Meanwhile, on the other side, under the cover of night,
a military Humvee towed a damaged RV, bumping along a desert highway in New Mexico.
Inside the RV, under flickering light, Damian was quickly jotting something down in a black notebook.
The ink traced strange lines on the paper—not messy, but possessed of a unique beauty.
Brenda sat opposite Damian, resting her chin on her left hand and staring intently at his face.
Seeing that he was focused and didn't look up, she took the initiative to speak:
"You're writing very seriously—something interesting?"
At this, Damian raised his head and replied casually,
"Oh, it's just a travel journal. It records things I've done and things I plan to do."
Brenda's eyes lit up. "Can you tell me about the places you've been and the things you've done?"
Damian made up a story off the cuff:
"There are so many! Selling fireworks in Hiroshima, barbecue in Tokyo, pineapple pizza in Italy, portraits of the head of state in Israel, photos of little boys in the Vatican, police batons in Gwangju, South Korea… and so on."
Brenda was speechless. Though she was only in junior high, even her limited knowledge told her that—aside from the two things in Japan—the rest sounded like excellent ways to get yourself killed.
Suppressing the urge to retort, she tried to steer the conversation away from this hellish joke channel and asked again:
"Um… what else? Like the scenery and culture you've seen, or the food and local specialties you've tried?"
"No," he said. "I mostly go for the kind of jokes that are more like hell."
Brenda took a deep breath, quelling the impulse to strangle the idiot in front of her, and tried to find another topic.
"So… what are you planning to do next—"
"Boom—!"
Before she could finish, a blinding light erupted outside the window, flooding the RV with daylight-like brightness.
Damian snapped his laptop shut and peered out with a serious expression.
In the distant night sky, a giant meteor—at least fifty meters in diameter—was plummeting rapidly.
It glowed with blue-white light, lightning-like patterns flickering across its surface. Where it passed, clouds shredded into concentric rings, and the entire desert lit up as if dawn had arrived prematurely.
The Humvee screeched to a halt at the roadside. Everyone crowded to the windows—even Bobby rubbed his sleepy eyes and sat up.
Now near the horizon, the meteor pulsed with a steady, rhythmic glow, like a colossal beating heart.
"What a huge shooting star…" Ethel murmured—just as baby Catherine in her arms burst into loud, startled cries.
Bob rolled down the car window. Hot air, thick with the sharp tang of ozone, rushed in. He frowned.
"Something's not right. That doesn't look like an ordinary shooting star."
Brenda opened her mouth to speak—when, out of the corner of her eye, she noticed Damian quickly packing his backpack, clearly preparing to leave.
"What are you up to?" she asked, grabbing his wrist, her voice tense and panicked.
Damian gently pulled his hand free and smiled.
"My goal for this trip has been achieved. It's time to go."
"Now? Out here? Are you crazy? It's way too dangerous! What if another—"
Her voice rose sharply—and everyone in the RV turned to look.
Damian zipped up his backpack and walked toward the car door, explaining as he did so:
"Don't worry, I'll be fine."
"But you guys… if you trust me, you should leave New Mexico within the next two days! Otherwise, something dangerous might happen."
He paused, then added with a faint smile:
"Okay, I enjoyed spending time with you all!
Goodbye~"
After saying that, he jumped out of the car, and his figure quickly disappeared into the swirling dust and deep night.
Brenda tried to chase after him, but Bob held her back firmly.
———————
A moment later, at the edge of the impact crater where the meteor had fallen, a gentle breeze swept by—and Xiao's figure appeared like a phantom.
He stood at the edge of the pit, his golden pupils reflecting the scene below:
In the crater—more than ten meters deep—countless silver-white lightning serpents writhed across the scorched earth, while a simple, ancient hammer lay quietly at its center.
The complex, obscure runes on the hammerhead flickered in and out of view amidst the lightning, emanating a chilling energy.
Xiao leaped down, his toes barely brushing the rock wall, and drifted toward the bottom like a falling leaf. But the moment he landed, the previously chaotic lightning serpents snapped into motion!
Sizzle… sizzle—
Thousands of silvery-white bolts surged toward him like living creatures, filling the air with the sharp tang of ozone.
"Noisy."
Xiao formed a hand seal, and dark green wind elemental energy condensed in his palm.
With a flick of his wrist, a dark green ring of air rippled outward.
Boom—!
The wind collided with the lightning, erupting into a blinding flash—then, in an instant, all the lightning serpents vanished like bursting bubbles.
Silence returned to the crater floor, broken only by the faint tremor and hum of the hammer.
Xiao strolled up to Thor's hammer. Its handle was wrapped in ancient, tough leather, and the grip bore runes that read: "Mjölnir."
He frowned, then reached out.
Sizzle—sizzle!
The moment his fingers gripped the handle, the hammer erupted with dazzling silver-white lightning. Countless tiny arcs slithered up his arm.
"Hm?"
Xiao's brow furrowed slightly, and the muscles in his forearm tensed.
But the hammer remained unmoved—as though fused to the earth itself.
Sizzle—sizzle!
The lightning intensified, and the runes along the hammer flared one by one, resisting his grasp.
After a few seconds of tense stillness, Xiao suddenly released it and retreated several steps, ghostlike.
A breeze swept past—and his figure reappeared at the crater's edge.
The night wind stirred his robes, and a thoughtful glint flickered in his gilded eyes.
After a brief silence, Xiao raised his right hand and pressed it down, palm facing the ground.
BOOM—!
A violent hurricane descended. Sand and gravel within a hundred-meter radius were snatched into the air, forming a sky-obscuring dust storm.
Guided by his wind elemental power, the debris poured into every crevice of the crater with surgical precision.
Within minutes, the massive impact crater—once nearly fifty meters wide—was completely buried, its surface smoothed as though nothing had ever disturbed the desert.
Xhi stood atop the newly formed dune, the night breeze ruffling the stray hairs on his forehead.
He took one last look at the spot where the hammer lay buried—then his form dissolved into wisps of wind.
As the final breeze
faded, the vast desert fell once more into silence.
Only the lingering thunderclouds in the night sky bore witness to what had transpired.
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