Sigurd looked toward the Bifrost, then he walked toward the palace.
"Diana, now you will be staying with your mother. Don't leave your mother's sight."
As he spoke, he marched toward where Frigga and Hippolyta were sitting with Bestla.
Diana looked at her grandmother, then she ran toward her.
Sigurd didn't stop her.
"Mother, why are you here? Where is Father?"
Bestla looked at Sigurd, then said,
"He is in his bedroom. He told me that if you have to leave Asgard to help, then you can leave with peace of mind. He will hold Asgard."
Hearing his mother's words, Sigurd didn't know what to say.
"Mother, you are thinking too much. If I wanted to solve the problem, they wouldn't even get a chance to survive. But it was my brother's idea. He didn't want me to appear early, as those lurking outside Asgard would have died long ago."
Bestla shook her head.
"I don't care about the deal between you and your brother, but Hela shouldn't be harmed in Jotunheim. Otherwise, I will never forgive either of you."
Sigurd didn't know what to say but just nodded, and then he looked toward Hippolyta.
"I have already told you what to do if anyone enters Asgard. Don't hold back, fearing their backer will come. Just kill them."
Sigurd walked out of the palace, then moved beyond Asgard's outer space.
"You guys have been hiding for so many days. Don't you feel bored?"
Then Sigurd heard laughter from the void. As he was preparing to solve the problem, a voice spoke.
"Why are you in such a hurry to fight with us? At least you should wait for the war to start everywhere."
Mephisto appeared in front of Sigurd.
"You know, the Mephisto of this world marked you as one of the most dangerous creatures in the future timeline. But the way I see it, I don't feel anything special about you."
Sigurd looked toward Mephisto but didn't start the fight; he was looking toward the other side of the void.
"You all should come out of the void. After all, if I start, you won't even get a chance to survive."
Hearing the words, Mephisto looked toward Sigurd with suspicion, but then he considered the possibility.
"That guy didn't even trust me with such a small task."
Just as he was thinking, more than ten figures appeared at the same time.
Sigurd looked at the variants of Mephisto.
"Your Council of Red really treats me as special. You even sent more than ten variants. Don't you think your original plan will end in failure if you all come here?"
Hearing Sigurd's words, the Mephisto variants had different reactions, but one of them spoke.
"Guys, I think this one has something that will be dangerous to our Council of Red's plans. Let's finish him off."
Sigurd looked toward the variants. Without hesitation, he cast the Mirror Dimension so as not to affect the surrounding area, but the reaction he got from the Mephisto variants was as if they didn't care.
In the cold, shimmering Void outside the gates of Asgard, reality began to bleed red. Eleven versions of Mephisto—each a nightmare from a different timeline—surrounded
Sigurd, their combined sorcery chilling the very stars.
"You are far from your throne, Aesir," Mephisto hissed. "In this Void, there is no one to hear you die."
Sigurd, possessing cold, absolute power, didn't reach for any weapon. He simply looked at the space around them and whispered a single word:
"Reflect."
With a sound like a thousand diamonds shattering, the Void exploded into the Mirror Dimension. The darkness was replaced by infinite, shifting geometric planes. Every direction became a kaleidoscope of crystal, trapping the eleven demons in a recursive prison of their own images.
The Mephisto variants struck at once. Hellfire, necrotic bolts, and soul-tearing curses lashed out, but the Mirror Dimension acted as a perfect conductor for Sigurd's will. He didn't block the attacks; he simply rotated the geometry of the room.
The Hellfire hit a glass pane and reflected back, incinerating the Mephisto in Stark-tech armor.
The necrotic bolts were diverted into a loop, hitting the Celestial-sized Mephisto from behind until he crumbled into ash.
"This is impossible!" a Mephisto roared, trying to claw through the glass. "This is not Asgardian magic!"
"Correct," Sigurd said, walking calmly across a ceiling made of light. "This is the architecture of the Fall."
Sigurd raised his hand. The infinite mirrors began to shrink, folding inward like a piece of paper. The space grew smaller and smaller, crushing the variants together. They screamed, their reality-warping powers useless against a man who could rewrite the laws of physics with a thought.
With a final, crushing motion, Sigurd compressed the entire Mirror Dimension into a single, glowing crystal shard.
Inside the shard, the ten variants were gone—absorbed into the Prime Mephisto, who was now a tiny, helpless speck of red light. Sigurd looked at the crystal, then tossed it casually into the deepest, darkest corner of the Void.
"Let the silence of the Void be your kingdom," Sigurd remarked.
He turned his back on the flickering light and walked back toward the golden spires of Asgard, the Mirror Dimension dissolving behind him like a forgotten dream.
At the same time, on Midgard, Odin, who was waiting for the upcoming battle, realized the first clash had happened near Asgard.
But before he could decide whether to go there to support Sigurd, Sigurd had already cleansed the battlefield.
Odin thought to himself, Sigurd's strength is beyond what I had imagined. It seems I was right to let him remain in Asgard. At least now I can have my heart set on battle. He can handle Hela's situation in Jotunheim easily.