Beginning Of Multiverse Saga-Chapter 503: Phobos’s Plan

Sharky placed his hand against the barrier.

It pulsed beneath his palm. Like a heartbeat. Like something alive was watching him from the other side.

Sharky’s eyes narrowed. "Fine, then I’ll use something else."

He activated Phantomire. A silent ripple spread outward.

Sharky’s molecules lost solidity. His body slipped out of the physical plane, becoming intangible. A ghostly, pale energy wrapped around him.

His presence became something else entirely. His voice echoed, cold and distant, layered with something unnatural.

"Shadow magic cannot stop a Spirit Phantom."

He stepped forward.

The barrier which had resisted Luminara, which had rejected Space Clock, which even Asgard’s seers could not breach, offered no resistance to him at all.

Sharky phased through it like mist through air. The wall did not ripple. It did not react. Sharky vanished into the Shadow Realm.

---

THE SHADOW REALM

A world without a sky and light. A world shaped entirely from living darkness.

Sharky emerged within it.

There was no ground beneath his feet, yet he stood. No light around him, yet he saw everything.

Through Phantomire, he can see clearly everything around him. The shadows reacted to his presence, shifting uneasily, as if recognizing something they could not touch.

And then, he felt a faint presence. Small but familiar, it was the presence of Astrid.

Sharky clenched his fists, the darkness around him trembling in response.

His voice dropped into a low, silent growl that carried through the void. "I’m coming, baby."

---

While Sharky entered the Shadow Realm...

Someone else was already there.

It was none other than the son of the War God, the God of Fear - Phobos.

Phobos stood in the darkness, lost in his memories.

He remembered the day of his defeat. The day he returned to Olympus, seeking support. And the day he was cast out.

Zeus’s words still echoed in his mind, sharp and unforgiving.

"If you were not the son of Ares, I would have thrown you into Hell myself. How dare you collude with a filthy being like Skarn."

"Leave Olympus at once. Every second you remain here dirties its air. I will not let you stain this realm with your presence."

The memory burned like poison.

Phobos clenched his fists. Slowly, he turned his gaze toward a small figure in front of him.

A little girl is five or six years old. It was Astrid.

She was bound by dark chains, forged to drain divine energy. The chains pulsed and tightened, trying to consume her power.

But nothing happened. Astrid resisted them naturally. Her aura pushed back against the shadows.

Phobos watched her silently.

"Zeus..." he murmured, his voice cold and filled with hatred. "When my weapon is complete, I will throw you out of Olympus... and take the throne myself."

His eyes darkened as his thoughts drifted further back, to what happened after his banishment.

---

Flashback Begin

Banished. Humiliated. Cast out of Olympus. Phobos drifted through the frozen darkness of space, driven only by rage.

Again and again, he replayed the moment Astrid, Sharky’s little daughter, killed Skarn.

Again and again, he relived his disgrace before all of Olympus. His hatred grew in two directions.

Asgard and Olympus.

But he had nothing. No plan, no army and not even a little bit of authority. Days passed in emptiness, filled only with thoughts of revenge.

Until one day, a wormhole opened behind him. A golden ripple spread through the void. And from it a man stepped through.

He wore shimmering bronze armor. A burning red cloak flowed behind him. His eyes glowed with pure battle fury.

It was Deimos, known as the God of Terror. Phobos’s twin brother.

Unlike Phobos, Deimos was still respected and welcomed in Olympus.

Deimos crossed his arms, studying him.

"Brother... don’t despair," he said calmly. "Father will protect you."

Phobos clenched his teeth, and replied bitterly, "Ares protects warriors, not failures."

"You are still his son, banished or not, he will not abandon you," Deimos said firmly.

Phobos’s anger simmered, then he lowered his voice, "...Brother. Help me take revenge on Asgard."

Deimos stiffened instantly. "Have you lost your mind? Attacking Asgard is forbidden. Zeus would punish us both."

Phobos stared at Deimos, his gaze sharp and unblinking.

"What if Asgard attacked us first?"

Deimos frowned. "What? Why would Asgard ever attack Olympus?"

Phobos closed his eyes, his thoughts turning inward.

Then a wicked idea formed.

He remembered the moment Skarn had kidnapped the little girl, Astrid and how Asgard had erupted in fury because of it.

"Asgard will attack," Phobos said quietly, opening his eyes. "If someone kidnaps Astrid... the daughter of Sharky Valor."

Deimos froze. "...You want to kidnap a child?"

Phobos smirked, his expression cold and calculating. "She is the key, we take her. Asgard will strike Olympus in rage. Olympus will fight back. And in that chaos... I will destroy them."

Deimos shook his head sharply.

"This is madness, we cannot enter Asgard. Their barriers sense divine presence. Even cloaking spells won’t hide us. If we’re seen, we’re finished."

Phobos leaned closer and whispered, "Then we ask Father. Ares knows how to wage wars without being seen."

Deimos exhaled slowly, his jaw tightening.

"...Fine," he said at last. "We will speak to him."

Phobos’s eyes narrowed as a cruel smile spread across his face. "At last, we have a plan."

---

Deimos sent Phobos to Ares, Phobos asked him, "Father... how do we enter Asgard quietly and leave without being detected?"

Ares raised an eyebrow but did not ask for an explanation. If his sons sought something dangerous, he would not interfere.

He answered calmly, "Go to Echidna. Ask her for the Serpent of Ruin."

