"Ahhh!!"
High above, a massive Fire Demon Dragon circled, while a seemingly endless crowd of Fire Demons (Fire Giants) charged straight at Aaron with blades in hand. They flooded the barren plains like ants, all rallying to the furious roars of their king, Surtur, as they closed in on what he called his "royal court."
Frankly, calling it a "court" was generous—at best, it was just a cavern. If you looked up, the only notable feature was a giant stone throne perched on the highest ledge.
Compared to Earth or Asgard, this place felt like some primitive backwater. But these so-called "barbarians" had fought fiercely against mighty cosmic empires, so looks were definitely deceiving.
Surtur hoisted his blackened Twilight Sword, channeling blistering flame energy into the blade. A scorching beam erupted from its tip. Aaron, clad in his Emperor Armor, didn't even bother dodging. He just stood there, chest out and hands on his hips, letting that beam slam straight into him. Although it was hot enough to melt iron, it didn't even dent his armor. The moment it touched the plating, the Emperor Armor simply absorbed it—kinetic impact and all.
With Surtur going all-out, Aaron still kept moving forward.
"Surtur, I came here because I need a favor from you. No need to freak out. Let's keep things chill, okay?"
Aaron stepped forward calmly, acting like Surtur's attack was no big deal.
"Damn Asgardian, don't you get cocky!" "This is Muspelheim. Not even Odin, all by himself, could survive here!"
Molten lava dripped from Surtur's mouth. His flames grew more furious with his anger. Right then, the nearest Fire Giant reached Aaron, swinging a blade that could've torn through Asgard's grand gates. The strike was about to land—yet Aaron didn't even blink. He just took another step.
Boom!
A massive shockwave blasted in every direction—a bone-chilling gust that exploded into a wave of lethal frost, instantly freezing everything in a hundred-mile radius. Snow began drifting down as if from nowhere.
Aaron smiled faintly, ignoring the half-dozen swords—now frozen mid-swing just five centimeters from his armor. In the sunlight, those ice-crystallized blades glinted with an icy brilliance.
Meanwhile, the Fire Giants who'd tried to stab him still had these twisted, triumphant snarls on their faces, like they really thought they'd just skewered him. But that small five-centimeter gap might as well have been an uncrossable canyon. Snow kept falling.
The entire area of roughly a hundred miles had become a frozen hell—a death trap for Fire Giants. Any who crossed the boundary froze in seconds; their molten lava-blood turned solid, and they died before they could even react.
More Fire Giants lingered at the edges of that icy wasteland, afraid to approach. Inside was a frigid purgatory; outside, it stayed a blazing world of magma.
Even Surtur, the Fire Giant King, struggled to keep his lava-blood flowing. He poured more power into his intense heat-ray, convinced that no defense was truly infinite—eventually that weird armor would melt, and Aaron would be toast.
"Surtur, if you're going to do another 'beam duel,' maybe stand on the left side next time."
"What are you babbling about?" Surtur demanded, baffled.
"In every classic showdown, the left side usually loses—unless, of course, you're Dyna. Then ignore me." (From Ultraman)
Aaron raised his arm. The bracer on his Emperor Armor built up a terrifying amount of energy. In a flash, the protons and neutrons all around were pulled together by a monster electromagnetic force, unleashing a brutal particle-beam blast that sliced right through Surtur's heat-ray.
The Twilight Sword was knocked hundreds of meters away, slamming into a rocky cliff. Surtur himself flew back dozens of meters, crushing his own stone throne into rubble.
Large cracks snaked over Surtur's muscular body, but he just laughed:
"That's worthless! Nothing you do matters. I'm destined to demolish your homeland. My era will come! Once my crown bathes in the Eternal Flame again, I'll be back at full strength—towering above the mountains and ramming my sword straight into Asgard's—"
"Okay, enough. If you want to rant about Ragnarök, go chat with Thor." Aaron cut him off mid-gloat. One thought flickered through Aaron's mind: since Surtur was in really rough shape right now, would absorbing him as-is reduce the "harvest"?
"Speaking of the Eternal Flame... you mean this?"
He spread out his fingers. Familiar flames danced between the gauntlet's segments.
"My fire! The Eternal Flame!" Surtur's eyes went wide, and despite his battered body, he lunged forward.
"Relax, it's yours. I'll give it to you right now."
