"Mavuika, the Sun Goddess?" Ronan's pupils contracted.
He naturally knew that name; in the Kree Empire's oldest war archives, and within the fragmented scrolls describing ancient conflicts, Asgard's sun goddess was an existence on par with the All-Father Odin.
Legend says she single-handedly incinerated Surtur the Fire Giant's entire fleet during the "Conquest of Muspelheim," and used her incarnation as a blazing Sun to bring the dead back to life during the "Dark Elf War."
But those were legends from thousands of years ago.
The Kree Empire's textbooks claimed that Asgard had declined and that the protection of the Nine Realms had become empty talk.
They thought that Earth, as the most backward "Midgard" of the Nine Realms, would not attract attention, but now...
"My Lord, what should we do?" The adjutant was already drenched in cold sweat. "Should we retreat?"
Ronan was locked in an internal struggle.
Retreat? He, Ronan the Accuser, the youngest fleet Commander of the Kree Empire and a future contender for a seat in the Supreme Intelligence, scared off by a single sentence from a woman?
If word of this reached Hala, his political career would be over.
But a direct confrontation... He looked at the woman standing quietly in the Akasha outside the window; she hadn't even assumed a combat stance, just stood there as if it were only natural for the Sun to hang in the sky.
That composure, that absolute confidence, made Ronan instinctively feel the danger.
Ambition finally overrode caution. Ronan took a deep breath, opened the fleet-wide broadcast, and responded in Kree, knowing she would surely understand.
"Messenger of Asgard, we have no intention of offending the territories of the Nine Realms, but the Kree Empire has internal affairs to handle. Traitors have stolen important imperial assets and fled to this sector. This is an internal matter of the Kree Empire, and Asgard has no right to interfere."
He attempted to gain the initiative with diplomatic rhetoric while secretly ordering, "All ships, charge main cannons, lock onto that... lifeform. Shields at full power, prepare for battle."
The bow cannons of the four Kree warships began to glow with blue light, the hum of gathering energy palpable even through the hull.
The shield generators ran at full power, forming translucent energy barriers around the warships.
"Is that so?" Mavuika smiled after hearing Ronan's words.
The Kree Empire was considered a rising power in the Universe, but on Asgard's timescale, it was merely a child who had just learned to walk.
She spoke no more.
She extended her right hand, palm upward.
A cluster of golden fire ignited out of thin air. At first, it was only the size of a fist, but in the next second, the flames surged, transforming in an instant into a massive flaming greatsword hundreds of meters long!
The sword was composed purely of energy, its blade flowing with a luster like molten gold. The space around the edge distorted slightly; the extreme heat caused thin, volatile substances to rise from the surface of the distant Moon.
The sword's length even exceeded that of the Kree warships. It burned quietly in the Akasha, emitting light and heat that sent all sensors off the charts.
Ronan's breath hitched. He had seen energy weapons—ion cannons, phase cannons—but he had never seen such a pure, such a massive form of destruction.
She gripped that Solar Blade and gave her wrist a light flick. The hundreds-of-meters-long flaming greatsword, carrying world-ending power, slashed down toward the warship.
The movement appeared slow, elegant, and even somewhat casual.
The moment the tip of the sword touched the shield of the nearest Kree warship, a blinding flash of golden light erupted.
That Kree warship's composite energy shield, claimed to be capable of withstanding small meteor impacts, shattered silently like a soap bubble.
Immediately after, the blade contacted the hull. The hardened Kree Alloy armor was as fragile as rice paper before the solar fire, and was smoothly sliced in two.
The cut vaporized instantly, the metal melting into a glowing jet that bloomed into a brief, gold-red flower in the vacuum.
The air, equipment, and personnel inside the ship were all vaporized within a ten-thousandth of a second.
The warship's core power cell was instantly detonated. A pale blue energy explosion ignited a brilliant flare in the pitch-black space, which then quickly extinguished.
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