Chapter 24: Bloodwolf Headquarters

Cyril headed directly to the Bloodwolf headquarters with Thor while Kyra and Skadi continued down the road towards Elendil to deal with any other Bloodwolf mercenaries on the road. 

The captured mercenaries by the road were tied up and left to the villagers to decide their fate. They were the lucky ones, as at least they were at the mercy of the villagers and had a slim possibility of living.

Thor charged up the mountain path to the headquarters, wiping out anyone in his way, encountering every ambush head on, while Cyril mopped up any survivors. "This is just like the good old days" smiled Cyril as he followed the path of destruction his brother made remembering his youthful days in Asgard.

Thor smashed through the barricaded thick door of the fortress like tissue paper and immediately started slaughtering mercenaries. Thor calmly smashed through the fortress walls, not bothering to look for doors. His orders were simple, eliminate all enemies, rescue the villagers.

Thor has the power to defeat giant dragons, fearsome giants and the most powerful demons. Mere men with elemental attacks could not even scratch Thor's godly body. The mercenaries that came into contact with Mjolnir, Thor's hammer, instantly turned into meat paste. Thor's punches and kicks that can knock out dragons smashed human bodies to pieces.

By the time Cyril arrived, he walked through a broken fortress dripping with blood and meat. Cyril went directly to the dungeon where the women were kept, dispatching whoever was in his way that Thor may have missed.

When he arrived at the dungeon, he smelled the stench of dead bodies. In the middle of the room was a pile of human bones. They looked like they were eaten raw.

At the side of the room were cages with a few remaining naked women. They were silent with terrified looks in their eyes. 

Suddenly, out of the shadows, something incredibly fast attacked Cyril, so much so, he managed barely to put up a wind shield to protect himself. The impact of the attack flung him across the room, smashing him into a far wall. 

Luckily Cyril cushioned his fall and was not injured. However, the creature packed quite a bit of power and together with its speed, would have killed Cyril if not for his reflexes.

As Cyril got up, the creature attacked him again but he managed to dodge and repelled it with a mini tornado. By now, he could see was facing a werewolf.

The creature was sleek and lithe and moved with supernatural grace. "Is it a female?" thought Cyril. 

His wind blades could barely cut the creature's rough hide, so he formed a wind tunnel around the creature's head, sucking all the wind out of its lungs. It trashed around the room, desperately trying to get air, but Cyril bound him up with a cage of stone. Eventually, it keeled over and died.
He threw the werewolf's body into the Nexus then he broke open the jail cells and released the girls. He found them some clothes and led them out the way he came in. It was a large fortress and Thor's battle could still be heard throughout the building.

After he led them out, he reentered the fortress to look for Thor. He followed the path of destruction further into the fortress.

When he reached the site of the battle, he witnessed Thor surrounded by hundreds of mercenaries, as well as about a 3 werewolves. There were dead human bodies everywhere, splattered meat everywhere. There were also around 10 dead werewolves. 

At one corner was a large 9 foot tall werewolf who seems to be the leader, commanding both the mercenaries and werewolves to attack Thor. Although the werewolf was weaker than Thor, his agility and speed allowed him to survive Thor's attacks without major injury.

Cyril opened the Nexus and summoned Drasul, the Lich King puppet. Immediately Drasul emanated an aura of terror whereby everyone nearby froze in terror. It was so strong even Cyril felt a small twinge of fear and panic standing next to Drasul.

Drasul then unleashed his death energy killing several dozen mercenaries nearby instantly and cast a reanimate dead spell. All the dead bodies came to life and started attacking the living mercenaries and werewolves. The more people died, the more undead rose to attack. 

Cyril paused to admire Drasul's work. In his own way, Drasul was as much a weapon of mass destruction as Thor was.

Cyril went immediately to all the remaining 3 lesser werewolves, suffocating them with a wind tunnel on their heads. One by one they trashed around until finally dying, due to lack of oxygen. Cyril turned his attention to the rest of the battle. 

Within a few minutes, the undead outnumbered the living enemies and eventually killed all the mercenaries. Then Drakul's army & Thor surrounded the large werewolf.

As the undead army surrounded the werewolf, suddenly Thor's mighty arm entered the werewolf's body and he yanked out its internal organs roughly. Cyril immediately set to work and within minutes, the large werewolf was his puppet.

The werewolf's name is Beowulf and he is the leader of the Bloodwolf Mercenary group. They are an infamous mercenary group known for their savagery in battle. In their homeland, they were known to sadistic and inhumane murderers sent to butcher and create fear.

All the other werewolves were his female mates, whom he kidnapped from the nearby villages and made into werewolves. He only chose the prettiest girls in the surrounding villages to be his mates where he could completely control once they became werewolves. 

He never turned any of the mercenaries to werewolves in fear of anyone challenging him to be the alpha male of the group and taking over.

Beowulf was sent to this region around 4 years ago with roughly a small army of around 500. Their goal was to recruit, infiltrate and eventually conquer the region in preparation for a foreign invasion by his masters, the Dread Lords. 

It was the Dread Lords that ordered the elimination of the Silkweaver estate and whole family, although the reason is unknown to even Beowulf himself. 

As Cyril tried to dig deeper to find out more about the Dread Lords, he encountered a fear so strong that Cyril started sweating beads of sweat.

Cyril opened a portal to the Nexus and threw the other dead werewolves in, closed it as Beowulf walked in. Including Beowulf, he collected 1 King werewolf and 15 female werewolves to make into puppets.

He searched the fortress and found a treasure room full of gold stolen from the villages. He added the gold to Krakatoom's gold in the Nexus, as it would be used to rebuild all the towns and cities affected by Krakatoom and the Bloodwolf Mercenary group.

The large fortress was actually very well built and could probably withstand a dragon attack. It was built to withstand a siege from the army of Eurathia. It was located an equal distance from Cemeteria, where Hela is building her home, and Elendil. It was also very well hidden, and if Cyril didn't read the minds of the mercenaries caught earlier, he wouldn't have been able to find it. So Cyril decided to make this one of his bases.

He left Drasul there with a Nexus bag, and commanded him to clean the fortress of all the bodies and destruction, and guard the base until further notice. All the dead bodies under Drasul's command immediately went to work.

He sent Thor out the door to catch up to Kyra and Skadi on foot, and to sweep up any mercenaries that might still be alive.

He mentally commanded the dwarf brothers, Sindri and Brokkr to make a stop here to make repairs and reinforcement before meeting up in Elendil.

Cyril himself entered Drasul's Nexus bag and going through the Nexus, he exited Kyra's Nexus bag. They were in the midst of battle...

Chapter 23: Rebuilding

Cyril exited Sindri's Nexus bag at the Silkweaver Estate. Kyra's family mansion was already rebuilt in accordance to Cyril's memories. Cyril's house has also been rebuilt to specifications. 

The dwarf brothers Sindri and Brokkr also rebuilt all the furniture using wood from the nearby forest and the Silkweaver caves were restored and reinforced with their dwarven mining expertise.

He spent two weeks in the Nexus, carefully making several more puppets out of the gods of Asgard. As many of the goddesses were not in battle when their souls were sucked out, many of their bodies were undamaged and thus were the most obvious first choices for making puppets.

He then exited the Nexus with a team of goddesses and 40 valkyries. They all had been given their tasks and they immediately sprang into action. 

Idunn the Goddess of Spring was left at Cyril's house with a Nexus bag to keep watch of both his place and the Silkweaver Estate.

The rest of the group of goddesses and Valkyries including the dwarves Sindri and Brokkr sprinted to the nearest town, which was Westhaven. 

The Dwarf brother's immediately started repairing the town walls and all the public amenities. This was so the inhabitants wouldn't need to be taxed to rebuild the town facilities.

