Marvel: I Am The Lord of the Shadow Dimension

Seeing Thor's look of absolute disbelief, Luke casually shifted his stance, causing the heavy golden token tied to his belt to jingle loudly. 

The sound instantly attracted Thor's attention. His eyes widened. 

"Is that..." 

Thor stared in shock at the incredibly familiar, magically resonant object. Luke offered him a triumphant, mocking smile. 

"Who forged that token?! How dare you attempt to replicate my father's divine seal?!" Thor roared, his shock instantly morphing into fury. 

Luke's smile vanished, replaced by a massive question mark. 'Replicate? Are you blind?! Your father literally handed this to me two hours ago!' 

Seeing Luke's bewildered expression, Thor let out a harsh, mocking laugh. 

"I don't care if you are a Midgardian or some sorcerer! I don't care where you forged that cheap replica! You will never deceive me with such a pathetic lie!" 

Thor glared at Luke, practically vibrating with arrogant superiority. "My father is an only child! He has no brothers! And Asgard absolutely does not have a 'Foreign Prince'!" 

Luke stared at the incredibly resolute, yet unbelievably dense God of Thunder in sheer disbelief. 

"Are you literally braindead? Can't you feel your father's divine energy radiating off this thing?!" 

Annoyed, Luke unhooked the heavy golden token and aggressively shoved it directly into Thor's face so he could get a good feel for it. 

Thor frantically tried to push Luke's hand away, but without his divine strength, he was completely overpowered by Luke's 16x superhuman physicals. 

Humiliated and enraged at being physically manhandled by a 'mortal,' Thor refused to yield. He stubbornly turned his head and roared, "If my father had not stripped me of my power, I would never allow a worm like you to insult me! Ptui!" 

Thor violently spat at Luke. 

Given that Luke was currently holding Thor's head in place, he easily dodged the projectile spit. However, the glob of spit sailed through the air and landed with a wet splat directly onto another person's polished leather shoe. 

"Oh, boy," Luke muttered, glancing over. 

Agent Coulson stood completely still, staring blankly at the spit sliding down his expensive dress shoe. He slowly looked up at the defiant, struggling Thor, his expression completely devoid of emotion. 

Without a word, Coulson calmly lifted his foot and let the pouring rain wash the spit off his shoe, completely ignoring the soaking wet sock and freezing water seeping into his leather. 

"So... how exactly did you acquire a nephew?" Coulson asked, completely ignoring the screaming man Luke was holding down. 

"Oh, you know. Met him yesterday. Actually, I became sworn blood-brothers with his dad yesterday afternoon," Luke replied casually. 

Finally managing to wrestle out of Luke's grip while he was distracted, Thor scrambled up the muddy edge of the crater. He turned back, glaring fiercely at Luke. 

"My father is the revered King of Asgard! The All-Father! Why would he ever associate with a pathetic creature like you?! If my powers were not sealed, I would crush you with a single blow of Mjolnir!" 

Luke sighed heavily, staring at the absolute meathead. 'How did Odin ever think handing the throne to this idiot was a good idea? You just barely escaped from an enemy you physically cannot beat, and instead of running away, you stop to talk trash?! You're literally standing in the middle of a hostile military base!' 

If this guy actually became King, Asgard was guaranteed to be destroyed. 

'Wait... Asgard actually DOES get destroyed. Technically it was Surtur and Hela's fault, but Thor definitely played a major role in triggering Ragnarok.' 

In his current state, Thor wasn't the God of Thunder; he was the God of Hammers. Without Mjolnir, he was just a really strong, incredibly arrogant brawler. If he had actually awakened his true, innate divine power earlier, he could have just punched Hela back into Hel instead of relying on a fire demon to destroy his own planet! 

Deciding it was time to intervene, Luke yelled back at the smugly posing prince. 

"You keep whining that if you had your hammer, you could crush me! Are you telling me that without your precious little hammer, you aren't the God of Thunder anymore?!" 

Luke effortlessly walked up the slick, muddy wall of the crater as if it were a paved staircase, stopping right in front of Thor. 

"Did your father earn the title of 'All-Father' simply because he holds a fancy golden spear?!" 

"NO!" Thor shot back instantly, fiercely defending his father's honor. "My father is the King because of his own immeasurable, overwhelming power!" 

