Worthy

Odin stared in shock and cried out, "How is this possible? You actually recovered your strength?"

The Great Serpent spread his arms and laughed loudly. "Why wouldn’t it be possible? I am destined to bring Ragnarok to Asgard!"

Odin’s expression turned incomparably grave. He raised a hand, and Gungnir appeared in his grasp. Immediately after, a gleaming golden suit of armor materialized around him out of thin air, making him look especially majestic.

"Gungnir, the God King Armor—Odin, those two things should have belonged to me."

The Great Serpent shouted furiously, "Today, I’ll make you return everything you owe me!"

Faced with the Great Serpent’s fury, Odin gave a bitter smile. "Brother, go back into the seal. Otherwise, I’m afraid you’ll be beaten to death."

"Beat me to death? Who can beat me to death? You?"

The Great Serpent raised both hands, and the surrounding seawater transformed into a colossal serpent the size of an island, crashing toward Odin with overwhelming force.

Odin casually thrust Gungnir forward, striking the giant serpent squarely in the head. Then lightning erupted, enveloping the entire seawater serpent. The serpent screamed and vanished into nothingness.

"Odin, you’ve grown weaker."

The Great Serpent was somewhat disdainful. Seeming to remember something, he asked curiously, "By the way, didn’t you say that the moment I emerged, you’d immediately perish together with me? Why haven’t you started yet?"

Odin’s face darkened slightly. "Brother, if you want to fight, I’ll accompany you, but not on Earth. Let’s go into outer space."

"Outer space? No, I’m going to Asgard."

The Great Serpent snorted and directly tore open space, teleporting back to Asgard’s Bifrost. The moment Heimdall saw him, he grabbed the Guardian Greatsword and shouted, "Cul, get out of Asgard!"

"Guardian God, you dare stand in my way?"

The Great Serpent was somewhat enraged. One of his arms transformed into a Fear Serpent and bit toward Heimdall. The Great Serpent could influence time, and Heimdall had no chance to dodge. His arm was bitten clean through.

Immediately afterward, a surge of fear power entered Heimdall’s body. Countless terrifying scenes surfaced in his mind, and he could not help dropping to one knee.

The Great Serpent laughed loudly. "That’s the attitude you should have, Heimdall. You will become my first slave."

At that moment, a dazzling bolt of lightning struck down, blasting the Fear Serpent apart. Then Odin appeared out of thin air, drawing upon the Bifrost’s energy to form a space that enveloped both him and the Great Serpent.

Before entering the space, Odin transmitted his voice to Heimdall. "Heimdall, move the citizens to Back Mountain. I won’t be able to trap the Great Serpent for long."

"Understood."

Heimdall forced himself to his feet through the fear, his expression exceedingly grim. The God of Fear had appeared at the worst possible time. Not only could Earth not send reinforcements, Thor and Little Hela could not afford to split their attention either.

Odin could only bear this himself. This time, even if he wanted to set his children up, he had no way to do so.

The Great Serpent looked at Odin across from him and sneered. "You actually locked yourself in here with me, Odin. How badly do you want to die?"

"Cul, who is behind you? They actually chose such a perfect time?"

Odin asked in a deep voice. Clearly, someone was plotting against Asgard.

"Timing? It really is good timing."

The Great Serpent snorted. With a raise of his hand, a hammer appeared in his grasp out of thin air—the Fear Hammer.

At the same time, another seven Fear Hammers entered Earth from outer space like meteorites, smashing into the ground with thunderous crashes and sending up vast clouds of dirt and dust.

Anyone who grasped one of the seven Fear Hammers would become Worthy and gain god-level power. The Great Serpent was fulfilling his promise.

The Cloaked Man was very satisfied by this. Earth was at its most vulnerable now. Seven Worthy would definitely turn the world upside down.

The Cloaked Man sneered inwardly. With so many layers of attacks, Earth will definitely be destroyed. Then the Blood God will have only one choice left.

Inside the small space, Odin sensed the situation with the Fear Hammers and shouted furiously, "Cul, what are you trying to do?"

"Earth counts as my Prime Plane. The more fear its people feel, the stronger I become. Odin, today I will definitely kill you, then carry your head and destroy Asgard."

The Great Serpent did not mention the Cloaked Man. He raised the Fear Hammer and smashed it hard toward Odin. Odin swung Gungnir, knocking the Fear Hammer flying.

The Great Serpent seized the chance to rush in front of Odin. Countless Fear Serpents burst out from all directions and attacked Odin together. Odin roared, unleashing endless lightning from his body and sweeping away every Fear Serpent.

Before Odin could breathe a sigh of relief, a glimmer flashed through the Great Serpent’s eyes. The moment Odin met his gaze, all manner of terrifying things surfaced uncontrollably in his mind.

