Outside Westview, a rainbow-colored pillar of light slammed violently against the scarlet dimensional barrier shrouding the town like a spear of divine punishment.
At the center of the pillar, Thor's blond hair whipped wildly as his eyes burned red. He gripped Stormbreaker tightly, the light of the six Infinity Stones embedded in its blade flickering erratically. Again and again, he detonated their vast power, trying to pry even the slightest crack into this perfect prison.
He had been hacking at it for three full hours.
Wreathed in thunderbolts and the Stones' cosmic power, Stormbreaker came crashing down once more.
"Boom—!"
Thunder and Chaos Magic collided fiercely, tearing open a fleeting crack in the red barrier.
Without hesitation, Thor turned into a bolt of lightning and plunged through it.
The instant he crossed the barrier, the world spun. The scenery around him warped and melted like an oil painting dropped into water. Asgard's golden dome, his father Odin's stern single eye, his mother's loving smile... memories engraved deep within his soul were being forcibly washed away and erased by an irresistible force.
Thor roared and tried to struggle, but his body felt as though it had been poured into a mold of molten iron. His bones, muscles, and even his divinity were being forcibly reshaped.
Before his consciousness sank completely into darkness, he saw a man standing across the street.
The man wore ordinary loungewear and gently held the hand of a heavily pregnant red-haired woman. He watched Thor quietly, a faint, almost imperceptible smile on his face.
That gaze was terrifyingly indifferent, as though he were looking at an ant that had happened to crawl by and was about to be crushed beneath his foot.
It was Chu Hang.
Thor wanted to roar that name, but his lips seemed sewn