Chapter 123: The Destroyer Comes for Thor
The Bifrost light vanished as quickly as it had arrived, leaving behind a massive circle of scorched earth on the edge of Puente Antiguo.
Standing in the center of the burned ground was a towering, faceless suit of spiked Asgardian armor.
Its dark metal plates shifted with a heavy, grinding sound. Deep inside the hollow opening of its helm, a dull, fiery orange light began to build.
"The Destroyer," Sif breathed, her hand dropping to the hilt of her sword.
The fire inside the armor's face flared blindingly bright. It unleashed a massive, continuous beam of devastating energy directly toward the main road leading into the town.
Ethan didn't shout a warning. He simply raised his hand.
A golden portal snapped open directly in the beam's path. The blast plunged into the ring of sparks and instantly erupted miles away in an empty section of the desert, throwing a geyser of molten stone and superheated sand high into the sky.
The sheer power of the distant impact sent a tremor through the pavement beneath their feet. It was a clear, unmistakable demonstration of what would have happened if the beam had reached the town.
Maria Hill didn't hesitate. "Initiate the evacuation," she ordered into her radio. "Go. Now."
Ethan didn't look surprised by the weapon's arrival, and he made no move to rush the armor. Instead, he watched as the Destroyer slowly turned its massive, spiked shoulders. The helm locked onto Thor.
The target was clear.
Ethan watched the Destroyer turn toward Thor.
Ethan knew what the armor had been built to do. It could regenerate, discharge enough energy to level the town and receive commands directly from Asgard. He could remove it from the battlefield whenever he chose, but doing so now would end the trial Odin had placed before Thor.
Hill stopped beside him. "Can you stop it?"
"Yes."
Her eyes narrowed. "Then why is it still moving?"
"Because Thor is the reason it is here, and Odin's judgment is not finished." Ethan watched the Destroyer turn toward the powerless prince. "Clear the town. I will keep everyone else alive."
Hill disliked the answer, but another blast was already forming inside the armor's face. She raised her radio and ordered the evacuation forward.
Hill keyed her radio. "Clear the main road. Move everyone through the marked evacuation points."
Ethan raised both hands, pulling the ambient magic of the town into a massive, coordinated defense.
He opened three portals at the evacuation points Hill had selected. Each one led to a secured staging area outside the town.
S.H.I.E.L.D. agents began moving civilians through them while Darcy used the diner's loudspeaker to direct anyone still inside the surrounding buildings. Erik guided the confused residents toward the nearest portal.
Jane tried to remain beside Thor, but Hill intercepted her.
"That thing is following him," Hill said. "Standing here makes you another obstacle."
Thor looked at Jane. "Go. I will find you when this is over."
Ethan remained on the main road, keeping himself between the Destroyer and the evacuation routes. He could defend the town or concentrate fully on the armor. Until the streets were clear, he could not do both.
Sif and the Warriors Three refused to stand by and watch the Destroyer reach Thor unopposed.
"Do not fight it," Thor warned them, stepping back. "It was built to destroy threats far stronger than mortals."
Volstagg gripped his heavy axe, a fierce grin spreading across his bearded face. "Then it will finally have a worthy opponent!"
He charged before Thor could stop him.
Volstagg swung his axe with devastating force, striking the armor's knee and forcing the massive construct to stumble sideways. Fandral followed instantly, attacking the opposite leg with a flurry of strikes, while Hogun drove his spiked mace deep between two shifting metal plates.
Sif used the opening, leaping high into the air and burying her double-bladed sword directly into the armor's neck.
For three seconds, the Destroyer locked in place.
Then, its internal plates began to rotate.
The damaged knee snapped straight with a sickening crunch of metal. Hogun's weapon was violently pushed free as the plates realigned. The metal around Sif's blade contracted, forcing her to abandon the weapon and jump away before the armor could crush her hands.
The Destroyer backhanded Volstagg through the awning of an empty storefront. He crashed onto the pavement and rolled to a stop beside the broken wood.
Fandral rushed toward him, but the Destroyer's face opened again.
Ethan bent the beam upward because its path continued toward one of the evacuation portals. The blast missed Fandral by inches and disappeared into the clouds.
Hogun attacked from the side and received a sweeping blow across the chest. He struck a parked truck hard enough to buckle the door.
Sif pulled her sword free and landed behind the armor. Before she could attack again, the damaged plates shifted back into place.
Above the street, Tony's capsule drones followed the movement.
"The repair starts in the chest," Tony reported. "Same pulse every time."
"Keep recording," Ethan said.
The Destroyer ignored the Warriors once they were scattered and resumed its slow, heavy march toward Thor.
Thor backed away, moving further down the road to draw the armor away from the evacuation portals rather than hiding behind Ethan.
The armor fired again.
Ethan opened a portal directly in front of the beam, linking it to the sky above. The blinding light shot upward, passing harmlessly over the rooftops without singeing a single shingle.
The Destroyer changed tactics. Instead of a sustained blast, it swept the beam sideways in a wide, sweeping arc, attempting to catch Thor and the defenders at the same time.
Ethan thrust his hands forward, raising a massive, shimmering golden barrier across the width of the road. The Asgardian fire washed over the shield like liquid magma, spreading across the surface in a blinding display of heat and power, but it could not pass through.
The strain on Ethan's magic was visible, but his control never wavered.
Sif pushed herself up from the pavement, one hand pressed against her injured side. The golden barrier still stretched across the road, holding back enough Asgardian fire to reduce the town behind Ethan to ash.
She looked from the barrier to the Destroyer. "You possess enough power to imprison it."
"Yes."
"Then why do you allow it to continue?" Sif demanded. "Thor is mortal. One strike from that weapon will kill him."
Ethan kept one hand raised, maintaining the barrier while the Destroyer's fire spread across it.
