Chapters 111-115

Chapters 111-115

Hela kicked hard on the floor and rocketed towards me at a surprisingly fast speed. When she got close, she swung both of her conjured swords at me from different directions.

I threw my hands to my own sides and blocked her swings with two [Lightshields]. Her swords bounced off the shields, and she had a look of shock on her face.

She was clearly not expecting me to block her so easily. I pulled my fist back before rocketing it forward and nailing her in the face. A shockwave reverberated throughout the chamber. Hela's head snapped backward from the blow.

I went to hit her again with my other hand, but she recovered quickly and kicked me right in the diaphragm!

-50 HP

I grunted in pain and felt the air leave me. She kicked like a mule! I stumbled backward and took a moment to reassess my opponent.

Hela seemingly did the same as she wiped her slightly bruised cheek. The bruise vanished slowly before my eyes. It looked like she had a minor healing factor on top of her other abilities.

"I admit," Hela spoke, "that I underestimated you thieves. It's been a while since someone landed a blow on me." She glanced to the floor where Surtur's charred crown lay. "Even the Mighty Surtur couldn't harm me. Who are you?" Hela asked me angrily.

"Holy crap! Those two moved so fast I could even see them. How is that even fair?" I heard Andrea whine to Sif from behind me.

"Even in another dimension, Hela is still fearsome. Although, this one seems to be mentally unstable," Sif commented.

"I'm Layla of the Fallen. And I guess you could state that you and I are courting...in another dimension," I explained to her while keeping my guard up. Her swords had disappeared, but I knew she could summon more blades near instantly.

Hela's eyes simmered as I spoke to her. "Courting? Let me see if I have this correct? You claim to be from another dimension and are courting that dimension's version of me?" Hela asked in disbelief.

"That's right." I confirmed.

Hela bit her lip and clenched her fists tightly. "Hoh? Is that right? Well then...there's only one thing I can do now, isn't there?" She grinned at me madly in a way that made me uncomfortable.

[Crazy chicks...Am I right?]

Hela summoned another sword to her right hand and pointed it towards me. "I admit you are incredibly beautiful, and the other me obviously has good taste. But I can't lose to another version of myself! I will capture you and make you this Queen's bed slave for all time! You'll never need to see that other Hela again!" She said with a mad grin.

That logic was absolutely wild, but at the same time I knew that it was pretty spot on for her personality. She wants to steal me away from...herself.

[Kinky...]

I could tell that this Hela was being completely serious. Part of me found her dominance kind of hot, but I certainly wasn't staying another moment in this dimension that I didn't have to. I was going to beat, steal all her treasures, and leave.

[Not going to kill her?]

I grimaced at the system's question. I felt bad for her. My [Observe] had told me that Hela being isolated for so long had driven her crazy. I didn't think I could kill her in good conscience.

[She literally murdered every Asgardian...]

Yeah...she did do that... I don't really have an excuse for that because it was pretty messed up.

[Alright then?]

[Quest Issued! Defeat Hela without killing her!]

A [Lightspear] materialized in my hand. I flapped my ten wings hard and launched myself forward at Hela.

I went for a stab in her torso that wouldn't be immediately fatal. Hela parried my stab with her blade. I knew she was better than me in fighting skills, though, so I immediately let go of the spear and tried to tackle.

Her empty hand suddenly wasn't empty anymore. When I put my hand on her, a black dagger snarked forward and tried to stab me in the same place I aimed for her!

CLANG!

"WHAT!?" Hela exclaimed in shock when her dagger bounced off the seemingly ordinary black dress I was wearing.

I was also surprised Death's gift was so sturdy, but I took advantage of it. I wrapped my arms around her and spun her around. With a heave, I hurled her body with all my strength towards the stairway! Considering I was approaching a non-enraged Hulk in power, she hit the stone hard.

CRASH!

Across from me, Hela slowly extracted herself from the rubble. She looked around with a frown on her face. "Why don't we take our fight out of the treasury? There are some things in here I would rather not have broken." Hela suggested with a frown.

I smirked at her before turning back towards Andrea and Sif. "That's a good idea! While I'm busy fighting Hela, you two can finish looting this place!" I said. Andrea gave me a shaky thumbs up while Sif just nodded.

