Thunder roared!
At this moment, it was as if all of New Mexico had been covered by storm clouds. The thick thunderclouds hung low like a collapsing sky, making even Coulson's breathing feel a little difficult.
Yet he still looked at Steve with eyes full of worship and amazement.
Steve held Mjolnir in one hand and gripped his shield in the other, chest lifted as he stood before the Destroyer.
He wasn't even half the Destroyer's height. Standing in front of it, he looked as small as a child, but at this moment, Steve was fearless.
Or rather, he had never been afraid.
He remembered before he enlisted, back when he was so skinny he looked like a monkey and suffered from all kinds of illnesses. Bucky always said he was afraid Steve would die if someone so much as bumped into him by accident.
But even back then, when he was surrounded by several strong, healthy men, he had never been afraid.
"Captain…" Coulson murmured.
"Don't just stand there," Nick yanked him urgently and then hurried backward. "Everyone, get on the plane, now!"
Because he knew a glowing woman, Fury understood very clearly that the fight about to happen was not something ordinary people like them could get involved in.
If they stayed, they might get erased by the shockwaves the next second.
Soon, only Steve and the Destroyer were left. After the Quinjet retreated at high speed, it also lost visual contact with the battle.
A huge curtain of sand and dust rose up, blocking everything from sight.
Fury gripped his already old beeper tightly, his heart hanging in midair.
Inside the battlefield.
A powerful storm formed into a tornado, wrapping Steve and the Destroyer inside.
Darkness fell.
Within the heavy thunderclouds, only the occasional flash of lightning served as the sole source of light. Yet Steve discovered that even in pitch-black darkness, he could still see everything clearly.
More than that, he could distinctly feel his body being strengthened again by some kind of power.
He looked no different from before, but in reality, every part of his body had been enhanced. Even the "kidney" Loki had stabbed not long ago was completely healed.
Whoever held Mjolnir would gain a healthy body.
Jane Foster, as the Mighty Thor, could also be freed from the torment of cancer when she held Mjolnir. But that magic was not absolute.
Once she put Mjolnir down, the cancer would accelerate instead.
But for a small injury, it wouldn't go that far.
Steve could feel it. He had truly been healed. His condition was better than it had ever been. His whole body felt like it had endless strength. He looked at the Destroyer and began swinging the hammer.
"Come on. This time I can really grind it out with you all day!"
Boom!
The Destroyer attacked again.
Far away in Asgard, Loki projected his astral form and poured his divine power into the Destroyer's body. In that instant, the flames inside the massive iron man burned like a furnace.
Flame Release!
In a flash, even the sand and stones along the path of the flames fused into murky crystals under the extreme heat.
The air warped. A wave of heat slammed into his face.
Steve didn't hesitate. He immediately held the spinning hammer horizontally in front of him.
In an instant, all the flames were blocked by Mjolnir's high-speed rotation. Then he flung his Adamantium shield in a curved arc through the storm with a backhand throw.
Clang!
With divine power reinforcing him, even the force behind Steve's shield throw had increased by hundreds of times. The shield smashed solidly into the Destroyer's head, snapping it to the side.
Then Steve drove his hammer forward with force.
Mjolnir flew out carrying thunder's might, like a god's verdict, crashing into the Destroyer's chest and knocking it flying.
After doing all that, Steve raised his hand, and both Mjolnir and the shield returned neatly to his grip.
In the distance, Bant, who had rushed over from the town, watched the battle from afar.
"Looks like Loki is nowhere near capable of bringing out the Destroyer's true strength."
The Destroyer was a weapon Odin built to judge the Celestials. Like Mjolnir, it was forged from Uru. This metal had one special trait. The stronger the magic infused into it, the greater the power it displayed.
And the Destroyer carried not only Odin's divine power, but also the magic of all the other Asgardian gods.
That meant, in theory, the Destroyer's power should far surpass Mjolnir. In some major events, even when many superheroes joined forces, they had no way to deal with an unmanned Destroyer.
But right now, the Destroyer probably wasn't even using one ten-thousandth of its power. Otherwise it wouldn't be getting pressed down by Captain America like this.
Of course, that might also be because Loki wasn't truly wearing it. He was remotely feeding power into it from distant Asgard.
Asgard and Earth weren't even in the same dimension. If the World Tree hadn't linked Earth to Asgard, the two dimensions might never have intersected.
That immense distance also caused Loki's power to be weakened.
Holding the Destroyer and still losing to Captain America?
This Loki really was weak.
To be honest, Loki was absolutely not a good pilot.
He wasn't good at fighting at all. A perfectly good Destroyer armor had been reduced by him into nothing more than a turret that stood still and fired beams.
And with Mjolnir's buff, Captain America could even trade blows with Thanos for several exchanges. His combat skill against humanoid targets was basically a bug. He could even choke an Ultron robot to death. Loki's half-baked techniques not being enough was completely normal.
After watching a few of the Destroyer's moves, Bant gave up on the idea of transforming into Four Arms again.
"At this rate, I won't even need to step in. The Destroyer's going to get beaten by Captain America," Bant frowned.
With Loki piloting like this, even if Bant transformed, it would be hard to enjoy the fight. Four Arms didn't live for bullying weaklings.
"Forget it. If I can't fight, then I can't fight." Bant acted like he didn't care much.
"Once Captain America beats this thing until it disconnects, I'll just go pick it up."
Reaping the fisherman's profit.
After unlocking Cosmic God, Bant wasn't worried at all about Odin coming to collect his debt.
He was just waiting for Loki to drop loot.
It wasn't that Cosmic God was stronger than every other hero. It was that the divine power it possessed was extremely compatible with the Destroyer, letting it unleash far more power than it currently showed.
Even if it still wasn't a match for Odin, for Odin, spending huge effort to deal with Bant wasn't a good choice.
In fact, even without Bant, Odin never reclaimed the Destroyer.
Perhaps to him, this was no longer an era that required judging the Celestials.
On the battlefield.
Steve ducked under the Destroyer's strike, then straightened and swung his hammer upward, smashing it into the Destroyer's jaw.
Then, the raised Mjolnir became a lightning rod, pulling in all the lightning power from the storm!
Crack!
The darkness was torn apart!
Endless lightning flashed within the clouds, like the first bolt to ever appear at the birth of the universe!
Steve brought the hammer down violently.
Boom!!!
By the way, I changed Thor's name to "Sol," otherwise I keep accidentally typing "Tony"…
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