Clang! Clang! Clang! Bang! Clang—
The sound of blades clashing rose and fell, occasionally punctuated by the crisp reports of gunfire, which sounded exceptionally abrupt.
In just a short moment, the two had exchanged nearly a hundred blows.
Their speed was outrageously fast; ordinary people could not see their movements at all, only the sparks erupting and flashing wildly in the darkness, along with the sound of bones being scattered by the shockwaves.
The two had no flashy moves; it was all high-speed, head-on offense and defense. Every strike was direct, purely a contest of stats.
But because both were stat monsters, after a round of fierce fighting, neither had gained much of an advantage.
Hela parried Darian's slash with her sword, used the momentum to pull back a few steps, and spoke with a hint of condescending approval.
"Mortal, your strength is not bad. Although my current power is far from its peak, the fact that you can last this long under my hand makes you a rare opponent."
"I can give you one chance. As long as you kneel and submit to me, when I leave Helheim and personally fight my way back to Asgard to seize the throne, I will appoint you as the Grand Marshal of Asgard, second only to one and above all others."
Hela lifted her chin, looking down her nose at him.
This arrogant, condescending manner was quite similar to Loki; if one didn't know better, they might think the two were biological siblings.
But then again, Odin and his children all seemed to have this kind of attitude.
On the contrary, that blockheaded simpleton Thor seemed more like someone Odin had picked up from outside.
Darian chuckled: "Do you think you're the Emperor? I'll give you a chance too. Kneel down right now and open your mouth... ah, no, slap your own face, and I won't turn Helheim into the septic tank of the Nine Realms."
"Death wish!"
Hela's eyes turned cold. She swept her hands over her head, and instantly, a spiked helmet appeared on her head.
Darian laughed: "With that style, you truly are the troublemaker of Asgard."
"Wait until I chop off your hands and feet, then we'll see if you can still talk so much."
Hela snorted coldly, swept her hands up, and several pitch-black daggers shot out toward Darian.
Darian stomped hard on the ground, leaped into the air, dodged the incoming pitch-black daggers, and countered with a standard mage's downward slash, raising his blade to strike down at Hela.
Hela did not dodge; she pulled out another black blade and easily parried the incoming sword edge.
Immediately, she pressed forward, her blade unfurling layers of deadly sword shadows, her speed increasing even further.
Darian took the full force of this storm-like barrage, feeling the terrifying power coming from the blade, and narrowed his eyes.
Clearly, after becoming a troublemaker, Hela's strength had increased significantly, making it difficult for him to resist even with his stats.
"You think you're the only one who can transform?"
Darian raised his hand and wiped it across his face; a mask with strange patterns instantly covered his face, and at the same time, he changed into a white robe. His aura surged explosively, and all his stats soared to the max.
Hela sensed the expanding aura on Darian and felt a slight shock in her heart.
But she had no time to think; she immediately held her sword horizontally in front of her.
Clang!
The deafening sound of metal clashing exploded, the two weapons colliding fiercely, sending sparks flying everywhere.
Both figures were knocked back several steps.
They looked at each other, and the next second, they charged at each other again with even greater speed, erupting into an even more intense battle.
At this moment, the ground beneath them, covered in bones, was shattered layer by layer by the two massive forces, and bone dust mixed with shockwaves billowed into the air, causing the surrounding air quality to plummet rapidly.
Fortunately, both were covered by an energy shield that blocked all the dust particles in the air, so there was no need to worry about getting bone dust in their lungs.
The crisp sounds of blade collisions stacked one after another, so fast they almost merged into one.
"Awesome! So awesome! Continue! Don't stop!"
Hela was a natural-born battle maniac.
Having been cooped up in this hellhole of Helheim for thousands of years, finally encountering an opponent who could go head-to-head with her, her long-lost passion for battle was ignited.
"Don't say things that are so easy to misunderstand."
Darian muttered, barely managing to fend off Hela's offensive.
There was no help for it; Hela became more and more frenzied as she fought, eventually giving up defense entirely and focusing solely on maximum output.
Even if it meant taking his attacks head-on, she was determined to tear a bloody wound into him.
Under such a suicidal fighting style, the tide of battle immediately turned in Hela's favor, and he was forced to retreat step by step.
"This crazy woman."
Darian looked at Hela's crazed appearance and couldn't help but curse.
This was no Goddess of Death; she was clearly a lunatic.
"Do you really think I'm afraid of you?"
