X-Force: Beyond Omega-Chapter 147: Overpowered

[Asgard – The Great Hall]

The throne room of Asgard was silent for a heartbeat.

Then...

BOOM.

Odin slammed Gungnir into the floor.

A golden shockwave rippled outward, crackling with ancient might. The pure, oppressive pressure of the Odinforce erupted like a tidal wave, crashing through the grand hall.

In an instant, every Asgardian warrior in the room was forced to their knees. Spears clattered against the floor. Shields dropped. Even Thor staggered, dropping to one knee beside his father, his body groaning under the sudden weight of divine force.

The banners above fluttered violently before being torn from their anchors. The walls quaked. The air itself screamed.

Except...

Aron didn't move.

He stood at the center of the storm, calm as ever, his silver-gray hair fluttering slightly in the rippling energy. He let out a slow, bored yawn, his other hand lazily still in his coat pocket.

His left hand?

Clasped around Hela's.

And while the rest of Asgard struggled to breathe, she stood beside him—protected.

The Odinforce couldn't touch her.

Hela's emerald eyes widened, flicking to the hand holding hers. She felt the warmth of his grip... the way his power wrapped around her like armor.

Even she would've been forced to kneel before Odin's might but he wouldn't let that happen. She belongs to him and there is no way he'd allow her to kneel before anyone else.

He shielded her.

Just like that.

'He...' she blinked, stunned, 'he's protecting me?'

Her lips twitched, ever so slightly.

A flicker of something strange bloomed in her chest.

Warmth.

She didn't even like warmth.

And yet...

Aron sighed, glancing toward Odin with all the interest of someone looking at a slightly annoying weather report.

"Are we doing this whole 'test the stranger's power by flexing your divine muscles' routine?" he asked, his voice flat. "Because it's kinda cliché."

Odin narrowed his eye.

"I can sense Death in you, and something far more ancient. I will not have an unknown being like you walk into my hall unchecked, despite you saving Asgard," he said coldly, his voice like thunder. You walk with darkness in your shadow."

Aron's smirk slowly returned.

"And you are different?" He couldn't help but laugh out loud.

The moment Odin finished speaking, Aron's smirk faded.

For the first time, his expression turned cold.

And then...

WHUMMM.

The air inside the Great Hall shifted.

It was subtle at first, like the breath of a predator, silent and chilling, but then it exploded.

BOOM.

A wave of pure death aura surged from Aron's body.

The air turned black.

Not just dark but pitch black. As if the color had been sucked from the world. Cold swept over the hall, deeper and more suffocating than any frost of Jotunheim. The shimmering golden light of the Odinforce collided with the dark mist...

...and disintegrated.

The grand pillars that held the Great Hall aloft?

Turned to ash.

The golden inlaid floors of divine marble cracked, withered and evaporated beneath Aron's feet.

The ceiling, emblazoned with murals of Asgard's glory, shattered into a storm of dust. Statues of Valkyries crumbled. The throne itself groaned under the weight of the clash, its edges corroding from the sheer magnitude of death's touch.

All of Asgard's warriors, who had barely managed to rise... were once again flattened.

This time, it wasn't just pressure.

It was mortality.

Aron stood unmoved in the epicenter, his silver eyes now glowing with golden-red light, the Phoenix Force flickering behind the veil of death. His aura twisted into the shape of a massive black and gold bird, wings outstretched and silent as judgment.

Hela stared at him, not with fear, but with awe.

She had seen war. Conquered galaxies.

But this?

This was primordial.

And she loved it. She felt a jolt down her spine and goosebumps on her body. She promised herself to marry that man at all costs and bear his child.

Odin rose slowly to his feet, gripping Gungnir harder as the staff flared again with divine might. But even his ancient eyes betrayed something he hadn't shown in centuries.

Unease.

Aron took a single step forward. The floor beneath his feet turned from divine gold to cracked, empty void.

"You dare speak to me of darkness?" Aron said quietly, voice like the low rumble before an earthquake. "You... Odin Borson, who rewrote your children's fates like lines on a page? You speak of unchecked power while sitting on a throne built from the bones of forgotten empires—empires she helped you conquer."

He gestured to Hela without looking.

Odin's jaw tightened.

Aron's voice rose.

