Puente Antiguo.
Inside a modest tavern.
It was currently work hours, and yet the tavern was packed and unusually lively.
Outside, the sun hung high in the sky. Coming here to order a drink, escape the heat, and chat with friends about the recent strange stories around town counted as a small pastime in this place.
"There really have been a lot of weird things happening outside town lately…"
The moment someone spoke, it immediately drew a chorus of agreement.
"Hasn't there? Old Kent, who lives next door to me, said he saw a flaming skeleton riding a motorcycle when he was cleaning out his barn at night. In my opinion, the old man's gone senile. He might as well hand the family business over to that tall son of his sooner rather than later."
"What's that compared to anything? Before I came here, old Wayne said he saw someone flying through the clouds with a hammer. Who would believe that kind of nonsense? Come on, drink up."
"Look, that pretty lady doesn't seem to be from around here… Damn, she's gorgeous."
Amid the whispers, someone turned his gaze toward a tall woman sitting in the corner.
She quietly drank the juice in her glass. As if she had heard their less-than-polite comments, the corners of her lips curved faintly.
"Huh? What was I just talking about? What lady?"
"I think you said your dog was about to give birth."
"Do I have a dog?"
"Weird…"
The group stumbled out through the door.
Across from the woman, Emil casually picked up a die, rubbed it between his fingers, and let fine powder spill through them. He looked utterly bored.
"Hour five since separating from Fenris. I miss him…"
Emma took a sip of juice and curled her lip. "What, were you planning to follow him for the rest of your life?"
"Spending my whole life as Fenris's hired muscle wouldn't be so bad."
Emil chuckled as he answered, "Follow him, live well, eat well, and maybe even get the Abomination a little cosmetic upgrade while I'm at it. I look much better now than that ugly bastard Hulk."
"What about you? Don't you want to…"
Emil raised an eyebrow and asked back with clear implication.
"…"
Emma pondered for a moment and was just about to speak when she suddenly sensed a familiar presence appear upstairs out of thin air.
"He's back?"
The two stood up at the same time, delight written in their eyes.
Everyone inside the tavern only felt their vision blur. The doorbell jingled once, and the corner was already empty.
When they arrived in the room, Emma immediately noticed the burly man Fenris was carrying over his shoulder.
"Fenris? Who is this…"
"Thor, the God of Thunder. You met him last night."
Fenris casually tossed Thor onto the bed, then flicked Mjolnir in his hand. It landed precisely on the coat rack beside the door.
"He took a bit of a hit. He's weak right now, so he needs to rest here for a while."
"Oh…"
Emma came to an understanding. Her gaze paused on Thor's face for only a moment before shifting away.
"That hammer wouldn't happen to be…"
"It's his too."
Seeing Fenris nod, Emil moved up to Mjolnir and reached toward it.
Yet this seemingly ordinary little hammer, which had simply been hung on a coat rack, seemed to possess the weight of a mountain. Even with the Abomination's strength, Emil could not shake it in the slightest.
"Hm?"
Looking at the utterly motionless hammer, Emil's mouth opened wide in surprise. Refusing to believe it, he exerted more force, and the muscles across his entire body swelled with the effort.
A moment later, Emil, now panting with exhaustion, finally chose to give up.
"Nope, no good. Can't move it."
He looked at his own palm, then glanced at the plain, ordinary coat rack. Frowning, he backed away a few steps and clicked his tongue in wonder.
"That's damn strange…"
Boom!
At that exact moment, a massive explosion suddenly came from a distant street.
Immediately after came an extremely strange, scorching aura.
"Wasn't me!"
Emil blinked.
"We know it wasn't you."
After telling Wanda and the others to keep watch over Thor, Fenris's figure flashed and appeared by the window.
Outside town, the sky-reaching pillar of the Bifrost was slowly vanishing into the air, and the rotating clouds dispersed with it.
Fenris extended his powerful perception and clearly sensed several strong presences appearing outside town.
Those presences paused for an instant, as if identifying a direction. Then they headed into town. Judging from their movement, their target was precisely where Fenris was.
However, another familiar, scorching force was racing toward the town from a great distance at astonishing speed. In an ordinary person's eyes, it would have flashed past in an instant, leaving only the vague trace of a fiery red glow.
The two groups were coming from completely different directions, yet by sheer coincidence, their paths overlapped.
The instant they saw each other, that tremendous collision of energy rang out.
"How did they run into each other?"
Fenris narrowed his eyes and quickly identified both sides.
For a moment, even he could not help feeling a headache coming on.
"Is Johnny back?"
Wanda came up behind Fenris and soon drew back her gaze from the distance. "Who are the others?"
"A small problem. No need to worry. I'll handle it."
Fenris turned back and answered Wanda in a gentle voice.
"Watch Thor. Don't let anyone else get close to him."
"But…"
Wanda thought for a moment and was just about to say something when Fenris instantly turned into an afterimage and vanished before her eyes. Her outstretched hand swept through empty air, leaving her only able to watch the afterimage disperse.
"Hmph!"
…
On the open ground outside town.
After the Bifrost disappeared, it left behind a strange pattern on the ground.
Four people dressed in golden enchanted armor and carrying all manner of unusual weapons slowly emerged.
"Midgard."
Among the three men and one woman, one man with a straight posture and an elegant, gentlemanly bearing swept his gaze across the barren land. His brow faintly furrowed.
"Sif, this is Midgard, Thor's place of exile?"
"If Heimdall didn't make a mistake, he should be somewhere nearby…"
The only woman among the four, Sif, withdrew her gaze from the sky and shook her head.
"The All-Father has fallen into the Odinsleep. Thor has been exiled. And now, in all of Asgard, not a single person has been able to step forward and take charge, allowing Loki, the God of Mischief, to sit on the throne…"
"We don't have much time to act. We must find Thor as soon as possible."
Sif briefly adjusted the light armor on her body and the enchanted longsword on her back, then tied up her smooth, silken blond hair. Her strikingly valiant features tightened, and her entire presence immediately gained a sharper, more dangerous edge.
"Only if Thor returns can we expose Loki's true face and spare Asgard from turmoil."
"Friends, we move out!"
(End of Chapter)
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