Evidently, the Ancient One, returning from Death with a mind full of frustration, quickly decided to deal with the troubles awaiting them in the future while also easing the pressure on Strange.
In only a few words, he taught Strange the greater lesson of becoming a truly qualified Sorcerer Supreme: knowing when and how to call for help.
Compared with Kamar-Taj's terrifying execution and the Ancient One's worldly wisdom, Asgard's situation was considerably more troublesome.
Meanwhile, within the void created by Axel, Thor repeatedly summoned Mjolnir, but the hammer gave him no response.
Thor frowned in confusion before finally sighing.
"Alright, my hammer is off somewhere again. But I'm used to it. Great God, I must return to Asgard first. Once I deal with my troublesome sister, I will bring you enough treasures from the Asgardian treasury! Wait for me. I'll be back very soon, because I am much stronger than before! This time, Hela is definitely not my opponent. Absolutely not!"
With that, Thor suddenly raised Stormbreaker.
The Bifrost descended, enveloping him in its radiance and transporting him back to Asgard.
When the Bifrost finally landed before the palace square, Odin was holding Gungnir in one hand while Hela's Nightsword was ruthlessly embedded in his kidney.
Blood poured from Odin's waist. He drew a deep breath, then pushed Hela away and covered the wound with his free hand.
"Hela!"
After using his divine power to stop the bleeding, Odin looked at Hela with deep emotion.
"Though I do not know who mercilessly brought us, the dead, back from Valhalla, fate has arranged things this way for a reason. Perhaps fate believes we have been given a second chance! My daughter, our past has already returned to where it belongs, alongside our Death. Every day we have from this point forward can be a new beginning for us, can't it? We still have a chance to restore the cooperation we once had. And I, your father, am already old. The future of Asgard is destined to have a place for you. I have never forgotten your hard work and efforts for Asgard. Now, perhaps I finally have the chance to repay you, my daughter!"
By the time Odin finished speaking, the wound in his side had already healed.
He struck Gungnir against the ground with one hand, then extended his left arm horizontally in an unmistakable gesture of embrace.
Hela looked at Odin's attempt to embrace her, curled her lips, and let out a domineering sneer.
"You old immortal!"
After cursing him, Hela grinned and continued.
"Do you really think I ever had a chance to go to Valhalla? Old man, from the moment my soul failed to return to Valhalla, I knew I no longer belonged to Asgard! Unlike a hypocritical old ghost like you, when I charged alongside all of Asgard against Surtur and was completely consumed by the flames, my soul did not find my grandfather. Instead, it fell into the embrace of Death! That is where the true great power of the universe resides. Death treats all life equally, and she bestowed upon me a portion of the power belonging to her realm! I am now one of Death's chosen! The daughter you speak of is dead, old ghost. Even if I have returned to the realm of the living, I have only one choice left: to win more glory for Death!"
With that, Hela suddenly swung the Nightsword.
A towering blue aura erupted from the blade, instantly spreading across the sky and obscuring Asgard's sun.
As the sky gradually darkened, Odin paused before taking a long breath.
"It is Death indeed, my daughter. Your slaughter in those years truly caught Death's attention. Believe me, that is not a path worth following. I was once just as devoted to slaughter as you were, but after several millennia, I found the resolve to lay down my weapons and came to appreciate the peace that followed. And you, my daughter, were once so much like me. You simply lack the several millennia that came between us. You are like I once was, and sooner or later, you will grow weary of the blood on your hands and the souls weighing upon you, just as I did. When that day comes, I do not want you to be hurt again. Absolutely not!"
Odin slammed Gungnir down.
Thunder immediately descended from the heavens.
Although he was not the God of Thunder, Odin was the God of War and the King of Asgard. He naturally possessed the authority to wield thunder, one of Asgard's fundamental divine arts.
Even in his old age, his combat power was enough to contend with Hela, who had received Death's favor.
But Hela had originally been Asgard's foremost warrior. Judging from her past achievements, her own combat power should never have been inferior to Odin's, especially after Odin gradually abandoned his former bloodlust.
Logically, after receiving Death's favor, Hela should have been far superior to Odin.
There were, however, other factors involved.
When Odin had chosen to seal Hela rather than kill her, it was not because he genuinely lacked the strength to defeat her. Rather, he ultimately could not bring himself to kill his daughter.