"You turned your daughter into a weapon. You shaped her in your image. Told her it was glory... when it was just your greed. When she grew too strong, too bold, too much like the monster you molded, you didn't guide her."

He took another step. Another eruption of death rolled outward.

"You pit her against Thor and Loki. You were so afraid of her real power that you were ready to sacrifice even Thor to do so..."

"What are you... argg... talking about?" Thor groaned, trying to lift his head.

"Oh, a knucklehead till the end, huh? Your daddy knew about Loki's plots. He knew that Loki was going to mess with the Bifrost which would have killed both of you. But he underestimated you two. Ain't that right, Odin?" Aron blinked and appeared before Odin. He stood there looking into the God's eyes.

Then blinked...

Odin's grip on Gungnir tightened as Aron stood inches from him, the death aura curling around the staff like smoke around a dying flame. For the first time in ages, the All-Father looked not down upon a visitor but eye to eye with someone who could not be dismissed.

Aron stared into the old god's eye, not with defiance, but with utter disinterest.

"You see," Aron said coolly, "I don't actually give a damn about your family mess. Whether you're a manipulative bastard or just a tired old man playing god... that's not my business."

His eyes gleamed with a quiet warning.

"But there's something you have, Odin. Or rather, something you've hidden."

Odin didn't move. But his expression shifted, subtly.

Aron tilted his head.

"The Infinity Stones."

The air grew heavier.

Gasps rippled through the ranks of the recovering Asgardians. Thor's fists clenched, even as he remained down on one knee, gritting his teeth against the crushing pressure.

"I can feel every speck of power in this realm," Aron continued. "Every fragment of cosmic radiation, every celestial imprint... yet the stones you once had possession of? Nothing. Not even a trace."

He leaned in, his voice low and dangerous.

"You hid them too well. So well, in fact, that it'd take a few hours for me to find than and time is what I can't spare."

Odin's face remained stone cold, but a flicker passed through his eye... ancient calculation. Memory. He said nothing.

Aron straightened, brushing a speck of ash off his coat.

"I don't care what bargain you did, or what price you paid to seal them away," he said. "I don't care if they're buried in some pocket dimension or locked behind realms forgotten by time."

He turned his back to Odin and faced the rest of the hall... what remained of it.

"I'm not here for a throne, or a title, or a war."

The black aura began to dissipate, retracting into his body like smoke being inhaled by the void. The death pressure lifted. Asgard breathed again.

Aron's voice rang clear.

"I want the stones."

He turned back to Odin.

"You give me what I want. And I walk out of here. No blood spilled. No realms broken. Your kingdom stands."

Hela watched him closely, her lips curling into a small smile. That tone... that presence... he wasn't asking.

He was telling.

"And if I refuse?" Odin finally said, his voice gruff but measured.

Aron didn't answer immediately.

Instead, he glanced toward the ceiling or what was left of it. Above them, the golden sky shimmered as energy from the Bifrost began to stabilize in the distance. The Asgardians have already started rebuilding it.

Then, his gaze returned to Odin.

"If you refuse..."

He raised one hand.

And for a single moment, all of Asgard flickered. It was as if they were erased from existence for a flickering second and then brought back to existence.

The sky dimmed.

The stars vanished.

The world went still.

For one heartbeat, all of creation across all Nine Realms felt nothing.

No warmth. No sound. No life.

Everything stood still, devoid of everything.

And then things turned back to normal.

'Fuck! That took a lot of gas out of me. Damn it! Oldie, just give me the fucking stones.' Aron lowered his hand. "That."

Odin said nothing. But Thor looked visibly shaken.

"You would threaten all Nine Realms for power?" the thunder god asked, slowly rising to his feet.

"I don't want the power," Aron replied calmly. "But I'll take it if I need it. Because someone far worse than me is coming. And unlike you, I don't have the luxury of pride."

His tone darkened.

"You think Thanos was bad? You think your wars and conquests matter? There's something on the edge of the multiverse tearing at reality, and if I don't stop it..."

He looked Odin dead in the eye.

"All will die. Even you."

Silence.

"Who?" Thor asked.

"Chaos," Aron said with a grim expression.

Then, at last, Odin exhaled slowly.

"...Follow me," he said, turning toward the rear of the hall. "There is a vault beneath the roots of Yggdrasil. Not even Heimdall can see it."

Aron said nothing more. He followed.

And behind him, Hela smiled.

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