Chapter 41: The Hammer is Metal, so It's Under Magneto's Control (Four-Thousand-Word Chapter)
So, Loki was secretly protecting Thor after all. He talked as if he wanted his brother dead, but he wouldn't allow anyone else to so much as touch a hair on Thor's head.
In reality, Du Wa had detected his presence the moment Loki began to walk back and forth.
Indeed, Du Wa had no magic or divine power, and he couldn't see the invisible Loki with his own eyes. But he hadn't forgotten that he possessed countless Xenomorphs, which was equivalent to possessing countless "eyes."
As Loki moved, he inevitably disturbed the ground. The sand and dust, the motes floating in the air, the currents of the air itself—all of this fell within the perceptual range of the Xenomorphs, his weapons of war. Even without seeing Loki, by focusing on this subtle information, Du Wa could detect his presence and movements.
It was just that Du Wa never pointed it out. If Loki's invisibility spell were truly flawless and could ignore the most basic physical rules of the universe, he wouldn't have needed to compete with Thor at all; he could have easily pinned him down and beaten him.
To be honest, the moment Loki discovered the Queen, Du Wa was already assessing whether the Queen could kill Loki on her own.
The result of his analysis was: impossible.
The reason was simple. While the Queen's strength was terrifying, the Loki of this universe, in terms of strength, was most likely not the version from the movies—or rather, the Loki from Universe 199999.
A normal Loki, not to mention his powerful divine power and magic, was the famous God of Mischief in the Nine Realms—a reputation that wasn't just for show.
To mention just one thing: Loki's self-healing ability was even stronger than Wolverine's!
Even if Loki stood there motionless and let people try to kill him, he would be incredibly difficult to kill!
Furthermore, as a descendant of the Frost Giants, Loki possessed a powerful bloodline. He had also received a thousand years of meticulous training from Odin and Frigga and was fully equipped. He himself was treacherous to the bone and, unlike the reckless Thor, rarely revealed a weakness.
Therefore, Loki had enough confidence to proclaim himself the second-greatest archmage of the Nine Realms in front of Kaecilius, and Du Wa, who was monitoring him from afar through the Xenomorphs, had to admit it too.
Kaecilius, however, wouldn't admit it. As the Ancient One's chief disciple and Dormammu's meticulously trained top enforcer, he couldn't believe he would lose to an Asgardian!
Even if the opponent was a god!
"You do have some skill, to have reached such a high level in both divine power and magic. I see, you must be Loki, the God of Mischief? But you've only accumulated this much strength because of your long lifespan!"
Kaecilius whipped out Cyttorak's Crimson Chains, lashing out viciously at Loki, only for it to pass right through him. He sneered and taunted, "If I had a thousand years to train, forget divine power, even if I only practiced magic, I could kill you in a single move!"
He had only been training for a few decades to reach his current level!
Loki continuously used magic spells, creating numerous afterimages of his body. He frowned slightly; he had to admit that this sorcerer from Midgard was indeed powerful.
No wonder he had earned the favor and tutelage of both the Ancient One and Dormammu.
But he was still no match for Loki!
"This world has never been fair, has it? Some are born as the offspring of gods, while others are born with a lowly status; some can do anything and gain everyone's approval, while others, no matter how hard they try, will always fall short!"
Loki thought of Thor, who had once been radiant in Asgard, and the hatred in his heart surged. The feeling of jealousy almost consumed his mind.
Kaecilius sneered, "Absurd. Birth is just an excuse. I, on the other hand, relied on years of hard work to gain the strength to kill an evil god like you!"
"You've made a fatal mistake, and that is to severely underestimate the strength of a deity... mortal."
Loki created numerous avatars, desperately dodging the Crimson Chains. If he were struck by that thing, Loki felt that no matter how powerful his self-healing ability was, it would be a painful experience. This was a whip formed from demonic power borrowed from Cyttorak!
The two archmages were now fighting with real killing intent, madly throwing powerful magic spells as if they were free, whether it was to cement their own title as the second-greatest archmage or to quickly kill their opponent and clear the obstacle to their plans.
But one thing was certain: after this battle, both of them would need a very long time to recover. Who knew just how terrible their physical and mental states would be after paying the price to the various multiversal entities.
