Chapter 81: You Can Ask Three Questions
Exactly seventy-two hours.
Inside the isolation room, the Mind Scepter suspended in mid-air had completely withdrawn its light.
Its outer deep-blue shell re-solidified into a cold metallic sheen, and the inner yellow gem was quietly embedded between the sharp blades, no longer spilling a single ripple outward, as docile as an ordinary sacrificial ceremonial scepter.
Lin Yi slowly exhaled a puff of white air.
He relaxed his grip.
The scepter steadily fell back into the slot of the containment platform.
Lin Yi stood up.
His attire had not changed at all, with a black short-sleeved shirt temporarily sent over by a S.H.I.E.L.D. Agentdraped over his upper body.
His physique did not expand, his muscles did not bulge, and even the rhythm of his breathing was no different from when he stepped into this room three days ago.
But the second he turned around and faced the one-way mirror.
In the monitoring room, everyone including Fury had a dense layer of chills bursting across their scalps.
What kind of eyes were those?
The boundary between the whites of the eyes and the pupils was meticulously distinct, and what flowed in their depths was neither dark energy nor magic runes, but a pure, ethereal quality to the extreme.
When the gaze swept over, there was no emotional fluctuation at all.
But the people swept by that gaze—whether it was the battle-hardened Fury or the sharp-minded Tony—both produced an illusion of being completely stripped away, seen through at a glance from their bones to their brainwaves.
Hiss...
The blast door slowly retreated to both sides.
Lin Yi stepped out of the isolation room.
The four level-8 S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents stationed at the door had tactical rifles hanging in front of their chests, their fingers originally resting on the safety catches.
Within three steps of Lin Yi stepping out of the main door, the kneecaps of the four Agents emitted a faint sound of weakness, their bodies completely out of their brains' control, stepping back half a step in unison.
That was the survival instinct hard-coded deep within the genes when life faced an existence at the top of the food chain.
Fury stood in the middle of the corridor, the hem of his black leather coat motionless.
His single eye stared at Lin Yi, and the palm of his right hand hidden in his pocket had already oozed a layer of cold sweat.
He forced his footsteps to hold steady, using a lifetime of willpower to fight against the invisible repulsive force in the air, without retreating.
Tony walked out of the monitoring room, standing half a body's length to Fury's side.
"Finished researching?"
Fury spoke, his voice hoarse and dry.
Lin Yi stopped his steps, standing at a position two meters away from Fury.
At this distance, all of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s defense mechanisms were as good as non-existent.
Lin Yi looked at Fury, a faint arc rising from the corner of his mouth, and the cold coercion shrouding the corridor instantly dissipated cleanly, the air flowing again.
The surrounding Agents gasped heavily for breath, like they had just surfaced from deep water.
"Finished."
Lin Yi snapped his fingers.
"The things inside the Mind Stone are a bit richer than I imagined."
"I've already casually dismantled the self-destruction fuse inside. As for those high-dimensional information, the data recorded by your instruments is enough to make Stark Industries' neural connection technology take thirty fewer years of detours."
Tony took a deep breath and stepped half a step forward.
He stared into Lin Yi's eyes, trying to find even a trace of madness or alienation on that young face, but there was nothing.
Lin Yi was even more lucid and calm than three days ago.
"You digested all of those things... completely?"
"Just some basic common sense."
Lin Yi shrugged.
He raised his hand, pointing at the surveillance camera on top of the corridor, and then pointed at the pale-faced Coulson behind Fury.
"Doing business stresses integrity."
Lin Yi withdrew his hand and put both hands into his pockets.
"Director Fury withstood the Council's pressure and lent me the scepter for three days. Since I took the benefits, naturally I won't let you return empty-anded."
Fury's single eye narrowed slightly.
"Besides the monitoring data, what else do you plan to give?"
Lin Yi looked at Fury, then glanced at Tony, his gaze pausing on their faces for a split second.
"This planet is too small. Sitting at the bottom of a well watching the sky, everyone looks like an immortal."
Lin Yi's voice calmly echoed in the metal corridor.
"As the rent for these three days."
"I can answer three questions for you."
"About the Universe, about extraterrestrial civilizations, or about those real troubles you are about to face."
Lin Yi raised three fingers, his fingertips gently swaying in mid-air.
"There is only one chance, think it through before speaking."
...
The air inside the corridor instantly became heavy.
Nick Fury's single eye reflected Lin Yi's three raised fingers.
Fury had been an Agent for half his life, handling countless top-secret files, and knew deeply that intelligence was the life-and-death line.
"Good!"
"The first question."
Fury raised his chin, his gaze lingering on Lin Yi's face.
"You mentioned a name to me underground."
"Who on Earth is that existence called Thanos? Will he pose a substantive threat to Earth?"
Tony leaned against the console casing, his arms crossed over his chest.
Coulson held an electronic notepad in his hand, his fingers hovering above the touch screen.
