Book 07 Plot

It has been a month since Tate and his forces brought down the skies on Aztlan. While Weasel and his friends know of the general location Tate has chosen to learn the Song of Shadow from the Lords of Xibalba, they have been forced to take a month off for Nate to get over the loss of his home planet and his entire race to Tate’s dark plans back on Aztlan. Also, Taftenkhamun needed some time to perform maintenance on the Pa-Ankh before Weasel and his friends set out on their next mission: journey to the Ryu Belt at the northern edge of the galaxy and free the Lords of Xibalba before Tate can learn the Song of Shadow from them and enact his final plan. Just now, the Aurean Intelligence Agency has intercepted messaging from the Ryu Belt, indicating that Tate is located on its northernmost planet, Ryu 108, also known as the northernmost planet in the entire galaxy, and a major trading port between the South Galaxy and the North Galaxy. Weasel also realizes that this is where the head of the Galactic Serpent, Jörmungandr is, and Jörmungandr could be relevant to Tate’s plan. Once Weasel and his friends are ready, they set sail on the Pa-Ankh to Ryu 108. When they land, they find themselves on a beach with a truly gigantic tree in front of them and a ramp leading up a cliff to wooden city walls. Weasel and his friends try to climb up the ramp and head into the city, but the gates are locked shut. In anger, Maxwell punches the wall as hard as he can, splintering some wood and accidentally alerting soldiers on the inside. A few minutes later, bears armed with swords, axes, and shields charged out of the city wall at the invaders. Weasel and his friends easily killed around half the soldiers and sent the rest fleeing into the city. Weasel and his friends then followed them into the city before the gates closed, staying hidden among the citizens. Weasel then learns from a local merchant that they are in the great city of Bjørnholm, which is normally ruled by King Ragnar Lothbrok of the Bears, but Tate’s army has taken over the city and driven the king out of the city and deep into the huge taiga nearby called the Ulvskog. He says that Elliot, the warlord Tate left in charge of the city, has forbidden anyone from leaving without a pass from him, and if they try to escape the guards will slaughter them at the gates. Weasel explains how him and his friends just fought through around 25 guards to enter the city in the first place, and that they could probably easily escape the city if they tried. However, the merchant said that as soon as one group was attacked inside the city, there were reserves in the barracks waiting to come pursue them. Weasel realized that these reserves were probably searching the city for him and his friends as they speak, so he decided to hide in the merchant’s house. Sure enough, Weasel was able to see bears similar to the ones they just fought, as well as undead Aztecosaurs and soldiers in Tatian Army uniforms marching through the streets through the merchant’s window. When the soldiers passed, the merchant said there is a resistance group called Bear Lives Matter that they should join up with if they want to remove the city from Tate’s control. As soon as Tate’s soldiers passed, Weasel and his friends go to a nearby hut, where they find a meeting of Bear Lives Matter in session. They introduce themselves to their leader, a female bear named Delaney. Delaney says that if Elliot and his government are to be overthrown, they must first break into the City Dungeons, where everyone who breaks Elliot’s government’s rules are being held. Once night falls, Delaney joins Weasel and his friends on a sneak mission to rescue Ashley, a fellow Bear Lives Matter member who was captured and taken into the City Dungeon. After fighting their way through some guards, they find and free Ashley, but not before the other prisoners are loaded onto a ship and taken to who-knows-where. Once the prison break is accomplished, they are ambushed on their way back to the Bear Lives Matter meeting by the reinforcements sent against them earlier, but as they are about to be slaughtered, they hear a war horn bellowing from the Ulvskog as the northern gate bursts open and thousands of wolf warriors pour into the city, catching Tate’s forces by surprise and driving them south, out of the city and onto the beach. While Weasel, his friends, and Bear Lives Matter team up with the wolves, Tate’s army gathers into the formation of a shield wall on the beach. Even with the Wolves and Bear Lives Matter, Weasel and his friends are still basically outnumbered 3-1. As a result, Weasel decides to send a cavalry regiment down the beach to test the strength of the shield wall. While they cannot pierce the wall and are forced to retreat, the front lines of the shield wall run up the beach and attempt to chase the retreating cavalry. Realizing he can use this to his advantage, Weasel sends another regiment