DOTM: Chapter 388/389

Chapter 388: An Old Friend of the People of Asgard

Ethan was wearing the Gemini Gold Cloth (without the helmet), and the cape behind him fluttered with the fluctuations of his magic power, but none of that was the main point.

The main point was that the Kree warship had been directly blasted into pieces by Ethan's attack.

The Asgardian troops, who had been preparing to launch an attack, stopped their charge in unison, as if they had heard Thor's command again, and simultaneously focused their gaze on Ethan.

The Asgardians did not find it strange that Ethan made a move. An appropriate long-range attack could divert the enemy's attention and buy time for the soldiers preparing to charge onto the enemy's warship.

This was a very simple tactic, but no one expected this attack to be so brutal.

Turning the entire battlefield into a scene of outer space was nothing. It could be seen as a large-scale projection illusion or something similar. Since it was not real outer space, they did not need to worry about anything.

It was just that the subsequent attack was too terrifying. The energy shield on the Kree warship only lasted a few seconds before being completely destroyed, and then a powerful energy blast hit the massive Kree warship.

They all watched with their own eyes as a huge warship was repeatedly blasted into a pile of junk by energy impacts.

They should be thankful that this warship did not fly above Asgard's palace. Otherwise, this pile of junk falling down would likely cause a lot of friendly fire. Because of his absolute confidence in his own strength, Thor had not asked Heimdall to activate the protective shield.

"The power is a bit greater than expected."

Ethan maintained the stance of pushing his hands forward. He also had not expected this move to be so powerful after completion. Of course, this was also related to him using the Space Stone, having a nearly inexhaustible supply of energy as a backup, allowing him to release energy without restraint. But destroying the entire Kree warship along with the passengers inside with just one move still surprised him a little.

But thinking about it carefully, it was not strange. The Power Stone could destroy everything on the surface of an entire planet with one blow. As an Infinity Stone of the same level as the Power Stone, it was not strange for the Space Stone to have such power. It only meant that he had found a move that could perfectly unleash the destructive power of space energy.

In the original plot, Thanos also used the power of the Space Stone for direct attacks. After all, the destructive power generated by spatial rupture and destruction was no less than the energy released by the Power Stone.

He withdrew his hands, looked at the stunned people around him, and then asked a question that left several people speechless.

"There is so much space junk. Do you want me to help you deal with it?"

Thor had experienced the Gold Cloth and was learning to master the Power Stone, so he was not surprised that Ethan could destroy the enemy with one move. He just did not expect Ethan to use such a powerful move right from the start.

At the same time, he had not expected the full version of this move to be so powerful. Compared to the attack he endured back then, it could not even be compared to this one.

"If possible, it would be best to clean up all this junk directly."

Cleaning up so much space junk was quite troublesome. If Ethan could conveniently take care of it all, Thor certainly would not object.

For Ethan, this was really not a problem.

Compared to the Galaxy Explosion, he had spent more time researching the Dimensional Space move. Even without the Space Stone, he had almost completely mastered this move.

And with the Space Stone assisting him, he could release this move with a wave of his hand and could even accurately throw the target into any location in this universe or the gap between multiverses, without any possibility of error.

As Ethan raised his right hand, his right hand seemed to turn into a black hole, capable of sucking everything in.

Yet, everyone standing beside him was unaffected, because when this move was activated, it would also send the user and the target of the attack into a "different plane." Like the Galaxy Explosion, this could perfectly avoid friendly fire and also trap the opponent, leaving them nowhere to escape.

Although Thor and the others could see Ethan, in this state, Ethan was actually untouchable. To bystanders, it was like watching an extremely realistic holographic special effect.

They watched as Ethan's fingertips, like a black hole, continuously devoured this junk. The Kree warship's quality was really good. Although the entire warship had been blasted into pieces, many people were still alive.

Ethan had no intention of letting any of these people live. He directly mixed them with the countless pieces of junk and threw them all onto a nearby star.

If any of them could survive the high-temperature environment of a star, then Ethan would not specifically go to finish them off.

"It is a shame you are just Kree and not Kryptonians."

