"Thor, what's happening here?" Frigga arrived after hearing the commotion, her expression full of concern as she looked at Thor, who was struggling to move just outside the palace hall.
"Look at this. Doesn't Asgard still have plenty of its forces left? It's not like you don't have the strength to fight..." Before Thor could respond, a mocking voice echoed from within the palace hall. "Asgard has only two options! First, declare war against me. Second, I'll send Hela and Kuur back to Asgard, and you can deal with the trouble you left behind yourselves!"
"It's him?!" Frigga's body trembled slightly upon hearing the voice, immediately recognizing who it belonged to. If there was anyone in Asgard who had the deepest impression of Robert, it was undoubtedly Frigga.
Frigga's memory of Robert was even stronger than Odin's. At the time, while Odin was fighting Clark in a separate dimension, Frigga had personally faced Robert.
Initially, Frigga's power had far exceeded Robert's and Diana's. But just as she was about to kill Diana, Robert suddenly reversed the battle, transforming into a terrifying form she had never seen before, completely overwhelming her.
During that encounter, Robert repeatedly destroyed Frigga's body. If not for her life force and power being deeply tied to Asgard, which continuously infused her with divine energy to regenerate, Frigga wouldn't have survived the ordeal.
Thus, when she heard Robert's voice now, her body instinctively trembled, a fear engraved into her very consciousness and instincts, completely beyond her control, let alone suppressible.
"Yes, the Saiyan has arrived," Thor said with resignation, his voice soft. "He's here because of Hela and Kuur's seals. It seems we Asgardians have no choice but to agree to his terms."
That was why Thor had previously sided with Robert's position, agreeing that Asgard should deal with the matter of Hela and Kuur on its own.
If Asgard fought Hela and Kuur, the realm would end up even more devastated, though survival and victory weren't impossible. But compared to battling Robert, leaving Asgard in ruins seemed like an acceptable price.
Thor knew well that in a fight against Robert, Asgard stood no chance. Even if Odin were restored to his peak state, it wouldn't change the outcome. Thor understood Robert's current power. Once a battle began, Robert could annihilate everyone except Odin, along with the entirety of Asgard, in an instant, reducing it to cosmic dust.
Asgard would cease to exist, and Odin's survival afterward would depend on his strength. But even then, he'd only delay the inevitable; defeating or stopping Robert from destroying Asgard was utterly impossible.
And that's assuming Odin could recover to his peak. Thor wasn't even sure his frail and aging father still had the strength to fight...
"So, what's your decision? Or shall I make the choice for you?" Inside the palace hall, Robert coldly sneered as he watched Odin slump on the throne, silent and staring at him without offering an answer. A powerful energy wave began to gather in Robert's hand, radiating destructive force.
Odin felt the immense killing intent and destruction emanating from the energy wave. He realized Robert had run out of patience and was no longer willing to negotiate. If he didn't provide an answer, Robert would obliterate everything in Asgard.
"We will take Hela and Kuur back to Asgard and deal with them ourselves," Odin finally said, his voice weary. His heart sank at the thought, and he appeared even older and more hunched.
"See? That wasn't so hard." Robert waved his hand, and the energy wave dissipated. His imposing aura vanished instantly.
Outside the palace hall, Thor and the others felt the oppressive pressure lift. They quickly rushed inside.
"Look at this. Asgard made this mess, yet you wanted Earth to bear the burden. Now that I've returned this problem to you, you're making me out to be the villain," Robert said mockingly, glancing at Thor, Frigga, and the palace guards who had barged in. He turned to Odin and continued, "Now, tell me, where are their seals?"
"Heimdall will guide you," Odin said weakly, handing his spear, Gungnir, forward.
The spear hovered in midair and floated toward Robert. Odin explained, "Gungnir will help you locate the precise positions of their seals. Without Asgardian divine power, even with your strength, finding those seals would be exceedingly difficult."
"Fine. I'll be the good guy this time and help you Asgardians reclaim your old gods," Robert said nonchalantly, showing no concern about potential traps hidden within the spear.
Although Gungnir was a true treasure of the God-King, more powerful than Thor's hammer and indestructible even by semi-divine beings, Robert saw it as little different from Mjolnir. Destroying either would be equally simple for him.
With a flash of light, Robert, now holding Gungnir, disappeared from the palace hall, leaving Odin, Frigga, Thor, and the others staring at one another in silence.
"Let's see where Hela and Kuur's seals are," Robert's voice echoed in Heimdall's ears.
