The core army of Asgardian warriors, still loyal to the King's voice—even if that King was the despised Loki—continued to advance. Thor had only managed to convince Sif and his three good brothers, whose personal loyalty outweighed the royal decree.
The hundreds of armed soldiers, however, remained bound by duty and the emotional fervor of Loki's speech about blasphemy and stolen relics. To them, Thor was either compromised or mad.
"I must do something, otherwise, the Asgardian warriors will suffer heavy casualties," Thor muttered, his eyes tracing the line of charging soldiers who were marching toward a lethal confrontation. His previous self would have relished this chaos, but now, he saw only tragedy.
Sif still found it hard to process this mortal concern. "Asgardian warriors never fear death! They seek the glory of Valhalla, Thor!"
"That's right," Thor conceded, his gaze fixed on the ground. "But these casualties are unnecessary. Glory is not found in a massacre borne of a brother's lie. We could have handled this amicably, through diplomacy, instead of letting it escalate into turmoil and conflict! I was wrong to fight. I must stop Loki."
His three good brothers, Volstagg, Fandral, and Hogun, stood by him, sensing the genuine change in their friend. "What should we do, Thor? We cannot simply run."
"I don't know," Thor admitted, his voice cracking with the strain of this newfound humility. "But I know that I must step forward. Perhaps I have to defeat Loki myself to command these warriors, or failing that, I must remove the pretense for this war."
Thor made a decision of profound moral clarity, preparing to personally intervene and stop Loki's command. Sif and the others could only support him. "This is your decision, Thor, and we will help you. We will ensure you reach your brother."
While Thor plotted his political intervention, Su Yi still had to deal with the inevitable physical threat. To avoid unnecessary casualties and prevent a genuine, irreconcilable conflict that could stain the world's history forever, Su Yi was using every ounce of his clone's control and strength. He refused to kill them; his goal was intimidation and neutralization.
Su Yi moved among the hundreds of charging warriors, weaving through spear thrusts and axe swings like a phantom. He relied on precisely controlled bursts of Haki-enhanced strength and speed. He struck with the flat of his palm or the haft of Mjolnir, targeting pressure points and armor joints—always just enough force to stun and disarm, never to crush bone or pierce skin.
"Have I become a Dance King?" Su Yi thought with a dry mental laugh, momentarily comparing himself to the legendary ninja who casually took on an army. He mentally added an internal, dramatic line for himself: "Do you all want to dance too?"
One by one, the Asgardian warriors were not slain, but efficiently, almost comically, knocked down, twisted into submission, or simply tossed aside.
Su Yi was like an invincible God of War, a whirlwind of controlled violence that instilled fear in the hearts of the warriors. They were warriors seeking battle, but this was a master class in martial arts that left them breathless, dazed, and confused on the desert floor.
In the distance, Agent Coulson, observing the battle through high-powered binoculars, was utterly mesmerized and terrified. The magical and powerful "Gods" were fighting with weapons of immense power, but the mortal champion was moving with a fluidity that belonged in legend.
"He's not killing them, is he?" Coulson whispered to a nearby agent.
"No, sir. He's just… humiliating them. He's putting down hundreds of celestial super-soldiers with what looks like martial arts. The most terrifying thing is Su Yi; he alone is an army. He is simply invincible," the agent replied, equally stunned.
Su Yi knew he couldn't keep this up forever. He needed a final, non-lethal deterrent. Raising Mjolnir high, he channeled the raw, natural energy of the planet through the Uru metal. In the sky, ten thousand bolts of lightning surged—not the concentrated, surgical bolt of death Thor would have summoned, but a wide, overwhelming Pulse of Thunder.
The power of thunder descended in a wide, electrical wave, instantly repelling and defeating the remaining Asgardian warriors within dozens of meters. They were thrown backward, their armor briefly sparking, leaving them immobilized but alive, their ears ringing.
Now, the field was clear. Su Yi had accomplished his goal: the entire invading infantry was incapacitated without a single mortal or Asgardian death.
Loki's face, which had been contorted in grim anticipation of his victory, was now extremely dark. The Asgardian warriors, his expendable pawns, were no match for Su Yi's terrifying power. But he still had his trump card, the Destroyer.
He knew the Destroyer's power was absolute: immense, physical strength, powerful energy projection, and an exoskeleton of indestructible Uru metal infused with Odin's most ancient magic.
"Destroyer, attack! Target the God-Slayer!"
Just as Su Yi had finished neutralizing the last of the infantry, the Destroyer launched its final, devastating attack. Heat gathered in the Destroyer's hollow, helmeted eyes, coalescing into an unbearable, blinding light.
A high-temperature beam of pure, focused energy shot out, speeding towards Su Yi. This was not a laser; it was a concentrated stream of destructive force, an indiscriminate and extremely dangerous attack that would vaporize anything in its path.
"Damn it, this thing really is an artificial idiot!" Su Yi cursed internally, seeing the blast travel. He couldn't allow that energy to strike the desert.
Reacting instantly, Su Yi directly threw Mjolnir, not at the beam, but to intercept the Destroyer's firing mechanism. The hammer struck the Destroyer's chin with the force of a tectonic shift. Although the iron lump felt no pain, the immense kinetic energy of the impact instantly misaligned the weapon, forcing the beam to shoot harmlessly into the sky.
Su Yi quickly followed up, flying forward and grabbing the massive armor. Using his clone's superhuman strength, he dragged the Destroyer hundreds of meters away, ploughing a deep trench through the desert floor, until they were isolated far from the immobilized Asgardian warriors.
He had successfully created a private arena.
However, facing this seemingly invulnerable iron lump, Su Yi was momentarily helpless. His physical power was strong, but the Destroyer was immune to conventional force. He couldn't rely on mental attacks, either. He had to use energy.