Hela was glaring at me. "It matters not. I'll simply take back all of the trinkets they've stolen from their corpses after I deal with you!"

I followed Hela out of the Treasury and back up towards the palace interior. Throughout the entire journey, she never once tried to land a sneak attack on me.

"Here, this shall be the proper spot for our duel." Hela said once we reached the throne room. I noticed her eyes trailed towards Odin's Empty throne And a smirk appeared on her face. Her eyes then drifted towards a familiar spot on the ground And she frowned before turning towards me in indignation. "You've even taken Gungnir!? I wasn't even gone that long. How did you manage to already raid so much of the palace!?"

I laughed and pulled the golden spear from my inventory temporarily to show it off. I gave it a twirl in my hand. "Well if you didn't want anyone to take it, you shouldn't have left it lying around." I said. The golden spear disappeared back into my inventory as I created my own. I wasn't going to use an untested weapon in a battle against a strong opponent. Especially Gungir, as it's not really even that impressive. All it does is shoot incredibly telegraphed lasers out of its tip. I pointed my [Lightspear] towards Hela. "Round two then. Shall we dance?"

XXX

"I'll show you the dance of death!" Hela said coldly. The air around her shimmered, and dozens—no, hundreds—of black swords materialized. All of the conjured black swords were pointing towards me. She grinned as she raised her hand in the air.

[Damn, Hela's trying to pull a Gilgamesh on you...]

'Fine then, I'll be a copycat and pull a Shirou!' I thought with a smirk.

-1000 MP

The air shimmered around me next as dozens and then hundreds of [Lightspears] were conjured into existence. 1000 MP might have seemed like a lot for a single attack, and it was, but I still had plenty of MP to spare now. On top of that, I was still sitting around 21000/9000 MP from wiping out all those zombies in New York. I'd walked into this fight with enough power to level Asgard twice over. And I'm sure the palace was about to take a hit once our two barrages collided.

Hela frowned when she saw that I could match her weapon output. It didn't deter her, though. She swung her hand downward. Hundreds of black swords were launched towards me. I willed my horde of [Lightspears] to do the same. What followed next could only be described as pure chaos.

...

—Andrea and Sif—

"Do you think Layla will be okay? Because I'm pretty sure the tall gothic chick will murder us if Layla loses," Andrea asked Sif after the two other women left the treasury.

"Layla won't lose," Sif responded confidently. "I can tell that she is stronger than this Hela is."

Andrea scratched her cheek and sighed. "That's good I guess, but strength doesn't always mean victory. Intelligence and tactics can matter just as much!" Andrea said.

Sif scoffed. "Says the woman who built a nigh-indestructible suit of armor for herself. If that isn't an example of strength, then I don't know what is."

Andrea laughed. "I suppose you got me there..." She then looked around the treasury. She was glad that the tall scary woman suggested she and Layla fight elsewhere. Some of the stuff in the room looked pretty sketchy. "So what should we take? And how will we carry anything out?" Andrea asked.

Sif pulled a small bag off of her hip and opened it up. Andrea frowned when she couldn't see the bottom of it. All she saw was darkness. "Is that an actual bag of holding?" Andrea asked with some excitement.

"I know not what that is. 'Tis a bag that can hold far more on the inside than one would expect, though." Sif said as she walked towards a large pile of golden coins. Andrea thought it was interesting that Asgard was still on the gold currency system. Sif opened the bag towards the pile. The air inside the treasury whipped up as a powerful sucking force came out of the bag and swallowed the entire pile of coins.

"Woah..." Andrea remarked. That was around a billion dollars worth of gold that Sif had just casually stored in her bag. She looked around the room for anything else worth taking. Andrea stayed clear of the mind-controlling eye and the stature that summoned a supposed eldritch abomination. What did draw her gaze, however, was a small stand-off in the corner. On top of the stand were five golden apples. "Hey Sif, what are those?" Andrea asked.

Sif gasped when she saw the golden apples. "Apples of Idun! They were supposed to be extinct! Eating a single apple will add 5000 years onto your lifespan and can even transform a mortal into an Asgardian!"

Andrea's eyes had metaphorical stars in them. "I can be as strong as you guys just by eating one of these things?" She asked as she picked one of the apples up and examined it. "I'm tired of being the squishy human girl who is useless without her armor."

