A searing red disintegration beam shot up from the ground, aimed directly at Meliodas's back.
Without even turning around, the short blonde boy casually waved his hand, backhanding the lethal beam of energy and sending it flying harmlessly into the sky as if he were swatting a fly.
However, the attack successfully snapped Meliodas out of his thoughts.
'Runes I've never seen before,' Meliodas thought, hovering in mid-air and looking down at the giant metal golem. 'Is this the magic of this world?'
Meliodas instantly blurred, appearing directly beside the prone Destroyer. However, he didn't take the opportunity to attack. Instead, he simply crossed his arms, curiously examining the intricate runic inscriptions glowing across the silver armor.
Meanwhile, far away on the golden throne of Asgard, Loki was not nearly as calm.
He had dispatched Asgard's absolute strongest weapon. Yet it hadn't achieved the apocalyptic results he wanted at all. Even worse, the invincible Destroyer was currently looking completely helpless against some unknown child who had literally appeared out of thin air.
Furious, the red light of Loki's direct possession faded from the Destroyer's visor. He relinquished manual control, allowing the Destroyer's ruthless, autonomous kill-mode to activate.
Without Loki holding it back with his tactical caution, the molten red light in the Destroyer's eyes flared violently.
The towering armor, which had just been knocked down, instantly vanished from the ground. It reappeared directly in front of Meliodas, raising its massive silver fist to deliver a crushing blow.
BOOM!
The punch landed squarely, and a massive cloud of dust and debris exploded outward.
However, there is an unwritten rule of anime combat: thick smoke means zero damage.
When the dust cleared, Meliodas was standing perfectly unscathed, having casually blocked the Destroyer's massive fist with his forearm.
"Both your strength and speed have clearly improved," Meliodas noted cheerfully. "But it's still not quite enough!"
Meliodas abruptly kicked upward. With a deafening CRACK, the divine Uru metal of the Destroyer's arm snapped backward.
But that wasn't all. Before the armor could even register the damage, Meliodas flashed and appeared directly beside the Destroyer's head. He swung his tiny fist.
BANG!
The kinetic impact was so immense that the Destroyer's thick, armored neck instantly stretched and warped, its head tilting wildly toward its shoulder at a grotesque angle. If not for the absolute superiority of the enchanted Asgardian metals, Meliodas would have decapitated the ultimate weapon with a single, casual punch.
Even so, the armor flickered erratically with red light, its internal systems reeling from the blow.
Taking advantage of the enemy's instability, Meliodas reappeared at the Destroyer's waist and delivered a spinning kick.
With a loud crash that shook the desert, the ten-foot-tall Destroyer was sent flying, crashing back into the dirt.
"So strong!"
In the distance, Coulson—still clutching the charred pig in his arms—watched the Destroyer fall. He couldn't help but exclaim in pure, professional admiration. Dozens of highly trained S.H.I.E.L.D. strike agents had been firing at that thing for several minutes without causing a single scratch. Yet the bizarre helper Hawk had summoned only needed a few simple, physical strikes to completely dismantle it.
This terrifying level of combat power... Coulson had only seen it once before, during the great battle in Hell's Kitchen.
"Thank you for taking care of Hawk. I am Meliodas," a cheerful voice said.
Coulson flinched. Meliodas, who had been standing over the Destroyer a microsecond ago, was now standing directly in front of him.
After introducing himself, Meliodas reached into his pocket and crushed a small, glowing magical charm—an Incantation Orb. A soothing green light barrier rippled outward, enveloping them. As the light washed over Coulson, the S.H.I.E.L.D. agent felt all his bruising, pain, and exhaustion instantly vanish.
At the same time, a lively, whining voice sounded from his arms.
"Meliodas!! You finally came!!"
Hawk, completely healed and no longer looking like burnt bacon, had tears and snot spraying from his eyes and snout. He wiggled out of Coulson's grip, landing at Meliodas's feet and immediately complaining tearfully about all the horrifying hardships he had endured in this weird world.
And just as the boy and the pig were happily chatting, the red light in the fallen Destroyer's eyes stabilized.
Its body rose rigidly from the ground. With a sickening metallic crunch, the severe distortion in its neck slowly popped back into place as the armor's self-repair protocols engaged.
Scanning its surroundings, the visor locked onto the exact location of Meliodas and the others.
Before Coulson could even cry out a warning, the visor flared. A massive, lethal red laser shot directly toward their backs.
However, Meliodas showed absolutely no sign of panic. He didn't even turn around. He just lazily drew the broken hilt of the sword strapped to his back.
"Full Counter."
The moment the lethal disintegration beam touched Meliodas's broken blade, the magic engaged. The slender laser suddenly swelled, multiplying in size and intensity, and shot violently back toward its source.
