Hela's shock didn't last long.
No other reason—she suddenly remembered something.
This magic… it felt like she'd seen it before!
If she remembered right—
This thing explodes!
"Not good!"
Hela's expression changed drastically.
The divine power of death inside her surged at once.
A terrifying, overwhelming deathly force began to rise.
In the next instant—
The ground underwent a huge change.
The earth trembled violently.
And then—
A ring of black, metallic crystal shot up from beneath the ground.
Those black crystals formed a defensive barrier.
At this moment, Hela was confident.
Back then, she had relied on these powers to block half of Odin's desperate, all-out assault.
This was the fusion of Asgard's massive leyline power and her own deathly power.
Every single black crystal was insanely strong—indestructible.
Even the hardest starships in the universe, faced with the impact of this layer of metal crystal…
Would be pierced clean through.
Even a god's body would be skewered by that horrifying force.
The next moment—
Boom!!
A blinding platinum-white radiance erupted.
It was as if several enormous suns had appeared above Asgard's ground.
The entire world was lit up.
Thor and Loki, protected by Karl, couldn't help covering their eyes to keep the glare from stabbing into them.
Feeling the furious torrents of energy surging outside the shield—
Thor and Loki were trembling.
They watched with their own eyes as the boundless power from all directions smashed Hela's shield without restraint.
In an instant—
On top of the ruins Odin had left behind, another massive crater appeared.
The raging platinum-white force lasted a full quarter of an hour before it slowly dissipated.
When the platinum-white glare finally faded—
The scene gradually came into view.
The enormous black crystals Hela had summoned—two stories tall, shaped like giant claws—
Were already badly shattered.
As if they had been melted by some terrifying power, their surfaces were covered in scorched, liquefied traces.
And inside—
Hela looked utterly miserable.
Her wild, frizzed-up hair was charred.
Her whole body was blackened, like she'd just crawled out of a lava bath.
She looked wretched.
"Hahahaha, I survived!"
"Don't you dare think you can kill me!"
"I'm immortal!"
Hela shouted like a madwoman.
Asgard's power flowed again.
In the blink of an eye—
Her injuries recovered completely.
"You idiot!"
"To think you'd try to deal with me on Asgard—a being who holds the Authority of Death."
"You can't succeed!"
"In my domain, there is no such concept as death!"
Green light poured off Hela's body, making her look ferocious and grotesque.
"You don't understand how powerful deathly power is!"
"I'd like to see exactly how you think you can kill me!"
Her tone was unhinged.
Clearly, Karl's attack wasn't meaningless.
Hela really was absurd.
She controlled deathly power—
And this was Asgard, her home field.
You could say she was unbeatable.
She had even erased the very concept of death.
In other words—
Here, she would not die.
Unless Asgard itself was annihilated in a single instant—
Hela could rely on Asgard's near-inexhaustible power to repair her wounds again and again.
It was outright cheating.
Even Karl felt a headache coming on.
He could defeat Hela—
But killing her wasn't going to be easy.
And if he couldn't finish her off—
It would be like he'd come here for nothing.
"Won't die?"
"Just because you won't die, you think there's no way to deal with you?"
"I don't need to kill you. I just need to cripple you, then seal you away—so you can't come out. Just like what Odin did back then."
Karl spoke coldly.
Sealing would do.
If he wanted to be even more ruthless, he could tear her body apart and seal the pieces separately.
There were legends of beings far more monstrous than Hela—still ended up dismembered and locked beneath a sacred mountain, never stirring up trouble again.
So what about Hela?
If Odin sealing her on Earth wasn't enough—
Then he'd use the same ruthless logic, and do it properly.
He refused to believe she could break free again.
If it really came to it, he could even borrow Nick Fury's "Slingshot Base" and launch her straight into the sun.
If this woman thought he had no way—
Then she was being far too naïve.
Hearing Karl's words—
Hela's face changed.
Back then, how proud had she been?
Her name had carried terrifying prestige even across the cosmos.
But Odin had sealed her for ten thousand years.
And when she finally came out—
No one even recognized her anymore.
That feeling—
Was worse than death.
"You can forget it!"
"When Odin sealed me, every Valkyrie under him was slaughtered by my hand."
"And you? What price will you pay?!"
Hela snarled viciously.
"A price?"
"I never planned to pay a price."
"I only need to be stronger than you. That's enough."
Karl said it coldly.
He lifted a hand.
The space before him twisted.
A transparent, warped weapon appeared in Karl's grasp.
With a light sweep—
Space itself split apart.
This was the magic he'd learned from Kaecilius.
The Rift-Cleaving Blade of the Vishanti!
Forged from spatial rifts, it was absolutely the most lethal weapon in his hands.
Perfect for dealing with a powerhouse like Hela, whose body was terrifyingly strong.
Karl sneered.
Gripping the weapon, he charged.
"You can forget it!!!"
Hela let out a shriek.
The piercing sound formed a platinum-white shockwave around her.
Rumble, rumble!
The ground trembled under the pressure of her power.
The earth abruptly bulged upward.
A thick, massive black spike rose from the ground.
Hela stood atop it and shot straight into the sky.
With a wave of her hand—
More than a dozen black spears formed around her.
They were pitch-black, radiating a dense aura of death. Each was as thick as an adult's arm, and several meters long.
If an ordinary person were pierced by one, they'd be ripped in half without a second thought.
"Die! Go die for me!"
Hela looked utterly crazed.
She swung her arm.
The giant black spears floating on both sides stabbed toward Karl.
The sky instantly filled with black spears.
"Hmph."
"Too crude."
Karl said calmly.
His figure flickered.
In a flash of golden light, he appeared right in front of one of the black spears.
The Rift-Cleaving Blade danced.
In just a few seconds, he chopped that spear into fragments.
Hela stared, dumbfounded.
(End of Chapter)
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