Lin Yi retracted his index finger.
"Thanos, a survivor of Titan."
Lin Yi took strides, his leather shoes stepping on the anti-slip floor tiles, producing a regular striking sound.
"In the Universe, all civilizations call him the Mad Titan, or the Overlord of the Universe."
"Under his command are two galaxy-sweeping fleets; the Outriders and Chitauri are merely worker bees he threw out to scout the path."
Fury's brow ridge pressed down by half an inch.
"What is his goal? Conquest? Or plundering resources?"
"Neither."
Lin Yi stopped his steps, turning sideways to look at Fury.
"He fancies himself a mediator of the universal ecosystem."
"Titan was destroyed by resource depletion. Ever since then, he has formed an absurd set of logic."
"The Universe's resources are limited, while the reproduction of intelligent life has no end."
"His lifelong pursuit is to erase half of the Universe's life."
Dead silence.
Coulson's finger trembled on the screen, drawing a messy broken line.
"...Erase half?"
Tony lowered his arms, his brow furrowed into a dead knot.
"Regardless of race, regardless of class, entirely up to probability."
Lin Yi looked at Tony.
"In his eyes, Earth is not territory waiting to be conquered, but a farmland covered in wheat."
"When he gets the harvesting tool, Earth will be assigned half of the death quota. This is the threat he brings."
Fury's single eye did not blink.
He swallowed a mouthful of saliva, his Adam's apple sliding up and down.
"The... second question."
Fury's voice was hoarse, bringing out the taste of rust.
"How many Infinity Stones are there in total? Where are they respectively located?"
"Six."
Lin Yi pointed at the dark-gold pole weapon quietly lying inside the isolation room.
"The Universe was born from a big bang. At the moment the singularity exploded, six fragments of universal laws were compressed into six crystals."
"Wrapped inside the scepter behind you is the Mind Stone, responsible for controlling, linking, and distorting all consciousness."
Chapter 82 magic-Energy Reactor 1.0
Lin Yi's gaze crossed the corridor, casting towards the direction of Manhattan.
"The second one, the Space Stone, which is the blue cube you call the Tesseract, controls spatial folding, traversing, and teleportation."
"Loki has been defeated, and Thor is preparing to take it back to Asgard."
Tony pressed on with a question.
"What about the remaining four?"
"The Reality Stone, in the form of Aether, can modify fantasy into physical fact, and is currently sealed deep within the crevices of the Nine Realms."
"The Power Stone, possessing the destructive power to shatter planetary crusts, is contained in the Orb, sinking in the undersea ruins of planet Morag."
Lin Yi withdrew his gaze, looking at Fury.
"The Time Stone, controlling causal threads and the timeline's retrocession, stasis, and advancement, is kept in Kamar-Taj, personally guarded by the Sorcerer Supreme Gu Yi."
"The last one, the Soul Stone, the key grasping the concept of life and death, is hidden on the high cliffs and steep walls of planet Vormir."
Fury felt his tooth roots ache.
Six stones capable of toying with the underlying laws of the Universe, three of which were actually gathered on tiny Earth during the same time period.
"The third question."
Fury let out a breath of foul air, the veins on his temples throbbing twice.
"Deep in the starry sky, just how many enemies completely unknown to us are still lurking?"
Lin Yi withdrew his last finger, putting both hands into his pockets.
"You stand on this planet and look at the sky, thinking that beyond the blue sky is everything."
Lin Yi smiled softly.
"The Kree Empire possesses an Accuser fleet capable of wiping out galaxies, and their individual armor can immune conventional firearms."
"The Skrulls possess the mimetic ability to copy cellular memory; perhaps a certain Agent by your side has green skin growing beneath their skin."
Fury's back straightened, his gaze turning three shades colder.
"This is merely friction in the material Universe."
Lin Yi interrupted Fury's contemplation.
"Deep in the void sleep the Celestials, their sizes comparable to planets, using the life furnaces inside the planets as nourishment for hatching embryos."
Outside the material realm, countless dimensions exist, and Dormammu has dragged countless civilizations into the abyss of eternal hunger.
Lin Yi paused for two seconds, his gaze turning deep and dark.
"Above this, there is the Multiverse."
"Countless timelines operate in parallel, and once the gravitational orbits of two Universes cross and overlap, a collision will occur."
"That kind of disaster is called an incursion event."
"The result of the collision is that both Universes perish together from the level of microscopic particles, and no one can escape."
The answer ended.
Inside the corridor, only the faint buzzing of precision instruments remained.
Tony raised his head, looking at the pale fluorescent light tubes above his head, and reached out to touch the arc reactor on his chest.
Fury stood in place, a chill rising from his tailbone, climbing up his spinal cord to the back of his head.
He had been a soldier, acted as an Agent, and single-handedly built an intelligence network covering the world.
He thought he was a spider squatting at the center of a spiderweb, controlling every stir and rustle.
Until this moment, Fury finally saw the truth clearly.
