[OP in Marvel] Ch: 14 [The Destroyer]

[The Temple of Darkness]

Loki opened the sealed door and stepped into the main chamber.

The air inside was cold, stale, and thick with ancient power. Runes pulsed beneath his boots in slow emerald rhythms, answering his presence as dust drifted through the chamber like ash from some forgotten war. Green light spilled from his hands and crawled across the walls, revealing towering pillars, cracked stone, and the enormous figure standing at the center of it all.

The Destroyer.

Even motionless, the armor looked less like a weapon and more like a judgment waiting to be delivered. Its metallic body reflected the glow of Loki's sorcery in sharp, broken lines, and the power buried inside it pressed against the air until every breath felt heavier than it should have.

Loki stared up at the construct with a sinister smile.

"You should've stayed out of this, Jason."

The words echoed through the empty chamber.

Green energy gathered around him, coiling faster with every passing second. His fingers trembled from the strain, but he forced the magic higher, deeper, pulling on old Asgardian spells that most sorcerers would have been too afraid to touch. The runes beneath his feet brightened until the entire floor looked alive.

Loki raised both hands toward the towering armor and closed his eyes.

Ancient sorcery surged through the temple.

His consciousness tore loose from his body in a torrent of green light. For one breathless moment, Loki felt himself hanging between flesh and spirit, caught between the weakness of his own body and the monstrous promise of the weapon before him. Threads of magic stretched from his astral form, slithering through the air before sinking into the hollow interior of the Destroyer.

The chamber fell silent.

Then the Destroyer's eyes ignited.

Crimson light burned behind the visor, and the giant fingers twitched with a sound like mountains shifting in their sleep. Metal groaned as the construct came alive piece by piece, answering Loki's will as if it had been waiting for him all along.

Power rushed through him.

It was unlike anything he had ever felt. His own magic was sharp, clever, and elegant, a blade hidden beneath silk. This was different. This was raw force wrapped in enchanted metal, strength without hesitation, destruction without restraint. Loki flexed one massive hand and watched red sparks crawl between the armored fingers.

A smile touched his real face.

"Let's see how that monster handles this indestructible armor."

Loki turned his attention back to his physical body. He could not afford to leave it vulnerable inside the temple, not when every path ahead depended on secrecy. Green mist flowed from his fingertips and spread through the chamber, curling around his unmoving form until the illusion swallowed it completely.

Anyone who entered would see only stone, dust, and shadow.

His body would remain hidden in plain sight.

Satisfied, Loki lifted his gaze toward the ceiling through the Destroyer's eyes.

The armor's faceplate opened, and crimson light blazed from within, filling the chamber with heat and violent radiance.

A beam erupted from the armor's open face.

The ceiling disappeared beneath the blast.

Stone, metal, and ancient enchantments shattered at once, torn apart by a force that had been built to humble gods. The entire temple shook as the roof exploded outward into the night, sending debris across the mountainside in a storm of fire and broken rock.

Loki did not wait for the dust to settle.

The Destroyer launched upward through the collapsing roof, tearing free of the ruined temple. Fire and rubble rained behind it as the armored giant rose into the open sky.

High above Asgard, a streak of crimson light cut across the darkness.

Inside the armor, Loki laughed as the wind screamed around him.

"Watch me now, Father."

The Destroyer flew toward the palace.

Every protective ward it passed reacted instantly. Golden barriers rose from rooftops and towers, and alarm bells began to ring as Asgard's defenses recognized the threat.

Citizens poured into the streets, staring upward in fear and confusion. Warriors rushed from taverns, homes, and guard posts, weapons half-drawn as they followed the red glow tearing across the sky.

For a moment, no one seemed to understand what they were seeing.

Then the palace trembled.

Inside the royal wing, Thor shot to his feet. His hand closed around Mjolnir as the distant roar reached him through the walls. He could sense the intense power of the Destroyer.

"What in the Nine Realms…"

A second later, Heimdall's voice thundered across the city through magical communication.

"INTRUDER!"

The warning rolled through Asgard like the tolling of a war bell.