at the front lines, causing them to run up the beach and chase them. However, Weasel orders the cavalry to turn around at the last minute, catching the front line completely by surprise. As the front line is being slaughtered, Weasel orders the rest of his soldiers to charge, forcing the remnants of the front line to crash into the rest of their troops in panic, causing chaos in the ranks and allowing Weasel and his army to easily take them apart. By the time Tate’s army surrenders, it has been reduced to a tenth of its size, with bodies lying all over the beach. The defeated soldiers agree to help Weasel and his friends get into Elliot’s Palace the next morning. The next morning, Weasel, his friends, the captured Tatian Soldiers, Bear Lives Matter, and the Wolf Army leave their camp on the beach and head back into the undefended city of Bjørnholm, where the Tatian Soldiers point to a large wooden building, which they say is where Ragnar Lothbrok used to rule from. However, they say that before they enter, they must get the key from the top of the Flag Tower at the center of town. After they easily deal with a few soldiers in there, they take the key from the top level of the tower and change the flag from a Tatian Flag to an Aurean Flag. Once this is done, they break into Elliot’s Palace, where they order his arrest. However, it takes Weasel, Garett, Maxwell, Ryan, Taftenkhamun, Nate, Cole, Kira, Shelby, Erin, Ashley, and Delaney to defeat him. Once Elliot is defeated, Weasel’s army takes him to the City Dungeon. Once this is done, Bjørnholm is freed and the Wolf Army goes back to the Ulvskog while Weasel, his friends, Bear Lives Matter, and the city of Bjørnholm celebrates for a while. The next day, Delaney tells Weasel and his friends that they must find Ragnar Lothbrok in the Ulvskog before Tate returns with another army. They also say that Bear Lives Matter cannot accompany them on this trip, since they are needed to stay behind and govern the city for the time being. They say that they do not understand the ways of the Wolves, and the citizens of Bjørnholm are starting to think that they kidnapped Ragnar Lothbrok and are holding him in the Ulvskog against their will. With that, they send Weasel and his friends into the Ulvskog to look for a bear named Cnut Hardshield in a village by the river. When ask Cnut if he knows anything about the whereabouts of Tate or the Lords of Xibalba, he says he does not know who the Lords of Xibalba are, but he knows Tate is in Asgard, the deepest level of Nastrond, a series of caves under the surface of the planet where Jörmungandr’s head resides. He says that the only entrance to Nastrond is inside Yggdrasil, the World Tree. When Weasel asks where Yggdrasil is, Cnut says it is the giant tree they passed on the way into Bjørnholm. Cnut also says that Ragnar Lothbrok is the only one who knows where the key is, and that finding him is a necessity if Tate is to be stopped. He says that the first thing they must do is get into the part of the forest inhabited by the wolves. When Weasel asks where the wolves are, Cnut replies that they live in the northwestern corner of the forest, beyond the Grendel caves. He says that the only way to get there is to go through the camp of the Boarbarians, a group of savages who pillage the area around their camp nearby. He says that the Boarbarian camp has ramparts around it, and they will need an army to take it. He says that the Grendels, a group of monsters living in the area around Draugarth Fort to the north, could theoretically provide soldiers, but their king, Skellek, is a crazed maniac who is at war with both the bears and wolves. Cnut says that if they sneak through the deep woods and go around the Boar Camp, they can get to Draugarth and ask the Spirits of Draugarth for advice. When Weasel and his friends reach Draugarth, the Spirits of Draugarth explain that they are ghosts of the soldiers who died defending Draugarth against attack from Skellek and his band of Grendels. They say that long ago, the Mother of All Grendels asked the citizens of Ryu 108 to vow never to harm her children. All agreed, with the exception of the Spiders of Webwood, and thus Skellek’s band of Grendels fear nothing except spiders. When Weasel and his friends tell this to Cnut, he says that he will forge the blade they need to kill Skellek if they can find the materials. He says that first, they need to go into the Webwood to get some peat to extract the bog iron from, as well as some spider blood to strike fear into Skellek’s heart. Once Weasel and his friends are in the Webwood, they easily scrape some peat from the forest floor and kill some giant spiders for their blood. When they report back to Cnut, he says he will extract the iron from the peat while Weasel and his friends kill Skathi, the Spider Queen, for her stinger. When Weasel and his friends enter Skathi’s Den, they find it is a colossal, hollowed-out tree trunk