The Queen of the Valkyries Freya, Goddess of Love and her 40 Valkyries went about helping people where needed, and helped protect the peace.

Eir the Goddess of Healing went about healing the injured, while Syn the Goddess of Justice help distribute the gold from Krakatoom's lair needed for rebuilding the people's homes and lives. 

Astrild and Sjofn the Goddesses of Love and Harmony kept everyone's mood calm during the rebuilding process. 

The whole team went from town to town, each taking roughly a week to fulfill their tasks before moving to the next town. Both Eir and Syn had a Nexus bag each in case of emergency, as did Freya the Goddess in charge of the Valkyries.

The Goddess of the hunt Skadi sprinted ahead to hunt for Cyril and Kyra's parents and would catch up with Kyra and Thor before the rest of the team. The whole team was to eventually arrive and do their tasks at Elendil, then return to the Nexus.

Cyril and Hela joined Kyra and Thor who had only just left Freeport on foot and were several days away from Cemeteria. They had not yet located their parents.

The trip to Cemeteria was uneventful as they passed the message to everyone they passed that they should return to their homes and rebuild. Cyril handed out Krakatoom's gold too to encourage them to do so, and nearly all did.

They eventually arrived in Cemeteria. Compared to the other towns and cities, it was mostly untouched by Krakatoom. Maybe it was because the town was deserted when Krakatoom attacked. 

After the undead attack, the town was completely abandoned. As there were no survivors of the undead attack, the town was deserted. The kingdom officers that came simply piled up the bodies and burned them. Then they closed off the roads to the town and declared the town abandoned.

Now the town was filled with survivors from other towns who used the mostly usable buildings. Cyril and Kyra spread the word about the rebuilding in their towns. Many were overjoyed and with their gifts of gold from Cyril, they headed back towards their homes.

They stayed there for a night and departed the next morning. Hela chose to remain there and wait for the group of Gods. She wanted to settle down and build a residence for herself there as there was strong death energy in the town of cemetaries.

As they walked, they joined a long line of people walking to the next town and continued spreading the word and giving out gold. Within 2 days, Skadi caught up with them and even went ahead to scout for their parents.

Within half an hour, there was a traffic jam with all the people stopped from moving forwards. Cyril spread the word about rebuilding and paid the people around him who turned back and headed home.

Eventually they reached the cause of the jam. Skadi was battling 20 armed men who was blocking the road and robbing the people and kidnapping all the young women. Skadi was fighting them to a standstill, and several robbers were already wounded on the floor. 

Cyril motioned and Thor immediately stood forwards. Within a minute, the men surrendered after Thor joined the fight and smashed 3 men into mush. They released all their victims and Cyril sent all the villagers towards their homes. 

They then questioned the men. They wore the emblems of the Bloodwolf Mercenaries. "Them again" Cyril noted.

With the threat of Thor standing behind him, Cyril questioned the mercenaries. They were a large outfit with more than 1000 members, and had a large secret base in the nearby mountains. The base is well concealed and escaped the notice of Krakatoom the dragon. 

After Krakatoom wiped out many towns, the Bloodwolf mercenaries took the opportunity to expand their wealth and position by kidnapping all the young women and robbing everyone on the roads of their wealth. 

Knowing the location of the Bloodwolf headquarters, it was time to get revenge for the earlier attacks on their families and find out who wants to destroy the Silkweavers.

Chapter 22: Drasul the Lich King

Cyril rushed into Kyra's Nexus bag, then rushed out of the mansion and entered the large portal that led to Krakatoom's lair.

When he arrived, he realized the whole mountain was blown apart. Cyril's 5 monsters were pinning back a lich king, but were unable to fully defeat him.

Fenrir the Giant Wolf, Surtur the gigantic Fire Demon, Ymir the Ice Giant, the two dragons Nidhoggr and Krakatoom were at a stalemate. When they were alive, any one of them was easily a match for the lich king. However, they were undead, and the lich king's powers were over the undead.

Lich kings were powerful necromancers who uses spells or rituals to bind his spirit to a horcrux granting him immortality and power over the undead.

Cyril's puppets were his own creations using his deep understanding of the law of death and has never before been done in such a way by any necromancer. Thus the lich king could not undo the puppets nor take control them. 

However, because of the lich king's superior powers in necromancy, the 5 monsters could not attack either, only defend and corner the lich king.

Cyril frowned and unleashed his elemental might on the lich king, throwing wind blades and earth projectiles at him in abandon. All the elements merely bounced off an energy field generated by the lich king. The lich king was indeed very powerful and was the very same lich king that was narrowly defeated by Krakatoom thousands of years ago.

The lich king shot death energy at Cyril, at which a mere touch would kill any living thing. They had no effect on the puppets, but Cyril had to be careful. He tried to deflect the death energy with a wall of stone but as death energy is not energy from the physical world, it went right through Cyril's shield. He dodged at the last minute and threw his stink bombs, daggers, he even used his whistle. But as the lich king was an undead, none of them had any effect.

Cyril frowned as nothing he did was effective, yet he had to dodge all the attacks of the lich king. The 5 monster puppets are the only thing giving him an advantage, otherwise the lich king could even enter the Nexus and he could do nothing about it. Who knows what damage he could do with all the dead gods inside that were not yet puppets.

The battle was at a stalemate and Cyril was running out of options.

"Do you need help father?" came an unearthly voice from inside the portal. Suddenly Hela casually stepped out. 

The lich king immediately attacked the newcomer with death energy. The deadly blast approached Hela and suddenly dissipated. Hela gave the lich king a deadly stare and all his defenses collapsed. 

"How did you do that? Who are you? You cannot do this..... " the lich king stated in an unearthly voice, then suddenly bowed down. "My mistress. I am your servant, Drasul" the lich king stated with fear and humility. He was unable to help himself but cower in fear. He was a mere lich king, while she was a Goddess of Death.

Hela commanded Drasul to surrender his horcrux to her. As he handed it over, she took it and crushed it in her hand. However, the lich king did not crumble to dust. 

From Hela's hand came a red ball of floating energy, much like the process of creating one of Cyril's puppets. She passed the red ball to Cyril, who understood Hela's intentions and swallowed it. 

As a lich king, his skeletal body no longer had any internal organs. Cyril could not make him into a puppet the normal way. However, as the process of creating the horcruxes uses similar spells using the lich king's own internal organs, Hela used the horcrux to replace the organs needed for Cyril's puppet making ritual.

Drasul was now his puppet and was totally under his control the way his other puppets were.

As the dragon's lair was destroyed. Cyril commanded all his puppets, including Drasul into the Nexus. He then created a tornado to sweep up whatever gold was remaining and then entered with Hela and closed the portal.  

He had alot of rebuilding to do. 

Chapter 21: Homeward Bound

The journey on the eagle back home took several days. They followed the path of devastation over the forest, and between town to town. 

Krakatoom the dragon was merciless and left no building undamaged in all the villages and towns it encountered. Even Elendil was in ruins.

Kyra entered Cyril's Nexus bag and exited the Nexus bag left in Cyril's room to StarRock to keep up appearances at StarRock. The teachers at StarRock never even knew she was gone. There was word in StarRock however, that the dragon had disappeared. 

Although he didn't need to ride the eagle the entire journey and could spend his time in the Nexus, Cyril preferred to spend most of the time on the eagle deep in his thoughts with Thor standing vigil next to him.

Everywhere they flew, there was a trail of survivors heading to other towns, not knowing that the other towns they were heading to were destroyed too. They all looked up in fear as the giant eagle passed over them casting a large shadow.

Eventually they arrived at Westhaven. The eagle flew directly to Cyril's house. It was completely destroyed. Cyril did a quick scan and found nothing there. No dead bodies, no sign of their parents. He sighed in relief and flew to the Silkweaver Estate. It also was completely demolished. The main house was in ruins. Even the caves where they grew their silkworms were caved in.

