Loki broke down.
First, he got pinned to the ground and beaten senseless by a monster. Then, his divine artifact was snatched away by another monster. All the cold stares and unfair treatment he'd ever endured in Asgard couldn't compare to the humiliation he suffered in just these few hours on Midgard!
If he knew the one who beat him up and the one who robbed him were actually the same person, he would probably be even angrier.
At this moment, Loki's fury could no longer be extinguished!
With a single thought, the Destroyer, which was already about to shut down, reactivated once again. This time, the Destroyer armor opened up and swallowed Loki inside!
He was going to do it personally, driving the armor with his own life force, using his own hands to wash away the humiliation in blood!
Boom!!!
A terrifying energy surged out from the Destroyer.
The extreme energy made the air scorching hot again. The temperature that had been driven to the lowest point by the Casket of Ancient Winters began to climb rapidly. In just a few seconds, the air temperature around them rose by hundreds of degrees.
If any ordinary Earth human stood here, the heat would steal their life in an instant.
But everyone still standing here was no ordinary person. The heat melted the frost off Steve and the others, restoring their ability to move. Even if it was still hard to breathe, it was better than being unable to take a single step.
"You're crazy, Loki! The Destroyer will kill you!" Thor shouted from afar.
The Destroyer armor carried the divine power of all Asgardians. Fully controlling it was no easy task. It required overwhelming life force to drive it completely.
What Loki was doing was basically suicide!
At a time like this, only Thor was still worrying about Loki. He tried to move closer to the battlefield, but his weakened body couldn't approach at all. The scorching currents roasted his skin in an instant.
Yet to Loki, that concern sounded unbearably sharp.
"You think I can't do it?"
The huge armor began to shrink, gradually fitting Loki's body. The originally flat head reshaped into a pair of sharp horns that jutted straight upward.
Loki revealed his handsome face, but his expression was twisted with rage and humiliation.
"You think I'm inferior to you? That I can only hide behind you, accept your protection, and clap quietly while other Asgardians praise you?"
His voice dripped with jealousy and mockery.
"No, Loki, I…" Thor didn't know how to answer. Just as Loki said, Thor truly believed Loki needed his protection, and he had always treated protecting Loki as his responsibility, his duty.
He felt that as an older brother, it was what he should do. He couldn't understand why Loki would be enraged by it.
He didn't understand any of it, so he could only push forward against the heat wave.
Every second was agony. His entire body burned, and his flowing blond hair and beard curled under the high temperature, giving off a foul smell.
But he didn't stop, until Loki cut him off.
"Enough."
Loki lifted a hand and fired a spell at Thor. It looked vicious, yet by an eerie coincidence it knocked Thor out of the burning zone.
"I don't need your pity…" The Destroyer armor slowly closed, sealing Loki's face inside as well, as if he meant to block out all light and fall completely into darkness.
"Now, I am the King of Asgard."
The King of Asgard did not need pity.
The one who truly deserved pity was Thor, who had become a mortal.
Loki's calm voice was like deep water, carrying a heavy force. In the next instant, with no warning at all, the Destroyer released an enormous blast of energy.
A massive beam shot out, slamming straight into Bant's chest.
"A sneak attack?" Bant immediately crossed his arms. In the rush, he could only form a crystalline shield in front of himself as fast as possible.
Boom!
The annihilating beam roared through, swallowing everything. The shockwave alone sent the others flying.
"Diamond War God!" Steve shouted anxiously.
Even though S.H.I.E.L.D.'s stance toward the Tiangong Association was still extremely unclear, and they even viewed it as a potential enemy, Steve's impression of these aliens who had helped them again and again wasn't bad.
"No one can withstand the Destroyer's attack," Loki said confidently.
And as the radiance faded, the debris scattered across the ground seemed to prove his words.
"Hmph. You brought this on yourself, mortal!" he sneered.
But the next moment, Bant's voice came from that pile of crystal fragments.
"You're celebrating too early."
Then, under everyone's stunned gaze, Bant's body began to rebuild and reorganize. Those shattered crystals reassembled into his original form once more.
The Diamond War God's ability placed him naturally in an unbeatable position.
Unless an attack powerful enough to destroy a planet erased every molecule of his body, he could revive.
He stood back up.
Not a single wound marked his body.
"He looks kind of like a Kronan," Fandral murmured to his companion.
But Sif immediately refuted him. "Those rock-men don't look as handsome as he does."
"Alright, friends, now's not the time to chat. Together!" Bant flexed his newly reconstructed body, raised an arm, and charged at Loki first!
His arm fully transformed into a blade, and he slashed hard at the Destroyer's body.
Sparks burst!
Loki's body swayed slightly, but there was no damage at all.
Seeing Bant lead the charge, the others rushed in as well. The four Asgardian warriors were far stronger than they appeared in the movies. The Warriors Three harassed from the front, while Sif attacked from behind.
Steve swung Mjolnir too, terrifying lightning whipping down again and again as it struck Loki.
The current situation was this: the combined assault from Bant and the others made Loki struggle to defend himself.
But at the same time, with the Destroyer as his shell, their attacks couldn't achieve results. Meanwhile Loki, though completely suppressed in melee, still possessed the Destroyer's enormous energy, and that power was terrifying.
Other than Bant, no one present could withstand the shattering beam.
In truth, Bant could transform into a Frost Giant right now and use the Casket of Ancient Winters to fight Loki head-on.
But he didn't.
Aside from obtaining the Destroyer, Bant had another goal. He wanted to use the Bifrost's power to go to Sakaar.
Sakaar was a massive cosmic junkyard. Space there was extremely unstable, connected to countless different places in the universe. Because of that, all kinds of aliens and alien technology frequently fell into it.
Different alien species meant genes he could collect. Discarded alien tech meant free blueprints and materials. Those were exactly what Bant needed.
And Sakaar was easy to enter, but difficult to leave.
For Bant, whether it was building the Void Zero Realm Prison or establishing the Tiangong Association's headquarters, it was an excellent choice.
Of course, after defeating Loki, he could simply ask the Asgardians to open the Bifrost for him. But then he'd owe them a favor.
If the Asgardians used that to demand he return the Casket of Ancient Winters and the Destroyer, the loss would outweigh the gain.
After weighing everything, Bant decided to manufacture a little "accident."
And Loki, showing off his might right now, just happened to be the perfect excuse to activate the Bifrost.
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