Considering the talent and backing of the two, those multiversal bigwigs probably wouldn't suck them completely dry.
"How exciting. A contest of magic. Just how strong must the Ancient One be?"
Du Wa monitored their fight while simultaneously pressing down on and pummeling an enhanced Deviant. His clothes were torn, revealing his rounded, full arms. Each muscle was incredibly strong, yet possessed a perfectly balanced aesthetic. Different muscle groups erupted with immense power at the same time, all of which Du Wa channeled into beating down the Deviant.
Although this enhanced Deviant's defense was greatly increased, it hadn't reached the point of being impenetrable. Du Wa had already used his heavy fists to gradually break through its defenses. He planned to beat this Deviant half to death and then parasitize it on the spot.
"Just how much of Juggernaut's power did that leader absorb? No, I should say, how much of Cyttorak's power did this universe's Juggernaut inherit? From the looks of it, this beast's overall strength is far from reaching the sub-Skyfather level."
Du Wa looked up. Another ordinary Deviant had received Juggernaut's ability from the leader, becoming extremely large and strong.
There was a clear shift in the situation. The Deviant Leader could finally free its hands, no longer overwhelmed by the siege of more than ten Xenomorphs.
This meant the balance was slowly tipping.
*Thwack!*
Thor saw Du Wa fighting hard and managed to steel himself. He looked left and right, finally picking up a stone from the ground and hurling it fiercely at a Deviant.
Very good. His Excellency, Thor, had done his best.
"Do I have to deploy the Queen now?" Du Wa mused, his hand tightly gripping the neck of the enhanced Deviant.
Loki and Kaecilius were two difficult opponents. Sending out the Queen could at least tie one of them down for a while.
As for the possibility of the Queen dying in battle... as long as there was a single Xenomorph hiding out in some safe zone, there was no need to worry about the Queen's death.
Du Wa thought for a moment, and an idea came to him.
In the travel bag he had tossed aside, one of the Alien Eggs opened on its own. A Face-hugger crawled out, quickly pounced on the enhanced Deviant Du Wa was holding down, and completed the parasitism.
Thor glanced over in confusion, then quickly lost interest. He was completely numb at this point. If it weren't for seeing Du Wa, who had saved his life, still fighting hard, and the pride in his bones that made him unwilling to owe anyone a favor, he would have given up long ago.
"You enhance one of your people, and I'll parasitize one. I'd like to see who can last longer," Du Wa said faintly.
If things got truly desperate, he could temporarily retreat, have the Queen find a place to lay eggs, and then attack the few remaining Deviants with new Alien Eggs. Every one killed was one less to deal with.
Likewise, for every enhanced Deviant he dealt with, the power the Deviant Leader possessed would be permanently reduced by a fraction—the kind that could never be reclaimed.
The Deviants were limited in number; once one died, it was gone forever. But the Xenomorphs were different. If it weren't for his lack of top-tier power and his fear of being ganged up on by the entire world, Du Wa could raise a Xenomorph army of several hundred or even a thousand in minutes. Given a little more time, he could even muster a military force of over ten thousand!
As long as he could drag this out, as long as Du Wa didn't die, this battle was one the Deviants were bound to lose!
Du Wa's perception told him that his Xenomorphs had already eliminated most of the Deviants that had appeared. Including the leader, there were now only ten left.
"What's your choice? Will you take this chance, while the situation is in your favor, and decisively flee with your remaining people? Or will you continue to fight? And if you fight, how? By enhancing more of your people? You won't have much power left for yourself then. Once I can break through your defense..."
Du Wa looked down at the unconscious, parasitized Deviant, then raised his head to meet the Deviant Leader's gaze.
The Deviant Leader's answer was to keep fighting. It would not give up easily.
"Interesting. I'm very curious, why did you appear here? Even if you were drawn by Thor, it means you were nearby... If it weren't for this business with Thor, what was the purpose of your people's migration?" Du Wa was very interested.
Just as Du Wa decided he would lead his troops to fight this group of Deviants to the bitter end, *swoosh!* An astonishingly fast figure was running at high speed. So fast, in fact, that if one were looking down from the sky, they would see the person as a streaking light tracing a line across the horizon, bringing two companions with them.
