American Alien

It began with silence.

A silence that watched, waited, and decided in finality.

And then it came.

The Sentry's humanoid form began to shift and change.

Its transformation wasn't immediate. But it was agonizing. It began at his core, his chest swelled unnaturally, then split, not with blood, but with lightless tendrils pushing through cracks in flesh. 

His bones cracked outward, reshaping. His jaw distended in silence, human teeth vanishing as the face folded into something smoother, eyeless, yet still watching.

Veins of crimson energy traced themselves up his limbs like molten chains wrapping around a corpse. His white hair burned away, replaced by a corona of rising embers that didn't flicker but hung in place, frozen mid-blaze.

From his back, the wings twisted.

Where once they were smoke, now they writhed with solidified mass. 

They were like thick burning tendrils with clawed ends, like the limbs of a cephalopod born in the center of a collapsing star. 

Fourteen limbs coiling around him in a quiet orbit.

He floated cross-legged in the air, unmoving and meditative.

"What… is that?" Kamala whispered, her voice barely audible over the groaning sky.

No one answered.

Kate didn't blink. Her bow trembled in her grasp, not from weakness, but from the sheer magnitude of what stood before them. Her knuckles were white around the grip, eyes wide and locked on the shifting horror above.

Even America, bold and brash as ever, clenched her fists and took a half-step back. Her breath caught in her throat. It wasn't fear.. Not exactly. It was something older and more primal. 

Above them, as the Void floated in meditative stillness, surrounded by coils of crimson shadows and lightless flame. Its tendrils pulsed with a rhythm that had no heart, no soul, just an endless hunger of entropy. It was silent, still, and omnipresent.

Thor drifted forward through the air, slow and deliberate, each movement drawn with gravity.

Stormbreaker thrummed in his hand, lightning beginning to dance and arch down his arm like a serpent recognizing its master. 

The air thickened around him, saturated with storm, each breath charged with the crackling potential of a cosmic storm.

His voice, when it came, was low and steady.

"I will put you down for good, fiend."

He didn't need to shout.

The sky did it for him.

Thunder peeled across the heavens as if the world itself answered in agreement.

"For the destruction of Asgard," Thor said, taking another step forward, eyes locked on the void-like beast before them.

 "For the blood you spilled. For the lives you ended. For every piece of my home you tried to erase."

Clouds churned overhead, and lightning snarled. A divine judgment stirred in the air, older than any mortal war.

He turned, just briefly, to Naruto.

The boy stood still amid the chaos, smoke curling at his heels, the edges of his cloak singed from his last attack. His skin was scraped and bleeding. The light behind his eyes dimmed with exhaustion.

"I know you have fought long, young warrior," Thor said. "But I must ask for your strength once more."

Naruto spat blood to the side, and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.

His eyes flicked upward, locking with Thor's.

"You got it, boss" he muttered, voice dry but firm.

His chakra flared faint at first, then began swelling like fire catching breath. It poured from his skin in lazy arcs of golden flame. His legs nearly buckled under him, but he stood tall.

"I don't back out," he said, a half-smile tugging at his bruised face. "That's not who I am."

Valkyrie sat mounted atop Warsong, blood streaking her armor, but her eyes burned with quiet fury. 

She raised Dragonfang high, the sword catching the fractured light of the storm. The steed beneath her neighed, wings of white feather and bone snapping wide.

Beside her, Sif rose through the air, Bifrost wings stretching outward like a banner from the golden age of Asgard. Each movement was a vow. Each breath a declaration.

And then, behind them all, stood Loki.

He eyed the Void with a mix of fascination and disgust, brows lifting just slightly.

"Well," he murmured, almost to himself. "I always knew Midgardians were reckless… but creating that?"

He let out a breathless laugh, tilting his head. "I'm honestly impressed. Horrified, but impressed."

Above them, the Void shifted slightly. It tilted its head, the movement jarring and insectlike. Its voice rolled across the air in overlapping tones. Childlike curiosity, deep and guttural hate, storm-born wrath, and whispers from things long dead.

"How many gods must I have to kill today?" it asked cruelly.

"The only one who shall perish here today is you." Thor said as he raised Stormbreaker high.

