The smoke gradually dispersed, revealing a silhouette.
Then, an overwhelming wave of cheers erupted—from the gods' side of the audience.
There was no need to clearly see the figure—the shape of the massive hammer it held made it obvious who was standing.
It was the strongest thunder berserker of Norse mythology—the god Thor.
"I told you, Lord Thor was bound to win!"
"No matter how strong a human is, they could never defeat Lord Thor!"
"They must have been reduced to ashes by that strike!"
The gods' spectators were once again gloating.
"The first battle of Ragnarök has finally been decided, hasn't it? The winner is—"
His voice abruptly cut off as Heimdall narrowed his eyes, carefully observing the still-dissipating smoke.
He saw another figure—also standing.
In other words, the human representative Xiang Yu was still alive.
To have survived—and even remained standing—after such a terrifying strike from Thor was beyond anything he had anticipated.
You must know, even the chief gods dare not take Thor's strike head-on.
Yet as a mere human, he survived? Possessing power comparable to a chief god?
Wait, perhaps it didn't hit him.
But even dodging it proves his incredible skill—to evade such a terrifying blow.
Very few gods could avoid such a fearsome attack.
"What—!"
"No way?"
The divine audience also noticed the other figure standing there.
Meanwhile, the human spectators, their hearts still clenched, finally allowed themselves a slight sigh of relief.
Then, the dust dissipated as quickly as bubbles, first revealing the figure of Thor.
Just as the gods were about to erupt into cheers, their expressions and raised hands froze in an instant.
They noticed the blood—blood flowing from Thor's body. A straight, deep wound stretched from near his left shoulder down to his right flank, the blood pouring uncontrollably. It was clear he was severely injured.
So, had Thor lost?
No, Lord Thor was still standing—that meant he hadn't lost. But he was at a disadvantage, heavily wounded by his opponent?
No, the opponent must have been injured too, perhaps even worse than Lord Thor.
The smoke continued to fade, clearing toward the human side, revealing scattered metal fragments on the ground.
So, the opponent's weapon had shattered, while Lord Thor's remained intact. That meant the opponent was doomed.
As the smoke cleared from the other side—
"Ha! Lord Thor has won!"
"The opponent lost!"
A few gods shouted excitedly.
Once the dust settled, they saw the opponent's body wreathed in smoke, as if charred by electricity. By all appearances, their injuries were even worse than Thor's.
"See? There's no way Lord Thor could be at a disadvantage. He must have—"
A god who had closed his eyes in excitement suddenly stopped mid-sentence as the surroundings fell eerily silent, replaced by sharp intakes of breath.
What was happening?
Opening his eyes, he looked over. At first glance, nothing seemed amiss—the human on the other side was completely blackened, as if electrocuted. It should have been obvious that—
Huh?!
His pupils contracted violently, fear gripping him.
The charred surface of the opponent's body was flaking away, revealing what lay beneath. For a normal human, this would have been a horrifying sight.
But if that were all, he wouldn't have been so terrified.
The reason for his fear was that what lay beneath the peeling skin wasn't normal muscle tissue.
Nor was it muscle tissue turned to charcoal—no, there was no muscle tissue at all. Instead, there was machinery.
It was like something out of a human sci-fi movie—a futuristic android, its synthetic skin stripped away to reveal the mechanical frame beneath.
But the machinery before them now felt far more savage, as if designed purely for war, resembling a demonic entity.
Upon closer inspection, its form was even larger than when it had been wrapped in human skin, as if some previously constrained mechanical components had unfurled.
No—not "as if." They had unfurled. The body had undergone some kind of transformation.
The most obvious change was that it now had four arms, though two of them were shattered—likely destroyed by Thor.
In one of its remaining hands, it gripped a sword emitting an eerie glow, the last drop of blood sliding from its tip.
Originally, more blood should have clung to the blade, but its surface was too smooth, causing the blood to drip away.
From this, it was clear—the wound on Thor's chest had been inflicted by this very sword.
"Sister Brunhilde... what... what is that?"
Göll let out a slightly trembling voice...
The current image of Xiang Yu, the Overlord representing humanity in battle, was so shockingly demonic in his mechanical form that it sent shivers down her spine.
"That's the Western Chu Overlord, Xiang Yu."
Though fully aware of the question being asked, Brunhilde deliberately spoke these words.
She too was particularly astonished—astonished that a mechanical body could inherently reach divine weapon-grade quality.
This was essentially a humanoid god-slaying divine weapon with human consciousness implanted within it.
This realization made Brunhilde feel even more terrified of this emperor. She couldn't begin to imagine what scenes would unfold when this monarch took the stage.
"What kind of heresy is that?"
"What monstrous abomination..."
Even the two ever-boastful ravens, upon witnessing that figure, felt an unnerving oppressive aura. Their voices lost their previous arrogance, now tinged with tremors.
Loki gave a strange laugh, but this time there wasn't the slightest trace of mockery or disdain—only solemn caution.
The Valkyries transformed themselves into divine weapons for others to wield, while their opponent had created weapons rivaling divine artifacts.
No—if they could rival divine weapons, then they were divine weapons.
To forge a divine weapon like this 4.8 model, then implant human consciousness into this humanoid divine weapon, bringing it to life...
Living divine weapons weren't entirely unheard of—Thor's Mjölnir, for instance. But what stood before them was completely different. This was a divine weapon possessing human intelligence.
The gods weren't unfamiliar with research into such inhumane divine weapons, but they'd never succeeded—or more accurately, they'd never managed to create weapons capable of rivaling gods of Thor's caliber.
With such weapons, forget human souls—even divine souls would be damaged and corrupted by the weapon itself.
So how had that human accomplished this?
And what kind of being had created such a monster?
If humanity truly possessed this technology, it spelled terrible news for the gods.
But that was absolutely impossible—how could humans have mastered such techniques?
Most likely some pantheon was assisting them...
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