Marvel x Genshin: Mavuika, The Sun Goddess Rules Asgard — Chapter 24

Chapter 24: Devour

Sensing the threat surging from behind, Surtur let out a guttural roar. His colossal body pivoted with surprising speed, his giant flaming sword carving a devastating, fiery arc through the air of Muspelheim.

Mavuika sidestepped, the movement fluid and instantaneous. The blade narrowly missed, its passage so close that the wave of superheated air that followed baked her Asgardian armor, making the metal glow a dull, angry red against her shoulder.

With a flick of her wrist, Sun-Blaze of a Thousand Suns followed the trajectory of Surtur’s swing, unleashing a counter-slash of its own. Her golden-red solar fire collided violently with the deep blue flames of ruin, erupting in a piercing shriek of sizzling energy as a storm of sparks filled the air.

Simultaneously, hundreds of Hela’s obsidian swords manifested from thin air, swarming Surtur like angry hornets. They drove forward with lethal intent, aiming for the vulnerable joints in his molten limbs.

*Shink! Shink!*

A handful of blades managed to punch through the hardened lava shell, sinking into the fiery giant’s body. But Surtur was a creature of magma. The wounds were instantly sealed by the boiling liquid within him, and the black swords were enveloped, their enchanted metal groaning as it melted into slag. The attack had caused no real damage at all.

“Hahaha, useless!” Surtur’s laughter boomed across the wasteland, a sound of pure malice and power. The flames wreathing his body erupted outward, coalescing into a terrifying, swirling firestorm.

The tempest of fire swept in all directions, instantly consuming the remains of Hela’s swords. The temperature skyrocketed, so intense that the very air seemed to ignite. Caught within the vortex, both Mavuika and Hela struggled to maintain their footing, the force of the storm threatening to tear them from the scorched earth.

This was, without a doubt, the most powerful opponent the sisters had ever faced during their conquest of the Nine Realms. Surtur, the King of Muspelheim, possessed a raw, cataclysmic power that dwarfed all others. Alone, neither Mavuika nor Hela would stand a chance.

Even fighting together, trapped within the fiery domain Surtur had unleashed, they were completely suppressed, forced onto the defensive by his overwhelming might.

Far behind the epicenter of the battle, the Asgardian army watched with mounting anxiety. This was the first time they had ever witnessed their invincible Sun Goddess and the formidable Goddess of Death being pushed into a disadvantage while fighting side-by-side. They desperately wanted to help their princesses, but they had no way to intervene in a clash of such cosmic scale. To them, Mavuika and Hela were like two lone ships tossed on a raging, fiery sea, at risk of being capsized and consumed at any moment.

*This can’t go on!* The thought flashed through both sisters’ minds simultaneously.

A cold, ruthless glint hardened Hela’s eyes. With a ferocious cry, she hurled Mjolnir forward. Dark green energy, the very essence of her divine power over death, flared from the hammer, weaving itself into a massive, spectral Death Chain that shot out and coiled tightly around Surtur’s flaming sword.

“Sister! Now!” Hela roared, her voice strained.

Mavuika understood instantly. She drew upon the deepest wells of her power, allowing the Asgardian Odinforce and the Pyro Archon’s Source Fire to finally merge without restraint. Her pale gold hair erupted into a mane of ethereal fire, taking the spectral shape of a magnificent, burning phoenix. Sun-Blaze of a Thousand Suns let out a world-shaking hum as the Solar and Spatial runes carved into its blade blazed to life in unison.

Mavuika’s entire form was consumed by the transformation, becoming a giant fire phoenix with a wingspan stretching dozens of yards across the fiery sky. Her form was a breathtaking spectacle of golden-red flames interlaced with the multicolored light of cosmic power, radiating an aura that promised to purify all it touched as she dove directly at Surtur’s chest. Sun-Blaze of a Thousand Suns formed the phoenix’s lethal beak, its peerless edge now honed to a single point, capable of piercing any defense in the Nine Realms.

For the first time, Surtur’s expression shifted, a flicker of alarm crossing his molten features. He felt the terrifying power coalescing in that dive and tried to wrench his greatsword back to defend himself, but it was held fast by Hela’s unyielding Death Chain. Surtur’s divine fire surged down the ethereal links of the chain, engulfing Hela’s hands. The terrifying heat forced a muffled groan from her clenched teeth. A trickle of blood seeped from the corner of her mouth, only to be instantly vaporized into steam by the oppressive temperature.

But even so, Hela held on with grim determination, her grip on the chain unshakeable. She anchored the fire giant, giving him no opportunity to escape her sister’s attack.

Surtur roared in frustration, the magma composing his body surging frantically as he attempted to condense another defensive shield over his chest. But the phoenix descended with impossible speed. Before the molten shield could fully form, Mavuika had already reached him.

