Odin flew upward with Mjolnir in hand, the hammer blazing with lightning as storm clouds gathered above the ocean.
Descending toward him at the same speed was Max, wreathed in emerald light, a giant sword construct formed in both hands.
Odin met him head-on as Mjolnir struck the emerald sword with a thunderclap that rolled across the waters below, and the shockwave sent ripples racing outward in every direction. Lightning crawled along the surface of Max's construct while green sparks burst from the point of impact, the two powers grinding against one another as the men behind them grinned like maniacs.
They moved through the sky in blurs of silver, gold, and green. Odin came in with Mjolnir from the left. Max twisted aside and answered with a spear construct that Odin smashed apart with a backhanded strike. Max formed a shield before the shattered pieces of the spear had faded, blocked another blow from the hammer, then created a chain around Odin's wrist and yanked him forward. Odin allowed the pull, laughed, and drove his knee into Max's stomach.
"You have gotten slow, Grænlaðr!" Odin said, laughing as he went for another strike with his hammer.
The hammer hit something hard. A plate of emerald armor appeared over Max's stomach the instant before the blow landed, absorbing most of the impact.
"Slow, am I?"
Max hit Odin with an uppercut and then slammed him down. Before Odin could properly recover, Max surrounded him with dozens of weapons.
Every weapon fired at once.
Missiles screamed across the sky, leaving trails of emerald smoke as they converged on Odin from every direction. Odin spun Mjolnir, turning it into a circular wall of lightning in front of him. The missiles detonated against it one after another, filling the air with green explosions.
Odin burst out of the smoke, laughing.
"Good one!" he shouted. "But watch this!"
He disappeared in a blast of lightning.
Max's eyes widened a fraction as Odin reappeared behind him, already swinging. Mjolnir struck Max between the shoulders and drove him downward so hard that the air cracked around him. Max caught himself before hitting the ocean, twisted in midair, and shot back up with a construct dragon forming around him.
Their battle continued with no sign of a clear victory until...
"Too slow again!" Odin called.
Max grinned.
"Look down."
Odin looked down.
A rocket construct had formed around his waist.
"What?"
The rocket ignited.
Odin was shot downward before he could tear it off, the emerald thruster dragging him through the air toward the ocean. He cursed loudly as he spun Mjolnir and tried to redirect himself, but Max reinforced the construct at the last second, adding more rockets to his arms and legs.
Odin hit the water like a falling star. The impact sent a geyser high into the air, scattering waves across the shore and sending startled fish leaping out of the water in every direction.
Max flew down slowly, hands behind his back, looking very pleased with himself.
He hovered above the water as Odin surfaced, hair plastered to his face, beard dripping, Mjolnir still clutched tightly in one hand.
"Looks like I won that one," Max said. "I think that's eight hundred seventy-five to eight hundred seventy-four. I'm leading again."
Odin groaned and floated on the surface, glaring up at him through wet hair.
"Bah. It is eight hundred seventy-seven to your eight hundred seventy-five."
Max blinked.
"Oh, we're making things up now, are we?"
"I make up nothing," Odin said, pointing Mjolnir at him from the water. "I remember every battle."
"Clearly not correctly."
"I remember winning the fight over the Great Desert."
"You did not win the Great Desert fight."
"I drove you into a dune."
"And then I wrapped you in a giant snake and made you surrender."
Odin scoffed loudly. "Temporary inconvenience. Not surrender."
"You said, and I quote, 'Fine, fine, release me, you bastard.'"
Odin's eyes narrowed. He shot upward, grabbed Max by the ankle, and dragged him down into the ocean with him.
Max's voice came through the water, muffled but annoyed.
"Okay, now you are acting like a child."
Odin laughed, and Max couldn't help laughing with him.
"Come on," Max said, flying up. "I have something to ask you."
========
Odin and Max sat on the beach. Near them, a green construct held several fish as they cooked, sizzling gently while the ocean breeze carried the smell across the sand.
"What did you want to ask me?"
"Well," Max said slowly, "since the baby will be born soon, I've been thinking."
Odin's expression shifted at once. "Having second thoughts?"
Max turned to him sharply. "What? No."
"If you are, Firehair is going to kill you."
"I am not having second thoughts."
"Good. Because I would not be able to save you."
"I've been thinking about the future. About the baby. About what happens if..."
He stopped.
"If something happens to me. Or to Firehair. Or to both of us."
Odin scoffed. "Something happens? To you two?"
"Yes, yes, I know," Max said. "We're powerful. Impossible to kill. Very impressive. But just say, unfortunately, something does happen."
Odin's amusement faded.
Max finally looked at him.
"I want you to be there for Aurora."
Odin stared at him.
Max continued before he could respond. "I want you to raise her."
Odin looked away toward the ocean.
