Thor stepped fully out of the crater, boots sinking into scorched earth and shattered stone. He took in the scene in silence. Six gods lay dead, bodies twisted, armor split open like cracked shells. Their armies were strewn across the battlefield in piles, divine blood soaking into the ground as if even the world wanted to forget them.
It was not a battle.
It was a one-sided massacre.
Thor's grip tightened around Mjolnir.
He raised the hammer and leveled it at the lone figure standing amid the ruin. "In the name of Odin's beard... Who…" He paused, disbelief curling into anger. "No. What are you? And where did you find the Necrosword?"
Gorr did not answer right away.
He simply stood there, the black blade resting loosely at his side, its surface shifting like living shadow. He studied Thor with something close to curiosity. The god before him was bright and full of life. Everything Gorr had once prayed to become. But at the present, he was just another god Gorr was going to slaughter.
At last, he spoke.
"My name is Gorr," he said calmly. "Son of a nameless father. Outcast from a forgotten world."
The Necrosword flowed up into his hand like a loyal serpent. Gorr ran a finger slowly along its edge. The blade purred, eager.
"It fell from the sky many years ago," he continued. "On a world without a name. I picked it up… and butchered my first gods."
Thor's eyes narrowed, lightning beginning to crackle around him.
Gorr smiled faintly.
"And then," he said, voice soft with memory, "as I stood there, baptized in their blood, a question formed in my simple little brain."
He looked up at Thor, eyes dark and steady.
"I wondered if there were more."
The sword lifted, pointing toward Thor like an accusation.
"And I was rejoiced to find the truth. There are so many gods." His voice grew stronger, layered with something vast and cold. "I have slain my way through multitudes to stand here, at the genesis of all things. Blackened by vengeance. Wet with holy blood."
The shadows around him thickened, crawling across the ground like a tide.
"One simple dream still burns in my heart," Gorr said. "The dream of a godless age."
Thor's jaw clenched.
He spun Mjolnir once and brought it down into his palm. Thunder roared overhead, the sky answering him like an old friend.
"I am Thor Odinson," he said, lightning crawling across his armor. "And I'll stop you. Whatever pain made you, whatever lies that sword fed you, it ends here."
Gorr tilted his head.
"That's what they all said," he said. "And just like them... you too will fall."
Thor moved first.
Mjolnir vanished from his hand in a blur of lightning, tearing through the air toward Gorr with a thunderclap that split the sky. Gorr did not dodge. The Necrosword stretched, liquefying into a wall of blackness that swallowed the hammer whole.
The impact still sent Gorr skidding backward, boots carving trenches through the earth.
Thor was already there.
He landed with a crash, fist glowing with stormlight, and drove it toward Gorr's head. Gorr twisted aside at the last instant. Thor's punch missed by inches and obliterated the ground behind him, sending molten stone into the air.
Gorr slashed.
The Necrosword screamed as it cut, a crescent of darkness ripping toward Thor. Thor crossed his arms just in time. Lightning flared, but the shadow blade bit deep, tearing through armor and flesh. Thor staggered back, blood sizzling from his forearms.
He grinned anyway.
"That all you've got?"
Gorr stepped forward, shadows rising behind him like wings.
"I have killed gods who shaped stars," he said. "Gods who drank suns. You are loud. You are strong. But you are still just another god who thinks himself necessary."
The Necrosword surged, splitting into dozens of tendrils that lashed toward Thor from every direction.
Thor roared as he recalled Mjolnir. The hammer answered him by breaking through the darkness and returning to his hand. Thor yelled as he jumped up and brought Mjolnir crashing down on Gorr. Lightning exploded outward in a blinding sphere, vaporizing shadows, turning the battlefield into white fire. The shockwave threw Gorr back through the ruins of a fallen temple, stone collapsing around him.
For a heartbeat, there was only thunder and smoke.
Then the shadows moved.
They peeled away from the rubble, knitting together. Gorr rose from the wreckage, unharmed, the Necrosword reforming in his grip.
Thor frowned, breathing heavier now.
Gorr met his gaze across the ruined field.
"Tell me, Thunder God," he said quietly. "When they scream your name while dying, do you hear them?"
Lightning cracked overhead.
Thor charged.
Before he could close the distance, the shadows at Gorr's feet split open like wounds. From them rose shapes that were almost gods. Twisted silhouettes with hollow eyes and jagged limbs, forged from darkness. They climbed out by the dozens, then the hundreds, then more still, an endless tide spilling across the ruined world.
Gorr did not move.
He only watched.
The specters rushed Thor all at once.
