In Loki's Honor

As I rolled out of bed, I winced when my thing hit the cold floor. I bit my tongue to keep myself from yelping. My partners snored in bed and I didn't want to wake any of them up.

It was a wild night.

We rolled and tossed around my sweat mixing with their body fluids. They ravaged my body but I quickly hit my limit. Even with all my powers, these damn bed bugs would be the end of me. I guess this is what we get from staying at a cheap inn like this. I put on some clothes from mom's dimensional storage and walked outside.

I stared at the starry canopy. Yznarian's nights were breathtaking. The green ring of rocks shone with divine energy. The silver moon followed at a distance. It appeared to be afraid to get cut on the spinning disk of rocks quickly accreting back into a moon. Quickly for a cosmic event, I mean. It would still take centuries before Nenandil and Pandora came back to me.

Fake stars shone and glinted in the background. This world was inside a pocket dimension and not in a normal space inside a galaxy like, say, Earth. Though we had a lot of space, most of it was fake. The Sun was fake. Everything was a hallucination.

The truth was that this dimension was very small and very unimportant. We weren't as important as Earth, or even the Little Prince's moon-planet. That's why Loki sent me here. It was almost effortless to a deity at the Asgardian's power level. I was sure I had already paid his benevolence tenfold with the laughs he got out of me and the other fools who claim themselves Gods in this shitty realm.

When a tear in reality opened up above the planet, it found me without words. A huge round red thing came out of it. At first, it looked like a smooth sphere but then I realized what it was. A gigantic moon in the shape of an apple. I kid not. But as Obi-Wan said, it wasn't a moon. It was a space station.

I had no basis for comparison but the thing was dozens of miles long. Red. Shiny. Was it made out of metal? Rock? Who knew? What the fuck was happening?

Was it that time of the year again?

Damn, I hoped we wouldn't destroy another country this time. I mean, half the lakes on this planet were my fault already.

I felt a pulse. Some energy came from the apple station and shone down on me. I felt... as if I was inside a Dungeon. What the hell?

"Hey, can you hear me?"

A man's voice. I looked around, casting my senses. The sound came from the strange field. I lifted my protections and felt the field draining some Mana from me to keep itself up. I fought back and the drain stopped.

"Yes, I can. What is your business here, apple travelers?"

"I do not seek a fight," the man stated with a diplomatic cadence.

"Who are you?" I asked, keeping my wits about me.

"A visitor. I mean no harm to your planet. By the way, you may call me Garfield Babbage."

"Mr. Babbage, nice to meet you. You may call me the Matriarch."

Though I was in a male body.

"A pleasure to meet you, Matriarch. Sorry for coming in unannounced. You are the chief deity of this dimension, right? The strongest one, at least. "

"Guess so." Loki wasn't around. If I knew the half-Jotunn deity he would've made himself scarce to see what would happen.

"Great. I won't take too much of your time. Look, I'm looking for a soul. A very specific soul."

What? Why would they... want a soul? Request a soul? Did they need my help to find it? Obviously. Otherwise, they wouldn't just ask.

"Okay, what soul is it?"

"One from Earth. Do you know Earth?"

Huh. I couldn't help but raise an eyebrow. As I didn't give an answer, the voice continued.

"A friend of mine needs this soul to bring her sibling back to life. We already checked on Earth for it and it isn't there. So we are tracking some odd places known to have taken souls from Earth. It's not in any of the Hells or any of the related dimensions either. So it has probably slipped into one of these magical worlds that are so keen on taking souls from Earth."

*

*

> Admin Hotline.

CALL START.

Matriarch: I guess Loki isn't around.

Tuisto: That's correct. He is currently elsewhere, not even his avatar is around currently. What is on your mind?

Matriarch: Tuisto, aside from the demons, the other Gods, and me, are there any mortal souls from Earth currently in Yznarian?

Tuisto: Let me check, it will take only a moment. [...] No. Not a single one.

Matriarch: Okay. Thanks. Hey, is everything alright?

Tuisto: Close the demon incursion and we'll be great. I know you are finally working on it.

Matriarch: Help me lift this curse and I'll close this incursion much faster.

Tuisto: Alas, I cannot. It would take too many resources and Loki has stressed I shouldn't help you. Sorry I cannot elaborate further on that.

Matriarch: I guessed as much. Do you see the apple space station currently floating above me?

Tuisto: I do. They are friendly visitors, from what I could infer. I cannot interact with them too much. They have their own System Core and from what I see, they are not hostile. What do they want?

Matriarch: A soul from Earth.

Tuisto: I see. That's why you... I'm sorry to inform you there's none. I already checked three times.

Matriarch: Okay, then. Cya around.

Tuisto: It would be wise to help them. If they can shift a spacecraft that size around dimensions, they could also help reinforce our Gauntlet. We could use their help in this fight against the Demons.

Matriarch: I'll keep that in mind.

CALL END.

*

*

I turned back to the apple spacecraft.

"So, there's no unaccounted-for soul from Earth here. But I'm really good at soul magic. Is there any way I can help you?"

"That's a field of magic we are not used to, to be honest. But why the offer?"

"We have a demon problem here. I'm willing to help you out if you can help me here."

Their answer came after a few minutes.

"We can help you, yes. Consider yourself hired, Matriarch."

A bunch of... rockets or missiles flew out of the apple station. They streaked over the world, aimed at the northwest of the Scorched Continent. They streaked down, illuminating the night as they ignited upon reentry. The explosions sent tremors down the entire continental landmass but not much debris or dust. I later learned that Mr. Babbage was really a Dungeon and used his powers to clear up the mess.

Tuisto helped connect my System Status with their own System Core. Once I was sure to not lose my powers out of this world, a portal took me aboard their station. I shapeshifted into Haru's form for this trip.

*

*

I stared at a suit of power armor, reminding me of those Japanese sci-fi series. Tokusatsu, I think they were called.

"Welcome aboard, Matriarch," Mr. Babbage's voice came from the power armor.

By his side was a tall blonde woman wearing golden and white armor. She radiated divinity too but to a lesser extent. On the other side was a woman entirely made out of vines, with a platypus on her shoulder.

"This is Róta, my Valkyrie companion. And these are Lily and Larry."

The stoic Valkyrie nodded respectfully.

"Hello," the plant woman grinned. She had no soul.

"Hey, welcome. I'm Larry!" The friendly platypus greeted with a brattish voice.

"Your temporary integration with our System Core is complete. Your pocket dimension has some weird time laws but this can work to our benefit. We can bring you back to the moment you left so don't worry about continuity. Are you ready to leave?"

"Sure. Beam us up, Scotty."

I could swear the guy in the power armor grinned.

I felt weightless for a moment and we left Yznarian behind, inbound to another dimension.