The God King's Warning

Since the divine artifact had a spirit, he would let it see whether he was worthy.

Apocalypse slowly took several deep breaths. With every inhale and exhale, the dust within several meters pulsed along with him, as though an ancient beast were awakening. The burly men around him were so frightened that they backed away.

At this point, no matter how stupid they were, they knew how terrifying this Easterner was!

He was regulating his breathing. It looked like he was about to unleash some big move.

He had already caused something like an earthquake across a hundred meters of ground just now, and many people had been injured by flying stones. If he unleashed a big move this time, wouldn't it be even more terrifying?!

The burly men quickly ran away, afraid that if they were too slow, they would lose their lives.

Apocalypse calmed his mind, gripped Thor's Hammer in his right hand, and opened his heart so the artifact spirit could fully sense his spiritual world.

He was not on the side of evil. Since coming to this world, he had saved quite a few lives, and he had even shared destiny with several superheroes.

Although he did not know Thor's Hammer's standards of judgment, Apocalypse believed he had a good chance.

The moment he opened his heart, Apocalypse sensed that faint spiritual connection again. Then, it seemed as though his entire spiritual world had been swept over.

Next, a subtle feeling rose in his heart, and countless pieces of information instantly appeared in his mind!

Apocalypse smiled faintly and lifted his hand. Thor's Hammer immediately rose from the ground!

The soil supporting it turned to dust and scattered with the wind.

No wonder Captain America had been so proficient the first time he picked up Thor's Hammer in the original story, catching Thanos completely off guard.

So long as one gained the hammer's recognition, one would instantly receive the information needed to control Thor's Hammer. With the artifact spirit's cooperation, using it naturally became as smooth and effortless as flowing water.

Apocalypse gently swung Thor's Hammer, slowly familiarizing himself with the divine artifact.

Bolts of lightning flashed around him, twisting like dragons and serpents. They made him look incomparably majestic, as though a god had descended upon the world!

This was Thor's Hammer's innate lightning power.

At some unknown time, dark clouds had quietly gathered in the sky, and a huge shadow blanketed the earth.

The stifling air stopped moving, making it hard to breathe.

"Everyone, run! The big move is coming!!"

The group of burly men scattered in all directions, desperately fleeing the area beneath the dark clouds.

Looking up at the sky, Apocalypse knew that Heimdall, guardian of Asgard's Rainbow Bridge, was definitely watching him at this moment. Even the God King Odin was likely paying attention.

They had thrown the hammer here only to test Thor and let him gain experience.

They had never imagined that someone on Earth would actually be able to lift Thor's Hammer. Unable to remain calm, they hurriedly displayed their authority!

If he dared to take the hammer away, Heimdall would instantly activate the Rainbow Bridge. By then, whether Asgardian warriors or the God King Odin himself descended would be hard to say.

However, Apocalypse had never intended to do such a thing. He raised his head and said to the sky, "Heimdall, don't be so stingy. I'm only borrowing it to play with. You Asgardians casually throw things onto Earth, yet you won't let us pick them up and play with them?"

Heimdall was shaken. This human actually knew his name?

He was far away in Asgard's Rainbow Bridge control room. He had always been the one watching others. Could this man actually see him?

Before Heimdall could do anything, a rainbow suddenly shot into the control room. The God King Odin crossed the Rainbow Bridge, several kilometers long, and instantly appeared before Heimdall.

The God King Odin asked, "Who lifted Thor's Hammer? I can sense that it was not Thor."

Heimdall displayed the image before the God King. "I just used the Eye of Light to look into his life. He is an Earthling who became extremely powerful through some gamma energy, but his strength should not be enough to lift Thor's Hammer."

Starlight shimmered in the God King's eyes as he gazed at Apocalypse from afar through the rainbow passage.

An unmatched spiritual pressure descended from above, and Apocalypse, far away on Earth, felt his heart sink!

That spiritual power was like boundless starlight, crossing endless cosmic space and time to bear down directly upon him.

Apocalypse felt like a small boat in a raging sea, as though he could be destroyed by the monstrous waves at any moment.

To resist that pressure, veins bulged on Apocalypse's forehead as he gathered all his strength.

The invisible clash rubbed through the air, and bolts of lightning flickered into existence and vanished around Apocalypse.

