In Nornheim, a territory of Asgard, within a bottomless cave known to the locals as the Shadow Land.
The faint roar of some monster echoed, its voice deep and irritable, filled with hatred, but the monster was firmly sealed at the bottom of the cave by a magic seal at the entrance, unable to break through.
This cave was named Odin's Hole. Once, a peculiar race attacked the Asgardians and successfully caused considerable losses to Asgard.
Odin, who eventually led his soldiers to defeat them, sealed the entire race in a sunless, foodless abyss deep underground, intending for this race to die in prolonged despair.
But in the face of desperation, the situation of this race underwent some unknown, miraculous changes.
They transformed into 'him'; the power of billions converged, and he survived.
The hatred, brewing for thousands of years, churned like the fires of hell, waiting only for the day it would be unleashed to devour all of Asgard!
…
Whoosh, above Asgard.
Massive warships traversed from space, a dense swarm of crimson vessels covering the sky like locusts.
"Invasion, someone is invading us!"
"It's Muspelheim's warship design.
Oh my God, I haven't seen it in over two thousand years."
The Asgardians looked up at the sky in terror.
As Asgard's gatekeeper, Heimdall, who guarded the Bifrost Bridge, had a serious expression and issued a warning to the entire realm.
"Finally here?"
Ron, holding the Mind Stone, slowly walked out of the Heavenly Palace with Audreyf.
A wounded Thor followed behind; one of his arms, severely injured by Hela, had not yet healed.
"It's Surtur, it must be him."
He looked at the distant fleet with a solemn expression.
One of the prophecies regarding Ragnarok was that Surtur would plunge his Twilight Sword into the core of Asgard, consigning Asgard to the flames.
"The people of Muspelheim, the Fire Dragons, Fire Demons, and Demon Servants have probably come out in full force."
Sif and Hogan arrived with the Asgardian army, facing a formidable enemy.
Ron calmly surveyed the ships on the horizon.
Other countries in the Nine Realms, much like Asgard, possessed extremely advanced technology, yet everything felt so ancient.
The space-faring vessels hovering in the sky still resembled ordinary ships.
"Asgardians.
I have come to reclaim what is mine, return my Eternal Flame to me!"
From the central flagship, a figure leaped down, his size rapidly increasing as he descended.
Finally, boom!
The ground trembled.
A gigantic figure, three to four hundred meters tall, landed heavily on the ground. Surtur, wielding the Twilight Sword, radiated terrifying heat. The trees, dozens of meters tall at his feet, withered into ash like blades of grass, and the ground turned into lava.
His colossal roar echoed throughout all of Asgard.
"Kill!"
With a gesture of the Twilight Sword, countless Fire Demons piloted their warships and roared away.
"Fleet, attack!"
Sif and Hogan shouted commands, and Asgardian spacecraft rose, firing their cannons to resist the invasion.
Thump, thump, thump!
The ground shook.
Surtur moved his massive body, bringing with him terrifying heat waves and killing intent, quickly charging forward.
He gazed at the magnificent Heavenly Palace, his eyes surging with monstrous resentment. He intended to cleave this golden palace in two and reclaim his Eternal Flame from within.
The towering, majestic golden palace, which demanded reverence, was not even a head shorter than Surtur.
His terrifying figure blocked the sunlight, casting a vast, dreadful shadow.
Over a distance of several miles, Surtur displayed a speed utterly disproportionate to his size, traversing it in an instant, and raising the Twilight Sword, which had also grown with his body.
"Die, you thieves."
Under the mountain-splitting, sea-cleaving force, the two-to-three-hundred-meter giant sword stirred up a gale, generating intense flames from friction with the air, and swung down ferociously.
Looking up at the terrifying figure, Sif and the others gasped, their eyes filled with horror.
"Stormbreaker."
Thor's face was grim. He summoned Stormbreaker, gripping the axe with his still-intact hand, and swallowed hard. He had no confidence whatsoever in his ability to block such a powerful and terrifying axe blow.
"Ron."
Audreyf's eyes looked towards him with worry.
"Don't be afraid."
Ron chuckled, and a vast expanse of fear-light projected behind him, forming a colossal figure. It extended a giant sword, blocking Surtur's attack.
Clang!
A deafening clang of metal against metal resounded.
"Hmm?"
Surtur's eyes widened as he saw another version of himself, a body composed of yellow crystal, identical to him, wielding the same Twilight Sword.
Green Lanterns often manifest technological objects with their Green Lantern Ring, while Yellow Lanterns frequently manifest various terrifying monsters and things from myths and reality.
The Yellow Crystal Giant swung its hand back, and Surtur was knocked backward, leaving deep footprints in the ground as he stumbled. He looked on in astonishment.
"What kind of magic is this?
Why is there another me?!"
The wide plaza in front of the Heavenly Palace cracked underfoot.
Before he could steady himself, a giant sword swung, and a World-shattering force directly sent him flying, even with his sword held up to block.
