"Crack…"
The thick arms formed from countless scattered thunderbolts desperately propped up the head-crushing weight of millions upon trillions of tons, an immeasurable weight, under which even the might that could lift mountains and shift oceans was as insignificant as an ant.
The giant forged from thunder strove to resist the immense weight pressing down on him, but under the incomparably majestic force of those jaws, no matter how great one's abilities, one could not help but submit to that most primal, savage violence.
"Creak…"
From the depths of the thunder giant, a sudden unnatural crack rang out, and in the next instant, one of the thunder giant's legs abruptly shattered, his body tilting, forcing him to kneel on one leg, continuing to desperately support the weight with his shoulders and arms.
The thunder god's leg bone had fractured.
And at the same time, the immense pressure bearing down on the thunder giant continued to ceaselessly increase.
"Hahaha!!!"
And accompanying the sound of the bone fracturing, the Serpent's wanton, crazed laughter rang by the thunder god's ear, its laughter extremely abnormal, or perhaps, indulging those sacrifices' whispers and curses, it had already fallen into a half-deranged state of frenzy under the endless onslaught of human malice.
However, so what?
Even if insane, it was still the strongest, in heaven, on earth, in the entire universe it was also the strongest, and the only one qualified to challenge it, the thunder god, was now on the verge of death, in this world, who else could be its match?
Profound arrogance and conceit, along with the pent-up resentment of over ten thousand years, all sorts of nearly deranged, crazed, dark, twisted human malice, all filled this great Serpent's body.
"Thor! My agony of being imprisoned at the bottom of the sea for over ten thousand years, unable to even turn over! The torment of having thousands upon thousands of chains deeply cutting into my flesh, locking my bones! Today, I can finally claim it all back from you!!!"
In the depths of profound distortion and madness, the Serpent no longer had its past indifference and loftiness, only leaving deep, deranged savagery in its frenzied voice, and the boundless elation of finally being able to drink that cup of wine brewed from ten thousand years of hatred.
Accompanied by the Serpent's roar, the pressure bearing down on the thunder giant grew even heavier.
And just at this moment, from the depths of the desperately enduring thunder giant, a strained, mocking laugh rang out.
"Hah… I originally thought you were just arrogant and disdainful of everything… I never imagined you would now become utterly crazed… Fool, has the pressure of the sea water over ten thousand years addled your mind!"
The thunder god's voice, as if squeezed out from between gritted teeth, remained as stubborn as ever, not showing the slightest fear even in the face of being about to perish in the Serpent's jaws, instead mocking.
"Few living beings dare to mock me, but I've never minded the mockery of the dead."
By his ear, the Serpent's mad laughter continued.
The pressure on his body grew heavier and heavier, even with all his divine power catalyzed to the utmost, he was still powerless to resist that inconceivably immense crushing might, just like… an ant trying to resist a mountain pressing down on it, utterly unable to budge it in the slightest.
That feeling of powerlessness and despair of being unable to make the other yield even an inch even with all one's might was enough to make nearly any living being feel dread, but the thunder god was evidently not among them.
The veins on his forehead bulging, nearly bursting, muscles knotted all over, the thunder god continued to grit out words with great difficulty even as endless lightning surged from his body.
"I originally thought… no matter what it was… as long as it could face me, Thor, in direct combat… it should at least have a soul worthy of my respect… but I was wrong…"
He strove to raise his head, gazing at the endless darkness before him, gazing at that abyss of death about to devour him, yet he suddenly laughed, and in the state of exerting all his strength to resist the immense pressure on his body, the thunder god's mocking smile appeared extremely strained.
"Monster… do you truly have a soul? Or perhaps… do you truly have emotions? Beneath that incomparably mighty frame of yours… what exactly is left??? Could it be nothing but emptiness…"
Accompanied by his words, an intangible strength spontaneously arose from within him.
Anger, unwillingness, fanaticism, stubbornness, defiance… all sorts of emotions surged in the thunder god's heart, his soaring, rising fighting spirit causing him to unleash even more power from within himself.
