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Chapter 580: The Goddess of Death's Mad Encroachment
Thor roared and charged forward, berserk lightning tightly wrapped around his arms.
But having just fought a bloody battle with Hela, and having his consciousness torn apart by Supergiant's psychic attacks, the bone-deep wounds on his body were still bleeding heavily.
Corvus Glaive thrust his spear with venomous precision.
Thor blocked hard with his thick arms, the immense force knocking him backward to smash cleanly through a parked firetruck.
Loki's face paled. He raised a hand and viciously threw a dagger.
The dagger grazed Corvus Glaive's cheek, leaving only the shallowest of cuts.
Corvus reversed his grip and swung his glaive down.
Loki hastily yanked his hand back, the blade biting brutally into the ground just millimeters from his wrist.
A hair's breadth closer, and the hand clutching the Tesseract would have been severed completely.
Loki panted heavily, his eyes burning with humiliated fury.
He was afraid to die.
And he was afraid of Thanos.
But he could no longer stand being treated like a piece of trash that anyone could just casually snatch away.
"Every single one of you wants to steal it."
"Did you forget that it is still in my hands!?"
He violently pressed the Tesseract against his chest, space-light erupting around him.
But Ebony Maw's five fingers abruptly clenched. Telekinesis crashed down on the Tesseract like invisible, crushing chains, leaving Loki without even a sliver of a chance to teleport.
"The weak attempting to wield a divine artifact will only get themselves killed."
Ebony Maw's tone was as flat as dead water.
"Hand it over, and you might still die with some dignity."
"Dignity?"
Loki's smile was uglier than a crying face.
"The last time I heard that stupid word, your purple master was choking me by the neck."
"Honestly, all of you spout the exact same garbage."
"The stench makes me want to vomit!"
Corvus Glaive heartlessly raised his war glaive once again.
Thor struggled to his feet, trying to sprint over, but Supergiant's psychic shock forced him heavily to one knee.
In that hair-raising, critical moment, a clear, ringing sword chime descended from the sky.
It was absolutely not the sound of a normal blade leaving its sheath.
It sounded as if space itself was being forcefully sliced open.
Shiki slowly raised his right hand, pressing two fingers together like a sword.
Within his blood-red Mangekyo Sharingan, intricate patterns spun wildly.
"Ame-no-Tokotachi!"
An invisible, terrifying slash descended from above.
A massive chunk of the Dark Aster's sturdy structure was instantly severed.
But those structural fragments didn't plummet to crush the city. Instead, under the berserk control of the Float-Float Fruit, they forcefully split, shifted, and reassembled.
Giant metal plates hung over New York, forcibly piecing together into a sky-blotting floating fortress.
They dominantly blocked Ebony Maw's path of ascent, and entirely sealed off Ronan's room to advance.
Cull Obsidian roared, preparing to leap up and smash the metal plates, but Kaido kicked him viciously in the chest, stomping him back into the shattered pavement.
"Your opponent is me!"
Kaido's mouth was full of blood, his grin utterly savage.
Cull Obsidian let out a heaven-shaking roar, pushing desperately against the ground to get up, but Kaido grabbed him by the head and brought down another ruthless, heavy punch.
Shiki stood arrogantly atop the highest point of the floating fortress, looking down on the entire battlefield like a god.
There was no sea breeze in New York.
But his wild, lion-like blonde hair danced freely in the air.
"Listen up, alien trash!"
"Space Stone, Power Stone."
"From now on, they all belong to me!"
"Anyone with a problem can come up here and die!"
Ronan laughed in extreme anger.
"A mad pirate from a lowly planet dares to issue orders to me?"
Shiki looked down at him contemptuously, his lips parting in a cruel sneer.
"Lowly?"
"Trash like you relying on a broken rock for courage, I've seen too many of you out on the sea."
"If you have the guts, stick that purple ball onto your own forehead."
"Let's see if a piece of trash like you becomes a god first, or turns to ash."
Ronan's face instantly darkened like still water.
Lying on top of the taxi, Star-Lord heard this and couldn't help but mutter softly, "Even though that flying old man is incredibly annoying, he actually makes a solid point."
Rocket immediately chimed in.
"Shut up, Quill."
"Don't compliment a flying lunatic."
"Lunatics only push their luck."
Groot nodded in deep agreement.
"I am Groot."
Gamora looked at Shiki in mid-air, her eyes incredibly conflicted.
She didn't know this domineering old pirate.
But she could tell at a glance that the old man absolutely was not here to save anyone.
He was here for a daylight robbery.
Tony flew over to Steve, aiming his repulsors dead at the sky while casting a wary glance at Ronan on the ground.
"Captain, I have to say."
"It feels like we're currently wedged between a bunch of cosmic robbers."
Steve gripped his cracked shield, his eyes resolute.
"Then we protect the civilians at all costs."
"The stones absolutely cannot fall into the hands of any of these factions."
Tony sighed helplessly.
"I knew you were going to say that."
Ebony Maw finally stopped focusing solely on Loki.
He slowly looked up at Shiki, genuine ripples of emotion finally appearing in his dead eyes.
"Gravity manipulation?"
"Spatial severing?"
"And an unrecorded, mental-type ocular jutsu."
"You have more value than the vast majority of life on this lowly planet."
Shiki arrogantly dug a finger into his ear.
"Gray-skinned geezer, don't use that disgusting tone of voice with me."
"My whole life, the thing I've hated most is people standing higher than me."
The rubble beneath Ebony Maw silently carried him slowly higher.
"Then you will learn how to kneel here."
Just as their auras peaked and they were about to strike, the Tesseract in Loki's arms suddenly erupted with blinding light.
At the exact same moment, the Orb that Star-Lord was hugging tightly began to vibrate madly.
The extreme purple and blue lights instantly connected across hundreds of meters, forming a twisted bridge of light in mid-air.
The street, the sky, the Dark Aster wreckage—everything was violently dragged by this eerie bridge of light.
Space began to wildly displace.
The front end of a New York taxi abruptly appeared inside the shattered cabin of the ship on Xandar, only to be forcefully yanked back.
Half of a Chitauri chariot violently dropped out of the light bridge, crashing right beside Ronan's feet.
Everyone was stunned, pausing for a beat at the sight of this cosmic spectacle.
Hela walked slowly out of the completely rotted steel cage.
The wound on her shoulder was still bleeding, but she wore a bizarre, cold smile that sent chills down Thor's spine.
"I see."
"The shadow of death can walk this path, too."
Thor's expression morphed as he screamed at the top of his lungs.
"Hela! Don't touch it!"
Hela didn't care in the slightest.
She reached out a pale hand and pressed it firmly against the intersecting purple and blue bridge of light.
Pitch-black Death Magic spread frantically along the light bridge like a viper.
The pure blue light was instantly stained black.
The purple light began emitting an ear-piercing screech.
All the blood completely drained from Loki's face.
Clutching the scalding Orb, Star-Lord's voice was tinged with tears.
"Guys... I've got a really bad feeling that we just let the absolute worst crazy woman in the universe touch an Infinity Stone."
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