"But... you are no match for him."
Before the throne, Frigga gazed calmly at Hela and spoke softly.
"The moment you place yourself in the position of a challenger, the moment you have already prepared yourself to die for it, you have already lost, Princess Hela!"
"Silence!"
At Frigga's counsel, Hela's brow furrowed. Her Blade of Death materialized right beside her hand.
She stood there bold and imposing, gripping the longsword with her right hand, then slammed its pommel hard against the ground.
Clang!
The空旷的仙宫大殿 abruptly echoed with an ancient, ritualistic ringing.
She lifted her hand and struck again. Hela struck the floor eight times in total.
The sound of weapon colliding with stone made countless commoners at work in the city glance over in worry.
"That sound..."
"Is there going to be another war?"
"Who is it this time? Prince Thor?"
"Doesn't seem like it. The one on the throne is a woman!"
"Never seen that woman before!"
"Can she win?"
"No idea. But why would she need to win?"
The commoners whispered among themselves. Meanwhile, Heisenberg floated in the air and murmured teasingly to Heimdall nearby.
"Look at that. The Princess of Asgard has finally made up her mind. Wait here for me. Once I've dealt with her, I'll come straight to you and learn how to operate the Bifrost."
"Yes, Your Majesty!"
Heimdall nodded respectfully, and the next instant, Heisenberg above his head vanished.
Thud!
A heavy landing echoed. Heisenberg had returned to the great hall of the royal palace.
He landed right beside Frigga and gave the Queen Mother a gentle nod.
"Go rest somewhere safe for a while, Frigga."
"Mm."
Frigga nodded as well, then gracefully walked out of the hall toward the gardens behind the palace.
After she left, Heisenberg looked toward the throne less than twenty meters ahead and sighed at Hela.
"Tsk tsk, has Her Highness the Princess finally made up her mind?"
"This requires no great resolution, Heisenberg. As the eldest princess of the Aesir royal family, I absolutely cannot tolerate the throne of the All-Father falling to an outsider!"
"Then what are you waiting for?"
Heisenberg asked with a smile, casually flexing both hands. The gesture made Hela, who had risen from the throne, frown with displeasure.
Shing!
The Blade of Death pointed straight at Heisenberg, and Hela's voice rang out in angry demand.
"You intend to face my challenge like this? Where is your armor? Where is your weapon? Are you mocking me?"
Heisenberg: (°_°)...
Listening to Hela's indignant words, Heisenberg rubbed his forehead wearily.
"I haven't had time to forge armor yet. This will do."
"Hmph. Though the palace has fallen into ruin, the vault still holds suff..."
"The vault still holds sufficient armor for me to choose from. I know. But I don't need it."
Heisenberg cut Hela off with exasperation, then added a light tease.
"When I dueled Odin, he asked me the exact same question and gave me the exact same suggestion. You two really are alike."
"We have always been alike!"
Hela stated with certainty. At the same time, she stepped down from the throne. Even as she spoke, her empty left hand swept from her forehead back through her black hair.
In the blink of an eye, Hela's long black hair transformed into a helmet resembling a menacing spider.
The sight made Heisenberg's brow furrow.
So what if she turned into a spider? Was she supposed to be some legendary spider-girl or something?
Meanwhile, Hela continued recounting tales of the past.
"In Asgard's golden age, he and I together spilled blood and tears across every inch of the Nine Realms. We invaded, we conquered. Even the universe's most precious secret treasures, the legacies of the Goddess of Infinity, the Infinity Stones! We even gathered five of them, and the sixth was within easy reach! But at that very moment, Odin betrayed me, and he betrayed the traditions of Asgard! He abandoned everything we once stood for and chose to become a benevolent emperor! Embracing virtue and harmony, comforting all living beings! What an utter joke!"
Boom!
Hela lunged forward, her longsword slicing straight for Heisenberg's neck.
But in that instant, all Hela saw was a flash of red light.
Heisenberg had already sidestepped her blade, reaching from behind her to seize the back of her neck with crushing force.
Bang!
A dull thud rang out as Hela's face was driven straight into the floor of the great hall by Heisenberg's hand.
And Heisenberg showed no mercy. While keeping one hand pinning Hela down, he actually pressed his knee onto her spine.
Hela lay there, shoved flat against the ground. No matter how she struggled, she could not break free from Heisenberg's now terrifying strength.
"Mmph mmph mmmph!"
The girl's face was mashed into shattered stone. Heaven knows what she was trying to snarl.
In the air not far away, thousands of hiltless war blades materialized out of thin air and shot toward Heisenberg, who still had Hela pinned.
Facing those blades, a crimson glow flared in Heisenberg's eyes. In a fleeting instant, his heat vision wildly swept across all the war blades, completely obliterating those projections, that unlimited blade works that was merely a shadow of the true Death Blades.
At the same time, Heisenberg's free left hand beckoned to his side, and Gungnir hurtled toward him at once.
Without the slightest mercy, he drove Gungnir straight through Hela's lower back into her lumbar spine. As he destroyed her lumbar vertebrae and robbed Hela of all control over her lower body, Gungnir nailed her even more firmly into the ground.
"Mmph! Mmmph!!"
Hela's muffled struggles suddenly intensified. Heisenberg felt the ground tremble beneath him.
In the next instant, razor-sharp stone spikes wreathed in the aura of death shot up from the earth and pierced toward Heisenberg.
