DXD SI : Chapter 83 : That was....not Good (!!) (Patreon)

Disclaimer - I don't own any of the characters appearing in High School DXD or the Anime or the manga whatsoever.

Asgard

–Magdaran Bael–

Even as Thor gave the expected results and was about to leave, he maintained that smile on his face and stopped Thor from leaving. Thor raised an eyebrow at the interruption, but he understood what was happening once he spoke up.

Once he had the entire colosseum’s attention, he deliberately, ever so slowly, reached into his pocket space, before pulling a jug that held a honey colored liquid, sloshing around in the jug. He could practically hear the gulps from the audience at the tantalising sound.

He could feel Thor’s heated, intense gaze on the jug, and the way the God of Thunder barely restrained himself from reaching forth and gulping down the whole thing in a single gulp. But wait, there was more!

He moved the jug around, letting everyone take a good look at it before gently removing the lid, letting the heavenly aroma out, before subtly using wind magic to make sure that it moved around the entire colosseum. There was silence for a moment, during which his entire focus was on Thor, whose hands continued to twitch as he barely restrained himself, before they were both snapped out of it by the deafening cheers from the Colosseum, the sound enough to make him wince.

Yup. This was the newest line of product he was going to introduce. It was a shame that Azazel was not here. Otherwise, Vali would have to be the one to restrain the Governor General of the Grigori, as he could not see Azazel controlling himself. Even though this was the first time he had shown this to anyone, the testing he did on himself showed extremely promising results, which is why he was quite confident that he was going to win today.

“Give.” Thor’s rough, gruff voice made him look at the God with a smile. Snapping his fingers, he summoned a glass, and immediately, a violent gust of wind slammed into him, with just enough precision that he felt the strength behind the wind, but nothing on his table was even disturbed, an indication of Thor’s irritation at having been denied the whole bottle.;

Smiling apologetically, but also a bit smug, he handed Thor the glass of alcohol, imbued with basically everything he could find, and since he knew that Thor was going to be one of the usual judges, he added something extra. As it turns out, even if he was unable to grow a tree out of the Branch of the World Tree that Odin gave him, he was able to mix it with something else, a lightning Ginseng that was a century old, which was not that valuable in the supernatural world. Azazel had dozens of them in his vault, just in case he needed them.

Either way, he was able to yoink one from Azazel before experimenting with the branch and, ultimately, was able to create something that would work even on Thor, though that was all theoretical. Then, mixing that ginseng extract with the Ale was another week long experiment, but ultimately, he was able to get it to mix properly, something that required his full attention as those items did not want to mix together properly, resulting in the current Ale.

He still hadn’t named it anything since he was unsure if he could even replicate it with an artificially grown Lightning ginseng, but for now, it should do.

So, it was with extreme anticipation in his eyes as he watched Thor gulp down the entire glass before throwing the glass on the ground, the magical conjuration disappearing before it hit the ground. His focus, though, was not on the glass but on…

KRAKOOM!

He had to summon his power to protect his table as a gigantic bolt of lightning that came seemingly directly from the heavens hit Thor; the sound of Thor’s roars was drowned out by the lightning and its intensity. He saw hues of blue, red, green, yellow, and more mixed in with the lightning as the protective wards around the colosseum became visible, struggling to contain the lightning bolt and its sheer destructive power.

His eyes widened as the lightning bolt, instead of reducing in power, only seemed to bloat up in strength, forcing him to shove the entire table into his pocket space and fly back to the Colosseum, his hand touching the walls, as he followed Odin’s lead and let the man borrow his power to create a two fold protective layer on the Colosseum. 

Technically, Odin could do this all on his own, but he would much rather have a fully powered Odin on hand just in case Thor actually lashed out. He could handle the containment just fine, it was what might come later that was the problem.

“Vali,” He spoke to Vali over their mental link, receiving a hurried response in return.

“Already on it!” Vali was already evacuating everyone out of the colosseum, as he continued to protect everyone from the second order effects of the Lightning. Thankfully, the lightning was not spiralling away from its target, otherwise, he would have had to work real hard to contain what he was pretty sure was Divine Lightning, something that did double the damage to his powers compared to regular lightning, the inherent weaknesses of Devil magic rearing its ugly head.

“What did he drink?” Odin asked him calmly. He immediately sent him the ingredient list, as well as what he expected to happen, and what was happening. He had expected Thor to experience, at best, a sudden surge in lightning flavoured magic in his system, combined with a sense of euphoria that would have made his lightning arc around him, creating a convincing visual spectacle.

Not This!

Odin didn't reply but kept his power up and running, right up until the Colosseum was empty, at which point he withdrew his power, but he kept the Power of Destruction running, because containment was still necessary.

No need to wreck the very old enchantments on the place, especially if it was his fault.

