Battle of the Highfathers

Thor had heard Odin, of course.

But rage had gone to his head. He ignored his father, bent only on avenging the Warriors Three.

Thanos saw the Black Order soldiers and Interstellar Behemoths move to shield him from the rampaging Thor without a moment's hesitation.

Against such a vast difference in strength, though, their sacrifice would be pointless.

He waved them away.

In a battle at their level, ordinary soldiers were useless. At most, they could drain a little of the enemy's energy.

If his forces had held the advantage, he wouldn't have minded sacrificing a few troops to wear the enemy down.

But the outcome of this war was still uncertain. There was no need to waste them.

At his command, the Black Order soldiers and Interstellar Behemoths immediately cleared a path.

Thor and Odin flew even faster.

Meanwhile, the five commanders of the Black Order in the distance finally emerged from their spaceships.

Seeing Thor and Odin charge at their lord, they gripped their weapons and rushed to support him.

They had every confidence in their lord, but they still had to show they were ready to protect him.

Thanos ordered them to stay back as well.

The five commanders were only Planetary Level. Like those three fools before them, they had no place in a battle between him and Odin.

Moments later, Thor reached Thanos, swinging Mjolnir.

"Aaah!"

With that furious roar, Thor's aura surged, quickly reaching the peak of Sub-Skyfather level.

He seemed on the verge of breaking through.

Even so, he was still nowhere near strong enough to face Thanos.

Just then, however, a dangerous presence enveloped Thanos.

Looking past Thor, he saw Odin not far behind him, Gungnir raised, his remaining eye fixed on Thanos.

That dangerous presence came from Odin.

He was clearly covering Thor's attack.

Energy surged through Thanos as he drew on his full strength and swung Tyrant's Blade.

Clang!

In the silence of the vacuum, the clash of the two divine weapons rang through everyone's minds.

The tremendous force that traveled up Mjolnir left Thor stunned.

Still, he gritted his teeth and poured every bit of energy he had into it.

"Aaah!" With another roar, he sent thunderbolts lashing out in every direction.

But no matter how hard he pushed or how much energy he unleashed, Mjolnir would not advance an inch.

The gap between them was simply too great.

"Is that all you've got?" Thanos said evenly.

Then he drove forward with both hands.

Purple light blazed from Tyrant's Blade as he forced it against Mjolnir.

Thor was hurled backward by the overwhelming force.

Fortunately, Odin arrived just in time to catch him.

"Have you forgotten what I told you about rushing in without thinking?"

There was frustration in his voice, but affection too.

He truly didn't know what to do with his son.

Thor steadied himself and was about to argue. But when he saw the worry in his father's eye, he lowered his head in shame. "I know..."

Odin felt a measure of relief. Then he saw Mjolnir and said with a pang, "Go back. You'll only get in my way."

A huge crack ran across Mjolnir, nearly splitting it in two.

The sight deeply worried him.

Mjolnir had been forged from a cooled Fixed Star. It was a divine weapon only one tier below Gungnir, yet Thanos had nearly cleaved it in half with a single strike.

Thor shook his head harder and harder. "No. I'm going to avenge them!"

He raised Mjolnir, ready to fight on.

But when he noticed its condition, he froze.

How had the divine weapon that had been at his side for hundreds of years ended up like this?

"Go back, now—"

Odin had no time to comfort his son. Thanos was already charging toward them.

Thanos, meanwhile, could hardly believe what he was seeing.

Did this father and son think they were in a movie?

With an enemy right in front of them, they were still having a tender moment, as if he weren't even there.

He wasn't some movie villain kind enough to wait for them to finish talking before attacking.

The next instant—

Clang! The sound rang across the battlefield once more.

Tyrant's Blade and Gungnir, two supreme divine weapons, met for the first time.

Through that clash, Thanos and Odin each got their first clear sense of the other's strength.

An opponent just as strong as me.

Excitement stirred in Thanos.

After all his time in this world, he had finally met someone who could fight him on equal terms.

Odin, unlike Thanos, felt his heart grow heavy.

He knew this fight would not end quickly.

In the next instant, their weapons became a blur of strikes and parries.

Clang, clang, clang...

In just three seconds, they exchanged more than a hundred blows.

They moved so fast that no one else could follow them.

At last, Odin found an opening and forced Thanos back. Divine power surged through him, and Gungnir fired a mighty blast of energy.

Seeing this, Thanos channeled his destructive energy and slashed into the blast.

White and purple energy collided.

The force was so immense that hairline cracks appeared in the surrounding space.

Thor had been about to leave, but when he saw Thanos and his father locked in a stalemate, he turned back.

With Mjolnir all but ruined, he did not attack with it. Instead, he clenched his fists, unleashing a fierce burst of lightning.

Odin noticed what his son was doing and shouted in alarm.

"Thor! Don't!"

He knew Thanos, like himself, had yet to use his full strength. His foolish son could never catch him off guard.

But the warning came too late.

Thor had already closed to within a meter of Thanos's back. He raised his lightning-charged fists, ready to bring them down.

A faint smile touched Thanos's lips. In the next instant, he vanished.