To Laufey, King of the Frost Giants, humans were nothing more than ant-like livestock... If slaughtering such livestock could make the Thunder God of Asgard suffer, he would gladly set his eyes on any mortal that Thor cared about.
"Uh..."
Thor was about to explain that he and Herman weren't actually close—in fact, to be precise, they had more than a little bad blood between them.
However…
At that moment, it was as if Loki had possessed him. His mind suddenly sharpened, and he made a particularly devious decision.
"He's my most important friend! If you dare lay a hand on him, I... I won't forgive you!"
Thor raised his arm as though shielding Herman behind him. His expression looked full of anger, though his voice carried a nervous edge.
Truly worthy of someone who had trained as a stripper in a strip club! Even if Herman found the performance a bit too exaggerated and cringeworthy, it still fooled Laufey, making him believe Herman was indeed Thor's dearest friend.
"Then let this be for your father's sake. Now you'll know the pain I once felt."
Laufey's gaze toward Herman grew heavy with murderous intent.
"I'll use it—the weapon Odin stole from me—to take your friend's life!"
The Frost Giant King began channeling the power of the Casket of Ancient Winters.
Herman didn't move. He was curious about the artifact's power. Legend said the casket contained unimaginable cold and darkness—if unleashed at full force, it could freeze all Nine Realms, leaving entire galaxies lifeless and barren.
"Hahahaha! Earth's ants! Scared stiff, aren't you?"
Laufey aimed the power at Herman, but Herman remained still. To the Frost Giants watching, it looked as though their king had frightened him into silence.
Laufey thought the same. After finishing his charge, he didn't release it immediately. Convinced of victory, he grew arrogant.
Trapped in Jotunheim for countless years, he longed for the fear of his enemies—it was his sweetest source of joy.
"You cheap Avatar knockoff, could you hurry it up?"
Herman grew impatient. He actually wanted to experience the chill that could freeze the Nine Realms.
Laufey understood him perfectly. But he chose to turn a deaf ear.
"I know this isn't your fault. But blame yourself for choosing the wrong friend, and blame your weakness. In this world, it is always those with power who decide right and wrong."
He was desperate to show off, too consumed with arrogance to care about what Herman was really saying. His tone was dripping with condescension, as if he expected Herman to fall to his knees and beg for mercy.
Instead, he only saw Herman curl his lip in disdain.
"Do you mean to say I'm wrong, you lowly Midgard human?"
Laufey roared with fury. He had expected fear, expected begging. And since Herman gave him neither, Laufey resorted to spitting out a derogatory term for humans.
Midgard—like "Earth"—was just one of the many names alien races used for the planet.
"No, no, no. I completely agree with you."
Herman flashed a bright smile, glancing at the Casket of Ancient Winters in Laufey's hand.
"Those with power do represent truth."
In the unseen realm, countless streams of death energy began coursing through Herman's smiling body. This was the power of the [Lord of the Dead].
Neither Thor nor Laufey could sense even a trace of this invisible, untouchable force.
"I like your way of thinking. In fact, I wholeheartedly agree with it."
By now, the death energy Herman had released had already spread across the entire city. It wrapped everything in a dense shroud, filling every corner of the air, restless and active, waiting.
It felt as though with just one command, they would indulge in a grand feast, devouring every living soul in the city.
The power that filled the entire city went completely unnoticed by the Frost Giants, Laufey included.
"Hahahaha! This lowly human is trying to curry favor with our king!"
"Such pathetic groveling! Just like the humans before him!"
"Not a single change! What a worthless race!"
The Frost Giants all assumed Herman was attempting to flatter Laufey. Even Laufey himself believed it. He wore a satisfied smile, casting a proud glance at Thor, as if to say, your friend has already surrendered to my might.
"Don't you dare hurt my friend!"
The God of Thunder roared. Yet he had no intention of intervening, even pulling back the hand he had raised earlier to shield Herman.
Not only that. Perhaps fearing collateral damage, Thor quietly shifted a few steps to the side. For him, Herman clashing with the Frost Giants wasn't necessarily a bad thing. Thor knew very well that King Laufey stood little chance of victory—even with the artifact, the Casket of Ancient Winters in hand.
