Prologue
Once upon a time, in a faraway place, the all-father Odin rallied his troops to Asgard, kingdom of the gods of Midgard. His beloved son Baldur had been killed by Loki, and his fate was to be forever consigned to the underworld of Nifheim, ruled by Loki's daughter. This was the first sign that Ragnarok--the doom of the gods-had finally commenced, as the wise Odin had predicted.
The gods knew they could not escape their tragic destiny that was to come. Deep down, they knew their fate was doomed. The elves and the dwarfs answered to Odin's call as they prepared for Ragnarok. This final battle would determine the fate of the Nine Worlds. The journey to Midgard, the home of the human civilization, had begun.
Mankind, elves, and the dwarves fought side by side against Loki's minions,the horde of the undead, the frost giants, and Surt's fire giants. The fire giant Surt, wielding a flaming sword, was determined to lead the giants to victory over the gods.
When the Great Winter came, darkness covered Midgard for three years in a row, with no hint of summer. Many were disoriented from the frigid blizzards. This led to mutiny, and human civilization fell into cynicism.
Oath breakers escalated amongst the gods themselves. Discipline was lacking and eventually led to their demise, as the fortifications of Asgard and the bindings of both the pseudo-god Loki and his son Fenrir had been poorly supervised. As a result, Loki and Fenrir broke free of their fetters. Together, they escaped Asgard and regrouped with the frost and fire giants, setting out to do precisely what the gods feared they would do once their freedom was gained.
The great world tree Yggdrasil, which represented the cosmos of the Nine Worlds, began to tremble from its roots up to the tips of its branches. Odin received that dreadful news and left Thor in command of the battle in Midgard. He opened and entered the Bifrost and returned to Asgard. Odin's departure further decreased the alliances' morale.
The all-seeing Heimdall was the first to spot the vast army of the fire giants, led by Surt, approaching from the south of Muspelhiem; Surt's flaming sword was glowing ever brightly across the cosmos. Naglfar's ship sailed from Niflheim carrying a horde of the undead. On that boat was Loki and his wolf-son Fenrir, heading the boat, whose on a course toward Vígríðr—Midgard's largest battlefield.
At Asgard, Heimdall sounded his horn Gjallarhorn and alerted the gods of a detached force of undead and fire giants approaching the celestial stronghold and led by Loki himself. Loki was cunning enough to fool Heimdall's all-seeing ability by placing a decoy of himself on board the Naglfar as it sailed for Midgard and the final stages of Ragnarok.
The final battle began and humans, with aid from the Valkyries from Valhalla, began to push back the undead invasion. However, the giants rampaged through the lands and destroyed the gods, destroying mankind's morale. Fenrir, the great wolf, ran across the lands with his lower jaw grazing the landscape and his upper jaw touching the sky, together consuming everything in its path. Even the sun was engulfed into the belly of Fenrir.
Odin and Tyr confronted Fenrir and lost their lives as the great wolf Fenrir swallowed Odin whole. Odin's younger son Vidar, in blinding rage, took up arms, slayed the great wolf, and relayed the message to his step-mother Frigga, the Queen of Asgard. Frigga wept, for the second time, for the loss of her husband just as she got over her beloved son Baldur's death and died with a broken heart.
Jormungand,the middle offspring of Loki, also known as the Midgard Serpent,slithered in from the sea and destroyed nearby villages. Outraged,Thor grew furious and unleashed the Warrior's Madness. Thor went berserk, hammering everything that stood in his path until he met his arch nemesis. Thor delivered a decisive blow with his legendary war-hammer Mjolnir to the Midgard Serpent's head, splitting the serpent in half. Unfortunately, Thor breathed in too much of Jormungand's miasma. Looking up at Asgard one last time, he muttered his final words to his wife Sif and his children, and fell dead after walking ten steps into the sea.
The God Freyr, though disoriented with the loss of his comrades,brothers, and sisters, cut down the many giants in his way as he approached the fire giant leader. Surt's flaming, radiant sword swept across the globe, setting the world and the world tree ablaze. The battlefield was awash in the blood of mankind, the gods, and the beasts, bringing forth the conclusion. The God Freyr and Surt did battle. With Freyr's magical sword lacking power, Freyr could not hope to withstand the strokes of Surt's brute strength. Freyr was cut down by Surt.
