-Broadcast-
Hulk crashed heavily onto the Rainbow Bridge, his massive body hitting the crystalline surface with tremendous force. He tumbled and rolled dozens of meters, his momentum finally carrying him to a stop. He shook his head and climbed back up to his feet, somewhat dazed.
Thor rushed over desperately, waving his arms, and yelled at the top of his lungs, "Hulk! Stop! Just this once! Control yourself and stop smashing things! We need Surtur to destroy Asgard!"
[Hulk looked at the massive Surtur wreaking havoc in the distance, then turned to look at Thor with genuine confusion on his face. "But it's a big monster!" he protested in his simple way, not understanding why they wouldn't want him to fight it.]
[Valkyrie, realizing they were wasting precious time, yelled urgently, "Let's go! We need to leave now!"]
"Alright!" Hulk reluctantly shook his head at their insistent urging, clearly not happy about abandoning a good fight. He rushed over to where Thor and Valkyrie stood, then wrapped his enormous arms around both of them in a crushing bear hug. With a mighty leap, he jumped toward The Statesman hovering in the sky above, his powerful legs propelling all three of them upward. He landed on the ship's deck with incredible precision, barely jarring his passengers.
[Back on the dying realm, Surtur brandished his enormous sword Twilight and looked down at Asgard spread below him. His eyes burned with the satisfaction of prophecy fulfilled.]
[Suddenly, without warning, a very thick Sword of the Night Sky—wider than most trees—shot out from the sea below and pierced his chest, punching through his fiery form.]
The sudden, unexpected attack caught Surtur completely off guard. Before he could even see who had dared attack him, before he could react, a huge wave suddenly exploded upward from the sea surface, water cascading in all directions.
[Hela emerged from the depths, standing dramatically on an enormous Sword of the Night Sky that carried her upward like a dark elevator. She was heading directly toward Surtur, her face twisted with fury and desperation.]
[She pushed forward with her hand, and another Night Sky Sword shot toward him like a missile. Then another, and another. Several Night Sky Swords pierced Surtur's massive body in rapid succession, embedding themselves in his fiery form.]
Surtur roared in anger and pain. He reached up and angrily pulled out the Night Sky Swords from his body one by one, the dark blades dissolving in his grasp. He brandished his Lava Sword Twilight high above his head and roared with the voice of a volcano, "I am Asgard's doom! I am the end of Asgard!!!"
[Hela continued to attack him relentlessly, desperately, summoning more and more Night Sky Swords. But despite the barrage, she was unable to influence his movements at all. Her weapons, so devastating against mortals and gods alike, were like pinpricks to the fire giant.]
Surtur raised his lava sword high, the massive blade dripping molten rock. He pointed it downward toward Hela and laughed heartily, a sound like mountains crumbling.
[Looking up at Surtur looming over her, the ferocious, confident expression on Hela's face gradually disappeared. For the first time in millennia, she looked terrified. The Goddess of Death finally faced something she couldn't kill, couldn't defeat.]
But before she could react, before she could escape, Surtur's lava sword stabbed down at her with apocalyptic force. Hela disappeared under his great sword in an instant, swallowed by flame and crushing weight.
The lava sword pierced directly into the ground, driven deep into Asgard's foundation. A terrifying energy wave—the culmination of Ragnarok itself—spread out in all directions from the sword like a nuclear shockwave.
[Everywhere the energy wave passed was instantly engulfed in flames. Buildings that had stood for millennia crumbled to ash. The golden palace collapsed. The prophecy was completely fulfilled. Asgard was reduced to nothing but a sea of fire and ruins!]
Thor stood on the deck of The Statesman, watching this heartbreaking scene unfold in silence. Around him, the people of Asgard—refugees now, homeless—watched their realm die. Some wept openly. Others stood in shocked silence. Parents held their children close.
Korg, the stone Kronan warrior, stood nearby holding Miek's small original insectoid form gently in his rocky arms. He tried to comfort Thor, saying in his characteristically optimistic way, "Hey man, the extent of the damage isn't that bad when you think about it! As long as the foundation remains solid, we can rebuild our home from scratch! This place will once again become a paradise that everyone in the universe envies! Better than before, even!"
[But just as he finished speaking those hopeful words, Asgard in the distance completely exploded in a blinding flash of light. The entire realm detonated, torn apart by Surtur's final act. It turned into cosmic dust scattered across the void, and both Surtur and Hela were buried in the cataclysmic destruction, consumed utterly.]
Korg looked at the empty space where a realm had once existed and deflated slightly. "Oh. Now the foundation is completely ruined. Sorry about that. My bad."
[The people of Asgard watched this final, terrible scene and lowered their heads in profound sadness and grief. Their home, their history, everything they'd known—gone in an instant.]
Thor stared at the empty space where Asgard had been, at the drifting debris that was all that remained of his birthplace. He muttered to himself, his voice hollow, "What have I done?"
Heimdall stepped forward, still holding Hofund. He placed a hand on Thor's shoulder and whispered with gentle wisdom, "You saved us from total disaster! You saved your people! Asgard isn't a place, it never was—it's its people! And we survive!"
[With Heimdall's comfort and reassurance, Thor felt much better, though the grief remained. He straightened his shoulders, accepting the weight of his decision.]
[The Statesman slowly left the area where Asgard had completely turned into cosmic dust, its engines carrying the survivors away. The ship flew into the deep space beyond, heading toward an uncertain future.]
-Real World-
"It must be a very uncomfortable feeling to watch your home being destroyed with your own eyes, knowing you were the one who gave the order?" Quill said quietly, stepping up beside Thor in the viewing dimension. He patted Thor's shoulder sympathetically. His own home planet had been destroyed too, so he could understand this particular pain all too well.
