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Nolan turned the Eternal Flame's core in his palm, listening to it hum creation and annihilation braided together, a fire that refused to die.
With a thought, he drew the core into himself. The braziers in Odin's vault guttered out.
"Come on," he said, drifting toward a blank slab of floor. A space-keen twitch of his fingers and the stone collapsed inward, revealing a hidden ossuary.
Thor and Loki peered over the edge. Rows upon rows of armored corpses slept below Hela's old immortal army.
At the center lay a titanic wolf, ribs like iron bands under dead fur.
"Fenris," Loki breathed.
"Mm." Nolan stepped to the beast, let a thread of Eternal Flame seep into the carcass. Yellow eyes snapped open.
A thunderous howl then a neat violet aperture bloomed under the wolf.
"Go wait with your mistress," Nolan said, and dropped Fenris through a portal like he was filing paperwork.
Thor blinked. "That was… Fenris?"
"Next part," Nolan said, and the vault fractaled into mirror-sharp planes. A full Mirror Dimension sealed around the chamber just in case.
He set Surtur's crown against the Eternal Flame.
The world split.
Magma punched through the floor, and a mountain of fire heaved itself upright, a sword of dusk-lightning in its fist.
"ASGARD—BURN!"
A hand the size of a keep backhanded the fire giant across the chamber. Surtur skidded through slag, cratering a wall. He rose, roaring right as Nolan expanded on a shimmer of Pym particles to match his height, eye to flaming eye.
"Name!" Surtur bellowed.
"Sorcerer Supreme," Nolan said. "Try me."
The Twilight Sword came screaming down. Nolan caught the blade in one hand. Metal shrieked; Surtur's eyes widened.
A twist, a hammer-palm crack, and the sword spun away. Space coalesced into chains of blue-white light, wrapping the fire lord, constricting.
Surtur's flames howled higher, Eternal Flame pouring strength back into him, links popping one by one.
Nolan smiled, studying the weave of power, the way creation fed destruction and back again.
"Yeah," he said, tightening the snare with a gesture that bent the room's horizon.
"You'll make an excellent research subject."
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~Support with 200 PowerStones = 1 Bonus Chapter
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