Aaron's eyes gleamed as he closed in. The fragment of Eternal Flame in his hand landed smack on Surtur's head. Rather than flying into a rage, Surtur greedily sucked it in.
"More! I need more Eternal Flame!"
He ignored Aaron's rudeness, too consumed by the promise of regaining lost power. His body ballooned in size—just that palmful of Eternal Flame boosted him to well over a hundred meters tall, and he wasn't done growing.
"Still not enough," Aaron muttered, unimpressed by how slowly Surtur was leveling up. He conjured a second chunk of Eternal Flame and tossed it onto Surtur's crown.
Watching from the Bifrost, Heimdall nearly jumped. "All-Father, Aaron's gone rogue!"
Odin, who'd just finished scolding Thor and was heading back in a good mood, got Heimdall's urgent message. Without hesitation, he used dark-energy teleportation—dragging Thor along—to pop onto the Rainbow Bridge.
"Heimdall, what's happening?"
"All-Father, Aaron went to Muspelheim, and he's feeding Surtur the Eternal Flame! That fire demon is about to get his full power back!"
Heimdall immediately shared the live feed with Odin and Thor.
"Oh, wow… he's way bigger than I pictured," Thor whispered, eyeing Surtur's silhouette towering above the surrounding mountains. Feeling like a speck, Thor asked, "How tall is that thing?"
"Four thousand three hundred fifty-one meters and climbing," Heimdall answered briskly.
Thor did some quick mental math, comparing his own size. Could his lightning even scratch a creature that tall? Probably not enough to crack a mountain…
Odin's face was set in a grim frown.
"All-Father, we can't stall. The moment Surtur's back in prime form, he'll lead his Fire Giants straight at Asgard! Please let me activate the Bifrost right now and wipe Muspelheim off the map."
Heimdall didn't actually want to obliterate entire worlds, but if a planet turned into a massive threat, he'd do it for Asgard's sake.
"Wait. Aaron is still there." Odin shook his head.
"But, All-Father," Heimdall insisted, "Aaron's basically committing treason! I saw him hand the Eternal Flame over to Surtur with my own eyes…"
Odin stayed quiet, white-knuckling Gungnir. Thor didn't say a word either, just stared at Aaron with Surtur, lost in thought. He wondered if he really had what it took to be a worthy king someday.
"Father, how'd you even beat a freak like that the first time?"
Odin seemed to remember something he'd rather forget. Shaking his head, he said, "Thor, that was only possible because all of Asgard stood behind me."
"You mean… unity?"
"No. I mean I literally had no choice but to defeat him."
Among Odin's many enemies, Surtur had been one of the strongest. In Asgard's prime, they'd had to pay a heavy price to seal his victory. Now, Surtur was waking up again—
"Aaron… what are you trying to do?"
Odin just couldn't figure Aaron out.
Right then, Aaron gave a nod, satisfied. "All right, we're good. Time to finish this."
"Stupid Asgardian!" Surtur, newly upsized and empowered, still loathed Asgard. It surprised him that this bizarre Asgardian actually returned the Eternal Flame, but it didn't erase his grudge.
"Nobody can stop me now! As a thank-you, I'll give you a quick death!"
Surtur hefted his now-thousands-of-meters-long Twilight Sword, packing billions of tons of force. With one swing, he sliced a thousand-meter mountain next to him clean in half. Rivers of lava sprayed everywhere, turning the entire area into molten slag and melting away any lingering ice. His deafening roar shattered the clouds overhead, ripping them apart in an instant.
Aaron didn't move an inch.
"You're giving me death? Yeah, not a chance."
"Absolute Zero!"
Silently activating the power inherited from the Ancient Casket of Winters, Aaron unleashed a shockwave of sub-zero cold. The snowy domain that was already on the verge of collapse instantly froze solid again. Before the now-thousands-of-meters-tall Surtur could respond, that freezing force spread out from Aaron, sealing him in ice!
The mountain-sized Twilight Sword froze in mid-swing, locked in place. Even though Surtur had the raw power to wreck entire planets, he couldn't break free fast enough this time. It was like time stood still.
Aaron zoomed up to Surtur's lofty crown, setting a foot on it and placing his hand against it.
"Melt!"
The Primordial Furnace—like a black hole—roared to life. Unable to move, Surtur had no way to dodge. Half of his massive Eternal Crown disintegrated immediately, and big chunks of his body vanished too.
