The Asgardian Vault trembled.
The fake Reality Stone, locked away in Odin's collection, began to glow. Cracks spread across its surface, and from within, something dark pulsed. It was a fragment of the Aether, wild and unstable.
Then, it exploded.
Molten red energy oozed out, slithering like living tendrils, twisting and warping the air around it. The entire vault groaned as reality itself began to twist. Walls stretched and folded like fabric, pillars melted into liquid gold before reforming into jagged spikes. Time bent—seconds stretched, reversed, and then snapped forward again.
And then...
The Aether was unleashed upon Asgard.
[Asgard – The Throne Room]
Odin sat on his throne, his ancient eyes closed as he felt the disturbance. His grip on Gungnir tightened.
Then, the shockwave hit.
The golden halls of Asgard twisted as the sky cracked open with spirals of shifting colors, the mountains in the distance bent at impossible angles. Buildings stretched and shrank, entire sections of the city flipped upside down.
Screams echoed as Asgardians collapsed, some floating mid-air as gravity flickered in and out of existence.
Thor, Hela, Loki, and the warriors of Asgard stumbled, caught completely off-guard.
Hela narrowed her eyes. "This magic... No. Something ancient."
"It's not magic," Loki murmured, his face pale. "It's the Aether."
Odin rose from his throne, his golden armor shining. He slammed Gungnir onto the ground.
BOOM!
A massive golden wave of Odinforce surged out, crashing into the chaotic energy. The fabric of reality stabilized for a moment, stopping Asgard from completely collapsing.
The distortion still thrashed against his power, but Odin held it at bay, veins glowing with pure energy. His face was calm and his voice was strong.
"THOR. HELA. LOKI."
The gods snapped to attention.
Odin's eyes burned with fury. "No more waiting. The time has come. You will take the army. You will kill Thanos. You will recover the Reality Stone. Power such as this is wasted in that fool's hands."
Thor gripped Mjolnir, rage flashing in his eyes. "Finally."
Hela smirked, and ran her hand over her head, summoning her crown. "I thought you'd never ask."
'This old bastard plans to get us all killed. There is no way to stop Thanos with the Infinity Stone of Reality. Then there's that Destroyer Armor and that fire monster. If that mad blockhead used it to change the reality, then well... Shit! And these fools are really excited.' Loki hesitated for half a second but then grinned. "And here I thought today would be boring."
Odin gritted his teeth, his power cracking under the Aether's pressure.
"I can't hold this forever. GO!"
Thor turned to Heimdall, standing at the Bifrost controls.
"Send us to Thanos!"
Heimdall nodded, raising Hofund, the golden sword of the Bifrost. Energy swirled, the rainbow bridge humming to life.
Thor, Hela, and Loki stepped onto the platform. The air shimmered as the Bifrost locked onto Thanos' location.
The bridge began to open...
And then Loki smirked.
He flicked his fingers, just a little twist in the magic, barely noticeable... just enough to send Thor and Hela somewhere else.
The Bifrost EXPLODED with light.
Thor and Hela vanished into the cosmos.
Loki laughed, stepping back from the platform. "Oops."
Odin turned, rage burning in his gaze. "LOKI! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!" His giant astral projection appeared over Loki.
Loki's smirk twitched. "Just... an adjustment. You couldn't have possibly thought that I am a fool like those two, right?"
Odin raised Gungnir, but before he could strike...
The Aether surged again.
"Ah! I wouldn't do that," Loki pointed out as the twisting reality around Asgard.
Reality collapsed in on itself, and Odin was forced to use all his strength to contain the chaos, giving Loki just enough time to disappear into the shadows.
Asgard shook.
...
[Meanwhile...] [Earth]
The peaceful silence of the snowy mountain was shattered as a beam of rainbow energy tore through the sky, slamming into the peak with a force that sent shockwaves cascading down the slopes. The air crackled with unstable magic, and the very ground trembled beneath the impact.
Jubilee yelped as the tremor knocked her off balance, but before she could stumble, Aron grabbed her hand.
"What the hell was that?" She asked.
"Only one way to find out," Aron flicked his fingers.
Bamff! In the blink of an eye, they vanished—teleporting directly to the mountain's peak.
[Crash site]
The snowstorm had momentarily cleared, revealing a smoking crater where the Bifrost had torn through the mountain. The air was thick with the scent of burned ozone and unstable magic still crackled across the rocks, distorting the air like a heatwave.
And in the center of it all…
A figure lay sprawled against the ice, her black armor cracked, her body barely moving.
Hela.
The Goddess of Death groaned, her pale face twisted in pain as she struggled to rise. The impact had badly injured her. Blood dripped from a wound on her forehead, mixing with the snow beneath her.
Her first instinct was to summon her power, to teleport back to Asgard.
But nothing happened.
Her energy flared for a brief second… then fizzled. Something was interfering with her power.
Hela gritted her teeth in frustration. "Damn it!"
She never thought that Loki would pull that trick. She was so blinded by her greed to gain fame, that she had overlooked Loki's plot. When the Bifrost exploded, it ripped her from her original destination and threw her here, leaving behind an unnatural magical residue that disrupted her abilities.
"No… No, no, no."
She tried again, her body trembling from exhaustion, but the chaotic energy blocked her every attempt.
A surge of rage burned through her. She threw her head back and screamed.
"HEIMDALL!"
But no answer came. The sky remained silent.
The Bifrost was gone.
She was stranded.
...
A few feet away, Aron and Jubilee stood frozen, taking in the sudden arrival of a literal goddess crashing into their hiking trip.
Jubilee blinked. "So… that just happened."
Aron didn't respond immediately. His eyes locked onto Hela, studying her. He knew exactly who she was—Odin's firstborn, the Goddess of Death. A being who had once waged war across the cosmos, who had almost destroyed Asgard. But she was screaming Heimdal's name, which meant something wasn't right. This reality's Hela might be different from the MCU version.
And right now?
She was weakened.
Vulnerable.
Her wounds weren't healing. Her power looked unstable.
'What the hell is going on here?' Aron wondered.
...
[Somewhere far away]
From their hidden vantage point, Jean, Kitty, and Emma, who had once again been tailing Aron and Jubilee, stared in shock.
Kitty's mouth opened and closed before she finally managed, "Okay… new plan. We run?"
Jean, her fiery Phoenix aura faintly flickering around her, narrowed her eyes. "No. We need to see how this plays out."
Emma smirked, adjusting her pristine white coat. "Oh, this is getting interesting."
Kitty groaned. "We're so gonna die or not. Aron or Jean can bring us back to life again. But I don't want to experience death. Nope."
...
[Back to Aron]
Hela finally managed to push herself to her knees, her breath ragged. Her vision swam, and her muscles screamed in protest.
Then, she sensed it... a presence.
Her sharp eyes snapped up, locking onto Aron.
The way he stood so still, so calm. The way his power hummed beneath his skin like a sleeping beast.
And those eyes…
He was strong. Probably the strongest man, she had ever faced. Even at her level, she could grasp the full strength of that man.
Then Hela felt it. The suffocating feeling of being suppressed by someone superior. She felt it many times before in the presence of Odin, but that man... It was far worse than Odin's power. 'Who the hell is this man? And those eyes... Such bloodlust...'
Hela bared her teeth, forcing herself to stand despite the pain.
"Where am I?" she demanded, her voice sharp despite her weakened state.
Aron tilted his head. "Earth."
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[14 advance chapters] [No double billing]
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