Lightning cracked the sky open like an ancient scroll being unrolled by the hands of fate.

And then the heavens roared.

And the war for New Asgard had begun once more.

Valkyrie dived first into the fray, brave, brutal, and unwilling to wait. Dragonfang screamed through the stormwind, its edge white-hot as it drove deep into the Void's shoulder. Sparks of corrupted light burst from the wound. 

The monster hissed, not in just pain, but annoyance.

Sif followed a heartbeat later, her Bifrost wings flaring. She spun midair in a flawless arc, slicing through several of the black, root-like limbs that had erupted from the Void's back. They didn't bleed. They simply fell away in curling smoke, dissolving before they touched ground.

Naruto surged forward next like a rocket.

His chakra flared to life around him, golden and radiant and barely under control, like a second skin made of fire. 

With a twist of his body, he launched himself forward, blurring through the air and landing a brutal punch to the creature's jaw. The impact cracked through the sky, thunder trailing behind him.

The Void reeled.

Its body twisted unnaturally and it lunged with a snarl. Tendrils burst outward in every direction like a net of black lightning. They struck wildly, demolishing anything that might lay in its path, even the air itself.

One caught Sif mid-dive, crashing her down to New Asgard into a half-collapsed spire in a spray of broken stone and splintered rainbow light.

Another clipped Valkyrie across the shoulder, tearing through armor and flesh alike.

Silent chanting permeated the air.

"Með blóði viðarins og hjarta vættanna, kalla ég á þræði örlaganna. Eldur mun falla, skuggar munu rísa, og undir rótum Yggdrasils munu grindir örlaganna opnast."

Its attention snapped away from the battlefield and onto a meddling sorcerer.

Straight to Loki.

The god of mischief was hovering nearby, weaving a new spell with both hands. Green sigils spun around him, forming a complex sphere of containment magic.

At that moment, the Void understood. They weren't just fighting, instead they were buying time.

For the trickster.

"Loki!" Thor shouted. "MOVE!"

But it was already too late.

The Void moved like a nightmare made real.

It was in front of Loki in an instant, a blur of red and black, one long, spear-like appendage extended from its forearm, jagged and twitching.

It plunged into Loki's chest clean and fast. Too fast for him to dodge.

"Say goodnight, little trickster.."

Loki choked on his own breath, eyes wide.

The light around his hands flickered and died. The spell dispersed in a single pulse. His mouth opened, but no words came. Just blood, and a pitiful silence.

Thor watched it happen with unbelieving eyes.

Despite everything that had happened between him and his own Loki, despite not truly knowing this foreign Loki. It happened again. He was forced to watch as his own brother died in front of him.

His face crumpled into something raw and broken.

"No.. NO!" he screamed.

His body pulsed once, a blinding light escaping through his wounds like steam.

"I'm sorry, brother. You must be the one to stop them it seems."

Then he exploded.

Not in a gory display as Ares had, but in raw primal energy, as the blinding light engulfed him completely.

There was no cry. No final stand.

Only the residue of something once divine returning to the ether.

Thor didn't move for a long time.

Lightning danced along his shoulders in uncontrolled spurts. His knuckles trembled around the haft of Stormbreaker.

"This is what comes for all. Humans. Gods. Demons. Nothing will remain." the Void said.

Thor stared at the beast.

His eyes were not angry.

They were grieving.

And the sky above began to darken again.

Valkyrie guided Warsong beside Thor. The steed's wings beat the air with a solemn rhythm.

 Her armor was cracked, her shoulder bleeding, but her grip on Dragonfang never faltered. She lowered her head, not in defeat, but in grief.

Sif drifted closer, Bifrost wings folding behind her like celestial curtains. She flew beside Thor without a word and held a hand on his shoulder.

Even the storm calmed.

Even the Void stilled.

His face was unreadable.

Empty.

But Stormbreaker lit in his hand, glowing white-hot with divine fury. Lightning didn't dance, it screamed, pouring down his arms like a living current seeking judgment.

He stared up at the Void's monstrous form, at the empty space where his brother had been moments ago, and spoke.

"You took him from me."

His voice was low and ragged.

"Again."

Then he roared.

It was not the battle cry of a warrior. It was the scream of a brother in grief.