Thor rushed onto the balcony, Mjolnir gripped tightly in his hand. The moment he stepped outside, he saw the crimson light racing in from the distant mountains, burning across the night.

His expression darkened.

"The Destroyer!"

Far from the palace, in the Veilgrove...

The trees bent under the force of it. Leaves tore free from branches, birds scattered into the sky, and the ground beneath his boots shook. Jason turned slowly toward the horizon, his instincts sharpening before his eyes even found the source.

A red beam ripped through the sky above the distant city.

Sif followed his gaze, and recognition struck her at once. Her grip tightened around the Paladin sword, the confidence in her face giving way to something much colder.

Jason noticed. 'Don't tell me that lunatic activated the fucking giant armor?!'

"You know it?" He asked.

Sif did not look away from the glow moving toward the palace.

"It's the Destroyer," she said. "One of the most dangerous weapons ever created by the Allfather."

Another explosion echoed across the distance.

Even from miles away, the pressure rolling off the construct felt wrong. It was not like ordinary magic, and it was not like the Frost Giants' crude violence. This was a weapon made by a king who had once conquered realms, forged in an age when Asgard answered threats with overwhelming force.

Jason stared at the armored figure racing toward the palace and let out a heavy sigh.

"I swear this family has more issues than every demon realm combined."

Sif glanced at him sharply.

Jason was already moving. His expression had lost its dry amusement now, replaced by the focused calm Sif had seen on his face during battle. "Come on," he said. "Before Loki turns the palace into a crater."

He tried to open a portal directly near the palace, but the protective enchantments prevented him from doing so. 

"Ah, crap! Can't use portal. Well, let's fly."

The ground exploded beneath his feet.

BOOOOM!

Jason launched into the sky like a cannonball.

Sif vanished in a burst of golden light and followed immediately behind him.

And for the first time since arriving in this universe, Jason's smile slowly disappeared and his old survival senses awakened once again. He knew how dangerous The Destroyer is. It has super strength, speed, quick reflexes, stamina, the ability to fly, and can manipulate energy to disintegrate almost any substance in existence. It can also manipulate matter and is invulnerable. This is a fight he couldn't afford to hold back his powers. 

But the big question was how to defeat something invulnerable?

...[Back at the palace]...

Thor flew in and struck the Destroyer like a living thunderbolt.

The collision cracked the air above the palace and sent a shockwave rolling across the golden rooftops. Windows shattered beneath the force, banners tore loose from their towers, and warriors below staggered as the pressure swept through the palace grounds.

"LOKI!" Thor roared, driving Mjolnir into the Destroyer's chest with enough force to flatten a war beast. "WHAT MADNESS IS THIS?" He sensed Loki's magic earlier.

The Destroyer barely moved.

Its massive armored feet remained planted in the sky, crimson light burning behind the visor as if Thor's attack had been nothing more than a loud inconvenience.

"Look at you, brother. So weak and pathetic," Loki's voice boomed in the sky.

Thor's eyes widened.

The Destroyer punched him.

The blow crashed into his ribs and launched him backward through the palace towers. Stone burst around him as he tore through walls, pillars, and carved balconies before smashing into a courtyard far below.

The palace shook from the impact.

Thor pushed himself onto one knee, coughing hard as pain tore through his chest. His ribs screamed with every breath, and blood warmed the corner of his mouth, but his grip tightened around Mjolnir all the same. 

Above him, a crimson streak dropped from the sky.

The Destroyer descended like a meteor.

Thor rolled aside just before it struck.

The courtyard vanished beneath the impact. Marble shattered, golden tiles split apart, and the ground caved inward as the armor landed where Thor had been a heartbeat earlier.

He came up swinging.

Mjolnir cut through the air with a roar, and lightning answered.

A bolt thick enough to split mountains slammed directly into the Destroyer, swallowing the armored giant in white-blue energy. Thunder rolled across Asgard as storm clouds gathered overhead, darkening the sky above the palace.

Thor planted his feet and poured more power into the strike.

Lightning fell again.

Then again.

