Literature / The Hell of the Nine Realms

The Hell of the Nine Realms is an online Fantasy series by David Reeves based on Greek and Norse Mythology.

There are four books online on here:

• The Mystery of the Children of Odin
• Righteous Rage
• Inhuman Tribulations
• Dark Side Of The Almighty

In the books, David, Lizzy, Raelin, Flora,, Jamie, Dylan, and Abby fight off monsters and gods in order to defend their school, while also fighting their inner demons. The story is set in Madison, Wisconsin, though it has moved to different locations (i.e. Paris, Nifilheim, etc).

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Tropes:

• Abusive Parents: Aunts. Only to David, though, while they "doted on" Lizzy.
• Action Girl: Lizzy, Abby, Raelin, Flora, and Jamie. Gaia and Gaea are Dark Action Girls.
• Aerith and Bob: A downplayed version. Names like David and Elizabeth are tossed around with mildly unusual names like Raelin, Flora, Percevial, and Taavi.
• Affably Evil: Essentially Gaia. She will engage in polite conversation with demigods sent to stop her and even waited patiently for David to get the mortals he was talking to out of harm's way. When David asks why she did, she replies:
  Gaia: It's rude to interrupt someone's conversation.
• All Up to You: Not explicitly stated, but might as well have been said in the final battle of Righteous Rage. In Inhuman Tribulations, this is somewhat justified due to the events leading up to the climax.
• Annoying Younger Sibling: More like Older sibling. Dylan to Jamie and sometimes it's Jamie to Dylan.
• Anyone Can Die: By the start of the sequel, all of the original cast besides Jamie, Abby, and David are dead.
• Arch-Nemesis: Gaia to David.
• Ask a Stupid Question...: David to Raelin in The Mystery Of The Children Of Odin:
  Raelin: What do you mean?
  David: (staring at her) Did you get brain damage? Lexicon. Personal! As in my own... I do not know... Shit!
• Back from the Dead: David in the first book. And, according to Lizzy, another time off-screen due a Deal with the Devil she made.
• Badass Boast: Deliberately parodied and played with during a tournament match in the first book where David tells his opponent his boasts are generic. His opponent ends with saying he would rape David, only for David to say he's heard that one as well. Thirty times, in fact. Immediately after, it's played straight when David gives his opponent his own badass boast.
  • Lizzy also gets one after punching Gaia in the face.
    Lizzy: I'm going to turn a rapist goddess into charcoal.
  • Jamie also gets one after killing a Mook while unable to see.
    Jamie: Your goddess can't save you from me.
  • Make one of the members of the group angry and it seems they'll come up with one. After killing a Mook mid-sentence.
• Badass Longcoat: David and the trench coat his godmother gave him.
• Bad Boss: Gaia will kill her soldiers simply to test out new weapons or because they annoy her, regardless of their relationship with her.
  • Zigzagged with Taavi. He kills a soldier for telling him they lose Lizzy, and threatens several people to make a game for him and they put everything they had into it so he wouldn't kill them, and killed a bunch of innocent bystanders for no particular reason. But he paid each of the game designers ten thousand dollars for their work, immediately knew who Benny and Cunningham were, then let them live after killing their associate, and is implied to let Loki win at the aforementioned game after beating him several times. Later on, he asks Larry if he remembered the names of the soldiers of Taavi's army that had been killed or if he [Larry] assumed them all to be nameless Mooks with no lives outside of Taavi's military.
• Bad Liar: Lizzy is stated to be. This is subverted in David's case (when Jamie isn't around).
• Battle Couple: David and Jamie
• Battle in the Center of the Mind: When David runs into his dream self during his Odinson Metamorphosis. It's more of a conversation for most of it, though.
• Beauty Is Never Tarnished: Averted without mercy. Characters will be horribly disfigured if given a hard enough beating. The only reason why it never stays permanent is because of Healing Factors and Healing Hands.
• Berserk Button: So far almost every member of the group and a few other characters have demonstrated what buttons they have.
  • Telling Poseidon to shut up seems to be a good way to set him off. As will refusing immortality as evidenced by Zeus.
  • Abby, Flora, and Raelin in non-violent examples. Abby's button is pushed whenever Jamie is with David, Flora whenever David is with Jamie and Raelin has had enough of Lizzy's crap and gets pissed when Lizzy pretends they're on good terms.
  • As Gaia learned, attacking Lizzy's Dylan's crotch is a bad idea.