He did not think that these few Kree who had barely survived the Galaxy Explosion could survive on a star. Even if Ethan did not throw them directly into the star's interior, but just threw them out near the star, the temperature in that area was not something ordinary creatures could withstand. Basically, these people would be burned to ash by the terrifying high temperature the moment they were thrown out. Strictly speaking, not even ash would be left.

"Galaxy Explosion is said to be able to blast the target into an atomic state. From this point of view, my move is not yet complete."

Even if this move was not truly complete, it was terrifying enough. After clearing away the "junk," Ethan also stopped the Dimensional Space.

Looking at the area that had become as "clean" as it was before the Kree arrived, the Asgardian soldiers even wondered if the so-called Kree invaders had never existed at all. Was today actually just an exercise?

But if it was an exercise, they should at least be allowed to move and fight, right? What was this, being spectators the whole time?

Fortunately, the Asgardians' intelligence was normal. Everything that had just happened was definitely not an illusion created by magic. Everything that happened before was real, so the Asgardians began to celebrate another victory.

Although this victory had little to do with them. Even the only person who made a move was not an Asgardian.

However, Ethan was at least the most familiar old friend of the Asgardian people. He had come to Asgard many times, and many people knew that he had obtained the approval of All-Father Odin and could enter and leave Asgard freely, so he could be considered half an Asgardian compatriot.

Since he was one of their own, then they just needed to celebrate.

Ethan enjoyed being the center of attention for a moment. Even Hela was looking at Ethan with a very surprised expression.

For Hela, she initially did not take Ethan seriously. This person seemed to have some strength, but she had experienced countless battles back then and had killed countless so-called strong individuals, so not just anyone with some strength would gain her attention.

Until Ethan blasted the Kree warship into pieces with one move, and also used teleportation magic to send the remaining corpses and ship fragments to who knows where. According to what Ethan just said, this Kree junk had been thrown onto a nearby star by him.

Even if this man named Ethan only knew these two moves, Hela could no longer treat Ethan like an ordinary passerby as she did before.

Considering Ethan's friendship with Thor, she even began to ponder in her heart whether she had a chance of winning against Ethan.

The conclusion she reached annoyed her a bit. The moves Ethan had used before, when activated, would create an absolutely independent space, trapping the locked target within this space. This made escape almost impossible, and considering the space was not large, it made dodging very difficult.

The only way to deal with it was to endure it head-on. If you could withstand it, you could continue to fight. If you could not, you would be severely injured even if you did not die, so there was no need to consider what happened next.

The question was, could Hela withstand Ethan's Galaxy Explosion move?

She learned the name of this move from Ethan's conversation with Thor, and also learned that Ethan used the power of an Infinity Stone when activating this move.

Hela certainly knew what Infinity Stones were. She finally understood why this move, which clearly required an extremely vast amount of energy, seemed as if Ethan had done nothing after using it.

The Infinity Stone provided him with sufficient energy to use it. He could use this move to attack without restraint.

So Hela tragically realized that her previous plan of "since this move consumes a lot of energy, maybe there is a chance to turn the tables after enduring one move" had become a joke.

With Ethan's strength being so great, plus the support of his equally capable brother, even without considering Thor's own strength and the Power Stone he controlled, Hela found that she did not have the slightest chance of defeating Thor and reclaiming the throne of All-Father.

This was too despairing. She felt that she might as well have been kept imprisoned in the dimensional space by Odin. At least at that time she was full of hope, because she knew that Odin would not live much longer, and once Odin died, who could suppress her?

However, after coming out, she found that there were too many people who could suppress her, and even worse, one of them was her own brother, which meant that even if they competed in terms of lifespan, she could not outlive him.

What a despairing reality.

Hela began to consider simply leaving Asgard. She believed that with her strength, she could completely seize control of a certain planet. As long as she could resurrect all her former subordinates and take them with her, then it would not matter if her strength weakened after leaving Asgard.

At worst, after occupying a new planet, she could slowly transform it into a breeding ground for her power.

Her initial target was Midgard, which is Earth.

She had already thought of the reason: Midgard now completely disregarded the fact that Asgard was the ruler of Midgard, so it could be treated as a rebellion and be conquered.

(To be continued.)

Chapter 389: The Only Prisoner

Hela calculated her plan meticulously. As long as she took her time conquering Midgard and then used the excuse that the rebellion had never been completely quelled, she could secure a permanent station in Midgard, slowly recover her strength, and wait for the right opportunity to reclaim the throne of the God-King.

