Recap / Codex Equus Final Ragnarok

"Such is the nature of all things...

It is the unenviable truth of existence, that to live, to grow, we must consume others and what's around us. Just as amoebas must devour microbes, caterpillar must devour leaves, wolves must devour meat, so too must mortals devour crops, must Dragons and Giants devour lands, and even must Angels, Demons and Gods alike devour from mortals, each other and the world what fuels their existence: their virtues and their sins, their dreams and their nightmares, their lives and their deaths, their beginnings and their endings.

Such is the way of all things...

But there is another truth within that truth itself: That those who live must survive. Though they would inevitably consume others to live, so too is it in their nature, their right, to avoid their own consumption in turn, to break free from the shackles of their doom. In surviving, they can create a future for themselves, through their descendants and their legacy. In building a future, they free themselves from death, and achieve something close to eternity.

Such is the way of all things...

And yet another truth within that truth: that the future they leave behind may be good or ill, or even both. For one that brings birth and growth, another can bring death and decay. For every legacy that builds, another can cause ruin. For every better world raised, another dismal world can come to nothing. And where the ill outweighs the good beyond measure, the burden of transgressions and mistakes could last the test of time, recurring eternally, and evils arise that would taint it further in darkness.

Such is the way of all things...

But in the end, one final truth remains: no legacy or evil can last forever. Someday, even the highest mountains would crumble. Even the largest continent will sink into the waves. Even the greatest empires will fall and highest gods become forgotten. So too, can cycles of hatred and tragedy be broken, and the evils that controls them be shattered. In their wake, new beginnings, new life can come, and live, and grow again.

Such is the nature of all things..."

— ???, [Rank Unknown] of Life, Creation and Natural Cycles

There are many Cycles on Equus. Both natural, and unnatural. The destructive ones all of Equus is speculated by some to be trapped within are but the most well known. One of the longest and recently discovered to be the most infamous is the Ragnarok Cycle which ensnared Cervidia and the other Nine Realms for untold millennia. At the hooves of both the Fallen Fire Jotunn Destruction Deity, Surtr... and his mysterious allies who sat above in shadow.

[WIP]

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Tropes:

• Attack Its Weak Point: How the High King of Shadows was finally defeated. The High Queen of Shadows, having been convinced to turn on her abusive and loveless consort, told the heroic gods that the key to defeating him is to strike at where his heart is. Said heart is a swirling mass of shadows located in his chest in his true form. No sooner had they managed to locate it and breach its protective defenses, EVERYBODY unloaded everything into it.
• Alpha Strike: The Clovenists attempted this in a panic when Ragnarokkr finally revealed his true form, one of their airfleets firing a full barrage of Mana Bomb tipped rocket-bombs right into his mountain-sized eldritch body, each one capable of devastating a city. The High King of Shadow tanked it virtually without a scratch and vaporized the offending fleet. Their later airstrike with aerial bombers at Ragnarokkr's now exposed heart proved more successful.
• Back Up From Otherworld: Princess Stitching Time's mother Dame Patch returns from the afterlife briefly to give her her sword (designed originally for dragon killing) and then possesses it to guide it. This let's her land a critical wound on Fegrð that allows the heroes to kill him.
  Patch: Not even death keeps a mom from helping their kids.
  • Later, during the final battle against Ragnarokkr in his true form, The original Power Rangers - Lancer, Teddy, Ace, Moki, and even sixth ranger Rosie - are permitted to return to the living world for one day by the Grand Primevals of Life and Death themselves to join up with Brightglow in their Zords to battle the High King of Shadows. If nothing else, it shows not even death can stop a Ranger from always being a Ranger.
• Bash Brothers: The team-up between biological brothers, Prince Crimson Star and Prince Fanged Paw. After they were allowed to participate in "Final Ragnarok" by their father, Emperor Golden Scepter, they would arrive on the battlefield and cut down huge swathes of enemies by using their respective strengths to each other's advantage.
• Big Badass Battle Sequence: Once the Loom of Fate was destroyed, the Shadowed Ones are exposed and the 'Final Ragnarok' commenced, all Tartarus broke loose across the Nine Realms as all sides waged war against each other to determine the fate of the Nine Realms, with many, many, many characters and factions from previous Codex Equus entries and arcs showing up to participate.
• Big Damn Heroes: Happens quite often:
  • When the assault on False Musphelheim and Surtr starts going south, the first wave are on the verge of being overrun... until a second wave of gods and champions arrives and pushes back the Fire Jotunns.
  • When hordes of draugr, wendols, demons and other beasts appear to assault the Nine Realms, countless heroes from all over Equus came to drive them back, either called to assist or naturally drawn there by the importance/nature of the conflict.
  • Dragon Lord Pyro II, Cinder and their dragonflight appeared to assist Dragon Lord Ember and her flight when flying hordes of enemies are on the verge of overwhelming the dragons already present.
  • Marlu comes to the rescue of Eephus and a group of gods, leading the third wave against Surtr and saving them from a trio of Surtr's demi-god children, whom she easily kills.
• Big Good: The Grand Primevals. They had been hunting the Shadowed Ones for aeons, and while they are more than willing to take out the bastards for all they did, once and for all, they can't intervene directly since the Shadowed Ones know they're outclassed against them and would flee into hiding, frustrating their efforts to stop them as they had for ages. This is why for much of the 'Final Ragnarok' arc they would serve in a support role, doing everything they can to indirectly help the Hoyklan and their allies take on the Shadowed Ones, from telling Kaldr of their existence once he began realizing they are being manipulated, persuade some of the Shadowed Ones' allies into switching sides, and at 'Final Ragnarok' itself send some of their divine/demigod children and avatars to help the pantheons and nations fight against the Shadowed Ones.
• The Cavalry: All over the place for both sides, as reinforcements come rushing in to aid the Deer Pantheons and allies as well as the Shadowed Ones in several waves.
• Cavalry Betrayal: The Changeling Summer Court pulled one on demonic forces of the Shadowed Ones when the 'Dökkálfar' arrived to help the Shadow fiends besieging Ljósheim/Svartheim, only to reveal who they really are all along and stabbed them in the back, both metaphorically and literally. Some of the Fae present lampshaded how little this should actually surprise anyone.
  Spring Court Changeling General: Treachery upon treachery. Deceit upon deceit. How different were both their kinds, really?
• Chekhov's Skill:
  • Temnobog's retrocognitive abilities were noted to be used as a way to discern the pasts of the damned shades he punishes in his hell-realms. These abilities would later allow him and his group to bypass Ragnarøkkr's time-manipulation powers - as Ragnarøkkr essentially copies and pastes past events into the present to make it seem like he's predicting his enemies' every move, Temnobog can look into the past and see what will happen.