completely filled with spider webs. Just as they let their guard down, Skathi and 3 other spiders drop down from out of nowhere and ambush them. Ryan, Erin, and Shelby easily kill the 3 other spiders, but Skathi manages to sting Cole, putting him in a state of suspended animation. She then wraps him up in her web, but Skathi is blinded by a scimitar blow to the eye from Garett. as she flails around aimlessly, she gets her stinger stuck in Maxwell’s armor, and Maxwell rips it out and uses it to stab Skathi in her spleen, causing her to bleed immensely. However, Skathi is immune to her own venom and does not lose consciousness. Since Maxwell is too slow to chase down Skathi, Nate attacks with his war club, cutting a deep gash in Skathi’s body, but still not killing her. In retaliation, Skathi bites Nate, putting him in a state of suspended animation and then proceeds to wrap him up in a web. Once Weasel, Ryan, and Shelby have killed the 3 other spiders, they all charge at Skathi, who bites Ryan and Shelby, putting them in a state of suspended animation. She then wraps them up in a web. However, she starts to slow down due to blood loss from her spleen wound and eventually bleeds out and dies. Once they report back to Cnut with the stinger, he forges it into the iron, saying it will serve as the tip of the sword. He then takes Weasel’s Sword of Caliber and melts it down along with the iron and stinger. He then takes the swords out of the forge, except they have been combined into one all-powerful sword. Cnut says that this sword will glow blue whenever danger is present, and sends Weasel and his friends to Draugarth to go sample the strength of the Grendels. He also says that he will untie Shelby, Ryan, and Cole from their webbing and they will wake in a few days. They have an easy time with the small ones, easily killing around 25. However, they discover that the door to Draugarth is magically locked and they have no way to open it. They then interrogate some Grendels, and they say there is a Grendel magician in a nearby cave named Thulinn who knows how to break the lock. When they enter Thulinn’s Cave, they find a Grendel that looks like none other: bigger, buffed up, with smaller ears and eyes, and with a magic wand. He explains that he is Thulinn and that he is about to kill them and then attacks them. Once Erin kills Thulinn, she takes a sacred talisman hung around his neck. They then go to Draugarth and hold up the talisman, opening the door. In Draugarth, they find Skellek, who looks like a much larger version of the Grendels they fought outside, but not like Thulinn. With his newly revamped sword, Weasel easily kills Skellek, causing him to transform into a Grendel that looks like Thulinn. This new Grendel reveals himself as King Ivar Hardbones, and says someone named Prince Lane of The North caused him to transform into Skellek. He tells them to go tell the bears that they wish to make peace, while he tells his own people that they are no longer at war with the bears. Once Weasel and his friends tell Cnut that King Ivar has been restored and the Grendels want to make peace, he reminds them that he needs to rally his people to storm the Boarbarian Camp so they can get to Ragnar Lothbrok on the other side of the Ulvskog. When they return to King Ivar, he says his armies are ready to attack the Boarbarians in their camp. With that, they sneak up to the ramparts of the Boarbarian Camp and are greeted by a hail of arrows. Without shields, the Grendels sustain heavy losses, but they then realize that the ramparts are short enough for the Grendels to leap onto and climb over, which they do. Once the Grendels are in the camp, it is all over very quickly as they slaughter their way to Chief Shattertusk’s Hut. Once they are inside Shattertusk’s Hut, Chief Shattertusk is quickly defeated by Weasel and his friends. Once Shattertusk signs the surrender papers, he agrees to a ceasefire with the bears, wolves, and Grendels and agrees to help them in their quest to find Ragnar Lothbrok. However, when they attempt to access the Grendel Caves, they find the entrance blocked off by a rock slide that occurred earlier. When they return to Cnut’s Camp and tell him of this, he says that they have heard news of a renegade tribe of bears called the Black Claw in The Roughlands nearby. They say that the only other way to the wolf-controlled part of the Ulvskog is to go west, through The Roughlands and past Andrew’s Holt. He tells them that when they arrive in The Roughlands, they will find a Bear camp similar to his. There, they must speak to a bear named Harald Hairdrada. However, the army of Grendels and boarbarians that they have amassed needs to stay behind to guard Draugarth and the Boarbarian Camp until it is time for an all-out war against the Black Claw. With that, Cnut sends Weasel and his friends down a narrow mountain pass into The Roughlands. When they talk to this Harald Hairdrada, he tells