How strong is a Heavenly Father-level powerhouse?
The simplest, most direct concept is probably planet-busting.
That said, not everyone who can bust a planet gets to be called a Heavenly Father-level powerhouse. More like, a Heavenly Father can bust planets, but someone who can bust a planet isn't necessarily a Heavenly Father.
Of course, a Destroyer whose permissions haven't been fully unlocked definitely isn't that strong.
Just as Zod took a step forward, an old man appeared before him.
A golden deity in battle armor, a single eye gleaming beneath his faceplate. Two ravens on his shoulders breathed crimson flames; the eternal spear Gungnir lay across the void. Divine might billowed out in wave after boundless wave, vast and overwhelming holy light churning ripples through space.
"Hello, Emperor of Krypton."
The old man spoke.
"...Asgard's All-Father, Odin?"
Zod recognized who he was facing. What was this—telling him not to set his sights on the Destroyer?
Then he noticed that Odin seemed to be wearing the Destroyer armor...
Wait, so that meant this one was a fake?
Zod's mind had already run through far too much. Odin had no idea what his stance was.
Fortunately, the Ancient One appeared right then.
"Ancient One."
"Sorcerer Supreme."
"All-Father, Your Imperial Majesty, if there is to be a battle, I hope it won't be on Earth."
The Ancient One addressed them both.
"There won't be one, Ancient One. There's nothing here worth fighting over."
Zod voluntarily disconnected. After all, he had awakened the abilities of a magic-wielding Superman; blocking this sort of magic was a trivial matter.
He had originally intended to seize the Destroyer armor to study it. He hadn't counted on Odin putting out a fake. If so, there was no point in fighting.
Arms crossed, Zod watched the S.W.O.R.D. agents and the four warriors battle the Destroyer armor and yawned.
Then, Thor successfully lifted the hammer, because Odin was also afraid that delays would bring unforeseen trouble.
Suddenly, dark clouds blanketed the sky. Thick bolts of lightning split the clouds and crashed to the earth, and in the next instant a red figure shot up from the flash of lightning straight into the heavens.
From Thor, God of Thunder, to a mortal stripped of his power—especially having gone through something like the death of his father... It was fake, but Thor had believed it at the time. His childish nature underwent an earth-shattering transformation overnight.
Perhaps he still couldn't be called truly mature, but Thor had certainly seen through many things. Leading a handful of brothers in an assault on Jotunheim—that kind of extreme recklessness and impulsiveness had happened only days ago. Yet now Thor felt a powerful urge to seal away those past acts of stupidity like unspeakable dark history.
To be honest, back then Thor had more or less been relying on having an invincible recall, charging straight into death's jaws with a few followers who hung on his every word, acting without a care in the world, driven by the thought of diving in with teleport and striking first. Looking back now, it was stupid beyond belief. Thankfully, his subordinate warriors hadn't lost their lives over it.
Still, Thor knew he had to recover his strength as fast as possible and return to Asgard. He had no idea what Loki was planning, but Thor understood that his clever little brother was not the sort to sit still. So whatever Loki's goal was, Thor couldn't waste a single moment—especially now that the war-machine Destroyer had been deployed here.
His growing anxiety spurred him to constantly urge Coulson to drive faster. He couldn't even spare any attention for Foster sitting beside him; all he wanted was to reach the hammer's location as quickly as possible.
Before long, he finally arrived. Even from this distance, Thor could still hear the deafening explosions. A battle-hardened warrior like him had no trouble imagining just how brutal the fighting on that battlefield was, and convinced that all of this was his own doing, Thor's heart was in torment.
He scrambled out of the car, tore through the plastic quarantine sheeting. Casting aside that old spoiled-child mindset, he dropped to his knees directly before the hammer. The agony he felt made his voice shift; it caught in his throat.
"Father, can you hear me?"
"I was wrong. I was truly wrong." There was not a hint of false emotion. Thor gripped the hammer and said, voice trembling, "I've come to understand my arrogance, my foolishness, my reckless conceit—acting without thought, charging in blindly. I failed the expectations you had for me, but..."
"But innocent humans are suffering this catastrophe, a powerful enemy that I brought down upon them. I can't abandon them. I can't leave them trapped in this plight. Father... I am a warrior, the warrior you raised. I cannot let them face this enemy in my place!"
"So I beg you, forgive my mistakes. Please, grant me my power once more. Please, help me protect these innocent humans. I will remember all your past teachings and wield this power with caution."
Words of absolute sincerity. They might not have been stirring, might not have held anything particularly special, but every single word came from the depths of his heart. Yet when Thor finished speaking, the hammer still gave no reaction whatsoever. Thor froze, mouth agape, the corners of his eyes growing damp. He bit his lip hard, and after a moment drew a deep breath.
"Father... goodbye." His past stupidity had not been forgiven. Thor's heart felt as if it were stopped up by some unknown object. It hurt terribly, but there was nothing more to say now. If possible, he would trade this life of his just so that Loki would let these human warriors go.
But just as Thor stood up, the hammer that had refused to budge no matter how much force he used before now clung tightly to his hand. Surprise had only just flashed across his face when heaven and earth changed color in an instant. A bolt of lightning connected sky and earth, striking his body. Silver armor and red cape manifested in a flash. Thor had no time to acknowledge the stunned onlookers; he swung the hammer and shot into the sky, flying straight toward the battlefield.
The Destroyer armor, which had been sweeping through everyone like an invincible force, was smashed to pieces by the descending Thor with a single hammer blow... Absolutely outrageous! Where's the prop master? Someone fire this prop master!
The sight naturally stunned and awed the S.W.O.R.D. agents as well as Coulson and the rest. After all, the Destroyer armor had already thoroughly demonstrated its might by beating them all senseless, and now Thor had wrecked it in one hit...
"I need to return to Asgard as quickly as possible and have a talk with my dear brother. Frost Giants appeared here earlier; Asgard may well be under a large-scale Frost Giant invasion right now. The fighting over there will be fierce, so I don't have a moment to waste." Having dealt with the Destroyer armor, Thor didn't see anything odd about it and turned to address everyone.
Swinging his hammer, Thor ascended into the sky with his four companions—who had so far accomplished nothing—about to return to Asgard to have a serious discussion with his little brother. A fight was definitely going to happen. Whether he'd still end up being a wastrel was another matter.
In the end, this entire incident was just a script Odin had written so that his son might develop the mature heart and bearing befitting the crown prince of Asgard. True, the script had suffered quite a few unexpected twists, but when all was said and done, Midgard wasn't exactly his personal backyard.
/-\
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