His foolish son being killed, his foolish son being killed by his clever son, his foolish son squandering the family fortune, his foolish son destroying Asgard…

"How little confidence do you have in that foolish son of yours?"

The Great Serpent mocked him while wildly attacking with the hammer that had flown back. Odin’s mind had been shaken, and he was forced back again and again.

"I never expected so much unwillingness and so much fear still remained in my heart. Brother, I will never let you destroy Asgard."

Odin let out a breath, his expression becoming incomparably resolute. Then he wielded Gungnir and fought the Great Serpent fiercely within the small space. The space shook constantly under the aftershocks of their battle, with faint cracks even beginning to appear.

That was why Odin had said he could not trap the Great Serpent for long. The small space simply could not withstand the aftershocks of their battle.

Leaving aside Odin and the Great Serpent’s fated battle for now, the tremendous commotion caused by the Fear Hammers’ descent was quickly discovered by humanity.

One Fear Hammer landed in the outskirts of New York City. The veteran Super Hero, the bald Black Power Man, received a request for help from the police and immediately rode his Green Goblin Glider to the hammer’s landing site.

"A huge crater, with a hammer in the middle? This plot feels a little familiar."

Power Man jumped off the glider and asked suspiciously. His remote logistics support staff replied, "Because this is Thor’s plot. According to our scan, there are Rune inscriptions on the hammer. It should be related to Asgard."

The logistics support staff had been arranged by the Osborn Corporation. Every Super Hero had an entire team behind them, responsible for intelligence, support, public relations, makeup, styling, and so on.

Super Heroes had become increasingly professional, but also increasingly ruthless—if they did not have enough commercial value, they would be discarded. Companies would not run at a loss.

"Asgard? I’ll give it a try and see whether I can lift it."

Power Man, Luke Cage, did not think much of it. He jumped into the crater and gripped the hammer’s handle. The hammer suddenly trembled, and an immense power surged into Power Man’s body, causing his aura to skyrocket.

At the same time, Power Man’s eyes turned pitch-black. He raised the hammer high and shouted, "I am Worthy. By the order of the God of Fear, I will destroy Earth."

"Luke, what’s wrong with you? Don’t joke around. If you’ve been controlled, your popularity is going to plummet."

As the logistics staff sounded the alarm, they shouted, "You’re not Tony Stark. He has money, so it doesn’t matter how many times he gets controlled."

"To hell with popularity! I became a Super Hero to live freely, but you people manipulate me every day like I’m some clown. I’m going to destroy New York, destroy this world!"

Power Man roared and flew into the sky with the hammer’s help. Then he swung the hammer with all his might. A hammer-shaped shadow rapidly expanded and slammed into a distant manor. The manor caved in with a thunderous boom, throwing up huge amounts of dust.

"Haha, I’m invincible now!"

Power Man laughed loudly, spinning the hammer rapidly as he flew toward New York. He was going to destroy New York, destroy everything.

"Class-A incident: Power Man has been controlled by a hammer and is preparing to destroy New York."

The Osborn Corporation did not immediately report the matter to S.W.O.R.D. Instead, they dispatched ten Drone Armor suits to intercept Power Man and prevent the situation from escalating.

"Drone Armor? You nearly got me fired. Go die!"

Power Man furiously swung his hammer, sending a massive red beam straight at the Drone Armor. The Drone Armor could not dodge in time and was blasted apart on the spot, parts raining down to the ground with a clatter.

The remaining Drone Armor immediately fired electric missiles at Power Man together. Power Man shouted and rapidly swung his hammer, sending streak after streak of red light flying out. The electric missiles exploded one after another.

Then Power Man hurled the hammer in his hand with all his strength. With a bang, one Drone Armor suit exploded in midair. That was not the end of it. The hammer paused in the air, then smashed into the Drone Armor one after another like a living creature, blowing them up one by one.

In just over three minutes, all ten Drone Armor suits had been destroyed.

"Destroying hundreds of millions of dollars feels great."

Power Man laughed loudly. He caught the hammer and threw it down at a building below. With a boom, the entire building exploded, concrete and bricks flying everywhere as dust shot into the sky.

"Ah!" The citizens screamed and fled. Power Man chased after them with a savage expression. In a short time, more than a hundred citizens died at his hands.

"Fear. I love fear."

Power Man laughed again. The fear provided by the citizens made his power rise wildly—given enough fear, he could even grow to the peak of godhood.

"Power Man is finished. So are we."

The logistics team did not dare delay any longer and hurriedly reported the matter to S.W.O.R.D.

"Hammers? Rampaging?"

S.W.O.R.D.’s acting Director Coulson frowned and dispatched the Super Heroes Daredevil and Iron Fist to intercept Power Man.