Heimdall and Asgard's remaining forces repelled the invasion. Heimdall and Loki did battle, shape shifting into many different animals. Loki had the upper hand throughout most of the fight until he summoned a powerful black sphere of dark matter and cast it directly at the palace. Tragically, Heimdall drove himself into the sphere's projected path, shielded the palace with his body. Heimdall died instantly, but miraculously, he threw his longsword at a long distance that pierced its way through Loki's heart.
Loki spun out of control and fell off the Bifrost and into the dark void.
Bellow,Surt roared as he plunged his mighty, flaming sword into the heart of Midgard. The world, along with Yggdrasil tree, scorched as a great inferno roared around it. Earthquakes came and the land was thrown back into the sea. The pillar that Midgard held Asgard above crumbled. Asgard collapsed as its scattered ruins and remaining inhabitants fell into the eternal black void of the Ginnungagap—their fate forever consigned to the underworld.
Surt's whereabouts remained unknown.
Sif and her children vanished without a trace.
The age of everlasting darkness, death, and repose did not last forever. Baldur returned from the underworld and reunited with his bother Vidar. Together, they reformed Midgard. Over time, the land gladdened and became more fruitful with the help of their immortality and godly powers. Baldur and Vidar became mortal as the Yggdrasil tree bloomed once again. Remarkably, two human inhabitants survived the apocalypse and were reawakened in the new green world. Their names were Lif and Lifthrasir.
The children of Lif and Lifthrasir repopulated the new world while Baldur and Vidar watched on as the new guardians of the Nine Worlds. Vidar,unlike his brother, never settled down with one of the descendants of Lif and Lifthrasir. Instead, he set out to the underworld to free his kin from hell's clutches. That was the last time Baldur ever saw his brother.
Baldur grew old, and on his deathbed, had a premonition that Loki would return from the underworld with his minions to unleash a phenomenon that had been forgotten since the beginning of time and that a great peril for now the remaining Eight Worlds was yet to come. Baldur fore saw that Loki's mischief would throw the entire cosmos into chaos. One individual would rise up and become a legendary hero. And he would become an obstruction to Loki. He was one of Baldur's descendants. Eddie Ferguson.
This is the tale of how it all began.
Chapter 1: Eddie Ferguson
One more week to go before the final day of the school year. Eddie was ecstatic and was looking forward to summer break, playing video games, reading manga, and watching Japanese anime all day on Cartoon Stream. His mother Cassandra wanted him to study more and she said she would work with him on his archery and fencing skills. He could never understand his mother's motives because he was not allowed to join any archery or fencing club. He was annoyed by his mother's lectures about how the art of archery should never be used for public festivities and sporting. Training with these skills would hone the body, mind, and spirit, she said.
The bus driver pulled into the school parking lot and came to a complete stop. Grabbing his backpack, Eddie paid little attention to the commotion and chatter in the bus and headed toward the exit. He had few friends at school and kept mostly to himself. He was an outcast among his peers and was mainly treated like a scapegoat because his upperclassmen Brad Chickles and his gang always picked on him. Brad had a tendency to bully the geeks and special-ed students, and no other students had the courage to stand up for Eddie. Even worse, they occasionally would join in with the jests and public humiliations.
Exiting the school bus, he felt a pair of eyes glaring holes into his back. He hurried away from the bus parking lot and entered the school's plaza. There was no lunch to be served today due to the half-day schedule. Kids gathered in the courtyard and played around. Eddie exited the courtyard and headed toward the basketball court. An elderly homeless man, dressed in olive linen robes with a hood over his head, sat down on one of the concrete benches and glanced up at Eddie. Although quite a distance away, Eddie vaguely had a clear image of the man's face.
The man had a long sparkly beard, with his whiskered mustache overlapping it. An eye-patch was strapped over the man's right eye. He was smoking a tobacco pipe. Bile formed in Eddie's gut--the unexpected and uninvited guest had probably ruined his and his friend's meeting spot on the basketball court. His only school friend Jacob Napkins,must have fled away due to this homeless bum. Maybe he should get the school security guards to chase this man away. On second thought, he should just leave the old man alone.
