Skadi looked at Hera, Ares, Loki, Freyja, Hel, Athena, Aphrodite, and Ra. She noticed that everyone that came with Freyja was the heads of the Major Arcana. She wasn't a smart Goddess, but she knew what it felt like to be looked at as prey, especially when she stared at Mykel.
"What's with the crowd? Do they need something from me?" Skadi asked as she rubbed the wolf's mane with her left hand and looked at Freyja.
"They're here to see the candidate that will become the next head of the Chariot Arcana. They wanted to see you in person and what kind of person you are," Freyja answered.
"Really? I don't think they're here just for that. Especially him, the one who always shows his fangs at the people he's staring at," Skadi replied as she pointed at Mykel.
"You're not wrong," Freyja said quietly as she stared at Mykel. "But we are really here just to see you," Freyja continued.
Skadi looked at Freyja for a moment, and then she nodded with understanding. She lifted her hands and created a palace with ice and snow around her. It was fast and looked so easy to make even though she just made a massive and gorgeous hall with a table and chairs.
"I hope this enough," Skadi said as she sat down on her throne made of ice.
Everyone sat down and even though it was uncomfortable because of how cold it was, they tried to ignore it.
"What do you want to know?" Skadi asked with her right leg up on the chair as she rested her right arm on it.
"What do you feel when you were chosen as one of the candidates?" Hera asked.
"Nothing, I feel like it's necessary," Skadi answered simply. "If you're going to ask me to back down because Poseidon is also the candidate, then you can say it because I don't really care about this,"
Hera smiled and shook her head. "No, it's quite the opposite actually. We are here to support you and believe you're more fit for the position," Hera explained.
Skadi squinted her eyes and it made her white pupils glow even more.
"You realize that it's your own brother, right?" Skadi asked.
"That's exactly why we don't want him to be the one who sits on the Heptagon," Hera answered.
"Can you be more details about it? I'm not as bright as you who are good with wordsmiths," Skadi asked again as she lowered her leg and crossed her arms.
"To put it simply, we don't want him to possess powers that might put him in a place where he can abuse it. For example, like how Nyx and Odin did," Hera answered as she stared at Skadi in the eye. "Although I said that, that doesn't mean that you're not going to do the same. That's why we are here, and hope that you might be the best option we have,"
"Now that you speak my language," Skadi said as she sighed and leaned on the chair. "So you're afraid of me joining them instead of joining you?"
"It's not about you joining us, we don't mind if you want to stay neutral as long as you don't join them," Loki said. "There's a reason why the Aesir didn't want to deal with you. I believe that you're even stronger than Poseidon,"
Loki wasn't wrong about Skadi being a stronger being than Poseidon. She countered everything that Poseidon could do. She even brought Asgard into endless winter when she came up there, and nobody could stop her.
Skadi's ex-husband was Njord, and he was similar to Poseidon who controlled the sea. Even Njord didn't want to fight her since she was the one who chose him in the first place.
Of course, Hera couldn't believe it, but Loki wasn't someone who could make such an assumption like that if he wasn't sure about it. Loki was the one who knew much that somehow it terrified her how accurate his insight was.
"Does that mean you are all afraid of me?" Skadi asked with a smug on her face.
Everyone chuckled dismissively and didn't respond to Skadi's taunt. She then glanced at Mykel who was staring at her with a serious expression and sharp gaze. Her smugness slowly disappeared as Mykel kept staring at her without blinking his eyes.
"Looks like someone didn't like the joke," Skadi said as she stared back at Mykel.
"No, not at all," Mykel stood up as he walked toward Skadi. "I was thinking about something," Mykel said as he stood right next to Skadi.
Although Mykel's height wasn't even half of Skadi's height, his presence was so overwhelming that it made her thought of Ymir. The father of all giants and the strongest frost giant that could match Odin and his two brothers. But Skadi immediately brushed that feel off of her.
"Say, do you miss your father, Thiazi?" Mykel asked.
Loki, Freyja, and Hel immediately turned their heads toward Mykel with surprised expressions. Skadi on the other hand, she looked at him with her eyebrows furrowed, and her expression changed drastically that making both Loki and Freyja feel a bit scared and worried.
"Why are you bringing his name?" Skadi asked.
"I'm just wondering if you want to see him again or not," Mykel answered.
"Are you threatening to kill me?!" Skadi stood up and swung her left arm at Mykel without hesitation. He got thrown away so far away that he ended up on top of the mountain.
"Looks like she misunderstood my words, but this is fine as well," Mykel said as he stood up and looked at the giant tree of Yggdrasil tree in the distance.
The whole mountain shook violently, and the snow started to move like water. He flew up quickly and activated the [False Daemon] skill to avoid being buried by the avalanche.
The thick blizzard started, and Mykel couldn't see anything in front of him. Suddenly he heard a faint but unmistakable sound of whistling coming toward him, and it was a massive arrow. But he dodged it at the last second.
Mykel looked down and saw the snow slowly transforming into frost golems. They were so big and they were waiting for him to come down so they could attack him as soon as he was within their reach.
Mykel dove as he did an axe kick the moment he hit the ground, and all the frost golems got thrown away rather than destroyed by the shockwave. He used fireballs with normal fire at them, but the golems didn't melt even though his magic was powerful enough for his rank.
"What perfect timing to test this," Mykel said as he lit his hand with [Sacrilege Flame].
"Skadi! Stop it!" Freyja said as she stared at Skadi who was staring at the peak of the mountain.
"No! He threatened me, and to think someone dared to speak of his name in front of me. I will give him what he wants," Skadi replied, and then she whistled so loudly that she could hear her wolves howling in response.
It wasn't a good sign that Skadi was so easily triggered or lost her composure. Hera and the Olympian Gods were sharing a look at each other and thought the same thing. It would be bad and risky to choose her as the next head of the Chariot Arcana if she was that easy to get triggered. If she was susceptible to emotional responses like this, she wouldn't be able to handle the pressure of being the head of one of the most powerful Arcana.
The blizzard suddenly stopped, and everyone stopped thinking about Skadi and looked up at the dark sky. It was so quiet and suddenly the rain started to pour down and hit their faces.
"A rain? In Thrymheim? Is this really possible?" Freyja asked with a confused look.
"No, the cold should freeze everything. This isn't a normal rain, it's the snow that's melting," Loki answered, and then looked at Skadi who was also in shock about it.
While they were busy thinking how could the snow melt, they heard a loud explosion from top of the mountain. They all looked at the faint brown-red color, and then the heatwave struck their faces and the whole palace that Skadi made melted into water.
"My palace, it melted?!" Skadi asked in disbelief.
The dark cloudy sky was slowly disappearing and the sunlight shine the mountain for the first time. The snow turned into river and it flew down the mountain.
"No, my beautiful home!" Skadi was saddened by the change of her icy, cold, and dreary mountain.
