"You have two choices now."
Hela said coldly, "Kneel, or die."
Hela was already growing angry.
Yet no one knelt before her.
Instead, from within the crowd,
the Warriors Three and the other fighters stepped forward one after another.
"We will not kneel to you. Leave this place, Hela. This was the command left behind by the All-Father."
Fandral shouted, gripping his longsword.
"Leave? Didn't you hear what I said earlier? I am your new king!" Hela's expression turned even colder.
"Whoever you are, leave Asgard or surrender!" Volstagg said as well.
Hundreds of warriors stepped forward and formed ranks before Hela.
They all held their torches high, and most of them did not even carry weapons.
Yet they faced Hela, who could defeat even Thor in an instant.
Standing here meant using their own deaths to show Hela their resolve.
Hela laughed in anger.
"Good. Very good. Then come."
With a flick of her wrist, Hela grasped two longswords.
Over by the mages,
Diana nudged Leon with her shoulder. "Aren't you going to make a move?"
Leon shrugged. "I already did."
"Huh?" Diana froze for a moment.
"Do you remember your battle with Ares?" Leon asked.
Diana paused, recalling the scene of watching Ares kill her mother with her own eyes.
"An illusion?"
Diana looked around.
She keenly noticed that Loki among the mages had become dazed and blank-faced. He had clearly fallen under an illusion spell.
Thinking of her own past experience,
Diana figured that before long, the brothers Loki and Thor would experience a massive surge in strength.
"What about Hela?" she asked, turning back.
"I'll leave her to you."
And so,
when Hela kicked Fandral away and drove her longsword through Hogun's chest,
then prepared to finish him off with another strike and sever Hogun's life,