(Marvel, DC, and all other images, manga, manhwa, anime, and intellectual properties referenced in this story belong to their respective owners. The main character, Karito/Adriel Josue Valdez, and this story's original elements belong to me.)
Gorr lunged.
Thor moved with him.
Adriel met All-Black while Ace's Haki-covered fist collided with Mjolnir. Darkness, lightning, cosmic fire, and bioelectricity erupted between the four of them.
The philosophical distance separating them had vanished.
Only the battle remained.
Gorr moved first.
His body collapsed into a mote of black light and crossed the distance before the sound of his departure could follow.
All-Black swept horizontally toward Adriel's neck.
Adriel dropped beneath the blade.
The Necrosword passed above him without touching his body, yet the space behind Adriel split open. A perfectly straight incision appeared in reality, revealing an empty darkness beneath the world as the two sides of the fracture slowly peeled apart.
Adriel drove his fist into Gorr's jaw.
The God Butcher staggered backward.
Without taking his eyes off him, Adriel reached toward the dimensional wound with his free hand. His fingers caught both edges of the severed space.
Then he pulled them together.
Reality closed beneath his hand like the teeth of a zipper. Blue code traveled along the fracture as Adriel dragged his fingers across it, sealing the opening with the same casual motion someone might use to close a plastic storage bag.
Gorr stared at the repaired space.
For the briefest fraction of a second, he looked genuinely baffled.
The entire exchange had lasted less than a microsecond.
Ace barely registered that either of them had moved before Mjolnir flew toward his face.
He ducked.
The hammer passed over his head and continued several hundred feet before curving back toward Thor.
Ace sensed its return through his Observation Haki.
He threw himself into a sideways flip as Mjolnir crossed the space his ribs had occupied. While rotating, Ace extended one hand and released a concentrated stream of cosmic fire toward Thor.
The corrupted Thunder God shifted around it.
The blast missed his shoulder and continued into the ruins, where it carved a glowing tunnel through several buildings.
Thor caught Mjolnir and charged.
This time, Ace was ready for the tackle.
He waited until Thor extended both arms, then stepped off the centerline. The Thunder God passed beside him, close enough for black lightning to crawl across Ace's skin.
Ace caught Thor by the ankle.
He turned with the remaining momentum and swung Thor downward.
The God of Thunder struck the ground beside Adriel.
Stone folded around his body.
Adriel raised one foot and drove it into Thor's face before he could recover.
The stomp buried Thor deeper.
The earth compressed beneath his skull and then collapsed across the surrounding district. Streets shifted, ruins tilted, and an entire section of terrain sank several feet as though the region had been violently terraformed around the impact.
Gorr recovered from Adriel's punch and thrust All-Black toward his chest.
Adriel pivoted outside the stab.
Toxin reinforced his hand as he caught the Necrosword near its handle and redirected the point past his ribs. His other hand closed around Gorr's throat.
Ace immediately recognized the opening.
He kicked the side of Gorr's knee.
The joint buckled, forcing the God Butcher forward. Adriel turned with him and drove the back of Gorr's head into the ground.
Ace brought both hands together above his own head.
Cosmic flames gathered between his palms, concentrating into a mass of burning darkness. He swung his joined fists downward like a hammer and struck Gorr directly in the forehead.
The earth erupted.
A column of cosmic fire blasted through the ground with the violence of a supervolcano. The ruined district disappeared beneath an expanding ring of molten stone, pressure, and flame.
The explosion launched Gorr into the sky.
Adriel followed first.
Ace shot after him.
Thor burst from the crater a moment later, black lightning propelling him behind the other three.
Their coordinated battle left the surface and became a chase through the clouds.
Gorr twisted in midair and swung All-Black behind him.
The Necrosword cut across Ace's back.
Blood and cosmic fire sprayed from the wound. Ace's body arched as pain tore from one shoulder to the opposite side of his waist.
Gorr raised the blade for another strike.
