Chapter 55 – The Beginning of the End, part three
Crossing his arms, Lucifer saw the hologram of Tarre Viszla in his Mark 82 armour, smiling. "He has become powerful.", Lucifer spoke as he saw Tarre use lightning blasts to kill a 300-foot armoured serpent.
"General Syndulla, we have received reports from the Planet's surface about strange attacks. You and Phoenix squadron are ordered to provide air support on the planet.", Admiral Ackbar told Hera.
"Acknowledged Admiral. Are you sure you can handle things here?", Hera asked.
"I would be lying if I said we could. But I have faith that we will triumph General. This is a day of strange events.", Ackbar answered.
"It is General.", Hera said, "Phoenix Squadron form up on me, we are headed towards the planet's surface.", Hera ordered through the comms and received acknowledgement of the fighters. As they headed towards the planet's surface, Kallus spoke, "Let's hope that is not as horrible down there as it is up here."
"War is a constant surprise.", Wolfe said.
Back in space the battle between the celestials and the seraphims led by Bor was unfolding. 'Strange, he's more powerful than before.', Bor thought as he used his axe to deflect the attacks of the Horsemen, while the tail of the dead serpent in his other hand was wrapped around the neck of the celestial Pride.
Issho was using gravitational waves to twist and turn the bodies of the two opponents he was facing – Greed and Gluttony. At first Issho was surprised by the appearance of Greed, thinking that he had killed the Celestial Sin Lord, but found himself to be better prepared this time. Castiel and Seleyse seemed to have their hands full with the three remaining sins- Envy, Wrath and Sloth. The reason they were having a difficult time was because of Sloth, who was using his abilities to slow down the response times of the two Seraphim. This was put to a stop as Bor swung his axe at Sloth, catching him off guard and cutting off his arm. This action allowed Pride to break free from Bor's hold and launch his attack at the Archangel – an energy blast at Bor's face, pushing Bor's helmet off of him and causing a slight burn. Bor then opened his mouth and released a fiery breath at Pride, engulfing his body completely in the Godly fire. Pride would yell in pain, but he didn't as he was Pride for crying out loud. Seeing Pride to be occupied with the fire engulfing his body, Bor turned his attention towards his Celestial Counterpart – Horseman of the Apocalypse.
Heading to the planet's surface, Wolfe let out a low whistle, "Well Alexsandr, how would you define this?"
Before Kallus could answer, Hera ordered through the comms, "Squadron take evasive action", as they dodged enemy craft and Hera saw Tarre electrocuting one of the 300-foot serpent.
"Kanan, what's the status?", Hera asked.
"We're at a stalemate. But these things will overrun us soon. They're coming out of portals.", Kanan answered.
"I've had rough days, some very horrible ones but never did I think that I would have hear the word portal.", Wolfe spoke.
"You obviously haven't spent enough time with us.", Ezra commented.
Back on the ground Ezra, Cham Syndulla, Ursa Wren and Alrich Wren were fighting back to back, slashing and shooting at the enemy. To their right were Kanan, Rex and Ahsoka doing the same. Fenrir was north of their position leading his Asgardian brethren in a fight against the ground forces, while Sabine and the Mandalorians were destroying enemy chariots and providing cover fire to Tarre, who was sending lightning blasts without any break at the giant serpents, killing them before they could wreak havoc. 'How is he not getting tired?', Sabine wondered.
"When this is over, I will have an armour forged for you Ezra.", Ursa spoke.
"Really!?", Ezra asked and then followed it with, "Thanks."
"There is no need for thanks, you are family.", Ursa said. Alrich was about to say something when Tarre crash landed in front of them. As he got up, Tarre shook his head, "One of these days, I am going to kill him." Raising Mjolnir, he launched another lightning blast at a serpent which Hulk was riding, the green goliath had 'accidently' punched Tarre to the ground. The combined might of Tarre's lightning and Hulk's punches brought the serpent to the ground, killing it. Hulk jumped off the serpent, landed at Tarre's side and punched him into the ground near Ahsoka, flattening a creature who was about to attack her. Hulk grunted at this.
"That one seems too… irrational.", Alrich said.
"This is a complete nightmare.", Cham said.
"No, this is only the first wave.", Fenrir said via his commlink.
Tarre got up with half a mind to yell at Hulk, instead he launched Mjolnir in a circle, making it go through the bodies of the humanoid creatures and whacking Hulk in the face. Tarre nodded to Ahsoka and flew towards Fenrir's position, firing repulsor beams at his friend, who used his shield to deflect the beams towards incoming enemies. Tarre flew upwards to assist the Ghost, which had two chariots on its tail, unable to shake them off. Using the turret on his back, Tarre destroyed the two chariots and flew onwards.
