Ronan had clearly anticipated Karl's attack.
He suddenly turned and raised his warhammer, blocking the blade.
Boom—!
A powerful shockwave erupted from the point of impact, spreading outward in every direction. The surrounding ice shattered instantly, and the entire warship trembled violently.
The two separated.
Ronan was pushed back nearly three meters.
Karl only took a single step.
In the next instant, Karl vanished—and reappeared directly in front of Ronan. With a twist of his wrist, he thrust his sword toward Ronan's face.
Ronan hurriedly raised his hammer to block, but the freezing aura of the Ultimate Divine Weapon began creeping along the weapon's shaft and onto his hands.
In the blink of an eye, both of Ronan's hands were completely frozen.
Ronan twisted his body and pulled back quickly, breaking contact and retreating.
Looking down at his hands frozen to the hammer's grip, he slammed the weapon into the floor.
A surge of violet energy erupted from the hammer, shattering the ice around his hands instantly.
Karl gave him no time to recover.
Three icy sword arcs slashed forward.
Ronan tried to dodge—but the attacks sealed every possible escape route.
He could only block.
Boom!
All three strikes landed squarely on him.
In an instant, Ronan became a frozen statue—locked in place while still holding his defensive stance.
Karl glanced at him.
He knew very well that with the Power Stone, Ronan couldn't be killed that easily. At best, Karl could suppress him—but not finish him.
So Karl slowly rose into the air.
He shattered the ship's window and flew outside.
---
Outside, the battle was still raging.
Explosions erupted constantly. Ships collided midair. Ravagers, Xandarian pilots, and Kree soldiers alike suffered devastating casualties.
Some even resorted to suicide attacks, ramming their ships directly into the enemy.
Then—
A terrifying wave of cold spread outward from Karl across the sky.
Snowflakes began falling.
"…Snow?" Quill stared upward in disbelief.
For a moment, nostalgia hit him.
He had visited countless planets—some permanently frozen—but none had ever given him this strange sense of familiarity.
It reminded him of Earth.
Of childhood.
Of the family whose faces had already begun to blur in his memory.
Gradually, the gunfire and explosions stopped.
Pilots across the battlefield looked upward at the drifting snow.
The delicate six-pointed flakes were breathtakingly beautiful.
Some even opened their cockpits, reaching out to catch them.
Crack—!
Suddenly the gentle snow turned deadly.
Every snowflake hardened instantly into razor ice.
Anything touched by them froze solid.
Kree ships.
Ravager vessels.
Nova fighters.
Every craft coated in snow was sealed in ice.
Engines failed simultaneously.
Ships began falling from the sky like stones.
"Holy—! Karl, you froze everyone!" Rocket screamed while frantically smashing buttons to restart his engines.
But it was useless.
The entire engine block had frozen solid.
Ships plummeted.
Some were lucky—like Rocket and Quill, whose vessels splashed into the ocean.
Others weren't so fortunate.
They slammed into the ground and shattered into frozen debris.
"Parachutes! Deploy parachutes!" Yondu shouted over the comms as he ejected himself from his ship.
Soon the sky filled with parachutes of every color and shape.
---
Meanwhile, the snowfall grew restless.
The drifting flakes gathered, swirling into an unstoppable blizzard.
At the center of the storm, two sky-blue ribbons emerged like flowing cloaks.
The entire storm began spiraling inward toward them.
Suddenly—
The blizzard exploded outward.
A colossal blue crystal of ice appeared at the center of the sky, absorbing the surrounding snowstorm.
"It's… beautiful," countless survivors on Xandar murmured from below.
The crystal shimmered like a perfect jewel, surrounded by sparkling fragments that refracted rainbow-colored light.
Quill and the others floated in their damaged ship on the ocean surface, staring up at the enormous crystal.
Yondu landed nearby with several surviving Ravagers.
"What the hell is that?" he muttered, utterly stunned.
Gamora was equally speechless.
She had traveled across countless worlds with Thanos.
All she had ever seen was destruction.
Beautiful planets reduced to ruins.
But this sight—
Something long buried deep in her heart stirred.
High above them, the crystal slowly became clearer and more transparent.
People on the ground could suddenly see inside it.
"Look!" a young Xandarian boy shouted. "There's someone inside!"
Without battle, without smoke or death, everyone turned their eyes toward the crystal.
Inside was a curled human figure.
Arms wrapped around knees.
Head lowered.
"…That's a woman!" Quill exclaimed.
He could clearly see her.
Golden hair.
A silver crown.
Skin pale as snow.
Crack…
The sound echoed across the sky.
Suddenly the figure inside awakened.
The giant crystal shattered in a brilliant explosion, scattering into dazzling fragments of light.
A massive blue gown and white cloak unfurled like the petals of a blooming orchid.
At its center—
A breathtaking woman slowly opened her eyes.
Golden hair flowing in the wind.
A silver crown shining with rainbow reflections.
Her cloak spread behind her like wings.
This was Karl's newest summoned form—
Shiva, the Ice Goddess.
At that moment, a crimson beam fired from Ronan's warship, racing toward her.
The sheer power of the attack made everyone on the ground tremble.
Its energy rivaled the plasma cannons that had destroyed Ronan's shield earlier.
Shiva opened her eyes.
Cold blue light glowed within them.
Before her, a gigantic six-pointed snowflake sigil appeared.
The snowflake expanded—
Becoming a massive wall of ice.
The red beam struck it.
The barrier held effortlessly.
Not even a crack formed.
With a gentle wave of her hand, the ice wall dissolved into shimmering frost particles that drifted away like stardust.
Rainbow light scattered across the sky.
At that moment, Shiva looked less like a warrior—
And more like a divine goddess descending from the heavens.
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