At the same time, in the Pure Land of One Heart, heaven and earth seemed split into two realms.
Thor stood on the western edge of the training ground, his dark silver armor rippling with liquid silver-white lightning.
Mjolnir hummed reluctantly in his grip, its ancient runes flaring one after another—each pulse summoning thunder from the sky.
His golden hair whipped wildly in the storm of energy, and the lightning in his eyes burned brighter than ever—not with the arrogance of youth, but with the tempered divinity of a god refined by trials.
A hundred meters away, Raiden stood like an abyss given form.
She wore no armor—only a purple-patterned kimono—but her presence radiated more awe than any divine regalia.
Her violet braids drifted as if stirred by unseen winds, arcs of violet electricity crackling from their ends and warping the space around her.
Her hands hung loosely at her sides, palms empty and fair.
Thor frowned at the sight of her unarmed. His voice boomed like rolling thunder:
"Draw your weapon. As you said—I don't want to be branded a victor by unfair means."
Raiden's lips curled into the faintest smile—almost pitying—as she replied with serene arrogance:
"This body is both the strongest weapon and an unbreakable shield."
Thor said no more. He knew words meant nothing before such certainty.
"Then… I'll have to offend you!"
He raised Mjolnir—and a billion silver-white lightning bolts answered his call.
Above the Pure Land, thunderclouds spiraled into a colossal pillar of lightning over a hundred meters wide.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Thor hurled the bolt like a spear. Space itself fractured in its wake.
Raiden finally moved.
She lifted her right hand, fingers splayed.
Sizzle… sizzle…
The star-piercing lightning split the instant it touched her fingertips, veering around her and detonating behind her in a sky-spanning bloom of electric petals.
"A flashy but impractical little trick," she said, voice calm and even.
Thor roared—a sound that shook the earth—and launched himself forward like a bolt of living lightning.
Mjolnir crashed down with enough force to cleave mountains, its radiance turning night into day.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
Even before impact, the pressure alone cratered the ground beneath him.
CLANG—!!!
A deafening explosion echoed across heaven and earth.
Raiden had raised a single hand. Three feet before her palm, a violet shield—smooth as glass and crackling with thunder—materialized.
Mjolnir struck it dead-on. Silver and purple light erupted in a blinding flash, and the shockwave flattened rows of distant torii gates.
CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!
Thor flipped backward, using the recoil to unleash a storm of hammer strikes. Under duress, his combat prowess surged beyond its limits, each blow faster and deadlier than the last.
Yet Raiden blocked them all—with one slender hand.
She didn't retreat a single step. Around her, thousands of violet lightning seals bloomed, intercepting every bolt Thor summoned within three feet.
Silver and violet lightning collided, plasma bursts raining down and carving craters across the training ground.
"Haaaaa!" Thor bellowed, his spirit burning brighter. Mjolnir seemed to resonate with his will, runes surging faster than ever before.
CLANG—!
Suddenly, the hammer tore from his grasp—transforming midair into a roaring thunder dragon that dove like divine judgment.
At the same time, Thor clenched both fists and summoned a storm of heavenly spears—countless bolts of lightning launched like javelins.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Raiden remained expressionless. Before her, three massive violet lightning rings materialized.
The thunder dragon shattered against the first.
The spearstorm pierced the second—only to fizzle out before the third.
"Some progress," she remarked coolly. "But not much."
Then she took a single step forward.
The world shifted color.
From the void emerged countless blades of lightning, each wreathed in ruinous energy.
THUMP—!
They didn't strike Thor—they wove into a vast, humming array around him. Instantly, he felt the weight of the heavens press down upon his shoulders.
"What… what is this power?!" he gasped, struggling to raise Mjolnir as its runes flickered in protest.
In an instant, Raiden appeared before him—her slender fingers wreathed in violet lightning, pointed at his brow.
To Thor, that single gesture held the power to unmake worlds.
He roared and swung Mjolnir upward, silver meeting violet in a cataclysmic clash—
BOOOOM—!!!!
The Pure Land of One Heart trembled. Distant torii gates collapsed like kindling.
The earth beneath Thor's feet splintered like glass. He sank to one knee, barely keeping upright with Mjolnir buried deep in the ground.
Blood seeped through cracks in his armor—but his eyes still burned with defiance.
"That… was awesome! Again!"
He yanked Mjolnir free and rose, unleashing his full divine might.
What followed transcended mortal imagination.
Two figures—one silver-white, one violet—became living storms, their collisions shattering reality with every impact.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Thor's mastery deepened with every exchange. Mjolnir danced in his hands—now a mountain, now a comet.
But the gulf in power remained.
"Haaaa—!!"
He channeled every ounce of his divinity into Mjolnir. The silver-white lightning swelled tenfold, a tidal wave of thunder surging toward her.
Raiden raised her hand—fingers like blades—and from them erupted purplish-black lightning that seemed to tear the heavens asunder.
SIZZLE—!!
Time froze.
Thor watched his storm split down the middle.
He saw Mjolnir's runes dim.
He felt his armor crumble.
BOOM—!
When awareness returned, he lay on his back at the bottom of a massive crater.
His divine power was spent. Even lifting a finger felt impossible.
Mjolnir lay slanted at the crater's edge, its glow reduced to a faint, guttering flicker.
Above him, Raiden stood at the rim—her violet-and-white kimono immaculate, untouched
by dust or destruction.
Thor struggled to sit up, voice hoarse but unbroken:
"I have lost. Your strength… is superior to mine."
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