"Yes, there should be no problem if you eat one." Sif started to say. "Just don't do it now because the process is supposed to be incredibly painful and it will take time to—"

I walked over towards the Bifrost activation pedestal I'd recognized from the movies and my own Asgard. "And now, ladies and gentle-AI. I present to you the end of the world!" I picked up Heimdall's sword/key where it lay nearby and slotted it into the keyhole.

Nothing happened....

Sif laughed at me lightly. "It's a key, You have to turn it.

"I knew that..." I twisted the sword counterclockwise hard until I heard a satisfying click.

THRUM!

I could feel it all around me. Magical energy started to build up.

"Starting up the Bifrost at full power." Jarvis called out as it started to activate. "...Firing now."

The Bifrost fired...

...Presumably at Earth.

It was literally thousands of light years away so we unfortunately couldn't see it. The first Thor movie made the scene a lot more dramatic by showing Jotunheim get hit by the Bifrost when in reality neither Thor or Loki would have actually seen anything... I didn't have all sight and I wasn't teleporting myself back to Earth to check.

"Hmmm. I thought it would be more dramatic." Sif commented as we watched the Bifrost's giant beam continue to pour out into space. It was very anticlimactic to witness first hand. Especially after the grudge match I just had with Hela that left half of Asgard and its palace destroyed.

"I can confirm the beam has reached earth, but am unaware as to how long the process will take to complete." Jarvis stated.

With a shrug, I sat down on one of the steps so we could wait. I reached into my inventory and pulled out a bag of chips. I ripped it open and took a handful before passing the bag to Sif who'd sat down next to me. "How long can it take for our knock-off death star to destroy a planet?"

4 hours later...

...It takes a long freaking time apparently. I forgot that in the movie, Loki had the Bifrost firing at Jotunheim for around 15 minutes before Thor showed up and it didn't do that much damage in that time. I imagine we had to wait til the Bifrost laser tunneled its way down to the planet's core and then caused some kind of chain reaction explosion that only makes sense because this is a comic book universe. Otherwise firing a giant laser at a planet would in no way cause it to explode... It would just make a giant hole.

Comically scattered around nearby were numerous empty bags and boxes of chips and cookies. Sif and I had just been snacking and chatting the whole time. Jarvis had been relatively quiet and was apparently copying schematics of the Bifrost. He was also a bit sad because he was essentially doing what humanity always feared what an AI would do...destroying the world. Sif and I had told him that we would all never speak of this to anybody so they don't judge him in the future.

Andrea had yet to wake up and thankfully neither had Hela. I'd been periodically checking on the Goddess of Death and she still seemed completely magically drained. I wondered if us having the Bifrost firing for four hours straight had something to do with that. She presumably drew her power in this dimension from Asgard–which was never a real planet here–and so does the Bifrost I'm assuming. The Bifrost had been taking all of the ambient magic so far and stopping Hela from recharging herself.

I counted that as a lucky coincidence. She'd probably destroy the rainbow bridge just to spite us at this point if she could.

[And to think just a few hours ago she wanted you to be her sex slave...]

I wasn't sure why my Hela was so much more sane than this typical 'canon-like' Hela. I believed it was because my Hela decided to directly draw her power from Lady Death instead of Asgard at some point. Maybe Death's power flowing through her restored her sanity?

[Eh, it's as good a guess as any.]

"It is done." Jarvis finally said. "I can confirm that the Earth is no more. The Bifrost is no longer hitting anything."

[Quest Completed! You have destroyed the zombie infested Earth as repayment to Lady Death!]

"Alright then!" I said as I stood up and brushed some of the crumbs off of me. Let's get the hell out of this dimension and never come back!" I walked over to the console and yanked out Jarvis's drive. Following that I walked over towards the pedestal and turned the sword clockwise disabling the Bifrost. Hela should wake up in a few hours and maybe she would rethink her life...Who am I kidding! She absolutely wouldn't, and would probably still be an evil tyrant. But she wouldn't be my problem anymore at least!

Sif shoved a few oreos into her mouth as she walked over and scooped up Andrea. "Agreed. I had no idea that alternate dimensions could be so dangerous and sad."

