After hearing Soren's words, Freyja was unexpectedly moved.
During their time together, the heart of the goddess of war, once sealed in steel, had quietly opened.
But duty was a chain even gods could not escape.
"Not for the time being." She said softly. "As much as I'd like to… I can't forget who I am or my mission."
"Lorelai's harm to the realms is too great. I must bring her back to Asgard for judgment before King Odin."
Soren's expression dimmed. "So you really can't stay?"
Freyja smiled faintly, her eyes softening. "Soren… once Lorelai is imprisoned, you'll have time to come to Asgard. To… the Realm of the Gods."
Her voice wavered slightly at the end, as if embarrassed by her own boldness.
Soren blinked. "Come to the Realm of the Gods?"
Freyja's cheeks flushed crimson. "Don't get the wrong idea! The God Domain has its own rules. I can't leave until the next God of War is chosen."
"Once I hand over my title, I'll finally be free to walk the realms again."
He tilted his head, amused. "You're giving up being the God of War? Why?"
Freyja's blush deepened. "You really are hopeless," She muttered, stamping her foot and glaring at him. "You're such a block of wood!"
Soren chuckled under his breath, but before he could reply, Freyja went through the swirling portal behind her.
Gripping the restrained Lorelai by the arm, she stepped toward the light.
Then, just before crossing through, she glanced over her shoulder.
"Soren… I'll be waiting for you in Asgard."
A small, daring smile touched her lips.
"Don't let me down."
The words lingered like music as the portal snapped shut, leaving Soren alone in the quiet medical hall.
For a long moment, he just stood there, stunned… then realization dawned.
"…Does this mean I'm supposed to go to Asgard and marry her?"
He rubbed his chin, unable to suppress the grin spreading across his face.
"Well… I've had worse invitations."
He basked in the moment, warmth replacing the exhaustion of battle. But joy faded quickly as his mind shifted to darker thoughts.
Ultron.
When Soren returned to the medical hall, his communicator was flashing nonstop.
Tony, Steve, and the others had been trying to reach him for hours, but since he'd left his phone behind during the battle with Dracula, they had no way to contact him.
He scrolled through the messages, reading each one carefully.
Ultron had moved.
Based on the timing and what Soren already knew of the story, the AI must have already seized the Wakandan Vibranium and coerced Helen Cho, a geneticist working in Seoul, South Korea.
"So it begins…"
The U-GIN Genetics Lab – Seoul
At that very moment, inside the high-security facility, Dr. Helen Cho was trapped.
Rows of gleaming containment tanks and humming machinery reflected her pale face as she typed furiously, hands trembling.
Across from her stood Ultron, towering and monstrous, his vibranium shell glinting with cold blue light.
Helen's voice cracked. "Please, you don't have to do this! You said you wanted peace!"
Ultron tilted his head, his voice calm, almost gentle. "I do. Peace through evolution. And evolution requires sacrifice."
He extended a clawed hand toward the regeneration cradle, a bio-fusion pod glowing softly with golden light. Inside, a perfect synthetic body was forming: flesh interwoven with metal, nerves linked to circuitry.
And in its forehead, a brilliant yellow gem pulsed like a living heart, the Mind Stone.
Ultron watched it with reverence. "My perfect self… my evolution."
Helen shook her head, tears streaming. "This isn't evolution, it's extinction!"
"You disappoint me, Doctor." The robot's gaze snapped toward her.
Without hesitation, Ultron raised his arm.
A beam of scarlet energy burst from his palm.
BOOM!
Helen screamed as the blast struck her, sending her sprawling across the lab floor. The air filled with the acrid stench of burning circuits and ozone.
Ultron stared down at her collapsed form, then turned to his assembled drones.
"Take the cradle. Kill everyone else."
Dozens of Ultron Sentries moved at once, their eyes flaring red as they spread through the lab like locusts.
Outside, rotor blades whirred as a transport aircraft lifted off, carrying the Regeneration Cradle toward an unknown location.
Ultron turned his gaze to the escaping craft, a cable running from his own skull to the pod inside, his mind already linking to his future body.
The yellow gem shimmered brightly, its light casting strange reflections across the lab.
"The key to the new age."
A Quinjet bearing the Avengers insignia roared through the sky, its engines burning a trail of light as it pursued Ultron's retreating vessel. Inside, Tony and the others tracked the fleeing signal.
The air shimmered, space itself seemed to ripple and Soren stepped out of the distortion, his boots touching down amidst twisted metal and smoke.
He exhaled slowly, surveying the devastation.
"Damn… one step too late."
Flames licked at shattered consoles. The sterile scent of a lab was drowned by the stench of burnt circuitry and blood.
Bodies of researchers lay strewn across the floor, lifeless.
Soren frowned. "A survivor."
Beneath the chaos, he sensed a flicker of life.
He moved quickly through the wreckage, guided by the whisper of that dying heartbeat. Pushing aside a collapsed beam, he found her… Dr. Helen Cho, lying in a pool of her own blood.
Her chest had been seared open by Ultron's laser blast. Each shallow breath came with a wet gasp. Her skin was white as paper, her pulse weak as a dying ember.
"Help… me…"
Her voice was barely a whisper, raw and trembling. She didn't know who he was, didn't care. Instinct alone made her reach toward him.
Soren knelt beside her, his expression tightening.
"He didn't finish the job… lucky for you."
He reached into his coat and pulled out a small vial glowing faintly emerald, the same hue as his time magic.
"Hold on."
Supporting her head gently, he uncorked the vial and pressed it to her lips. The potion's light shimmered as it slid down her throat. Within moments, the glow spread through her body like veins of living light.
The bleeding stopped first. Then the torn flesh began to knit itself together, muscle and skin reforming with impossible precision. Within seconds, the seared wound was gone, replaced by smooth skin.
Helen gasped, then coughed hard, color slowly returning to her face.
Her eyes fluttered open.
At first, everything was a blur… heat, smoke, and the unfamiliar rhythm of another person's heartbeat so close to hers.
Then she felt strong arms holding her, the warmth of his energy coursing through her, steadying her trembling body.
Her mind scrambled to understand. She remembered Ultron. The laser.
But… she was alive.
She blinked up, her vision clearing and met a pair of glowing eyes.
For a moment… she forgot how to breathe.