SHADOW OF DEATH

Chapter 46: Life and Death

Sergeant Barnes and the Warriors Three were relegated to a far corner of the battlefield, hidden well behind companies of archers and flame throwers and a battalion of winged horses. They were as far from the front lines as the Lady Sif and the Warriors Three were near it. Thor's entourage stood directly behind the Asgardian prince, as close to the monarch as they could muster without trodding upon his booted feet.

Okoye had grumbled over their placement immediately and with words like "demeaning" and "patronizing" spilling from under her breath. Shuri and Jane were much less bothered by it, though they were much more comfortable in a lab than on a battlefield so they were probably not the best barometers for troop placement and battle honor. Sergeant Barnes did not speak at all. They were surprised he shared a desire to come at all.

The Winter Soldier had barely spoken to any of them, in the months since he first woke. He kept to himself, preferring to farm at an isolated homestead outside Birnin Zana rather than join in with the noise and bustle of the city. He rarely sought out company and even fewer residents of Wakanda sought him out. It was Shuri who drug the most words out of his reticent mouth. She badgered the veteran assassin with cheery questions and flasks of chai until he reluctantly noticed her existence and rewarded her tenacity with one-word answers and the occasional mumble of "thanks." Shuri decided that made her his favorite and tried all the more diligently to get him to speak. The day she managed to pry a smile from him, she decided they were now the very best of friends. She did not give the soldier a chance to disagree.

Standing tall and alert on the battlefield, Sergeant Barnes flexed his vibranium arm and checked over his rifle and stores of ammunition again. He did not smile now and his eyes carefully scanned the horizon, searching for the enemies they all knew were coming. There was no sign of them yet, but all of the Asgardian allies stood alert, a fragile anticipation undergirding their wary eyes and shifting feet.

Shuri stood beside Jane and she was most likely smiling, but Jane couldn't tell. With her mask in place, her animated facial expressions were obscured and Jane had to rely on the muffled tones of her words to judge her emotions. Jane listened to the clinking and shirring sound of Shuri extending and retracting her vibranium claws and knew she was pretending ease when in reality she was as nervous as anyone else.

Jane clung to the handle of Mjolnir and struggled to see through the thick helmet Loki insisted she wear. She blew out a huff of frustration and wriggled beneath the layers of Asgardian armor. The Lady Sif made armor look elegant and light. It wasn't.

"I feel like the Tin Man before he got unrusted," Jane grumbled. Shuri laughed.

"You look more intimidating than you did before," Shuri said. "I told you I would make you a vibranium suit of armor. You refused."

"I didn't refuse. I said, 'later.' We were a little busy at the time."

"Now you must struggle with uncomfortable, ill-fitting armor, when you could be as free and easy as me," Shuri said, flexing her limbs to show her full range of movement. "I could have made you a Flerkin Habit instead of a Panther Habit."

"Shut it, Cat Girl," Jane said.

Shuri laughed again and then shuffled uncomfortably from foot to foot. "It really should have been T'Challa here," Shuri said in a more serious tone than she had yet used that morning. "He has more experience fighting."

"But you don't expect that we will return," Jane surmised. "And you didn't want to risk losing him again."

"Am I that transparent?"

Jane shrugged. "It's what I would have done."

"Then it must be a terrible idea," Shuri said with a muffled laugh.

"Ha ha."

"Are you ready for this, daktari?"

"I'm an astrophysicist, not a soldier," Jane answered. "This isn't exactly my area of expertise."

"Even with super powers and an alien hammer?"

"Maybe if my so-called super powers had something more useful to work with…but they only amplified what I already am, which is not a soldier. I mean, I figured out enough to know I can use Mjolnir to smash things, but you already knew that, too. I can also use it to focus my mind to help me understand how things work on an atomic level, but I am not quite sure how well I can use that as a weapon."

"Kati, maybe you will bore them to death with in-depth analyses of their innermost workings," Shuri added.

"There's that. Alien armies beware. Doctor Foster is here to tell you about your body density and blood volume. It's rather fascinating though – these different kinds of people, this place, I can see layers to them I never would have been able to see before. I wish I could take notes in my notebook."

"Unless you can use that information to tell us the best way to dispatch our enemies, I do not see how useful those skills will be now," Okoye interjected with an eye roll. She stood as straight as a coconut palm and she did not permit even a flicker of unease to interrupt her impassive face. Clearly, she thought Jane and Shuri would have been better left in Wakanda. Jane didn't disagree, but Loki had not given her that option. For some reason, he thought she would be more useful here, pretending to be something she clearly wasn't.

