American comics: Praising the sun, starting from Gotham!

Shuen crouched down, looking at the frost giant cub. The little creature's eyes were tightly closed, its long eyelashes covered with tiny ice crystals, and its breathing was so faint as to be barely audible.

"We need to get him a warm place to stay."

Sunflower jumped off Xiu En's shoulder and gently touched the cub's cold little face with its leaves, its tone full of pity.

"Such tiny seeds will freeze if exposed directly to this environment."

Xiu En extended his right hand, palm facing up.

Soft golden light gathered and intertwined in his palm.

The filaments of light intertwined in a graceful trajectory, eventually forming a golden sphere with a warm halo flowing inside.

This sphere of light is like a hollow amber, with a smooth surface that emits a warmth like sunlight, yet it is not dazzling.

He carefully lifted the sleeping frost giant cub, still in its swaddling clothes, and gently placed it into the golden cradle.

As soon as the cub entered the warm environment, its tightly furrowed brows seemed to relax a little, and its weak heartbeat became slightly stronger.

"Wow..."

Peter couldn't help but let out a sigh of admiration.

"This is practically...like a portable incubator."

"It's a burden."

Xiu En said this, but there was no sign of impatience on his face.

He suspended the golden cradle at waist height.

"It's still a very bulky and cumbersome thing."

Sunflower nodded seriously and added.

Xiu En picked up the blue ore again, glanced at the spot where his father, the giant who had turned into ice crystals, had last stood, and then turned away.

"I'm gone."

He shouted at Peter, who was still in a daze.

"If we don't leave now, the old king's ice sculpture might all crumble."

"Oh! Okay, okay, sir!"

Peter was startled and quickly followed.

This time, he not only had to keep up with Xiu En's pace, but also had to look back from time to time at the golden cradle floating in mid-air, for fear that it would fall down.

The group—a god carrying a stone and a person, a plant sitting on his shoulder, a young hero, and an incubator floating in mid-air—once again embarked on their journey to the northernmost edge of Jotunheim.

The cold wind howled across the ice field, and the ice crystals it whipped up struck the golden shell of the Cradle of Light, making a soft, rustling sound.

The frost giant cub in the cradle seemed a little uneasy because of the noise outside, and its little brows furrowed again.

The sunflower, which had been quiet all along, stirred.

It cautiously poked its body out and looked down at the golden cradle.

A moment later, it gently peeled off the tenderest leaf from itself.

The leaf drifted down lightly, passing through the golden light of the cradle, and landed like a feather on the cub's tiny chest.

The size of the leaves is just the perfect little green blanket for the young.

Enveloped in the scent of plants, the cub's furrowed brows slowly relaxed, and it once again drifted into a peaceful sleep.

Xiu En glanced at the sunflower with a missing leaf on its shoulder, but whose flower head stood even straighter, said nothing, and continued to stride forward.

As they continued north, the wind grew increasingly fierce.

It was no longer just a simple flow of air; the wind began to carry faint but clear, twisted whispers filled with despair and hatred, as if countless dead souls were wailing in one's ear.

"Sir, did you hear that?"

Peter couldn't help but ask.

"The sound of the wind... it seems to be talking."

"It's just noise."

Xiu En stopped in his tracks because the road ahead was blocked.

A bottomless, enormous ice abyss lay before them, its depths churning with a dark gray, icy current. Anything that fell in would be instantly frozen and torn to shreds.

Above the abyss, there stands a massive bridge made entirely of glossy black ice.

The bridge surface was as smooth as a mirror, with no guardrails on either side. A strong wind blew under the bridge, creating a piercing whistling sound.

Two figures stood in the very center of the massive black ice bridge.

They were more massive than any frost giants they had encountered before, standing four or five meters tall, their bodies covered in thick, obsidian-like ice armor, which was covered with menacing spikes.

Each of them held a huge ice axe, the blades gleaming with an ominous gray-black light.

They stood there silently, like two timeless statues, but the powerful aura emanating from them, a mixture of death and rage, triggered Peter's spider-sense to alarm wildly.

"Big guy."

Xiu En, holding the cyan ore, sized up the two guards, a hint of interest appearing in his eyes.

"It looks much harder than the popsicle from before."

"Sir, be careful! They look very dangerous!"

