Ch. 112
"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—"
MUNCH!
Andrea didn't listen and bit right into the golden apple. It tasted more amazing than anything she'd eaten in her entire life! Before she could stop herself, she rapidly bit into the fruit again and again. It only took a few seconds before she had completely devoured the golden apple—seeds, core, and all!
"Sorry about that, Sif! This apple was so tasty though! You've gotta try one—urgh." Andrea felt as if liquid fire had manifested inside her body! She dropped to the floor clutching her stomach in pain.
Sif facepalmed as she walked over towards where Andrea lay on the ground in pain. "I did warn you. Oh well… I wonder how Layla's battle goes so far?"
BOOOOOOOOMMMMMM!!
The floor and walls all shook violently, and cracks appeared in all the nearby foundations. Sif swallowed nervously as she did her best to keep her footing. She felt an unbelievably large amount of power had just been unleashed nearby. Sif reached down and scooped up the quivering Andrea. "Well, I suppose that answers my question. I best escape before Layla and Hela bring down the entire palace." Sif said as she started running towards the stairway with Andrea in her arms. She'd meet Layla back at the Bifrost later.
…
-5000 HP
I took some pretty heavy damage there. Even with the shield in front of me, a bunch of shrapnel still slipped through. My [Purger of Darkness] manifested on my wrists and I started healing myself immediately. Hela was not an opponent to be around with only half my HP remaining. I let out a sigh of relief 20 seconds later when I saw my HP top off at full. I took a look around at the result of our attacks clashing.
The first thing I noticed was that the palace ceiling was gone. As in, I could clearly see the clear sky of Asgard overhead. The walls were gone as well. Pretty much the entire upper floors of the palace were wrecked. Thankfully the lower floors and foundations held together and I could sense that Sif was ok. I felt her moving away from the palace quickly. I couldn't sense
Andrea since she had no magic power to sense, but I assumed she was also with Sif.
The collision of our two massive attacks had blown the throne room to hell. It was completely unrecognizable at this point. I lowered the heavily reinforced [Lightshield] I'd thrown in front of me. Without it, I probably would have taken fatal damage there.
As the dust started to clear, I looked across from me towards where Hela had been standing. In her place was a massive sword the size of a bus. I figured she'd summoned it to shield herself from the blasts. The massive steel weapon was covered in cracks and burn marks. A second later it started to fall apart in front of me as chunks of conjured dark steel flaked off of it.
When it completely toppled over I got a good look at Hela. She was panting heavily and glaring at me. It looked like that barrage actually took quite a bit of power out of her. "YOU! You destroyed my palace! Forget what I said earlier. I've grown tired of you. Now I'm just going to kill you."
"Big talk from someone who's almost spent after just one exchange. I expected more from the infamous Hela, to be honest," I said as I stepped towards her.
"Fine then!" Hela spat out. "You want to see my real power? I'll show you!" Hela said as she raised both of her hands in the air. I felt a massive surge of mana erupt off of her.
And then, a shadow fell over us… I glanced upwards at what had caused it.
"Oh…" A titanic sword almost as big as a mountain was falling down towards me. That—that was a pretty freaking cool move. I'm not going to lie.
[Damn, she went from Gilgamesh to Madara…]
XXX
--------------------------------------------------
Read 10+ chapters in advance over on my Pat.reon.
Pat.reon.com/StarWaves (Remove the first .)