Seeing Heimdall approach, Odin immediately waved away the women lounging around him and sat up straight.
He knew full well that his Watcher would never interrupt his royal pleasures unless it was a matter of absolute urgency.
Heimdall strode up to the throne and dropped to one knee.
“All-Father, I have made a grave discovery,” he reported respectfully.
He glanced warily at the attendants who were still lingering in the hall.
The matter was simply too critical; until he knew Odin’s will, he wasn’t about to let a third party hear this news.
The dancers and beauties were slowly backing away, a few even shooting Heimdall flirtatious winks, which he completely ignored.
In Heimdall’s heart, there was nothing but absolute loyalty to the All-Father.
It was exactly this unshakeable devotion that had made Loki so deeply paranoid of him in the past, even driving the God of Mischief to try and eliminate him.
Odin gave a curt nod and gestured for the women to hurry up and leave.
Once the grand hall was completely empty, his expression hardened.
“What is it?”
Heimdall’s golden eyes flickered, scanning the room one last time to ensure no one was eavesdropping.
“I have sighted an unidentified armada on the outer edge of the Milky Way,” he said grimly.
“They number at least ten thousand warships.”
Hearing this, Odin furrowed his brow.
“Ten thousand unknown warships?
Didn’t we lock down every single wormhole in the territory?
How did they get in?”
Heimdall shook his head.
“I do not know.
A new wormhole must have formed, or they possess interstellar travel tech or magic beyond our records.
Please, All-Father, you must make a decision quickly.
I sense they do not come in peace.”
Heimdall’s divine power was staggering, and his golden eyes were famously said to watch over all Nine Realms.
But that was the catch—it was only the Nine Realms.
He couldn’t physically monitor every single inch of the Milky Way.
After all, the galaxy was a hundred thousand light-years across.
If his vision was genuinely that omnipotent, he would be sitting on the throne instead of Odin.
Therefore, he had no idea when this alien armada had arrived or exactly how they managed to slip in.
Odin lowered his head, sinking into deep thought.
What kind of chaos would this new fleet bring?
Ever since he cemented his rule over the galaxy, he had strictly enforced an isolationist policy to maintain absolute stability, even going as far as ordering the destruction of all known wormholes. Read this novel at novelping(.)com for the best experience.
Yes, wormholes could be artificially collapsed; it just required an astronomical amount of energy.
Now, after more than a millennium of his reign, the Milky Way was no longer the chaotic warzone it used to be.
Asgard stood completely unrivaled—there wasn’t a single faction left that could even dream of challenging them.
If he could figure out exactly how these invaders got in—whether it was an uncharted wormhole or breakthrough technology—could Asgard use it to expand their own territory?
But the moment the image of his muscle-brained son popped into his head, Odin could only shake his head with a helpless sigh, completely abandoning the thought.
He was getting old.
If his successor had no tactical mind, no amount of conquered territory could ever be held.
He had originally assigned a Valkyrie to assist Thor, but his foolish son wasn’t just dense—he was stubbornly independent, completely refusing to follow Odin’s arrangements.
Right now, ensuring Thor’s smooth transition to the throne was the absolute highest priority.
After a moment, Odin looked up.
Seeing Heimdall still kneeling respectfully, a wave of reassuring comfort washed over him.
“Since the enemy is already at our gates, what are we waiting for?” Odin’s voice boomed with absolute authority.
“Rally the warriors!
Drive out the invaders and protect the Nine Realms!”
With a grim expression, he stood up.
Gungnir, the legendary Spear of Heaven, instantly materialized in his grasp as his regal golden battle armor slowly formed over his body.
In that moment, Odin looked every bit the awe-inspiring, terrifying conqueror he was in his youth.
Of course, the majestic image would have been a lot more intimidating if he had bothered to put his pants on first.
…
Meanwhile, on the edge of the Milky Way wormhole.
Over two thousand warships hung dead silent in the void.
In the distance, a pale star steadily cast its light, struggling to illuminate this cold stretch of space.
Aboard Sanctuary II, Thanos sat comfortably on his high throne, idly tracing the smooth surface of the Mind Stone with his thumb.
Kneeling at the base of the dais was a hulking, red-skinned alien with two thick horns protruding from its skull.
The alien stared up at him with eyes overflowing with boundless, fanatical worship.
In fact, if Thanos ordered the creature to slit its own throat right now, it would do so without a second of hesitation.
Using the Mind Stone, Thanos had completely rewritten the alien’s consciousness, turning him into an absolutely devout zealot—even more fiercely loyal than a mindless Outrider.
It was a massive step up from how Loki had used the stone to brainwash Hawkeye back in the first Avengers movie.
Honestly, the idea that the absolute mind-controlling power of one of the six Infinity Stones could be completely undone just by getting smacked in the head a couple of times was the biggest joke in the universe.
Just then, a holographic projection flickered to life in the center of the command deck.
The figure was an absolute behemoth, standing even taller than Thanos himself.
Packed with explosive, hulking muscles and clad in heavy, pitch-black armor, the ash-skinned titan looked like a walking natural disaster.
Yet, this terrifying giant immediately dropped to one knee with utmost reverence.
It was Cull Obsidian, one of the five generals of the Black Order.
Hearing this, Thanos’s eyes lit up.
“Oh?
It seems that old bastard Odin finally couldn’t sit still anymore.”
A cruel, excited smile crept across his face.
Within the Milky Way, the only faction capable of mobilizing a fleet of that sheer magnitude was Asgard.
While the cinematic universe never directly showed a war between Thanos and Odin, it wasn’t hard to guess the outcome.
The original Thanos must have been soundly beaten back by the All-Father.
That was exactly why he resorted to using Loki as a proxy to invade Earth and secure the Space Stone.
And even when that invasion utterly failed and the Mind Stone was lost, Thanos hadn’t dared to make a single overt move in retaliation.
It was only after Odin finally died that Thanos immediately blitzed the Milky Way, beat Thor half to death, and invaded Earth himself.
But he wasn’t the severely nerfed Thanos from the movies.
He was a transmigrator armed with a leveling system.
He wasn’t the least bit afraid of Odin showing up; in fact, his only real fear was that Odin might try to hide.
The Milky Way was unfathomably massive.
If he had to scour every single star system one by one just to locate Asgard, it would take him thousands of years.
But since Odin was taking the initiative to come out and face him?
That was absolutely perfect.
A predatory excitement flared in his eyes, but he kept his tone cautious.
“How many warships are in their fleet?”
Cull Obsidian glanced off-screen at one of his tactical officers before turning back to reply.
“My Lord, they number roughly twenty-five thousand vessels.
However, they are all classified as small, medium, and heavy cruisers.
We have not detected a single Titan-class dreadnought.”
Like Thor, Cull Obsidian wasn’t exactly known for his brilliance.
He had secured his position in the Black Order entirely through sheer, barbaric physical power, and even then, he was technically the weakest of the five generals.
He constantly needed his tactical aides to feed him exact numbers when reporting.
Hearing the report, Thanos rubbed his massive, ridged chin in thought.
‘Twenty-five thousand ships… Sitting on the throne of the entire Milky Way, Odin’s resources really are no joke.’
But the total lack of Titan-class dreadnoughts was interesting.
Had Asgard been isolated from the wider cosmic community for so long that their military tech had completely stagnated?
After a moment, he raised his head, his voice echoing with grim, absolute authority.
“Tell the entire armada to stand by.
Prepare for an all-out war.”