"Bor is very impressive.", Lucifer said smiling maliciously, "I can't imagine having an easy time against him. In terms of power and strength, he would outrank many of the Archangels of my time."
"Let me at him.", Michael growled.
"Patience. You tried answering his strength with your own and it failed.", Lucifer said. He then turned his head and spoke to a figure shrouded in darkness, "Attack the planet's surface."
"Jax, what are you doing?", Ursa asked the young clan wren member, who was grounded due to his jetpack being destroyed.
"Trying to use the force.", Jax answered, his teeth clenched in concentration and his hand raised towards the enemy.
"That is not how the force works.", Alrich said, shooting the enemy advancing at the young Wren.
"Jax, stop fooling around.", Ursa said.
"Yes Countess.", Jax complied raising his blaster at the enemy.
"Do you sense that?", Ezra asked out loud. As he said this, a massive 400-foot-tall being landed on the planet's surface. This being was completely green and the very ground under him started to die. Every living being around it felt sick to their core.
"Retreat. All of you retreat now. Sabine lead your people away from that thing.", Fenrir ordered. Turning to the Asgardians he spoke, "Cover their escape." Pressing his hand on the ear piece he said, "Tarre, you and Hulk distract him." Fenrir had not even finished saying this, when Hulk jumped at the enemy raising his hands and landed on its face, started pummelling it. As the giant staggered, Hulk felt his arms and legs, lose their strength. The giant grabbed Hulk with its arms, making him cry out in pain. Tarre sensing this threw Mjolnir at the giant's head forcing it to release Hulk. Hulk fell on the ground and was out for the count. Fenrir quickly made his way to Hulk and carried him to safety, while surveying the damage on his friend. Hulk's arms and legs were now completely brown and a bit shrivelled. Tarre was using Mjolnir to keep the giant's attention, being nothing more than an annoying fly to the giant. But this wasn't enough to entertain the giant, who turned his attention towards Phoenix Squadron, picking off its members one by one.
"Break off, retreat.", Hera ordered.
"I'll cover your escape.", Tarre said though the comms.
This went on for a while, with the ground forces distracted by this, they didn't sense or see another enemy coming, who cut off the retreating ground forces – Frost Giants, led by none other than King Laufey.
"Oh great, now its these guys.", Ezra said sarcastically.
"The ones who attacked Mandalore?", Rex asked.
"Yep.", Ezra said as they readied to fight the Frost Giants.
Snapping his head up, Kanan said, "Now what?"
His question was answered as a rainbow descended straight into the ranks of the Frost Giants, throwing many of them on the ground, and the Asgardians covering their escape cheered. From within the rainbow, emerged more Asgardians and started attacking the Giants with swords, spears and blasters. These Asgardians were being led by a Seraphim – Kuzan, Prince of Asgard, who immediately engaged Laufey.
"You ran off during our last fight. Hope you won't run off this time.", Kuzan commented. Fenrir who was carrying Hulk, caught up with the others and saw the fresh mess.
"They would put any good Mandalorian to shame.", Ursa commented.
"Ahh ha! Pestilence.", Kuzan commented, looking at the green giant while blocking an attack from Laufey.
Suddenly, there was a deep ringing sound and a dark red energy beam hit the green giant full in its face, stunning him and pushing him to the ground. A voice followed it, "GET THE HEL AWAY FROM THEM.", the voice screamed. Fenrir's eyes widened at this as he recognised the voice and looking at its source, he saw a regular sized man floating in the air, wearing golden red armour and a helmet with outrageously long horns, a long red cape flowing in the air. From the helmet's visor, one glowing red eye was visible.
"Oh, bloody hel!", Fenrir said as the Asgardians cheered even more. Kuzan for his part smiled at this while Laufey grimaced.
"ODIN.", Laufey snarled and paid no attention to Kuzan, who proceeded to punch him so hard that Laufey crash landed near the fallen green giant.
"Grandfather.", Fenrir said with a sense of trepidation.
"Wait… what!?", Kanan asked.
The floating man – Odin had now turned to look at Fenrir, growled, "FENRIR, WHERE IS YOUR ARMOUR?"
"Uh… I got no good answer.", Fenrir said.
Odin growled at this but noticed that Pestilence – the green giant was getting up and so was Laufey. "We will speak of this later.", Odin said to Fenrir, who visibly gulped. He then turned into his 400 feet cosmic form and engaged the adversary while Kuzan engaged Laufey.
"So now you met Odin. All that's left is my father – Loki, and the other prince – Baldur.", Fenrir said to Kanan who let out a nervous laugh.
"Who is the golden one?", Hera asked Kanan, via her commlink, with the Ghost flying nearby.
"Funny, you should ask Spectre 2. The golden one is your grandfather – Odin.", Kanan answered.
"WHAT?", Hera practically yelled.