He shot upward like a thunderbolt, Stormbreaker raised to the heavens. The sky above answered. Lightning arced down from every direction. 

They didn't just strike Thor.

They gathered behind him. Swirling into Stormbreaker's head like the forging of a second Big Bang.

He came down upon the Void like judgment itself.

The axe struck the Void's chest in a blinding flash.

The shockwave rippled outward in a perfect ring, fracturing clouds, burning light into the air itself.

The Void staggered.

But it did not fall.

Not yet.

Valkyrie's voice rang out like a horn of war.

"For Asgard!"

She hurled Dragonfang with both hands. The sword spun end over end through the air, humming with the fury of the Valkyrior. It drove into the Void's side deep. It was a wound that sizzled in its abyssal form

And then it exploded, not in fire, but in white firelight that ate away at the tendrils along the beast's ribs.

Sif joined from the flank. Wings snapping open, she launched into a spinning arc and unleashed a flurry of slashes mid-air. 

Her blade carved through the Void's remaining wings, severing them one by one until the sky was littered with writhing black ash.

And then Naruto rose.

He emerged, bloodied, body broken, but spirit blazing.

He didn't fly so much as force himself skyward, propelled by raw chakra exploding at his heels. There was no technique, or trick to him. Just movement. Just instinct. Just rage.

He shot upward, fist pulled back, cloak flaring like a comet.

As the Void reeled from Thor's blow, from Valkyrie's blade, from Sif's slashes, it turned just in time to see Naruto slam his fist into its core with every ounce of power left in him.

A final hit that was golden and crushing.

The Void screamed.

But the sound was broken.

Its limbs curled inward. Its wings tore away, one by one. It's corrupted skin cracked. Then shattered. A ring of ruin cast off from a dying demon god.

It rose for a breath, trembling with defiance and hate, refusing to yield. But the moment passed. Slowly, inevitably, it began to fall.

First from the sky, then from power, and finally from its place above the world.

Like a fallen angel.

A beast cast down.

A morningstar, plummeting from Heaven with wings of ash.

The air burned as it dropped, past the shattered remnants of New Asgard, past the floating stones, past the last divine lights flickering in the storm. It fell toward Broxton, Oklahoma.

And when it hit the earth broke.

The impact split the land like a faultline. Trees snapped. Roads split open. A crater bloomed where soil had once been. Everything nearby was consumed in dust, debris, and silence.

For several long seconds there was nothing.

Then the smoke parted.

And at the center of the crater, embedded in scorched earth and broken stone, was a black, burning shape.

______

They stood at the edge of the crater, four figures staring down at the broken thing that had once been a monster.

Robert Reynolds was barely recognizable. His body lay slumped in the shallow basin of earth and stone, burned raw in places, his breathing shallow. 

Bits of ash still clung to him like the last remnants of the Void refusing to let go.

Sif stood silent beside Thor, her hand resting on the hilt of her blade. Her face was carved from stone, no anger, no pity. 

Only the resolve of someone who had seen too much and was ready to see it end.

Valkyrie said nothing either. Blood was still drying on her arm. Dragonfang hung at her side, scorched but unbroken. She watched Robert without blinking.

Thor tightened his grip on Stormbreaker.

"I won't let him rise again," he said quietly, more to the storm above than to anyone else. "I won't let that thing come crawling back out of him."

He stepped forward.

Robert lifted his head, barely able to hold it up. His lips parted.

"I'm sorry," he croaked. "For all of it. But it will come back.. if I lose control again, you can't hesitate. Please!"

Thor raised his axe as lightning whispered along the edges.

And then,

Naruto landed beside him with a dull thud, shoes hitting earth just between Thor and Robert.

His arm stretched out quickly, stopping Thor mid-swing. Thor blinked in confusion.

"Why have you stopped me, Naruto? He must pay for his crimes."

Naruto didn't speak at first. He just looked at Robert.

Not with fear.

Not with hatred.

But understanding.

Robert turned his face up toward him, barely able to meet Naruto's eyes. There was no mask there. No darkness. Just a tired man with nothing left to give.

"I think you've been broken for a long time," Naruto said quietly. "Way before all this. Before the power. Before the Void. Whatever they did to you… whatever they made you carry… you never got a chance to put it down properly and move on."