Kyra jumped off the eagle to get a closer look, but they found nothing. Fortunately there were no dead bodies, which they took as a good sign. After Cyril made a thorough scan in and around the Silkweaver residence and his house again, they concluded their parents were alive.

They quickly formulated a plan of action. Kyra left on foot with Thor as her bodyguard to follow the trail of survivors hoping to find their parents. They would keep in touch by periodically meeting in the Nexus.

Cyril left the Dwarven brothers Sindri and Brokkr at the location to rebuild the Silkweaver and Cyril's houses, and excavate the Silkweaver mines. With their abilities, this would only take a day or two. They will then stand guard and give Cyril a mental call if anyone approaches. Sindri was given a Nexus bag so Cyril could be there in an instant.

Then Cyril left on the giant eagle directly to the north. Plenty of gold will be needed to rebuild all the towns and cities, and to rebuild the economy and allow the towns to prosper again. And he also knew where to get so much gold.... Krakatoom's lair.  

He flew for 7 days to a desolate volcanic mountain range. The air was filled with toxic fumes, and the heat was hellish. Luckily this does not pose any problems for one that can control both the air and fire. Finally, they arrived at the dragon's lair, which was in the highest mountain surrounded by the volcanoes. .

Cyril had already turned Krakatoom's body into one of his puppets. Scanning his memories, he did not see any guards or traps to be worried about. However, as a precaution, he created a portal to the Nexus and Krakatoom came out of it and the giant eagle went back into the portal. He sent Krakatoom into the lair to check if there were any unexpected visitors as he closed the portal.

Krakatoom scouted the lair and found no intruders. Cyril cautiously entered the lair and noticed that it was brightly lit by glowing crystals which reflected off all the gold in the cave. It was a large cave easily the size of a large city filled from wall to wall with gold and precious jewels. 

Cyril created a large portal in the center of the lair and summoned Nidhoggr the dragon, Fenrir the giant wolf, Ymir the Ice giant and Surtur the fire giant. Together with Krakatoom, all 5 giant creatures started shoveling gold into Cyril's dimension. 

Cyril then used his earth weaving abilities to seal the lair entrance as he didn't want any interference from outsiders. Satisfied with his arrangements, he entered the large portal.

Inside Cyril's the Nexus, gold was starting to pile up from a large portal outside his mansion. He nodded his head in approval and went into his mansion to the portal room he shared with Kyra. He went to Kyra's portal and exited her Nexus bag. In an instant, he was next to Kyra.

By now Kyra and Thor had reached Freeport. They did not have horses, and although they could fly, they wanted to walk to check everyone they came across. Kyra said that although she met several people on the way that she knew from Westhaven, none of them saw either of their parents when they fled.

This small town Freeport was where they originally met Violet. Cyril thought of the still comatose Violet, and wished he could do more for her.


As they continued looking for their parents, Cyril received a mental alert from his puppets in Krakatoom's lair. They were under attack.
"Who's crazy enough to attack my monsters?" Cyril thought to himself as he rushed to through the Nexus

Chapter 20: Enter the Dragon

Cyril walked to the top of a mountain holding Kyra's hand and finally saw StarRock at a distance, the one beacon surrounded by the Grimdeath Forest.

"I've finally arrived!" he yelled, but he was still too far away for anyone in Stardock to hear.

"Finally you're here. I'll meet you on the inside" she smiled as she kissed him, and walked towards the Nexus using her bag.

Kyra had been joining him sporadically on his walk to StarRock whenever she could.

They spent many nights in the forest together, pleasuring themselves under the stars and had gotten very familiar with each other.

Just as she was about to enter, a loud roar boomed across the sky, and the large dragon appeared and shot his flame breath at StarRock Academy.

A large force field covering the Academy absorbed the attack, but as the dragon slammed his body into it, the force field could clearly be seen cracking.

Cyril made created a large portal the air and summoned the puppet of the giant eagle that sat on top of Yggdrasil the World Tree, as well as Nidhoggr the dragon that lived at its roots.

Both were easily the size of the dragon that is attacking StarRock. He also summoned Thor and they all sat on the eagle and took off towards the other dragon, with Nidhoggr the dragon following from a distance behind.

The giant eagle arrived first and sunk its claws into the dragon's back, causing it to roar in pain. Just as the dragon was about to burn the eagle with his breath, Thor streaked through the sky and smashed the dragon's face with his hammer, making it shoot fire wildly into the distance missing everyone.

As the eagle disengaged from the dragon, Nidhoggr finally arrived and jumped onto the dragon and they both rolled on the forest floor, smashing trees everywhere.
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The dragons were evenly matched and as Cyril looked on, he cheered on the inside "Come on Nidhoggr! Don't lose and let Thor's effort in climbing into your ass be for nothing" laughed Cyril.

Thor again smashed the dragon's jaw giving Nidhoggr the angle to pin the dragon's body to the ground. The giant eagle returned and pinned his head making the dragon unable to shoot fire.

Cyril approached with the dagger in hand. "You, stinkbearer! You have the Dagger of Drasul??" roared the dragon as it recognized Cyril.

Cyril asked in reply "Who are you? And what do you know about this dagger?".

The dragon glared at him with his draconic eyes and tried to overpower Cyril's mind. Cyril laughed "Do you want to control my mind?" and he stared into the dragon's eyes with a glare that would make even death cower in fear. The dragon felt fear for the first time in its life.

Then he casually walked up to the dragon and plunged his dagger into the dragon's heart killing it. A huge amount of energy entered Cyril's body, filling him with tremendous vigor and made him feel incredibly strong and invincible.

Cyril marveled at the strong lifeforce an ancient dragon had, it probably matches the lifeforce of the strongest Gods. With this absorbed lifeforce, he could probably live for thousands of years.

He then started creating a big portal and had his puppet dragon Nidhoggr drag Krakatoom's body into the Nexus.

Inside the Nexus, Thor entered the dragon's butt hole and dragged out all his internal organs. Cyril immediately started his ritual and took control over the dragon, forming a telepathic bond with it.

The dragon was named Krakatoom. He was an ancient fire dragon that terrorized the world 10,000 years ago, and laid asleep until recently it was stirred by the theft of the dagger.

The dragon acquired the dagger while battling a powerful lich king named Drasul thousands of years ago that nearly cost the dragon its life. The dragon took thousands of years sleep just to recover from this battle.

The dagger was one of a few things in the world that can cut through its dragon skin and kill it. It was the lich king's most treasured weapon.

Cyril peered further into the dragon's memories and discovered after awakening, the dragon went on a rampage, flying through and destroying one town after the other searching for clues of the dagger. One of the countless towns it ravaged was Westhaven!

"I must go home immediately!" Cyril suddenly decided to himself.

He entered the portal room only to find Kyra already there. He explained what he saw in the dragon's mind to her, and she agreed to follow him home immediately.

They both exited the Nexus from a portal where the earlier battle took place, together with his large eagle and they left immediately towards Westhaven.

Chapter 19: Peaceful Days To StarRock

Kyra suddenly appeared out of her dorm room and finally started attending classes in StarRock. Her recovery surprised all her teachers, and she started fitting in and making friends in her classes.

Kyra topped all her classes easily as she understood the laws of water and air. This understanding of the law gave her a mastery of the elements even her teachers would envy if they knew. However, she kept the knowledge of the laws to herself to avoid revealing too much.

She was admired by all the female students, and lusted after by the male students, but although she was friendly, her body and soul were Cyril's and she didn't entertain any of them.

Cyril on the other hand took his time walking towards StarDock, keeping an eye out for the dragon. He made regular stops into the Nexus whenever he needed to rest. Within the Nexus, Cyril had several projects that he finally had the time to complete.