Earth is not some sturdy fortress.
Earth is merely a speck of dust floating in a storm.
Any passing God, or passing interstellar fleet, stretching out a single finger, could completely wipe this civilization from the family tree of the Universe.
Fury closed his single eye, his chest heaving three times.
Cold sweat slid down his neck, dampening the stiff collar of his shirt.
"Three questions, answers complete."
Lin Yi patted the dust on the cuffs of his trousers, turning to walk towards the elevator at the end of the corridor.
"Director Fury, digest it slowly."
"This world has never been safe."
...
The smoke of gunpowder in Manhattan dissipated in the sea breeze.
Inside the top-floor laboratory of Stark Tower, the light of holographic projections filled the entire high-ceilinged space.
Tony Stark's eyes were bloodshot, his eye sockets sunken.
After leaving S.H.I.E.L.D., he had not closed his eyes to sleep for a single minute.
The list regarding Universe threats given by Lin Yi was deeply stuck in his mind.
The Chitauri shattered Tony's conceit as a genius.
His armor was as fragile as a sheet of paper in front of the Leviathan behemoth.
Not to mention the Power Stone capable of shattering planets, and that Titan overlord whose goal was half the life of the Universe.
"Sir, your heart rate has continuously exceeded the warning line for seventy-two hours."
Jarvis's British accent echoed in the spacious workshop.
"The palladium ion permeability of the arc reactor on your chest has increased by four percent."
"It is recommended to immediately inject chlorophyll mitigator and enter a state of deep sleep."
"Shut up, Jarvis."
Holding a miniature laser engraving knife in his hand, Tonybent over in front of the control console.
"Turn up the curvature of the number two rune model by three degrees."
"Raise the titanium alloy purity of the deflector plate to ninety-nine point nine percent."
On the holographic screen, a mechanically shaped component with a peculiar form emerged.
It generally maintained the circular contour of the arc reactor, but within the inner groove of the ring, it was carved with complex lines.
That was the rune knowledge Tony learned in Kamar-Taj.
This is a high-dimensional topology geometry.
It is an advanced equation that uses energy conductors of specific shapes to pry at the stray energy at the bottom layer of space.
Tony muttered to himself.
"I can install it into the machine."
Three scrapped items melted into iron chunks were placed on the workbench.
The conventional arc reactor uses electromagnetic force to constrain high-energy plasma.
But when Tony tried to import the absorbed micro-environment energy into the coil, the existing Earth alloy simply could not support the high-frequency tremor.
The coil melted in an instant, blasting the experimental table into charred pits one after another.
Tony grabbed a lead-sealed small box at the corner of the table.
The box lid popped open, and a small pinch of dark black powder lay quietly inside.
"Jarvis, start magnetic powder centrifugal spraying."
Using tweezers, Tony picked up two grams of meteorite powder and poured it into the high-vacuum deposition chamber.
"Evenly plate these high-dimensional material powders onto the twelve energy contact points."
"This is our last stock, be gentle."
The mechanical arm descended, and a fine silvery-white mist permeated inside the vacuum chamber.
Ten minutes later.
A circular reactor emitting a dim bronze luster was pushed out by the bracket.
It was only the size of an adult's palm, with its thickness compressed to within two centimeters.
At the core of the reactor, around the palladium metal crystal, micron-level silver threads composed of minute rune engravings were wound.
That was the energy circuit that Tony spent a full thirty-six hours carving out bit by bit with a microscopic carving knife with his own hands.
Tony straightened his waist, grabbed a cup of completely cooled black coffee, and poured it into his throat with his head up.
"Jarvis, cut off the external power grid connection."
Tony put down the cup, supporting his hands on the edge of the testing table.
"Initiate initial capacitor excitation."
"Let's see whether magic and science can finally give birth to a healthy child."
"Command confirmed."
Chapter 83: Tony's Ambition
Jarvis's mechanical arm lowered.
Crackle!
Dazzling blue electric sparks burst into the air.
The moment the initial current was injected, the silver micro-carved runes entwined inside the ring lit up layer by layer.
A strange halo mixed with light golden shimmering light lit up.
The rotor began to spin spontaneously.
Producing an extremely faint resonant sound.
The instrument pointers around the test bench jumped.
The light went from weak to strong, finally stabilizing in a soft and profound incandescent color.
Tony held his breath, staring at the main control screen.
On the screen, the reading of the energy output power was skyrocketing at an unreasonable slope.
One thousand megawatts.
Two thousand megawatts.
Three thousand megawatts!
The reading finally stopped at 3.2 times the peak power of an ordinary arc reactor, and the curve was as straight as cut by a knife, without producing even one-thousandth of a ripple shake.
"Goodness..."
Tony took off his windproof goggles, fine beads of sweat oozing from his forehead.
Jarvis's voice rarely paused for two seconds.
"Data collation complete."
"The energy conversion efficiency is 312 percent of the old model."
