Mavuika was trapped.
She grit her teeth, sun-blaze thousand suns spinning frantically before her, slashing through the surging flames.
Mavuika could feel Surtur trying to devour her, to assimilate her flames and power.
"Become my nourishment!" Surtur's voice echoed from all directions, filled with greed.
Mavuika did not answer; she closed her eyes.
The extremely harsh environment instead caused her to calm down.
As the Pyro Archon in her past life, she had experienced similar desperate situations; this would not drive her to despair.
She began to sense.
Not with her eyes, nor with her ears, but using her flame origin to "touch" everything around her.
The flow trajectories of the Eternal Flame, the energy meridians of Surtur's body, the structural weaknesses of the lava tissue...
Then, she found it.
Above. At the crown atop Surtur's head, there was an extremely bright, extremely scorching, and simultaneously extremely... pure source.
It did not seem like the core of an evil being, but rather like a Sun that had been polluted and twisted, yet remained divine in essence.
The true form of the Eternal Flame.
Mavuika opened her eyes; without hesitation, she began to move.
The remaining divine power within her body erupted, golden-red flames condensing into a flight of fiery stairs beneath her feet. She stepped onto the stairs, climbing upward with difficulty.
Every step was accompanied by immense consumption. Surtur's pressure surged like a tide, trying to wash her away, while lava tissue continuously proliferated, attempting to trap her to death.
She didn't know how long she had been climbing; time lost its meaning in this fiery hell.
Finally, she reached the interior of the crown.
Before her was a massive vortex of fire. At the center of the vortex floated a fist-sized flame—that was the Eternal Flame!
The flame appeared golden, radiating energy sufficient to make heaven and earth tremble.
It was the source of Surtur's power, the foundation of his immortality.
Without the slightest hesitation, Mavuika raised sun-blaze thousand suns, pouring all the remaining divine power in her body into the blade.
The golden-red flames surged, a point of ultimate light condensing on the blade as she slashed down fiercely toward the Eternal Flame!
"Chiii—!"
The moment sun-blaze thousand suns collided with the Eternal Flame, there was no explosion as imagined; instead, everything fell into an eerie calm.
Mavuika was surprised to find that the moment the blade touched the Eternal Flame, the golden fire did not resist. Instead, as if drawn by some attraction, it began to flow along the blade toward her body!
The temperature of the Eternal Flame was far beyond her imagination. The moment it flooded her body, Mavuika felt as if she were about to be ignited. Her meridians suffered unbearable pain from the Burning flames, and her divine power foundation trembled.
But she could feel that this flame had no intention of devouring her; instead, it was as if it had found its true host, flowing slowly within her.
"What have you done?!" Surtur's voice suddenly turned terrified; clearly, he had also sensed the change within his body.
"You are trying to absorb my Eternal Flame? Damned thief! I will burn you to ashes!"
With Surtur's roar, the surrounding fire energy became even more violent, frantically battering Mavuika's body in an attempt to strip the Eternal Flame from her.
Mavuika's body trembled violently, the pain reaching its peak. She felt as if her body could be torn apart at any moment.
But she knew this was the last chance; once she let go, she would surely die.
She grit her teeth, mobilizing all the remaining divine power in her body while guiding her Teyvat flame origin to meet the Eternal Flame.
The moment the Teyvat flame origin touched the Eternal Flame, a slight hum was heard—the two actually resonated!
Golden-red flames and deep blue flames intertwined and fused within her, forming a new, even more powerful fire energy.
A tug-of-war for the Eternal Flame unfolded within Surtur's body.
Surtur mobilized all his fire energy to reclaim the Eternal Flame, while Mavuika, relying on the resonance of the Teyvat flame origin and her stubborn will, desperately pulled the Eternal Flame into her body.
Her body was constantly torn by the two forces; her skin cracked and blood flowed out, only to be instantly vaporized by the high temperatures within. Yet her gaze remained firm, her amber eyes shimmering with unyielding light.
As the minutes and seconds ticked by, Mavuika's divine power had been consumed to its limit, and her consciousness began to blur.
But just then, the Teyvat flame origin within her body suddenly erupted with a new energy, carrying a warm aura as if a long-dormant power had been awakened.
With the support of this power, Mavuika's pulling force suddenly strengthened, and the Eternal Flame began to flow rapidly into her body.
"No! That's mine!" Surtur let out a desperate roar; he could feel his power rapidly draining away and his body becoming weak.
Finally, with a slight advantage, Mavuika sucked the last trace of the Eternal Flame into her body!
When the Eternal Flame fully merged into her divine power core, an indescribable force instantly swept through her entire body.
Golden flames erupted from her body, bursting through Surtur's form and forming a massive pillar of fire in the sky of Muspelheim.
Mavuika's power began to skyrocket frantically. The wounds on her surface healed rapidly, and her melted battle armor re-condensed, becoming even sturdier and more magnificent than before.
Her amber eyes sparkled with the light of fire, like two Burning stars. The fire energy around her became purer and more overbearing, yet carried a composure that seemed to control everything.
As for Surtur, the moment the Eternal Flame was taken away, he completely lost his power.
His body began to shrink rapidly, from a hundred-meter giant to dozens of feet, then a few feet, and finally down to only the size of a single person.
The lava skin all over his body cooled and cracked, the flames completely withered, and the fiery light in his eyes extinguished, leaving only endless despair.
He opened his mouth, wanting to say something, but didn't even have a trace of strength left. His body eventually turned into a pile of dark red rock and completely collapsed, leaving only a cold fire crown that had lost its luster, falling onto the lava ground.
The battle was over.
Asgard's fleet erupted in sky-shaking cheers; the warriors brandished their weapons, tears streaming down their faces.
When Mavuika had been integrated into Surtur's body and Hela had been sent flying by a sword strike, the hearts of Asgard's warriors had plummeted to rock bottom.
This was a situation that had never occurred in Asgard's past conquests. Under the leadership of the sun goddess and the Goddess of Death, Asgard had always been invincible.
The Battle of Muspelheim was indeed the most difficult one for Asgard to date.