"Can we..."
"Can we still survive?"
The tunnel leading to safety had been completely overwhelmed by the energy tide.
Even Laufey himself probably never imagined that the energy remaining within his body would deal the Asgardians another fatal blow after his death.
Apart from a fortunate few, countless people had been buried inside the tunnel.
Those who had not yet entered, or who had only made it partway inside, could only retreat in terror.
Compared to those who had died in the war, those frozen by Laufey with the Casket of Ancient Winters, and those who had nearly reached the tunnel's exit only to be buried beneath the collapsing ice, they could almost consider themselves fortunate.
After all, they were still alive.
But...
The frozen dome supported by the ice wall and hundreds of pillars had already begun tilting without anyone noticing.
The vast canopy covering nearly half of Asgard blocked out all light from the outside world. As it descended, the ice within fractured, producing thunderous sounds resembling the roars of enormous beasts.
As such a massive structure slowly fell toward the ground, it seemed that nothing in the world could stop it.
The crushing pressure it created was like the sky itself collapsing.
Every living creature still standing below could do nothing but watch helplessly as the heavens fell upon them.
In their dazed terror, it no longer seemed as though the dome was descending.
Instead, it felt as if the ground beneath their feet, covered in several meters of ice, was carrying them upward and delivering them into the gaping jaws of an abyssal monster.
"I... I don't think I can breathe..."
The unbearable sense of insignificance, combined with the helplessness of seeing death directly before them and knowing they could not prevent it, filled everyone with despair.
Some could not withstand the pressure. Their legs gave out, leaving them unable even to remain standing.
Amid short, frantic breaths, several people desperately clutched their own throats and produced hoarse gasps. Their pupils expanded to their limits in the darkness.
There were quiet sobs and the sounds of bodies trembling uncontrollably.
Eventually, a despairing silence swallowed every trace of noise.
The pounding of countless hearts seemed to become the only sound remaining in the world.
In the distant sky, the light from the Casket of Ancient Winters in Fenris's hands became their only source of illumination.
It allowed them to see the faces of their families and loved ones one last time during those final few minutes.
"Hum..."
The brief humming gradually faded.
Soon, the blue light in the sky also went out.
The world fell completely dark, with only the faintest trace of daylight filtering through the thick layers of ice.
"Fenris... He can't hold it anymore."
Gungnir's golden glow gradually faded.
Loki was shielding Thor beneath his body. By some stroke of fortune, the energy tide had failed to injure either Thor or Frigga.
However, Thor was too exhausted to move.
His desperate search and rescue efforts had already drained every trace of divine power from his body. Completely spent, he could only lie helplessly on the ground and look in Fenris's direction.
"There's no point in forcing himself to continue when things have already reached this stage. That guy can definitely escape on his own, anyway..."
Loki staggered to his feet, then dropped down beside Thor. He casually tossed Gungnir onto the ground.
The brothers stared blankly at the dark dome overhead.
After a moment, Loki seemed to think of something and quietly laughed.
"What are you laughing about?"
"I'll never turn you into a toad again."
"...Boring."
"You always loved it!"
"I was pretending."
"Liar."
Smiles appeared on both their faces at the same time.
Then their laughter faded.
"It's a shame we couldn't see the stars one last time," Loki said. "Damn Laufey."
"That's your father."
"Bullshit! I hid my father somewhere safe. He's perfectly fine."
"If he appeared right now, I'd forgive him... Damn Odin."
Thor suddenly felt himself being pulled into a warm embrace. A hand covered his mouth.
"Don't speak badly about your father..."
"Thank you, my children."
Frigga gently kissed each of her two grown children on the forehead.
Then she quietly closed her eyes, and her breathing gradually became calm.
Boom!
Boom!
Their final moment of peace did not last long.
Without Fenris's power supporting them, the countless cracks within the ice pillars began spreading at a terrifying speed.
One thunderous explosion after another shook the sky and echoed wildly beneath the dome.
As the layers of ice fractured with sharp cracks, the crowd below, despite already knowing their fate, inevitably erupted into chaos once more.
People screamed and wailed.
Others fled wildly in every direction, desperately searching for somewhere to hide.
The Frost Giants frantically used their abilities to burrow into the ice beneath them. They curled their enormous bodies into the smallest forms they could manage, then silently waited for fate to decide what would happen to them.
Crack!
The first ice pillar broke.
The section supporting the dome suddenly tilted. Its already damaged upper half broke free and began falling from the sky.
A diameter of more than ten meters already made the pillar unimaginably massive, but it disintegrated in midair before crashing heavily into the ground.
Boom!
Ice fragments filled the air as countless jagged shards shot in every direction.
Like the first falling domino, the collapse of the initial pillar triggered an immediate and catastrophic chain reaction.
Once the carefully balanced distribution of weight was disrupted, the structure, which possessed no margin for failure, began collapsing almost simultaneously.
As if they had coordinated it in advance, hundreds of ice pillars shattered one after another within only a few breaths.
Deafening explosions filled the world, while fragments and enormous chunks of ice rained from the sky.
With the pillars no longer sharing the burden, the frozen dome's immense weight fell entirely upon an ice wall whose internal structure had already been destroyed beyond recognition.
The result was inevitable.
The massive dome seemed to pause for a single instant.
Then its previously slow descent abruptly accelerated.
With every obstacle gone and gravity pulling it downward, the dome crushed everything beneath it with overwhelming force.
For a moment, it seemed as though heaven and earth were being torn apart.
Even the smallest icicle falling from such a height could easily strike down an unprepared person.
Now, however, there were countless blocks of ice weighing hundreds or even thousands of tons, each capable of obliterating any person or building beneath it.
Even across the vast universe, an ice "rain" of such unprecedented scale was virtually unheard of.
This was a natural disaster capable of effortlessly destroying an entire planetary civilization.
"Asgard is finished..."
(End of Chapter)
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