The hammer shrieked as it tore through the air, returning to his palm. Thor's eyes erupted with blinding, intense lightning. He stopped relying on brute force alone. Furious lightning surged from his body, wrapping around his chest plate, his arms, and the shattered stone bricks beneath his feet.
He took a heavy step forward. Lightning branched outward like a spiderweb. Dozens of undead were instantly paralyzed on the spot. Seizing the opening, Thor launched himself into the undead army like an artillery shell. Mjolnir spun rapidly around him, forming a devastating ring of lightning that crushed any corpse foolish enough to approach.
As he fought through the blood and bone, he roared, "Heimdall! Lead them out through the left flank!"
Without a second of hesitation, Heimdall swung Hofund, cleaving a path.
Thor slammed his hammer ruthlessly into the ground. A bottomless chasm of lightning tore open the center of the plaza, temporarily splitting the undead army in two. The civilians sprinted frantically through the gap. Someone cried out, screaming Thor's name.
Thor heard it. That single, terrified voice carried more weight than the cheers of millions. He glanced back. A little girl, clutched tightly in her mother's arms, her face covered in black soot, reached out and gave him a hard, determined wave.
Thor's chest tightened. He spun around, standing before the breach like a god of war.
"Come on!" he bellowed. "Whoever dares cross this line, I will smash to pieces!"
Hovering above, Kaido heard the challenge. His terrifying jaws stretched into a grin. "That's more like it, brat."
Thor burned with rage. "I am not a brat!"
Kaido exhaled a blast of fire, incinerating a dozen undead. "Say that again when you can actually knock me on my ass!"
Thor wanted to curse back, but a far more oppressive, muffled roar erupted from deep underground. It wasn't human. It wasn't a normal beast, either. Black-green necrotic mist spewed from the depths of the palace like an erupting volcano, condensing into the sky-blotting phantom of a colossal wolf. Its body was larger than the palace itself, its ribs protruding outward, its spine impaled with ancient, rusted war spears.
The Fenris Wolf lowered its massive head, opening its gaping, bloodthirsty maw to bite down directly on the fragile evacuation line.
Frigga's face went white. She threw her hands up, frantically trying to reinforce her barrier. But there were too many people to protect. Just as the shield stabilized, those apocalyptic fangs clamped down upon it. Thor was too far away to reach them in time. Odin was giving everything he had to suppress the underground rifts. Heimdall was locked in a death struggle on the opposite side of the tunnel.
The people in the plaza looked up, absolute despair washing over their faces.
"A wild dog?" Kaido's arrogant sneer boomed from above.
The pitch-black Demon Dragon crashed down from the sky like a meteor. His thick, muscular dragon claws dug violently into the beast's upper and lower jaws. The ground caved in under the sheer, terrifying force of their collision. Kaido's claws hissed loudly as the necrotic energy rapidly corroded his impenetrable scales. Yet, he pressed his forehead against the giant wolf's snout, baring his fangs in a savage display of dominance.
"The strays I've seen outside the tavern are fiercer than you!"
Fenris clamped its jaws down with frantic strength. The muscles in Kaido's dragon arms bulged like coiled steel cables.
"Get the f*ck away from me!"
Kaido roared at the sky, his Conqueror's Haki and the golden aura of his Super Saiyan Physique detonating simultaneously. Black-red lightning surged through his claws and poured mercilessly into the giant wolf's mouth.
Crack. The sound of Fenris's lower jaw snapping echoed through the plaza.
Crack, crack, crack!
Kaido brutally tore the colossal wolf's mouth in half. A waterfall of black-green necrotic mist drenched him. The wolf's phantom instantly collapsed by half. Without missing a beat, Kaido unleashed an apocalyptic Bolo Breath, firing it straight down the beast's ruptured throat.
Boom!
The Fenris Wolf's head completely exploded in mid-air. The backlash of necrotic energy reversed course, tearing hundreds of Berserkers to shreds in the shockwave. Suppressed sobs broke out among the civilian ranks. Someone finally gathered the courage to shout.