What Thor truly wanted was to use Laufey as a tool, observing Herman's strength firsthand. It was far better than seeking Herman out himself and taking a beating. Only by testing Herman's power could Thor figure out how to train in response.
Thor's plan was shrewd and calculated.
"....."
Herman couldn't help but be a little amused. "Iron Dummy" really had started to show a bit of kingly wisdom—he even grasped the tactic of setting wolves against tigers. It seemed Thor had indeed grown during this time.
Still, his acting was painfully exaggerated. Perhaps that sort of style really was what strip clubs favored?
As for the looming threat, Herman didn't take it seriously at all. After all, the Casket of Ancient Winters wasn't the Infinity Gauntlet studded with five Infinity Stones. To truly threaten a Sky Father–level being like him, it would have to be wielded by another Sky Father.
And the King of the Frost Giants?
At best, he was a quasi–Sky Father, slightly stronger than Thor. Hardly among the strongest of his kind.
The gap in life's tiers wasn't something a single artifact could bridge.
"Kill him! Kill him!"
"Sacrifice him! Let his blood herald our new age!"
The Frost Giants raised their arms in frenzied cheers. To these young giants, who had grown up in the wilds on legends of the Casket of Ancient Winters, it was the mightiest artifact in all existence.
Now that their king had reclaimed it, they were certain he would lead them to a new era of glory. Any foe that stood in their way would be crushed to dust by their king's hand.
Seeing this, Herman couldn't help but sigh again.
It wasn't just a matter of strength. Compared to Asgard, the Frost Giants' vision was far too narrow.
They had no idea of the far more terrifying forces that existed across the cosmos. Even Laufey himself still believed the Casket of Ancient Winters was an invincible relic.
A race so narrow-minded was destined to fail.
"I'm glad you agree with me," Laufey sneered, "but I still have to kill you. To die beneath our sacred relic is an honor you should cherish."
His grin widened, sharp teeth bared.
"The Hammer God was right," Herman said calmly, his gaze steady on Laufey. "You really do excel at making terrible decisions."
He knew Laufey's history well.
Many years ago, this creature had led the Frost Giants in an attempt to seize Earth's warm lands. Though Frost Giants did not fear the cold, they still needed fertile ground to produce food.
In Laufey's mind, Earth was an easy conquest. But Odin stood in his way.
How to put it? Even if Odin hadn't intervened... Laufey could never have conquered Earth. The very idea was absurd.
As the absolute center of the Marvel Universe, the Celestials' chosen testing ground, Earth carried a destiny and fortune ten thousand times greater than the Frost Giants could ever bear.
Of course, Laufey never knew that. His plans were ruined, and after his defeat, Odin confined the Frost Giants to the most remote region of Jotunheim. In truth, Odin had deliberately spared them a path of survival.
Had they remained in Jotunheim, their lives might have been harsh, but at least they could have endured, reproducing and surviving. For years, the Frost Giants had lived in relative stability—until Laufey made his current suicidal move.
This was his second act of self-destruction.
He led his army out of Jotunheim.
Whether in the original timeline or now in this assault on Earth, the outcome was the same: Laufey had doomed the Frost Giants to extinction.
"A last-ditch counterattack before death? Heh, what a despicable race."
Laufey, King of the Frost Giants, thought Herman was just putting on a brave front with no way out. Without hesitation, he unleashed the energy stored within the Casket of Ancient Winters.
"Damn it! He means to drag me into this too!"
Thor immediately sensed the energy fluctuations. Having wielded the artifact before, he instantly understood Laufey's intent.
"Much as I'd love to see how strong you really are—so I can better prepare for my future 'revenge'—I've no desire to be frozen into an ice sculpture!"
After speaking to Herman, Thor raised Mjolnir high, drawing down lightning from the heavens.
Dark clouds once again churned across the sky, countless bolts of lightning flashing within them, their thunder rolling through the entire city.
The storm winds howled, hurling rubble and wrecked cars into the air. Even the Frost Giants struggled to stand against the gale.
"Die together, both of you!"
From the very beginning, Laufey had intended to wipe out both Herman and Thor in one strike. Deep blue energy burst from the Casket of Ancient Winters.
That terrifying cold gathered into a pillar of light, racing toward their position with shocking speed. Its chill was so absolute it seemed capable of freezing time and space itself. Everything caught within its reach slowed to a standstill.
