Although Ben had expected Thor's response, the repetitive self-flagellation was beginning to grate. Always the hammer. Everything reduced to that cursed piece of enchanted metal.
He turned away from the kneeling god, his gaze settling on Mjolnir where it lay on a patch of scorched grass twenty meters away. The weapon rested there innocuously, looking like an expensive prop someone had carelessly abandoned.
Ben walked toward it with measured steps.
Come to think of it, he'd never actually tried lifting Thor's hammer in his own universe. The opportunity had simply never arisen. And more importantly, he'd never cared enough to try.
He was King of Sakaar, Master of the Genesis Dimension, founder of the Plumbers, and Lord of the Nine Realms. Was he really supposed to abandon all those legitimate accomplishments just because some enchanted hammer didn't approve of him?
In his universe, entire civilizations trusted him. He'd resolved dangers that threatened universal extinction. The people of Sakaar prayed to him in their darkest hours, and he answered those prayers.
Would he throw all of that away because a piece of metal rejected him?
The very concept was absurd.
Thor watched with mounting confusion as Ben approached Mjolnir step by step, finally bending down into a half-squat to grasp the handle. A wild thought formed in his mind, hope and fear warring for dominance.
"Thor." Ben's voice carried across the alley with perfect clarity. "You said Steve lifted Mjolnir, so he must be the rightful king. If I lift this hammer, shouldn't you pledge your allegiance to me instead?"
Before Thor could formulate a response, Ben casually lifted Mjolnir upward.
There were no thunderclouds gathering overhead. No earth-shattering phenomena. No dramatic lightning strikes or celestial proclamations.
The hammer simply... rose. As though it had always been meant to be in his hand. As natural and inevitable as the sun rising in the east.
Because of course it did.
He is a king. Multiple times over, in multiple contexts.
Mjolnir didn't validate Ben Parker. That would be getting the relationship exactly backward. Instead, the hammer should feel honored to rest in his grasp.
Ben raised the weapon toward Thor, who remained on his knees, tears streaming freely down his face as he stared at Mjolnir. The fallen god's hands lifted unconsciously, as though trying to reach for something forever out of grasp.
The sky remained cloudless and serene. The afternoon sun broke through the urban haze, illuminating both figures like a Renaissance painting of coronation and supplication.
"Thor Odinson." Ben's voice carried absolute authority, the weight of divine command. "I order you to break free from your mental prison. See the misery of this world with clear eyes. Hear the silent wails of the suffering with unclouded ears. Then seek the answer to your crisis within your own heart, not in external validation."
"Yes..." Thor lowered his head, weeping openly.
Something invisible shattered. Chains that had bound him more securely than any physical restraint simply... ceased to exist. The freedom brought both joy and profound regret. Joy for the breaking of his cage. Regret for all the time wasted inside it.
Was Hydra right or wrong? Were Steve Rogers's actions justified or monstrous?
He'd always known the answers. He'd simply lacked the courage to act on them.
"Father of Gods." Thor's voice cracked. "All-Father."
He struggled to compose himself, wiping uselessly at his tears. "But I still have one question. I hope you'll answer it for me."
"Ask," Ben said simply.
"Why do gods exist?" The question emerged raw with desperation. "What makes us worthy of mortal worship?"
He was genuinely confused, genuinely agonized. Because he didn't know if gods truly deserved the faith placed in them.
He'd once defeated Gorr the God Butcher, the madman wielding the Black Death Sword. But in another sense, Gorr had defeated him, planting seeds of doubt that had never stopped growing.
Gorr had made him question the value of his own existence. The divine itself. How many people across the cosmos had lost faith in their gods during daily prayers because those prayers went eternally unanswered?
The God Butcher had been a pitiful, tragic figure.
He'd been born on a desolate planet where the land refused cultivation, earthquakes came without warning, food remained perpetually scarce, and predators grew fierce and numerous. The world seemed actively hostile to life, as though the gods themselves had abandoned it in disgust.
During Gorr's birth, the planet experienced a catastrophic drought. The sun baked soil into cracked desert. Vegetation withered to dust. Water sources dried to nothing.
His people, possessing no other options, prayed day and night for divine mercy and salvation.
No one answered.
Gorr's father had told him that sincere prayer would bring salvation. The old man starved to death after offering his meager food portions to divine altars.
His mother had promised that devout faith would earn celestial blessings. She was torn apart by wild beasts while praying at a shrine.
