Levi didn't waste any more time with the Grandmaster.
With a single step, he vanished from Sakaar.
A spatial rift tore open before him—its coordinates locked onto Asgard.
On the other side of the rift…
There was a sea of fire.
The golden realm of the gods had become ruins. On the Bifrost Bridge stood a woman.
Hela.
Her black hair danced behind her, and beneath her command stood countless undead soldiers. Heimdall and the last remaining Asgardian civilians were trapped at the far end of the bridge.
Hela's power was bound to Asgard itself. With every breath she took, her aura grew stronger.
At that moment, Levi sensed a familiar power of thunder.
Desperation. Resolve.
Extending his mental perception, he saw Thor gripping Surtur's crown tightly while searching Odin's Vault for the Eternal Flame.
Thor intended to trigger Ragnarok.
To use one demon to destroy another.
To destroy Asgard with his own hands.
No.
Levi frowned.
He had promised Odin that he would protect Asgard three times.
Destroying it did not count.
---
His figure vanished.
The next instant, he appeared before the Eternal Flame in Odin's Vault, one hand catching Thor's wrist just as the crown was about to drop.
Thor was rushing forward blindly and nearly crashed into him. He stopped abruptly and stared in shock.
"Levi—you're finally here! Let me go! This is the only way to stop Hela!"
Levi didn't answer.
He merely glanced at the crown in Thor's hand and spoke calmly.
"I promised your father I'd protect Asgard three times. Destroying it isn't part of the deal."
"Move!" Thor roared hoarsely, his eyes bloodshot. "This is the only way! Hela's power is tied to Asgard! As long as this land exists, she can't be killed! We can't defeat her!"
He tried to move around Levi.
But Levi stood there like a mountain.
Loki and Valkyrie had followed him in. Seeing the scene, both froze.
"Then sever her connection to Asgard," Levi said plainly.
Thor stopped moving and stared at him in disbelief—then anger replaced it.
"Sever it? Easy for you to say! Even my father couldn't reverse that!"
Loki frowned as well.
He understood magic far better than Thor. What Levi had just said sounded like madness.
"I'm not anyone special," Levi said calmly, placing a hand on Thor's chest to stop him. "I'm just here to fulfill a promise."
Thor felt as if he had crashed into an invisible wall.
No matter how much strength he used, that hand did not move.
The incomprehensible power finally snapped the last thread of his restraint.
"Get out of the way!"
Thor roared.
This time he didn't rely on brute force.
The power of the God of Thunder erupted from within him. His eyes blazed like twin blue suns as lightning serpents coiled around his body.
This wasn't ordinary lightning.
A bolt like a thunder dragon descended from the heavens and crashed toward Levi.
Loki and Valkyrie instinctively stepped back, faces changing.
But the expected explosion never came.
No thunder.
No flash.
Not even a tremor in the air.
The lightning vanished one meter before reaching Levi.
Like a drop of water dissolving into the sea.
Like smoke blown away by the wind.
The lightning in Thor's eyes faded.
He stared blankly at Levi—his friend whose clothes hadn't even wrinkled.
His mind went empty.
His strongest attack…
Hadn't even made Levi move.
This wasn't a difference in strength.
It was a difference in existence.
Levi calmly removed his hand from Thor's chest and took Surtur's crown.
"Go to the Bifrost," he said firmly. "Protect the remaining people. Leave this to me."
Without another glance, he walked out of the vault toward the battlefield drenched in death.
Thor, Loki, and Valkyrie stood frozen.
They watched his back in silence.
They knew one thing.
Someone had returned…
Someone they no longer understood.
---
Hela saw him.
She stopped toying with Heimdall and turned, her gaze falling on Levi.
"I didn't expect you to grow stronger so quickly," she said with a cold smile. "But it doesn't matter. On Asgard, I cannot be defeated."
She didn't bother walking closer.
She simply raised her hand.
The Bifrost Bridge screamed.
Countless obsidian spikes burst from beneath the bridge, shrieking through the air toward Levi from every direction.
Each spike was wrapped in dense death law.
Levi merely lifted his eyelids.
His Law Domain unfolded silently.
A translucent sphere one hundred meters wide expanded around him, enveloping Levi, Hela, and the incoming spikes.
Inside the domain—
Everything changed.
The violent spikes slowed abruptly.
The death law around them faded rapidly.
The smile on Hela's face froze.
She felt it instantly.
The endless power flowing to her from Asgard had been cut off.
Like someone suddenly removing the lungs of a breathing body.
Levi looked at her and calmly declared the first rule of his domain.
"Here, the connection between you and Asgard does not exist."
Hela's body trembled violently.
She felt the countless black threads of energy connecting her soul to Asgard's core—
All severed simultaneously within Levi's domain.
Her resonance with the land vanished.
The obsidian spikes that had reached Levi's side lost their power.
Within a second they weathered, cracked, and crumbled into harmless black dust.
For the first time, Hela's expression changed.
From arrogance…
To shock.
"What did you do?" she screamed, panic rising in her voice.
Levi didn't answer.
He raised his hand toward her and slowly clenched his fingers.
Within his domain, space itself obeyed his will.
The space around Hela compressed violently.
She felt like she had been thrown into a shrinking iron coffin. The pressure from all directions could crush stars.
She tried to summon the power of death.
But it responded slowly—weakly.
She tried to move.
She couldn't even lift a finger.
Space itself had become the ultimate prison.
Her bones groaned under the pressure. Her divine body—once her greatest pride—felt fragile as porcelain under pure law.
For the first time…
Hela was afraid.
This man wasn't using energy.
Not magic.
But rules she couldn't understand or resist.
Levi walked slowly toward her.
He looked down at the Goddess of Death, trapped and immobile.
"Your era is over, Hela," he said calmly. "But Odin's bloodline shouldn't end. Asgard needs someone to guard the gate."
"You're perfect for the job."
"You wish!" Hela hissed through clenched teeth. "I am Death! Kill me and I'll—"
Levi didn't bother listening.
He raised his index finger.
A tiny spark of starlight appeared at its tip—the condensed seed of five laws.
"I don't need your agreement."
He pressed the star gently against her forehead.
Hela screamed.
The star ignored all her defenses and merged directly into the core of her soul.
She felt it instantly.
A foreign mark had been forcibly embedded within her laws.
With a single thought from Levi, the mark could detonate her power and erase her existence completely.
Levi withdrew his hand.
The Law Domain dissolved.
The pressure vanished.
Hela collapsed to her knees on the Bifrost Bridge, gasping heavily.
Levi looked down at her.
"From today onward, you guard Asgard."
"It is your honor."
"And your prison."
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