Melting Chapter 76: Chase and Sword of Doom! (Patreon)

“What the heck is going on?!”

“How did Aaron leave for two days and come back as the King of the Gods?”

“Is this some huge comic-con event?”

Tony Stark glanced at Coulson and saw that he also looked baffled, as if he was saying something along the lines of:

“Sir, bad news! Aaron became the King of Asgard!”

“What?!”

In the Triskelion, Nick Fury sat up straight, question marks swirling through his head.

No way—did he really go and do that?

He didn’t conquer New York in a week; instead, he went off and conquered Asgard?

Unbelievable. That means he actually doesn’t think much of America… or Earth!

“Mother-f…!”

Yes, that’s the reaction we were expecting.

Coulson thought to himself, “Sir, what do we do now? We’ve got Odin, Thor, and Loki supposedly on the scene, plus about a thousand Asgardian warriors. If a fight breaks out, I’m worried about New York…”

“Evacuate it immediately!” Nick Fury barked into his comm, telling Agent Hill.

“What about the military? We need them in place ASAP!”

“Yes, sir. They’re already here…”

Coulson was looking at the jets and gunships speeding their way, encircling the site, and heard the rumble of tanks and armored vehicles. A single Osborn Corp building, now surrounded by so many factions—military, S.H.I.E.L.D., Asgardian gods, aliens…everyone converging at once.

“Master?” Mantis looked around at the sudden chaos, lost and unsure.

Ego, however, stayed calm. He didn’t care how many humans there were—only Aaron and Odin seemed worth his attention.

“No matter what, I’m taking you away!” Ego declared inwardly. Even if you’ll just be a living battery, I’m bringing you back! He still didn’t grasp how Aaron possessed the same Celestial power as himself. Could it be that Aaron somehow got hold of Ego’s “Celestial seed”?

Theoretically, Ego’s “Celestial flower” did contain his genetic code and abilities—another version of him. But he couldn’t figure out how Aaron managed it; it made no sense—neither scientifically nor theologically!

Hearing that, Aaron felt fed up.

“Your kid’s name is Peter Jason Quill, a.k.a. Jason. If you want to claim a child, find him—don’t come after me! If you’re that eager to die, I’ll oblige!”

He flickered out of sight and then reappeared behind Ego. Alarmed, Ego hastily spun around, conjuring a makeshift energy shield. But since Aaron wanted to keep his own building intact, he used only about one percent of his power—and still shattered Ego’s shield with ease, sending him flying toward Odin’s position.

Odin reacted swiftly. With Gungnir lit like a star, he attacked. Ego tried frantically to dodge, but Odin—loaded with eons of battle experience—tore off Ego’s left arm.

“Excellent,” Ego snarled. “You’ve provoked the wrath of a Celestial! If you won’t come with me, I’ll just force you to!”

Gone was his friendly face; azure light glowed beneath the surface, and through his matter-reformation ability he regenerated his missing limb. “You act like this is a game? You still have time for banter?” Aaron’s voice came from behind him. Ego’s face froze, and a sharp pain struck his chest. Moments later, a hand burst through Ego’s torso, clutching a still-beating heart.

Ego gaped at it, then at the Aaron in front of him—who began to fade. “A mirage double…?” Aaron scoffed softly, “Such a weak god.” At a mere squeeze, the heart splattered in his grip. He then kicked Ego’s half-dead body hundreds of meters away, smashing it straight into a building!

Coulson’s eyelid twitched. That building…was our S.H.I.E.L.D.-leased covert observation post on Osborn. Really, dude? Not your property, so you don’t mind demolishing it?

“Oops, whose building was that?” Aaron asked Coulson with a smile. Coulson forced a grin. “No worries. Perhaps…you and I can discuss repair costs?”

He’s definitely doing this on purpose! But what else could Coulson do? S.H.I.E.L.D. tactics meant squat to Aaron. He could only muster up a polite smile.

“You people have no sense of fair play—too underhanded!” A billow of smoke rose where Ego reappeared, dragging his half-repaired body. Tony and Coulson were startled—like a cockroach that wouldn’t die. You got your heart ripped out along with half your body—yet still alive?

