"What?"
"They appeared?"
Jane looked up and saw the light ahead of her suddenly twist. The empty wasteland before her eyes flickered, and in the next moment, two equally tall figures came back into view.
"Where's the All-Father?"
Darcy blinked and craned her neck forward, but the brilliant golden divine light that had almost illuminated the entire world just now seemed to have been nothing more than a fantasy they had forced on themselves. The night over the western desert was still the same vast, unchanging darkness it had been for the past century.
"Maybe he already left."
Jane sighed in disappointment. She picked up the camera set up beside her, fiddled with it for a moment, and soon pulled up the footage again.
A fleeting streak of magnificent golden light in the sky.
A sandstorm that had risen from nowhere and blotted out the sky, then vanished just as strangely.
The heavy, low-hanging storm clouds scattering into the distance at a visible speed under some invisible force, turning an overcast sky into clear weather in the blink of an eye.
Scenes that completely defied common sense would be almost impossible to witness anywhere else. But after Odin, the king from myth, appeared, they had unfolded one after another. Add in the bizarre data detected by her instruments, and Jane absolutely refused to believe there was no connection between them.
With the naked truth laid out before him, Professor Selvig, who had initially scoffed at Jane's theory, finally accepted reality with great difficulty. He stared blankly at the two people in the distance, then suddenly seemed to notice something and exclaimed in surprise, "Jane, Darcy, look at Thor. What's wrong with him?"
"Hm?"
The three of them looked over. On the barren ground, Thor's powerful body was kneeling in utter dejection.
From Odin's arrival to his final departure, he had not given Thor even the slightest chance to explain himself. Even during the period when Fenris had left, Odin had only kept his eyes closed, silently sensing Fenris's power. He had even used divine power halfway through to seal Thor's mouth and keep him from speaking.
As he watched the Dimensional Gate disappear, watched Odin and Asgard gradually vanish before his eyes, and saw that the All-Father had not even spared him one last glance, an indescribable sense of loss swept through Thor's heart.
"Has Father truly exiled me? Abandoned me completely?"
After a long while, Thor finally rose from the ground with his head hanging low, utterly dispirited. His eyes were lifeless, staring hollowly at the unfamiliar world around him as a feeling of loneliness, as though he had been abandoned by the entire world, surged within him.
The corner of his eye swept lightly over Fenris beside him, and a bitter smile squeezed onto his face.
Even this Midgardian was more favored by his father than he was.
Thor dragged his heavy steps to Fenris's side, patted him on the shoulder, and said in a low voice, "Congratulations. You have earned the All-Father's favor."
"I hope you do not disappoint his regard."
Fenris clearly sensed the frustration and gloom in Thor's heart. Looking at the despondent Thor, he said, "Thor, the god-king would not exile you without reason. I think—"
"What reason? I did nothing wrong!"
The emotions compressed in Thor's heart erupted in an instant. He suddenly raised his head, stared straight at Fenris, and growled, "Jotunheim is ambitious. For all these years, they have refused to truly accept Asgard's rule. They even sent people to infiltrate Asgard's vault during the most glorious coronation of my life. They ruined everything for me!"
"If we do not teach them a lesson, they will only think Asgard is like an old, weakened lion, and they will fear us less and less!"
"The All-Father who swept across the Nine Realms thousands of years ago has grown old. But his son, me, Thor, the God of Thunder, is in his prime. I can beat them into submission just as Father once did and make them bow forever beneath Asgard's glory."
"I can charge into their palace the way Father did and confiscate their greatest treasure, the Casket of Ancient Winters. I can also bring Asgard thousands of years of peace!"
The more Thor spoke, the more agitated he became. He abruptly reached out and gripped Fenris by both shoulders, his arms trembling slightly. "Do you understand?"
"Forget it. You do not."
Meeting Fenris's calm gaze, Thor suddenly felt his strength leave him for some reason. Deep in his heart, a faint doubt began to stir over whether he had truly been wrong after all.
A moment later, he sighed softly, flung Fenris's shoulders away, and turned toward the depths of the desert. "Goodbye, Fenris. I can tell you want to help me, but you cannot understand me."
"We will meet again, if fate allows it."
Thor dragged his heavy feet forward, leaving one footprint after another as he walked into the distance. Soon, the night completely blurred his back.
"Goodbye, Thor."
Fenris did not stop him. He simply stood there in silence, watching him leave.
After Thor's words, Fenris finally truly understood why Odin had gone to such great lengths for Thor. This thousand-year-old big boy was still a crown prince who only knew how to swing his hammer blindly. His vision was nowhere near broad enough to support him sitting on that golden throne tied to the safety of the Nine Realms.
If he rashly shouldered the responsibility of king of the gods without a mind tempered by mercy and self-restraint, Thor would only be trapped in an unsolvable cycle of self-doubt, dragging Asgard toward self-destruction along with him.
In that regard, at least for now, he was far inferior to the younger sibling who only knew how to play shameful schemes in the dark.
"He's just leaving like that?"
A faint fragrance drifted over from behind him. Fenris turned his head and happened to meet a pair of clear brown eyes.
Wanda wrinkled her nose. For some reason, Fenris suddenly smelled exceptionally pleasant to her now. Even in the middle of the night, he carried the scent of sunlight, making people instinctively want to draw closer.
"Yeah. Leave him be. We'll see him again soon."
Fenris gazed into the distance. His powerful eyesight let his gaze cross nearly a thousand meters with ease, piercing through the darkness to see a lonely figure curled up on the ground, looking up at the stars, lost in thought.
Wanda parted her lips slightly and nodded, though she did not really understand. As she looked at Fenris's face, her eyes suddenly curved into a smile. "Mm!"
"Let's go. Tonight was exhausting. We should get some proper rest…" Fenris turned and walked away.
Wanda clasped one hand behind her back and skipped after him. "Fenris, is he really the God of Thunder?"
"Yes."
"Was the one who just descended to the human world really the legendary god-king Odin?"
"Yes."
"Wow. So gods really exist. Then Asgard exists too, right?"
"Yes."
"Then does Thor really have a beautiful younger sister named Loki?"
"…Probably?"
"I really want to visit Asgard too."
"You'll get the chance."
"Really?"
"Haha."
(End of Chapter)
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