"Gods and humans are the same, or perhaps, humans were originally molded in the image of the gods. Humans have joy, anger, sorrow, and happiness, and gods also have joy, anger, sorrow, and happiness; humans make mistakes, and gods also make mistakes; humans feel fear in the face of invincible enemies, and gods likewise feel fear in the face of invincible enemies."
"But humans who make mistakes can also correct their mistakes, and humans who fear can also try to overcome their fear, displaying their dauntless courage to enemies they cannot defeat, this precious quality of ceaselessly striving to overcome one's own flaws, as pure as gold, is enough to make any god feel respect."
"Gods love warriors, because even as gods, we can also be inspired by such fearless warriors, be shaken by the soaring ardor and human courage brimming from them, humans worship the supreme might of gods, and do gods not also respect the courage of humans…"
"But… monster!"
"Beneath that empty shell of yours! What exactly is left!!!"
With eyes bloodshot and nearly splitting, the thunder god Thor erupted with a shocking roar and bellow, and accompanied by the thunder god's roar, unprecedented, vast power surged forth from his arms.
"Mindless beast! I! The thunder god Thor! How could I possibly fall at the hands of a monster like you!!!"
Amid the roars, veins bulging all over, muscles knotted, the thunder god strove with his arms to lift the immeasurable weight above him, and unbelievably, that weight of millions upon trillions of tons was slowly being lifted by this thunder god with eyes nearly splitting from effort.
An inch, two inches, three inches…
The mountain-like weight pressing down on him was being painstakingly lifted by this god with eyes bloodshot, even if his skin was being torn and golden divine blood spilled all over his body from the immense pressure, turning him into a man of blood, it could not make one ignore the soaring fighting spirit displayed by him.
Pure, dazzling, as resplendent as gold.
"Ahhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!"
Amid the warrior's utmost roar, countless lightning bolts flashed on the thunder giant's body as he slowly, painstakingly pried open the Serpent's upper and lower rows of mountain-like fangs in the dazzling light so bright it was hard to look at directly.
And feeling the change in its mouth, profound rage filled the Serpent's vertical pupils.
"Don't even think about it!!!"
The force in its mouth grew even heavier, making the immense pressure bearing down on the giant even greater.
"Crack…"
And in the deadlock, suddenly, the Serpent felt something give way in its mouth, as if it had crushed something, and its two rows of fangs instantly snapped shut.
Subconsciously swallowing what was in its mouth, the Serpent only then reacted, realizing it seemed to have won.
Looking around, in the shattered universe filled with endless flames and corpses, that stubborn god who had always opposed it could no longer be found, and after a momentary sense of loss, it was immediately filled with profound elation.
"Hehe… hahaha… Hahahahaha!!!!!"
The Serpent first chuckled, then its voice gradually rose, until finally it could not hold back and cackled madly, the monster's mad laughter resounding through the entire universe.
"What was that, acting as if you were about to make a comeback and turn the tables, you even made me a bit surprised for a moment… What human spirit, what dauntless courage, reptiles are just reptiles, and a monster tainted by reptilian thinking is also just a reptile."
"I, Jormungandr, have finally risen above all gods and lives!"
"Fate? Thor and I perishing together? Such a thing never existed, it was nothing more than the delirious mutterings of the weak about a future they cannot control, Odin, Loki, in the end they were all just insects, actually fearing such an intangible thing, hah, ridiculous…"
Sneering and cackling madly, the Serpent was also panting heavily.
No matter what, Thor was indeed formidable, able to make this monster with boundless stamina feel extremely fatigued after a long, fierce battle, it was truly inconceivable.
In the ocean beside it, the few serpent folk and snake people who had survived Ragnarök all gathered, cheering, praising the Serpent's might, and at their head, the serpent maiden Mona respectfully served at her father's side.
"In Ragnarok, nearly all the gods have perished, and the only one who could rival Father, the thunder god, is also dead, the remaining gods are no longer a threat, Father, what should we do from now on?"
Mona bowed, then raised her head and asked.
