Kotoamatsukami

To keep the Destroyer from activating again, Mercer wasn't about to stop there.

With the Dark Saber in hand, he unleashed a dazzling flurry of slashes, cutting the quartered Destroyers on the ground into tiny pieces.

The two towering figures had vanished, leaving only metal fragments scattered across the ground.

Even Thor felt his scalp prickle at the sight.

With his strength, breaking a Destroyer wasn't difficult. The hard part was cutting such tough metal into so many tiny fragments.

Even in Asgard, that required specially generated stellar temperatures.

The temperature needed to vaporize an ordinary human on Earth ranged between eight thousand and ten thousand degrees per millisecond, and that was only just enough to cut this metal.

Yet the sword in Mercer's hand sliced through it effortlessly. Could its blade be hotter than ten thousand degrees?

What they didn't know was that the Dark Saber's actual temperature exceeded two hundred million degrees. The magnetic field inside its hilt contained the blade's beam, preventing heat from radiating outward.

Otherwise, even Mercer's physique couldn't have withstood two hundred million degrees of heat. At such close range, even Thor and Loki would have struggled to endure it.

Someone this powerful simply couldn't have come from an ordinary planet.

"I miscalculated..."

Loki had expected Mercer to be strong, which was why he had brought his royal guards. He hadn't imagined that even then, they would fail to hurt him.

Just how high was his ceiling?!

"Still want to fight?"

Mercer looked at Loki with a smile. Loki's expression had been ugly from the start, and nothing had gone the way he had expected.

His vicious gaze swept over Mercer, and the scepter in his hand trembled. "We're leaving!" Loki said gravely.

"This isn't over. Just you wait!"

The light of the Bifrost descended from the sky again, enveloping the Asgardians. Even the shattered Destroyers were taken away with them.

And just like that, the incident came to an end.

Shock no longer came close to describing what Thor felt. He couldn't stop his gaze from roaming over Mercer.

Beyond his astonishment, he was also trying to figure out exactly who Mercer was.

Lightning more powerful than his own, a black substance that could devour others, and a lightsaber that could slice through even the Destroyer's Uru metal-Mercer had become a man of mystery.

For someone so powerful to suddenly appear on Earth, only for Thor to learn about him now, was utterly baffling.

How could someone like that have remained so unremarkable?

Meanwhile, Mercer put away his abilities and turned toward Thor, only to freeze.

Wait, I remember Thor regained his Divine Spark when Loki sent the Destroyer to kill him. Now my intervention has stopped that from happening, so... how is he going to regain his Divine Spark?

It only occurred to him when he saw Thor. His arrival had disrupted the timeline, and nothing that happened afterward would give Thor a chance to sacrifice himself for others and regain his Divine Spark.

That was a bit of a problem. If Thor didn't regain his Divine Spark during this period, events would drift further and further from the timeline Mercer remembered. That wasn't good.

Right, Kotoamatsukami!

Mercer suddenly remembered the Battle-Damaged Card he had just obtained. Kotoamatsukami allowed him to manipulate others at will without their knowledge, permanently and completely altering their thoughts and will.

If Thor still possessed his Divine Spark, he might have been able to resist such a mental attack.

But now he was just an ordinary person, utterly incapable of resisting a mental attack that didn't belong to this world.

All right, it's worth a try!

The moment the thought occurred to him, Mercer acted.

The Battle-Damaged Card quietly appeared in his hand. Depicted on it was a crimson eye with a black, boomerang-shaped pattern-the Mangekyo Sharingan!

Once the Kotoamatsukami Battle-Damaged Card appeared, both of Mercer's eyes transformed into Mangekyo Sharingan.

"Your eyes..."

Thor noticed the change in Mercer's eyes and was about to say something, only to freeze in place.

"What about his eyes? What's wrong?"

The other two women came over and looked at Mercer's eyes, both startled.

"Wow, aren't you Asian? How come your eyes are blue-green? They're gorgeous," Daisy said, looking utterly smitten.

Mercer blinked and chuckled. "I was born with them. I don't know why they're like this either."

With that, he discreetly turned his head away and narrowed his eyes.

The Mangekyo Sharingan had vanished in less than a second, but even that brief moment had left Mercer's eyes painfully dry, forcing him to close them and rest.

Then Mercer felt a tight, constricting sensation around his temples. This was the aftermath of using Kotoamatsukami.

No wonder it was the strongest illusion technique in the original story, with a cooldown of over a decade. The mental drain is enormous.

Rubbing his temples, Mercer hadn't expected a single Battle-Damaged Card to have such severe consequences. Even with his physique, he couldn't escape a wave of dizziness.

"Thor... Thor? What's wrong?"

Seeing Thor standing there in a daze, Jane reached out and shook his shoulder. It took several shakes before he responded.

"Huh? What's wrong?" Thor looked somewhat bewildered.

"What do you mean, what's wrong? I'm asking you what's wrong. Why were you just standing there in a daze?" Jane was a little speechless. What kind of answer was that?

"I... think I'm fine."

Thor shook his head, then turned to look at the hammer inside the tent as Jane watched him speechlessly.

After a moment's hesitation, he raised his hand toward the tent, curling his fingers slightly.

Mjolnir, which had remained planted on the ground all this time, actually began to hum faintly. A second later, it flew out of the tent and straight into his hand!

At the same time, thunder boomed overhead, and bolts of lightning descended from the sky.

"Why is he throwing lightning around like that?!"

Mercer reacted swiftly, pulling Jane and Daisy away just in time to keep them from being caught in the lightning's aftermath.

Watching Thor bathed in lightning, Mercer looked exasperated. Even if you're showing off, watch out for the people around you.

If he hadn't pulled them away, the two women would have been reduced to charcoal by now.

Though exasperated, he also breathed a sigh of relief. Seeing Thor regain Thor's Power finally put Mercer at ease.

Lightning struck Thor, and when its glow faded, he stood clad in silver armor that offered ample protection while still showing off his figure. He looked as imposing as a god descending to earth.

"You actually picked it up! Is this what you wear in Asgard? You look so cool!"

Seeing Thor lift the hammer, Daisy couldn't help shouting. This woman seemed to like both men and women...

Looking at the hammer in his hand, Thor was equally puzzled. A minute ago, he hadn't been able to sense his Divine Spark at all. A minute later, he suddenly could.

He had tried reaching out for the hammer, never expecting that he would actually summon it.

Once the lightning around Thor faded, Daisy hurried over and circled him, chattering away.

Jane was a little exasperated too, but she joined in nonetheless.

Only Mercer stood a short distance away, lost in thought. Of everyone who had witnessed the thunder god regain his Divine Spark, he was the most shaken.

I never thought Kotoamatsukami could actually do something like this. In the Marvel Universe, its power is definitely no weaker than Odin's or The Ancient One's spells!