099. Thor? Even his father would be of no use! (Fourth update, please subscribe!)

The moment the tip of Su Ye's sword pressed against Sif's throat, a sudden chill swept down his back for no reason at all.

It was the kind of sensation that felt like some terrible thing had fixed its gaze upon him; even his spider-sense screamed alarms, and every hair on his body stood straight on end.

At the same time, a violent wind sprang up around them, while above, thunderclouds massed thickly across the sky. Within those clouds, bursts of lightning cracked from time to time.

Seeing this, Su Ye almost blurted out, Thunder's rolling in, better bring in the laundry!

But now was hardly the time for cheap jokes. Not far from him, in the center of the courtyard beside the hammer, Thor, who had seemed utterly ready to lie down and give up, now wore an expression entirely different from before.

"Do not hurt my friend!"

Thor said, his face stern, enunciating each word with grim force as he glared at Su Ye like a judge staring down a vile criminal.

Clearly, Thor was angry.

When Loki sent the Destroyer to kill him, he had not been angry. When he learned that Loki had deceived him, he had not been angry. Yet after Su Ye, acting in self-defense, had beaten up Sif and the Warriors Three, he had finally lost his temper.

So Thor was hardly the embodiment of justice. All his tolerance and magnanimity belonged to Loki alone. No one else, not even Odin, deserved them.

Mjolnir felt Thor's anger. This was not the venting of inner savagery or a bad temper, but concern and protection for his friends, a conviction to guard them.

Though that conviction was not quite the same as the spell Odin had spoken when he exiled Thor, it came close enough.

So Mjolnir, on its own initiative, accepted Thor's call, drew down the thunder, and restored to him the power of the thunder god.

There was no need to doubt that Mjolnir possessed such power and autonomy.

Mjolnir, like the later Stormbreaker, was never merely a weapon. It had a degree of sentience; in more fantastical terms, it possessed a spirit of its own.

That sentience was especially evident in the story of Thor: Love and Thunder.

In Thor 3, Mjolnir had been crushed by Hela. By the time of Thor 4, it had been placed on display for tourists at New Asgard on Earth.

By the way, the little stage sketch with Matt Damon playing Loki had also resumed in New Asgard, and had become one of its chief tourist attractions.

Jane Foster, who had cancer and felt that her days were numbered, came to New Asgard with mixed feelings to clear her head, and joined the tourist crowd on a visit to Mjolnir.

Then the hammer repaired itself, flew into Jane's hands, granted her vitality, cured her cancer, and, as a bonus, turned her into the Lady Thor.

If Thor had known the thing could fix itself, would he have gone to the Dwarf King to have Stormbreaker forged?

And afterward, when Thor saw the reborn Mjolnir and, with a stirring heart, secretly called to it, Stormbreaker actually drifted over of its own accord and gave him a death stare with its blade.

It was exactly like a newly married wife catching her husband flirting with his ex-girlfriend, the urge to cut him down was the same.

So yes, these divine weapons had a very high degree of autonomy. Bypassing Odin's spell, taking a legalistic little detour, and restoring Thor's power as the god of thunder was absolutely something that hammer could do.

Only now, Su Ye was the one who suffered for it.

He had originally thought that as long as Thor did not die for his friend, the power of thunder would never return.

Then Su Ye would basically be invincible here, able to bully those four rude Asgardians however he pleased.

Beating them up first and then locking them away in the Red Shield Bureau was not out of the question.

No fight, no sense of submission.

But now Thor, the god of thunder, had returned. Not only would Su Ye have to answer for everything he'd done earlier, but the duck already in hand was about to fly away.

If Thor had recovered his identity as the god of thunder, then he would surely take those four back to Asgard.

So everything Su Ye had done had been for nothing.

Not only for nothing, but with no benefits to show for it, and now he had to face Thor's revenge.

Even with all the abilities he had already gained, Su Ye still did not think he could beat Thor with Mjolnir in hand.

Unless... he could neutralize Thor's lightning.

Across from him, as Thor roared, his body slowly rose into the air, and together with Mjolnir he formed two electrodes. White currents kept tearing through the air, flickering back and forth between them.

At last, as the lightning grew thicker and thicker, a bolt of lightning snaked down from the sky and struck the crown of Thor's head. White light engulfed both him and Mjolnir entirely, forcing everyone nearby to shut their eyes against the glare.

Only after more than ten seconds did the white blaze slowly fade, revealing Thor in his armor of war, a red cape billowing behind him, every inch the tyrant who ruled both heaven and earth.

"I am Thor, god of thunder!"

Thor boomed in a deep voice.

Su Ye curled his lip. So what? Think you're the glory of the north?

"You hurt my friends!"

Thor looked down at the Warriors Three, who lay sprawled on the ground and were still dazed. The thunder earlier had been so loud and they still had not woken up, proof enough of how badly injured they were.

"So what?" Su Ye said coldly. The tip of his sword had long since left Sif's throat, though he still held Fandral's blade in his hand.