Cyril sorted out the dagger he acquired at Cemeteria. It was indeed a magic weapon imbued with death magic, but he now understood the law of death enough to remove the curse on it. He could now use the weapon without accidentally raising the dead or creating zombies.

As he had been raised juggling and throwing daggers, he naturally had a preference for daggers. This particular dagger proved to be exceptionally sharp and could cut virtually anything.

He named the dagger "Bloodfeast", as whenever it stabbed someone, it absorbs the lifeforce of its victim into the bloodstone and feeds the wielder of the dagger. This vampiric ability worked even if he threw the weapon, as it recognizes Cyril as its owner and would feed him the lifeforce when he reclaims it. It also returns to Cyril when called, like Mjolnir does to Thor.

Cyril also spent some time in the Nexus and made the remaining giant monsters outside his mansion into puppets. He now had his monster army.

Although the monster's near indestructible bodies could be cut up using Gungnir his staff or Bloodfeast, he still found the fastest way to access the internal organs to create puppets was to extract them from their orifices. This meant the best way was still up the back, as he did not want to damage the voices of the puppets in case he wanted them to talk.

Among the citizens of Asgard itself, he made puppets of the Valkyries first, because they had no injuries on their bodies nor missing body parts. Their souls were sucked directly out of their bodies when the wormhole killed them. He had made 40 Valkyrie puppets that were found complete.

He also turned his wife Sigyn and Sif's bodies into puppets. They were the guardians of his mansion and took care of everything when he wasn't around.

Most of the other Asgardian gods and goddesses were numerous. He did not want to sort them out and make them puppets yet, but he planned to eventually.

Perhaps in the future he would create his own Asgardian army.

After a while, the death and destruction of Asgard seemed a lifetime ago, and he now truly enjoyed the peace he was experiencing, enabling him to fulfill his tasks without worry.

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

While Cyril enjoyed his time walking to the StarRock Academy, StarRock was starting to face a major crises, but the teachers at StarRock could not piece together the puzzle and realize it yet.

The eagles going between StarRock and other locations were being attacked by a large dragon. As fewer and fewer eagles were arriving, they couldn't tell for sure if this problem was one or many dragons.

Dragons are rare in Eurathia, and a dragon two times larger than the giant eagles was unheard off until the recent attacks on the eagles and its carriages. The eagle that brought Cyril and Kyra to StarRock was actually the first that was attacked.

Then there was less and less people coming to StarRock by ground transport too. Even the supplies of food and other materials have suddenly dried up. There seemed to be no news whatsoever on the disappearances, and even the scouts sent out have not returned.

StarRock is located in the center of Eurathia and is completely surrounded by thousands of miles of the Grimdeath Forest. It needed supplies otherwise it will run out of food and other necessities. Luckily it had its own spring within the city limits, otherwise the inhabitants would die of thirst.

Before long, the teachers decided to send a strong expedition to investigate. but none of them returned.

Chapter 18: The Nexus

Cyril walked into Asgard again, through his portal. Thor and Hela was standing there waiting for him patiently.

Cyril thought calling the dimension inside the bag of holding the "bag dimension" no longer seemed to fit as Cyril decided to make the dimension a transdimensional connection between all the portals and the repository of all the things he wanted to save from Asgard. 

So he named it the Nexus

Cyril started filling up the Nexus with Asgard's treasures that remained. He found a pile of the Goddess of Youth Idunn's apples, the apples that gave the Asgardians immortality. They were filled with the law of life. He was unwilling to eat the apple yet as he did not want to be stuck in a 16 year old body. 


While the belt made of Baldur's skin was a permanent standby, it would not be big enough to fit everything he wanted to take from Asgard. So he started enlarging his portal he used to get back. He got Thor to stand guard, then continued exploring with Hela.


He entered the portal and took one of his spare Nexus bags from the Nexus and placed them inside Lady Sif's armoire in Odin's castle as a regular portal to Asgard from his dimension. If Asgard is ransacked by bandits, no one would look into a wardrobe full of women's clothes.

He found the bodies of the Dwarven brothers Sindri and Brokkr, makers of Thor's hammer Mjolnir, and made them his puppets. Sindri was missing his legs, so he crafted wheels for himself. Brokkr had his right arm missing from the elbow downwards, so he made himself a fake arm, but instead of a hand, he had a hammer head.

With the two dwarf masterbuilders as puppets, he started building a mansion inside the Nexus, using materials and rubble from Asgard. Thor used his enormous strength to help with the heavy lifting.

The Nexus was filling up and getting more to his liking. He created several large rooms to store different things.

He had his magic room, where he filled with all the items and magical ingredients that he scrounged up from Loki's old spell room. 

He had a treasure room which he filled with the treasures of Asgard, such as Idunn's apples. 

He had an armory with attached workshop where he kept all the broken magical weapons, and where he stored the dwarf brothers. 

He had his library filled with all the knowledge from all the libraries of Asgard. 

He had his morgue where he kept Baldur's remains, as well as the body parts of hundreds of God's and Goddesses that he recovered. The morgue was where Hela preferred to stay as she helped sort out their remains.


The mansion was actually built around the area where Kyra and Cyril originally had their bag portals and where they stored their items, so they didn't have to move. 

The larger portal to Asgard led to outside the mansion. Kyra never bothered to leave their shared portal room in the mansion as Cyril had too many weird, scary and disgusting dead things lying about. 

Outside the mansion, there were the inanimate body parts of his sons Jormungandr and Fenrir, as well as the ice and fire giant Kings Ymir and Surtur. There was also the bodies of the giant eagle that lived at the top of the Yggdrasil the World Tree, and Nidhoggr the dragon that lived in its roots. 

These would soon be part of his monster puppet army, Cyril thought to himself. 

The project of building his mansion and searching for treasures took Loki approximately 6 months in total. Entering the Nexus and looking at Asgard for a last time, he closed his large portal to Asgard.

He then returned to the large room he shared with Kyra. He now called his portal room as there was where most of the connections to the Nexus would be. 

Thor stood completely still nearby in readiness next to the portal on his side. There were Cyril's usual pile of stinkbombs, several whistles of mischief, and also a rack of weapons. 

He had Gungnir, Odin's spear on the rack, as well as the mysterious bent spear he got at the Mercantile shop. Gungnir, was one of the two most powerful weapons in Asgard, the other being Mjolnir, Thor's hammer.  

He then looked at the bent spear he acquired at the Mercantile shop. It was still bent, so he sent it down to the armory to get it repeared by the dwarf brothers.

After half a year in Asgard, it was time to return to StarRock. He met Kyra in the portal room and informed her that he would return back to StarRock Academy through Grimdeath forest. She nodded, gave him a hug and left using her Nexus bag. 

Thor lifted up his mighty hammer Mjolnir. Upon touching the hammerhead, Cyril used the law of space-time on it. Immediately he is transported back to the top of the StarRock in the jungle.

He immediately started walking towards StarRock. Within a few days, he found a road that led towards StarRock. It was seldom used due to the danger from Grimdeath Forest.

Cyril stopped at the side of the road, and Hela stepped out of his Nexus bag. She was wearing a black dress, and looked mysterious and unbelievably alluring. He gave her a Nexus bracelet made from more of Baldur's skin, for her to stay in touch, and gave her a big goodbye hug.  

For thousands of years, she was the Goddess of death. She now had a second chance at life and happiness. She wanted to explore Eurathia, have her own adventures, make friends, maybe even find romance. 

"Have a good life. You deserve it" Cyril said, as they looked at each other. "I will father, see you around in the mansion" answered Hela as she departed to find her own adventure. She had her own nexus necklace.

Cyril didn't worry about Hela. After all, who would be able to cause trouble for a Goddess of Death?

