B-15 realized that they were completely outmatched but they couldn't just leave empty-handed—not after coming this far. W14233 (Wrecker) was useless here despite his considerable strength; he couldn't even get close to Aegir without being temporally manipulated. The standard protocols had failed.
But they had one more option.
B-15's gaze shifted to the woman beside her—the one Aegir hadn't recognized. "K20114, you're up."
The woman stepped forward, her cybernetic leg clicking against the stone floor with each measured step. Karma(Xuân Cao Mạnh) code name K20114's expression was focused, professional. "Range isn't an issue. I just need line of sight."
"Oh?" Aegir raised an eyebrow, genuinely curious now. "Bringing out the special operatives, are we? And here I thought you were actually retreating."
"You've proven resistant to conventional methods," B-15 said coldly. "Time to try unconventional ones."
Karma's eyes began to glow faintly as she concentrated, her mutant power reaching out toward Aegir's mind. Mental possession—the ability to take control of another being's consciousness entirely. It had worked on others before, on beings far more powerful physically than any human. Raw power meant nothing if she could seize control of the mind directing it.
Aegir felt the intrusion immediately—like fingers scrabbling at the edges of his consciousness, trying to force their way inside. It was uncomfortable, invasive, and frankly annoying.
But it went nowhere.
The runic tattoos along Aegir's temples and behind his ears flared with bright blue light. These weren't flashy combat runes or elemental controls—these were his most carefully constructed defenses, layered over years of paranoid preparation. Mind control had always been one of his greatest fears, and he'd spent considerable time and effort ensuring no one could simply take control of him.
The mental assault crashed against his defenses like waves against a cliff, finding no purchase, no weakness to exploit.
Karma's eyes widened slightly, surprise breaking through her professional composure. "That's... impossible. I can't even find an entry point."
"Really trying to get in my head?" Aegir said with mock offense, tapping his temple where the runes glowed. "Sorry, but I'm not a fan of uninvited guests. Especially not in here."
Even without the runic Tattoos, controlling a god wasn't a simple matter. Divine consciousness operated on a different level than mortal minds—more vast, more complex, more resilient. It was like trying to possess an ocean using tools designed for a pond.
"Increase power," B-15 ordered. "Override his resistance."
"I'm already at maximum output," Karma replied, strain evident in her voice now. Sweat beaded on her forehead as she pushed harder, trying to force her way through Aegir's mental barriers. "It's not about power—his defenses are too sophisticated. Layered, redundant, and... they're actively adapting to my attempts."
"Well, this is getting awkward," Aegir commented conversationally. "Should I leave you two alone, or...?"
B-15's jaw clenched in frustration. Another failure. Another method that should have worked but didn't.
"Enough, K20114. Fall back."
Karma released her power with visible relief, the glow fading from her eyes. She looked exhausted from the effort. "Whatever he's got protecting his mind, it's beyond anything I've encountered. Military-grade doesn't even begin to cover it."
"Thanks for trying though," Aegir said with false cheerfulness. "Really, I appreciate the effort. Very flattering that you'd go through all that trouble."
"Damn it!" B-15's professional composure finally cracked. "You forced me to this! In view of your temporal abilities causing massive obstruction to our timeline maintenance, I hereby announce we're skipping arrest and trial. We're resetting this timeline directly!"
She reached into her jacket and pulled out a reset charge—a cylindrical device that pulsed with ominous energy.
Aegir recognized it immediately. The reset charge would prune the affected radius of a timeline, supposedly allowing time to heal its wound. A nice way of saying it would disintegrate everything in its vicinity. Everything and everyone in the pruned timeline would be thrown into the Void as food for Alioth.
Terrifying equipment.
But Aegir wasn't worried at all.
While his temporal authority was only partial compared to the full Bronze Dragon King's power, he could still achieve local time manipulation—acceleration, deceleration, and most importantly, temporal reversal in his immediate area. B-15 could reset all she wanted. He'd just reverse time to before she activated it.