"So I will fight you in their place, and show you how powerful a true Asgardian warrior is!" Thor said, raising the hammer in his hand as arcs of electricity danced across it.

Su Ye nodded. "Fine, I understand. You want to prove to me how powerful a true Asgardian warrior is, so the three lying there, and this woman, don't count as true Asgardian warriors. That's what you mean, right?"

"I..." Thor faltered. The momentum he had gathered a moment ago began to dissipate a little. "That is not what I meant."

Su Ye lowered his gaze to Sif. "What do you think? He says you're not strong enough, that you're not really an Asgardian warrior. Is that what he means, or was that a slip of the tongue?"

Sif gritted her teeth and looked up. "We are true Asgardian warriors, but we are indeed not strong enough, so Thor is not wrong."

Su Ye smiled. "You're defending him so hard. Do you like him? He's your superior, isn't he? Is it possible he's been manipulating you, so that whatever he says, you think it must be right?"

Sif shook her head and said fiercely, "Thor is a great hero, the god of war of Asgard. Everyone likes him; my liking him is perfectly normal!"

"On the other hand, you, after all this nonsense, are you stalling for time? Or waiting for someone to come rescue you? Let me tell you, it's useless. Once Thor lifts Mjolnir, no one in the Nine Realms can stand against him!"

"Hah!" Su Ye pointed toward the sky. "He's the biggest boss in the Nine Realms, is he? Then what about his father Odin? If he's really stronger than Odin, why was he thrown down to Earth before, to live like a mortal?"

Sif retorted stubbornly, "One day, Thor will surpass the God King Odin!"

"But not today." Su Ye shrugged, then bent down and whispered to Sif, "And by the way, let me tell you something: when I talked this much nonsense with you, I really was stalling for time. Thanks for cooperating."

With that, Su Ye straightened up, tossed aside the longsword in his hand, and pointed at Thor, who floated in midair.

"If you want to prove how mighty a true Asgardian warrior is, then I'll give you the chance to challenge me. Come on!"

At that moment, however, a deep voice suddenly rang out from the rooftop of a nearby building.

"The Asgardian god of thunder, armed with a hammer, challenging an unarmed Earthman. Even if you win by luck, don't you think that would be a cheap victory?"

As soon as that voice appeared, the Black Widow, who had been watching the fight, trembled strangely at the knees.

The others all turned in the direction of the voice. There, in the darkness on the rooftop, stood a tall man who had somehow appeared without anyone noticing, clad in black armor and a black helmet, with a black cape draped over his shoulders.

"That's Batman!"

Most of the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents below had taken part in the cleanup after the Hammer Industries presentation, and none of them were unfamiliar with Batman's existence.

Now, seeing Su Ye on the ground and Batman on the rooftop, all the agents' nerves, which had been close to snapping after Thor's transformation, immediately settled back down.

"So you're Thor, the Asgardian god of thunder, are you? Today I'll make you understand that in front of the Martial Saint and Batman, forget about you, Thor. Even if your father Odin himself comes, he still won't make a difference!"

Su Ye was the man who had worn the red mask with the face paint to deal with the Abomination, and that was no secret in S.H.I.E.L.D. After Sharon Carter explained it to everyone, they all understood that the meaning behind the red mask was the Martial Saint.

So the name Martial Saint had already begun to spread in a small circle within S.H.I.E.L.D., and had come to be regarded as Su Ye's heroic alias.

On the rooftop, after speaking, Batman flipped open his black cape with one hand and produced a round shield, which he tossed to Su Ye.

"Use this first."

The shield was about the same size as Captain America's and roughly the same shape, but its coloring was entirely black. A bat pattern was embossed across its face, and in the very center was a circular lamp.

A round lamp mounted in the middle of a shield was probably a design no one had ever seen before.

And this rather badass... ah, Batman-style round shield was exactly what Su Ye had been waiting for.

The Batman on the rooftop was naturally one of the shadow clones Su Ye had sent out earlier.

Unlike Naruto's original Multiple Shadow Clone Technique, in which each clone had its own thoughts and only returned its consciousness and fatigue to the original after dispersing, the version Su Ye had learned had been modified by the system.

His shadow clones could all be controlled entirely by him alone, and their consciousnesses were interconnected, allowing remote mental communication within a certain range.

So in essence, there was no such thing as a shadow clone betraying him or developing a separate personality.

There was no need to worry about him greening himself, either, because every clone's sensations were his own.

That was how he could have the Batman clone send the shield over from the Batcave in time.

This shield had been specially made by Su Ye earlier, and the circular lamp embedded in its center was not there for decoration or lighting.

Inside it was a miniature arc reactor, and a perfect replica at that.

So this shield could not only be used as a bomb at a crucial moment, but could also fire energy beams. Likewise, when facing Thor, it could absorb lightning and recharge in reverse.

So this shield ought to be called the Anti-Thor Batman Shield.