"Where's my paka?" Shuri asked.

"Goose is behind Loki on that monstrosity of a horse," Jane answered, her stronger eyes able to see the orange and white creature delicately cleaning its paws from its perch behind Loki's saddle.

"The little traitor left me for the prince…forgive me, I mean king… the moment it saw him and I have not forgiven it. With the number of biscuits and fingerlings I have snuck it, I thought I had earned more loyalty than that."

"That alien cat can probably swallow a horse and still have room for a space ship. What do you think a handful of dried fish and stale crackers is going to do?" Jane answered.

"Wewe! We have no proof that its tentacles are for food or that it digests what ends up in its dimensional pocket," Shuri said.

"You have no proof that it digests your fish and biscuits either," Jane retorted. "Maybe the flerkin feeds your treats to whatever prisoners it keeps in its pocket."

Shuri grumbled through her mask. Jane counted that as a victory for Team Foster.

The sky had turned from a hazy gray to a golden pink and the barest hint of the sun's rays were beginning to pierce the incredible canopy of stars overhead. It would not be long till they discovered just how warm Asgard grew during the day time. Jane had tried to ask Loki about this, so she knew whether to take off her sweatshirt or keep it on under her armor. He obviously considered it an unnecessary question. By the shiver running through her, she thought it was a very important question. She rubbed at her arms to try to warm them.

"Tell me, Jane, where did you disappear this morning?" Shuri asked. "One moment, you were pacing the floor like a caged leopard and the next, you were gone."

"I thought you were supposed to be sleeping, not spying on me," Jane answered.

"She went to find the mgeni… in a very small weapon storage room," Okoye added, not bothering to hide her smirk. "Though, I do not believe she was seeking a panga or a knife."

"Ooooo, you are keeping stories from me, daktari!" Shuri said, bouncing on the balls of her feet. "What happened?"

"Nothing," Jane said, but she knew the bright crimson of her face gave her away.

"Whatever happened, they made sure to emerge one at a time, but they were both as red as tomatoes when they came out and Jane's hair was greatly disorganized," Okoye said.

Shuri squealed and tugged on Jane's arms. "Oh, Doctor Foster, tell me, tell me! I have been dying of curiosity. First you go to find an Infinity Stone and come back with a rather beautiful Aesir prince who was supposed to be dead and who you claimed was your long-lost love. Then, you chase down his brother into a closet before a dramatic and dangerous battle."

"It's not… I mean, it wasn't… ok, fine. It was, ok," Jane conceded, as incapable of duplicity in her own answers as she was in tolerating it in anyone else.

"Tell me, did you declare yourself first or was it the mgeni?" Okoye prodded, a knowing glance cast at Shuri.

"I suppose it was me," Jane answered. "I didn't want to go into the battle with anything, you know, left unsaid."

"I see and the mgeni was a very good listener," Shuri said.

"Oh, shut it, Shuri," Jane said and she turned away in a fluster.

"See! General, I told you! I told you! You will owe me a baby war rhinoceros when we return."

Okoye barked a laugh and nodded. "W'Kabi will set one aside for you, if we return."

"You two made a bet?" Jane asked, turning on the pair in accusation.

"Oh, come on, daktari. The mgeni has been following you around as stubbornly as Goose for months now. Do you think he needs to spend as much time in the lab as he does? Why, then, does he wait until he is sure that you are there before he enters? And when he arrives, you turn as red as a tomato and forget how to speak and then insist on smoothing out your hair, even on days you have forgotten to comb it."

"You two made a bet?" Jane repeated, incredulous.

"Well, there may have been more than two of us involved. T'Challa took Okoye's side, but Mama agreed with me. We thought the mgeni is too proud to speak first, but T'Challa and Okoye said he is too proud not to speak first. We all agreed it would happen before the battle."

"Unbelievable," Jane grumbled to herself, along with a few idle threats against Shuri's lab computer. Shuri only giggled and did not take her seriously.

All humor and levity evaporated a few minutes later when a flock of birds took to the air and the rhythmic vibration of deep drums shook the grass beneath their feet. Jane could feel Hela, before she could see her. The very air around her seemed to bend and fall into orbit around her. The aura of dark, voracious dominion that surrounded her was enough to make Jane's blood run cold. The so-called "Goddess of Death" walked like a black hole - a mass of gravity which swallowed all light and life around her into the insatiable darkness of her being.