An agent stepped forward and said, "Director, over in Australia, a kangaroo is holding a hammer and wreaking havoc in the city."

Coulson was dumbfounded. "A Hammer Kangaroo? What the hell is that?"

The agent displayed a light screen. "This thing."

On the screen, a kangaroo wielded a hammer and attacked everywhere. Buildings around it kept collapsing, and the scene was even more explosive than New York.

"Why have so many hammers suddenly appeared?"

Coulson frowned and took out his phone to make a call. A moment later, he got straight to the point. "Heimdall, what’s going on?"

Coulson was using a Quantum Phone, and Heimdall had one as well—Earth had already established diplomatic relations with Asgard.

"The situation is a little troublesome…"

Heimdall briefly explained the matter of the God of Fear, then said, "We are dealing with the God of Fear now. You’ll have to handle those seven Worthy yourselves."

"Worthy? Seven of them?"

Coulson was greatly shocked and shouted in dissatisfaction, "Heimdall, you can’t make Earth take the blame for Asgard."

"We can talk about apologies later, but you must take this burden, because the God of Fear intends to slaughter Earth to increase his power."

Heimdall said, "This is both Asgard’s war and Earth’s war."

"Damn it."

Coulson cursed and immediately mobilized S.W.O.R.D.’s forces to search for the remaining hammers. "The moment you find a hammer, seal off the area. No one can be allowed to touch it. Uh, animals neither."

"Yes."

The agents nodded one after another, but Coulson’s order came too late. All seven hammers already had owners—the hammers would automatically summon someone to grip them. If no humans were around, animals would do.

The disaster of fear erupted completely. Seven Worthy wielded their hammers and wreaked havoc across major cities, causing devastating losses among the citizens.

Countries around the world were alarmed and dispatched fighter jets and Power Armor to intercept the Worthy. However, these conventional forces were no match for them and were blown apart one after another.

In truth, it was not only conventional forces that could not stop the Worthy. Even Super Heroes could not.

In New York, amid the ruins, Daredevil shouted in grief and fury, "Danny!"

Iron Fist, Danny Rand, did not answer because he had already fallen unconscious. In fact, if the Dragon Soul had not desperately protected him, he might have died.

"You’re so weak. And you think you deserve to be mentioned in the same breath as me?"

Power Man sneered and smashed the arriving Quinjet apart with a single hammer blow.

Daredevil endured the pain and climbed to his feet. Just as he was about to speak, a disdainful voice rang out. "A bunch of second-rate Super Heroes, and you dare talk about being mentioned in the same breath?"

Power Man turned around and saw that the speaker was a stunning beauty in a revealing red ninja outfit, with a figure that was utterly perfect.

When he saw her appear, Coulson breathed a sigh of relief and shouted through the broadcast on Daredevil’s body, "Ms. Elektra, quickly deal with Power Man. There are still six Worthy rampaging across the world. Right now, you’re the only one on Earth who can handle them."

Elektra had been specifically left on Earth by Wang Bert as a precaution. Unexpectedly, she truly came in handy.

"I understand, Coulson. Send me the coordinates."

With the situation urgent, Elektra did not waste words. Her figure flashed like lightning as she appeared in front of Power Man and stabbed a dagger toward his arm.

Power Man was startled and hurriedly dodged. Then he swung his hammer at Elektra, only for her to suddenly vanish. Immediately afterward, a figure emerged from the shadow behind him and plunged a dagger into his back.

That was not the end. In the next instant, shadow energy burst from the dagger and rapidly spread across Power Man’s entire body.

"I won’t accept this! I won’t accept this!"

Power Man roared. Vast power flowed from the hammer into his body, firmly blocking the shadow energy. Then he swung the hammer backward at Elektra.

Elektra smiled disdainfully, red light shining from her eyes. The Heat Ray blasted out, knocking the hammer flying. Then she raised her other dagger and smashed it against Power Man’s head. Power Man rolled his eyes and crashed to the ground with a bang, losing consciousness.

"One down."

Elektra nodded in satisfaction. With her strength, dealing with a Worthy could not be easier. Back then, she had even fought projections of Ancient Gods.

Then Elektra flew beside the hammer. Rather than rashly picking it up, she contacted Susan at the Space Station and said, "Send the hammer to the isolation zone on the Space Station. It’s not safe to leave this thing on Earth."

"Okay."

Susan nodded and prepared to activate the Bifrost—she had not gone to the Frontlines; Thing, Human Torch, Dr. Richards, and the others had gone instead.

At that moment, the hammer suddenly trembled and flew toward Elektra’s hand in a flash of red light. Elektra was about to knock it away when an immense fear suddenly surged in her heart—the fear of pain.