Within moments, the entire room was filled with Hela's undead soldiers, leaving Susan with barely any room to maneuver. Even as she used her force fields to deal with the constantly emerging undead while also attacking Hela, the goddess didn't relent for a moment.
Eventually, the high-intensity combat left Susan somewhat exhausted. After all, no matter how much high-intensity training Alex put her through, it couldn't suddenly make her comparable to an entity like Hela in terms of sheer combat experience. Without an overwhelming advantage, it all boiled down to who was better at using their powers. And despite the potential of her powers, Susan was still weaker than many of her own variants, who had learned to use their powers in countless fatal scenarios that forced them to push past their limits to survive. No matter how intense Susan's training was, it couldn't compare to such vivid experiences.
"Is that all?" Hela asked, a hint of boredom creeping into her tone the moment she noticed the reduced intensity of Susan's attacks. "Pity, I was just about to start having fun…"
"You will, Hela." A new voice emerged, prompting Hela to raise her brow as she turned to look at the source.
Susan simmered into existence, surrounded by Hela's ever-increasing undead army as her force field constructs continued to pierce through whatever creature got into her range. There were multiple such clearings all around the room to mask Susan's invisible presence amidst her attempts to get close enough to Hela. Unfortunately, her endurance gave out before she could find the right chance. Alex stood beside her in the clearing, looking at Hela with a bright smile.
"You will get your fun, Hela," Alex said with an amused smile. "Now that my Susan is satisfied, it's time we get serious."
"And who might you be?" Hela asked with a hint of caution in her tone. Unlike Susan, Alex's presence made her intuition flare with danger.
"Apex, at your service," Alex said with a mock bow. "I'm taking over this planet today. And you have two options in front of you. Submission or death."
Hela's eyes narrowed as she burst out laughing. "With just you?"
Before Alex could respond, he felt a spatial fluctuation high up in the air. The moment he turned his head up, five massive swords burst through the ceiling, directly striking the spot where he and Susan were standing.
The swords continued their descent, entirely obliterating the Wakandan castle as if its Vibranium was no more than mere paper in front of the death-infused necroswords that rained down upon it. The massive swords were even larger than the castle itself and embedded themselves in the earth, sticking through the now-ruined castle.
"You wish to make me submit? Do you qualify?" Hela spoke, hovering high in the air, overlooking the desecrated and destroyed castle as she landed on top of one of the swords.
"I'd like to think so," Alex said. "Where are you summoning these swords from? These require Asgard as an anchor, no? Are you in contact with Odin or Thor or whoever rules this universe's Asgard?"
Looking at the slimy mass that coalesced into the familiar figure of Apex a few feet in front of her, Hela looked both cautious and a little excited.
"Did I kill your lady?" Hela asked, almost taunting. "How about I bring her back for you?"
"That won't be necessary," Alex said. "I have much better uses for your power over death."
"Is that so?" Hela, despite her caution, was not lacking in confidence as she let loose a torrent of green necrotic energy all around her. It spread throughout the surroundings within what seemed like an instant, dyeing the sky green as the area all around them got enveloped in the same green mist. Countless humanoid undead figures rose from the mist, spreading through the entire nation of Wakanda.
"Did you already kill everyone in Wakanda?" Alex asked with a frown. "What a waste of resources. Do you have any idea how useful Vibranium is?"
Hela frowned momentarily. What she had released wasn't mere energy. It was close to a domain that isolated the interior and put immense pressure on anyone stuck inside. For someone to speak freely while inside this domain, without the slightest impediment, was odd, to say the least.
"Whatever, I doubt you have anything that can counter me. Considering your actions up to now, your death authority is limited to Asgardians. Even these undead, most of them are summoned from Valhalla and embody the dead humans' souls… Pity. I thought you had a higher necromantic authority…"
Not giving Hela the chance to respond, Alex tapped into Susan's powers. Instantly, an invisible wave spread all around, momentarily distorting everything it passed. Within moments, a force field had appeared around Hela's domain and started compressing it. It didn't take long for the radius of the domain to start shrinking.
Susan's powers were sufficient to contain and move entire planets, let alone suppress the domain of an entity like Hela, who barely qualified as a demigod.
Realizing her disadvantageous position, Hela didn't hesitate and formed multiple portals, taking advantage of the fact that her domain was still present to instantly summon more swords. Not giving Alex a chance to react, ten gigantic necroswords shot at him from different directions. With a thought, Alex summoned ten compressed shields that appeared in the path of every sword, in an attempt to push them back.