them that his warriors were just defeated in the village outside Andrew’s Holt by the Black Claw. He says that his remaining troops are hungry and cold, and that they need to feed and clothe them if they are to survive. He tells them to go into the woods and collect berries for food and kill some Wildclaw beasts for their fur. Once they have these materials, they distribute them to the warriors in the camp. Harald says the Black Claw has sent scouts out from Andrew’s Holt, and that these need to be killed before they can find their camp and call in reinforcements. He then sends Weasel and his friends on a mission to go out into the woods and exterminate the scouts. Eventually, they find the scouts and are able to kill them all with ease. They report back to Harald, who tells them to see if they can find any clues about the whereabouts of Andrew Andersson, the kidnapped thane of Andrew’s Holt. They then all feel a tremor in the ground as a small fissure opens up. Out of the fissure rises a wisp of smoke that rapidly forms into an image of Tate. The smoke says, in Tate’s voice that they are fools for thinking they can save the bears of the Ulvskog and utters a verse of the Song of Shadow. This verse temporarily rewrites the personality of Harald, causing him to attack Weasel and his friends. After they eventually defeat him, he returns back to normal, but then dies of his wounds. Tate then says that is just a fraction of the power he will have when the Song of Shadow is complete before saying that the Lords of Xibalba are trying to teach him another verse and he has to go. With that, the smoke goes back down into the ground and the fissure closes. Weasel and his friends then go to Harald Blueteeth, Harald Hairdrada’s brother and top general, and explain what happened. Harald then says he suspects that the Black Claw is in league with Tate and that the disappearance of Andrew Andersson is somehow relevant to Tate’s plans. He says that they must immediately sneak into the village near Andrew’s Holt and look for clues. When they reach the village, they find it a ruin, with half the houses destroyed, belongings scattered in the streets, Black Claw Soldiers roaming the streets, and people left homeless scattered in the streets. Wishing to avoid detection by the Black Claw, Weasel and his friends sneak around and talk to civilians scattered around the village, who say they want to get their belongings back from the streets, but don’t want to be detected by the Black Claw. Weasel and his friends then sneak into the streets and take their belongings back, resulting in a minor engagement with the Black Claw that alerts the others. Weasel, his friends, and the village’s citizens then run off into the woods, where Weasel asks if they know anything about what happened to Andrew. They say that everything was going fine until one day, Thane Andrew ordered the Black Claw army to attack the village. They defeated the forces of Harald Hairdrada and forced them to run off into the camp. They say they suspect that the real thane was kidnapped and taken off somewhere while some imposter magically disguised himself as Andrew and ordered the Black Claw to attack the rest of the bears. They also say that, according to legend, in the geyser fields northeast of the camp, there is an old crypt where a sacred talisman, the Eye of Truth is hidden. The Eye of Truth, when activated, lifts all masking spells from the target, and if it even exists, they can use it to reveal who this imposter Andrew might be. They then wait for the Black Claw soldiers to give up the search and take the civilians with them to Harald’s Camp. In Harald’s Camp, Harald says he knows nothing about this legend, and an old Grendel wizard named Bolthorn in the Geyser Fields knows more about it. He tells Weasel and his friends to go seek the wisdom of Bolthorn while he trains the civilians into soldiers. Weasel also suggests calling in the bears, Grendels, and boarbarians they met earlier to join his forces. When Weasel and his friends find Bolthorn, a Grendel who looks like Thulinn and Ivar, he says that this legend is indeed a fact, but the doors of the crypt are magically sealed. He says that if Weasel and his friends gather the materials he needs to create a lotion that can open the doors, they can get the Eye of Truth from the crypt. He tells them to get fur from the Wildclaws, water from the geysers, bark from a Bog Ent, and troll goo from Lek Lighttooth, a troll who lives in a nearby cave. After Weasel kills an entire group of Wildclaws for their furs, he feels bad for a Wildclaw cub in their den and decides to keep it as a pet. Meanwhile, Nate and Garett are having a difficult time bringing down the Bog Ents because their swords keep getting stuck in the bark. However, Maxwell easily dominates Lek Lighttooth in battle and decapitates him with ease. He then puts some of his troll goo in a bag and takes it to Bolthorn. Everybody else