"I'll handle him; you deal with the others."
Without answering his question, Ron turned to look at Audreyf and the others, then his body ascended into the sky, entering the brow of the Yellow Crystal-like Surtur, controlling the entire body.
Sif and Hogan, with a sense of relief at having narrowly escaped disaster, went to command the army in battle.
Thor breathed a huge sigh of relief, secretly looking at his second sister. He had clearly seen the ambiguous, almost lover-like expressions they exchanged just now.
He felt even more that letting his second sister take the throne was the correct decision.
"With such powerful external aid, Asgard will undoubtedly be safer."
The others engaged in battle with the Fire Demons who had leaped from the ships.
Although the Fire Demons were numerous, their individual strength was far inferior to that of Asgardian soldiers, and they lacked any Military discipline whatsoever, acting like a chaotic horde of howling Beasts.
Audreyf and Thor led the army in battle, easily fending off their attacks and even gaining a slight advantage.
However, they knew that the true outcome of this battle would be decided by the fight between Ron and Surtur.
If Surtur won, all of them combined might not be able to withstand a single sword stroke from that Fire Giant.
Surtur flew backward several miles, crashing heavily into a mountain. He turned to look, and a giant sword attacked him.
His pupils constricted. He knelt on one knee, barely blocking the blow, feeling utterly humiliated, and roared in anger.
"Damn you, you despicable impostor, using my own appearance to attack me."
"Who are you? I've never heard of someone like you in Asgard!"
Surtur struggled to his feet, swinging his sword in attack. Two mountain-sized giants battled on the grassy plain near the Heavenly Palace.
Ron was at ease, almost playfully parrying Surtur's fierce attacks with his sword, and a casual counter-swing would force Surtur into perilous retreats.
They looked like a novice who had just held a sword for a few days foolishly challenging a sword Master.
"Ron, are you that Ron from Midgard?"
Retreating backward, narrowly dodging a sword strike that almost cleaved his neck, Surtur recalled Audreyf's address to Ron and said with a trembling voice.
He had not yet heard of Ron defeating Hela, but the news of Odin's recent setback in Midgard, where someone had briefly contended with him without falling behind, forcing the All-Father to concede, had spread throughout the Nine Realms.
"Your swordsmanship is unrefined in the forehand and weak in the backhand.
In a life even longer than Odin's, have you always relied on sheer size to overwhelm others?"
Ron raised an eyebrow. The battle techniques of the renowned Fire Giant before him were not much better than those of an ordinary Asgardian soldier.
When faced with someone of similar power and size, he was helpless.
"If you have the guts to return the Eternal Flame to me, I will show you what terror truly is."
Another sharp sword thrust came, injuring Surtur's arm and spilling a large amount of magma-like blood. He growled, unwilling and humiliated.
He could flatten mountains and cleave seas with a single sword. What need did he have for swordsmanship?
"Do you think I'm a fool?"
Giants generally aren't very smart. Hearing this crude taunt, he chuckled, "And do you think you'd be my opponent even if you reclaimed the Eternal Flame?"
Ron's eyes narrowed, and he unleashed a vast, surging power of fear, his body rapidly growing taller.
After briefly familiarizing himself with the power of fear, which was not much different from manipulating willpower, he no longer held back.
"You can still grow taller? That's impossible!"
Surtur was enveloped by the continuously growing and expanding shadow, and fear showed in his fiery red eyes, as he exclaimed in alarm.
When their sizes and powers were similar, he couldn't withstand Ron's attacks. If Ron could also manipulate energy to enlarge his form, wouldn't Surtur be doomed?
Looking at that majestic yellow figure, the fear in his heart was continuously triggered, almost engulfing him. His fighting spirit plummeted, and the hand gripping his battle sword gradually weakened.
A colossal body two kilometers tall stood like a peak on the Earth. Ron, having discarded Surtur's appearance and returned to his original form, looked down impassively like a giant God at Surtur beneath his feet.
At this moment, Surtur, who had almost cleaved the Heavenly Palace in half with a single sword, looked to be not even as tall as Ron's shin, less than a chicken.
He reached down from the clouds with an arm thicker than a mountain range, seizing Surtur, who was trying to escape.
"No, I am the end of Asgard!
I am Ragnarok; this should not be the outcome."
Held by a hand containing infinite power, Surtur, like a chick, roared, as if foreseeing something, and desperately swung the Twilight Sword, hacking at Ron's arm.
But it was like tickling Ron, causing no damage whatsoever.
"Oh my God! A body even larger than the Fire Giant.
How did he do it?!"
"Is he going to save us again?"
"His power is even greater than the All-Father's!" The people of Asgard, watching this spectacle that captivated everyone's attention, exclaimed in horror.
"Perhaps you could have done it in my absence.
But with me here, you are destined to accomplish nothing."
Looking at the struggling Surtur, Ron's eyes were cold, and he squeezed his hand.
