Sorry for my absence for so long it's because I'm lazy and uninspired lately and I feel like a wilting flower. This chapter is basically me saying "Fuck it just give it to them and then if you don't like it fix it later to fit the plot and remove the loopholes. Yeah. (total lie I probably won't) But I did put enough effort to run it through grammarly, Google spell checker, and audio listen to it to looks for mistakes. It's a bit messy but I'll try to fix it later.

"Are you sure of this mother? Once we fuse, father's blessings will be nullified. Your contract will be removed temporarily once we unify. Your healing abilities, the wolf might, your enhanced durability, and your high destructive powers. All of those will be revoked as long as I am fused. In exchange, I shall overlap the matter of my body over yours. That way, I can take the damage for you and no harm will ever come even if you lose father's healing. I might also be able to endow you with my skills to make up for the lost powers. Would that suffice, mom?" Hrod confirmed, doubt and hesitation reflecting clearly in his eyes.

"I can't use most of his powers anyway so it won't be an issue. Your contributions are more than enough, Hrod. Now, let's do this." Ruby touched Hrod's head, her eyes closed while his head is bowed. Blue runes burned in the air as they began to activate the spell. The noise outside their frozen fortress was almost muted as they focused on their chant.

"Come to me O wolf who chases the moon
We shall run together across the night sky
And devour the light of the night soon
Destroy our enemies who dare us defy
Now let the hunt begin." The runes glowed brighter before merging into their body like stars descending upon the earth. Light enveloped their entire form as they became unified as one entity. Fenrir's mark upon Ruby's breasts burned in resistance before being quenched by the light.

"Ruby-Fenrir contract: Temporarily Terminated

Wolf God of Destruction Blessings: Revoked

Rerouting Hrodvitnisson's magical circuits as Ruby's alternative magic source: Complete

Synchronization of psyche: Harmonized

Merging of matter: Complete

Accessing the Entropy of the Universe: Complete

Acknowledgment of Skadi and access to Jötun magic: Complete

Name of New Entity: Edelweiss Hrodvitnisson

Entity Class: Demigoddess/Valkyrie" Hrod announced as the transformation took place.

Once the light cleared, Ruby found herself completely changed. Her golden hair became longer and styled in a braid while an iron winged helmet adorned her head, framing her face. Her emerald eyes changed as well, becoming mismatched, one was blue while one was gold. A silver armor covered her body while her scythe remained unchanged.

"Hrod, can you hear me?" Ruby asked in her mind.

"Yes, I can hear your thoughts. Our psyches have synchronized as well. From here I can guide you and show you my wolf instincts which you'll find to be very helpful in difficult situations." Hrod informed.

"No, doubt. No problems on your end, are there?"

"Yes, I find no anomalies in our fusion nor any negative reaction between our systems. We are quite compatible, mother. Now that I'm fused with you I feel that calling you that seems awkward. May I address you as Ruby?"

"Sure. Now, shall we begin?"

"Yes. We have 15 minutes before complete fusion takes place. We'll have to execute our plan successfully before that time and cleave ourselves from one another. Just a warning, the longer we stick together the harder it is to break the bonds so we need to be efficient."

"I understand. Now let's set the stage." Ruby drew magical glyphs on the Yggdrasil notepad and folded it into a paper plane. She threw it from a small opening in her shield and it soared towards the envoys who shot it with an arrow, not knowing what it meant.

"Fog of Jötunheim descend upon them!" Just as she commanded, a great white fog began rolling from the location where the parchment was destroyed. It enveloped the entire landscape, reducing the visibility to nearly zero and decreasing the temperature to a negative.

Afterward, she took a handful of snow and enunciated a chant that activated a massive glyph below her feet. "Come my beasts, rise from the snow." Ruby sprinkled the snow upon the ground where miniature images of monsters appeared. Eight distinct miniature figures emerged from the ground: Fenrir, Jormungand, a Muspel fire giant, a Jötun frost giant, the dragon Nidhogg, a Draugr, a valkyrie, and a Fossegrimen.

At the same time, eight massive glyphs appeared one by one outside her fortress where massive versions of the figures rose from the snow. The envoys were clearly stupefied when they saw the gigantic monsters she conjured emerging from the fog. They can barely see their next step so in their perspective they're completely outmatched.

The monsters roared and began attacking the envoys, separating them from each other. The envoys attacked the creatures but every time they inflicted damage, the creatures would only return and regenerate themselves. Ruby took a deep breath as she focused with all her might to maintain the monsters.