*SCHRRUUUNCH!*

Sun-Blaze of a Thousand Suns plunged deep into Surtur’s chest. A blinding explosion of golden-red flames and multicolored cosmic energy erupted from the point of impact, flooding into his body through the grievous wound. Surtur let out an agonized wail that shook the foundations of Muspelheim. Mavuika pushed forward with every ounce of her strength, and her divine blade ignited with a light so brilliant it outshone the realm’s eternal fires.

The celestial phoenix Mavuika had become let out a triumphant, piercing cry as it drove completely through Surtur’s massive torso, entering from his chest and emerging from his back in a shower of molten rock and divine light. Surtur gave one last, heaven-shaking roar of agony. A gaping, smoldering hole now dominated his chest, a wound so vast that the burning sky of Muspelheim was clearly visible through it.

The phoenix phantom dissipated, and Mavuika’s figure reappeared. Her face was pale, the monumental strike having consumed a vast amount of her divine power, but her eyes still burned with a determined light. She turned her gaze to her sister. Hela’s arms were burned beyond recognition, the flesh charred and peeling away to reveal scorched white bone beneath. Even the ethereal links of the Death Chain were beginning to shimmer and melt under the sustained heat.

“We… succeeded…” Hela managed a hoarse, ragged laugh, her voice sounding like a broken bellows. “Sister, we…”

Before she could finish her sentence, the impossible happened.

Surtur did not fall.

The Flaming Crown atop Surtur’s horned head suddenly erupted with a blinding, otherworldly light. His own deep blue flames were now laced with incandescent golden streamers—the unmistakable power of the Eternal Flame!

And then, a sight that drove all who witnessed it to despair unfolded. The catastrophic hole in his chest began to heal. It wasn’t a slow regeneration; it was a visible, horrifying reorganization, as if time itself were flowing backward for him alone. Tendrils of fresh lava surged from the edges of the wound, connecting, solidifying, and rapidly reconstructing the very structure of his chest. Platinum-white flames, the pure essence of the Eternal Flame, coursed through the newly formed tissue, granting it a power even greater than before.

Mavuika’s expression shifted from exhaustion to sheer disbelief. She had never expected Surtur’s regenerative ability to be this terrifying. The power of the Eternal Flame far, far exceeded her imagination.

There was no time to think. Igniting the last reserves of her divine power, she turned and launched herself straight for Surtur’s head—the source of his power, his crown.

A flicker of malicious cunning ignited in Surtur’s eyes. He deliberately loosened his resistance against the Death Chain, allowing Hela’s desperate pull to yank his greatsword to the side. The moment Mavuika was in front of him, he sprang his trap. His massive open palm erupted with an inescapable gravitational pull. Simultaneously, his other hand slammed into the ground, and a thick wall of molten rock shot up from the floor, blocking Mavuika’s path of retreat.

‘A trap!’ Mavuika’s heart seized. She tried to pivot and retreat, but her body was now firmly locked in place by the powerful suction. Surtur’s palm had become a gravitational vortex, forcibly dragging her toward him. She desperately swung Sun-Blaze of a Thousand Suns, sending arcs of golden-red fire to slash at the lava wall, but the barrier was now empowered by the Eternal Flame. It was unbreakable.

“Sister—!” Hela shrieked, her eyes widening in pure terror.

She abruptly released the Death Chain, completely ignoring the fire still consuming her arms. The Death Divine Power within her surged with frantic desperation, condensing before her into several colossal black swords, each one dozens of yards high. The surfaces of the monstrous blades crawled with hideous, glowing Death Runes, emitting a suffocating aura of pure mortality.

*THUD! THUD!*

The giant blades slammed into Surtur’s back, piercing through his lava hide with a dull, heavy impact. Magma immediately began to flow down the length of the embedded swords with a violent sizzle.

But Surtur seemed completely oblivious to the attack. He simply turned, his great flaming sword spinning in his grasp as the deep blue flames of ruin condensed along its edge into a single, massive blade of fire. The flaming slash descended with the power to tear the heavens from the earth, cleaving down fiercely upon the defenseless Hela.

Hela had no time to dodge. All she could do was subconsciously raise her ruined arms in a futile attempt to defend herself.

*BOOM—!*

The slash struck her body with cataclysmic force. The sharp, sickening crack of breaking bones echoed clearly across the battlefield. Dark green divine blood sprayed from her lips like a fountain, hissing as it splashed onto the molten ground.

Hela’s body was launched through the air like a kite with its string cut, tracing a long, helpless arc for nearly a thousand meters before crashing violently into a boiling sea of magma, disappearing beneath the molten waves.