Mjolnir crackled with thunder as Thor swung it, every strike crushing bodies into smoke. Lightning tore through the horde, blasting shadows apart in violent flashes. Thor fought like a living storm, hammer spinning, fists breaking, thunder following every step. Gods would have fled from this sight. Mortals would have prayed.
The specters kept coming.
They clawed at him, dragged at his arms, wrapped around his legs. Thor tore free again and again, roaring as he shattered them in bursts of light. But for every shadow destroyed, two more took its place. The battlefield darkened as if night itself was piling on top of him.
Thor kept fighting, but there was no end...
Gorr's smile widened.
"So strong," he murmured. "Stronger than the rest."
Thor planted his feet and raised Mjolnir high.
The sky answered.
Clouds spiraled inward, collapsing into a massive storm overhead. Thunder rolled so loudly it drowned out the specters' screams. Lightning fell in blinding sheets, annihilating the shadow army in a chain of white explosions. Darkness burned away, leaving nothing but scorched ground and drifting ash.
Thor did not stop.
He launched himself into the sky, spinning Mjolnir faster and faster. The storm condensed around him, lightning coiling tighter, screaming as it was forced into a single point. The air warped. The clouds tore themselves apart.
Thor aimed the hammer at Gorr.
A column of divine thunder followed it, a focused blast of pure divine thunder aimed straight at Gorr. The world bent under its force. Space itself seemed to recoil, forming cracks in reality.
Gorr stepped forward.
He raised the Necrosword.
And sliced.
The blade cut clean through the thunder, splitting the lightning apart as if it were cloth. The divine energy unraveled, screaming as it died. The storm collapsed in on itself, clouds dispersing into nothing.
Thor's eyes widened in disbelief. He had poured everything into that attack, yet Gorr sliced through it like... as if it was nothing.
Before he could respond, shadows rose from the ground and enveloped him. They wrapped around his arms, chest, and neck. The shadows felt thick, suffocating, and alive. Thor shouted and used lightning to break them apart. The shadows shattered but quickly regenerated, trapping him once again.
He broke them again and again. Each time they returned stronger, tighter, dragging him downward. His lightning flickered, flashes growing shorter, less certain.
Thor strained, muscles shaking.
"Enough," he growled, voice echoing inside the dark. He slammed Mjolnir against the shadows, cracking them open in violent bursts.
They closed again.
Gorr walked closer, unhurried, shadows parting for him like loyal servants. He looked up at Thor, suspended and struggling, and his grin was sharp and satisfied.
"Feel that, little lord of heaven?" Gorr said softly. "That weight in your chest. That panic when strength is not enough. That sense of helplessness as you fall?"
Thor snarled and tried to summon another storm. The sky did not answer.
Gorr's eyes gleamed.
"That is how it feels to be mortal," he continued. "Next, you will learn how it feels to be butchered."
Thor strained against the shadows until his voice tore free of his chest.
"HEIMDALL!" he roared. "NOW!"
Across realms, the call was heard.
The sky split open.
A column of blinding rainbow color slammed down from the heavens, the Bifrost tearing through cloud and shadow alike. Its light burned against the darkness, binding Thor.
"NO!" Gorr yelled in rage. "You do not escape judgment!"
He raised the Necrosword with both hands.
The blade answered eagerly.
Gorr slashed upward.
A wave of pure darkness tore from the sword that devoured light as it moved. It struck the Bifrost head-on. The beam shattered like glass struck by a hammer, fragments of broken energy spiraling outward as the connection fractured before the transportation could be completed.
The Bifrost convulsed.
Thor's eyes widened as the pull on his body became uneven, violent. Heimdall's power fought to hold him, but the beam was no longer whole. It twisted, buckled, and split, opening a jagged tear inside its own light.
The world vanished as he was dragged into the rift, a collapsing hole in space where light folded in on itself. Thunder screamed around him as the shadows finally released their grip.
Gorr watched as Thor disappeared into the tearing void, swallowed by the broken path between realms.
The rift sealed itself with a violent snap, leaving only scorched air and drifting sparks where the Thunder God had been.
Silence returned to the battlefield once more.
Gorr lowered the Necrosword slowly, its surface rippling with satisfaction.
"Run little god," he said to the empty sky, his voice calm again. "The more you run, the more I'll hunt in order to find you, and one day, you too will fall just like the rest..."
Gorr disappeared with a wisp.
----
..[POWERSTONES AND REVIEWS]...
If you want to read early advance chapters, you can join>: www.patr eon.com/XcaliburXc
[I have > 14 advance chapters] +
[Early access to Modern Family x Hollywood: 27 chs] > [Available for all tiers]