Thanos hovered in mid-air, watching impassively as Hela finished her act of patricide. Only after Odin's life completely faded did he withdraw his power of rule and destruction, the oppressive pressure finally lifting from the battlefield.
Then he descended, stopping directly above Hela. His Tyrant's Blade snapped into his grip, its edge angled downward like a verdict already written.
In a cold, unyielding voice, he said, "Submit… or die."
He had no intention of letting Hela off just because she had killed her own father.
In Thanos's eyes, there were only two kinds of beings in this universe.
Subordinates.
And enemies.
Anyone who refused to kneel belonged firmly in the second category—and enemies were meant to be erased.
Hela slowly looked up at him. A black sword condensed in her hand, dark energy rippling like liquid shadow.
The few words they had exchanged earlier didn't mean she was some helpless woman living under another's roof.
"I am Odin's daughter," she declared, her voice sharp and furious. "The Goddess of Death!"
With a furious roar, she launched herself upward.
But Thanos merely pressed down with one hand.
In an instant, an overwhelming force slammed her into the ground, the impact cracking the stone beneath her.
The gap in strength between them was absolute—something no amount of hatred could bridge.
"I'll ask you one last time," Thanos said, his patience thinning. "Surrender… or die."
A flicker of irritation passed through his eyes. If she refused again, he would simply erase her and move on. Problems were meant to be solved permanently.
Hela struggled, veins standing out as she tried to push back. But the invisible pressure crushing her from above was like a mountain pressing down on her chest. She couldn't move even an inch.
She had never been a brute-force warrior.
She was a mage—fast, deadly, and cunning.
And right now, none of that mattered.
In the end, she stopped resisting.
The black sword dissolved into smoke. Slowly, reluctantly, she dropped to one knee. Her proud head lowered.
"I am willing to submit," she said, her voice tight but clear.
If she truly welcomed death, she wouldn't have allowed Odin to seal her away for a thousand years instead of choosing oblivion.
If she didn't fear death, she wouldn't have endured a millennium of suffering in the underworld without returning to it.
Fear of death was instinctive.
Even for gods.
Thanos sheathed his Tyrant's Blade, gave a brief nod, and said, "Good. Take me to Odin's vault."
Far above them, the war in space still raged.
But Asgard's fate was already sealed. There was no need for him to intervene personally. As long as the Black Order and Laufey didn't commit any catastrophic blunders, the outcome was inevitable.
Hela nodded. "Follow me."
The two figures shot off into the distance.
Not long after, they arrived above an immense and majestic temple, its golden spires still gleaming despite the chaos consuming Asgard.
The remaining Asgardian warriors stationed nearby spotted Thanos instantly.
"Enemy detected!"
"Prepare for battle!"
A storm of enchanted arrows streaked toward the sky.
Thanos didn't even move.
Hela stepped forward, her expression icy. A black sword reformed in her hand, spinning once before she swept it through the air. Every arrow was deflected—and then redirected downward in a deadly rain.
"Ah—!"
"Help!"
"I've been stabbed!"
Screams echoed through the courtyard. In seconds, the guard force of over a hundred warriors was completely wiped out.
Hela halted, turned back to Thanos, and said respectfully, "My lord, please follow me."
They entered the temple together, moving deeper within toward the treasury.
…
Earth.
California, USA.
August had arrived—the most brutal time of the year. The sun hung mercilessly overhead, turning the streets into ovens.
There were barely any people outside. Those who had no choice but to leave their homes did so sealed inside air-conditioned cars, clinging to survival like it was a post-apocalyptic wasteland.
Just as complaints about the heat reached peak bitterness, dark clouds suddenly rolled in. Thunder rumbled. Lightning flashed.
"Oh come on… is it finally going to rain?"
"My God, please let it rain. If this keeps up, I'm going to turn into beef jerky."
"Haha! Finally! Let's go outside and enjoy it!"
Hope rose—
And immediately died.
A ripple of rainbow-colored light spread across the sky, and just as suddenly, the clouds vanished. The thunder faded. The sun returned in all its merciless glory.
It was as if the weather itself had played a cruel joke.
Grumbling, people retreated back indoors.
But at S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters in New York, no one was laughing.
"High-level energy fluctuation detected," an analyst reported tensely. "The signature matches the alien event from last time."
"Location confirmed: California."
"Activate contingency plans immediately."
