Godslayer

"Godslayer." Nova Prime deliberately paused when she spoke the name, as though invoking some taboo.

She noticed the change in Richard's expression. "Looks like you've heard of this one?"

Richard nodded.

Godslayer. These days, the name was practically everywhere. You could find something like it in countless games and movies, to the point that what had once been an imposing name now sounded a little cheap.

But Richard knew this Godslayer was different. This wasn't some bargain-bin weapon that got an intimidating name just because someone jammed a busted sword into an altar and added some flashy but useless light effects. This was a truly terrifying weapon, fully worthy of its title—and perhaps even more so.

In the original comics, the last artificial intelligence robot of a lost race had kidnapped Tony Stark and forcibly brought him into the cockpit of a weapon called "Godslayer." It told him this was Iron Man's ultimate form, the ultimate weapon Stark was destined to pilot.

But that robot had been wrong. The one truly designed to pilot that weapon had been Stark's brother, whom he had never met, rather than Stark himself... Of course, that involved a long, tangled tale of love and hatred within the Stark family. Richard knew that the Stark he knew had no unknown brother, so that story probably did not exist here either. No point bringing it up.

But the weapon known as Godslayer, along with the race that had forged it, apparently did exist in this parallel world.

"It was an age when gods fell, an age that no one even remembers now," Nova Prime said. "It all began with that lost civilization we just mentioned.

"They conquered, expanded their territory, defeated and subjugated anyone within their sight. Until one day, simple conquest could no longer satisfy