Below, countless citizens flooded the streets, squares, and rooftops, waving flags and flowers, their cheers surging into the sky like a tidal wave.
Every Asgardian's face was filled with genuine pride.
Conquering the Nine Realms and achieving an unprecedented unification was an epic worthy of being sung for Eternity.
And they were the witnesses, participants, and creators of this epic.
Hela walked over from the adjacent cabin.
She had changed into a clean battle robe, her dark green hair tied back into a neat Horsetail, and the burns on her face and body had completely healed under Mavuika's treatment, though her face remained somewhat pale—a sign of excessive divine power consumption.
"Sister, what are you daydreaming about?" Hela leaned against the doorframe, arms crossed.
"Get ready to accept the cheers; I heard Father has already ordered the grandest victory banquet in history to be held at the Starry Sky Temple, and just the wine prepared will fill three cellars."
Mavuika turned to look at her sister and smiled: "Then you'd better restrain yourself; don't end up like the last victory banquet in Vanaheim, where you drank Dwarf King Eitri under the table."
"That's because his tolerance was poor." Hela pouted, though a hint of a smile flashed in her eyes.
She walked to the porthole, looking at the seething golden capital below, her dark green eyes reflecting the light of glory, yet also hiding a trace of imperceptible... emptiness.
The conquest was over, and the Nine Realms were unified.
What then?
This thought flashed through Hela's mind and was forcibly suppressed; now was not the time to think about such things.
The fleet began to descend into the dedicated port outside the Golden Palace.
When the main ship's hatch opened and Odin stepped out first, the cheers of all Asgard reached their peak.
"Long live the King of Gods!"
"Long live Asgard!"
"sun goddess! Goddess of Death!"
Odin raised the Eternal Spear, his golden divine power spreading like ripples, making every sound clearly audible: "People of Asgard! Today, we return in triumph! Today, the Nine Realms are unified! This is the will of the gods, the glory of the warriors, and the proof of Asgard's eternal radiance!"
The cheering was enough to almost flip the sky.
Mavuika and Hela followed behind Odin down the gangway.
When their figures appeared, the crowd erupted into even more fanatical shouts.
The Valkyrie Legion, led by Brynhildr, saluted in unison, and the warriors of the Death Guard struck their shields with battle axes, creating a rhythmic, thunderous sound.
Mavuika smiled and waved to the crowd, her palms releasing a warm, non-scorching halo that sprinkled over the families who had lost loved ones in the war.
Hela merely nodded, her gaze sweeping across the crowd and finally landing in the direction of the training grounds in the distance.
There, young warriors were looking at her with worshipful eyes, holding wooden training swords and imitating her combat stances.
The corners of her mouth lifted imperceptibly.
Odin turned to his two daughters, his voice softening: "You both expended a lot in this battle; Hela's injuries have just healed, and Mavuika also needs time to digest this new power."
"We will delay the victory banquet for a few days, until everyone is ready, until the wine is aged to perfection, and until the runes of the Starry Sky Temple are adjusted to their brightest; then, we will celebrate this unprecedented glory of Asgard."
He patted Mavuika's shoulder and looked at Hela: "Now, go back and get some rest. By the way, go see your Mother; she must have been worrying about you the whole time."
At the mention of Frigga, the sisters' eyes softened.
Mavuika nodded: "Yes, that's what we planned; first we'll go tell Mother we're safe, then check to see if little Thor and little Loki have been behaving at home."
Hela rolled her eyes slightly; she was clearly not as close to Loki as Mavuika was, but she didn't say anything to refute it.
Putting Thor and Loki aside for a moment, at least as far as Mother Frigga was concerned, Hela missed her just as much as Mavuika did.
The three were about to separate when Mavuika suddenly stopped.
"What's wrong?" Hela asked.
Mavuika frowned and looked up at the sky.
"It seems... like something is wrong," she whispered.
Hela also looked up, her dark green eyes scanning the clear blue sky, the white clouds, and that eternally bright Asgardian Sun.
Everything was as usual.
"Sister, you're too tense," Hela said. "It's always like this after a war; let's go, Mother must be getting impatient."
Mavuika nodded, suppressing the unease in her heart, telling herself that this might just be hypersensitivity after her power increase.
She turned around and was about to take a step—
A shadow descended.
It wasn't the gradual shadow of clouds blocking the Sun, but an abrupt, violent, massive stain, as if someone had splashed thick ink across the sky.
The light dimmed instantly, the temperature plummeted, the cheering stopped abruptly, and everyone instinctively looked up.
Then, they saw it.
A ship.
No, that could no longer be called a "ship."
It was an entire moving fortress, a floating black mountain range.
Its shape was peculiar and menacing: the main body was a sharp T-shape, made entirely of matte, dark metal that seemed to absorb all light, its surface covered in hideous spikes and cannon muzzles surging with dark purple energy.
The ship was so large it almost obscured half of Asgard's sky, the shadow it cast enveloping the Golden Palace, the port, and even half of the capital.
Even more terrifyingly, it did not appear alone.
The moment the first giant ship fully manifested, the space around it, like a torn curtain, surged forth with a second, a third...
They were like a swarm of locusts crawling out of the abyss, swarming out from the cracks in space, each one as massive as a small mountain, each one as silent as a tombstone.
They quickly dispersed, forming a containment net, shrouding all of Asgard in shadow.
The sheer number of them almost filled every inch of the sky within sight.
The sunlight was completely blocked.
Asgard fell from daylight into dusk, and from dusk into a gloom that was almost night.
Only the dark purple light of the runes on the surface of the warships and the charging cannon muzzles flickered in the shadows like the eyes of evil spirits.
Dead silence.
Absolute, dead silence enveloped the entire city.
Cheers froze on faces, smiles stiffened on lips, and even the wind stopped flowing.
"Malekith..." Odin's voice was as low as muffled thunder, every word carrying suppressed rage.
"It's the Dark Elves' fleet!"
Mavuika and Hela's expressions changed drastically at the same time.
Of course they recognized it.
When they conquered Svartalfheim three years ago, they had fought against the Dark Elves.
Those races living in the shadows, skilled in space magic and stealth technology, had once been one of the most troublesome enemies in the Nine Realms.
Asgard had paid a considerable price to defeat them and force them to submit.
But the scale before them far exceeded that of three years ago; this was no longer just a fleet, but an army of annihilation, mobilized in full force.