Hm?
Loki frowned, because he could feel that human's life truly vanishing, truly dying.
What was going on?
"Th-this, what is going on~?"
"Why is Xiang Yu's metal box attacking him?"
"Is he going to die?"
"It's over."
The clamor finally erupted like a landslide, coming not only from humanity's side of the audience, but also from the gods' side.
Most people watched the scene before them in utter confusion as a halberd pierced out from the top of the metal box, impaling Xiang Yu who had been hoisted into the air by the cables.
No matter how one looked at it, that was fatal!
It was also thanks to Xiang Yu's tall and sturdy build; if an ordinary person had been pierced like that by this halberd, they might have been cut clean in half.
From that pierced body, crimson blood burst forth, staining the entire metal casing red.
In a trance, the blood seemed to soak into the metal box. Was the metal box eating blood?
To be precise, it was Xiang Yu's body collapsing and vanishing into dust, so the blood staining the metal box vanished along with its evaporation, giving people the mistaken impression that the metal box was eating blood.
Such a scene also gave the feeling that Xiang Yu was sacrificing himself as an offering, wanting to summon something out.
"A sacrifice?"
"No way, using himself as a sacrifice to summon some kind of monster?"
"Can a match like this still be considered a battle between man and gods?"
Some humans and gods truly considered so-called sacrifice, thereby summoning some monster to fight.
"Uh, offering himself as a sacrifice in exchange for some kind of assistance to fight Thor-shashen? If that's really the case, then let me see if there are any rules regarding this!"
As the broadcaster of the Ragnarok battle—Heimdallr—immediately took out the legal codex to check how such a situation should be handled and judged if it occurred.
Yet, nothing seemed to be written in the codex?
At that moment, as Xiang Yu's body completely vanished, the metal box finally experienced new movement.
The box developed numerous cracks, and when the cracks reached a certain density, the entire metal box shattered like porcelain.
Seeing this, everyone stared fixedly, watching what would emerge from inside this box.
One by one, they held their breath and opened their eyes wide, not blinking, refusing to miss a thing.
"Eh?"
No matter what was inside, Goll, who had held no expectations to begin with, could not help but turn dazed.
The entire arena was also dazed.
"This—?"
"There's another Hegemon King Xiang Yu inside?"
"Twins?"
"That shouldn't be."
Humanity's side was in great confusion.
"There are two people? What is going on here?"
"Were they just performing some kind of magic?"
Quite a few of the audience on the gods' side did not understand either.
"Oh."
Shiva in Indian mythology, who had been lying down, sat right up.
The current human's aura felt completely different from before.
Earlier, one could still feel the life aura of a human, but right now, it felt purely like a cold aura of death.
As for this body, he also felt a violent power hidden within, feeling no less inferior to Thor, who was no longer hiding his power.
This made Shiva's blood boil a little, exciting him and making him look forward to exchanging blows with him.
What a pity, this match belonged to Thor.
Truly formidable; Sister Brunhilde really could not be underestimated.
If she could find such personnel to step up in the first match, what would the subsequent ones be like?
This made Shiva look forward to it as well.
In that case, he, who had originally intended to just watch the show, now planned to join the Ragnarok battle.
With things so interesting, how could he be left out?
Oh, they were coming. Both of them had revealed their true abilities and were about to begin their first exchange of blows.
"...Wagering the future of humanity, the first battle of Ragnarok, with both sides bringing forth their true power. So, who will seize the deer?"
Heimdallr shouted passionately, watching the two figures in the arena with intense excitement.
One side—Thor, holding Mjolnir high above his head, was releasing unprecedented terrifying energy, making him suspect that the moment he touched it, he would be reduced to ashes.
On the other side, the halberd-wielding Hegemon King Xiang Yu also assumed a combat stance to slash, gathering power while lines of light appeared inside his body.
These lights also pierced through his swaying clothes, making him feel as though he were entangled by flames—truly bizarre.
"Boom—!"
An explosion occurred where the two had originally been standing, but this was not caused by any attack from either side.
This was purely caused by the two of them dashing out at terrifying speeds and stomping the ground until it exploded.
And their speed was so fast that most people's naked eyes could not see it; they could only see the instant the two vanished, an explosion occurring right where they stood.
Before the sound of these two simultaneous explosions could even reach the grandstands, a massive explosion at the center of the arena swept across.
The massive explosion was not an energy-like attack released by either side.