Even if she could not reclaim the throne, she could become a ruler in Midgard, managing her own territory. That would be much more comfortable than staying in Asgard and taking orders from her younger brother.

Just then, Ethan, who was standing to the side, suddenly let out a surprised "Huh?" Without any visible movement from the mage, a spatial rift suddenly appeared in front of him, and then something fell out, something he did not recognize.

"This is... an escape pod?"

Ethan did not recognize it, but Thor had some knowledge of the main equipment used by the more powerful civilizations in the universe. What Ethan had suddenly "summoned" was a Kree escape pod.

"Why bring this thing back?"

A Kree escape pod must have been launched from the warship that was just destroyed. It should have been thrown into the sun along with countless fragments. Could there be someone special hiding inside?

"This escape pod was not transferred to the sun by me. It happened to fall into a crack in an alternate dimension."

Falling into a dimensional crack was not necessarily luckier than being thrown directly into the sun and burned to death, because in that region where there was nothing, there were no other options besides waiting for death.

Ethan suddenly pulled the escape pod back because he realized there was an "acquaintance" inside. He had forgotten that Nebula, as Thanos's representative, had been acting alongside Ronan during this time. His previous attack, the Galaxy Burst, had indeed blasted Ronan into dust. Nebula, who he had not paid much attention to, was quick enough to successfully escape to a safe area during the time the shield held, and then got into the escape pod before the warship completely disintegrated.

However, even from the aftershock of the attack, she was not completely unscathed. But Nebula's physique was rather special. Such injuries would definitely be fatal for someone else, but she was an exception.

"Because this person is Thanos's daughter."

"What?"

Thor suddenly gripped the Stormbreaker in his hand and motioned for the surrounding soldiers to step back. Just hearing her identity was enough to know this was a dangerous enemy.

Just as he, being Odin's son, was powerful, Thanos's daughter must also be very powerful, and she should not be underestimated even if she was injured.

"No need to be nervous. She is just an adopted daughter... That guy Thanos often ruthlessly massacres various civilizations, but he also often takes some pitiable children back to adopt and puts in a lot of effort to train and educate them. However, the gap in talent is there. His daughters cannot become as powerful as him."

Thor nodded, but he still held his weapon tightly. Then he walked up and yanked the escape pod's hatch open.

Although Nebula inside was severely injured, she had not lost consciousness. She even heard Ethan's and Thor's conversation outside clearly. Having undergone countless modifications, her body was that of a special half-human, half-machine life form, with extremely strong damage tolerance. Even severe injuries did not affect her normal thinking.

She could even recover from general injuries automatically. Only injuries so severe that even her "parts" could not be found would cause her some trouble, but even then it would only take some time to "heal."

Thor glanced inside and understood the person's condition.

"Lock her up securely. Don't worry about her injuries. She's probably recovered quite a bit by now."

Nebula realized her plan to feign severe injury had not worked. She immediately rushed out, wanting to control this guy. She had already learned that this man was the Prince of Asgard, the first in line to the Asgardian throne, and the supreme commander on this battlefield. As long as she controlled him, she could use him as leverage to force the other side to let her go.

Unfortunately, she had chosen the wrong opponent.

As Thanos's adopted daughter, Nebula had undergone rigorous training and was not so ignorant as to not know what a powerful being was. But she absolutely had not expected that she was facing a powerful warrior who could directly confront Thanos.

The moment she darted out of the escape pod, Thor slammed her onto the ground with his axe.

Fortunately, Thor did not intend to kill her and used the flat side of the axe to strike. However, the lightning that erupted from it caused the half-mechanical Nebula some suffering, leaving her sprawled on the ground, unable to move.

The Asgardian soldiers standing by looked at the strange woman with eyes that said she was an idiot, and then skillfully locked her up.

"I thought there would not even be a single captive in this battle. This is an unexpected gain."

He had not come out this time just to watch the show. Although he had only knocked down a weak enemy with his axe, he had at least taken action, so it was not a wasted effort.

The cheerful Thor treated Nebula as an ordinary prisoner of war and then led his troops back to Asgard.

