Leaving the Bifrost and stepping onto the Asgard continent, the cruel scent of war rushed toward them.
The once resplendent, neat, and solemn Asgard complex was now engulfed in flames in many areas; exquisite carvings were broken, and the smooth walls were covered in scorch marks and frost.
The air echoed with the clang of weapons clashing, the roar of energy explosions, the roars of warriors, and the groans of the wounded.
Pale gold and ghostly blue bloodstains painted shocking patterns across the streets and squares.
Thor took the lead, with mjolnir paving the way.
Any Frost Giant that blocked his path, regardless of size, was blown away or shattered by the thunderous strikes he swung in his rage.
He was burning with anxiety, his goal clear—the main hall of the Golden Palace, where Odin slumbered and Frigga kept watch.
Artoria and Minerva followed closely behind.
Artoria had reined in her released magic, maintaining only basic physical enhancement and keen perception, and the golden magic longsword in her hand had dissipated.
Her breathing was slightly labored, and there was a light sweat on her forehead; the drain from repairing Minerva had not yet fully recovered, and the continuous strenuous exercise and tense environment made her feel exhausted.
But her eyes remained calm, her pace steady, precisely following along the side of the path Thor had carved out, avoiding stray arrows and sporadic magic aftershocks.
Minerva was like the most loyal Shadow, always keeping half a step to Artoria's side, able to guard her at any time without hindering Thor's charge.
Her optical sensor scanned the surrounding environment at high speed, evaluating every piece of cover, every fork in the road, and every potential threat.
Although she had no weapon in hand, that calm, murderous demeanor was enough to make any enemy with even a modicum of intelligence feel wary.
Along the way, they encountered many Asgardian warriors still resisting.
These well-trained Asgard guards, clad in golden armor, were relying on buildings and remaining fortifications to fight bloody battles against Frost Giants that outnumbered them several times over.
Seeing Thor return, especially seeing the dazzling power of Thor surrounding him and mjolnir held high in his hand, the guards burst into earth-shaking cheers, their morale greatly boosted.
"It's Your Highness Thor! Thor has returned!"
"Your Highness! The main entrance of the Golden Palace is being besieged by the main force of the giants! Her Majesty the Queen is inside!"
Thor roared in response: "Hold on! Warriors of Asgard! Follow me to fight back to the Golden Palace and drive these invaders back to the ice caves of Frost Giants Realm!"
He no longer charged alone but acted like the tip of an arrowhead, leading the Asgardian soldiers gathering along the way to form an unstoppable torrent, crushing toward the Golden Palace.
Artoria and Minerva naturally merged into this torrent.
Minerva even grabbed a fairly intact frost battle-axe from a fallen Frost Giant; after weighing it, she used it as a temporary weapon, swinging it with such force that it easily cleaved through several giants attempting to sneak attack from the flank.
The closer they got to the Golden Palace, the fiercer the resistance became, and the more Frost Giants appeared, among which began to appear elite individuals with better equipment, larger bodies, and stronger magic fluctuations.
The battle became increasingly brutal.
Finally, they charged to the last square on the perimeter of the Golden Palace.
The scene before them made everyone gasp.
The magnificent main hall of the Golden Palace was right ahead, but its towering, tens-of-meters-high main entrance and the huge square in front of it had now turned into a meat grinder.
Hundreds of Frost Giants, led by several exceptionally tall leaders clad in rough but heavy bone armor and wielding giant rune weapons, were surging like a tide against the main gate of the Golden Palace.
The defensive magic array of the Golden Palace itself was clearly still running, with a layer of pale gold energy barrier covering the gate and the surrounding area.
However, the barrier was covered in cracks, its light flickering, clearly in jeopardy under the giants' continuous fierce attacks and the erosion of frost magic.
Hundreds of the most elite Asgard guards, under the command of the Golden Palace guard captain, were relying on the remaining barrier and temporarily constructed defensive lines to hold their ground firmly in front of the gate.
