Odin's roar, infused with divine blood, made every muscle in Heisenberg's body seize tight.
Staring at the crimson lightning flood that stretched from heaven to earth, Heisenberg felt like he was seeing the all-powerful Princess Hela from the films. Using Asgard's inherited divine power, that princess had driven a death blade as tall as a mountain range straight through Surtur's chest. A sight Heisenberg still couldn't shake from his memory. And now, the thunder Odin personally forged with the inherited power of Asgard utterly dwarfed Hela's display.
At the same time, having rebuked Thor, Odin finally raised the divine spear Gungnir high in his right hand. The motion was impossibly strained, as though he were hoisting the entire sky rather than just a weapon. Gungnir rapidly lost its physical shape, consumed and reshaped by the lightning into a bolt of crimson. Odin hovered in the air, his left hand clenched into a fist, his right putting every last ounce of strength into channeling his power through Gungnir. The surging sea of thunder above churned instantly, spiraling into a colossal vortex. And at the center of that titanic swirl of lightning, the spear that would inevitably strike Heisenberg.
"GO!!!"
Just a single word from Odin, yet every hair on Heisenberg's body stood on end.
Dodge?
How could he!
There was absolutely no way he could evade this attack!
Think it was Kryptonian pride? Think it was Superman's refusal to dodge kicks in? No, none of that. The only reason he stayed rooted to the spot was simple. He couldn't dodge it!
In that instant, pure instinct surged through Heisenberg's mind. The kind of instinct we don't need to think about, like how to open our mouths to eat, or how to open our eyes to see the world. Without even thinking, Heisenberg knew the spear descending from the heavens would pierce his chest in the very next moment. This was the divinity unique to Gungnir and Odin, and the power of truth the weapon carried.
Certain hit!
No matter where you fled, no matter where you ran, Gungnir would always strike you. There was no other outcome. Of course, all of this was limited to the multiverse where Gungnir existed. But would Heisenberg let an unavoidable attack force the system to send him fleeing to another multiverse?
How could that be!
Heisenberg stood his ground. The world before his eyes abruptly slowed. In the same instant, he raised his hand with blinding speed. An invisible force field tore forward in a spiraling vortex centered on his palm. His manipulation of the four fundamental forces ripped at the very fabric of space and time in front of his palm, and this gave Gungnir's advance a tiny bit of trouble. But that wasn't all. Twin beams of heat vision erupted from Heisenberg's eyes. And the primary property of heat vision was its kinetic force. That's right, heat vision isn't the high-temperature laser people imagine. In reality, it's a shockwave that causes concussive damage by warping and transmuting solar radiation. Its true power is like a railgun, pure concussive force. The high heat that could melt most substances was nothing more than a secondary effect released alongside the solar radiation.
The tearing Grand Unified Field and the fiercest heat vision collided head-on against the tip of the incoming thunder. Heisenberg could clearly see Gungnir's speed stall for just the briefest instant.
And in the next instant, Heisenberg was blasted backward, hurtling straight toward the distant, majestic Golden Palace.
BOOM!!!
Deafening crashes and the groan of collapsing walls rang out. Even as Heisenberg fought his backward momentum with his bio-field, he couldn't stop himself from punching through two walls of the palace.
By the time he finally came to a halt, he found himself in the most exalted spot in the entire Golden Palace. There, atop the throne where only the King of the Gods was worthy to sit, Heisenberg lay pinned by Gungnir. The spear transformed into a conduit, channeling the endless lightning from the distant sky and pouring it straight into Heisenberg's heart. Numbness, searing heat, and utter disintegration spread outward from Heisenberg's left chest, preventing him from quickly using his stored solar radiation to regenerate his heart.
"Uwaaah!!!"
His howl of agony echoed through the Golden Palace, and the Asgardians outside let out a collective breath of relief. Moments later, the main doors of the palace collapsed. The once exquisite gates now lay open, exposing the great hall to countless Asgardian eyes. And there, Heisenberg's body, writhing in agony, was laid bare for all to see.
Frigga exhaled deeply and turned to her younger son, Loki. But Loki wasn't looking at Heisenberg. He stared numbly at Odin in the distance, who was now plummeting toward the ground from sheer exhaustion. Even in such a wretched state, Odin's image had never been more towering in Loki's heart.
"He... how can he be this strong?!"
A dazed Loki blurted the only question he had. He had been at Odin's side for over sixteen hundred years, yet he'd scarcely ever seen Odin lift a hand. How could he ever have imagined the true power this ancient god possessed?
Hearing Loki's question, Frigga drew a breath and lifted her chin slightly.
"My child, never forget that the gods of Asgard grow ever stronger with age. And because you interrupted your father's Odinsleep ritual, his life force is now draining at tremendous speed. At this moment, he is likely much as he would have been ten thousand years from now. The divine power within him has long since reached the level of the ancient First Kings of the Nine Realms. This power of his was meant to dissipate over half a year until his final end. That was what your father and I believed his fate to be. But you, you defied that original fate. You've forced all that power to bloom here and now."
