Marvel With Zanpakutou

"No!!!"

Ikaris’s pupils suddenly shrank, and a trembling voice burst from his throat, turning into an almost hysterical roar.

Every member of the Eternals had accompanied one another through ten thousand years, building bonds and deep feelings that had long surpassed any other form of connection.

It could even be said,

Every member of the Eternals regarded one another as the closest of siblings, willing to give everything for each other.

But now...

One of the Eternals had been killed to save him. That pain and hatred, like being cut to pieces by a thousand blades, like a drill boring into bone and heart, was beyond anything words could describe.

"Ahhhhhhhhhh..."

The nearly grief-stricken howl echoed across the shattered ice field. Ikaris, hair disheveled, looked like a demon crawling up from the depths of hell, his expression twisted into something terrifying.

His fingers dug deep into the ground, leaving five bloody gouges. Black veins and blood vessels bulged across his handsome face, his eyes so wide they seemed ready to split apart, bloodshot to the point of filling the entire eyeball, making him look utterly frightening.

Makkari should not have died...

As the only speedster among the Eternals, her speed could rival that of light itself.

Someone like her, in theory, could escape from any danger by sheer speed alone.

Yet... she died here!

Ikaris’s reason was melted away by rage, leaving only a single thought.

"Kill... kill you!!!"

With a beast-like roar, Ikaris erupted with astonishing power, squeezing out the very last of his strength. He lifted his head in fury, glaring at the man.

Within those bloodshot, terrifying eyes, a brilliance as dazzling as the scorching sun gathered.

The light was so blinding that the man instinctively narrowed his eyes, and in that single moment, he lost his best chance to evade.

"Die!!!"

Ikaris roared like thunder, seizing this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, unleashing the strongest energy beam of his life.

Buzz... BOOM!!!

It happened almost in an instant!

From his sun-bright eyes burst two unmatched golden beams, moving faster than anyone could react. Like a shooting star flashing across the gap between worlds, they carved a massive rift through the earth and even space itself.

"So fast!"

The man’s pupils shifted slightly, and he only had time to utter a single exclamation before the golden light pierced his chest, blasting him away.

But the golden light did not stop.

Ikaris suddenly leapt from the crater, floating in midair, his eyes still blazing like suns. The searing beams rose with him, melting the earth into a great chasm, then shooting straight into the heavens, shattering the black clouds covering the sky.

"Ahhhhh!!!"

Ikaris, like a mad god, roared as he charged above the man, lowering his head to lock onto the target.

Two beams as thick as barrels, carrying a world-ending destructive force, fell from the sky like divine punishment.

Rumble!!!

The terrifying explosion tore the heavens apart.

In an instant, the ice field became scorched earth. The surface melted under the extreme heat into boiling magma. Towering waves of heat, mixed with shattered ice and molten rock, surged outward again and again like endless raging tides, battering everything in every direction.

The entire ice field shook violently.

For hundreds of miles around, all matter, tangible or intangible, was annihilated under the bombardment of the beams, broken down to the most basic atoms.

The dazzling beams, as thick as barrels, shone with the brilliance of a blazing sun, visible even hundreds of kilometers away, a terrifying sight like the end of the world.

That was... the Sword of Divine Judgment!

The terrifying momentum, blazing like the wrath of heaven, and the brilliance far surpassing the scorching sun, all displayed to the people of the world the majesty and power that could only come from a god.

Those kneeling on the ground trembled, murmuring nonstop to pray for God’s forgiveness. The combatants on both sides, without any prior agreement, simultaneously put down their weapons, and in an eerie, uncanny fashion, brought this brutal war to a halt.

Clatter, clatter

Golden energy ripples spread outward, like thousands of troops trampling the earth, colliding to form wave after wave of concentric shockwaves. Their density was like ripples stirred when a giant boulder crashes into a lake.

The laser lasted for nearly half a minute.

By the time the energy within Ikaris was exhausted, the icefield for hundreds of kilometers around had been reduced to scorched red earth. Inside a massive crater, hundreds of meters in diameter, viscous red-hot magma flowed freely.

The surrounding rocks, under the intense roasting and calcination of the heat, had all their impurities forced out, leaving behind crystalline matter, as if a vast stretch of pure natural glass had been formed.

From the almost-melted crimson ground, high-temperature steam, reaching several hundred degrees, billowed up to the sky, hundreds of meters tall, turning the vicinity into something like an enormous, searing steam furnace.

The skeletons of the Hydra soldiers, along with the blood and the ice and snow they left behind, were erased without a trace.

Fortunately, Steve was still alive.

Not due to his own merit, but because a pentagram formation had protected the area around him, sparing him from this catastrophe.

The half-minute-long blast had pushed the already severely wounded Ikaris even closer to his limits. His energy was completely drained, and he could no longer even maintain flight, plummeting straight from the sky.

Bang.

Ikaris crashed onto a rock. His internal organs felt like they had shifted out of place, forcing him to spit out a mouthful of blood. Using his only remaining hand, he grabbed onto a protrusion, barely preventing himself from slipping into the magma-filled crater.

Huff... huff...

His chest heaved violently as he gasped for breath. A burning sensation ran from his throat into his lungs, his entire body paralyzed, unable to muster even a shred of strength.

It was hard to imagine that he, an Eternal, would one day end up in such a sorry state.

In battles past, he was always the strongest one, resolving fights with ease. Even when facing a leader of the Deviants, he had never been reduced to this.

Now, his once-handsome face was caked in dust and black mud, missing one arm and one leg, unable to even stand on his own, only able to lie in the ruins, panting like a stray dog.

Still, he did not regret it.

"Makkari... I avenged you..."

Avenging his comrade lessened his guilt a little. The anger in his eyes faded, and he couldn’t help but let out a wild, skyward howl.

Suddenly, the howl stopped abruptly.

Ikaris’ eyes went wide, his expression frozen in shock. Then, the muscles of his face twisted, becoming somewhat feral. A trace of fear crept into his voice as he rasped in a near-hysterical tone,

"This... impossible... you... you’re still alive?!?!"

A familiar figure appeared, as if walking up invisible steps from the magma-filled depths of the crater, calm, steady, and powerful.

The man had messy silver hair. He wore not a single thread of clothing, his bare body lean yet powerful, with evenly distributed, sharply defined muscles, like a perfect Greek sculpture.

On that perfect physique were dark-red patterns, evenly arranged like electronic circuitry.

Parts of his body, charred black by the laser and even exposing muscle and bone, wounds that would be fatal to any ordinary being, even an Eternal, were, right before Ikaris’ eyes, regenerating at an astonishing speed.

Muscle tissue grew back, blood vessels reformed, broken bones knit together, and the charred outer skin peeled away to reveal fresh new flesh beneath.

All of this took only a few seconds.

Ikaris was dumbstruck. It was as if his understanding of the world had been shattered. He could only gape in wordless disbelief.

The man stood before him completely unscathed, those pitch-black, icy eyes gazing down with the indifference of a god surveying all living things.

"Game... over."