Chapter 333: Of Deathly Graves

Chapter 333: Of Deathly Graves

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.

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Chapter 332: Of Deathly Graves

16th May 2013, Sayre Manor

(Jasmine Sayre POV)

Still, if he took the Celestials away from me, I would need to find something to replace them. Honestly, I only expected Arishem to involve himself, not the entirety of the council. As for his replacement, I had an idea who would fit this role. He wouldn't even come close to Arishem's power and skill, but he would be better than nothing.

I would still need to track down this specific replacement and to do that, I would need something connected to him, to track him properly. Genetic material would be better. My solution wasn't really pretty, but I stopped caring about things like propriety a long time ago.

I called out to my new student, "Hela, we're going on a small mission."

The Goddess of Death ran up the stairs looking excited, "Really? What are we doing?"

"Nothing strenuous, don't get your hopes up too much. Tell me, my dear, what is your opinion on grave robbing?"

Hela's excited smile turned into a gleeful one, "Who's the unlucky man?"

"It's not a man, actually, it's a woman. Her name is Meredith Quill. I need to use her remains to track down her son, Peter Quill."

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(Hela Odinsdottir POV)

Hela Odinsdottir looked at her warden in confusion and slight fear. Oh, she had no illusions of the fact that she was anything more than the Morrigan's prisoner. The former Crown Princess of Asgard didn't know why she wasn't rotting in her prison cell on Asgard, but she was glad to at least experience this illusion of freedom as much as she could.

Oh, for all of Hela's brashness in combat, she was still raised as a princess. She knew that the Morrigan didn't just free her from the goodness of her heart. She wanted something from Hela, and it was driving her insane to figure out what it was. Oh, she knew about the woman's decision of fighting one of the Endless of all things, but Hela knew deep in her heart that she simply didn't have the raw power to fight something like that. She wouldn't contribute much against an enemy that's even stronger than the Morrigan, considering how easily she defeated her every time they fought.

And the Morrigan knew that for a fact. She knew the extent of Hela's power. Whatever her warden had planned for her, it didn't involve fighting Entropy directly, of that, she was sure.

Still, digging up a grave would be a fun experience. She thought that she had misheard the Morrigan at first, but at least it was outside the mansion, which was starting to stifle the Goddess of Death slightly. Don't get her wrong, it was far better than any cell on Asgard, but Hela had lived in Helheim for thousands of years, a desolate empty place, and she wanted to see as much as possible from the universe until her father inevitably woke up and banishes her back.

Robotically Hela answered, "Death is the opposite of life, the end of everything, of everyone."

The Morrigan nodded, "An apt definition, for someone who isn't actually connected to Death in any way, that is. No, while Death is known as the end of life, it is the end of everything. Anything that has a beginning has an end, whether it is an object or a person. So, with that said, how do you think you could dig up the grave?"

Hela still didn't understand, and her companion must have noticed this fact because she continued, "Fine, I can see how that might be confusing. You have spent your entire life using your powers by conjuring destructive blades, probably mimicking Knull's famed Necro Sword. But you're more than that. The ground in front of us has existed at some point, it was 'born', and thus, it can die as well. Observe."

Still confused by what she was talking about, the Morrigan waved her arms and a small black energy appeared from thin air, and slowly morphed into a ball. The ball, then, fell towards the ground, and a chunk of the ground was immediately turned into dust. It wasn't an explosion; the impact didn't make any sound, it just ceased to be. It died, and Hela finally knew what the Morrigan was getting at.

The Morrigan gave her a smile, "You understand now, don't you?"

Hela nodded, "How can I do that?"

"I don't need to teach you, Hela, you already know how to do it. Remember your conjuration, how you mix them with your own magic. Now, instead of conjuring steel, just let your magic express itself, only summon the destruction, the death. Here try it."

Hela looked down and listened to the woman. She reached into herself as if she was summoning a sword, and yet didn't let it be projected, only her magic. And it worked like a charm. It was natural, and small black flames appeared on her arm. Instinctively, Hela pressed her arm to the ground, and in seconds, there was a hole that was meters deep, leaving a small casket completely intact.

How had she never known about this, how had no one ever taught her that? It felt right, it felt like how she was supposed to use her magic. She understood now why it was so inefficient to use it in conjunction with her conjured blades. Well, it wasn't truly inefficient, considering how exhausted she felt after just removing a few meters of dirt, but it was something that could be trained.

With a wave of her hand, the Morrigan opened the casket, and a small bone was summoned. Immediately after, the casket was closed and somehow the hole was filled with dirt as if Hela hadn't destroyed it moments earlier.

The Morrigan used the bone as a conduit for some obscure spell, which involved a lot of floating runes that she didn't understand. The witch kept at it until she somehow transformed the bone into a metal sphere. There was some sort of glowing red arrow pointing outside the sphere, reminding her of a compass.

The immortal witch then smiled, "Well, this was a success. I believe we should depart to see our recruit soon."

"So, did you find out where he is?"

The Morrigan shrugged, "I have no idea. He's not on the planet, that's for sure, and I'm not exactly confident about the names of the planets in the galaxy."

"You mean that he's not on Earth?"

"Yes, but this little artefact could help me track him down anywhere in the universe. I have always been thinking about exploring the universe outside this planet, and I do have a spaceship that I appropriated that I wanted to take for a spin. What do you think, Hela? Are you up for a trip in the universe?"

Hela gave her a blinding smile. Perhaps, this wasn't exactly the informal prison that she imagined it was. She would trust the Morrigan for now, and if she ends up betraying her as well, at least she would have a few interesting adventures on the way back to her cell.

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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.