easily collects the geyser water in bags and gives them to Bolthorn. Once all the materials are assembled, Bolthorn cooks them in his cauldron until they form a lotion and rubs it on everybody’s hands. Once Weasel and his friends open the doors of the crypt, they are attacked by ghosts of old warriors that they easily send back to the realm of the dead. However, on the last level, they are faced with Lothin Doombringer, the ghost of one of Ryu 108’s first warriors. He is sent back to the realm of the dead after a lengthy battle in which Erin is seriously injured. Weasel and his friends then take the Eye of Truth from Lothin’s belongings and report back to Bolthorn, who says Erin needs to be taken back to Harald’s Camp for medical attention. When they go back to Harald’s camp, they find Cnut and his group of bears along with Cole, Ryan, and Shelby, who have recovered from Skathi’s sting. They also find King Ivar and his Grendel army along with Shattertusk and his Boarbarian army. Harald says that they will mount an offensive on Andrew’s Holt as soon as Weasel and his friends are ready. Weasel says they need to wait a day for Erin to heal, which they agree to. That night, however, a Monquistador ship lands at their camp. Out of the ship comes Felipe de Buenhombre, his group of Monquistadors, Morgan, and Drew Crider. Weasel and his friends rejoice at seeing their friends survive Aztlan and Morgan tells the story of what happened: after her fight with Santa Muerte on Xibalba, Santa Muerte escaped via teleportation, leaving Morgan to hitch a ride on a meteor breaking off Xibalba. However, she managed to jump onto a building in Zultun Dock just before the meteor collided with the ground and exploded. She went into the jungle, with meteors falling all around her, and found Drew, who had become the King of the Zultunians after Jack of Garland’s death. Together, they made a raft that they used to sail back to The Zocalo, which by that time was a smoldering ruin from all the meteors that hit it. They rushed to Campeche Swamp, where they found Felipe and his Monquistadors getting ready to leave the planet in their ship. Morgan and Drew stowed away in supply barrels as the ship took off. If they left just a few seconds earlier, Xibalba itself would have already struck the planet and they would be swept away by the shockwaves. Once the ship had left Aztlan’s atmosphere, Morgan and Drew revealed to Felipe that they stowed away and that they needed to find Weasel immediately. After doing a search of most of the known galaxy for the past three weeks, Felipe picked up the distress signal Weasel put out when they were almost captured by Tate’s Army back in Bjørnholm. Once Morgan is done telling that story, Weasel explains everything that happened since Weasel and his friends first arrived in Bjørnholm. Felipe then agrees to join the battle for Andrew’s Holt, saying his Monquistadors will be steadfast allies. They then all head north into the woods, where they completely obliterate a new party of scouts the Black Claw sent out. Once they have the village surrounded, the bears blow their war horns and Monquistadors, Bears, Grendels, and Boarbarians charge out of the woods and into the village, taking the Black Claw completely by surprise. Within an hour, the Black Claw have been driven out of the village and have retreated to Andrew’s Holt itself. Because of the fortress’s high walls, its location on top of a rocky bluff, and the fact that time is of the essence, they realize that they cannot take it by brute force nor besiege it. Instead, Weasel decides that the best approach is for him and his friends to kill a few guards, put on their pelts to make them look more like bears, steal their uniforms, and sneak in that way. Once Weasel and his friends are inside the fortress, they take the archers on the wall by surprise and make short work of them. Maxwell then finds a few ladders on the ground and uses his huge size to lift them over the walls and give them to the army, who quickly climbs over them. With that, Weasel and his friends take off their uniforms and bear pelts and charge across the ground to the fortress, easily destroying the Black Claw’s forces as they go. Once they are able to break into the fortress itself, they find none other than Andrew Andersson there with a few Black Claw elites. Weasel then holds up the Eye of Truth, which lifts the spell on Andrew Andersson, revealing him as a completely different bear: one with black claws. He says that his real name is Prince Lane of The North and that he is another one of Tate’s warlords. When Weasel asks where Andrew Andersson is, Lane says that he is in the deepest part of the Ulvskog, the place where the wolves dwell. Lane then attacks Weasel and his friends, who eventually defeat him. However, before he can be overwhelmed by Weasel’s army, he escapes through a trapdoor that leads to some kind of underground tunnel. Cnut and Harald then say