Chapter 17: Asgard

Cyril rubbed his eyes. He was back in Asgard, but this is not the home he knew. Everything is in ruins and even the air is stale and it felt like nothing has lived here for a long time.

When he applied the law of space-time into the hole in the StarRock, he was immediately transported to the missing piece of StarRock, Mjolnir the hammer of Thor.

He looked at Mjolnir on the ground and tried to lift it. Although Thor was dead, the enchantment still remained. He still could not lift Mjolnir. Only Thor can.

He called out to Hela as he remembered his dream. Instantly Hela appeared. Her eyes lighted up. "Father!" she exclaimed as she hugged him tightly with tears in her eyes. Although he was in Cyril's body, Hela instantly recognized his spirit within him.

They sat and talked, and she confirmed that indeed his dream was true and she was reaching out to him although she did not know where he was.

She brought him around to witness the destruction all around the nine realms. There was body parts everywhere of Gods, Giants, Dwarves, Demons and all the other creatures, as the realms smashed into each other. Although body parts were everywhere, the bodies did not decay. They were not rotting corpses, rather they were like broken mannequins.

Finally they arrived at where Asgard landed. There were dead bodies everywhere. The huge body of his son Jormungandr, the World Serpent was entangled in the broken parts of Asgard, only his head could be seen.. His other son Fenrir's body was further in the distance, his body under a large building. There were dead Gods everywhere around him.

He decided to look for magical items or weapons, anything that might be useful. He stumbled across Gungnir, Odin's magical spear. As he picked it up, it was still full of magic and power. "This could be useful" he thought to himself.

As he walked further, he discovered the body of his half-brother Thor, the God of Thunder. Cyril pulled Thor's body out of the rubble, and discovered Thor's mighty body was intact. He looked at Thor and memories of his childhood flooded his mind.

He turned towards Hela and asked if he could be revived. Hela shook her head. She explained that as there were no longer any spirits in the realm, all the bodies are inanimate objects like rocks.

Cyril then thought of something and remembered the dagger he retrieved in Cemeteria and the zombies he encountered there. 

He started asking questions to Hela about what he saw in Cemeteria. "Zombies? Thats very foul magic" replied Hela as she listened to Cyril explain. 

As the whole dimension he was in was now the realm of Helheim, ie the realm of the dead, he extended his hand and demonstrated energy of the law of death that he learned in Cemeteria. Hela was shocked that Cyril could manipulate death energy. She extended her hand to his imbuing her own power of death into Cyril's demonstration of death energy.

Cyril smiled as he watched the laws of death combine and form a new understanding in his mind. He had an initial idea, and now he had the knowledge on how to achieve it. He sighed as he decided it was necessary to desecrate Thor's body.

With Gungnir, Odin's spear in his hand he approached Thor's body. As he was about to cut Thor's skin he hesitated. Since Thor was dead, he wanted make Thor's body into his puppet. In order to do that, he had to remove the internal organs.However, he did not want to cut up Thor's skin unnecessarily. Using Gungnir, cutting into a God's body would not be difficult, but sewing it back up would be a challenge.

He thought for a while. He could access the organs through Thor's mouth. But he did not want to damage Thor's throat as he wanted his puppet to talk. He sighed and then turned Thor's body over and removed his pants. Cyril turned to Thor's body quietly "I'm sorry, my brother". He slowly dug deep into Thor's ass using his arm, reaching all the way into his body.

As he didn't want to damage Thor's body too much, he took all night to ensure Thor's body was intact and undamaged while removing his organs. 

Upon removing all the organs from within Thor's abdomen, he put the viscera into a circle and imbued necromatic energy into the circle. The viscera turned into a glowing red ball that started to float. Cyril picked it up and without hesitation swallowed it.

He turned to Thor and commanded "Sit up". Instantly the body sat up silently. "Do you know who I am?" asked Cyril. "You are my master" replied Thor. "Do you know who you are?" asked Cyril further. "I was Thor, God of Thunder in my previous existence" answered the puppet. "Your name will remain Thor" remarked Cyril.

The puppet is beyond any mere zombie or undead. It obeyed Cyril's thoughts telepathically, not needing any verbal commands. 

The puppet retained Thor's full memories and power. He looked exactly like a living being. 

However, if one was to observe closely, one would realize that Thor was not breathing, and did not need to eat or drink. This puppet did not have any needs to fulfill. 

"Can you retrieve Mjolnir?" Cyril asked curiously. Thor lifted his right hand and his magic hammer instantly returned to him. "Excellent" mumbled Cyril. 

Although Thor had no need for modesty, Cyril thought that a naked muscular 6 feet 5 inches hunk with a impressive manhood might be distracting. So he scrounged around for clothes that fit and found clothes for himself and Thor.

He sadly found Lady Sif's body. Sif was Thor's wife, and someone Loki once had a crush on. He also found the body of his wife Sigyn. They were both inanimate and dead, like Thor was.

With sadness he gathered all the Gods he could recognise with Thor's help and placed them in a row in the broken hall of Asgard's main throne room. 

What was he to do with all of them? Should he burn them to give them a proper viking burial? Should he make them all his puppets? But that would take a very long time. He simply took large tapestries off the walls and covered the bodies with them for the time being.

He looked at Thor and decided to shave off all his facial hair. He did not want anyone to recognize Thor and what he did to his body. 

Thor looked much younger after shaving and reminded Cyril of their younger days. After a short while, he shook his head and left the hall with Hela and Thor following closely behind.

He thought again of his bags of holding. He should have used them to hide in and escape. But now his bag was gone, it was too fragile. Even his Merchantile ring was damaged and not usable as a storage ring now.

Perhaps he needed to make indestructible items of holding. With that thought in mind, he rushed off with Hela following curiously and Thor obediently. They stopped at Baldur's grave and he used his telekinesis to raise Baldur's body from the ground. His body was still well preserved, and except for the small hole in his chest, his body was flawless.

He did not want to make Baldur into a puppet. While Thor was useful as in life he was the mightiest of Norse Gods. On the other hand, Baldur was an oaf. Although he was indestructible, he was known for simply being the most well liked God.

So Cyril brought out a small knife he made out of mistletoe wood and started removing all of Baldur's skin. Rather than a bag, he used a strip of the skin to make himself a belt. 

He then experimented with the belt using his knowledge of space-time and after several attempts, he imbued it with the same attributes as his bags of holding. However, this belt was indestructible.

He decided he wanted to plunder all the treasures of the nine realms and keep them in his dimensional storage area. So he started making a large portal, sufficient to walk into and place larger objects through. 

He looked at the rest of the skin and body and dumped it into his new portal. Indestructible skin, muscle, bone and sinew would probably be useful in the future.

Inside the bag dimension, Kyra screamed. As a portal suddenly opened near where Cyril stored his stuff, a body with its skin peeled off flew in and landed in front of her, face down ass up in an awkward position. 

The rest of the skin fell unceremoniously on the floor next to the body.

Suddenly, Cyril entered the portal to Kyra's surprise and joy. They looked at each other and started embracing with tears of joy flowing from their cheeks.

Kyra kissed him passionately, as Cyril automatically pushed her towards her bed. Their bodies moved on their own and without any hesitation, they were each other's first.

When they were done, they sat up and looked at each other. Kyra asked what happened to him, and he told her his tale. They enjoyed each other's company while talking and eventually Kyra asked what was he going to do now.

"I still have things to do in the other place I'm at. Rest assured, when I am done, I will join you at StarRock." he answered.

"Can I join you where you are at?" Kyra asked further.

He nodded and held her hand as they both walked towards his portal. Suddenly, her Pendant of Protection formed a force field around her pushing her away from the portal. 

"Its a realm of death, I think you are not allowed to enter." Cyril stated frankly.

"How about you? Why must you go back?" she asked in frustration.

