Chapter 1259: Thunder God's Hammer

"Let's settle this!"

Having summoned Thor, Lord of the Aesir, Dragan's aura clearly surged. His confidence seemed to have skyrocketed, giving him an invincible air.

The three Lord of the Aesir of the Asgard—Odin, Thor, and Loki—were certified as Divine-Beast Type with Divine attribute in the anime. Unlike the Egyptian Gods or Wicked Gods, the Lord of the Aesir had no general resistance to traps or spells (only one effect per turn for spells/magic), leaving them mostly blank in terms of protection. Only Loki had a half-trap resistance that could negate one trap during battle.

In exchange, the Lord of the Aesir possessed a universal immortality ability.

In the anime, all three Asgard Lord of the Aesir were immortal. At the end of each turn, as long as they were in the Graveyard, they would automatically revive, and each revival brought its own positive benefit. The real cards reproduced this ability but added the restriction of banishing one Nordic Beast from the Graveyard, limiting the number of revivals and greatly reducing practicality.

In addition to this shared ability, each Lord of the Aesir had its own unique effect.

For example, Thor, Lord of the Aesir's effect (as Kira recalled) was "Effect Absorption." Once per turn, until the end of the turn, negate the effect of one opponent's monster and allow Thor to gain that monster's effect. It was the same type of ability as Yusei's Majestic Star Dragon.

The real card version weakened this; real Thor could only negate the effect and could not steal it.

However, Kira currently only had "Green Baboon, Defender of the Forest" on the field. Its effect was to revive from the hand or Graveyard when a Beast on the field was destroyed. Even if Thor stole its effect, it would be meaningless.

Dragan clearly realized this too, so he did not activate Thor's effect and instead directly declared the Battle Phase.

"Thor, Lord of the Aesir, attack 'Green Baboon, Defender of the Forest'!"

Thor, Lord of the Aesir's eyes suddenly burst with rainbow light. Lightning serpents coiled around Mjolnir. The moment the hammer swung down, the air along its path ionized into plasma, dragging a thunderous trail that pierced heaven and earth.

The divine hammer effortlessly shattered the green baboon's crossed arms that were blocking. Muscle fibers carbonized and disintegrated under billions of volts. The spherical thunderstorm triggered by the hammer strike erupted into a domain of thunder. At the point of impact, the sea surface caved in, forming a spherical vacuum. Evaporated water molecules condensed into icy thunderclouds high in the sky.

The audience was stunned by the astonishing scale of this divine strike. Even the spiky-haired commentator was wide-eyed: "Eh, this… the 3D projection effects are really realistic, haha…"

The commentator began wiping sweat as he spoke.

Of course, this couldn't possibly be a 3D projection system. No projection system could produce such large-scale effects or such exaggerated visuals.

That was true divine power.

Dragan continued: "When facing a god, a single moment of carelessness will lead to destruction. Let your body experience that deeply!

I activate my face-down Trap Card, 'Divine Relic Mjollnir'!"

From the name alone, it was clear this was Thor's exclusive trap, a reinforcement card centered on his Thunder God's Hammer.

"This card can be activated by targeting one Divine-Beast Type monster on your field," Dragan said. "If the selected monster destroys an opponent's monster by battle this turn, inflict an additional 1000 damage to the opponent!" (Anime effect)

Because the real cards had removed the noble Divine-Beast Type from the Lord of the Aesir, this trap was changed in the OCG/TCG to target "monsters whose names include 'Lord of the Aesir'."

The pre-change anime version allowed all Divine-Beast monsters to use it, which naturally made Kira think of the three Egyptian Gods. But he quickly realized that other Divine-Beast monsters (besides the Lord of the Aesir) were usually unaffected by trap effects, so upon closer calculation, it was still effectively exclusive to the Lord of the Aesir.

"Destroying the Green Baboon deals 900 damage, plus Mjolnir's additional 1000," Dragan said. "Take 1900 damage in total!"

Lightning bolts from the sky struck directly at Kira's Duel Runner, continuously exploding into black smoke around his Duel Runner and the surrounding track. The track surface itself was visibly damaged.

[Kira, LP 3000 → LP 1100]

"It's not over yet—this isn't the full power of Mjolnir!" Dragan shouted. "The Thunder God's Hammer Mjolnir is the ultimate divine weapon capable of instantly defeating any opponent!

Additional effect of the Trap Card 'Divine Relic Mjollnir': The selected monster can attack twice this turn!"

The spiky-haired commentator gasped. "It adds damage when destroying a monster and even lets a god-level monster attack twice! What a terrifying ability. Kira has already been pushed to a life-or-death situation so quickly. As expected, the pressure from Team Ragnarok is completely different from previous opponents!"

Thor's war hammer descended once more, seemingly about to deliver the finishing blow.

At that moment, however, the corner of Kira's mouth twitched slightly.

"Gods, huh… Well, they're certainly impressive. But it's a bit of a shame that a noble god can't immune traps."

Dragan's expression changed slightly. "What?"

"I mean, if it were one of the legendary three Egyptian Gods here instead of Thor, Lord of the Aesir, this card would be useless." Kira snapped his fingers. "I activate my face-down card.

Trap Card 'Drowning Mirror Force'! When the opponent declares a direct attack, return all Attack Position monsters on the opponent's field to the owner's Deck!"

Dragan's pupils contracted, his heart shaken.

Return to the Deck… Not destroy, but return to the Deck!?

Indeed, his god had no trap resistance, but it did have an immortality ability. No matter how it was removed to the Graveyard, Thor would automatically revive at the end of the turn and inflict 800 damage to the opponent—a form of indirect resistance.

But if it was returned to the Deck…

Outside the field, teammate Broder's expression also changed. "This guy actually wants to bounce the god back to the Deck… What a sneaky bastard."

"Stay calm," Halldor said. "Dragan's god has been used in previous matches. It's not strange that the opponent researched the information and prepared a counter."

After a pause, Halldor smiled.

"Well, if it could be removed so easily, Dragan wouldn't deserve to be one of the god's chosen. He can handle it."

Sure enough, the next moment Dragan declared: "I activate my face-down Trap Card 'Nordic Relic Laevateinn'! Select one monster on the field that destroyed a monster by battle this turn and destroy that monster!"

He raised his right arm high, pointing at the giant that blotted out the sky.

"I destroy my own 'Thor, Lord of the Aesir', which destroyed your Green Baboon by battle this turn!"