Thor's Grand Muster!

Thor was the Thunder God, not the God of Hammers. Even if Odin stripped or sealed away his divine power, Thor's body could still instinctively react to divine power.

Duva blasted Mjolnir's thunder god power into Thor's body. Sure enough, Thor woke up, and his body began healing at an accelerated rate, as though pumped full of stimulants.

Thor quickly examined his body. Looking at the wound on his chest as it healed, he peered inside.

"Don't worry, there's no Xenomorph. I took it out early on." Duva dragged over a chair that had been thoroughly greeted by bullets and sat down in front of Thor.

"The war is over? Where's Loki?"

"He escaped. He suffered a major setback the moment he arrived on Earth, so maybe he'll learn his lesson. But he probably isn't in good shape right now. After using that much magic, he definitely won't be feeling well," Duva said.

Thor breathed a sigh of relief. Someone as cunning as Loki only needed to escape; Thor didn't need to worry about the rest. Then he fell silent, staring at Thunder God's Hammer in Duva's hand, his mouth bitter.

With his straightforward mind, he had no idea exactly what had happened, but simply seeing Duva casually playing with Mjolnir filled him with sorrow.

First Magneto, now Duva. He could not say a word, having suffered a devastating blow.

"Midgardian, I challenge you." Thor stood up, reluctantly watching the divine power on his body rapidly fade away as he spoke with resolve.

"Why, Son of Odin?"

"You humiliated me. As an Asgardian, honor is above all else."

"How did I humiliate you?"

"You used a species that follows you to parasitize me."

"But I took it out again. Of course, the power I promised you is gone too. Isn't that the outcome you wanted? You helped Loki at any cost, and you did it. I successfully got Loki out. As an Asgardian who treats honor as life itself, as the Son of Odin, is this how you repay your benefactor? By fighting him to the death?"

Duva wore a gentle expression.

He had not told Thor that the method he used to get Loki out was to team up with Magneto and gang up on Loki, forcing Loki to flee.

Thor opened his mouth, then turned and headed outside. "Fine, then I'll find a place to end myself."

Duva nodded slightly. Only Thor's personality could lead him to do something like that.

But just as he moved, several doctors pounced on him in a flurry and clung to him.

"Wait, at least let us study your body thoroughly first!"

"..."

Duva waved his hand, and several Xenomorphs drove the doctors out. He then sent Raven outside to clean up the corpses, before saying to Thor, "I have seen your courage in the face of death. But aside from that, you have shown none of the responsibility expected of the Son of Odin."

"What do you know?! I made a grave mistake. I am no longer the Thunder God! Even Mjolnir chose you!" Thor's face was filled with grief and indignation. He was truly heartbroken.

The Thunder God had been proud for over a thousand years. He had never suffered such humiliation!

"Without your divine power, this is what you become? You are the Thunder God, not the God of Hammers. I have never heard that Odin ceased to be the God-King after losing Gungnir and the Destroyer Armor. As a descendant of the God-King, even without Mjolnir, you are still a god. Powerful divine power is slumbering within you," Duva said.

Thor would only awaken his true power during his final battle with Hela, evolving into Thunder God 2.0, a version that no longer needed Thunder God's Hammer.

Duva was only giving Thor a little nudge now. Whether it worked or not did not matter to him.

Thor fell silent, seemingly enlightened. "Give Mjolnir to me. I think..."

"I don't care what you think. I care what I think. Why would I give Mjolnir to you?" Duva gripped Thunder God's Hammer tightly.

What a joke. He had only just acquired divine power and could only temporarily confirm that it was a form of bodily energy. Based on examples from the various divine races of the universe, he had also confirmed that this stuff could probably be inherited genetically. How could he possibly return such a good thing to Thor so easily?

"...Lend it to me!" Thor's words were enough to make anyone feel sorry for him.

"No." Duva refused. "I will not lend power that belongs to me to an outsider who has no value to me."

"You could lift Mjolnir only because you used that creature to parasitize me."