Heimdall opened his all-seeing eyes, directing his gaze toward Earth. Robert had already arrived on the planet, and with his voice as a guide, Heimdall quickly located him and pointed him to the location of Hela's seal.
It was in a desolate area in Norway, surrounded by wilderness with only distant small towns nearby. Being the birthplace of Norse mythology, it was unsurprising that Odin had chosen this origin land to seal Hela.
Upon arriving, Gungnir began to tremble in Robert's hand, emitting a wave of Asgardian divine power. The energy appeared to interact with an invisible, alternate space in the air.
"Hmm? What's this?" Within her seal, Hela suddenly froze, sensing a familiar presence—Odin's and Gungnir's divine power. Her guard immediately shot up, and confusion filled her mind.
Hela had recently spoken with Robert and others via her avatar in the underworld. Now, sensing Odin and Gungnir's presence outside her seal, she found it impossible to believe the two events were unrelated.
"Could it be? Did the Saiyan not clash with Asgard after all? Did he inform them instead? Damn it! Was I deceived by Thor? Are the Saiyan and Asgard actually working together?!" Hela's expression shifted wildly as she entertained these thoughts.
Unaware of what had transpired in Asgard, Hela began to suspect that Robert and Thor had staged their earlier interaction to extract more information from her and assess her situation.
Afterward, Robert and Thor could've shared this with Odin, who now approached with Gungnir to deliver judgment upon her once again.
"Hmph! Even if that old man himself comes, so what?!" Hela's expression twisted into a crazed grin as her deathly aura surged. "You've judged me once already! Do you think you can do it again? I refuse to believe you, old and frail as you are, still have any real power!"
"I wasn't defeated by you alone back then. It was all of Asgard against me! Now, facing the weakened you, I won't lose! I'll kill you and take back the throne of Asgard!"
As she spoke, her deathly aura grew even more turbulent. Her eyes fixed on a specific part of her sealed space, clearly preparing to strike.
Suddenly, the area she targeted opened with a portal, and Gungnir's tip emerged first, entering her sight.
"Die!" Hela roared, forming an enormous sword of death from her own power and slashing it fiercely toward Gungnir and the figure behind it—Robert.
"Oh?" Robert raised an eyebrow at the incoming attack but didn't thrust Gungnir to counter. Instead, he extended a single finger, pressing it against the tip of the deathly sword.
Crack! With the sound of shattering, the sword splintered under Robert's touch, dispersing into fragments of deathly energy that vanished into the air.
The sword wasn't a true physical artifact but a construct of Hela's power, no different in essence from energy blades Robert himself could create.
Before her imprisonment, Hela's position in Asgard had been awkward. Mjolnir, crafted for Thor, wasn't suitable for her and lacked sufficient power. She had kept it purely as a symbol of her status as Odin's heir. Meanwhile, Gungnir belonged to Odin, and Hela hadn't been strong enough to take it from him.
Hela's plan had always been to ascend to the throne and commission a godly weapon befitting her as the God of Death. She intended to have the dwarven king Eitri forge her a true godly artifact—a Death Sword matching her divine power and status.
"It's you? The Saiyan?! Why is Gungnir in your hands?" Hela exclaimed, eyes widening in shock as she stared at Robert.
"You said your previous imprisonment was unfair, didn't you? I've come to grant you fairness," Robert replied, a slight smile on his lips. "I'm taking you out of your seal and sending you back to Asgard to compete for the throne. How's that? Surprised? Happy?"
"Are you serious?" Hela stared at him skeptically, taking a cautious step back. She doubted his intentions
. Robert's reputation in the underworld was less than stellar, and trustworthiness wasn't one of his traits. Countless beings stronger than her had perished at his hands.
"I'm hurt by your lack of trust. Regardless of my motives, at least you're getting out of the seal ahead of schedule, aren't you?" Robert sighed theatrically. "Oh, and by the way, you won't be the only one leaving the seal. Your elder, Kuur, will also be released and sent back to Asgard with you."
"What?!" Hela's pupils shrank as her suspicions intensified.
If Kuur were freed as well, Hela's chances of claiming the throne would plummet. She hadn't advanced in strength during her millennia-long imprisonment, and even before that, she hadn't reached the level of a God-King. She was a semi-divine being at best.
But Kuur was different. According to ancient tales, he had once been dethroned by Odin himself. This meant Kuur had truly been a God-King, a fully divine being!
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