that the situation out here in the Ulvskog has reached a point so critical that they must warn Bjørnholm of the Black Claw. When Weasel brings his army into Bjørnholm, he is greeted by Ashley and Delaney, who say that the Bears of Bjørnholm just voted for war with the wolves and have sent their army into the Ulvskog to fight them. Weasel then explains to them everything that happened in the Ulvskog. Also, Ashley brings a stone that washed up on the beach that reads, “The galaxy bends and twists and churns like the waves in an endless sea, Bringing the chosen to us three.” Weasel realizes this is the next part of the prophecy, and asks Delaney and Ashley if they know anything about it. They say they have no idea what he is talking about, and they need to consult the Norns if they want to know about such things. They say the Norns are a group of ravens in Hrafnfjell who know everything about the supernatural. When Weasel asks how to reach Hrafnfjell, they say there is a dock at the very deepest part of the Ulvskog where someone can take them across the Celestial Lake to Hrafnfjell. With that, Weasel decides to take his troops into the Ulvskog to fight with Bjørnholm against the wolves. Weasel leads his army back to Andrew’s Holt, where Cnut tells them to go through a small pass. When they reach the other side of this pass, they find themselves in a gigantic forest clearing. On their side were the bears of Bjørnholm, their fortifications, their camp, and their war engines. On the far side were the wolves, their fortifications, their camp, and their war engines. Each side was firing catapults at each other across a deserted camp in between them that acted as a no-man’s-land. The first thing Weasel did was look for possible openings in the enemy’s defenses. Since there were no obvious openings, Weasel decided to try an ingenious move: he sent out his left wing, which caused the wolves to chase them back across the clearing when they retreated. The wolves then decided to take advantage of the better fortifications of the deserted camp, and their leader ordered his entire army to relocate to the deserted camp and man its defenses. Seeing the golden opportunity, Weasel then ordered his army to aim all the catapults at the camp and load them up with stones doused in gasoline. He ordered his troops to then light the stones on fire and send the fireballs careening into the enemy camp, crushing around a third of the enemy soldiers from initial impact, with many others being hit by shrapnel and falling debris. Then the fire took over and many burned to death. With the wolves in total chaos, Weasel then ordered a general attack on the burning camp. Three quarters of the wolves’ army died that day. The wolves’ top general, Olivia, signed the surrender papers. Olivia then reveals that she is a reincarnation of the Olivia Weasel and his friends had met before on Aztlan. She says that since reincarnations age differently than normal people, she matured into an adult within a week, but from there on will age like a normal person. When Weasel asks her where the King of the Wolves is, she says he has fallen under the influence of Prince Lane of The North, hidden deep within the Grendel caves. She also says that if Lane’s lie is revealed, then the King of the Wolves can be persuaded to release Andrew Andersson and Ragnar Lothbrok. However, she says that even defeating Lane in battle is not enough to get him to reveal his lie, and they need the Dust of Discovery to get him to spill the beans. According to legend, the Dust of Discovery is magical dust kept by some Grendel deep in the Grendel Caves named Herkir. It is said that if it is released into a room, then nothing but the truth can be spoken in said room. She then sends Weasel and his friends into the Grendel Caves to look for this Herkir. When they find him, he has them do a bunch of things for him such as find him something to eat and something to read. Once this is accomplished, he hands them a bag labeled “Dust of Discovery”. Weasel and his friends then use the directions Olivia gave them to get to the palace of Loki Trickmaster, the King of The Wolves. Once they are inside, they find him conversing with Prince Lane of The North. They also see to large iron cages. In one of them is the real Andrew Andersson. In the other is King Ragnar Lothbrok of The Bears. Lane then turns around and expresses shock that Weasel and his friends made it here. Weasel then pours the Dust of Discovery on the floor, causing Lane to accidentally reveal his plans: By kidnapping Andrew Andersson and Ragnar Lothbrok and taking the to the wolves, he was trying to start a war between the bears and wolves so that the bears would leave Bjørnholm unguarded and Tate’s forces could take back the city. Now that those plans are a failure, Lane leaves. Loki Trickmaster then said Lane manipulated him by telling him that if he sided with the Black Claw, he would be king of all of Ryu 