Chapter 194: Land of the Dead

Chapter 194: Land of the Dead

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I would like to thank my beta, Akisu, for his help in this chapter.

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9th March 2012, New York City

(Jasmine Sayre POV)

Immediately, everyone got to their feet, worried. I just raised my hand, "Don't worry, he won't do anything. I just couldn't leave him bound like that for where we're going."

Thor looked confused, "I thought we were going to Asgard?"

I nodded, "Yes, but first, I'll need to check on something and it's in what I would call a hostile environment."

Loki blinked at me, still disorientated, and glared, "And where would that be?"

The malicious grin on my face must have scared him because he paled when he saw it. Even Thor looked nervous, and his eyes widened when I said, "We're going to Nifleheim."

"Wait, what"

Before he could finish the sentence. I turned the Asgardian artifact, and teleported myself and the two Asgardians to one of the most dangerous places in the universe.

When I opened my eyes, I was met with a familiar sight. This was where I fought Entropy the last time, the dead realm of Nifleheim. I looked around and found the piece of bone that I had previously mistaken for a giant rock.

I truly hated this world; I could feel it constantly absorbing my magic. Any being who has blood in their veins would feel very unsettled staying here, feeling the implicit threat, and that's even if they don't feel their magic being siphoned away. I could even feel the excess energy from the Space Stone being slowly absorbed by the atmosphere. It wasn't enough that it could stop the stone from working, but the effect was still there. This is how powerful the realm of Nifleheim really is, to be able to affect one of the ingots of creation.

I look towards my passengers who had fallen down during the teleportation. They groaned as they got up, and Loki gasped and grabbed his chest, "My magic! What is this place? What is happening?"

Thor was also unsettled, "This place feels wrong."

I nodded at them, "This is Nifleheim. I don't think that your father would have allowed you to come here. It's truly a terrible place."

The God of Mischief straightened, "I have only heard of stories. No one has left this place alive."

I chuckled, "Of course they have, otherwise, you wouldn't have heard any of the stories. However, there's a reason why very few have ever escaped this place. This is a dead world, a truly dead world, a planet with no life, no energy, no magic. Nothing grows here, nothing will ever grow here. This realm is starving for energy, any energy really, and it will suck anything it can dry in the vain hope of righting itself. If we stay more than an hour in this place, the two of you will probably have your magic completely sucked away, giving you a terrible and painful death."

Shit, things couldn't be as simple as that, could they?

I needed to analyze the place properly. There were still traces of my trap, meaning that he didn't escape as soon as I went through the portal at the very least. The planet would have erased any traces of it. I started analyzing the remnants of the magic. It was very well put together, considering it was a blood magic trap centered on a celestial rune of all things, and I made it in less than a minute in my head and executed it while I was being choked by a cosmic entity.

I took a closer look, and it seems that it worked perfectly. The blast of time magic was because I used my life force to power it, but I didn't account for my extra life force that came when I became the Avatar of Death, which means that I overloaded the runes, and it reacted by sending the extra energy away in a blast which affected the dimensional portal I fell through.

Well, at least that's confirmed. For now, let's focus on the big question. How much time did I buy myself. Delaying Entropy like that meant that I gave him less time to manipulate the events of the world at his leisure. So far, the invasion went exactly as I predicted it would go, which was odd, because if he had arranged for the Avengers to die somehow, then there would be no one to oppose Thanos when he goes for the stones, meaning that I would have to split my attention to both trying to stop him, and trying to stop Thanos from using all six infinity stones at once, which would allow Entropy to perform his spell.

The traces of the original trap were faint, very faint, and I was barely able to pick up on them and use them to analyze when the trap failed and how. Funnily enough, Entropy didn't overpower the trap. His mind was enslaved to his perceived time, meaning that he couldn't even think about escaping in time.

Instead, the life force I used to power the blood runes was drained from the trap over time. The fact that it held for years, was enough for me to be proud of how energy efficient my trap was, especially given the circumstances.

I used the energy remnants of the trap to extrapolate when it had failed. Huh, it was barely a few months ago. It seems that I had truly extrapolated a draw out of this. I sighed in relief; at least some good came from that fight. I was worried that I lost six years with Selene and Wanda for nothing.

I got up, still staring at the remnants of my experimental trap that almost defeated a cosmic entity. Since it worked, it meant that Entropy was fallible, that there were ways to defeat him. I already had plans upon plans, traps upon traps. For the first time in a while, I felt hope.

I looked at the two godlings looking at me worriedly, "He isn't here. Let's go."

They both held onto me as we teleported to Asgard.

Meanwhile, far away in the other side of the galaxy, a man in black was looking at one of the most feared beings in the galaxy if not the universe. He wasn't afraid though, and the so-called Mad Titan realized it.

He gave the Titan a smug look, "I told you that your little scheme would fail."

The man sitting on the floating chair didn't seem to care, "And yet, I lost nothing."

"Nothing except your access to the Mind Stone."

"The planet can barely be considered developed. They will not be able to defend themselves. I will take it back, along with the rest of the Stones, when I am ready to make my move. Although, I couldn't help but note your surprise at the dark woman's presence. Are you familiar with her?"

The man in black chuckled, "You could say that, Thanos. I have to admit that I am impressed with her survival. I was sure I would never see her again after the last time we spoke. What an exciting turn of events."

"Is she a threat?"

The man nodded, "More than you realize. But she won't be a problem with me here."

The Titan stood up from his throne, "Who is she?"

The body of the cosmic entity named Entropy grinned, "Her name is the Morrigan and she's the single most powerful opponent you will ever face."