DXD SI : Chapter 85 : Cloak on Asgard & Precognitive Bastards.... (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–

So, what was one to do when most of Asgard’s top tier fighting prowess was either knocked out or inaccessible? With most of the civilian as well as warrior population was either herded into a corner of Asgard, waiting for the crisis to pass or too occupied with recovering from the absolute smackdown Odin just issued to all of Asgard indiscriminately, all he could do was metaphorically sling Thor and Vali, both clad in his power and protected, over his shoulders and begin looking for someone who could explain stuff to him.

Though he could tell that Odin had focused most of his power on the storm above Thor and the surrounding areas, the power had been so vast that even the evacuated Asgardians were affected. As he flew out of the Colosseum, he looked at the entirely ruined ward structure on the ancient structure before moving towards the mountains, where he could sense the vast majority of Asgardians. The mountains were likely the dedicated evacuation chambers.

On his way, though, he found many Asgardians dressed in civilian clothing, in armour, in loose clothing, but the one thing they all had in common was that all of them had some manner of weapons on them and were heading straight towards the colosseum, likely to assist Thor. 

All the guards from the Colosseum had been dismissed by Odin when the Lightning Bolt first came down, instructed to assist with the evacuations, he supposed, but these ones were either not on duty when that happened or were just bold enough to ignore a direct order from Odin in favour of rushing forth to help the God of Thunder.

Sentimental fools, he supposed.

Still, it wouldn't do for them to just lie here, so he just zapped them with his power, giving them a nice shock as they woke up. There was no real damage done, aside from having their soul bombarded to make sure no expression of anyone’s power comes into being, so no magic being cast in Asgard.

The way everything was plunged into darkness told him that Odin knocked out more than a few magical enchantments as well. Hopefully, nothing too critical was knocked out as well. With how Odin can repair and recast anything when it comes to magic, no damage should be too much, as long as no one escapes directly from the prison or something. 

His pace quickened at that, his fingers twitching as he continuously zapped and woke people who were clearly distressed and imbalanced from being knocked out so abruptly, but he was in no position to care about them, as he had to find Odin before anything or anyone else reached the Chief Norse God.

Within moments, he was within the Golden Castle that Odin lived in, bulldozing through the protective enchantments, his senses focused on the massive magical signature he could feel at the bottom of the main castle. It was Odin’s signature, but oddly, it was not the exhausted, weak signature he expected, but instead was strong as fuck.

So, why had Odin not come out and fixed a couple of things with just a wave of his hand? Why was Asgard still plunged in darkness, and why the total radio silence? He supposed that he would find out soon enough.

While he would have loved to hasten his descent into Odin’s location by moving through the floors as if they did not exist, the magical protections only increased in density and, out of respect for the power that Odin put into them, to the point that even he would have to work a fair bit to get through them, he chose to take the normal route.

He flew through the stairs, the doors, and then eventually arrived at a metallic door that had tons of holes in it, showing him what was on the other end of the Dungeon Door.

It was Odin, suspended mid air, covered in a large bubble of his own power, waving magic in such concentrations that he felt goosebumps rise on his arm. 

Saying out loud the protective Dungeon and spell Odin had cast on himself, he made sure that everything was fine and no one was barging into this place before flying back up, assured of Odin’s safety for now. Still, Odin and Thor were incapacitated, and as their friend, he had to fulfill the responsibility that came with being the strongest being on Asgard, and being sane. After all, while Loki was almost Satan Class in terms of power, he was above the God even before he went through the various power ups he did as part of his hobby finding exercise in the past five years. So, he wasn't really worried about Loki himself, but it was a well known fact that Loki almost always had useful pawns in place for his schemes, and while he was sure that Loki had nothing to do with this, as this just served to increase Thor’s power, Loki was known for his Silver Tongue and quick thinking mind.

Shaking his head, he flew on top of the Royal Palace and took a look around. His eyesight allowed him to spot the Asgardians he woke up checking on the Colosseum, some running around, headed to the palace, some headed to the mountains, and some just trying to wake up everyone else who was knocked out.

The number of people knocked out was very small compared to the whole population, so he could tell that most of the people were evacuated successfully. So, after making sure that he could not sense any anomalous magic around him, he zapped Vali back to life, and since he was feeling a little vindictive because she disobeyed a direct order from him, he made sure it hurt a little.

A gasp escaped her lips, followed by a pained groan, as her eyes snapped open. Her Scale Mail was summoned on instinct as she floated away from him.