Seeing himself becoming more and more passive, Darian was also provoked into a real rage. He simply dropped his defensive stance and began playing a game of trading injury for injury with Hela.
In the blink of an eye, the wounds on both of them increased, blood spraying everywhere along the sword blades.
After all, Hela was an Asgardian god with extremely strong self-healing abilities; the cuts on her body would heal by more than half shortly after being inflicted.
However, Darian was not panicked in the slightest.
Every time he landed a sword strike on Hela, the ring on his hand would glow faintly, and a surge of pure life energy would flood his entire body, rapidly repairing his wounds.
[Equipment: Life-Steal Ring (Damage dealt to hostile targets can be converted into a certain amount of health to restore oneself. Targets are limited to intelligent beings, with no racial restrictions.)]
With this ring in hand, the thing Darian feared the least was this kind of suicidal, injury-for-injury fighting style.
As they fought, Hela finally sensed that something was wrong. She knitted her brows and demanded sharply: "What have you done to me? Why is my life force constantly draining away?"
Darian naturally wouldn't reveal his cards to her and said casually: "Who knows? Maybe your period has come to visit."
Hela: "?"
She didn't understand what Darian meant, but she knew it certainly wasn't anything good.
Fury instantly rushed to her head.
Hela immediately changed her moves. Her sword tip no longer aimed at the upper body but specifically attacked the lower body, every move aiming for little Darian.
This was normal; in combat, such moves were often very effective.
"F***!"
Darian could endure it, but little Darian could not. He immediately turned his blade and likewise aimed for Hela's face.
As for why he didn't attack Hela's two focal points, Darian indicated that the points were too small and not very easy to hit.
But this exchange was clearly a massive loss for Darian.
That crazy woman Hela didn't care about her face at all. She had self-healing abilities, so even if her face was slashed into a mess, she could recover as good as new in the blink of an eye.
But Darian was different.
Even if he could recover, he didn't want to leave a sword dangling there; if things went wrong, he might end up permanently neutered.
"Fine, fine, fine. So that's how you want to play? Then don't blame me for not fighting honorably."
Darian gritted his teeth and sneered. Several pitch-black tentacles instantly surged from behind him, each one coiling around various weapons.
"Interesting, interesting!"
Seeing this display, Hela not only showed no fear but the excitement in her eyes became even more intense.
The next second, several black tentacles closed in from all directions, coiling around various weapons and attacking Hela simultaneously.
Hela laughed wildly, holding a black longsword in each hand, dancing them into an impenetrable sword screen. She blocked the vast majority of the attacks, with only a few stray strikes landing on her.
But she didn't care; they were mere fatal wounds, which didn't matter at all.
Taking this opportunity, she quickly withdrew and pulled back to create distance, then flicked her hands violently. Countless black sword blades shot out, heading straight for Darian's face.
The black tentacles around Darian danced at high speed, making a crisp clanging sound as they blocked all the incoming sword blades.
Suddenly, he felt an anomaly beneath his feet and immediately leaped into the air.
Bang!
The next moment, a long, slender black blade burst out from the ground, stabbing straight upward.
Darian felt his sphincter tighten as he watched: "What a vicious move!"
Before he could land safely, black sword blades broke through the soil one after another in the bone-filled ground beneath him, like a dense forest of steel spears, instantly sealing off all his landing spots.
Rocket Backpack!
A metal backpack instantly appeared behind Darian. A powerful stream of air erupted from its tail, lifting his falling body back into the high air.
Borrowing the momentum of the ascent, he immediately changed direction and dove straight toward Hela below.
Seeing this, Hela immediately raised her sword horizontally in front of her, preparing to block.
Light Spell!
In an instant, an extremely dazzling white light exploded, directly illuminating this dark land that hadn't seen the Sun in ten thousand years.
"Ah!"
Hela felt only a vast whiteness before her eyes, and a piercing, heart-drilling pain instantly swept through her eyes.
Helheim was a place that had no light all year round. Hela had long been accustomed to the boundless darkness. For the first time in thousands of years, she had encountered such intense light—and it was a strong light comparable to the noonday Sun—how could she withstand it?
She subconsciously closed her eyes, and her originally steady and precise blocking move became slightly distorted.
"Good opportunity!"
A sharp light flashed in Darian's eyes. His move changed abruptly, switching from a slash to a Throwing attack.
He struck a javelin-Throwing pose, gripped the handle of his longsword, his right arm muscles bulged suddenly, and he threw it with all his might!
Whoosh!