At Jane's hissed intake of breath, her companions anxiously searched the field, seeking out what had caused Jane's reaction.

"She's here," Jane said. "And she has zombies… real ones."

OOOOO

The waves of battle were slow to reach the little band of Earthlings, but they did not have to wait long before throngs of alien fighters surrounded them on all sides. It no longer mattered if they were on the front lines or hidden in the farthest corner, they still had to fight with all their might against the same superhuman enemies. They were stronger and more terrible than Jane had ever imagined. The Aesir, who Jane had considered nearly invincible, fell like dandelions before the invading army and Jane felt, for the first time, how easily she could join them.

Jane tried to throw the hammer and use it to bash and smash through opponents. With her increased strength, she could inflict a certain amount of damage, but her opponents were stronger than humans and she had only used the hammer against banana trees and rocks, and never against targets which moved and bled and fought back. Still, she wielded Mjolnir with all her strength, until she realized how little she was accomplishing.

Jane retreated, farther past the fighting to try to collect herself and summon the well of power she knew now dwelt within her. With her eyes closed, she cast her senses across the field of battle. She was nearly overwhelmed by the extent of life and movement and fierce action which she could feel and her eyes flew open. She could feel not only the actions of the living, but she could feel the deaths of those dying.

Then, Jane tried to use the hammer to feel through the throngs of skeletal soldiers. Without a life force of their own, they were entirely dependent on the whims and wishes of Lady Death. Invisible tendrils of power connected the dead soldiers to their mistress and reanimated the lifeless soldiers. With single-minded purpose, they existed only to do her bidding. They were bodies without souls, skulls without minds, chests without hearts, and they were nearly invincible. They were already dead. What fear did they have of the weapons of those who still kept breath and blood and life within their mortal, permeable, fragile frames? Those on Hela's side had nothing to lose and everything to gain and they fell upon the Asgardian and Jotun forces without a glimmer of hesitation or fear or self-preservation.

The Asgardian and Jotnar forces found that if the bones were disjointed and fractured, then the living skeletons could no longer function. Their severed hands might crawl and writhe upon the grass. Their decapitated skulls might gnash and snarl, however if their bodies could not hold a weapon, then they lost their potency. The undead soldiers could not heal themselves or gather themselves back together and so the only way to defeat them was to slash through their hard bones and joints and scatter the pieces across the field of battle. Soon, the grassy plain was littered with bleached bones, all vibrating and humming and clattering with movement in the light of the sun.

Jane began to use her power to make the zombie skeletons explode. She could feel each ligament and connecting tissue and magical force that kept the soldier together and she could disintegrate them, if she focused on them with all her energy. However, it required a concentrated effort and Jane realized that the forces of Hela were growing faster than they were shrinking.

With horror, Jane realized that each felled Asgardian or Jotun warrior only made Hela stronger. The moment they breathed their last, their new mistress devoured their souls and Jane could feel how each death infused her with greater strength and power. If the battle continued as it was, it would not be long till Hela's ever-increasing aura of strength suffocated Jane with its girth. Already, Jane struggled to keep going, her movements growing sluggish under the weight of the invading queen's overwhelming presence.

To make it even worse, each fallen soldier on the Asgardian side was immediately reanimated into Hela's undead army. Upon the very moment of death, they rose again. Their eyes showed no light of recognition for their companions around them. Their movements were as clumsy and disjointed as the skeletal creatures they had been fighting against, despite the presence of flesh still on their bones. They gnashed their teeth and roared unearthly growls and fell upon their former comrades with just as much vigor as the rest of Hela's minions. There was little to distinguish these resuscitated dead from their living comrades, at least until their weapons turned against their former allies. Their bodies still carried flesh and blood still poured from their wounds, but it was not obvious that the life force had already left their bodies. For the Asgardians, it was all the more terrible to turn to fight a foe only to find that it was the brother-at-arms who had been fighting alongside them only a moment before. Staring into the face of a former friend and ally only to have to splice them into pieces in the next moment caused many a warrior to be the first to fall and join the ranks of their departed comrades.

For each skeleton that Jane dismembered, Hela gained two more. It would not be long until the Asgardians were entirely overwhelmed. Jane decided to try something new. Instead of using her powers to tear apart the zombie soldiers, she wandered through the ranks of fallen warriors, searching for hearts that still beat with life. With the hammer outstretched and her eyes closed, she could feel every torn limb and broken bone within them. Blue light engulfed around her as she felt through the dying to knit them back together. The precarious souls of the fallen gained strength beneath her power and their souls stuck to their hosts like flies to flypaper instead of evaporating from their bodies to feed the appetite of Lady Death.

