“Loki!”
Seeing Celebi lift Loki into the air, Thor, desperate to save his brother, roared and charged straight at Adrian Cross.
And then…
He went flying into the air too.
“Bi!”
Celebi glared unhappily at the two men suspended in midair.
It could sense their hostility toward Adrian Cross, and the usually cheerful little Pokémon was genuinely angry for once.
“Bi-bi!”
And so, something that a certain Mr.
Stark—who wished to remain anonymous—would undoubtedly shed tears upon seeing happened once again.
Celebi stretched out both hands.
The two Asgardian gods immediately began spinning through the air.
Bam!
Bam!
Every now and then, their heads would enjoy an intimate encounter with the wall.
At other times, the two would be hung upside down and slammed into each other.
With a mischievous streak that belied its adorable appearance, Celebi bestowed upon the two Asgardian gods a humiliating memory they would never be able to erase.
Adrian Cross wasn’t surprised in the slightest.
Celebi had already been able to completely restrain Tony with Confusion before.
And now?
It had gained a full twenty-four levels since then, while its psychic power had more than doubled!
Under these circumstances, capturing Loki, whose combat ability wasn’t particularly impressive, and Thor, a God of Thunder who had lost his divine power, was as easy as drinking soup.
Still…
First Tony.
Now Thor and Loki.
At this rate, Adrian Cross seriously wondered whether every Marvel hero would eventually end up with an embarrassing story courtesy of Celebi.
“All right, Celebi.
Put him down.”
Seeing that Celebi had played with them long enough, Adrian Cross told it to release Thor.
“Midgardian, release Loki!”
The instant Thor landed, he sprang to his feet and glared at Adrian Cross.
“Otherwise, you shall face the wrath of Thor, son of Odin!”
“And what exactly can the mighty son of Odin do to me right now?”
Adrian Cross rolled his eyes helplessly.
He finally understood why Odin had been so determined to exile his son.
Calling this personality straightforward would be putting it nicely.
To put it less kindly, Thor was a muscleheaded idiot.
If Odin hadn’t forced him to mature before allowing him to become King of Asgard, Asgard would probably have been doomed.
“I…”
Sure enough, Thor immediately froze.
No matter how reckless he was, even he knew that in his current state, there was absolutely no way he could defeat Adrian Cross.
“Once I reclaim my hammer, I will—”
Before Thor could finish speaking, however, he saw something unbelievable.
From behind Adrian Cross, a cute, squirrel-like little creature slowly floated into view.
And in its tiny paws…
Was Mjolnir.
“How is that possible?!”
Thor cried out in shock.
Even Loki, who was still hanging upside down in midair and feeling utterly humiliated, stared with wide eyes.
Both brothers knew exactly how Mjolnir worked.
How could such a tiny creature possibly lift it?
“Tini, tini.”
At Adrian Cross’s signal, Victini carried Mjolnir directly over to Thor.
“Your hammer is right in front of you.”
Adrian Cross calmly looked at him.
Pick it up.”
“You’ll regret this!”
Thor gritted his teeth, stood up, and grabbed Mjolnir’s handle with one hand.
“…”
Two seconds later, one hand became two.
“…”
Another two seconds passed.
By now, Thor was straining with practically every muscle in his body.
“Tini?”
Victini blinked its enormous eyes, apparently unable to understand what the bearded man was doing.
“Tini!”
The little Pokémon was kindhearted by nature.
Seeing that Thor seemed to desperately want this toy, Victini simply placed the toy into his hands as if to say—
Here, you can have it!
BOOM!
And so, the enormous Thor was immediately dragged to the ground by Mjolnir, collapsing like a felled mountain.
“…This…
How is this possible?”
After confirming that he truly couldn’t lift Mjolnir—and couldn’t even sense the connection he once had with the hammer—Thor’s eyes went blank.
“So it’s true…
I’ve lost my worthiness to be the God of Thunder?”
The thought that a tiny squirrel-like creature could lift his hammer while he couldn’t left Thor utterly dejected.
“No, seriously, what’s wrong with your brain?”
Adrian Cross finally couldn’t take it anymore.
