Chapter 424: Chapter 424: Escape and New Beginnings
"This hammer is so heavy, with my strength, I still can't move it?!" Faced with Thor's taunting, Tohru's eyes flashed with anger. The dark power within him surged continuously, yet he still couldn't break free from under Mjolnir.
"Zzzzz!" At that moment, a powerful thunderous force was gathering on Thor's body, preparing to deliver a strong blow to eliminate Tohru! Normally, Thor wouldn't charge up like this in front of an enemy, but with Tohru pinned by Mjolnir, he saw no reason not to.
In Thor's mind, as long as someone was suppressed by Mjolnir, they couldn't possibly escape, unless they were deemed worthy of the hammer. Even then, with the current setting of Mjolnir, even those deemed worthy would likely still be trapped beneath it in a battle against Thor.
"Rumble!" Soon, Thor's divine power was fully released, and the mighty thunder force blasted through the base floor, sending a cloud of dust rising at the center of the thunder's roar.
But just then, Thor's expression suddenly changed. He instinctively turned around and struck behind him, where a dark figure appeared, kicking Thor's fist.
"Bang!" Thor was once again sent flying. The one who kicked him was none other than Tohru, who had not been hurt by Thor's previous charged thunder attack and had even dodged it!
At the critical moment when Thor's thunder power was released, Tohru's body had turned into an intangible form, merging with the darkness, evading Thor's attack and launching a counterattack.
Indeed, the weight suppression of Mjolnir was formidable, but it was not an absolute ability. It could only suppress tangible life forces. For a formless dark entity like Tohru, Mjolnir had no idea how to suppress it.
"How is this possible?" Thor couldn't understand the situation. He watched Tohru with disbelief as Mjolnir flew back into his hand. He couldn't believe Mjolnir would fail in this aspect since it had always worked before.
Currently, Thor was different from before. Even without Mjolnir, he could still release thunder power, but Mjolnir remained his most important weapon and combat enhancer.
The fact that Mjolnir's properties were somehow neutralized by Tohru made Thor uneasy.
"Roar!" "Roar!" "Roar!"
As Thor felt uneasy, a group of Shadow Soldiers appeared beside Tohru. Their massive sizes dwarfed the Shadow Soldiers fighting Sif and the others.
When these Shadow Soldiers appeared, Thor could vaguely see that all the Hydra soldiers in the distance had fallen, either unconscious or dead.
At this point, apart from Thor and the Asgardian quartet, there was no one left standing on Thor's side, including the super soldiers and animal warriors.
The abilities of the Shadow Soldiers were indeed overpowered. With Tohru enhancing their power first, their combat effectiveness was terrifying. Their ability to make opponents unconscious by devouring shadows allowed them to dominate the base as if it were uninhabited.
Even though the animal warriors had improved under the guidance of the Asgardian quartet, they were still just powerful life forms with strong bodies but no extraordinary energy.
Therefore, they couldn't protect their bodies and shadows from the Shadow Soldiers' devouring, ultimately leading to their demise, no matter how strong they were.
"Come on, play with this guy who claims to be the God of Thunder!" Tohru looked at his Shadow Soldiers with satisfaction. They were far more useful than any super soldiers or animal warriors.
Tohru felt that with these Shadow Soldiers, he only needed to recruit some administrative personnel and wouldn't need any combat-oriented subordinates. Hence, he didn't bother keeping any of the traitorous Hydra members.
"Roar!" Upon Tohru's command, the Shadow Soldiers charged towards Thor, emitting terrifying roars. Tohru watched this scene indifferently, as if observing a beast's final struggle in a cage.
Tohru had realized the unusual nature of Thor and the Asgardian quartet. Initially, he thought they were secret soldiers cultivated by some Earth faction, brainwashed into believing they were Asgardian gods.
However, upon returning and finding Thor occupying his base without the expected appearance of an organization, and considering Mjolnir's peculiar behavior, Tohru began to suspect Thor might truly be the legendary God of Thunder.
Despite this realization, Tohru felt no fear. Instead, he allowed his subordinates to toy with and kill Thor.
After all, if Thor were indeed the God of Thunder, then divine power wasn't as formidable as he thought. It was far less intimidating than the pressure he felt from Clark and Robert.
