LRAB Chapter 167 Thor Returns
Chapter 167 Thor Returns
Chapter 167 Thor Returns
The Asgardian throne battle that Joey is currently embroiled in is utterly meaningless.
No matter how much Loki and Thor cause trouble, they probably won't be able to shake Odin's position as the current god-king in the slightest.
As for why?
The reason is that the Destroyer Armor in front of us is actually a suit of armor that Odin wore back then, and the purpose of creating this armor was to fight against the Celestials—basically, beings at the level of creators and Titans.
All the commotion between the two is just a minor squabble with Odin's tacit approval, all just to teach Thor a lesson.
When Joey and the Destroyer armor collided with a punch, the impact of the collision was like a high-yield thermobaric bomb detonating high in the sky, instantly crushing the spire frames of a host of skyscraper landmarks, including the Chrysler Building, One World Trade Center, and the Empire State Building.
Moving his slightly numb right hand, Joey could see that the Destroyer Armor's right arm, which had been twisted and deformed in the previous collision, was beginning to recover.
The thing Joey is most grateful for right now is that New York doesn't have a crazy building like the Metropolitan Museum of Art with a massive iron ball weighing tens of tons on top of a skyscraper, otherwise, that one incident would have kept him busy enough.
Just as he was having this thought, the Destroyer Armor's visor automatically opened, revealing the interior of the armor.
This armor contained nothing but molten magical lava that could incinerate everything, and at this moment it was under the command of Loki, who had usurped the phrenil from Odin, carrying out an order that was all too obvious:
"Kill Thor!"
Loki, far away in Asgard, the realm of the gods, observed the battlefield through Gungnir's magical connection to the Destroyer armor.
After exchanging a punch with the being who wore a bright red cloak just like his brother, Loki realized how formidable the opponent was.
"Focus on the main objectives!"
The Destroyer, which was originally facing Joey, suddenly deflected every inch of its armor, completing the turn at an extremely fast speed. A torrent of scalding energy shot out from its faceplate and rushed straight towards Thor, who was still standing on the rooftop.
"You dare!"
Noticing the change in the opponent, Joey flew over and punched the Destroyer in the head. The enormous force shattered half of the Destroyer's head, but it still couldn't stop the ray from advancing in time, only deflecting the Destroyer's aim.
The upper part of the Empire State Building was cut off diagonally from the top to the middle of the building by the deflected lava rays. The middle frame structure collapsed instantly, and the entire upper part of the building began to slide to the ground.
Also falling was Thor, who had just been hanging on the spire. Having just fallen from the spire to the rooftop, he was now desperately clinging to the roof railing to avoid falling from such a height.
Startled, Thor was now fully sober, and his anger flared. He roared at the Destroyer:
"Loki, is it really you?!"
As it turned out, Joey was right; the Destroyer armor was Odin's own armor, and apart from him,
Only the person who possesses the Gungnir can command it.
Thor couldn't think of anyone other than Loki who was capable of taking Gungnir from Odin:
"You'd actually kill your own brother for the throne?!"
During a grand war a thousand years ago, Thor and Joey were chatting when the latter revealed that their timelines were different.
Just like this time, when Thor and Joey first met, Joey already knew Thor inside and out.
At first, Thor was very curious and wanted to learn some information about the future from this future comrade-in-arms whom he had not yet met, and Joey did indeed generously tell him some things.
This includes Thor himself angering his father many times, one day he suddenly having the idea to lick the Frostbox, and at this point in the future, Thor can find Joey at 725 Fifth Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, down to the exact room number, for help.
These events all came true one by one, except for one thing Thor could not believe—that his brother Loki would plot against him for the throne of Asgard.
From then on, Saul, who was always troubled by this, never again took the initiative to ask Yang Yi about anything concerning his future.
His father Odin warned him that knowing the future was not a good thing, for when you can see the threads spun by the Fates, you will naturally be bound by them.
Loki, seated on the throne in Asgard and temporarily wielding power in place of the unconscious Odin, didn't care whether Odin could hear him or not, and roared in a fit of rage, "You're not my real brother!"
This was because he had discovered the mystery of his origins—Thor had foolishly licked the Frostbox, almost causing everyone to hold a funeral for him, and after he tentatively touched the Frostbox, he finally confirmed his identity.
He was unharmed after coming into contact with the Frost Casket, and even revealed his original appearance as a frost giant. He was not the son of Odin, the king of the gods, but the son of Laufey, the king of the frost giants.
This explains why Odin always favored the domineering and willful Thor, while ignoring the obedient and sensible Odin.
