Mike twisted in midair to bleed off the force of the impact, then landed steadily on the ice once more.
He looked toward the place where the rainbow beam had vanished.
Thor was gone as well, leaving behind only a circular scorch mark carved with mysterious runes on the ice where he had been standing.
Mike glanced at the mark left by Asgard’s advanced technology, the Bifrost, then raised his head toward the point in the sky where the rainbow light had disappeared.
And then he laughed.
When the fight had begun, Mike had considered how it might end.
Either he would live, or Thor would die.
What he had never expected was an ending like this.
Mike stared in the direction where the Bifrost had vanished, his eyes still faintly blood-red from burning his Cosmo.
He was curious about one thing: had Heimdall activated the Bifrost on his own, or had Odin ordered him to do it?
Either was possible.
Heimdall was the guardian of Asgard and the keeper of the Bifrost.
To help him fulfill that duty, Odin had granted him extraordinary senses.
He could see nearly everything and hear nearly everything.
It was entirely possible that Heimdall had witnessed the battle and chosen the critical moment to activate the Bifrost and bring Thor back.
But Odin was just as likely.
After all, Odin had already ordered Asgard sealed off.
If he discovered that Thor and the others had acted without permission, ordering Heimdall to bring them back would make perfect sense.
None of that mattered now.
Thor had already left Earth and returned to Asgard.
But the next time wouldn’t end so fortunately for him.
If Thor insisted on standing in the way of Mike’s revenge, Mike truly wouldn’t mind bringing the God of Thunder’s career as a Marvel superhero to an early end.
After all, the same move wouldn’t work on a Saint twice.
Mike waited where he stood for a while.
When the Bifrost did not descend again, he finally looked away, and the Cosmo that had been burning so violently within him gradually calmed.
Then his legs gave out.
With a heavy thud, Mike dropped onto the ice.
Truthfully, even if the Bifrost hadn’t appeared, he wasn’t confident that he could have kept Thor there.
That was also the real reason he had appeared to be knocked away by the Bifrost.
It hadn’t actually blasted him back.
The instant the beam descended, Mike had simply gone along with the force and used it as an opportunity to disengage, making it look as though the Bifrost had thrown him aside.
His reason was simple.
Before fighting Thor, he had already battled Malekith, and during that fight he had begun burning his Cosmo.
Saints could indeed gain power beyond their normal limits by burning their Cosmo.
But they couldn’t do so forever.
The longer a Saint kept their Cosmo burning, the stronger the emptiness and exhaustion that followed once the burning stopped.
If sustained for too long, it could even permanently damage the potential of a Saint’s Cosmo, leaving them unable to advance any further.
By the time the Bifrost appeared, Mike had already reached that critical point.
If he continued burning his Cosmo, then even with the Reality Stone, there was a real chance his Cosmo would remain permanently stuck at the Bronze level.
Otherwise, the moment the Bifrost descended, Mike wouldn’t have chosen to let himself be thrown aside.
He would have jumped straight into the beam and followed Thor back to Asgard to take revenge on Loki.
But he couldn’t.
So in that split second, Mike made his decision and let Thor leave.
He had no actual grudge against Thor.
As long as Thor didn’t interfere with his revenge, Mike had no reason to go looking for trouble with him.
His grievance was with the person responsible.
Sitting on the ice, Mike endured the overwhelming emptiness that surged through him the moment he stopped burning his Cosmo.
It was almost impossible to describe.
The sensation came from every corner of his body.
The instant his Cosmo stopped burning, it felt as though every part of him, every single cell, was screaming from unbearable hunger.
Mike sat sprawled on the ice without caring how he looked, staring blankly at the distant Bifrost mark.
At the same time, the blood-red color in his eyes gradually receded like a falling tide as his Cosmo settled, revealing his original deep ocean-blue eyes once more.
The rare Convergence of the Nine Realms, an event that occurred only once every several thousand years, also began to end.
The spatial passages that had appeared above the Arctic ice cap and connected to the other realms slowly narrowed into thin cracks.
Before long, the Nine Realms would return to their proper positions.
The projection of Asgard’s Golden Palace above the ice began fading as well.
But as it slowly disappeared, Mike seemed to hear a voice.
It sounded old, but carried unmistakable authority.
“Mike Ametra.” Mike froze.
Then he looked toward the fading image of the Golden Palace, where a majestic figure had vaguely appeared.
“Odin?” He immediately recognized both the voice and the figure.
At that very moment, Odin stood inside the Golden Palace, looking through the projection at Mike sitting on the Arctic ice cap on Earth.
“I am sorry for what happened to you.
I failed to properly discipline my son.” Mike gave a dismissive laugh, showing no respect at all to the god-king whose reign was nearing its end.
“Save the apology.
Just hand Loki over to me.” If apologies were enough, there would be no need for law or punishment.
Mike only wanted Loki dead.
Odin did not become angry at his response.
His voice remained as calm as before.
“Loki is already dead.” Mike’s eyebrows rose.
“What?” He stared at Odin through the fading projection.
“Yes.
Loki died in Svartalfheim.” “After Malekith died, the dark flames of Svartalfheim were extinguished, and the realm descended into eternal darkness.” “The remaining Dark Elves emerged from their hiding places and launched a suicidal attack against Loki, Volstagg, and the other two who were still in Svartalfheim.” “While they were waiting for Heimdall to open the Bifrost, Loki stayed behind to protect the other three.
He was caught in the Dark Elves’ self-destruction and remained in Svartalfheim forever.” Mike fell silent.