Chapter 42: Parasitizing Thor
The moment Magneto appeared, Coulson's head buzzed. He felt as if the entire world was conspiring against him.
"Why is Magneto here?!"
A thousand Aliens felt like they were doing frantic somersaults in Coulson's mind.
Magneto was in a league of his own as one of the most dangerous individuals on the planet. He was an extreme racist who killed without remorse. Even an ordinary outing for him was enough to put the whole world on high alert.
No one wanted to see this powerhouse, who could tank a nuclear bomb or effortlessly topple mountains and create tsunamis, get into a fight. That would be an absolute disaster.
"Contact Professor X. No matter what happened, we need to prepare for the worst," Fury's voice came through the communication device. "My gut tells me this is Du Wa's handiwork again. Why is he so close to Magneto?"
Coulson thought for a moment. "There's no evidence to prove Du Wa isn't a mutant. Perhaps his ability to create and control Aliens comes from the X-Gene."
"Whether he is or not, we must treat him as if he isn't. Contact the X-Men. I don't trust them, but we have no other choice," Fury's voice sounded heavy.
For some reason, ever since Du Wa had appeared, the pressure on him had multiplied.
Just then, Coulson suddenly said, "Magneto has stopped. He hasn't made a move! But this isn't necessarily a good thing..."
"Why do you say that?"
"Because Du Wa's expression has become very strange."
"Then it really is a major event. What exactly is happening on-site?" Fury nodded, realizing things had truly become serious.
Coulson observed carefully. "A large amount of electromagnetic interference is disrupting the signal. The video feed is cutting in and out."
The few Eternals were also getting a headache.
Even the supremely confident, muscular Gilgamesh, while wrestling with the Deviant Leader, cast an uneasy glance over.
They had hidden their identities and silently observed human society, so they were well aware of Magneto's power.
"Erik, we are not your enemies," Ajak tried the same line, but it sounded even more hollow and feeble in the face of reality.
Magneto's face was indifferent. "You old immortals got my subordinate killed, and now you're telling me everything before was a misunderstanding?"
Ajak opened her mouth, a look of deep helplessness on her face.
It was true. Some time ago in Alaska, if they hadn't been in such a hurry to rescue Ikaris, they wouldn't have revealed themselves, let alone attacked, which led to Juggernaut being captured by the Deviants.
Magneto sneered as he surveyed the scene. Good, all the damn pests were gathered.
But right now, something else caught his attention.
"A hammer?"
Magneto wasn't in a hurry to act. He studied Mjolnir with great interest, keenly sensing an unusual power.
"So this must be the divine artifact from the myths—Mjolnir, wielded by Thor. But from the looks of it, the great Thor can't even lift his own weapon?"
Magneto hadn't personally witnessed the earlier battle, but with his experience and wisdom, a single glance at the stunned and dejected Thor, who was now meeting his gaze, combined with a few exchanged looks with Du Wa, was enough for him to piece together the gist of it.
Thor had come to Earth, that much was certain. But this blond, muscular man in medieval clothing looked incredibly conspicuous no matter how you looked at it.
Thor looked back at Magneto without a trace of fear.
Another powerful individual? Du Wa, the Eternals, and now a guy who could interfere with the weather and emanated a powerful, oppressive aura. This was completely different from his understanding of Midgard. Wasn't this supposed to be a world of mortals? Why were all these powerful beings popping up one after another?
Thor should have felt excitement and shame, but he felt nothing.
"You want to lift my hammer too? Give up. My father placed a spell on it. If even I can't do it, what chance does a mortal have?" Thor lowered his head.
Du Wa offered some thoughtful comfort. "If it were anyone else, I'm sure they couldn't lift it. But with him, it's hard to say. His ability is magnetic manipulation."
Magnetic manipulation?
Thor looked bewildered.
"He controls magnetism, which means he controls all metal. Your hammer is made of metal," Du Wa said.
"This is a peculiar metal I've never seen before." Magneto stretched out a hand from a distance, aiming at Mjolnir.
Boom!
A terrifying magnetic force erupted. In an instant, lightning flashed and thunder roared. The ground trembled violently, and cracks spiderwebbed across it.
Countless grains of sand began to levitate in mid-air.
As Thor watched in disbelief, Magneto... actually lifted Mjolnir!
