Magni couldn't help but smile. He'd found him, the Advisory, only bastard fool enough to threaten him without a doubt. Crazy little fucker had even conjured an ax, the only good use of magic in his opinion.

What was he going to do with that anyway? It looked fine enough to split a man's skull with a long blade half the size of its shaft and runes decorating its surface. But Magni wasn't a man, he was a god.

Magni tightened his grip, feeling the Advisory's bones give the slightest bit. Pathetic. He was no stronger than any mortal.

"Did a little shit like you really kill-"

Pain stole Magni’s words, like his palm was in flames with needles stabbing into him. Fuck! He still wouldn't let go, only press down harder, break the little fucker, but the Adversary didn't budge.

The Advisory's hand reached up grabbing Magni’s forearm, and fucking hells, it burned too, growing worse as he wrestled it free with enough strength to fell a dragon with ease.

The Advisory lunged then, his ax coming down aimed for Magni’s head. Magni hefting Mjolnir with his free hand, meeting the ax with an explosion of light that roared.

The force of it hit Magni like a jötunn's hammer rippling his skin where a mortal would be torn asunder.

Fuck! The girl, Vara’s summoner. She’d have died along with half the mortals in the castle. They were so fucking fragile and now Vidar would have words. But as the spots cleared from Magni’s eyes, there she was, back against the wall with wetness pooling at her coach.

"How the fuck did she survive?"

Mjolnir called out to Magni, urging him to duck so he followed, bending just under an ax. Magni spun making an upward swing, but by the old gods, the advisory was fast, dodging out of the way and charging forward all in the same motion.

Magni kept swinging Mjolnir, each attack calling forth snaking tendrils of lighting, blinding him, but she always told Magni where to strike. One should have turned any mortal to chard dust but the Advisory took one bolt after the other, never slowing, only growing more relentless.

Magni met the Advisory's attack with his own, their weapons clanging with a piercing scream.

The god smiled as his arm ached with the impact.

His magic flared, grabbing hold of the ground to steady his feet. He could feel the Advisory do the same as their power clashed, his swirling red and eating at Magni’s but faltering as the god was endless.

Magni pulled deeper on his godhood then from Mjolnir, dulling the pain as his skin cracked and bled while his strength source to its truest heights. It was time to end this battle. He'd seen enough.

The Advisory swung low for Magni’s legs but he spun around the weapon with ease seizing Mjolnir's power to make him faster, stronger, invisible. Exposed and moving slowly to Magni’s own perception, the god slammed his fist down on the Advisory's back.

The man hit the ground and bounced as Magni hardened the ground with his own magic landing with a wheeze.

"Now that's what I call a fight!" Magni bellowed with a laugh, hanging Mjolnir back on his wait.

The hammer screamed at the betrayal. She wanted broken bones and splattered brains, and souls to devour. Blood, rivers of it, was all she wanted, begged for even, but Magni wasn't his father. Thor couldn't go a month without braining a jötunn where Magni, he'd not let the hammer rule him.

"Girl," Mgni called to Vara’s summoner. "Bring me ale!"

****

How did it go so wrong? Brand hadn't even seen Magni coming. He still couldn't see the bastard, not without his eyes.

The god just sat there grabbing a handful of a kin woman's breast after having drunk thrice his body weight in ale. But to Brand's perception, a sense he used more than his own eyes, the man was in some kind of void. Worse, mana flowed around him and change, making the space seem empty and unwarded all because of the fucking hammer.

There was mage craft on Mjolnir without a doubt, but not god magic. It was too smart for that, not that Brand couldn’t see any runes weren't decorative on the god's damned hammer.

"Aren't you going to drink?" Magni said, barely slurring after drinking a dead man's worth of spirits.

The man looked like a proper savage dressed in furs. His red hair and beard were braided, and the size of him made Brand feel small, like looking at a jötunn.

Brand groaned, tapping his empty cup on the table. He had been drinking for the last hour but he couldn’t keep up. Sibley appeared by his side with a flask refilling his cup. A moment later, she fled back to the crowd of nobles that filled the hall.

They all wanted to behold a god and more so the fabled Advisory. Well, they could see Brand now, dried blood caking his illusionary face and sitting on a chair of soft furs because his back was broken and he'd yet to regain use of his legs.

Brand took a swig of his drink and cursed. "Whine? That shit is for when the ale runs out."

"We are out of ale, Grimmir," Sibley said, her voice shaky.

Magni drank the last of his cup and shattered it on the ground. "I knew there was a reason I liked you. Wait, Grimmir, is that your name?"

"It's a name," Brand said, already knowing he couldn't lie. "And by the way, why the fuck can't I lie!"