Adriel tackled him before it could fall.
Both of them disappeared through a nearby cloud bank.
Thor arrived behind Adriel and brought Mjolnir down against the back of his head.
The hammer connected with a heavy crack.
Adriel's vision flashed white. He winced, turned with the blow, and backhanded Thor across the jaw.
The God of Thunder's head snapped sideways.
Thor used that same rotation to swing Mjolnir back across Adriel's face.
The hammer struck his cheek and launched him away from Gorr.
Ace stabilized himself despite the burning wound across his back. He extended both hands toward the two Darks.
Cosmic energy surged from his palms.
The blast caught Gorr and Thor together, swallowing both beneath a roaring mass of dark fire. Ace closed his fingers and twisted his wrist as though turning a switch.
The energy inverted.
Then it exploded.
A sphere of cosmic flame expanded across the sky, scattering the clouds and illuminating both Piltover and Zaun beneath it.
Adriel recovered outside the blast radius.
This fight had already continued for too long.
The Omniversal Engine remained active beneath the city. Every second spent exchanging blows allowed more realities to be dragged into its unstable network.
They needed to end this.
Now.
Adriel steadied himself and reactivated his Hacker ability.
Blue command windows opened around his body while Toxin continued repairing the damage to his suit.
Ace flew toward him, one hand reaching for the bleeding cut across his back.
"What's the plan?"
"Erase them."
Ace glanced toward the burning sphere.
"You can do that?"
"They're stronger than the command expected. I need a few more seconds to compile something they can't resist."
Simple instructions appeared around Adriel.
Ace nodded.
"All right. I'll buy you the time."
He turned toward the explosion.
Gorr was already gone.
Ace's Observation Haki warned him, but not quickly enough.
The God Butcher appeared between them with such speed that he seemed to have teleported.
All-Black pierced Adriel's chest.
The blade passed through Toxin, flesh, and bone before emerging from his back.
Adriel gasped.
At the same moment, Gorr's free hand closed around Ace's throat.
Then the God Butcher descended.
He dragged both Guardians toward the ground while Thor remained in the sky above them. The Thunder God raised Mjolnir and began gathering energy around its head, apparently preparing an attack of his own.
The three figures struck the ruins below.
Gorr drove the Necrosword through Adriel and into the earth, pinning him beneath the blade. Cracks spread from the impact as All-Black extended deeper underground like a living anchor.
Adriel grasped the weapon but did not immediately pull it free.
His Hacker interface remained active.
The command was still compiling.
Gorr released Ace and turned toward him.
Ace raked one hand upward.
Four claw-like arcs of cosmic flame tore through the air toward Gorr.
The God Butcher slipped between them. One passed beside his head, another beneath his arm, while the final two carved trenches through the ground behind him.
Gorr planted his foot in Ace's stomach.
The front kick folded Ace around his leg and launched him into a ruined building.
Ace crashed through the outer wall.
The remaining structure collapsed on top of him, burying him beneath several floors of stone and metal.
Gorr turned away.
Adriel remained pinned where he had fallen. Blue code rotated around his fingers, his attention divided between the Necrosword in his chest and the erasure command approaching completion.
Gorr raised All-Black, intending to drive it through him a second time.
The building behind him exploded.
Cosmic fire blasted the rubble away from Ace in every direction. He emerged from the wreckage and saw Gorr standing over Adriel.
Ace extended two fingers in the shape of a gun.
A tiny flame appeared at his fingertip.
He fired.
The concentrated bolt struck the side of Gorr's head with far more force than its size suggested. The God Butcher's face snapped sideways, and he staggered away from Adriel.
He barely had time to refocus.
Both of Ace's boots filled his vision.
The dropkick struck Gorr across the face.
Ace drove through him, sending the God Butcher across the ruins and into the side of a distant mountain. The mountain folded inward around Gorr before its upper half collapsed.
Ace landed beside Adriel.
