Skyl was fairly familiar with the plot of Thor. Thor had been cast down to Earth for one simple reason: Odin wanted his son to grow through hardship, learn to see the world through a ruler's eyes, and stop charging through life like a brainless brute.
A classic fallen-prince story. In the end, if Thor was willing to sacrifice himself to protect his friends, he would have passed the test.
After living in New York for half a month, Thor had already been stripped of much of his old arrogance. Now he just needed a final push.
"Go on. Try again," Skyl encouraged him.
Under the intense watch of the S.H.I.E.L.D. staff, they returned once more to the center of the crater.
Mjolnir stood embedded in the earthen pillar like the sword in the stone, waiting for its true king.
Thor grabbed the hammer. Lightning flashed across the sky, and the heavens themselves seemed to answer him. Confidence surged through him again.
A million battles over thousands of years flashed before his eyes. He had always won. Those glorious, radiant moments had formed the golden age of Thor. He had thought that age would never end.
But life had hit him head-on in the end.
A true hero would never bow to bleak reality. Thor could not accept the thought of growing old as a mere mortal in a foreign land. That was no warrior's fate. Valhalla would never welcome a death that pathetic.
Thor said silently to himself, Mjolnir, lend me your power. Let me reclaim everything I once had!
He pulled with all his strength.
The hammer did not move.
Thor broke.
"No! Mjolnir! Why?!"
For a moment, it was as if a tragic soundtrack had started playing somewhere. The S.H.I.E.L.D. agents on site could not help looking around, and soon they spotted the speaker at Skyl's feet.
"Hello darkness, my old friend..."
Thor dropped to his knees, all strength gone.
At the side, Skyl turned off the speaker. Then he reached for the handle himself and casually lifted Mjolnir.
Everyone around him froze.
The divine weapon had not rejected Skyl, but neither was it especially attached to him. It reminded him of the wands in Ollivanders, all of them cool and reserved until properly bonded.
Skyl knew he had good affinity with all magical items. If he were willing to invest the time and build a relationship with it, Mjolnir would likely come to trust him just as it trusted Thor.
The "science guys" Nick Fury had mocked crowded around, clicking their tongues in amazement as they wondered just how much strength could possibly be hidden inside Skyl's thin frame.
"Maybe his bones are titanium and his muscles are hydraulic pistons."
"Even the Terminator couldn't lift that thing."
Thor stared in disbelief. More than anyone else, he knew brute force alone could never raise Mjolnir. There was only one explanation.
His beloved hammer had fallen for someone else.
At that moment, he looked like a miserable middle-aged office worker who had just discovered his wife was cheating on him.
One look at Thor's face, and Skyl knew exactly what he was thinking.
"Let me state this very clearly," Skyl said in a grave tone. "I'm a loyal, monogamous man. So don't worry, I'm not stealing your hammer."
Thor's expression turned even darker. "No. If you can lift her, then you're her new owner."
Skyl's eye twitched. "You're calling a hammer 'her.' Don't you think your tastes are a little weird?"
"You don't understand what a weapon means to a warrior. Mjolnir is not just my companion. She is my soul."
The prince of Asgard looked utterly defeated.
"You're right, I don't understand warrior weirdness. But your power doesn't come from a hammer. Even without it, you're still the God of Thunder. A wizard can still cast magic without a wand. True magic comes from within, not from some powerful external object."
"But my father stripped me of my godly power."
"It's only sealed away. It never actually left you."
Mjolnir bore Odin's royal enchantment: whoever lifted Thor's hammer would possess the power of Thor. But there was only ever one true God of Thunder.
Skyl could have taken the hammer into The Tower of Tomes, cleansed away the seal, and handed it back to Thor. But doing that would also have stripped a warrior of his dignity.
"Thor, I have a question. For whom do you raise your fist... no, more precisely, what do you fight for?"
"For victory."
"Even if that means slaughtering unarmed civilians?" Skyl shook his head. "You've been on Earth for a while now. Have you taken the time to understand the wars this planet has suffered? Tens of millions have fallen under gunfire like livestock. Soldiers' lives were burned like kindling. You see victory, but not the bodies of the innocent. You hear cheers, but not the cries of the people."
Thor paused. "I do not kill civilians."
"But once war begins, civilians are the ones crushed most brutally. Food shortages. No heat in winter. Forced conscription. Mandatory labor. The blood and sweat of ordinary people flow like rivers, all just to keep the war machine running for one more second. In that kind of world, common people have no dignity. If all you want is war, if you drag Asgard into endless battle, then all you'll gain is a kingdom in ruins."
Thor shook his head. "You do not understand Asgard's strength."
Skyl answered calmly, "You do not understand mine. If you want to know what it feels like to lose your kingdom and your home, I can help with that."
Thor stared at him blankly for a while, then suddenly broke into an absurdly self-assured grin. "Ha. You're joking."
Mora's Book, hanging at Skyl's waist, let out a low, snickering laugh. "Master, let me taste the brains and souls of the Asgardians."
A wicked eye opened on the book's cover and fixed itself on Thor, sending a chill down his spine.
"Is there something wrong with your book?"
"Don't worry about it."
Skyl gently ran a hand down the spine. Mora shuddered and snapped the eye shut.
"Thor, once you understand how to fight to protect the people, you'll be able to reclaim the power you lost."
That moment came very quickly.
Six hours later, Thor and Skyl were sitting in a fast-food joint in Puente Antiguo, eating burgers.
Then a rainbow bridge descended into the center of town, and Thor's old friends from Asgard arrived in search of him.
They brought terrible news.
"Asgard has fallen."
"What?!" Thor could not believe it.
"Just now, a giant serpent swallowed half of Asgard, and even the palace city ended up in its belly. We barely escaped with our lives. Thor, we need you."
"What about Mother? What about Loki?"
"I'm sorry. They didn't survive. Fewer than forty people are still alive in Asgard."
Skyl set down his burger. "What did the serpent look like? Was there anyone with it?"
"A young woman warned us just before it arrived," the warrior Lady Sif said, her face full of pain. "She said Jormungand was coming to devour the world and told us to run. But we were too arrogant. We didn't realize how serious it was. That serpent stretched across the stars, a light-year long. Whole stars looked like nothing but flecks on its scales. It bit straight through the divine barrier. Just the edge of its fangs grazed Asgard, and our divine realm was ruined."
Skyl nodded and looked at Thor. "The cataclysm is here, God of Thunder. Are you ready to fight for the lives of an entire universe?"
Expressionless, Thor tossed aside the fried chicken leg in his hand and picked up Mjolnir from the table.
"I'm going to find that serpent, smash its skull, and dig Asgard back out of its stomach."
//Check out my P@tre0n for 30 extra chapters on all my fanfics //[email protected]/Razeil0810