I reached my pale hands into her chest, staining my hands with blood as I held the heart in my hands. I looked at it and noted how ordinary it looked, and I asked myself if this could really give me power. Then I realized that since I had already killed the woman, I could not stop now because of something as small and insignificant as doubt, so I closed my eyes and dug my teeth into it, and then I immediately remembered that the heart in my possession belonged to a jotnar from Jotunheim, as it felt like I was biting into ice, so ignoring the pain in my teeth I ripped the piece I had and swallowed it soon feeling the ice cold piece reach my stomach.

  In a moment, a rush of intense pain filled my mind, accompanied by visions of an immense grey wolf, whose stature dwarfed that of nearly every being throughout the nine realms; however, this formidable creature was restrained by a fetter as thin as a spider's silk in the lofty heights of Asgard, and I somehow understood that his name was Hróevitnir. In these visions, Hróevitnir was the oldest brother of a boy without a face, and he hated the boy and it was fairly obvious why he hated the boy; he hated the boy because he was not one of them, and in fact he would have let the boy die if his mother, who strongly resembled the jotnar woman, whose heart I just ate, did not find the boy in his basket while Vetr covered Midgard in his white blanket, and after nine years of making his hatred of the boy known he finally decided to do something about it, so he led the boy to a dead, dark forest that grew even darker as Nott rode upon Hrimfaxi above the clouds where the boy immediately knew that he was going to be attacked and as, a large wolf pack, forty wolves strong revealed themselves and Hróevitnir finally told the boy the reason he led him here in the first place, it was to have a duel before the wolves to test his strength, but the malice in his tone revealed his true intentions, this was a death sentence and the wolves were simply there to watch his murder and feast on his corpse, he had led the boy from his family to kill him and of course he could not deny Hróevitnir nor could he even run away, as he would surely be killed by one of the greedy, gluttonous, so he accepted the duel but suddenly the vision ended and I found myself on the floor still holding the heart of the woman.

  I took a small reprieve from my goal to recover from my headaches spurred on by those memories or visions, whichever they were, d i most certainly did not care about them or whatever they meant as they were simply obstacles in my path to power, but to make sure that i would not be not blindsided again, i sat and breathed calmly, clearing my mind of distractions. I then spoke a galdr which fortified my mind, so if I were to encounter such visions again, they would not hurt as much as last time, so I took another bite of the jotnar woman's heart and once more, my teeth hurt as it felt as if I were chewing ice, but I ripped the piece I had in my mouth, chewed it, and swallowed it.

  As I predicted, the pain, while still present was more subdued than before, but I almost forgot about the pain entirely as the visions of a white wyrm that was so unfathomably large that it wrapped itself around Midgard and swallowed its own tail, and somehow i knew that this wyrm's name was J?rmungandr. In these visions, Jormungandr was the second-oldest brother of the boy without a face, and while he had never shown the boy too much love, he never showed the boy as much hate as his older brother; in short, he was tolerant of the boy, at times he would assist his mother in teaching the boy various things and at his best he would even protect the boy from Hróevitnir's wrath, other times he would simply dismiss the boy and at his worst he would strangle the boy into unconsciousness, and then one day on the boy's ninth year with them, the wyrm in one of his better moods led the boy to a dead, dark forest which was not to so dark as Sol drove her chariot above the clouds and the wyrm asked the boy a simple question, "Do you want to get stronger?" Before the boy could answer the question, the vision ended, and I found myself in the jotnar woman's hut once more, still holding the heart of the woman.

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  I took several deep breaths to calm myself, and I sat down, still holding the heart of the jotnar. I looked at it and wondered why I had seen those visions. Was it a side effect of a miscast spell, or perhaps this was the jotnar woman's plan to drive me insane, whatever the case. I was willing to endure whatever bullshit my my dead master makes me put up with because the promise of more power was simply too alluring to ignore, so once more I steeled myself. I ate another piece of the heart again, but this time when I dug my teeth into the heart it did not feel like I was chewing ice but i simply ignored the difference and I chewed the piece and swallowed it once more.

  The pain had almost completely disappeared, and this time I saw visions of a woman sitting on a throne with a gloomy, downcast expression on her face and while she was shorter than the two previous figures was still giant compared to human standards, she looked very much like the jotnar woman who i killed except the left half of her body was that of a living woman of incredible beauty with black hair and the same red eye, while the right half of her body was that of a rotting corpse, her black hair had thinned so much that she was practically bald and whatever she had left was pale white, her red eye lost so much of its color that it was a very pale red and somehow i knew that her name was Hel. In these visions, Hel was the only sister of the boy without a face, though she was the youngest child of her mother, and as such, she spent a lot of time with the boy, and she was the one who took the most active role in caring for the boy, other than her mother who found him, she did not show her love for boy as one would typically show children instead she displayed her love for the boy as one would show a dog almost but she did not do this intentionally it was simply the only way that she could express such things, but on the boy's ninth birthday, he noticed that she had changed, it was not in appearance, it was not in attitude nor demeanor either as she still showed him her love in her unique way, it was just that something about her had changed, so to answer his question eventually she led him to a dead forest as Dellingr arose from the horizon and she told him "The very fact that you notice that something has changed is a good omen, it means you have the potential to use magic, but it is up to you, i will only teach you the common spells that everyone can learn and my mother will teach you the more complicated ones when we are gone but magic is not for the weak, you will make many sacrifices so i must know do you want to go on this path?" Before the boy could answer, the vision ended, and I found that the piece I just ate was the very last piece of the woman's heart, so I stayed sitting on my goal, completed.

  But I had one final question lingering in my mind: Who was the boy without a face? Just as the thought took root, a searing pain exploded in my head. At first, I could withstand the intensity, but as moments stretched into eternity, my grasp on my mind and body slipped away. An ancient power surged within me, an unstoppable force I couldn't comprehend. With a voice that resonated not as my own, but like that of a colossal, forgotten giant echoing through the ages, I unleashed a horrid scream—a lament that reverberated across the nine realms. In that harrowing moment, I felt Heimdall's rainbow-colored eyes fixate on me, a piercing gaze that seemed to slice through the shadows. Then, as if the very fabric of existence was unraveling, my world faded to a suffocating black.