"Sif, you are the incarnation of the goddess of land and harvest, and Thor's fiancée besides. There was no need for you to follow us into Midgard on this adventure…"
The oldest among them, Volstagg, held a two-handed battle-axe. He was tall and burly, though his body had grown slightly stout.
At this moment, he was standing in front of Sif, patiently trying to persuade her. "Go back. At a time as unstable as this, you should be by the Queen's side. This dangerous mission should have been left to us, the Warriors Three."
"Trust us. We'll definitely bring Thor back."
The moment he said that, even Hogun, who came from Vanaheim and had a stern face, having remained silent off to the side all this time, nodded along.
"No!"
Faced with the three of them trying to stop her in turn, the resolve on Sif's face did not waver in the slightest.
She pushed them aside, briefly identified the direction, then followed Heimdall's guidance and strode forward.
"It is precisely because I am Thor's fiancée that I should not be hiding behind anyone."
Seeing Volstagg open his mouth as if he still wanted to say more, Sif waved him off and interrupted him.
"Enough. Time is urgent. The sooner we find Thor, the sooner Asgard will be a little safer. Even if Jotunheim's Frost Giants make a move, they will have to think twice about the price of rashly attacking Asgard."
"This…"
"All right."
Although her divine domain had little to do with battle, Sif's combat experience was not lacking in the slightest.
She had fought shoulder to shoulder with the Warriors Three for hundreds of years and pacified countless wars. Naturally, she was not some decorative ornament who looked good but served no purpose.
Seeing that she was determined to follow, Fandral and the others tried persuading her several times without success. In the end, they could only let her do as she wished.
The four of them skillfully assumed a battle formation and strode toward the town.
Rumble!
They advanced along the road, drawing closer and closer to the human settlement. Suddenly, the roar of an engine erupted behind them.
The sound came closer and closer, bearing a scorching aura as it pressed toward them. Its unrestrained presence spread outward, and a powerful sense of oppression surged into the hearts of all four almost at the same time.
They whipped around and saw a bright line of fire stretching toward them from the distance.
At the end of that fiery trail was a dazzling blaze. Moving at a speed impossible for ordinary human eyes to discern, a pale white skull was exposed to the open air, its jaw opening and closing as it advanced. It looked terrifying beyond words.
"Enemy!"
"What a powerful aura. It's coming straight at us."
The tacit understanding forged through hundreds of years of fighting side by side allowed the four to shift formation the instant they sensed danger. Volstagg, the largest among them, stepped without hesitation in front of the other three.
"What exactly is that thing? I've never seen anything like it in the other realms."
"Come on, then! Let us show you the might of the Warriors Three!"
He let out a low shout. While bolstering his own courage, his already towering body swelled by another measure.
Beneath the fat that had come with age, powerful muscles bulged. The formidable physical constitution of an Asgardian gave him explosive strength beyond compare.
The double-edged battle-axe in his hands gleamed with a cold, sharp light. Watching the flame-wrapped enemy draw closer and closer, Volstagg raised both hands high. Finally, the instant that fearsome motorcycle approached, he brought the axe down with tremendous force.
The finely crafted weapon forged by the dwarves carried a fierce gust of wind. Caught off guard by the sudden ambush, Johnny, who had already been distracted thinking about what had just happened, had no chance to react. He only saw a tall shadow suddenly rush out from the side, and in the next instant, a massive axe had already struck his beloved motorcycle with brutal force.
Huge momentum and overwhelming power collided. Caught by the sudden blow, Johnny felt his vision blur, and the hellfire around him burned even more wildly.
As the Hell Cycle's balance was abruptly broken, the instincts of a top-tier motorcycle stunt rider kicked in. He violently swung the handlebars, and rider and bike veered off their original path at extreme speed, crashing away.
"Where the hell did these lunatics come from?!"
Years of experience took effect in that moment. Going from extreme motion to stillness, Johnny drifted nearly a hundred meters before finally coming to a steady stop.
Hellfire burned furiously, instantly scorching that entire stretch of road into a mess.
Only now did he finally have the chance to turn the bike around and take a proper look at the people who had ambushed him.
"What a terrifying demonic aura!"
Seeing that his all-out strike had failed, and that the other party had even restored his balance at such speed, Volstagg's expression immediately grew grave.
"We're in trouble. I never expected it to be a demon…"
Looking at the bizarre skull in the distance, its entire body wreathed in blazing flames, Sif drew the enchanted longsword on her back with a sharp ring.
"Come. For the peace of the Nine Realms, for the stability of Midgard, and for Thor—we attack!"
Volstagg, the eldest, took command without hesitation.
"Fandral, stay on the flank. Sif, guard the rear. Hogun, charge with me!"
At his order, the muscles across their bodies instantly tightened. The mighty power granted by their divine bodies erupted almost without reservation.
Volstagg and Hogun, charging at the front, leapt nearly a hundred meters into the air in a single bound. Then, under the pull of gravity, they plummeted down. Their weapons, wrapped in fierce wind, smashed heavily toward Johnny.
Even at this moment, Fandral did not lose his elegant bearing. His sword danced in his palm as he and Sif circled wide, firmly sealing off every possible escape route Johnny had.
They truly were among Asgard's elite warriors. Once the four of them attacked together, they left almost no opening for the enemy to exploit.
Only a few breaths had passed between Johnny steadying himself and seeing them launch another assault.
Still not fully recovered from his confusion, Johnny watched the other party attack again. Their stormlike assault surged toward him like a tide, bringing a suffocating sense of pressure.
Ever since he and Fenris had parted yesterday while chasing Blackheart, Johnny had encountered another person along the way.
Under that person's guidance, he had finally recognized his situation clearly and begun to learn how to control his power.
Johnny's strength had now surged once more. Although this was not his dark home ground, that did not mean he was going to let anyone butcher him.
He just had never imagined that on his return trip, he would run into a group of lunatics who attacked him without even asking what was going on.
"No, seriously?"
"What the hell is wrong with these people?"
(End of Chapter)
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