Chapter 458: New Toy: The Reunion of the God‑King and Goddess‑Queen

Judgment!!

Destruction!!

The words fell, and the assembled generals once again shouted loudly, releasing the resentment and fury suppressed in their hearts.

But none of the generals noticed that Odin, who proclaimed the judgment, languidly lowered his left hand; thereafter, the King of the Gods grew too lazy to discuss further with the generals, rose from his throne, and strode out of the council hall.

…

Seeing the slightly forlorn silhouette of their god‑king, all the generals instantly deflated, each withdrawing from the council hall to ready their respective forces.

Soon after.

In an aerial garden atop the palace's upper district, Odin dismissed the maids and guards stationed there, walked straight to the garden's edge, placed his hands on the railing, and gazed out over the entirety of Asgard.

At this moment the god‑king's expression shifted; no longer the solemn, aloof demeanor of the council hall, but an unmistakable sorrow, his left eye corner growing moist as if he were holding back tears.

Indeed, they were tears.

The news that both sons perished on Earth reached Odin long before Helusi's claw shattered and tore Loki and Thor; Odin had already sensed it.

After Heimdall—the one wielding a great sword and guarding the Rainbow Bridge—cast his gaze and confirmed Loki and Thor's deaths, Odin instantly erupted in fury.

Yet, constrained by various limits and the still‑unrepaired Rainbow Bridge destroyed by Loki's rebellion, Odin could only temporarily suppress his boundless rage.

But behind that fury lay endless sorrow, did it not?

His most prized and most suitable heir, the eldest son, is dead; the other, an adopted son raised with hopes of assisting the elder, also met a tragic death under the claw.

Even though all the strife began with Loki, Odin knows that his adopted son merely sought to prove himself, to capture Earth as a showcase.

Thus, even if Loki is seized back to Asgard, Odin would not truly execute the adopted son.

In other words, Loki's rampage on Earth was within Odin's tacit permission; he never imagined that sending his sons to "train" on Earth would lead to their tragic deaths…

This plunged Odin into boundless self‑blame and remorse.

Now that the Rainbow Bridge is about to be restored, it is time to bring about the destruction of humanity and Earth, avenging his two sons while deterring the entire universe from any other realms' forces that might stir.

Although Heimdall sensed something amiss with Earth and the Solar System, Odin himself—a "human"—also felt an intrusion of something not belonging to this universe, yet as Father of the Gods and King of All, Odin must initiate Judgment to safeguard Asgard's standing.

At that moment, sensing his only remaining "relative" drawing near, Odin concealed his private sorrow and resumed a solemn, dignified stride toward the Rainbow Bridge standing upon the lake.

Soon, a woman clad in a dark‑blue, ornate robe, her long hair coiled, still bearing an elegant bearing, stepped gracefully to Odin's side and gently brushed his left hand resting on the railing.

Then the woman, her eyes similarly reddened and expression rather sorrowful, whispered softly, "We can avenge the children, but… we must act cautiously; I don't want you to suffer another mishap."

Ha!

Hearing the woman's words, Odin burst into a hearty laugh, then swept her into an embrace, proclaiming with soaring bravado, "My queen always thinks of me, no matter when! Rest assured, I'll give the children whose souls have already gone to Valhalla an answer!"

Mm.

Upon hearing that, the woman whom Odin called his queen gave a light reply and ceased any further counsel or worry, sharing the final moments of tenderness with Odin.

She is Frigg, the goddess‑queen of Asgard, a sorceress whose magic taught Loki most of his tricks.

The maids and guards waiting and watching from afar dared not approach the aerial garden, fearing they would disturb the rare tender moment between the god‑king and his queen.

Yet a massive warship emerging from nowhere in the sky shattered the so‑called tender moment.

!!!

Quick! Get on guard!

Notify the god‑king!

Immediately expel the unidentified vessel!

Seeing the warship over thirty kilometers long at the sky's edge, the maids and guards stationed around the aerial garden were first stunned, then quickly reacted, shouting loudly.

Some guards with keen eyesight even spotted the words "Absolute Rationality" emblazoned on both sides of the ship's hull.

At this moment.

