Germany. A once-scenic forest clearing.
It was no longer scenic.
Thor had tossed Loki aside and was now gripping him by the collar, demanding to know why he'd betrayed Asgard, why he'd betrayed his own brother.
Meanwhile, Tony Stark crashed down like a red-gold cannonball.
"Listen here, Thunder Thighs," Tony flipped open his faceplate, visibly annoyed. "I don't care what family drama you've got going on, but that green guy is our prisoner now. Hand him over, or don't blame my baby for getting unfriendly."
"Mortal! You should not interfere in Asgardian affairs!" Thor's temper flared too. He raised Mjolnir.
"Oh? That so? Then let's see about that!" Tony's armor instantly switched to combat mode.
A "friendly exchange" between an Asgardian god and Earth's premier tech billionaire—triggered by a dispute over "brother ownership"—erupted without warning on a peaceful evening in an innocent forest.
And on a cliff not far away—
Cloud sat on a rock with an excellent vantage point, holding a one-liter stein of foamy German dark beer, watching the "blockbuster" unfold below with the air of a seasoned film critic.
"Tsk tsk tsk, I give that entrance an eight. Landing pose was a bit too deliberate though—wasted the impact force. Sloppy."
"Oh oh oh! They're fighting! First verbal provocations, then physical conflict! Classic! Absolutely classic!"
Thor struck first. He spun Mjolnir at high speed, then hurled it with thunderous force!
The warhammer screamed through the air toward Tony.
Tony stood his ground, activating his arc reactor to fire a massive repulsor beam that intercepted the hammer dead-on!
BOOM—!
The violent explosion created a visible shockwave that flattened trees in all directions.
"Nice!" Cloud took a long pull of beer and slapped his thigh with excitement. "Energy clash! I love it! But... this Thunder God is a bit underwhelming."
He shook his head with disdain.
"That lightning is way too soft. All flash and bang, but the energy concentration and penetration are miles off. Back home, there's a girl named Shermie. She looks like a ditzy, sexy big-sister type, but when she calls thunder, she draws down the Nine Heavens Divine Thunder. That purple Judgment Lightning can tear through space itself. Leagues above his hammer-generated physical electricity."
"And this tin can," Cloud's gaze shifted to Tony, "decent design philosophy on the armor—high mobility, high firepower. But... too fragile."
He pointed at Tony's armor joint connections, continuing his professional critique. "See, to maximize flexibility, he's made the armor at the joints especially thin. If our boy K spotted that, he'd laugh his ass off. One Heat Drive or Chain Drive in the right spot and he'd get a live teppanyaki demonstration."
"Sigh, this world's tech tree is completely misaligned. All focused on energy output, completely neglecting structural mechanics and materials science fundamentals. Any random combat suit from our NESTS organization would be sturdier and more durable."
If Tony Stark could hear this, he'd probably cough up three liters of blood, then drag Cloud into three hundred rounds—not to fight, but to defend his dignity as a "genius inventor."
In the forest clearing, the battle had reached its peak.
Tony used his armor's agility to continuously dodge Thor's attacks while counterattacking with various lasers and missiles.
Thor, meanwhile, displayed his godlike physical resilience and strength. He tanked Tony's attacks while swinging his hammer, every strike carrying mountain-shattering force.
"Enough!"
Finally, Thor—pushed to his limit—erupted in rage.
He soared high, raising Mjolnir above his head to summon the storm clouds!
RUMBLE—!
Countless lightning bolts converged on his hammer, forming an unprecedented, world-ending concentration of thunder power!
"Feel the wrath of Asgard!"
He brought down that hammer condensed with ten thousand thunderbolts, smashing toward Tony on the ground!
"JARVIS! Divert all power to shields!" Tony recognized the danger and immediately assumed maximum defensive posture.
It seemed an explosion violent enough to erase this entire area from the map was about to occur.
On the cliff, Cloud—mid-beer-sip—frowned.
"Ugh, enough already."
"If you're gonna fight, fight. Why make such a big scene? My pork knuckle is getting cold."
He was getting annoyed.
He didn't stand up. Didn't even change his posture holding the beer stein.
He simply flicked a finger toward that lightning-filled forest.
Fwip—
A hair-thin, nearly invisible thread of purple-black flame shot from his fingertip.
That flame had no temperature, no luminosity, not even energy fluctuation.
It was like an absolute "error," a "bug" that shouldn't exist in this world.
It sliced silently through the night sky, inserting itself precisely into the critical gap between Mjolnir and the Iron Man armor.
Then...
Nothing happened.
Thor's world-ending hammer strike came down.
Tony's impenetrable shield flared to life.
But the expected explosion never materialized.
The lightning—missed.
The repulsor also fizzled.
Between the two, an invisible, absolute "wall" had appeared.
Thor's hammer was frozen in mid-air. No matter how hard he strained, it wouldn't advance another millimeter.
Tony's armor lost all power, frozen in place like scrap metal.
Both felt themselves—and the surrounding space—"isolated" by some bizarre, incomprehensible force.
Then a bone-deep chill surged from the depths of their souls!
Not physical cold—but the primal terror of a soul being targeted, about to be torn apart!
They stiffly turned their heads.
There, between them, that thread of purple-black flame hovered silently.
It didn't burn. It didn't flicker.
It simply was—as if declaring the presence of Death itself.
Then the flame drifted lazily and struck a small hill several dozen meters high in the distance.
Half of that hill was simply erased from existence.
...
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