"The core operating temperature is maintained at 34 degrees Celsius, with no signs of overheating."
"Most importantly, sir, the instrument did not detect any harmful gamma rays or stray electromagnetic waves overflowing."
"The dissipated energy in the external environment is being sucked in reversely by the lines on the surface of the device to maintain the self-closed loop of the magnetic field."
Tony reached out his trembling right hand, his fingertips suspended one centimeter above the arc reactor emitting a light golden halo.
No scorching heat could be felt.
Only bursts of weak airflow gently brushed across his skin, bringing a slightly cool touch similar to mint.
It was a success.
This was the first time in history that humans used cold industrial machine tools to successfully reproduce the energy operating system that only gods and mages could control.
Technology broke the blockade of mysticism.
magic also tore off the physical ceiling above technology's head.
"magic Energy Reactor, Version 1.0."
Tony grinned, and a nearly arrogant laugh overflowed from his throat.
He picked up the tweezers and packed this core emitting miraculous light into a portable shockproof box.
"Prepare the car, Jarvis."
Tony grabbed the suit jacket on the back of the chair and walked quickly toward the elevator.
"Go to 177A Bleecker Street."
"I want that guy to see with his own eyes just what a mortal's brain can achieve."
...
The third-floor tea room of the New York Sanctum.
Lin Yi sat behind a dark brown solid wood tea table, holding a celadon teacup in his hand.
Heat rose from the surface of the tea soup, and the tea leaves rolled and rose in the transparent water flow.
Heavy footsteps came from the wooden floor opposite.
Tony didn't even knock on the door, pushing open the partition door of the tea room heavily with a backhand.
His face was pale, but his eyes were burning.
"Put down your teacup first, Lin Yi."
Tony walked over quickly, pulled open the chair opposite Lin Yi and sat down.
He slammed a silver-white portable alloy box onto the tea table.
The box sprang open, and the cushioning foam inside wrapped around the magic energy reactor 1.0 emitting a light golden shimmering light.
Lin Yi held the teacup, his sight sweeping across the surface of the reactor.
After his mental power broke through 500,000, his perception could easily penetrate the metal shell.
He saw those miniature drainage runes hollowed out with silver threads, as well as the Cairo meteorite powder used as an adhesive.
"Triple power?"
Lin Yi took a sip of tea, his expression calm.
Tony's originally raised chin stopped in mid-air.
"The exact data Jarvis just calculated is 3.12 times, how did you see it at a glance?"
"The energy circuit is still a bit rough."
Lin Yi put down the teacup.
"The basic drainage rune was forcibly changed by you into a three-dimensional rotary structure. The logic is very clever, utilizing the centrifugal force of the mechanical rotor to accelerate the flow of magic power."
"But the materials you use are not very good."
Lin Yi stretched out a finger, pointing empty space toward the edge of the reactor.
"Meteorite powder can only play a temporary insulating role. Running continuously under high load for more than seventy hours, the crystals at the rune intersection will carbonize and shatter."
"By then, this little gadget will explode in your chest like a grenade."
Tony's complacency faded by more than half, and the muscles at the corner of his mouth twitched twice.
But he was not depressed.
He took out an exquisite black bracelet from his suit lining pocket and slapped it on the table.
"I can find a way to solve the material problem, this is just a prototype."
Tony pressed hard on the surface of the bracelet.
With a soft hum.
The light inside the tea room dimmed.
A huge three-dimensional holographic projection unfolded above the tea table, and complex engineering drawings instantly filled half the room.
That was a set of streamlined armor design drawings.
The red and gold painting was retained, but the overall structure was completely different from Tony's previous heavy iron armor.
There were no exposed hydraulic push rods.
There was no heavy missile launch nest on the back.
Even the conventional propulsion nozzles on the calves and soles were cancelled, replaced by densely packed energy conduits distributed like human capillaries.
At the position of the armor's chest, a bright red code name was marked:
[Mark 50 —— magic Energy Concept Machine]
"Look at this."
Tony stood up, his two hands quickly pulling on the holographic drawings, enlarging the core components one by one.
There was uncontrollable excitement and fanaticism in his voice.
"I've had enough of those micro-missiles that get fewer with every shot, and I've had enough of mechanical joints that get paralyzed when hit by alien monsters."
"This is my brand-new concept."
Tony pointed to the outer shell of the armor's arms.
"Abandon physical gunpowder weapons, use the mixed energy output by the magic energy reactor to build solid energy blades and energy-gathering cannons on the outer layer of the arms."
"Add four sets of gravity deflection runes on the back, cancel jet propulsion, and achieve completely silent anti-gravity flight."
Tony's fingers slid to both sides of the breastplate.
"The defense system is fully upgraded."
"No longer relying on traditional alloy armor to hard-carry damage, the surface of the armor is etched with multiple layers of barrier matrices, automatically opening particle deflection shields the moment it is attacked."
"The most core module is here..."