Thor lowered his head slightly, his jaw tight. "As long as we deal with Hela properly, prevent her from ever becoming that monster, this will never happen! Asgard will never have to be destroyed!"
"But I think it's better to ask your father and mother's opinions first," Wanda said, hesitating. "After all, she is their daughter! Your sister! This is a family matter, and we shouldn't make decisions about Hela's fate without consulting them."
Banner nodded in agreement. "Yeah! You make a lot of sense, Wanda! We should definitely respect their opinions! This is Thor's family affair, not ours to decide alone!"
The spaceship carrying the Avengers soon arrived at the port of Asgard, docking smoothly at one of the golden platforms. As soon as everyone disembarked from their vessel, stepping onto Asgardian soil, they immediately attracted the attention of a large number of curious Asgardians. After all, the Avengers were very recognizable—Earth's mightiest heroes, allies of the realm, and increasingly famous throughout the Nine Realms!
"Let's go! Let's go meet my father!" Thor said, taking the lead with Stormbreaker resting on his shoulder. He walked confidently into the grand hall, the others following behind him.
At the same time, in the frozen realm of Niflheim—the kingdom of ice and mist, the realm of the dishonored dead—Hela sat imprisoned. She looked up at the sky through the perpetual gloom and felt a surge of rage when she saw the Screen showing Thor willingly letting Surtur destroy Asgard in order to defeat her.
She didn't understand why everyone was against her, why they all turned on her! It was she who had conquered such vast territories for Asgard! She who had made Asgard great! She who had shed blood and killed and sacrificed everything for the realm's glory!
Just when they should have continued to expand their territory, when they were on the cusp of ruling all Nine Realms and collecting all the Infinity Stones, Odin had suddenly stopped! He'd halted the invasions, abandoned the conquests, and embraced peace like a coward!
She couldn't understand it. She desperately wanted to ask Odin in person, to demand answers, to make him explain his betrayal of everything they'd built together. But she hadn't expected that she could only escape her prison after Odin died! That was the nature of her binding—only his death would free her.
But at this moment, sealed away, she could only rage helplessly in this coldest and darkest kingdom of the dead, pacing like a caged predator, waiting for a freedom that might never come.
In the golden halls of living Asgard, Odin and Frigga met with the Avengers in a formal audience chamber. After Tony met Odin again—remembering their previous encounter when the All-Father had helped them—he got straight to the point and asked him what he thought about Hela and everything they'd seen on the Celestial Screen.
Odin sighed softly, the weight of millennia in that sound. "After all these years imprisoned, all these centuries, she still hasn't learned to be kind! She still hasn't understood!"
Rhodes couldn't help but complain, his practical mind cutting through the mysticism. "Anyone who's been sealed away for thousands of years would have massive resentment, right? Doing that to someone will only make them worse, not better! That's basic psychology!"
Frigga nodded sadly, her expression pained. "You're absolutely right! Maybe we shouldn't have treated her like that, shouldn't have simply locked her away! But there was nothing else we could do at the time! There are many things she doesn't understand, truths she refuses to accept!"
"Then why don't you explain it to her clearly? Have an actual conversation?" Captain Marvel frowned, her straightforward nature showing. "I hate people who talk in riddles instead of being direct. If there's something she needs to understand, tell her!"
Odin's hand clenched around Gungnir's shaft. He deliberately skipped addressing her question, changing the subject instead. He looked directly at Thor and asked, "How do you plan to deal with your sister when we confront her?"
Thor glanced down at the magnificent Stormbreaker in his hand, feeling its weight and power. "I'll make her understand that she's not invincible! I'll defeat her in combat and make her realize that family is the most important thing! That there are things more valuable than conquest and power!"
"Aren't you going to kill her?" Odin asked, his remaining eye narrowing as he studied his son's face. "She's extremely dangerous."
Thor shook his head firmly. "No! She is my sister after all! My blood! I won't kill her unless it becomes absolutely necessary, unless there's no other choice!"
Odin felt genuinely satisfied with Thor's attitude and his answer. His son had really grown up, matured beyond recognition. He saw his former self in Thor—his better self, the person he'd tried to become. Both in terms of raw strength and in character, Thor was much stronger than he'd been at the same age!
Odin stood up from his throne with some effort, leaning on Gungnir. He looked at everyone assembled before him—gods and mortals alike. "Then please, come with me! All of you! Let's go to Niflheim together! Hela is imprisoned there, and it's time we faced this as a family!"
Tony shrugged with a slight smile. "The Avengers and Asgard are allies! You've helped us so much over the years, saved Earth more than once! So naturally we have no choice but to return the favor!"
Odin showed a faint smile of gratitude. He knew very well just how powerful the Avengers had become at this point in time. Captain Marvel's strength was no less than his own current power—perhaps even greater. Not to mention Wanda, who had mastered chaos magic, one of the most dangerous forces in the universe!
He was already old, his time growing short. Having such a powerful group of allies for Asgard was indeed a great guarantee for the realm's future, for Thor's reign.
Odin led everyone through the golden halls to the Rainbow Bridge control console. Heimdall stood at his post as always, his all-seeing eyes already knowing why they'd come. He activated the Rainbow Bridge with practiced ease, and the swirling colors of the Bifrost enveloped them all, teleporting them away instantly in a beam of rainbow light.
Considering the significant risks of dealing with someone as powerful and unstable as Hela, Tony had also brought the Milano along through the Bifrost, its weapons systems fully charged and ready.