"Then why are you suddenly powerless just because you lost a hammer?!" 

Thor froze. His mouth opened, but no words came out. He genuinely didn't know how to argue against that logic. 

"If your entire identity and power come from a piece of metal, then you shouldn't call yourself the God of Thunder! You're just the God of Hammers!" 

Seeing Thor frozen in deep, existential shock, Luke didn't give him time to recover. He violently grabbed Thor by the collar and shot straight up into the sky like a rocket. 

Even carrying a massive, 250-pound Asgardian, Luke's sheer physical strength and dark energy propulsion allowed him to instantly accelerate to nearly Mach 1.5. 

Ignoring Thor's terrified, muffled screaming over the roaring wind, Luke rapidly ascended to an altitude of 30,000 feet. 

Hovering in the freezing, thin air under the pale moonlight, Luke held Thor out at arm's length. Even while directly facing the brutal friction of breaking the sound barrier, Thor had only suffered minor discomfort—a testament to his incredibly dense Asgardian physiology. 

But gravity was a different story. 

"At this altitude, even with your tough Asgardian skin, hitting the ground at terminal velocity will turn you into a puddle of meat paste. Do you want to test that theory? God of Hammers?" 

Realizing his current, mortal predicament, Thor stopped struggling and instead gripped Luke's arm with a terrifying, desperate strength. 

Thor glanced down at the thick cloud cover miles below them and immediately squeezed his eyes shut in pure terror. Normally, as a flying deity, this altitude wouldn't even register to him. But now, entirely stripped of his power, the sheer, dizzying drop terrified him. 

Seeing the sheer terror on Thor's face, Luke slowly, deliberately lowered his arm, letting Thor feel the terrifying, inescapable pull of Earth's gravity. 

"Aren't you a god?!" Luke yelled over the roaring wind, watching Thor desperately bury his face in Luke's arm like a frightened ostrich. "Why don't you have the courage to face death?! Or are you really just a completely average, powerless mortal who desperately needs a magic toy to feel special?! God of Hammers?!" 

Luke intentionally utilized the most aggressive, insulting provocation possible. 

It was super effective! 

Thor's eyes snapped open. He glared at Luke with fierce, unyielding stubbornness, then intentionally looked down at the terrifying drop, forcing himself not to flinch. 

'Single-celled organisms are so easy to manipulate,' Luke grinned maliciously. 

Without warning, Luke violently pried Thor's hands off his arm. 

"JUST DO IT! PROVE IT!" 

As Thor began plummeting toward the earth, Luke immediately entered a controlled free-fall, diving right alongside him. Pulling out his digital camera, Luke snapped several high-res photos of Thor's terrified, screaming face while simultaneously yelling motivational insults at him. 

"ODIN'S BEARD! AHHHHHHHH!" Thor screamed endlessly as he plummeted. He cursed Midgard's gravity, desperately wishing he had his hammer back. 

"THOR! YOU'RE THE ONLY ONE WHO CAN SAVE YOURSELF NOW!" Luke roared over the wind. 

But Thor was screaming so loudly he couldn't hear him. 

'Well, this is awkward,' Luke thought. Seeing that Thor was completely unresponsive to verbal motivation, Luke adjusted his trajectory, floated right next to the screaming prince, and delivered two incredibly crisp, brutal slaps directly to Thor's face. 

SMACK! SMACK! 

"THOR! YOU ARE THE ONLY ONE WHO CAN SAVE YOURSELF! THINK ABOUT IT! WHO ARE YOU?!" 

Having delivered his cryptic anime-mentor advice, Luke instantly shadow-stepped into the Dark Dimension, completely severing Thor's final safety net and leaving him entirely alone in the free-fall. 

The brutal physical slaps successfully snapped Thor out of his blind panic. But seeing that his psychotic 'Uncle' had completely vanished, leaving him to fall to his death, panic quickly set back in. 

Staring at the rapidly approaching cloud layer, Thor was terrified, but the stinging pain on his cheeks forced his mind to remain somewhat focused. 

"You insane bastard! If I survive this, I swear by my name as Thor, I will feed you to the bilgesnipes!" Thor roared into the empty air. 

There was no response. Only the stinging pain on his face reminding him of the bastard's words. 

