Railgun

Railgun

Continuous lightning bolts struck down from the heavens, and a silver-white pillar of light engulfed Thor. Thunderclouds churned overhead, electricity danced across his armor, and his cape whipped wildly in the gale. Thor was recovering.

The Destroyer's mask erupted with blinding orange light. A thick beam tore through the air, carrying an aura of destruction as it charged straight at Thor in the heart of the lightning.

Thor was still recovering. He had no time to think, not even time to steady himself. His right hand swung instinctively, and Mjolnir flew from his grasp, trailing blue-white arcs as it smashed toward the incoming beam.

The hammer and the beam collided in midair—

There was no impact.

A massive circular barrier appeared between them.

A translucent sky-blue curtain of light unfolded from the void, stretching across the center of the battlefield and dividing Thor from the Destroyer. Its surface was smooth as a mirror, its edges flowing with dense runes that radiated a soft glow.

The Destroyer's beam struck the barrier.

There was no explosion, no shockwave. Like a flood crashing into an invisible wall, it slid apart to both sides before dissipating. The barrier merely rippled faintly like water.

Mjolnir struck the barrier.

There was no imagined crash, nor did it break through the membrane-like barrier. It was as though it had hit an enormous slab of rubber and was bounced away. It flipped several times through the air, arced down, and crashed into the ground at Thor's feet, where it lay still.

The lightning faded.

The thunderclouds stopped churning, and the silver-white pillar vanished. Only tiny arcs remained in the air, crackling softly. Thor stood amid the ruins, his armor intact, his cape hanging loose. His hands were empty, and his hammer lay on the ground.

He looked down at Mjolnir by his feet, then up at the sky-blue barrier, then back down at the hammer.

He reached out, and the hammer flew back into his palm. Holding it, he looked up at the barrier again.

His mouth opened, then closed.

The Destroyer had also ceased its attack. The orange light in its mask dimmed, and its enormous metal body stood rigidly in place, as if reassessing the situation—or awaiting its master's command. The entire battlefield suddenly fell into an eerie silence, as though time had been paused.

Then, a voice came from above.

"Pretty impressive."

The voice was not loud, but its slightly rising tone rang especially clearly through the silent street. Everyone looked up.

A figure was slowly descending toward the rooftop of a nearby building.

A dark gray combat robe rippled gently in the night breeze. Its lines were clean and simple, without armor or magical artifacts—only a dark sash around the waist, giving the loose garment a neat silhouette. The standing collar fit snugly around his neck, slightly open at the front to reveal a strip of dark inner lining. His wide sleeves snapped in the wind.

His hands were clasped behind his back. His face was absurdly young, and he carried an air of laziness, as though he were on vacation rather than standing in the middle of a battlefield between gods.

His boots touched down lightly. At the same time, the sky-blue barrier began to fade, its particles drifting through the air like fireflies.

Thor stared at that face for two seconds. He did not know this man.

"Th... thank you?" Thor gripped his hammer, his voice wary and confused. "Who are you?"

"Kamar-Taj. Chen Xiao." His tone was calm. Then he glanced over the devastated street. "You Asgardians sure make a mess when you fight."

His gaze fell upon the Destroyer, inspecting it from top to bottom. The Destroyer now looked as new as if it had just left the factory—the wounds carved into it by the Warriors Three had completely healed, and the Uru Metal gleamed with a cold metallic sheen beneath the sunlight. Chen Xiao's lips curved faintly upward, clearly pleased.

Thor only understood the words "Kamar-Taj." Vague memories flashed through his mind—Midgard's sorcerers, guardians, an ancient organization that rarely showed itself but undeniably existed. He nodded slightly. Asgardians had always respected only the strong. Though this sorcerer looked slender and weak, blocking an attack from Mjolnir was no ordinary feat.

He opened his mouth, about to say something, when the Destroyer's mask suddenly lit up.

Orange-red light gathered within the seams of the mask, brighter and more dazzling than before. This time, its target was not Thor, but the gray-robed sorcerer standing on the rooftop.

The beam fired.

The thick orange-red beam shot straight at Chen Xiao's face, so fast that Thor had no time to warn him. In the blink of an eye, it was before Chen Xiao.

Chen Xiao did not dodge.

He calmly raised his right hand and gave a casual flick toward the beam, as though brushing dust from a table—or shooing away an approaching mosquito.

The beam abruptly froze half a meter before him. The violent orange-red energy instantly disintegrated into countless sky-blue butterflies of light. Fine specks of radiance shimmered on their wings as they circled Chen Xiao once, then slowly faded into the air like silent fireworks.

Thor froze.

All four warriors fell silent, their faces filled with shock.

Chen Xiao glanced at everyone's differing expressions from the corner of his eye, suppressing the urge to grin. He dusted off the front of his robe as if sweeping away nonexistent dirt. He had been wondering what excuse he could find to take this pile of Uru Metal away, but now one had been delivered right to him. These were spoils of war!