Odin had once even given his beloved Mjolnir to Hela. She was his eldest daughter, the daughter he had once admired above all others, the Daughter of War of Asgard, and the child who most resembled him in his youth.
Because of this, Odin merely sealed Hela within his own shadow and then further sealed her near Norway in Midgard.
As for his love for Hela, even after deciding to keep her sealed until his own Death and never meet her again, he still left her a key.
Even after Hela had angered him to such an extent, he could not bring himself to completely abandon her.
That alone demonstrated how profound Odin's love for his daughter truly was.
He did not care about the disaster she might eventually bring. He simply wanted his daughter to be free after his Death.
If Odin had truly lacked love for Hela, why would he leave such an enormous problem behind for an Asgard that would eventually have to continue without him?
Was he trying to turn his biological daughter, Hela, into a whetstone for his biological son, Thor?
What a joke.
Odin could not even bring himself to kill his adopted son, Loki.
At least in his later years, Odin was undeniably a doting father.
In short, although Hela had now been empowered by Death, Odin had already been a step stronger than her.
And now, that strength was reinforced by a father's overwhelming determination to reclaim the daughter he loved.
Thus, two of Asgard's strongest warriors began a bloody battle before the palace square.
Every strike carried enough force to inflict serious injury. Every thrust drew blood.
Unfortunately, there was a well-known saying: "Blackening triples your strength, while whitewashing weakens you by a third."
When Thor returned to the palace through the Bifrost, Hela, empowered by her "blackened" state, had already pinned her aging father, whose hair had turned white, against the left pillar of the palace entrance.
The instant Thor landed, before he could even take a moment to appreciate the palace that Axel had reshaped, he saw his sister driving the Nightsword into his father's vital organs.
Thor's instincts immediately went into overdrive, and the short hair on his head stood on end.
"Hela!!!"
He roared as he raised Stormbreaker with both hands.
His body transformed into lightning and shot toward Hela.
Seeing Thor completely enveloped in plasma, Hela excitedly licked her lips before wrenching the Nightsword out of Odin's stomach.
"Thor!!!"
She released Odin, allowing his blood-soaked body to fall, then turned toward Thor and raised her sword.
As she prepared to defend herself, she coldly shouted.
"My brother, what are you doing? You won't even greet your sister, who has returned from Death?"
"Hela!!!"
Thor answered her taunt by bringing Stormbreaker down with enough force to split a mountain.
Boom!
The axe crashed into the Nightsword and instantly drove Hela's feet into the palace floor.
The flagstones beneath her shattered from the tremendous impact.
Amid the rapidly spreading fractures, Hela viciously pushed against Stormbreaker's blade with both hands and directly launched Thor, along with the axe held above her head, backward.
Thor spun through the air several times before crashing heavily onto the shattered floor.
At the same time, Hela flicked her hand.
The Nightsword immediately flew from her grasp like a thrown blade, circling around her before multiplying.
Within moments, thousands of Nightswords filled the sky, their blades so numerous that they nearly obscured the entire palace from Thor's vision.
Looking at the countless blades filling the sky, Thor released a heavy breath before charging forward with Stormbreaker.
Just then, the Nightswords swept toward him like a torrential wave.
Thor, surrounded by increasingly dense plasma, forcibly carved a path through the torrent.
He was like a surging wave struggling against an ocean formed entirely from blades.
But Hela's soul was originally connected to the planet Asgard.
As long as she stood upon Asgardian soil, her divine power would never diminish.
Furthermore, the power Death had bestowed upon her infused every blade with the aura of Death, and that aura was gradually extinguishing Thor's lightning.
Feeling his divine power steadily weaken, Thor gritted his teeth and tightened his grip around Stormbreaker.
Since forging Stormbreaker, this was the first time Thor had experienced such profound powerlessness.
Before this, not even Thanos or Strange had placed him under this kind of pressure.
Thanos without the Infinity Stones was not as powerful as Hela or Odin, while Strange relied more heavily on tactics than overwhelming physical power.
Thus, within Hela's sea of blades, Thor's aura continued to weaken.
On the ground beneath a distant pillar, Odin watched Thor gradually fall into a disadvantageous position.
He finally rose from the ground and sighed bitterly.