"Huh? The Eternal Flame is still holding off my absolute-zero freeze?" Aaron frowned. With the Eternal Flame, Surtur was no joke. Granted, Aaron had only used a fraction of that freezing power, but Surtur was constantly channeling more and more heat, slowly pushing back the ice. Maybe after a few more minutes, he really would break out.
"Yeah, that makes sense. The Eternal Flame and the Casket of Ancient Winters are both top-tier artifacts; they basically cancel each other out. Doing this with only part of the Casket's power? Not gonna kill Surtur for real…
"In that case, let's call it a day."
He backed off, gathering an even more intense energy in his hand. With a gentle palm thrust, the space around what was left of Surtur's body collapsed inward.
In an instant, a black hole maybe a few hundred meters across formed—a ravenous vortex devouring everything. The land itself was torn away under insane gravitational shearing; entire mountainsides splintered and vanished.
Caught in that singularity, Surtur only managed a few seconds of roaring before a giant hemispherical void swallowed him and everything else in a radius of tens of thousands of meters. Surtur, the Eternal Flame, and his crown were completely obliterated.
Aaron took stock of his gains:
[Gigantification (Complete Eternal Surtur): As long as you've got a steady supply of Eternal energy, you can keep growing bigger indefinitely, with your strength multiplying exponentially (exact size depends on available energy).]
[Fire Giant (Titan) King's Power: Similar abilities detected and merged (Frost Giant bloodline, Stone Giant bloodline). You've acquired the Giants' ancestral might (Primordial Giant Force – Incomplete). Your physical strength and toughness have gone up again, plus you're more resistant to magical energy and can freely tap into water, fire, and earth powers.]
"Primordial Giant Force? Ymir's, maybe?" Aaron was surprised. Ice and fire, once so contradictory, had merged somehow—on top of the Stone Giant blood he'd already picked up. "Maybe it's incomplete because I don't have enough data on Frost Giants and Stone Giants?"
He paused and felt the ground feeding him energy, probably courtesy of the Stone Giant trait. If he found more Giants to absorb, he might perfect that power, unlocking another energy source and leveling up even faster.
"Guess I'll pay Laufey a visit. Loki's Frost Giant King blood is too watered down—barely enough to register. And with Surtur gone, that chunk of Fire Giant data is already complete. The Stone Giants might be tricky, though. They live in Vanaheim, but there aren't many, and I haven't heard of a Stone Giant King. Oh well, I'll figure it out."
He dropped the thought. Sooner or later, he'd sort it out. With a swirl of dark energy, he opened a portal back to Asgard.
Right when he returned, he noticed Sif leaning near a bed. Suddenly, heat flared in him. For a second, he worried it might be Surtur's rage at Asgard leaking through. He'd never admit it was just his own urge to test some new "techniques."
"Sif, want to try experiencing 'double the pleasure'?"
She gaped at him in total confusion. Aaron simply made contact, and a surge of shared sensation—courtesy of the "sensory sharing" ability he'd snagged from Heimdall—flooded into her. Once he obtained that power, he got curious whether it might let two people feel each other's sensations in, shall we say, "private situations."
The second his hand touched Sif, she felt something completely unfamiliar. So soft… so comfortable… Oh God, so warm, so satisfying—
Wait, what?!
…
Meanwhile, back on the Bifrost, three people stood there in stunned silence.
"Did I see that right?"
"Aaron… actually killed Surtur?"
"That… that power," Thor said, swallowing hard. "He could wipe out Asgard in an instant if he felt like it."
He was referring to the main Asgardian city. With that black-hole move, Aaron could have obliterated most of Asgard's population in a single shot. The mere thought made Thor's stomach flip: if Aaron dropped that black hole above the city, everything Thor cared about would vanish.
"That's… raw spatial power," Odin muttered. Even for him, tangling with a black hole like that would be dicey. In fact, he might not survive it at all, unless he managed to dodge beforehand.
Pure physical strength couldn't handle that kind of space-tearing devastation; you'd need something even crazier to break free. And let's say he did dodge the black hole—would he survive that freezing cold? It was enough to keep Eternal-Flame-fueled Surtur trapped for a while.
Odin fell quiet, realizing Aaron's power now eclipsed that of a Skyfather. If Aaron wanted, he could destroy Asgard with a literal flick of his wrist. Worse, Odin had no idea if that was Aaron's own strength or just the ability of that Emperor Armor…
~~~
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