Eddie cringed when the man's eye stared through him with malice. He could feel the man's killing intent radiating from him. It was like a sixth sense to Eddie. Suddenly, a hand latched onto his right shoulder, making him shudder in surprise. He turned to meet his longtime childhood friend.
Jacob was born and raised in an African American family. Unlike Eddie, Jacob was a regular-ed student and a promising one with a high GPA rating. Most of the private junior high schools in the state of Michigan were after him.
"Ready for some MMO action? Pizza is on the house," Jacob said.
"Is it okay? Your parents won't turn me loose?" he apprehensively asked.
Being young, Eddie had little understanding of the racism crisis in America between black and white people. Would he be rejected? Countless thoughts ran through his mind. It was nauseating to think about how he would deal with possible rejection.
"Hey! My parents are not like that. They will welcome you with open arms as if you're part of the family," he laughed. "Don't sweat it."
Trouble came quicker than Eddie anticipated when Brad and his cohort of mischief-makers came after him.
"Well well well! What do we have here? Two stranded geeks for the taking." They laughed.
Eddie and Jacob's only path to escape was blocked off. The gang was surrounding them like a pack of hungry wolves, eager to pounce on their prey. Eddie gritted his teeth. He did not want Jacob to suffer the same fate as him. Unexpectedly, Jacob had the courage to step forward and held out his hand, warning the gang from approaching any closer.
"What business do you guys have with us?"
"What business we have, he says, "Brad said sarcastically, as his gang members laughed.
"Move it, four-eyes!"
Brad grabbed the collar of Jacob's shirt and shoved him to the grass. In the process, Jacob's glasses fell off from his face and landed on the concrete sidewalk. The right lens cracked. Recovering his friend's damaged glasses, Eddie plunged to Jacob's side, but Brad pinned Eddie onto his belly. Eddie squirmed, but Brad had put enough of his weight by squatting and had immobilized him. Brad checked Eddie's pockets to see if there was any cash. To his surprise, Eddie was not carrying anything, not even a penny. Eddie wailed and made a disgusted face as he inhaled Brad's cruddy, bad breath, which smelled as if he had not brushed his molars for months. The stench was so foul that it gotten trapped within his nostrils.
"Hey, Mr. Special-Ed. Where's the money? You know how my business turns out without money," he spat.
"Let him go, Chickles. There's nothing to gain from all this bullying," Jacob said, getting to his feet.
"Let us just go about our business and act like nothing happened."
"This is my turf! I can do anything I want. When I want!"
Chuckles escalated among the bullies. "He's asking for it," a boy named Alex muttered in Brad's ear.
"Alright, Mr. Tough-Guy. You messed with the wrong guy," he beckoned his pals and pointed at
Jacob."Mr. Tough-Guy is all yours. Leave Ferguson to me!"
Suddenly, the sky above them dimmed. The bullies halted and looked to the sky. The chirping of the nearby birds grew ever louder. Spontaneously, out of the blue, a flock of ravens by the hundreds soared out of nowhere and swarmed the cohorts. Talons clinched and tugged on the kids' clothes. Brad's lips were being pulled in a comical way. Not being fatal, the flock's attach was both futile and relentless. A hollering and frightened Alex was hauled away by a dozen ravens, only to be dumped into a nearby small puddle of mud. Wailing echoed throughout the basketball court.
"Let's get out of here!" Brad squawked.
The boys fled, while the flock pursued them until they were out of sight. Jacob helped Eddie to his feet, stunned and at the same time amazed at the event that had just occurred. They were the only ones left unscathed by the swarm of ravens. It was like the ravens had come to their aid. It was very eerie, Eddie thought. Looking ahead, the basketball court was empty. No sign of the homeless, elderly man. It made him shiver. There was only one exit from the court and that was in their path.
"He was there," he pointed. "Where's the old man?" Eddie asked and shivered.
"Huh? What old man?"
"I swear! He was there right before you came."
Jacob gave him a puzzled look.
"He had an eye-patch and long beard and was smoking a pipe."
Jacob shrugged, "Beats me. I did not see this 'old man' when I approached you."
"That's very strange," Eddie murmured.
Chapter 2: Girl in a Sailor Fuku
Friday evenings were sacred.