Then he frowned.
"You insult me by asking."
Max blinked. "What?"
"You are my sworn brother, Grænlaðr. As close to me as any blood brother. Your child is already, and will always be, under my protection."
Max opened his mouth, but Odin kept going.
"You do not need to ask whether I would protect her. I would tear down realms for her. I would stand against gods, demons, Celestials, and whatever other impossible horrors this universe throws at us. If she needed me, I would be there."
Max looked down.
"Thank you."
Odin reached over and clapped a hand on his shoulder, hard enough to nearly knock him sideways.
"Do not thank me. Simply avoid dying so I do not have to explain to your daughter that her father was foolish enough to leave her with me."
Max laughed, but then he saw Odin's face change.
"What's wrong?"
Odin looked at Max.
"I failed. You trusted me, and I failed."
"Odin," Max called.
"Odin."
========
"Odin."
"Odin."
Odin opened his eyes.
He sat alone, Mjolnir resting on the floor beside his chair, the Stormbreakers leaning against the wall nearby.
The memory clung to him like a wound.
Max was gone.
Firehair was gone.
And Aurora...
Odin's breath caught.
He brought both hands to his face and covered it, his fingers pressing hard against his eyes as if he could physically hold the grief inside.
"Odin."
He heard Fan's voice from the door.
Odin lowered his hands slowly and looked up. Fan Fei stood at the entrance to the room.
For a moment, neither of them spoke.
Then Odin cleared his throat and stood.
"Has Agamotto come with Azzuri?"
Fan nodded. "Yes. They are waiting outside."
Odin reached down and took Mjolnir from where it rested beside the chair. He placed it into the sheath at his waist, then crossed the room and lifted the two Stormbreakers, securing them across his back with practiced movements.
He started toward the door.
Then stopped.
In the corner of the room, leaning against the wall near one of the windows, the Will Spear still glowed faintly with emerald light.
Odin stared at it.
Fan followed his gaze.
Odin turned away before the sight could pull him deeper into memory but Fan walked over and picked it up.
Odin continued walking as both of them exited the house.
Max and Firehair's house.
It had been destroyed during the invasion, torn apart when the Dark Phoenix and Doom came for Aurora. Agamotto and Nur had rebuilt it after they returned, with Okkara's help.
Odin stepped onto the large balcony overlooking Okkara. Agamotto stood near the balcony's edge, his hands folded before him. Azzuri waited beside him in silence. Nur stood farther back, arms crossed, his expression unreadable.
There were only five of them left now.
Max.
Firehair.
Ghost.
Vnn.
Aurora.
All gone.
"Well," Odin said, looking at them all. "I am off."
Nur gave him a faint, humorless smile. "You speak as if you will never come and visit."
"Of course I will," Odin said. "If there is any trouble, summon me. I will come."
Agamotto inclined his head. "I do not expect much trouble. The barrier is working perfectly."
Odin looked at him. Agamotto held his gaze for a moment, then looked away.
"You and I both know that is not the only kind of threat," Odin said.
He turned toward Fan.
"What will you do now?"
Fan looked out over Okkara for a moment before answering. "I will go to the Savage Land first."
"And then?"
"Then I will return to K'un-Lun."
Odin looked to Agamotto, Nur, and Azzuri.
Agamotto answered first. "You know me. I have already found prospective students."
A shadow crossed his face. "I will not let them have the same fate as the last."
Odin nodded.
Nur looked toward the horizon. "I plan to travel the world, prepare, and look for more like me."
There was something different in Nur now. The man who had once been so unsure of what he was meant to be had faced a monster wearing his own face and rejected him completely. Odin did not know where Nur's path would take him, but he hoped it would be far from the shadow of Apocalypse.
Azzuri stepped forward.
He drew Gram from his side and held it out.
Odin looked at the blade, then at Azzuri.
"No," Odin said. "You keep it."
"Max promised that you would bring it back to Asgard," Azzuri said.
Odin's mouth twitched, but there was no humor in it.
"I never planned to take it back," he said quietly. "I wanted to give it to Aurora when she was of age."
Silence fell over the balcony.
Odin stared at Gram for a long moment, then shook his head.
"Keep it," he said. "Maybe it will be more helpful in your hands, and in the hands of future Black Panthers."
Azzuri nodded sadly and lowered the blade.
Odin turned toward the ship. He walked across the balcony, each step feeling heavier than the last. Agamotto followed him until they reached the open bay doors.
For a moment, neither of them spoke.
Then Agamotto said, "Max could still be alive."
Odin did not turn around.
"The future..."
"Is changed," Odin said. "You said so yourself."
"Whatever returns may not even be Max. And even if he does return… I do not think I can face him."
"I still hold out hope," Agamotto said. "For Max. For Firehair. For Aurora."
