Chapter 157
Chapter 157
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 157
Chapter Title: Echoes of Thunder
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Like the tape of an old camera, the memories unspooled endlessly.
At their center, the first to begin was a memory from thousands of years ago, incredibly ancient.
Odin handing over the blue gem.
The moment young Thor laid eyes on its beauty, he was utterly captivated.
"What is this, Father?"
"Thunder."
"Thunder? This?"
Soo-hyuk stood frozen, watching their past.
Thunder's memory, they said, but no matter how he looked, this was Thor's memory.
'Why show this to me?'
He wondered if it was a cutscene again, but it wasn't like one.
This wasn't a single scene. It condensed and displayed over a thousand years, an incredibly long span.
"I'll make it truly mine, no matter what."
From that day, Thor devoted himself daily to mastering thunder.
Thunder was capricious. Some days it lay dormant like it was asleep; others, it exploded beyond control.
Only after surviving near-death crises multiple times could Thor finally admit it.
In the end, unable to wield thunder, Thor voiced his deep regret.
But he didn't give up.
"There is a way, not entirely impossible."
Around that time, someone approached and whispered to him.
'Who is that?'
The face was mosaicked, invisible. The voice was so distorted he couldn't tell if it was male or female.
It meant the system hadn't permitted viewing this entity yet.
"A way?"
"Split the thunder in half."
It sounded like a simple solution at first glance.
But it was a problem he'd never considered. Splitting thunder? That was the arrogant notion of someone who'd never handled it.
And as if knowing Thor's thoughts, the mysterious figure continued.
"You won't know unless you try, right? Giving up already?"
His expression visibly hardened.
Those words greatly provoked something deep inside Thor.
Yeah. Don't give up. This was a fateful task destined from the moment he was born.
But.
At that instant, Thor wasn't listening to the sound of the thunder gripped in his hand.
'So that was the problem.'
Soo-hyuk's gaze shifted to the one whispering sweetly into Thor's ear.
Splitting the thunder in half.
That probably wasn't what thunder wanted.
'Is this the curse?'
Crackle, crackle—!
Right now, thunder was screaming.
Don't do it. Leave me as I am.
But Thor ultimately accepted his suggestion.
"Split this in half for me. And if possible, make it so I can wield it."
It was Thor's request to Asgard's greatest blacksmith.
As Soo-hyuk watched the process, a glint entered his eyes.
'Someone who knows Thor well.'
His words just now were meant to provoke Thor. With a single, sharply drawn phrase, he'd manipulated him.
That was impossible without deep knowledge of Thor.
Beneath the guise of goodwill lay clear malice.
He was well-versed not just in Thor, but in thunder itself.
In any case, the mysterious figure's words hit the mark.
In the blacksmith's hands, Mjolnir was forged. It contained not only thunder but all sorts of precious divine materials and metals from Asgard.
Gripping Mjolnir, Thor felt turmoil surging in his palm.
In an instant, his hand—and Mjolnir—shot toward the sky.
Flash—!
Boom—!
Thunder crashed from the heavens. Not a single bolt, but like rain, scorching everything around.
It was a calamity. In that moment, Thor realized.
He could finally wield thunder.
"Father! I've done it!"
Thor headed straight to Valhalla, where Odin resided.
Odin's voices echoed in Thor's mind.
Well done.
I believed in you.
As expected of my son….
He was stingy with praise, but surely today would be different.
But.
He couldn't fool his father's eyes, it seemed.
With his single eye, Odin saw what two-eyed men could not.
No congratulations, no welcome. No criticism or regret either. His voice held the same ups and downs as always.
At those words, Thor's soaring spirits plummeted from the clouds to the ground.
His light steps grew heavy once more. Suddenly, the Mjolnir in his hand felt shameful.
"A dangerous choice."
"Dangerous how?"
"Defying thunder..."
Odin's gaze shifted to the Mjolnir in Thor's hand as he began to speak.
He swallowed his words and shook his head.
"Enough. Be off."
No congratulations, no reprimand. Thor's steps leaving Valhalla were noticeably heavier than before.
"...I can no longer rely on thunder."
Childlike before Odin, he was still a warrior with a spirit second only to his father.
Even after completing his lifelong task as neither success nor failure, he didn't despair.
No.
He even felt a new excitement.
The iron shackles of thunder snapped open with a clank. Unattached to the result, he looked ahead.