As she finished, moisture gathered at the corners of Frigga's eyes. She sighed softly and cupped Loki's face with both hands. "My child, go to him. No matter how much you hate him, he is about to die."
Hearing Frigga's words, a clear flicker of emotion crossed Loki's eyes. But before he could answer, Thor's sudden roar split the air.
"FATHER!!!"
The moment the shout rang out, Thor rocketed toward the falling Odin, catching him and lowering him to the ground. Watching Thor clutch Odin and weep, Loki couldn't help but press his lips into a thin, hard line. After a moment, he relaxed and offered Frigga his ever-elegant smile. "See? Someone is already there with him. What need would he have of me?"
Saying this, Loki turned, intending to slip away quietly through the crowd. If he didn't want to be seen, no one in Asgard could spot him. That was his confidence. But he had barely taken two steps when...
"Urgh! That really hurts... damn it!"
The voice coming from the throne of the Golden Palace froze every person near the palace in place. The spectators closest to the scene all turned their heads. When they looked toward the throne, they saw Heisenberg's right hand reach out and directly grasp the electricity-crackling Gungnir.
CRACKLE!!!
He seized the divine spear with both hands and began pulling it out, inch by inch. Gungnir ground against the throne, against Heisenberg's flesh, producing that horrible screech of metal scraping metal.
CRACKLE!!!
The sound continued as the spear gradually pulled free from the backrest of the throne. Finally...
THUD!!!
Still impaled, Heisenberg slumped from the backrest onto Odin's seat. Blood splattered, staining the most revered throne in all the Nine Realms. And Heisenberg, teeth clenched, seated there, tore the spear completely out of his chest.
"Ngh!!!"
A sharp grunt of pain. He instantly mobilized his force field, pressing the wounds over his heart and chest shut. After that, the forcibly closed wounds rapidly consumed the solar radiation stored within Heisenberg's body. That energy shrank his injuries, and within moments, he was fully healed. Clearly, while Odin's spear strike had been fierce, its lingering effects were far lighter than the aftermath of a snap. The injury to Heisenberg's right arm from that snap had required four to five hours of solar exposure to heal. But the wound from Odin's spear recovered in just a few dozen seconds. For no other reason than the fact that Asgardian divine power was simply on a much lower plane than the power of the Infinity Stones.
Feeling his wounds fully healed, Heisenberg gripped Gungnir in his hand. The spear before him looked strikingly ordinary. Without that eruption of power moments ago, who would believe this was the mightiest weapon in the Nine Realms? Perhaps weapons were only truly powerful because of the ones who wielded them.
Heisenberg, still seated there, adjusted his posture. He raised the spear high and took aim at Odin, who lay cradled in Thor's arms.
SWISH!!!
A sharp whistle, and Gungnir shot forth. In that short instant, the old father, still savoring his son's embrace, was suddenly impaled through the chest by his own weapon, grotesquely pinned down right in front of Thor.
"Gwaaah!"
Old Odin howled in soul-tearing agony. Then he abruptly shoved Thor, sending his son, who had been ready to charge at Heisenberg for revenge, hurtling over seventy meters away. Thor came to a disbelieving halt, watching as his father, who by all rights should have been unimaginably frail by now, wrenched the spear out of his own heart.
"By Odin's beard, how is this possible?!"
"The god of Midgard is still alive?!"
"Look, he's sitting on the throne now!"
"Unbelievable! I've never seen anyone survive His Majesty's full power!"
"Even such terrifying force couldn't defeat that god? Just how did he manage it?!"
In the areas farther from the palace, the spectators who hadn't seen Heisenberg's self-rescue all cried out in shock.
At the same time, Loki, who had been planning to leave, stepped back with a laugh and returned to his mother's side. "It seems everything isn't over yet!"
"Indeed. Everything isn't over yet!" Frigga replied with difficulty, her gaze fixed anxiously on Odin's movements. Facing the distant Heisenberg seated upon the throne, Odin braced himself with Gungnir and reached his right hand toward his sole remaining eye.
But just then, the Thor who had been pushed away charged forward and planted himself in front of Odin. Shielding his father with his body, he bellowed at the figure on the throne. "Heisenberg! Why are you doing this?! If it's Asgard you want, then come! I am the destined future king of Asgard! Let us fight the rest of this battle! You son of a..."
THUMP!!!
A dull, heavy impact. Thor, burning with battle fury, was smashed to the ground by Odin's spear.
When Thor scrambled back up, his expression a mask of pure shock, he saw Odin fixing him with a savage, bloodthirsty grin. Completely ignoring the blood spurting from his chest, Odin rubbed the edge of his eye socket with his right hand and roared at his son.
"To die in battle is the greatest glory for any Asgardian! And you would stand in the way of my battle? Would you curse me to die a shameful death in a sickbed? I thought there was no one left in the Nine Realms worthy of my full strength! But fate has seen fit to grant me such a perfect opponent! Win or lose, this day shall be the most glorious of my entire life! I will not let you interfere, Thor!!!"
/-\
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