Authors NOTE: If you want to read 10 more chapters ahead right now. Search for (banmido P atreon) in google and click the first link. Chapters 13, 14, 15, 16 ,17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, and 24. are already available for patrons. We also will be doing a 20$ giftcard giveaway EVERY month, we just got done with our first one for hitting our very first milestone, so stay tuned for that!
Dragonfang clashed against conjured frost magic, and the vault lit up like a thunderstorm.
Sparks skittered across black stone. The sound of steel grinding into arcanic resistance echoed throughout the chamber, it was a scream of desperate fury and magic.
Valkyrie pressed harder.
The sword hissed with hunger. She felt the blade vibrate in her grip, responding to blood, to threat, to purpose. The frost cracked under its edge, glowing fissures spiderwebbing outward.
Loki twisted at the last second, breaking the lock, and vanished in a flicker of green fire.
He reappeared several feet away, cloak billowing, blood trailing from a fresh cut across his forearm. He looked down and watched it stitch close with a slow pulse of sickly and veiny magic.
His fingers flexed once.
Then his gaze rose. Not to her, but to the sword in her hand.
"Dragonfang," he said, almost with reverence. "Forged from the tooth of an ancient cosmic Dragon. Imbued by a sorcerer who understood power as architecture, not impulsivity. Ingenious, really. It absorbs blood. Cuts through spells like silk. I respect that."
Valkyrie kept her stance, blade high.
"It's cut down gods before."
"I'm well aware," Loki said, eyes still fixed on the weapon. "I had to kill the Valkyrie in my own realm to keep her from bringing it against me."
He said it without weight. Just data. A line from a history book only he remembered.
Valkyrie didn't blink.
"I'm not her."
"I know," he said, evenly. "She lasted only three minutes."
"And I'm already doing better than that."
He smiled faintly. Not amusement but appraisal.
Then he moved.
Their next clash was faster. More brutal.
Loki came at her with a conjured glaive of woven ice and flame, spinning it through the air like an executioner's baton. Valkyrie deflected the first strike, ducked the second, pivoted on her heel, and slashed low.
Dragonfang hit his boot, skimming the leather, and carved a deep line into the stone floor.
Loki leapt back, casting with one hand.
Chains of magical serpents burst from his fingers and snaked toward her torso.
She batted one aside with her bracer, sidestepped the next. The third found its mark, coiling around her left arm and biting her.
But instead of retreating, she planted her feet and yanked him forward.
Then cracked her forehead into his nose.
Golden blood sprayed.
Loki staggered, snarl twisted across his lips, more beast than god.
"I hope you don't regret this," she muttered.
He responded with a point-blank blast of force from his palm. It hit like a cannon. She flew backward, slammed into a support pillar, and dropped to one knee.
Runes flared to life around her, reacting to the impact. Pain lit up her spine. She grit her teeth and stood anyway.
No hesitation.
Loki came again, this time with no illusions, no flair.
They collided in the heart of the vault.
Steel struck spell, flesh met fury. The sounds weren't battle, they were demolition. Each blow shattered more than just air.
He twisted space with his strikes. She answered with steel that had tasted the void of Hel.
Loki tried to teleport behind her.
She caught the shift of energy and turned mid-spin.
She backhanded a slash mid-spin, Dragonfang singing as it cut through empty air.
The edge of Dragonfang whistled through where his neck had been half a second earlier.
His response came fast.
He teleported again, this time above her.
His attack fell like a spear.
She raised her blade just in time. His conjured blade and her steel clashed in an upward strike that sent both flying back.
She skidded across the floor, her boots gouging stone. He landed in a crouch, one hand braced, and breath sharp.
For a moment, they paused.
Both bloodied.
Both burned.
Both fighting for the fate of the Norn stones.
Valkyrie adjusted her grip.
Dragonfang was warm now. Alive. It pulsed in line with her heartbeat.
"You know why I'm here," Loki said, brushing ash from his sleeve.
"I know," she said.
"And you know I won't stop."
"Then neither will I."
His face changed. No longer smirking. No longer curious.
He understood.
And so he attacked again.
He conjured twin green blades this time, crude, jagged things, glowing with chaos. He spun them in tight arcs, coming in low.
She ducked, sidestepped, and kicked him square in the chest. He stumbled back, only to vanish and reappear behind her.
She swung without turning. Her blade met his mid-air and locked.