But only for a moment.
Clank—.
The shackles he'd just broken clamped down even tighter, as if mocking him.
So tight now he couldn't twitch a finger.
Crackle, crackle—!
Mjolnir's rampage began.
He'd thought he could control it—arrogance.
Mjolnir eroded Thor at random times, impossible to release like a cursed object.
As great power demands great price.
Wielding Mjolnir earned Thor the moniker God of Thunder, but he feared that power himself.
One day, Odin came to him.
The emotions Thor felt upon hearing that surged vividly through Soo-hyuk.
A mistake?
It wasn't wounded pride. Thor wasn't so foolish as to cling to that.
Just guilt.
That he'd etched a stain called "mistake" into his father's life.
After Odin left.
Thor, sitting in his chambers unable to sleep for a long while, muttered.
Crackle—!
That was when.
As thunder's memory faded, unbearable agony began surging through Soo-hyuk's palm.
"Kuh—."
Becoming aware of the pain shattered the world centered on Thor.
Thor's chambers vanished, replaced by a monster where the sturdy warrior's face had been.
Crackle—!
Mjolnir resisted fiercely.
The harder it fought, the more strength Soo-hyuk poured into his grip.
"Is this what all that life was for? To end up like this?"
He'd only glimpsed it briefly. He hadn't seen even a fraction of how intensely he'd lived, what kind of life he'd led.
That made Soo-hyuk pity this version of Thor even more.
"Did you train all that time just to get devoured by trash like this?"
Soo-hyuk kept talking to him.
From the cutscene, he understood.
This trial couldn't be overcome alone.
To master thunder, become a true warrior.
To earn his father's recognition, shedding blood and sweat without reserve—this was a trial to overcome with that great warrior.
"I'd win even if it shamed me. What about you?"
Thor's eyes flickered in agreement.
Me even more so.
Crack—.
A fracture appeared in Mjolnir right then.
The other half of thunder within Mjolnir began to be drawn out. Soo-hyuk's dominance shone brighter than Thor's unconscious mind.
'It's working.'
Bit by bit, Thor's mind was returning. The mad glint in his eyes had half faded.
That moment.
Boom—!
Lightning burst from Mjolnir, flinging Soo-hyuk's hand away.
It was instantaneous. The output overwhelmed him; his palm charred black and went numb.
He endured only this much thanks to the Heart of Lightning and Yggdrasil's Blessing prepared by Odin.
In that split second his hand slipped free, Thor turned and bolted.
Snap—.
He vanished in the blink of an eye.
Soo-hyuk didn't pursue.
Chasing Thor once he'd made up his mind was impossible.
Unlike before, when he'd shown interest, now he feared Soo-hyuk.
No.
Precisely, it was the thunder dwelling within him that feared Soo-hyuk.
'It's possible.'
He'd been half-doubting at first.
Could he really break Mjolnir's curse? Was Odin placing false hope in an impossible task? Or would he be consumed by thunder this time?
No false hope.
Soo-hyuk looked at his hand, scorched black by Thor's thunder.
This time, Thor had come to him.
Next time, it would be the opposite.
Soo-hyuk ascended back to the surface. Odin had created stairs for him, and he'd climbed thousands of steps.
Odin, who had watched the entire scene below, wore a complex expression.
"...Neither failure nor success, then."
No despair over failure, no joy over success.
But one thing was clear.
This gave him hope.
"As you saw."
Soo-hyuk showed his scorched hand.
"Still won't listen. Just ran off."
"Can you catch him?"
"You know it's pointless. What we need isn't capture or suppression—it's breaking the curse."
Odin nodded.
Even watching everything, he hadn't intervened because he thought the same.
Odin said no more.
He had only one question now.
"Can you do it?"
"Need a bit more time... but yes."
For a moment, Odin's expression brightened subtly.
A tiny change, but Soo-hyuk saw it. He could guess how monumental it was for Odin.
"How much time?"
"Hard to say."
He couldn't give a precise answer yet.
From now on, it wasn't about how superior his abilities were.
"It's not up to me to decide."
"Then?"
After clashing once, he understood.
How immense the power dwelled in Thor's hammer, Mjolnir. Why Asgard's great prince was swayed by such a thing.
That made him all the more curious.
"The time depends on what thunder wants from me."
If thunder had wanted him dead, he wouldn't be alive now.
Why had it spared him?