Chapter 125: The Destroyer Breaks
The Destroyer tried to close its massive plates around its exposed core.
Thor drove Mjolnir deeper into the opening. Lightning poured from the hammer directly into the armor's interior, violently interfering with the weapon's attempt to rebuild itself.
Through the blinding glare, Ethan saw two distinct lines of Asgardian magic crossing inside the chest.
The thicker, glowing network was actively powering the armor's regeneration. A narrower, sharper line carried the direct commands from Asgard.
Tony's voice came over the comms while his capsule drones circled above the altered street, feeding him a continuous stream of readings.
"Another regeneration pulse starting in three seconds."
The Destroyer violently twisted its upper body, attempting to turn its open, fiery face toward Ethan.
Thor shifted his stance on the broken pavement. He drove his shoulder forward, using Mjolnir as a wedge to force the armor sideways before it could unleash a direct beam.
"The opening will not remain!" Thor yelled over the grinding metal.
Ethan advanced down the altered street, golden magic gathering brightly between his hands.
"It does not need to."
He targeted the narrower magical path first.
Instead of a blunt strike, Ethan wove precise strands of golden energy directly into the exposed chest. The threads spread through the Destroyer's interior, following the command route toward the point where it met the regeneration enchantment.
The armor responded immediately.
Its massive limbs jerked with erratic, conflicting motions. The heavy metal plates around Thor's hammer ground together with terrifying force. The fire building inside the helm flickered.
Thor felt the resistance double, but he refused to release the opening.
Light-years away in Asgard, Loki stood before the throne.
He felt the sudden, crushing resistance pushing back against his will. Enraged, the king drove a massive surge of royal power through Gungnir, forcing a new command down the connection.
That surge gave Ethan exactly what he needed.
When the added energy flooded the command route, the pathway illuminated perfectly in Ethan's vision.
Ethan closed his hand.
The golden strands tightened around the illuminated pathway and cut straight through it.
On Asgard, Gungnir erupted with a violent burst of golden sparks. Loki staggered away from the throne as the resistance vanished beneath his hands.
On Midgard, the command line went dark.
The Destroyer convulsed violently. Stripped of its master's direct control, its head snapped sideways without direction. One massive arm swung wildly, missing Thor entirely and burying itself deep into the stretched asphalt.
Loki's direct control was gone, but the final command remained embedded inside the armor. The Destroyer would continue hunting Thor and attacking anything that stood in its path. Its regeneration network was separate from Loki's connection and continued operating on its own.
The violent convulsion tore one of the Destroyer's damaged shoulder plates free. It spun down the altered road toward the narrow corridor Ethan had left open so the medics could carry the wounded Asgardians out of the overlap.
Gwen and one of the medics were helping Volstagg through that corridor when the plate came toward them.
Gwen heard the metal cutting through the air and spun around. She fired a thick web that caught the plate before it reached the medic, but its weight dragged her several feet across the pavement.
A smaller fragment had broken away behind it. Gwen was still holding the larger plate when the second piece shot toward her unprotected side.
Natasha reacted first. Widow Thread flashed from her taped fingers and caught the heavy fabric at the back of Gwen's suit. She pulled sharply, dragging Gwen out of the fragment's path, then raised the Plumber sidearm and fired a concussive pulse that knocked the metal away from the medic.
The Thread dissolved into sparks. Natasha flexed her fingers as the bracers cut off the flow before the sudden strain could burn them.
Gwen regained her footing beside her and looked at the fragment buried where she had been standing.
"You pulled my suit."
Natasha lowered the sidearm. "You pulled my vest."
Gwen considered the answer for a moment. "Fair."
Neither of them remained still long enough to turn it into a conversation. They returned to Volstagg and continued moving him out of the battlefield.
In the center of the road, Ethan turned his full attention to the larger network rebuilding the armor.
The Destroyer was still trying to crush its chest around Mjolnir. Thor braced his heavy silver boot directly against the damaged torso, forcing the plates farther apart. The armor's free arm struck Thor repeatedly, but the God of Thunder held his ground.
