Hawaiian Islands
The blue sky had turned cyan.
Original Sin, now wielding the power of Skadi, had become the Goddess of Winter!
She stood atop a frozen tsunami, looking down at the mortals below—screaming and running in terror along the beach.
On the coastline, a sharp line of lightning spread rapidly!
Wherever it passed, frost consumed the ground, and the humans overtaken by it were frozen in an instant—turned into ice sculptures.
In that moment, a wave of overwhelming fear surged from every human heart and was swallowed by the void.
Original Sin laughed maniacally.
"Yes!"
"That's it!!"
"Lambs—cry, wail, and tremble in fear!"
"The Father of Gods is always watching you!"
Her voice carried an eerie magic, intensifying the panic already gripping everyone's hearts.
A blonde woman, trembling, ran across the sand. Her foot suddenly landed on a plastic drink bottle, causing her to trip. She fell hard, her ankle swelling red within seconds.
Desperation appeared in her eyes.
It was over.
There was no way to escape now.
The line of death—frost and lightning—was only dozens of meters away. Despair and terror crushed her soul like a tidal wave, choking the breath from her lungs.
But at that critical moment, her desire to live sparked a memory—the emergency alert she had once received on her phone.
At the time, she had dismissed it as a prank or part of some television program. But now... it became her final hope.
To her own surprise, she could recall the exact words—word for word.
With a trembling voice and eyes full of desperate faith, she began to chant the words, as if praying.
As she uttered the final syllable—
A dazzling, burning light erupted in the sky.
It wasn't the sun.
It was something far more intense.
The next second, all the gathered light condensed into a blazing meteor that shot down from the heavens. With a thunderous boom, it struck the earth and took the form of a man.
The woman stared in awe, her tear-filled eyes seeing only the figure before her.
"Flame."
The scorching voice echoed in everyone's ears.
In an instant, the crushing fear that had devoured their minds vanished.
The screams and chaos stopped.
The crowd froze—not from the cold—but as if sensing something divine had arrived. Slowly, they all turned to look back.
And there—at the very front of the fast-approaching frost—
Stood a man, his body blazing with fire.
He stood protectively in front of the fallen woman, raised his hand calmly...
And pressed it down against the incoming death line—mere meters away.
In an instant, the line of frost that had frozen everything came to a halt—then flared red, igniting into fierce flames!
The flames surged backward, reversing the freezing cold and sweeping wildly toward the sea!
Wherever the fire passed, the frost-covered beach turned into dark red, viscous magma, and the frozen ocean surface rapidly melted, sending up clouds of scalding steam.
It was a miracle—one that shook the soul.
Standing atop a cliff of ice, Sin's expression shifted. She could feel the very air burning her lungs. Every breath brought pain.
And this was after she had activated the full power of Skadi.
"What a monster…"
She had anticipated this might happen. After all, this was the man who had defeated the Soul Eater in under a minute.
But she hadn't expected such terrifying firepower to reveal itself in a single confrontation!
Luckily, she didn't need to fight him head-on.
She was only here for one purpose: to buy time.
The Father of Gods had granted her more power—for this moment, that would be enough.
Suddenly, a pair of flame-filled eyes appeared through the mist—less than ten centimeters from her face. They glared at her like a devil peering straight out of hell. Sin recoiled instinctively in shock!
At the same time, she suddenly felt the ice beneath her feet vanish.
"So fast?!"
Fear stirred in her heart.
She quickly summoned her war hammer, floating it into the air, then inhaled deeply—before exhaling forward with all her might!
The surrounding mist condensed into sharp ice crystals. A blast of frigid power burst forth, engulfing the man in front of her. In the blink of an eye, he was sealed in deep blue ice.
Sin grinned.
"Arrogant fool. You dare get that close to me?"
"You think I'm as brainless as the Soul Eater?"
Her lips curled into a wicked smile.
"Die."
"And the Father of Gods will reward me."
She raised her war hammer, ready to shatter the ice and crush the enemy frozen inside.
But just as she was about to swing, she saw something that made her blood run cold.
The man sealed in the ice… moved.
He tilted his head slightly—calmly—his brows relaxed. The flames in his pupils dimmed, yet the look he gave her radiated overwhelming dominance.
It was the gaze of a god looking down on an ant.
Unfiltered, condescending contempt.
Sin's heart shuddered.
That gaze… it felt like the stare of the Father of Gods himself.
Terror returned to her like a wave.
"Tricks! You're bluffing!"
"Go to hell!"
She roared, forcing herself to attack—and swung the hammer with all her strength.
But in the very next moment, her body stopped mid-swing—frozen in midair like a puppet.
It wasn't hesitation.
She physically couldn't move.
Her pupils trembled.
Runes on her hammer glowed faintly, and the freezing power within it began to flow backward—spreading across her own body.
It was freezing its wielder.
Meanwhile, the man she'd encased in ice stepped forward—completely untouched, not a trace of frost on him.
"H-How… how is this possible?!"
Sin's voice was shrill—only her head remained unfrozen.
She could've accepted it if he'd used fire to melt the ice, or shattered it with some other force.
But he had simply walked out of it, as if her divine powers didn't matter.
That shattered everything she believed.
The man—Russell—looked at her with growing disdain.
"You still haven't realized it," he said coldly. "Or maybe you're too small to even understand."
"Heh… You're not even a frog in a well."
"No wonder the Serpent abandoned you."
He glanced briefly at Sin—the daughter of Red Skull—then casually touched the war hammer with one finger.
The runes glowed even brighter.
Sin's pupils shrank. Her heartbeat exploded in her ears.
"No… how do you have control over this mist?! That hammer—it belongs to the Father of Gods!"
Russell smirked, then exhaled a wisp of blue mist from his lips.
"The Father of Gods' weapon? That's the funniest joke I've heard all week."
"Don't you get it? The true owner of this hammer is the God of Winter."
"It sensed its rightful master."
"And you thought you could use Skadi's Hammer against me?"
"How stupid."
Sin's crimson skin turned a pale gray. Her voice trembled.
"Y-You… You're the God of Winter!"
At that moment, her soul plunged into an abyss of ice.
Endless cold.
Endless fear.
Russell took one last look at her.
"At least you got something right," he said calmly. "So I'll reward you… with death."
With those words, blue energy erupted in all directions.
Frost crept across Sin's face. Tiny cracks formed in her skin and spread across her flesh.
With her final breath, she croaked:
"M-My mission… is complete. The other five hammers… have already fallen to Earth."
"You… You can't stop them all…"
"The Father of Gods… will avenge me…"
Russell didn't even glance back.
He chuckled coldly and turned away.
"A frog in a well can never comprehend the sky."
Then he raised both hands, forming a seal—and with a shout, flung his arms wide.
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