Endless, roiling clouds gathered above New York, swirling into a vast vortex. Pale blue lightning, raw and untamed, roared within the maelstrom, striking down in jagged forks like the inverted branches of the World Tree. The thunder, lightning, and storm celebrated the birth of a new god.
And at its center stood Loki, cradling Thor in his arms.
The silver armor of Thor was now his, fitting his slender frame as if it had been forged for him alone. Mjolnir, the hammer he could never before stir, now felt as light as a feather in his grasp. A powerful force, unlike anything he had ever known, boiled in his body. Divine power surged through him, lightning flowed in his veins—he was the God of Thunder. It was a power he had coveted his entire life.
But at this moment, it brought him no joy. The cost of lifting this hammer was too heavy, a weight he could not bear.
"No matter what form you take, it changes nothing."
Ebony Maw looked at Loki, his initial shock already fading. He quickly regained his composure, a cold arrogance returning to his features.
"Be careful, Maw," Supergiant's voice warned in his mind.
But Ebony Maw dismissed the caution. To hold an Infinity Stone was to grasp a fundamental truth of the universe. There was nothing left to fear. A seed of rebellion against Thanos had already taken root in his heart, though he kept it hidden for now. If he felt this way about his master, his contempt for Loki was boundless. Minutes ago, this prince was a rat scurrying at his feet. What difference did one hammer make?
"Why the anger, Loki?" Ebony Maw sneered.
Loki ignored him. He was as silent and terrible as the storm gathering overhead. A suffocating pressure descended upon the battlefield, a promise of the violence to come. Gently, Loki laid Thor down. He brushed a palm across his brother's cheek, and the Casket's cold power flowed from him, encasing Thor's body in a sheath of protective ice.
With that done, Loki stood and fixed his glare on Ebony Maw.
"The so-called gods of Asgard are nothing but pathetic creatures, inflated by their own self-importance," Maw continued, his voice dripping with disdain. "To see the son of Odin die in such a humiliating fashion is—"
BOOM!
A gale-force wind erupted from Loki. The red cloak billowed behind him, a divine fire ignited by his unquenchable rage.
"Shut. Up."
He clenched his fist around Mjolnir's haft, lightning crackling in his eyes. He stared at Ebony Maw, and the sky answered his fury. Two beams of pure electricity shot from his eyes.
The sudden attack startled Maw. He reacted instantly, waving an arm as a wall of ice erupted from the ground to shield him. The lightning shattered it before he could even register a breath of relief.
Then, a shadow, faster than the lightning itself, was upon him.
Wrapped in angry thunder, Mjolnir flew, a silver comet piercing the darkness. It carried the full weight of Loki's infinite grief and rage, and it slammed into Ebony Maw's chest. For a split second, Maw felt as if he had been struck by the core of a dying star. The force was enough to atomize him. Only by instinctively activating the Space Stone, creating a warped barrier around his body, did he survive.
Even so, the impact was catastrophic. Maw was blasted backward, tearing through several city blocks before being buried under a mountain of rubble. He felt as if every bone in his body had been shattered. He tried to move, but he couldn't. Mjolnir was pinning him to the earth, an absolute weight he could not overcome.
He reached for the Tesseract's power, trying to teleport the hammer away, but it was too late. Loki descended from the sky, a vengeful god wreathed in lightning. He landed directly on Maw's outstretched arm, snapping it with a sickening crunch and interrupting the spell.
He bent down, and his fists, crackling with storm energy, fell upon Ebony Maw like a pile driver.
"How dare you kill Thor!"
CRUNCH.
"How dare you kill my brother!"
CRACK.
Loki was lost to madness, attacking with a ferocity that was less a fight and more a desperate, violent venting of his own soul. He was angry at Maw, but he was furious with his own weakness. Every punch that landed was punctuated by a terrible peal of thunder.
Maw, even protected by the Stone's energy, could only endure. He spat a mouthful of black blood and managed a wheezing taunt. "You should thank me. Beneath the throne of the great Thanos, you yourself spoke of killing your brother. I merely did you the favor."
Loki's fist smashed Maw's face deeper into the foundation.
"Are you even worthy of that name?" Maw choked out.
The taunt struck home, but it only fueled Loki's rage. The Tesseract's energy shield began to crack and spiderweb under the relentless assault. Lightning, like a ferocious serpent, tore the shield to pieces and bit into Maw's flesh. He screamed in agony, his sinister eyes burning with malicious hatred. He didn't understand why Supergiant and Cull Obsidian had not come to his aid.
He didn't know that they had their own problem. After smashing The Other's head, the Hulk had charged into the blizzard, crashing into the two members of the Black Order. Unlike the other female warrior, Proxima Midnight, Supergiant lacked physical strength. Faced with the unstoppable rage of the Hulk, she was immediately on the defensive. Cull Obsidian, on a moment of distraction, was swatted aside with contemptuous ease.
Maw was on his own. With a final, desperate surge of will, he shoved his one good arm toward Loki's chest. A powerful wave of telekinesis blasted Loki away. Freed, Maw immediately activated the Tesseract, tearing open a portal behind him and teleporting his body out from under Mjolnir's crushing weight. The hammer fell to the ground with a dull thud.
