Beneath the dim vault of heaven, a figure raced up the stone steps that soared into the clouds.
"Idunn, Idunn..."
Bragi's filthy robes whipped wildly in the gale. He stared fixedly at the shattered silhouette of the divine temple amid the clouds and murmured in a voice only he could hear:
"Don't be afraid, Idunn... You'll be all right.
I'm here. As long as I'm here, no one can hurt you..."
Within the dark clouds, the massive Crimson Eyeball swiftly turned and locked onto Bragi as he climbed the mountain.
A chill ran down the back of Bragi's neck. He looked up and met the giant eye's gaze, and an inexplicable dread and anxiety surged through him.
Bragi took a deep breath and suppressed the oppressive feeling the giant eye had brought him. His body became a streak of light as he charged full speed toward the summit, arriving before the temple ruins moments later.
"Thor! Asgard is already in chaos. Idunn is all right... isn't she?"
Bragi hurriedly stepped into the temple, but the moment he saw the sight before him, his voice abruptly cut off.
Above the blood-red temple ruins, a charred figure covered in fleshy tumors stood within the flowing Illusory Sea.
He held a shattered amethyst in his hand. As though he had heard Bragi's call, he slowly turned his head...
Those crimson eyes narrowed as they looked at him.
When Bragi saw the amethyst in Thor's hand, more than half of it already bitten away, his entire body froze as if struck by lightning!
Thor stuffed the last piece of amethyst into his mouth and gnawed at it grotesquely. His blood-red teeth mercilessly ground the crystal fragments, making him look like a demon from hell!
Within the deathly silent temple, only the grating crunch of