“What happened?” Vali whispered to herself, or to Albion, more likely. Leaving Vali to be briefed by Albion, he looked at Thor’s prone form, which was still arcing with electricity; he pondered what exactly to do here. Even the races of Divine Lightning around Thor were enough to make him wary of trying to heal Thor. He had never tried to heal Thor before, as there was simply no need and because Thor never asked for it.

Same for Odin as well. It was probably just caution and wariness from both of them as asking him to heal them would involve him sending his Power of Destruction into their bodies, reading their body using his power, before healing them. Now, he didn’t even know if he would be successful or not, but the fact that they would be, at least partially, at his mercy when he would try it was probably the reason why they didn’t try it.

It would have been valuable to know that he could heal them just as easily as he could heal a normal Asgardian soldier, provided he had the energy to do so, but Odin and Thor really couldn't risk themselves at the same time, as their entire pantheon basically rests on their shoulders.

That, he could respect, which is why he never even mentioned healing them. It was not like there was any opportunity that arose, leading to either one of them getting injured enough to warrant a Healer’s visit. 

And this was all before Thor got himself zapped with Divine Lightning strong enough to break Asgard in half, and clearly received something in return from it. He snorted out loud at the image of Thor somehow weathering the Lightning Tribulation, surviving the Heavenly punishment and only coming out stronger from it.

“What’s so funny?” Vali’s growl made him snap out of his thoughts, as he quickly began barking orders at her, “Go to the Evacuation Chambers. Make sure everyone is fine. Tell anyone you find awake that they should move to safeguard Asgard’s wealth.”

“What will you do?” Vali looked at him seriously, realising that he was being serious here.

“I will make sure no one enters Asgard without my say so.”

Vali gave him a suspicious look at that, clearly curious as to how he was going to do that, but he had his ways. More importantly, he had the will to use it here. After all, what use was all this power if his friends couldn't depend on him at their weakest?

So, instead of choosing to heal Thor, and potentially mess up and even break their trust in him by violating their will not to get healed by him, he chose to blanket Asgard.

Thor’s prone form floated by his side, as he summoned his cloak. Only this time, the cloak continued to increase in size, as he pumped the cloak full of his power. Even after all that drama with the Lightning Bolt, he had much to spare. So, he felt his body burn a bit as he unloaded all he could into the cloak.

He felt his vision turn red, his eyes must be glowing because of the power, as the cloak expanded until it reached a point in the sky before it began expanding to the sides, forming a giant sphere of sorts. 

A grunt escaped him as all the feedback from wherever his power passed by, reached his brain, forcing him to parse through all that stuff as he couldn't just allow his power to be indiscriminate in its application. He couldn’t modulate his power by reducing its effectiveness to stop any damage done to the many things inside Asgard, because that would defeat the very purpose of creating such a huge barrier on Asgard.

While it would undoubtedly expose him to threats greater than all the ones he had faced so far, he could not just sit back and do nothing while Asgard remained in such a vulnerable position. Odin clearly had no power left to protect the rest of Asgard, instead choosing to protect himself.

That choice might have been labeled as selfish by most people, but he could certainly understand Odin’s thought process here. Thor was already in a weakened state, and while Odin could be sure that Thor would be protected by Mag being by his side, Odin couldn't gamble on someone not sabotaging Odin as he worked to protect Asgard, so Odin chose to do the next best thing. Make sure Thor definitely survived that lightning bolt, incorrectly telling him that Thor was in his care, before putting himself in a giant dome of his own power, which was basically impenetrable to all but a select few beings in the entire universe.

Now, while he waited for Thor to wake up, he had enveloped the entire realm of Asgard with his power and was just waiting for everything to enter his grasp before he cut it off.

Cut off everything. Every form of divination, of surveillance, of communication magic. Everything. Nothing went in or out of Asgard without his knowledge, and to maintain that level of control, he had to focus on just that.

Thankfully, covering himself in his Power of Destruction cloak was child’s play at this point, so he wasn’t really worried about his own safety, as he cut off his flight, plummeting to the ground, then carving through the topsoil until he reached a deep enough layer and just settled there, focusing on the more important task at hand.

Namely, making sure that Asgard remained safe in his custody until either Thor or Odin woke up. He would trust no one in this situation, not even Azazel. No one got in or out, period.

…….Maybe Odin foresaw this hardline stance he was going to take in making sure that Asgard remained safe, and that’s why he did what he did?

Man, these precognitive sons of bitches were a really scary bunch.