They were mere illusions, massive clumps of ice and snow projecting an image of terrifying beasts. It was taking every ounce of her concentration to maintain each and every one of them but she managed. But no matter how terrifying they might seem, she knew that mere illusions with fake mass will not be able to beat her enemies so she had to act herself.

Her plan was simple. Divide and conquer. Assassinate the envoys one by one while they're distracted. She predicts that it wouldn't take long before they figure out her illusions and unravel them so she needs to act stealthily and efficiently.

Ruby used her snowflake brooch to act as a medium of control for her monsters, telling them to act berserk and roar to intimidate the envoys. Meanwhile, while everyone was preoccupied battling her fake monsters, she snuck from her fortress and summoned her scythe. She moved carefully and detected the first envoy. When she found them, she didn't hesitate to hook them with her scythe and drive an ice stalagmite through his heart.

The envoy tried flailing and shouting to his allies but she clamped her hand on his mouth, shutting him up. She ordered the snow monster he was fighting to envelop his body, sealing him in a frozen tomb. She let go of the corpse allowing it to clank on the ground and shatter.

One down.

"Great job, Ruby. Now off to the next one. I sense the closest one to your south "

"On it."

Taking out the first three envoys was a piece of cake since they hadn't caught their bearings yet when she attacked. The challenge intensified when one envoy managed to defeat her snow golem which smashed against her flower fortress revealing that she was no longer there. The remaining five envoys turned to attack her but the Wolf Queen was no longer hiding.

Ruby focused on surviving their onslaught of attacks for the first three minutes. It was pure and utter chaos. She could barely release any attacks as they sent a barrage of arrows, a rain of glass shards, and a plethora of magical projectiles toward her. She was being flanked from all directions but thankfully Skadi's defenses and ice magic protected her from any serious injuries.

She combined both the knowledge Hrod imparted and the blessings she received from Skadi and became a formidable opponent for these immortal creatures. Her scythe, the Moon Cleaver, gleamed with its own radiance as it deflected and repelled their onslaught of attacks. Her proficiency with Jötun magic also increased tenfold due to the Wolf's talents.

It seems that Hrod is not just a part of her subconscious but he also had control over her movements to some extent. There were maneuvers and stances her body made that she never knew about. Each one of them allowed her to repel attacks expertly and narrowly avoid death time and time again.

Even though her attention was fully consumed with the thoughts of survival and destroying her enemies, a part of her mind, Hrod, was already mapping out all her enemies' strengths and weaknesses. She was able to observe the smallest flaw in their movement; which given their extensive experience, is almost nonexistent. The envoys work in perfect synchronization like they were programmed to respond in a specific manner without even having to communicate what their next move is. This ability, besides their combat proficiency, is proving to be their greatest advantage over her. But she had an idea on how to offset their teamwork.

Using a bit of fog and bending the moonlight that reflects on it, she can give the illusion that displaces the location of certain envoys. It was simple but she could also project her image on other envoys so that they would unknowingly attack their allies instead.

She was given a few minutes of reprieve and she used it to observe her opponents. Hrod seems to have finished mapping out their expertise, giving her enough information to form a strategy.

She took them on one by one despite being outnumbered. She sought for the weakest link on their chain of command and exploited it.

First, she made sure to take out their healer who sustains those she has injured. With a burst of energy from behind her she propelled herself forwards and poised her scythe to strike the healer who had avoided her blade at the last minute. Ruby smirked which made the healer widen her eyes. Frozen spears had impaled her from behind and she froze to her death.

Now without their support, the other envoys have no way of sustaining the damage she dealt. Her next target was the mage who uses water to fight. This one was easier to deal with because she could easily freeze the water the mage sent toward her. The envoy could barely defend herself as the beast in Ruby relentlessly froze and shattered all her attacks. Hrod decided that ripping her heart out was the best cause of death for her.

She rapidly gained the upper hand and tore through them in no time. As the last envoys stood their ground, Hródvitnisson howled, ready for bloodshed. Sharp glaciers burst from the ground as the storm has been stirred. Thunder roared with his beastly voice and the lightning tore through the sky.

Ruby's scythe transformed into a spear and she poised it to throw to the envoys.

"Wrath of the Wolf!" Lightning struck her spear and charged it with power. It glowed an ethereal light that was both majestic and terrifying.

"Give my regards to the Goddess of Death. Be welcomed to Hela's Gate!!!" declared Ruby as she poised to strike but as she was about to release her spear, her eyes widened. Hrod released a howl of pain and she felt something inside her shatter at the amount of grief and pain his voice held.

