Whoosh!
The portal opened again with a shimmer of energy, and Thor, with his newly shortened hair, swung his newly acquired Stormbreaker and walked confidently into the Hall of Illumination. After nodding respectfully to everyone present, he sat down in his designated seat and placed Stormbreaker next to his chair, positioning it just like Namor's trident rested beside his own seat.
"Everyone, thank you for your approval of my membership. I am honored to be able to sit here. From now on, Asgard will work together with all of you to protect our home planet Earth," Thor declared formally.
Thor's words were very official and diplomatic, so the others did not say much in response. Naturally, they did not understand each other well at first, but as the cooperation deepened over time, they would naturally get to know each other better. There was no need to rush the bonding process.
"Okay, then, please speak in turn about your respective matters," Sebastian said, beginning the meeting properly.
As Sebastian finished speaking, Tony Stark spoke first, saying, "Let me first talk about the mining of vibranium. Recently, our mining situation has been quite good. Thanks to the tireless work of the Iron Engineers, we have successfully extracted significant quantities of vibranium from Wakanda's mines. The current stockpile should be more than sufficient for our immediate needs..."
Everyone explained what they wanted to say in turn, discussing their respective organizations' developments and needs.
Finally, when it was Raven and Thor's turn, they both expressed their specific demands to the group.
Raven sought advanced technologies tailored to their parallel universe's era, hoping to accelerate their world's technological advancement, with Xavier Academy at its core providing education and training. Everyone welcomed this request warmly, and after Raven further exchanged some adamantium from their world's resources, they successfully secured technological advances appropriate for their world's next decade of development.
Thor, on the other hand, sought various materials that would support Asgard's development and reconstruction. Due to the vast variety and enormous quantity of these materials, half of the exchange went to Tony Stark, with Reed Richards and Namor splitting the remaining half between them. Black Bolt and his Inhuman Nation needed funding for their own development priorities, so they stayed out of this particular exchange process.
Thor, having received the assistance he needed, also contributed what the others required from Asgard's side. Asgard's considerable resources from thousands of years of accumulation satisfied everyone's needs.
At the end of the round of discussions, only Sebastian remained to speak.
He looked at everyone present carefully and slowly began, "Everyone, I need your help on a matter of vital importance to me personally and to the Earth as a whole. If possible, I can offer a price that satisfies each of you. Please consider my request carefully and decide whether to agree. My request is..."
As Sebastian spoke his request in detail, everyone's faces grew increasingly solemn and serious, and soon a heated discussion erupted around the table. Namor, the most irascible among them, even stood up from his seat and pointed at Sebastian's face, shouting something vehemently. But Sebastian eventually convinced them all through patient explanation and persuasion.
Finally, after an indefinitely long silence filled with tension, everyone agreed to Sebastian's extraordinary request, and Sebastian pledged to do his utmost to help them all from now on in return.
Namor, Black Bolt, Raven, Reed Richards, and Thor departed one after another through their respective portals.
Tony Stark and Sebastian sat in the Hall of Illumination in silence for a while, neither speaking immediately, then Tony was the first to break the silence and ask, "Sebastian, has it really come to this point? Do you truly need to use such a radical method?"
"It is not radical in my view, but it is the only way forward. If I want to truly protect the Earth from what is coming, I have to do this...
Of course, it may be a bit too presumptuous to say so. Selfishly speaking, the bigger reason I do this is for myself. If I want to survive the coming threats, if I want to move to a higher level of power, then I have to do this. Only by doing this can I get rid of those constraints and suppression from higher beings and truly gain freedom," Sebastian explained honestly.
"But according to what you said, if you really do that, you will no longer be protected by certain safeguards in the future, and those enemies that you cannot reach now can really attack you directly," Tony pointed out with concern.
"It does not matter. If my arrangement cannot allow me to gain the ability to protect myself at that critical time, then I can only be considered to have lost this round of the game. Paying my life as a chip is naturally not something unacceptable to me," Sebastian said calmly.
Looking at Sebastian intently, Tony slowly shook his head, smiled bitterly and said, "Sebastian, you damn gambler, why did I not realize you were such a person before?"
"That is because you do not know me well enough yet, is it not?" Sebastian replied with a slight smile.
"According to what you said, you need six people to help you with this plan, but you rejected Raven and the others. Do you have anyone more suitable than them?" Tony asked.
Sebastian seemed to have anticipated Tony's question and answered with understanding, "Of course Raven and the others are suitable candidates, but they are not from this Earth after all. To complete this plan successfully, we need people who are truly from this Earth. As for the sixth person, I already have someone in mind. He is reliable, so you can rest assured."
"Who is it? Is it Steve Rogers? Or Natasha Romanoff or the others from the Avengers?" Tony guessed.
"They are friends, but not the right ones for this particular task. You will know when the time comes," Sebastian said cryptically.
Tony nodded slowly and said, "I look forward to that time. I have a hunch that you will win this round of yours. I do not know where this intuition comes from, but I just have it."
"That is why our relationship is the best, is it not?" Sebastian said warmly.
With that, Sebastian and Tony smiled at each other with understanding and left the T-Fortress together through a portal.
Three days after the Illuminati gathering, everything was back to normal routine.
There was no news from the Guardians of the Galaxy searching the cosmos, and Gamora's crystal had not been crushed to summon Sebastian. Sebastian's divination magic also told him that things had not yet begun. In other words, Thanos, for some unknown reason, had not yet learned the location of the Soul Stone from Gamora, which surprised Sebastian slightly. He had expected Thanos to act more quickly.
At this moment, Victor von Doom, who was sitting across from Sebastian, sipping tea leisurely, put down his cup and said to Sebastian, "What are you thinking about? You have been in a daze for a long time."
Putting down his own cup, Sebastian looked at Victor and smiled, "I am thinking about the future direction of Hogwarts and how it should develop."
Hearing Sebastian's words, Victor turned his head to look at the playground outside the balcony, where the young students were playing an unknown ball game with magic. He sighed and said, "It seems that you have the best plan for your life. Opening a magic school is truly a wonderful thing."
Adding tea to his own cup and Victor's, Sebastian shook his head and said, "Now I think this only looks good from the outside. If you really want to run it properly, it will really take a lot of thought and effort. I have to think about the school's situation every day. It is really not easy."
"Then do you regret it?" Victor asked curiously.
"Of course not!" Sebastian said firmly.
"That is it, then. Sometimes I also think that perhaps I should learn from your approach and open a magic school myself. It might be a good idea," Victor mused.
Upon hearing this, Sebastian immediately became interested and said to Victor with amusement, "If that is the case, how about letting me give your magic school a name?"
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