"The Destroyer!" Sif couldn't help but exclaim. As a warrior of Asgard, Sif knew exactly what this steel giant before them was—the war machine personally operated by the All-Father Odin, driven by the Eternal Flame. Once activated, without receiving precise commands, it was a weapon of war that absolutely would not stop.
But an even greater shock was still to come. Once the dust had fully cleared, several Frost Giants could be seen standing behind the Destroyer. At this sight, words became unnecessary. Even a fool could figure out that Loki had reached some kind of agreement with the Frost Giants—an agreement to slaughter Thor right here.
"The Destroyer isn't an opponent we can handle. Everyone, get out of here now!" Had his power still been intact, Thor was confident he could match the Destroyer blow for blow, but as things stood, everyone here put together would be nothing more than cannon fodder.
The more adept one becomes at intrigue and deceit, the more one discovers the pleasure of playing everyone in the palm of one's hand. Yet the more one savors this pleasure, the more one comes to despise being deceived by others.
In Asgard, those brainless idiots who followed behind his brother Thor always questioned his schemes and remained stubbornly loyal to that foolish elder brother. And Father had deceived him as well—the All-Father Odin had no second son. He was nothing but a Frost Giant raised as a hostage.
That sensation of being betrayed by the family he had been with for a thousand years filled Loki's heart with rage. So-called family was all a lie. He was merely a hostage the All-Father had seized from the Frost Giants. Everything he had experienced before was false. Loki wanted revenge—revenge on everyone who had wronged him!
Especially those four who could think of nothing but Thor, Thor, Thor, and the gatekeeper. Now they were making their opposition to him perfectly clear. Loki could not endure this betrayal. With Odin fallen into the Odinsleep and that muscle-headed Thor banished to Earth, this was without question the perfect opportunity.
As acting king of Asgard, Loki held Odin's spear Gungnir in his hands and controlled the opening and closing of the Bifrost. He would now set his prepared plans into motion—wielding Odin's authority, Loki summoned the war machine that only Odin himself could command.
"My foolish brother, you moronic four-man band, this time I'll burn every last one of you to ashes!"
The steel giant composed of metal took shape. Loki led it to the Bifrost and met up with the Frost Giants dispatched by King Laufey. To be honest, Loki looked down on the Frost Giants, but as long as they could be used as labor, he naturally wouldn't be too picky. His original plan had been to let them get close to the sleeping Odin, and then he would use Gungnir and the Destroyer armor to kill them all, proving his worth in the process. But plans could not keep up with changes.
The four-man band had secretly gone to Earth, forcing Loki to alter his plans.
"Go. Slay every single target, and then bring me my brother's corpse!"
Merely holding Odin's spear, rather than being Odin himself, only unlocked a portion of the Destroyer's permissions. To use the Destroyer to oppose gods the way Odin did was undoubtedly extremely difficult, but this degree was enough. Those worthless fools alone could do nothing.
Loki believed himself far cleverer than these muscle-brained idiots, knowing what to do and when. Even after suffering this betrayal, he still considered himself Asgardian, because the Queen had treated him very well. Therefore… he even devised a plan for Jotunheim.
But Loki's choice was the wrong way to use the Destroyer.
Faced with the onslaught of the Destroyer and the Frost Giants, the town's residents had long since been evacuated. Under Dragon-level evacuation protocols, some people had already fled abroad.
This was human evolution!
When danger arrived, they evolved the instinct and physical capability to run like mad. Perhaps their descendants, because of the various crises during this period, would evolve to sprint a hundred meters in under ten seconds.
"No time! Get in the car!" You still had to read the situation. Having driven over and yelling for Thor to get in, an anxious Coulson was already picturing this town being blown to pieces.
"And this here is our battlefield on Earth. Once you get your power back, return to Asgard and stop Loki." Adopting a righteous and earnest expression, Zod's posture of acting for the greater good moved the Asgardian warriors greatly. Only Coulson felt that something was very off.
Zod Hess was a genius, no doubt, but he wasn't the type of genius who only knew his way around a lab. On the contrary, he was equally a genius when it came to the ways of the world, as could be seen from the very inception of the Divine Sword Bureau. So there was no way he was genuinely this high-minded and selfless.
But whatever. It was the Asgardians getting scammed anyway.
Then Thor went off to find his hammer and reclaim his lost power, but his subordinates stayed behind. Of those four Asgardian warriors, three chose to face the enemy head-on, while Sif, the only one with some brains, opted to circle around and flank. It looked like they had a tank and damage-dealers. Four against one—how could they possibly lose?
Zod watched as the Jackie Chan lookalike, the Robin Hood knockoff, and the Viking were swatted away one after another, with Sif following right behind…
Are you guys really that pathetic?
The Frost Giants also launched a charge at Zod and the others. The Divine Sword Bureau agents aimed their atomic pistols at them.
Then, accompanied by deep blue, meteor-shaped atomic energy bullets, those mighty warriors—the cream of the crop among the Frost Giants, one-in-a-hundred elites—were instantly blown to pieces.
Zod: Give me a break. I've read the comics. The Frost Giants are actually the least threatening to Asgard. They only get hyped up because they constantly oppose and rebel against Asgard!
In other words, the Frost Giants' combat strength is severely lacking. They're ice mages who insist on playing the ice tank route—trash.
Then they aimed their atomic pistols at the Destroyer armor.
When the deep blue meteors struck the Destroyer armor, no explosion occurred. Instead, they were directly disintegrated.
After all, the Destroyer armor was something Odin donned to solo the Celestials…
Forged by the Dwarf King Eitri, it was bestowed with the blessings of the gods upon its completion.
These gods included the Heavenly Court, Paradise, the Greek pantheon, the Norse, the Egyptians… and a vast host of Skyfather-level powerhouses and divine blessings. With this many power blessings piled onto it, even a pig wearing the Destroyer armor would gain all-powerful Skyfather-level might.
"What a terrible situation."
Zod said this expressionlessly. If the Destroyer armor possessed the blessings of many pantheons, that meant the Council of Gods existed as well. A comic-book world.
But he had Doomsday Superman, so there was nothing to worry about.
"Coulson, get everyone out of here. This is probably going to be… a God-level disaster."
/-\
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