One of the Dark Angel Legion's flagships, the Absolute Rationality, had just completed a jump‑drive transit and was moored at the edge of Asgard's gravity field.

Inside the bridge.

León, standing by the port window, observed the Asgardian realm with a cold, indifferent expression.

From his visage alone one could not discern what the OriginalBody hailed as the "Lion King" was thinking.

Yet the glimmer in León's eyes revealed the Lion King's desire to claim the island before him—a place of breathtaking scenery that seemed tied to magic.

It seems…

It could serve as another flagship.

Whoosh—— whoosh——!

Just as León resolved to seize the Asgardian realm for himself, Asgard's forces launched a preemptive strike, hurling dense volleys of golden‑hued energy batteries and magical cannonades at the Absolute Rationality.

Buzz—— buzz——!

But the batteries were nullified by automatically generated shields, unable to move the Absolute Rationality an inch.

Team C battery 30, prepare…

No need.

The female captain seated at the helm was about to order the crew to counterattack when León cut her off.

Primarily because he feared the ship's cannons might inadvertently destroy his coveted "new toy."

León turned, walked toward the bridge's exterior, and ordered the captain and crew, "Maintain vigilance only; do not employ antimatter weapons or any main or secondary cannons. Use close‑range guns for light retaliation.

Also, notify ground forces to commence landing procedures, dismantling Asgard's military power as much as possible while minimizing damage to structures and the surface, for I intend to turn their realm into our Dark Angel's back garden."

"Yes, sir!" the crew responded in unison.

Soon after, outside the vessel.

The standard landing operation would have involved a massive airdrop of cargo pods breaching the atmosphere first, but to avoid damaging surface facilities, now numerous transport aircraft such as the Fish‑Eu and Silver‑Eu, along with transport ships, escorted by various carrier‑borne fighters, depart the hangar and surge into Asgard's atmosphere.

Moreover, among the many flight formations there is a unique "biological" squadron.

It consists of roughly four hundred gryphons, flapping their wings despite the vacuum's cold and lethal radiation, carrying their master alongside the transport aircraft and ships as they plunge into the Asgardian realm.

And the riders' masters are the Dark Angel's Dead Wing Guard; as for the master of the largest one, it is Leon, who even outside the atmosphere still dons armor and a helmet, likewise ignoring low pressure and extreme conditions.

Entering the atmosphere.

Asgard's anti‑air firepower increased, and there were many old‑fashioned sailing‑ship‑shaped yet somehow flying "warplanes" and "warships" that tried to cooperate with the anti‑air fire to block the Dark Angel side's landing operation.

However, Asgard's "warplanes" and "warships" numbered no more than ten thousand, at most around three thousand.

Relying only on this force and their clan's unique magical attacks, they could easily suppress ninety percent of the intelligent species in Universe 05, yet they could not suppress, let alone defeat, a single flagship force of the Dark Angel.

The moment the two sides made contact, the outcome was already clear.

All of Asgard's aerial forces were wiped out in an instant, and the Divine Realm lost its outer defenses completely.

The portal opened wide.

Thus, when the aerial formation descended to a certain altitude, it quickly scattered, heading to their respective sectors to prepare to unload ground troops, and the griffins also dispersed along with the formation.

The outer villages of Asgard…

"Run fast! Get out of here!"

"Retreat toward the palace!"

Three squads of Asgard soldiers in golden helmets and armor looked up to see a Thunder Transport Plane about to land, rushed forward, and shouted for the villagers to flee toward the palace.

"Mom!!"

"Dad hasn't come back yet… sob…"

"I don't want to die so early…"

The young children panicked, some wailing, some sitting on the ground not knowing what to do.

But the adult Asgard villagers remained rather calm, followed the soldiers' advice, and, lightly equipped, led the children to evacuate toward the palace.

Yet no matter how calm the villagers were, or how brave the soldiers, they could not match the landing speed of the Thunder Transport Plane.

"Dong!!"

As the forced landing touched down, the Thunder Transport Plane had not yet fully steadied when the pilot opened the nose and side doors.

"Tang! Tang! Tang!"

The moment the doors opened, dense bursts of explosive arrows rang out inside and outside the village.

