Seeing his eldest son Thor after so long, the goddess Frigga, who had just gone through mortal danger, rushed into Thor's arms like a homing pigeon.
"Thor! You are back?"
———
Corin was depressed.
Because he suddenly remembered that Thor's trip back had probably smashed the Rainbow Bridge to pieces.
You had to know, without the Rainbow Bridge, Corin's wish to go to Asgard would not be possible for quite a while.
That made Corin very unhappy.
"Right! The Destroyer!"
Corin suddenly remembered that the Destroyer was also an Asgardian specialty.
If he could trade that in, would it not be worth way more than a little medal?
So he did it without hesitation.
Corin turned into a streak of light and flew toward the small town.
———
The sky gradually darkened, the sunset slowly leaning toward the mountains.
Under S.H.I.E.L.D.'s guidance, the townspeople were orderly restoring their daily life.
Corin found the huge crater where the Destroyer had fallen after being defeated by Thor.
Good lord, no wonder it was made by heavy metal smashing down from high altitude. It was almost twice as big as the crater made by Thor's hammer.
Corin stood at the edge of the crater and looked down.
"No way!"
As if he could not believe his eyes, Corin lightly jumped into the center of the crater.
There really was a human shaped deep pit in the ground, but the Destroyer was nowhere to be seen.
"Did this thing just disappear on its own after being defeated?"
Corin searched carefully inside the crater, but still could not find the Destroyer's armor.
Just when the idea of exchanging the Destroyer's armor for money was about to be snuffed out, his foot felt something hard.
"Hm?"
Corin quickly crouched down and dug around, his hands clawing at the ground like a gopher digging a hole.
At last he found a strip of metal.
"So it broke apart?"
Looking at the round, shiny piece of metal in his hand, Corin suddenly understood.
'Heh! Heh! As long as it did not vanish completely, that is enough.'
"Appraise!"
[Destroyer armor fragment -> Appraised value: 200 million US dollars]
Corin's eyes lit up, "Jackpot, jackpot. I am rich this time."
One thin fragment was worth 200 million. If he collected all the armor fragments...
Corin could not even imagine how much profit he would get once all of them were exchanged.
"This is way more efficient than mining."
So he turned into a desert gopher, humming a tune as he started digging for treasure.
.
.
.
Ten minutes later—
Looking at the pitiful few metal fragments in front of him, Corin felt like he had forgotten something.
There were too many Destroyer fragments, and their kinetic energy was too great. They had been driven deep into the soft sand, who knew how far down.
That gave Corin trouble when he was trying to dig them out by hand.
"Damn it. I knew it."
The price of the fragments had made Corin forget a much more efficient way to collect them. He could just use magnetism control to pull all the metal fragments out at once.
But he had completely forgotten.
Corin slapped his thigh.
"So useless. I saw some money and forgot all about magnetism control."
Thinking of that, Corin raised both hands, cranking magnetism control to the max.
Strips of metal shot out of the sand around him, whizzing through the air and gathering densely in front of him.
Corin tried to fuse all the metal together, but their special material meant he could not change their shape at all.
'Forget it.'
After all, these were things from the realm of gods. Their hardness was nothing like ordinary Earth metals.
No point wasting time. Making money was what mattered.
After repeatedly confirming that he had not missed a single fragment, it was time for the most exciting part.
"Exchange!"
[Exchange successful! +20 billion US dollars. Account balance: 29.298 billion dollars]
"Awesome!"
Looking at the more than 20 billion dollars in his account, Corin shouted in his heart.
Sure enough, when it came to value, nothing beat off world stuff.
Bare chested, Corin did not rush to leave. He sat on the ground, enjoying the slightly cool dusk breeze.
Like a newly rich tycoon, he planned to immediately upgrade his talents.
After all, it had been quite a while since he last upgraded anything.
"System, sorry to keep you waiting."
———
[Asgard]
The way Frigga looked at Thor made Loki, who was standing there in shock, feel that familiar bitterness again.
'The one who turned the tide was clearly me. So why is Mother still so warm to Thor? What was the point of everything I did...'
At the same time, seeing Thor's unfriendly gaze fixed on him, Loki felt a trace of unease and unconsciously took a step back.
Thor's eyes never left Loki.
He could not understand why Loki had lied that their father was dead. Was there really something more important than their father's life?
The brotherly bond he had treasured for so many years had turned into Loki hunting him down.
The feeling of being betrayed by his closest kin kept pounding at Thor's heart.
Burning dissatisfaction ignited anger in Thor's chest. He had to get a clear answer.
"Why did you not tell Mother how you sent the Destroyer to kill me and my friends?"
Frigga, who knew nothing about this, felt her hands go numb in shock when she heard Thor's words.
"What?"
How did a harmonious family end up like this? Odin asleep, brothers turned against each other.
Gentle Frigga could not believe it, could not accept it.
"I was only carrying out Father's final order."
Loki was still trying to cover up his actions in front of his mother, but Thor's righteous bearing made Loki's words sound so pale.
"You really are a genius at lying."
Facing Loki's excuses, Thor, who was not good at arguing, could only sigh.
"I do not have time to waste on you. I still have to go destroy Jotunheim."
Loki now had only one thing on his mind. Destroy Jotunheim, gain supreme merit, and force everyone to acknowledge him.
With a swing of Odin's spear in his hand, an energy wave blasted through the wall of the golden hall. Loki flashed forward, jumped down from the high tower, rode his divine steed to Heimdall, and activated the Rainbow Bridge's teleport.
A massive pillar of energy shot straight toward Jotunheim. Mixed with the extreme cold of the Casket of Ancient Winters, it gradually froze the flashing lightning in midair.
Loki planned to use the Rainbow Bridge and the Casket of Ancient Winters to shatter Jotunheim. That way, with the Frost Giants' home destroyed, they would no longer be able to threaten Asgard.
Thor, drawn by the meow meow hammer, rushed to the observatory at top speed.
"You cannot stop it anymore. The Rainbow Bridge will split all of Jotunheim in two."
Thor's face was heavy. At this moment he completely understood his father's good intentions. Destroying the Frost Giants' home would only provoke a more thorough war between both sides.
It would be a fight to the death with no possibility of compromise.
He hurried forward and raised Mjolnir, trying to interrupt the energy bursting from the Rainbow Bridge.
BANG!
But Loki lifted Odin's spear and released a blast of energy that knocked Thor down.
The Rainbow Bridge unleashed an enormous beam of energy onto Jotunheim's land. Large swaths of buildings were destroyed. The beam slowly moved, just as Loki said, looking like it was about to cut the entire planet of Jotunheim in half.
The Frost Giants cried out in despair. To them it was like the end of the world. Their homeland kept collapsing. The giants could not resist and could only flee in all directions.
Thor still did not understand why his usually straightforward brother would do something so reckless and blurted out,
"Why are you doing this?"
"I want to prove to Father that I am the one worthy of being his son."
"When he wakes up, he will know it was I who saved him."
"It was I who wiped out that monster's race. I am the true heir to the throne."
Loki's eyes burned as he finally told Thor what was in his heart. This was what he believed and what he was doing.
And looking at Loki, Thor felt as if he were seeing his former self.
He knew Loki had chosen a path of destruction, one that would have immeasurable consequences for Asgard and even the Nine Realms.
Peace would vanish from Asgard forever.
═❀═❀═❀═❀═❀═❀═
[email protected]/AmbitiousTranslator
🥳Joining P@treon keeps me motivated and eager to work diligently, so please consider joining.🥰 You can access upto 20 advance chapter through P@treon.