While Susan had barely blocked far weaker swords, Alex casually blocked ten that were far greater in scale and power while also compressing Hela's domain.
Seeing her attack blocked with seemingly effortless ease, Hela's expression grew graver. Summoning two swords in her hands, she shot forward, going for the most direct kind of assault. Unlike the average necrosword, these were wreathed in green flames, imbued with the essence of Hela's powers.
Alex saw her approach him and knew she was getting serious. For all her use of magic and necromancy, he was well aware of the wealth of combat experience she possessed. Even with his advantages, that was something that he couldn't compare to. Getting direct and personal was Hela's most powerful means of attack.
With a wave of his hand, Alex crushed the necroswords that he'd blocked and summoned a sword of his own, made with his own body, that appeared right in the path of Hela's swinging blade. Alex only had the time to notice a scoffing smirk on the woman's face before the necrosword sliced through Alex's summoned sword and was about to strike his shoulder, only stopping an inch away, blocked by a force field. Even then, the flames that covered the sword would have almost scorched his face if not for another force field pushing the sword back. He didn't have time to do anything about the other sword and chose the most direct way of handling it. His body simply split apart in the path of the sword, letting it harmlessly pass through as he joined back together.
He did it mostly to avoid the decay effect of the necrosword. When Hela had cut through Alex's sword, he'd felt that part of his body decay and promptly cut it off before the effects could spread further. As immune as Alex's body was to most things, certain kinds of magic and higher-level godly energies could still affect him.
As Hela's sword passed harmlessly through him, Alex switched completely to Susan's force fields, which were essentially immune to any authority Hela could throw at them. The only way to break through Susan's force fields was raw force, and Hela could never reach the amount of force required to break through those force fields when Alex was the one using them.
Alex's odd method of dodging didn't deter Hela for a single moment as she immediately swung her other sword at Alex's neck, intent on beheading him. Alex raised his hand as an invisible sword simmered into existence, finally blocking Hela's sword as he summoned another sword above the goddess that pierced down at her.
Hela only needed a single shift of her body to dodge the descending invisible sword as she swung the other sword at Alex's left shoulder. He formed a sword in his left hand to block it. As for the other side, Alex had extended the force field over to Hela's sword, holding it in place. It worked only for a millisecond before Hela released a concentrated burst from the tip of her sword, piercing through the enveloping force field as the aura shot toward Alex's eye, forcing him to retreat for a moment as he blocked the aura with another force field.
With her freed sword, Hela suddenly targeted the sword in Alex's left hand, swinging it down to pressure the force field with both her swords, confident that she would be able to break through. Her confidence wasn't unfounded, as Alex found himself on the defensive as Hela's dual swords pushed his sword construct down, momentarily overpowering him. Tempted as he was to activate other powers, he wanted to see just how far he could push this veritable goddess of combat before being forced to tap into his other powers.
As Alex swung his newly freed sword horizontally at Hela, she grunted, suddenly bursting with strength as she swung both swords to the right, sliding over Alex's invisible sword. The two swords narrowly missed Alex's fingers as he lowered his left hand barely in time, as Hela's two swords directly hacked at his right hand.
Seeing that it was too late to change the trajectory, Alex simply dislodged his arm, letting the two swords pass harmlessly through as the invisible sword continued moving toward Hela. Seemingly not even noticing them, Hela continued her momentum in a pirouette, intent on slashing Alex, but the sword was upon her before she could even complete the maneuver.
Before the invisible sword could cut her, a large sword tore through the air right behind Alex, prompting him to tilt his head to the side as he dodged it. Though he didn't seem to be the target, the sword clashed with his invisible blade that was about to hack through Hela. That gave her enough time to complete her motion as she slashed both swords horizontally at Alex. Even as he barely raised his sword to block her attack, her momentum allowed her to push past his strength and reach him with her swords.
Just as her swords were about to hack through his torso, Alex simply separated again, letting them pass by without the slightest harm.
"This was fun, Hela," Alex said. "I mean it. Let's do this again sometime."
Before Hela could react, she felt something wrap around her leg as it quickly siphoned away all her powers, directly destroying her domain and blocking her from accessing any of her powers and authorities. In the next moment, everything went dark.
Alex looked at Hela's surprised expression, still devoid of panic, with a smile as he enveloped her entire body in a black bodysuit, rendering her nothing more than a helpless doll with her legs stuck together and her arms stuck at her sides.
He extended his arm toward her and pulled her over his shoulder before she could fall down, and created a mystic arts portal before disappearing with the woman.
***
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