The moment Thor locked eyes with Aiden Cross's Eternal Sharingan, the world spun.
When he came to, he was lying on a cold stone floor.
He looked up—
Familiar air. Familiar architecture. A skyline unchanged for thousands of years.
Asgard.
"I… I'm back?!" Thor touched his own face in disbelief. The sensation was real. Solid. "But I was just at the Hero Association…"
A faint sense of wrongness flickered in his mind, but the overwhelming realism drowned it out.
He rushed toward the palace.
He wanted to apologize to his father, confess his regret, and then return quietly to Earth as the exiled son he was meant to be.
But as he ran through the streets of Asgard, a chill crept into him.
It was silent.
No civilians. No patrols.
An unnatural, suffocating quiet.
Then—
A scream.
Thor instantly ducked into cover, peering out cautiously.
What he saw made his blood run cold.
Skeleton soldiers clad in Asgardian armor were slaughtering civilians in the streets.
"What the hell are those things?!"
In his former strength, he would have laughed at such enemies.
Now, even four or five of them could stab him into a pincushion.
He clenched his jaw.
He wanted to help—but he knew he would only die uselessly.
So he avoided the streets and made for the palace instead.
This was not the time for heroics.
This was the time to understand.
Matured by failure, Thor chose caution.
When he reached the palace gates, his heart sank.
Bodies.
Asgardian soldiers lay everywhere.
And among them—
"No… no… no…"
Thor slowed to a halt.
He recognized the armor.
Praying it wasn't true, he approached.
But prayer could not change reality.
The Warriors Three—Volstagg, Fandral, Hogun.
And the fierce Lady Sif.
All dead.
These were comrades who had survived countless brutal wars.
Yet in just a month and a half of his absence—
They were gone.
Thor felt as if something inside him had been ripped apart.
"Who did this?!"
Rage surged up from the depths of his chest.
He grabbed a fallen blade and pushed into the palace.
If things were this bad, Odin should have crushed the rebellion instantly.
He was the ruler of the Nine Realms.
Unless…
He shoved the heavy doors open.
Blood coated the floor.
On Odin's throne sat a woman clad in black, radiating death.
At her feet lay three bodies.
Heimdall.
Odin.
Loki.
Black swords pierced their chests.
No life remained.
"Let me see which little rat snuck in here…"
"Who are you?!"
She rose from the throne, laughing mockingly.
"You dare mock the All-Father?!" Thor roared.
"Mock him? Ignorant child."
Her voice dripped with hatred.
"I am Hela. Goddess of Death. Odin's firstborn."
"Bullshit. I've never heard of you."
Thor's face twisted in disbelief.
As far as he knew, Odin had only two sons—himself and Loki.
"Pathetic fool!" she spat.
"Odin conquered the Nine Realms with my power."
"And when he no longer needed me, that coward betrayed me, sealed me away, and erased my existence from history!"
--------------------------------------------------
Read Chapters ahead: [email protected] / KaiOynx