But as a Celestial, even a mere avatar, Ego wouldn’t go down so easily. The main damage was from Aaron’s single strike; all these buildings were basically irrelevant. Ego’s anger now blazed. He’d show these puny “gods” what Celestial power meant!

Thump!

Ego grunted, turning to see Loki behind him, a dagger lodged in his back. “You’re still not dead?!” Loki muttered, disbelieving.

That did it. Ego was now truly enraged!

Earthlings had zero respect—ganging up on him once, then pulling illusions on him a second time. “I am a Celestial!!” he roared, azure lightning crackling over him. In a flash, Ego attempted to fry Loki. But before the bolt struck, Aaron waved a hand and teleported Loki beside Thor, making Ego’s attack miss completely.

“You’ll all die!” Ego was driven to madness, mental state unstable. He came here in good faith, only to be eviscerated multiple times, stabbed in the back—literally. Even a major deity’s avatar couldn’t endure such insults.

But Aaron wasn’t about to let a boss “power up.” He soared into the sky, arms transforming into cannon-like forms, bombarding Ego’s body in continuous particle-beam blasts. Each beam tore away chunks of Ego’s form. Though he tried regenerating each time, his recovery rate slowed as the damage piled up, falling behind the rate of destruction.

“Curses! I’ll kill you!” Ego howled helplessly as he was worn away. Finally, the last bit of him vanished along with his furious screams. Peace descended.

Yet…

Coulson glanced at the pile of rubble which had been the S.H.I.E.L.D. observation building. Seeing Aaron eye him, he forced a smile. “This works out—no need for demolition. I’ll start rebuilding from scratch…”

What a pain!

Aaron nodded. “I’ll have Norman coordinate with you so you’re compensated in full.”

“That’s…not the point, actually,” Coulson mumbled. S.H.I.E.L.D. didn’t need the money. It was a matter of pride!

With Ego gone, the Palace Guards kept their guard up. Mantis stood there trembling, having seen Ego’s annihilation and Aaron’s terrifying display. She couldn’t fathom how it had all come to this. Beset by fierce warriors, she had no idea what to do.

“Shall we throw her into the dungeons of Asgard?” Odin asked Aaron. Aaron thought for a moment, then shook his head. “Let her remain on Earth. She’s not closely connected to Ego.” With that, he drifted toward the alien’s ship, placing a hand on the oval-shaped white hull.

He accessed its onboard systems. With his “Data Master” ability—and no user controlling the craft—it was child’s play for Aaron to hack it.

“Coordinates of Ego’s planet…here!” Golden light flared in Aaron’s eyes. Gazing across tens of thousands of light-years, he saw a reddish planet shaped suspiciously like a face, roughly the size of Earth’s moon and otherwise unremarkable.

Odin glimpsed Aaron’s action, face darkening slightly. “You’re…going after him?”

“I won’t sleep well if a deadly enemy is left alive,” Aaron muttered. Planting his feet on the ground, he summoned Earth’s energies for structural support. Lifting both hands, he generated a dark-energy pathway that stretched across tens of thousands of light-years, heading straight to Ego’s planet.

“Woo-woo-woo—” shrill alarms rang as a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent stared at the readings in horror. “Director, Manhattan’s energy index is skyrocketing—it’s already… My god, is he about to blow up half the U.S.?!”

Nick Fury strode over, seeing multiple screens flashing crimson with urgent warnings. Even he was sweating internally. “Coulson, what the hell is happening there?”

“I-I’m not sure, sir!” Coulson stammered. He was just a small-time operative with no clue how these cosmic-level powers worked. The alien Ego was presumably done for—who was Aaron fighting now? “It looks like…he’s opening a black hole? Or maybe a teleportation gate, leading somewhere else…” Coulson guessed.

“So to open that gate, Aaron’s releasing enough energy to flatten half the country?” Nick Fury’s eyes bulged. What kind of monster was he? A walking nuke?

Odin eyed the swirling dark-energy portal, stunned but still kindly offering, “Do you need the Bifrost’s help?” He didn’t like using that planet-busting weapon but wouldn’t hesitate if it would draw Aaron closer to Asgard. If he wanted to blow up one or two planets, so be it. Odin’s fire might have dimmed, but it could blaze again.

