Chapter 45:
Loki, feeling anxious, interrupted their conversation. "What are you going to do?"
Mark completely ignored Loki and took control of Steve, directing him to start digging into the Bifrost Bridge.
Thor, lacking Frigga's psychic abilities or magical training, couldn't see Steve, but Loki could sense his presence.
As Loki watched the blocky monster swing its pickaxe, causing cracks to appear on the Bifrost Bridge, he was stunned for a moment. He quickly realized what they were doing—sacrificing the Bifrost Bridge, the connection between the Nine Realms, to save Jotunheim from destruction.
"Thor! Have you lost your mind? If he destroys the Bifrost Bridge, you'll never see Jane again!"
Before Loki could finish, a sudden "crack" echoed through the air. Steve had already excavated a piece of the Bifrost Bridge, and as the shrinking block was absorbed into Steve's inventory, a voice sounded in Mark's mind.
[System Prompt: You have researched the properties of the 'Bifrost Bridge.' Permission granted to download a new module.]
[System Prompt: Downloading the Light Bridge modules.]
"Huh?"
Mark was momentarily surprised.
He had assumed the Bifrost Bridge wouldn't trigger any modules, but it seemed removing a block was the key. Did this mean he had to extract components from objects to activate their modules?
He had been too hasty, thinking that just touching things would be enough.
Now he realized that extraction was necessary to activate the modules.
With this in mind, Mark decided to continue excavating throughout Asgard while Steve kept digging the Bifrost Bridge.
"What kind of magic is this?"
Thor stared at the missing piece of the Bifrost Bridge in astonishment. As mentioned before, he couldn't see Mark's Stand, so from his perspective, a section of the Bifrost Bridge had simply vanished. He was baffled.
Unlike the massive explosion in the original movie, Steve's Silk Touch pickaxe didn't cause any explosions. In fact, as the bridge narrowed, the energy beam between the teleportation points weakened.
"Brother! How could you let a mortal destroy the Bifrost Bridge?"
Loki grew even more anxious. If Jotunheim remained intact, his plan would fail. And when Odin woke up and found out what he had done, he would be furious.
Thinking this, Loki impulsively pulled a dagger from his pocket.
But before Loki could do anything, Mark simply gestured, and with a loud bang, a large hole appeared in the teleportation area, and the Hellish Cleaver flew back into his hand.
"..."
Seeing the weapon that had sliced the Destroyer in half, Loki immediately backed down.
He believed Thor wouldn't kill him, but he wasn't sure about Mark.
He didn't want to risk his life against this unpredictable Midgardian.
The material of the Bifrost Bridge wasn't that tough for Steve, so it didn't take him long to break through it.
With the energy supply cut off, the teleportation gate stopped spinning, and the energy beam gradually weakened and disappeared. The crisis in Jotunheim was finally averted.
"We did it, Mark!"
Seeing the teleportation gate grind to a halt, Thor was ecstatic. "Amazing! We saved an entire race!"
"Yeah, yeah."
Mark couldn't help but roll his eyes. "Thanks to your family drama. The Frost Giants in Jotunheim didn't do anything wrong, yet they almost got wiped out because of you."
Thor felt a bit embarrassed. "It's not entirely our fault."
"Yeah, whatever."
Mark waved his hand dismissively. "Anyway, you better go pull out Heimdall's sword. Otherwise, I'm afraid this thing will go haywire again."
"Alright."
Without thinking too much, Thor turned and walked towards the teleportation gate.
Mark turned to look at Loki.
Loki felt a sense of impending doom as Mark stared at him. "What... what are you going to do?"
"I'm wondering if I should throw you off the edge," Mark said with a slight smile.
"I suggest you don't do that." Loki, clearly nervous, started talking quickly. "After all, I'm the Prince of Asgard. If you do that, it's..."
"It would make you a great hero of Asgard, right?"
Mark wasn't afraid of Loki at all. "Considering all the bad things you've done as a prince, it's perfectly reasonable to throw you into a space rift as punishment."
"That's not exile, that's murder."
Loki immediately retorted, "Anyone with common sense knows you can't survive falling into that thing!"
Mark remained silent, just staring at Loki.
He hadn't noticed it before when he was arguing with Nick Fury. But now, seeing Loki, who should have fallen into the chaotic flow of space, standing here unharmed, Mark finally realized the power of the butterfly effect and his own influence on the plot.
Now, Mark had two choices.
The first was to take advantage of the plot and try to ensure that the major events of the original story still happened, allowing him to keep his foresight. For example, throwing Loki into the time rift and waiting for him to lead the alien invasion of Earth in The Avengers.
Of course, there was also the second option, which was to do whatever he wanted, changing unfavorable plot points, helping those he liked, and punishing those he disliked. This would definitely be satisfying, but the downside was that he would lose his ability to see the future.
Both options had their pros and cons, and Mark hesitated for a moment, unsure which path to choose.
"Well, um..."
Seeing Mark lost in thought, Loki was genuinely worried. Odin was still asleep, and Thor and their mother couldn't stop this monster. He quickly asked, "You're not really going to throw me down there, are you?"
"What do you think?"
Mark glanced at Loki and asked in return.
"Are you serious?" Loki was surprised, then couldn't help but ask, "Do we even have any bad blood between us? Even if I wanted to destroy Jotunheim... it shouldn't have anything to do with you as a Midgardian, right?"
"But throwing you down would benefit me."
Interrupted by Loki, Mark stopped thinking about his choices and simply smiled at him. "However, considering you're Thor's brother and don't deserve to die, I'll give you one last chance."
"What chance?" Loki eagerly tried to grab this lifeline.
"I'll give you three minutes."
Mark slowly held up three fingers. "Give me a reason not to throw you do
wn. If I find it reasonable, I'll pretend nothing happened."