Kent stepped forward and grasped Mjolnir, preparing himself to lift it with all his strength. Yet there was none of the heaviness he had expected—instead, it felt light as a feather.
As Kent raised the hammer, a powerful divine lightning energy surged from the handle through his right hand and flooded into his body.
The injuries he had suffered earlier—caused by forcibly absorbing energy and pushing his driver past its overload limit—were rapidly restored. Countless arcs of lightning leapt across his body.
Blue-violet lightning patterns appeared, coiling around the driver.
Kent felt the immense new power filling his body and couldn't help but feel a little surprised.
"Whoever is worthy to lift Mjolnir shall gain the godly power to command thunder," Thor recited aloud, his expression somewhat complicated.
At this moment, Loki's consciousness had also returned, and he activated the Destroyer.
What he saw was Kent holding aloft Mjolnir, his body wrapped in thunder and lightning.
"Damn you, Midgardian—how dare you, how dare you lift the hammer of Thor!" Loki roared.
He immediately controlled the Destroyer armor and fired its maximum-power annihilation beam straight at Kent.
Kent instinctively raised Mjolnir to block it.
The annihilation beam—capable of easily destroying anything—was stopped by Mjolnir. However, the portions of the beam that spilled and branched off after meeting resistance still swept through the surroundings, effortlessly annihilating everything in their path.
"Damn it!" Kent cursed when he saw this.
Although Mjolnir could block the Destroyer's beam, the energy would still scatter upon obstruction, causing catastrophic destruction to the surroundings.
After a brief moment of thought, Kent circulated the divine power within his body. A hurricane wrapped in lightning surged into Mjolnir as he hurled it toward the Destroyer's head.
The Destroyer's energy beam was simply too destructive. Even with his newly acquired lightning godly power, Kent felt helpless against it.
He sensed that if he were hit directly, even his own defenses would absolutely not withstand it.
So his plan was to use Mjolnir to block the Destroyer's beam at its source.
With a dull metallic crash, Mjolnir smashed heavily into the Destroyer's head, knocking it to the ground. The hammer pressed down on its head, preventing it from getting back up.
"Did it work?"
Although the Destroyer hadn't been completely stopped, it was at least restrained, unable to continue wreaking havoc.
But before anyone present could breathe a sigh of relief, the Destroyer's facial armor suddenly opened from both the front and back, forming a hollow passage. It stood up again, passing right through Mjolnir.
"It can even do that?!" Kent exclaimed in surprise.
Dan, watching this scene, looked thoughtful.
As expected—the Destroyer armor was Asgard's ultimate weapon, forged by Odin with immense effort and blessed by the ancient gods of Earth. It wasn't something that could be destroyed by a single blow from Mjolnir.
In the original events, Thor had disabled the Destroyer with one strike—there must have been another reason.
Was Odin secretly intervening?
"Loki, stop this," Thor said, stepping forward when he saw that even Mjolnir couldn't stop the Destroyer. He positioned himself directly in front of it.
"Your target is me alone. Don't harm innocents or cause wanton destruction."
A complex look flashed through Loki's eyes.
The Destroyer armor halted its steps and closed its faceplate.
"My brother," Loki said in a tone difficult to decipher, "you would go this far for a group of insignificant Midgardians… how foolish."
Loki remotely commanded the Destroyer to swing its arm, intending to knock Thor aside and continue attacking Kent.
But suddenly, Mjolnir flew up from behind, smashing the Destroyer away, trailing lightning as it returned to Thor's hand.
Thor once again raised Mjolnir. The seal on the God of Thunder's power was lifted, and dazzling lightning engulfed his body. When the light faded, Thor had returned to his true form—the armored God of Thunder of Asgard.
Since Kent had already obtained lightning godly power, Dan naturally released his suppression on Mjolnir.
Sensing Thor's resolve, Mjolnir immediately returned to him, helping him unseal his divine power.
"Wonderful—the invincible God of Thunder of Asgard has returned!" The Warriors Three and Sif cried out in excitement.
"Loki, I won't let you continue 'this madness," Thor declared. Swinging Mjolnir, he soared into the air and summoned a storm and thunderclouds that covered the sky above the entire town.
The Destroyer armor was swept up by the tempest. Mjolnir, carrying thunderous might capable of destroying all things, slammed down upon it.
The Destroyer armor was completely disabled, falling silent as it crashed into the distance amid flames and lightning.
"Damn it—why can't I control the Destroyer anymore?!" Loki shouted in fury from Asgard.
Dan stepped across space and appeared beside the fallen Destroyer armor, examining it with great interest.
Although it appeared that Thor's strike had destroyed the armor, its true core—the law runes—remained completely intact.
In other words, Thor's attack hadn't actually damaged the Destroyer at all.
The real reason the Destroyer had stopped was that Thor, using Mjolnir, had forcibly shut down its operational authority—essentially cutting off its power.
As Asgard's ultimate weapon, the Destroyer could only be fully controlled by the King of Asgard or the rightful heir.
Although Loki could command it using the Eternal Spear, his authority was limited—after all, he was only temporarily acting as regent and was not the true master of Gungnir.
Mjolnir, on the other hand, symbolized the identity of Asgard's heir.
In essence, Thor had used Mjolnir to shut down the Destroyer with a higher level of authority than Loki.
"You're interested in the Destroyer?" the Ancient One asked, appearing beside him.
"Given the chance, of course I want to study Asgard's Destroyer armor—especially the law runes left behind by the ancient gods," Dan replied with a nod.
"Thor, should we retrieve the Destroyer?" Sif asked, looking toward where it had fallen.
"Our top priority is returning to Asgard to stop Loki's plot," Thor shook his head. "The Destroyer is Asgard's ultimate weapon. I've completely shut it down—no one except King Odin can restart it.
There's no need to worry. Once Father awakens, he can reclaim it at any time."
"Agreed—we should return and stop Loki first," Volstagg nodded.
Thor went to Jane, and the two shared a tender farewell. Thor promised that once everything in Asgard was settled, he would return to see her. Then he turned and prepared to leave with the Warriors Three and Sif for Asgard.
Seeing their interaction, Sif frowned slightly, her expression displeased.
Volstagg sighed, sounding somewhat regretful. "Midgardians live less than a hundred years.
They're not on the same level of existence as the Asgardians.
Their relationship is doomed to have no good ending."
Hearing this, Sif's furrowed brow relaxed, and she nodded slightly.
...
Coulson noticed that Dan vanished the moment the Destroyer was disabled and immediately sensed something amiss. He ordered his agents to search for the fallen Destroyer armor.
Naturally, they found nothing.
...
Thor and the others returned to Asgard. To stop Loki from using the Bifrost to wipe out the Frost Giant race, Thor chose to destroy the Bifrost himself.
After his defeat and failing to gain Odin's approval, Loki stubbornly refused Thor's help. Unwilling to remain in Asgard, he threw himself into the spatial maelstrom, lost within the endless cosmos.
Later, Loki would be rescued by Thanos and would go on to lead the Chitauri in an invasion of Earth.
(End of Chapter)