'Who am I?! I'm me! What kind of stupid question is that?!' 

Thor plunged through the freezing cloud layer. The ground was now horrifyingly visible and approaching rapidly. 

Seeing the dark desert floor rushing up to meet him, Thor's instincts screamed at him to close his eyes again. 

'Aren't you a god?! Why don't you have the courage to face death?! Or are you really just a completely average, powerless mortal who desperately needs a magic toy to feel special?!' 

Luke's insulting voice echoed in his mind. 

'I AM a god!' Thor thought furiously. 'To the mortals of Midgard, the Aesir ARE gods! My power doesn't come from the hammer! It comes from ME! I am the God of Thunder!' 

As if finally understanding a fundamental truth, Thor's eyes snapped open, glaring defiantly at the rapidly approaching ground. 

He felt it. He was infinitely close to piercing a hidden, internal barrier, but he just couldn't break through it! 

Thor opened his mouth and screamed something, bracing for the impact. 

'Damn it, he failed.' 

Luke, who had shadow-stepped back into the material plane right next to Thor, sighed. He had watched Thor desperately repeating the motivational phrases, hoping he would awaken his innate divine power, but nothing had happened. 

Seeing that they were only a few hundred feet from the ground, Luke moved in closer, preparing to grab Thor and drag him into the Dark Dimension to cancel his momentum. 

Just as he reached out, he heard exactly what Thor was screaming. 

'"FCK YOU, UNCLE!"'* 

'...Seriously? You're literally seconds away from becoming a meat pancake, and you use your final words to curse me out?!' 

Luke shook his head in absolute exasperation, but he still grabbed Thor and forcefully dragged him into the Dark Dimension. 

Standing in the endless, pitch-black void, Luke sighed. He completely neutralized Thor's terminal velocity. He was about to toss the prince back out into the real world, knowing that if Thor stayed in the dimension for too long without magical protection, the corrosive dark energy would assimilate him. 

'If Odin sees I returned his son missing a few limbs from dimensional corrosion, he's probably going to spear me through the heart,' Luke shuddered, quickly preparing to eject Thor. 

Normally, an unpowered mortal could be casually tossed in and out of the dimension without issue. But just as Luke grabbed him to throw him out— 

A terrifying, primordial energy violently erupted from deep within Thor's body. 

Massive, blinding arcs of pure, highly concentrated lightning exploded outward from Thor. The sheer, divine voltage instantly annihilated the ambient dark energy clinging to his body and vaporized a small radius around him. 

However, this was the Dark Dimension—Luke's absolute home turf. 

Instantly reacting to the invasive divine energy, hundreds of thousands of dormant Energy Points violently swarmed toward Thor like a hive of angry hornets, ready to crush the intruder. 

Luke panicked. He immediately exerted absolute mental control over the dark energy, forcefully halting the swarm and barely maintaining the tiny, safe vacuum Thor's lightning had created. 

"Don't fight it! I'm sending you out!" Luke yelled. 

Thor, having instinctively expended the tiny spark of divine energy he had just awakened, was utterly exhausted. Staring at the terrifying, endless ocean of highly corrosive dark energy pressing in from all sides, Thor felt genuine despair. 

But in the next second, the man who had thrown him out of the sky appeared in front of him. 

With his divine senses newly awakened, Thor could clearly sense the undeniable, overwhelming aura of his father's divine magic radiating from the golden token on Luke's belt. 

'So... he really IS my Uncle?!' 

Too exhausted to resist, and lacking the energy to do so anyway, Thor was unceremoniously ejected from the Dark Dimension and dumped ungracefully onto the muddy floor of the S.H.I.E.L.D. base. 

Back in the real world, Coulson had been incredibly confused when Luke grabbed the intruder and rocketed straight into the sky. 

He had immediately ordered his analysts to run voice-recognition and cross-reference the names 'Thor' and 'Odin' that Luke had casually thrown around. 

Just as he received the highly concerning intelligence report, a massive figure suddenly materialized out of thin air and slammed heavily onto the mud right in front of him. 

Thor landed on one knee, gasping for air. Massive, uncontrollable arcs of static electricity violently sparked across his wet clothes and skin. He took several deep, ragged breaths, finally managing to suppress the newly awakened, unstable divine energy raging within his body. 

