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"The world is not beautiful, and that is why it is beautiful."
- Kino (Kino's Journey)
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<(Atem POV)>
"Damn. He wasn't pulling his punches, huh?" I muttered, rubbing the side of my face, which was honestly feeling a bit sore now. I had no real clue how strong this Hulk was compared to the one from my original timeline, but if I had to guess, he was probably stronger than the base version of my universe's Hulk.
Come to think of it, most of the so-called 'normal humans' I've killed so far have had bodies that were a little tougher than their counterparts in my universe. Whether it was Stark's internal organs or Black Widow's head, they felt a bit more… resilient than how they are supposed to feel, though at the end, that extra durability still didn't mean much against my advanced telekinetic powers. I'm guessing their demonization might've boosted their physical bodies a bit beyond what they were in my universe's base forms, though I doubt it'd change much in terms of life or death when going up against someone like me.
"Boost. Boost. Boost." I amped myself up three more times with my Divine Boost ability, octupling my divine energy for ten seconds. Then, raising my left hand and shaping it like a gun, I aimed my index finger at Thor and Wanda, who were standing close together, their panic-stricken attention split between my unscathed body and Hulk's slowly burning form. Next, with a firm mental tug, I dragged out a certain divine ability I hadn't used in ages—an ability I'd always thought was way too dangerous to unleash around other people back in my universe: the power of Nothingness Manipulation.
Within a second, a small sphere of black energy formed out of thin air at the tip of my index finger, about the size of a ping pong ball. "Bang!" I grinned as the tiny black orb shot toward the god-and-witch duo at bullet speed.
"No!" Demonized Thor was the first one to react, his superior senses realizing just how destructive that dark energy sphere was. But instead of dodging it as any sane person would, he stepped in front of demonized Wanda and tried to block the attack with his hammer.
'Maybe this version of him never had his hammer broken by anyone, which probably made him more confident in its invulnerability—and thus led him to make this really bad call out of pure arrogance,' I thought.
Anyway, the very next instant, the impact triggered an explosion… or at least tried to, as magical lightning erupted from Thor's cracked hammer in a tangled web, and billions of volts of electricity struggled to burst free in a storm the likes of which the world had never seen before, a storm that could probably destroy the entire city of New York within minutes if not contained. However, before the storm could do any damage to the surroundings, the black energy from my attack rapidly began devouring the lightning, looking like it was actively absorbing all the unleashed force into itself like a ravenous black hole.
But I knew better. This wasn't a black hole at all—it was the power of the void itself. And its nature wasn't to devour or absorb anything. No, what it did was erase everything it came in contact with. After all, within my knowledge, there was no matter or force in existence that the void couldn't unravel from existence as if it were never there. Thor's lightning, powerful as it was thanks to its magical nature combined with Odin's runes and Uru's natural amplification powers, never stood a chance against the void, which can even completely reduce black holes and singularities to nothing if they clashed.
'This is so powerful that this would probably be my go-to attack if it weren't so damn dangerous… or so energy-consuming.' I thought as I felt my octupled energy reserves settle back to normal, a minuscule amount of exhaustion slowly creeping into my body, something that rarely happened with any of my other powers, given my nearly inexhaustible energy.
"Mjolnir!" Thor yelled, staring at the missing half of the godly weapon in his grip, his eyes wide with disbelief and rage. "No—you monster, I will kill you and drag your cold, dead body back to my master as a gift!" he roared, before charging at me with the broken hammer's handle clutched like a spear, sparks of blue and black lightning flashing in his eyes.
The God of Thunder was fast even without his crutch of a superweapon boosting him, but Asgardian gods were never particularly known for speed. So I easily dodged his lunge and, conjuring an energy spear from my divine energy, knocked his makeshift weapon right out of his hands.
BOOM! I caught his punch with my hand, and the impact created a sonic boom that shattered the concrete around us and damaged nearby buildings, sending glass, metal shards, and concrete flying everywhere. Unlike Hulk's punch earlier, which had caught me off guard, Thor's hits weren't quite as effective against me. So instead of staying on the defensive, I started throwing punches of my own.
BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM! Shockwaves from our blows rolled through the city, shaking it like the biggest earthquake it had ever seen. Almost no glass was left intact in the vicinity, and some of the weaker buildings were already collapsing from the sheer force of our clash. The concrete under our feet had long since shattered into rubble, leaving only a gaping hole in our wake. And on top of all that, I could see pieces of demonized human bodies scattered around us—probably civilians who'd been killed either fleeing or trying to watch our fight.
Honestly, Thor and I were pretty different as gods, despite being half-siblings, but one thing we shared in common was a taste for a good brawl. So as we traded blow after blow with everything we had, we deliberately held back from using any real combat techniques, even though our lives were on the line. We fought using nothing but raw strength, and even though Thor had just lost the thing he loved most in the world, he still wore an excited, feral grin, showing just how much this demonized, twisted version of him was reveling in a bloody fight to the death.
"How are you as strong as a god? I can even feel traces of divinity in your attacks. Are you… an Olympian?" He demanded, as we locked hands in a clash of pure, unrestrained strength, both our muscles straining as we tried to overpower each other, each of us determined to prove who was mightier. I knew for a fact that overall, I was stronger than Thor when it came to sheer capability, but the guy was still nearly my equal in terms of raw physical power. And it wasn't because I was weak or anything. No—it was simply because of how insanely powerful he was. Honestly, if I hadn't been there to absorb most of the force behind his blows, there was a real chance his punches could've caused irreversible damage to the continental plates, maybe even cracked the planet open.
The God of Thunder could easily be called the God of Strength, and no one in their right mind would ever argue that. Hulk might have the ability to get infinitely stronger the angrier he gets, but Thor could still go toe-to-toe with some of the strongest versions of the Hulk purely through his natural might. That's how ridiculously overpowered he was. The guy was practically a walking plot device who just held himself back in most of his fights, choosing to depend purely on Mjolnir and its magical powers...
But then again, it's not like I didn't have my own cheat.
"No, not an Olympian. I'm something newer..." I smirked as I mentally applied another boost to my physical power, effectively doubling my strength. Then, without warning, I increased the force in my grip and twisted his hand, snapping both of his wrists at once. "And better!" I concluded before headbutting him in the face, breaking his nose, and even cracking his skull.
"GAAAH!" Thor screamed, stumbling back, his eyebrows knotted in pain, before he stared up at the sky. "No… help me, Master. I can still serve you. Just help me, and I can win... I CAN STILL WIN." Thor kept muttering like a madman, pleading with his unseen masters to save him from the fate he knew was coming.
"…Nah. I am not taking the risk of someone actually giving him a second chance," I said while summoning my Chaos Blades from my inventory and swinging them in a single, clean arc to behead him. The next instant, his head tumbled to the floor, a look of surprise—and a flicker of what seemed like fear—still frozen in his eyes.
"And you—stop buzzing around my ears like a damn fly," I snapped, flicking my fingers at the air beside me, instantly smashing the Wasp, who'd been hovering near my head, probably waiting for a chance to slip inside my body and kill me from the inside out, into a smear tinier than a droplet of blood.
"As for you… Are you planning to run?" I asked Scarlet Witch, who was staring at me with wide eyes, like she still couldn't believe what she was witnessing. "Giant-Man—or whatever Hank Pym's calling himself these days—already took off after I broke Thor's hammer. Maybe he's trying to gather more allies or something. So, what about you? Thinking of making a break for it too?" I asked the petrified witch.
"Does it even matter? You're not going to let me go anyway," she sighed. "And unlike the others, I haven't gotten stronger since the Many-Angled Gods took over. If anything, I'm weaker, just like most other sorcerers now. I've lost most of my connection to the Chaos Realm… and I don't even have access to most of the multiverse's magic anymore," she admitted, giving me some valuable intel about the current strength of Earth's sorcerers. It seems like she still possessed some semblance of sanity despite the influence of the Many Angled Ones. Perhaps, she has developed some minor resistance against mental corruption and control due to constantly resisting Chtlon's passive influence over her for most of her life.
"Wanda, right? I… think I'm in love with my universe's version of you. So, for her sake, I'll cut you a deal. If you tell me where your 'Masters' are, I'll let you go—as long as you never come back. Because if you do… I'll kill you in the most brutal way imaginable," I offered, noticing that, unlike most of the other Revengers, she didn't seem particularly fanatical about her new eldritch overlords. "If you do that, you can enjoy the rest of your remaining life peacefully, however you want."
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