Thick, dark clouds gathered as if to envelop all of space-time, brewing a terrifying fluctuation within them.
Everyone was stunned. Those who knew the properties of Mjolnir and what it represented understood just how outrageous the scene before them was.
Even across the Nine Realms, this was an earth-shattering feat!
Magneto, an extremist and the world's greatest source of instability, had actually lifted Mjolnir?!
At that moment, even the Deviant Leader stood frozen in place. Seeing Magneto levitate Mjolnir, he didn't hesitate to turn and flee.
Unfortunately, trying to leave now was bound to come at a terrible price. Magneto, having learned his lesson from Alaska, had long since deployed a terrifying energy field around the area—one capable of withstanding the blast of a large-yield nuclear bomb!
"Just as I expected. Your magnetic manipulation can also control Uru metal." Du Wa looked up at the sky, his entire figure illuminated by the flashing lightning. There was no surprise on his face, only a look of sudden realization.
In hindsight, Magneto lifting Mjolnir wasn't that surprising after all.
"So this metal is called Uru?" Magneto opened his hand, controlling the hammer to float before him, and then grabbed it.
"Uru is the core raw material for crafting divine artifacts. It has the property of containing and conducting divine power, making it a hot commodity among the great divine races of the universe."
Under a barrage of astonished and shocked gazes, Du Wa spoke eloquently, his composure like that of someone chatting with an old friend.
"Divine races?" Magneto scoffed.
His gaze shifted, landing on the Deviant Leader who was trying to break through the magnetic field. He immediately took aim and hurled Mjolnir.
Boom!
The hammer struck the Deviant Leader head-on, sending the creature flying.
However, for some reason, the damage didn't seem particularly severe, nor was there the expected bombardment of sky-filling thunder and lightning.
"You didn't truly lift my hammer. You're just controlling it with brute force!" Thor's eyes lit up slightly, and he felt a little better. "You don't possess the divine power of Mjolnir at all."
"You're right. And I don't care about the divine power of the Asgardians. I can just use this as a hard block of metal," Magneto said. He thought for a moment, then manually created a large swath of lightning with his magnetic powers, which came crashing down. At first glance, he looked more like a god of thunder than Thor himself.
As someone who already mastered one of the four fundamental forces of the universe, he truly had little interest in a divine power limited to the Asgardian lineage.
In his hands, Mjolnir was nothing more than a "stone" used for smashing people.
"Well then, Eternals, Deviants, you can all die here," Magneto's cold voice echoed in all directions.
"It would be a pity to kill them. Try to just cripple them and leave them for me," Du Wa said.
Magneto controlled the hammer, and accompanied by a monstrously terrifying magnetic force, he began to steadily shrink the field, squeezing the space around the Eternals and Deviants.
Ajak's face twitched. She looked deeply helpless, never having expected things to turn out this way. She looked at Du Wa. "Is this what you wanted to see? Did you know all along it would come to this?"
"Don't misunderstand. I don't have the ability to see the future. I'm just going with the flow," Du Wa shook his head, his eyes fixed on Ajak. "In your plan, humanity was going to die in the end anyway, so whatever I do is reasonable."
Ajak opened her mouth, but what could she say? That she felt pity for humanity in her heart? That she was hesitating whether to betray the Celestials?
"Just watch quietly, Thor. The masters behind these Eternals—the Cosmic Gods—are the ones who once made your father taste defeat," Du Wa patted Thor's shoulder and said in a voice only Thor could hear.
In that instant, a look of profound horror appeared on Thor's face. He finally understood why Odin had paid so much attention to this group of Eternals. It turned out Cosmic Gods were involved?
God-King Odin was once defeated by these unknown gods?
"If that's true, then I understand. No wonder father wouldn't tell me the reason. No wonder he was so full of anger and disappointment in me..." Thor's face turned deathly pale.
He considered the possibility that Du Wa was lying, but what could he be lying about? His identity? He was just a mortal now. His power? He couldn't even lift Mjolnir.
Magneto began to unleash his power indiscriminately, ravaging the entire desert. Storms and earthquakes occurred frequently, creating a scene of apocalypse.
Ajak was helpless. She realized that participating in this battle had been a mistake. She had hoped to clear up the misunderstanding, but she had ended up attracting Magneto, leading to this situation.
