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Hela's tall, powerful silhouette slowly faded into the sky until she was gone entirely, the shattering noise of her ascent dying into the dead quiet of Hell.
Arthur stood there for a long moment, rubbing his face hard with both hands.
"What the hell just happened?" he muttered to the void, unsure if he wanted to laugh or swear. "First, Odin was trying to force me into marriage, practically pushing Hela and me together on a blind date. And now? Now Hela herself has decided she's claiming me. I, damn it…"
He had a mouthful of curses with nowhere to land, and all he could do was let out a long, heavy, utterly defeated sigh.
One existential problem hadn't even been settled, and another was already here, bearing down on him with the force of an Asgardian goddess.
Truly, trouble never travels alone.
His arm had fully recovered by now, the new skin still faintly pink. Arthur pulled out the Tesseract, and in the next instant, his body vanished from Hell.
There was no point staying here any longer. A woman like Hela, once she set her mind on something, would never give up until she got it. No amount of arguing would change her mind in the slightest.
If that was the case… then it was time to leave. And by his internal clock, it was high time to return to Earth anyway.
Not long after Arthur vanished, Hela returned to the same exact spot.
She hovered mid-air, scanning the empty, charged space as though searching for an invisible echo.
At last, she sighed softly and descended, her leather boots sinking slightly into the damp, scorched soil.
Her gaze fell upon the faint, lingering traces Arthur had left behind, and she murmured, "Such a firm rejection… So, in your heart, you never even considered the possibility, did you?"
Her eyes lifted, gazing past the ravaged ground toward a small, stubbornly standing fortress in the distance.
In this eerie, twisted realm of Hell, it was impossible for any normal building to last long. Yet to this day, Hela had never destroyed that place, nor abandoned it completely. Whenever Hell's chaos threatened to consume it, she would appear, defend it, and then… simply sit atop it in silence.
Of course, she was always thinking of ways to defeat Arthur.
But at the same time, she was always thinking of Arthur.
The only man, across countless ages, who had ever managed to carve out a place in her frozen, ambition-driven heart.
"Even though I should hate him… why is it that I just can't bring myself to truly hate him?" Hela's voice trembled slightly with genuine confusion. "I told myself the third time would be our ending, and yet, somehow… I can't bear the thought of it."
In this world, there were few things that could make Hela feel powerless. But this unexpected, impossible attachment, this was one of them. And perhaps the most dangerous power she had ever encountered.
Closing her eyes, she stood motionless, her tall, graceful figure like a living sword planted firmly in the ground. Only now, that sword seemed to have been stained with new colors, emotions she'd once thought herself incapable of feeling.
Three days passed in the blink of an eye.
The "three-day tour of Xandar" had come to an end. It had been peaceful overall, no major disturbances. Everyone had gone about their business: sightseeing, running errands, even some covert training. They were all busy in their own ways.
Aside from the first day, when Arthur appeared before everyone in tattered, smoking clothes and left them all stunned, the only real "violence" had been Brock and Venom's usual squabbles.
Now, on the final day, they were saying farewell to Nova Prime and preparing to leave Xandar, bound for Earth.
Before departure, Nova Prime spoke with deep emotion:
"I sincerely hope that next time you visit, it won't be like this again. You know, the people have a right to know the truth. But what we did this time, keeping things hidden, made me feel deeply guilty."
Since they were already leaving, Arthur didn't press the issue of transparency.
He just smiled. "Don't worry. Next time we visit, it'll be a peaceful one."
"I'll hold you to that," Nova Prime replied with a nod.
As the spaceship blasted off into the sky, Nova Prime watched it rise, murmuring under her breath:
"Why is it that the more someone promises peace… the less believable it sounds? I can't shake this strange, uneasy feeling."
Their return route to Earth required one crucial stop, the divine realm of Asgard.
Returning to Earth through the Bifrost was, without a doubt, the fastest and safest option.
Arthur lingered in Asgard for a short while, mainly to meet with Loki. As for Thor, that guy was once again acting like a human sledgehammer, running around all over the realms, following orders, off on yet another mission somewhere.
According to Loki, it was easy to get Thor to do anything. You just had to say:
"You still need more experience, brother, otherwise you'll end up making the same mistakes I did."
And that was it, this big, straightforward lump of muscle would cheerfully rush off to face whatever dangerous quest was thrown his way.
Arthur couldn't help but feel a little awkward about it… almost as if he were an accomplice in Loki's manipulation. But then again, maybe it wasn't such a bad thing for Thor to gain more experience.
So Arthur didn't bother interfering. In truth, Thor loved fighting, and Loki loved toying with Thor. The two of them truly did balance each other out. And under Loki's governance, Asgard had been relatively peaceful, with no major crises breaking out.
Arthur decided not to meddle further. Still, he knew that one day, he'd have to give Thor an explanation for all this subterfuge.
After a short stay, the group finally used the Bifrost to return to Earth, a world that felt as though they hadn't seen it in an eternity.
Of course, in reality, it hadn't been that long at all. For people like Tony and the others, this interstellar "business trip" hadn't lasted very long. But for Arthur… it felt as though millions of years had passed since he last laid eyes on this beautiful blue planet.
Standing once more on the soil of Camp Lehigh, Arthur felt a strange, swelling mix of pride and responsibility rising within him.
It startled even himself, because he was actually feeling responsible.
He knew full well what kind of person he used to be. He hadn't protected Earth out of any heroic impulse or a "superhero addiction", but simply for self-preservation.
Yet now… things were different. After what felt like eons of wandering across the cosmos, Arthur had found a deep, undeniable sense of belonging to this world. Standing here, defending it, it no longer felt like a burden, but something utterly natural.
Looking around, he could tell that every person stepping off the spaceship felt something similar, each of them wearing an expression mixed with awe, reflection, and quiet emotion. Especially those who had ventured into space for the very first time.
This journey had brutally opened their eyes.
They realized now, the universe was far bigger than Earth alone. Beyond this one small planet lay countless worlds, filled with all kinds of life, each following its own rules, some bound by order, others steeped in chaos.
There were beings so powerful that one of them could destroy a planet.
Who could say there was only one Ego out there? What if there were more?
And if such beings appeared again… what would they do then?
At that moment, T'Challa suddenly spoke up, his voice quiet but firm.
"Arthur… I want to return to Wakanda for a while."
Arthur looked at him for a long, knowing moment, then finally nodded.
(End of Chapter)