The palace grounds became a storm of divine wrath, each strike hammering the Destroyer deeper into the broken courtyard. Warriors watched from the edges of the battlefield in stunned silence. Even the Einherjar, who had stood against monsters from across the Nine Realms, found themselves stepping back.

Thor was not holding back.

He was unleashing the kind of power that could break armies.

For several seconds, it seemed to work. The Destroyer remained trapped inside the storm, its massive form half-hidden beneath the blinding light.

Then the faceplates began to shift.

Click.

Click.

Click.

Thor's expression tightened.

"Oh no."

The armor's face opened, and crimson energy gathered inside the helmet, forming a burning sphere at its center. The surrounding lightning twisted violently toward it, drawn into the growing light as if the storm itself was being devoured.

Then the beam fired.

The blast tore through Thor's lightning and ripped straight toward him.

Thor barely managed to raise Mjolnir in time.

Crimson energy smashed into the hammer and kept pushing. The force behind it was monstrous, far beyond what he had expected even from the Destroyer. His boots carved trenches through the shattered stone as he was driven backward, arms shaking beneath the pressure.

The beam kept going.

For the first time since the battle began, Thor felt the attack pushing past his strength.

Then golden light flashed beside him.

"Sif!"

She appeared between Thor and the beam with the Paladin shield raised high.

The crimson blast struck the shield.

A blinding explosion engulfed the courtyard. Thor instinctively turned his face away as the energy poured against the barrier, screaming across its surface with enough force to turn stone into dust.

The holy runes on the shield blazed.

Blue light surged through the armor Jason had given her, spreading across Sif's body in radiant lines as the blast tried to break through. The ground beneath her feet cracked apart. Shattered marble turned to dust around her boots, and entire sections of the courtyard collapsed under the pressure.

Sif's arms trembled. But she did not fall; instead, she pushed back with a loud battle cry. "ARGGGGG!"

The shield held.

Thor stared in disbelief.

The Destroyer's beam had carved through mountains, shattered ancient fortresses, and erased enemies far stronger than most gods. Yet Sif stood before it, wrapped in blue light, holding the line between destruction and everything behind her.

At last, the beam faded.

Silence settled over the ruined courtyard, broken only by the soft crackle of cooling stone.

Smoke drifted through the air as Sif slowly lowered the shield. The front surface glowed red-hot, and several scratches marked the metal.

Nothing more.

Thor looked at the shield, then at Sif.

"What..."

Sif barely heard him.

A glowing symbol had appeared above the shield, floating in the air. Green letters hovered there, utterly out of place in the middle of the battlefield.

<90% Durability>

Sif narrowed her eyes.

"Jason never mentioned this."

Thor frowned. "Mentioned what?"

She turned the shield slightly, but the display followed it.

"Durability," she said.

Thor stared at the glowing letters. "What in Odin's name are you talking about?"

Before Sif could answer, a familiar voice echoed across the battlefield.

"It means your shield just lost ten percent of its health. It'll break after the number reaches to zero."

Thor and Sif looked upward.

A sonic boom tore across the sky.

Jason descended like a falling star and landed between them and the Destroyer with enough force to fracture the already destroyed courtyard beneath his boots. Chunks of broken stone lifted into the air for a brief second before crashing back down around him.

For once, he did not arrive with a lazy grin. There was no joke on his lips, no amusement in his eyes. His face was serious, focused, and cold, which made Sif grip her sword tighter.

The Destroyer's crimson eyes locked onto him immediately.

Jason stared up at the towering construct and exhaled slowly.

"Yeah..."

Red energy flickered beneath his skin.

The air around him distorted as more cracks spread beneath his feet, thin at first, then deeper, crawling through the broken courtyard in jagged lines. He cracked his neck and knuckles.

"I was really hoping my first serious fight in this universe wouldn't be against that thing."

"I'll erase your existence right here and now..." The Destroyer pointed a giant finger at Jason as Loki's voice came from within. 

Jason rolled his shoulders once.

"We'll just see about that."

Then the ground beneath him exploded as he launched himself forward.