Back in his command ship, Lucifer snarled, "Father,", he said in a deadly voice, "Did you somehow forget to inform me of the defeat of your Reapers?"
"How am I to know anything when I am bound to your will?", Death asked back with an even tone.
"Azazel, go forth.", Lucifer said, "It is time, we joined the battle." With this Lucifer and Michael stood up.
Back on Ryloth's surface, "Fenrir, these things are still coming but their numbers have reduced.", Tarre said.
(A/N: Underlined conversations are spoken telepathically)
"Grandfather, can you close the portals?", Fenrir asked.
"After I defeat this one and nail its bloody corpse on their moon as a warning to the others.", Odin replied.
Fenrir groaned and rolled his eyes at this.
"I can see that Fenrir.", Odin's voice rang through his head.
As Fenrir carried Hulk to their rendezvous point, he could sense the battle behind them raging on without any break.
"Fenrir, we lost contact with Cham's group.", Kanan said breaking Fenrir's thoughts.
"Tarre, stop whatever you're doing and head to the last known coordinates of Cham's group.", Fenrir spoke through his comm.
"Acknowledged.", Tarre said. Tarre then flew towards the last known coordinates of Cham's group, some 1000 klicks south of Fenrir's position. As he flew through the air, he saw Odin blasting at the green giant, using a giant serpent as his weapon and utterly humiliating his opponent, while Laufey and Kuzan prove to be each other's equals.
Reaching towards his heading, he sensed something, something very familiar. To be accurate, it was someone more familiar.
Entering the planet's surface and headed straight towards the place where Odin and Pestilence were fighting was Bor, all the while grappling with his two opponents – Horseman War, and the sin Pride. Their crash upon the planet caused a deafening boom and raised a whole chunk of dust and debris, through which Bor commented, "Odin, what the devil are you wearing?"
"My death shroud, old man, if you don't get up.", Odin retorted. Near them, Kuzan shook his head and transformed into his own cosmic form, prompting his opponent Laufey to do the same. As the seven giants engaged each other with renewed vigour, Odin pulled out his broadsword and attacked Pestilence.
"Father, lets try not to render this world uninhabitable.", Kuzan spoke.
"Archangels and Celestials are powerful, but we are nothing when compared to the spirit of this planet.", Odin said sagely.
"How do you do that?", Kuzan asked, "One moment, you are a bloodthirsty barbarian and the next a wise sage."
Odin only laughed at this and the battle continued.
Near Cham's last known position, Tarre landed in front of the familiar presence, saying, "Impossible.", in a low tone.
"So, you do remember me, boy?", the presence asked. The figure belonged to a man with an Uru gauntlet, having the power stone in it. As his eyes starting glowing yellow, Tarre recoiled due to the overwhelming dark side coming from him, more than Samhain's.
"Who are you?", Tarre asked.
"I am Azazel, although you know me by another name.", the man said and then spoke something barely above a whisper, which only Tarre could hear and backed away in fear. The man then raised his gauntlet, and pointed it towards Cham, Gobi and Numa who were trapped some rocks. The latter was the only one conscious and was trying to get the other two out of this predicament. Tarre sensed this too late and barely had time to put up a force barrier around them and himself, as Azazel fired from the power stone towards the helpless targets. With the barrier barely coming up, Tarre had placed himself in the path of the energy beam, unfortunately part of his armour was immediately incinerated, exposing his face and his metal arm. Tarre, keeping up the barrier tried to teleport the ones behind him, but found that he was unable to. Azazel laughed at this and Tarre understood why he wasn't able to use teleportation.
Tarre then threw Mjolnir at Azazel, stunning him and stopping his energy attack. Quickly closing the distance between them, Tarre's arm transformed into a cannon and he fired a full powered shot at Azazel.
"Noble efforts boy, but you're a fool if you think these morbid attacks will work on me.", Azazel said. Through the force, Tarre sensed that his opponent was completely unharmed. Azazel snapped his fingers and Tarre felt his connection to the force being severed and for the first time in many days, he felt truly blind. Tarre heard Azazel laughing, but could not sense the sword in Azazel's hand which he plunged deep into Tarre's chest.
"If it was two inches to the left, it would have been you heart.", Azazel said, "Tell me how does it feel to be so helpless, hmm?" Before Tarre could answer, Azazel's head snapped up and he sensed Death, Lucifer and Michael engaging Bor, Odin and Kuzan.
"Right on time, then.", Azazel spoke. He then saw the Ghost coming towards him, and used the power stone to shoot an energy beam with such speed, that Hera didn't have enough time to dodge.
"He hit the engines. We're going down. Brace for impact.", Hera said as the Ghost crash landed into the ground.
"Everyone alright?", Hera asked to which Chopper complained, while Wolfe and Kallus groaned, "Yes."