Returning a magical attack with more than double its original force—this was the signature magic mastered by the Dragon Sin of Wrath.
The returning, hyper-charged laser slammed into the Destroyer, piercing cleanly through its thick chest plates and burning a hole large enough to see the ruined buildings behind it.
However, even with a gaping hole in its chest, the Destroyer's movements were not affected in the slightest.
Continuous, rapid-fire lasers shot from its hollow faceplate. Meliodas grabbed Coulson by the collar and tucked Hawk under his arm, constantly dodging the barrage at supersonic speeds. The lasers bombarded the town, turning the ruins into an unrecognizable, burning mess of smoke and dust.
Setting the man and the pig down in a safe trench, Meliodas instantly vanished.
When he reappeared, he was engaged in a blistering, high-speed melee with the Destroyer. Compared to Meliodas, the armor's speed and strength were undoubtedly far inferior. It was a completely one-sided, brutal beating.
Yet even so, the Destroyer showed no sign of stopping. No matter what kind of catastrophic injury Meliodas inflicted—crushing its limbs, caving in its chest—the divine metal simply melted and reformed in mere moments.
The battlefield fell into a grinding, destructive stalemate.
"It's useless... The Destroyer is Asgard's ultimate weapon. No matter what kind of damage it suffers, it will simply restore itself."
Thor, who had been knocked completely out of the fight from the very beginning, finally regained consciousness. He groaned, pulling himself out of the rubble. The first thing he saw upon opening his eyes was a short, blonde child brutally hammering the indestructible Destroyer into scrap metal.
However, no matter how terrifying the damage the boy inflicted, it was of little use against the armor's regeneration. It was precisely because he understood the Destroyer's absolute endurance that Thor urged them to flee.
"You all must go!" Thor shouted over the explosions. "I will hold it off!"
Hovering in the air, Meliodas paused his assault and gave the battered blonde man a very strange, puzzled look.
'Retreat?' Meliodas thought, tilting his head. 'Why retreat? It's just an enemy that can regenerate. Which member of the Demon Clan *doesn't* have that ability?'
Though puzzled by the dramatic human's panic, Meliodas didn't reply aloud. Instead, he simply dove back in, continuing to play his violent game of clash with the armor.
But just as the battlefield reached a true stalemate, the sky above the desert had unknowingly become completely overcast with heavy, swirling black storm clouds.
Streaks of blue lightning began to aggressively spiderweb across the sky.
Standing in the rubble, Thor felt a sudden, electric connection deep within his soul. He raised his bloodied, muscular arm toward the heavens.
FWOOSH!
A deafening, whistling sound tore through the air. Accompanied by a trail of crackling lightning, a heavy silver hammer flew across the desert and slammed perfectly into his outstretched palm.
"Mjolnir!"
Looking at the weapon in his hand, Thor exclaimed in ecstatic, overwhelming joy. Thor, no longer obsessed with arrogant conquest, and finally understanding the true, selfless meaning of protection, had once again gained Mjolnir's absolute recognition.
His divine power surged back into his body. The Asgardian armor materialized over his torn clothes, the red cape billowing majestically in the storm.
Thor looked at Meliodas and the Destroyer, who were still fiercely trading blows in the pouring rain. He gripped the leather-wrapped handle tight and raised Mjolnir high above his head.
The dark clouds roiled. A massive, apocalyptic thunderbolt fell directly from the heavens, illuminating the entire desert sky in blinding, searing white light. The lightning channeled through Mjolnir and struck the Destroyer with the wrath of a god.
KRA-KOOM!
The Destroyer, smoking all over and sparking violently, fell heavily to the ground with a massive crash. The fiery light in its visor flickered, died, and remained dark.
Thor proudly swung Mjolnir, using the momentum to fly over and land gracefully by Meliodas's side.
Though he found the blonde boy's deadpan gaze a bit strange, Thor didn't dwell on it. The two of them floated over to where Coulson and Hawk were taking cover.
"Thank you for protecting this town, little warrior," Thor said, his booming, bold personality fully restored. He clapped a heavy, armored hand onto Meliodas's shoulder and smiled broadly. "Together, we have vanquished the beast!"
Meliodas did not smile back. He didn't cheer. He just continued to look up at Thor with an incredibly flat, judgmental gaze.
"That's a bit much," Meliodas said, pointing a thumb back at the 'defeated' armor. "Aren't you even going to pretend?"
Thor blinked. "Pretend what?"
"I was beating that thing into scrap metal for ten minutes, and it healed instantly every single time," Meliodas deadpanned. "You hit it with one lightning strike, and it conveniently dies? Seriously?"
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