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.)