Together, they pulled the Necrosword from his chest.
The moment the blade cleared his body, it lost its solid form. All-Black liquefied between their hands, flowed across the ground, and disappeared toward the mountain where its owner had landed.
The hole in Adriel's chest remained.
Toxin closed the damaged suit over it, but the flesh beneath refused to heal.
Ace reached down with his good hand.
"Come on."
Adriel accepted it and rose unsteadily.
Pain burned across Ace's back as he pulled him upright. The sensation was far worse than the original cut should have caused.
He looked toward his left hand.
Black veins had appeared beneath the skin.
They extended from his wrist to his forearm, spreading upward with every heartbeat.
Ace's expression changed.
"What the hell is that?"
Adriel moved behind him and examined the cut across his back. The wound had darkened. Thin strands of living blackness spread from it across Ace's left shoulder and down his arm.
Gorr had not merely cut him.
He had infected him.
Adriel looked at the puncture in his own chest. Similar corruption attempted to spread beneath his skin, but Toxin consumed every tendril that reached the surface. His adaptive resistance attacked the rest from within, preventing the infection from advancing beyond the wound.
Ace possessed neither defense.
"This isn't the original Necrosword anymore," Adriel said.
Ace looked toward the ruined mountain.
"The Darks modified it?"
"With their own essence. They made All-Black more effective against Guardians."
Ace flexed his left hand.
The response came slower than it should have.
His gaze moved toward Thor.
Black veins covered the Thunder God's body. Dark liquid continued bleeding from his eyes and mouth while All-Black's corruption twisted his lightning into something unnatural.
Ace understood immediately.
"If we don't remove this…"
"You become like him."
Neither of them needed to say anything else.
Gorr had to die.
And he had to die now.
A soft chime sounded beside Adriel.
His command had finished compiling.
Adriel closed his fingers around the completed program. Blue symbols wrapped around his hand before sinking beneath Toxin's surface.
He finally possessed a command powerful enough to erase both enemies from the story.
Unfortunately, Thor had finished preparing something too.
The God of Thunder remained high above the battlefield, surrounded by a storm that covered the entire sky. He held Mjolnir before his body while divine energy compressed around the hammer.
Lightning from every cloud converged upon him.
Space began curving toward the weapon.
Adriel recognized the stance.
His eyes widened.
"Oh, fuck."
Ace looked upward.
"What?"
"He's charging the God Blast."
The passive knowledge carried by Ace's Guardian abilities responded immediately.
Information entered his mind all at once.
The God Blast.
Thor's strongest attack. A concentration of divine life-force capable of harming—or even killing—entities on the level of Galactus and beyond.
This version was being amplified by All-Black, Dark essence, and the same narrative corruption empowering the Omniversal Engine.
If Thor released it at full strength, it would not merely destroy Piltover.
It could erase both Guardians completely.
"We need to stop him," Ace said.
They prepared to launch.
The ruined mountain exploded.
Gorr emerged from the debris and landed between them and Thor.
All-Black had returned to his hand. The Necrosword expanded with his rage, growing from a blade into a mass of sharpened darkness almost as tall as the surrounding ruins.
Gorr's composure was gone.
His face twisted with fury as he pointed the weapon toward Adriel.
"You do not understand, Guardian!"
His voice shook the broken city.
"All authors must die!"
Thor's God Blast continued growing behind him.
Adriel's erasure command burned within his hand.
Ace's corruption spread another inch along his arm.
Neither Guardian answered.
They moved together.
Adriel became a streak of blue electricity and crimson biomass. Ace followed beside him as cosmic fire erupted from his body.
Gorr roared and charged to meet them.
The three fighters collided beneath the gathering God Blast.
Adriel's hand transformed into a crimson blade and met All-Black head-on. The impact folded the surrounding space, bending the ruined skyline toward them as if the city had been reflected across a curved mirror.
Gorr snarled into Adriel's face.
All-Black erupted from his back.