The longsword transformed into an afterimage, carrying a sharp, piercing whistle that tore through the air, flying straight toward Hela's heart.
Hela sensed something was wrong and dodged, but she was a step too late.
The sword blade pierced directly through her scapula, and the immense force carried her backward rapidly, pinning her fiercely against the giant rock behind her.
Although Hela's physique was astonishing, this move made her feel terrible, and blood spilled from her mouth.
"Despicable bastard! You actually used magic to sneak attack!"
Hela gritted her teeth, the veins on her forehead bulging.
"Nonsense, I am a dignified mage; if I don't use magic, what should I use?"
Darian held a gun in one hand and a sword in the other, with a Rocket backpack on his back, speaking righteously.
Hela's mouth twitched: "Bullshit! From head to toe, what part of you looks like a mage!?"
Darian scoffed: "That's because you have little experience. Your brother Loki is also a melee mage; he just loves stabbing people in the kidneys with daggers. Your second brother Thor's kidneys have almost been stabbed into a hornet's nest by him. His future nightlife is truly worrying; I'm afraid he'll only be able to adopt a child like his father."
"There's such a good thing!?"
Hearing this, Hela disregarded her injuries, and a look of surprise and joy suddenly appeared on her face.
"?"
Darian raised an eyebrow, looking bewildered: "Your brother's kidneys are ruined, and you're this happy?"
"Of course I'm happy!"
Hela burst into laughter on the spot, laughing so hard she swayed back and forth, not even caring that her shoulder wound was shaking and bleeding.
"You just said that Thor is Odin's biological son, and Loki is just someone who was picked up!"
"Now that the kidneys of Thor, the legitimate heir, have been stabbed, it affects his fertility. He is destined to be unable to sit firmly on the throne of Asgard, and Loki, an outsider bastard, is even less likely to sit on it."
"In that case, that old guy Odin has completely lost his heir. Don't you think that's worth being happy about?"
Darian was speechless as he listened: "Even if neither of them can take over, it won't be your turn. What exactly are you happy about?"
"No!"
Hela's eyes flashed with the light of wisdom: "According to the succession system of Asgard, the throne must be left to the descendants of the legitimate royal family."
"So?"
"So as long as I have descendants, that old thing Odin will have no choice but to obediently hand over the throne!"
Hela became more excited as she spoke: "That old thing Odin refuses to let me succeed to the throne, but if I give birth to a legitimate royal bloodline, he will have no choice but to pass the throne to my child. If my child inherits the throne, then it is equivalent to me inheriting the throne!"
Good grief!
You managed to come up with such a crooked path; you are truly a talent!
Darian raised an eyebrow: "But didn't you say earlier that you wanted to personally fight your way back to Asgard to seize the throne?"
"I've changed my mind."
Hela cracked a grin, laughing in a crazed manner: "Personally seizing the throne—how could that be more interesting than Odin crying and begging to hand the throne to me?"
"He betrayed me back then and imprisoned me in this hellhole for thousands of years. By the time I can get out, he'll be long dead, and I won't even have the chance to kill him with my own hands. If I don't do this, how can I vent the deep hatred of these thousands of years!"
This family is truly a model of fatherly kindness and filial piety.
Darian sighed inwardly, then curiously asked: "Odin will die once you get out?"
Hela corrected him: "It's that I can only get out once Odin is dead. I'm not afraid to tell you: I am sealed here by Odin's divine power. Only when he dies will the divine power completely dissipate, and only then will I be able to regain my freedom."
"So that's how it is."
Darian suddenly realized and couldn't help but say: "Then the question arises: since you can only get out after Odin dies, how are you going to have a child here?"
Hela: —
That seems to make some sense.
In Helheim, let alone living people, there isn't even a single living creature that breathes.
Although she was a deity, she still followed some biological principles and couldn't reproduce asexually.
Hela froze for a full half-minute, then suddenly lifted her head, her eyes shining scaringly bright, and locked her gaze straight onto Darian in front of her.
"Are you a male?"
Darian: "???"
No, what the hell do you mean by that?
Darian said irritably: "What, do you want me to take off my pants to prove it to you?"
Hela didn't pay attention to Darian's words, her tone firm: "In that case, let's have a child!"
Darian: "???"
When I type a question mark, it's not because I have a problem, but because you have a problem.
He, Darian, had played so many games; what kind of absurd scenes hadn't he seen?
But this kind of plot where they are fighting and suddenly want to have a child, it was the first time he had ever seen it.