Loki was a troublemaker. Lucas wasn't sure if his warning would scare the God of Mischief, but honestly, it didn't matter.
If Loki went ahead with the Battle of New York like in the original timeline? Fine. Lucas would just punch the invasion fleet back into space.
Fury and Tony were wary of Lucas, afraid he might turn into a supervillain and threaten Earth. Lucas didn't know that. He considered himself a legitimate superhero—Superman.
From his perspective, intervening was just part of the job description.
Meanwhile, in Asgard.
"Damn it! That Earthling... that mortal... how is this possible?"
Loki trembled on the throne. He had never imagined a single person could possess such strength.
Even Thor couldn't do that with his bare hands. Thor needed Mjolnir to channel his power. But this man? He dismantled the Destroyer with nothing but flesh and bone.
That was a true monster.
Loki was a god, and even he couldn't reach that level of physical dominance. How could a mere mortal surpass him?
Cold sweat trickled down his back.
Fortunately, Thor was still a popsicle. He couldn't come back to Asgard to cause trouble.
Or so Loki thought.
Back on Earth, the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents were scrambling. One team tried to move the frozen block containing Thor indoors, while another team moved to collect the scattered debris of the Destroyer.
"That's my loot. You can't just take it," Lucas said coldly, crossing his arms.
The agents froze.
Fury and Coulson looked awkward. They were used to S.H.I.E.L.D. confiscating everything under the "national security" umbrella. Usually, people couldn't argue with them.
But Lucas was different. He wasn't just Superman; he was a transmigrator. He was a variable they couldn't bully.
"How about this—one hundred million. One hundred million dollars," Tony Stark's voice crackled over the speaker.
He wobbled through the air, his flight path erratic due to a damaged thruster. He was growing more envious of Lucas by the second—flying without a suit looked so convenient.
"If you agree, I'll transfer the money to your account right now," Tony offered.
Everyone looked at Lucas.
He didn't hesitate for even half a second.
"Deal."
Lucas agreed instantly. Sure, he had ten million in the bank, which was "financial freedom" for a normal person. But one hundred million? That put him in the global elite.
And it was clean money. Legal. Guilt-free.
He wasn't a tech genius; the Destroyer scrap was useless to him. S.H.I.E.L.D. or Tony would have to fight Asgard over the rights to study it anyway. Let them have the headache.
Lucas doubted they'd learn much from it. Magical engineering was a different beast from Earth tech.
Now for the bigger problem: the Thor-cicle.
The ice from the Casket of Ancient Winters wasn't normal ice. It was absolute zero, magical permafrost. It had frozen a god in an instant.
S.H.I.E.L.D.'s heaters weren't doing a thing.
"Let me handle it," Lucas said, seeing them struggle.
He walked over and punched the ice block.
CRACK!
With a deafening boom, the magical ice shattered into a million sparkling shards. Lucas controlled his force perfectly—the ice broke, but Thor didn't even get a bruise.
Freed from the prison, Thor gasped. Divine energy surged through his veins, kickstarting his heart. The frostbite on his skin healed at a visible rate.
Lucas watched with interest. Asgardian physiology was impressive. It was like observing the end-game of human evolution—thousands of years of genetic perfection.
A normal human frozen like that would be dead. Their cells would have ruptured from the expansion of water. They'd be mush.
But Thor? He shook it off like a bad hangover.
"Many thanks. I will repay this debt heavily in the future," Thor said.
He spoke in Mandarin. Perfectly fluent, standard Mandarin.
"You speak Chinese?" Lucas asked, genuinely surprised.
"It is normal," Thor shrugged, switching back to English. "The Chinese Pantheon is a massive divine system. We have dealt with them in the past. Not just them—Asgard interacts with many pantheons across the cosmos. Learning the languages of different realms and planets is a required course for royalty."
"Other pantheons..."
Fury's ears perked up.
This was the first time Thor had confirmed the existence of other god systems. It validated a suspicion Fury had held for a long time—especially regarding S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Chinese counterpart, S.P.E.A.R.
S.P.E.A.R. was rumored to have backing from the "Ascendants" or the Chinese gods. Fury didn't know the details, but Thor's casual comment connected a lot of dots.
"So there really are other gods," Tony muttered, rubbing his nose.
He was a classic atheist. Unless he saw it with his own eyes, he didn't believe in spirits or deities. If the Christian God existed, Tony knew he was going straight to hell for his lifestyle.
But he wasn't afraid.
Now, though? He was starting to worry.
Please don't tell me God is real. Amen. If you're up there, don't blame me for the partying.
Lucas wasn't surprised at all. He knew the Marvel Universe was packed with pantheons—Greek (Zeus in Love and Thunder), Egyptian (Moon Knight), Chinese (Shang-Chi / Ta Lo).
It was a crowded universe.