After hearing from Abbendis about Loki's strange change, Josh quickly had him sent back.
Now, watching Loki stand straight before him—obedient as a loyal hound—Josh couldn't help showing a strange look.
"Abbendis said you've mastered thunder? Show me." After staring at him for a long while, Josh finally spoke.
"Yes!" Loki let out a breath of relief. He raised his hand, and a glowing ball of lightning appeared in his palm.
"Tsk, you've already gotten skilled at it." Josh gave a half-smile. That little sphere looked small, but it carried a huge force. At this level, Loki was already about as strong as Thor used to be. The kid's luck really wasn't bad.
"Josh, do you know what's really happening to me?" Loki asked, taking the lightning back. He was happy about this sudden new strength, but he still wanted to understand its source—and whether there were side effects.
Before he came, the Ancient One had already told him it might be linked to that Titan keeper called Loken in Azeroth. But even she couldn't give a clear reason.
Josh didn't answer right away. Instead, he fell deep into thought.
Loki's situation reminded him of a movie from his old world—"The One," starring Jet Li.
That movie had a strange theory: every person had counterparts across different parallel universes. If one counterpart died outside of its destined fate, the others would gain a portion of its strength. The more counterparts that died, the stronger the surviving ones became.
In the film, Jet Li's villain character killed his other selves across universes, trying to become the strongest being—until he was stopped by the heroic counterpart.
Of course, this idea was only meant for that movie's version of Earth's parallel worlds. It wasn't supposed to apply to the Marvel multiverse Josh now lived in.
In Marvel, heroes traveled between universes all the time—Spider-Man, Doctor Strange, Ant-Man, and so on. But never had it been said that if one universe's hero died, another version would automatically grow stronger.
And that was without even mentioning Azeroth, which wasn't even the same system as Marvel's universe.
Still, Loki's case was different from the movie. Loken's death didn't spread his power equally among all Loki counterparts. Instead, it only appeared in this Loki—the one in Azeroth right now.
Josh couldn't think of any other explanation. After all, back in his previous life, Blizzard had based Loken's design directly on Loki.
So, seeing Loken as a kind of "counterpart" to Loki wasn't far-fetched.
And gods—or mythic figures—were always special cases anyway.
If Josh treated every piece of media from his past life as its own universe, then in at least 90% of them, stories still tied back to Earth's oldest myths.
More importantly, under normal circumstances, these universes had nothing to do with each other.
Except for a few works that overlapped because of the same production companies, there was basically no chance for them to connect.
For example, no matter how strong Marvel's Loki was, he could never just suddenly appear in Azeroth.
But Josh's dimensional trading system had broken that boundary.
As long as Josh wanted, he could send Loki to any universe already linked to the system—so long as its owner was friendly with him.
That meant the theory from The One could actually come true here.
Whether this was the real reason or not, Josh felt it still needed testing.
And right now, there was a perfect chance to test it—the Saint Seiya world had a Loki too.
Why not kill him and see?
Josh had also been thinking about how to fulfill his deal with Hilda.
This lined up perfectly. Like getting a pillow the moment you feel sleepy.
So Josh told Loki his guess.
Of course, he said only that he had seen something like it while working with "partners" from other worlds.
He didn't claim it was certain.
That was why Loki needed to go to a dangerous world—Saint Seiya's world—to confirm it.
For Loki, this guess was thrilling.
Just by Loken's death, his strength had already doubled, and he had gained the thunder he had always dreamed of.
Since childhood, he had envied Thor's thunder. Now, if he could travel to other worlds and cut down more "Loki's," wouldn't it be easy to crush Thor under his heel?
Even though Loki had given up Asgard's throne for Carol, he had never given up competing with Thor. He still wanted Odin to see that his power and ability could surpass Thor's.
And now, such a clear path to that goal was in front of him. How could he say no?
"Since you're willing, then it's settled. Soon I'll send you there. But before that, I want you to help me test one more thing." Josh was pleased to see Loki so cooperative.
Even if he still held bias against this future son-in-law, boosting Loki's strength was useful for their side.
And Josh wasn't afraid Loki would get too strong to control. After all, Loki's foundation was limited. Even with Loken's power, he was still far below Josh.
If he gained the Saint Seiya Loki's power too, that might change things. But even then, reaching the level of a Skyfather was basically impossible.
Besides, Loki couldn't travel between worlds without Josh.
"What do you want me to test?" Loki asked, puzzled.
"The world you're going to has a unique power called Cosmo. If you can master it, your strength might more than double again." Josh replied.
And of course, if Cosmo really could be cultivated in the Marvel world, the ones who could double their strength wouldn't just be Loki.