The Story of Kror Part III

"That's one big ship," Stror murmured, as they looked upon the ship they were approaching. "It's heavily armed as well, taking it won't be easy." Behind him, Makor and Kror moved forwards, looking upon it as well as the dozens of Kree ships that accompanied it.

"Sounds like fun," Makor said.

Stror turned to Kror, brow raised. "Are you certain this is what you want to do?"

Kror nodded his head. "It is." He needed more power, that was the end of it. Even with the shard he had been gifted from the body of Xorr the God-Jewel and having grown used to using the power within it, it wasn't enough. He didn't have the physiological advantages that other Thors had.

The Supreme Intelligence was a very influential figure within Kree society, Kror knew from personal experience that its personal flagship was the strongest ever designed. Manned by some of the most elite units of Kree soldiers including a member of the Nega-Warriors. No one truly knew what was within the ship, some theorised that maybe it was the core of the Supreme Intelligence itself. However, Kror wondered if it was the artefacts that the Kree would have encountered, all stored within the bowels of the ship.

After all, an empire as vast as the Kree not having encountered some ancient artefact of any kind was strange. Asgard during his time had dozens of powerful artefacts that gifted unique powers and abilities. The Kree were much larger than Asgard and so, it would only be natural to come across at least one.

It was a gamble, Kror knew that much, but he knew for certain that a Nega-Warrior would be upon that ship. That meant he would gain access to the Nega-Bands, something that would give him the power he had been looking for.

"Alright then." Stror agreed. "Let's do this."

As the three began to move, Makor turned to him. "Stay out of our way, you're not strong enough to be of any help."

Kror said nothing in response just clenching his fists in suppressed anger. As much as he hated the fact being rubbed in his face, Kror knew it to be the truth, he wasn't strong enough. It had been a curse that had plagued him for so very long. With his first family, he had been too weak to protect them from the Wolves of Ravenswood. Then again, too weak to prevent Ragnarök and the destruction of what he came to learn was his real family. Now again, from the moment he entered this world for a second time, he still wasn't strong enough to do anything.

The Nega-Band was the answer.

He didn't know the exact depths of its power or what they were fully capable of. But he had seen reports of what the wielders could do, they were the answer he needed to solve his weakness. His only hope to finally begin to change things after so long being stuck on the sidelines.

But first, he needed the help of Makor and Stror and so he kept his mouth shut despite wishing so badly to retort. It hurt his pride to remain silent, yet he had no choice.

-X- Line Break -X-

Ducking behind cover, Kror summoned a shield to help cover him from the waves of flames that rushed over him. The nearby Kree that had also been searching for cover were unable to survive the flames, each crying out in pain as they were reduced to ash.

Already, they had assaulted the ship, Makor and Stror were laying waste to everything and everyone in their path. The Kree themselves had to defend themselves from these two powerful and skilled warriors, while at the same time defending themselves from the incoming Shi'ar ships.

They had timed the ambush precisely for this moment, when the Kree were focused on the oncoming Shi'ar fleet. Their approach had gone unnoticed until they struck, but by that point they were coming in too quickly for them to react.

As soon as the flames subsided, Kror once again began to rush down the corridors, there was no time to waste.

The personal ship of the Supreme Intelligence may be on the level of taking out a small fleet on its own. But it was still a highly prized vessel and nearby Kree ships would respond to the distress signal and come rushing to its aid. They were lucky that it was mostly on its own beside a few small frigates that had quickly been taken out by the Shi'ar fleet.

However, the longer they waited, the more Kree ships would come making their escape all but impossible.

Suddenly the ship shook violently, Kror dropped to his knees as he tried to stabilise himself. Eventually, it subsided, Kror pushing himself to his feet just as the wall to his left, slightly ahead broke apart, Makor smashing into the opposite wall. Another boom, followed by even more shaking followed as a Kree was launched through the very same hole, directly into the swinging tail of Makor that launched him down through the ground.

As Makor followed the Kree down into the hole, Stror strolled in, chucking a band towards Thor. "We've found him." Catching the golden band, Kror looked to Stror, noticing the heavy bruising and bleeding across his body.