Dozens of dark tendrils spread around Adriel before sharpening into spears. They converged upon him from every direction, each one aimed at a different vital organ.
Adriel looked at them.
That was all.
The Void power he had stolen from Death Seed Sentry responded to his glare. A pressure deeper than darkness itself settled over the tendrils.
Every one of them stopped.
Their sharpened points hung inches from Adriel's body, trembling as Gorr attempted to force them closer. The Void rejected his control, holding All-Black's extensions in place as though they had been nailed to the air.
Gorr's expression twisted with frustration.
Every time he believed he understood Adriel's abilities, the Guardian produced another power capable of invalidating his attack.
So Gorr abandoned the tendrils.
A portion of All-Black peeled from his body and formed a perfect duplicate beside him. The clone appeared at Adriel's exposed side and thrust its blade toward his liver.
Ace intercepted it.
His foot struck the flat of the weapon, knocking its point away from Adriel. Ace continued through the motion and spun, driving a roundhouse kick across the clone's head.
The duplicate crashed into the ground.
Cosmic fire detonated from Ace's heel on impact, destroying the clone and the street beneath it in the same explosion.
Ace turned toward the real Gorr and swung a backhand at his jaw.
His own shadow moved first.
Black tendrils emerged from beneath Ace's feet and stabbed through his left thigh. One entered through the outer muscle and burst from the opposite side, while another wrapped around the bone.
Ace grunted and stopped mid-swing.
Gorr disappeared.
Space folded behind Adriel as the God Butcher reappeared with All-Black already moving toward the back of his neck.
Adriel sensed the distortion.
He jumped into the warped space Gorr had left behind.
The Guardian vanished through the same dimensional fold without teleporting himself. He merely entered the wound before it could close and allowed Gorr's movement to drag him through.
Gorr's blade cut through empty air.
His eyes widened.
Adriel emerged behind him.
The God Butcher spun immediately, sweeping All-Black through the place he expected Adriel's body to appear. He anticipated a stab.
Adriel went beneath the blade and tackled him around the waist.
Both of them struck the ground.
Toxin spread from Adriel's body the moment they landed. Thick tendrils wrapped around Gorr's wrists, shoulders, waist, and legs before driving into the earth. Adriel mounted the God Butcher's chest and forced one hand against his throat.
Blue code ignited around his other palm.
The completed erasure command entered Gorr's body.
The God Butcher screamed.
Fragments of his existence began separating from him as pale particles. The process did not merely damage his flesh. It reached beneath the physical body and started deleting his place within the story.
Adriel looked toward Ace.
"Stop Thor! Now!"
Ace ripped the tendrils from his thigh.
Blood poured from the holes, but he ignored it. Every trace of Speed Force energy available to him joined the cosmic flames erupting from his body.
He launched himself toward the sky.
Thor remained only a short distance away, but the God Blast gathering around Mjolnir had already become brighter than the sun.
Beneath him, Gorr felt his connection to the narrative beginning to disappear.
His crusade could not end here.
Not within the wreckage of some insignificant verse. Not before the season in which his true war had been meant to begin. Certainly not at the hands of two Guardians when the others had not even arrived.
Only two of them had pushed him this far.
If Thor failed to release the God Blast and erase everyone at once, then everything Gorr had prepared would die with him.
Gorr glared up at Adriel.
"You have proven yourself, Guardian."
More particles separated from his face.
"But my crusade cannot end here."
All-Black consumed him.
Gorr's body turned black and lost its shape. Flesh, armor, and bone dissolved into the Necrosword until the man and weapon became indistinguishable.
The darkness beneath Adriel rippled.
Then every part of it produced a spike.
Hundreds of blades erupted simultaneously.
Adriel managed to tilt his head slightly.
It saved nothing.
The spikes penetrated his entire body.
They passed through his arms, legs, chest, stomach, shoulders, hands, and feet. Several entered beneath his ribs and tore through his lungs. Others pierced his liver, kidneys, and spine.