"From now on…"
The Serpent raised its head, gazing at this universe, shattered and burned beyond recognition, and said with waning interest.
"You decide."
This great Serpent was already tired and did not want to bother with anything anymore, no matter what, there was no longer any force that could stand in its way.
"But, Thor, as a little amusement you brought me, I will remember you."
In its deep, low laughter, there was profound pleasure.
After a respectful bow, Mona raised her head, her beautiful face suddenly turning deathly pale.
"Father!!!"
In her urgent cry, the Serpent, its will already waning, also suddenly sensed a profound warning of danger from behind, and this sense of danger… in the entire universe, there was only one person who could give it this feeling, but that person should have already died.
Whirling around in shock, the Serpent only saw a flash of endless dazzling light before its eyes and a small, graceful figure fly out, trying to block it, but in an instant that figure was obliterated by that terrifying thunder, and then it felt a burst of intense pain on its body…
…
…
…
Time returned to long, long ago…
"Why do I have to learn runes?"
In the palace, the pouting young god looked at his one-eyed father before him, while a hint of complexity flashed through the still-young one-eyed god-king's gaze, and then he said.
"Runes have nearly omnipotent power, they can help you."
"But I'm already strong enough!"
Saying this, the young god showed off his puffed-up arms, although still small, this young god already displayed outstanding potential that amazed people, many believed he would become as mighty as his father.
But the one-eyed god-king only shook his head, then said.
"Try throwing a punch at me."
Without any hesitation, the god who loved battle by nature would not think his father might be speaking casually.
But before him, the god-king's figure shattered in an instant, dispersing into an illusion, the surprised young god looked around, trying to find his father's traces, but then a finger lightly tapped his forehead.
Raising his head, somehow, the one-eyed god-king had reappeared before him.
Looking at the child before him, the young god-king smiled slightly, then said.
"Learn to be humble, strength is not just brute force, learning a bit more will help you someday."
After that, the thunder god Thor, with the greatest might, wielding his magic hammer, left countless illustrious legends throughout the cosmos, yet could never learn runes, but what no one knew was that the thunder god Thor actually knew one spell, although only one…
Illusion.
…
When the Serpent mistakenly thought Thor was preparing to fight it to the death, Thor had already quietly cast a spell, the Serpent, in the midst of intense battle, did not notice, when Thor instantly escaped, the Serpent, biting through the illusion, still thought it had crushed Thor to pieces.
And the thunder god, lurking in secret, finally waited for a chance when the Serpent let down its guard…
So, suddenly appearing, then from that indestructible magic hammer Mjölnir in his hand, the thunder god unleashed a mighty power he had never unleashed since birth…
Countless lightning bolts, innumerable, filling the entire sky, the entire sea.
All the lightning in the universe originally came from this thunder god's power, all lightning was just a small portion scattered from this thunder god's body, so what would happen when this thunder god fully unleashed all the power within himself?
It would be an unprecedented, vast power, even the creation of the world would be incomparable to this power gathering the full might of the strongest god.
The indescribable lightning turned into endless light, and in that incomparably dazzling light, the magic hammer Mjölnir, infused with countless lightning, fiercely crashed towards the Serpent that had not even reacted.
"Boom!!!!"
In an instant, the world turned white.
In the pure white light that shattered and annihilated all things, even that incomparably hard magic hammer Mjölnir was instantly vaporized by the immense power it contained, the Serpent's colossal body, large enough to encircle the world, its hard scales could not even provide any resistance, directly penetrated, directly cleaving the Serpent's colossal body in two with a single strike.
"Roar!!!!"
The Serpent's agonized howl resounded through the heavens, in the violent lightning, a torrent of blood rained down, the immense serpentine body crashed down with a thunderous boom.
"Rumble…"
The ocean, filled with floating corpses, was thrown into turmoil once more.
And gazing down at the gravely wounded Serpent below, the thunder god slowly descended onto a shattered small island in the sea, the remains of the divine realm that had fallen into the ocean.