Surtur let out an Earth-shattering scream. His massive body was crushed into a lump of mud, falling heavily onto the plain. His corpse, like a mountain falling from the sky, caused all of Asgard to tremble.
"I feel like Ron's current power could destroy all of Asgard in one blow. Is that an illusion?"
Standing on the shaking ground, looking at the figure that touched both sky and Earth, a tremor rose in Thor's heart.
Watching Ron effortlessly kill Surtur, a renowned figure in the Nine Realms, Audreyf's beautiful face showed shock, and she softly murmured, "You seem to have become even stronger again."
Ron had become even more powerful than when he last unleashed a divine power similar to Odin's, even far exceeding that power.
Just looking at that figure, taller than a mountain, from afar, everyone's heart was filled with immense fear, unable to even conceive of resistance.
Looking down at the giant bone horn in his palm, Ron gradually squeezed it together.
This was Surtur's crown. The Fire Giant possessed an immortal trait; as long as the crown remained, he would not truly die. Even Odin had been unable to destroy the crown and kill him.
But this point was useless against Ron.
Crack, crack!
Under a force capable of leveling a thousand-meter mountain, the bone crown emitted sounds of unbearable strain, and cracks appeared on its surface.
The next second, it was crushed into dust, falling like sand.
Surtur, the Master of Muspelheim, one of the Nine Realms, was thus crushed and killed, with no possibility of resurrection!
His fate was supposed to be mutual destruction with Asgard, dying in the aftermath of Asgard's destructive explosion, but now he died at Ron's hands.
Ability Points: 1.6 million
Ron glanced at the panel, seeing the increase in ability points, and felt a certain anticipation for what kind of tricks 'fate' would pull next.
He turned and looked, his gaze sweeping over the vast army of Fire Demons, who were like ants. Fear, like a tide, engulfed them, causing them to lose control of their bodies.
"The taste of fear…"
Ron murmured softly. He did not absorb the life essence and fear of the Fire Demon army like Parallax; that was merely a temporary increase in power.
"Ah…"
Amidst cries of terror, a yellow light rose from every Fire Demon, Fire Dragon, and Fire Demon Servant, turning into amber and sealing them in their fear.
"These will be the best cannon fodder for Asgard's future conquest of the Universe."
…
In Nornheim, the bottomless cave, either due to the aftershocks of Ron and Surtur's battle or some subtly influencing force, a slight crack opened.
The magic seal loosened with it.
From the bottomless darkness came a violent roar. It saw hope of escape and began to impact the seal with the terrifying power condensed from its entire race!
…
On Earth.
"Gentlemen, why insist on such dangerous work? Can't finding a simple, honest job to earn money satisfy you?
Like a pizza delivery person, or a restaurant waiter?"
On a New York street, the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man squatted on a street lamp, helplessly looking at a group of bank robbers he had just subdued with his webs. He was about to leave.
"What is that…"
Under his Spider-Sense, he looked up and saw a fiery meteor descending from the sky.
Bang!
Debris flew as a divine hammer fell from the sky, crashing heavily onto the street. Vehicles on both sides were blown away like straw, colliding with tall apartment buildings.
Citizens screamed in terror and retreated, but some, bolder, ventured forward, wanting to see what was in the flaming crater.
"Stand back, citizens.
Things from space usually carry alien bacteria."
Peter Parker, swinging on a web sticky to a building's glass, shouted as he rapidly approached.
"If you don't want to get a strange disease named 'Alien Hammer,' your friendly neighbor advises you to stay away from it."
While warning them, he curiously looked at the hammer in the center of the dozen-meter-wide crater, wondering what it was.
However, as soon as Peter Parker had the thought of approaching, his Spider-Sense went wild, making his head hum.
"Looks like that's definitely not an alien Christmas gift for Earth!"
Clutching his head, Spider-Man decided to stay put, not letting anyone touch the hammer, and to warn specialized agencies, like a S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent, about the danger of this object when they arrived.
Clang!
But suddenly, next to the crater, a sewer manhole cover was pushed open, and a two-to-three-meter tall lizard-like monster crawled out. It seemed to hear some sound summoning it, looked at the hammer, and eagerly reached out to grab it.
"Danger!"
Spider-Man tried to stop it but was too late. Dr. Lizard gripped the hammer, and the next moment, armor enveloped him, radiating divine power.
He turned his vicious gaze towards Peter Parker, who shivered, "It's over, the disaster movie is about to begin."
At the same time, similar scenes occurred in Hell's Kitchen, Avengers Headquarters, a U.S. Military Base, Wakanda… and various other locations.
Seven divine hammers were choosing the Worthy for the Serpent to destroy the World for him.
"When all eight Worthy emerge, and obey my will to make the entire Planet tremble in fear, that will be the time for my counterattack on Asgard…"
Above the ocean, the God of Fear, the Serpent, sneered, radiating overwhelming divine power.