Aboard Sanctuary II, Thanos stared at the holographic monitor displaying the Asgardian fleet ten light-years away.
A cold, calculating smile crept across his face.
While it was true that individual strength in the Marvel universe had virtually no ceiling—with some cosmic entities capable of erasing realities with a thought—the sheer power of technology could absolutely never be underestimated.
Take Kang the Conqueror, for example.
The man didn’t have a single superpower.
He was nothing more than a brilliant scientist, yet he weaponized technology to completely conquer time, ruling over the multiverse itself.
Of course, his lack of innate superhuman abilities was also his greatest weakness, which was why he eventually got stabbed to death.
Still, his legacy was undeniable proof that absolute technological supremacy was a terrifying force in this universe.
That was exactly why, alongside his brutal physical training, Thanos had never once halted his empire’s research and development.
Under his absolute rule, scientists were the sole privileged class.
They were completely exempt from mandatory military conscription and the strict population reproduction quotas.
The returns on that investment had been staggering.
His empire had birthed the super-AI Deep Blue, the hyper-gravity training chambers, Sanctuary II, the interstellar fortresses, quantum entanglement projections, and currently… the long-range spatial interdictors.
Faced with this spatial lockdown, how was Odin going to respond?
If the All-Father stubbornly decided to burn his reactors and brute-force a hyperspace jump, Thanos was going to laugh himself to death.
Tearing a hole in space meant opening a corresponding spatial rift at the destination.
The second Asgard forced a jump, Thanos could perfectly calculate their exit coordinates and set up a devastating ambush.
Utterly wiping out the Asgardian armada the moment they exited hyperspace wouldn’t just be possible—it would be a complete slaughter.
What if they tried to fly out of the interdiction zone at sub-light speeds before jumping?
That was just as futile.
His spatial interdictors operated remotely.
If the Asgardians moved, he would simply move the lockdown zone right along with them.
The only viable countermeasure would be if they jumped to a completely random sector of space, forcing his long-range lock to briefly lose track of them.
But even if they managed to shake off the interdiction zone, it wouldn’t matter.
He had laid down plenty of contingencies.
…
Ten light-years away, aboard the Asgardian flagship.
After listening to Captain Lucy’s grim tactical analysis, the entire command deck fell into a heavy silence.
None of them had expected this.
Normally, Asgardian warfare was beautifully simple: point, charge, and butcher.
How had this suddenly become so agonizingly complicated?
They hadn’t even seen the enemy yet, and they were already completely pinned down.
Thor paced back and forth, visibly agitated.
Seeing that no one was speaking up, he threw his hands in the air.
“Let’s just use the Bifrost and warp straight onto their heads!
So what if we can’t bring the ships?
With the sheer might of our Asgardian warriors, we’ll crush these cowardly rats hiding in the dark!”
The Bifrost possessed the divine power to bypass conventional spatial interdictions, dropping them directly onto the battlefield.
Odin completely ignored his son’s outburst.
He turned his lone eye back to Lucy.
“How long would it take for the fleet to physically fly out of the interdiction zone?”
In modern cosmic warfare, engaging in close-quarters meat-grinder combat without orbital fire support from a fleet was the absolute height of stupidity.
Even riding in on warships completely drained of power was a better tactical choice than stranding ground troops via the Bifrost.
Lucy lowered her head, running the calculations.
“Regardless of what technology they are using, the interdiction zone cannot be infinitely large.
If we push the engines to lightspeed, an hour of flight should put us outside its radius.”
Odin nodded firmly.
“Very well.
We fly for one hour, then reattempt the hyperspace jump.”
Lucy bowed and immediately went to coordinate the fleet.
In the grand scheme of cosmic travel, lightspeed was actually painfully slow.
However, without utilizing hyperspace technology, the absolute speed limit of any conventional warship could only infinitely approach the speed of light; breaking that barrier through pure thrust was physically impossible.
An hour later, Lucy returned to the command deck, her expression darker than before.
“All-Father… we are still inside the spatial interdiction zone.”
Odin’s brow furrowed sharply, a flash of genuine displeasure crossing his face.
“Did you not just say an hour’s flight would clear the perimeter?