Beside him, the waves raged, but before Thor, the Serpent that had taken that fatal blow had still not died, with only half its body remaining, although severely injured, the great Serpent still drifted and struggled to survive in the ocean.
However, powerful lightning still occasionally flashed across the Serpent's body, making it convulse, although not dead, this great Serpent was also not far from death.
"You do have a good daughter, actually sacrificing herself to save you, although she couldn't save you, she allowed you, originally doomed to die, to be able to struggle on for a bit."
The thunder god's fingers trembled slightly, with one broken leg bone, he could barely stand on the ground at this moment, nearly completely exhausted, he looked at the Serpent before him and still mocked.
The Serpent before him was undoubtedly doomed, because it was already thoroughly cooked through, Thor was very certain of this.
And the Serpent, with only half its life remaining, drifted in the ocean, its entire body numb, nearly completely roasted, at this moment it could barely make any movements, but, it began to laugh.
"Hehe… hahaha… Hahahahaha!!!!"
The immense psychic power made the air tremble, emitting a resounding, inhuman laughter.
The Serpent's deep laughter remained savage, it even laughed more and more gleefully, Thor suddenly felt something was wrong, but it was already too late, in an instant, a change occurred…
Formless, vast psychic power suddenly surged out, a savage, crazed, cold, arrogant frenzied aura subsequently appeared in this universe…
And accompanying the surging of this aura, in an instant, the entire ocean, the entire world, the entire universe, all the earth, water, wind, and fire, all life and non-life, all matter and non-matter, even all time and space… all stopped moving under the control of some vast will.
The fierce winds stopped, the falling stars ceased their descent, even the raging infernos burning the world stopped blazing, the entire universe, all of space-time, all bowed their heads in submission under the compulsion of some vast will.
In the frozen world, only a dark and twisted, half-human, half-serpentine, enormous soul with a long serpent tail slowly rose from the Serpent's body, its upper body like a blurry human, its lower body a long serpent tail.
The Serpent itself could not speak, the reason it could speak was because its body was so immense, nearly equivalent to the entire human world, and such an immense body also gestated incomparably vast psychic power, the vast psychic power dispersing out was enough to intervene in the real world, making the air tremble along with it.
If the earth could give birth to gods, if mountains could give birth to gods, if the oceans could also give birth to gods, then, for a monster with a body not inferior to the earth and oceans in the slightest, just what kind of magnificent, great existence would be born from its immense body?
If just a bit of its dispersed power could distort reality, spontaneously forming sound in the air, then what would happen when this vast existence directly appeared?
The answer is…
The entire universe would be dominated by this unimaginably, indescribably vast will, submitting under this power.
When the Serpent appeared, the heavens would spontaneously resound with thunder, gathering dark clouds, because, even the mindless vault of heaven would tremble before the Serpent's vast will.
This was also the Serpent's trump card it had never used before, because in the past, there was never anyone worthy of it going all-out like this.
The immensity of this soul was immeasurable, when this soul straightened its body, even the sky would feel too low, and in this world where time was completely frozen, only one tiny figure was still striving to struggle.
That tiny figure strove to raise its head, but it was as if it was surrounded by thick glue, making it nearly unable to make any movements.
The Serpent, or perhaps the half-human, half-serpentine monster, gazed down at this tiny insect beneath it, the dark and illusory human-like upper body only had a pair of eyes filled with savagery and brutality.
Tiny, minuscule, infinitely close to a speck of dust.
But it was this tiny little insect that actually destroyed its body, forcing it to use its final trump card?!!
"To actually be able to maintain thought in a space-time where even time is frozen… Thor, you are indeed quite impressive, I will praise you a bit… but, this is as far as you go!"
"Die!!! Thunder God!!!!!!"
Accompanied by the half-human, half-serpent soul's roar, that arm that could catch the stars and seize the moon rose high, then…
Abruptly descended!!!
In the space-time frozen world, there was no wind, no sound, but before that incomparably vast power that could dominate the entire world, even space-time would be distorted, wherever the arm passed, space shattered into pieces, forming endless black voids.