They formed a tight shield wall, spears like a forest, engaging in bloody hand-to-hand combat with the continuously surging giants.
magic arrows and energy beams shot from behind the defensive line and the towers on both sides, falling into the crowd of giants, exploding into clumps of ice shards and blood, but the number of giants was simply too great, and the defensive line was being compressed and eroded step by step.
What was even more heart-wrenching was that in the center of the battlefield, near the weakest part of the barrier, an elegant yet firm figure was holding a longsword shimmering with the brilliance of the silver moon, alone facing the siege of three Frost Giant leaders!
It was Her Majesty the Queen Frigga!
She was not wearing heavy armor, just a simple white dress, but her movements were as swift as lightning, her swordsmanship exquisite and peerless.
Silver moon-like magic flowed on the tip of her sword, and every swing carried the power of purification and cutting, actually managing to temporarily force back the three powerful giant leaders, guarding the node of the barrier behind her.
But she had clearly been fighting for a long time; her breathing was a bit unstable, and there were beads of sweat on her forehead.
Supporting three strong enemies alone, she was in constant danger.
"Mother!" Thor's eyes were splitting with rage, and he roared, ignoring everything else.
The lightning around him surged to the extreme, and like a humanoid lightning meteor, he slammed into the densest area of the giants!
Wherever mjolnir passed, thunder swept, and the giants fell in rows like harvested wheat, forcibly plowing a charred path through the tidal enemy formation, straight toward where Frigga was!
"It's Your Highness Thor!"
"Your Highness and the reinforcements have arrived! Charge!"
The Asgardian defenders' morale was greatly boosted, erupting in an even fiercer counterattack.
Artoria and Minerva were also drawn into the melee.
Thor's assault attracted a lot of firepower, but many giants still noticed the two "soft persimmons" following closely behind.
"Midgard bugs! You dare to step onto the battlefield of the Divine Realm?" An elite Frost Giant wielding a double-bladed battle-axe grinned and blocked Artoria's path.
The battle-axe swung down with a shrill whistle, the blade wreathed in a chill that froze the soul.
Artoria took a deep breath, suppressing her fatigue.
She didn't take the blow head-on; her footwork changed, and her figure drifted away like a fallen leaf in the wind, following the airflow brought by the axe blade.
At the same time, her right hand swept across her waist—a standard Asgardian longsword, which she had picked up when passing by a weapon rack earlier, was already unsheathed.
The sword body was silver-white, engraved with simple Rune symbols; it felt slightly heavy in the hand, but was exceptionally handy.
"Ding!" The sword edge lightly parried the side of the battle-axe, not blocking it hard, but cleverly deflecting the trajectory of the axe blade.
The giant had immense strength, but its moves were straightforward.
Artoria used the force to spin, the silver-white longsword following the momentum to draw a cold arc, thrusting directly at the giant's armpit exposed by the axe swing—there was a tiny gap at the connection point of the bone armor there.
"Ssh-la!" The sword tip precisely pierced into the gap.
Although it failed to penetrate deeply, the contained penetrating magic and the sword's own Rune armor-piercing effect still made the giant roar in pain, its movements stalling.
Artoria did not linger in the fight, pulling her sword back and retreating rapidly to avoid the giant's angry backhand sweep.
Her fighting style became extremely efficient and economical; she never contended with the giants' strength, instead using her extraordinary combat intuition and exquisite swordsmanship to weave through the gaps in the giants' attacks.
Every strike targeted weak points like joints, armor seams, and energy nodes—though not fatal, it was enough to make the giants endlessly annoyed as their injuries accumulated.
On the other side, Minerva's fighting style was more direct and violent.
She brandished the stolen frost battle-axe, but her movements lacked the clumsiness of the giants; instead, she used the heavy weapon with the precision and swiftness of a short blade.
She didn't use any fancy techniques, just the simplest hacking, slashing, sweeping, and smashing, but every strike contained the terrifying power of her non-human body and perfect force-application skills.