The holographic projection shrank rapidly, freezing at the lumbar spine center of the armor.
An extremely complex annular slot was designed there.
"Short-distance spatial blinking."
Tony raised his head, his eyes staring dead at Lin Yi.
"Just like what you did on the New York battlefield."
Tony propped himself against the edge of the table, his upper body leaning forward.
"This is no longer an armor, this is a weapon of war integrating technology and magic."
"As long as it is built, even if Loki stands in front of me holding the scepter, I can smash his chin with one punch."
Inside the entire tea room, only the sound of holographic light flowing remained.
Tony panted hurriedly, waiting for Lin Yi's evaluation.
He was showing a mortal's ambition to a true 'magicmaster'.
Lin Yi quietly looked at the blueprint suspended in mid-air.
"The idea is stunning."
Just as the nerves on Tony's face relaxed, Lin Yi's next sentence poured cold water down.
"But it can't be built."
Chapter 84: Ancient One's Test
Tony Stark's expression changed.
"Why? The magical energy reactor has already been successfully verified, and Jarvis has done stress tests. The energy output can completely support the operation of these components!"
"The energy is enough, but the framework is not."
Lin Yi stood up, walked to the waist of the holographic armor, and casually erased a set of complex electronic control codes.
"Short-distance spatial blinking involves the anchoring and shedding of spatial dimensions."
"The knowledge you learned in Kamar-Taj can only be used to transport energy, and it is simply unable to stabilize the microscopic structure of the physical body during high-speed material movement."
Lin Yi looked at Tony.
"If you assemble the armor according to your current design blueprints, when you activate spatial blinking for the first time, the armor can indeed teleport fifty meters away."
"But your human tissues will be cut into thousands of pieces of minced meat by the distorted space and left in place."
Tony gasped, and the cold sweat on his forehead slid down his temples.
"Then... what about the spatial shield?"
Tony's voice lowered.
"Same logic."
Lin Yi patted the edge of the box.
"Defensive runes below level three cannot stop the pure physical impact of a Leviathan beast."
"To achieve all the functions on your blueprints, you need the high-tier incantations of the Sacred Armor of Vishanti, the spatial topology model of the Forms of Ikonn, and the energy shaping matrix of the Rings of Raggadorr."
"To sum it up in one sentence, your idea has reached it, but your reserve of rune knowledge in hand is still not enough."
Tony pressed his lips tightly together.
He did not doubt Lin Yi's judgment.
"It seems I have to make another trip to Kamar-Taj's Library."
"If you lock yourself inside the Library, I'm afraid you won't even touch the fringe of high-tier incantations in thirty years."
Lin Yi looked at Tony, the corners of his mouth curving into a playful arc.
"Then... what should we do?"
"However... there is someone whose head holds all the answers."
"Who? The Ancient One?"
...
Lin Yi sat back down behind the tea table and nodded, looking like a teachable child.
"She is the longest-living existence on this planet, and also the orthodox wielder of the mystic arts of the Vishanti."
"Go find her, Tony."
Lin Yi took a sip of tea and smiled softly.
"However, I must remind you."
"That bald old sorcerer has guarded the timeline for hundreds of years, and deep down she hates variables the most."
"With this suit of iron skin of yours and your mind full of dangerous concepts, whether she is willing to help you depends entirely on your luck."
...
The cold wind of Kathmandu lashed against the wooden lattice windows.
Tony Stark stepped across the threshold of the portal, his leather shoes treading on the bluestone slabs of Kamar-Taj.
Ancient One stood with her back to the door, at the edge of the suspended stone platform.
"Lin Yi sent you?"
"He said only your place has the answers." Tony walked up to the table, "I need more advanced rune knowledge."
"Such as the circuits of the Sacred Armor of Vishanti, the spatial topology of the Forms of Ikonn, and the shaping matrix of the Rings of Raggadorr. I want to carve them into my armor."
Ancient One turned around, her gaze falling on Tony's face, and then sweeping over the faintly glowing blue aura on his chest.
"A mortal's lifespan is no more than a hundred years, yet you want to stuff the most dangerous laws of the Universeinto an iron box."
"An alien fleet just smashed Manhattan into ruins three days ago." Tony met Ancient One's gaze, not yielding an inch, "That was a war of armor and artillery."
"Next time, if a god comes, or that bullshit Titan in Lin Yi's mouth, do sorcerers also plan to use parchment to block an extinction-level disaster?"
Ancient One looked at him in silence.
"Knowledge is not charity, Mr. Stark." Ancient One slowly walked down the steps, raising her hand to draw a golden aperture in mid-air.
Inside the aperture emerged a complex three-dimensional geometric body, formed by the intermeshing of countless tiny Sanskrit letters.
"You need to prove that you can master them."
Tony raised an eyebrow.
"How to prove it? Smash a stone, or memorize the entire rune dictionary?"
