“Five minutes? You want us to hold them off for five minutes?” Ana asked, startled.

  “I’m sorry, I can’t do it any faster,” Athena replied.

  “Fine. I’ll push my abilities to the limit,” Ana said, summoning her two swords, Caladcholg and Fragarach.

  Ana charged at Belenus with both blades drawn, while the Celtic god watched her with a mocking grin.

  As soon as she tried to strike him, a protective energy barrier appeared around the deity.

  “My specialty is defensive barriers,” Toutatis said as he projected the magical shield over his ally.

  Belenus created a sphere of light in his right hand and slammed it into Ana’s abdomen. Her body convulsed violently and she was sent flying, crashing onto her back and carving a huge crater in the ground.

  “No, Ana—your weakness is the holy element,” Tania said as she struggled to stand.

  Rodrigo, unable to stop Ana in time, ran to where she had fallen.

  “Ana, are you okay?” he asked, holding her hand. But she had a gaping hole in her stomach and was barely breathing.

  “Move aside, nuisance,” Belenus said as he suddenly appeared behind Rodrigo and struck him with casual disdain.

  Rodrigo was hurled into the dimensional wall, hitting it hard before losing consciousness.

  Belenus shaped his hand into a blade and enveloped it in white energy to pierce Ana—but Tania appeared behind him. She attempted to strike him, yet again the barrier protected him. Still, it was enough to interrupt the god before he could kill Ana.

  “Do you want to die first? I can grant you that,” Belenus said as he turned toward her.

  Tania tried to hit him again, but the protective shield blocked every attempt. Without her noticing, Belenus stabbed her abdomen with his blade-shaped hand. Her eyes rolled back, and her strength vanished instantly.

  Belenus tossed her body aside, far from Ana. Once again, he stepped on Ana’s chest as she agonized on the ground, but she forced herself up and attempted to stab his heart with a sword—only to be stopped again by the barrier.

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  “Ridiculous,” the light god said calmly, charging a small white energy orb with just one finger.

  He flicked his hand downward, and the orb descended onto Ana. White energy—like divine flames—burst from her body as she screamed in agony, yet she kept refusing to let go of her sword.

  One minute had passed.

  Belenus again shaped his hand into a sword and attempted to decapitate Ana. But suddenly, threads of a spiderweb wrapped around him—Loki had appeared behind him, using his technique.

  “My net can bypass any barrier,” the Norse god declared.

  But Belenus burned through the web with his divine light as if it were nothing.

  “A technique of such low divine caliber will never stop me,” he said.

  Belenus sped toward Loki and punched him in the abdomen with his light-covered fist. Loki, however, managed to trap the god’s arm inside a massive block of ice.

  Belenus shattered it from within with little effort.

  Ana tried once more to attack the Celtic god, but the barrier still protected him. Desperate, she continued striking it helplessly.

  “This is getting boring,” Belenus said. Then he calmly recited:

  “Ionsú beatha (Absorption of life).”

  Everything green in the dimension instantly withered. Grass dried up, mountains cracked, the sky turned gray, the sea vanished, and the entire realm became a dead desert. A huge sphere of light shone in the sky—formed from the life energy of everything that had existed moments before.

  The massive orb descended. Ana and Loki backed away, but when it hit the ground, a tremendous explosion of white light engulfed them.

  The blast caused no physical destruction to the landscape, but both Ana and Loki fell. Ana was already unconscious, while Loki struggled to get back up.

  “Loki, Loki… you really don’t know when to surrender, do you?” Belenus said, smiling as he approached him.

  The dark god attempted to use his illusion technique, but Belenus pointed his index finger at the real Loki and shot a beam straight into his chest. Loki collapsed, vomiting blood, as Belenus casually walked toward him.

  Two minutes had passed.

  The Celtic god placed his foot on Loki’s face and said:

  “Well then… as part of my mercy and compassion, I’ll destroy this entire place with my most powerful technique.”

  Belenus raised his hands, and enormous stones rose from the ground, forming a structure resembling what mortals imagine Stonehenge once looked like.

  The symbols carved into the stones began to glow, firing beams into the circle’s center. A giant sphere of light started forming at its core.

  “Goodbye forever, children,” Belenus said, gently whispering:

  “Sgrios neamh (Heavenly destruction).”

  The ground trembled violently as the stones rose. The sphere grew, about to explode—

  When suddenly, a hammer struck Belenus’s technique, destroying it and knocking him to the ground. The light sphere and stone pillars crumbled.

  “Who the hell is here?!” Belenus roared.

  The hammer floated up and flew back to the hand of someone emerging from a rainbow-colored portal.

  “So, I managed to arrive on time?” the man said as he stepped onto the ground.

  “Thor!” Loki shouted.