She stomped her foot heavily, and a second black blade instantly formed. This time, the razor-sharp edge aimed straight for Odin's throat.
Odin tried to pull his spear free. But the moment Gungnir left the rift, the undead below would surge out like a tidal wave, dragging all of Asgard into a graveyard. He couldn't move. He was paralyzed.
In the next instant, a thick, black dragon tail wrapped in a violent gale swept horizontally from the flank.
Boom!
The tail and the black blade crashed into each other. A large swath of pitch-black dragon scales shattered, flesh peeling back as the Demon Dragon's tail was forcefully cleaved open, leaving a gruesome gash deep enough to reveal bone.
Kaido's massive, mountain-like dragon form planted itself firmly in front of Odin.
Kaido of the Beasts, Governor-General of the Beasts Pirates, former Yonko, bounty: 4,611,100,000 Beri. Now, a security guard at Foosha Village's tavern, Employee No. 007.
Half of his body still bore the lethal spears Hela had left in him earlier. Yet, he let out a deafening, maniacal laugh. Scalding blood poured down between his fangs.
"Crazy woman," Kaido growled. "If you want to kill the old man, get in line. My fight isn't over yet!"
Hela looked up, staring at him with a sinister gaze. She absolutely loathed Kaido. Not because he was strong, but because this monster—who had absolutely no ties to Asgard—kept blocking her path like an immovable mountain time and time again.
It reminded her of Odin. It reminded her of those people who preached about honor, yet ruthlessly locked her away in the dark abyss.
"A reckless foreign beast," Hela sneered.
She spread her five fingers wide, and over a dozen terrifyingly sharp black blades rose menacingly behind her. "Did you really think you could change the fate of Asgard all by yourself?"
Kaido opened his bloodstained jaws and exhaled a thick cloud of bloody mist. His dark golden dragon eyes burned with a sickly, fanatical excitement.
"Fate?" Kaido scoffed. "I hate it when people spout useless bullshit like that. As long as my fists are hard enough, even fate has to get the hell out of my way!"
Odin shouted from behind him, "Kaido, step back!"
Kaido shot a sharp glare over his shoulder. The look was arrogant to the extreme. "Shut up, I'm not your soldier."
Odin fell silent for a moment. If someone had dared to speak to him in that tone a few millennia ago, Gungnir would have ruthlessly pierced their chest. But right now, he couldn't find a single word of rebuttal.
Kaido wasn't an Asgardian. He wasn't fighting for Odin's throne, either. This tyrannical Demon Dragon simply felt the fight wasn't satisfying enough yet. It was absurd. But also incredibly pure.
A trace of envy suddenly welled up in Odin's heart—envy for a madman without any inhibitions.
Hela laughed mockingly. "Truly touching. Father, have you now fallen so far that you must rely on a beast to protect you?"
Odin gripped Gungnir tightly. The veins bulged on the back of his aged hands. "Hela, that's enough."
"Enough?" Hela's voice spiked shrilly. "When you dragged me around to conquer the Nine Realms, why didn't you say 'enough'? When you ordered me to slaughter entire cities in cold blood, why didn't you say 'enough'? When you wanted supreme glory, I was the sharpest butcher's knife in your hand. When you wanted a hypocritical peace, I became the sin you refused to acknowledge!"
She closed in step by step. The hard ground beneath her feet cracked inch by inch. A massive amount of green death energy surged from deep within Asgard's ley lines into her body. Her charred flesh, burned by the dragon's breath, regenerated at a visible rate. The broken black blades rapidly regrew. Even the armor Kaido had torn apart was perfectly restored.
Frigga stood behind the evacuation tunnel, desperately maintaining her magical barrier with both hands. Her face was as pale as paper.
Queen Frigga, Odin's wife, mother of Thor and Loki, one of the few high-tier master sorcerers in the Nine Realms. She hadn't engaged in the frontal bloodbath. It wasn't that she didn't want to. It was because she was shielding the civilians behind her. Women, children, the elderly, the wounded. They were Asgard's most vulnerable soft spot right now.
She looked anxiously toward Thor, who was struggling in the rubble. "Thor."
Thor forced himself up and reached out to summon Mjolnir. The hammer flew whistling back into his palm. But the hand holding the hammer trembled uncontrollably. That last strike had made him truly feel, for the first time in his life, Hela's despair-inducing terror.
This wasn't like the Frost Giants he used to casually crush. Nor was it the weak Dark Elves. This was Asgard's ultimate, sharpest slaughter from the past. It was the bloody old era Odin had forcibly hidden away.
"Mother..." Thor panted heavily. "I can't stop her."
Frigga's voice, though soft, pierced clearly through the clamor of the battlefield. "Stop focusing only on the hammer in your hand."