More than twenty struck his face and neck alone.
One passed through his throat.
Another severed his jugular.
A spike entered beneath his jaw and emerged through his cheek. Another destroyed one eye and continued into his skull. One penetrated his temple and drove directly through his brain.
The attack happened too quickly for Adriel to scream.
His body simply stopped.
Blood streamed from his mouth, nose, ears, ruined eye, and the countless openings spread across his flesh. Toxin attempted to close the wounds, but Dark essence traveled through every spike and poisoned the symbiote's regeneration.
Adriel's grip loosened.
Gorr shot upward in his liquid form, carrying the impaled Guardian with him.
Agony flooded every part of Adriel's consciousness. The Necrosword's corruption entered his blood, nervous system, soul, and the code supporting his existence.
It should have driven him insane instantly.
Adriel refused.
He had survived too much to lose because Gorr produced one more bullshit transformation.
His Hacker ability activated through the pain.
A command appeared within his damaged vision.
Adriel squeezed his remaining eye shut.
"Override."
The command changed.
Reality obeyed.
Gorr's liquid body seized around him.
The darkness was forced back into flesh. Limbs formed. A torso emerged. All-Black compressed around Gorr as the God Butcher became physical again against his will.
The spikes withdrew from Adriel's body as Gorr's shape returned.
Gorr stared at him in disbelief.
Then his hand closed around Adriel's ruined throat.
"How are you still standing?"
Adriel hung within his grasp, blood pouring down Toxin's surface.
"My sword has pierced you a thousand times. The corruption within your body should have reduced your mind to something worse than Thor."
Gorr drove his fist into Adriel's face.
The blow fractured his cheek and widened the slash already crossing it. His healing factor attempted to respond, but the corruption strangled the process before it could begin.
Adriel's head lowered.
Gorr mistook that for weakness.
Adriel looked back up.
"Fuck you."
His blood-filled voice barely resembled speech.
"Fuck you!"
Toxin wrapped around Adriel's hand as he grabbed Gorr by the throat.
"I am so fucking tired of every single one of you!"
His fingers tightened.
The erasure command resumed.
Gorr's ascent stopped.
At the speed they were moving, the world around them appeared frozen. Ace remained only meters from Thor, yet neither seemed to have advanced. Lightning hung motionless in the sky. Pieces of debris remained suspended in the air.
Adriel and Gorr fought within a fraction of time too small for the surrounding battlefield to register.
Gorr gagged.
His concentration failed, and both of them fell.
They struck the ruins together.
Adriel landed on top of him without releasing his throat.
Above them, time appeared to move again.
Ace reached Thor.
He tackled the Thunder God before he could unleash the light gathering inside Mjolnir and drove him toward the ground. Thor attempted to raise the hammer, but Ace mounted him in midair and began punching.
His first blow broke Thor's nose.
The second split his mouth.
Ace's fists continued falling, each one coated in Armament Haki and cosmic flame. He struck Thor's face with frantic, full-bodied punches, no longer caring about defense or conserving energy.
He needed to kill him.
He needed to kill him before the God Blast fired.
Blood covered Ace's hands. Flesh split beneath his knuckles, and the wet impact of every strike carried across the sky.
Thor caught the side of Ace's head.
Mjolnir swung.
The hammer struck Ace's temple.
Before he could recover, Thor hit him again. Mjolnir battered the side of his skull, his forehead, and his jaw in rapid succession.
Ace's vision flashed with every impact.
He caught Thor's hammer arm before another blow could land.
Ace threw both legs across Thor's chest and shoulder, trapping the limb between his thighs. He secured the wrist against his body and arched his hips into the elbow.
Both fighters crashed into the ground.
The impact opened another crater, but Ace refused to release the armbar.
Thor attempted to rise.
Ace pulled harder.
The Thunder God's elbow bent against its natural direction.
