POV: Baldur.
Downtown Los Angeles, California.
At the Same Moment.
Carol Danvers, Captain Marvel. Of course, I called her to fight alongside me against Galactus. Her energy absorption powers are perfect for combating a being of pure energy, but I didn't expect her to take so long to arrive.
"You're late!" was all I could manage to respond.
"I crossed half the universe in a few hours, you know, but if you want to blame someone, blame Earth's technology," she says, turning to face Galactus, her back to me.
"From Earth?" I ask, a little agitated; this woman has that effect on me.
"Yes, if the technology wasn't so outdated when I came here last time, the pager I left with Fury wouldn't have taken days to send the message across the galaxy."
To call Carol, I had to steal an old pager that was in Fury's hands. He was surely hoping to use it as a last resort to deal with me.
"Are you two done?" Amora's voice echoes around us.
"Who is that?" Carol asks, startled.
When I called Carol, I accepted the fact that Amora could kill her because of the kiss she gave me years ago. Thankfully, my wife can remain rational and not demand her revenge now.
"That's none of your business, slut," Amora responds.
(For all the hells.)
"Slut! Where the hell are you? Come here and call me a slut to my face, you bitch!" she shouts in response.
I had twenty-five percent of my body destroyed, and now I have a new headache.
"That's enough!" I yell to both of them.
"Baldur, the containment barrier is complete," Amora says, sensing my mood returning to normal.
"Carol Danvers!" Galactus speaks up from afar.
"Did you reap him?" I ask, curious.
"Unfortunately, he attacked a planet where I have friends. I couldn't save the planet."
"Great, you two are the only ones who have stood in my way in thousands of years, and now you're both here," he says with clear happiness in his voice.
"Carol, the entire city is isolated, so we don't need to hold back, but..."
"I know," she interrupts.
"It's one of those shitty situations where to save the world, you have to sacrifice something. I've been through that," she continues.
"I evacuated as many as I could in the last few hours; millions have already left," I say to give us both some peace.
"Great, how are you?" she asks, turning and looking at my missing shoulder.
"Give me a few seconds, and I'll be back to fight by your side," I say to her.
Carol then turns and charges, enveloped in her red energy, towards Galactus.
Meanwhile, I focus on healing my wounds, something I've been doing since she arrived. The injuries are severe; I've never had to regenerate an entire arm before, but I know it's possible. It's just going to take days, time I don't have. So all I can do now is close the wound to stop the bleeding and fight with just one arm.
Fighting with one hand will be difficult, but not impossible. The real problem is the Destroyer; it too was partially destroyed, so its purpose of restraining my physical body has been minimized. Before, I was fighting with forty or forty-five percent of my total power; now, it's dropped to just thirty percent.
And this percentage will decrease further during the fight.
"Amora, send a message to Vision, Magneto, and Shuri; tell them to prepare," I say.
"Understood," she responds.
"BOOM!"
The battle unfolding before me, Galactus had already encountered Carol before, so he didn't use his energy attacks; instead, he relied on pure physical strength, attacking Carol who easily dodged his blows and countered with her photon blasts.
Anyone watching this fight from afar would think that Carol was truly managing to hold her own against Galactus. But I could see the effort she was putting in to evade; her power level was greatly limited by the energy she could absorb. The previous blow she absorbed had boosted her abilities, but it wouldn't last long.
Galactus threw another punch, and Carol dodged once again. However, as she changed course in the air, she then saw a large amount of debris from the destroyed buildings scattered on the ground. She was struck by large chunks of concrete and iron. It didn't hurt her, but it prevented her from seeing Galactus palm, which struck her body and sent her crashing to the ground.
"BOOOM!"
Not satisfied with his blow, Galactus stomped on the spot where Carol had fallen with all his force.
"BOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMM!"
The ground trembled once again.
When Galactus lifted his foot, Carol shot up like a rocket, enveloped in her red energy, and struck him precisely in the chest. The explosion of red energy covered Galactus's entire chest. It didn't last long, and when the light disappeared, there was a large crack in Galactus's armor.
I looked for Carol, and she was flying low towards Galactus leg, just below his thigh. She struck there, creating a unique sight, a giant being falling backward due to a simple trick.
"BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMM!"
As she fell backward, Carol took advantage and flew as high as she could. When she gained enough altitude, she shot downward as fast as she could, releasing as much energy as possible.
The red star plummeting toward Galactus didn't frighten him.
"BOOOM!"
The sound of the explosion this time wasn't from Carol's body hitting Galactus but from his ship above, hitting a missile the size of a house onto Carol's body, sending her flying away, spinning in the air.