Friday and Saturday nights were the best times of Eddie's young childhood where he could spend time with his best friend Jacob’s house, playing video games on the Playstation 5 console. Jacob’s house was just a block down from Eddie’s house. On his ninth birthday, Eddie got his first bicycle, which was a white painted, youth mountain bike. Although it was not his preferred color, Eddie was happy that he owned a bike. He could easily make the trip to Jacob’s house and back home after playing time was over.
Eddie had a curfew to follow just like most children his age. From Monday to Thursday his mother strictly told him that he had to be home after school. On Friday and Saturdays, he had a five o’clock pm to get home when he was at Jacob’s. Students from the grade school to high school level usually have the days off on weekends in America or most parts of the country. Most of the time Eddie would stay home on Saturdays to read digital manga and watch English dubbed Japanese anime. Sundays happened to be a very special day of the week in the Ferguson family. For as long as Eddie could remember, he was under the tutelage of his mother practicing fencing and archery. It’s not something that every child got the privilege growing up. However, to Eddie, it was just another passing day in life. To be frank, it felt like a school day on a Sunday. Fortunately, Eddie’s mother did a changeup in weapons training last month out of the blue. For the first time. He started learning Kendo and the ancient style of Kenjutsu not for modern sporting event.
On the bright side, to Eddie Ferguson, they were the one consistent thing in a world that didn’t seem to want him. No teachers called on him when he wasn’t ready. No laughter behind his back. No Brad Chickles looming over him like a storm cloud waiting to break. Just games, junk food, and a few hours where he didn’t have to be himself. Where he could be someone stronger. Someone like the heroes from Ramen Ninja Boy. Jacob’s house sat just a block away from his own, close enough that Eddie had memorized every crack in the sidewalk and every crooked mailbox along the route. The ride there was always easy—fast, even. But the ride back. The ride back always felt longer. Maybe it was because the night made everything quieter. Or maybe it was because going home meant going back to being Eddie Ferguson. He pedaled slowly now, the steady rhythm of the bike chain clicking beneath him. The evening sky had faded from gold to deep violet, and the first stars were beginning to show. Streetlights flickered to life one by one, humming softly as they cast pale circles of light onto the pavement.
Eddie coasted past the last corner. He was almost home. It was best to arrive home before his mother came home. He should’ve felt relieved. Instead, a strange tightness settled in his chest. He frowned slightly, easing his foot off the pedal.
“…Weird.”
The air felt heavier than usual. Not colder—just still. It was too still. No wind rustling through the trees. No distant hum of cars. No voices at all. Even the usual barking from the neighbor’s dog had stopped. Eddie glanced over his shoulder. There was nothing. Just the empty street stretching behind him. He let out a small breath and shook his head.
“Relax,” he muttered. “You’re just imagining things.”
Still…The feeling didn’t go away. If anything, it grew stronger. A faint prickling sensation crept up the back of his neck, like he was being watched. Eddie gripped the handlebars tighter.
If this were Ramen Ninja Boy…
He forced a small grin.
“Yeah, okay,” he whispered under his breath. “This is where the enemy shows up, right?”
He straightened slightly, trying to look more confident—even though no one was around to see it.
“I’d totally handle it.”
His voice sounded hollow. At that very moment, something moved. Eddie’s breath quickened—the bike wobbled as he instinctively hit the brakes, the tires skidding slightly against the pavement.
“…Hello?”
Silence answered him. The shadows around him began to envelop into monster figures that seemed to evolve around him. At the edge of the nearest streetlight, the darkness shifted. Not like a trick of the eye. Not like wind.
It moved.
Eddie’s eyes flickered around his surroundings. The shadow stretched unnaturally, pulling away from the base of the lamppost like thick liquid. It spread across the ground, merging with other patches of darkness, gathering, pooling—growing.
“…No way…”
His voice came out barely above a whisper, swallowed almost immediately by the unnatural stillness around him.
The darkness rose.
Not all at once, but slowly—deliberately—like something peeling itself free from the ground. At first, it was just a distortion, a ripple along the pavement beneath the streetlight. Then it thickened, stretching upward as if pulled by invisible hands. One shape formed, vague and incomplete. Then another. Then more, each one dragging itself into existence until they stood—if that was even the right word—just beyond the circle of light.
They were tall. Thin and ghastly.