Thor roared and fought the pressure. Muscles tightened throughout his arm while black lightning struck Ace repeatedly.
Ace screamed but continued pulling.
The joint broke.
Thor's arm snapped backward with a violent crack. Bone tore through the inside of his elbow as the hand holding Mjolnir went limp.
The Thunder God released a primal scream that seemed to pierce the heavens.
Mjolnir fell.
Before it could touch the ground, the hammer changed direction and flew into Thor's uninjured hand.
Ace's eyes widened.
Thor swept it across his chest.
The hammer struck his sternum.
Ace gagged.
The bone caved inward, fracturing into his chest cavity and compressing the organs beneath it. Pain unlike anything he had previously experienced erased every thought from his mind.
His body became rigid.
Thor raised Mjolnir toward Ace's face.
Across the crater, Adriel extended one arm.
Toxin launched from his hand.
The symbiote crossed the battlefield and engulfed Thor's face before the hammer could descend. It sealed itself across his nose and mouth, wrapped around his head, and yanked him sideways.
Thor struck the ground beside Ace.
Toxin tightened.
Adriel's entire extended arm became a living restraint around the Thunder God's skull, smothering him beneath layers of symbiotic flesh.
At the same time, Adriel reinforced his grip around Gorr's throat with his remaining hand.
Toxin formed additional coils around the God Butcher's neck. The symbiote extended from Adriel's legs and back, stabbing itself deep into the ground like enormous nails.
It anchored him in place.
Gorr pulled against the choke.
Adriel did not move.
Blood continued pouring from the hundreds of wounds covering his body. His throat had been punctured, his brain pierced, one eye destroyed, and several organs ruptured. Every injury carried overlapping layers of Dark essence and Necrosword corruption that weakened his statistics and prevented regeneration.
The amount of corruption inside him exceeded even what the Void had once inflicted upon Sentry.
It was a miracle that Adriel remained conscious.
Ace lay motionless several feet away.
His body had locked around his collapsed sternum. Every attempt to breathe forced broken bone deeper into his chest.
"Ace!"
Adriel's voice emerged wet and ruined.
Ace did not respond.
Gorr drove his fist into Adriel's stomach.
The first punch widened an existing wound beneath his ribs.
The second ruptured the flesh around it.
Gorr struck him repeatedly, but Adriel's grip only tightened.
The God Butcher changed tactics.
He forced one hand into the open wound.
Adriel screamed.
Gorr pushed past torn muscle and plunged his fingers into the abdominal cavity. He twisted his hand inside Adriel's body, digging through damaged organs while searching for anything he could seize.
Tears streamed from Adriel's remaining eye.
They mixed with the blood covering his face.
He did not release Gorr.
Toxin drove its anchors farther underground.
"I am going to fucking kill you today," Adriel rasped. "Every last one of you."
Gorr smiled through the pressure crushing his throat.
"If you intend to kill me…"
All-Black sharpened around the hand buried inside Adriel.
"…then I am taking you with me."
The Necrosword tore downward.
Adriel's abdomen opened.
Toxin's armor split with the flesh beneath it, exposing the organs the symbiote had been desperately attempting to protect. Blood poured from the wound as loops of intestine pushed through the opening.
Gorr seized them.
Then he pulled.
Adriel's scream broke apart.
The God Butcher dragged part of his intestines from his body before reaching back into the wound. All-Black formed hooks around anything it touched—muscle, connective tissue, and organs—tearing them loose as Gorr tried to pull Adriel toward him.
Adriel remained anchored.
He squeezed Gorr's throat harder.
The pressure became so immense that space curved around his fingers. Light distorted across the God Butcher's neck while blue fragments of deleted code separated from his body.
Gorr continued tearing at Adriel's insides.
Adriel continued erasing him.
Neither released the other.
Ace's fingers moved.
Air finally entered one damaged lung.
The resulting pain nearly rendered him unconscious again, but he forced his eyes open.