"Thor will not die."
Sif stared at him. "You cannot know that."
"Odin did not bind Mjolnir, cast his only son onto Midgard and arrange all of this merely to watch him die," Ethan said. "The enchantment is a judgment, not an execution. When Thor's life is truly placed against the lives he is trying to protect, the hammer will judge him again."
"And if the hammer does not answer?"
Ethan finally looked at her.
"Then I will."
The certainty in his voice left no room for doubt. He was not claiming that the Destroyer could defeat him. He was allowing Odin's trial to reach its conclusion while keeping every other life outside it.
Sif's anger faded slightly, replaced by confusion.
"You said Odin's only son."
A damaged section of wall began falling toward the evacuation route. Ethan closed his free hand, stopping the bricks in midair before lowering them harmlessly onto the empty pavement.
He glanced back at Sif with a faint smile.
"That is a question you should ask your king."
The edge of a redirected energy blast clipped an abandoned sedan, sending the heavy vehicle tumbling end over end toward the evacuation route.
Gwen swung out from a nearby rooftop, firing a thick web-line from each wrist. She caught the car mid-roll, straining against the momentum until the vehicle slammed down onto its tires, stopping just short of the S.H.I.E.L.D. perimeter.
Inside a nearby building, a terrified diner worker had hidden under a table instead of following the evacuation orders. Gwen felt the faint, frantic pulse of fear through her spider-sense and instantly vaulted through the shattered upper window.
Down on the street, Natasha stood guard, her Plumber sidearm raised.
The burning sedan suddenly hissed, a ruptured fuel line pooling gasoline toward the wooden facade of a storefront. Natasha switched the sidearm to its cutting mode, firing a precise beam that cleanly severed the damaged fuel line, then switched to pulse, blasting the spreading flames away from the building.
Gwen dropped out of the second-story window, carrying the terrified worker over her shoulder.
A heavy, jagged piece of metal, torn from the Destroyer's outer plating during Sif's attack, suddenly launched toward them like shrapnel.
Natasha didn't flinch. She raised her left arm, channeling energy through her bracers to form her small Eldritch Guard. The orange shield flared to life, knocking the heavy fragment aside.
The impact shattered the fragile shield instantly, leaving Natasha's forearm completely numb.
A second piece of shrapnel followed immediately.
Gwen fired a web, snagging Natasha's tactical vest and yanking both of them backward, cleanly behind Ethan's protected evacuation line.
Natasha hit the ground beside her, massaging her numb arm. "You could have pulled more gently."
"You could have made a better shield," Gwen shot back.
"I started learning yesterday."
"Excuses."
They didn't waste time arguing. They returned immediately to the evacuation. Ethan's decision to hold back wasn't forcing them to duel the Destroyer; they were handling the dangerous fallout that escaped the central fight.
The Destroyer stepped forward and swept Sif aside before she could raise her sword again. She struck the road and rolled across the pavement, stopping near Volstagg. The large warrior tried to rise beside her, but his injured leg collapsed beneath his weight. Fandral and Hogun were still conscious, yet neither could return to the fight without exposing the remaining civilians to another blast.
Beyond them, S.H.I.E.L.D. agents were guiding the last families toward Ethan's portals. Gwen held a damaged roof overhang above the entrance to one building while Natasha helped an injured agent cross the street. Jane remained near the edge of the protected area, staring at Thor despite Hill's repeated orders to move farther back.
The Destroyer ignored everyone who had fallen and continued toward Thor.
Its face opened once more. Ethan redirected the resulting beam into the desert, but the force of the blast shook windows throughout the town and sent another wave of debris across the empty road.
Thor watched Ethan close the portal after the fire had passed. "How many people remain?"
Hill's answer came through the comms. "Two buildings. My teams are clearing them now."
Thor looked over the battlefield. His friends had crossed the Bifrost against Loki's command and now lay injured because they had stood between him and the weapon. Midgardians who had no part in Asgard's conflict were abandoning their homes. Jane was still refusing to leave him, while Ethan was using enough power to protect an entire town from the consequences of Thor's family.
The Destroyer would continue as long as someone remained between it and its target.
Thor turned toward Sif and the Warriors Three. "Stand down. Help the mortals finish the evacuation and protect Jane."
Sif forced herself onto one knee. "We did not cross the realms to abandon you."
"You crossed them because Loki deceived us both," Thor replied. "This weapon came because of me. I will not allow the rest of you to suffer for my mistakes."
The words carried none of his former arrogance. Thor was not demanding that they obey their prince or promising that he would defeat the enemy alone. He was asking them to stop paying the price for choices he had made.
He turned away before Sif could argue again and began walking toward the Destroyer.
Jane immediately moved after him, but Gwen released the roof only after the civilians beneath it were clear and swung down in front of her. She caught Jane by the shoulders, holding her behind Ethan's protected line as Thor continued along the center of the road.
Sif tried to follow as well. Her injured leg failed beneath her, and Fandral caught her before she struck the ground.
"Thor!" she shouted. "It will kill you!"
Thor stopped several paces from the Destroyer and looked back at those who had fought for him.
"Then let it end with me."
He faced the armor again. The Destroyer slowed, recognizing that nothing now stood between it and the target Loki had sent it to kill.
Thor met Ethan's gaze across the damaged road. "Do not pull me away."
Ethan understood that the choice had already been made. He maintained every evacuation portal, every barrier protecting the side streets and every spell holding damaged buildings together, but he opened nothing in front of Thor.
The plates surrounding the Destroyer's face began sliding apart. Orange light spilled across Thor's borrowed clothes and the broken pavement around him. Behind the powerless prince, the last civilians disappeared through Ethan's portals.
The fire inside the armor continued to build, and this time Ethan did not raise his hand.
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