Chapter 256

Damian appeared next to Hela in her tower.

Damian looked at her before pulling her into a hug.

"Thank you," Damian said, looking at her. She had given up killing Odin immediately for him.

Seeing that it had surely been her greatest desire for millennia.

"It's fine. This is also fun. I'll be able to tell Odin how the negotiations are going. Maybe I'll tell him Frigga wants to give her life to keep him alive," Hela said, smiling.

Damian only gave her a slight smile, somewhat amused.

"Why do you seem strange to me? Not just your body, you're acting a bit odd, your smile seems different, a bit forced," Hela said, touching Damian's body. She also remembered detecting him, which was also unusual.

"Are you hurt?" Hela asked, suddenly frowning slightly.

"Of course not, it's quite the opposite. I've become stronger, and absorbed more energy than I can control," Damian said, sighing and revealing his true form.

His current appearance, which was usual, began to dissipate like mist, letting Hela see his real form.

A humanoid creature that seemed to be entirely made of crimson energy with dark tones appeared in the room.

It was a bit over two meters tall, and the enormous wings almost filled the entire room.

"Wow... it's very beautiful," Hela said, looking at Damian with amazement in her eyes, her hand inevitably reaching out to touch him.

Despite a sizzling sound from her hand burning, Hela didn't flinch and felt the texture.

Suddenly, Hela's attention was drawn to the stone on Damian's forehead.

"Why do you have that?" Hela asked, confused.

"Cortana made it. She was pretty clever," Damian said, gently touching the stone while chuckling.

"After the battle with the Celestials, she took me a bit far from Earth before placing the Mind Stone on my forehead."

"At first, I thought it was another of her pranks, but it turned out to be quite serious."

"Subsequently, she sent me the information about the attempted kidnapping of my daughters and how they faced a noble vampire," Damian said, gritting his teeth as his energy got out of control before the Mind Stone glowed a bit, calming Damian.

"I thought you weren't angry; that explains a lot," Hela said, looking at him. His apparent calmness and indifference to the situation had seemed very strange to her.

"I'm not angry, I'm furious," Damian said, his eyes glowing with a terrifying light, all the energy in his body moving as if it were boiling.

"But not just with Odin, with myself. I should have been more careful. Something I created was responsible for the attempted kidnapping."

"A small oversight and something irremediable could have happened."

Hela looked at Damian, who appeared truly terrifying at that moment. Even with her long life, she had never seen anything as frightening as what was in front of her.

Still, she didn't feel fear. Her eyes softened quite a bit before taking Damian's hand, her own hand immediately sizzling a bit from Damian's intense energy.

"It's okay, it's not your fault. I think you've been a wonderful father, maybe too much," Hela said, hugging Damian.

Seeing Hela hurt herself touching him, Damian immediately withdrew the energy from that area, revealing his pale skin. This was the most he could do.

"It's okay. I just need to calm down. I really wanted to tear Odin apart, but that would be too easy for him. Besides, I didn't want to show myself like that in front of Jane," Damian said, stroking Hela's head. In an outburst of rage, he could even kill Thor.

Which would leave an irreparable wound in Jane. He didn't want to close the possibility of having a relationship with Thor just because of his own anger.

In the end, Thor was not to blame for his father's actions.

"Hm, I was worried you'd let Odin go easily. So, I'll sit back and watch what kind of punishment you give him," Hela said while still hugging Damian.

Several seconds passed, and she didn't know what to do anymore. She had never consoled anyone. Should she keep hugging him? Or end the hug? It was starting to hurt her a bit.

While Damian was with Hela.

Cortana, who had lost her body, was busy cleaning up after the battle and examining the spoils.

The biggest spoil was definitely the 10 Celestials that now orbited the Earth as small invisible moons.

These Celestials were like state-of-the-art engines added to the system. The expansion was already several times the speed of light, and soon the day would come when it covered the entire universe.

At the same time, with these Celestials, her power abruptly increased. Besides her master, she was probably the most powerful in the universe.

Her power had grown to such an extent that she was starting to feel that the central computer limited her.

She figured she would have to get a body soon, one powerful enough to withstand her processing speed and the energy she used.