On the way back, Thor asked Ethan to return to Earth and notify his friends, especially Jane and the others. He wanted to invite Jane and Dr. Selvig to attend his coronation ceremony.

"That's no problem."

Not to mention those he had spent time with like Tony and Logan, even Steve received an invitation because they had gotten acquainted previously. Thor felt that since they had drunk together and could somewhat get along, inviting him was quite normal.

The two of them talked about ordinary things, nothing strange at all. But for Hela, who was standing nearby, this was truly terrible news.

This guy is actually a Midgardian?

How is that possible? How could a Midgardian be so powerful? Moreover, this man named Ethan clearly carried the aura of a divine race. Although not an Asgardian god, she would absolutely not mistake the unique aura of such a higher cosmic life form. This was definitely not an aura that a Midgardian could possess.

Question marks were practically overflowing in her mind. Fortunately, she had the identity of Thor's sister, so she could use this relationship with Thor to ask her questions and figure out what was really going on.

"Are you from Midgard... or what you call Earth?"

"Me?" Ethan did not expect Hela, who had mostly ignored him, to suddenly ask about his origin. As usual, he had no interest in hiding where he came from. "I'm not from Earth. In fact, I'm not from this universe."

"Not from this universe?"

Although Hela had fought alongside Odin for many years, she did not have a very detailed concept of the multiverse. However, she had once been imprisoned by Odin in another dimension, so she could infer something from that.

Furthermore, the concept of parallel universes was not new even on Earth. Higher civilizations in the universe had long had similar doctrines or theories. Hela quickly understood what Ethan meant.

Her somewhat depressed mood suddenly improved a little. Since he was not from this universe, perhaps he would not oppose her conquering Midgard. After all, he was good friends with Thor, so helping a good friend regain control over Midgard should be quite normal, right?

Hela even began to wonder if Ethan might become her helper.

What's the big deal about living on Earth? Isn't living in Asgard more comfortable than on Earth? From now on, just live in Asgard.

As for the other friends Thor mentioned, Hela completely disregarded them. Ordinary Midgardians were not worth her attention. As long as Ethan did not cause trouble, she was confident she could completely occupy this place.

After the troops returned to their barracks or posts, Thor ordered the soldiers to lock the only captive in a cell. After Nebula's figure disappeared, Ethan specifically reminded Thor a few things.

"Although this person is Thanos's adopted daughter, she has no affection for her adoptive father and even intends to kill him. You can make good use of this point and have Loki extract information about Thanos from her."

Asgard would face Thanos sooner or later. In fact, Asgard was likely to become the front line in the battle against Thanos.

Without dealing with Asgard, Thanos could not attack Earth. Ethan was not sure how territorial boundaries in the universe were defined and protected. He only knew that it was impossible for any force to attack Earth without going through Asgard.

This might not simply be due to its location. When Asgard was established, it likely used some special technology or magic to turn itself into the "gateway" to the Nine Realms.

Now the Mind Stone and Power Stone were in Asgard, and the Time Stone and Reality Stone were on Earth. If Thanos wanted to collect the Infinity Stones, he had to attack these two places.

Evasion was no longer possible. The only option was to face him head-on.

After obtaining Stormbreaker, Thor had sufficient confidence in his strength. However, he also knew that even if he was strong enough, not knowing anything about the enemy could easily lead to disadvantages or even defeat. So, even without Ethan's reminder, he was prepared to thoroughly investigate information about Thanos.

Of course, he was still full of confidence in his own strength. "I won't let Thanos pass through Asgard. Don't forget, besides the Power Stone and Stormbreaker, I can also use the Golden Cloth you newly crafted."

Thor showed the dog tag Ethan had given him. It was engraved with the pattern of Leo. He could use this dog tag to summon the Leo Golden Cloth.

Thor had tried it before. The Power Stone, Stormbreaker, his Thunder God power, and the Leo Golden Cloth could resonate perfectly, allowing his strength to be greatly enhanced.

Because the Golden Cloth greatly increased his tolerance for powerful energy, he could output his own power more wildly, or withstand higher intensity energy output from the Power Stone.

In that state, Thor could unleash various powerful moves without any reservations. It could be completely described as "Thor in that state even scared himself."

(To be continued.)