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"There is no life in the Void. Only death."
- Mairon/Sauron (The Lord of the Rings)
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<(Atem POV)>
"A pair of glowing red hunting daggers? Well, I guess just like me, you didn't take after our father's choice of weaponry after all. He always prefers lame, brutish weapons, spears and hammers like a savage." Hela smirked as countless black necro-blades began to manifest themselves around her by rising from the ground. "But blades, they are so much more elegant and deadly, aren't they? Made to cleave, kill, and cut, they are the most efficient tools in the world." She praised while spinning the swords in her hands.
Maybe she was talking with me because she wanted to get to know me, since I was her brother, or maybe the Goddess of Death just preferred to talk while fighting. However, her words didn't put me at ease. Instead, they only served to confuse me. 'What is she even trying to do here? Does she know about Unlimited Blade Works or something?' I mentally wondered as I surveyed the countless black blades around me, each heavily imbued with potent death energy that could sap the life out of even gods. 'At least, she doesn't have access to Odinforce here. Perhaps it's because we are in a different realm here, or maybe Odin is constantly making sure that his murderous daughter can't draw too much power from it.' I concluded.
Despite how it might seem to an outside view, with each of our attacks neutralizing each other and proving equal in strength, the truth of the matter was that I wasn't exactly giving it my all. None of my attacks were at full power. Even Ryujin Jakka's fire ability, which I had previously used, could have been much more devastating if I had wanted it to be. But I was consciously holding back because, unlike the time I had fought with Odin, this was a chance for me to improve myself by sharpening my skills against Hela since my fight against her posed no mortal danger or risk for me. She was strong, but without the Odinforce, she still wasn't at Odin's level. That said, I could see why it was expected that she would continue increasing in power after Odin's death until she would eventually one day become undefeatable.
*Swish* *Swish* Two sharp necro blades flew towards my chest without any warning, but as soon as they were inches away from reaching their target, I invoked my Rinnegan's repulsion ability to deflect them with ease. Then without any more delay, I used my newly acquired ice manipulation ability to lower the temperature around me and freeze the surroundings in a thin layer of frost before sending sharp spears of hard ice toward Hela to see how useful the ice ability of the Jotuns is against a strong enemy and as expected, the Goddess of Death was able to block my attack effortlessly by using her twin necro swords.
"Hey, didn't you say you wanted to settle this with a simple one-on-one sword fight? So, why use these little tricks? It isn't like they are going to help you win." I teased, trying to rile her up while directing my own divine energy into the Blades of Chaos, causing the weapon to glow slightly brighter. 'Wait, what if I use Ryujin Jakka's flames to empower the blades on top of this? Since the weapon supports the attribute of fire, shouldn't the two complement each other?' I suddenly thought to myself before generating the spiritual flames of Ryujin Jakka all around my arms and then forcing the flames to flow through the daggers in an attempt to empower them, which made the twin weapons glow bright orange-red as if they were made of nothing but boiling lava.
*Hisss* The weapons began to make a sizzling sound as soon as they came in contact with the air, This was mainly because of how quickly the temperature of the daggers was increasing which meant even the water vapor in the air around the weapons was getting dried up by the immense heat of the blades. 'This is good, even better than I expected.' I thought before leaping towards Hela with the now heated-up Blades of Chaos.