108. Weasel’s army then marches in and demands that Loki Trickmaster step down as king and be replaced by Olivia. Loki Trickmaster is then placed in the dungeons while Olivia is crowned Queen of The Wolves. Olivia immediately signs a peace treaty with the bears and immediately releases Andrew Andersson and Ragnar Lothbrok from their cages. Andrew then proposes that in order to form an alliance against the Tatians, they sign a treaty with Aurea. Weasel then drafts up a treaty saying that whoever signs it will be under Aurean control, but will still have the right to govern their people. Ragnar Lothbrok, Weasel, Andrew Andersson, and Olivia then all sign this and Ryu 108 becomes Aurea’s first province. Weasel then promises to respect the rights of Ryu 108’s people. Ragnar Lothbrok then says there is still much work to be done. Tate is still learning the Song of Shadow in Asgard and they need to find a way into Yggdrasil before he masters it. Ragnar Lothbrok says that he entrusted the Norns in Hrafnfjell with the second key to Yggdrasil long ago. However, he says that Hrafnfjell is an icy landscape across the Celestial Lake that is still very much under Tate’s control. He says that the army they raised in Bjørnholm and in the Ulvskog cannot go with them because they are needed to defend against any counterattack that Tate and Lane may throw at them. He says there is a bear nearby on the shore of the Celestial Lake named Baldur Goldsail who can take them across if they pay a fee. Ragnar gives them a bag of gold coins and sends them to the shore of the Celestial Lake. They give the bag of gold coins to Baldur and he sails them across the Celestial Lake to Hrafnfjell. When they land, they find themselves in a rocky landscape with no soil or even plants. Ragnar Lothbrok had told them that the Raven leaders were in league with the Black Claw and that the only Raven he trusts is a man who should be waiting for them named Hrafn Lorespeaker. When they speak to Hrafn, he tells them that the Norns have been taken prisoner by the Coven, the leaders of the ravens. He says the Coven is in league with Tate, and their soldiers roam the entire area. He says that if they want to have a chance at fighting the Coven, they need to rescue Hrafn’s friend Hans. He says that he does not know where Hans is being held, so they will need to get the information out of some Coven soldiers. Once they know where Hans is, they break into the tower where he is being held and find none other than Macye in there. After a long fight in which Macye is defeated, they free Hans, who says that the Coven is hiding in the icy tundras at the far north of Hrafnfjell. However, they need to gather some artifacts to get past the icy barrier between the tundra and the rest of Hrafnfjell. He says they need an Ice Shard from an Ice Colossus, the Djelling Chalice, and a bunch of feathers from some Coven soldiers. After defeating an array of monsters and Coven members, they get the materials and enter the tundra. When they report back to Hans, he says the Coven has summoned a demon from the nearby Planet of Ryu 91 to create a magic barrier around the fortress, so they will need to speak to that demon to get past the barrier. When they arrive in the demon’s cave, they find out that he is an Oni, just like Maxwell, except more than twice his size. After many grotesque injuries to both themselves and the Oni, the Oni is finally killed, allowing them to sneak into The Coven’s Fortress. Inside the Coven Fortress, they fight the four Coven members, a group of highly skilled raven wizards that they barely manage to deal with. They find 3 prison cells in the back of the room. Inside the cells are none other than the 3 Norns: Wyrd, Verthandi, and Skuld. Once they are freed from their cells, they do not have time to say anything before a large tremor rips a fissure in the ground beneath them. Out of the fissure rises a wisp of smoke that rapidly forms into an image of Tate. The smoke says, in Tate’s voice, that he is getting closer to mastering the Song of Shadow and knows the song nearly enough to bend Jörmungandr to his will. Tate then sings a verse of the Song of Shadow that briefly possesses the Norns, but Weasel and his friends are able to quickly make them snap out of it. With that, the smoke recedes back into the fissure, which then closes. The Norns then say that if Tate is able to control Jörmungandr, he could force the colossal serpent to unravel, which would unbind the galaxy with it, allowing Tate to fulfill his grand plan of rewriting the fabric of the galaxy in his own image. When Weasel asks if there is a way to temporarily incapacitate Jörmungandr, the Norns say it would take the weapon of a God to do that. When Weasel asks where they could find a godly weapon around here, they say that the Hammer of Thor is located in the Hall of Valor deep in the underground city of Nidavellir nearby. The Norns, however, warn that Tate has sent