"There is something I must finish" he answered with finality.

She nodded quietly. She kissed him and smiled. "I will be waiting for you. Please don't take too long".

He nodded and reentered Asgard using his new portal, leaving a much happier Kyra. 

Chapter 16: StarRock

On the eagle, Kyra slowly stirred. Suddenly her eyes opened as she looked around. A teacher was next to her and gave her a sad look. 

She shook her head with disbelief, how could Cyril have died so early in their lives? They were supposed to go to StarRock and grow up together.

Kyra fell onto the floor crying profusely as the teachers tried to comfort her. Be she was completely inconsolable. 

The remaining journey took a few days. As the eagles approached, it looked like the expanse of forest suddenly opened up to a city with large walls to keep the creatures of the forest out. 

StarRock city was nearly the size of Elendil, but instead of bustling streets and buildings packed close together and claustrophobic, StarRock was spread out with plenty of space. It had many parks and fountains and was definitely more scenic.

As they landed, they noticed many other eagles landing from all the other kingdoms in Eurathia. All the students were directed to a large assembly in the middle of the Academy. 


The headmaster was Glorian, a famous fire weaver who has been in charge of StarRock Academy for over 70 years. As headmaster, he is automatically also the governor of StarRock city. 

He got the other teachers and staff to help the students who suffered the ordeal, and got them counselling help, and help to settle in.

Kyra received help and counselling, but she was completely shattered by the loss of Cyril.

She led to her dorm room. However, she never slept in her bed. She spent most of her time inside the bag of holding, where she used her bed in there and hugged one of Cyril's shirts to bed. 

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

In the middle of StarRock Academy, there was a large black stone with patterns that look like stars covering the whole rock. It was the size of a house and it was surrounded by the main office buildings of the principal and other important teachers and officials of the city. 

This was where StarRock Academy got its name from. The StarRock came from part of a large meteorite that crashed into Erandelusia millions of years ago.

The largest rock was the centrepiece of the city, and it built itself around the StarRock, but many other smaller pieces were scattered around the Grimdeath forrest. 

Cyril woke up, under several layers of ash. He was completely naked as all his clothes were cinders, but his body wasn't burned.

However, he felt his whole body was in pain due to the impact of the dragon's flame, he had cuts and bruises everywhere on his body. 

His bag of holding was burned, so he couldn't get any of his resources. His Merchantile ring was still mostly intact, but damaged, and he couldn't access the items he stored inside it.

He noticed his his bracelet was damaged, it had a crack on it. Panicking, he looked inside and was relieved to find Violet unharmed as he extracted her body. He tried again to revive her, even giving her CPR, but she was completely unresponsive.

Being injured himself, he couldn't carry her around, he replaced her body back into his bracelet. He hoped she could be revived in the future.

He started walking towards the direction of where he remembered the eagles were heading, and keeping a wary eye out for the dragon.

He didn't fly because he didn't want to encounter the dragon again, and stayed hidden in the dense forest.

He walked for days, managing to kill several wild beasts that attacked him and fed on them for days, and skinned them for clothes, as he was still naked.

He found a beautiful lake, and took time washing himself. He also washed Violet's beautiful body and made clothes for himself and Violet, whom he clothed as well.

After trying again and finding he could not do anything for her, he stored her in his bracelet again.

On the 6th day, he arrived at a large rock in the middle of the forest. It looked exactly like the rock in StarRock Academy, only it was only the size of a man.

Cyril looked at the rock in amazement. It looked like a meteorite that came from the stars.

But the more he looked at the rock, the more he had a strange sense of familiarity with that rock.

Cyril frowned and touched the rock. Something was tickling the back of his mind, but he cannot seem to get what he is supposed to remember. He flew around the rock, looking at it from every angle.

Then suddenly, he looked at it from the top and saw it! There was a hole at the top of the rock, carved out to the shape of a hammer head! Mjolnir, Thor's hammer was carved out of this rock! Mjolnir was carved out of the heart of a star, and that heart is this exact rock!

As Cyril touched the hole, he traced his fingers around the groves and edges. He recognised traces of the law of spacetime. Curious, he controlled the remnant space-time energy with his hands as he touched the hole, suddenly he was sucked into the hole and disappeared!

Chapter 15: Flight to StarRock

The next morning, several more students joined them as they assembled to head to StarRock Academy. There were several elves and half elves in this new group, and two humans. They waited throughout the morning as several other carriages appeared from other regions of Eurathia.

They moved to a large area where there was two gigantic eagles waiting. Each eagle was easily as large as a house. On each eagle's back, there was a large carriage like contraption with seats that can seat 80 people each.

The eagle reminded Cyril of the eagle that sat on top Yggdrasil the world tree, who was at least twice the size of these eagles. "Its doubtful that eagle would allow a carriage on its back" thought Cyril to himself.

They all boarded according to the carriages they came in and loaded their luggage.The group from Westhaven had no luggage, as they were lost in Cemeteria and was yet to be recovered. 

This didn't bother Cyril and Kyra of course were unaffected as their possessions were really in their bag of holding. Violet was unaffected too, as apparently she did not have any possessions except for the red dress she was wearing.

As the two eagles departed the city became smaller and smaller. Cyril remembered the feeling of flying, as flying was second nature to him as a God in Asgard. He could easily transform to a flying creature or even grow wings and fly any time he wanted to, but didn't as he was keeping his other powers a secret.

Eagles were used as transportation because StarRock Academy was located near the center of Eurathia, in an independent small city state also called StarRock, of which StarRock Academy encompasses the whole city. In between Erandelucia and StarRock is the vast Grimdeath Forest, teeming with monsters and dangerous creatures stretching for thousands of miles.

Of course humans, elves and other creatures can traverse the forest. But due to the dangers of being attacked by monsters and bandits, and the many months required to cross the forest by land, only the very powerful or foolhardy will attempt it. Most that can afford the journey will take some manner of flying transport over the forest.

For the first several hours, the trip was uneventful. Kyra made friends with the other students while Cyril stared out the window deep in his thoughts. He looked at the forest below and wondered what creatures existed here. If his brother Thor was here with him in their youth, surely they would be out hunting here.

As he continued to watch the forest below, he noticed a shadow looming over them, getting larger and closer. Suddenly the eagles who were flying side by side broke formation and the eagle they were riding made a sudden dive. 

As it did, the roof of the carriage suddenly ripped open, and everyone saw a huge dragon narrowly miss grabbing the entire carriage with its claws.

The dragon was easily the size of both eagles put together. Its size reminded Cyril of Nidhoggr, the giant dragon that lived and gnawed at Yggdrasil's roots.

The dragon blasted fire in the direction of their eagle as the eagle took evasive action narrowly avoiding the dragon fire. The forest below was set ablaze and the dragon took a second shot at the eagle. This time it was not going to miss.

As the flames came close to their eagle, Violet stood up and extended her hands. All the flames were absorbed by her hand, however her dress was catching fire. 

Suddenly, the eagle banked sharply to the left throwing Violet out of the carriage. Just as Cyril was about to catch her with wind, she suddenly burst into flames and flew towards the dragon attacking it with fire.

As a fire breathing dragon, the dragon was used to fire, and is generally resistant to fire. However Violet's flame actually caused it pain. It turned with an unnatural swiftness and swiped it's tail at Violet hitting her into the distance.

By now, several elves and half elves were shooting fire and ice arrows at the dragon, while the teachers were also using their elemental powers to attack. However, normal elemental attacks have no effect on the dragon.

The dragon blasted fire again at the eagle. This time, Kyra raised her right hand and willed the power of the amulet she was wearing to create a shield blocking the attack.

Kyra screamed as the fire attack put tremendous pressure on her willpower. Kyra fainted as the attack stopped and fell into Cyril's arms due to the onslaught. 

