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Chapter 581: Death Grasps Authority, Purple Light Dyes the Black Blades
Hela stepped out of the completely rusted steel cage.
Several snapped rebars still clung to her black combat suit. The moment they brushed against her shoulders, they were instantly eroded to ash by her Death Magic. She didn't look at Ebony Maw, nor did she spare a glance for Shiki. Her gaze was locked dead onto The Orb in Star-Lord's arms.
The purple light spilling from that sphere awakened a pulse within the hollow void in her chest. It wasn't a heart. It was authority. It was the supreme foundation she had been missing ever since the ley lines of Asgard had abandoned her.
Peter Quill—Star-Lord, Captain of the Guardians of the Galaxy, a half-human cosmic fugitive with a bounty of 40,000 Units—took a half-step back. His face was as pale as if he had just chugged a whole bottle of expired yogurt.
"Hey, lady!" Star-Lord shouted. "I know you look like you're great at killing and really enjoy it, but you really can't just touch that thing!"
Rocket raised his bent rifle and cursed, "Quill, cut the crap and get to the point!"
Star-Lord immediately strained his voice and yelled, "DON'T TOUCH IT! That thing will absolutely turn you into a firework!"
Hela stopped a dozen meters in front of him and smiled. It wasn't out of joy. It was because she found the warning utterly, laughably absurd.
"I am death."
She raised her right hand. Without a shred of hesitation, her black fingernails pierced through the churning purple light, slowly reaching for The Orb.
Gamora's expression changed drastically. As Thanos's adopted daughter, one of the galaxy's most dangerous assassins, and a Zehoberei survivor with an 80,000 Unit bounty, she knew better than almost anyone what the Power Stone truly meant.
"Stop her!" Gamora yelled. "If she can't hold it, all of New York will go down with her!"
Ronan the Accuser moved first. As a Kree Empire war criminal and the Nova Corps' highest-priority target, he was considered a planet-destroying threat in Xandar's records. He absolutely could not accept the Power Stone falling into the hands of another lunatic. He slammed his war hammer into the ground, sending a furious shockwave of purple light straight at Hela's back.
Ebony Maw raised his hand as well. A cosmic-level slaughterer and one of the Black Order, he possessed no Beri bounty, but on the open seas, the World Government would easily classify him as a maximum-level hazard. Under his telekinesis, countless stones, rebars, and car wrecks rapidly converged in the air, forming a massive spear that viciously stabbed toward the back of Hela's neck.
Standing atop his floating fortress, the maniacal grin vanished from Shiki's face. Golden Lion Shiki, the Pirate Admiral of the Flying Pirates, an old-era legend whose bounty had been erased by the World Government but whose danger level was on par with the Yonko. He hated people stealing his prey. He hated it even more when someone touched the treasure he had his eye on right in front of him.
"Hey, woman," Shiki growled. "That purple ball is my loot."
Shiki clenched his five fingers. The falling metal deck of the Dark Aster that Shiki had weaponized suffered the worst fate. Like an entire steel city wall, it crashed down toward Hela's head.
Three devastating attacks converged at the exact same moment.
Simultaneously, Hela's hand finally touched The Orb.
A terrifying purple light instantly swallowed half of her arm. Star-Lord was blown back by a furious burst of power, rolling miserably across the ground several times. His arms were already empty.
"It's over," Star-Lord muttered, lying on the ground with pale lips. "I told you not to touch it."
Hela stood proudly within the purple light. From her fingertips, her right arm began to crack inch by inch. Furious purple veins bulged beneath her black skin, looking as if magma was boiling inside her blood vessels. The fissures crawled all the way up to her shoulder.
A split second later, they were forcibly sutured back together by pitch-black Death Magic. She didn't explode. She merely raised her head slowly, a long-lost, ultimate satisfaction washing over her face.
"This is what a king should hold."
Behind her, hundreds of necrotic black blades materialized all at once. The originally pitch-black weapons were thoroughly dyed inch by inch by the Power Stone's radiant purple light.
Ronan's shockwave slammed into the first row of black blades, only to be cleaved cleanly in half. Ebony Maw's massive spear was instantly shredded into powder by a rain of purple-black blades the moment it got close.
Hela simply waved her hand dismissively. A sweeping purple-black slash tore across the sky.
That massive wall of metal, large enough to crush half a city block, was sliced into two perfectly smooth halves in mid-air before disintegrating into a dense cloud of iron filings. The upper structure of the floating fortress collapsed in a massive wave.
The bow of the ship beneath Shiki's feet shook violently. His face darkened completely, murderous intent erupting from his eyes.
"You dare destroy my island? You're asking for death!"
Tony Stark was violently blown away by the shockwave of the slash, his armor scraping a long, blinding trail of sparks across the pavement. He struggled to prop himself up, his mouth twitching as he looked at the frantically blaring red interface on his chest.
"The good news is, she bleeds," Tony wheezed. "The bad news is, she isn't bleeding nearly enough."
Steve Rogers didn't engage with the joke. Captain America stared intently as a purple blade skimmed the intersection, hurtling straight toward a subway entrance where civilians were still trying to evacuate.
"Thor! On your left!"
Thor didn't scatter his lightning everywhere like he had before. He gripped Mjolnir tightly with both hands, the lightning on his arms condensing into short, lethal bursts. He swung the hammer with a savage horizontal sweep.
The first bolt of lightning accurately shattered the purple blade on the left. The second blasted apart the falling, fragmented rebars in mid-air. The third tore violently across the ground, obliterating several Chitauri soldiers along with the pursuing blade waves.
"I see it!" Thor roared, his voice hoarse.
He had always thought that the more power he used, the better. But now, for the first time, he realized that controlling power was far more difficult than just throwing it around. It was also what a true king should do.
Loki knelt a short distance away, the blue light of the Tesseract dancing erratically in his hands. Cracks were already spreading frantically from the edges of the cube. Every fissure felt like a tiny razor, slicing his palms until they were slick with blood.
He watched Hela command the Power Stone. He watched the streets of New York being mercilessly torn apart by purple light. He watched Thor use his lightning to protect the weak for the very first time.
A crazy idea suddenly sprang into his mind. What if I destroy the cube? If the Space Stone exploded along with it, would it bury this damned conflict once and for all?
He looked down at the Tesseract's surface. Deep within the blue light, there was a faint golden magical mark. It was Frigga's final protection over him, like a mother's hand resting gently on his forehead.
"Mother..." Loki's voice was so soft he could barely hear it himself. "What if I destroy it right here?"
The mark didn't answer. The biting blue light pierced his palms, turning his face deathly pale from the pain. Yet, he didn't let go.
On the other side of the battlefield, Kaido had stopped his brawl with Cull Obsidian. Cull had barely climbed out of a crater when a purple blade slashed across his chest piece. The sturdy alien heavy armor split wide open, dark red blood pouring from the fissure. With a furious roar, Cull locked his eyes onto Hela.
Kaido was also watching Hela. His shoulder was still bleeding, the stump of his broken horn was charred black, and his chest was severely caved in.
Yet, he smiled. He smiled with far more twisted, euphoric joy than when he had been facing Cull Obsidian.
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