Jötunn, the strongest member of the Grendel race down there to guard it. Besides, they must first get the key from the Frost Beetle, which is located in the distant mountains of Nordrilund. To make it to Nordrilund, however, they need to go through the forests of Austrilund, the valley of Vestrilund, and the hills of Sudrilund. When Weasel and his friends enter the underground city, a smaller Grendel named Grumlik stands in front of them and presents them with a riddle: “Only when the two brothers are gone will the path be clear”. When Weasel and his friends rush directly into the Hall of Valor, they fight their way through the guards until they reach the throne room, where three, colossal, mutant Grendels stand in front of them, with Jötunn at the center. Jötunn then explains that his brothers, Ullik and Grettir, are the other two Grendels. Ullik, Grettir, and Jötunn then attack Weasel and his friends who prove to be no match for them. Weasel and his friends barely escape with their lives through a crack in the floor leading back to Nidavellir’s entry hall. While they are thinking of a new strategy, they remember Grumlik’s riddle and realize that Jötunn is too strong to be dealt with while Ullik and Grettir are present, but if they somehow kill Ullik and Grettir separately and then deal with Jötunn, they have a shot at defeating him. They then realize that there is another door on each of the sides of the entrance to the Hall of Valor, and Weasel theorizes that these may be where Ullik and Grettir dwell. Morgan then says that while they were fighting Jötunn, Ullik, and Grettir, she noticed two doors on either side of the throne room, which may connect to both areas. Weasel, Ryan, Drew, Felipe, Erin, and Olivia decide to enter the door on the left while everyone else enters the door on the right. In the room on the left, Weasel and his group are immediately attacked by a group of gigantic stone golems, but Weasel easily uses their low intelligence against them and tricks them into killing each other. Meanwhile, in the other room, Weasel’s other friends find themselves in a colossal maze. In each part of the maze there is a challenge for them to deal with. Their first challenge is a deceptively small Grendel named Dragar. Not realizing that Dragar was meant to challenge them instead of help them, Morgan tries to ask Dragar for directions and Dragar uses his insane speed and jumping power to immediately knock her out with a scratch to the face. After everyone initially struggles to hit the insanely fast Grendel, Maxwell manages to kill him by stepping on him. Back in the other room, Weasel hears Ullik shouting at them from behind a locked door, and Weasel sees a sign that says the door only opens when the elements around them are at rest. He looks around him and sees an archway into a rocky landscape with a waterfall and pond, a rocky landscape with lava everywhere, and a small forested landscape. Weasel and his friends decide to split up: Weasel and Ryan go into the forest, Erin and Olivia go to the water, and Felipe and Drew go to the lava. Meanwhile in the other room, Weasel’s other friends have finally finished battling their way through the maze and have found none other than Grettir at the end of the maze. After a long battle, Grettir is dealt with by Morgan, who had regained consciousness from her earlier incident. In the other room, Weasel and Ryan finish dealing with a group of living trees while Drew and Felipe slay a dragon and Erin and Olivia slay a kraken. Once these monsters are gone, Weasel hears a lock break and the door to Ullik’s Chamber opens. Weasel and his friends then all charge Ullik, who is eventually killed by Felipe’s arquebus. Once Ullik and Grettir are dealt with Weasel and his friends leave their room and return to Nidavellir’s entrance hall, where the rest of their friends are waiting. They then reenter the Hall of Valor, where they find Jötunn alone. Jötunn, angry at the deaths of his two brothers, immediately charges at Weasel and his friends, but he is eventually killed when Garett slits his throat. They then rummage through the treasures at the back of his chamber and find the Hammer of Thor and a huge hoard of hard drugs. Weasel and his friends take these to the Norns, who say the drugs are probably for shipment to Tate’s warlord Lord Etbo, who makes Tate money by smuggling drugs around the galaxy. Taftenkhamun flies into a rage when he hears the name Lord Etbo, explaining that he is an Eaglyptian like himself, except he betrayed Eaglypt when Tate and his forces invaded, helping to exterminate the Eaglyptian species and murdering Taftenkhamun’s parents. Morgan says that when she was on Arturia around a month before she went to Planet Squid, she found a similar hoard of drugs in the room of an evil knight named Sir Michael Jones. After this discussion, the Norns hand them the key to Yggdrasil and send them south back to Bjørnholm to take care of Tate.