The silence of reality shattered with ease—within a single breath, the world around Lothar and Hela had been twisted beyond recognition.
A cold blood moon loomed high above, while beneath their feet, brittle skulls crunched and cracked. The landscape was alien to them both, eerie and unknown.
"Woz?"
Lothar scanned the surroundings. His connection with Woz had been severed. Not just Woz—The Other, the Chitauri soldiers, even the Dark Elves were nowhere to be seen.
As his gleaming silver boots stepped forward, the bones beneath disintegrated into dust. Lothar's brow furrowed. There was no sense of danger—only silence. He glanced up at the blood-red crescent hanging in the sky.
Whoosh!
Suddenly, a gust of wind behind him. Lothar didn't dodge. He let the skeletal figure, stirred awake from death, slam its bony fist into the silver armor on his back.
Crack!
The frail skeleton couldn't withstand the armor's recoil. It shattered instantly.
"…?"
Lothar and Hela exchanged glances—both saw the same confusion reflected in each other's eyes.
Another skeleton rose, and Lothar casually dispatched it. But something felt off. More and more skeletons were awakening. Their numbers swelled. Their attacks grew stronger with each passing second.
"So… this is the so-called realm of the dead?"
"What a joke." Hela scoffed. "I haven't sensed even a flicker of Death's divinity here. This place can't possibly be the realm of the dead."
As one who possessed the divinity of Death, Hela would never acknowledge a realm devoid of its essence as the true afterworld.
This place was a cheap imitation—selling dog meat under the sign of lamb.
Clap… clap… clap…
Sparse applause echoed from all directions. Three figures slowly emerged beneath the light of the blood moon.
Purple-eyed Ora, square-faced Velruz, and the blood-drenched Ur—or rather, Kotian.
"Impressive… the daughter of Odin, awakened to the divinity of Death."
Velruz, standing at the front, spoke in a voice as deep as the abyss, laced with admiration.
"Let me introduce myself. I am Velruz, first among the Twelve Cursed Warriors under the Dark Elf King."
"Don't care," Lothar muttered. He raised a hand toward the sky where Velruz hovered—brilliant light burst from his fingertip and pierced straight through Velruz's chest.
A clean hit.
Velruz glanced down at the bleeding hole in his chest. Yet he smiled, eerily calm.
"A powerful attack... but not nearly enough."
"The King has already seen through your strength."
From the skeletal remains beneath Lothar's feet, glowing Dreamblossoms bloomed in clusters of deep violet. The bones began to whirl and merge, swirling together in a grotesque ballet soaked in Velruz's blood.
A fierce wind howled as Lothar's dark hair whipped around him. A massive dragon—composed entirely of bone—took form beneath the blood moon and let out a thunderous roar.
It was a dragon reduced to nothing but its skeletal frame.
"This is the embryonic form of the Death God, born from all the fallen of Svartalfheim."
Velruz sneered, voice echoing as he gestured toward the towering creature. "Now, take a closer look. Does it not carry the scent of Death's divinity?"
Hela's expression darkened.
Because she could smell it—that same divine essence she herself possessed.
"Hey, how much nutrient fluid do you have left?" she asked.
But Lothar wasn't listening.
His gaze locked onto the bone dragon, eyes gleaming with unfiltered excitement.
"Lothar!"
Boom!
In a flash of silver light, his fists—charged with devastating force—slammed into the massive construct of death!
Light exploded outward.
The bone dragon collapsed in an instant.
"What?!"
Velruz choked on the words that had been forming on his lips.
This wasn't right.
According to King Laufey's intel, Lothar was nowhere near this powerful.
"This pathetic thing was your so-called god of death?" Lothar frowned, glancing at the twitching remains beneath his boots. "What a weak god."
He stomped on one of the dragon's twitching legs, then raised his eyes toward the floating enemy.
"You bastard…" Velruz's gaze narrowed. "Ora."
"I know."
Ora lifted her hand.
A true Dreamblossom bloomed within her grasp—its thick roots suddenly plunged into Ur's body, still trying to heal from earlier wounds.
"You—?!"
Ur looked down in disbelief at the flower now buried in his chest. Petal-shaped markings blazed across his arms, his expression caught between shock, fury… and confusion.
"All of this… is for the future of our kind."
Ora watched coldly as the Dreamblossom devoured Ur's life force. With a flick of her wrist, Ur's corpse was banished into the darkest depths of the afterworld.
In exchange for Ur's life and the desecration of his body, they summoned the legendary Death God of the Dark Elves of Svartalfheim.
The ground beneath Lothar quaked.
The bone dragon he had felled moments ago was now enveloped in the pulsing energy of an Infinity Stone Isotope, rushing toward Velruz and Ora beneath the blood-red sky.
"I… am the Dark Elves' legendary God of Death and War!"
Velruz roared, his body now absorbing the full brunt of Death's divinity and the Infinity energy.
His form began to change.
His entire body was now encased in a dark metallic alloy. Razor-sharp claws replaced his hands, gleaming with lethal light. A shield marked with ancient runes split across his back. Crimson eyes glowed beneath a black-and-gold draconic helm.
"The God of Death and War…?"
Lothar, standing tall on the battlefield, watched the transformation with gleaming eyes.
Bang!
The two clashed beneath the blood moon!
Velruz's claws shredded Lothar's silver armor, but a powerful whip-kick sent the god crashing into the earth.
"Impossible!"
As the dust settled, Velruz stared up in disbelief.
He had become what the legends spoke of—a god among the Dark Elves. So why… why was this man still stronger?
Unless…
No.
It couldn't be.
The method had been taught to him by the King himself. There could be no mistake.
No mistake!
"I… am a GOD!!"
He raised his hands to the sky, drawing in massive streams of gray energy from the realm of the dead.
"Then hear this—God says: You must die!"
Svartalfheim Energy Cannon!
"…A god?" Lothar murmured, his shattered armor falling away. The black battle suit underneath fluttered in the wind as he smirked, power surging between his palms.
"Then I'll show you—even if you're a god, I can kill you."
Silver-white energy surged from his hands.
The beam clashed against the Energy Cannon in a brilliant explosion of light that nearly blinded Hela from where she stood, watching.
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