Nether Metaphor?

Fang Mo was genuinely bewildered now.

He truly could not figure out what mod this was.

Yet his system was especially aloof, only responding when specific conditions were triggered. Otherwise, it just played dead, and even cursing at it did nothing.

"Fuck, this is ridiculous."

Looking at the progress bar in his mind, which still sat at 20%, Fang Mo felt completely numb.

As for his Stand's ability to unlock new mods, Fang Mo was still in the exploratory stage and did not know whether his current situation counted as being stuck on the progress bar.

Did he have to unlock one mod before he could continue unlocking new ones?

Or could he actually unlock many mods at once?

For example, if he suddenly triggered an unknown tech-oriented mod but did not know how to unlock it, could he run around Kamar-Taj touching things and unlock a magic-oriented mod instead?

Just as Fang Mo was considering this, a whistling sound suddenly came from nearby.

"Hm?"

Fang Mo looked up and saw a small black dot rapidly growing larger in midair as it flew toward the Asgardian Warriors.

The next second, a bolt of lightning suddenly struck down from the sky. In an instant, the entire town flashed with blinding white light. Soon, a figure rose from the ground as rolling thunder transformed into his armor and cape.

Obviously, Thor had finally regained his divine power.

After recovering his power, lightning shone all over Thor's body. He did not even greet anyone before raising Hammer and flying straight out of town, looking utterly fired up for battle.

But when he flew beyond the town and saw the two enormous stone spheres on the ground, he froze.

"This..."

Thor stared at the stone spheres below, utterly confused. "Where is the Destroyer Armor?"

Just then, a voice suddenly rang out.

"You were way too slow. I took down that piece of junk ages ago."

Hearing the voice, Thor instinctively looked down and spotted Fang Mo seemingly searching for something in the large crater. He was taken aback. "You? Mage?"

"Just call me Fang Mo."

As he spoke, Fang Mo studied the crater beneath his feet.

Thor slowly descended from the air and curiously looked at Fang Mo. "The Destroyer Armor is my father's armor. Did you truly deal with it? And... what are you doing now?"

"I'm retrieving my weapon."

As Fang Mo spoke, he raised a hand toward the ground.

He had used too much force while fighting the Destroyer Armor, and the Manyullyn Cleaver had plunged deep into the earth. Fortunately, Fang Mo had the Ender Field. As he activated his ability, the ground immediately began to tremble uneasily.

The next second, the gigantic cleaver, as broad and thick as a door panel, burst out of the ground and landed directly in Fang Mo's grasp.

"Uh..."

Thor immediately froze at the sight. "That's your weapon?"

"It's a metal forged from Ardite, a mineral unique to the Nether, and Cobalt. I call it Manyullyn." Fang Mo casually rested the heavy cleaver on his shoulder. "I've also bestowed it with a magical blessing that keeps it from ever being damaged. It's no worse than Asgardian Uru."

"But..."

Thor seemed unable to make sense of it. "Aren't you a mage?"

"Do you understand magic? Are you a mage?"

Fang Mo fired back. "While casting magic does require a medium, Kamar-Taj prefers rings and other small accessories, while Hogwarts specializes in wands... but who says a magical medium cannot take the form of a blade?"

"This..."

Thor was completely stunned.

For some reason, he suddenly felt that Fang Mo had a point.

Yes, his younger brother Loki was a mage. Because he was physically weak, he could not become a valiant warrior.

Their mother Frigga had pitied Loki and taught him her magic. Yet Loki did not resemble a mage at all. Of all those powerful spells, he had only learned illusions. Whenever he fought, he used illusions to confuse the enemy head-on, then secretly circled around behind them and stabbed their kidneys with a little dagger.

That little dagger had been a gift from Frigga to Loki, and it was indeed a magical item.

So, thinking it over, magical mediums really could be shaped like blades. Perhaps Loki had simply been too weak to wield a greatsword, so he had chosen a small knife instead.

But weren't mages supposed to be physically weak while possessing powerful spells?

What exactly was this guy standing before him?

Could a human even lift that fucking huge blade?

"All right, perhaps I'm too ignorant." In the end, Thor gave up trying to think it through. "In any case, thank you for your help, Fang Mo. But I must return and have a proper talk with my brother. If there's a chance in the future, I'll invite you to Asgard."

With that, Thor began spinning Hammer, preparing to fly away.

"Wait."

Fang Mo suddenly spoke.

"Hm?"

Thor paused, stopping his movements. "What is it?"

"No need to wait for the future." Fang Mo smiled. "What if the Bifrost blows up one day? So I've decided to go back with you now..."

"This..."

Thor hesitated slightly. "While we Asgardians are indeed hospitable, I'm returning this time to deal with a crisis. My brother wants to kill our father and seize Asgard's throne..."

"Relax, your brother isn't as bad as you think."

Fang Mo waved a hand. "He still has feelings for all of you. He just wants to destroy Jotunheim and kill every Frost Giant."

"Huh?"

Thor was utterly confused. "No, why would he do that?"

"Because he's a Frost Giant. Back when Odin conquered Jotunheim, he found an abandoned baby in the Ice Palace. That was the child of Laufey, king of the Frost Giants. Because he was too frail, he had been thrown into a corner to die."

Fang Mo spread his hands. "Now Loki knows the truth, and his mindset has collapsed... though, to be fair, that's understandable."

"It's like a Black kid raised in a capitalist family who only discovers after growing up that his father picked him up from a cotton field. His family kept smearing him with so much talcum powder that he thought he was white, but then you just had to take him to the bathhouse. The moment his ass hit the pool, he discovered his true identity and realized he was the free farm labor machine his father always talked about when he was little. Wouldn't your fucking mindset collapse too?"

"...You're saying Loki is a Frost Giant?"

Thor's eyes widened in disbelief. "How is that possible? His skin isn't blue at all!"

"I said that was talcum powder... pfft, I mean Odin gave him a magical blessing." Fang Mo rubbed his forehead. "The moment he comes into contact with frost energy, his bloodline awakens. He never knew about his origins, but you insisted on taking everyone to invade Jotunheim, letting Loki come into contact with Frost Giant magic. That was how he learned everything."

"This..."

Hearing this, Thor took two blank steps backward. "Was all of this caused by me?"