"Speed of this level... only a few people have that. So the ones who've come are... the Eternals? The ones I've been waiting for have finally arrived." Du Wa's eyebrows twitched.
Odin, the top dog of the Nine Realms, was beaten up by Arishem a thousand years ago. Now that Odin's son has appeared on Earth without his powers, it's perfectly reasonable for these Eternals, forced to "re-enter the world," to show up. I just don't know if there's a new command from Arishem behind this.
"Don't worry, we're here to deal with the Deviants."
An extremely imposing woman stood at the forefront of the other two and spoke. She was Ajak, the leader of the eleven Eternals, who possessed a super self-healing ability and could communicate directly with the Celestial Arishem.
One of them, a burly man, was the first to charge the Deviant Leader, greeting it with a huge slap.
Du Wa recognized him. This guy was Gilgamesh, who possessed immense strength and a powerful physique. He was an expert at dishing out slaps.
The woman with super speed, named Makkari, stood silently by Ajak's side, acting as a guard. At the slightest sign of trouble, she would immediately whisk Ajak away to safety.
"Why isn't Ikaris here? Is he dead?" Du Wa glanced around.
Of the eleven Eternals, only five were fighters. Besides Ikaris, there was a guy named Kingo, who specialized in energy blasts and wasn't here; there was also a warrior named Thena, who had gone mad from a flood of fragmented past memories. It would be a miracle if she didn't kill her fellow Eternals, let alone join a battle.
So, Ajak had brought the only two combat-capable Eternals she had with her.
"He hid the fact that a group of Deviants was hiding in Alaska from us, so he was exiled. He is no longer one of us," Ajak said to Du Wa in a cold voice. "We should join forces. The top priority is to eliminate the Deviants."
"Your words lack sincerity. Who knows what you're really planning? Perhaps after we get rid of these Deviants, you Eternals will turn around and attack me. After all, you have a precedent for that with Ikaris."
"That was a misunderstanding. Your Xenomorphs look too much like Deviants, so Ikaris—"
"I'm not interested in your explanation, madam. I just want to know, how exactly do you people plan to position yourselves? Every person of note in the world is searching for you. Are you going to rely on that lady who's good at running to carry you all over the world for every mission?"
As Du Wa spoke, he looked down at the enhanced Deviant that was about to wake up. With Gilgamesh charging to the front, joining forces with the Abomination-Xenomorph and the other Deviant-turned-Xenomorphs, they had managed to suppress the Deviants again, buying Du Wa some time.
Ajak obviously knew Du Wa was stalling, but she was a woman of great wisdom. Despite her displeasure, she remained silent for a moment before saying, "We bear a more important mission. We'll deal with future matters in the future. For now, we must prioritize clearing out the Deviants that are devouring humanity."
"Kill all the Deviants, help humanity accelerate its reproduction, and achieve your goal?" Du Wa said as he once again grabbed the Deviant at his feet, which had just woken up.
Ajak gave Du Wa a deep look. "Ikaris was right, you really do know something... I also cannot allow the Deviants to harm humanity wantonly. Besides, even if we don't stop them, we're out of time."
Because the Celestial at Earth's core would finish developing soon and was about to awaken. Earth was about to face its apocalypse.
"Unfortunately, you Eternals haven't just made an enemy of me. The moment you appeared here, I already notified a rather petty fellow to come and help... and they have someone skilled in spatial movement, who is even faster than your method of travel." Du Wa sensed something and shook his head.
Now things were getting lively.
Far away in New York, Raven had a call with Magneto.
Through the unemerged Xenomorph in Raven's chest, Du Wa notified Raven in real-time, and she immediately contacted Magneto.
Sure enough, a puff of red smoke appeared, and Nightcrawler teleported Magneto over.
Du Wa suddenly connected some dots, and his expression turned strange.
"The Eternals and the Deviants are both here. Last time, I was caught off guard and let a lot of you freaks escape. Not this time."
The moment Magneto saw Ajak, a cold and severe expression appeared on his old face, causing Ajak, a fellow leader, to pale drastically.
Just as Magneto was about to make his big move, creating a powerful magnetic field to lock down the entire space, with all the metal elements in the air and ground under his perception and manipulation, he suddenly let out a soft sound of surprise and turned his head to look at the... Hammer on the ground.
(end of chapter)