After watching for a while, the God King suddenly smiled. "Not bad, little fellow, but Thor's Hammer cannot be given to you. If there is an opportunity, you are welcome to visit Asgard."

With that, he turned and left.

Apocalypse's body on Earth immediately relaxed. When he came back to his senses, he discovered that half his body had been pressed into the dirt, with beads of cold sweat covering his forehead.

However, he had received the God King's words in his mind as well.

Apocalypse leaped out of the ground and casually tossed Thor's Hammer aside.

The instant it left his hand, he also sensed a trace of reluctance from the hammer's artifact spirit.

Whether to preserve the original storyline or because of the God King Odin, he definitely could not touch this hammer again.

Especially Odin. A mere distant spiritual contact had already been so terrifying!

It seemed that the original story had not revealed even one ten-thousandth of his true strength, leading many people to think he was merely a frail old man at death's door.

But how could a God King who ruled the Nine Realms possibly be so simple?

Even Hela, the Goddess of Death, had only broken free of her seal after he died.

However, Apocalypse found one thing strange.

Such a powerful God King had fought everywhere alongside his daughter Hela in his early years, conquering the Nine Realms.

Yet in his middle and later years, he had suddenly become fond of peace. To prevent Hela from causing trouble, he had even sealed her away.

He had also covered up the murals in the royal palace's sacred hall, concealing the history of the past.

If someone said Odin had suddenly grown a conscience, Apocalypse absolutely would not believe it.

No matter how benevolent a ruler was, he would not mind ruling over a larger territory.

The only explanation was that he had encountered an irresistible force!

He could only stop expanding at the borders he had already reached!

As for what that mysterious force was, who it was, and how terrifying it might be, Apocalypse had no clue at all.

At least, the original story had never mentioned it.

Apocalypse noticed that the burly men had already run several hundred meters away. They watched him from afar, not daring to approach.

The pickup truck and barbecue stand that had been parked nearby had been crushed by an invisible force into iron sheets as thin as paper.

The sight made the burly men's hearts pound wildly. Fortunately, they had run quickly. Otherwise, under such invisible pressure, wouldn't their flesh and blood have been flattened like pizzas?

Who was this Easterner? He had actually survived beneath that invisible pressure. Could he be a god?

Ignoring those burly men, Apocalypse spotted an acquaintance behind them—Coulson.

Wearing sunglasses, Coulson looked complicatedly at the mysterious Eastern man ahead. The disturbance just now was simply not something a normal human could have caused.

Coulson's job required him to frequently observe such superpowered humans, contact them, and even fight them.

If this Eastern man were his enemy, how should he deal with him? Coulson did not even dare to think further.

"Mr. Tang, we meet again."

Apocalypse nodded. "You came a little late."

"We tested the hammer, but we could not lift it like you did, Mr. Tang. Our surveillance satellites showed that something else descended around the same time as the hammer: a living creature. Compared to a hammer, we are more concerned about that unknown life-form."

"Hahaha." Apocalypse laughed. "So what if you find it? You saw the phenomenon when I lifted the hammer just now. I'm afraid even your S.H.I.E.L.D. can do nothing about this kind of power, right?"

Coulson shrugged. "Someone has to try. No matter what kind of power it is, as long as it threatens Earth, we have to face it!"

Apocalypse nodded. If his homeland was threatened, someone had to rise to the challenge no matter how powerful the force was.

But he knew that Earth was far more complicated than Coulson imagined.

Leaving aside God Kings from mythology like Odin and the future great boss Thanos, even the various parallel universes contained countless threats, such as Dormammu, who wanted to devour Earth.

Yet by sheer coincidence, Earth had first had the powerful Ancient One guarding it for a thousand years. Then Doctor Strange appeared and trapped Dormammu in a time loop, leaving him unable to advance until he finally had no choice but to cease hostilities.

The Infinity Stones, regarded as treasures throughout the universe, appeared again and again on the backward planet Earth.

If someone said it was all coincidence, Apocalypse would not believe it even if he were beaten to death.

It was simply that the original story had never explained the reason behind it all.

"Coulson, someone will try to take this hammer away later. Just do what you need to do, but don't be too rude."

"The hammer's owner?"

"More or less. I just don't know whether he can lift it."

Coulson was utterly baffled. If he was the hammer's owner, how could he possibly be unable to lift it?