"SUPERGIANT!!!"
Before she even reached the battlefield, Hela had already roared the enemy's name.
At the same moment, over a thousand razor-sharp, hiltless longswords burst from the horizon, streaking straight toward the utterly unhinged Supergiant.
"Fuck you, Hela! Since when do you Asgardians play these damned scheming tricks?!"
Supergiant cursed furiously as she leaped away at high speed. Using her formidable psychic powers, she propelled herself through the air, weaving and dodging Hela's flying blades.
The Death Blades Hela wielded had no fixed form. Their nature was to rely on the death force Hela commanded, shapeshifting and dividing into whatever form she desired. In the Thor: Ragnarok film, one second the Death Blade was a long spike that slaughtered three hundred thousand Asgardian soldiers, the next it became a morning star that smashed open the palace treasure vault. A goddess's weapon gets to do whatever it wants.
Now, facing a Chitauri horde as dense as grassland, Hela chose the lawnmower mode best suited to chaotic battlefields.
She didn't chase after Supergiant. Instead, she descended swiftly near the Asgardian flagship. Then, this Princess of the Aesir put on a true display of what one could only call Unlimited Blade Works.
Countless blades materialized endlessly around her. In just a few short moments, a stunned Sigmund could count at least twenty thousand hiltless longswords.
The number was only the beginning of this technique. The slaughter was its true meaning.
Under Hela's control, those blades surged forward like a great river, rushing toward the Chitauri. Countless Asgardian soldiers locked in combat with the Chitauri suddenly found themselves with no enemies left.
Over twenty-three thousand war blades, in less than thirty seconds, cut down at least three hundred thousand Chitauri.
This feat robbed the legion commanders and berserkers of their very power of speech.
And this lawnmower-like scene, accompanied by an endless torrent of green blood that looked like every sewer pipe in Denver had burst at once, instantly made over thirty percent of Earth's viewers vomit.
Three hundred thousand Chitauri beheaded or pierced through the heart almost simultaneously. The sheer volume of blood was something no ordinary person could handle. Even Pepper, watching everything through the Iron Man armor at the Heisenberg Theater in New York. That poor woman threw up right inside the suit.
"Oh my God! Honey, are you pregnant? Is our daughter gestating right now?!"
Tony exclaimed in shock, his voice teasing, while helping his beloved out of the armor and cleaning up the mess.
Pepper, too weak from vomiting to muster any strength, could only feebly pinch the tender skin on his cheek three times to show her displeasure.
Once everything was cleaned up and he watched Pepper step into the bathroom, Tony sank back onto the sofa, his mind heavy with thoughts.
What the hell was this terrifying woman? Surely another god or whatever from Asgard, right?
Sif and the others had all appeared on Earth before, and Stark, who knew those files inside and out, was well aware they were Asgardians. But Stark never imagined an Asgardian's power could reach this level. Even Thor had only ever seemed like a guy with big muscles, tough to put down, and a pretty impressive hammer.
But this woman in the dark green battle robes.
Tony's gaze drifted involuntarily to the floor-to-ceiling windows. He looked outside at the courtyard embraced by flowers, birds, and trees. Finally, his eyes settled on the recliner beside the artificial pond at the courtyard's center.
Where on earth had Heisenberg gone?
About the blue light emitted when Heisenberg vanished, Tony had long since analyzed and cross-referenced the footage. So Tony knew it was energy released by the Tesseract. Meaning the escaped Loki had done something to Heisenberg. Could Heisenberg escape Loki's sinister scheme? Even if he returned, could he possibly be a match for that Asgardian woman?
Loki, oh Loki, you truly are a damned bastard.
No matter how much he cared about Pepper's safety right now, Tony wanted nothing more than to fly off to some unknown location and plant two good shoulder missiles right into the vanished Loki.
Wait. That's?!
"Loki! He appeared, together with Thor?!"
Tony, who had been monitoring the battlefield the entire time, stared blankly at the shoulder of his own suit a moment later. Should he really abandon Pepper to join the fight?
But the very next second, an even more important question hit him. The Loki who had taken Heisenberg away was back. But where was Heisenberg?
Tony finally gritted his teeth. The best possible outcome was that Heisenberg had been sent far away by Loki and couldn't make it back in time. And the worst possible outcome, naturally, was that Heisenberg had already.
Tony let out a long, quiet sigh, then grimly fastened his faceplate. If Heisenberg still couldn't return later, then he was afraid he and his beloved would have to bring whatever support they could muster to Earth.
···
Meanwhile, up in the sky above Denver.
Thor and Loki, who had hurried over following in Hela's wake, happened to catch the spectacular sight of Hela's one-woman lawnmower massacre. In that brief instant, Loki swallowed hard.
"This. Bro, you're sure she's your sister?"
"Damn it, she's our elder sister! Both of ours!"
"You're blood-related, but the gap between you two is way too huge!"
As his words fell, Thor. Thor just shook his head in shame and fury, casually tossing his insufferable little brother into the middle of the Chitauri horde. Loki let out a string of howls mid-air.
Boom! After the thunderous landing, dark sorcery burst forth in a flash. Once Loki used his magic to drive back the Chitauri surrounding him, he immediately threw himself into the professional work of slaughter.
And Thor, he was never one to wait. The very next second, he was spinning his unfaithful beloved hammer in the sky, summoning a dazzling thunderbolt to smash into the area where the Chitauri were most densely packed.