Phobos stiffened. He knew the creature’s reputation. The Serpent of Ruin, a primordial monster, born before order, feared even by gods.

It could slip between realms without leaving a trace. Asgardian magic could not track it. Heimdall’s sight could not see it.

It was perfect. Phobos obeyed.

He traveled to the Cavern of Echoing Blood, buried deep beneath forgotten realms, where Echidna, the Mother of Monsters, dwelled.

From the shadows, Echidna emerged. Serpents coiled across her shoulders, their eyes glowing faintly in the darkness.

"You seek a creature that even gods fear?" she whispered.

Phobos nodded.

Echidna smiled slowly and produced a sealed horn, its surface carved with ancient runes.

Inside the horn slept the Serpent of Ruin, a being of black-scaled terror, capable of devouring space itself.

After Phobos obtained the Serpent of Ruin, he gave it command to kidnap Astrid.

On Asgard, everyone was focused on welcoming the birth of Sigurd. The palace was filled with activity, and no one noticed Astrid playing alone in the Royal Garden.

That was when the Serpent of Ruin struck.

It lunged from the shadows, its massive coils wrapping around Astrid before she could react. Venomous fangs pierced her shoulder, and she fell unconscious, her cries lost amid the celebration elsewhere in the palace.

In the next instant, the creature tore open a rift and vanished into the folds of the realms, carrying Astrid with it. All that remained was scorched stone, shattered earth, and a burning trail of distorted magic.

When Sif reached the Royal Garden and realized her daughter was gone, grief and fury overwhelmed her. She immediately summoned Heimdall and the warriors of Asgard, ordering a full search for Astrid.

Frigga tried to locate her using her magic.

Heimdall strained his sight across the Nine Realms.

But neither could find her.

Astrid had vanished completely.

---

Meanwhile, Phobos revealed his true intention. He not only wants to cause chaos between Asgard and Olympus.

He also planned to use Astrid’s innate divine strength to increase his own power. Through a ritual, he intended to mold her into a weapon of war, twisting her Asgardian heritage and binding it to his own bloodlust.

In his mind, Astrid would become the key to overthrowing the Olympian gods who had cast him out.

But Phobos made a fatal mistake. He underestimated Astrid.

Though she was young, she had inherited the strength of her mother, Sif, and the will and resilience of her father, Sharky. Even in captivity, her spirit refused to break.

As the days passed, Astrid quietly began to awaken her latent powers. Her connection to the realms grew stronger, deeper, and more dangerous with each passing moment.

Flashback ended.

Phobos turned his gaze toward Astrid, who was bound by tendrils of living darkness, chains formed from fear itself, yet the Shadow Realm could not break her.

The realm fed on despair, silence, and terror, but Astrid refused to yield.

Her small hands glowed faintly as ice formed on one palm and fire flickered on the other.

Phobos paced around her, frustration carved into his expression.

For an entire year, he had failed to corrupt her.

He tried nightmares, fear, pain, and emotional torment, attempting again and again to shatter her will.

Each time, Astrid resisted.

Sometimes her eyes burned with pure Valor-golden light, dissolving his illusions like smoke.

Sometimes her mother’s divine battle instinct awakened, allowing her to tear through chains with raw strength.

Sometimes her father’s unshakable will surfaced, refusing to bend or submit.

Phobos snarled in rage.

"You should have broken by now. You should have bowed."

Astrid lifted her head and stared at him with sharp, fearless eyes.

"My Papa will come."

Phobos froze.

His divine fear powers that broke gods, did not work on her.

Worse still, she was growing stronger. Enraged, Phobos swept his hand again, flooding her surroundings with nightmares.

Then he stopped. He felt something.

A presence brushing against the boundary of his Fear Shadow Realm.

"...What is this aura?" he whispered.

Every instinct screamed danger.

Without hesitation, Phobos acted.

For a brief moment, Astrid vanished from the chamber.

Then she reappeared, once more tightly bound by the tendrils of darkness.

At the same time, a ripple spread through the Fear Shadow Realm, and the shadows trembled violently.

Someone had entered. Someone who should not have been able to.

Phobos stepped back as his control wavered and the darkness around him shook.

"No," he muttered. "This shouldn’t be possible."

---

Sharky, in Phantomire mode, drifted silently through the darkness of the Shadow Realm.

The moment he entered deeper territory, the realm reacted. Its native creatures sensed him.

Shadow Wraithlings appeared first, floating humanoid silhouettes with hollow eyes, drawn to any intruder.

Then came Umbral Reavers, wolf-like skeletal beasts formed from black smoke, their jaws dripping with shadow venom.

Above them crawled Void Lurkers, massive spider-shaped entities that moved through the sky itself, their long legs tearing rifts through darkness as they advanced.

All three types surrounded Sharky. They hissed and growled at him, before attacking from every direction.

Claws slashed, fangs snapped, and beams of shadow erupted from every direction.

Every attack passed straight through him.

Phantomire was completely intangible.

A Shadow Wraithling lunged directly at him.

Sharky calmly stepped inside its form. He reached into its soul core, and took control instantly.

The creature’s hollow eyes turned bright silver. Its twisted posture straightened, and its chaotic shadow aura stabilized under his will.

Sharky spoke through the Wraithling’s mouth, his voice layered and echoing unnaturally.

"Take me to where you came from."

The possessed Wraithling bowed without hesitation.

"Yes... Master."