"But it was such a lovely ceremony," Nate told no one once the air returned to his lungs. The Midgardian rose from his kneeling stance and surveyed the seemingly dead forest that now surrounded him. Heaven, nor hell, knew which far-flung branch of Yggdrasil he'd been transported to - or where his clothes had gone. The mask, his pants, and his scythes were all that remained.
Nathaniel stepped forward and his footsteps made no sound, he realized the only thing audible near him was the howling of the wind. It whipped between the trees and gave the illusion of a great maw of destruction. Caltrops trudged forward and watched for any sign of life... or anything really. But as the bleak landscape passed, it was replaced by more of the same. Dead trees, dead ground, wind, and an overcast sky.
His feet didn't ache but his mind busied itself to stay sane - minutes had become hours and hours had transformed into days. Nathaniel walked because there wasn't anything else to do. He didn't thirst or want for food because he slowly realized he'd probably been dead since he'd arrived.
"Purgatory, then?" he asked no one, he just continued to walk. All of his spells and clever ideas had been exhausted... weeks ago? Time had become an abstract concept to the sorcerer, with nothing to compare anything else to anything... else.
With little more than the own voice in his head to keep him company, Nathaniel felt his mind slip dangerously close to madness. Honestly, he couldn't have confidently said he'd avoided it. Constant overcast, the same dead trees, and that fucking wind.
"And now that fucking flapping sound!" Nate yelled, then realized something new had appeared. He turned and was suddenly face to face with a... horse? The winged creature stood before him, flesh rotten and bones exposed but his eyes still managed to pierce directly through Nathaniel. "Are you my salvation?" he asked but instead of an answer the beast sidestepped Nate and walked away. Suddenly furious, Nathaniel turned and scolded the undead steed. "Wait!" his bravado faded when he'd actually spoken. He jogged to catch up and stood in front of the horse once again. "Is this my test?" he asked impatiently, then again the winged steed sidestepped him. "Okay... okay," he tried to focus and reason this out, but the isolation hadn't helped his cognitive abilities. He caught up, again and attempted to get the creature's attention, to no avail. Finally, he moved and stopped dead in the path. Nathaniel tore off the goddamned mask, threw down his weapons, and stared toward the horse. "My name is Nathaniel Zale, I was born on Earth, I have a son..." he drifted and wondered if time had passed on Asgard. Had Brayden written him off as dead, had Eva? "I am here to become a god..." Unimpressed, the horse started to move, but Nathaniel blocked his path. "I'm here to become the God of Darkness and fulfill my destiny..." Clip clop. "I'm am here to save my people from destruction, to conquer Helheim..." Clip clop. "God damn it, what do you want?" Nathaniel demanded, manically. "I'm a worthy necromancer, descended from a long line of powerful mutants, a Ridder of Asgard, proud father, and I've seen the Exorcist about a hundred and sixty-seven times and it keeps getting funnier every time I see it!" he yelled the Beetlejuice quote and teetered into a Ghostbusters rant when his forehead merely rested against the animal's. "I'm here because I love someone and I don't want to live without her..." he said quietly, barely above the level of the wind at his back.