"Oh, child. It shall be you who will send my regards to the goddess of Death." said an unfamiliar voice.

"I...Agghhh!" Something struck her stomach and pierced through her flesh. A large spear of light protruded from her torso and she gasped in surprise. Her own spear flickered briefly and glowed weaker. She looked over her shoulder and saw the most beautiful and radiant elf she has ever seen. Elegance and glamour radiated from her entire body but her eyes held hate and spite.

It was the Moon Goddess herself, Gavanna who descended from her high throne in heaven to strike her down. Her hand was extended, signifying that she was indeed the one to shoot her with her blessed arrows. The same kind that had struck Dyrroth, leaving him literally at Hela's palace.

"You..." Fury immediately coursed through her entire body and her blood boiled with unchecked wrath.

"I will kill you...!" she roared and threw her spear towards the goddess. It missed its true target and soared towards the dome which shattered a large chunk of it.

"Is that all you've got?" taunted Gavanna.

"I have more of where that came from!"

"Do you?"

Just as she said, Ruby began noticing that her divine regalia was slowly fading. She could hear Hrod's whimpers and howls of pain inside her head which was briefly muted by the white noise of her hate for the goddess. Her heart dropped. She knew that if she didn't escape now then both of them would die given that Hrod had taken the injury for her. Even though she can't feel the pain nor does she suffer any harm, she could feel the Wolf's torment so vividly. It broke her heart to know the full capacity of his pain and so she decided to clear her head and focus on her survival first.

The beast inside her coaxed her that this is the perfect time to take her revenge on the goddess who helped with Dyrroth's predicament. However, her love for Hrod prevailed. She transformed herself into snow and wind and flew through the hole she created. Once outside, she took out the pearl Terizla gave to her and thought of her destination before putting the pearl inside her mouth and swallowing it.

"Go on, flee. But you will never escape my omnipotence. The moon will always find the sinners." Gavanna declared, pointing her bow at her and releasing another arrow that lit up the world like a cataclysmic comet.

Ruby glared at the celestial being but before she could do anything, her body disappeared and the arrow missed. She was suddenly jerked towards a tunnel of vivid colors all rushing to greet her. The foreign sensation and the intense velocity at which she traveled were almost too much for her mind to handle that she slipped in and out of consciousness. She thought that she was finally going to pass out until she saw the end of the tunnel.

🌷

"Another successful bout I presume?" Fenrir began as he prowled inside the banquet hall. He was in his wolf form and towered over Dyrroth for a few meters. However, after noticing the glare Hela was directing toward him for taking up too much space in her party, he immediately transformed into his humanoid form.

Fenrir took a seat opposite from the demon prince before directing his sister with a sly smile. Hela merely rolled her eyes before speaking with the goddess Izanami again. Meanwhile, Jörmungand grinned from behind the goddess and sent a little wave towards his brother which the wolf acknowledged with a slight nod.

The queen of Hel was having a banquet for the latest victory of Dyrroth so she invited other gods and goddesses of Underworlds as well as peculiar creatures which she favors. Some of them are beautiful and glamorous while most are just deformed and hideous so it was more of a freak show than a party in Dyrroth's point of view. He attended nevertheless to avoid offending the goddess. At least the food was nice courtesy of that Greek goddess, Persephone.

Dyrroth found it odd that a goddess would prepare the food for another goddess' party who is from another pantheon. However, he knew that if Hela served her own food, then the guests would find themselves more hungry due to the nature of her dishes.

"Yes, and I heard that you were banned from the arena. Or more like the entire realm of the dead." replied Dyrroth nonchalantly as he took a sip of wine to wash down the venison he was eating.

"That and I had other matters to attend to."

"Concerning Ruby or your personal matters."

"Both in a way."

"What was it?"

The wolf paused, his eyes holding something enigmatic and terrifying in them but Dyrroth detected no hostility so he kept his composure.

"I was looking for pieces of a corpse." Fenrir finally answered before signaling a servant to serve him some food.

"What are you going to do to them? Eat them?" prodded the prince with sincere curiosity.

"I was going to destroy them to finally have some fun." Fenrir had a subtle smile on his lips that gave rise to something foreboding in Dyrroth's mind.

"You have very weird hobbies which I suppose I can't fault you for given that I myself have weird hobbies like torture and deception."

"And imprisoning blonde girls and making them fall for you by giving them a dragon? Yes, such weird hobbies."

"I was thinking that it was more on my charms rather than the gifts but whatever."