He crouched slightly to meet Robert's eye line.

"I've seen people lose themselves before. People who did awful things, but found a way back. You're not a monster. You're still a person, and people can change, if they want to."

Robert let out a shaky breath.

"I don't deserve to live."

"Maybe not," Naruto said. "But you're still here. That counts for something, right?"

Thor was silent.

Stormbreaker still crackled, thunder rumbling faintly above them.

But then he exhaled.

Shoulders sinking, he stepped back. The axe lowered.

"Thank you, Naruto," Thor said.

His voice was rough with the weight of everything he didn't say.

He turned back to Robert.

"You'll answer for what you've done. Alive. That's more than you gave others. And more than I wanted to give you."

Robert didn't respond. He just nodded.

Barely.

Naruto turned to leave the crater, his steps unsteady but certain. The silence behind him felt heavier than before, but he didn't look back. He had done what he believed was right. Whatever came next, Robert would live with it.

"Do you really think that man can change?" Kurama asked in the back of his head.

Naruto kept his gaze ahead, toward the warped horizon and the shape of his teammates waiting in the distance.

"I don't know," he said. "But someone's gotta give him the chance. If not us, then who?"

"You're too soft."

"I'm tired," Naruto corrected. "There's a difference."

He reached the rim of the crater and took a long breath, letting the air finally settle in his lungs. 

The sky above was calmer now, just streaks of cloud and smoke. No more demonic screaming. No more darkness chewing through reality.

For a moment, it actually felt quiet.

Peaceful, even.

He ran a hand through his hair and shook his head.

"After this," he muttered, "I'm taking a real break. No more fighting gods. No secret organizations plotting a civil war. No more underground cults trying to harvest my soul."

"And what? You'll just sit around and eat ramen all day?"

Naruto smiled faintly. "Exactly. I want a week of doing nothing but eating, sleeping, and arguing with Kamala over what anime we're binging next."

He rolled his shoulder with a wince as Kurama snorted.

"You'll last three days before you get bored and drag everyone into some nonsense."

"I think I've earned it."

Then the air changed.

It wasn't wind. It wasn't sound. His instincts flared, but his body didn't move, as his legs locked beneath him.

Kurama's voice slammed through his mind.

"BEHIND YOU BRAT!"

Naruto tried to turn, but he couldn't.

The strain on his muscles from using the cloak, from pushing past his limit in every direction, had hit him all at once. His body failed him. His nerves burned as the edges of his vision narrowed.

And in that instant, The Void struck mercilessly. 

A final, desperate tendril of darkness tore upward from the crater, arcing like a spear of black lightning.

Sif and Valkyrie shouted, blades drawn, wings flaring as they launched into the air trying to intercept the Void.

Thor hurled Stormbreaker on instinct, lightning chasing the weapon in a scream across the air.

They were all too slow.

The Void pierced Naruto clean through the back.

The tendril erupted from his chest, jagged and sharp, dripping black blood. His breath hitched, and blood sprayed from his wound.

He stumbled forward one step, hands twitching as he looked down at the wound in stunned disbelief.

"What the...?" he muttered, eyes widening as the air around him shifted.

Everything seemed to slow.

Kate's voice rang out from beyond as she shouted his name, panic clear and sharp in her throat. 

Kamala broke into a sprint, boots pounding against the broken ground. America's fists clenched, her body coiled to move, to act.

But it was already too late.

Thor's face was carved in fury, but even he couldn't stop it.

Naruto looked up once.

The sky had never looked more peaceful.

"All life will carry the fear of death in its heart, for all eternity… because you stopped me, Naruto." the Void's fragmented voice echoed in his head.

A blinding light erupted from his body, hot, golden, and radiant. It burned the tendril away and silenced his surroundings in a single pulse of overwhelming energy. 

It cracked through the air like a heartbeat turned inside out.

"…You idiot. You always save the world. Just once… Just once.. I wish you'd saved yourself." Kurama thought before everything went dark.

And then he was gone.

____

Authors NOTE: If you want to read 10 more chapters ahead right now. Search for (banmido P atreon) in google and click the first link. Chapters 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, and 27 are all avaible on my P atreon at banmido