• The Chessmaster: On a Cosmic Chess Game scale as multiple factions of Divines actively planned and schemed against each other covertly to either continue or end the 'Ragnarok Cycle'.
  • The Shadowed Ones manipulated the events and destinies of those trapped within the Ragnarok Cycle, so it always ends in an apocalyptic conflict which they and their allies could feed on/profit off.
  • The Grand Primevals, whom had been hunting the Shadowed Ones for aeons, helped engineered things in the background such the present Deer Pantheons and the rest of the Nine Realms would survive this Ragnarok and finally bring down the Shadowed Ones. This ranges from bringing the Shadowed Ones' existence to Kaldr's attention to persuading one of the Shadowed Ones' allies to switch side, which turned out to be Changeling Emperor Blackthorn and his Scions.
  • Kaldr, unwilling to let Ragnarok destroy his family and the rest of the Hoyklan Deer Pantheon, did everything possible with Haust and the others to derail the prophecies. And when he realized that something is very wrong with the entire thing and then discovered who were the real perpetrators, secretly planned to end the Cycle and take the fight to them literally centuries in advance.
  • Emperor Blackthorn and the Changeling Summer Court, as usual, had been revealed to have been playing all sides, having partially-subverted the Ragnarok Cycle for their own ends for quite some time. They end up quietly help the Hoyklan with ending the Ragnarok Cycle upon deciding the Shadowed Ones and the Cycle had outlived their usefulness and at Amareros's behest.
  • Skuld, the last of the First Norns, played a small chessmaster role by subtly doing what she could to sabotage the Ragnarok Cycle, such as putting one of the Cervidian Thunder Gods - who was also her lover - into a reincarnation cycle at his request so that his soul might return, over and over again, until one day Mjolna appear at the right time and opportunity to help break the Ragnarok Cycle, once and for all.
• The Corrupter: The Shadowed Ones, as part of their behind-the-scenes manipulative shtick, corrupted a few powerful figures, groups and even races into becoming their minions and allies through various means.
  • Mummer, an expy / ersatz of Mimir and brother of the Norns, turned out to have played such role in manipulating the Cervidian Pantheons by subtly corrupting each Odin-esque Top God who came to him looking for knowledge. Remember the Norse mythology story where Odin drank from the mystic well of knowledge after giving an eye to Mimir as payment? Turns out in the Codexverse, the equivalent lake-well was tainted by Kunnista, High Queen of Shadows and Keeper of Forgotten Lore, making them more susceptible to manipulation. Kaldr, being already a god of wisdom and having experience with 'Knowledge-at-a-price' deals from witches and demons during the First Age, turned down Mummer's bargain and a sip from the lake-well, allowing him to remain uncorrupted and even stunned Mummer so much the shadowy being began to have second thoughts about his job...
• The Corruptible: Many of the Shadowed Ones' servants were corrupted into becoming their minions. And as it turned out, this included a few Cervidian gods who were not destroyed at the end of their Cycles. A few were corrupted by the Shadowed Ones and betrayed their kin for survival and power.
  • Rún, once a Griffon Odin-esque Top God of his Pantheon, was corrupted by High Queen Kunnista of the Shadowed Ones into becoming her lackey, having become obsessed with all the knowledge that the Keeper of Forgotten Lore had in her possession. Said knowledge also drove him mad and reduced him to little more than a raving, Laughing Mad hollow shell of his former self.
  • The Wendols are revealed to be tribes of a once-believed extinct Equine race who were corrupted by the Shadowed Ones into monstrous savages, and also worshiped the Shadowed Ones. They are among the hordes of monsters, fiends and demons sent out to wipe out the Nine Realms as part of the Shadowed Ones' contingency plans. Recognizing them as this, Kaldr spares the survivors and tries to rehibilitate them.
• Cosmic Chess Game: While many are already implied to be happening all across Equus throughout Known and pre-Known History, the one leading up to 'Final Ragnarok' is the first prominently featured one in 'Codex Equus'.
  • The Shadowed Ones played one against the Cervidian Pantheons and the rest of the Nine Realms to ensure they always come to a predictable, destructive end in Ragnarok. They already won hundreds of times before the 'Final Ragnarok', mostly because the Cervidian Pantheons, their worshippers and other beings didn't even know they were being manipulated, and the few exceptions that had didn't become aware until it was too late to do anything about it.
  • The Grand Primevals played one against the Shadowed Ones, with the Shadowed Ones attempting to feed on various vicious cycles of mortals and gods all over Equus and then run off before they are caught, while the Grand Primevals attempt to hunt them down and foil their efforts. This continued for aeons until the Ragnarok Cycle and the Hoyklan Pantheon's various successful efforts to derail it finally gave them the opportunity to take the Shadowed Ones down for good.
