Thea wiped away nonexistent sweat from her forehead, silently apologizing to the big man Galactus, and charged back into the fray with Excalibur in hand.
With her helping them aim, Scarlet Witch and Jean's coordination grew smoother by the minute. Krona's shield energy continued to climb, now running at seventy percent output.
The Grandmaster, that old fox, saw victory within reach and stepped up the tempo. A rapidly spinning vortex of compressed air formed between his palms, then spiraled outward and slammed into Krona.
On the outer perimeter, Diana was single-handedly holding off nearly half the enemy forces. Superman and Thor each joined the inner circle's siege.
One swung his fists while the other hefted Stormbreaker [?], with the occasional heat vision blast or lightning strike thrown in for good measure. Both heroes unloaded their best on Krona without reservation.
Batman wasn't about to be outdone from the outer ring either. He waited for the right moment, then fired three concussion rounds in rapid succession at Krona. The rounds replicated the Flash's high-frequency vibration ability, latching onto Krona's shield and shaking it violently.
Among the assembled heroes, the one who stood out most was still the Hulk. The man had absolutely zero regard for self-preservation. He leaped in with a whoosh, and it was nothing but bare-knuckle haymakers raining down from every angle.
Krona reversed his energy weapon and, only then, did Thea realize the thing doubled as a staff. He found a devastatingly precise angle and swept upward, flipping Thor and Superman away one after the other before backhanding the Hulk into the distance.
Massive arcs of energy crackled across all three. Superman's expression was the most agonized, but he gritted his teeth and endured. At least energy arcs were more pleasant than Kryptonite.
The Hulk, bare-chested, was swatted over a hundred meters (~330 feet) away, but his body was genuinely tough. Like a runaway freight train, his massive feet pounded the ground as he barreled back, plowing through dozens of grunts along the way, and threw himself right back into the fight.
Thanks to the lightning combat techniques Thea had gifted him, Thor had the strongest resistance to energy arcs among the three. They fell into a natural rhythm: Thor took point, tanking hits up front, while Superman and the Hulk flanked and attacked.
Under this relentless assault, Krona was starting to buckle. He had no choice but to abandon his full-body energy shield in favor of defending only critical areas, while simultaneously stepping up his offense. He'd rather take minor hits if it meant thinning out the enemy numbers.
That gave Thea her opening. She'd been lurking in the melee the entire time, waiting for the right moment.
After one particular detonation of Phoenix Force and Chaos Magic, she spotted a gap in his guard.
Krona stopped playing defense. He leveled his weapon—the suspected cosmic probe—straight at Jean Grey and fired.
The Phoenix Force could defend too. Jean raised her hand with visible effort and blocked the blast. Thea seized the moment, chaining several spatial jumps to slip out of Krona's line of sight, and drove Excalibur into his exposed back.
At the same instant, Superman ignored the crackling energy arcs wreathing the weapon and grabbed it with both hands.
His back completely exposed to Thea's blade, Krona tried to shake Superman loose. He wrenched twice but couldn't budge him, and he couldn't afford to let go of the weapon.
Too late to change tactics. A muffled squelch rang out as Excalibur, bolstered by the Pseudo-Phoenix Force, punched through his armor. Clean through, back to chest. A perfect through-and-through.
Thea was ready to pour more Pseudo-Phoenix Force in and disintegrate his heart on the spot, but dark wisps of energy seeped from the wound, rapidly corroding and dissolving the holy energy coating Excalibur's surface.
She'd used this sword for years. There was real sentiment behind it. And clearly, Krona had done some kind of bizarre modification to his own heart.
Still, she wasn't about to waste this golden opportunity. She wanted to destroy Krona's foundation. Excalibur shifted slightly, and she quickly found her targets.
"Get out here!" She ripped Excalibur free, and out with it came the Yellow Lantern Entity Parallax and the Indigo Tribe Entity Proselyte. These two Entities were the most familiar with her. While the others were still fumbling around in confusion inside Krona's body, these two had already followed the channel she'd carved and been pulled free.
Parallax grumbled at her briefly, something about why she'd taken so long.
Proselyte let out a few soft warbles of gratitude.
No time for small talk. Thea sealed them both into Lantern rings.
"Give them back! You thief!" Krona erupted in fury, but more than that, the emotional balance inside him had shattered. Mind, strength, speed—his overall state began to deteriorate. Without emotional equilibrium, his rage spiraled beyond control. The man practically radiated killing intent.
Thea didn't have time to overthink it. She'd taken two Entities, and now Krona was looking at her like she'd murdered his father. He abandoned all caution against the Phoenix Force and Chaos Magic bombardment. His energy weapon blasted Superman and Thor aside. White-hot plasma blazed around his armor. The man loomed like a mountain and struck with lightning speed, thrusting the lance straight at her.
No time to dodge. No time to deploy the half-baked Pseudo-Phoenix Force. Thea chose to trade blow for blow, counting on Excalibur's edge to take Krona's head off. A heart could be replaced with a mechanical one, but a head? Not so easily swapped.
Two ruthless fighters who refused to flinch. Thea's abdomen was punched clean through, leaving a bloody hole. Her divine armor was totaled beyond repair, the edges of the wound charred black. She staggered on landing, coughed up a mouthful of golden blood, and was caught by Diana just in time. She'd never been wounded this badly. To preserve her combat effectiveness, she entrusted her safety entirely to Diana, closed her eyes, and began using divine power to purge the residual energy before repairing her body.
Krona, at the critical moment, had stepped back. Thea's strike hadn't fully landed, but he'd evaded decapitation by a hair.
Excalibur carved a diagonal gash across his face, from cheek to brow. Flesh peeled back, bone-deep. His left eye was gone. Blood flowed freely down his chin, beyond his control. Maltus's greatest scientist had never suffered a wound like this, and no one was coming to help. He could only crank his armor's output higher and stabilize the damage.
Thea's willingness to fight to the death inspired everyone on the field. There was no shortage of female heroes present. Jean, normally gentle and refined, drew even deeper on the Phoenix Force. Nearby, Cyclops and Wolverine could hardly back down either. They clenched their jaws and held on.
Scarlet Witch concentrated, syncing her attacks. Gamora from the Guardians of the Galaxy drew deep inspiration, letting out a fierce battle cry as her twin swords spun like windmills.
If the women were giving it everything, the men had no excuse to hold back.
"For Asgard!" Thor rediscovered that old fire in his veins. He dropped all defense, electricity blazing across his entire body, gripped Stormbreaker [?] with both hands, leaped five meters into the air, and brought it crashing down on the back of Krona's skull.
Krona spewed blood from his nose and mouth. He'd been genuinely rattled. He threw a wild backhand, and Thor joined Thea among the critically wounded.
"Clark, catch!" Just before blacking out, Thor hurled Stormbreaker to Superman.
Thea, who always kept a fraction of her awareness on the broader battlefield, tossed Captain America's shield to Superman.
Shield in his left hand. Hammer in his right. Blue suit, red cape, and that ridiculously all-American face. Captain Krypton [?] had officially arrived.