He hissed near her ear.
"I've already killed one Valkyrie."
"And you'll never kill another."
She twisted, breaking the lock, and rammed her shoulder into his chest, knocking him off balance. He slid back, heels dragging. Her blade followed.
He raised a barrier. Dragonfang shattered it.
He tried another. She broke that one too.
His eyes widened.
She slammed her sword down with both hands, and this time he caught it with a conjured shield just barely.
The force drove him to one knee.
Their eyes met again.
"I'm going to enjoy sending you to Helheim."
Naruto hit the ground again.
His ribs burned. Dust clung to the blood drying on his skin. Ares stood across the field, fire pouring off him like the breath of war itself.
"You're slowing down," the god said, approaching.
Naruto didn't answer.
Kurama's voice curled through his mind, low and clear.
"He's going to kill you."
"I know," Naruto whispered.
"You have to use our chakra cloak."
"You know I've never gone that far before, Kurama."
There was a pause.
"You think I don't know that?" Kurama said
.Naruto pushed up to one knee, body trembling under its own weight. His chakra felt off-balance. Everything inside him screamed to stay down.
"I've never needed it before," he said. "Every fight I've had, I've held back. Got it done without dipping into your chakra too much. But this…"
His head lifted slightly.
Ares loomed over him now, waiting.
"This is different."
Kurama was quiet for a moment.
"Ten minutes. That's all your body can handle. No more. No less."
Naruto breathed in deep.
"And if I burn it out early?"
"You won't be getting back up."
Naruto rose with just a breath.
A spark inside of him flickered.
The cloak ignited.
Kurama's chakra spread over him like a second skin. Flame without fire. Light without heat. His eyes burned gold. The seal inscription on his stomach glowed through the fabric.
Ares tilted his head.
"There you are," he said.
Naruto didn't answer.
But as he stepped forward, he looked up.
High above, suspended in sky like a watching god, floated the Sentry. Arms crossed. Eyes unreadable. And as still as death.
Naruto exhaled.
"I've only got ten minutes," he murmured.
His foot cracked the ground.
"So let's make them count."
He moved as the cloak blurred him forward.
He hit Ares square in the chest and sent the god skidding back, boots tearing trenches through Asgardian stone.
Ares steadied.
And grinned.
The first blow echoed across the air.
Naruto shot forward, chakra cloak trailing behind him like a comet's tail. He slammed a glowing fist into Ares' chest, launching the god upward in a shockwave of stone and steam. The ground cratered where they had stood.
Ares recovered mid-air, twisting upright. The fire behind him roared outward.
Then they ignited.
Wings of flame.
Woven from wrath, memory, and divine will. They erupted from Ares' back with a scream of pressure, fanning out wide enough to cast a shadow over the entire battlefield.
He shot downward.
Naruto met him mid-flight.
They collided in the sky, fists crashing like meteors.
The force blasted wind in all directions, sending debris from the ruined landing strip spiraling out over the cliffs.
Sentry didn't flinch.
He remained suspended far above, silent, arms still crossed, watching.
Ares struck first in the air. His wings snapped once, and he zipped around Naruto's flank, throwing an elbow across his temple. Naruto twisted with the blow, spun mid-air, and kicked off invisible footing to reorient.
He launched a volley of chakra bursts from both hands, each one curved, spiraling, impossible to predict.
Ares raised an arm and let them detonate against his warfire. The cloak of flame absorbed the first, the second, the third, then cracked on the fourth. The fifth struck his shoulder and spun him sideways.
Naruto appeared behind him, knee already rising.
The hit landed square between the god's shoulder blades. Ares roared and flipped backward, catching Naruto by the leg mid-fall.
They plummeted.
Halfway down, Ares flung him.
Naruto flew backward into the sky, righted himself, then darted higher. Higher than the clouds. Higher than the haze of smoke still rising from the burning fields of New Asgard.
His cloak rippled in the wind, radiant and alive.
Ares gave chase.
The fire-winged god punched through cloud cover, carving a path of steam in his wake. The two of them spiraled upward, climbing like thunderheads about to burst.
They met at the peak.
Fists. Feet. Raw chakra and divine flame colliding with every strike.
Naruto ducked a slash of flame, spun inside Ares' guard, and hammered a punch to the ribs. He followed with a spinning roundhouse to the jaw that sent Ares tumbling end over end through the sky.