Loki righted himself in mid-air, arcs of lightning lashing out from his body and incinerating several nearby Chitauri skiffs. He didn't care. All that mattered was vengeance. He spotted Maw on a street thick with ice, his face a hideous mask of burns and hatred. Both of them wanted the other dead.
Loki said nothing. He clenched his fists and dove.
The raw divine power erupting from him whipped his red cloak into a frenzy. Facing the attack, Maw was no longer on the back foot. His eyes darkened as he raised his hand to the sky.
A god-like power answered.
BOOM!
The entire city of New York shook as if in the throes of a massive earthquake. The energy of the Tesseract expanded in a wave of blue light, enveloping everything. Loki watched in horror as the very street Maw stood on was torn from the earth. Entire city blocks, ripped from their foundations, rose into the air like divine spears aimed at the heavens. The city had become a plaything in Ebony Maw's hands.
"Do you see, Loki? This is the power of a god!" Maw roared, drunk on his own might. "You should surrender to me!"
As his voice echoed, the floating skyscrapers, parks, and avenues rushed toward Loki like a fleet of speeding trains. The sight was surreal, attracting the attention of everyone left in the city.
"If we get many more enemies like this, Stark Industries is going to go bankrupt," Tony muttered over the comms, watching the devastation. As the team's primary benefactor, he was already calculating the damages.
"How much could it cost?" T'Challa's calm voice replied. "Wakanda will pay for it."
Back in the sky, the city was collapsing inward on Loki. He tried to dodge, but the wave of urban destruction was too fast, too vast. He was hit by one building, then another, then a hundred more. In an instant, a colossal sphere of concrete, steel, and glass formed in the sky, trapping him at its core.
Ebony Maw looked at his creation, a makeshift planet of urban decay, and couldn't help but marvel at his own power. "This is the power a god should have," he said excitedly. With the Infinity Stones, who could possibly oppose him? Not even Thanos. Why pursue destiny when you could become destiny?
But his ambition was about to be buried forever.
Inside the sphere, Loki was being crushed. The Tesseract's power compressed the buildings inward, squeezing the air from his lungs, grinding his bones. He could feel space itself beginning to warp and collapse. If this continued, it would form a black hole and swallow the Earth.
Pain was secondary. What truly tormented him was the crushing weight of his failure. Thor had died to save him, and what had he done? He had lifted the hammer only to bring disgrace to his brother's name. He was no match for Maw. Thor's sacrifice had become a joke.
If Thor were here now, he would have won. Thor was always invincible.
Loki's consciousness began to fade. As darkness consumed him, a single point of light appeared in the distance.
In that light stood Odin, clad in battle armor, astride his eight-legged steed, Sleipnir. He held the spear Gungnir, and he rode upon the shimmering light of the Bifrost. For the first time since his exile, Loki basked in the warmth of the Rainbow Bridge.
Looking at the tall, majestic All-Father, Loki was overwhelmed. He felt shame for what he had done, anger at the truths Odin had hidden, and a fresh wave of grief for stealing everything that belonged to his brother. What would Odin do? Would he strip him of this power, just as he had done to Thor? Loki trembled, his heart filled with dread.
But the old, dying king simply walked up to him, his one eye filled with a deep, ancient sorrow. Odin opened his arms and embraced him.
"I am proud of you."
At those four words, all of Loki's defenses, all his resentment, crumbled into dust. He shook his head, trying to pull away. "But I am not your son…" he whispered, not as an accusation, but as a statement of his own unworthiness. All of this—the hammer, the power, a father's love—was never meant for him.
Odin gently wiped a tear from Loki's cheek. "Don't let your mother hear you say that," he said softly. "She would be too sad to eat."
Suddenly, Loki burst into tears, the sobs wracking his entire body.
Odin held him close. "I am sorry, my son," the All-Father whispered. "I was so focused on Thor… I neglected you."
It was an apology from a father to his child, Loki just shook his head, all his past grievances forgotten. "Let's go home, Father."
But Odin pulled back. "You will come home, my child. But not yet." He waved a hand, and an image of Ebony Maw appeared in the void. Loki remembered his enemy, and the despair returned.
"I lost, Father. I am no match for him."
"That is because you have not truly accepted your power," Odin said, his voice firm. "You are a child of Asgard and Jotunheim. There is no shame in the blood of the Frost Giants that flows in your veins, my son. You can be the king of both realms."
"I… the king of Asgard?" Loki was stunned. "But I can't. I am not qualified. No one would recognize me…"
"Of course you are," Odin interrupted, his gaze piercing. "You have proven you are worthy."
"Because I lifted the hammer?"
Odin shook his head and pointed a finger at Loki's heart. "No. Because you have the heart of a king. You were ready to sacrifice yourself. As that Midgardian friend of yours has shown, what matters is the person you decide to be, not the choice of a hammer. He is not of Sakaar, yet he can become its son. So can you."
"You know…"
Odin stroked Loki's head lovingly. "I have only one eye, my son, but I can still see what happens to my children. The road ahead will be dangerous, and you must carry these burdens on your own." His gaze looked past Loki, into the depths of darkness, seeing past, present, and future all at once.
"Now, child, wake up. Defeat your enemy. And then bring Thor home to Asgard. As long as you are there, he will not die."
"Then, I will crown you with my own hands."
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