Chapter: 61
Loki was furious! Of all the times for Thor to go ahead and actually exceed everyone's expectations, it had to be now! Loki thought it would have taken years – if not decades – for his oaf of a brother to learn humility and return to Asgard. By then, Loki had planned to be well into his reign as the new king and would have been unthreatened by a returning prince who had abandoned his people for so long in their time of need when they were on the verge of war with the Frost Giants. And now, all those plans were thrown out the metaphorical window! Loki cursed the situation hatefully. He had to do something about this, or everything he had planned for would be for naught!
Loki had been so thrown off by his older brother's words that he didn't even bother sparing Thor's newfound friends so much as a glance. That would come back to bite him later…
…
On the other side of Asgard, at the end of the rainbow bridge, Heimdall was pleased with the situation on Midgard. His prince had made a new friend who, while mischievous and a bit like Loki, was leading him down the right path to reclaim his powers and status. To be honest, Heimdall wasn't even quite sure why the prince was banished from Asgard in the first place. In his younger years, King Odin was far more rebellious than Thor was. Not only that, but Odin sought battle and conquest at every opportunity. Thor attacking Jotunheim and killing a few Frost Giants in retaliation for their raid of the treasury was honestly nothing in comparison. Heimdall wondered if his king had simply grown afraid at the thought of another war? Heimdall knew such thoughts were borderline treason, but they didn't stem from nowhere.
He glanced over the 'beautiful' waterfalls of Asgard with weariness. He let out a sigh. If Azazel, whom Heimdall was surprised to actually ever see again, saw the current state of Asgard, he would be absolutely shocked. The lush, beautiful Golden City floating over the waterfalls was nothing but a facade. Asgard used to be an entire planet. There were dozens of golden cities just like this one that dotted the entire world. A thousand years ago, Odin's warmongering ways finally caught up with him. Asgard finally ended up getting the retribution it probably had coming. They were invaded by the Celestials – all of the Celestials. Any other world would have immediately fallen and been crushed by the heavenly might of their opponents, but Asgard was simply one of the most powerful worlds to ever exist at that time – and Odin had wielded multiple Infinity Stones. With their power and heavy sacrifice, Asgard had actually driven their attackers away in defeat. The cost, however, was that the planet was destroyed along with the majority of Asgard's population. A beautiful utopia with dozens of cities and a population numbering in the tens of billions was now reduced to a single city with only a paltry million citizens left.
And what did Odin do after his realm suffered such a loss under his rule? He used the Infinity Stones to wipe away any trace of the battle from the memories of every being in the galaxy–His own children and even wife were included. Only a few of his closest advisors, generals, and Heimdall himself were allowed to remember how truly great Asgard used to be. That led him to his current conundrum. Before this attack had occurred, the biblical God and the other gods of Midgard had already spirited themselves away to who knows where. Every single being from Earth DxD who was alive over a thousand years ago would remember the old Asgard and not the current one… Heimdall was afraid they would take advantage of an incredibly weakened Asgard along with its gods – when the planet Asgard was destroyed, the gods ended up losing the majority of their powers with it, as their powers originated from the planet itself.
…
"I'm glad my brother came to check up on me," Thor said. "He and I have had our arguments, but our bond is unbreakable!" Thor looked much happier as he said that than he had been moments ago, crying in the mud. My pep talk had helped, but it seemed like Loki coming to "encourage him" really pulled him out of his funk. I didn't know if I had the heart at the moment to tell him that Loki was probably going to try and kill him very soon.
"You know," Azazel cut in, "are you sure all your powers are locked away in this hammer, Thor?"
"What do you mean?" Thor asked.
"I don't know, it just feels like there's not much juice in there. You were at the peak of ultimate class 1000 years ago, and yet I'm only feeling high-class level magical power emanating from the hammer. Eh, whatever, Odin was a master of those weird Nordic runes; who knows what he did to seal your power away..." Azazel shrugged as he gave up on studying the hammer. It was considered rude to study magical artifacts of other pantheons without permission after all.
Thor was at the peak of ultimate class? That didn't really sound right. I know he was powerful in the MCU, but he definitely never displayed any continent-destroying abilities. If anything, I always put his power at the lower end of high class, which is pretty much where I am right now.
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