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"There is no life in the Void. Only death."
- Mairon/Sauron (The Lord of the Rings)
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<(Atem POV)>
"A pair of glowing red hunting daggers? Well, I guess just like me, you didn't take after our father's choice of weaponry after all. He always prefers lame, brutish weapons, spears and hammers like a savage." Hela smirked as countless black necro-blades began to manifest themselves around her by rising from the ground. "But blades, they are so much more elegant and deadly, aren't they? Made to cleave, kill, and cut, they are the most efficient tools in the world." She praised while spinning the swords in her hands.
Maybe she was talking with me because she wanted to get to know me, since I was her brother, or maybe the Goddess of Death just preferred to talk while fighting. However, her words didn't put me at ease. Instead, they only served to confuse me. 'What is she even trying to do here? Does she know about Unlimited Blade Works or something?' I mentally wondered as I surveyed the countless black blades around me, each heavily imbued with potent death energy that could sap the life out of even gods. 'At least, she doesn't have access to Odinforce here. Perhaps it's because we are in a different realm here, or maybe Odin is constantly making sure that his murderous daughter can't draw too much power from it.' I concluded.
Despite how it might seem to an outside view, with each of our attacks neutralizing each other and proving equal in strength, the truth of the matter was that I wasn't exactly giving it my all. None of my attacks were at full power. Even Ryujin Jakka's fire ability, which I had previously used, could have been much more devastating if I had wanted it to be. But I was consciously holding back because, unlike the time I had fought with Odin, this was a chance for me to improve myself by sharpening my skills against Hela since my fight against her posed no mortal danger or risk for me. She was strong, but without the Odinforce, she still wasn't at Odin's level. That said, I could see why it was expected that she would continue increasing in power after Odin's death until she would eventually one day become undefeatable.
*Swish* *Swish* Two sharp necro blades flew towards my chest without any warning, but as soon as they were inches away from reaching their target, I invoked my Rinnegan's repulsion ability to deflect them with ease. Then without any more delay, I used my newly acquired ice manipulation ability to lower the temperature around me and freeze the surroundings in a thin layer of frost before sending sharp spears of hard ice toward Hela to see how useful the ice ability of the Jotuns is against a strong enemy and as expected, the Goddess of Death was able to block my attack effortlessly by using her twin necro swords.
"Hey, didn't you say you wanted to settle this with a simple one-on-one sword fight? So, why use these little tricks? It isn't like they are going to help you win." I teased, trying to rile her up while directing my own divine energy into the Blades of Chaos, causing the weapon to glow slightly brighter. 'Wait, what if I use Ryujin Jakka's flames to empower the blades on top of this? Since the weapon supports the attribute of fire, shouldn't the two complement each other?' I suddenly thought to myself before generating the spiritual flames of Ryujin Jakka all around my arms and then forcing the flames to flow through the daggers in an attempt to empower them, which made the twin weapons glow bright orange-red as if they were made of nothing but boiling lava.
*Hisss* The weapons began to make a sizzling sound as soon as they came in contact with the air, This was mainly because of how quickly the temperature of the daggers was increasing which meant even the water vapor in the air around the weapons was getting dried up by the immense heat of the blades. 'This is good, even better than I expected.' I thought before leaping towards Hela with the now heated-up Blades of Chaos.
'Chaos Slam,' I used the chains to slam the daggers in her direction, the two blades just barely being blocked by her necro swords, even though she was knocked a couple of tens of meters away because of the force of the attack. Although she was mostly unharmed with only a few scalds on her hands, the two black swords in her hands, however, looked like they had burnt chips all over their blades, making them unusable in the next attack.
"You know, at first I doubted if you were really Odin's biological daughter or not. But now that I see how alike you two are to each other, you being his spawn isn't even a question in my mind anymore. Both of you are so self-righteous, aren't you? It's like you two love to hear your own voices so much that you just don't listen to other people anymore." I snapped at her while channeling even more of my power and flames into the blades, so much so that the invisible heat emanating from the weapon and myself didn't just raise the temperature of the air around us but even the Earth we were standing on. Solid rocks under my feet began to melt into puddles, and all the moisture in the air dried up as the surroundings began to visibly distort because of the unbelievable number of invisible heat waves interfering with the visible spectrum of light.
"I am not your enemy, Hela. If I were, I would have already ended you. Without access to the Odinforce, you are nothing but a mere toy in the face of my true power. Our father, however, is my enemy... just like he is yours. Do you think he has wronged you by raising you as a weapon? Well, then you would be surprised by what he did to me. He didn't just abandon me when I wasn't even born, but also tried his best to eliminate me multiple times to make sure that I didn't pose a threat to his grand plans.
Even my trying to ask him for your address resulted in us having an all-out battle where he tried to seal me away in Heven for eternity. So yeah, we both have daddy issues, little sis, but mine is probably bigger than yours." I snorted as I continued advancing toward Hela, each of my steps changing the landscape itself due to the immense heat emanating from me.
Of course, by saying all these words, I didn't expect to see Hela getting emotional and begging forgiveness from me or something, but she did look like she was slightly taken aback by my story. She seemed a bit more amiable than before, ready to at least hear me out rather than just charge at me blindly like she was doing earlier. "Who... who is your mother?" She asked calmly, her eyes staring straight into mine as if she could see my soul.
"A human named Firehair, although a lot of people called her Lady Phoenix. She was a Phoenix Force avatar. Dear little... "Dad" had a fling with her during his adventurous days, way before he was married. After he inherited the throne, he didn't just abandon her but also tried to have me killed when I was still inside an egg because he believed that I was an abomination who shouldn't exist." I answered truthfully.
Hela continued to stare at me for a few more seconds before finally nodding in my direction. "I see, that explains why I don't know you or have never heard of you. Even your soul feels unfamiliar to me, like it's much more complex than that of an Asgardian. I guess you did have it as bad as me... although don't expect me to be a pushover because of that. I might not want to kill you as much as I want to kill Father and my other siblings, who were always given everything they ever wanted in their lives, but that doesn't mean I will let you go if you ever come in my way." Hela withdrew her blades before smoothening her... costume and magically repairing its burnt-off portions with a stroke of her hand.
Feeling her killing intent disappearing, I too stopped actively supplying heat to my Chaos Blades before safely storing them inside my inventory again. "So, this means we can finally have a decent conversation like a gentleman and a lady without you trying to pierce my heart with your blades?" I asked while ignoring the annoyed and angry look she was giving me after noticing that some of her hair had burnt off due to the immense heat that had been released due to my presence.
"A conversation? *Heh* Fine, I don't see why not. After all, we both have too much time on our hands." She muttered as a table and a pair of chairs appeared out of thin air in the area between us. "Oh, and I also didn't draw power from this realm during our battle. If I had, there was a good chance I would have won, or at least this would have been a much more... deadly fight. However, fortunately for you, using souls as a power source is something I abhor, just like I hate using the power of my realm while putting everyone inside in danger to win a mere battle."
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