Freya surrenders to Hel’s cursed roots, hoping to escape the island prison, but the descent terrifies her when the earth closes around her and she believes she has chosen death. Instead of dying, she falls through Yggdrasil’s roots onto a road between realms, where Saga waits for her. Saga explains that Freya is not in Helheim itself but on the road to it, a place mortal souls travel after death, and warns Freya not to enter the golden gates because the living cannot return from Hel’s domain.

As they speak, Saga reveals more of Harald’s nature. She says Harald is driven less by cruelty than by the need to control, manipulate, and be adored, making him especially dangerous as one of the Unfated. Saga also explains that Harald did not deliberately murder her; he staged a false threat involving Snorri, and the fire that killed her was accidental. Harald took Bjorn afterward out of guilt at first, but once he recognized Bjorn’s usefulness, he turned the boy into a tool. Saga admits she has only seen futures in which Freya fails and Harald becomes king of both Skaland and Nordeland, yet insists Freya can still change fate if she makes her own choices.

Saga tells Freya that climbing the roots back up will let her escape somewhere other than the island prison, and she warns that Ylva plans to trade Bjorn for her own son. That warning sharpens Freya’s urgency. Although she longs to save Bjorn and knows Saga expects her to take the safer path back to the mortal world, Freya rejects escape and runs instead toward Helheim, determined to seek answers directly from her divine mother.

At the river before Helheim, Freya confronts Garmr, the monstrous black hound guarding the bridge. She invokes her lineage as Hel’s daughter and calls on Hel’s power, which makes the beast yield. When Hel appears, Freya demands to know why Harald’s soul cannot be claimed the way other souls are. Hel explains that the souls of the Unfated are not easily taken and that claiming them risks conflict with the other gods. Hel refuses to give Freya a direct solution, saying only that she has already given Freya power over death and that Freya must weave her own fate.

Shaken and frustrated, Freya tries to leave, but Garmr blocks her path. That delay forces Freya to think. Remembering the tale of Baldur and realizing Hel has the power to release souls from Helheim, Freya reconsiders what Hel meant. As she watches dead souls pass through the gates, Freya understands that Hel has given her all her death power, while Freya may possess one ability Hel herself lacks. Acting on that revelation and abandoning the safer route back, Freya sprints toward the gates and dives into Helheim just before they close.