(F/N's POV)
Blood in the snow. Just like before. I had no choice but to watch. I had to watch each one of them die and I was helpless. It was my fault they were all dead. And now the only person I had left in this world to care about was gone. All because of a petty disagreement between Balder and I. This could have all been avoided.
It was my mistakes that led to this. I should have listened to mother. I should have chosen to live as a man, rather than seek out my other half. Maybe things would be different. I don't even care. The only thing that was stuck in my brain was vengeance. The elder told me to make Balder if I made it out of this and that was exactly what I intended to do. The enemies standing in front of me meant nothing. When I looked at them, I saw Balder, pushing me over the edge.
My body felt like it was burning as I looked at my mothers body lying still in the snow. It felt like frostbite all over my body. I could feel a glow rise up from my core and extend throughout my whole body.
Tattoos had spread across my body (like in the picture above) and they were glowing blue, along with my eyes.
I was still in the giant's clutches. Seeing what was happening to my body, all 8 of them and their leader looked at me. Without me even making a movement or struggle to escape his grasp, his hand began to freeze, and eventually his whole arm was frozen, but it was more than that. His arm had somehow completely turned to ice. It was then that I burst out of his grasp shattering his fist into small pieces of ice. I fell to the ground, but stood firm and strong, as if all my fatigue from before was gone. I was still bloody and bruised, but all I could feel was the frostbite sensation and a laser focus unlike anything I ever felt before. The giant whose hand I shattered screamed out in pain. I turned towards him, jumped at him and kicked his arm I turned to ice, shattering the rest of it up to his shoulder, which began to spurt out blood. All 9 of the giants (including the leader) stepped back away from me.
I stood in front of mother's body, with my back to it I faced the 9 giants looking at me horrified.
F/N: "What's wrong?" I said quietly. "Oh...that's right. You told my mother that with her death, you would let me live. Well, that's okay...go ahead and try to kill me anyway."
I began to slowly walk towards them.
F/N: "You just took the last person I cared about from me. I have nothing left to lose by fighting you all...so go ahead."
Frost and snow began to flow around me, around my hands specifically. It was then that I formed two blade of ice, dual wielding both. I gave them a cold, blank stare.
(F/N about to go full Levi on them)
The giant missing an arm rand at F/N first, in a blind panic.
Giant: "You bastard! I'll kill you for this!"
(Play this)
Without thinking it through the giant lunged his remaining fist at me. I jumped into the air and used frost in the air to move me in the air with my blades. I flew towards his arm and spun rapidly, cutting up his arm as I moved towards his head.
Instead of cutting his face like he expected me to, I flew past his head and turned myself while I was in the air behind him. Then I enlarged one of my swords and used the frost particles in the air to propel myself towards his back. I stabbed him with the sword from behind and penetrated his heart. I tore the blade out and it broke down to its original from. I jumped off of the giant and back into the air as his body collapsed.
At this point the other 8 giants were all around me. I chose one to my right and propelled myself towards him. After seeing how quickly I killed his friend, he flinched and put his arms up to defend himself. I dove underneath his arms and propelled myself to his chest. I pumped one of my fists against his abdomen. As I did, it turned to ice and spread all throughout his chest. When I punched again, it shattered and their was a hole where his abdomen once was. Blood exploded out of him. I jumped up high into the air off of him, pushing my self further up using frost propulsion.
Three of the giants created earth pillars that reached up to hit me, but I dodged each one, jumping off of them to get even higher. Once I was at a suitable place in the air, I created large round objects of ice, with snow and wind swirling inside of each one. I threw them all down around the giants, not actually hitting any of them with them, but that's exactly what I intended to happen. When the ice made contact with the ground they exploded, creating a large veil of fog covering everyone below me. It was thicker than the fog they took advantage of earlier. I used this fog to pick them off one by one, killing some quickly with slices to the neck and tripping others by cutting their Achilles's Tendon, causing them to collapse before I finished them off.
By the time the fog began to subside, all of the giants laid dead in the snow, all except the leader. He was beginning to loose his composure, as he was unsure where I was or where his men were. The fog was beginning to clear and he could the see the bodies of his men around the field.
Leader: What? All of my men have fallen? (His Thoughts)
While he was looking at their bodies, I took him by surprise, bursting out of a cloud of fog to his side, with my sword still in hand and blood all over me. He turned to me in rage, yelled, and attempted to grab me or hit me out of their air by extending his arm. However, I dodged his hand at the last moment and spun around his arm, cutting it up as I went, then I flew past him as his left arm fell into pieces and blood spurted out.
Leader: No way! Is this really that same boy? He's completely outclassed us!
