“Your reinforcements are almost all dead, Father.” Hela raised her sword, pointing the tip at Odin once again.
“Are you still not going to take this seriously?
Or are you already too old to even stand steady?”
Odin looked at her in silence, his gaze sweeping across the tragic scene of the battlefield—the Death Legion was still advancing, the remnants of Asgard’s army were struggling to hold on, the Valkyrie Legion was fleeing in all directions under Fenrir’s relentless pursuit, and the Nine Realms Allied Forces were utterly routed before those black monsters.
All of this was because of Hela.
The daughter he had raised with his own hands, his once proudest successor, was now leading a bizarre army that belonged neither to Asgard nor to any known realm of the Nine Realms, dragging the entire Divine Realm into the flames of war.
“Those black soldiers,” Odin finally spoke, his voice low and raspy.
“They do not belong to the Nine Realms, Hela.
Where did you get them?”
Hela’s smile widened slightly, carving a sharp and dangerous arc.
“You don’t need to know, Father.
You only need to know that with them, I can conquer the entire Nine Realms, and then everything beyond the Nine Realms.
This is what I have always wanted to tell you: I have the power, and you cannot stop me.”
Odin gripped the Eternal Spear tightly, golden divine power condensing in his palm once more.
Something was churning in his eyes—anger, disappointment, pain—but beneath all of that, something even older and harder was rising to the surface.
It was the resolve of a king.
“Hela,” Odin’s voice suddenly became extraordinarily calm, a calmness far more unsettling than any roar.
“You said just now that you have more foresight than I do, and that you know better which path Asgard should take.”
Hela raised an eyebrow and said nothing.
“Perhaps you are right,” Odin continued, his voice carrying a strange, metallic coldness, like quenched steel.
“I am old, and I indeed do not possess your ambition.
But Hela…” He raised his head, golden light bursting from his single eye.
“Do you know what the most fundamental duty of a king is?”
Hela narrowed her eyes.
“What is it?”
“To protect,” Odin said, word by word.
“To protect your people, to protect your territory, and to protect everything you must protect even if you do not want to—even if it means you must raise your weapon against your own daughter.”
The moment the words fell, Odin moved.
At that moment, the King of the Gods’ body erupted with unbelievable speed.
Golden divine power surged from within him, dyeing his armor and cape in a dazzling gold.
The Eternal Spear spun a hundred and eighty degrees in his hand, a blinding light like a star condensing on its tip.
Then, taking a step forward, his figure turned into a bolt of golden lightning, thrusting toward Hela.
The speed of this strike far exceeded Hela’s expectations.
She only had time to raise her longsword to block, but Odin’s strength was greater than ever before.
The moment the spear tip collided with her blade, Hela felt a majestic, almost unstoppable force travel down the sword.
Her arm went numb, and the impact sent her flying backward dozens of meters.
“You’re finally taking this seriously.” Hela stabilized her figure in mid-air, a trace of blood seeping from the corner of her mouth, but her smile grew even more fervent.
“This is the King of the Gods I know.”
Without another word, the deep green light on her longsword flared.
She transformed into a green meteor, charging toward Odin’s golden figure.
The father and daughter engaged in a fierce duel high above the battlefield.
Golden and deep green lights clashed repeatedly in the night sky.
Each collision stirred up a violent ripple of energy that spread through the air, causing the ground below to fracture continuously.
Their speed was almost impossible for the naked eye to track; only two lights of different colors could be seen flashing, chasing, and colliding in the sky, like two madly spinning celestial bodies tearing at each other.
Odin’s spear technique was broad and powerful, each strike carrying immense weight.
The trajectory of the spear tip was like a flowing golden river, continuous and unavoidable.
His combat experience was fully on display at this moment.
The skills and instincts honed through thousands of years of warfare flowed naturally through his every movement like instinct.
Meanwhile, Hela’s sword technique was even more violent and agile.
Her figure darted through the shadows of Odin’s spear like an elusive, deep-green serpent, dodging the spear tip while constantly searching for gaps in Odin’s defense.
Her counterattacks were equally fierce, every strike aimed directly at vital points without the slightest hesitation or holding back.
During a sudden advance, Hela seized the gap when Odin was pulling back his spear, thrusting her longsword diagonally at his left ribs from a tricky angle.
Odin sidestepped to dodge, sweeping the butt of his spear to block, but his reaction was half a beat too slow.
Hela’s blade sliced a long gash along his waist, and golden blood seeped from the wound.
Odin let out a muffled groan but did not pause for a second.
His counterattack came swift and fierce.
The Eternal Spear spun as he withdrew it, and the butt of the spear struck Hela’s left shoulder with precision, sending her staggering several steps to the side.
“You’ve aged, Father.
Your movements are slower than before.” Hela wiped the blood from the corner of her mouth, her deep green eyes burning with an almost manic excitement.
Leaning forward slightly, she condensed her deep green divine power to the absolute limit on her blade.
The longsword, assembled from countless metal fragments, began to vibrate violently.
Wild streams of energy erupted from the gaps between the fragments, and the entire shape of the sword began to change.
“Take this strike!”
Hela’s voice echoed through the night sky.
In that instant, her body turned into a deep green bolt of lightning, her speed several times faster than before.
Her blade sliced through the air, letting out a screech so sharp it could almost pierce the eardrums.
Odin raised his spear horizontally to block.
Golden and deep green lights clashed once more, but this collision was unlike any before—the moment Hela’s blade made contact with the Eternal Spear, those metal fragments suddenly scattered like living things, transforming into dozens of slender energy tentacles that bypassed the spear shaft to stab at Odin’s torso from the side.
“Did you think I would attack the same way twice?” Hela’s smile was as cold as ice.
“Father, you underestimate me too much.”
Odin’s pupils contracted sharply.
At the absolute critical moment, he twisted his body violently while golden divine power erupted from within him, forming a protective barrier.
The moment those energy tentacles touched the barrier, most of them were blocked, but three tentacles still penetrated the weak points of the barrier, stabbing into Odin’s right shoulder and abdomen.
Golden blood gushed out once again.