This wasn't an ordinary missile; even the most powerful missile on Earth wouldn't leave her in this state. It was clearly designed to fight against her. It's something I'll have to study later.
When Galactus stood up, Carol returned to the battlefield. Her body didn't seem to be injured, but the energy she emanated was less powerful.
"Is that all you've got, Galactus?" she shouts at her enemy.
"It's pointless to try to provoke me; I can end your life with just a thought," he responds.
"You talk too much!" she says, smiling at him.
Carol was clearly trying to force Galactus to attack using energy to recharge herself, but Galactus simply looked at her, and Carol collapsed. She simply fell to the ground, frozen.
"As I said, child, with just one thought."
This was clearly a mental attack; I didn't expect this reality's Carol to be weak against mental attacks like her counterpart in the comics. It was a miscalculation on my part.
Fortunately, my wounds had stopped bleeding. I flew as fast as I could toward Carol's body. Galactus noticed this and fired at me several times, but I managed to dodge all his attacks and grab Carol's arm.
I flew upwards, dragging her with me. In the air, dodging attacks, I used my rune to share my mental defenses with her.
"What!"
The effect was immediate; Carol woke up and was surprised by her situation. I let her go, and she began flying, following me.
"What happened to me?" she asks, still confused.
"Mental attacks; your mental defenses are crap," I tell her, which doesn't make her happy.
"I hate telepaths!" she shouts.
"Shall we go together now?" I ask her.
"Together," she agrees.
We both stop running and face our enemy a few kilometers away. Galactus didn't hurry to make his first move.
With my only hand, I create a small golden sun that floats a few inches from my palm.
"Such an insignificant star won't hurt me, Asgardian," he says.
"This? This isn't for you!"
When I say this, I twist my body and strike the star right in the center of Carol's chest. The star explodes, releasing light, energy, and heat all around us, but these forces don't go far; they all return, being sucked into Captain Marvel, who absorbs them.
For the first time, Galactus attacks with the intent to stop us, but his energy blast wasn't fast enough. By the time it hits me, separating me from Carol, I've already finished, and now Carol is in her binary form.
It was truly intimidating and beautiful at the same time. Carol's long blonde hair transformed into something between flames and red energy, as did her eyes. Her entire skin also changed to red, and she emitted energy throughout her body like a power aura.
"Ohhh!" she says, looking at her hands, trying to get used to her new power.
"What do you think?" I ask her.
"You really know how to spoil a girl; now I'll always come back wanting more," she says, looking at me with her eyes filled with energy.
Ignoring the obvious provocation and praying that Amora wasn't listening, I create a golden spear and grip it tightly.
No more words were needed. Together, we both attack, flying side by side. Normally, it wouldn't take less than a millisecond to reach Galactus with our speed, but somehow, he distorted the space in front of us, elongating it, so it seemed like we were slowly approaching him.
Seeing us slowly approaching, Galactus raises his two arms.
"BAMMMM!"
He claps his palms in front of his body, releasing something I've never felt before. Everything in front of him is destroyed and turned into dust by the invisible sound wave.
(This is new.)
The wave of destruction comes quickly toward us, and we can't normally dodge, so I approach Carol and put my hand on her shoulder.
"Don't hold back!" I tell her.
Then our bodies turn into pure light, and we reform once again, now above Galactus head. When I let go of Carol's shoulder, she's the first to attack. She falls toward Galactus and hits him squarely in the face with a punch, releasing an insane amount of red energy that spreads throughout the city.
Then it's my turn. Before Carol's blow is even finished, I appear in front of Galactus chest and plunge my spear where a human heart would be. My spear looks like a toothpick compared to his size, but this toothpick is loaded with all the power I can muster at that moment.
Being attacked by both of us, Galactus counterattacks by emanating his own purple energy throughout his body.
The explosion doesn't happen; what happens is a ridiculous amount of energy emitted by our attacks, energy that covers the entire city, stopping only because of the mirrored dimension wall surrounding the city. But the damage was completely unprecedented for this world. Even the two nuclear bombs used didn't come close to the destruction caused by us.
The clash of our attacks created a destruction that I was already expecting, but seeing the entire city transformed into a plain of rubble was not pleasant. Thinking about the number of deaths caused by this only increased my discomfort.
But we're not done yet. Galactus, who was hit by our most powerful blows, had his armor cracked and broken in several places, even his helmet was destroyed, revealing the face of a middle-aged bald man, a very human face, if you ignore his milk-white skin color. He was injured, yes, but not enough.
support me at patreon.com/Lonely_Translator and read chapters in advance