Almost no ordinary Frost Giant could take a full-force axe blow from her, often ending up smashed to pieces along with their weapons.
Even elite giants appeared flustered in the face of her ferocious offensive and ghostly speed.
She was like a silver God of Death on the battlefield, efficiently clearing away any enemy attempting to approach Artoria or break through the defensive line.
With the addition of Thor's fresh troops, as well as the diversion and clearing by Artoria and Minerva on the flanks, the precarious defensive line at the main gate of the Golden Palace finally stabilized and even began to slowly push forward.
Thor had already rushed to Frigga's side, mjolnir carrying the thunder of ten thousand tons, smashing fiercely toward a giant leader who was punching and violently attacking Frigga!
"Get lost!"
"Boom!" The violent collision of thunder and ice!
The giant leader screamed as he was blasted away, his chest charred black, his ice armor shattered.
"Mother! Are you okay?" Thor stood in front of Frigga and asked urgently.
"I'm fine, Thor." Seeing her son return, Frigga's eyes flashed with relief and a sense of being unburdened, but it was immediately replaced by worry.
"Your father, he..."
"I know! Let's deal with this scum first!" Thor interrupted his mother, his gaze like lightning, scanning the other two shocked and angry giant leaders, and further away, the Frost Giant surrounded by numerous giants, the largest of them all, holding a giant scepter that seemed to be carved from ten-thousand-year-old ice, exuding monstrous cold might and the aura of a king—the King of Frost Giants Realm, Laufey!
"Laufey!" Thor roared, his voice shaking the entire scene.
"You dare to invade Asgard and harm my family! Today, I will make you pay in blood!"
Laufey's ice-crystal-like eyes coldly scanned Thor, then glanced at Artoria and Minerva who were entangled with giants on the edge of the battlefield.
A trace of imperceptible doubt flashed in his eyes, but it was mostly a condescending coldness and killing intent.
"Son of Odin, you have returned, just in time." Laufey's voice was like grinding glaciers, cold and majestic.
"It saves me from having to go find you. The throne of Asgard should change hands. As for you... and your helpers, just be buried here."
He slowly raised the frost scepter in his hand, and the huge ice crystal at the top of the scepter erupted with a brilliant ghostly blue light!
An extreme cold domain, far more terrifying than any Frost Giant before, suddenly spread out with him at the center!
The air was instantly frozen, and goose-feather-like ice crystal snowflakes began to drift.
The ground was quickly covered with thick, slippery hard ice, and even the armor and weapons of the Asgardian soldiers began to condense frost, their movements becoming sluggish.
"Frozen Throne!"
"Careful! It's Laufey's extreme cold domain!" Frigga reminded urgently, her silver moon magic blooming, attempting to disperse the cold air around her, but the effect was limited.
Thunder roared around Thor, barely resisting the erosion of the cold, but his movements were also obviously affected.
The ordinary Asgardian soldiers were even worse off; many were instantly frozen stiff and then easily killed by the giants.
Artoria also felt the biting cold drilling madly into her bone marrow; the longsword in her hand became ice-cold and sticky, her movements becoming increasingly sluggish.
The magic in her body accelerated to resist, but the consumption intensified.
A layer of white frost covered Minerva's body, and the output of her energy core seemed to be slightly affected by the low temperature.
Laufey's extreme cold domain instantly changed the situation of the battlefield!
The Frost Giants were in their element, moving even more swiftly on the ice, their offensive becoming fiercer.
Meanwhile, the Asgardian side fell into a passive position.
"Must interrupt him!" Thor roared, forcibly invoking his divine power to rush toward Laufey, but the ice under his feet was slippery, his speed greatly reduced, and he had to face the interception of numerous elite giants around Laufey.
Laufey sneered, pointed his scepter again, and several incomparably thick frost chains condensed out of thin air, coiling toward Thor like venomous snakes!
At the same time, the several giant leaders around him also roared and charged up.
The battle situation seemed to be sliding toward an unfavorable direction again.
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