Five-Front War (Part Two)

Meanwhile, in the Northern Star Region, at Andromeda Hazard Nine.

Thor and Jean emerged from the rift into a magnificent nebula utterly consumed by darkness. Dust and gas that should have blazed with color had turned an ominous gray-black. Countless Shadow Demons swam through it like schools of fish, far denser than those in the Border Universe.

"This is worse than I imagined." Thor tightened his grip on Stormbreaker. Lightning danced along its blade, crackling.

Jean said nothing. The Phoenix wings behind her spread wide, and golden-red flames drove back the darkness for miles around. She closed her eyes. Through her powerful Telepathy, she sensed that the Shadow Demons were not merely creatures of darkness.

"They... were all living, thinking beings once." A faint tremor entered Jean's voice. She could feel the endless pain and despair lingering in those fragments of souls.

Thor's smile vanished. After a moment of silence, he raised his axe high, lightning flaring in his eyes. "Then let us... grant them release!"

He swung Stormbreaker down with a roar. "For Asgard!"

A colossal pillar of lightning that seemed capable of tearing the heavens apart crashed into the densest swarm. Thousands of Shadow Demons turned to ash in an instant. But deeper in the nebula, more poured forth as though they would never end.

Jean drew a deep breath and stopped holding back. The Phoenix Force erupted in full, its golden-red flames gathering behind her into a Fire Phoenix vast enough to blot out the sky. With a clear cry, it swept its wings across the battlefield, sending sacred fire surging outward in a sea of flames.

Unlike Thor's sheer destruction, the Phoenix Fire purified the souls imprisoned within the Shadow Demons as it burned them. Every Shadow Demon it touched dissolved instantly into motes of light