"...Unexpectedly clever." Duva nodded frankly. It was not actually hard to guess, but Thor figuring it out so quickly was quite surprising.

Duva pointed at his chest. "By your logic, my followers—the Xenomorphs—have the ability to parasitize hosts and obtain part of their genetic material. I obtained some of your genes through a Xenomorph, which earned me Mjolnir's recognition."

There was nothing to hide. To put it bluntly, all kinds of messy rumors about him and the Xenomorphs had long been spreading all over the internet. Every possible theory was out there.

After all, the whole world had suddenly become much livelier lately, with all kinds of superhumans appearing.

Even if Thor came to a realization like he had in the original timeline and peacefully lived as a mortal on Earth for a while, he could still look up information about Duva online and make a rough guess. Duva had never intended to hide it from Thor.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that, if we round things off, my body carries your bloodline. Brother Thor, in other words, Mjolnir ultimately still chose you. It is only willing to accept my command because of you," Duva said frankly.

There was nothing shameful about it. When he had first tried to lift Thunder God's Hammer, he had failed, and Thor had seen it.

Thor felt his head buzzing.

"Let's talk about something you might be interested in. Loki is probably still on Earth. He must be looking for a chance to negotiate with you. You can listen carefully, then think it over," Duva said, turning to look to the side.

Thor looked over as well and recognized an Eternal. But then his expression changed dramatically as he saw the Eternal's body convulse violently, his chest bursting apart as a Xenomorph crawled out.

"This!!"

"This is a Xenomorph. Of course, I can decide whether it needs to burst from the chest or not. It only takes a thought." Duva stretched out his hand. The newly born, petite Xenomorph displayed Super Speed, turning into an afterimage and instantly climbing onto Duva's shoulder.

In a few more hours, this tiny thing would rapidly grow into a mature form two or three meters tall.

Thor finally understood just how terrifying this creature was.

It acquired the host's genetic material through parasitism... or rather, the superpowers contained within their genes...

Thor could not help lowering his head to stare at his healed chest again.

If Duva had not removed that thing, then in the end, would he also have...

As for the bloody act of parasitizing someone and bursting from their chest, Thor did not consider that much of a problem. If there was anything to criticize, it was merely bursting out of the chest of someone who had lost the ability to fight, but even that was no big deal.

Thor himself was a hot-tempered, battle-loving war maniac. Before going to war with other races, when he was in a good mood, he would offer a single chance to surrender. But before the battle even began, why would the other side think they were guaranteed to lose? How could they agree? Then Thor would pick up his hammer and slaughter them with a clear conscience.

Hela was even worse, countless times more brutal than Thor. The people she had killed could fill the entire continent of Asgard.

For Odin to raise two war-crazed children like that, he had certainly done a fine job teaching them.

"I already told you that the moment I finished parasitizing you, I immediately removed the Xenomorph. Otherwise, you would not have lived until now."

"Don't joke around. Even if it really burst from my chest, I would not die. Even if I lost my divine power and no longer had powerful regenerative abilities, Loki would use magic to repair my body," Thor retorted.

Duva nodded. He believed that. Borrowing the power of a deity with a Multiversal Position directly to repair a body was something Loki might actually be able to do with his magical attainments. He could completely create an entirely new set of chest organs for Thor out of thin air.

But the price he would have to pay was another matter.

"Thank you for your honesty. You are a despicable yet thoroughly wicked warrior. Under different circumstances, perhaps we could have become friends. But I will not join your ranks now. The Thunder God—former Thunder God—the Son of Odin, will not become your follower." Thor shook his head.

He could hear what Duva meant. This was a second chance for him to choose: if he wanted to reclaim Thunder God's Hammer, he would have to let a Xenomorph parasitize him again and become Duva's man.

The only reason he had agreed the first time was because the situation had been dangerous. For Loki's sake, he had already prepared himself to die after the battle in order to preserve his honor.

Although things had not unfolded as he expected, he had been parasitized, but not completely parasitized. Nor had he received the "power" from Duva that could have helped Loki on the battlefield. Thor felt awkward about it, half-done and stuck in the middle, unsure what exactly he should do.

