C 115
–Interlude–
"We are approaching Asgard now, Father. News of the Allfathers death has spread far and wide. Without him, they should be easy to defeat." Ebony Maw, one of the children of Thanos, said to his father.
Thanos sat back on his throne and grinned at the sight before him.
Asgard… The only realm to have ever truly defeated him. Thanos would admit that even now, he still had some trepidation to attack them. The mighty Odin had completely devastated his armies over 1000 years ago and it took Thanos hundreds of years to rebuild.
That's why Thanos was leading the current invasion himself and he had recalled all of his children to assist him. He was expecting a tough battle even if Odin was dead. He knew the golden realm would never willingly hand over the Tesseract.
"Bring up Asgard on screen." Thanos commanded.
"Right away, Father." Ebony Maw replied as he hit a few buttons on a nearby console. A large holographic screen appeared in front of Thanos and he took a proper look at Asgard.
"What…" Thanos said speechlessly.
"What the hell happened there? Is that a…giant sword?" Thanos's favorite daughter–Gamora–asked nearby.
Thanos wanted to know what had occurred on Asgard as well. His capital ship drew closer to the realm, and as it did so, he could see that the once mighty Asgard looked absolutely devastated. The golden city was in ruins and the upper half of the famous palace was missing. It looked like it had been blown off from the inside!
"I don't think we're going to be getting the tough fight we were expecting." Gamora said with a shrug. "What a shame." She said with some sarcasm.
"What about the stone?" Thanos said. "Ebony, scan the city! Is the Tesseract on Asgard or did whoever did all this damage take it?"
Ebony started pressing more buttons and their ship began to scan all of Asgard for the signature of the Tesseract. If it was here, they would find it. The readings came up empty…
"It's not just the Tesseract, Father. All of Asgard is lifeless as well. Only a single being is alive in the entire city down there" Ebony said as he pointed towards Asgard. "The life sign is coming from the end of the rainbow bridge."
Thanos gripped his throne in anger. His stronger-than-vibranium armrests warped under his angry grip. "Someone beat us here and took what should have been rightfully mine!" Thanos said angrily. Thanos raged inside! Someone had stolen his infinity stone!
"What do you want us to do now?" Ebony asked. Gamora was looking at him curiously as well.
"We will retrieve the lone survivor and question them. For now though, we shall head towards Terra. Two of my infinity stones are there, and without Asgard to defend them, they should be easy enough to retrieve.
…
"Raaaaaaagghhhh! Damn them!!! They ruined everything! Thousands of years of planning is all for nothing now!"
A shout filled with rage and hatred awoke Hela from her slumber. She jumped to her feet combat ready with two swords immediately in her hands. She scanned the strange room she'd found herself in. She wasn't alone.
The angry shout had come from a large purple giant that sat upon a dark metallic throne. There were various other races different from the purple giant as well in the room. Hela could recognize that she was in a ship of some kind.
The others in the room noticed that she was awake. A woman with green skin drew a sword and pointed it at Hela. "Lower your weapons Asgardian. We have questions for you."
"And who are you to question me? Hela asked haughtily. "I am Hela the Goddess of Death and Queen of Asgard!"
"And our glorious father is the Great Thanos. Conqueror and Savior of thousands of worlds!" Another alien spoke to Hela. She considered him to be one of the ugliest creatures she had ever laid eyes on.
"And what does the glorious Thanos want with me?" Hela asked sarcastically as she turned towards the purple giant who was now eyeing her as well.
"I want to know what happened to the Infinity Stones. And where is Planet Terra? It's supposed to be at these coordinates, but the entire planet is gone!" Thanos said angrily.
Hela was confused at the current situation she found herself in, but still responded. "I know not of why you seek the infinity stones, nor where they are. I only knew of the Tesseract and that was recently stolen from me by…Layla of the Fallen." Hela said bitterly.
Thanos's eyes narrowed. "And who exactly is Layla of the Fallen?"
Hela scowled. "She's an invader from another dimension that came to Asgard and ruined everything for me! She destroyed my glorious city and massacred my undead legion!"
"Another dimension?" Thanos asked. "Tell me more…"
XXX
--------------------------------------------------
Read 10+ chapters in advance over on my Pat.reon.
Pat.reon.com/StarWaves (Remove the first .)