"Thank you!"
Kaido glared down viciously. The person instantly snapped their mouth shut in terror. Kaido let out a disdainful snort.
"Shut up! Run faster!"
Thor stared blankly at the Demon Dragon, his emotions a tangled, chaotic mess. This guy was an invader. He had wounded Heimdall. He shattered the Bifrost. He had beaten Thor into a crater. Yet, just a second ago, he had genuinely saved the people of Asgard.
Thor hated owing people favors. He especially hated owing a favor to a total lunatic. He hoisted Mjolnir heavily onto his shoulder. "Kaido!"
The Demon Dragon snapped his head back. "What?"
Thor raised his hammer, lightning churning violently around him. "Don't think this means I'll let you off the hook."
Kaido threw his head back and roared with laughter. "Whenever you're ready, after we finish off this crazy woman!"
Hela's smile had vanished entirely. Her undead army had been incinerated in swathes. The Fenris phantom was torn apart. Thor hadn't died; instead, he was rapidly growing stronger. And worst of all, that old fool Odin still hadn't fallen.
In front of the palace steps, Odin drove Gungnir violently into the ground. Golden runes surged outward, sealing the cracks. The undead attempting to crawl out were suppressed back into the earth by sheer divine power. The rifts slowly began to close. Blinding red blood seeped from Odin's forehead, but his grip on the spear never wavered.
Frigga stepped to his side, keeping her voice incredibly low. "The seal was cracked by Kaido, and Hela is drawing power from Asgard. You can't hold on much longer like this."
Odin stared intently at the rift. "I will hold on until my people have evacuated."
A flash of extreme pain crossed Frigga's eyes. She didn't press the matter. She knew her husband too well; Odin would never retreat.
Hela could see that Odin was at the absolute end of his rope. She raised her hand, a pitch-black Necrosword shaping into a twisted crown at her fingertips. The black blade looked like a dark diadem, or perhaps a slaughtering knife forged specifically for patricide.
She looked coldly at Odin's pale face. "Father. You won't be able to stop me a second time."
----
Meanwhile, inside the system's void channel, Golden Lion Shiki was cursing up a storm.
"Superhero Faction?! Are you f*cking kidding me?!"
"I am Golden Lion Shiki! The Pirate Admiral of the Flying Pirates! A legendary pirate with a bounty of 3.68 billion Beri! And you want me to play hero?!"
His voice echoed furiously down the starlit corridor. The system ignored him.
In the next second, the ground vanished beneath Shiki's feet. He plummeted from an altitude of tens of thousands of meters. Beneath him wasn't the ocean. Nor was it an island. It was an entire planet enveloped in a massive energy shield. Skyscrapers layered upon skyscrapers, silver aerial transit rails looped around the city, and a blue energy barrier stretched across the sky.
Shiki stabilized himself in mid-air. His severed legs had long since been restored by White Zetsu cells. He no longer needed Oto and Kogarashi as prosthetics, but the power of the Float-Float Fruit remained as potent as ever. Floating above the cloud layer, he looked at the dense, black fleet pressing in from the distance, and a slow, manic grin crept across his face.
"Interesting. So this is the sea of stars?" Shiki mused. "Roger, if you had seen this, you wouldn't have even bothered looking for Laugh Tale."
The black fleet moved like a descending iron curtain. Tens of thousands of small fighters poured from the mother ship's belly, swarming the energy shield of Xandar. Golden Lion Shiki. Pirate Admiral. The legendary pirate who once stood shoulder-to-shoulder with Roger and Whitebeard. Now possessing a body reconstructed with White Zetsu cells, restored legs, an awakened Mangekyo Sharingan, and a Float-Float Fruit pushed to terrifying new heights.
Yet, the system had branded him as part of the 'Superhero Faction'. The more Shiki thought about it, the more pissed off he got.
"Asking me to play hero? What kind of sick cosmic joke is this!"
He looked down at the sprawling city of Xandar, then up at the overwhelming fleet. The corners of his mouth curled into an arrogant arc. "But still... this place isn't half bad."
----
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