Peter assumed a fighting stance, his wrists aimed at the two demon-like black ice guards.

Xiu En glanced back at him with a reassuring smile, then shook his head.

He strode toward the black ice bridge that exuded an ominous aura.

The golden cradle that floated at his waist moved steadily forward with his steps.

The moment Xiu En stepped onto the bridge, the two black ice guards, who were like statues, moved.

They slowly raised their heads, and beneath their visors, two pairs of eyes burning with gray-black flames locked onto Xiu En.

A terrifying pressure instantly enveloped the entire bridgehead. Peter felt his breath catch in his throat, and the spider-sense alarm screamed sharply in his mind.

The guards raised their ice axes, and a biting wind condensed on the blades.

It appears the killing order has been activated.

However, Shuen did not show any hostility.

He simply stood at the bridgehead, calmly watching the two enormous creatures preparing to charge, and asked.

"Do you also want to escape this endless winter?"

The guards seemed completely unable to understand his language and continued talking.

Dark gray flames danced violently in their eye sockets, and the giant axe was already raised high, ready to unleash a devastating blow in the next second.

Just then, they noticed the golden cradle floating beside Shuen. As if drawn by something, the cradle swayed forward a little, just over Shuen's shoulder, exposing the sleeping frost giant cub inside to the two guards' view.

That crystal-blue skin, that faint aura of royal blood, was clearly transmitted even through the golden light barrier.

The two Black Ice Guards, who were holding their battle axes aloft, froze in their tracks.

Their eyes, burning with a destructive will, gazed at the small, sleeping figure.

The killing intent faded, leaving behind a sense of confusion and struggle.

"They...stopped?"

Peter watched this scene in disbelief.

The arms of the two guards, which were gripping the giant axes, began to tremble violently.

The gray-black flames in their eye sockets flickered violently, and a faint but pure blue light stubbornly shone through the depths of the flames—the soul light of their own frost giants before they were corrupted by Fimbulwinter.

"Ding...dong..."

The two black ice battle axes slipped from their hands and shattered into countless fragments.

The two guards knelt down with difficulty on one knee and bowed their heads toward the golden cradle.

Just as the two guards knelt down, a roar of will filled with savagery and rage swept in from the direction of the Frozen Throne like a tsunami.

"It looks like their boss lost his temper! He caught the employees slacking off and got angry!"

The sunflower leaves instantly stood upright, and the flower head looked towards the distant throne.

Under the roar of that furious will, the two Black Ice Guards, kneeling on one knee, let out painful howls.

The blue soul light that had just ignited on their bodies was suppressed, and gray-black flames once again erupted from the gaps in their ice armor, attempting to regain control of their bodies.

The guards' arms rose uncontrollably, reaching for the broken battle axes on the ground.

Their bodies trembled violently, torn between the absolute command from the throne and the instinct to protect their young master deep within their blood.

"No...run..."

One of the guards uttered a single word, his eyes, now ablaze with renewed gray-black flames, filled with both warning and pleading.

"I know."

Xiu En's expression remained calm and composed.

He stepped forward and walked to the two kneeling guards.

"You've had enough fun, it's time to go to sleep."

He stretched out his hands and placed them on the helmets of the two guards.

A golden radiance, warmer than ever before, poured forth from his palms without reservation.

This light carries the domineering and majestic power of the sun.

Under the golden light, the ice armor melted away silently.

The guards' agonizing struggles ceased, and the gray-black flames in their eyes vanished, leaving only two points of pure blue starlight.

The ice armor vanished, revealing the ghostly silhouettes of two tall and imposing frost giants.

They were no longer bound, and their faces no longer showed pain, only the peace of liberation.

Two illusory soul figures stood up, bowed deeply to Xiu En and the cub in the golden cradle, and performed a solemn giant's salute.

Then, they straightened up, smiled at each other, and transformed into countless blue specks of light, dissipating on the land they had protected until their deaths, leaving only two sighs that pierced through the wind and snow, distant and relieved.

Peter felt his eyes getting hot. Was this a funeral?

Sunflower patted Xiu En on the shoulder with its leaf.

Let's go, Shuen, it's time to settle the overtime pay with that scumbag king who's throwing a tantrum.

Xiu En withdrew his hand, and there were no more obstacles on the bridge, only an even angrier roar.