"Kneel now, and I might grant you a less painful death."
Gilgamesh crossed his arms and tilted his head slightly, his tall figure framed by gleaming golden armor. His hair blazed upward like fire, and an overwhelming aura of pressure radiated from him.
Seeing this, Odin immediately stepped forward to mediate. "My son, all of this was my idea. It has nothing to do with the Sorcerer Supreme."
"Oh? Is that so?"
Gilgamesh's anger surged even hotter, golden flames roaring around him, though his expression became eerily calm. "Father, don't you know? In Asgard, the person I respect most… is you."
"This…"
The All-Father opened his mouth but found himself momentarily speechless. His eldest son had always been stubborn and headstrong, refusing to listen to anyone—but he usually obeyed Odin.
"I… I know that, of course."
Hearing this, Gilgamesh's disappointment only deepened. He had wondered how the Ancient One had managed to ambush him so suddenly—only to learn that his own father had helped an outsider harm him.
"Is there any justice in this world?"
Gilgamesh narrowed his eyes. Rage threatened to spill out, but he forced his voice to remain steady.
"If you step aside now, I can pretend nothing happened."
But Odin couldn't—and wouldn't—move.
"Calm yourself. Are you planning to kill me as well?"
Gilgamesh didn't answer. Instead, he cast a cold glance at the Ancient One. The next instant, he vanished—appearing behind her with explosive speed—and lashed out with a vicious kick.
"Boom—!"
A muffled sonic boom cracked in Odin's ears, the air pressure making him stagger. When he turned, the Ancient One's form shattered like glass, breaking into countless reflections.
Across the sea, a fiery spatial portal unfolded.
The Ancient One stepped out, hands clasped behind her back, her expression helpless.
"I truly didn't wish to fight you," she said.
"Then who trapped me in the Time Corridor for twenty-six years?"
Gilgamesh's fury twisted his features. He transformed into a streak of golden light and shot straight into the portal, with Odin following close behind.
As the portal closed, the Ancient One dropped to one knee and struck the sea with her palm. Instantly, a wave rose from the calm surface—at first only three or five meters high, but rapidly swelling. It grew and grew like rolling snow, until it towered hundreds of meters into the sky. A colossal tsunami, carrying hundreds of thousands of tons of force, surged forward and blotted out the heavens.
Before this apocalyptic sight, Gilgamesh remained utterly calm. He pressed his palms together and raised them above his head. The golden flames erupted outward—then suddenly transformed into chilling wisps of air, spiraling around him like a raging blizzard.
Snowflakes began to fall. The temperature plummeted. The frigid air condensed into a massive white tornado, stretching from earth to sky in mere seconds.
A titanic tsunami against a towering tornado of ice—just as the two forces were about to collide, a voice roared across the heavens:
"Frozen Hell—Aurora Execution!!"
Gilgamesh thrust his joined palms toward the monstrous wave.
A blinding blue-white beam exploded outward, shooting straight into the heart of the oncoming tsunami.
The moment the two forces collided, the hundred-meter-high tsunami froze at a speed visible to the naked eye, transforming almost instantly into a magnificent, boundless glacier that blotted out the sun.
Even the sea surface solidified into ice several meters thick.
With a single move, everything within sight was turned into a frigid world of ice and snow.
Odin stared wide-eyed in disbelief, utterly stunned that his son had become so powerful. For a split second, he thought he had been transported to Jotunheim.
The Ancient One was equally shaken. The Mirror Dimension was essentially her domain—she had assumed that with the advantage of terrain, she would at least gain a slight upper hand.
But who could have predicted that her opponent would simply freeze the space itself at absolute zero?
"Is Amara's consciousness really this strong?"
Just as this thought crossed her mind, the glacier before her suddenly detonated like a bomb, blasting open a gash over a hundred meters wide. Massive shards of ice crashed down on the frozen sea with crisp, porcelain-like clangs.
The Ancient One snapped back to her senses and looked toward the breach.
She saw Gilgamesh casually flexing his wrists as he walked toward her with heavy, unhurried steps.
His tiny figure seemed almost insignificant beneath the colossal glacier, towering hundreds of meters high and nearly a thousand meters thick.
But after witnessing his power firsthand, all she could do was let out a helpless, bitter smile. Destruction on this scale would make ordinary magic completely useless.
She hadn't expected that the battle would barely begin before she was forced to use the Time Stone.
"Odin… Odin… you've really caused me trouble this time."
Forming hand seals, she triggered the mechanism on her chest. The disc-shaped pendant unlatched, revealing a glowing green gem at its center.
A second later, a green shockwave surged outward in all directions, freezing time itself wherever it passed.
Even Gilgamesh faltered mid-step, frozen in place as though turned into a statue.
At this moment, the only thing he could move was his mind.
Damn it. Does she really think the Time Stone makes her invincible?
Gilgamesh roared inwardly as his inner cosmos churned with violent intensity, bursting forth in a dazzling golden radiance.
His previously motionless body twitched—barely, but unmistakably.
The Ancient One instantly sensed something was wrong.
His cosmos could actually shake the power of the Time Stone?
"This is bad…"
She had already poured ninety percent of her magical power into controlling the Time Stone. The remaining ten percent was needed just to keep herself from being devoured by the Dark Dimension's corruption.
Dormammu's power was not something one could borrow lightly—it constantly gnawed at the mind. If she faltered for even a moment, she would become nothing more than Dormammu's puppet.
But without increasing her output, it was only a matter of time before Gilgamesh broke free.
"Odin, it's your turn. How much longer do you plan to watch?"
For the first time, the Sorcerer Supreme felt a flicker of anxiety.
It wasn't death she feared—what terrified her was that she had not yet secured a successor. If she fell here, Earth would be swallowed whole by outer-dimensional devils.
Everything she had protected and endured for years would become meaningless.
Responding to her call, Odin the All-Father finally appeared.
He stood atop the towering glacier, the Spear of Eternity in hand, its tip aimed directly at Gilgamesh below. The spear trembled, releasing a radiant beam of light that shot downward, striking Gilgamesh squarely in the back.
The moment the attack connected, Gilgamesh felt his cosmos suppressed, its activity visibly weakened.
He could only let out a pained sigh in his heart.
Father… why must you force my hand?
The next moment, a golden light as brilliant as the sun erupted—
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