In the wilderness outside the S.H.I.E.L.D. base, a tall, powerful man panted heavily as he climbed a small sand dune with great difficulty.
After trekking dozens of kilometers through the deserted wasteland without food or water, Thor was already exhausted and parched. Even the coat he had taken from Jane's lab was soaked through with sweat.
Yet every time he raised his head and looked at the violent lightning in the distance, he felt his spirit immediately revive.
"It really is my Mjolnir!"
The rumbling thunder that roared in others' ears sounded especially familiar to Thor. After nearly a thousand years of companionship, Mjolnir's aura was already familiar to him down to his bones.
Thor's eyes looked especially bright beneath the gloomy sky. He wiped away his sweat, gritted his teeth, lowered his head, and continued forward. "Almost there!"
"Wait for me, my dear hammer!"
His self-encouragement gradually vanished into the wind and sand. Then a deep hum suddenly began rising from the S.H.I.E.L.D. base not far away, slowly growing louder and louder.
In only a few breaths, its momentum had already overwhelmed even the thunder that shook heaven and earth.
The formerly heavily guarded base had long since been nearly destroyed. Under the lightning's repeated and merciless devastation, fragments of the structure were scattered everywhere. If someone could make it deep inside, they would be able to see the core of the base at a glance.
There, beneath dense streaks of lightning, stood an absolute domain flowing with golden divine light. A tall, upright figure could be seen indistinctly within it.
"Rise!"
The instant Fenris exerted his strength, he felt his ears fall into sudden silence. Everything around him seemed to lose its sound at that moment, turning into nothingness.
After his low shout, Mjolnir, which had originally been as heavy as a mountain and impossible to shake, was pulled up bit by bit amid the brilliant divine light.
The runes on the hammer flickered, brightening and dimming uncertainly. The previously violent divine power quietly became incomparably docile the moment it was forcibly moved, and all its resistance turned into assistance at that instant.
Fenris felt the repulsive force coming from his hand grow weaker and weaker, until, after a brief moment, he could no longer sense even the slightest obstruction.
Mjolnir moved freely in his hand, and even its terrifying weight seemed to no longer exist.
The wild thunder and lightning between heaven and earth seemed to have been paused at that moment. The churning clouds froze. The final echoes of thunder quietly faded. Even the lightning that had covered a radius of several kilometers began shrinking at a visible speed. Soon, all the electric light had gathered within a range of several meters around Fenris.
At this moment, Fenris felt that all the flashing lightning and rolling thunder around him had become extraordinarily familiar, as if he could control them freely with a single thought, as easily as moving his own arm.
Without the slightest hesitation, Fenris gripped Mjolnir tightly and raised it high.
"Boom—crack!"
Divine power surged, and endless lightning struck down once more. This time, however, it all converged on the small hammer in Fenris's hand.
Powerful energy gathered in his palm. Asgardian divine power was constantly drawn from within his body and poured into Mjolnir. Blinding white lightning wrapped around the hammer, as if the moment Fenris gave the order, it would transform into surging thunder and utterly destroy its target.
"I am Fenris, God of Thunder!"
With a powerful divine artifact in hand, the utterly different experience of this power made Fenris nearly shout in excitement. He glanced at Wanda not far away, who had already withdrawn her energy shield and was staring at him without blinking, then at Coulson beside her, who was dumbstruck yet completely unharmed. Fenris laughed freely, leapt from the ground, and shot into the air.
The small hammer in his hand swung, and he casually pointed it in one direction. In an instant, the power accumulated within the hammer seemed to find an outlet. A torrent of mighty energy surged out, roaring fiercely toward the direction of Fenris's will.
"Boom!"
It was a sand dune nearly fifty meters high. When the bright white lightning struck, accompanied by crackling currents, the small mountain of sand and gravel suffered a devastating blow. The entire dune exploded under the powerful current.
For a time, countless stones and grains of sand flew in all directions. Each grain of sand, heated by the current, gave off terrifying heat, some even turning into glass-like crystals.
In only a short while, after a rain of sand, the enormous dune had been brutally destroyed. The entire hill had vanished from where it stood.
"What power!"
Seeing that terrifying destructive force, Fenris's eyes immediately lit up. After lowering his head and carefully examining the divine artifact in his hand, he gradually withdrew the golden Asgardian divine power. The strange phenomena on Mjolnir quickly disappeared as well, and it returned to its original appearance.
The magnetic field covering the area gradually calmed. Before long, the dense black clouds in the sky also retreated at a visible speed.
The sky cleared for thousands of miles. Bright sunlight fell once again, and warmth began to gather over the desert once more.
"So… this is the power of Thor?"
On the ground, Coulson, who had witnessed everything from close range, had dilated pupils. It was as if his entire body had been seized by some invisible force. His mouth hung slightly open, and he stood frozen in place, unable to calm himself for a long time.
"Whoever lifts Thor's hammer shall possess the power of Thor…"
Lifting his head and staring fixedly at Fenris, who stood in midair with Mjolnir raised high, Coulson murmured under his breath.
He had a rough understanding of Fenris's abilities. Among Fenris's rich system of powers, at least for now, there had absolutely not been any power of lightning.
From the moment Fenris appeared before Thor's hammer, to when he overcame the divine artifact's fierce counterattack, to when he completely took control of it and lifted the hammer that all of them had racked their brains over without being able to move even slightly, he had become the most legitimate god of thunder on Earth.
"Well done, Teacher Fenris…"
Beside him, Wanda's gaze followed the heroic figure in the sky without wavering, and she gently pressed her lips together.
"I am Fenris, God of Thunder!"
The rolling sound waves spread in every direction, abruptly awakening a blond man who had finally arrived near the base after his long trek.
He stood at the edge of the sand pit with a vacant look in his eyes. His face had already been pale, but now it seemed almost completely drained of blood.
After struggling so hard to reach this place, he personally witnessed the wizard friend he had pinned his hopes on—Fenris—lift the divine artifact he treasured above all else. He watched Mjolnir so easily unleash power in Fenris's hands that far surpassed his own.
Calling the wind and summoning the rain. Commanding thunder.
That excited shout, filled with laughter, entered his ears like a thorn, stabbing deep into Thor's heart.
"If he is the God of Thunder, then who am I…"
Thor's steps suddenly staggered. Like a man who had lost his soul, his eyes turned red, and his tall body fell to the ground with a thud.
After a long while—
"No—"
(End of Chapter)
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