"Hera, are you alright?", Kanan's voice came through the commlink.
"Yeah, can't say the same for the Ghost.", Hera answered.
"We'll fix her, right now you need to get out of there.", Kanan answered.
"Kanan, whoever shot us down has Tarre.", Hera said.
"We're on our way Hera.", Ahsoka spoke.
"I love a battle such as this.", Azazel said while he held Tarre through the force, "Now, which sense should I take from you – speech, hearing or touch?"
Before Azazel could answer, he was bombarded by lightning throwing him into the ground, making him skid on the ground as Tarre was released from the hold of the demon. Tarre's connection to the force was still severed, but now he crawled away. "Over here.", Tarre heard Numa yell and started crawling towards her.
Behind him, he heard Azazel yell in pain. He then felt familiar hands pulling him up, and recognising the faint scent that was still lingering he asked, "Ahsoka?", with blood coming out of the corners of his mouth.
"I'm here.", Ahsoka answered as she eyed the sword still embedded in Tarre's chest, with blood around the wound.
"They are trapped under some rocks.", Tarre said.
"Rex and Fenrir are getting them out.", Ahsoka said.
"What happened? I heard lightning?", Tarre asked.
"Tarre, can you not sense him?", Ahsoka asked.
"Oi, talk later move now.", Fenrir said as he and Rex freed the trapped Twi'leks. Rex was helping Numa carry Gobi and Cham, while carrying Hulk. As he looked up at the source of lightning he smiled, seeing Thor unleash a barrage of lightning through Stormbreaker at Azazel.
As the lightning stopped, Azazel got up and unleashed the power of the infinity stone at Thor, who threw his axe (coated with lightning) at Azazel, negating the energy beam and impaled Azazel's chest.
"Wait,", Tarre said, "I need to hear this."
Ahsoka wanted to argue, but reluctantly stopped as they were already some distance away. Thor landed on the ground and Ahsoka saw his back, helmetless with white hair. She saw that Thor's left arm had been severed.
Azazel was on his back, unable to get up because of the axe in his chest which felt like it was going even deeper. As he raised his head, he saw Thor standing over him, with the face of an old man and an eye patch over his left eye.
Azazel spat out blood and said, "You should have gone for the head." With this black smoke came out of Azazel's mouth but was pushed immediately back in by Thor's foot.
"I am.", Thor spoke as his foot covered Azazel's lower face, and Thor saw the fear in his eyes. After that Azazel's eyes glowed a bright white and his whole body turned into ashes and the axe fell on the ground.
Cham who was now conscious saw this display of power along with Numa who was helping him instilling a newfound fear of Thor in his heart.
Hera, who had been pulled out of the wreckage of the Ghost by Kanan saw this and would have said something if she wasn't so scared of Thor's power.
"He came Hera, he kept his promise.", Kanan said.
Hera then yelled, "LOOK OUT." as she saw Thor get engulfed by white fire. But Thor was still standing.
They then heard the booming voice of another being, "YOU WILL PAY FOR THIS ODINSON."
Thor was then attacked from the front and from the side by two beings, one whose hands were shooting out white fire and another whose fists were engulfed in magma and lightning. There was a blinding light, at which Kanan said, "Let's go.", pulling a reluctant Hera out of harm's way.
Ahsoka recognized the two assailants as the ones who had attacked them on Shili and told Tarre as much. By this time, they had caught up with Fenrir who said, "Someone is possessing Baldur and Sakazuki."
Behind them, they heard Thor's booming voice, "IS THAT THE BEST YOU CAN DO?"
"Typical, always count on Thor to encourage his opponents to give a 110%.", Fenrir said shaking his head.
Thor whacked Lucifer with his right hand throwing him 700 feet in the air and with his other hand he said, "Ahh! Michael, former god of thunder." Thor then used his right hand on Michael's face unleashing lightning barrage but didn't realise when Michael plunged both his hands in Thor's chest and abdomen, creating two holes. Thor groaned slightly and said, "That tickles.", before utterly destroying Michael's vessel.
Thor then covered himself in white light and turned into his cosmic form. With steam coming form his body, he walked towards Lucifer's crash site.
On the other side, Bor and Kuzan were engaging the two horsemen and the sins, when they saw Thor walking towards the crashed Lucifer in his cosmic form. Meanwhile Odin had reverted back to his human form and was engaging death who was regular sized as well.
"Odin, as a fellow father, you must understand. We have both been in the same position.", Death said as he and Odin 'fought'.
"I understand.", Odin nodded swinging his sword at Death, who blocked it with his staff.
"Let us retreat. We can end this now.", Death said.
"What of the portals?", Odin asked.
"I will close them on our way out.", Death said.
"Very well.", Odin nodded.
After this, Death, the celestials, Lucifer and every other enemy disappeared and the portals closed immediately.