“Have you seriously not realized that your brother is lying to you?”
“Lying?”
Seeing the expression on Thor’s face that clearly said What are you talking about?, Adrian Cross was rendered speechless.
“Why can’t you lift the hammer?”
“Because my father believed I was unworthy to become the heir to Asgard.
He stripped me of my divine power and title, then placed a runic enchantment upon the hammer.”
Thor spoke gloomily.
“Then if your father is already dead, why is the enchantment on the hammer still working?”
“…”
Thor instantly froze.
Seeing that Thor’s single-track mind apparently couldn’t process such complicated information, Adrian Cross simply told him the truth.
“Your father isn’t dead.
He’s merely fallen into a deep sleep.”
“As for what your brother Loki told you—”
“He was lying.”
“Lying to me?
Why would he lie to me?”
Thor clearly couldn’t believe that his own brother would deceive him.
“Because he made an agreement with the Frost Giants, and he wants to seize the throne of Asgard.”
At Adrian Cross’s signal, Celebi released Confusion.
Loki immediately crashed heavily to the ground.
“You…
Who exactly are you?”
Hearing Adrian Cross casually reveal all his secrets, Loki stared at him in disbelief.
“Loki, is everything he said true?”
Thor looked incredulously at the brother he had always trusted.
“Is it true?
Hahaha—Brother, you’re still as foolish as ever.”
Loki sneered at Thor.
“You may be the God of Thunder, but you’re reckless and stupid.
What makes you think you deserve to be King of Asgard?”
Then Loki turned his gaze toward Adrian Cross and Celebi beside him.
“And you…
Your arrogance will ultimately be the cause of your defeat!”
As the words left his mouth, Loki waved a hand.
A strange object appeared between his palms.
It was a dark blue, cube-shaped casket.
“The Casket of Ancient Winters!”
Thor cried out the object’s name.
The instant Loki grasped the Casket, his appearance began undergoing a bizarre transformation.
His skin slowly turned blue.
His eyes became blood-red.
“Loki…”
Thor immediately recognized those features.
They belonged to Asgard’s ancient enemies—
The Frost Giants of Jotunheim.
“Surprised, brother?”
Loki smiled.
“The brother you grew up with…
is a Frost Giant!”
With that, Loki tightened his grip around the Casket.
“The freezing winds of Jotunheim shall devour everything!”
The instant those words left his mouth, overwhelming cold swept across the entire space.
The floor.
The walls.
Even the very air itself began freezing in an instant.
“Loki!”
“I’m sorry, brother.”
Watching the roaring Thor gradually become encased in ice, a trace of pain flashed through Loki’s eyes.
But just then—
Bzz!
The familiar binding force suddenly descended upon Loki’s body.
Loki stared incredulously toward Adrian Cross in the distance.
“You weren’t frozen?
How is that possible?!”
Adrian Cross stood calmly amid the freezing air without so much as a trace of frost on his body.
“Sorry.”
Adrian Cross shrugged.
“I’m immune to Ice-type attacks.”
As the words left his mouth, Adrian Cross gestured toward Loki.
And the next instant—
“Bi-bi!”
That familiar sensation of being seized by psychic power struck Loki once again.
His entire body became completely immobile.
He could only watch helplessly as Adrian Cross used Confusion to snatch the Casket of Ancient Winters straight out of his hands.
How is this possible?!
This time, Loki was so shocked that he couldn’t even speak.
Unlike before, he had released his magical power at full strength to resist!
And yet Adrian Cross’s psychic power had still effortlessly broken through his magical barrier and restrained him!
“Tini, tini!”
At that very moment, Victini’s entire body erupted with fiery light.
Its tiny figure became a blur almost impossible to follow with the naked eye as it shot toward Loki with seemingly instantaneous speed.
Quick Attack!
Then, with flames somehow already burning around its paw, the adorable little Pokémon swung its fluffy fist straight at Loki—
A cute little Pokémon punch!
BOOM!
The tremendous force knocked Loki unconscious instantly!
And in the final moment before darkness claimed him, only one thought remained in Loki’s mind—
What the hell kind of creatures are these two little things?!