Magni’s drunken smile grew. "I've never told a lie and have never heard one. Now stop with the questions and drink."

“Says the god of smashing skulls.”

"Ain't nothing more honest than smashing skulls."

"This is too weird," Brand said, shaking his head in disbelief of his own predicament.

Magni cocked his head. "What do you mean. We fight, we drink, and we fuck! Well, you're not taking a woman without legs but we can still drink."

Brand toasted the words and downed the wine. Damn, it was bitter but it was better than the god smashing his skull in.

"How long until your legs work?" Magni continued.

“Any minute now," Brand answered, already feeling pin picks in his thighs. It should have taken several days but he had more than enough mana to repair what had been damaged. Now, all he needed was time, minutes by the feel of it.

"Wow, magic has come a long way. When I was mortal a man with an injury like that would be put down. But don’t feel any way about losing. You're fast, just need more strength behind your attacks."

Brand chuckled at that. He'd weighted his axes with gravity magic but Mjolnir seemed an unstoppable force when brought to bear. Even striker’s onslaught hadn't been enough when Magni somehow surged with power far faster than Vara had. He might have needed more time and mana to achieve the power he had during his battle with Vara, but he doubted even that would have been enough.

"I can see how you killed Vara," Magni continued. "Her flaming sword is no Laevatein."

"Laevatein?" Brand asked.

Magni lifted his hammer. "You know, a rune blade like Mjolnir."

"Mjolnir is a hammer," Brand said.

"I know, but it has the old magics and plenty of souls forged into it, so it's a rune blade."

“Either way," Magni continued while luring at Sibley. "As fun as this has been, I didn't come here for you. I came for her.”

Brand's right leg shifted. It was a reflex, a telling sign his legs were working again that didn't go unnoticed.

"Good," Magni said. "You can have her after I'm done. Or do you want to take her mouth?"

"Wait! What?" Brand blurted out.

"You heard her. That prudish bitch Vara wants the girl to be a virgin, so I’ll put my cock in her and put an end to that. Either that or just kill her."

To Sibley’s credit, she'd stopped silently crying but still shivered under Magni’s gaze and that of the other noble, not one willing to intervene. At least she hadn't summoned Vara. To Brand's surprise, she truly didn't want her goddess killing more people even if they were beast kin.

"Why the hells would you not want Vara to have a summoner?" Brand asked wanting to know and stalling for time.

Magni brought his hands together with excitement. "How about you tell me what you're doing with Amra first? In fact, let's make a game of it. A question for a question and always the truth.”

Brand could have simply not answered but felt he'd be tasting Mjolnir's wrath if he didn't. "I don't work for Amra or any god, just myself."

"Maybe not a god, but Nergal perhaps?

"Never heard of a Nergal. And that's two questions. Sibley doesn't run," he added just as the girl was about to make for an exit.

Magni looked ready to pounce on her right then and there in front of everyone. He probably thought Brand would too.

"Your question then. I'm taking Vara’s summoner as payment for the avatar you killed," Magni said in answer.

Brand was sure he'd be feeling an ocean of emotion right now if he hadn't sealed Thora away in her beast core. She couldn't see or hear just experience an endless void but that kept her feelings from bleeding into his.

“No need to worry,” Magni said, raising a hand in peace. “I don’t blame you for her true death. Battle is battle, but Vara took what was mine. So, your next question.”

“I’m good,” Brand said.

“What?”

“There’s nothing else I want to know unless you can tell me more about Mjolnir or where to find a rune blade not wielded by a god.”

“I don't know of any other rune blades. They were lost after Ragnarok and more can’t be made.”

“Then I don’t have anything to ask.”

“R, really?” Magni stuttered, bemused.

Brand sighed. “Look, it's not like the Aesir or any of you gods are my enemies. You all just keep getting in my way.”

“In the way of what?”

“I won’t say because it doesn't concern you.” Brand point at Sibley. “But if that one didn’t summon Vara you would never have noticed me.”

Magni looked disappointed at that. “Damn”

“What?”

The god huffed. “I thought you’d be the start of a great battle, a second Ragnarok.”

“You want a second Ragnarok?”

“I want a good fight. Haven't had one in too long.”

Brand was about to respond when the lights dimmed. “Finally!”

Magni stood snarling with Mjolnir in hand. “I thought you didn't work for Amra.”

Brand smiled. “I don’t.”

Brand’s hand shot out to Sibley, pulling on the mana he’d slowly pushed into as they spoke. She screamed as she flew through the air reaching Brand just as his shadow swelled and he began to fall dragging her down with him before Magni could stop him.