Hela's Heartbreak

Odin watched Thanos in the distance, on guard as he pondered his future.

Suddenly, a powerful surge of energy rose from Asgard Continent and flowed into Hela's remains.

The next moment, golden flames sprang from the bones of Hela, whom Odin had thought dead.

Recognizing the flames, Odin said in surprise, "Is that... the Eternal Flame?"

Yes. What burned before him was the Eternal Flame.

As it burned, Hela's organs slowly re-formed. Then the flames spread over her entire body.

Tendons, flesh, and skin followed, gradually taking shape.

A moment later, Hela stood before them again, completely naked.

When her long, glossy black hair appeared, she opened her eyes.

In the next instant, a skintight black outfit covered her body.

"Hah... hah..." She let out a few soft breaths, shaken by how close she had come to death.

If she had not still been near Asgard Continent, and if her thousand years of training in the Underworld had not taught her how to use the Eternal Flame, she would have been dead beyond saving.

But she had no time to feel relieved. She turned and sent black daggers flying at Odin one after another.

Odin had already been on guard against Hela. He raised Gungnir at once and blocked her attack.

"What are you doing? This is no time to fight among ourselves!"

Hela ignored him and kept attacking.

After all, he had nearly gotten her killed.

And he was her own father. How could she not hate him?

In the distance, Thanos smiled faintly at the sight of father and daughter attacking each other. He made no move to intervene.

Instead, he turned toward the Asgardian warships still struggling to resist and swung his blade a few times.

Purple Destructive Power followed its edge and struck the warships.

As easily as slicing tofu, it destroyed one ship after another.

Odin, still fending off Hela, saw this and grew anxious. "Enough! Don't force me to fight back!"

That strange cannon blast had destroyed at least three thousand Spaceships.

His forces were already at a disadvantage. If Thanos destroyed a few more of the surviving large Spaceships, there would be no point in continuing the war.

They might as well flee.

"Die!"

But Hela no longer cared about losing the war or Asgard's future.

Hatred had overwhelmed her. She intended to settle both old scores and new.

A short while later, as Odin watched several of his large Spaceships fall, his last shred of patience vanished.

He flashed forward and appeared before Hela, thrusting Gungnir viciously at her.

Hela seemed to have given up. She let Gungnir pierce her body without resisting.

"Cough..." Blood spilled from her mouth.

She looked at Odin without crying or smiling. Her expression was calm.

She looked at him as she would a stranger.

It was not worth it.

The Human World was not worth staying in.

She found herself longing for life in the Underworld.

It had been dull, but at least she had held on to a sliver of hope.

She had hoped that one day Odin would recognize his mistake and let her return.

That was why she had agreed to help him, even knowing he faced an immensely powerful enemy.

Now all her hope was gone.

Only disappointment and endless despair remained.

Her feelings for Odin had always been complicated.

It would be a lie to say she had never loved him.

He had been good to her when she was little. Once her extraordinary talent emerged, he had even begun to groom her as his successor.

She had pushed herself twice as hard so she would not let him down.

She had wanted to make her father proud.

Even when her Witch Bloodline awakened and Odin sealed her away—after forcing her to slaughter her own troops—she had never felt such despair.

That was why she had not resisted his spear.

Her spirit was broken.

"Hela!"

Frigga had only just recovered from the Antimatter Cannon's blast when she saw Odin stab their daughter.

She cried out and rushed toward them.

"Odin! What are you doing?"

As she flew, her hands moved without pause. A soft white light appeared and entered Hela's body, healing her wounds.

Odin pulled out Gungnir. Ignoring his wife and daughter, he turned toward Thanos in the distance.

Thanos was looking at him with open mockery, and Odin's anger burned hotter.

"Thanos! Die!"

With a roar, golden light flashed around him again, and he charged.

In the grip of that rage, he felt his strength break through to a new level.

His power had grown, and he moved faster too.

Soon he had Thanos on the defensive.

He feinted with Gungnir, then drove it forward from an unexpected angle.

Thud.

Hot blood spattered across him, some of it flying into his eyes.

The scene before him shifted.

When his vision cleared, he saw something he could not believe.

Gungnir had not pierced Thanos's chest. It was buried in the chest of his beloved Frigga.

He saw the disbelief in her eyes as their light began to fade. His heart seemed to stop.

She had grown old and frail in recent years, and her beauty had faded.

But he still loved Frigga.

That was why he had never married another woman in all those years. At most, he had dallied with others.

And even then, he had never fathered a child with them.

Otherwise, he would have had thousands upon thousands of descendants. He would not have had to work so hard to put Thor on the throne.

Even when Frigga had taken it upon herself to bind Asgard's energy source to Hela, he had not cast her aside.

There was so much more.

Time and again, he had indulged Frigga's willfulness.

It was not because of the Contract they had signed. Deep down, he truly loved the little witch who had once followed him around with tears in her eyes.

Yet now he had killed the woman he loved most with his own hands.

How could he accept it?

At that moment, Hela's eyes turned red and her face twisted with fury.

"Odin! Die!"

A tremendous surge of Death Power erupted from her body.

In the distance, Thanos put away the Mind Stone with a cold smile.

Without his Helmet to protect him, what could Odin do against the Mind Stone?

He had even dared to look Thanos in the eye without a care. He must have had a death wish.