"If this goes on, even if we can kill Erik, we'll suffer casualties, and that isn't what I wanted," Ajak said with a pained expression, believing she had made a major command error.
But there was no time for repentance. She, Gilgamesh, and Makkari stood together, forced to do their utmost to resist Magneto's attacks.
Gilgamesh was one thing, but Makkari proved to be extremely formidable. Relying on her astonishing speed, she became a blur of countless afterimages, constantly running and tearing at the magnetic field. The moment Magneto made his move, she landed a punch on him.
The few remaining Deviants also gathered together, trying to find an opportunity to break through the field. Even though they were repeatedly struck by Mjolnir and all but their leader were injured, they did not give up.
"What a spectacular battle. In that case, I don't need to hold back any longer." Du Wa's gaze shifted, finally landing on the three Eternals.
The Queen was deployed.
This giant, crown-headed Alien was an astonishing four and a half meters tall, rivaling the Abomination Alien. Every line on its slender form seemed to have been calculated with the utmost precision, exuding an ultimate smoothness and the beauty of the golden ratio.
Even from a human perspective, one would be stunned by the sight of this Alien.
Moreover, the Queen unleashed its aura without reservation, appearing like a war demon straight out of a slaughterhouse.
This was the Queen's first deployment, but its appearance made it impossible to ignore.
"Is that... the ruler of this species?" Thor said in a low voice.
In the distance, Loki, who was in a great battle with Kaecilius, also stopped and looked over with a surprised expression. He immediately abandoned his opponent and used a magic spell, attempting to enter the battlefield.
He, too, saw the Queen and knew this was the lurking Alien he had sensed before. He just never expected it would look like this once it fully unleashed its aura.
"So this one is a queen. Its ability to hide its aura is potent, but its strength doesn't seem much greater than that large Alien," Loki muttered, also feeling a pang of regret.
As for Kaecilius, his goal was to capture an Alien to offer to Dormammu. What could be more convincing than capturing the Queen?
In an instant, the battle that should have been Magneto taking on multiple opponents at once descended into utter chaos.
Both Loki and Kaecilius, despite having exhausted each other somewhat, possessed power that couldn't be underestimated. Either one was a powerful enemy that would require Magneto's full attention to deal with.
Furthermore, the two of them used brute-force magic to carve a path, forcibly tearing open holes in Magneto's incredibly domineering energy field.
The once-stable field immediately became chaotic. Several different forces bombarded each other, erupting with destructive might. Mountains and rocks turned to dust, matter decomposed into energy. As far as the eye could see, within the confines of the field, the ground collapsed layer by layer, rapidly disappearing as subterranean magma began to spurt and flow.
"Bastards!" Magneto was furious. He had gone to great lengths to corner the Eternals and Deviants, and now someone was interfering!
He glanced over. One was likely the dark mage Kaecilius, and the other was probably an Asgardian. Moreover, this Asgardian was staring intently at the Mjolnir he was wielding.
"A mortal like you dares to lay a hand on the weapon of a deity?" Loki's eyes glinted menacingly, mixed with a sense of profound humiliation.
A weapon that he and Thor couldn't lift had been lifted by a Midgardian? How absurd!
The Nine Realms would not permit the existence of such a formidable mortal!
"Loki? My brother, what are you doing here?!" Thor was overjoyed and was about to rush out.
Du Wa grabbed him and said, "He's not here for you. He was just trying to lift Mjolnir himself a moment ago. He's furious now only because something that he believes should be his was taken away. Besides, with your current strength, you'd be torn to shreds by this raging energy field before you took a few steps."
"What nonsense are you talking? That's my younger brother! He would protect me with his life!"
"Are you sure he wants to protect you more than he wants to kill you? His actions right now will get you killed. Your strength is far too weak. Even if his intentions are good, you can't withstand the fallout. The great Thor has now become the very thing holding his brother back."
Du Wa took a new Alien egg from his carefully protected travel bag and, in a demonic voice, began to tempt the impatient and impulsive Thor. "Do you want power? I'll explain it again. This power of mine doesn't conflict with your divine power at all. If you can reclaim your divine power in the future, you'll be able to wield both forces, making you even stronger than before. If you want to help your brother, if you want to fight alongside Loki instead of being a burden he has to protect, then accept my gift."
As Thor's expression grew dark, the Alien egg bloomed with a splendid radiance, like a flower.
(end of chapter)