"The cycle is repeating," Tony reported over the comms. "Chest first, then the shoulders, arms, legs and helm."
The readings matched what Ethan could already see inside the enchantment. Before Tony finished naming the sequence, Ethan's magic had entered the node feeding the Destroyer's right shoulder.
He closed his hand. The rune split apart, and the damaged plates around the shoulder ground to a permanent halt.
Ethan shifted his magic into the next branch and broke the node controlling the injured leg. The locked limb stopped repairing, but the central network continued pulsing inside the open chest, trying to route power around the damage.
Recognizing the threat even without Loki directing it, the Destroyer opened its face. It gathered every remaining reserve of internal fire for one massive, final discharge.
Thor could not release the chest without allowing the broken network a chance to close. Instead, he twisted Mjolnir sideways inside the opening, using the hammer as leverage to physically force the Destroyer's upper body backward.
Ethan reached the central crossing point inside the chest.
He drove his magic between the remaining regeneration enchantment and the armor's primary power source, tearing the connection apart.
For the first time since the weapon landed, the Destroyer's shattered metal did not move back into place.
Breaking the network completely destabilized the massive amount of energy stored inside the armor.
The fire inside its helm burned brighter than any previous attack.
"Discharge is building faster than the chassis can contain it," Tony warned.
Ethan confirmed the regeneration enchantment was completely dead. He gave Thor the signal.
Thor ripped Mjolnir free. He delivered a devastating uppercut beneath the Destroyer's helm, violently forcing the armor's face toward the empty sky of the Mirror Dimension.
The beam erupted upward in a blinding pillar of fire.
Thor raised his hammer and threw himself directly into the blast. He did not allow the Destroyer to sweep the beam back down toward the town.
Massive arcs of blue lightning gathered around him, wrapping tightly around the Asgardian fire and forcing the discharge into a tightening, controlled spiral high above the altered streets.
Below them, Ethan raised both hands. He folded the surrounding space inward, containing the spreading thermal expansion inside the empty sky.
The stored energy finally burned itself out.
The Destroyer remained standing for one silent moment. Its chest was torn entirely open. Its limbs were locked and damaged. The blinding fire behind its face vanished.
One carved rune remained lit on the inner plate at the center of the ruined chest.
Ethan closed his hand, and a thin golden line passed through the symbol from top to bottom. The rune split. The remaining light inside the Destroyer's face disappeared, and the massive armor toppled backward onto the stretched road with a deafening crash.
Several damaged plates broke loose upon impact and scattered across the asphalt. None of them moved. No light returned to the hollow helm, and no regeneration pulse followed.
Ethan did not immediately release the Mirror Dimension.
He approached the fallen chassis while Thor landed heavily beside him, keeping Mjolnir ready. Tony's drones circled lower, confirming that both the regeneration pulse and the Asgardian control signal were completely gone.
Inside the ruined chest, Ethan found the central component where the command and regeneration enchantments had crossed. Although the surrounding network was dead, the component still carried a dangerous concentration of Asgardian energy.
Ethan drew it from the ruined chassis without touching it, suspended it inside a layered golden containment sphere and examined the fading runes across its surface.
Thor watched from beside him, Mjolnir still ready in his hand. "Can it be awakened again?"
"Not without rebuilding what I just destroyed," Ethan said. "I intend to make that difficult."
Tony's voice immediately cut across the comms.
"Tell me you aren't taking the only interesting component back to your magical basement."
"You can have the complete readings and selected outer plates," Ethan replied. "The active component comes with me."
Tony began objecting, but Hill spoke over him.
"Custody argument later. I need a casualty count and confirmation that the armor is dead."
Ethan sent the containment sphere into secured Sanctum storage.
"The armor is dead."
Tony muttered something about hostile research partners while his drones descended toward the remaining fragments.
With the core secured, Ethan released the Mirror Dimension.