A shocking sight considering Stror stood as one of the most powerful Thor's within the Citadel. How he had ended up in this state was by no means a mystery and it proved to Thor that coming here was the correct decision. The Nega-Bands were powerful and with them in his grasp, he could make the changes he needed to.

He could save Asgard.

"We'll get the other, but then we need to go." Stror continued. "I've already seen two Kree fleets approaching on the sensors."

Nodding his head, Kror said nothing as Stror descended down into the hole, intending to aid Makor who was still battling against the Nega-Warrior. Thor himself looked upon the Nega-Band and smiled, unclasping it and fitting the band around his wrist. At first, nothing happened, but then it suddenly tightened and Kror gasped out, feeling his body pulsing with power, unlike anything he had felt in his new body.

For the first time since being reborn, he felt powerful.

'Now I no longer need to hide. I can begin to make my own moves.' Kror thought triumphantly, listening to the sounds of battle below. Yet just as he began to move towards the hole in the floor, intending to provide aid to Makor and Stror, something caught his eye down the end of the corridor.

The door at the end of the corridor was slightly ajar, flames flickering clearly within the room. There was also a strange blue glow coming from within and something directed him towards it. An unseen and unheard force whispered and pushed him to go towards the strange glow, guided him towards it.

The sounds of battle were completely ignored as Kror moved towards the door, pulling open the jammed door fully and revealing the room, once a holding area of some kind completely set aflame. There was a glass chamber in the centre, it was broken apart and upon the floor in the corner, a glowing blue cube of unnatural colour sat there. Flames around it licked at the cube, yet did not damage it and Kror looked upon it wonderment.

"What are you?" He wondered, moving forwards and crouching down, one hand reaching out and taking the cube for himself.

"Kror, let's go!" Stror cried out and Kror blinked, finally tearing his gaze away from the cube to see the heavily injured forms of Makor and Stror waiting for him. Quickly, he reached out, taking the cube and rushed after them, all three leaving the burning and destroyed ship to plummet to the nearby planet, Kree fleets converging in upon their location.

It had been close, but as Kror attached the second Nega-Band to his other wrist and clutched the cube in one hand, he couldn't help but smile. 'Finally after all this time, I can truly do what I set out to do.'

-X- Line Break -X-

The Nega-Band.

Powerful relics of the Kree Empire that grant the wielder immense power. Yet Kror felt that such a general statement did little to captivate the true depths of the power that the Nega-Bands possessed. He had only just gotten his hands upon them, testing the basics of them within the bowels of the Acanti that the Citadel of Thor's used as a means of transportation.

Nothing major, certainly nothing that could damage that Acanti, but he still practised with them. The magical energy within the Xorr Jewel he used was certainly great and had definitely given him a boost. However, compared to what the Nega-Bands gifted him with, it was like comparing night and day.

"You were right," Stror said, coming to sit down beside him, body slowly beginning to recover from the severe beating he had been dealt. Makor was no better, actually slumbering as to allow his body to recover. "Those Nega-Bands, they're powerful."

"So you agree that taking this risk was worth it?" Kror asked and reluctantly Stror nodded his head.

"Yes, I do." Smiling, Kror turned back, tensing his fingers as he slowly manipulated the energy within the Nega-Bands to form a shield around in front of him. Then it shifted, numerous weapons such as swords and others forming before eventually creating a replica of Mjolnir. He reached out, one hand grasping the handle, but found his smile slipping away as he felt the energy construct in his hand.

"It doesn't feel right, does it?"

Kror shook his head. "No."

"It lacks the weight, the power, the history that Mjolnir had," Stror said in a way that he understood perfectly. "It may look like Mjolnir, but it is also not Mjolnir."

Kror turned to him. "Is this why you don't wield any weapons?"

"One of them, yes." He agreed. "You'll find that not many Thor's do in this day and age. Even though most are trained to wield all sorts of weapons, they lack the majesty of the weapons of Asgard. The history that is engraved upon them, the history you can feel from within them, no weapon can come too close to recreating that. It makes every other weapon feel dead and lifeless."

Dismissing the energy construct, Kror then reached down to his side where he had dropped something in cloth. Pulling it away, the inside of the Acanti was then filled with an unearthly blue glow as he picked up the cube.

