"Rumble…"
Fireworks-like explosions blossomed one after another, briefly illuminating the pitch-black universe. Against the endless darkness, they looked almost beautiful.
But behind that beauty lay destruction—countless spaceships torn apart, reduced to drifting fragments and fine cosmic dust.
As Asgard's forces and Thanos's army remained locked in a brutal stalemate, several spatial rifts suddenly tore open at the edge of the battlefield.
A heartbeat later, medium- to large-sized warships emerged from the distortions—scarred, battered, and clearly held together by stubbornness more than metal.
Judging by their design, they were unmistakably Asgardian.
They were the ships that had escaped four months ago.
The surviving Asgardian gods, having answered Odin's summons, had dragged their heavily damaged warships back into the fight to provide reinforcements.
It was no wonder the Asgardians had once ruled the galaxy.
Their dominance wasn't just built on overwhelming individual strength, but on an unshakable belief in unity. When called, they returned—even if their ships were half-wrecked and barely spaceworthy.
With the sudden arrival of these medium and large battleships, the pressure on the Black Obsidian Five increased dramatically.
Without hesitation, they abandoned their vehicles, flying directly to the front lines to reinforce their troops.
At the same time, Laufey led his Frost Giant clan into the battlefield.
Although Thanos's promises were tempting, Laufey was a crafty old fox. He was not the type to be swayed by empty words alone.
But by this point, he had already betrayed Odin. If Thanos were to lose now, the Frost Giants would have no future left to speak of.
So when they saw Thanos's forces slipping into a disadvantage, they made their choice and joined the war without further hesitation.
Meanwhile, inside Temple Number Two—
The holographic projection of the artificial intelligence Deep Blue hovered in the center of the control room. Upon detecting the enemy reinforcements, its face—eerily human—shifted into a deep frown.
Its eyes narrowed, calculations racing silently.
"Our side is at a disadvantage," it concluded calmly. "Even deploying the Black Obsidian Five and Laufey will not be sufficient."
After a brief pause, Deep Blue straightened and began issuing new commands.
"Activate the main cannon. Power source: antimatter fusion. Target: Asgard."
When the adult had departed, Deep Blue had been granted the highest level of authority—full access to every function of Temple II. That included the antimatter cannon, a weapon so devastating it hadn't even been used during the previous battle.
The moment the order was given, Temple II immediately ceased all offensive and defensive actions and began to retreat.
The surrounding large escort ships surged forward, forming a protective barrier as they raised their energy shields to maximum output.
Moments later, Temple II slipped out of the enemy's attack range.
Then, the muzzle of the main cannon began to glow with an eerie, ominous purple light.
Activating the antimatter cannon required an astronomical amount of energy. That was why Temple II had to withdraw completely—and why it couldn't even maintain its shields during the charging process.
On the front lines, Thanos, Odin, and Hela all felt it at the same time.
A sudden, instinctive sense of dread.
Their clash halted as all three turned their heads toward the distant glow.
Odin squinted into the void, his expression darkening."What is that thing?" he muttered. "Why do I feel… fear?"
Hela nodded slowly, her eyes sharp."I feel it too. Whatever it is, we can't let it fire."
Before father and daughter could finish exchanging thoughts, Thanos let out a quiet, knowing smile.
Then he swung his sword toward them without hesitation.
The antimatter fusion cannon was Temple II's most powerful weapon. A single shot was enough to annihilate an entire large planet.
He absolutely could not allow those two to interfere.
Seeing Thanos charge, Odin initially planned to have Hela hold him off while he rushed to stop the weapon himself. But after a brief moment of hesitation, concern flashed through his mind.
If Hela faced Thanos alone… could she really endure it?
If Hela fell—even if she managed to wipe out Thanos's warships—she still wouldn't be enough to stop him.
After thinking it through, Odin made his decision. He sent Heimdall and Frigga away.
Meanwhile, he and Hela stayed behind to hold Thanos back.
Yes. Hold him back. Not defeat him.
At some point during the battle, Odin's expectations had quietly shifted. Victory was no longer the goal. Survival was. Delay. Restraint.
But fate, as it often did, had absolutely no interest in following Odin's plans.
Not long after Heimdall and Frigga departed Asgard, something strange appeared in the distant void.
A black light.
The people of Asgard had never imagined such a thing could exist.
Black was the absence of light, a color that swallowed brightness whole. By all logic, "black light" should have been impossible.
And yet there it was.
Eerie. Wrong. Deeply unsettling.
In the very next instant, the antimatter cannon fired.
Temple II was nearly a million kilometers away from the continent of Asgard. Even light itself would have taken about three seconds to cross that distance.
This beam didn't bother with such limitations.
In less than a tenth of a second, the black light tore through space and appeared directly before Odin.
Every ship in its path—whether a towering war vessel or a small escort craft—ceased to exist the moment it touched the beam. Not destroyed. Not shattered. Simply erased, as if they had never been there at all.
By then, Thanos had already escaped the cannon's firing range.
The antimatter cannon's initial diameter was only one kilometer. Though it expanded over time, anyone who knew its trajectory in advance could avoid it.
Odin and Hela had no such luxury.
As the black light loomed before him, death brushed against Odin's senses.
No. I can't die yet.
Asgard's history stretched back tens of thousands of years. He could not be the one to end it. He could not face his grandfather in the afterlife bearing that shame. He could not face the billions of Asgardians who still lived upon the continent.
A cold glint flashed through his single remaining eye.
Without hesitation, Odin seized Hela and pulled her in front of him.
Hela never saw it coming.
She didn't even have time to understand what the All-Father had done before the antimatter cannon struck her.
The next instant, the beam slammed into the continent of Asgard.
A thunderous roar shook the world.
Five seconds later, the cannon fell silent.
Where land had once existed, there was now a vast hole—one hundred kilometers wide—punched straight through the continent. Through it, one could see the far side of the universe itself, cold and endless.
Every Asgardian god and every ship that had stood in the beam's path was gone. No debris. No ash. Not even dust.
Moments later, the continent began to fail.
Cracks raced across the ground like veins, the land collapsing inward as if Asgard itself were screaming. The world teetered on the brink of tearing itself apart.
In truth, if Odin hadn't activated the shield at the last moment, the destruction would have been far worse.
He had overestimated himself.
And catastrophically underestimated Thanos.
By now, Odin could no longer afford to worry about Asgard.
Though he had used Hela as a shield, the damage to his own body was severe. His skin was gone, stripped away entirely, exposing raw muscle, veins, and even bone beneath. He looked less like a god and more like something dragged straight out of a battlefield nightmare.
Hela's condition was worse.
Far worse.
All flesh had been annihilated, leaving behind nothing but a charred skeleton suspended in space.
Slowly, Odin's divine power began to assert itself. Flesh writhed and regrew, muscles knitting together, skin reforming in seconds. Moments later, simple garments appeared over his body.
Simple—and telling.
Every divine artifact he had worn was gone, reduced to nothing by the annihilation of matter and antimatter. Only the Eternal Spear remained in his grasp.
Had he not activated his divine presence in time, Odin suspected he wouldn't be in much better condition than Hela.
Even now, fully regenerated, his pallor was deathly pale. The golden radiance that once surrounded him had vanished entirely.
The All-Father still stood—but barely.
.....
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