The folded buildings and stretched asphalt snapped back into their natural geometry. The severe damage from the initial clash remained, but the town itself had survived.
Maria Hill instantly took control of the recovery operation.
Medical teams rushed forward to stabilize Sif and the Warriors Three. S.H.I.E.L.D. agents spread out, tagging every visible fragment of the armor. Tony's drones performed an overhead count.
Natasha took control of the fragment inventory herself. She checked each numbered tray against Tony's drone count before allowing the pieces into S.H.I.E.L.D. containment crates.
Gwen vaulted over a broken wall, sweeping the remaining buildings for anyone missed during the evacuation.
Once the armor was confirmed inactive, Jane ran past the barricades.
She reached Thor and wrapped her arms around him, burying her face in his chest. Thor held her closely, looking overwhelmed by the sudden return of his power and everything that had led to this moment.
Nearby, Sif leaned on her sword while a medic bound her injured leg. She watched Thor hold Jane for a moment before turning toward the Warriors Three and checking that each of them remained conscious.
Whatever questions she carried about Ethan's strange knowledge would wait. Loki still controlled Asgard, Heimdall had not answered them, and their return home remained uncertain.
Further down the street, S.H.I.E.L.D. recovery personnel swept the wider debris field. Most of the scattered fragments were dead outer plates carrying very little residual energy.
One evidence technician moved beyond the numbered debris field and knelt beside an overturned sedan. His temporary assignment had come through Sitwell's office only hours before the Asgardian attack.
Beneath the crushed door, he found a jagged sliver of dark metal no larger than two fingers. His handheld scanner registered only a weak trace of Asgardian energy—too small for Tony's drones to separate from the surrounding wreckage.
The technician looked toward Natasha, who was checking the larger fragments against the official inventory. When her attention shifted to a damaged chest plate, he sealed the sliver inside an unmarked sample sleeve and pushed it beneath the protective lining of his jacket.
The numbered collection tray beside him remained empty.
Once the wounded Asgardians were stabilized and walking, Thor broke away from the recovery teams. He walked out to the scorched Bifrost mark at the edge of the desert.
Sif, Volstagg, Fandral, and Hogun followed, taking their places behind their prince.
Jane followed as well, but she stopped several steps away. She already understood that the return of his power meant the return of his duty to a realm she could not reach.
Thor raised Mjolnir, looking up into the clear blue sky.
He called Heimdall's name, asking the gatekeeper to open the Bifrost.
Nothing happened.
Thor tightened his grip on the hammer and called again, louder this time. He shouted into the sky that Loki controlled the throne, and that they needed to return before his brother could harm anyone else.
Ethan joined Thor at the center of the scorched mark.
"When the bridge opens, do not waste time returning to the palace," he said. "Go directly to the observatory."
Thor lowered Mjolnir slightly. "Why?"
"Because Loki may use the Bifrost against Jotunheim."
Sif's expression hardened. "The bridge is a means of travel."
"Keep it open upon one realm and it becomes a weapon," Ethan replied. "Loki wants to finish the war Thor began and place the victory at Odin's feet."
Thor's relief at regaining his power disappeared. "You believe he would destroy the entire realm?"
"I believe he will try," Ethan said. "That is enough reason not to return through the palace."
Thor turned back toward the sky and raised Mjolnir once more. The impatience that had defined him when he first arrived on Midgard was gone. He was no longer demanding that Heimdall obey his prince; he was calling to a loyal friend who might already be fighting Loki alone.
"Heimdall!" Thor's voice rolled across the desert. "Open the bridge!"
For several seconds, nothing answered.
Then the analyzer secured against Tony's forearm registered a rapid rise in dimensional energy. He looked up as faint bands of prismatic light appeared among the clouds.
The scorched mark beneath Thor's feet began to glow.
Sif and the Warriors Three moved closer to their prince while Jane remained several steps behind them. Ethan watched the forming bridge, already preparing himself for what waited at the observatory.
The colors above them intensified, and the Bifrost descended.
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