Her movements didn't seem fast; every step was as elegant as a dance, but with every step she took, the ice beneath her feet melted into a boiling lake.
With every swing of her sword, the space along the blade's path left behind Burning cracks.
Wherever she passed, Frost Giants fell like stalks of wheat; those closer were even vaporized by the high temperature.
"Stop her!" The leader of the Frost Giants charged personally, his battle-axe carrying a bone-chilling cold current as it slashed toward Mavuika's nape.
Mavuika didn't look back; she swung her sword behind her, and sun-blaze thousand suns collided with the frost battle-axe.
There was no sound of metal clashing, only the hiss of flames devouring snow and ice.
The axe blade of the Frost Giant leader began to Melt the moment it touched the sword's edge, and the Frozen runes on the handle extinguished one by one.
He watched in horror as the golden-red flames spread along the battle-axe to his arm; wherever they passed, the innate ice of the Frost Giant seemed like a joke.
"Aaaargh—"
The Frost Giant leader screamed; in just one encounter, he had already lost the strength to struggle.
Mavuika gave a gentle push, and the Frost Giant leader, along with his axe, was sent flying backward, stopping only after crashing through three ice walls.
He struggled to get up, only to find his right arm charred and carbonized, his frost bloodline completely incinerated.
Meanwhile, Mavuika had already moved on; like a slowly moving Sun, she plowed a Burning trench through the Frost Giant army.
Frost beasts tried to block her—hill-sized Icefield mammoths, building-tall Frost-fang Sabretooths—but as they came within a hundred meters of her, they began to wail, Melt, and collapse.
A Frost Dragon dove down from the clouds, opening its maw to spit a dragon breath cold enough to freeze rivers.
Mavuika looked up and made a grasping motion with her left hand toward the dragon breath.
A pillar of fire soared into the sky, colliding with the dragon breath and whipping up a hurricane-like Impact.
The two were at a stalemate for a moment, then the fire pillar dispersed the Frost Dragon breath, roaring as it swallowed the Frost Dragon in the sky whole.
The Frost Dragon wailed, falling from the sky while engulfed in flames.
"Is this Asgard's sun goddess... She is practically a walking natural disaster..."
The surviving Frost Giant warriors began to retreat, fear spreading like a plague.
On the other side of the battlefield, another kind of fear was harvesting lives.
It was a dark green meteor of death.
Hela's landing was much more violent than Mavuika's.
She slammed directly into the ice like a cannonball, the Impact sending thirty surrounding Frost Giants into the air.
When she stood up from the crater, mjolnir was already resting on her shoulder, the lightning arcs swirling around the hammerhead turning falling snowflakes into ash in mid-air.
"Let's start the warm-up!" Hela grinned, revealing ghastly white teeth.
She didn't have Mavuika's wide-range flames, but her killing was more direct and efficient.
With the first swing, mjolnir traced a simple arc, lightning surging from the hammerhead, sparks flying everywhere.
The Frost Giants who took the hit head-on didn't even have time to scream before they, along with their armor, weapons, and ice shields, turned into splashing ice shards.
And that was only the beginning.
Hela raised mjolnir high above her head, the hammerhead pointing toward the sky.
"Boom—!!!"
Thunder roared, dark clouds were torn apart, and hundreds of lightning bolts poured down like a rainstorm, each accurately hitting a Frost Giant.
The struck giants collapsed trembling; almost none could remain standing.
Simultaneously, Hela made a grasping motion with her empty left hand.
Death Divine Power surged from her palm, condensing in the air into several black swords—not the translucent energy bodies from previous sparring matches, but materialized creations of death with blades shimmering with sharpness.
"Go."
The black swords dispersed as if they had lives of their own, each locking onto a target.
They ignored physical defense, penetrating ice armor and bypassing shields to pierce the vital points of the Frost Giants from the most tricky angles.
Some giants had their hearts pierced, the organ withering the moment it jumped out of the chest; others had their heads severed, with no blood at the neck, only black ash gushing out.
Some giants tried to parry, but the black sword suddenly turned into mist, slipping through armor gaps into their bodies and tearing them apart from the inside.
Meanwhile, Hela herself strolled through the army formation, carrying mjolnir.
Her pace seemed leisurely, but every step landed on the rhythm of the battlefield.
Whenever a giant mustered the courage to charge, she would casually swing her hammer, smashing both person and weapon deep into the ice layer.
Whenever a Frost mage tried a sneak attack, a black sword would stab out from the Shadow, cutting off the casting gestures.
Her fighting style was completely different from Mavuika's; Mavuika was purification, Burning, and transforming all cold into warmth, while Hela was harvesting, ending, and returning all life to death.
A Frost beast charged at Hela, its every step making the ice field tremble, kicking up ice waves as its giant claw swiped down.
Hela looked up at the sky-blotting giant claw and smiled cruelly.
Instead of retreating, she advanced, leaping toward the giant claw. mjolnir spun in her hand, the hammerhead absorbing a massive and terrifying amount of kinetic energy during the rotation.
"Boom—!!"
Hammer and claw collided.
Starting from the point of contact, the beast's giant claw's flesh, bone, and ice armor disintegrated layer by layer, blood splashing everywhere.
Then Hela jumped onto its head, gently placing a hand on it, and the black Death Divine Power instantly spread and coiled upward.
Disintegration spread like a plague: arm, shoulder, torso...
Ten seconds later, the giant beast no longer existed; only a patch of drifting black ash proved it had ever lived.
Hela landed, stepping in the center of the black ash.
She shook mjolnir, and all the blood and ice shards on the hammerhead faded away, leaving no trace.
She looked toward the Royal Court, where a blue pillar of light soared into the sky—a sign that the casket of ancient winters had been fully activated.
"Finally willing to step onto the field yourself, Laufey?" A flame of excitement ignited in Hela's eyes. "Let me see if the so-called Frost King is worthy of dying under my hammer."
On the bow of the flagship, Odin looked down upon the entire battlefield.
His gaze was like the most precise magic instrument, observing all the key points of the battle simultaneously.
He saw Mavuika's flame domain steadily advancing, with Frost Giants fleeing wherever she went.
He saw Hela's death harvesting, efficient and cold, with anything attempting to block her path turning to ash.
He saw the warriors of Asgard following the footsteps of the two princesses, like a golden tide flooding the ice field.
Odin did not choose to act.
Not because he couldn't, but because he didn't need to.
This was the stage belonging to his daughters, the moment for them to prove the power of Asgard's new generation to the Nine Realms.
And their performance exceeded his most optimistic expectations.
"Your Majesty." Brynhildr stood by his side, the face of the Valkyrie commander full of shock.
"The growth of the two Highnesses is truly too fast; the Frost Giants are actually no match for them at all..."
The corner of Odin's mouth rose slightly: "They will surpass me. This is my greatest pride and Asgard's greatest fortune."
Just then, the blue pillar of light in the direction of the Royal Court suddenly expanded.