[Intro]
[The main riff strikes in nine-beat cycles while brass and guitars hammer the Gjallarhorn motif.]

[Verse 1 — Thor]
The sea stood upright in a wall at my chest,
Green venom hissed white on the plates of my vest.
I planted both boots where the drowned cattle rolled;
Mjölnir came back to my fingers, still cold.
The serpent rose higher than watchtowers rise,
Its ribs carried shipwrecks, its back carried skies.
I spat out the salt and I tightened my hold—
One debt from the fishing boat waited, grown old.

[Duet — Thor / Jörmungandr]
[Jörmungandr]
Red beard, loud hammer, you dragged at my head.

[Thor]
Sea-coil, world-girdler, I came for the dead.

[Jörmungandr]
Strike through my skull and my poison will spread.

[Thor]
Then one of us walks from the place where we bled.

[Chorus]
Nine steps from victory, nine steps from breath,
Nine prints in venom between me and death.
I broke the world-serpent; the black coils lie still,
But poison keeps walking when thunder stands still.
Nine steps from victory, the hammer grows cold—
The world saw me conquer, then watched me fold.

[Verse 2 — Thor]
The first blow broke scales with a bell-metal cry,
The second bent seawater up to the sky.
The third found the ridge where its skull joined its spine,
And lightning ran blue through the salt and the brine.
Its fangs crossed my shoulder; the venom went deep,
A coal in the blood that no river could steep.
I lifted the hammer with both hands instead—
The fourth blow fell once, and the sea-serpent bled.

[Instrumental]
[Orchestra and guitars trade nine-beat phrases as the serpent’s chromatic motif fractures.]

[Duet — Thor / Jörmungandr]
[Jörmungandr]
My tail has released what my body enclosed.
The sea has no border; the circle is closed.

[Thor]
My sons may take Mjölnir when mine is the pyre.
Tell Sif I stood facing the venom and fire.

[Jörmungandr]
Your hammer has ended the ring of the sea.

[Thor]
Your blood ends the thunder that travelled with me.

[Breakdown]
[Each line lands on one isolated full-band footstep.]

One—for the shore where the dead fish lie.
Two—for the ships with their keels turned sky.
Three—for the farmers who prayed for rain.
Four—for the sons who will lift this chain.
Five—my left hand no longer feels.
Six—black poison climbs through the seals.
Seven—the hammer pulls at my arm.
Eight—no thunder answers the storm.
Nine—

[Chorus]
Nine steps from victory, nine steps from breath,
Nine prints in venom between me and death.
I broke the world-serpent; the black coils lie still,
But poison keeps walking when thunder stands still.
Nine steps from victory, my knees strike the loam—
The storm has no bearer, the hammer no home.

[Guitar Solo]
[A jagged guitar solo begins with Thor’s hammer rhythm and dissolves into the serpent’s sliding semitones.]

[Final Chorus]
Nine steps from victory, nine marks in the clay,
The rain strikes my armor and washes none away.
I broke the world-serpent, fulfilled what was told;
Its blood darkens iron, its body grows cold.
Nine steps from victory, no feast and no throne—
Mjölnir lies beside me, and thunder lies prone.

[Outro]
[The drums stop; nine quiet cello pulses descend beneath one unmoving guitar note.]

No hand on the handle.
No lightning in flight.
Nine prints fill slowly
With poison-black night.
