"My son's hammer!"
In the palace of Asgard, Odin suddenly jolted awake from his slumber.
"Odin!"
Frigga, seeing Odin awaken so abruptly, was delighted at first. But after hearing his mutterings, she couldn't help growing anxious.
"What happened? What's going on with Thor?"
Odin's face was filled with uncertainty. "I can no longer sense the presence of Mjolnir."
He had placed the God-King's enchantment upon the hammer, a high-level magic that surpasses ordinary spells.
It had top priority.
No matter where it was, he could always sense Mjolnir's existence and, by calling to it, activate the hammer's power so it would swiftly return to him—wherever it might be.
Even if it was in a distant galaxy, it would just take a bit more time.
But now—
He had completely lost Mjolnir's signal.
"It seems…like it's left our world?"
Frigga's heart clenched. "Could Thor have encountered a powerful enemy on Midgard? By the heavens, we should bring him back immediately!"
"Thor is fine," Odin said, shaking his head. "I need to speak with Heimdall right away. I must know what happened to Midgard."
This was well beyond his control and completely outside his plans, which made Odin uneasy.
Midgard had always been Asgard's backyard.
Why would something like this happen?
Could it be the work of those sorcerers?
Were they trying to provoke a war between Midgard and Asgard?
No. They wouldn't dare, even if they had the nerve.
Just as Odin was about to contact Heimdall through their mental link—
His puzzled expression suddenly turned strange.
Frigga saw this and became even more nervous. "What is it now?"
"Mjolnir…has reappeared!"
"Isn't that good?"
"But there are three of them?"
Even Odin started to wonder if he was getting old and muddled. They all felt identical—same signal, same aura.
He couldn't tell which was real. Perhaps they were all fakes?
Suddenly, Odin looked out into the distance. "I'm going back to sleep. I'll talk about it when I wake."
And without waiting for Frigga to respond, he lay back down, straight as a board.
Serene and calm as ever, as though he had never awakened.
Frigga, realizing the situation, quickly composed herself and resumed her posture of sorrow from before.
A short while later—
Loki hurried in, glanced at the still-sorrowful Frigga, then at Odin, who remained unconscious, and felt a flash of joy in his heart. Yet his face showed confusion.
"Mother, how is Father? There's something weird going on in Midgard!"
…
"Out of the way! We're friends of Mr. Aaron!"
"Keep your filthy hands at least one meter away from us. Jane and Darcy are both Mr. Aaron's women!"
"That's right. Now hand over all of our research data, or I'll have you all thrown out!"
From outside the door came Erik's brusque shout. Soon, he appeared, bringing along a flustered Jane and Darcy, all under the "protective escort" of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents.
At this moment—
"My hammer! My Mjolnir! Where is she?"
Thor looked around left and right, then circled around Aaron and even leaned down to inspect him.
After making sure there was no place on Aaron's person to hide a hammer, he was ready to start a fight again.
"Thor, I forgot to mention something."
"What?"
Aaron beckoned, making a sweeping motion in midair.
"I have another divine name. You can call me…'River God.'"
All of a sudden, bubbles of water began rising from the ground. The seemingly dry earth acted as though a hidden spring lay beneath it, continuously gushing water. In no time, it covered the entire area.
With his palm facing downward, Aaron waved his hand, and three flashes of light leapt out of the water. One glowed gold, one glowed silver, and the last looked perfectly ordinary.
"Which do you want? The golden hammer? The silver hammer? Or this plain, ordinary 'Meow-Meow Hammer?'"
Thor was bewildered, staring at the three hammers floating in midair—held up by an invisible force. Instinctively, he wanted to choose the plain one, but the gold and silver hammers seemed almost sentient, nodding at him and wiggling as if to say, Come on, big guy, pick me! I'm your beloved Meow-Meow Hammer!
Thor hesitated, glancing again at the gold and silver hammers. In his memory, Mjolnir had always been that clingy. If Mjolnir were here, it would definitely act like that. Could it be that these two were his true love?
Seeing Thor pause, the plain hammer shrank back, turning its face away so that only the back of its head was showing—like it was giving Thor a cold shoulder.
"Aha! So that plain hammer isn't my Meow-Meow Hammer!" Thor exclaimed. "I can't believe you even painted them. You almost fooled me! Haha!"
In Thor's recollection, his Mjolnir was never like some sulking wife. It had always been his loyal little hammer, answering his every need.
"So I definitely won't pick that one."
Seeing how eager the other two hammers were, Thor, now full of bravado, grew cocky.
"Then, whoever can help me reawaken my powers as the God of Thunder—help me once again become the true God of Thunder—is my Mjolnir!"
