"Tony Stark! Are you going to fight me wearing your pathetic toys?" Hela glanced at him with pure disdain in her eyes, her lip curling in contempt. She'd conquered worlds—what could this mortal do to her?
Tony glanced down at the Destroyer Mark 2 covering his body, tilted his head slightly, and said with his characteristic confidence, "First of all, this is not a toy! It's cutting-edge technology that cost more than your palace! Second, you will pay dearly for your arrogance!"
As soon as he finished speaking, Tony's palm cannons instantly ejected brilliant beams of hot energy and blasted toward Hela with tremendous force.
Hela smiled contemptuously—she'd faced far worse. She dodged sideways easily with supernatural grace, and at the same time, she waved both her hands in a sweeping gesture. Countless Swords of the Night Sky shot up from the frozen ground of Niflheim into the sky like a dark forest and flew toward Tony in a deadly barrage.
Tony flexibly controlled the armor to weave through the air, his arc reactor blazing as he dodged and banked, avoiding the attacks of the swords with expert piloting. His HUD tracked each projectile, calculating trajectories.
Thor shook his head helplessly, watching the exchange. He had originally wanted to talk to Hela again, to try reasoning with her one more time, to appeal to whatever remained of his sister beneath the rage. But he also realized that what Tony said made a lot of sense—perhaps more sense than he wanted to admit.
There was no way Hela would listen to what he said right now. She was too far gone, too consumed by fury and betrayal. Since Hela believed that strength was everything, that power was the only language worth speaking, he had no choice but to show his own strength!
Thor raised his hand, and Stormbreaker—which had been stuck in the frozen ground where he'd planted it—suddenly flew up and rushed toward him through the air. But Thor didn't catch it. Instead, he redirected it with his will, letting it go straight toward Hela like a guided missile.
Hela, who was engaged in combat with Tony, caught a glimpse of the incoming Stormbreaker from the corner of her eye. Her pupils shrank in alarm—she recognized the weapon's power immediately. She immediately bent backward at an impossible angle to avoid the axe that swept across where her chest had been a moment before, the blade passing so close it cut several strands of her hair.
While she was dodging the axe, distracted by the near-miss, Tony seized the opportunity and shot a concentrated palm cannon blast directly at her exposed position.
Although Hela was not in her prime here in Niflheim—away from Asgard's empowering presence—she still had extremely rich combat experience accumulated over millennia of warfare. She predicted Tony's attack pattern with her warrior's instinct and summoned a Night Sky Sword as an improvised shield, materializing it in advance to block the palm cannon's energy beam. The projectile exploded against the dark blade.
Tony didn't seem concerned that his attack missed its mark. He'd expected as much. He knew very well that Hela was not so easy to deal with—you didn't conquer the Nine Realms by being a pushover!
He flew backward and upward into the sky, putting some tactical distance between himself and Hela, and shouted to the others who were standing back and watching the show:
"Hey! Are you guys just going to stand there and watch? A little help here!"
"Isn't this just to see how powerful you really are, Stark?" Rhodes called back with a smirk, but he flew over anyway, his War Machine armor's weapons systems coming online.
Red chaos magic began to swirl and gather in Wanda's hands, crackling with reality-warping energy. A ball of concentrated chaotic power quickly condensed between her palms, growing larger and more volatile, and then she threw it toward Hela like a crimson comet.
Hela saw the attack coming and dodged Wanda's chaos blast by turning sideways, the magical projectile exploding behind her. She immediately raised her hand and retaliated with multiple Night Sky Swords flying toward the young witch. But before the dark blades could hit Wanda, they were blocked by the circular shield of chaos magic she summoned instinctively, the swords bouncing off the protective barrier.
Wanda felt a surge of confidence. She had discovered that this defensive trick was really effective! She was no longer afraid of someone attacking her when she wasn't paying attention or when she was focused on offense. Her safety was completely guaranteed by her shields, and she could output damage with complete peace of mind!
Captain Marvel and Natasha were no longer content to stand by and watch the battle unfold. They rushed toward Hela from different angles, coordinating their attack.
Hela had just dodged Thor's powerful lightning-enhanced punch by leaning sideways, his fist crackling with blue-white energy as it passed her face. Then she ducked low to avoid Tony's destructive beam that seared through the air where her head had been. But before she could fully recover her stance and get up, Natasha appeared and struck her with Mjolnir, the hammer glowing with electrical energy as it connected solidly with Hela's shoulder, knocking her off balance.
Captain Marvel immediately took advantage of the opening and fired a concentrated photon energy beam from her hands to follow up on Natasha's attack. The golden blast caught Hela full-on, causing her to plow backward across the frozen ground for dozens of meters, carving a trench in the ice. She finally hit a small rocky hill and stopped with a tremendous crash.
The smoke and dust cleared slowly, revealing Hela standing up once again. Her already damaged black clothing, which had accumulated holes and tears from her long imprisonment, became even more tattered from the assault. Parts of her armor were cracked and missing.
Tony flew close to her, looked at her disheveled appearance with his faceplate open, and couldn't resist saying, "Oh! If you keep fighting like this, we're going to have to slap a parental warning on this battle! Not suitable for children!"
Hela shot multiple Night Sky Swords at him in furious anger and shame, her face flushing with rage at the humiliation. Tony dodged repeatedly, his armor's thrusters firing in rapid sequence, but unfortunately two of the projectiles found their mark. They pierced through his defenses and sent him flying backward, his body tumbling through the air.
"I told you to stop being so foul-mouthed, Tony! Look what happens now!" Rhodes flew to his side quickly and couldn't resist teasing him even as he checked on his friend's condition. "She's angry! And you made it personal!"