Without a second thought, Cyril tied Kyra into her chair and jumped off the eagle and flew using his wind shooting huge wind blades at the dragon. However, the dragon shrugged them off as it did the attacks by the teachers and the students.

Cyril agilely avoided the dragon's attacks and flew closer took out his stink bombs and peppered about a hundred bombs into the dragon's eyes and nostrils. 

The bombs were made to get stuck and indeed they formed a black tar-like glue covering the surface of the dragon's eyes and irritated the nostrils of the dragon, making it hard for it to breathe.

The dragon roared madly, now blind and suffering from the horrid stench and blinding sensation in its eyes. It shot fire blindly as it struggled to stay in the air, incinerating the forest around it.

Cyril look in the air and saw that the eagles had disappeared into the distance. So he left the dragon where it was, blind and screaming and flew to the direction Violet was hit.

It took him several minutes flying in the same direction before locating Violet. She was unconscious in a crater on the ground, but surprisingly was still alive and unharmed. There was a pack of giant wolves approaching her, each standing 9 feet high on all four legs.

As they approached her, Cyril suddenly landed right next to her. He looked at the wolves and gave them a glare that forced them to back down. 

One of Loki's many names in Asgard is "Father of the wolf". Fenrir the monstrous wolf was one of his sons, so he knew how to handle wolves. They immediately retreated leaving him to tend to Violet.

Violet was completely naked as her clothes had been burned to ashes. Although she was short at exactly 5 feet, she had the curves one would expect on a fully developed beautiful woman. Her body was completely without blemish and completely hairless.

He scanned her body looking for signs of injury, but could not find any. He tried shaking her, but she was completely unconscious and not breathing.

From a distance, he heard roaring and rumbling approaching them. The dragon had already burned off the stink bomb concoction in its nostrils, but was still blind. However, its sense of smell was strong enough to track Cyril and it was heading towards them fast.

He carried her and ran used the wind to fly with all his might. But the dragon was catching up on him, and he couldn't fly as agilely as before while carrying Violet.

Not knowing if Violet was alive or dead, he quickly stored her body into his bracelet, preserving her inside.

Then he flew with all his might trying to get away from the dragon who was still chasing him.

The dragon was still catching up with him, even when was unencumbered with carrying Violet. Having no choice, he dove into the dense jungle and tried to hide from the dragon.

The dragon approached blindly and incinerated everything surrounding it, burning the entire section of the forest into ashes.

Chapter 14: Elendil

Driving their horses hard, the carriage finally arrived at Elendil, 200 miles away from Cemeteria, and and second largest city in Erandelucia. 

They were not due to arrive there till several days later, but due to the incident at Cemetaria, they decided not to stay the night there and went directly to Elendil instead.

Elandil was a city at the border of the human kingdom Erandalusia and Elven kingdom of Elanil. The city was thriving from the trade between  the races, and was popular because the people mixed freely. There is a large community of half-elves living here, where they do not face prejudice nor were subject to pointing fingers and weird looks.

They stopped at a large inn, where the teachers of StarRock arranged for accommodation for everyone and the guards took all the horses to the stables to rest. Once they knew their sleeping arrangements, Cyril and Kyra decided to go explore the city.

They've never left their small town of Westhaven, let alone been to a large city. Although it was late at night, they wondered the city and decided to look for the nearest Mercantile Trading Branch in the city. After asking for directions they headed towards an exclusive section of the city.

They were stopped at the entrance, but after Kyra showed the guards her family ring, they immediately bowed and escorted them in. 

An old wise looking man welcomed them, and even greeted them by name, surprising both Cyril and Kyra. He introduced himself as Mandrake Mercantile, the patriarch of the Mercantile family in the city. 

Noticing their discomfort, he explained that the Mercantile family not only dealt with magical weapons and rare items, they also dealt with information.

While not completely comfortable, Cyril nodded and asked him if he could identify the magic dagger he retrieved from Cemeteria. Seeing the dagger, Mandrake's face turned dark. "I can't identify the dagger but it is teeming with dark magics" replied Mandrake. The lights in the room started flickering, and the floors and walls started shaking.

Cyril shook his head and dropped the dagger back into the bag of frozen time, as he is now calling it. Mandrake looked at the bag of holding with great interest. An interspacial ring was already extremely rare. A interspacial bag is practically unheard of. 

Cyril then asked if he has heard of Asgard or any of the Norse Gods. Mandrake looked confused and shook his head. He has never heard of any of the people or places Cyril mentioned.

Cyril sighed and looked around. "Perhaps there are books or items here that might interest you?" asked the old man. Cyril and Kyra's face brightened and nodded. So they were given the guided tour of all their most rarest items. As he regarded Kyra as family, he was happy to show off even the most precious items.

There were numerous elemental items and weapons, and Cyril had a quick but thorough glance of all of them. He began to understand how the elemental items and weapons were enhanced, and if given the right materials, he could reproduce them at will. It also gave him deeper insight to how the elements worked in items and weapons, and in fact how to improve on them. 

Cyril picked up a staff of healing. "The law of life" exclaimed Cyril as he absorbed knowledge from the staff. This is a good staff, he thought as he passed it to Kyra. She picked it up and twirled it around and smiled. 

Cyril continued looking around. Suddenly he was attracted to something behind a counter. He moved towards it and took out a bent metallic spear. It was obviously ruined but looked like it was once a weapon to be feared. As he touched it, he felt a huge divine power within the bent spear. "This spear might maybe once be even a match for Odin's mighty spear Gungnir" thought Cyril. "What is this?" Cyril asked looking at Mandrake. 

"This spear was delivered to us to investigate, but we are unable to identify it. Its indestructible to our forges' hammers and anvils, we cannot even fix it." he replied.

"Can I buy it? I'll purchase this and that staff of healing" asked Cyril. Mandrake was startled. The staff of healing was of a high quality and could be used without any time limitations, unlike regular staffs of healing. Furthermore, the bent spear was something of a mystery, made of an unknown indestructible material. 

As family, Mandrake intended to give them some minor magical items as a sign of goodwill, but these were extremely expensive items.

Cyril took out one of his spare bags of holding and gave it to Mandrake. This bag is one of his original experiments, and is not linked to the bags Cyril and Kyra had. "I believe this is sufficient in exchange?" stated Cyril. 

Mandrake was startled for a while, then smiled and nodded. "Thank you. This is more than sufficient. In fact, please take another high quality item, otherwise I would feel like I am cheating you" he replied.

Cyril raised one eyebrow in surprise. He gestured to Kyra to choose anything, since he is already satisfied with his spear and kept it in his bag of holding. Kyra wondered into the jewelry area and picked out a simple but beautiful pendant.

"Ah, we named that the Pendant of Protection, a good choice" Mandrake stated with a smile. "It can create a field of force around the wearer protecting her from all harm. We are not entirely sure how it works, or where it came from, but its a very high quality item". Cyril went up to Kyra and looked at the pendant. "The law of force? Amazing" he noted to himself.

"You young ones really know how to pick the best items in the shop" said Mandrake. "Actually that pendant and the other two items are worth together more than your interspacial bag. However, I am pleased to make this exchange as a token of friendship and in recognition of our family ties." continued Mandrake. 

He was making an investment in making friends with these two youths, who have more than succeeded his expectations when choosing their items. They clearly were not normal kids and were destined for greatness.

Cyril and Kyra thanked Mandrake and after a brief chat, excused themselves and headed back to the inn. 

It was already after midnight as they left, and the streets were dark. As they retraced their way back to their inn, they passed through a dark street. Cyril sensed they were followed and stayed alert. Suddenly 12 or so robbers came out of the shadows surrounding them.

"You came out of the Mercantile shop. You must have bought or sold something. Remove all your belongings and pass them over here" smiled one of the robbers. "Yeah, remove your clothing" laughed another robber licking his lips looking at Kyra.