"Speaking of my most favorite blondie, she's currently on a quest with my annoying son, Hrod, to find a lion to answer the mysteries of life. They're trying to figure out if the bird that Martis seeks will help you survive."

"They won't need to because I'm almost done here. We just need to perform the resurrection rituals on the next lunar eclipse and then I'll be back up there with my cutie."

"For a while, but then your body is dying so you don't have much time up there even if you win here."

"What do you mean? Are you saying that all my sacrifices are all for nothing?" Dyrroth furiously questioned, slamming his fists on the table.

"Well, you were struck by a special arrow blessed by the moon goddess Gavanna herself. It's going to kill you sooner than later which is why your life depends on Martis' and Ruby's victories as well as your own. It's a team effort really."

"So even if I win, if they don't succeed then I'll only have a few moments to live, is that it?"

"Yes, you'll have a day before you perish again and this time you won't end up in Helheim but somewhere where the baddest demons go."

"The 13 Circles of Inferno."

"Correct. You better pray that your friends succeed or else you'll have a worse warden than Hela. If you get lucky you might end up getting reincarnated in your next life with Ruby or you might end up as a cockroach. One can never tell."

"Do you really need to be a negative bitch about it? But I'm not worried at all, I trust that Martis and Ruby will succeed."

"Mmhm." Fenrir merely gave a doubtful hum. Whether it was to tell him that he was mistaken or whether it was his classical snark, Dyrroth didn't have any time to ponder it as an arrow was shot past him. He was astounded for a bit before regaining his composure and summoning the relics of Abyss to his aid. But, it wasn't really him who the archer targeted but the person way past him.

"I knew you were cheap and barbaric but I never expected you to gatecrash my event like this, Anput." Hela said as she crushed the golden arrow in her hand turning it into dust.

"You certainly know what cheap and barbaric means, don't you? Given that you stole my husband from me like a common whore." A jackal-headed woman stepped into the banquet hall, followed by a snake woman who hissed spitefully at the goddess. The guests began to murmur amongst themselves at the revelation. They unearthed topics that the queen of Hel had long buried, making her snort at their lack of decorum.

"I don't suppose that you know the consequences of your transgression in my own home with your small dog brain. Must I educate you like the bitch that you are?" retorted the goddess, unfazed by their hostility.

"You don't have the right to talk like that to my mother, you vile slut!" said the serpent woman who pointed her spear towards Hela.

"As classless as your mother, Cabbage chick. No wonder Anubis left the two of you for me." taunted the goddess with amusement.

"My name is Kebechet! Get it through that thick skull of yours, you home wrecker."

"Careful, goddess. I don't think that it's a very good idea to slander a goddess in her own home. Especially, one as merciless as my sister." Fenrir warned, completely undaunted by the whole situation, earning a glare from Kebetchet.

"Let's get this straight. Anubis, a jackal, has a snake daughter with another jackal goddess? Is this some kind of weird god thing or did something get lost in the translation along the way?" Dyrroth pointed out in a hushed voice.

"I agree with my champion, are we even sure that your child is Anubis'. For all we know you could have slept with a serpent or some sort. It might even be my brother for I wouldn't put it past him to do something like this."

"I know that I'm in your house but do you really have to shit-talk me while I'm here, Hel?" Jormungand cuts in from beside the goddess.

"It's precisely that we're in my house that I could slander you like this. Well, my party is ruined as it is. Time to take the trash out. Where's that dog, Garm? He was supposed to keep pests like you out of my halls. Garm! Garm, come here!"

"I'm afraid that your dog will not be able to answer your call this time?" mused Anput.

Hela's eyes darkened as she narrowed them. The amusement left her lips and the golden light of the braziers flickered black for a moment.

"What did you do to my warg?"

"Let's just say that he's been dealt with by none other than your most beloved." Anput enunciated her lips curving into a wicked smile.

Something dark and massive was thrown from the shadows of the hall and rolled over the carpet before stopping exactly at the front of the goddess' table. It was none other than the head of her wolf Garm, who guards the gates of her hall. Desolation was Hela's immediate reaction upon realizing the truth but the flames of fury burned through it just as quickly.

"You dare disrespect me in my home in this manner... Have you no regard for your existence whatsoever?" she questioned, her wrath making the fires of the braziers blaze into columns of the inferno.

"Oh, it was not me who did that. It was him."

"Him?" repeated the goddess.

"What the..." Dyrroth mumbled watching the events unfold on the sidelines.

"I hoped that you liked my tribute, O high and mighty goddess." said a familiar voice as they walked into the hall.

"What is the meaning of all this... Anubis?"