Tony pushed away the ice and rubble that had fallen on his body and checked his injuries with his internal scanners. The Night Sky Swords had pierced through the protection of Destroyer Mark 2—which was supposedly nearly indestructible—leaving a deep, bleeding wound on his left arm and another on his left abdomen. Blood stained his armor.
Rhodes noticed the tears in the armor and the blood seeping out, and his expression changed from joking to genuinely concerned. "Tony, are you okay? Those look bad!"
"Yeah, I'm fine!" Tony stood up and flew into the air again, gritting his teeth against the pain. The wounds on his body actually began to emit a faint red-orange glow, and then the flesh knitted back together at a speed visible to the naked eye, the bleeding stopping almost instantly. This was exactly the regenerative effect of the Extremis virus working through his system!
As early as after the Elementals incident that had nearly killed him, Tony had said that he would be injected with the Extremis virus. This had not been a joke or idle threat, but a serious decision he'd made after deep consideration and consultation with Bruce Banner about the risks.
Now, the virus had taken effect and repaired his injuries in a very short time, just as the data had predicted.
Although he was physically fine now, Tony felt more than a little annoyed. He had actually been shot down by Hela, which made him feel embarrassed in front of everyone! He also realized with frustrating clarity that Destroyer Mark 2, despite its Uru metal construction, was simply no match for an enemy of Hela's caliber and experience!
So he decisively changed course and flew back toward the Milano, ready to switch armors. He would put on Mark 17—his ace in the hole! He'd let Hela see if his "toys" were really as useless as she thought!
Mark 17 had been enchanted by Wanda months ago with powerful protective spells, but Tony had never had the opportunity to properly test whether it could fully bear the massive capacity and energy output of an Infinity Stone. So he'd kept it as a backup, a trump card, and had just carried this armor with him wherever he went, waiting for the right moment.
At this time on the battlefield, Hela found herself in a genuinely tough fight, being beaten back step by step by the coordinated assault, without even a chance to catch her breath or properly counterattack. She had not expected that these people—these mortals and their allies—were actually this powerful!
Rhodes, recognizing that he was tactically the weakest among those besieging Hela, wisely kept his distance to prevent her from launching a devastating surprise attack on him. He just kept harassing her with sustained machine gun fire and micro-missiles, providing covering fire and forcing her to constantly dodge.
After all, if Banner got seriously injured, Hulk could emerge and save the situation with his rage and healing factor. Although Rhodes had been injected with the Extremis virus like Tony, giving him regeneration, he was still a little worried that taking a direct hit from Hela might cause him to catastrophically self-destruct before the healing could kick in.
The Guardians of the Galaxy wisely did not join the intense battle. They just stood protectively beside Odin and watched the combat unfold, weapons ready but not engaged. They knew instinctively that this was not a battle they could meaningfully intervene in—the power levels were simply too high!
When Hela saw Natasha joining the siege of her while wielding Mjolnir—the Mjolnir crackling with lightning—she was immediately furious beyond reason. That hammer had been her weapon once! She had wielded it in conquest! And now it was in the hands of another, a mortal woman who had no right to such power!
Natasha threw the hammer at her with practiced ease, and Hela reached out one hand to catch it mid-flight. She wanted to imitate herself from the Celestial Screen—to crush this hammer that had betrayed her, that had chosen another wielder over its rightful owner!
But to her surprise and growing frustration, Mjolnir was far stronger than she had thought it would be. Even though she had used a tremendous amount of force, channeling her rage into her grip, the Meow Hammer showed absolutely no signs of breaking or even cracking. It remained solid and whole in her grasp.
Natasha looked a little nervous, her heart racing, because she genuinely was not sure whether the reforged Mjolnir could withstand Hela's legendary strength. The original had been destroyed so easily!
Hela couldn't crush the hammer no matter how hard she squeezed, and she couldn't help but start to wonder if she had become too weak during her long imprisonment. Had millennia in Niflheim truly diminished her power so much?
Before she could continue to exert more force, before she could truly test her limits, Captain Marvel rushed over at supersonic speed and threw a devastating punch. Seeing the attack coming, Hela immediately stretched out her left hand to block, still holding Mjolnir in her right.
But when their fists collided, when Carol's glowing golden fist met Hela's palm, a shockwave of photon energy exploded outward. The tremendous force overwhelmed Hela's defense completely. Her blocking arm was knocked backward by the impact, and Carol's fist powered through, hitting Hela's palm with such force that it drove into her chest.
The golden cosmic energy crackling on Carol's fist surged and pulsed, and the impact sent Hela flying backward like she'd been hit by a freight train. After being punched by Captain Marvel with her full binary power, Hela was forced to release her grip on Mjolnir, the hammer falling from her hand.
Natasha immediately summoned back the fallen Mjolnir with a thought, and the hammer flew to her hand obediently. Then, channeling Thor's technique, she raised it high and a massive bolt of lightning shot out from the hammer's head. The electrical discharge raced across the frozen ground and caught up with Hela, who was still flying backward from Carol's punch.
Hela withstood the lightning strike without attempting to dodge—she was the Goddess of Death, and she would not show weakness! The electricity coursed over her body, scorching her skin. From her flying position, she retaliated and shot out several Night Sky Swords with her backhand, which pierced through the dissipating lightning and pointed directly at Natasha with lethal intent.
Wanda saw the danger and immediately landed beside Natasha. With a gesture, she opened a swirling orange portal in front of them to shield the spy, allowing the Night Sky Swords to penetrate directly into the dimensional gateway instead of hitting their target.
Then Wanda twisted her hand with a smile, and a new portal appeared directly behind Hela in her flight path. The Goddess of Death was caught completely off-guard when her own Night Sky Swords shot out from the portal behind her, and she was struck in the back by her own weapons. The dark blades pierced her body, and she cried out in pain and surprise.