"Oh my god, this is..." 

Thor suddenly realized he was kneeling directly in front of a balding, middle-aged man in a soaking wet suit. Startled, Thor quickly stood up. 

"Don't worry about it. Just consider it an apology for the spit, Coulson," Luke said, materializing smoothly behind Thor. He carefully tucked his digital camera into his pocket before speaking. 

"So, you really are my Uncle?" 

"So, he really is the God of Thunder?" 

Thor and Coulson both turned to Luke and asked their questions at the exact same time. 

Luke blinked. "I don't have dual-core audio processing. I can't listen to both of you at once." 

Wiping the freezing rain from his face, Luke sighed. "Are we going to stand out in the freezing rain to have this highly dramatic conversation? Because honestly, I'd rather go inside." 

Coulson glanced at Thor, nodded silently, and turned to walk toward the main, heavily reinforced command tent. 

Thor stared at Luke for a long moment, deeply conflicted, before silently following Coulson. 

Luke glanced down at the crater. 'This idiot literally forgot his precious hammer.' 

Shaking his head, Luke casually strolled over, picked up Mjolnir with one hand, and jogged toward the tent. He needed to check on his phone; it was probably fully charged by now. 

Entering the tent, Luke casually tossed the incredibly dense, magical hammer directly at Thor and dove for his smartphone. 

"What is your problem?!" Thor yelled, awkwardly catching the heavy hammer and glaring at Luke. 1

"I am NOT the God of Hammers! I am the God of Thunder!" Thor declared proudly, several intense sparks of lightning flashing across his skin to emphasize his point. 

"Yeah, yeah, I know! Just watch where you're pointing those sparks! Don't fry my phone!" Luke yelled, quickly shielding the device. 

Thor huffed, finally satisfied that his point had been made. He looked down at his beloved hammer, letting out a massive sigh of relief. 

Earlier in the crater, he had been too devastated by his failure to think clearly. But now, with his innate divine power reawakened, he could feel the familiar, ancient connection to Mjolnir coursing through his veins. 

He gripped the handle. It felt completely natural again. Furthermore, compared to his previous, crude fighting style of simply swinging it hard or channeling raw lightning, Thor could feel that his newfound internal control would allow him to utilize the hammer in vastly more complex, versatile ways. 

Feeling the comforting, familiar feedback from Mjolnir, Thor couldn't help but let out a goofy, relieved laugh. 

But remembering he was currently standing in front of mortals (and his terrifying new uncle), he quickly coughed, aggressively suppressing his smile and forcing his face back into a mask of regal, intimidating divine majesty. 

Luke, however, had caught the goofy smile. He stared at Thor with a look of pure disdain. 

'He is literally a carbon copy of his father. The synchronization rate is 100%. It's honestly pathetic how similar they act when they're embarrassed.' 

Thor cleared his throat, desperately trying to regain control of the conversation. He turned to Luke. 

"So... you truly are my Uncle?" 

"Yes, I am. Now be a good nephew and say it properly," Luke grinned wickedly. 

"...Uncle," Thor muttered through gritted teeth after a long, painful silence. 

"Good boy!" Luke nodded enthusiastically. "Unfortunately, I didn't bring a gift. Do you want some premium mobile game currency? I can have my ninjas aggressively farm some for you right now." 

Coulson watched the incredibly bizarre, almost sitcom-like interaction with a completely blank expression. Finding it impossible to organically insert himself into the family drama, he finally just spoke up. 

"So... he is literally the mythological Thor? From Norse mythology?" Coulson asked Luke. 

"Yep. 100% authentic," Luke nodded. 

"Does that mean Odin and the rest of Asgard exist as well?" 

"Obviously! I literally became sworn blood-brothers with Odin yesterday!" Luke bragged, happily jingling the golden token on his belt. "I'm officially the Asgardian Royal Ambassador to Earth now! So you better speak to me with respect, Coulson!" 

Coulson didn't even bother acknowledging Luke's theatrics. The terrifying realization that actual, literal gods were real, and that one of them was currently standing in his tent holding a magical hammer, made Coulson seriously worry about his rapidly receding hairline. 

Suddenly remembering the spit incident, Coulson immediately discretely radioed a tactical team, ordering them to carefully collect his ruined shoe and scrape up the irradiated, spit-soaked mud around it. Who knew what kind of biological data they could extract from Asgardian saliva? 