And it just so happened that she had a high-quality body nearby; she just needed to make a few modifications.

Cortana's consciousness went deep into the planet, where a gigantic energy sphere seemed to serve as the sun for the hollow Earth.

The sphere was about 100 kilometers in diameter and emanated intense energy.

Clearly responsible for the giant creatures that were the Titans.

Cortana and Damian had yet to decide what to do with the Celestial gestating on the Earth, but under Cortana's supervision, it was impossible for it to be born, so they simply ignored it.

Now Cortana saw the opportunity to create the perfect body.

Cortana used a bit of energy from the Mind Stone to enter the Celestial's consciousness.

She saw it was an almost blank consciousness and seemed to have memories with which all Celestials were born.

Cortana couldn't entirely see what it was about but knew it was related to their duty.

With the Celestial without consciousness, things became much easier. Thus, she fully immersed herself in investigating this powerful race called Celestials.

…

Jane returned to the palace and noticed everything had returned to normal, as if it hadn't been destroyed an hour ago.

She didn't pay much attention to this and went directly to her room.

Upon entering, she immediately headed towards her bed before lying down while staring at the ceiling.

That day had been the worst she had had in a long time. Despite showing a smile and being calm in front of Thor, she was not really that calm.

When they told her they had attempted to kidnap Alice, Emma, and Ivy, she immediately thought everything was over.

In her anger, Damian would destroy all of Asgard. Thor would move to defend his home and... inevitably die.

To her surprise, this hadn't been the case. Damian had reacted so calmly that it was even more terrifying for her.

She was definitely not scared of Damian; she just feared Odin's fate and how it would affect all of Asgard, Thor, and ultimately herself.

At that moment, the door to her room opened, and Sophia entered.

Seeing her, she gave Jane a slight smile before approaching and sitting on the bed next to her.

"What a day, huh?" Sophia said, stroking her hair.

"I'm not a child anymore," Jane said, protesting without real intentions of stopping her.

"When you arrived, you were only 16. To me, you were definitely a child," Sophia said, laughing softly.

"How are you feeling?" Sophia asked.

"Scared, worried," Jane said.

"Damian acted very strangely today," Jane said.

"Hm, he hasn't returned. The girls are already asking about him. He only saw Carol briefly to let her and us know he was okay," Sophia said, nodding.

"Then I wasn't wrong," said Jane with an ironic smile.

"Hm, he's up to something, but it's nothing you need to worry about. If he's acting this way, it's for you. He doesn't want you to have to choose sides; he chose to calm things on the surface while he handles it," said Sophia, stroking Jane's hair and trying to guess Damian's intentions.

"I don't want that, I don't want to be a burden," sighed Jane.

"You're still worried about that?" sighed Sophia, shaking her head.

"Everything will be fine, darling," said Sophia, smiling.

...

The city lifted its state of alert, and people who had been trapped at work were allowed to return home.

Several robots roamed the city, cleaning up the bodies of various extraterrestrials that Thanos had brought as cannon fodder, which had subsequently attacked the city.

Besides Madripoor, the world was also recovering from this great war.

All the gods had participated in the battle, and none had survived. After more than a year, many had gathered their believers, who were now devastated.

The world once again saw who the rulers of Earth were, and people with ambitions couldn't help but calm down. Madripoor was too powerful.

Carol was in one of Madripoor's rooms with Natasha.

Tony, Bruce, and Betty were also there.

Seeing that everything was over, Natasha had left Nate with Ana and had come out to greet them.

To thank them, she invited them in. Since Tony was also there, they had a little meeting.

"Thanks for coming to help us," said Carol, smiling at Bruce and Betty.

"No problem, it was also a bit interesting. I've never done anything like this," said Betty, smiling slightly.

"Take the opportunity to stay in Madripoor. I promise you'll have a good time. The expenses will be on me," said Carol, wanting to repay them somehow for their help.

"That would be great. Honestly, I heard this place has the best resorts. It might do Bruce some good to get a tan instead of turning green," said Betty, laughing softly.

Bruce could only smile awkwardly, already used to Betty's antics.