But this time, there was absolutely no possibility of that. He would rather be a mortal than surrender what little dignity he had left.

"Thor, my brother, you should know that some things, once they happen once, will happen countless times."

"Shut up! Even if you are a powerful Midgardian who possesses much ancient and secret knowledge, you cannot call me that! I am not your brother at all!!" Thor jumped to his feet. "I told you, there absolutely will not be a second time!"

"You remind me of a lion whose tail has been stepped on, all bristling with fury. Look at that messy hair of yours. I'll give you some money later. Go buy a few bottles of shampoo. This is the beginning of your life as a mortal."

If Thor still had divine power, he could simply use it to cleanse his body.

Thor stormed out of the battered building under the watchful eyes of the Dum Dum Dugans in the building next door.

Honestly, Duva could never figure out how many batches of Dum Dum Dugans had been rotated through the neighboring building.

"Major intelligence! Thor has left! Duva did not stop him, nor did he send any Xenomorphs to follow him. This is our chance!"

"Report it to Fury, quickly!"

The Dum Dum Dugans immediately became excited. Some clever ones were already wondering how much Fury should pay for this information. The original was especially short on money lately, and these clones assigned to watch Duva had no idea what the original was doing.

Not long afterward, under the baffled stares of the Dum Dum Dugans, Thor returned.

"Mr. Thunder God, what are you doing?" shouted a Dum Dum Dugan wearing an apron and dutifully selling raw meat.

Thor looked up at the neighboring building. Yes, from bottom to top, several identical people were pressed against every window, staring at him.

Bang! Thor punched open the battered iron door. The piece of scrap metal could not bear the strain any longer and crashed to the ground.

"Welcome back, Thor Odinson. I assume you spoke with Loki?" Duva sat calmly in his chair, not even changing posture.

"Yes. Things have changed."

Thor's eyes had already turned bloodshot. Faint tear stains could be seen on his face, filled with sorrow and self-blame. Yet he still pointed painfully toward the neighboring building. "A reminder: there is a group of idiots watching you from that direction. You should be careful."

"They are watching you, but your assessment is spot-on. These agents' professionalism is truly worrying. I wonder what the most elite batch of clones is busy with." Duva sighed with emotion.

Thor looked around, dragged over a sofa missing half of itself, and dropped onto it. With a boom, the sofa, stripped of its frame, collapsed beneath him. But he clearly did not care. Lost in agony, he found it impossible to pull himself free. "Father is dead."

"My condolences."

"I said, the Father of the Gods, the strongest in the Nine Realms, the ruler of Asgard, God-King Odin, is dead!"

"Yes, I heard you. What are you planning to do? Explain in detail that my father is gone?"

Duva pointed at his chest with utmost seriousness.

Elektra had been supporting a Xenomorph and carefully testing out her newly grown leg. Hearing that, she nearly lost control, pulling out her broken blade and stabbing herself hard. Then she wore an utterly horrified expression.

Tears welled in Thor's fierce eyes. "You just said you were my brother, that Odin's blood flowed through your veins."

"Just say what you are trying to express."

"War has broken out. Loki has already rushed back to Asgard to lead the army against the Frost Giants' attack." A deep worry and hatred flashed through Thor's eyes.

He hated his own incompetence for indirectly angering Odin to death, and he hated Jotunheim for taking advantage of the opportunity.

But what worried him most was how Asgard, now without a Skyfather Level powerhouse to hold the line, could resist the powerful Frost Giants. Duva stroked his chin as he watched Thor's expression. The sorrow was genuine.

If Hela received this news instead, she would be dancing on Odin's grave in minutes.

But the siblings shared one trait: both were utterly convinced that Jotunheim was trash, and that if they personally took the field, no matter how many Frost Giants came, they would all die!

But Thor had no divine power now. He could not carry the burden at all! At last, Thor stated his purpose.

"I know it is absurd to ask you for help, but I have no other choice... I want to borrow troops from you! I will lead a powerful and loyal army back to Asgard and counterattack Jotunheim!"