And below this descending fist was that struggling thunder god.
"…"
In the space-time infinitely close to being frozen, even light was nearly stagnant under the dominion of this vast will, before his eyes, not a shred of light could be seen, by his ears, not a single sound could be heard, there was nothing but enigmatic deathly stillness.
And in this deathly stillness, Thor still inexplicably sensed a profound feeling of crisis.
However, unable to see, unable to hear, unable to move his body, and already fallen into a state of exhaustion, he was completely unable to sense where the danger was coming from, defeat seemed already determined.
But…
"So this is your power… it's truly mighty."
In his nearly ceasing thoughts, an idea inexplicably surfaced.
It was not fear, nor vigor, but a sort of unexpected surprise.
And after the surprise…
Profound joy.
He really…
Had not fought so exhilaratingly in a very long time.
His body, which should have been utterly spent, still stubbornly tried to move, but, exhaustion was exhaustion, he who had already completely burned through everything truly could no longer exert any power.
Every muscle, every drop of blood, had been thoroughly squeezed dry by him…
But, was there truly no power left at all???
Just below that descending, enormous fist, the minuscule, dust-like god was also about to be destroyed, but at this moment…
"Ohhhhh!!!!!"
Accompanied by a heaven-shaking, earth-shattering, exhilarated roar, from the utterly spent body of that god, a dazzling figure enveloped in scorching light suddenly appeared, eyes filled with profound fighting spirit, fists clenched tight, surrounded by endless lightning, then it roared and struck out towards the enormous existence before it.
Since the flesh was already withered and useless, then let the soaring fighting spirit and soul fight!
Among the thunder god Thor's many glorious legends, there was one legend like this, once he was deceived by giants skilled in illusions, in a competition in the land of the giants, he could only lift half the body of a cat in the land of the giants, drink a little less than half a drinking horn of liquor in the land of the giants, barely sink to one knee under the strength of an elderly woman in the land of the giants.
He considered it his shame, but only after leaving the land of the giants did the giant chief tell him, that cat he lifted was actually Jormungandr deep under the sea, the great Serpent whose body encircled the entire earth, yet half its body was forcibly lifted by his strength; and that drinking horn he drank from actually connected to the endless deep sea at the bottom, drinking a little less than half the horn, he had drunk a bit less than half the entire ocean, now the oceans were turbulent; and that elderly woman was even more extraordinary, she symbolized Thor's final fate - Death.
All gods will die, however, even before his ultimate fate, Thor could only barely sink to one knee, his divine might was already vast to an unimaginable degree.
Within Thor, there was a nearly fate-overturning vast power, among the gods, he was the indisputably strongest god, and even facing a power that could dominate the entire world, he absolutely would not submit, instead it ignited that vast power hidden within his body.
"Mindless beast, you cannot understand emotions, and have no emotions, so you do not fear, and will not be affected by joy, anger, sorrow, and happiness, influencing your power, but at the same time… you also can never understand what soaring fighting spirit and indomitable courage are, can never understand what kind of feeling it is to face fear, overcome fear, and finally surpass oneself!!!"
The incomparably enormous fist, the minuscule fist as lowly as dust, the two fists, both gathering endless divine might, thunderously collided.
There was no sound, because sound had been shattered, and no light and shadow, because light had also been shattered.
In that instant, the space-time of the entire universe was rent and distorted by the vast power erupting from the clash between the two invincible monsters, the heavens were also completely torn open with an endless, massive rift, never to be repaired.
And in the end…
"I, Jormungandr… was actually… actually…"
Accompanied by the Serpent's final words, that immense soul thunderously shattered, the frozen space-time began moving once more.
Jormungandr, dead.
And the god who similarly struck out the final punch of his life, a look of satisfaction on his illusory soul's face, gradually scattered into motes of light.
The thunder god Thor, dead.
…
In the universe on the verge of collapse, only a small piece of the divine realm still barely floated in the air, and at this moment, an evil god was stepping forward step by step along the stairs, ahead, was the golden hall where the gods once gathered to discuss matters.