"Ice cannot freeze my thunder!"
As lightning flared in Thor's eyes, the thunder in the skies responded to his call, crashing down into the Mjolnir he held aloft.
In an instant, the hammer blazed with blinding electricity, violent thunder surging within it.
"My father defeated you—and so can I!"
The God of Thunder once more radiated majesty. With a mighty heave, he hurled Mjolnir forward.
Along its path, the ground was ripped apart by roaring winds and lightning, scattering stone and debris in all directions.
"Boom!"
The freezing ray unleashed by the Casket of Ancient Winters clashed violently with Mjolnir mid-air. A shockwave rippled outward, distorting the very space around them.
"Boom!"
Space itself twisted and collapsed. Everything caught in the collision's radius—cars, buildings, roads—was reduced to its most basic particles, utterly annihilated.
And still, Mjolnir and the Casket of Ancient Winters continued to struggle against each other.
"Since ancient times, the one on the left always loses."
Herman cast a quiet glance at Thor, who stood to the left, already certain that the Thunder God wouldn't last more than three minutes.
It wasn't superstition.
It was the disparity in power.
Herman could see it clearly.
Mjolnir's might was formidable, but once thrown, it lacked any sustained power. How could it possibly stand against the endless energy of the Casket of Ancient Winters?
"Laufey, a so-called quasi–Sky Father... and yet clearly the weakest of the weak. Wielding an artifact capable of freezing the Nine Realms, and this is all you can manage?"
Herman sneered inwardly at the King of the Frost Giants.
A weapon with star-system-level destructive potential, reduced to mere city-level devastation. This was worse than a child behind the wheel of a truck.
"Now's the time."
Herman made his judgment, and sure enough, Mjolnir, after releasing all of its stored power, lost momentum. With no strength left to sustain it, the hammer was flung away by the sheer impact of the frigid ray. The beam of freezing energy pressed forward, unstoppable, straight toward Herman and Thor.
"This thing really packs a punch!"
Thor reacted quickly. Lightning flared around him, and with a sudden burst he rolled across the ground in an ungainly tumble, barely avoiding the freezing beam's path.
"Watch out!"
Thor shouted, but Herman didn't move at all. His face was expressionless as he allowed the frigid ray to engulf him.
Herman had wanted to experience this incomplete power for himself. After all, back when he had first awakened his healing ability, he had let someone chop straight into his shoulder without hesitation. Compared to that, this attack didn't pressure him in the slightest.
The light of the freezing ray swallowed his entire figure.
"Hahahaha! A pathetic insect! All you can do is stand and wait for death!" Laufey, King of the Frost Giants, placed absolute faith in the Casket of Ancient Winters.
He believed this was a weapon Odin himself had once avoided. For a mere Earthling, even a touch should have been enough to freeze him into an eternal block of ice.
"Thor! Do you feel it now? The pain of losing your dearest friend!" Laufey turned to Thor, expecting to savor the sight of his collapse.
However—
"I think you're the one courting death." Thor's expression was conflicted. He summoned Mjolnir back to his hand but made no move to attack.
His voice was hoarse, almost as if fear had gripped him.
"Heh? From you?"
Laufey assumed Thor was lashing out in rage, spitting empty threats.
"Maybe you should look from where I'm standing..." Thor's eyes remained fixed on the impact point of the frigid ray. His voice trembled as he spoke.
"What?"
Laufey froze, confused.
And then—
"Such pitiful strength... wasting so much of my time."
A sigh echoed from within the freezing beam.
"I must admit, I'm disappointed."
To the horror of Laufey and the surrounding Frost Giants, a figure wreathed in golden flames emerged, striding step by step through the icy torrent until he stood before their king.
"To disappoint me like this... you truly are seeking your own death."
Before Laufey could react, Herman's hand shot out, gripping his throat and forcing him down to his knees.
"You... how is this possible!?"
Laufey's face twisted in terror. He struggled to lift his head, wanting to roar, but his gaze met Herman's eyes—burning with golden light.
In that instant, overwhelming fear consumed him.
From Herman's eyes, he felt only an immense, crushing majesty.
One that allowed no blasphemy.
One filled with a cold indifference that chilled him to the bone.