  • Hurt one of David's friends in any way and you've pretty much accomplished this. So congratulations on that and enjoy your stay in the hospital with no limbs and a full body cast.
  • Jamie has a rather murderous one when it comes to David. Hell, if David saw what she did to that Lilin, he would probably be proud.
• Big Bad:
  • Gaia and Ouranos
  • The Mystery of the Children of Odin doesn't have one.
  • Righteous Rage is Gaea.
  • Dark Side of the Almighty is looking to be Taavi.
• Big Damn Heroes: David pulls one off after surviving his Odinson Metamorphosis and saving one of the professors by kicking Gaia in the face.
• Beware the Nice Ones: David. He is shown to be cheerful most of the time. But piss him off and he's viewed as downright terrifying in-universe by everyone excluding Jamie.
• Bilingual Bonus: The series is abundant with them. So much so, there is a description in the note of each book saying certain characters (mostly David) will switch to a different language when speaking (never anything other than Norwegian, Greek, or Ancient Greek). Taken to another notch in the third book where when characters are saying Gaia and Ouranos' names, they say their Ancient Greek names. Moreover, three of the chapters in the third book have the names of four gods written in Ancient Greek.
• A Birthday, Not a Break: The third book starts with Lizzy and David's birthday and them running away from Gaia and her minions.
• Blatant Lies: David is very good at these. He admits to Jamie (who is the only one who can always tell when he's lying) it's mostly automatic due to being in so many positions that require him to make things up on the spot.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: David seems to know that he's in a book as he will sometimes be describe as looking at something other people can't see.
• Breath Weapon: David and Lizzy. They can - naturally - breathe fire at an enemy.
• Brother–Sister Incest: It is stated that Odinson marriage was done between brother and sister. Lizzy and David, however, seem to have no interest in this.
• But for Me, It Was Tuesday: Gaia doesn't remember sending Gaea to kill Ashley and is confused when David brings her up, prompting him to invoke He Had a Name.
  • Subverted in the case of Taavi, whom not only knew the names of his fallen soldiers but also the name of a random man he killed, while the latter's friend couldn't remember. But, after all, evil or not, he's still a version of David, so this is to be expected.
• Calling Your Attacks: In her fight with Gaia, Lizzy uses this to her advantage by screaming the most nonsensical thing she can to make Gaia too confused to defend herself. It works.
• The Casanova: Played with. David is clearly viewed as very attractive by his female peers and some gods. However, he has shown that he is uncomfortable with the attention, such as freaking out when Abby made him grab her breast and looking visibly freaked out when Gaia attempts to rape him.
• Casual Danger Dialogue: This shows up a lot in the third book during the battles.
• Conveniently an Orphan: David and Lizzy. Raelin, to a certain extent.
• Creepy Monotone: David is described as having this by Gaia when he begins losing control and his primal instincts begin to take over.
• Cruel and Unusual Death: The way Ashley dies is not actually described, but, from her thoughts, it can be assumed that it was very slow and painful.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Very rarely are there even fights. And if there are, it will probably become this.
• Darker and Edgier: As the books go on, there is more Angst, starting with the deaths of Ashley.
• Deadpan Snarker: Pretty much everyone to some degree, to the point of a World of Snark.
• Did You Just Flip Off Cthulhu?: David seems to take pleasure in mocking, insulting, taunting and outright disrespecting every god he meets, which, in one case, made one of his friends fear for his life. Due to the fact that it's been implied he's beaten gods before, he may do this because he knows he can get away with it.
• Disappeared Dad: David and Lizzy's mortal parents are stated to have been dead since they were babies, which is the reason why they were raised by their aunts. Righteous Rage reveals that their second biological father is King William III.
• Distracted by the Sexy: David to a still-naked Jamie after an... Intimate cuddle, though it's very brief.
• Do Not Call Me "Paul": Lizzy seems to hate her real name, which is why her friends call her Lizzy. It's implied she could get violent with someone who called her Elizabeth. By her fight with Gaia, being called Elizabeth only causes her to give a subtle eye twitch.
• Don'tMakeMeDestroyYou: David says this to Gaia in their fight. It doesn't work.
• Due to the Dead: In the first book, they decide to bury David.