I called upon my Orb of Anywhere to take us home. A dark purple portal to Earth DxD opened and we stepped through.

XXX

C 115

–Interlude–

"We are approaching Asgard now, Father. News of the Allfathers death has spread far and wide. Without him, they should be easy to defeat." Ebony Maw, one of the children of Thanos, said to his father.

Thanos sat back on his throne and grinned at the sight before him.

Asgard... The only realm to have ever truly defeated him. Thanos would admit that even now, he still had some trepidation to attack them. The mighty Odin had completely devastated his armies over 1000 years ago and it took Thanos hundreds of years to rebuild.

That's why Thanos was leading the current invasion himself and he had recalled all of his children to assist him. He was expecting a tough battle even if Odin was dead. He knew the golden realm would never willingly hand over the Tesseract.

"Bring up Asgard on screen." Thanos commanded.

"Right away, Father." Ebony Maw replied as he hit a few buttons on a nearby console. A large holographic screen appeared in front of Thanos and he took a proper look at Asgard.

"What..." Thanos said speechlessly.

"What the hell happened there? Is that a...giant sword?" Thanos's favorite daughter–Gamora–asked nearby.

Thanos wanted to know what had occurred on Asgard as well. His capital ship drew closer to the realm, and as it did so, he could see that the once mighty Asgard looked absolutely devastated. The golden city was in ruins and the upper half of the famous palace was missing. It looked like it had been blown off from the inside!

"I don't think we're going to be getting the tough fight we were expecting." Gamora said with a shrug. "What a shame." She said with some sarcasm.

"What about the stone?" Thanos said. "Ebony, scan the city! Is the Tesseract on Asgard or did whoever did all this damage take it?"

Ebony started pressing more buttons and their ship began to scan all of Asgard for the signature of the Tesseract. If it was here, they would find it. The readings came up empty...

"It's not just the Tesseract, Father. All of Asgard is lifeless as well. Only a single being is alive in the entire city down there" Ebony said as he pointed towards Asgard. "The life sign is coming from the end of the rainbow bridge."

Thanos gripped his throne in anger. His stronger-than-vibranium armrests warped under his angry grip. "Someone beat us here and took what should have been rightfully mine!" Thanos said angrily. Thanos raged inside! Someone had stolen his infinity stone!

"What do you want us to do now?" Ebony asked. Gamora was looking at him curiously as well.

"We will retrieve the lone survivor and question them. For now though, we shall head towards Terra. Two of my infinity stones are there, and without Asgard to defend them, they should be easy enough to retrieve.

...

"Raaaaaaagghhhh! Damn them! They ruined everything! Thousands of years of planning is all for nothing now!"

A shout filled with rage and hatred awoke Hela from her slumber. She jumped to her feet combat ready with two swords immediately in her hands. She scanned the strange room she'd found herself in. She wasn't alone.

The angry shout had come from a large purple giant that sat upon a dark metallic throne. There were various other races different from the purple giant as well in the room. Hela could recognize that she was in a ship of some kind.

The others in the room noticed that she was awake. A woman with green skin drew a sword and pointed it at Hela. "Lower your weapons Asgardian. We have questions for you."

"And who are you to question me? Hela asked haughtily. "I am Hela the Goddess of Death and Queen of Asgard!"

"And our glorious father is the Great Thanos. Conqueror and Savior of thousands of worlds!" Another alien spoke to Hela. She considered him to be one of the ugliest creatures she had ever laid eyes on.

"And what does the glorious Thanos want with me?" Hela asked sarcastically as she turned towards the purple giant who was now eyeing her as well.

"I want to know what happened to the Infinity Stones. And where is Planet Terra? It's supposed to be at these coordinates, but the entire planet is gone!" Thanos said angrily.

Hela was confused at the current situation she found herself in, but still responded. "I know not of why you seek the infinity stones, nor where they are. I only knew of the Tesseract and that was recently stolen from me by...Layla of the Fallen." Hela said bitterly.

Thanos's eyes narrowed. "And who exactly is Layla of the Fallen?"

Hela scowled. "She's an invader from another dimension that came to Asgard and ruined everything for me! She destroyed my glorious city and massacred my undead legion!"

"Another dimension?" Thanos asked. "Tell me more..."

XXX