"This is the model of the protective barrier of Kamar-Taj's main hall." Ancient One gently pushed with her hand, and the orb of light hovered before Tony's eyes.
"Three hundred years ago, the third-generation sorcerer perfected it."
"To this day, no one has been able to increase its defense strength by thirty percent without increasing the extraction of ley line energy."
The lines inside the orb of light crisscrossed in disarray, and the energy flow formed obvious congestion at eight nodes.
"You only have one week." Ancient One looked at Tony.
Tony stared at the rotating halo of light, his Adam's apple rolling up and down once.
"Jarvis." He spoke softly.
"Sir, full-spectrum scanning is complete. A total of 12,400 nodes of the three-dimensional rune topology structure have been recorded." A mechanical voice came from the earpiece.
Tony grinned, a hint of fierceness flashing in his eyes: "Get me sixty cans of sugar-free black coffee. We've taken the order."
...
Forty-eight hours later, the top floor of Stark Tower.
The holographic blue light illuminated the originally spacious laboratory like the deep sea.
Hundreds of three-dimensional models overlapped and rotated in mid-air, only to shatter into spots of light amidst sharp alarm sounds.
Tony stepped barefoot on the cold, hard floor tiles, the cuffs of his white shirt rolled up to his elbows, his finger gaps filled with conductive silver paint.
"The 7,200th simulation." Tony bit on the tip of his pencil, his voice as hoarse as sandpaper, "Energy collapsed at the northwest corner node. Jarvis, what is the reason?"
"Sir, the number three deflection rune has a phase conflict with the main circuit, and the diversion pipeline is overloaded due to resonance. The theoretical load-bearing rate exceeds the upper limit by four hundred percent."
A line of glaring crimson data popped up on the holographic screen.
Tony spat, slamming the pencil onto the whiteboard.
The whiteboard was densely packed with control groups of calculus formulas and Sanskrit symbols, with a huge concentric circle drawn in the center, circled with several intersecting horizontal lines by a red pen.
"They took the wrong path."
Tony messed up his hair, pressed his hands on the desktop, and stared at those overlapping Sanskrit letters.
"Those ancient sorcerers were all thinking about how to thicken the water pipes and how to pour more water into the reservoir. There is only so much ley line energy, and frantically increasing the pressure will only cause the water pipes to burst directly."
He grabbed the mug on the table and tilted his head to pour it into his mouth, but only poured out a few grains of dried caffeine crystals.
"Sir, your nerve reflex speed has dropped by eighteen percent." Jarvis reminded him in a voice, "The toxicity of palladium ions in your blood is causing irreversible stimulation to myocardial cells. It is recommended to rest."
"I don't have time to sleep!" Tony roared, his eyeballs bloodshot.
He tore off his tie and threw it on the ground, his gaze nailed firmly to the intersection point in the center of the whiteboard.
The huge black hole tearing through the canopy of heaven over New York resurfaced in his mind.
If it weren't for Lin Yi, Manhattan would have already sunk into the Atlantic Ocean.
Weapons made by mortals were too soft, and the rules of the mystical side were too slow.
"Wait..." Tony's pupils slowly dilated.
Chapter 85: Tony, Fully Maxed Out
He hurried over to the holographic projection, thrust his hands fiercely into the light curtain, and pieced the shattered model back together.
"Jarvis! Pull up the standing wave resonance model from the acoustics laboratory!"
"Retrieving now, sir."
"Push the positions of the twelve secondary channeling runes outward by 3.5 millimeters to change the angle of incidence of the magic."
Tony slid his fingers rapidly across the light curtain, the cursor dragging golden geometric lines.
"Mages think magic is a flow of Water, but from the perspective of energy fluctuations, it's just a high-frequency transverse wave!"
Tony grabbed an electronic pen and drew a perfect sine curve in the void.
"What happens when two waves meet at a specific frequency?"
"Wave crests superimpose with wave crests, enhancing interference." Jarvis responded swiftly.
"Lower the impedance of the main circuit to the minimum, and use the reflected waves of the twelve sub-circuits to create constructive interference the moment the energy reaches the outer barrier!"
Tony's breathing grew heavy.
"We don't need extra Water, so we'll let the splashes collide into a tsunami on their own!"
"Performing the 8,900th dynamic fluid calculation... Simulation in progress..."
Countless streams of data cascaded down the lenses before Tony's eyes.
Time ticked away second by second.
On the morning of the sixth day, the first ray of sunlight illuminated the floor-to-ceiling windows of Stark Tower.
The golden sphere of light in the holographic projection trembled violently, and the eight originally chaotic and overlapping congested nodes presented a crystal-like geometric symmetry under the regular flushing of energy ripples.
"Calculation complete."
A rare trace of mechanical noise carried in Jarvis's voice.
"Interference model successfully established. On the premise of a 5% drop in base energy consumption, the standing wave peak of the outer wall defense matrix has increased by 32.4%."
Tony collapsed limply into the swivel chair, which slid three meters away.