His wife had counseled him to respect the gods and accept whatever fate they decreed. She fell from a cliff while pregnant, taking their unborn child with her.
Gorr had other children.
They all starved to death, one by one, while he prayed for intervention that never came.
In that hellish place, he'd begged the so-called gods countless times. The only answer he received was death.
So he began questioning whether gods truly existed at all. When he raised these doubts with his people, it caused panic throughout the tribe. They'd decided the gods had cursed them specifically because Gorr lacked sufficient faith.
They exiled him to die alone.
Until one day, when the gods actually appeared before him.
A golden deity, locked in combat with the symbiote god Knull, proved no match for the dark entity. The golden god sought help from a mortal, begging Gorr for assistance against his enemy.
The irony was crushing.
Gorr had begged thousands upon thousands of times and received nothing. No mercy. No acknowledgment. But now this divine being expected him to provide aid?
So Gorr had seized Knull's Black Death Sword and killed the god who'd ignored generations of prayers. Thus began his campaign of divine genocide, slaughtering deities across the cosmos until three Thors from past, present, and future combined forces to defeat him.
But Gorr's philosophy had infected Thor's mind like a virus. He'd begun doubting the value of gods. Questioning whether divinity possessed inherent worth or if the universe might function better without them.
Sometimes civilizations that worshipped gods for generations discovered they lived better after losing those gods entirely.
"Then, Thor." Ben's voice cut through the spiral of doubt. "Why do mortals exist?"
Thor blinked, genuinely confused by the question. He'd spent centuries pondering matters of divinity but never considered the issue from a mortal's perspective.
"Mortals don't possess value because they believe in gods," Ben continued, each word carefully measured. "And the reverse is equally true. Gods don't gain worth from mortal worship."
He crouched down to Thor's level, Mjolnir resting across his knees. "You can only discover meaning and value after you exist. Value isn't granted externally. It's discovered internally."
The philosophy was simple but profound. No one existed as anyone else's appendage.
If gods were merely myths created by mortals, then naturally everything should revolve around mortal needs and mortal flourishing.
But if gods genuinely existed as a higher tier of life, then the value of any life, divine or mortal, should never be determined by external validation.
Ben stood, walking toward Thor with Mjolnir held loosely in one hand. The hammer drew closer and closer until it gently pressed against Thor's forehead.
The metal felt cold. Heavy. Real.
"Whether you become a god who responds to mortal prayers or an arrogant deity who ignores them is your choice," Ben said quietly. "The hammer doesn't make that decision. Mortal worship doesn't make that decision. Only you do."
Understanding bloomed across Thor's tear-stained face.
At that moment, Mjolnir pressed against his forehead seemed to lose all weight. Yet simultaneously, it felt heavier than it ever had before.
He'd finally understood what it meant to be a true king. And now, under Ben's guidance, he'd grasped what it meant to be a god worthy of the title.
Mjolnir had accepted him again. But this time, Thor's worthiness didn't depend on the hammer's judgment. The hammer recognized what was already true.
"I need to find Steve immediately!" Thor surged to his feet, righteous fury replacing despair. "I'll—"
Ben's hand on his shoulder stopped him mid-motion.
"Now isn't the time." Ben's smile carried dark amusement. "Steve Rogers betrayed you. Don't you want to see how it feels when he's the one being betrayed?"
Thor paused, confusion and curiosity warring in his expression.
Ben explained the plan concisely. Thor should pretend nothing had changed. Remain with the Hydra forces. Play the role of loyal, broken Thor until the precise moment his defection would cause maximum damage.
"If I play this correctly, both Vision and Thor will be on our side when it matters most," Ben mused after Thor departed with renewed purpose disguised as continued despair.
He'd already dealt with Vision earlier, extracting the android from Ultron's domain and purging Dr. Zola's viral corruption from his systems. However, to avoid Hydra discovering the liberation, Ben had installed sophisticated masking programs to maintain the appearance of control.
"Next is Doctor Strange." Ben looked toward the horizon, where dimensional barriers between Earth and the Dark Dimension remained unnaturally thin. "I wonder if Dormammu is still alive in this timeline."
He smiled.
If nothing else, it would be entertaining to give the Dread One a proper thrashing.
After all, what was the point of cosmic power if you couldn't occasionally bully dimensional tyrants?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Writing takes time, coffee, and a lot of love.If you'd like to support my work, join me at [email protected]/GoldenGaruda
You'll get early access to over all chapters of this fanfic and more on other, selection on new series, and the satisfaction of knowing your support directly fuels more stories.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~