Naruto pressed the advantage.
He dove. Arms forward. A streak of orange light through the air.
Ares caught himself with a flap of his wings and flared them wide, stalling momentum. He fired twin arcs of fire upward, both shaped like massive swords of burning fury. Naruto swerved between them, the tips grazing his cloak.
Ares was already on him.
They locked again in the sky, one hand gripping the other's wrist, the other exchanging hammering blows to the ribs, the face, the stomach.
Naruto's breath was ragged.
Kurama spoke again.
"Seven minutes."
"Not yet," Naruto thought.
He twisted Ares' arm and elbowed his chin. It landed. Ares didn't stagger.
He laughed.
And then drove Naruto downward with a punch that cracked the air.
Naruto shot like a missile back toward the cliffs, cloak blazing, heat rippling behind him.
He caught himself just above the ground, kicking off a swirl of chakra that slowed his fall. He hovered, panting, blood on his lip.
Above him, Ares circled like a bird of prey.
"Is that all you've got?" Ares called down, voice booming through the clouds. "I wonder how long you can sustain this power, boy!"
Naruto clenched his fists.
He launched upward again.
They crashed together mid-sky once more, but this time Naruto didn't aim for brute force.
He faked high. Swerved low. Ducked under Ares' fist and hammered a punch into his liver.
Ares wheezed. The sound was faint. Almost amused.
Naruto flipped over his back, came down in an axe kick that sent Ares hurtling toward the earth.
The god landed hard as stone splintered, dust exploded, and smoke curled upward from the impact.
Naruto hovered overhead, breathing fast, the chakra cloak flickering slightly at the edges.
"Six minutes," Kurama said.
Naruto exhaled, eyes scanning the crater below.
But Ares was already rising.
His body glowed with divine heat. Wings unfurled once more.
And when he looked up?
He was smiling.
Naruto narrowed his eyes.
Ares rose again, slowly this time. Purposeful. He floated just below Naruto now, the fire behind him spiraling in rhythm.
Then he spoke.
"You're not the first mortal to touch godhood," he said. "But you are the first to push me to my limits"
Naruto didn't answer.
"May your death paint the annals of history," Ares said, voice calm.
His flames surged higher.
Naruto braced.
And once again, they flew toward each other like exploding stars.
The statue Kate was standing on exploded.
Kate leapt off just in time, the blast from Bullseye's trick arrow hurling marble shards through the air like shrapnel. She tucked into a forward roll, landing behind the remnants of a broken fountain. Her shoulder screamed. Blood from a gash on her temple ran into her eye.
"You know," Bullseye called out, voice lazy and cruel, "the last archer I fought cried when I broke his fingers."
Kate popped up, loosed an arrow, dropped again. The arrow detonated mid-air, forcing him back.
"Wow, you must be confusing that with the time someone actually gave a damn what you said."
He laughed coldly.
Kate sprinted left. He mirrored her, stalking with perfect calm, two knives spinning in his hands like extensions of thought.
He wasn't rushing. He didn't need to. Bullseye was patient. Exact. A predator who knew the wind, the shadows, and the sound of your breathing.
She'd studied his file. Knew he once killed a man with a stray tooth.
She didn't need reminding.
She needed a plan.
Another arrow, this one smoke. She launched it high, aiming to obscure the broken statues where she dove for cover. Bullseye didn't flinch. He threw one of his knives and it sliced through the smoke and embedded itself in the wall inches from her neck.
Kate flinched.
"Getting slower, Katherine."
She growled, knocked two arrows, and spun from cover. She hated when people called her that.
He was already mid-throw.
The moment froze.
Her heart stopped.
She let loose her arrows.
One arrow hit his boot. The other, a split-second behind, was a concussive bolt aimed at the point of impact. The ground beneath him detonated, flinging Bullseye backward into a broken pillar.
He recovered too fast.
Limping, yes. Bleeding. But still grinning madly.
Kate was moving now, zigzagging across the rubble. She reached a downed Asgardian shield, scooped it, and slung it onto her arm. Her quiver was nearly empty.
Two arrows.
And one of them was a gamble.
Bullseye emerged from the dust, nose bleeding, lip split, eyes wild.
"I'm disappointed," he said. "I thought the girl with the bow was supposed to be clever."
"Working on it," she muttered, then fired.
He caught the first arrow mid-flight and threw it back.
