Lucci's palace stood beside the massive roots of the World Tree, surrounded by rich energy and elegant scenery.
At this moment, Lucci sat leisurely beneath a golden tree, reading an old book that recorded the strange phenomena of the universe among cloud-covered branches.
To him, analyzing the origin of all things was far more interesting than fighting or killing.
Then, from far to near, a loud laugh shattered the quiet.
"Lucci! I'm coming!"
Boom!
A dazzling figure wrapped in thunder crashed down from the sky, smashing into the lawn before the palace and blasting up dirt and grass.
It was Thor—fresh from obtaining Mjolnir, brimming with confidence.
He raised the silver warhammer high. Electric serpents danced around its head, crackling violently as an oppressive storm aura spread in all directions.
"Lucci!"
"Get up and fight me again!"
Thor pointed the hammer at Lucci, voice soaring. "Today I wash away my shame! Come—let me show you the true power of Thor!"
His momentum was indeed more than a tier stronger than before. The violent force of lightning made the surrounding space ripple faintly.
But facing that domineering challenge, Lucci's reaction made it feel like Thor was punching cotton.
Lucci didn't even lift his head. He calmly flipped a page and said lightly:
"Not interested."
The tone was like refusing a salesman—blunt, perfunctory, full of disregard.
Thor's grin froze instantly.
Not interested?
I, Thor, the great prince of Asgard, acknowledged by Mjolnir, power soaring, have come to duel—
And you say…
Not interested?
Rage exploded straight into Thor's skull.
What humiliation!
"Fine!"
Thor roared, fully enraged. He stopped talking and decided to force Lucci to move with action.
"Take this hammer!"
He swung Mjolnir down with fury, pouring divine power into it without hesitation.
"Storm Thunder!"
Rumble—
In an instant, the sky changed!
The clear heavens were swallowed by dark clouds. Countless electric serpents whipped through them, releasing ear-splitting thunder.
Buckets of lightning crashed down from the sky under Mjolnir's pull, gathering around Thor to form a destructive thunderstorm.
The entire palace was engulfed. Sand and stone flew. Winds screamed. The power was terrifying.
If this strike landed in the outside world, it could flatten a hill.
Thor believed that before such might, even Lucci would have to take it seriously.
But just as the power was about to descend, Lucci's indifferent voice sounded again.
"Stop."
Lucci finally closed his book and lifted his head. He looked at the roaring storm and shook his head faintly.
There was no solemnity, no surprise in his eyes.
Only a trace of…
Disappointment.
"This isn't 'using a hammer.'"
"This is 'picking up a hammer.'"
"You're not riding thunder and lightning…"
"You're just passively releasing lightning."
Lucci's words were like a basin of icy water poured over Thor's head, leaving him stunned.
Using a hammer?
Passive release?
What did that mean?
As Thor's confusion and anger tangled together, Lucci reached out gently in Thor's direction.
The next moment, a scene that shocked Thor and shattered his worldview happened again.
Bzzz—
Mjolnir, in Thor's hand, seemed to hear a supreme call. It let out an excited, cheerful hum!
Then—ignoring Thor completely—it tore free from his grip with enormous force, slipping straight out of his clenched palm.
"What?!"
Thor stared in shock as the hammer turned into a silver streak—
Whoosh!
It flew joyfully—and even irritably—straight to Lucci.
The whole process was smooth, without the slightest hesitation.
Without Mjolnir's guidance, the storm clouds instantly dispersed.
"This… what is happening?"
Thor stood there, completely blank, staring at his empty hands, then at the hammer before Lucci.
Mjolnir circled Lucci affectionately like a puppy, its electric glow flickering as if screaming:
I finally found my true master!
"Mjolnir?!" Thor shouted in disbelief.
"Come back! Come back!"
But Mjolnir ignored him entirely, still happily pleasing its new owner.
"You… how can you do that?"
Thor trembled with anger, pointing at the hammer as if he'd been betrayed by the heaviest thing in the world.
"I'm your master!"
"I was just—just holding you!"
His tone sounded like a resentful abandoned lover.
The whole scene was humiliatingly funny.
Thor's newly built confidence was shattered once again by Lucci in a way he couldn't understand.
All that remained in his mind was—
Why?
What is this?
Why?!
Lucci remained calm as he watched Thor slump into self-doubt.
"Watch carefully," Lucci said lightly, holding Mjolnir.
"This is called a true thunder method."
As he spoke, he casually tossed Mjolnir into the air and activated the Ten-Thousand Sovereigns Thunder Art.
"Spear of Divine Sky!"
Bzzz—
Instantly, above the ninefold heavens, thunder exploded from the void.
One after another, "divine thunder" far purer than anything Thor had summoned erupted in golden light and descended—drawn by an unseen power.
This was no longer violent, chaotic energy.
Like the most obedient soldiers, the thunder rapidly converged, compressed, and took shape under Lucci's will.
In a blink, a thunder spear formed with Mjolnir as its tip—one hundred meters long, golden divine lightning condensed to the extreme, radiating supreme judgment and destruction.
Countless tiny thunder runes appeared and vanished along its body. The space where its tip pointed warped slightly, as if it couldn't bear such masculine, overwhelming power.
Thor stared at the spear in the air, nearly forgetting to breathe.
He felt that in "quantity," the power might not exceed the storm he had just raised.
But in "quality"…
It was utterly different.
If his lightning was ordinary "iron," Lucci's was "steel" forged a thousand times.
This wasn't a difference in degree.
It was a difference in dimension.
But that was only the beginning.
"Net of Divine Punishment!"
Lucci spoke again, fingers shifting. The Spear of Divine Sky instantly collapsed—
Transforming into hundreds of millions of thin, sharp golden threads.
They darted and intertwined in midair, weaving a massive golden net that covered the sky in a second.
A net made purely of the law of thunder and lightning.
Every node flashed with runes that shattered evil and destroyed demons. The aura it emitted seemed capable of erasing any wickedness instantly.
"Ten-Thousand Sovereigns Thunder Prison!"
With Lucci's final move, the net suddenly tightened and transformed into a gigantic lightning-sphere cage, suspending Mjolnir at its center.
Within the cage, ten thousand thunders raced and lightning blazed—like a real hell of thunder.
Yet strangely, none of that violent power leaked even a breath.
All energy was perfectly restrained within.
Finally, Lucci waved his hand, and the heavenly thunder illusion vanished as if it had never existed.
Mjolnir—having been "baptized" in the thunder prison—hummed in satisfaction, shining even brighter, and excitedly flew back toward Lucci.
Unfortunately, Lucci only flicked his finger and bounced it back toward Thor.
Mjolnir hesitated slightly, then flew to Thor.
Thor instinctively caught the hammer, still in extreme shock, unable to regain his senses for a long time.
Spear of Divine Sky…
Net of Divine Punishment…
Ten-Thousand Sovereigns Thunder Prison…
So thunder and lightning…
Could be used like this?
This was true…
Control of thunder.
Compared to Lucci, everything Thor had done before was basically just—
"Hammering."