At the front of the Chitauri legion, Hela watched Thor up in the sky and shook her head with contempt. "I've never used such a primitive method to control a hammer, like this fool does. How exactly did Odin teach him?"
While speaking, Hela drew her blade and casually cut down over seventy Chitauri soldiers. She continued muttering with displeasure. "Truly, each generation is worse than the last."
"Hey, honored mighty one, I am Sif, Commander of the Asgardian Legions. Might I have the honor of knowing your name?"
Beside her, Sif eagerly approached Hela, gazing up at the goddess before her with utter admiration. In Sif's eyes, this dark-haired goddess, with hair just like her own, was so powerful it was utterly humbling.
Hela looked at Sif before her, pursed her lips, and shook her head with great displeasure. "I was imprisoned for a mere four thousand two hundred years, and already no one in Asgard remembers me, little girl?"
As she spoke, Hela's gaze swept into the distance, where her idiot hammer-wielding brother was currently charging straight at the Chitauri commander, Supergiant. As for Supergiant, her target wasn't Thor at all. It was Loki, surrounded and besieged among the crowd of soldiers.
"Hah."
Hela could clearly see the hatred burning in Supergiant's eyes for Loki, and it made her shake her head with displeasure once more. "It seems there is quite a story behind this battle. I truly wonder what kind of wretched state Asgard has fallen into now."
After saying this, Hela casually ruffled the hair of the little girl who so adored her and said to Sif, "Remember my name, young one. I am Hela, the new God-Queen of the Aesir."
With that, Hela released her grip and offered one final compliment to the stunned Sif. "Though you no longer know me, I like the way you look at me. Your name is Sif, correct? I will remember it. Your golden hair is very beautiful."
Then, Hela kicked off the ground and shot high into the air, soaring straight for Supergiant's position.
Once she was gone, a dazed Sif, all the while hacking approaching Chitauri to death, muttered to herself in confusion. "Another one who wants to be God-King. Why do all you new God-Kings like to ruffle other people's golden hair so much?"
Saying this, Sif suddenly froze. She abruptly reached behind her head, pulled a lock of her tied-up hair forward, and looked at it right in front of her eyes. Just for a moment.
"AHHHHHH!!!"
Accompanied by a shriek that filled countless Asgardians with apprehension, Sif, her face flushed bright red with excitement, brandished her longsword and carved a path through the Chitauri, who were left utterly bewildered.
"My hair's gone back to gold! AHHHH! I was almost getting used to black hair, and now Odin has shown. No! Long live God-King Heisenberg! My hair actually recovered! Damn it, I need to hurry up and slaughter these bastards so I can go find a mirror!"
Hearing Sif's ecstatic outburst, the legion commanders, along with the berserkers who secretly adored Sif but never dared confess, all let out a collective sigh of relief. Only now did they notice: the golden-haired warrior woman from a thousand years ago had reclaimed her proud golden hair. And this Sif. She was even more beautiful.
The Chitauri, however, who held a rather different opinion from the Asgardians, were just aggrieved. Why did you Aesir barbarians, whether furious or ecstatic, always have to take it out on us, damn it? Why was that?
···
At the same time, Supergiant had long since used her psychic powers to pin Loki firmly amid a pile of rubble, unable to move. Blue light blazed continuously from Loki's eyes. That was Supergiant's power attempting to break through his mental firewall and turn him into a complete puppet.
But as a professional mage, although Loki had never trained in excellent charging or dual-wielding heavy weapon techniques, his mental defenses were strong indeed. For the time being, Supergiant could not control him as she wished.
Just as he struggled, Thor's Mjolnir had already flown up behind Supergiant.
Supergiant gnashed her teeth, viciously stabbed a blade through Loki's heart, then spun away and dodged Mjolnir's attack.
"LOKI!!!"
Thor, right behind, bellowed the name, recalling his hammer and swinging it as he chased after Supergiant. But the impaled figure of Loki quickly faded, while the real him reappeared nearby, calling out a warning. "Don't worry about me. Worry about yourself. Supergiant's mind-control power is extremely strong."
"Relax! No matter how strong her illusions are, they're useless! I am a god!"
Seeing his brother alive, Thor responded exuberantly and charged in an instant right in front of the fleeing Supergiant.
Supergiant suddenly stopped. She merely turned and gave Thor a single look, then sped away from her original spot with a smile. What followed next. Well. Thor, his eyes now blazing with blue fire, turned around and charged straight at Hela, who was still chasing Supergiant.
"Hela, prepare to die!!!"
Accompanied by his roar, Hela, flying at low altitude, gritted her teeth and drew a sharp breath.
Shnk! With a crisp sound, Thor was once again pinned to the ground by a Death Blade, that razor-sharp war blade once again cruelly piercing through his waist.
"ARRGHHH!!!"
Listening to Thor's same old howl, Hela's breathing grew heavier.
Ever since she, the outstanding eldest daughter, was gone and could no longer set an example for her younger siblings. What kind of pathetic bunch of rejects had Odin raised?!
Letting these idiots live and thrive in Asgard. THIS was the real Ragnarok, wasn't it?
/-\
Enjoying the story? Want to read ahead?
Support the novel and unlock early access to unreleased chapters!
~ +20 Advanced Chapters Available on Patreon! (+1 Chapter daily)
https://p-atreon.com/Its_Zack
(Just remove the hyphen (-) to access Patreon normally)