"Tell me, Carol, what happened with the Asgard and Thor situation?" asked Tony, somewhat concerned about the matter. After all, Thor was a friend to everyone.

"To be honest, I have no idea what's going to happen. Damian will decide, and I don't know what he'll do. This time, he might actually be really angry," said Carol, becoming a bit more serious.

"Do you think he'll destroy Asgard?" asked Tony, hesitating.

"At this point, I don't think I can predict what he'll do, but it's a possibility," said Carol, unsure.

"What a bothersome issue," said Tony, rubbing his hair.

"Anyway, everyone makes their own decisions and has to live with the consequences," said Tony, shrugging as he stood up.

He wouldn't think too much about something that wasn't under his control.

"I'm going to see Pep and Morgan," said Tony, leaving the room.

"Then I'll take you to stay at a really good hotel I know," said Natasha, standing up and guiding Bruce and Betty while chatting with them.

Carol was left alone and couldn't help but sigh; she was starting to worry a bit about Damian.

His avoiding them was unheard of, but now it seemed he was doing just that.

It had been more than two hours since the battle ended, but he still hadn't reunited with anyone, except apparently Hela.

"Are you sighing for your lost husband?" a voice suddenly said behind Carol.

Carol was startled before quickly looking behind her and seeing Damian smiling at her.

Although she felt like punching him, before she knew it, she had jumped on him and hugged him.

"You worried me a bit," said Carol with a complaining tone.

"I just needed some time to calm down," said Damian, smiling as he stroked Carol's cheek.

"With Hela," said Carol, looking at him.

"Hm, I was with her," said Damian, nodding.

"Is it because of the kidnapping attempt?" asked Carol, looking at Damian.

"That's right. Normally, if I get angry, I just get angry and that's it. But in the battle against the Celestials, my power grew a lot, and in a fit of rage, I could destroy the Earth," said Damian.

"How melodramatic," said Carol, rolling her eyes before taking Damian's face in her hands.

"I've always trusted that you'd protect our daughters. Even if they had managed to kidnap them, you would have left the fight against the Celestials and appeared with them," said Carol, looking at Damian.

"So don't overthink it, relax. The girls are fine, your beautiful wife is fine, what else is there to worry about?" said Carol, smiling flirtatiously.

"Indeed, it seems there's nothing to worry about," said Damian, chuckling at the sight of Carol.

Seeing her face smiling at him cheerfully was like a gentle breeze that made him feel at ease.

"By the way, why does my skin burn when I touch you?" asked Carol, looking at her slightly red hand.

"Maybe you've become allergic to me?" said Damian, joking lightly, clearly in a better mood.

"If that were the case, you'd be in trouble," said Carol, laughing at Damian's words.

"It's because I now also have a layer of energy like you, only I can't retract it into my body," said Damian, smiling.

"Oh? Let me see it quickly," said Carol, excited.

Damian just smiled slightly before showing her his true appearance.

"You know, you're missing some horns, and you'd look like a demon. It seems I wasn't wrong all those years ago when you made me guess your race," said Carol, looking from afar.

"Although the wings look kind of cool," said Carol.

"It'll take me a few days to fully control it; it's partly why I didn't want to see the girls," said Damian.

"Hm," said Carol, nodding.

"And what caused this transformation?" asked Carol, looking at him.

"It's something I still need to figure out," said Damian, helpless.

"Okay, so what will you do with Odin? As far as I know, Thor and his mother haven't returned to Asgard. They seem to want to negotiate Odin's release," said Carol.

"We'll release him," said Damian, smiling.

"What?" said Carol, stopping as if she had misheard.

"We'll release him; just prolong the negotiations. I need some time. I'll make Odin know hell," said Damian, the energy rippling slightly around him at the hint of anger that crossed his face.

But clearly, he could already control himself without the Mind Stone.

"It's weird talking to you without seeing a face," said Carol before enveloping herself entirely in cosmic energy, becoming something very similar to Damian, a figure almost entirely made of energy.

Only their colors contrasted, on one side a crimson with dark tones and on the other a golden figure.

"Now it's fine, right?" said Carol as she took his hand.

"Now it's fine," said Damian, smiling.

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