Thor froze abruptly. Frigga looked at him with burning intensity.
"The thunder flows in your bloodline. Mjolnir is just a tool to help you focus your power; it was never the source of it."
Thor looked down, staring intently at the hammer in his hand. A hairline fracture had actually appeared on the icy surface of the hammer. It was faint, but it was undoubtedly there.
An unprecedented wave of panic suddenly washed over him. For so many years, all his battles, all his glory, relied on it. He swung the hammer to fly through the stars. He swung it to summon apocalyptic thunder. He swung it to prove to everyone that he was the invincible God of Thunder.
What if the hammer was gone?
The moment this terrifying thought surfaced, a tiny spark of lightning instinctively flickered deep in his palm. But it flashed for only a second before timidly retreating. Gritting his teeth, he gripped Mjolnir even tighter.
Watching from the front, Kaido felt an urge to curse. Dragging his bleeding tail, he forced himself half a step forward, firmly blocking Hela's line of attack.
"Can't fight without a broken hammer?" Kaido sneered. "You stupid brat, you're even dumber than Luffy."
Thor's face darkened instantly. "You know Luffy?"
Kaido flashed a bloody grin. "I do. A rubber brat whose brain doesn't work too well, but he's a lot less of an eyesore than you."
Thor was burning with the urge to snap back, but Hela gave them no chance to continue chatting. With murderous intent, she raised her hand and swung it down. A dense barrage of black blades rained down from the sky like a hurricane.
Kaido fiercely reared his dragon head and unleashed a scorching dragon breath hot enough to melt steel. The surging flames and black blades collided with a deafening crash, incinerating a vast amount of death energy. Yet, several tricky black blades pierced through the wall of fire, nailing themselves deep into Kaido's shoulders and neck.
Kaido grunted. One of his massive dragon claws grabbed a blade and brutally yanked it out by the root, bringing a gory spray of flesh with it. His Saiyan Physique began to heat up violently under the extreme pressure of the battle. He could clearly feel his body being destroyed. But he could also feel a far more savage power being forced out from the deepest parts of his flesh.
It hurt to the bone. But it felt absolutely incredible.
"Come on!" Kaido unleashed a heaven-shaking roar, his massive dragon body charging at Hela like a tank.
Hela leaped lightly forward, stepping onto his enormous head to dash upward. Wielding a deadly black blade in each hand, she ruthlessly sliced along his hard dragon scales. Kaido thrashed wildly, driving her toward the thick outer walls of the palace. At the last second, Hela vaulted nimbly away, driving her black blades viciously into Kaido's broad back. Using the momentum to flip, she landed steadily atop his reverse-scale-covered neck.
She coldly raised her hand, aiming at Kaido's giant head. "I'll break every one of those stubborn bones first."
Thor charged with a roar. Mjolnir, wreathed in violent thunder, smashed heavily toward Hela's back. Hela didn't even turn her head; she simply raised a hand behind her to block.
Clang!
The heavy hammer was completely stopped by a black blade condensed in her palm. Using his momentum, Thor pressed down desperately, the violent lightning dancing madly across the hammer's surface.
This time, Hela didn't completely suppress him. The lightning deep in Thor's palm traveled through the handle, crawling all the way up his thick arm. He sharply realized it himself. This thunder wasn't borrowed from the hammer. It was truly surging from inside his own body.
The realization made his heart race. Hela also sensed the anomaly. Extreme annoyance flashed across her face.
"Another foolish child raised on Odin's lies."
Her other hand shot up, a slender black blade darting past Mjolnir like a viper to slash at Thor's wrist. Thor tried to dodge, but his first subconscious reaction was still to protect the hammer. His movement was ultimately a beat too slow. The sharp blade grazed his arm, tearing open a glaring gash. Hela followed up with a heavy kick, planting it firmly into his broad chest.
Thor cried out in pain as he crashed into the ruined plaza. Mjolnir tumbled helplessly to the side.
Seizing the opening, Kaido violently twisted his head, snapping his fang-filled jaws viciously at Hela. She leaped backward rapidly, landing steadily on a broken stone pillar. Her patience was completely gone.
At the subterranean rift, Odin was still stubbornly suppressing the undead army. Frigga was still stalling for time to evacuate the civilians. That idiot Thor still hadn't truly awakened his power. Though this Demon Dragon Kaido was tough to kill, the fatal wounds on his body were multiplying.
Absolute victory still lay in her hands. But Hela didn't want to drag it out for another second. She wanted Odin to watch as his proud Asgard crumbled to dust. She wanted him to admit that his sealing of her wasn't a mistake, but a product of his own hypocritical ambition.
----
Support this fanfict by leaving Positive Review, Comments, and Power Stones.
For Advance Chapters:
> Patreon.com/NegativeTranslations