'Wait... why did I wash it off in the rain?! Fury is going to chew me out for contaminating the sample!' Coulson groaned internally. 

However, Coulson was a consummate professional. He quickly suppressed his internal panic and shifted into intelligence-gathering mode. 

He quietly sent a heavily encrypted message to Director Fury, telling him to brew a large pot of coffee and prepare for a very long night, before turning back to Luke and Thor. 

"My father... was he here yesterday?" Thor asked quietly, his arrogant demeanor completely fading. He had a million questions. 

"Technically, no. His physical body wasn't here. We just had a little chat in a psychic, astral plane," Luke replied casually. 

Coulson silently nodded, remembering how Luke had stood completely frozen like a statue for five minutes yesterday. 

"Did my father... did he say anything about me?" Thor asked, his voice barely above a whisper. 

Luke, who had already opened Angry Birds and was waiting for the level to load, glanced up at Thor. 

"He didn't say much. Mostly just that you're probably permanently disqualified from ever becoming King." 

Thor let out a bitter, self-deprecating laugh. "He's right. I don't possess the qualifications to be King. My power is still far too weak." 

Remembering the terrifying, absolute helplessness he had felt while floating in the Dark Dimension—the sensation of being stared down by an unfathomable, infinite darkness—Thor felt incredibly small. 

He was still far too weak. 

However, glancing at the golden token on Luke's belt, Thor rationalized his defeat. 'This man is the sworn brother of the All-Father! Of course he's impossibly strong! But I wasn't entirely helpless! I managed to break his hold for a second! If I continue to train and grow stronger, I will eventually defeat this 'Uncle' in combat! And by the transitive property of combat, that means I'll be...' 1

Thor drifted off into a bizarre, highly arrogant delusion, a bizarre, confident smile spreading across his face. He fell completely silent. 

Coulson gave Thor a deeply concerned look, fighting the urge to ask if the god needed a napkin for the drool forming in the corner of his mouth. 

Coulson turned back to Luke. "What exactly are they? How much of a threat does their existence pose to Earth?" 

"Don't worry too much," Luke said, aiming a red bird at a digital pig. "They're a bit different from the myths. It's more accurate to think of them as a highly advanced, exceptionally long-lived alien race..." 

Remembering that Asgard's medical technology basically consisted of 'magic glowing beds' and they still fought with swords, Luke paused. "...Well, 'advanced' is subjective. But their military might is terrifying. They have a localized wormhole generator called the Bifrost that can instantly deploy massive armies anywhere in the universe. And if they leave it turned on for too long, it acts as a literal planet-destroying superweapon." 

Coulson absentmindedly wiped the freezing rain off his forehead, his face pale. "Anything else?" 

"Well, there's Odin. He's not quite as omnipotent as the myths say," Luke said casually, inching slightly closer to Coulson so Thor couldn't hear. 

"He can't magically wipe out the entire universe with a snap of his fingers or anything. But physically shattering one or two planets with a single attack? Yeah, that's pretty easy for him." 

Luke casually revealed Odin's peak combat stats without batting an eye. While Odin technically still possessed that terrifying power, his aging body would completely fail if he ever tried to use it again. But Coulson didn't need to know that. 

Luke glanced back at Thor, who was still staring blankly at the wall, lost in his delusion. Luke lowered his voice further. 

"That idiot over there is the Crown Prince of Asgard. You understand what that means, right? While his political status is technically slightly lower than mine, you absolutely cannot ignore him. Understand?" 

Coulson nodded slowly, perfectly understanding the superficial threat, while completely missing the second, hidden layer of Luke's absolute bullshit. 

Looking at the goofy, smiling God of Thunder, Coulson realized that keeping this idiot from accidentally starting an intergalactic diplomatic incident while on Earth was going to be a nightmare. 

'I need to send a highly detailed brief to the Director immediately,' Coulson thought tiredly. 

This was way above his pay grade. He just had to pass the buck to his boss. 

However, completely unbeknownst to Coulson, in the chaos of the blackout and the rainstorm, a certain S.H.I.E.L.D. tactical agent had quietly slipped away and transmitted a highly encrypted burst-signal to a completely different organization.

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