One by one, as fast as she could, Jane wandered through the writhing, tortured bodies littering the grass and watched as them heal and then leap back to their feet, hale and whole and ready to fight again. This not only prevented Hela's forces from an additional fighter, but added to the dwindling numbers of the Aesir and Jotnar and so Jane continued her own part in the battle, healing and reviving as many of the fallen as she could.

She could labor tirelessly among the throngs of anonymous, unknown bodies torn in the grass, but when she came across the disfigured body of Wakanda's general, a sword's hilt protruding from her chest, it was another matter entirely. Jane cried out and pulled Okoye into her arms, desperately pleading with whatever deity would hear her for Okoye to still have a pulse.

"No, no, no. Keep breathing for me. Please," Jane said, desperately holding Mjolnir over the bleeding woman. Okoye's eyes flittered open and Jane gave a rushed sigh of relief. It didn't stop Jane's tears from falling down her cheeks, though. She desperately sought out the injuries in Okoye's body, healing the damage as quickly as she could and removing the terrible sword from her chest. Within a few moments, Okoye gave a gasping inhale and leapt to her feet, as good as new.

"Daktari, umefanya nini?" Okoye asked. She looked down on her blood-stained, but unpunctured chest in awe.

"Investigating people… and then fixing them, on an atomic level," Jane answered.

Okoye gave a look of wonder before she clasped Jane's hand in her own. "I prefer you putting people back together than taking them apart, daktari."

Jane laughed. "Me too."

Then Okoye ran back into the fray, her spear upraised, and her voice ululating in a fierce battle cry.

Jane had to put Okoye back together four more times before she convinced the general to take a break and try to focus on using distance weapons instead of hand-to-hand combat. The fifth time Jane came across Okoye, it was too late. Jane could heal a broken body but she could not summon back an extinguished life and that last time, she was too late to save her Wakandan ally.

Jane gasped in horror as Okoye's dead body rose on her own and stared at Jane with unblinking eyes. Then, in a roar of fury, she turned to charge at Jane, her spear raised to thrust it through Jane's chest.

"No, no, no, no!" Jane shouted and she turned to face Okoye, tears streaming down her cheeks as she tried to muster the fortitude needed to fell the woman she had fought so hard to save. In a flash of light, Okoye crumbled into pieces onto the ground before her, her spear still clutched in her severed hand. At the sight of it, Jane turned to the bushes and vomited the contents of her stomach.

Jane realized that no matter how many people she put back together, Hela was still winning.

ooooo

On the field of Idavollr, Loki sent another blast of magic through the sky overhead, knocking down another dozen Chitauri warriors from the sky. More filled the space he had created and showered down blasts of energy upon their heads, easily evading the guns and spears and arrows thrust at them from below. The ranks of winged horses were dwindling almost as fast as the remaining flying vessels.

The forces of Jotunheim proved the most efficacious against Hela's army of corpses. Their volleys of ice could at least, quite literally, freeze the attackers in place. If they could not be killed, then they could be immobilized and kept from inflicting further harm. This worked quite well, until some Jotnar died and came back to fight on Hela's side. Then the same curtains of ice began to fall on the Aesir army, though the bodies within them were more susceptible to ice than those of Hela's undead army.

Without Mjolnir, Thor carried an ancient sword from the weapon's vault and dwarven shield inscribed with powerful runes. These were useful, but not anywhere near as useful as the prince's newly acquired powers. Thor could now cast out an invisible net of protection which bound Hela's spells and kept the Power Stone from harming all who stayed within his field of magic. Hela's forces of the undead crumbled, too, once they crossed into the prince's territory. Thus, Hela sent a legion of Chitauri to fall upon him with their energy weapons and non-magical armor. However, Thor could shield enough Aesir and Jotnar warriors around him to keep him from the weapons of the Chitauri.

Loki stayed by his brother's side, but the reach of Thor's gift was limited. Around them, warriors were falling on Asgard's side faster than on their enemies. When the bursts of light from the Power Stone enfolded them, entire companies evaporated into a flash of light and the scent of burned flesh. With each extinguished company, Hela threw her head back, her mouth opened in delight as she drank in the carnage around her and let the dead sink into her soul, enlivening her and feeding her and giving her more strength and speed than any other being on the field of battle. Not even Thor and Loki together could hope to rival Hela's formidable strength, and that was before she devoured half the Aesir army. Now, she was unstoppable.

