“Yes.
The Chitauri invasion.” “But there’s one thing you got wrong.” “What?” Mike and Thor stood face-to-face on the Arctic ice cap.
Out of the corner of his eye, Mike noticed Thor tightening his grip on Mjolnir.
He looked directly at him and said, “My parents didn’t die at the hands of the Chitauri.
Loki killed them himself.” Mike had originally planned to take his adoptive parents out of New York so they could avoid the disaster that might come with the Battle of New York.
He never expected things to turn out the way they did.
After his adoptive parents died, Heidi, his older sister who had rushed back from Washington, never blamed him for what happened.
Even so, Mike kept thinking about one question.
If he had simply let events unfold naturally instead of asking his adoptive parents to go to Jersey City, was it possible they might still be alive?
Of course, Mike knew he would probably never learn the answer.
The only thing he knew for certain was that Loki had killed his adoptive parents.
And there was only one conclusion Mike had already settled on: he would kill Loki, take his head, and place it before his parents’ graves as an offering.
Thor frowned at Mike’s calm words.
“Loki has already received the punishment he deserves.
He has been imprisoned in Asgard for life.” Even as he said it, Thor felt somewhat guilty.
After all, Loki wasn’t actually in an Asgardian dungeon at the moment.
He was currently in Svartalfheim under the watch of the Warriors Three.
But that wasn’t important.
No matter what Loki had done, he was still one of Asgard’s people, and how he was punished was an internal matter for Asgard to decide.
“But you came here to kill Malekith, didn’t you?” Mike’s expression barely changed as he immediately challenged Thor’s reasoning.
“Then why were you going to kill Malekith?
Just because he killed your mother?
By that logic, you could have treated him the same way you treated Loki, who killed the mothers of countless people on Earth.
You could have imprisoned Malekith instead of killing him.” Thor’s expression darkened, and he fell silent.
Mike let out an undisguised, cold laugh.
“What, you stop talking when the question gets difficult?” Thor’s voice dropped.
“Who exactly are you?” “Someone who wants to kill Loki to avenge his mother, just like you wanted to kill Malekith to avenge yours.” Thor’s grip on Mjolnir tightened again.
He stared straight at Mike, the man who had openly declared his intention to kill Loki, and spoke in a low voice.
“Loki is one of Asgard’s people.
Whatever crimes he committed, only Asgard has the right to judge him.” “Is that so?” Hearing that, Mike completely lost interest in continuing the conversation.
He gave a humorless laugh and looked at Thor.
“Then we’ll see what happens.
Anyone who tries to stop me from avenging my parents will die.
That includes you, Thor Odinson.” Mike had no personal grudge against Thor.
But if Thor stood in his way when the time came for him to kill Loki and avenge his adoptive parents, then Thor would become his enemy.
And in the vocabulary of a Saint, there were only two possible endings for an enemy.
Either the Saint survived, or the enemy died.
There was no third outcome.
Their eyes met.
The instant Mike finished speaking, Thor’s pupils contracted, and he swung Mjolnir.
The hammer tore free from his hand, wrapped in blue-white arcs of lightning as it roared toward Mike.
Mike neither dodged nor retreated.
As Mjolnir closed in, he simply raised his right hand toward it.
Boom!
The instant his palm met the head of the hammer, a violent shockwave exploded outward from the point of impact.
Mike’s body trembled and slid back slightly, but his Cosmo flared even more fiercely, pouring a continuous stream of power into his right hand until his retreat stopped.
His palm remained firmly pressed against the head of Mjolnir.
The scene looked almost exactly like Hela, Goddess of Death, catching the hammer barehanded after escaping her imprisonment in the future.
Of course, Mike didn’t possess Hela’s level of power right now, so he certainly couldn’t crush Mjolnir in his hand.
Even so, the sight of him catching Thor’s hammer barehanded was enough to leave Thor visibly stunned.
Mike noticed the shock on Thor’s face and smiled faintly.
Then he released a burst of force through the hand gripping Mjolnir.
With a sharp bang, he sent the hammer flying straight back toward its owner.
“Here.
Take it back.” Thor barely had time to process what had happened before reflexively reaching out and catching Mjolnir.
By then, Mike was already moving.
His figure vanished from where he stood.
When he appeared again, he was already at Thor’s side.
Mike’s right fist, wrapped in blazing blood-red Cosmo, swept horizontally toward him.
The pressure from the punch carved a trench several meters deep through the ice, while shattered fragments sprayed outward like shrapnel.
Boom!
By the time the sound of the punch tearing through the air finally exploded, Thor had only just seen Mike raise his arm.
He had no time to dodge.
The blow slammed into him and sent him sliding sideways for more than ten meters, the soles of his boots carving two blackened trails across the ice.
Mike hadn’t really wanted to fight Thor at this point.
That was the truth.
Odin was still alive and well in Asgard.
Even though the gears of Ragnarok had already begun turning the moment Frigga died, Odin was still very much a threat.
If Odin personally entered the fight now, Mike had absolutely no confidence that he could win.
But Thor had attacked first.
At that point, there was nothing else to discuss.
Saints were born for battle.
They were warriors by nature.
So there was only one thing to do.
Fight.
Besides, this was the perfect opportunity to use Thor as a benchmark and see where his current Bronze Saint-level combat strength stood in this world.
With that thought, Mike attacked again before Thor could regain his footing.
His figure appeared directly in front of Thor, and his left knee shot upward toward Thor’s abdomen, moving so fast that it produced a piercing crack through the air.
Thor twisted aside and blocked the knee with Mjolnir’s handle.
Using the force of the impact, he allowed himself to be launched off the ground as arcs of lightning spilled uncontrollably from his body, blasting the surrounding ice black.
Mike watched Thor rise into the air and immediately stamped down.
His body shot upward like an arrow and appeared above him.
Twisting in midair, Mike brought his right leg crashing down from above.
His foot was wrapped in the same blazing blood-red Cosmo as it descended toward Thor’s shoulder.
Thor had no time to fully evade the strike in midair, so he could only raise Mjolnir horizontally above his head.
Boom!
The instant Mike’s leg collided with the God of Thunder’s hammer, a visible shockwave erupted across the sky.
The force spread downward and cracked the ice within fifty meters into a sprawling spiderweb pattern.
Then Thor plummeted toward the ground.