Their limbs were too long, bending at angles that made Eddie’s stomach turn, as if their bodies didn’t follow the same rules as everything else in the world. Their forms flickered constantly, unstable, like shadows struggling to decide what they were supposed to be. Where faces should have been, there was only emptiness—deep, hollow voids that seemed to swallow the light itself.
Eddie’s heart slammed violently against his ribs.
“…This isn’t real.”
One of the figures tilted its head. The motion was jerky. Unnatural. Like a puppet being pulled by invisible strings. Eddie instinctively stepped back, his heel catching against the side of his bike. He stumbled, barely managing to keep himself from falling as panic surged through him.
“Okay… okay, this is just—just a dream or something…”
He took another step back. The creatures moved forward. They didn’t walk. They glided silently, smoothly and relentlessly. Eddie’s throat tightened as fear closed in around him.
“Stay back…”
His voice shook, barely holding together. They didn’t stop.
“Stay back!”
The words broke apart as they left him, cracking under the weight of his fear. His mind raced, desperately grasping for something—anything—that made sense.
What would a hero do?
The thought came automatically.
Ramen Ninja Boy wouldn’t run.
Eddie swallowed hard, forcing his trembling hands into fists at his sides.
“I—I’m not scared of you,” he said, though every part of his body screamed the opposite.
The nearest shadow leaned forward slightly, as if studying him. Watching and waiting. Eddie forced himself to step forward. Then another shadowy phantom appeared before him like an apparition from the underworld. Its empty eye socket gave Eddie goosebumps. Each step felt heavier than the last, his legs trembling so badly he thought they might give out beneath him.
“I’ve seen stuff like this before,” he said, trying to steady his voice. “I know how this goes.”
No response was given as . Just empty silence. And then—It lunged at him with a howling voice. Eddie’s entire body locked up. His thoughts shattered instantly, collapsing under the sheer reality of what was happening. Every imagined version of himself—the brave one, the strong one, the one who stood tall no matter what—fell apart in a single moment. This wasn’t a show. This wasn’t a story. There were no second takes. No background music. No guaranteed victory waiting at the end. This was real that it left him in a state of shock, frozen in place. He could not feel his limbs and move them at will. The shadow closed the distance in a heartbeat.
A sharp metallic sound split the air.
Shing.
A flash of light cut across Eddie’s vision. The ghastly creature stopped dead in its tracks. For a fraction of a second, it hung there, its form flickering violently as if struggling to hold itself together. Then it split apart cleanly like it had never existed at all as Eddie blinked. The space in front of him was suddenly empty. Suddenly, an orange blazing light began to flicker around him, illuminating his surroundings in bright orange hue. It took a second for the data to process in Eddie’s mind that he was suddenly surrounded by flames like caught in a wild fire. In that empty spot, someone stood there. It was a girl.
She hadn’t been there before. Eddie was certain of it. She stood between him and the remaining shadows, her back to him, her posture straight and completely still. She looked small—about his age, maybe even younger—but there was something about the way she stood that made the space around her feel different like it was in control by her. For a moment, nothing happened. Then she lifted her hands calmly and unhurried. She began tying her hair that appears to be at times illuminated pink like a strobe light. That might just be his imagination. However what is not an imagination is the girl was shrouded in flames. She was wearing a sailor fuku that Eddie only saw when watching Japanese anime. He noticed the hue of the skirt was crimson, blended in with the flame shroud.
Eddie stared, confusion cutting straight through his fear.
What…?” Eddied gasped.
The flames rescinded as it appeared to return to the scabbard, strapped behind her back. Her long hair that was doused in flames at times returned to black as the bottom of an abyss, gathered into twin ponytails, secured with crimson ribbons that caught the faint glow of the streetlight. The motion was precise and practiced, each movement deliberate, like this was something she had done countless times before stepping into danger. Behind her, the shadows shifted restlessly, as if reacting to her presence. She finished tying her hair. Her shoulders settled slightly.
Only then did she speak. “…Tch.”
The sound was quiet. Irritated.
“They’re already this far out.”
Eddie blinked, trying to process what he was hearing.
“Wait—what?”
She didn’t look back. Instead, her hand moved to the hilt behind her back.
“A… sword?”