There would be no surrender. By the end of this battle, she would consume them all and still she would want more. No realm, no people, no galaxy would be enough. The Goddess of Death would swallow the entire universe and want for more.

"Goose, stop licking your paws and be useful," Loki hissed at the little flerkin. Until now, the cat did little other than prance around the battlefield, purring and rubbing its back against the hands of fallen warriors in hopes of its ears being scratched. "Miserable little beast."

Goose hissed and batted its claws in the air in Loki's direction before it continued its delicate tread through the grass. It stopped to chew on a flower and then leapt up to catch a winged insect in its claws, entirely unconcerned by the carnage around it.

Once the last of the winged calvary was dispatched, the Mad Titan turned his sights on the magical fortress kept by the sons of Odin. Slowly, steadily, Thanos walked towards them. With an impassive flick of his double-sided blade, he dismembered a Jotun warrior and then paused to sit on the fallen warrior's body. He analyzed the massive blade, now splotched with dark blue blood, and did not raise his head to look at Loki. As Loki neared, knives filling his hands, the Mad Titan did not so much as move his head.

"I suppose I should thank you," Thanos observed, without a hint of emotion in his voice. It was a voice Loki remembered too well and it sent shudders through his body. How many times had that voice intruded his mind and ravished his dreams? Though the mind spell was broken, the memories of its spell remained.

When Loki neared, Thanos continued. "That little display in New York culled more souls for my mistress than even I thought you capable of. It is too bad you couldn't have included yourself in the final tally of the dead. You see, you are worth more to her than the millions you sent her. Ironic, isn't it? The little Terrans were willing to sacrifice millions of their own, simply to stop you. It's as if they knew… as if they could taste it about you, too. Unfortunately, you have evaded death one too many times and my mistress is displeased."

He stood then, as if the very act of standing required a great effort or as if his joints were filled with rusted iron rather than ligaments. He towered over the little Asgardian king and raised his double-edged blade over his head, preparing to bring it down on Loki's neck.

"My mistress longs for you as a gift and I plan to grant you to her," the Titan continued. He continued in the same impassive, unconcerned tone he had used before, as if he spoke of washing Loki's boots or granting Hela a new set of gloves and not killing Asgard's king during battle. "You see, you stole away the pretty baubles I have been collecting for her that make her so very pleased. I have not forgiven you for that. That made it personal."

With a sudden burst of energy, Thanos struck at Loki. Loki held Gungnir out to defend himself and a flash of light engulfed around them both. The burst of power from Odin's greatest weapon only pushed the Titan back a step or two and did not so much as make him stumble. Then the Titan's blade fell down against the weight of Gungnir and it was all metal and force and movement. Around and around, they fought, the Titan's considerable strength slowly ebbing away Loki's until Loki wondered if he could hold the Titan off for much longer.

Then, as if he had been holding back and only toying with Loki thus far, the Mad Titan pulled himself up and thrust his blade with five times as much strength as he had yet used. His volley of strikes fell upon Loki with such strength that Loki fell upon the ground and felt the sting of the Titan's blade against his right shoulder.

Loki cried out in pain and held Gungnir over his chest in a vain attempt to keep the blade from falling upon him again, but Thanos's blade was directed towards his head instead. Loki had no doubt it would have severed his head from his body, if not for the sudden roar that surrounded them.

It was Thor's desperate cry of his name he heard first, just as Thanos made his final swing. Then Mad Titan vanished into a waving mass of tentacles.

Loki panted on the grass, blood flowing from the wound in his shoulder, and he laughed out loud in his relief.

"You have honor, after all, little beast," Loki said. "I will give you an entire feast of all the fine fish and meat you can eat, after this. I'll even permit you to chew on my best boots."

Goose sat back on its haunches, licked its paws again, and turned its back on Loki with a proud toss of its curling tail. Then the flerkin went back to chewing on a yellow flower, as if nothing at all had happened.

Loki's relief was short-lived. His battle with the Titan had pushed him outside of the reach of Thor's mystical protection. He realized his mistake as soon as he saw Hela's sword-filled arms towering over him, the Power Stone glowing brightly around her neck, and her eyes furious.

Loki had tried to wield the Soul Stone, but it did little more than glow and emit faint magical energy which did little more than irritate his opponents. He adjusted Gungnir so the Soul Stone could be harnessed by the staff and stood to his feet to face her. By the hungry glint in Hela's eyes when she saw the Stone appear, and the way her entire undead army then fixed their eyes on him, he wondered if it was truly as wise an idea as he first thought.