As Odin flew forward, he wrecked his mind to try and figure out what exactly could have led to this, but the only culprit in an otherwise mundane recipe that would never in a hundred years evoke such a reaction, was the branch of the World Tree, a seemingly mundane looking piece of wood that when interfaced with his power, put him in a coma for a few days, and that was only due to the Mother Tree.

If he was anywhere but in the recovery room with the Mother Tree constantly pumping him with energy, he would have been out cold for a month or maybe even more, or maybe he would have woken up with severe soul imbalance. Either way, that coma, while dangerous, had been the test that he passed with flying colors, and after that, he could interface with the branch just fine, with no issues whatsoever.

So, maybe this was Thor’s version of that test? 

But why?

He relayed his theories to Odin, but the other side remained mum, so he kept quiet as well. After a few seconds, the entire sky above the Colosseum looked as if someone had taken all the clouds on Asgard before shoving them into a single location and turning them all into storm clouds as well. At that point, Odin had to take action because it did not look like the storm was abating in any way.

He watched, even with the blinding light in front of him, as Odin approached Thor slowly, batting away arcs of energy that hit him, his face set into one of intense focus, until he paused and then slowly floated away, a look of realisation on his face.

He was about to ask the man about it, only for a sharp whine to enter his ears, even with all the sounds all around him. He smiled as he saw Mjolnir come bursting through the colosseum, smash through his power, the entire hammer now glowing sharply because of the impromptu cleaning treatment by his Power of Destruction, before it disappeared into the lightning bolt.

The fact that it didn’t come out meant that it was in Thor’s hand, and as long as Thor had Mjolnir in hand, he could not lose, not in Asgard, and not to a measly lightning bolt anyway. Hopefully.

Well, Odin wouldn't let Thor die anyway, so he just did his job of containment and kept Thor in his line of sight. Vali’s message came a moment later, telling him that the evacuation sirens had rung and the Einherjar were getting all the people out.

He instructed her to keep watch over all the major gods, and to keep away from Loki, who would relish the chance to partake in all this chaos. This was practically his realm, and he would much rather have Ragnarok not happen when he was in Adgard anyway.

It would be terrible for his business and personal well being, not to mention it would involve some of his friends dying, and he could not have that happening.

The good news was that the massive storm above Agard, the one that was the primary culprit for the chaos, was aiming all its energy straight down, at Thor himself, and nothing else. Not even a stray arc was spared, as it seemed to do everything in its power to make sure that Thor was battered. 

The bad news was that, of course, it meant that Thor was being battered by something that had the potential to severely injure even Thor. He spied Odin’s floating form and the neutral expression on his face, but the worry was made evident in the way he tightly clenched Gungnir. Odin looked calm, but he was probably worried and pissed at him.

He mentally noted to apologise later on, but for now, hopefully Odin had everything under control. After all, Odin, as of right now, was far stronger than he was five years ago, courtesy of the many experiments they both did together, as part of the payment for giving him that plot of land and for acting as a taxi for getting his Garden out safely, not to mention being the one to get him out of the Underworld and his past depressive mentality.

He reflexively summoned his power, the miasma of his Power of Destruction appearing behind him like a cloak that moved around at all times, as the lightning bolt continued to increase in size and intensity. It was insane, just how much energy was inside that lightning bolt, it was as if the universe itself was….

..Wait. 

“Fuck!” He cursed out loud, understanding what was happening. The world for Asgard was more akin to the World Tree. The branch of which he had used to create this particular batch of ale, and with the lightning ginseng mixed in, giving it a distinctively lightning magic flavour, then maybe this was like Odin’s test that led to him becoming who he is right now. 

But then, it would mean that there was a chance that Thor could actually die right now. A surge of panic made him reach out towards the lightning storm, only to pull back at the last moment, knowing full well that interfering would only make things worse, not to mention he lacked the ability to actually interfere. Odin probably had the ability, but why would he?

This was the chance for his son to become even stronger, and probably even surpass Odin.

He floated up, flying next to Odin, his power covering the entire colosseum now. “Did you know this was going to happen?” He asked Odin, because the God was well known for being a precognitive, and a damn good one at that.

“No one can predict Yggdrasil’s will. What is meant to happen will have happened either way.” Odin just went silent after that ominous statement, and he couldn't do anything except look and wait for Thor to be done.

“Look out for them,” Odin said, and he turned to Odin in confusion, only for his eyes to widen, his neck snapping towards the lightning bolt, watching and, more importantly, feeling the tears in space as scenes of Lava, Ice, forests, and more could be visible through the micro tears in space.

From one of the tears in space, shadowy tendrils launched out, aiming for Thor, only for his power to lash out and erase the tendrils as well as all the portals in his sight.

He winced as the lightning latched onto his power, and despite cutting off his connection immediately, he felt the impact.

That was one strong lightning bolt.