If this was Thor's level, then how powerful could the Asgard behind him be? With Shadow Soldiers that could continuously strengthen by devouring shadows, Tohru's confidence swelled. He even believed that with enough devoured shadows, he could eliminate the fear Clark and Robert instilled in him.
"Get lost!" Just as Tohru was distracted watching Thor bleed under the Shadow Soldiers' assault, Thor let out a shout. The divine thunder power within him finally surged, combining with Mjolnir's power to explode, blasting away the surrounding Shadow Soldiers.
Seeing this, Tohru prepared to push Thor back again, but Thor charged at him, filled with an all-or-nothing determination.
"Hm? Desperate? Hah, so this is a god?" Tohru sneered, thinking this was just Thor's final struggle. Naturally, he wouldn't meet such a desperate move head-on, as it would consume much of his vitality. If the attack failed to injure the enemy, it would have a greater impact on himself.
Thus, Tohru's body instantly disappeared, merging into the darkness, along with the Shadow Soldiers, leaving only Thor, glowing with thunder, and the confused and battered Asgardian quartet in the base.
However, Tohru hadn't realized that Thor wasn't intending to make a last stand. Thor, seeing the dire situation and with all his Hydra subordinates dead, decided to retreat.
This retreat didn't mean going back to Asgard but temporarily leaving the base to regroup and plan a strategy against Tohru and the Shadow Soldiers.
Thor wasn't about to flee alone. He knew starting over by himself was unrealistic. So, he decided to force Tohru back with a power burst and escape with the Asgardian quartet.
"Whoosh!" "Rumble!"
Thunder flashed in the base as Thor quickly grabbed the quartet. Transforming into a bolt of lightning, they broke through the base's upper layers and disappeared into the sky.
"Damn it!" Tohru reappeared outside the base, but Thor and the quartet were already gone. Though Tohru could fly, the sky wasn't his domain.
Even if the Shadow Soldiers were massive and powerful, they were ground fighters and couldn't fly or jump like the Hulk.
Ultimately, Tohru gave up chasing Thor. He didn't believe Thor could stay in the sky forever. With his Shadow Soldiers searching, he was confident they'd be found when they landed.
"With them gone, my revenge is complete. What's my next step?" Tohru pondered as he watched Thor's departure. With his newfound power, his ambition grew.
Initially, Tohru wasn't this ambitious, but the super-soldier serum and Shadow Mask had greatly amplified his negative traits, making his good qualities better and his bad ones worse, releasing his inner evil.
Had the serum strengthened Tohru's good side, he might have resisted the Shadow Mask's influence. But this wasn't the case.
"My Hydra base is destroyed, my traitorous subordinates are dead. What about the other Hydra bases? I've devoured many shadows, but Hydra's numbers are vast. Should I subjugate them or let the Shadow Soldiers continue devouring?" Tohru's eyes flickered with hesitation before deciding to devour some, subjugate some, and have the subjugated ones find more targets.
Tohru didn't want to rush things, fearing Clark and Robert. He chose a cautious approach, enhancing the Shadow Soldiers until he felt ready to defeat them and then revealing his true power.
"Bang!" In the wilderness, a thunderbolt flashed, and Thor and the quartet landed roughly. As the lightning faded, they sat heavily on the ground, panting.
"What now, Thor?" Sif was the first to recover. She looked at the silent Thor and asked, "Everyone in the base is likely dead, leaving only us. All our efforts were in vain. If we want to continue, we'll have to start over."
"Then let's start over!" Thor remained silent for a long time before his eyes lit up, and he smiled. "We didn't really create our own force; we just took over Hydra. Now, we can build something truly ours, an Asgard of our own!"
"Building an Asgard? But we're far from the real Asgard, even if it's just a human organization using the name. We're missing many things, starting with funds," Sif reminded, frowning. "We don't have anything valuable, and we've been on Earth too short a time to amass wealth."
"It doesn't matter! I have it!" Thor shook his head, smiling. "All the wealth from the Hydra base is with me. I moved it all."
"When?" Fandral asked, bewildered.
"After that shadow life form first appeared," Thor's eyes gleamed. "I sensed something was off and prepared for it. I didn't expect to use it so soon. Let's go. I've arranged our public identities and our secret ones will be our real names. This is the true beginning of our own Asgard!"
"Thor, with such a plan, we fully support you!" Hogun smiled
at Thor. The other three nodded in agreement. It was clear that after being brainwashed, they were unconditionally loyal to Thor.
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