"The calamity fate has bestowed upon me is truly terrifying. I thought that after dying in Midgard, I would no longer have to witness my children fighting one another. But what happened? I had barely seen enough of the dramas and battles in Valhalla before I found myself participating in another one. What a cruel punishment for a father. Oh, fate, are you testing me? Does a problem left behind by a father ultimately need to be solved by that same father?"
As he muttered to himself, Odin's expression suddenly hardened.
He raised his right hand and violently threw Gungnir.
Hela noticed the incoming weapon and smiled wickedly.
"An incompetent father and an utterly foolish brother! What happens when the two of you stand together? Even with both of you here, standing upon this land and blessed by Death, I am no longer someone you can defeat! What's more, even now, neither of you has developed the resolve to kill me! I am a representative of Death, and I can sense that neither of you has any intention of sending me back to Death! You possess divine power but lack the will to match it. How can naive fools like you possibly bear the weight of Asgard's crown? Let you useless fools rule Asgard? Hmph! I'll have to do it myself!"
As she boldly declared her ambition, Hela violently swept her hands through the surging sea of blades.
The torrent did not split apart.
Instead, the number of blades doubled.
The next moment, two equally massive seas of blades simultaneously surged toward Thor and Odin, along with their respective divine weapons.
To defeat Hela, they needed only one thing: the resolve to kill her.
A strike powerful enough to surpass her limits would have to completely shatter her core and force her into a state of re-formation.
But once the battle reached its current stalemate, the Goddess of Death of the Nine Realms, who shared Asgard's essence and possessed the power of Death, was effectively unbeatable.
For a moment, even though Gungnir crossed space and time and pierced Hela's waist and abdomen against the current, Hela's ocean of blades still completely engulfed Odin and Thor.
Watching her father and brother gradually weaken beneath the relentless assault of the Nightswords and her divine power, Hela's smile became increasingly twisted.
But just before she could unleash her final triumphant laugh, something suddenly appeared in the distant sky of Asgard.
A line of shining meteors streaked across the heavens.
"MJOLNIR!!!"
Thor shouted in surprise.
He gripped Stormbreaker with his left hand and freed his right hand to reach toward Mjolnir.
Holding the axe with one hand made it increasingly difficult to withstand Hela's torrent of blades, causing Stormbreaker to retreat again and again.
Yet Thor stubbornly braced the struggling axe against his left shoulder while stretching his right hand toward the approaching hammer.
Mjolnir did not disappoint his expectations.
The hammer crossed the sky in an instant and shot directly toward the torrent of blades.
Seeing the approaching hammer, Thor nearly broke down in tears.
Whenever despair had overwhelmed him, Mjolnir had always brought him hope and the possibility of victory.
Filled with anticipation, Thor desperately reached out with his right hand.
His fingers drew closer and closer to the hammer's trajectory.
Closer.
Closer.
Swoosh!
Mjolnir flew directly past Thor's outstretched hand.
The anticipation on his face instantly collapsed into utter disbelief.
At the same time, countless fragments of Mjolnir followed behind its handle, crossing through the river of blades and shooting directly toward the ancient warrior whose wounds were gradually healing.
Seeing the shattered hammer, Odin finally smiled.
He raised his left hand and caught Mjolnir by the handle.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
The fragments of Mjolnir rapidly reassembled.
The cracked hammer was finally secured in Odin's palm.
He gazed at it with immense emotion before letting out a hearty laugh.
"Haha! How can a hammer be so inconvenient? Mjolnir, long time no see. You're broken, and you've become stronger!"
As his words fell, Odin slammed the hammer downward.
Endless lightning surged across his golden armor, coating it in a brilliant silver glow.
Mjolnir's shattered state prevented it from perfectly containing the immense power of the lightning runes. The excess energy rapidly transferred into Odin's body instead.
Odin raised Mjolnir and swung it fiercely toward the sky filled with blades.
The fragments of Mjolnir shot forward like a violent downpour.
Countless fragments, connected by a network of electricity, instantly swept away the torrent standing before Odin.
Logically, Odin should have felt the satisfaction of an old warrior proving that he could still fight.
But the moment he looked toward Thor, that thought vanished.
Seeing the hammer fly into his father's hand, Thor shuddered and instinctively cried out.
"No!!!"
As he shouted, Stormbreaker trembled slightly.
Swoosh!
No one knew what had happened to Stormbreaker.
But in the next instant, Thor was swept away by the torrent of blades and carried directly toward the Bifrost.
=≠=
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