Facing the incoming spikes, Heisenberg neither dodged nor evaded. He simply smashed his fist hard against the tips of the stone spikes. Though his knuckles sustained a tiny wound, the stone spikes that had just emerged shattered into gravel in the blink of an eye.
Even with her face buried in the rubble and unable to see a thing, Hela knew her surprise attack had failed.
She could only swallow her humiliation and pain and think of another way.
New stone spikes abruptly materialized. This time, the spikes stabbed straight toward Hela's own abdomen.
In the moment her abdomen was pierced by her own spikes, Hela finally left the ground and rose into the air.
But before she could even attempt to flee, Heisenberg tightened his grip fiercely around her neck.
At that moment, Heisenberg's muscles tensed violently, and the force he drove down upon Hela slammed her right back into the ground.
Boom!
The entire royal palace shook violently. Countless pillars collapsed in rapid succession. Even the dome, already damaged by Hela earlier, now showed signs of caving in.
The violent shockwave not only swept through the inner halls of the palace, it surged out beyond the palace walls, making the already shattered plaza of Asgard look even less like the realm of gods.
And poor Hela...
She remained in the same position as before, pinned hard against the ground by Heisenberg. He had even further secured Gungnir, which still impaled her lumbar spine, leaving her with absolutely no strength left to resist.
"Mmph! Mmmph!!"
It sounded like Hela was trying to say something again.
Heisenberg could only sigh in exasperation. Why did this woman have to overestimate herself so badly?
After awakening the Aesir Sun Rune on top of his original foundation, even Heisenberg himself had never tested just how powerful he truly was.
Struggling. Heisenberg could feel Hela struggling beneath his knee. Even though she had now lost the strength to move her legs, her hands still frantically tried to push herself up off the ground.
Unfortunately, in terms of pure brute strength, Heisenberg outmatched her by far. Combined with his constantly amassed bio-field, Hela fought against Heisenberg for over a full minute, yet she failed to lift him off her for even a single second.
After the prolonged contest of strength, Hela finally understood the gap between her and Heisenberg. She slumped limply there, and Heisenberg suddenly felt her resistance vanish.
But did this mean Hela had admitted defeat?
No.
"Mmph mmph mmph!"
Hela, still pinned down, abruptly stretched her right hand out to the side. She was calling for something, or rather, she was calling for some kind of power.
Now, at this moment when her own strength could not secure victory, even she needed outside help.
Heisenberg noticed the outstretched hand. Before he could figure out what Hela was doing, a howling sound came rushing from outside the palace.
In the next instant, Mjolnir tore straight through Heisenberg's bio-field and shot directly toward Hela's left hand.
Seeing this, Heisenberg froze.
"Mjolnir?!"
He exclaimed in surprise, then abruptly reached out with his free left hand. Intense solar flames blazed in his palm, and his hand, brimming with Aesir divine power, decisively snatched the incoming Mjolnir out of the air before Hela could reach it.
"Mmph mmph mmph!!!"
At that moment, Hela, her face still mashed into the dirt, struggled with renewed ferocity.
And Mjolnir, now in Heisenberg's grasp, also began thrashing madly.
Seeing this, Heisenberg pursed his lips. He raised Mjolnir and brought it crashing straight down onto the back of Hela's skull.
Boom!
The first hammer blow made the great hall shudder violently.
Boom!
The second hammer blow sent the entire hall, centered around Hela, surging wildly like the surface of a lake after a grenade was thrown in.
Boom!
The final hammer blow. This strike was so brutal that even the impossibly durable Mjolnir now bore the imprint of Hela's strands of hair.
And after this blow smashed down, the entire majestic palace erupted outward as if struck by a nuclear bomb.
The dome collapsed instantly, falling straight toward Heisenberg. Heisenberg simply scooped up Hela and shot straight into the sky.
Before Hela could even regain consciousness, Heisenberg flew all the way out of the palace grounds and once again slammed her hard into the ground.
One blow, another blow, then another.
He did not stop until the spider-like helmet on Hela's head transformed back into smooth, flowing hair.
"Hah..."
Heisenberg let out a soft sigh. "Done and dusted."
As he spoke, he casually tossed Mjolnir aside.
And the eldest princess Hela, still sprawled on the ground with her head buried in the dirt... Heisenberg peered through the dirt with his super vision at her buried face.
Unconscious, eyes rolled back. Kind of cute, really...
At this, Heisenberg nodded in satisfaction, then left Hela where she lay and paid her no further mind. He walked away, passing through the reverent and fearful gazes of countless Asgardians, and headed toward Heimdall, who was quietly waiting near the War Academy.
Victory came without any surprises. Everything seemed to be proceeding in perfect order.
Except...
...
Midgard. Thor, who had long since broken free of Supergiant's control, was fighting alongside his brother, mixed in with the Asgardian legions, hunting down the surviving Chitauri who were fleeing for their lives.
He had thought he could drown the pain in his heart through ceaseless slaughter.
He had thought he could use the deaths of the Chitauri and yet another victory for Asgard to dull the longing he felt for his father.
But in the next second, feeling Mjolnir vibrating violently in his hand, Thor froze in utter shock.
"What the hell?"
He muttered instinctively, and then his hammer simply left him.
Mjolnir shot into the sky without a shred of hesitation and vanished completely.
And Thor, now without his hammer, immediately plummeted from the sky toward the ground.
But Thor made no move to protect himself. He simply crashed into the earth, his face filled with utter desolation.
In that moment, it seemed the entire battlefield could hear Thor's howl of despair.
"No! No, no, no!"
/-\
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