I turned back around and attempted to cut him from behind. He moved his right hand to protect the back of his neck and he turned his head to look back at me. I changed my target and went for his eyes, cutting them with my sword as I flew by his face, blinding him. I changed my trajectory and flew behind his back, flying close to the ground. I created ice on the floor as I went by his feet. I cut the back of both his feet, the Achilles Tendons, as I slid on the ice, making my way in front of him as he fell to the floor. I dodged his falling body and summoned an ice pillar that she me up in the air facing his back after he collapsed onto the ground.
F/N: "What happened? You were really enjoying yourself before. All that talk and now look at you!"
As I finished my statement, I shot myself back down towards him to finish the job. He tried to protect himself with his remaining right arm, but I cut through it like it was nothing, landed on his back and furiously cut up his upper back and neck as he howled in pain. I took one last slash, removing his head from the rest of his body and ending his screams of pain.
(I took a lot of inspiration from this scene. I absolutely loved it and I wanted to recreate it in my story in a way. P.S. Obviously there isn't a man inside of the giant like in the show.)
I stood on top of his bloody corpse, panting. There was still a fire in my heart that wasn't ready to go out. Without me noticing, the enemy army of soldiers surrounded the giant leader's body with me standing on top of it. They left their horses at the fort and were looking at me, horrified and unsure what to do. I slowly raised my head to look at them. I walked to the head of the giant stood on top of it, then jumped off back onto the ground. The soldiers back away as I moved towards them.
Soldier: "Who is this guy?"
I gave them a blank stare, then fired out blast of sharp ice suddenly, forming around the area, butchering the soldiers as it formed around them, stabbing them all over. It began to rain as the men screamed out in agony as they were skewered onto ice structures. Everything was silent within a few minutes, besides the sound of rain. Much of their blood rained down on the ground as well.
(Skip to 3:46 for what F/N does)
The rain eventually stopped. My tattoos stopped glowing, but remained on my body as black tattoos. I looked at the mess around me with exhausted eyes. Everything looked blurry and I thought I would collapse of exhaustion. I slowly walked to the fort, put my back against one stone wall still left standing and collapsed into a sitting position. Without a second thought, sleep overtook me as I sat there, a distance away from the carnage, a distance away from my sin.
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When I finally woke up, my eyes burst open as if I was escaping a nightmare. The way the light fell on the land, I could tell it was the late afternoon. I took in my surroundings and was horrified at the death and destruction. I stood up with aching pains, grunting and using the wall for support. I got closer to the mess of blood and bodies. When I got close to the humans and giant leader I broke down, falling to my knees and putting my head in the snow, screaming and crying out. I did this. I killed these people. My rage made me commit this horrendous sin. These men were not good, but I didn't think anyone should die like that.
I looked at them and saw both humans and giants dead because of me. I was a monster to both groups. Was there any place where I could belong? What could I do to make up for this atrocity?
At that point, I did the only thing I could think of. I created funeral pyres for the soldiers and giants killed, including my comrades. Including mother. I gave them all their own pyre and took the time to clean up the bodies best I could. This took a number of hours and it was nearly midnight by the time I was finished. I lit the fires and watched, with sorrow still in my heart. I didn't just cry for my people at that point, but for the cruel way I dealt with my enemies.
I approached the last pyre. Mother's pyre. I held a torch in my hand and looked at her. Her axe laid next to her, still at her size.
F/N: "I'm sorry mother...for everything. I'm sorry I wasn't strong enough to save you or the others. I made you worry for years. I lost myself after you passed on. There is still something I have to do, but I won't let my rage take over, not again. Please...don't worry anymore. I'll be better. I have to be better. You can rest now."
Just as I was about to light the fire with my torch, mother's leviathan axe began to glow and float in the air. It shrunk to my size and floated in front of me. I wasn't sure what to do. It seemed like mother was leaving the axe to me. But after all that I've done, disobeying her all those years ago and letting my rage and bloodlust get the best of me. I didn't feel adequate to use the weapon mother used to protect her family. I took the axe so that I could guard it and carry it as a reminder of my promise to be better, my regrets...and my guilt. I took the axe in my left hand and touched the torch to her wooden pyre.
F/N: "Goodbye. I love you mom."
I watched the fires burn and rested nearby. I managed to salvage some food and rested by a horse I found left in the fort. I wrapped mother's axe in cloth and placed it on my back wher I had a holster. I gathered mother's ashes and put them in a leather pouch and tied it to my belt, next to father's ashes. One day I would find a suitable place to spread their ashes.
In the morning I would prepare for my return journey home, but I won't be staying long. I will face Balder and get some answers. After that is said and done, perhaps I will leave. There was nothing left for me in the north and I wanted to see more of the world an help more people along the way.
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Author's Notes:
Thank you so much for reading! I hope you've enjoyed the story and this chapter!
Just one last thing that I'm pushing off for next time because I don't want this part to be too long like the last one was.
I know I've said it before, but the next part will be the final piece of the prologue. Sorry it has taken this long, but we are near the end now. I just wanted to make sure the backstory was good before we meet the sins.
See you in the next one!