Both the gold and silver hammers flew straight to him. Delighted, Thor held out both hands, simultaneously grabbing them. In that instant, he sensed a familiar presence from each hammer.
It was the power of thunder—his power.
But for some reason, they both felt a bit "off."
"Did you cast some duplication spell? They both…feel like my little hammer?"
Confused, Thor gave them a swing, sparking crackling lightning.
"But I'm certain that plain, ordinary hammer is definitely not my beloved Meow-Meow Hammer!"
Hearing that, the real Mjolnir zoomed straight into Aaron's hand. Aaron wore a somewhat perplexed expression, watching Thor, who seemed so pleased with his two hammers.
Oh boy—so this is what the God of Thunder is really like? Two hammers at once, right? Publicly cheating in front of the real Mjolnir, aren't we?
You can't recognize the true Mjolnir, fine. But not only are you rejecting it in front of its face, you're lavishing affection on these other hammers instead?
"In that case, Mjolnir's mine, then?" Aaron asked.
Thor, waving his hammers proudly, said, "That's not my Mjolnir to begin with. You want it? Take it! I have two now!"
"But which one's the real Mjolnir?" he murmured, still puzzled.
Aaron gave a slight grin.
After refining Mjolnir in his "Primordial Furnace," he could extract its traits. At the same time, he could forge Mjolnir at will. This particular Mjolnir in his hand was a perfect duplicate, completely identical to the original—even its curses were reproduced. Thor still couldn't lift it, but Aaron could wield it freely. By gaining the power "in the name of the All-Father," he could alter the hammer's enchantment and grant that thunder power to anyone he deemed worthy!
As for Thor's two hammers, though they possessed thunder power, could fly, and even showed some sentience, they contained only a small amount of Uru metal—most of their mass was gold or silver. Their thunder power was weaker, and combined they still weren't a match for the true Mjolnir. Due to the inferior materials, they were basically "glass cannons," ready to shatter at the slightest real impact. But Thor, still not fully aware of his own strength at this stage, wouldn't have noticed such flaws in the hammers. (He did sense a small hint of something off but paid it no mind.)
He had regained a somewhat weaker version of his thunder powers—enough to believe he was back to being the God of Thunder. For everyday play, it might work; but at a crucial moment…heh.
Aaron was excited to see how Thor would react if he realized which one was the real Mjolnir. But now—
"Meow-Meow Hammer, from now on, I'll be your one and only, true master, all right?"
Mjolnir dutifully nodded in response. It even trembled a little in excitement.
It hadn't noticed its own changes when it was refined in the Primordial Furnace, but it had felt fear! Originally, Mjolnir didn't know fear; it would charge into any battle regardless of the enemy, even at risk of being shattered. But in front of that Furnace and Aaron, it was terrified.
Seeing this, Thor burst out laughing. "Haha! Your hammer is actually afraid! My Mjolnirs would never be scared. They're the best! I love them so much!"
Thor tapped his two hammers together with a crisp clang, lightning crackling between them. Amid the brilliant flashes, Thor didn't notice how the point of impact between the gold and silver hammers had slightly deformed.
"That sound is as clear as ever!" he said. "Didn't you want to see me try them out? Let's have some fun!"
With a hammer in each hand, his confidence soared. He did notice something about the clang sounded a bit off, but paid no real attention.
Coulson and the others were all dumbfounded.
Three hammers? Lightning? The foolhardy Thor suddenly wielding thunder? And Aaron—a "River God?"
What on earth was going on here?
All they knew was that Aaron was the president of the Osborn Group, a billionaire outperforming even Tony Stark these days. Maybe a "Superman"? But now he's calling himself a River God?
Aaron ignored their confusion. Just as he was about to say something to Thor, his expression changed. He looked off to one side, where there was nobody. But his gaze seemed to pierce layers of barriers, as if seeing the perimeter of their temporary base.
"As for the fighting, we can do that later," he said. "I need to deal with something first. You can wait here or get my driver to take you to town. Just give me a moment—I'm off to buy some oranges."
With that, Aaron vanished in a gust of wind.
"Where'd he go?" Coulson and the others looked around in bewilderment, seeing only a hanging tarp swaying to the ground in the distance.
Thor's eyes widened as he muttered, "Could he be a God of Speed, too?"
Meanwhile—
Outside the base—
Aaron suddenly appeared in an open area as though he had teleported.
"Loki, you're just going to stay out here watching? Not coming in to play?"
From what looked like an empty patch of ground, a figure shimmered into view.
"A mortal of Midgard…you can see through my magic?"
Loki's eyes were wide with astonishment.
