As Thor stared at the strange object, the Devil Fruit, he found himself experiencing an odd sensation.
He could not help but feel a profound, inexplicable attraction to the fruit, as if it was calling directly unto his very being.
This sensation was deeply unsettling, as it was something that should not have been possible.
Thor possessed the Essence of Sound Mind and Soul, a protection which made his mind and his spirit completely insusceptible to any manner of external mental or spiritual manipulation.
Yet, the pull was undeniable, originating from the object in his hand, a force that seemed to bypass his defenses entirely.
But then, Thor recalled the established, confirmed theories surrounding Devil Fruits.
He remembered the specific lore regarding the Mythical Zoan types, which postulated that these unique fruits possessed their own wills.
If the fruit was sufficiently powerful, it could theoretically manipulate events in its vicinity.
This ability was to ensure that it would not end up in the possession of someone it deemed unworthy, seeking out a specific destiny.
The most famous example, he mused, was the Nika Devil Fruit, which was said to have actively avoided capture by the World Government for more than eight hundred years.
He specifically remembered the incident, perhaps yet to pass, where CP agents had finally gotten a hold of that very fruit, only to be attacked by Shanks and his crew. This confrontation directly led to the fruit being eaten by Luffy.
Now, Thor was left wondering if the same phenomenon could be happening to him at this very moment. Was this fruit choosing him?
As he pondered this, Thor became acutely aware of an intense cold feeling. A powerful chill was radiating from the fruit, permeating his gloves and striking his skin, despite Thor merely holding it steady in his hands.
'What kind of Devil Fruit is this? Could it be really just a coincidence that I found it?' Thor thought to himself.
He then lowered his gaze back to the fruit, examining its strange, swirling pattern.
The more he stared at the hypnotic swirls on its surface, the more something insistently called out to Thor.
He was not hearing any audible voices, yet a persistent urge in the back of his mind kept calling to him, a silent command that was strongly urging, almost wanting, Thor to eat it.
As a few more moments passed, his goats, who were waiting patiently for Thor nearby, suddenly bleated loudly.
The sharp sound made Thor snap out of his contemplation, and he then looked over to the goats that were clearly trying to get his attention. Thor, pulling his gaze from them, looked back down at the object.
He ate the Devil Fruit, after hesitating for only a little bit more, having decided that the potential reward was worth the risk.
He had tried to weigh the possibilities of the unknown Devil Fruit that was now in his hands, but the pull was too strong to ignore.
The moment Thor ate it, swallowing the notoriously foul-tasting flesh, he suddenly started to feel and see its immediate effects.
The colors of his very arms began to shift and change. Simultaneously, Thor could feel that he was growing, expanding upward at a sudden, alarming rate.
This growth burst seemed to be canceling the size-suppressing abilities of Stormbreaker, an enchantment which, up until now, had made it so he was kept at his manageable 2-meter tall height.
His horns, which were not fully developed yet, suddenly started growing much more, erupting from his skull as they lengthened and bent, twisting to resemble the magnificent antlers of a great deer.
At the same time, his hair, which used to be a vibrant red, rapidly started to transform, leeching color until it became a stark, bluish-white.
As he grew, he noticed that his height, which had already reached for at least 12 meters tall, became even taller still.
He could feel that he was growing impossibly tall, stretching far beyond his limits, until, finally, he stopped growing.
This change made him tower over the entire forest of the underworld, in which, even the absolute taller trees, the ancient ones that used to tower over him, had become so small from his new perspective.
Thor found he would even have to look far down just to see their canopies, and he could see over the horizon much further than ever before.
Thor then stretched out his massive new arms, a motion that felt strange in this colossal form. It was then, in which, he noticed that his skin color had completely changed, now a deep, glacial blue.
Furthermore, his breath was forming a visible mist of intensely cold winds with every exhale.
He also observed that the snow on the underworld, which had been falling lightly, began to fall even more heavily around his new form.
Thor then looked down, a considerable distance, only to see that thick ice was rapidly forming on the ground beneath him.
He realized, in which, he could clearly see that he was the source of it all, as the ice aggressively started forming from the very place where he was standing.
Then, Thor decided that enough was enough; this giant form was impractical. He then began to focus his mind, attempting to connect with the power inside him.
He started to will his body to control his own new Devil Fruit abilities.
He closed his eyes, and, after a few moments of intense concentration, his entire towering figure started to slowly shrink and return. The process reversed itself, as then, he returned fully into his normal, 2-meter height.
The transformation felt complete, yet as Thor then expelled another mist of breath, this time from his nose, he saw that the surfaces that were hit by this mist started to form ice once again. The power was still active.
'An Ice Mythical Zoan? Count me in,' Thor thought, a rare feeling of excitement building. He then began to properly study his newfound power.
He began trying to actively control the cryokinetic, the ice generation parts of his Devil Fruit abilities.
To test their limits against the sea, he then went to the shore once again. He crouched down and then put his hand just above the surface of the sea water.
Thor then began to replay the scene he knew of, the memory of Aokiji when he froze an entire sea solid.
Mimicking that display, Thor just focused on releasing a massive, concentrated coldness from his palm, attempting to instantly freeze a great portion of the sea before him.
As moments passed by, the air temperature plummeted, and Thor then breathed out a deep plume of cold air, which was different from the passive mist he was breathing out earlier.
"Ice Age," Thor whispered, naming the technique instinctively. In response, a large portion of the sea suddenly froze over in an absolute instant.
It was clearly not the same overwhelming intensity as Aokiji's definitive version, the Ice Age move that could freeze the entire sea solid and let people walk over to the next island.
However, it was still impressively large enough to cover a great portion of the shore, creating a solid sheet of ice stretching far from the beach.
This display made Thor smile, which caused another involuntary burst of cold mist to come out of his mouth.
He then noticed that his right arm, the side of his body where he had focused his Devil Fruit power in his hand, now had plates of ice forming on it, like armor.
Yet, Thor did not feel any coldness from it at all, which made Thor grin widely. His two goats, seeing the new solid ground, started to run along the ice as they both excitedly played, bleating and running along the newly frozen sea.
Thor then continued to practice his new abilities. He turned his attention to the large island eater, the beast he had hunted earlier, and he then proceeded to freeze it over completely.
This flash-freezing would ensure that the massive carcass would stay fresh while Thor continued to explore his powers.
He needed to see what sort of other abilities his newly acquired Mythical Zoan Devil Fruit might have, as well as thoroughly practice the fundamental cryokinesis abilities of it to gain mastery.