He tilted his head back to look at the ceiling, let out a low chuckle, and raised his hand to rub his red, swollen eyelids.
"Jarvis." Tony stood up and pulled down the black coat hanging on the coat rack, "It looks like we need to go give that teacher a junior high school physics lesson."
...
Kathmandu, inside the quiet room.
The wooden door was pushed open.
Tony strode into the room.
In his hand was only a palm-sized transparent tablet computer.
"Six days." Ancient One put down the ceramic teacup in her hand, "Mr. Stark, it seems you are ready to accept failure."
"The word failure has not yet been included in Stark's dictionary."
Tony walked to the opposite side of the small tea table, didn't sit down, but placed the tablet in the exact center of the wooden table.
With a crisp snap.
Tony's fingertips swiped lightly across the edge of the screen, and a pale blue holographic projection unfolded in mid-air within the quiet room.
That was the three-dimensional structural diagram of the barrier of the main hall of Kamar-Taj.
Unlike six days ago, the originally complex golden formation diagram was disassembled into tens of thousands of extremely small vector arrows, and the red and blue intertwined energy streams whirled at high speed along a completely new trajectory.
The very second Ancient One's gaze landed on the projection, the fingers holding the teacup paused in mid-air.
"You modified the cornerstone rune of the seventh sequence." Ancient One looked up at Tony, her voice steady, "That is the anchor point of the Vishanti mystic arts. If you modify it without authorization, the entire magicarray will collapse the moment magic is injected."
"That's because your previous arrangement method was utterly stupid." Tony sneered, leaned down and clicked three times on the screen, "This is resonance compensation."
The holographic model began to operate dynamically.
Tony pointed to the twelve spirally distributed secondary runes on the periphery.
"You treat the defensive barrier like a dead wall; when an enemy throws a punch, the wall hard-resists it, and energy consumption naturally skyrockets exponentially."
"I deflected the angle of incidence here by twenty-seven degrees, allowing the magic to form standing waves when it contacts the outer wall."
Tony's fingers traced an arc in the air.
"Two wave crests coincide, and the amplitude doubles."
"The barrier doesn't need to extract more power from the ley lines; it can also use the kinetic energy of the attack itself for a secondary rebound."
Ancient One slowly stood up, raised her right hand, and her slender, pale fingers gently buckled in the void.
Hum!
On the walls surrounding the quiet room, intricate dark golden runes emerged.
That was a miniature projection of Kamar-Taj's real barrier, overlapping seamlessly with the holographic blueprint suspended in mid-air.
A wispy bright yellow mystic energy overflowed from Ancient One's fingertips.
The energy injected into the first node along the path modified by Tony.
The quiet room fell into a dead silence.
The energy flowed through the seventh sequence modified by Tony, and the energy clash that Ancient One expected did not occur.
On the contrary, after passing through that strange geometric deflection, the originally sluggish energy circuit suddenly accelerated, stirring up naked-eye-visible golden halos in the twelve sub-circuits.
The air emitted a slight high-frequency hum, and the wooden components of the entire quiet room trembled simultaneously.
Ancient One pushed her palm slightly forward, and a solid mystic palm print blasted towards the barrier wall.
Boom!
A dull impact sound dispersed.
No large-scale ripples appeared on the surface of the barrier. The magic at the impact point overlapped with the surrounding standing waves within a thousandth of a second, condensing a diamond-shaped crystal shield that shattered the palm print into flying stardust.
The recoiling airflow fluttered Ancient One's sleeves.
Ancient One lowered her head to look at the tablet computer on the wooden tea table.
At the lower right corner of the screen, the data calculated in real-time by Jarvis was jumping:
[Real-time defense peak: +32.1%]
[Ley line energy consumption curve: -5.4%]
Only the faint sound of air flowing after the energy subsided remained in the room.
Ancient One stood in place, gazing at those jumping data symbols.
She had lived through thousands of years, had seen the gods of Asgard, had seen ancient lords in the cracks of dimensions, and had seen countless brilliantly talented mystic apprentices.
But those people were all spinning in circles within the rules left behind by the ancients.
"For a thousand years." Ancient One finally spoke, her voice echoing in the empty room.
"Three hundred and forty-two high-level mages have tried to optimize this barrier."
"They wrote tens of thousands of volumes of secret incantations, trying to pray to more powerful gods to borrow power, or using more cumbersome rituals to reinforce the barrier, but they all failed."
Ancient One turned around to face Tony.
Deep within those profound and calm eyes, it seemed she had known all this long ago.
"You are the first person to untie the magic dead knot with scientific thinking." Ancient One said softly.
Tony rubbed the tip of his nose, leaned against the pillar, and a smug smile tugged at the corner of his mouth.
"I said it before, science and magic are just the same set of underlying code written in different languages."
"As long as the logic is self-consistent, what machines can do is much faster than chanting incantations."
