Bant froze the moment he heard that name.
"Red King?"
As far as he knew, Sakaar's ruler was the Grandmaster. And the Grandmaster was blue-skinned, so there was no way anyone would call him the Red King.
That meant the true master of Sakaar was someone else.
Honestly, that was good news for Bant. The Grandmaster, as one of the Elders of the Universe, had unclear combat power. If they really fought, Bant didn't have full confidence he could win.
As for this so-called Red King, Bant, whose knowledge of Marvel comics was shallow and mostly secondhand, had never heard of him.
He only knew that Hulk had once come to this planet, ruled Sakaar, and even formed an Avengers army here to attack Earth. As for the exact details, he didn't know.
But Red King or Green King, it made little difference to him.
He was here to become the new king.
With that thought, Bant steadied himself, pressed his lips together, and waited for what came next.
Only Loki still hadn't learned to behave. He kept shouting at the side, and after learning Valkyrie was a Valkyrie, he put on a "kingly" attitude and demanded she serve him.
It made Bant feel like this Loki was very different from the one in his memory.
But when Bant thought again, the original Loki really was like this. Inferior to Thor and insecure about his bloodline and origins, yet at the same time proud to the bone of being an Asgardian prince.
Only after being defeated on Earth, then forced to kneel under Thanos's throne, did his personality truly change.
To put it simply, Loki still hadn't been beaten enough yet.
Valkyrie didn't hold back on Loki at all.
This brat claimed he was an Odinson and thought that title would make Valkyrie obey him. But the moment he brought up Odin, Valkyrie's PTSD hit hard. She hammered the neurotoxin trigger like she was smashing a bad mood button, shocking Loki until his eyes rolled back.
Then she tilted her head and glanced at Bant.
Bant hurriedly waved his hands. "Don't look at me. I'm not Asgardian."
"I can tell. You don't have divine power," Valkyrie said. She looked Bant over, then looked at Loki twitching on the floor, and shook her head in disappointment. "I thought something the Bifrost sent down would be a valuable treasure. Selling you two probably won't even make much money."
"Not necessarily." Bant hooked a thumb toward Loki. "He's an Odinson. His strength is trash, but his status is real. That should fetch a high price, right?"
"You're right," Valkyrie admitted, a little worried. "But what if the Red King doesn't dare take him?"
Asgard's reputation shook the cosmos. There wasn't a single interstellar civilization that hadn't heard of the mighty Realm Eternal. Valkyrie wasn't sure whether the Red King had the guts to buy Loki.
"What's there to fear?" Bant said. "Odin's in the Odin Sleep right now, and Loki tried to seize the throne. He's a criminal exiled by the Bifrost. Who's going to care about him?"
Right now, the only person who might come to save Loki was Thor. Unfortunately, Thor hadn't even regained his divine power yet, and even Mjolnir had fallen into Steve's hands.
But in reality, Steve Rogers hadn't forcibly taken Mjolnir.
After the battle with the Destroyer ended, Steve主动ly set the hammer down and wanted to return it to Thor.
Nick was heartbroken, but he didn't say anything.
Of course he wanted to keep Mjolnir in his own hands. He wanted to tell the Asgardian visitors that this hammer was extremely dangerous and must be strictly guarded by S.H.I.E.L.D.!
But he wasn't blind to the situation either.
Asgard really did have nuclear weapons, the Bifrost.
A planet-killing weapon that could strike across interstellar distances with pinpoint accuracy made Nick Fury's mind a lot clearer.
Even so, while they were willing to return the hammer, Thor was the one who dropped the ball.
He couldn't get it up.
No, he couldn't lift it.
From the time he was exiled to Earth until now, after all he'd gone through, this was the first time Thor had touched Mjolnir again.
Before this, he had never imagined he wouldn't be able to lift it. But now, reality slapped him hard across the face.
"No! Mjolnir!"
Thor broke down too.
He fell to his knees, and it felt like snow was falling in the scorching desert.
Nick Fury's face stayed like a poker face on the outside, but inside he was practically laughing. His grin was harder to suppress than an AK's recoil.
Thor, Thor. I gave you a chance and you still couldn't use it!
Looks like Mjolnir has to be taken into S.H.I.E.L.D. custody after all.
At this moment, he really wanted to shout: "Heaven's mandate is mine!"
Thanos: ???
I'm the one with the mandate!
Of course, even though he was happy inside, he still had to put on a regretful look on the surface and said quietly, "Looks like the hammer doesn't acknowledge you for now. But don't rush. Maybe it's just a little rebellious, you know. Teenagers are like that… Oh right, I heard anyone who can lift this hammer is qualified to be King of Asgard? What do you think of our Captain? Alright, just kidding…"
Noticing the unfriendly looks from the Asgardian warriors, Nick immediately reined it in a little, but he still spoke in the tone of parents who insist on "keeping" your New Year's lucky money for you.
"How about this, then. We'll have S.H.I.E.L.D. keep the hammer for now. Hey, not confiscating it, just keeping it safe! When you can lift it in the future, we'll return it to you. Otherwise, if it stays out here in the wilderness and someone steals it, what then? Even if no one steals it, wind and rain, sun and heat, that's not good either. What if it rusts?"
Hearing that, the four Asgardian warriors all rolled their eyes.
This was Thor's hammer!
As if it could rust.
But Thor looked heartbroken anyway. He really couldn't bear to let his precious hammer sleep out in the open.
So Nick Fury had Captain America take the hammer away. After all the commotion, New Mexico returned to calm once more.
And Thor, having lost his divine power, ultimately didn't choose to return to Asgard.
Back on Sakaar.
After Bant told Valkyrie that Loki could sell for a huge price, the Valkyrie's attitude toward Bant became much better.
"You look pretty sharp. Want to be my assistant?" she said. "Anyway, once I sell him first, I won't be short on money for a while. When I'm out of money for booze later, it won't be too late to sell you too."
Being an assistant to a beautiful Valkyrie?
That temptation was real.
But Bant shook his head without hesitation. "Forget it. I can only stay here for a month. After a month, school starts again. If my uncle and aunt find out I skipped class to go to an alien planet, they'll kill me!"
You're already in outer space and you're still thinking about school?
Valkyrie couldn't understand it, but she was deeply shocked.
"How old are you?" she asked.
"Sixteen. You?" Bant asked back out of instinct.
Valkyrie: …
This thousands-of-years-old auntie pursed her lips and said dryly, "Try surviving one month first."
Then she thought about it and added, "You're lucky. The current arena champion isn't interested in weak opponents. If you can handle the others, maybe you'll live for a while."
"You mean… her?" Bant asked.
/-\
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