Chen Xiao wanted it, and Chen Xiao got it.

He curled his fingers, and several blue chains surged from the void, wrapping around the Destroyer's wrists, waist, and neck. They threaded through the gaps in its joints and tightened layer upon layer.

Blue-white light flowed across the chains, radiating an ancient, weighty aura. The Destroyer's body stiffened, and the orange light in its mask flickered, as though something had jammed its joints.

Chen Xiao withdrew his hand and turned toward Thor, a faint smile on his lips.

"So," he said casually, as though chatting with a friend, "do you Asgardians always wreck houses like this when you fight?"

Thor was about to answer—

"Sorcerer! Watch out!"

Sif's voice came from afar, urgent and sharp.

Chen Xiao's brow furrowed slightly.

He turned his head. The energy chains were still wrapped around the Destroyer, but they were thinning. Their blue glow was fading, as though something were draining it away. The chains' patterns blurred from clear to indistinct, their thickness diminishing as if some force were slowly devouring them.

"Hm?" Chen Xiao tilted his head.

The chains continued to thin, as if life were being drained from them. Their blue light dimmed bit by bit. The Destroyer's mask lit up again, brighter than before.

"It devours magical energy!" Sif called from afar, urgency in her voice. "This Destroyer was made specifically to counter sorcerers!"

Chen Xiao watched the chains collapse bit by bit across the Destroyer's armor. The curve of his lips did not fade. Instead, it widened.

"Interesting."

Thor stepped forward, tightening his grip on Mjolnir. "Sorcerer, stand back. Leave this thing to me—"

"No need."

Chen Xiao's voice was quiet and casual. Suppressing the excitement in his heart, he slipped a hand into the sash of his robe, rummaged around, and pulled out a coin.

An ordinary one-yuan coin.

Everyone had thought he was drawing some kind of magical artifact, and they all watched him expectantly.

Chen Xiao raised the coin before his eyes, pinching it between his thumb and index finger. He held it up to the sunlight, and silver light flickered across its edge, as though something had activated it.

"You know," he said, seemingly talking to himself, or perhaps to the coin, "when I was little, I always thought this move was really cool."

He positioned the coin against the joint of his thumb, his middle finger curled against its edge—the standard stance for flicking a coin. Blue arcs began dancing across his fingertips, spreading from his fingertips over the coin's surface and crawling across the silver metal in fine blue patterns. The arcs grew denser and brighter, giving off a faint sizzling sound, like a swarm of startled fireflies.

The Destroyer's mask lit up. Orange-red light gathered in its seams, brighter than at any previous time. It was charging up, gathering all its power.

Chen Xiao did not look at it. His gaze remained on the coin in his hand, the smile still on his lips, his eyes full of anticipation.

"This is for you."

The coin flicked out.

There was no sound.

A blue-white beam shot from Chen Xiao's fingertips, thin as a needle and swift as lightning. It tore through the air, leaving a straight streak of light in the night sky as it hurtled toward the Destroyer's head.

The coin melted within the beam, becoming a mass of plasma that dragged a blazing trail behind it. Wherever the beam passed, the air ionized and gave off a piercing shriek, as though something were tearing the world apart.

The Destroyer fired its beam at the same time. The orange-red pillar came with a scorching blast of air, colliding with Chen Xiao's blue-white beam in midair.

There was no stalemate. No beam struggle. The blue-white beam was like a red-hot needle piercing butter, shooting through the center of the orange-red beam and splitting it in two before—

Striking the Destroyer's mask.

Boom—

A fist-sized hole appeared in the center of the Destroyer's skull. The metal around its edges glowed red, melted, and curled outward. The scenery from the street behind it showed through the hole. The Destroyer's body swayed, and the patterns across it began to dim like a river drained dry. Its massive metal body started to tip forward, faster and heavier—

Boom—

Dust billowed into the air. The Destroyer crashed to the ground, kicking up a cloud of gray-white smoke. The fist-sized hole in its mask still emitted wisps of smoke, with arcs occasionally jumping around its edges before going dark.

The street fell silent.

Thor stood amid the ruins, gripping Mjolnir. His mouth hung open. A few tiny arcs still lingered across his armor, and his cape slowly settled in the night wind, but his eyes never left the metal giant lying in the ruins.

Volstagg climbed out of a pile of rubble, his armor tattered, but his mouth hung open even wider than Thor's. "...What kind of power was that??"

Fandral leaned against a broken wall, speechless. Hogan planted his mace against the ground, eyes wide with horror. Sif stood at the front, her longsword braced against the earth, staring at the gray-robed sorcerer's back with an unreadably complex expression.

Chen Xiao withdrew his hand and looked down at the faint arcs still lingering on his fingertips, glowing weakly blue beneath the sunlight. He flexed his fingers, and the arcs vanished.

Then he leaped down, crouched beside the wreckage, and curiously ran a hand over it. He looked back at the others and smiled.

"All right. This thing is mine now."