But the problem arose when the fleet of the Dark Star arrived, and the leader of the dwarves told Ronan frankly.
"With gold, anything can be made. Without gold, go ask the Father of Gods if he's willing to help the Kree Empire."
Ronan actually knew in his heart that Odin was only asleep, not dead.
If his fleet robbed the dwarves, Odin might settle scores afterwards.
The Supreme Wisdom only calculated and gave conclusions, but in recent years, Ronan increasingly distrusted that creature.
It felt like a brain soaked in a giant fish tank, connected to a mass of tubes, without a recognizable brain cell, only streams of numbers and energy. Is such a thing truly reliable?
However, the entire Kree nation was caught up in a blind worship of the Supreme Wisdom, so Ronan could only keep these thoughts to himself.
But he was secretly preparing, waiting for the right moment to overthrow the rule of the Supreme Wisdom and restore Queen Kree.
In his plan, he needed to keep some leeway. At such a time, offending Odin would only bring more trouble.
Unless the Supreme Wisdom had calculated his rebellion, and purposefully assigned him a troublesome task to set a trap...
But for now, the Supreme Wisdom was the ruler, and even knowing it was a trap, Ronan had to obediently go through with it.
So before he arrived, Ronan decided not to steal or rob, but to negotiate peacefully.
The amount of gold required to build a battleship was astronomical, which he could never procure, so he decided to visit the Immortal Palace, to see if he could deceive Prince Thor for help.
They're all warriors and all use hammers, so they should have a lot in common, right?
But halfway there, Ronan suddenly remembered that they had encountered the fleet of the Dark Elves.
At the time, the Dark Elves thought that the Kree people hadn't noticed them, but really, Ronan just couldn't be bothered with them.
The Dark Star was almost one of the most powerful warships in the cosmos. There was no benefit in dealing with the Dark Elves' comparable 'rowboats'.
Various nations in the cosmos, as long as they weren't too isolated, basically knew that the Dark Elves were currently in exile and dirt poor.
Even capturing their warships would yield nothing, and would unnecessarily incur battle damage, wasting fuel, ammunition, and shipborne aircraft.
The leader of the Dark Elves, Malekith, clearly knew this too, so he often acted like a rogue. Space battles involved full-speed stealth approaches to enemy ships, then launching cursed warriors to board them.
If a cursed warrior boarded a battleship, without a strong warrior like Ronan to confront them, the ship was basically doomed, soon turning into space debris from the inside.
It's a disgusting tactic, yet very effective. The cursed warriors were originally death warriors, expecting not to survive once ejected.
They would do their utmost to destroy everything in front of them, sacrificing for the Dark Elf race.
Normally, Ronan didn't want to get involved with anything related to the Dark Elves, but the situation was now different. He thought that if he helped Asgard against the Dark Elves, perhaps the shipbuilding matter would be easier to discuss?
As long as he could provide materials, he could save quite a bit of gold, right?
So he ordered the fleet to search the previous Dark Elves' route and follow them.
As a result, he saw the Dark Elves raiding Light Elf cities.
Whether it was food, clothing, drinks, or energy, they wanted it all, just like space pirates.
Ronan looked down on them even more; Malekith was a king, but what he did even cosmic mercenary raiders disdained.
However, the contempt in his heart did not affect Ronan's strategy. He secretly sent people to rescue some residents, then had them flee to Asgard.
This was a performance, it had to be seen by the Asgardians that the Kree helped their people for the act to have value.
And to eliminate all witnesses, Malekith followed those small ships, but those ships had been urgently modified by Kree Technology, and couldn't be caught.
By the time they were caught up, the ships had already reached Asgard's airspace, and it clearly drew Odin's attention.
With nothing to lose, Malekith saw the chaos below, likely already in battle, and decided to hit Asgard while they retreated.
But at that moment, the Dark Star of the Kree Empire suddenly arrived through warp, launching an attack, forcing them to retaliate and seek an opportunity to escape.
And at this time, the leaders of both sides saw Odin, sitting on horseback in front of the Golden Palace, looking up impassively at both sides.
..................
"Gaze upon me! For I am glory! I am the sparkling embers of the end of all things!"
As Surtur laughed up to the sky, he drew the Flaming Giant Sword Levatin from the magma pool behind him, the legendary sword that would end the world.
This was a divine weapon, not only possessing flames that could burn the World Tree but capable of resizing at will.
In the hands of the giant god-like Surtur, the weapon was over a hundred meters long and more than ten meters wide, its eternal flames curling the hair of a few people.
Surtur swung the sword down, forcing Thor and the Three Warriors to dodge; the giant sword crashed where they had stood, shaking the ground, turning it into a lava pool, sending the four of them flying.
"I forge weapons from all things, all things approach death in my hands, appearing before me... is courting death!"
The red-skinned giant drew the weapon, holding it overhead to gather strength, then fiercely struck at Loki.
"No!!!"
Thor let out a cry of despair, diving to push his brother away from the sword's path.
But he was too slow, Surtur wielding the weapon as fast as lightning, in a whoosh and a vivid red flash, the giant sword instantly hit its target.
Thor collapsed to the ground in despair, but soon showed a puzzled expression.
The Loki that Surtur hit split into two, gradually twisted by the heat, yet still making faces at Surtur.
It was an illusion; Loki was not there,
The real Loki was at the bottom of the volcano, behind a large rock, about a hundred meters from the battlefield...
His face was ashen, not looking as carefree as the phantom.
Heat waves swept through the volcano's interior, lava seeping across the ground, making him look like he'd been fished from water.
"Odin's ulcer... he was right, why did I think of coming with these fools?"
Hugging his long hair, Loki peeked out from the rock to see the others being chased around by the Fire Giant, then immediately ducked back.
He desperately tried to think of a plan, but this was a situation of absolute power disparity; how much could lies actually achieve here?
"I am your doom!"
In the distance, Surtur continued to roar, the air within the mountain vibrating with his bellow.
Covering his head, hiding behind the rock, Loki whispered to himself, "Yes, yes, you're right, but I have an idea..."