  • The Hoyklan Deer Pantheon played one against the Shadowed Ones, at first unwittingly as Kaldr and others did everything possible to derail and prevent Ragnarok, and then actively upon discovering who the real perpetrators are and began quietly planning for a climatic confrontation to expose and take the Shadowed Ones down. They are later joined by other allies such as the Church of the Stars, the other two Deer Pantheons, Kaldr's old fellow Ponyfriends who had become gods themselves...
  • Downplayed, but the Changeling Summer Court is an unexpected Wild Card player, having partially-subverted the Ragnarok Cycle for their own ends and played against everyone... except the Grand Primevals. At Amareros' behest and realizing the Cycle having outlived its usefulness, they would formally but secretly side with the Hoyklan against the Shadowed Ones.
• Defector from Decadence: What the last of the First Norns, Skuld, and later the modern Norns become, the former out of love for one of the previous Thunder Gods, and both out of spite of their abusive and uncaring Shadowed Ones parents for what they do to them and their predecessors. Mummer, Mimir's expy and also brother of the Norns, is also stated to start having second thoughts about his job since Kaldr turned down the offer of drinking from the tainted Lake-Well of Wisdom and thus avoid being corrupted by Kunnista, though only time will tell where this will lead.
• The Dog Bites Back: After several millennia of being misled, mistreated by their parents, especially their father, Ragnarøkkr, and knowing their predecessors were given to Surtr to satisfy his own depraved appetites whenever Ragnarøkkr felt they have displeased him enough, the modern Norns finally betray the Shadowed Ones once the chance was made open to them by Mjolna. Skuld, the last of the first generation of Norns, would do all that she could to sabotage her parents and avert yet another Ragnarok for the Nine Realms, both out of love for one of Mjolna's previous divine incarnations and to spite her parents for all the abuse they have heaped on her and her sisters.
• The Fatalist: What many Cervidian Pantheons and Mortals were, as contemptuously noted by Emperor Blackthorn, either embracing their end at Ragnarok or not caring for their fate enough to change it, at least not until it was too late, all ultimately resulting in getting themselves destroyed. It is the actions of the few gods and pantheons in the present and in the previous Cycles who did everything they could to Screw Destiny that prove to be what ultimately made breaking the Vicious Cycle possible.
• Hero of Another Story: This arc takes place around the aftermath of the "Storm King Crisis", sometime after Mjolna discovered her divine heritage and eventually Ascended to godhood as the Pony goddess of Thunder. So naturally, many individuals who couldn't participate in "Final Ragnarok" were busy dealing with the Storm Empire's forces and cleaning up the messes left behind.
  • Equestria, who bore the brunt of the Storm Empire's attempted Take Over the World gambit, would end up lending limited aid to Cervidia and the Nine Realms while it recovered. Because of this, several Equestrian heroes such as Rainbow Dash, Shadow Sentinel IV/Captain Umbra Wing, Fluttershy, and Fluttercruel were among those who participated.
  • The Terran Empire was also busy, with Golden Scepter and his many demi-divine sons either protecting their home from the Storm Empire's forces, or lending aid to countries affected by the Storm Empire. However, Golden Scepter would also lend his aid to the heroes participating in "Final Ragnarok", and he let a few of his sons, such as Prince Crimson Star and Prince Fanged Paw, go to Cervidia after the former begged to let him go in order to avert a bad future he had foreseen.
  • Other individuals would include the Scourge of Hell, Eephus, the Four Terrors as well as the divine children of Belyolen and Tsiviliza.
• I Have You Now, My Pretty: Just to emphasize how horrible the Shadowed ones and their allies are, some of them do this to those they have in their grasp, fully intending to take it to the next horrid level.
  • Surtr Muspelson openly gloated about doing this to Astrid Titanna during the confrontation in False Muspelheim, noting how he 'hadn't tasted one of his peers' for a while. Given how vicious and depraved Surtr is portrayed as, there is no illusion what he intends to do to her if he ever captures her. Fortunately, Astrid and her allies proved to be more than able to hold their own.
  • High King of Shadows Ragnarokkr, who is just as vicious and depraved as Surtr is if not worse, became lustful when he restrained Kaldr's ally Queen Mzazi with his gnarled roots, noting that catching someone as ancient and beautiful as she was is rare. He fully intended to take her as his own to enjoy (and give the other goddesses to Surtr), partly so he could replace his lost subordinates and children. Luckily, Belyolen and Temnobog's fusion, Bogolenya, rescued Mzazi and prevented Ragnarokkr from having his way with her right then and there.
• Karma Houdini: The Shadowed Ones have influenced and perpetuated Vicious Cycles such as the "Ragnarok" Cycle, both for sustenance and for kicks. They are described as "vermin insects" by Amareros that would frequently plague a Pony's house, only to flee whenever someone (namely, the Grand Primevals) tries to kill them because they can't hope to fight back someone more powerful and ancient than them. Unfortunately for the Shadowed Ones, their time would eventually come to an end in the "Final Ragnarok" arc, thanks to various individuals and events that even they didn't foresee and couldn't "fix".