"I..." Odin stopped, swallowed, and tried again. "I do not know."
Hope was something that came easily to Max, infuriatingly easily at times. But Odin felt none of that certainty now. He felt only the emptiness.
"Goodbye, Agamotto."
"Odin..."
But Odin had already stepped into the ship. Behind him, quick footsteps crossed the balcony.
"Wait!"
Fan ran up to the bay doors, the Will Spear held in both hands.
"You forgot this."
Odin looked at the spear.
For a moment, he was going to refuse it. But Fan held it out, and her eyes told him she understood exactly what he was thinking.
Odin took the spear.
He nodded once.
Fan nodded back.
Then Odin walked into the ship, and the doors closed behind him.
Inside, the silence was worse.
Odin placed Mjolnir down first. Then the two Stormbreakers. Last, he set the Will Spear beside them, its emerald glow faint against the darker metal around it.
He stared at it for a long moment.
For just a moment, yellow sparks flickered across the spear.
Odin blinked.
They were gone.
He frowned, staring harder now, but the weapon glowed only green.
He turned away and walked to the pilot's seat.
Then he stopped and stared at Max's seat beside his.
Empty.
Odin stood there for several seconds, staring at the place where his friend should have been. He could almost hear him complaining about Odin's flying, making some joke about insurance, or telling Jade to lock him out of the controls.
He sat down. The ship responded to his touch, lights coming alive across the console.
Odin looked once more at Max's empty seat.
Then, with a heavy heart, he took off.
The ship rose from Okkara, lifting into the sky as it flew toward the stars.
.
.
.
????? Billion Years Ago
Green lightning crawled across the sky of the desolate world.
Below, the land was almost entirely covered by crystal. A vast emerald formation spread across the surface for miles in every direction, rising from the ground in jagged towers and smooth plains, in arches, spires, and half-formed shapes. It covered mountains. It swallowed valleys. It had grown over the planet, beautiful and unnatural, pulsing faintly with green light from deep within.
Seven Watchers floated above it.
They did not speak for a long time.
Their enormous figures hung in silence over the crystal field, their white robes unmoving despite the storm around them.
One of them looked upward.
"He is here."
The others followed his gaze.
Something descended through the clouds.
At first, it was only a shape against the green lightning, a vast silhouette cutting through the storm. Then the clouds parted around it, and the Celestial was revealed, descending toward them.
He was smaller than most of his kind, though still large enough that mountains would have seemed small beside him. His body was green, the same deep emerald as the crystal spread across the world below, and golden lines ran across his armor-like form in intricate patterns.
He stopped before the Watchers, his shadow falling over the crystal field.
"Is this what you have been hiding, then?" he asked.
The Watchers bowed their heads.
"Lord Veridion," one of them greeted.
Another Watcher floated forward slightly, his hands folded before him.
"Yes," he said. "Yes, it is. We found this some time after we found Galan."
The Watcher continued. "We detected the anomaly buried within the crystal shortly after. There is something inside it. We wished to free it, but after what happened with Galan, we..."
Veridion looked down at the crystal.
"He will be freed."
One of the Watchers lifted his head quickly. "Lord Veridion, we do not know what consequences may follow..."
"What happened with Galan was not your fault," Veridion said.
The Watcher went silent.
Veridion's gaze remained fixed on the crystal below.
"Galan became Galactus. Galactus serves a purpose. Terrible, yes. Necessary, yes. His existence is not an error. His hunger serves a greater order."
Green lightning flashed across the sky, reflected in the golden lines of Veridion's body.
"The being trapped within this crystal has a purpose as well."
One of the Watchers hesitated.
"What is it?"
Veridion was silent for a moment.
"My brothers turned their attention to stars, worlds, and the shaping of biological destiny but I walk a different path."
The Watchers listened.
"I have always been fascinated by the Source and the Spectrum it produced. The Source is older than the abstracts of this cosmos. Its light is present everywhere. It is fundamental, and yet ignored."
He raised one hand slowly over the crystal.
"He is the key," the Celestial said. "The key to furthering my knowledge. The key to unraveling the mysteries of the Source."
The Watchers looked at one another. Then, one by one, they bowed and moved away from the crystal.
Veridion descended until his feet touched the emerald surface.
Deep inside the crystal, at its very center, he saw what he had come for.
Veridion raised both hands.
The storm above intensified, green lightning spreading across the entire sky. The crystal field began to shake. Cracks appeared across its surface, spreading outward from Veridion's feet in every direction.
"ARISE."
The crystal trembled.
"ARISE."
Cracks spread across the world.
"ARISE,"
The crystal broke.
The entire planet was filled with green light.
.
.
You can read up to chapter 87 here.
p.a.t.r.eon.com/Illusiveone (check the chapter summary i have it there as well)