"Bleurgh!"
The huge man clutched the ceramic toilet bowl as if he were hugging a little jar.
Kingpin raised his sweat-soaked head with trembling effort. His massive bronze-statue-like skull now looked paler than ivory.
"Wizard... it was you..."
He had never expected Skyl's counterattack to be this wild and this vicious.
His horrifying sins felt like a million tons of rotting mud, pressing heavily against his stomach, squeezing out the very last drop of stomach acid. He had nearly vomited up bile.
Kingpin was terrified.
So he fled by car, abandoning the East Coast empire he had spent the first half of his life building. He would hide out in Latin America, or North Africa, or East Asia. He had power there too. He could rise again.
The light of the Erdtree shrouded New York. Kingpin kept driving until the canopy of the Erdtree finally sank beneath the horizon. Only then did he let out a long breath. After two straight days of nonstop travel, he was almost completely spent, and he fell asleep in the car on the spot.
When he woke again, his mind was ravaged by nightmares.
He dreamed he had become a fat milky-white lamb, a bloated beast that looked carved from marble, curled up on an execution ground paved with yellow sand. Before countless spectators, the young wizard raised a golden sword and cut off his head.
Kingpin lifted his head inside the car, and the colossal form of the Erdtree filled his vision. The Statue of Liberty bowed beneath that brilliant radiance, looking like nothing more than a thin shadow.
Somehow, in a sleepwalking daze, he had driven all the way back to New York without realizing it. Two of the tires were flat, and the back seat was stuffed with empty gas cans. The insane return trip had left him gaunt with hunger, his whole appearance haggard like a beggar's.
Some force bound him, refusing to let him leave. The influence of the Law was like fate itself, impossible to resist.
Kingpin got out of the car, trembling. The guilt surged through him once more, forcing him to vomit up everything in his stomach that had not yet been digested.
"My God." On the verge of collapse, Kingpin dropped to his knees and wept openly. Interlocking his fingers and raising both arms to the sky, he prayed, "Please forgive my sins."
A passing old priest told him, "Prayer won't help. My son, you need to atone."
Kingpin saw that behind the old priest stood more than a hundred burly men with vicious faces and tattoo-covered bodies. They were dressed simply, carrying heavy trash bags and scrapers for chewing gum, and they were all staring at him with strange expressions.
They were New York gangsters.
And they had recognized the emperor of the underworld.
"Boss, you turned yourself in too? Come pick up trash with us. Protecting the environment is everybody's responsibility."
...
Nick crouched by the side of the road, talking on the phone.
"What do you mean all field agents are puking? Logistics too? Fine, then somebody somewhere has to still be functional, right? Get them to drive a car over here. Tell medical to record the situation. What? The doctors are puking too? Motherfucker... Did I dial the wrong number? I'm calling S.H.I.E.L.D., not some goddamn prison hotline!"
Skyl came back from Subway with two sandwiches. Nick unceremoniously grabbed one and stuffed it into his mouth.
But the moment he swallowed, he gagged and spat it right back out.
"Blegh! Shit." Nick stared in disbelief, then glared at Skyl. "I can't eat. Your Law is going to starve people to death."
"Try adapting to the age of the Law. Do some good deeds, help others, and use the people's forgiveness to atone for your sins. Or you can leave New York. The crimes on your conscience are relatively minor. As long as you resist the suggestion of your thoughtform, you won't sleepwalk back here."
Nick was so furious with this all-powerful wizard that even his eye socket hurt, but he knew Skyl would never listen to him. This game of Law would continue until Kingpin met his end.
So he sent Agent Hill to drive Skyl to New Mexico. At that moment, Nick suddenly understood exactly what the old Eastern expression "sending off the plague god" meant.
Before they parted, Nick promised that in ten days, he would personally deliver the Tesseract to Skyl.
Puente Antiguo, New Mexico.
Mjolnir had fallen into the wilderness outside this barren little town.
Before S.H.I.E.L.D. showed up to meddle, the townspeople had gathered at the crater, setting up stalls and turning the place into a festival. People tried every method imaginable to lift Thor's hammer. The whole thing made the news, and once it got big enough, the government stepped in. Men in suits put up barriers, built a temporary research site, and locked the divine hammer down under heavy protection.
Agent Coulson was in charge of the site, and he remembered Skyl very clearly.
According to Coulson, a few days ago a blond giant had forced his way into the facility, beaten down the security personnel barehanded, and then tried to lift the hammer. After repeated failed attempts, he had given up resisting and was currently being held in custody.
This reckless blond man was naturally Thor, who had come to New Mexico with Stan to search for the hammer.
So Skyl went to visit the God of Thunder inside the facility.
But when he stepped into the holding room, he realized he was not the only visitor.
An invisible magical projection was also in the interrogation room.
It was Loki, God of Mischief, Odin's adopted son, a prince of Asgard, Thor's brother, and the same guy Hulk had once famously called a "puny god."
Loki was lying.
He claimed that Thor had been banished forever, and that Odin had fallen ill from grief and passed away.
Thor believed every word his brother said, and his face was already filled with grief.
Skyl's arrival interrupted the conversation between Loki and Thor.
Thor spoke coldly. "I have nothing to say. Leave me alone."
"That's no way to treat a friend. We did live under the same roof for a while, after all." Skyl greeted him pleasantly. "This is our second time meeting, Thor."
"You... you're Skyl? Gali and Stan both mentioned you."
"That's right. Nice to meet you properly at last. The last time I saw you, the mighty Thor was still unconscious." Skyl placed a hand over his chest in greeting.
Thor's expression softened slightly, and he gave Skyl a happy smile.
Beside them, Loki assumed Skyl was just an ordinary human, so he ignored his arrival and kept trying to mislead Thor. "Though Father's death is related to you, please do not blame yourself. I will bear the burden of the throne. You can remain in Midgard in peace."
Thor immediately became depressed and irritable again. Anyone who did not know better might have thought he was performing a rapid face-changing act.
Skyl looked toward Loki. "Nice projection spell. Mind if I trace your spacetime coordinates backward from it?"
Loki froze. "You can see me?"
"I know a little about Illusion magic."
Loki frowned faintly. His delicate face broke into an exaggerated smile that screamed bluffing bravado.
"A wizard. Very well. I permit you to become my servant. If you do not know my august name, then listen well. I am the great Loki, god of mischief and magic."
"You want me to be your lackey, and you're not offering me anything in return?"
"To serve a god requires conditions? It is your honor!" Loki said stiffly.
"Yeah, right. Nobody becomes a flunky for free." Skyl rolled his eyes and decided to ignore this idiot. "Thor, do you know where Stan went?"
"I don't. I've been stuck here for five days."
Skyl said, "Come on. Let's get your hammer first, then we'll go find Stan."
He pointed at Thor's handcuffs. "[Alohomora]."
With a click, the cuffs fell away.
But Thor remained seated. "It's useless. Mjolnir doesn't accept me. Without my power, there is nothing I can do."
Loki fanned the flames from the side. "And you cannot return to Asgard either. The truce agreement with Jotunheim is your permanent exile."
Skyl snapped his fingers, and Loki's magical projection burst like a soap bubble.
"If you trust a single word out of his mouth, I'll laugh at you for three years. You'd be better off believing Elvis is still alive. Come on, let's go lift that hammer."
Seeing the casual ease of Skyl's magic, the fire of hope reignited in Thor's eyes, and he strode after him without hesitation.
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