This massive explosion was purely caused by the diffusion of compressed-to-the-extreme force after the two collided with pure physical strength.
In an instant, the omni-directionally radiating force blew away all the air within the entire arena, making it look like a vacuum state.
"What a sight this is!"
Heimdallr shouted excitedly once again.
Yet, he found that his voice did not come out?
I see, the terrifying shockwave truly turned his location into a vacuum as well, causing sound to be unable to propagate.
However, sound simply could not propagate within this vacuum area; the other spectators could still hear his broadcasted voice just fine, as he used his ability to transmit it outward.
Otherwise, relying on a mere ordinary speaking volume, how could his voice possibly reach across this huge arena?
"Whoops~"
Heimdallr let out a small, strange cry and clumsily leaped away from his original spot.
Because of the force shockwave generated by the two's terrifying collision, his original spot was causing the arena to present radial cracks, with a fissure tearing right through from there.
If he hadn't hurried and dodged, he would probably have been blasted flying.
And by the time he finished speaking those two sentences, the weapons of these two had already collided who knows how many times.
Every single time caused the arena to cry out in agony; if this went on, the arena would likely be completely wrecked.
While the surrounding spectators watched with shock, they also grew somewhat panicked.
Because with every collision between the two, the generated shockwave caused the entire arena to shake, fearing that it might suddenly collapse.
That said, also due to the complete release of Mjolnir's power coupled with the heat generated by the two's attacks, the temperature of this arena was rapidly rising at an alarming rate.
As for the temperature where Heimdallr stood, a single drop of sweat dripping from his chin would be directly evaporated before it even hit the ground.
"It's simply unbelievable."
"Lord Thor, operating under his true power, is actually able to match him blow for blow."
"What on earth is up with that human?"
"He just killed himself and reappeared as himself? What is this?"
Most of the audience on the gods' side found it hard to believe and impossible to accept, but the facts were right before their eyes.
Humanity was actually fighting evenly against Thor, who had unleashed his true power.
And Thor in this state was strong enough to easily kill most of any god present, which meant that human could do the same?
Therefore, some gods thinking of this broke out in cold sweat, because they had just spoken a great deal of disrespect toward this Hegemon King, terrified that they would become targets.
"Can humans really grow this powerful?"
"If things are like this, maybe we can win!"
"Humans can surpass gods!"
"Xiang's divine valor is peerless through the ages, truly deserving of the name!"
Humanity's side rejoiced endlessly, cheering loudly and hailing the hero on the field who represented the future of humanity.
"Second Brother, do you think he can win?"
The one asking the question was Liu Xuande, and the Second Brother he referred to was Guan Yu.
This Second Brother of his had not been summoned from history as a spectator, nor had he ultimately vanished into history like him; instead, he had sublimated into a god and attended this place with the identity of an Eastern god.
Therefore, this younger brother knew a few more secrets than he did.
"That's hard to say."
True to his words, Guan Yu could not be certain.
It was not that he lacked confidence in Xiang Yu; precisely because he had contacted Xiang Yu and exchanged blows with him, he knew Xiang Yu's strength—ordinary gods were simply no match for him.
However, Thor on the opposite side was no simple entity; he was a formidable and terrifying adversary.
Who would win and who would lose could not yet be determined.
If that person were to take the field, however, he would truly believe in victory.
That was an incredible figure who had created myth-like legends.
In fact, it could even be said that he had created myth itself.
"Sister Brunhilde, it looks like we might win!"
Goll, who had been somewhat despairing earlier, was currently extremely excited.
She had not expected Lord Thor to be concealing his true strength, nor had she expected the Hegemon King Xiang Yu of the present to fight evenly against Lord Thor.
This was simply unbelievable.
However, one thing also left her somewhat puzzled, and that was that Sister Lantigreese had been left out in the cold.
Did this mean the current Hegemon King Xiang Yu was not borrowing Sister Lantigreese's power?
If not that, how could he possibly rival Lord Thor?
What on earth was going on here?
Could this Hegemon King Xiang Yu from history also be no simple entity, but a human as extraordinary as King Gilgamesh and King Solomon?
Yet such a powerful existence, according to the history Goll understood, had ultimately lost to Liu Bang and committed suicide by the riverbank?
That showed just how much more powerful King Han Liu Bang must have been to defeat Hegemon King Xiang Yu.
Wait, it might not necessarily be like that; perhaps the history she knew differed from true history.
Before you continue