• Long Game:
  • The Hoyklan Deer Pantheon's investigations and preparations for the 'Final Ragnarok', led by High King Kaldr, began almost many, many centuries prior to the actual arc itself.
  • Emperor Blackthorn and his Summer Court Scions were also playing a long one against both the Cervidian Pantheons AND the Shadowed Ones by partly subverting the Ragnarok Cycle for their own ends, though they sided with the Hoyklans at Amareros' behest once it becomes clear the Cycle and the Shadowed Ones had outlived their usefulness.
• Manipulative Bastard: The Shadowed Ones, who manipulated and engineered the destruction of many previous Cervidian Pantheons and the rest of the Nine Realms just so they could feed upon their cataclysmic conflicts and deaths. Some of their allies/servants, such as the Old Fae race Dokkalfar and their rulers the Malekith Dynasty, were also implied to be this as they help ensure everything goes as ordained from the shadows, although the Dokkalfar were one-upped by the Changeling Summer Court, who had wiped them out and replaced them to subvert the Ragnarok Cycle for their own ends.
• Marathon Boss: All of the Shadowed Ones and some of their allies quickly demonstrate themselves to be this. Justified in that the Shadowed Ones are Primevals on the divine classification scheme, and Surtr is pretty damn powerful in his own right.
• Mook Horror Show: Marlu inflicts this on the two Surtr spawns who she makes herself known fighting, starting by one shotting a third with her boomerang. They quickly find out they're brutally outmatched, with one being left stunned in horror when she blows off Marlu's arm and half her skull only for the goddess to be completely unphased and keep coming.
• Nuclear Option: Magical version with the Mana Bombs. The Clovenist forces made liberal use of them to incinerate the Shadowed Ones' forces wholesale and thin out their ranks during the battle for Cervidia/Midgard. This proved convenient for when Dracozilla joined the fray with his fellow Kaijus, allowing him to recharge and super-charge his attacks with leftover Wild Magic fallout and use it to unleash a devastating breath attack straight at Ragnarokkr's heart.
• One-Steve Limit: A hilarious group aversion with the Shadowed Ones. When Amareros inquired about Blackthorn's dealings with the Shadowed Ones, the latter replies that he honestly doesn't know which 'Shadowed Ones' Amareros is referring to.
  Amareros: You have a past history of association with a certain group of miscreants that had been called the Shadowed Ones, do you not?
  Emperor Blackthorn: There are many such groups that called themselves or had been referred to as such, and we may have associated ourselves with a few of them. If nothing else, we had learnt there is a profound lack of creativity in how many choose to name themselves or others. You may want to be more specific, Lord Amareros.
• Resurrected for a Job: The original Power Rangers Lancer, Teddy, Ace, and Moki and their Extra Hero Queen Rosy are resurrected for one day by the Grand Primevals of Life and Death to aid their still living member Princess Brightglow in the final battle with Ragnarøkkr using their Zords.
• The Reveal: Several are shown over the course of the arc from both sides.
  • Emperor Blackthorn and the Changeling Kings from the Summer Court had killed and replaced one of the Shadowed Ones' key allies.
  • Skuld, the last of the First Norns, was responsible for getting one of the Cervidian thunder god reincarnating across many Cycles in hopes of amassing power necessary to break the Loom of Fate, leading eventually to the birth of Mjolna the modern Hoyklan Goddess of Thunder. Skuld also happens to be that Cervidian thunder god's lover.
  • Several Cervidian Gods from previous cycles betrayed their kin and sided with the Shadowed Ones. They would be battled by the Hoyklan and their allies over the course of the battle.
  • Fegrð is of the same kind of beings as the Void Traveller that help bring about the end of the Second Age for the Void Sovereign. The gods immediately doubled their efforts to destroy him.
• Screw Destiny: In contrast to many past Cervidian Pantheons, who either fatalistically accepted their fate, didn't do enough until it was too late, or even unwittingly ensure it happens, the Hoyklan actively did everything possible to derail the coming of Ragnarok, from having Luminiferous using his powers to defy fate, Kaldr and Haust raising their Trickster God son right so he'll never want to play his prophecized role, to trying to completely short-circuit it by modifying their daughter Ljoss' Primordial Quintessence make-up to make it such that she happened to be two mutually-exclusive divines existing at the same time (Where one would only follow after the other's tragic death as her 'avenger'). The fact that the prophecy as foretold by many sages continued as if nothing had changed, among other things, is what clued Kaldr in that something about the entire 'Ragnarok Cycle' is amiss, as if something or someone is trying to keep everything on track.
