A blinding light, as brilliant and hot as a newborn star, erupted from Proxima Midnight's spear.
"For the great cause of Thanos!" she screamed, hurling the weapon with all her might.
Three terrifying lances of golden light shot forth from the spear, tearing through the howling blizzard. Like the dawn breaking through an eternal night, the divine weapon streaked toward Looma, carrying with it an absolute, world-ending power.
Looma roared, a beast of pure defiance. She charged forward, swinging her massive warhammer to meet the attack head-on.
BOOM!
The moment her hammer struck the tripartite beam, a colossal impact force exploded outward. Where the raw crimson energy of the Old Power met the pure gold of the spear, a terrifying force field materialized, the shockwave expanding in all directions and vaporizing the very air.
Looma felt as if she had struck a truly immovable object. The three lances of divine light were as heavy as the Earth itself. The force of the impact sent them careening away like golden meteors, but her arms screamed in protest, the bones groaning under the strain.
Proxima Midnight and Corvus Glaive were stunned.
"That is the first time I have seen any being catch the divine spear head-on," Corvus rasped, a new level of respect in his voice.
Proxima, however, only smiled coldly. "She cannot escape her fate."
She raised her arms, and the three golden beams that had been knocked away swirled in the storm before banking sharply, striking at Looma again from impossible, tricky angles.
"Annoying flies!" Looma bellowed, swinging her hammer again and again, batting them away. But they were tireless, relentless, always returning.
"It's useless," Proxima called out, her voice laced with pride. "The brilliance of the divine spear will not cease until it has claimed your life." This weapon, a personal gift from Thanos, was no simple spear. It was a sentence of death. Once thrown, it would hunt its target to the ends of the universe. Proxima did not believe for a second that this lone Tetramand could withstand its power.
With a roar of fury, Looma swung her hammer in a massive downward arc, smashing all three beams of light directly into the ground.
The land of Jotunheim itself tore apart. The golden light ripped through the thousand-year-old ice like an icebreaker before shooting back into the sky. High above, the three lances of light converged, intertwining into a single, massive blade of divine punishment—a Sword of Damocles poised to deliver its final judgment. It fell with the force of an asteroid.
Looma raised her head, the column of light wider than her entire body. Her small, red figure seemed destined to be swallowed whole.
"Pathetic life," Proxima whispered from her vantage point on a distant hill. "Death is your fate, and the mercy of Lord Thanos."
"It seems we were not both needed after all," Corvus said cruelly. "Lord Thanos placed far too much trust in that fool Loki. Ah, well. Perhaps we can amuse ourselves by sacrificing the rest of the giants on this miserable planet."
Neither of them believed anyone could survive such an attack.
But Looma did.
"You think this is enough to kill me?!"
From the core of the golden storm, she roared. She gripped her warhammer with all four hands, and with a final, desperate surge, she channeled every last ounce of her strength. The Old Power erupted from her body in a torrent of red lightning.
BOOM!
It was as if two asteroids had collided. The lightning, crackling with a furious crimson energy, met the golden light of the spear. The resulting shockwave was apocalyptic, spreading for dozens of kilometers in an instant. The entire ice field shattered, the world collapsing in on itself. The Frost Giants who had gathered to watch were vaporized. The eternal power, unleashed and uncontrolled, turned everything in its path to dust.
"This is impossible!" Corvus and Proxima stared in disbelief. They had poured all their combined strength into that final blow, an attack powerful enough to wound Thanos himself. But the reality before them was undeniable. Worse, the tide of red lightning was already washing over them. They were caught in the doomsday storm.
A long time passed.
When the energy finally subsided, the world had returned to a deathly peace. The landscape was a ruin. For kilometers in every direction, the permafrost, the mountains… everything was gone. The ground was no longer solid ice but a fine, white powder, a frozen desert that had swallowed the bodies of the dead.
A lonely wind howled.
And in the center of it all, Looma was still standing.
The black and gold armor she wore was shattered. The heavy warhammer in her hands had been turned to dust, leaving only a fractured handle. She gasped for air, her consciousness threatening to flicker out. In her prime, she would have crushed these two without breaking a sweat. But they had ambushed her after she had already exhausted herself fighting an army of giants.
"I still don't know who they are," she panted, "but finally…"
She didn't have time to finish the thought.
Three golden rays of light erupted from beneath the sea of sand, piercing three of her arms like cruel, burning nails. Blood gushed from the wounds. From beneath the sand, like dormant scorpions, Proxima Midnight and Corvus Glaive emerged.
Proxima was battered and bruised. Corvus's body looked broken, savaged by the Old Power. But it didn't matter.
They were the victors.
The divine spear pinned Looma to the floor of the crater she had created, an imprisoned red god. She could no longer move.
"Cough, cough…" Proxima looked at Looma with cruel pleasure in her eyes. She turned to her husband. "Kill her."
Corvus needed no encouragement. He walked toward Looma, his glaive held ready.
"What… is your purpose…" Looma managed, her vision blurring.
It seemed that in victory, the duo felt a sliver of kindness. "Your Plumbers have hindered the great Thanos from completing his grand design," Proxima said. "It is not just you. The one named Ben Parker must also die."
Hearing his name, Looma's eyes narrowed, a spark of clarity cutting through her daze.
"Your target is Ben?!" The flame of anger burned away her fatigue. But she had no strength left to fight.
Proxima glanced at her with arrogance. "Our target is the universe. We will extinguish half of all life. For balance. For death." She spoke with the chilling conviction of a true believer.
But Looma didn't care about the universe. She cared about Ben.
She gritted her teeth, roaring each word with the last of her will. "You will not even think… of hurting… my… Ben!"
"What a touching sentiment," Corvus laughed, a dry, hoarse sound. "I just wonder… between the destruction of your little hero and your death, which will he choose?"
Their purpose was clear now. The attack was bait, meant to draw Ben away from Earth. Looma's life was irrelevant. But Ben hadn't appeared. Their plan had failed. They might as well finish the job and return to Earth.
"So that was your goal?" Looma sneered, her confidence in Ben unshakable. "Then you are already dead." She mustered a defiant grin. "It is a bit embarrassing, needing my fiancé to rescue me… but he is stronger than any of you could possibly imagine!" She spat a mouthful of blood onto the ice. "He will tear off your heads, and the head of your pathetic Thanos, and string them together as a necklace for me!"
Proxima's face contorted in rage. "How dare you insult Lord Thanos!" she shrieked, raising her hand to slap the helpless warrior.
WHACK!
A crisp, sharp sound echoed across the frozen wastes. But it was Proxima who was sent flying, tumbling head over heels into the wilderness.
A rough, powerful voice boomed across the dead planet.
"You dare to touch my Queen Red Wind?"
Corvus Glaive, who had been standing right beside Proxima, suddenly broke out in a cold sweat. A tall, dark shadow had fallen over him from behind, and he hadn't sensed a thing.
Only Looma, pinned and bleeding, looked up at the towering shadow, and her four eyes filled with love.
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