"And notify the director," another voice added grimly. "This requires Level Ten encrypted clearance."
Something had arrived.
And Earth was about to notice.
The last time Thor and the Destroyer had rampaged across Earth, S.H.I.E.L.D. had paid for it in blood.
Agents died. Facilities were reduced to smoking craters. Entire reports were quietly buried under layers of clearance stamps.
Although the man known as Thor had ultimately destroyed the Destroyer, S.H.I.E.L.D. hadn't left empty-handed. They had recorded everything—especially the violent, impossible energy fluctuations caused by the Bifrost.
So when those same readings spiked again, alarms rang instantly.
No hesitation. No debate.
They moved.
One minute later.
Nick Fury's office door was knocked on—once, sharp and urgent. Fury didn't even look up from his desk before the briefing began.
Five minutes later, a massive helicarrier roared into the sky, its engines screaming as it tore through the clouds toward its destination.
Fast. Efficient. Textbook S.H.I.E.L.D.
Unfortunately, still too slow.
By the time they arrived at the foot of the Rainbow Bridge, there was nothing waiting for them.
No thunder god.
No Asgardian presence.
Just scorched ground and fading cosmic residue, already dissolving into the air like a bad memory.
Thor was gone.
…
On the other side of the blue planet.
Here stood the tallest mountains on Earth, jagged and ancient, piercing the sky like spears aimed at the heavens. And hidden among them lived some of the most mysterious people the world had ever known.
This place was called Kamar-Taj.
A sanctuary. A stronghold. A secret.
The Ancient One, draped in a flowing yellow cloak, stood beside a hospital bed carved from stone and magic alike. Her brow furrowed as she studied the figure lying upon it.
Thor.
Bruised. Broken. Barely conscious.
"What could possibly have happened," she said quietly, her voice edged with disbelief, "to leave you in such a state?"
As Earth's guardian—and currently the only Celestial-level combatant on the planet—she knew Thor well.
She knew Odin even better.
Earth had once been one of the Nine Realms, strong in its own right. Its mystics, warriors, and cultivators had not been insignificant.
Then came the Frost Giants.
The invasion devastated the planet. Earth survived, but diminished—its strength fading, its cultivators dwindling, until it slipped quietly out of the rankings of the Nine Realms.
Ironically, that same war had forged Odin's legend.
By defeating Laufey, Odin rose to power and eventually came to rule the galaxy itself.
The Ancient One had fought beside him in those days.
It was why, despite his vast empire, Odin never laid a hand on Earth.
He knew what protected it.
And he knew who did.
Odin had also witnessed the power of the Time Stone with his own eyes. That knowledge later drove him to create the Infinity Gauntlet, intending to gather the Stones themselves—though that ambition would remain unfulfilled.
The Ancient One exhaled slowly.
Something was wrong. Deeply wrong.
Thor's condition filled her with an unease she hadn't felt in centuries. This wasn't like Dormammu. This was… worse.
After a moment's hesitation, she reached up and opened the Eye of Agamotto.
Green light spilled into the chamber as the Time Stone activated.
Time unraveled.
She searched the future.
What she saw made her blood run cold.
Nothing.
No chaos. No catastrophe. No Thor.
The future flowed forward as if Thor had never appeared at all.
"That's impossible," she murmured. "You shouldn't be here."
She had already foreseen this timeline long ago. There had been no sign of Thor's involvement—no divergence, no anomaly.
Yet here he was.
Injured.
Present.
Real.
She checked again.
The result didn't change.
That was the truly terrifying part.
Only two explanations existed.
The first: someone had mastered the essence of the Time Stone itself, interfering with her ability to observe the future.
That, while alarming, was survivable. Power didn't always mean hostility.
The second possibility made her stomach twist.
The being she was attempting to observe had, in the future, reached multiversal-level power—far beyond the Time Stone's capacity to perceive.
If that was the case…
Then whatever awaited them wasn't just a threat to Earth.
It was a being capable of destroying entire universes.
And against something like that, neither she nor every enhanced being on Earth combined would stand a chance.
The Ancient One looked back at Thor, her expression grave.
For the first time in a very long while, Earth was truly unprepared.
.....
Can't wait to read more exciting chapters then what are you waiting for Join my p*atreon right now.
Get 60+ Premium chapters.
Link: p*atreon.com/Earthly_Writer (Remove the *)
2 Chapters for all free members.