Nidavellir was not a normal planet.
At its core burned a violently active neutron star. Massive ring-structures encircled the star itself, and the dwarves lived upon those colossal rings.
The raging neutron star served as the dwarves' power source. Using advanced technology, they harnessed its energy to lt and forge nearly any tal in existence, creating weapons powerful enough to shake the cosmos.
When Drex Valen arrived through the Rainbow Bridge with his Angel guards, King Eitri initially assud Asgardians had co.
Then he realized they were not Asgardians at all.
The dwarves imdiately went on alert.
"Dwarf," Drex said calmly to Eitri, "I am the Emperor of the Kryptonian Empire. I ca here for the mold used to forge Stormbreaker."
"No."
Eitri refused instantly.
"That belongs to Asgard."
Asgard still carried enormous weight in the minds of the dwarves.
"Asgard's Rainbow Bridge was shattered by Thor himself," Drex said evenly. "They no longer have the ability to maintain order across the Nine Realms. Are you really going to keep protecting that mold for them?"
The mont Thor smashed the Bifrost, Asgard effectively lost control over the Nine Realms.
On top of that, the Tesseract, the Space Stone, had never been returned to Asgard. It was now in Drex's possession, which ant they lacked the ans to rebuild the Rainbow Bridge.
Chaos had spread through the Nine Realms.
Species once crushed beneath Asgard's rule had begun rebelling again. The races protected by Asgard were desperately begging for aid, but Asgard could no longer reach them.
Only the restoration of the Rainbow Bridge could change that.
"Heimdall!"
Eitri refused to believe it and imdiately called out.
No response ca.
"Heimdall! Thor!"
Panic crept into the dwarf king's voice.
Still nothing.
"Unless they sohow cross the cracks between realms to get here, Nidavellir has already lost Asgard's protection," Drex said with a faint smile. "And considering this place is the most famous divine forge in the universe… I imagine a lot of Ravagers would be interested in visiting."
Eitri fell silent.
Long ago, Odin had entrusted him with the mold for Stormbreaker, the weapon of an Asgardian king. In exchange, Asgard promised to protect Nidavellir, while the dwarves agreed never to forge weapons for outsiders.
That arrangent had lasted thousands of years.
The dwarves had grown accustod to it.
But now, reality seed exactly as the Kryptonian Emperor described.
If Asgard still possessed the strength to protect Nidavellir, Heimdall would already have warned Odin the mont Drex arrived, and Asgardian forces would have appeared imdiately.
"So?" Drex prompted.
"If I hand the mold over to you," Eitri said carefully, "then we lose Asgard's protection forever."
"That's fine," Drex replied. "The Kryptonian Empire also possesses a Rainbow Bridge."
He raised a hand casually.
"I'll leave a portal here. If danger cos, send word through it and Krypton will respond."
Eitri understood the hidden aning imdiately.
Protection.
He looked at the man standing before him.
Drex appeared almost ordinary at first glance, despite ruling a galactic empire. Eitri could not tell whether this man truly possessed the power to stand against Odin.
But he also knew he had no real choice.
Asgard was silent.
The Kryptonian Emperor had already arrived personally.
If they refused, there was every chance Drex would simply take the mold by force.
"Very well," Eitri finally said.
Drex wanted the mold because Stormbreaker carried Odin's rune inscriptions. It was a true king-class divine weapon, one capable of amplifying Thor's power to its absolute peak.
Mjolnir acted more like a limiter and control chanism, helping Thor direct the storms and lightning within him.
Stormbreaker was different.
After obtaining the mold, Drex studied it carefully.
Losing his magical Superman mutation had made understanding runic systems more difficult, but he still mastered the structure quickly.
"So I can mass-produce divine weapons now."
He sounded genuinely interested.
Standing there barehanded, Drex manipulated quarks directly and forged a massive black axe into existence.
Runes copied from both Stormbreaker and Mjolnir appeared across its surface.
The blade was forged from uru and adamantium.
The handle was vibranium.
The result was a genuine god-weapon.
Eitri stared in complete shock.
The sa terrifying heat produced by a neutron star forge, temperatures reaching into the hundreds of billions of degrees, had been perfectly replicated by Drex himself.
The Black Cleaver.
A true divine weapon equal even to Odin's spear, Gungnir.
"From this day onward," Drex said, "Nidavellir forges weapons for Krypton."
With a casual gesture, he used the Space Stone to leave behind a permanent portal. Then he reinforced it with the gravitational distortions of his Black Hole Superman powers.
Even if soone else acquired the Space Stone later, they would still struggle to disrupt the stabilized black hole singularity anchoring the gateway.
Drex returned to Krypton carrying the Black Cleaver.
Then he created a new figurine.
The Hand of Noxus.
Darius.
Of course the Black Cleaver belonged to Darius. And honestly, Darius's style fit the Marvel universe disturbingly well. Drex suspected there might even be unexpected results from this experint.
Darius opened his eyes.
The first thing he saw was the great emperor he instinctively respected above all others.
He imdiately dropped to one knee.
"Darius," Drex said, "from this day forward, you are commander of the Imperial Expeditionary Forces."
He presented the Black Cleaver.
"This divine weapon is yours. Don't disappoint ."
"As you command, my Emperor."
Darius accepted the axe.
The instant his hand touched it, he felt a powerful connection form between himself and the weapon.
Drex had also placed an imprint upon the Black Cleaver, much like Odin's enchantnt upon Mjolnir.
Anyone unrecognized by the weapon would be unable to lift it.
And because the imprint originated from Drex himself, he had stabilized it using the power of a black hole singularity.
Which ant unless soone possessed enough strength to move that singularity itself, they would never budge the Black Cleaver.
Drex had not created Darius using Kryptonian soldier genetics alone.
He had also incorporated the mutant gene known as Son of the Earth.
As long as Darius stood upon solid ground, he would gain endless stamina and strength. While grounded, he was effectively immortal, and his power would continue increasing indefinitely.
Drex recreated Darius perfectly.
Even the armor matched Darius's original appearance exactly, though the materials had been upgraded into a combination of uru, adamantium, and vibranium.
The Hand of Noxus had arrived.
And he looked ready to slaughter worlds.
User Comments
0 comments from readers