What is the meaning of this?”
Lucy shook her head, looking deeply unsettled.
“I don’t know.
Logically speaking, the enemy couldn’t possibly possess enough energy to sustain a lockdown over a sector this massive.
Unless…”
“Unless what?” Odin pressed.
Noticing the All-Father’s growing impatience, Lucy hesitated before finally speaking her mind.
“Unless the enemy is actively moving the interdiction zone to keep us trapped… which means they are monitoring our exact movements in real-time.”
Thor scoffed, looking at her like she was crazy.
“How is that possible?
We are ten light-years away!
Unless they have someone with Heimdall’s divine sight, the light from our ships won’t even reach their eyes for another ten years!”
As his words echoed through the room, the command deck plunged back into a suffocating silence.
“It’s possible…” Lucy began quietly, “that a technological generation gap has formed between us and the enemy.
They possess scientific advancements that we simply do not understand.”
The moment those words left her mouth, everyone’s faces paled, and they all lowered their heads, not daring to utter a single sound.
The implication was glaringly obvious: Odin’s strict isolationist policy over the last millennium had been a catastrophic mistake, leaving Asgard entirely outmatched in the modern cosmic arms race.
Odin naturally caught the implication.
His expression darkened ominously, but he forced himself to hold his tongue.
Now was not the time to execute his finest captain for speaking the ugly truth.
Sensing the dangerously heavy atmosphere, Sif quickly stepped in.
“Captain Lucy, what if we jump to a completely different sector, refuel our reactors, and then make the final jump to the target coordinates?” This chapter was taken from NovelPing without permission.
To be highly valued by Odin—and even quietly considered as a potential daughter-in-law—required more than just beauty.
Sif had an incredibly sharp tactical mind.
In seconds, she had deduced a clever workaround.
Lucy’s eyes lit up.
She nodded quickly.
“Yes, that could work.”
Odin pondered it for a moment before waving a hand.
“Very well.
We proceed with Lady Sif’s strategy.”
With the new orders issued, Lucy coordinated the fleet to initiate a blind hyperspace jump to a sector one light-year off their original path.
Fighting against the heavy spatial lockdown, the jump took five times longer than normal just to tear a stable rift in space.
Fifteen minutes later, Asgard’s armada of twenty-five thousand warships reappeared in real-space, now nine light-years away from Thanos’s position.
The strain was obvious.
The golden energy shields surrounding the vessels were flickering and dim, their reactor reserves severely depleted by the forced jump.
It took a full four hours for Odin’s flagship to fully recharge its energy banks.
The medium and light cruisers took even longer, needing up to seven hours to return to optimal combat readiness.
Finally fully charged, Lucy prepared to initiate the second jump to engage the enemy.
But as she ran the nav-coords, a new, horrifying problem flashed on her terminal.
“All-Father… the target destination itself has been heavily space-locked.”
Hearing this, Odin’s face turned completely black with fury.
“Cowardly wretches!” he spat.
He genuinely couldn’t fathom why this enemy was resorting to so many pathetic traps and spatial lockdowns.
Why couldn’t they just line up their fleets and fight a straightforward, honorable battle?
Why all these underhanded, flashy tricks?
Standing nearby, Thor eagerly seized the moment.
“Exactly!
If these invaders are hiding behind so many locks, their actual combat strength must be pathetic!
I say we just burn our reactors, bust through the lock, and jump right onto their heads!
If we don’t have the fuel to jump back after we slaughter them, Asgard can just send a fresh fleet to pick us up!”
The Warriors Three instantly rallied behind him.
“Prince Thor is absolutely right!
If they’re this terrified of a direct clash, they probably fight like mere goblins!” “Let’s just crush them directly!” “We are Asgardians!
We are invincible!”
Odin slowly turned his head, completely ignoring his boisterous son and his three loudmouthed sidekicks.
He looked directly at Sif and Lucy.
“Do either of you have any actual ideas?” he asked, preferring to consult the people in the room who actually possessed a functioning brain.
If Thor wasn’t his own flesh and blood, he would have slapped the idiot across the room by now.
But to his deep disappointment, both Sif and Lucy simply shook their heads.
They were completely out of options.