He tried to strike first, but the light of the Power Stone enveloped him. He felt the burn and scorch of its magic rush through him and over him and he knew it should be tearing him apart, as it had those she had used it upon so far. Yet, like oil in water, it only rolled over him. He could feel its strength, but it did not cause any permanent harm on his person. At Hela's furious cry, he knew she had not expected this.

He stood as he had been before, still facing the wrath of the Goddess of Death. She tried again and this time, he noticed the gentle glow of the violet stone in Gungnir as it exuded forth and kept the strength of the Power Stone at bay.

The Soul Stone cannot be destroyed. It is stronger than the Power Stone, he realized.

He thrust out his staff and the violet glow of the Soul Stone roared over Hela. She screamed and anger and began to conjure swords. One after another, the swords flew past him. He dodged as quickly as he could, but her swords were as infinite as his own and he was injured. He could not hold Mjolnir and throw his own knives at her.

He let Gungnir wield the Soul Stone and with each flash of light, Hela retreated slightly, as if burned. However, it inflicted no permanent damage on the formidable warrior. Another soldier fell on the Asgardian side and Loki watched as Hela threw her head back, her eyes glowing black, and she drank in the life force of the dead warrior. Her eyes were even brighter and her steps firmer when she turned to throw a sword at him again.

Who can create or destroy a soul? She steals their souls and uses their power, but it is borrowed and recycled magic, not created by Hela.

Loki shook himself together and then he fixed his eyes fully on Hela, an air of deep pensiveness pervading his countenance. He glanced upon the countless throngs of undead warriors, skeletal frames glistening with upraised swords and armor for as far as the eye could see.

Then, he grinned. With a flash of green and an even brighter flash of gold and violet, he summoned his own magic and combined it with the forces of Gungnir and the Soul Stone within it. The scepter winked in the sunlight when he extended it over the battlefield and let its power flow.

A noise like a wild wind rushed across Hela's legions of the undead. Bones knocked and rattled as if poured out from a child's toy chest upon a wooden floor. Then, flesh began to crawl across them like vines up a trellis. Tendons and muscles bloomed and blossomed, bursting across the expanse of dry skeletons until they became ghastly walking corpses. Still, the magic rushed around them and through them until skin unfurled over muscles and they became like fresh wineskins, ready to be filled with blood and breath and life.

The light slowly faded and the undead army stood motionless on the battlefield. Their hollow skulls were now filled with sightless eyes and breathless noses and voiceless mouths.

They were not all Aesir. By the myriad of shapes and sizes and colors of the bodies and the armor they wore, they were as diverse as Yggdrasil itself and Loki realized these were not merely Asgard's honorable dead. These had been gathered from across the Nine Realms over millennia of battles.

There were Light Elves and Dark Elves. There were Jotnar and Fire Giants. There were Aesir who had once fought alongside the All-Father in days long past. There were dwarves and trolls and water dwellers and more Valkyrie than he could count. Each of the Aesir and Midgardians and Jotnar who had fallen on the battlefield could also be seen.

There were even Midgardians. A few thousand mortals stood in the armament and weaponry of their various peoples, as solemn and silent as the warriors of the other Nine Realms. Amidst Midgard's warriors, Loki recognized the handful of Midgardian heroes who had given their lives alongside his brother during the Battle of New York. Odin had even managed to gather the fallen Avengers in preparation for the war he knew was coming.

"Behold, the All-Father's army of the finest warriors of Yggdrasil," Loki said to Lady Death, who stared at her flesh-covered army in horror. "For his entire reign, he gathered the most honorable dead from all the Nine Realms and he brought them here, where they have waited for this very moment. This is not your army, Hela. This is Asgard's army. This is Yggdrasil's army. This is the Soul Stone's army."

Then, to the legions of einherjar, he extended Gungnir one more time.

"Breathe," Loki commanded them. Violet light flashed so brightly, not even the light of the sun could be seen. As one, every single soldier inhaled deeply, blinked their eyes, and turned to face Asgard's king. Then, as one, they knelt and placed their fists across their chests.

Just in time to hear Hela's blood-curdling scream.

Oooooo

Author's Note: We will have only one or two more chapters left, depending on how long my final scene and epilogue decide to be. :)

Thanos' end is absolutely referencing Rachel500's awesome Goose-centered one-shot entitled "The Benevolent Ruler of the Universe." She had the right idea. I was inspired. ;)

I don't own anything MCU-related and I broadly refer to Norse mythology throughout this.