"Magic? Is that supposed to be impressive?" Aaron snorted. And in the next instant, he vanished.
Loki blinked in surprise, his face becoming wary. "Gone? Or…invisible?"
"Hmph! Trying such cheap tricks on the King of Asgard—pathetic!"
Raising his hand, Loki cast a revealing spell. The principle was to disrupt the light in the vicinity, easily dispelling invisibility. Yet—
"What?!"
"Still nothing?"
He looked around, seeing no trace of Aaron.
"That's all you've got?"
Aaron's voice suddenly came from behind. Startled, Loki whirled around, realizing Aaron had reappeared. Faced with this situation, Loki half wanted to flee—clearly, this Midgardian was no pushover.
Still putting on airs, Loki scoffed, "…I knew you were behind me the whole time. I just didn't bother exposing your little trick!"
"Mortal, you should remember: you stand before Loki, the greatest sorcerer across the Nine Realms—the rightful ruler of them all!"
Aaron waved dismissively. "You can tell that to someone else. They might not know better. But if you bump into a certain yellow-cloaked, bald sorcerer, you might want to keep quiet."
Indeed, Loki's invisibility magic was decent. But to Aaron's eyes, it had obvious flaws. Sure, you can hide yourself visually, but what about your heat signature, movement through the air, subtle body scents, vibrations in the ground, and so on? Loki couldn't mask all of those.
Aaron never underestimates magic, but that didn't mean Loki, as he was now, posed any real threat. Loki did have great magical potential; he just never fully devoted himself to it. If only he gave up those big ambitions and trained seriously, he might really become the greatest sorcerer in the Nine Realms. But as things stood…sorry, not happening.
Loki was about to speak, but Aaron cut him off. "Loki, how about we make a deal?"
"Why would the King of Asgard make a deal with you?" Loki retorted, still sounding defiant.
In the next instant, Aaron appeared in front of him and landed a solid punch, shattering Loki into fragments.
"I told you—don't show off magic in front of me. It doesn't work on me."
Aaron's gaze moved elsewhere. Suddenly, fierce winds rose all around them, lightning roared in the sky, and his overwhelming presence was fully unveiled. Loki reappeared, his real body's face twisted into discomfort. He felt locked on by some invisible force—if he tried to run, he'd be instantly struck by lightning.
Damn it, why is this Midgardian so strong? Even illusions are useless to him. Must be because I was careless?
All these thoughts zipped through Loki's mind, but he changed his attitude without hesitation, forcing a grin like the brazen trickster he was. With a wave of his hand, he cast a spell that blocked out external sight and sound—one that could even fool Heimdall for a short while.
"Esteemed and mighty god of Midgard, greetings. I am Loki, Prince of Asgard, grand sorcerer, and the current acting King of Asgard. The true King is secretly observing me—so you see, I mustn't tarnish Asgard's prestige."
"Forgive me for speaking so loudly just now. That was my fault."
Indeed, Loki was just like Thor—when things went south, he'd adapt quickly.
"So…what sort of deal did you have in mind? As long as it's nothing disastrous, I can make the decision myself."
Aaron nodded in satisfaction. Smart people who fear force are easier to handle once you put them in their place.
"Isn't it better to talk peacefully? I'd rather not use violence."
He patted Loki on the shoulder, causing Loki to stagger under the immense pressure. This power is terrifying. He's more monstrous than Thor! How did Midgard produce such a fearsome figure? Some mutant gene?
"My request is very simple. You know Asgard's treasure vault, don't you?"
Loki's face changed color at once. "That's absolutely out of the—"
"It's definitely possible."
"It's not possible at all!"
"I say it is!"
Aaron still wore a kindly smile as he kept his hand on Loki's shoulder, though his eyes carried a lethal threat. A massive energy was building up; the temperature around them soared by hundreds of degrees in an instant.
Loki felt hot and horribly uneasy, sensing death looming over him.
And crucially, this was his real body—and he couldn't escape Aaron's gaze. If I'd known, I would've just sent a mere illusion here!
I haven't been cautious enough…
Forcing a smile, Loki said, "Well, I suppose…maybe it isn't entirely impossible?"
"I want Thor's two hammers. Are they mine if I help you?"
Aaron raised the real Mjolnir. "What about this one?"
Loki glanced at it in disdain. "No, I just want the gold and silver ones!"
He did actually love Mjolnir. Watching Thor become the center of attention wielding it made Loki want to take his place. He had tried to lift it but failed. His desire remained. But seeing even Thor so enamored with those two sparkling hammers…why bother with that 'ordinary-looking' hammer?
What use was that plain one, anyway?
~~~
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