Chapter 33: A Bomb That Tastes Like a Poached Egg

Thor did not actually die. After being imprisoned in S.H.I.E.L.D.'s special prison by his brother Loki and thrown from a great height, he managed to escape the moment the prison hit the ground! This was the protagonist's immortality trait in action—as long as one is the protagonist, they simply cannot die!

Just look: the special prison glass that even Thor's hammer couldn't break at S.H.I.E.L.D. was easily shattered by him the instant he landed. This is the protagonist effect; you can't argue with it!

The chaos in New York certainly didn't escape Thor's senses, so he had arrived long ago. Originally, he intended to go down and help Captain America and the others, but upon seeing Annie take action, he moved ahead to find his brother, the God of Mischief Loki, on the rooftop.

"Loki! Go close the portal and stop this while there is still time! I will plead for mercy for you before our father!" On top of Stark Tower, Thor was battling his brother, Loki.

He struck Loki's scepter heavily with his hammer, forcing him back, and then attempted to use words and brotherly affection to persuade him. He hoped Loki would realize his error and close the portal himself to avoid making even more serious, irreversible mistakes.

Things had already reached this point; regardless of the outcome, once he brought Loki back to Asgard, severe punishment for Loki's crimes would be inevitable! Thor only hoped that Loki would wake up soon and reduce his sins, rather than continuing down this path of error.

However, Thor's good intentions were not received well by Loki! Instead, using the momentum of Thor's hammer strike, Loki leaped backward onto a higher small platform atop the tower. He looked down at Thor with a wicked smile: "Too late, my brother! It cannot be closed!"

Whether it truly couldn't be closed was perhaps something only Loki knew! Or perhaps, he simply didn't want to close it at all?

For a Loki who spent his days dreaming of being king, there was certainly no hope in the kingdom of Asgard; that biased old stubborn fool Odin would never give him a single chance. Therefore, he had to settle for a second choice: Earth.

He had exerted immense effort to open the space portal to allow his Chitauri army to descend. Now, at the moment he believed victory was within his grasp and he was about to reap the fruits of his labor, how could he possibly give up because of a few words from Thor?

Loki's eyes had long been blinded by the desire for power. All he could see now was the supreme authority about to be in his hands. With the Chitauri army as his backing, he was about to reign over Earth and become the sole king of all humanity! He would rule here for eternity, countless humans would prostrate themselves at his feet, and he, Loki, would become a true god!

"Stop this, Loki!" Seeing that Loki remained unrepentant, Thor grew anxious and lunged directly at him! He failed to notice the triumphant, wicked smirk on Loki's face as he stood at the edge of the platform.

"Down you go, dear brother!" Seeing Thor charging at him recklessly with Mjolnir, Loki did not panic. Instead, he feigned a block, only to turn and evade at the moment of contact. Using his scepter to guide the hammer, he pulled Thor toward the edge of the platform and then delivered a kick to Thor's lower back, sending him plummeting from Stark Tower.

"Aaaaaah~!!"

Thor lost his balance and fell from the top of Stark Tower. Although such a height would not be fatal to a powerful Asgardian like him, he was bound to suffer from dizziness and discomfort for a while. Perhaps even some minor injuries?

"Now, no one will come to interfere with me again."

Loki watched his brother fall with satisfaction! If he stayed just a little longer until the portal expanded enough for the Chitauri command ship to pass through, and once the tens of millions of Chitauri arrived on Earth, the final victory would belong to him: the God of Mischief, Loki!

"That's not necessarily true!"

"Who is it?!"

Hearing a crisp young girl's voice from behind, Loki turned around warily, only to find a little girl floating not far behind him. She was surrounded by a layer of fiery red lava shield—this was, of course, little Annie.

"You? A mage?" Loki was somewhat shocked. The intense magical fluctuations emanating from the girl told him she was a powerful mage! Since when did Earth have such a powerful mage? Why had he never heard of her?

He had been too preoccupied fighting his brother, Thor, and the energy reaction from the Space Stone above had been so intense that he hadn't noticed when this little girl had slipped in.

"Fire! Shattering Fire!" Annie gave him no time to think.

Annie knew that this person called Loki was also a mage. Although the combat footage she had seen previously made him look nothing like a proper mage, it was always best to strike first! Her mother had said the best way to deal with a mage is to hit them so hard they don't get a chance to cast any spells! A mage who cannot cast spells is the easiest to deal with.

Thus, Annie hurled several Shattering Fires directly at him. Before the fireballs reached him, she spread her palms wide; magic surged in her hands, erupting into intense flames that chased after the fireballs toward Loki!

"Incinerate!"

These were Annie's signature moves. Once her powerful magical flames compressed their energy, they could burn everything in their path to ash. She believed that after these two moves, the opponent should be scorched! Then she could safely go and grab that Space Stone.

"Huh? He's fine?"

"Damn! That was dangerous." As the flames dissipated, Loki was kneeling on the ground, leaning on his scepter. Blue magical fluctuations pulsed from the scepter, and a blue, circular, translucent film shield protected him firmly, centered around the staff.

Even though the surrounding steel, concrete walls, and the ground had been melted into glass by Annie's flames, he hadn't been harmed in the slightest! For Loki, that had been truly dangerous; if his scepter hadn't activated the shield in time, he might have been burned to ashes.

"Now! It's my turn to counterattack!" After standing up, Loki narrowed his eyes at Annie. He suddenly pointed his scepter forward, and over a dozen blue arcane light orbs shot out. They exploded around Annie, and intense blue magical energy instantly submerged her.

