Mother and Daughter Meet

To talk about Hela's hatred for Odin was to speak of something endless.

Fighting through fire and blood for him in her youth was one thing, because as a daughter, it was only natural to battle for her father's cause.

Later, when her Witch Bloodline awakened and Odin grew hostile toward her, Hela held no grudge.

After all, for the sake of the bloodline purity of the Asgardian Royal Family, she understood.

Yet Odin should never, ever have dispatched the Valkyries to encircle and suppress her.

She knew that back during the conquest of the Milky Way, the Valkyries were the first realm among the Nine Realms that she had subdued.

Ever since then, she had led the Valkyries to conquer the Milky Way, fighting shoulder to shoulder countless times and building a profound bond.

Yet Odin had chosen precisely to send the Valkyries to besiege her, forcing her to personally slaughter her own subordinates, some of whom shared exceptionally close ties with her.

This drove her hatred for Odin to the absolute limit.

The next instant.

With a crisp clang, a sound rang out.

The Black Sword shot out by Hela was casually struck and snapped in half by a wave of Odin's hand.

No matter how immense the hatred, it could not bridge the gap in strength between them.

Although both father and daughter were Skyfather-level, one was at the early stage of the Skyfather realm while the other was at the late stage. Separated by two minor tiers, she was simply no match for him.

With an ugly expression, Odin glared at his daughter and said coldly, "What do you think you're doing!"

For his own daughter to actually dare raise a hand against him—she had truly turned the heavens upside down.

Sparing her life back then and letting her live was already done entirely for Frigga's sake.

Hela did not speak. Instead, she conjured two longswords in her hands and charged straight at him.

In the fraction of a second that followed, a continuous, unbroken chorus of clashing steel rang out.

The surrounding ground was carved into countless deep fissures by the aura leaking from the two of them.

After a short while, impatience began to gradually grow in Odin's heart.

Yet the moment he thought of Thanos, he could only forcefully suppress the raging fire in his chest and allow Hela to press her attack.

After all, anyone sealed away in the Underworld for a thousand years would harbor anger.

Yet after an hour passed, Hela continued attacking endlessly as if she felt no fatigue.

What was more, it was an entirely reckless assault with zero defense.

Ultimately, Odin's patience ran dry as well.

After blocking Hela's attack with Gungnir in his hand, a sweeping arc of the spear's butt knocked her flat onto the ground.

"Had enough yet!"

With that, seeing that Hela still intended to stand back up, he pinned her down with Gungnir pressed against her body.

"If you attack again, don't blame me for being impolite!"

Seeing this, Hela finally accepted her reality, lay flat on the ground, and asked weakly, "What do you want with me?"

Upon seeing this, Odin also softened his tone and said indifferently, "I told you, as long as you obediently follow my commands, I will let you return to Asgard."

Although Hela's strength fell short of his, Frigga had bound Asgard's energy core to Hela back then to secure her survival, granting her an almost inexhaustible supply of energy.

Therefore, as long as Hela was allowed to return to Asgard, she would recover her strength rapidly and even surpass her previous peak.

This was also the reason why he had repeatedly exercised restraint.

As long as Hela helped him tie down Thanos, he would have the luxury of unleashing his strongest trump card, the Eternal Strike.

Hearing this, Hela immediately wore a mocking smile.

Ha... It seems you must have run into a formidable opponent, otherwise you would never have come looking for me.

Odin nodded and said indifferently, "I have indeed encountered an extremely tricky opponent, though you aren't strictly indispensable—I am merely offering you a chance."

If Hela truly refused to cooperate, he would simply have to swallow his pride and seek assistance from the Council of Gods.

Only, those greedy gods would likely demand a heavy price from him.

Upon hearing these words, Hela stopped sneering and instead grew calm.

After a moment, she gave an indifferent nod and said, "Fine, but I want the Eternal Flame."

During her thousand years in the Underworld, she had converted all of her magical and divine power into Death Power, gaining a brand-new understanding of the Eternal Flame.

Thus, she now wished to use the Eternal Flame to resurrect her former subordinates.

Hearing this, Odin nodded without hesitation and said, "No problem."

Important though the Eternal Flame was, to him it was merely a flame meant for viewing.

After all, that object was only ever useful to the Fire Giant, Surtur.

Perhaps a witch could borrow the power of the Eternal Flame, but up until now, he had never seen anyone actually do so.

With the agreement reached, Odin quickly undid the seal and brought Hela back to Asgard.

Right now in Asgard, people panicked.

Everyone looked up at the sky.

They saw that in space, densely packed with tens of thousands of spaceships, lasers were constantly firing to attack the protective shield of Asgard.

One of the energy attacks was even more immense, bringing wave after wave of tremors to the protective shield.

However, as Asgard, which had stood for thousands of years, its energy was unimaginably vast, and up to now, no situation of insufficient energy had occurred.

Inside the Bifrost.

When Hela passed through the portal and her feet stepped onto the soil of Asgard, the core energy of Asgard instantly began to surge toward her.

Very quickly, the energy consumed in the Underworld was replenished in an instant.

However, what was inside her body at this time was Death Power, so this energy still needed to be slowly converted.

"You recover your energy first, get familiar with the environment, and I'll go out for a bit."

Leaving behind those words, Odin vanished from the spot.

Since Hela agreed to help him, there was no fear of the other party going back on her word.

Because he knew his daughter's character; she would not do things that went back on her promises.

Hela had no objections either, simply staying in place and starting to absorb the energy of Asgard.

A moment later, a familiar voice suddenly sounded behind her.

"Hela... Is it you... Sob, sob..."

Hearing the voice, Hela's body instantly stiffened.

"Is it really you... Do you know how much I missed you... Sob, sob... It was my fault for failing to protect you... Sob, sob..."

Hearing the other party's crying, Hela felt a wave of distress in her heart, causing even her icy heart to involuntarily melt.

If there was still anyone in this world she cared about, it was definitely her mother, Frigga.

Back then, when Odin wanted to banish her, only Frigga exhausted everything just to protect her.

All of her subordinates, comrades, and admirers had betrayed her completely.

"I failed you... I failed you..."

Along with sounds of self-reproach, Hela felt someone hugging her from behind.

She could no longer maintain her icy heart, turning around to embrace the other party.

"Mother, it's me. I'm back..."

Hearing her daughter's voice, Frigga shook all over, speaking somewhat disbelievingly: "Is it really you? You're back!"

Originally she was still recovering her magic in her own bedroom, but upon sensing Hela's aura, she immediately teleported over.

In fact, she had initially thought it was just an illusion, but she hadn't expected it to actually be real.

Soon, the mother and daughter hugged together and then began to recount their longing for each other.