Back on the Battlefield
"Odinson," Borgir's voice rang out across the devastated clearing, almost conversational in tone despite the violence that had just transpired. "Do you want to surrender and join me as I conquer this universe?"
Thor lay on the ground, his body broken and bleeding. His face was now covered in blood—some his own, some from internal injuries that painted his features crimson. One of his arms was bent at an unnatural angle, the bone clearly broken, twisted in a direction that arms were never meant to go.
But his face showed not a trace of pain. No grimace. No weakness. Only an intense hatred burned in his eyes—a fury so pure and hot it seemed like it could burn through Borgir's ancient flesh if given physical form.
Yet his gaze was not focused on the frost giant standing victoriously over him.
No, Thor's entire focus was locked on a different figure—one whose chest was now pierced by the ancient spear, her body hanging limply from where the weapon had pinned her to a tree trunk. Blood dripped slowly, steadily, each drop falling to the forest floor with terrible finality as Eira's life slowly passed away.
She was still breathing, but barely. Her eyes were glazed, unfocused, staring at nothing.
And nearby, another figure lay dying in an even worse condition than Thor himself.
Loki.
The God of Mischief lay sprawled on the ground, his green and gold armor cracked and shattered, his skin pale as death, multiple wounds bleeding freely. His breathing was shallow and irregular, each breath a struggle.
Loki's eyes found Thor's, and despite everything—despite the pain, despite the approaching death—he cursed inwardly at his own foolish decisions.
Why did I have to come running back to help him? Loki thought bitterly, angrily. I should have run away when I had the chance. I could have escaped. I could have survived.
But weirdly enough, he didn't regret it as much as he thought he would.
He just felt a little stupid, getting caught up in emotion and dying here because of it. It was embarrassing, really—the God of Lies, brought down not by cunning plans or superior strategy, but by something as simple and mortal as brotherly love.
Or perhaps he felt too embarrassed that a mortal girl had shown more courage than him. Eira had stood her ground, had fought when she should have fled, had been braver than a god. That shame burned almost as hot as his physical wounds.
Before coming here, Loki had seen it with his own eyes—watched Odin fall into the Odinsleep, that deep hibernation from which the All-Father might not wake for weeks or even months. The timing couldn't have been worse.
So if there was no miracle coming, if no divine intervention descended from Asgard, there was a one hundred percent chance that all three of them would die here in this forgotten forest.
The God of Thunder. The God of Mischief. And a brave mortal woman.
All three would fall to an ancient grudge they'd inherited but never truly understood.
Inside the White Space
Elric sat on a chair playing with the chakra fruit boredly, tossing it from hand to hand like a child with a ball.
One of the biggest weaknesses of the White Space was that they couldn't communicate freely across dimensions. Even though all the versions of Elric had agreed to meet every week at a designated time, if something interesting came up suddenly, they had to wait for the scheduled meeting. There was no way to send an urgent message, no emergency contact across realities.
So they just showed up at the appointed time and hoped for the best.
Most of the time, if they didn't have something particularly interesting to share or discuss, they would come here to mess around anyway—exchanging information, comparing progress, sometimes just talking to the only people in existence who truly understood them: themselves.
Elric had arrived, hoping naruto version would show up.
But to his disappointment—though not unexpectedly—the space was as empty as his wallet had been in his previous life before all this reincarnation business had started.
He sighed and settled in to wait. He'd give it another hour before heading back. There was work to do, after all.
He wanted to absorb this power as soon as possible, to see what kind of transformation it would bring, but there was no helping the delay. Three days ago, when he'd met the Naruto version of himself, his counterpart had mentioned being quite busy dealing with a festival in the Uzumaki clan.
While Marvel Elric was lost in these thoughts, suddenly a white light flashed in the space.
The brilliance was brief but intense, like a camera flash in a dark room. When the light faded, it left behind a single figure.
One Piece Elric stood there, with a confident smirk on his face.
A disappointed look flashed across Marvel Elric's face for just a moment.
Almost sensing the emotion, One Piece Elric spoke in a dissatisfied voice, his smirk fading slightly. "What? Were you expecting something different? Someone else, maybe?"
Marvel Elric didn't bother answering with words. Instead, he simply threw something across the space.
One Piece Elric caught it subconsciously. But when he looked at what he'd caught, really examined it carefully, his eyes widened and he let out a nervous laugh.
"You crazy bastard," One Piece Elric said, his voice a mixture of admiration and concern. "Did you really go and do it? Is the Celestial dead?" His eyes were locked on the chakra fruit, recognizing instantly what it represented—concentrated energy of incredible purity. "You impatient bastard, couldn't you wait a little longer? Or did you somehow gather all the Infinity Stones without telling us?"
Marvel Elric couldn't help but feel speechless at the accusation. "Use your brain sometime, dude," he said with exasperation. "It's embarrassing, you know? Do you think it would only produce this little energy if I'd absorbed a Celestial?" He gestured at the relatively small fruit. "A Celestial's power would create something the size of a planet, not a strawberry."
One Piece Elric bristled at the criticism. "You bastard, I was just a little rusty with my thinking," he defended himself, though his tone was more amused than offended. "You know I'm already invincible in my world. I really don't have to use my brain as much as you unlucky bastards who are still struggling."
It was true, in a way. The One Piece world had a definite power ceiling, and One Piece Elric had long since surpassed it. With his abilities, he was effectively untouchable. The challenge had left his reality long ago.
After careful observation, One Piece Elric studied the fruit more closely, extending his own senses to analyze its composition. "Yeah, you're right," he admitted. "Its energy is pitiful compared to what we were expecting. Even compared to a high-grade Devil Fruit, it has less raw power."
He paused, frowning thoughtfully. "But for some reason, just looking at it, I feel really tempted. Like my body is telling me this is something valuable beyond measure."
"Exactly," Marvel Elric confirmed. "So definitely its value can't be measured by just the energy quantity alone. The quality is something else entirely."
Marvel Elric didn't keep him in suspense any longer. "I just stumbled upon an unknown dimension. Even though its total energy wasn't that much, the quality far surpassed chakra by a huge margin. It's like comparing refined steel to raw iron ore."
"You fucking lucky bastard," One Piece Elric said with genuine envy, though his smile remained. "Finding random dimensional with concentrated energy just lying around."
"That aside," Marvel Elric continued, "look at this." He pulled out something that looked like an aged parchment map, unrolling it to show the detailed cartography.
One Piece Elric's eyes lit up with surprise and something that might have been respect. "Oh! Did you finally decide to go out to sea? You lazy bastard, did you actually come to your senses now?"
"What are you talking about?" Marvel Elric replied defensively. "It has nothing to do with my laziness. I was just waiting for a merchant ship to drop by with a map of the East Blue. You know, being efficient."
One Piece Elric stared at him for a long moment, then burst out laughing. "Yeah, sure. You can fly at light speed, you can teleport across, you're literally one of the strongest beings in your entire world, and you're waiting for a fucking map?" He shook his head in disbelief. "Yeah, dude, live in your delusion. Keep telling yourself that."
"It's about proper preparation and—" he started to argue.
"It's about being lazy," Marvel Elric interrupted with a grin. "Just admit it. You didn't want to bother searching for the information yourself."
While they were still talking, trading insults and information in equal measure as only versions of the same person could, another white light flashed in the space.
When the light faded, it revealed a figure with brilliant red hair.
Naruto-verse Elric had arrived.
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