"What is that?" Stror asked in shock.

"I don't know." He replied. "But can't you feel it. In comparison to Mjolnir and the weapons of Asgard, this is on a completely different level. It's like, the Sword of Ragnarok."

The Sword of Ragnarok, also known as the Oversword or the Odinsword was the greatest weapon in all of Asgard. A weapon that Odin had told all Thor's that if ever unsheathed, would mean the end of the universe was at hand. This weapon possessed immense power on a scale never seen from any weapon ever crafted in Asgard.

One so deeply buried within the Vaults of the Golden City, so heavily guarded that Kror had only laid eyes upon it twice in his life. Once when he had been but a child, when Odin told him the tale of the sword. The second was when Odin marched to war, Tyr wielding this blade in the final battle against Ymir and Surtur alongside Odin who wielded the Heavenly Spear, Gungnir.

"I cannot sense the depths of that power, was that upon the ship?" Kror nodded his head in response to the question. "Then this is why the Kree responded so quickly to the attack."

"What is it though?" Kror wondered, Stror himself having no answers. Neither had come across anything like it before, but both could sense the power coming from within it. 'If only I could wield your power, then I could regain my old power, no I could go beyond it. But how? How do I use it?'

As soon as those thoughts crossed his mind, the light from the cube grew brighter and brighter till it became blinding. Both Stror and Kror turned away, the latter even dropping the cube in an attempt to block the light. Yet the cube did not fall to the ground, instead, it floated, seemingly spinning rapidly. Kror himself felt something strange at that moment, his skin began to burn, and his mind became overwhelmed by a sensation of something indescribable. It grow stronger and stronger, his body feeling like it was breaking apart, bones shattered and rebuilding, muscles bursting and knitting themselves back together.

He cried out, mind going blank as he collapsed backwards; unconscious.

The light also died down at that moment, the cube dropping to the ground, no longer glowing with that same unearthly glow, though it still glowed lightly. Stror and the newly awakened Makor also looked, first to the cube, but then froze upon seeing what had happened to Kror.

Gone was the blue-skinned and small figure of the Kree.

In its place was the tall, muscular form of Thor Odinson, his blonde hair short and his body radiating strength. "What the fuck?" Makor exclaimed, rising up onto all fours as he laid eyes upon this change.

Stror equally had no answers. 'How did this happen?' His eyes then trailed towards the cube on the floor. 'Did he learn how to wield its power in such a short space of time?'

-X- Line Break -X-

Fixing the Nega-Bands to his much thicker wrists, Kror breathed in deeply. It was strange, to feel the power within him, it reminded him exactly like that of the power he once wielded when marching to battle against Fenrir and Jörmungandr. The pulsating power of the storms just itching to be released, scratching at the surface and begging to be unleashed upon his enemies.

Not only that, but the strength he felt within his body.

The tightness of his muscles, the weight of his bones, all things that in the past he had never noticed. But from his time within the body of a Kree, the insurmountable difference became obvious to the point it was almost distracting.

"Kror, they're ready," Stror said, coming up to his side, cube held in one hand.

Nodding his head, Kror took his newly crafted armour, his previous one destroyed in the process of his body restructuring. He would have needed a new one also, the previous one far too small for his much taller and bulkier frame.

Much like all armours worn by the Thor's from the citadel, it looked to be of similar design to that of Asgardian armour. Though, it was of far lesser craftsmanship as well as lesser materials. However, the design itself was near spot on to his previous armour. In the centre of which, lay the Xorr Jewel he had been gifted with upon entering into the Citadel.

"Then let's begin," Kror replied, turning around to look upon the dozens of Thor's all gathered within the Acanti. It was not the full force of the Citadel, a few more Thor's away on missions. However, the vast majority were all gathered here, each prepared to give their lives to save Asgard. "We set course for Asgard and an end to the reign of those who hide in shadows! Asgard shall be free! Free to march to its final ending of Ragnarök as it so pleases! But first, we must be the monsters that descend from the stars! We will not be remembered as heroes, but every one of us shall know it is true! We will be the true saviours of Asgard!"