• Spanner in the Works: Kaldr, Haust and others' efforts to derail the prophecy of Ragnarok is what triggered the entire plot, as they discovered someone is actively trying to ensure it happens on schedule for sinister ends.
• Spotting the Thread: What kicked off the entire arc. It started when Kaldr learned of the Vicious Cycle revolving around various Cervidian trickster gods, who were emotionally abused by their own families because of the role they'll play in Ragnarok, influencing him to defy fate and become the good father Flœrð deserved. He would have Luminiferous reject Flœrð's intended fate, only for the antediluvian Alicorn god of Potential to discover that Flœrð's fate is an unnaturally "manufactured" one with "darkness" in it. Kaldr's secret plan to have his biological daughter, Ljóss Hefna, be infused with the the Primordial Quintessence of certain fallen Cervidian gods as a safety measure led to him noticing that the events leading up to Ragnarok tried to continue as usual, a sign that something is very wrong with the land. This led to Kaldr meeting with several mortal and divine individuals as he tried to plan ahead for what is to come.
• Taking You with Me: Ragnarokkr, on the brink of being defeated in his true form, gathered all his eldritch divine power into a Sphere of Destruction that he intends to blow all the Nine Realms to kingdom come. Naturally, all the main combatant gods and demigods raced to intercept it, stopping it from landing. Distracted while trying to push down his final attack, Ragnarokkr left himself exposed to the returned Power Rangers in their Megazord to fly to his exposed heart, his weakpoint, and fatally attack it, weakening his Sphere of Destruction enough for the gods to pierce through it and join in the attack at his heart. Ironically, in his attempt to destroy everyone in his final attack, he managed to take no one out except himself.
• Tranquil Fury: Several characters goes into one over the course of the arc as they discover more and more atrocious truths about the Shadowed Ones.
  • Mjolna became 'quiet and stone-faced' when she heard from the modern Norns about how their father would treat them should they fail, as he had treated their predecessors. This, along with knowledge of the Shadowed Ones' manipulations over countless Ragnarok Cycles, pissed her off and she proceed to smash the Loom of Fate, declaring that empathetically there will be no more of their atrocities.
  • Queen Dazzleglow goes into one when they discovered Fegr&eth, the Primeval god of Beautiful Ends, is actually of the same race of entities as the Void Traveler who helped bring an end to the Second Age. She would declare that they must destroy him, down to the atomic level.
  • Yarost goes into one hearing from Awnd about how she hope her sister Kunnista would fall in battle and allow her to take her place as High Queen of the Shadowed Ones. He immediately tries to burn her to ashes, as he utterly despise traitors to their own kin.
• Unwitting Pawn:
  • All of the Nine Realms, including Cervidia, have been manipulated and tormented by the Shadowed Ones for several millennia, forced to relive a particularly sadistic and vicious cycle of failure, death, and suffering just to provide sustenance and entertainment for their divine manipulators. It got so bad that some individuals either gave up trying to avert their fates and accepted them, or ended up causing Ragnarok anyway due to Ragnarøkkr hating any slight deviations from his planned cycles or even perceived insults to his person. Fortunately for everyone not the Shadowed Ones, other individuals absolutely refuse to submit to fate, and have been planning a way to strike back prior to the start of the arc.
  • The Shadowed Ones are unaware that their ancient ally, "Malekith", and his Dökkálfar people had been wiped out and replaced by Emperor Blackthorn and his Summer Court Scions, who would in turn manipulate the Cycles they would perpetuate for their own ends. Blackthorn sees the Shadowed Ones as a useful asset that has since diminished, and would gladly get rid of them since they have served their purpose.
• Walking Spoiler: Changeling Emperor Blackthorn and the Summer Court had disposed of Malekith and the Dokkalfar, one of the Shadowed Ones allies, and had been subverting the Shadowed Ones' Ragnarok Cycle for their own ends for quite some time. Of course, that had been revealed in a canonized drabble before the arc even began.
• Zerg Rush:
  • As part of the Shadowed Ones' contingency plans when their Realm and Ragnarok Cycle's existence are compromised, the Shadowed Ones sent out enormous hordes of demonic fiends and corrupted monsters to overrun and destroy the rest of the Nine Realms, either as a 'Hard Reset' for their Cycle or simply to taking everyone else down with them.
  • A rare one from the heroic side: Knowing Surtr is immensely powerful combatant by himself and a subtle approach is not exactly applicable, a major part of the plan to defeat him was to basically overwhelm him with large numbers of powerful gods and their champions, both Giant or non-Giant. The subsequent battle showed the necessity of this as it's still barely enough to do the job, even with Surtr already weakened immensely by the Loom of Fate's destruction.

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