Watching the Destroyer realign itself and prepare to fire another high-temperature beam, Su Yi decided to take a calculated risk: absorb some of the energy to overload its systems.
"Energy Devour!"
Taking the high-temperature beam head-on, Su Yi braced himself. He felt the immediate, searing pain brought by the extreme heat, a sensation akin to being dipped into a miniature sun. His body, though enhanced, still struggled to withstand such extreme, celestial temperatures.
Loki, watching from a distance, saw the momentary flicker of pain on Su Yi's face and laughed—a thousand-year-old child regaining his cruel triumph.
"Yes! That feeling! Destroyer, burn him for me! Burn him to ashes! No mortal can withstand that blast!"
Fortunately, Su Yi's physique could endure the damage, but the energy absorption wasn't fast enough. Most of the energy was still striking his body, pushing him to his limit.
"Right, I also have the Fire Spirit Orb!"
With a flash of memory from a world of mythical beasts and ancient gods, Su Yi took out the Fire Spirit Orb, one of the ultimate treasures from the "Sword and Fairy" world. It was an artifact created by the goddess Nüwa, an elemental object of peerless power.
As the Fire Spirit Orb appeared, glowing with a soft, pulsing crimson light in Su Yi's hand, a miraculous thing happened: the Destroyer's high-temperature beam no longer hurt at all. In fact, the Orb seemed to be feeding on the heat, radiating a pleasant, neutralizing warmth.
Su Yi showed a look of stunned joy. "As expected of a treasure created by the great God Nüwa, it's truly amazing. This Uru metal heat is merely a campfire to a primordial elemental artifact."
Loki's laughter died in his throat, his face freezing in horror. Su Yi had not only endured the Destroyer's signature attack but looked entirely comfortable, glowing faintly as he stood in the heart of the blast.
"How is this possible?! That is the power of the Allfather's forge!" Loki screamed, his confidence shattering.
There wasn't much time for surprise; Thor, led by Sif and the others, had rushed back, determined to end the conflict before more lives were lost.
"Loki! You must stop this madness!" Thor shouted, rushing directly toward his brother. "Before the casualties expand, we must stop!"
Loki, seeing the Destroyer rendered ineffective and Thor running toward him with his loyal friends, decided his immediate plan had failed. He would no longer listen to sentiment. For the throne, for revenge, he had to secure his ultimate plan.
"Those who dare to challenge divine might, whether they be God-Slayers or foolish brothers, shall pay the price!" Loki yelled, holding Gungnir up defensively.
Thor was no longer the foolish simpleton who believed conquest was leadership. He looked Loki dead in the eye, his gaze steady and filled with hard-earned wisdom.
"Loki, I know what you want. You want the throne. You believe I am unworthy and that you are the rightful, forgotten King. You believe that only by sitting on the throne can you be happy and complete."
Thor took a slow, agonizing breath, the weight of the realization crushing him. "If it's for the throne… I can give up the throne!"
Sif, Volstagg, Fandral, and Hogun were instantly incredulous, their mouths agape. Thor, the loud, proud warrior, was actually willing to surrender the position of King of the Gods—the position that represented supremacy, the head of the Nine Realms, and everything they had ever fought for.
Loki was stunned into silence, the venom draining from his face. "You… you are willing to give up the throne?"
Thor was silent for a long moment, the dust settling around him, the hum of the Destroyer a dull background note. Then, he answered seriously, the words coming entirely from his chastened heart. "I am not a qualified King. I am not worthy of this throne—not as I am now, nor as I was before. I have proven I seek war, not peace."
The true weight of his abdication was clear. Thor giving up the throne did not mean he would hand it over to Loki unconditionally, but that he would remove himself as the sole obstacle.
Loki, shocked, whispered, "You actually gave up the throne… why? What is worth this sacrifice?"
Thor's voice rose, filled with the first sparks of genuine selflessness he had felt in centuries. "For the Asgardian warriors to survive! For Asgard and Midgard not to erupt in conflict! For this world to be safe! And, yes, for you, my brother! I love you, Loki. I do not want to fight you."
Loki's eyes genuinely welled up with tears, the brotherly affection he had suppressed for a lifetime surging forward. For a terrifying, beautiful instant, the God of Mischief considered halting the Frost Giant plan, embracing his brother, and allowing Thor to help him conquer the Nine Realms—a true partnership.
But then, the sight of Su Yi, holding a mystical crimson orb and effortlessly resisting the Destroyer, flooded his vision. Su Yi was an unsolvable, existential problem. His new sister Hela was a bigger one.
Thor's redemption, while moving, was ultimately irrelevant to the sheer scope of the threats he now faced. The momentary spark of brotherhood was violently extinguished by the cold calculus of power.
Loki realized the Destroyer had failed. Conquest was impossible while Su Yi existed. The only available path now was the utter, final destruction of Midgard via the Bifrost—an act of revenge so immense it would silence all doubt and leave him free to face Hela. But he still needed Thor.
Loki regained his composure, wiping away the single traitorous tear. His expression hardened into its usual icy mask.
"Alright, Thor. I can pardon the sins of these mortals and the foolishness of my own army. The conflict will cease. However," Loki declared, pointing Gungnir at his brother.
"You must return with me to Asgard and, in front of the assembled court, announce your official abdication of the throne. You will never again make a claim to the throne of Asgard. If you do this, I will call off the Destroyer and grant Midgard peace."
Loki waited, his eyes daring Thor to refuse this final, humiliating condition.
Loki has shifted his plan from conquest to forced abdication, which will pave the way for his greater, destructive revenge. Do you think Thor will agree to Loki's demand, and what is Su Yi's next move regarding the currently neutralized Destroyer?