Thor is by no means a heartless person, but in battle one becomes hardened to certain inevitable sounds and sights - seeing Loki flung back by his own weapon, however, isn't something his brain easily pushes to the side. It stays right in the forefront, even the pouring rain not blurring his vision against it enough as Thor finds himself unable to look away, Mjolnir still suspended before him, dry of gore but not guiltless.

"It's not murder," he argues, thinking of the pain he'd seen in his father's face, in his mother's face when they had discussed Loki's sentencing. It's for a just cause, it's a mercy killing, it's the only way to truly punish the wrongs done by someone who's deluded himself about everything.

This isn't the Loki he traded battle scar stories with, who he played hooky and plotted talking to girls with. This is a feral beast whose eyes still bore right through his soul and...Thor can't fool himself.

"You had your chance to save yourself!" And stubborn, prideful Loki had seen it too far beneath him to apologise, to beg for the mercy so many in Asgard thought he didn't deserve, but which would have been granted to him if he'd been in earnest.

The strike of anger from that thought is enough that Thor feels he's been hit in the gut, and his own eyes are wide with painful rage as he rushes Loki, Mjolnir coming forward in a backswing - this time for his brother's chest.