~ Oslo, Norway ~
Every few months, a group of friends ventured into Nordmarka. Following the guide, a rather old man familiar with the path, they walked along a trail that wound between birches and pines until the forest opened into a wide clearing. There, they decided to rest for a while.
But the peace among them was interrupted when one of them grabbed another by the neck with force.
"Kristian, what are you doing?"
The group reacted quickly, trying to make him let go, but he did not move. His body changed rapidly as he assumed his true skrull form. Before anyone could react, he flew straight up, moving so fast they barely noticed him before he was already several meters above the ground. Seconds later he came down at high speed, slamming the teenager he carried into the earth and opening a crater at the point of impact.
When the dust settled, the group saw their friend's body crushed to pieces, while the skrull they once knew as Kristian looked at them with a psychotic expression.
"You have no idea how long I waited for this", he smiled. "Yes, this is the fear I love to feel; you inferior creatures, did you really think you were my equals?"
As he spoke with a smile, his eyes lit up red, targeting one of them. The boy barely survived thanks to the guide pushing him down and urging him to duck.
The skrull looked at the old man with annoyance. "Old man, do not interfere, I will kill you after I finish with them."
But the old man did not back down.
"You know what you are doing. I can see it in your eyes, you befriended them only for this moment. You have a cruel heart; people like you end up in the worst place."
The skrull laughed. "Will I go to hell? Do you think that scares me?"
"No. People like you end up in Niflhel, the deepest part of Hel, where not even light reaches. You will be condemned to eternal solitude, abandoned forever in the darkness", the old man said.
The skrull stopped smiling, not because he was afraid, but because…
"What is that?" he asked, confused.
"That is where the wicked, the murderers, and the cowards go, ruled by Hela, the daughter of Loki."
Hearing that, the skrull finally reacted. "Loki? You mean the one from Asgard? Right, you people worship Asgard as gods. Let me tell you something, old man, those 'gods' are just aliens. Even if that Niflhel existed, I would not go there; the only way would be for Hela to come and take my soul herself."
"Then it seems you are lucky."
The sudden voice made the skrull tense as he quickly turned around. There stood a woman both noble and deadly in appearance, a queen of death. She wore a black and greenish combat suit and a dark green cape flowing behind her, the most striking feature being her crown, a mixture of helmet and protruding horns.
"Who are you?" the skrull asked cautiously.
"I am Hela", she said. "I have come for your soul, you cowardly and corrupted thing."
"Impossible, Hela has been dead for centuries", he answered with anger and fear. Anyone who knew the universe knew of Hela: goddess of death, commander of Asgard's army in its most feared era. The memory of Asgard was carved into the history of many races, including the skrulls.
"Yet here I am, alive and well", Hela replied with mockery.
The skrull charged at high speed with a blow capable of crushing tons, but when his attack did nothing to Hela, he stepped back and used heat vision from a distance. Hela did not dodge; she walked forward slowly with the posture of a ruler, letting the heat vision strike her directly. Finally realizing he could not win, the skrull turned and flew away at full speed. He did not get far: something wrapped around his leg, a cold and dangerous tentacle. He tried to move, but more tentacles entangled his limbs and dragged him toward Hela.
"No, let me go!" he screamed.
As the tentacles pulled him, his fear gave way to desperation, and when they lifted him face to face with the goddess of death he tried to speak, "I am strong, I can be useful."
But his last hope fell on deaf ears, because the tentacles had no intention of bringing him closer for negotiation. Another tentacle covered his mouth and the skrull watched as his own body sank into a ground that did not resemble earth, but a thick black river. Every part that touched this river stopped feeling like his own, as if that part of him were completely dead.
He kept trying to protest as he sank, until his body was swallowed entirely and silence returned.
"You may leave now", Hela said indifferently to the group of teenagers and the old man, who still watched wide-eyed. "If not for his soul I would not have bothered claiming it; basic attacks would have been enough to kill him."
Soon the clouds opened and rays of light descended; from them emerged women riding pegasi, the Valkyries. From the ground rose thousands of asgardians out of nowhere. And in front of them, with a rumble and a hammer strike, Thor appeared beside Hela, landing in spectacular fashion.
"I feel like I cannot use my powers; I can only draw energy if I take it directly from the hammer and use it immediately", Thor said.
"My powers synchronized with Hel during the centuries I was trapped", Hela replied indifferently. "I draw strength from there; they cannot sever my bond with my own realm, so I have no idea what you are talking about."
"That is fine. Even if the asgardians cannot use magic, their physical strength is still far superior to that of the skrulls", Thor said while looking at the army. "And, thinking about it, the fact that you can create a ritual to bring the entire Asgardian army with dark energy… your mastery surpasses even that of our father."
Dark energy always demanded life force in exchange; bringing Thor to Earth once had cost Odin years of vigor, yet Hela had brought thousands with minimal effort.
Hela smiled.
"Odin: god of wisdom, war, magic, poetry, and sacrifice.
Hela: goddess of death, silence, decay, and eternal balance. Who do you think knows more about dark energy? Besides, I was very bored in Hel, so I experimented."
Thor nodded and turned his attention to the army behind him. With a war cry, he summoned lightning. "Warriors of Asgard!", he shouted. "For centuries the Nine Realms have been under the protection of Asgard. Do these skrulls believe Odin's death weakened us? No! Today we will remind them of the strength of Asgard's army, the strength that makes the universe tremble."
Thor might not have been the best with speeches, but it did not matter; the asgardians were a warrior race and all were eager to begin. As soon as Thor spoke, thousands of soldiers separated and spread across Europe with the objective of reminding the skrulls that Earth already had an owner.
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