• Eldritch Abomination: Taavi is implied to be this by the narration of a solider looking into his eyes.
• Evil Twin/Other Me Annoys Me: David doesn't like his alternate counterpart Taavi at all. Since he's a perversion of everything David stands for and also because Taavi captured and tortured his friends.
• Excuse Me While I Multitask: The beginning of the second fight between David and Gaia. The chapter title also references this trope: "Excuse David While He Multitasks".
• Genre Savvy: Some characters have shown shades of this. Ouranos, for example, told Gaia not to buy a huge vehicle because he knew it would greatly hinder his ability to help her. His opinion was vetoed.
• The Immodest Orgasm: Jamie is heavily implied to have this during her night in David's room.
• Inner Monologue: Gaia has a very brief one when David shoots a huge plume of fire at her, only for her to think she has three options and she chooses the tank it option.
• Kill It with Fire: While they haven't actually killed anyone with it, David and Lizzy's power over fire falls under this trope.
• Know When to Fold 'Em: Gaia at the end of the battle in Paris. When she realizes she and Ouranos are outnumbered with her being tired from her fight with David, she makes a hasty retreat.
• Mood Whiplash: David is surprisingly good at this. He can go from deadly serious to bursting into laughter. After a while, his friends seem to think it's a dick move.
• Never Heard That One Before: Played with during the introduction of David's "fight" with Xavier with the latter struggling to come up with a boast David's never heard of, then runs off when David gives a boast of his own.
• Nigh-Invulnerability: David and (possibly) Lizzy. He can go through several buildings, crash down into solid asphalt and make craters with his body and get back up with nothing more than a limp. It's possibly justified as it's stated that Odinsons are a superior race to other demigods and have been around longer than most of the primordial gods.
• Noodle Incident: With their exact ages (in human years) being unknown, David and Lizzy are gold mines of these with references to historical locations to David being hanged in the 1700s.
• Not Wearing Pants: Jamie while in David's room.
• Oh, Crap!: Comes up a lot when characters realize they're about to get their asses handed to them. Usually overlaps with This Is Gonna Suck.
• Precision F-Strike: Used by everyone in the main group and a few other characters. Mostly but the Azures and the Reeves.
• Say My Name: Happens when Jamie is being tossed about by Gaea and David keeps screaming her name because he can't do anything
• Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: David, though the words aren't extremely big and can be understood through context. Chances are, though, that he'll say a word that you had no idea existed beforehand.
• Shown Their Work: Giopp has clearly been around a lot. He knows about gods and goddesses that are barely known (like Ananke) and even the Ancient Greek names of said gods, along with apparently knowing what those names mean.
  • Then there's the Bilingual Bonus. Characters (typically David) will speak in Ancient Greek and even Old Norse. Hell, even English words count as Genius Bonus in this series since Giopp seems very fond of using the archaic and dated versions of English words.
• Shut Up, Hannibal!: Lizzy gives Gaia what is described as a "Shut the fuck up punch" in the face.
• Super-Senses: David and Lizzy (and possibly Odinsons in general). They are both shown able to see and hear across long distances and when Gaia retreated to rethink her plan, Lizzy found her by sensing her heat signature.
• Taking You with Me: "If we can't save this realm, you can beat your ass we'll take you with us.
• Talking Is a Free Action: Mostly averted and when it's played straight it's normally only because the characters are restrained, are letting the person talk to buy time, or just want to let the person finish talking so they can then tear into them.
• Talk to the Fist: Lizzy gets Gaia to shut up by punching her in the face.
• To Hell and Back: David is stated to have been to Muspellheimr and back.
• White Male Lead: Played straight in the first series, if only gender inverted, then ultimately subverted in the following ones where Lizzy and David (a black male and female) are the leads.
• Who Wants to Live Forever?: Ananke invokes during her conversation with David and Dylan, stating this is how he feels inside.
• Worf Effect: Anyone can be subject to this when faced against a superior opponent or when exhausted. This even includes people like David.
• You Can't Fight Fate: Invoked by Ananke, but defied by David. Though it's implied that Ananke's prediction wasn't the real one and she was just saying it to see his reaction.

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