It Didn't Have to End [That] Way

The Inferno Below

Crack.

Viggo freezes, his feet rooted to the spot. The anger in his eyes quickly turns into fear as he notices the dark lines painting themselves in the stone he's standing on, forming jagged shapes not unlike the artwork a session of axe throwing practice leaves in a tree stump. The lines approach him infectiously, as if it's the Scourge of Magni out to get him as the powerful god strikes his invisible fists against the ground. Or perhaps it's the Scourge of Freyja, the goddess wanting him claimed by her element for his attempts to destroy a pair of lovers that not even the Fates dare interfere with. He attempts to back away, but after two steps, the back of his heel finds nothingness where it expected solid stone. He can feel the heat from the pit against his back, and if he doesn't move quickly, he'll soon feel the entire heat of the fiery inferno below. Every single instinct is telling him to flee, to jump away, to run, run, run.

But his feet don't move.

Viggo has never truly felt panic before. In the face of the worst of all adversaries, he has kept his cool, his mask never breaking no matter how horribly the situation was going. Ryker had never understood Viggo for this... and he never will, for the older brother's body belongs to the seas now, assuming it doesn't belong to the submaripper Viggo had knowingly pitted against Ryker and the Shellfire. Perhaps such is the final irony — they were brothers until the end, after all. Their separation became the beginning of the end for them. Ryker is dead now; Viggo will soon join him.

The ground suddenly gives out beneath him.

Viggo would have liked to say that he maintained his composure, but while he is a businessman, he's not an outright liar. He fell backwards, falling with the stones that had suffered blows from Magni's fists and Freyja's outrage. His screams, far from dignified, reveal the true extent of the terror he feels in the moment. He possesses no desire to die, but then again, neither do most people who have their lives ended. For once, he does not strategize or even think. There is no time to do so. Instead, in a final valiant attempt of self-preservation, Viggo finds himself yelling the name of his greatest adversary. The boy could invent things most men could only dream of — he had to be capable of saving Viggo too, right?

Time seems to slow with the increase of the sweltering heat below. Viggo feels like he's hovering in a limbo, teetering between life and death, as he realizes that the help he had called out for will not come. For Thor's sake, he had just attempted to take the life of his adversary's romantic interest. Hiccup is pure and innocent, but while the boy also possesses a determination towards pacificity that one finds rarely in vikings, all people have a limit. Viggo knows his most recent actions most likely have far exceeded the boy's tolerances.

Seems that death's side effects include a pointless, useless, futile feeling: hope. Hope for something that will never happen.

Time seems to quicken, returning to normal and continuing to hasten past. Viggo feels like he went from the speed of a hovering Gronckle to a diving Night Fury. His body falls towards the lava as quickly as his soul gets damned to hell. This is it, the end of the line for him. After creating an empire of dragon hunters with his brother, an empire that rivaled the armada of the most deranged, blood-thirsty, power-hungry madman in the known world, his doom will come in the form of an accumulation of molten rock from underground. Fate sure loves its irony and cruelty.

He expected the pain to begin the moment his body makes contact with the fiery liquid, but once more, the gods have conspired with Fate. A sudden pull tugs at his arm, causing it to flare in agony. Had it not been for the way his armor carefully protects his joints, the damage would have pulled his arm right out of its socket; although, given the pain along the entire length of his arm, he would not find it surprising if something had been pulled or damaged. Then, he realizes that something is off.