Besides, with him standing right here, who gave her the confidence that she'd even get the chance to activate it successfully?
Did she think he'd just stand here and watch?
The moment B-15 took out the reset charge and crouched to place it on the ground, her finger moving toward the activation button, Aegir was in front of her.
B-15 instinctively reached out to block him with her free hand, but how could an ordinary human without any enhancements resist a god? Not everyone was Captain America with super-soldier serum running through their veins.
With a casual flick of his wrist, Aegir sent her flying backward. She crashed into two of her soldiers with a startled cry, and both the reset charge and her time pad were in Aegir's hand before anyone could react.
"Do you have any more of these?" Aegir examined the reset charge with genuine interest, turning it over in his hands. "Mind if I keep this one? Consider them souvenirs."
The time pad would let him travel to the TVA headquarters if he chose to—useful for future reference. The reset device was incredibly dangerous, but that made it all the more valuable. He'd store it in Vanaheim's treasure vault as a trophy and study its mechanisms.
Even after accounting for mass production, this thing was more precious than the Eternal Fire or the Casket of Ancient Winters. Studying it might help him develop countermeasures against similar temporal weaponry.
B-15 pulled herself up from the pile of soldiers, wincing. She'd completely miscalculated the situation and underestimated her opponent.
All along, she'd been approaching this time crime with her previous experience. The usual pattern: show up, overwhelm the variant with superior technology and numbers, prune or capture, move on to the next case. Before, their targets didn't understand the TVA's methods, which allowed for easy success.
But against someone who knew them well, who understood their capabilities and limitations? Their standard procedures were completely useless.
"Variant," B-15 said through gritted teeth, trying to salvage some dignity from this disaster. "You will pay for what you did today. This isn't over. Let's go!"
She gestured sharply to her team, and the remaining TVA agents scrambled toward their portal. Wrecker shot Aegir one last hostile glare before following, Karma limping slightly on her cybernetic leg as she retreated.
Aegir didn't stop them. He could have killed them all easily enough, but what would be the point? These workers were all consumable and recyclable items in Kang's eyes. As long as the Conqueror was willing, he could pluck them from various timelines and deploy them again. Memory-wiped, reprogrammed, sent back into service.
Aegir didn't want to waste time on pawns when the real player sat safely behind layers of deception and temporal barriers.
No point.
The portal snapped shut, leaving him alone in his throne room. The space felt suddenly quiet after all the commotion.
"The trouble's been dealt with," Aegir muttered, examining his new acquisitions before tucking them away safely. "Finally, I can do other things."
He returned to his throne, settling into it with none of the nervousness he'd felt before his coronation. Things had changed. The threats were known now, the boundaries established.
Odin currently couldn't move against him openly without damaging his carefully maintained image as a just ruler. The TVA had just learned that Vanaheim wasn't an easy target for pruning. Both would need time to reassess, to plan new approaches if they planned to make any moves at all.
There would be a period of peace, at least for now.
Aegir was confident that after these events, the TVA wouldn't come for him again until they were fully confident in their ability to handle his temporal manipulation. As long as they had no means to contain his time powers, and couldn't crush him in direct combat, it didn't matter how many times they showed up. The result would be the same.
They'd need to develop new strategies, new weapons, new approaches. That would take time—ironically enough by then Aegir will be much stronger with the System.
At present, Aegir was more concerned with improving his own strength and increasing Vanaheim's power. The TVA had been a test of sorts, an unexpected challenge that proved he could handle external threats when they came.
But there were still internal matters to resolve.
Next target...
"Time to deal with the Rock Trolls," Aegir said aloud, his mind already shifting to the northern territories and their stubborn refusal to acknowledge his rule.
The separatist forces needed to understand that Vanaheim had a true Sea Lord again. The TVA had learned that lesson today through failed capture attempts and lost equipment.
The Rock Trolls would learn it through a more direct demonstration.