Thor walked up the slope and saw the "satellite" they had been talking about lying in the center. That was his hammer—Mjölnir, the Hammer of Thor.
"There really is a hammer... Clark, what you said about the God of Thunder—is it true?"
Seeing an actual hammer in the middle of a crater, Daisy couldn't help but question whether everything Thor had said was true after all.
"Clark?"
Daisy waited for a response, but when she turned, she saw Clark standing alone in silence, lost in thought.
In truth, something had started to feel off to Clark. He remembered from the Thor movie that Thor first touched his hammer when S.H.I.E.L.D. had already set up a perimeter around it.
But now, clearly, Thor had found his hammer before S.H.I.E.L.D. even showed up. Clark couldn't tell what had changed—was it that S.H.I.E.L.D. was delayed this time? Or had the Thor movie's storyline somehow been moved up in time?
Thor, meanwhile, didn't care what Clark was thinking. After two days of powerlessness, he had been utterly dejected. He had never experienced anything like this in his life.
It was like waking up one morning and suddenly being too weak to even lift a bowl. Thor couldn't accept this fragile mortal body. So when he saw his hammer, he sprinted toward it immediately.
"Argh!" A muscular, bald man was gripping the handle of Mjölnir with both hands, his face turning red from effort. He was obviously exerting all his strength to lift it. But the hammer didn't budge—it was as if it were fused to the Earth itself.
Thor patted him on the shoulder. "You can't lift it."
"Whew!" The man let go and sighed in exhaustion, shaking his numb arms before stepping aside.
"What is this thing? Why is it so heavy?"
Once the man moved aside, Thor smiled and stepped forward. He reached out with his right hand, gripped the handle of Mjölnir, and excitedly tried to lift it.
But his smile froze. Just like the bald man before him, Thor's hammer didn't respond—it didn't move at all.
Unwilling to accept it, Thor added his left hand, pulling with all his strength—but nothing happened. He kept trying, putting every ounce of power into it, but the hammer didn't show him even the slightest mercy.
"Why...?"
Completely exhausted, Thor collapsed next to the hammer. He couldn't understand what was happening.
"Isn't that his weapon? How could he not lift it?" Daisy, who had been starting to believe Thor's story, was once again filled with doubt.
"I think... he knows why."
Clark recalled discussions he'd seen online—how early on, Thor couldn't lift Mjölnir mainly because he didn't have the right "attributes," and more importantly, he lacked what Odin called "the heart of a king."
Odin believed Thor wasn't ready—he didn't have the humility or compassion to wield such power, so Odin sealed away his worthiness.
Some speculated that if someone had enough raw strength (like lifting 7 tons), they might bypass the restriction. But Clark wasn't ready to test that. Not yet. If he used his full strength, his Superman identity might be exposed.
So, Clark decided he'd only try lifting it when no one he knew was around—preferably when no one was watching at all.
Then, Clark helped Thor over to a nearby car. Looking at the devastated Thor, Clark didn't know what to say to comfort him, so he just let him be.
"Jane, what do you plan to do?"
Back at Jane's lab, Erik pulled her aside. Though the hammer's appearance confused him, Erik still believed Thor was trouble.
"Let him stay here for now."
Jane looked at Thor—she couldn't bear to kick someone out at a moment like this.
Meanwhile, Clark told Daisy he had to leave. After all, the situation with Tony Stark still hadn't been resolved.
Clark figured if his presence had prevented Nick Fury from revealing the new element to Tony, then he had to find the clues Howard Stark left behind himself.
Yes, he had to find that city model. Clark now realized he'd been thinking too simply before.
Even though he knew the general idea of the new element from the movie, he didn't know where the map might be hidden in this reality. Stark Industries had branches everywhere—Los Angeles, New York, Washington—it wasn't so easy to pinpoint.
Before leaving, Clark told Daisy that if anything happened, she could just call him, and he'd come help. To earn her trust, he even admitted that he was good friends with Tony Stark.
After Clark left—
In Asgard, above the Nine Realms.
Loki, while Odin was distracted, slipped into Odin's treasure vault. His eyes locked onto the Casket of Ancient Winters atop a high pedestal. Almost instinctively, Loki reached for it.
When he had touched a Frost Giant during their battle in Jotunheim, Loki's skin had turned blue. That had planted a terrible suspicion in his mind—was Odin denying him the throne not because Thor was more capable, but because... Loki wasn't truly Odin's son?
Now, Loki had come to verify the truth.
"Stop! Put it down!"
Odin, sensing the vault had been breached, arrived just in time to see Loki's back facing him—his hand already on the Casket.
"Am I cursed?"Loki's voice trembled as he stared at his now-blue arm, unable to deny the truth any longer. He wanted Odin to confirm it—to say yes.
"No."After a long pause, Odin knew there was no point hiding the truth anymore.
"Then who am I?"
Loki's voice quivered even more. He knew that by asking, he might cease to be Odin's son. He might no longer be the Prince of Asgard.
"You are my son," Odin answered.
As he turned to face Odin, Loki's entire body turned blue—just like the Frost Giants of Jotunheim.
"Well... I'm just a little smaller, that's all," Loki muttered bitterly, his voice breaking.
"Anything else you want to tell me?"
Tears welled up in his eyes.
"That day—you didn't just take the Casket from Jotunheim, did you?"
Loki stepped toward Odin. He needed to know the truth—his origin, the life he had been living in Asgard.
Odin remained silent for a long moment, then finally said:
"No. After the battle ended, I entered the temple in Jotunheim. In the center, I found a child—far too small to be a Frost Giant. He had been abandoned, tortured, and left to die. He was Laufey's son."
"Laufey's son..." Loki whispered.
"Yes."
"Why?" Loki demanded, his voice cracking. "You slaughtered countless Frost Giants. Why bring me back? Why raise me? Why make me believe I was your son?"
"You were just a baby... helpless, innocent. You were different from the rest. When I held you, you looked just like a child of Asgard."
"No! You had a reason—an ulterior motive! What was it? Tell me!"
go to "patreon.com/Hussain678" for more chapter