"Cover your ears" whispered Cyril to Kyra. He wanted to test out one of his tricks. Kyra instantly covered her ears as Cyril took out his whistle. 

He willed his ears to close themselves as he blew his whistle. There was no noise coming out, but an ultrasonic sound went out and hit everyone in earshot. 

Suddenly all the robbers bent over in unbearable pain. Diarrhea shot out from all their asses in an uncontrollable spray as they all simultaneously cried out in pain. 

Cyril kept his whistle and pulled Kyra along and made their way back to their inn, leaving the robbers behind. Their last sight of the robbers is them lying on the ground shitting puddles of diarrhea. 

They eventually found their inn and entered their individual rooms for the night.

Chapter 13: Journey from Westhaven

Cyril and Kyra arrived at Westhaven riding on the outside of a carriage owned by the Silkweaver family. Both Bart Soulsong and Victoria Merchantile were there to see their child off. Kyra had a large chest along with her while Cyril had a large bag. 

Although they did not need to bring anything as they had all their possessions in their bag of holding, they thought it prudent to pretend to bring their belongings to keep up the pretense. So her chest and his large bag was filled with extra clothes that they may or may not use.

Kyra had more than 5,000 gold coins in her ring, more than enough for 10 years of living expenses, if she needs it. Cyril had 500 gold coins in his ring. This should be enough for several years living expenses, if he didn't splurge like a king. 

His family was financially comfortable, but nowhere near as rich as the Silkweaver, or even more so, the Mercantile family.

Kyra was wearing undergarments crafted from their best silks. They were light, thin but able to withstand cuts and stabs from swords and arrows. This was the prize silks of the family and were only sold to royalty. She wore them comfortably under her clothes, which resembled a dress, but allowed her movement. 

As they arrived, they saw Captain Williard, who was talking to the guards that were to accompany the students to StarRock. Gildor from StarRock was there as well, as were two other women dressed in similar looking robes. Cyril assumed they were fellow teachers from StarRock.

They bid their parents goodbye and loaded their luggage onto a large luggage wagon. They then boarded a huge carriage that could fit 20 people, and was pulled by 30 large horses. 

As they boarded they recognized several students who tested the same day they tested, as well as several other unfamiliar faces. It appeared the carriage went from town to town collecting all the students who passed the test, so these faces were from different town.

They departed and went towards the next town Freeport which was 150 miles away, where they picked up several more students. Behind the carriage was a huge luggage wagon for their luggage, pulled by 10 large horses and the whole entourage was escorted by 10 guards on horses.

As the carriage fit 20 people, the seats were arranged in seats of 4. The 3 teachers sat in front, while Cyril and Kyra sat by themselves right at the back.

At Freeport, a small fire weaver with bright red hair and a flowing red dress and bare feet sat next to Kyra and introduced herself as Violet. She seemed a little odd. She found everything extremely fascinating and loved asking questions about the most mundane things.

Cyril looked at her for a long time and gasped with surprise. "Can it be that she's a a fire elemental gained sentience or something similar? How can someone have such a strong fire aura?" he thought. 

He approached and asked her questions about fire, and they began an animated conversation. Every time he asked her something, she would demonstrate something about fire in her hands. Cyril would watch and his understanding of fire grew. She even showed how lightning could also be formed using fire weaving. Cyril was amazed that lightning could be used this way. 

As they approached the next town which was 200 miles from Freeport, suddenly the atmosphere became eerily quiet. There wasn't any birds chirping, and even the horses were spooked. 

The town they were reaching is called Cemeteria, named so simply because it had the most number of cemeteries in the region and is among the most ancient towns in the region.

A guard rode out to a farmer standing not too far from the road to ask what was going on. As he did so, Cyril suddenly recognized magic in the air. "This is death magic!" exclaimed Cyril out loud. How could he not recognize it? After all, his daughter was the Goddess of Death.

The farmer suddenly grabbed hold of the guard and pulled him off his horse and started biting him on his neck. As the guard screamed, several guards charged and promptly beheaded the farmer. 

One of the guards got down to help his fellow guard. As he did that, Cyril opened the carriage door and yelled "Don't!". But it was too late, as the fallen guard suddenly grabbed his fellow guard and bit him as well. 

"Zombies! Move!" yelled Cyril at the driver of the carriage. "What? What are zombies?" answered the driver. "Undead!" explained Cyril in a hurry. 

The driver immediately drove the carriage forwards, with the other guards following close by. Thinking they should turn back, Cyril looked behind but saw that the luggage wagon was already being attacked by several other zombies, and the driver of the wagon was already bitten blocking the road.

They drove through the town as more and more zombies started running at them from all sides. Not only zombies, but skeletons were rising from the graves of all the many cemeteries in town.

The guards were falling one by one as they were pulled off their horses. The two female teachers started shooting wind blades and ice daggers out the windows. Gildor joined in and shot rocks at the undead. However, even impaled by ice daggers, or hit by rocks, or decapitated by wind blades, the zombies and skeletons kept coming. They were not affected at all by missing limbs or being cut or stabbed. 

"Protect the inside of the carriage!" Cyril instructed Kyra while he leapt out onto the roof of the carriage. 

He started shooting shooting wind blades at the undead all around them. Although the undead feel no pain, limbs were dropping off their bodies. Violet joined Cyril on the roof and started shooting pillars of flame setting the whole town on fire as they passed through. 

Cyril suddenly looked ahead using his divine sense. "There's the source of this necromancy" he thought as he identified a large building up ahead. He could sense a group of necromancers in a magic circle drawn in blood on the floor. 

They were also surrounded by zombies but the zombies could not enter the magic circle. The necromancers looked scared as they were trapped in their own circle of protection with no escape. 

Necromancy is the practice of death magic and usually involves evil practices such as human sacrifice and conjuring the undead. Necromancers are rare as practice of necromancy is banned and is punishable by death. Furthermore, usage of necromancy usually backfires, and it appears this is one such example. 

Cyril looked at the circle with his godly senses and saw a dead naked woman in the middle on what appears to be an alter. Impaled into the chest of the dead woman is a dagger with a mysterious gem in its hilt. "There's the cause of the problem" thought Cyril.

He used wind to propel him into the air in the direction of the building, and sliced a hole through the walls using wind. He landed in front of the necromancers. 

With a wave of his hand he created a strong gust of wind and brushed all the undead as well as the necromancers aside, out of the circle, without caring what happens to the necromancers. 

He then walked up to the alter and removed the dagger from the chest of the dead woman. 

He tried to destroy the gem and the dagger with his wind blades, but discovered that the dagger was a magical item, a high level item that prevented even him from destroying it with his powers. 

As he held it, knowledge of the law of death entered his mind. His understanding went beyond the mere levels of necromancy, and he felt a deeper level of understanding of the law his daughter Hela, the Asgardian Goddess of Death, controls.

He suddenly thought of something, and took out a bag of holding that freezes time inside it. He deposited the dagger inside it, and immediately all the zombies and skeletons fell like puppets that had their strings cut. 

He threw his freezing bag of holding inside is ring and looked around. The zombies had already killed the necromancers, so he went outside to catch up with the carriage. 

The carriage had slowed down when they noticed that the undead were no longer a threat and Cyril, using wind to assist him, caught up. "What happened?" asked the teachers. 

"Necromancers. They're dead now" Cyril answered, and everyone assumed that was the end of that. Cyril did not want to reveal anything about the dagger he found.  

The whole town was dead. As they couldn't do anything more in the town, they decided that although it was getting dark, they would go to the next town to make a report. 

They lost 5 guards, and only 5 remained. They also lost all the horses and driver for the luggage wagon. They had no choice but to continue their journey forward.