Bloodlines of the Ancient Pantheons

Chapter 620: DCXX. The Exiled Guardian

Fulla blushed further, lowering her gaze and continuing to walk, embarrassed.

"Uhm... I don't know, I should ask my Queen and..." 

"Come on, just a little walk! I promise it'll take a short time! You will explain to me what are the most important monuments and where the Gods that we humans worship live! Talk to Frigg, I'm sure she'll understand..." Dag continued, smiling.

"All right, I promise I'll talk to her! Now hurry up, Freyr and Freya are waiting for you!" Fulla replied aloud, stopping and greeting Dag with her hand, making him realize that she did not have permission to get so far away from her queen, that in a few seconds would leave the throne room, demanding her presence.

Dag reciprocated the greeting and accelerated the pace to reach his mentors, who had silently witnessed the whole conversation.

"You shouldn't spend your time with a slave, she's just a distraction" Freyr said, expressing his opinion.

"If you want to achieve good results quickly, you will only have to focus on the fight" Freya added, reinforcing her brother's words and continuing to descend the stairs of the palace.

"I guess I can take a few breaks between workouts, right? What I asked Fulla to do is to guide me through the streets of Asgard, I'm curious to find out how the city of Aesir is made. I'm sure anyone in my place couldn't wait!" Dag replied with conviction, not letting himself be subdued by his interlocutors, knowing that he was under Odin's protection. 

"Who spoke about breaks?" Freyr asked suddenly, turning his head towards him.

"Uhm? I'll never pause my training?" 

"Your workouts will only be interrupted when you'll not be able to stand anymore... and as soon as you don't give up, you will start again harder than before. Only in this way will you be able to improve your mortal body, pushing it beyond its limits" the God of beauty continued.

Dag swallowed empty, not believing that his mentors intended to take him to the highest level of his potential.

"It's not just the passage of time that's different here on Asgard. Your body will get tired with more difficulty, you will be able to last longer. By training with these external conditions, you will develop skills that you will continue to use even when you'll go back to Skjold, or anywhere else. You will feel light as a leaf and hard as a rock. But it will be a difficult condition to achieve, sometimes you will wish to die, begging us to kill you instantly" Freya said, trying not to deceive Dag and making him understand that the feat he was about to accomplish would not be an easy walk.

"I should have died so many times already, my lady. The idea of death no longer scares me, I am ready" Dag replied with ardor, breathing intensely and beginning to focus on his next goal: to meet the expectations of his two mentors.

Freya and Freyr, though they tried not to make it apparent, were amazed by Dag's answer, who seemed to have reacted with self-confidence to their words, despite trying to put him in trouble.

They immediately realized that that boy had been chosen by Odin because he was different from other human beings, he was stubborn and determined and would not give up in front of anything, he would be ready to face with his head held high even an enemy much stronger than him.

"All right then. I will not tell you anything else, you're going to find out with your own eyes" Freya replied, satisfied. 

Along with his two mentors, Dag descended the stairs of the Vlaskjlf and found himself on the streets of the city where, once again, the sweet notes of Bragi's harp resounded, as he was playing that melody sitting somewhere.

On one side of the palace, a large road interrupted right at the Bifrost, which Dag had been able to see during his ethereal journey, noting that the holy rainbow bridge had been broken.

Thinking about the Bifrost, the young warrior thought back at the legends he had learned as a young man, that spoke of the rainbow bridge and its unmissable guardian, Heimdallr.

"Can I ask you a question? It has nothing to do with my training, it's just a curiosity" Dag asked, walking next to Freyr and Freya and drawing their looks at him.

"What is it?" 

"What happened to Heimdallr? Does he live here in Asgard?" 

"He used to live in Asgard... but then he decided to reject his role as guardian and the Alfather was forced to exile him. Why this question? Are you wondering who's looking after the Bifrost?" Freyr said, trying to guess why Dag was perplexed, as he kept looking behind, in the direction of the broken bridge.

"You know, we Skjold warriors are arbitrarily divided into Clans, or groups of warriors, each of which has about three Masters, or three particularly strong warriors with unique abilities, who are tasked with coordinating the other Clan members" Dag began, capturing the attention of his interlocutors, who knew about the Clans only summarily.

"So... the peculiarity of these Clans is that each of them symbolizes a particular God, an Aesir, a Giant, one of the magical beasts of our world, and so on... I, for example, am the Master of a Clan called 'Hammers Of Thor' who draws the power of its skills from the God of Thunder" Dag continued, knowing that they would soon interrupt him to ask questions.

"The power of... what? Skills? What do you mean by 'skills'? Everyone has abilities" Freyr continued, unable to figure out what Dag was referring to.

"Yes, this is true but... each Clan allows its warriors to learn particular skills related to their God of reference... let me give you another example... the Hammers Of Thor have many skills at their disposal that allow them to control electricity, while the Sons Of Freya specialized in the use of spears and magical wings, ready to lift their bodies and allow them to fly..." 

"The Sons Of Freya?" Freya asked suddenly, who had remained silent to listen.

"That's right! They are a group of people, very large, completely devoted to worship you, my Lady! My sister Gridd, for example, is one of them and chose to address her prayers to you, my Goddess!" Dag exclaimed again, explaining to Freya that one of Okstorm's Clans was based on her divine teachings.

"Yes, okay, but now... without further ado... there's no point talking about my sister, what does Heimdallr have to do with it?" Freyr interrupted, continuing to walk disinterestedly in the Sons Of Freya tale, imagining that no one had created a Clan to bear his name.

"I was getting to that... all these Clans, in addition to being very different from each other, have some alignment... some of them pursue ideals of love and peace, others prefer to pursue hatred and chaos... you can therefore deduce that between these two 'factions' of Clans, there are continuous and bloody wars. Well, the Horns Of Heimdallr are among the 'bad' Clans, that is, those who fight against the Clans of Freya, Odin, Thor, etc." the young Midgardian explained.

"After the Frostsinners attacked Asgard and exiled us around this planet, the Bifrost was destroyed and the connection between the heavens and the Earth was broken, thus not allowing travel to the kingdoms of Yggdrasil, the tree of life. Heimdallr found himself alone and without a goal to follow, with nothing to watch over in the absence of Odin, one of his most faithful friends. Seized with anger and a sense of bewilderment, the former Bifrost's guardian turned against his own comrades, imagining that he could counter the power of Odin and the other Aesir of Asgard to hand the city over to his enemies once and for all" Freyr replied, recalling those details very well as if they were indelibly fixtured in his mind.

"The man who had always been one of Asgard's most loyal allies, allowed himself to be infatuated with the false promises of the Frostsinners, who swore to him that he could increase his power and convinced him to rebel against his brothers, his family. Heimdall even managed to steal Freyr's sword, the only weapon capable of fighting alone, without being touched" Freya added, who like her brother remembered that cursed day very well.

"I fought against him, but he managed to defeat me in a duel, owning my weapon, until Thor, the God of Thunder, arrived. After his arrival, Odin's beloved son reduced Heimdall to an inanimate body, ready to accept his fate. However, the Alfather, from the top of his clemency, by virtue of all the thousands of years of loyal service of Heimdallr to Asgard, decided to spare him and exiled him to Helheim, the home of the dead and the damned, forcing him to stay there for eternity" Freyr concluded, touching the hilt of his sword as if it was a scar that reminded him that day.