The War Ends

As The Ancient One's thoughts wandered, Thor suddenly opened his eyes on the bed.

"No! Ah!"

He shouted, and pain surged through his entire body.

Thanos's attack had been meant to kill him.

The Ancient One's spell had healed his external wounds, but the Destructive Power inside him was still tearing his body apart.

Hearing his cry, The Ancient One immediately withdrew from the Time Stone and said with concern, "Lie still. I can't remove that energy from your body. It will only fade with time."

Thor looked at her and asked anxiously, "Who are you? Where am I? Where is my father?"

The Ancient One shook her head. "I'm The Ancient One, guardian of Blue Star. As for Odin, I don't know."

At her words, fragments of memory came back to Thor.

His mother had saved him, then ordered Heimdall to send him to Blue Star.

No. I have to get back to Asgard and keep fighting.

He raised his right hand to summon Mjolnir.

As a divine weapon made with a Star Core, Mjolnir held a constant supply of energy that could help him clear the Destructive Power from his body.

But after a while, he still couldn't sense it.

Then he remembered. Thanos had shattered Mjolnir.

Without Mjolnir, I've lost more than half my fighting strength.

Shaking his head, he called out to Heimdall in his mind, asking him to bring him back.

No matter how many times he called, no answer came.

It wasn't that Heimdall was ignoring him. It felt as though there was no one there to answer.

It was like making a phone call.

There was a difference between a call going unanswered and being told the number didn't exist.

Could it be...

The thought that Heimdall might have died dimmed Thor's eyes and left his heart aching.

Seeing him sit there in a daze, The Ancient One asked, "What happened in Asgard? How were you wounded so badly?"

After a moment, Thor came back to himself and said, his face full of grief, "Enemies invaded. I was injured."

Then he looked up at the mysterious, powerful-looking bald sorcerer before him. "My father must still be fighting. Is there any way you can send me back?"

Heimdall might only be badly wounded and unable to answer. That didn't mean he was dead.

Until Thor saw his body, he refused to believe it.

The Ancient One shook her head. "I'm sorry. I can't."

She could teleport to any corner of the Milky Way, but she didn't know Asgard's coordinates.

The universe was constantly expanding and moving. Coordinates changed with it.

That was why Thanos had never been able to find the Milky Way before.

Its coordinates might be here today and somewhere entirely different tomorrow.

Teleporting within a Star System was manageable. She could use the current position of its Fixed Star to calculate the destination's distance and location, then open a Portal.

Teleporting between different Fixed Stars required knowing the position of the Black Hole at the Galaxy's center, the target Fixed Star's trajectory, and the orbit of its Planet.

That demanded immense computing power, the kind normally supplied by a supercomputer.

For all her extraordinary power, The Ancient One couldn't make those calculations herself.

And a Portal required extremely precise coordinates. Landing in the Vacuum of space would be bad enough; if she emerged inside a Fixed Star, she wouldn't survive it.

Thor lay back down, disappointment written across his face. As he felt the Destructive Power continue to eat away at him, despair and helplessness washed over him.

He didn't know what lay ahead for Asgard, or what had happened to his father.

The Ancient One could see that he was grieving, so she didn't press him with more questions.

In Asgard.

Hela led Thanos into Odin's Vault, where countless treasures awaited them.

The Casket of Ancient Winters, the Eternal Flame, the Dwarven Sacred Hammer, Hell's Claw, and more.

Most importantly, he saw the Infinity Gauntlet.

It was made entirely of gold, with mysterious lines and Runes across its surface. Six sockets were set on the back of the hand and around the finger joints.

They were meant to hold the Infinity Stones.

When he picked it up, the gauntlet slowly grew, as though adjusting to his hand.

He put it on, took out the Mind Stone, and placed it in the Infinity Gauntlet.

A surge of powerful energy burst from the gauntlet, locking the Mind Stone firmly in place.

Thanos felt his mental power expand enormously. Everything around him came into sharp focus.

Ants scurrying across the ground, dust drifting through the air, blood flowing through his body—his awareness reached down to the cellular level.

If he focused on a single point, he could even sense cells dividing and working.

But he knew this wasn't his own mental power. He had reached that level only through the Infinity Gauntlet and the Mind Stone, so he didn't lose himself in it.

He gave the other treasures one last glance, then left the vault without hesitation.

Too bad the events of Thor's third story haven't happened yet. Otherwise, I wouldn't even need to look for the Space Stone.

It should still be with S.H.I.E.L.D. on Blue Star.

By then, the war in space was nearly over.

However bravely Asgard's warriors fought, they couldn't overcome the gap in technology and strength.

Spaceships were destroyed one after another, and countless Asgardian warriors fell. Even the ordinary Asgardians knew they had lost.

Fire flared. With a thunderous BOOM, the last Spaceship bearing Asgard's emblem was destroyed.

Then Thanos's army began descending on Asgard Continent.

Countless landing pods fell from the sky and smashed into its cities.

Amid flames and corpses, Black Order troops poured from the pods and attacked the survivors.

That day, countless Asgardians died. The continent's lakes and rivers ran red.

Even the artificial sun overhead was extinguished, plunging the whole world into endless darkness.

But Laufey and his followers killed more ruthlessly than anyone.

Odin had oppressed the Frost Giants more harshly than any other people, and they hated the Asgardians for it.

That was why Laufey had joined Thanos without hesitation.

Anyone else would have treated an unfamiliar power with at least some caution, fearing they might be next once Asgard was destroyed.

But generations of hatred had driven such concerns from Laufey's mind.

When Loki returned, Laufey promptly led his entire people in pledging allegiance to Thanos.

Three days soon passed.

After three days of slaughter, only ten thousand remained of the Asgardians, who had once numbered over a hundred billion.

Every one of those ten thousand was a newborn infant.

Thanos had spared them for Hela's sake.

After all, he had only just brought Hela over to his side. Wiping out her entire people before her eyes would probably have been hard for her to bear.

Of course, he had another reason. He valued the Asgardians' powerful genes and had spared some infants to see whether they might be useful to him one day.

If he could add Asgardian genes to the Black Order and make its troops stronger, that would be a considerable gain.