The impact of the fireball’s explosion knocked the Void Rangers back a few steps, but that was all; those pitch-black figures quickly lunged forward once more.
The Dwarf Warriors desperately formed a circular formation, building an iron wall with their rune shields to block dozens of Void Rangers outside.
The runic glow on the shields joined together into a golden barrier, emitting a sizzling sound whenever the Void Rangers slammed into it.
Yet inside the formation, fewer than fifty Dwarf Warriors remained.
Every single one of them was covered in wounds, and under continuous depletion, the runes on their shields began to extinguish one by one.
The defensive line of the circular formation was shrinking at a visible rate.
The spear-wielding warrior of Wakanda had already fought to his absolute limit.
His Vibranium spear was covered in dark dust left behind after annihilation, and his breathing was as heavy as a broken bellows, every gasp carrying the scent of bloody froth.
He looked around and realized that the Nine Realms reinforcements still standing on the entire battlefield were less than half of their original starting number.
Meanwhile, Void Rangers were still emerging from all directions, seemingly endless, forever drawing closer, forever encroaching upon the final line of defense.
“Don’t retreat!” the spear-wielding warrior screamed hoarsely.
His voice was raspy, yet it drowned out the sounds of slaughter around him.
“We cannot retreat!
If we retreat, everything is finished!”
The trident-wielding warrior of Atlantis could no longer maintain his water curtain.
His stamina was almost completely depleted; after the summoned seawater receded, only wet stains and the stranded wreckage of Void Rangers remained all over the ground.
He knelt on one knee, propping himself up with his trident.
Every breath he took was accompanied by violent coughing as if he were choking on water, yet his hand still tightly gripped the deep-blue trident, refusing to let go.
In midair, the Sorcerer Supreme had also reached her limit.
Her dozens of mirror clones were winking out one by one, those phantom-like golden figures dispersing into the night sky like extinguished candle flames.
Her true body panted heavily, her red cloak tattered and torn, and the light on her circular magical artifact had dimmed to its absolute limit.
Yet she still hovered in the air, her hands continuously shifting hand seals to teleport away the Void Rangers that were closing in on the final barrier of the defense line.
A strong stench of burning and scorched metal filled the battlefield.
Blood gathered into muddy streams along the gouged ground, flowing down the steps level by level and congealing into dark patches in the crevices of the stone slabs.
Broken weapons and shattered armor littered the ground.
The corpses of pegasi lay scattered across the center of the plaza, their silvery-white wings stained with dark blood.
Hanging from the wings of a few pegasi were black residues left behind after the annihilation of Void Rangers, like scars left by some plague from another world.
Ultimately, the cleanup of the battlefield was completely finished after Odin intervened.
The remaining Death Legion and Void Rangers were completely wiped out as Odin assisted the warriors of the Nine Realms.
This war between father and daughter, which had nearly swept through the entire Nine Realms, finally drew to a close.
Odin stood there, the wound on his left eye still seeping blood.
Golden blood dripped down his cheek onto his armor, onto his cloak, and onto the white stone steps in front of the Golden Palace.
His body swayed slightly, the Eternal Spear supporting almost his entire weight, yet he still stood straight, like an ancient tree standing firm in a gale.
“The war is over,” he said.
His gaze swept across the battlefield, over the crisscrossing corpses and wreckage, over the Asgardian soldiers who were gathering the remains of their comrades, over the scarred warriors of the Nine Realms Allied Forces, and over that Golden Palace, blackened by the flames of war but still shimmering in the night.
The war was indeed over.
But the cost of this war was such that Asgard failed to truly recover for long years to come.
According to post-war statistics, the Asgardian army lost nearly half of its elite forces in this war between father and daughter.
Thousands of warriors slept forever on the plaza in front of the Golden Palace, their names carved into the stone walls of Asgard’s Valhalla, becoming a sorrowful song remembered by future generations.
The Valkyrie Legion was completely wiped out.
Over a thousand Valkyries fell in their battle against the Void Rangers, with the last Valkyrie turning into scattered starlight under the fangs of Fenrir.
This strongest aerial force that had once dominated the skies of the Nine Realms completely became history that night.
The Death Legion was completely wiped out.
Hela’s army of the undead, accumulated over thousands of years, turned to dust after losing its Master.
Those Undead Warriors who had once struck terror into the hearts of the Nine Realms did not even leave behind a single intact piece of armor in the end.
Three thousand Void Rangers had brought losses far beyond imagination to the Nine Realms Allied Forces.
The Frost Giants suffered over sixty percent casualties, the Fire Giants over seventy percent, the elite infantry of the Vanir lost more than half, and the Nidavellir Dwarf Warriors also lost over half of their numbers.
The entire Nine Realms Allied Forces sacrificed nearly two-thirds of their troops in that battle before finally securing victory.
Yet those sacrificed allied warriors never understood, even unto death, what kind of enemy they had actually faced.
[Villainous Act Recorded: Host successfully guided Hela to launch a rebellion, triggering the civil war of the Nine Realms.
Nature of action: Manipulating minds, subverting order, instigating war.
Scope of influence: Nine Realms level.
Actual consequences: Nearly half of the Asgardian army wiped out, Valkyrie Legion completely wiped out, Death Legion completely wiped out, two-thirds of the Nine Realms Allied Forces lost.
The order of the Nine Realms has been heavily destabilized.
Villain Points +1,200,000]
Asat Pramad looked at the string of numbers and nodded with satisfaction.
“1.2 million points,” he murmured to himself, his tone laced with satisfaction.
“Adding the remaining 180,000 from before, that makes a total of 1.38 million Villain Points.
This harvest is even richer than expected.”
He closed the system’s light screen and cast his gaze toward the brilliant sea of stars in the distance.
Asgard was merely the first chess piece he had placed in this Universe, and Hela’s defeat was not outside his expectations.
Whether she succeeded or failed, from the moment she decided to overthrow Odin, Asat Pramad was already standing in the winner’s position.
“Your Highness Hela, thank you for your cooperation,” Asat Pramad’s voice drifted in the void.
“Though you probably don’t feel like you were cooperating with me, the result is the same.”
His figure faded into the void, as if dissolving into the starlight, drifting away toward an unknown direction.
Behind him, the golden light of Asgard flickered in the deep space of the Universe like tears.
The Bifrost Bridge connecting the Nine Realms still spanned the void, but its light was much dimmer than before, as if shrouded by an invisible shadow.
Ragnarok was still far off, but its shadow had already quietly fallen.