"Are you an Arcane Mage?" As the energy dissipated, Annie remained unharmed.

An attack of this level could not hurt her; she was still wearing a lava shield constructed from dense fire power! However, in Annie's view, the energy of this mage named Loki felt very much like the arcane energy she knew, yet it seemed slightly different! That was why she asked.

"Hmph!" Loki did not answer. He waved his hand again, unleashing a barrage of arcane bolts that submerged the very spot where Annie stood.

He was trying to break through her shield to kill this suddenly appearing little mage. Otherwise, in a little while, his brother Thor might recover and climb back up. At that point, Loki would have no way to deal with both Thor and a powerful fire mage simultaneously.

"I'm over here! Take this!" After the arcane barrage ended, a small section of the Stark Tower rooftop had been leveled by Loki's spell, but Annie was nowhere to be seen. She wasn't foolish enough to stand there and take hits!

Having already flashed to another position, Annie hurled another fireball at Loki. This time, however, the fireball was much larger—at least five times the size of a normal Shattering Fire! And she didn't stop there; more massive fireballs were continuously hurled by Annie until the side of the Stark Tower where Loki stood was completely engulfed in flames.

Annie was never afraid of powerful enemies. In her view, if one fireball couldn't solve the problem, use two; if two weren't enough, use five; and if five weren't enough, the fireball simply wasn't big enough and had to be replaced with a larger one! If a fireball the size of a washbasin was smashed into your face, would you be afraid?

"Huh? Still fine? How is that possible?" Annie looked at him in disbelief! Even though half the rooftop had been burned into a pool of molten slag by her magic, Loki was still standing there with a wicked smile, still protected by that blue magical shield.

"Ha! I get it! It's because your wand is strange!!!"

Seeing her attacks fail, Annie had been quite surprised at first. After all, this had never happened before! She knew that even the strongest shield must have a limit. Even her own lava shield wouldn't have been able to withstand that attack; the opponent should have either run or been finished!

But now she discovered that he had tanked her attacks without issue? That was very strange! Annie had even been startled at first; if he truly was that strong, she might have had to find a way to run away.

Upon closer perception, she realized something was off. The shield itself wasn't actually that powerful; it was the wand producing it that was powerful! It could continuously provide energy to the shield; as long as there was an energy supply, the shield would not break. However, the shield seemed to have a limitation: the user could not move while using it!

Now that she had found the reason, Annie had plenty of ways to deal with him. That's right! He was just an arcane mage hiding behind a turtle shell; there was always a way! She had to figure out how to play with him a bit longer; she hadn't encountered such a fun opponent in a long time! Recently, Annie had thought of several strange fire spells; now was the perfect time to use him as a test subject.

"Annie! Nuclear bomb!!!" A familiar voice came from above the roof.

Just as Annie was preparing to switch spells to deal with the troublesome Loki, she heard Agent Coulson—who had secretly slipped near the device to try and close the portal—shouting at her anxiously. As he shouted, he pointed toward a small bright speck flying at high speed toward Stark Tower in the sky. Iron Man, Tony, was following behind it, but judging by his speed, Tony looked like he was struggling to catch up.

"Egg? Fried egg?!" Annie didn't understand why Uncle Coulson was thinking about food at a time like this! She was fighting an enemy very seriously! If he wanted a fried egg, couldn't he wait until they got back and ask Aunt Melinda to make one?

"Not a fried egg, a nuclear bomb! Ah, no! A nuclear bomb! A big bomb! Over there!!!" Coulson was so flustered he could only keep pointing in the same direction, signaling Annie to look.

It was a tactical nuclear bomb forcibly ordered to be launched by the World Security Council. From the moment the Chitauri attacked, despite the military's slow response and the Avengers' spirited resistance, certain people had suddenly stepped forward, disregarding civilian casualties, and ordered a nuclear strike in the heart of New York City! The implications were quite intriguing. Perhaps they wanted to wipe out the aliens in one go? And perhaps take the Avengers down with them?

"Ah? Oh! So it's a fried-egg-flavored bomb..." She couldn't hear Coulson clearly, but she understood the general idea.

Annie frowned at the approaching missile. She didn't know what a nuclear bomb was, but she understood bombs. However, why did bombs have flavors? The world of humans seemed so hard to understand!

Looking at Uncle Coulson's panicked shouting, was this flavor of bomb very dangerous? Fine! If that was the case, she would just move it away. That should work, right?

Magic: Banishment!

Annie pointed at the missile, and the Banishment spell took effect, directly banishing the missile into a demiplane she was familiar with. In that place, there was no concept of time, and space was stagnant; the moment the missile entered, it was frozen in place!

Generally speaking, these types of banishment spells could directly expel extra-planar monsters like demons and had special effects on summons! They could banish things back to their original plane or banish inanimate objects to random extra-planar dimensions or specific temporal rifts like demiplanes.

Done! After solving the bomb problem, Annie didn't even think twice before flashing to a new position. Her original spot was immediately submerged by another arcane barrage! Did that God of Mischief Loki actually try to sneak attack her? No way! Now that she had dealt with the "fried egg," she could focus on him. Hmph!

The sudden disappearance of the nuclear bomb caught Iron Man off guard. Unable to decelerate in time, he crashed straight into Stark Tower. Fortunately, it was his own building, so he didn't have to worry about people demanding compensation, though he would certainly have to pay for the repairs himself.