Two squads of Dark Angels equipped with Thor's Hammer Mark VII stepped out of the cabin, and within seconds of their feet touching the Divine Realm ground, they used calibrated explosive‑arrow guns, one shot per soldier, to eliminate all three squads of soldiers.

However, these two squads of Dark Angels had not yet committed outright indiscriminate slaughter.

The Asgard race is indeed a grotesque hybrid, but their appearance is not much different from humans, so the Dark Angels chose to stun and daze, temporarily controlling the nearby villagers.

If the villagers voluntarily sought death, grabbing the dead soldiers' spears and swords, the Dark Angels were too lazy to bother and simply pulled the trigger to shoot them.

Of course, the Dark Angels were not doing any good; after the arriving support troops transferred the villagers to the flagship, they would immediately dispatch technicians for research, and the children would undergo brainwashing by the combat sisters.

Looking out far and wide.

The entire Divine Realm fell into utter chaos; in any case, the Asgard race can no longer claim divinity, though not entirely exterminated.

At the onset of the raid, Leon led six Dead Wings straight toward the palace at Asgard's core.

Meanwhile, an increasing number of golden magic cannon corps used for anti‑air defense focused fire on Leon and the others, clearly aiming to behead their God King.

But all attacks were nullified by the Spiritual Energy gale stirred by the griffins; even the few unaffected magic cannon corps could not pierce the Spiritual Energy barrier created by the griffins.

Seeing the griffins drawing nearer, the Asgard palace raised a golden Defensive Barrier first.

But Leon, at the forefront, extended his right hand, drew the Lion King Great Sword attached behind his armor, and with one hand gave a "gentle" forward swing…

"Hoo—!!!" A blade‑shaped wave, neither fully visible nor invisible, whooshed forward.

"Boom—!!!" The wave clashed violently with the barrier.

"Kara—!!" The next second, the barrier that Asgard considered absolute defense was shattered into fragments by Leon's seemingly casual swing.

Immediately after, Leon and his forces easily passed all defenses.

The six Dead Wings dismounted and chose to free‑fall into the palace, beginning to sweep the Asgard elite inside and out.

The six Dead Wings' griffins also circled near the palace.

As for the largest griffin in the legion, it waited for its master to finish riding, left its head to go to the palace's sky garden, and after receiving the master's silent consent, happily flapped its wings, taking no part in combat but leisurely touring the picturesque Asgard.

In contrast, the giant griffin's master, Leon, sheathed the Lion King Great Sword, and stared expressionlessly at Odin and Freyja.

The God King and God Queen remained on full alert throughout.

Odin wielded an apparently gold‑plated, dwarf‑king‑forged eternal spear named "Gungnir," while Freyja's armament was comparatively simple: just two short swords.

Both sides faced each other in silent standoff.

In the end, Odin, whose aura was inferior to Leon's, broke the tension, turned to Freyja, and in a rare gentle voice said:

"Asgard's fall is inevitable; the twilight of the gods arrives early. My queen, I will reunite with you in Valhalla."

Speaking thus, Odin's right hand clenched Gungnir, and with a single stride he lunged forward, his speed too swift to be perceived.

Yet everything was within the sight of the "Lion King" Leon; even if Odin unleashed his utmost, he could not match him.

Both sides understood this the moment he left the griffin and set foot in the sky garden.

Therefore, Odin's charge was certain death, yet he still gave his all; that courage, responsibility, and resolve alone earned Leon's respect.

Consequently, Leon did not mock; he drew the Governance Sword even faster, its blade ignited with golden flame as it unsheathed.

"Shua!"

"Boom—!"

In an instant, Odin's Gungnir was struck away by the Governance Sword, and his body was scorched by golden flame, turning to ash in a moment.

However, as he turned to ash, numerous specks of gold floated upward before vanishing without a trace.

It seems Odin's physical body fell, but his soul or spirit received forgiveness from Leon, or rather from Sui Bian.

Having dealt with the God King, Leon naturally showed no mercy; without giving Freyja a chance to cast a spell, he again brandished the Governance Sword, reuniting the loving God King and Queen.

(End of Chapter)