an unreasonable request, and yet it didn't really change anything. I was going to fight Entropy anyway, if only because I was the only one who could.

This was starting to get grating, "So, to summarize, you're telling me that I have to fight a former cosmic entity that's slowly turning into an Eldritch abomination, that's planning on destroying the multiverse, and none of you are planning on helping me out?"

"Death believes in your inevitable success, and so does the Living Tribunal. And I trust their judgement."

I looked at him incredulously, "You're kidding, right? Any allies I could have had are either dead or dying. Even the celestials are no more. I don't even know if Odin survived and even if he did, he was severely wounded by the Necrosword. I banished my wife because I don't trust her, and the only ones that remain by my side are my daughter and the Avatar of the Phoenix Force. Even then, my daughter doesn't have the raw power to deal with a fight of this scale."

Dream nodded, "Yes, you are correct. I have watched you and I am willing to help in exchange for a favor in return."

I was very dubious, but still willing to listen to him, "What is it?"

"I am willing to add a person to your side, someone that would be able to balance the scales somewhat, my Avatar, my champion. In exchange, I ask that you simply train him in the art of what his role will entail."

This was interesting but I still wasn't sure about it, "I thought that the Living Tribunal forbade anyone from interfering."

The cosmic entity had a predatory smile on his face, "That would apply if the soul in question hadn't been my Avatar for a very long time, not that they knew of it."

"And who is he supposed to be?" I questioned.

"Why Loki Odinson, of course, the God of Stories and Avatar of Dream."

Well, shit.

---------------

If you want to support me check out my patron at /athassprkr

I tend to upload drafts of early chapters on there to get people's opinions of them so you can read up to 20 chapters ahead as a bonus.

Thank you guys for your support in these hard times.