Leon's physical strength had already reached a level even he couldn't accurately measure anymore. If he had to compare it with someone, then a peak human like Captain America would feel insignificant by comparison. The gap between them wasn't something that could be bridged through training or discipline.
As he tightened his grip around the hammer's handle, the muscles across his entire body swelled visibly.
The casual clothing he wore stretched tightly against his frame as every fiber of muscle contracted at once. Veins surfaced along his arms and neck as he unleashed the full force of his body.
His feet sank into the ground.
The compacted soil beneath him collapsed under the pressure, swallowing his boots until his calves were buried more than thirty centimeters deep in the dirt. Loose earth slid down around his legs as the ground struggled to withstand the force he exerted.
"Haah!"
Leon let out a sharp roar through clenched teeth.
For a brief moment, Thor's hammer trembled.
The movement was almost imperceptible, but it was there. The weapon quivered faintly as if reacting to the immense strength pulling against it.
And yet it still didn't move.
The hammer remained rooted to the earth like an ancient tree whose roots stretched deep beneath the world. No matter how much force Leon poured into the effort, the weapon refused to rise even a fraction from its place.
Agent Phil's eyelids twitched violently when he saw it.
The hammer's tiny tremor might have gone unnoticed by others, but Phil had been staring directly at it. The fact that Leon's strength alone had managed to make it shake—even slightly—was enough to send a chill down his spine.
Leon eventually exhaled and released the handle.
"Whew…"
He straightened slowly as the tension drained from his body. The bulging muscles relaxed and his clothes returned to their natural shape.
For a moment, he scratched the back of his head thoughtfully.
He still didn't understand magic.
At least not yet.
Because of that, he couldn't fully analyze the enchantment Odin had placed on the hammer. However, he had already figured out one important detail.
The hammer wasn't simply heavy.
Something far more complicated was happening.
The magic woven into the weapon had effectively fused it with the surrounding environment. When someone tried to lift it, the weight they were fighting against wasn't just the hammer itself. The force was distributed into the ground, the earth, and the entire environment around it.
In other words, it was a form of magical solidification.
The hammer was anchored to reality itself.
Leon chuckled quietly as the idea clicked into place.
"Interesting."
A faint crimson glow began to flow across his body as he extended one finger toward the hammer.
The same pale red light quickly spread outward and wrapped around the weapon like a mist.
"Up."
The command left his lips casually.
The next moment, Thor's hammer shot upward as if gravity had suddenly lost its hold on it. The weapon rose into the air effortlessly, floating with the same unstable heaviness Jean had felt earlier.
Leon reached out and caught the handle.
The crushing weight was still there.
The hammer still carried the same overwhelming mass as before, but under the control of his telekinetic power, that weight became irrelevant. His mind simply neutralized the burden as if the laws governing it no longer applied.
With the strength of Leon's mind, lifting the hammer was trivial.
If he truly unleashed the full extent of his telekinetic power, he could theoretically drag the Moon out of its orbit. Compared to that, controlling a single enchanted weapon was laughably simple.
"The magic of Asgard…" Leon murmured thoughtfully.
His eyes narrowed slightly as he examined the weapon in his grip.
"It's mysterious, sure. But telekinetic power acts directly at the root level. You can bypass most of the complicated mechanics if you go straight to the source."
While he spoke, the hammer suddenly began to spin.
At first it rotated slowly around his hand, but the speed quickly increased until it became a blur. Within seconds it was streaking around Leon's body in rapid circles, leaving behind afterimages that formed a ring of motion.
A violent stream of air erupted outward.
Wind howled through the chamber as the spinning hammer stirred up a chaotic vortex. Loose dirt and debris lifted into the air, whipping around the pit as the surrounding atmosphere turned turbulent.
The scene looked almost violent.
Agent Phil stood nearby with his mouth hanging open.
His brain struggled to process what he was seeing. Just moments earlier, the same hammer had refused to move even under extreme force.
Now Leon was casually spinning it through the air like a toy.
"My God…" Phil whispered hoarsely. "He actually lifted it. How is that even possible?"
Leon paid no attention to Phil's shock.
With a single thought, the spinning hammer stopped instantly and hovered in the air directly in front of him.
A faint red glow flickered within Leon's eyes as a small smile curved across his lips.
"Let's see what's hidden at the deepest level of this thing."
Telekinetic power allowed him to penetrate directly into the fundamental layers of matter. Even though Thor's hammer was considered an artifact, the enchantment Odin had placed upon it had effectively created something resembling a semi-intelligent existence within.
The hammer itself possessed a form of recognition.
Only those it acknowledged could wield it.
But Leon's telekinetic perception didn't care about such conditions. His ability could directly examine the internal structure without interacting with the enchantment's rules.
His gaze fixed on the hammer.
In his perception, the world zoomed inward.
First he saw the intricate patterns carved into the weapon's surface. Then his vision moved deeper, revealing the microscopic crystal structures within the metal itself.
He pushed further.
The crystalline lattice expanded before his awareness as the perspective shrank again, exposing the tiny streams of free energy flowing between the structures.
Then he went deeper still.
At the very core of the hammer, he found it.
A pale blue presence floated in the empty void of the weapon's center.
It pulsed softly with light, twisting and flashing like living lightning. The energy moved freely through the internal space, flickering and racing in patterns that resembled a bolt of thunder born at the dawn of the universe.
It felt ancient.
Almost primordial.
As if a fragment of the universe's first lightning strike had been sealed within the hammer.
"Ah."
Leon immediately understood the structure.
From a purely physical standpoint, the hammer itself wasn't particularly special. Its design followed straightforward principles of density and durability. The material was extraordinarily dense, giving the weapon incredible mass, but structurally it was still just a hammer.
A tool.
The only truly remarkable part was the magical structure binding everything together.
Beyond that, there was nothing particularly miraculous.
"I see now."
Leon nodded slightly.
"This thing is essentially a lightning amplifier."
The realization made everything clear.
"No wonder Thor can summon such terrifying lightning when he holds it," Leon continued calmly. "Without the hammer, he probably wouldn't be able to trigger that power nearly as easily."
Once he understood the mechanism, Leon lost most of his interest in the weapon.
The magical principles behind it were still unfamiliar to him, but once his abilities evolved to the next level, replicating the hammer's structure wouldn't be difficult. With sufficient control, he could recreate an almost identical object purely through his own power.
Of course, the replicated version wouldn't contain Odin's magical core.
Still, that didn't matter much.
Leon let out a quiet breath.
"Forget it."
He looked down at the hammer in his hand.
"I could destroy this thing easily enough. But if it breaks, Thor would probably come charging straight here."
His eyes flickered thoughtfully.
"And sooner or later… I'm going to need a way to reach Asgard."
.....
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