He saw Thor clawing at the symbiote smothering his face.
Then he saw Adriel.
The Guardian's abdomen was open. His organs spilled across the ruins while Gorr's hand remained buried inside him.
Something inside Ace broke.
He threw himself onto Thor.
Ace's Haki-covered fist struck the Thunder God's chest.
Cosmic fire exploded from the impact.
He punched the same location again, driving the broken ribs inward. Each blow targeted Thor's lungs, crushing the organs while Toxin prevented him from drawing breath.
Thor attempted to raise Mjolnir.
Ace struck him again.
"Die!"
His fist broke through Thor's chest.
Blood erupted around his arm as his hand entered the rib cage.
Ace found one lung and crushed it.
"Die!"
He pulled back and drove his other fist through the opposite side of Thor's chest. Cosmic fire burned through bone, flesh, and the remaining lung.
"Fucking die!"
Ace no longer looked like a man fighting to win.
His face had contorted into the expression of an animal trying to survive. Blood covered his arms to the elbows as he destroyed everything inside Thor's chest that could sustain life.
The Thunder God's movements weakened.
His unbroken hand released Mjolnir.
Then his body stopped.
Thor died first.
Adriel felt him go limp through Toxin.
The symbiotic arm released Thor and snapped back across the battlefield. It wrapped around the arm Gorr had buried inside Adriel's abdomen, slowing the God Butcher's attempt to remove another organ.
Ace looked toward them.
Panic replaced his rage.
He abandoned Thor's corpse and launched himself at Gorr.
Ace's fist struck the God Butcher across the face.
Then another.
He mounted Gorr beside Adriel and began pummeling him with the same desperation he had unleashed upon Thor. Armament Haki and cosmic flame crushed Gorr's features beneath a relentless series of blows.
Adriel maintained the choke.
Ace kept striking.
Both Guardians had abandoned every trace of restraint. There was no technique left, no elegance, and no concern for anything beyond ensuring that Gorr stopped moving.
Adriel's erasure command reached completion.
Gorr's body began turning into particles.
His legs disappeared first. The deletion climbed through his torso, consuming All-Black with him while Ace's fists continued destroying what remained of his face.
Eventually, Gorr stopped struggling.
Only his head and part of one shoulder remained.
He looked at Adriel.
Then he smiled.
"I made you forget."
Adriel's remaining eye widened.
Gorr disappeared.
The God Butcher had never expected to survive.
The fight, the spikes, the corruption, and the horrific attempt to tear Adriel apart had served one purpose.
Distraction.
Adriel had forgotten about the God Blast.
Ace had too.
The moment Thor died, Ace had seen Adriel's exposed organs and abandoned everything to save him. Adriel had been too consumed by pain and rage to check whether Thor's attack had truly ended with its wielder.
Both Guardians turned toward the Thunder God's corpse.
Mjolnir hovered above it.
The hammer still contained every fragment of divine energy Thor had gathered before Ace interrupted him. Black lightning crawled across its surface as the storm sealed inside the weapon awakened.
The Tempest did not require Thor to release the attack.
Adriel reacted on instinct.
Toxin peeled away from the rest of his body and concentrated around his abdomen. The symbiote gathered his exposed intestines and ruptured organs, pulled them back inside, and began stitching the opening closed as quickly as it could.
There was not enough time.
Adriel threw himself over Ace.
Every barrier he possessed appeared around them.
One layer.
Then another.
Psionic force, Hacker code, divine energy, magnetism, and raw narrative authority compressed into nested shields surrounding both Guardians.
The first barriers were still forming when Mjolnir spoke.
The Tempest's voice emerged as a whisper.
"God Blast."
Blue light consumed the hammer.
It crossed the ruins before either Guardian could move.
Piltover disappeared.
Zaun disappeared.
Mountains, oceans, and continents vanished beneath the expanding radiance.
Within one instant, the entire planet of Runeterra was covered in blue.
To Be Continued...