Aaron shook his head, not even turning around. “I’ll be right back.” Without a second glance, he stepped through the portal. Odin, scanning around, shouted, “Heimdall!” Instantly, Odin’s eyes gleamed gold, and Thor and Loki rushed up to join him. Together, they extended their sight to follow Aaron’s steps.

On Ego’s planet…

With the avatar’s destruction, the memories were relayed back to the main mass somehow. The entire planet shook violently. Deep underground, a giant, human-like brain writhed, pulsing with thick blue vessels of energy. Another Ego was quickly birthed from it.

“Earth…Asgard… You dare defy a Celestial!” Ego seethed. He couldn’t believe he’d wasted a trip and was humiliated besides. Across millions of years of wandering the galaxy, no one had ever treated him like that—until now. Furious about how to regain his pride, Ego sensed something overhead and teleported outside.

A black void opened. Aaron strode calmly out of it. “Aaron! You’ve come to my planet!” Ego was surprised, furious…and oddly thrilled. “On Earth, you had help from the Asgardians. Hard to deal with. But you’ve shown up in my territory on your own?”

He almost laughed. Searched all over, found nothing—then here you come, handing yourself over on a silver platter. Floating into the sky, the entire planet rumbled. “See? I’m one with this place. I’m a god here—omnipotent, as you’d say on Earth. Without your little buddies, you’ll remain here as a battery for a thousand years, forced to mature properly!”

Aaron didn’t even acknowledge him, gazing downward with the All-Seeing Eye and X-ray vision combined, scanning for Ego’s true brain. “What are you doing?” Ego felt a lurch of dread. Did Aaron…know his weakness?

Aaron locked onto his target. Ego’s mental alarms blared. The core of his brain was discovered. Panicking, he tried to shift it deeper into the planet’s core, merging layers of rock to seal off every gap. “You trying to run?” Aaron raised a brow. Time to display real skill.

All the energy in his cells roared to life. His body began to expand: ten meters, a hundred, a thousand… Soon he was ten thousand meters tall! Considering Ego’s planet was about three thousand kilometers across, that put Aaron’s height at roughly 1/30 of the planet’s diameter, and still growing. His mass and strength multiplied exponentially.

Ego stood there, shocked. Thor and Loki—observing via Heimdall—had their jaws on the floor. Even Odin twitched at the jaw. Too big! He could probably crush Asgard with a single punch. So that’s the caliber of a real Celestial? Then what about Ego? Doesn’t hold a candle. Trying to mimic Whitebeard with that scrawny figure? Dream on.

Loki realized privately that maybe Aaron wasn’t Borr’s son at all. Actually, it looked more like Borr might be Aaron’s son. In truth, Odin’s story had always been flimsy. But who dared poke holes in it? Everyone doubted, but Odin’s fists were persuasive, and the Asgardian army not yet fully decayed. Plus, Aaron had taken the “Asgardian God-King” label. Everyone had to “believe” it—end of story.

“How is this possible!” Ego yelled, wide-eyed. That’s an ability even I don’t have! As a Celestial, he lacked the skill to become giant—strictly speaking, he was just a brain.

He never completed the typical Celestial birthing process, which should involve sowing seeds across the universe. Over hundreds of millions of years, the embryo would feed on the planet’s energy and the souls of billions of sentient beings, culminating in its final manifestation.

Ego, by contrast, was just a floating brain in space that gathered matter bit by bit. He was nowhere near a fully developed Celestial, so he had no enormous body or cosmic armor.

He realized Aaron was about to do something horrifying: blow up his entire planet. For a body only the size of the moon—1/10 Earth’s diameter, 1/80 its mass—destroying it would be far easier than blowing up Earth.

Suddenly, flames erupted over Aaron’s colossal form, though he didn’t become some molten-lava figure like Surtur. Still, he looked like a human-shaped sun, a Fire Giant. A random wave of his arm triggered quakes across Ego’s planet. Then a sword appeared in his hand.

“The Twilight Sword…?” Loki murmured. Odin’s eyes widened. “No, that’s the Doom Sword!” This was the nightmare that plagued Odin’s nights for years. Only now, it was Aaron—far bigger and stronger than Surtur had ever been. Holding the “Sword of Doom” tens of thousands of meters long, it dwarfed anything Ego could attempt.

Ego’s face twisted in horror. “No—!!!”