Faced with Thor’s critical condition, Sif was torn.
If they turned back to Asgard right now, they could likely save his life.
But if the flagship suddenly abandoned the battlefield, not only would the vanguard lose its vital fire support—making a difficult war nearly impossible—but the resulting blow to morale would be absolutely catastrophic.
On one hand, the life of the man she loved; on the other, the fate of the entire war.
She had no idea what to choose.
Just then, the flagship violently shuddered.
A series of deafening explosions rattled the hull, and the emergency lights flared a harsh crimson.
“Attention all units,” the intercom blared.
“The flagship is under direct attack.
Brace for impact.”
Hearing the klaxons, a cold clarity suddenly washed over Sif, shattering her indecision.
Looking at the grim reality, winning this war was already a near impossibility.
Rather than sitting here waiting to die, it was better to save Thor first.
Mind made up, she sprinted toward the command deck.
After a frantic, desperate plea, Captain Lucy looked at the rapidly failing energy reserves and finally squeezed her eyes shut, agreeing to the retreat.
However, before the flagship engaged its thrusters to flee the sector, she chose to step down, taking a single-seater fighter out into the void to live or die alongside her warriors.
Just as Sif had feared, the flagship’s sudden departure dealt an absolutely catastrophic blow to morale.
Seeing the royal dreadnought retreat, a fraction of the Asgardian warriors assumed the All-Father had already fallen.
Utterly broken, they abandoned the front lines and tried to flee.
But in the cold, infinite vacuum of space, with the nearest planet millions of kilometers away, where could they possibly go?
Ultimately, they had no choice but to frantically retreat into the remaining, powerless cruisers.
This mass panic threw the fleet into total chaos, completely destroying any semblance of a coordinated counterattack.
It triggered a lethal chain reaction, causing Asgardian casualties to skyrocket.
Looking at the crumbling frontline, unless a literal miracle occurred, Asgard’s total defeat was practically set in stone.
…
Meanwhile, deep within the star system.
Trading apocalyptic blows, Odin and Thanos rapidly drifted toward another planet.
Honestly, Odin hadn’t wanted to come this way, but Thanos was relentlessly pressing the offensive, bulldozing him backward.
The second he laid eyes on the looming planet, he instantly knew exactly what the Mad Titan was planning.
He wanted to drag the fight back into a planetary atmosphere to forcefully bleed dry whatever scraps of divine energy the All-Father had left.
Thor’s condition was critical and completely unknown, and the state of the broader war was a total blind spot.
Whether he lost his son or lost his armada—neither outcome was something he could possibly accept.
Moments later, after a brutal clash shoved him right to the absolute edge of the planet’s atmosphere, a fierce, desperate resolve hardened in his lone eye.
“Thanos!
You forced my hand!” he roared.
With that deafening bellow, Odin’s entire body erupted in a blinding, radiant golden light.
His weathered muscles rapidly swelled, bulging with explosive, torrential power, as his graying hair shifted into a brilliant, shimmering gold.
In the literal blink of an eye, the ancient, frail-looking All-Father transformed into a towering, muscle-bound warrior in his absolute prime.
A suffocating, godlike aura violently burst outward, instantly ripping a colossal hole straight through the planet’s atmosphere beneath his feet.
Fierce cosmic winds whipped violently around his body.
As if the planet itself sensed its impending doom, the clouds below rapidly blackened, and blinding bolts of lightning shot outward into space.
Yes, outward.
Because the atmosphere had been violently pierced, the atmospheric pressure catastrophically plummeted.
This triggered a lethal chain reaction—the boiling point of water dropped drastically, instantly vaporizing the planet’s oceans into massive, pitch-black storm clouds.
This violent evaporation rapidly separated positive and negative electrons, generating apocalyptic lightning storms.
Because the vapor was rushing violently upward into the void, the lightning naturally struck upward right along with it.
But to an entity at Odin’s current tier, these apocalyptic lightning bolts were nothing more than a light tickle.
He ignored them completely.
Feeling the suffocating pressure of Odin’s newfound power, Thanos’s expression turned incredibly grim.
He hadn’t expected this old bastard to have such a terrifying trump card hidden up his sleeve this deep into the fight.
His patience was genuinely commendable.
Without hesitation, the purple aura surrounding Thanos’s massive frame surged violently.
The Power of Destruction coursing through his veins was officially pushed to its absolute breaking point.
Just then, Odin’s rapidly expanding aura finally stabilized.
Feeling the sheer, oceanic volume of divine power roaring through his veins, a savage, predatory grin twisted his face.
“You are only the second being in existence to force me to use this,” Odin boomed.
“Even in death, you should feel profoundly honored.”
“Gungnir!”
With a deafening roar, the Spear of Heaven violently transformed.
The 2.2-meter weapon instantly elongated, extending to a staggering 3.2 meters as its sleek, regal design warped into something incredibly jagged, primal, and utterly terrifying.
In a fraction of a millisecond, Odin crossed a full kilometer, instantly materializing right in front of Thanos.
This absolute transformation was known as Divine Descent.
Had he not been pushed to the absolute brink, he never would have triggered it.
The backlash was severe.
It permanently burned away his lifespan, would forcefully hurl him into an early Odinsleep, and leave him in a cripplingly weakened state for an extended period.
CLANG!
The apocalyptic collision of the two divine weapons unleashed a shockwave so unimaginably violent it literally scattered the lightning shooting out from the dying planet.
And for the very first time in this fight, Thanos felt a genuinely terrifying, crushing pressure.
In the next instant, the blinding golden aura radiating from Odin violently condensed into hundreds of ethereal spear tips, rocketing straight toward the Mad Titan.
The ethereal spears pierced right through Thanos’s purple aura, slamming directly into his body.
Clink, clink, clink…
A rapid-fire series of metallic chimes echoed into the void.
The vast majority of the golden spears shattered uselessly against the Tyrant Armor, but a few managed to strike his exposed arms and face.
Yet, possessing a practically indestructible physique, Thanos completely ignored the damage.
Seeing this, utter disbelief washed over Odin’s face.
While these manifested ethereal spears weren’t nearly as durable as Gungnir, they still boasted at least half the penetrative power of pure Vibranium.
To think they couldn’t even leave a scratch on the bastard’s bare skin!
Just how obscenely thick was his hide?
In response to the All-Father’s sheer shock, Thanos merely offered a faint, chilling smile.
He was the absolute textbook definition of a tank—boasting maxed-out attack, defense, and health pools.
If a flimsy attack like this could actually make him bleed, how was he supposed to conquer the universe?
Without missing a beat, he gripped the Tyrant Greatsword in one hand and clenched his free hand into a massive fist, driving it forward.
BANG!
His fist slammed squarely into Odin’s golden breastplate, but the resulting shockwave barely seemed to faze the Skyfather.
It appeared the All-Father’s divine armor was actually significantly tougher than his own Tyrant Armor.
Thanos felt a brief, rare flash of awkwardness.
Not one to be outdone, Odin instantly clenched his own fist and retaliated with a vicious counter-punch.
BANG!
Another deafening impact rang out.
And then, it was Odin’s turn to freeze awkwardly.
He couldn’t break Thanos’s defense either.