Kate raised the shield. The arrow shattered against it.
He moved in close, throwing a second knife from his belt, she ducked, spun, and slashed with the edge of the shield.
He caught her wrist.
And threw her.
She hit the ground hard. Ribs howled. Bow skittered out of reach. Bullseye loomed.
"You were never going to win this," he said, crouching beside her.
"Heard that one before. Still here."
He drew another blade, longer, curved.
"Any last words?"
Kate smiled.
"Yeah. Gotcha."
Her hand snapped to the final arrow in her belt.
Not a bomb. Not fire. Not smoke.
USB.
She jammed it into the socket of his belt, a sleek, chrome-cased upgrade he'd been bragging about on the livestream two hours earlier. StarkTech knockoff.
The second it connected, it short-circuited.
Bullseye jerked like he'd been tasered. His body spasmed, the blade clattering from his hand. Sparks jumped from the weapon systems along his arms and thighs.
Kate used the opening.
She launched herself off the ground, drove her knee into his chest, grabbed his wrist, twisted, and broke it clean.
He screamed.
She didn't wait.
She let loose a flurry of jabs. Two to the gut, one to the throat, and then she spun, wrapped her legs around his shoulders, and flipped him backward with a brutal takedown.
They both hit the ground.
She was on him quickly, however.
One more punch. Straight to the temple.
He went limp.
The silence after felt surreal.
Kate stood, panting hard, blood dripping from her mouth, her ribs singing with pain. She retrieved her bow, looked down at the unconscious man below her.
"Tell Val she should've sent someone better," she muttered.
Then she dropped the broken USB drive beside him and limped away.
The air cracked open like glass.
A star-shaped portal bloomed mid-air, jagged and brilliant, as America Chavez burst through it with three children in tow, one clinging to her back, the other two clutching her wrists.
Behind them, the ground shook again.
Another explosion echoed from the battlefield. Stone split. Smoke climbed. The sky roared with flames.
America didn't look back.
"Move!" she shouted, kicking open a half-collapsed gate with enough force to send it flying.
A crowd of remaining Asgardians, mostly elderly, injured, and kids, turned toward her with wide eyes. Their shelter, hidden beneath the old Mead Hall, was caving in around them. The exit tunnel had already collapsed.
America raised her hand and punched the air.
CRACK.
Another star ripped open. Through it: a view of a grassy clearing far beyond the land, where Heimdall's son and a handful of medics waited by refugee tents and golden-armored warriors.
"Go!" she yelled.
They didn't hesitate.
Mothers pulled children close. Elder warriors helped the injured. One by one, they streamed through the portal, vanishing in starlight.
A teenage girl stumbled halfway in, then froze.
Behind them, the structure groaned.
America didn't wait.
She grabbed the girl, lifted her, and threw her through the portal like a football spiral, clean arc and soft landing.
The vault collapsed just as the portal closed.
Dust swallowed her.
But America emerged from it, coughing, eyes blazing.
She turned toward the last bunker.
"Anyone else?" she shouted, voice hoarse.
Silence.
Then,
A faint cough.
She spun toward the sound and kicked in the rotting door.
Inside, an Asgardian boy no older than seven sat crying beside a toppled statue. His leg was pinned.
America crossed the room in two strides and threw the statue aside with one hand.
"You hurt?" she asked.
He nodded through tears.
She knelt, scooped him up.
"Alright, champ. One last ride."
She turned, exhaled, and punched the air.
The portal formed just as the roof gave way.
She dove through it.
Dust followed her across dimensions.
They landed safely in the meadow. She set the boy down gently.
He looked up at her, sniffling. "Are you a god?"
America wiped blood from her nose, shook her head.
"Nah. Just a girl with good aim."
Then she turned back toward the battlefield, opened another portal, and vanished in a crack of starlight.
AN: Dragonfang is forged by an ancient Asgardian sorcerer using the tooth of the dragon, Nidhoggr, the cosmic serpent who chews at the roots of the World Tree.
This Loki is from 1610, his mother is Farbauti and his father is Odin.
Authors NOTE: If you want to read 10 more chapters ahead right now. Search for (banmido P atreon) in google and click the first link. Chapters 13, 14, 15, 16 ,17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, and 24. are already available for patrons. We also will be doing a 20$ giftcard giveaway EVERY month, we just got done with our first one for hitting our very first milestone, so stay tuned for that!