Thud!
The heavy body fell to the ground. Her vitality was rapidly fading, and her form seemed as if it would be consumed by the absolute darkness at any second. Lothar's pupils suddenly contracted. He teleported behind Hela, intending to catch her.
Whumph!
Suddenly, a power that even Lothar couldn't match erupted from Hela's body! Caught off guard, Lothar quickly raised an energy shield but was still blasted away by the unexpected surge of power!
"Hmph..."
Forcing his body to twist in the air, Lothar landed steadily and frowned. He was surrounded by a power that was completely unfamiliar to him—and not just one, but two.
Weaving together, a brilliant blue and a deep green divine energy began to repair Hela's broken body under Lothar's wary and confused gaze. Her heart, which he had accidentally pierced through the chest, was also being restored by the intertwining energies...?!
"Hela?"
With his emotions swinging wildly, Lothar took a few deep breaths and tentatively tried to wake Hela. But she was like a corpse, with no response at all.
"What's going on...?"
This was the first time Lothar had encountered such a "supernatural" event, and his brow furrowed in confusion. He was in his Super Saiyan 4 state, and while his energy was greatly drained from being in this dark world for so long, he was still not someone an ordinary Hela could repel.
Yet just now, her power, unconsciously protecting its master, had sent him flying?! What was that? Lothar was certain he had never seen either of those energies before. Both the brilliant blue and the deep green divine energy had a completely alien feel to them.
"No!"
"This is impossible!"
In the split second that the divine energy began to repair Hela's body, Dormammu, who had merged with the Dark Dimension, widened his eyes in disbelief.
According to his plan, after Hela died, he would have removed the dark energy surrounding Lothar and brought both him and Hela's body back to the Dark Dimension to stand before him.
Then, in front of Lothar, he would kill and resurrect his subordinate, Kaecilius, to prove that he could bring Hela back to life.
Finally, he would give Lothar a choice: if Lothar killed the equally trapped Thanos, he, the great Dormammu, Lord of the Dark Dimension, would mercifully resurrect Hela.
This was Dormammu's complete plan for revenge.
One dead Hela was insignificant; Odin was already gone. And even if the Ancient One died, he wouldn't be able to see Agamotto's pained expression. But Thanos was different, because Thanos was still alive.
Dormammu wanted to make Thanos watch his favorite son face an impossible dilemma. Of course, if Lothar really did punch Thanos for love, Dormammu would be even happier. What a thrilling drama it would be to watch a son kill his father for love!
To make Thanos feel pain, Dormammu had considered every possibility, but he had never accounted for this. Hela wouldn't die?! What the hell was this?!
"As long as Asgard stands, Hela cannot die."
With her performance over, Frigga stood up from the ground, a staff in her hand and tears still visible in her eyes, much to Dormammu's astonishment.
"I told you, you would pay, Dormammu." The composed Thanos held his giant blade. His titan-like presence stood in front of Frigga, and the spinning blade blocked all of Dormammu's attacks!
"???" Dormammu stared at the suddenly explosive Thanos in shock, and a sense of unease welled up inside him. Were these two bastards playing me all along?!
"Hela's existence is one of the most unique in all of Asgard."
"She has the blessing of the World Tree."
"Her life is tied to Asgard."
"As long as Asgard stands, Hela cannot die."
"Unless you have the power to destroy the blessing of the World Tree, the only way Hela can truly die is to destroy Asgard itself."
"Why do you think Odin called her the Goddess of Death of Asgard?"
"Do you think it was merely because of her connection to the divine concept of death?"
Behind Thanos, Frigga, with her staff in hand, began to chant a holy hymn. A mysterious and profound array was being drawn on the ground beneath her feet.
Dormammu's face was grim.
The World Tree... he knew of it, of course. It was the foundation of the Nine Realms, and its power was immense. If the power of the Nine Realms were unified, not even Dormammu was confident he could overpower it. That was because the power of the World Tree, like his own, involved the concept of dimensions.
Why could Dormammu act with such impunity? Why was he virtually immortal? It was because he had long since abandoned his physical body and merged with the Dark Dimension.
As long as none of the cosmic entities, the rule-makers who had existed since the dawn of the universe, intervened, Dormammu, as one with the Dark Dimension, was practically invulnerable. No one could truly kill him because no one other than those entities could destroy an entire dimension.
That was the power of a whole dimension, and it was the foundation of Dormammu's immortality.
But now, things were different. Because Hela was here. Hela, who possessed the World Tree's blessing, was here.
"You knew all along..." Dormammu looked at Thanos, his face a thundercloud.
"You wanted revenge." The expression on Thanos's face remained calm as he spun his giant blade, protecting Frigga's spellcasting behind him. "But after successfully ambushing the Sorcerer Supreme, you didn't press your advantage. Instead, you trapped me in the Dark Dimension, which made me suspicious."
"And then, I understood."
Thanos pointed to his own head with his free left hand. The meticulously planned smile made Dormammu feel a deep sense of dread.
"Odin is dead, and Agamotto is dead. Of the three who gave you pain back then, only I am still alive."
"You would want me to feel pain."
"Because you would never allow me to die easily."
"But you don't know me. You don't know what I care about the most. The only thing you know is that I am very protective of my son."
"You know that the old me was willing to ally with Odin and Agamotto for Lothar, so I figured you would target Lothar." The truth of the deception was slowly revealed from Thanos's lips. The truth, deduced by his cursed mind, made Dormammu's skin crawl.
"What could be more painful to me than my own son raising his fist against me?"
"If I'm not mistaken, that's what you were thinking, isn't it? That you would use Hela's resurrection as leverage."
"?!"
A storm of energy immediately gathered in the Dark Dimension, its furious screams reflecting Dormammu's terror.
"By using the Asgardian power and the World Tree's blessing that automatically surge from Hela's body after she has been brought to the brink of death, we can re-combine them into the dimensional power of the Nine Realms."
"And with that, we can annihilate Dormammu and destroy the Dark Dimension."
"Truly worthy of you, Thanos."
The figure of the Sorcerer Supreme, the Ancient One, slowly emerged from the energy storm. Her pale face showed nothing but admiration for Thanos. If she hadn't looked ahead in the script over two thousand times, she would never have guessed that Thanos could deduce so much just from Dormammu's choice not to pursue her, but instead to trap him in the Dark Dimension.
Whumph!
Frigga's array was completed. A dazzling light instantly brought Lothar and the unconscious Hela from the dark space to the Dark Dimension, right in front of Thanos.
"Father?"
The sudden change in environment made Lothar wary, but his eyes widened in surprise when he saw his adoptive father, Thanos, holding his giant blade.
"Don't worry. Hela will not die."
"So, go and evolve, Lothar."
Looking at his proud and satisfying adopted son, Thanos showed a gentle smile.
"Evolve...?" Lothar, who had just arrived, was completely lost.
"That's right, evolve."
"By yourself, it would be difficult to break the shackles this universe has placed on you."
"You need an outside push."
"And Hela is that push."
Thanos watched his adopted son lovingly, his finger pointing to the still-unconscious Hela on the ground. The reason he had agreed to the marriage alliance with Odin in the first place, besides the Space Stone, was because of Hela's uniqueness. It was a shame that she was sealed by Odin before they could discuss it further.
"Her body carries the blessing of the World Tree. Her soul contains one of the most mysterious powers in the universe—the dimensional power of the Nine Realms."
"Fuse with it and take your first step toward godhood."
"Push open that mysterious door."
Slamming down his blade to the ground, Thanos blasted all of Dormammu's spells, then completely disregarded Dormammu and focused entirely on his son's success.
Dormammu gnashed his teeth in hatred.
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