Recalling his painful past, Loki strengthened his control over the Destroyer, preparing to attack his brother once more.
However, through the Destroyer's shared vision, they witnessed an incredible scene.
"That's fucking enough!"
With a punch that ripped a hole in the Destroyer's face, Joey reached out with his other hand and, using both hands, to rip the Destroyer apart through the wound.
Even though Uru Steel, which is harder than Adamantium, is no match for the body of steel, this does not mean the end of the battle.
This farce itself was Odin's test for Thor.
Thor was able to smash the Destroyer into scrap metal with three hammer blows only because the magical armor it wore was powerful enough to fight the Celestials and wouldn't actually go all out against him. If it were Joey, he would have taken on any difficulty.
He had already realized that this battle shouldn't have been his in the first place, and he wanted to use brute force to exhaust the Destroyer's regeneration magic.
It would probably take at least half of New York to be destroyed, just like when he fought another Superman.
After tearing apart the Destroyer's outer shell, Joey ejected it out of the atmosphere, one to the east and one to the west, delaying its regeneration.
He then flew towards the collapsed building and lifted it up from the top floor, preventing it from collapsing completely.
This task could have been handled by Starfire, but since Moron had absorbed all the energy from the Green Lantern Ring, Starfire, lacking a biofield, was unable to support the hundreds of tons of free-falling reinforced concrete while maintaining the building's structural integrity.
Having easily supported the building, Joey could already see the two Destroyer armors in the distance rapidly converging. Once they were combined, just like the half of the building he was currently supporting, it would be another catastrophe for ordinary people in New York.
"Thor, 76 seconds!"
Joey shouted to Thor, who was holding onto the railing, "2732 people!"
"What do you mean?!"
Thor, confused, shouted back from the high-altitude air currents, "What number?"
"Listen, Thor, the Destroyer is about to be restored."
Joey couldn't understand why Thor could act so carefree; a legendary hero should possess far higher virtues. So he decided to push him a little further:
"In 71 seconds, the Destroyer will strike again, and Starfire won't be a match for it. At that point, I won't be able to hold this entire building up. Once it crashes, 2732 people will die, and it will all be your fault!"
"What?! This isn't..."
Thor instinctively wanted to retort, but the words stuck in his throat: "You're right."
This should indeed be attributed to myself.
Feeling humiliated by his coronation ceremony being interrupted by the frost giants, he impulsively decided to lead a small squad to Jotunheim to provoke a war against the frost giants, only to find himself surrounded and unable to escape.
If Odin hadn't intervened, most of his comrades would probably have been killed.
Thinking about it this way, my action of refuting Odin on the spot after being rescued and calling him "senile" was indeed a bit excessive.
No wonder he stripped himself of his divine power in a fit of anger and banished himself from the divine realm, to the point that he is now not even qualified to lift that hammer.
"The point has never been the hammer! You're the fucking god of thunder, not the god of hammers!"
Even now, Thor is still fixated on his hammer, which makes Joey want to rush to New Mexico right now, grab the hammer, and smash Thor's head in.
"I already told you! Think it over, Thor, think it over again!"
This has nothing to do with Mjolnir, but rather with Odin, the king of the gods, testing his successor: a qualified warrior is not necessarily a qualified general or king.
Odin, who once wielded Gungnir and fought across the Nine Realms, slaughtering countless people, clearly did not dislike war; he only disliked stupidity.
Wars should be driven by national interests, not personal emotions.
Just as Joey said before—a ruler should not wage war out of anger, nor should a general launch an attack. One should act only when it is advantageous, and stop when it is not.
"I remember one thing: anger can turn into joy, and words can be spoken again, but a lost country cannot be restored, and the dead cannot be brought back to life."
Without alcohol as a ticket, Saul finally unearthed the source of that phrase from his millennia-old memories:
"The Art of War, that day when we were drinking, Diana and Sif were dueling with swords, you told me about it, and I remember you also said something like, 'Warfare is the art of war, the art of statecraft...'"
This memory was so distant that Thor had simply taken it as casual conversation at an ordinary banquet in the golden palace of Valhalla. He never imagined that it would lead him to understand Odin's good intentions towards him today.
"never mind."
Seeing Thor falter again, stammering and unable to recall the other part of his lines, Joey, who was holding up the entire building, simply smiled slightly:
"That doesn't matter anymore."
Whether Thor can remember the other line is no longer important; what matters is that the Destroyer has begun to rebuild, and Joey can already hear the thunderous roar echoing in the distance.