There was a sword. Eddie hadn’t even noticed it before. To his knowledge, he immediately identified the sword to be a traditional Japanese Katana used by the long forgotten Samurai of Japan’s Edo Period era. The hue of the scabbard nearly matched that of the skirt. There was an embroidering of a golden serpent dragon coiling around the scabbard as if it were alive. She drew it in one smooth motion, the blade sliding free with a soft, clean sound that seemed too sharp for the quiet street. For just a brief moment, the air around it shimmered—like heat rising from sunbaked asphalt.
Eddie’s eyes widened.
The shadows surged forward. All at once. Like a breaking wave. The girl stepped into them too fast. Eddie’s eyes could not follow clearly. It was like staring at an afterimage. Her blade moved once—a single, clean arc of motion—and the nearest shadow split apart instantly. Then again. Another fell. A third—gone before it could even fully take shape. There was no wasted movement and hesitation in her move movement. Even with Eddie’s ten years living, he understood this was the prowess of many years of combat experience. Not in a sparring session nor a martial arts sporting event. This was the real deal. A high-stake winner takes all and the loser forfeits their life. This was the experience of a combat veteran that experienced the vicissitudes of wars throughout their career. Eddie was experiencing a life and death battle with a human for the very first time. He wondered if the little girl before him was an old hag in disguise or a reincarnator from a different time period like he saw in those cliche Japanese anime.
Each strike was precise, Efficient and final. A one hit kill without suspense. A shadow lunged from her side. Without even turning her head, she shifted her stance and cut it down in one smooth motion. Another tried to rise behind her—She pivoted, the blade flashing, and it vanished before it could fully form. Eddie could only watch from the sideline, frozen in place not be what he was seeing. It was like a story of a manga series coming to live before his very own eyes.
It was over in seconds. The last shadow dissolved into nothingness, leaving the street exactly as it had been before—quiet, empty, still, as if nothing had ever happened. The girl lowered her blade slightly, scanning the area with sharp, focused eyes. Then she turned. Her gaze landed on Eddie with her elegant ruby red eyes that were not glowing. Not unnatural… but intense. Piercing. Like she was seeing straight through him. Eddie flinched under the weight of it.
“…Why is it always someone like you?”
Her voice was flat. Annoyed. Eddie blinked, still trying to catch up.
“W-what does that mean?! I didn’t do anything!”
She looked at him over once, her expression unimpressed.
“Clearly.”
He opened his mouth, words tumbling over each other.
“There were... those things... what were they? And you just—how did you—are you like some kind of...”
“Stay down!”
The words cut him off instantly.
He froze—not because he chose to, but because something in her tone made it impossible not to obey. She turned away from him, already dismissing his presence. Eddie pushed himself up slightly.
“Wait! You—you saved me, right? I should at least say thanks or—”
A faint ripple passed through the air. The girl’s expression shifted subtly. Her eyes narrowed slightly.
“…There’s still more.”
Eddie’s stomach dropped.
“…You’re kidding.”
She adjusted her grip on the sword, her posture tightening just enough to signal danger.
“…Don’t get in the way.”
At the far end of the street, the shadows began to stir again. Eddie’s vision swam as he tried to stand.
“Hey… I think something’s wrong…”
His legs felt weak. Heavy. Like they weren’t fully his anymore.
The girl didn’t respond.
She stepped forward, placing herself between him and the shifting darkness once more. The crimson ribbons in her hair fluttered slightly with the movement, catching the dim light.
Eddie tried to focus and tried to stay awake. But the world around him began to tilt and blur.
“…Wait…”
His voice sounded distant, like it wasn’t even his anymore.
The last thing he saw was the girl raising her blade again, her figure steady against the growing darkness—and those crimson ribbons trailing behind her like streaks of fire. Then everything went black.
Voices echoed through the darkness.
Faint.
Distant.
“…late.”
“…still breathing.”
“…as expected.”
Eddie couldn’t move.
Couldn’t open his eyes.
But he could hear them.
One voice stood out.
Calm.
Familiar.
His mother.
“…I was wondering when your side would get involved.”
A pause.
Then, quieter with the faintest hint of amusement.
“So you're sensei's granddaughter am I right?”
. Surname Enshin: Translates to Flame Heart. It will post the first two chapters with the prologue. However, I won't be updating every chapter here simply because this site is not design for web novels. You will have to read the complete story on royalroad.com 