"Arrogance is poison, Mr. Stark." Ancient One put away the energy in her palm, and the surrounding runes faded accordingly, "But today, your wisdom is worthy of this arrogance."
Ancient One slowly walked back to the tea table and reached out to pull open the secret compartment beneath the desk.
Chapter 86: We Need to Become Stronger
A palm-sized rune disc cast entirely from dark cyan metal was taken out by her and placed on the table.
The surface of the disc was engraved with extremely delicate spatial patterns, and a pale white crystal the size of a grain of rice was embedded at the core.
"This is the original topology of the Vishanti Sacred Armor, and the geometric prototype of the Wands of Valtorr."
Ancient One looked into Tony's eyes.
"Starting today, the second floor of the Kamar-Taj Libraryis open to you."
"You can access all high-level rune original scrolls below level four as an unregistered disciple."
Tony looked down at that cold bronze disc.
"An unregistered disciple? I thought I could at least manage to be a guest Professor."
"An unregistered disciple is already an exception."
Ancient One picked up her teacup, took a sip of warm tea, and a faint, imperceptible arc swept across the corners of her mouth.
Tony grabbed the bronze disc and stuffed it into his coat's inner pocket.
The wooden door closed.
Ancient One sat alone in the tearoom, looking at the surging sea of clouds of the Himalayas outside the window.
"Science and mystic arts..." she whispered to herself, casting her gaze deep into the void, "Lin Yi, is this what you want?"
...
New York, Lower Manhattan.
Inside an old Italian restaurant, the blinds were all pulled down.
The dim chandelier swayed above the long table, and the air was filled with the charred aroma of baked pizza.
Several people sat on both sides of the long table.
Steve Rogers crossed his hands and placed them on the table.
His shield leaned against the corner of the wall, its paint peeled off in many places on the edge, revealing the dull base color.
Thor was holding a large glass beer mug in his hand, and Mjolnir was placed at the corner of the table.
Thor's bright red cloak was thrown on the back of the chair, and his golden long hair looked a bit messy.
Dr. Banner sat in the furthest corner, holding a cup of warm water with both hands, his eyes behind his lenses bloodshot.
Natasha and Barton leaned against the edge of the bar, both of their wrists and ribs wrapped in bandages.
In the center of the table were several holographic photos of Chitauri warship wreckage just declassified by S.H.I.E.L.D..
"The casualty statistics are out." Steve broke the silence, his voice as low as a piece of raw iron, "Civilian casualties in Manhattan exceeded two thousand, and twenty-three main roads were completely cut off. If the last nuclear bomb hadn't been sent away, I'm afraid four zeros would have to be added behind this string of numbers."
No one answered.
Barton lowered his head and twirled an alloy arrowhead in his hand, making a faint scratching sound.
"My arrows are all shot out. In the final time, I could only use a short knife to stab the throats of those alien bastards."
"They are not elite."
Thor took a large gulp of strong liquor, heavily slammed the glass mug onto the wooden table, and wine foam splashed on the table surface.
"In the Nine Realms, in the depths of the Universe, the Chitauri are just the lowest-level scavengers. They have no thoughts and are entirely driven by the mothership's psychic network. They are just worker bees."
"Worker bees..." Banner pushed his glasses, let out a dry laugh, "What we fought desperately to take down were just a group of worker bees?"
Natasha crossed her arms in front of her chest, leaning against the bar with cold and clear eyes.
"On the roof of the Sanctum Sanctorum, he strangled five Leviathans to death with chains all by himself."
Steve took a deep breath and raised his head.
"Lin Yi is also a member of Earth. He is on our side."
"And after that?"
A slight sound came from the doorway.
Everyone turned their heads.
Tony pushed the door open and walked in.
With a backhand, he threw a heavy laptop onto the table, and the screen lit up automatically, projecting the deep and dark star map of outer space.
"Fury pried the answers to three questions out of Lin Yi's mouth."
Tony pulled out an empty chair and sat down, grabbing a piece of cold pizza from the table and taking a big bite.
"I was right next to him at the time."
Thor frowned: "What did he say?"
"Thanos."
"The madman of Titan. He possesses a fleet that can destroy galaxies, and the Outriders he casually tosses out can crush every civilization except Asgard."
"The Chitauri are just toys he lent to Loki to scout the way."
The air in the restaurant suddenly turned cold.
Thor's hand holding the wine glass suddenly tightened, his knuckles making a crisp cracking sound.
"And the Infinity Stones." Tony looked at Thor, "The Tesseract is just one of them."
"Deep in the starry sky, there are a total of six such stones. That madman's goal is to get all the stones and wipe out half of the living people in the Universe."
"Absurd." Thor squeezed two words out of his throat, but his eyes betrayed him.
As Odin's son, he had heard the legend of the Infinity Stones.
"I also hope this is an absurd fairy tale."
"But in Manhattan, if Lin Yi hadn't torn open that spatial portal, the nuclear bomb would have already turned all of us into ashes by now."
Steve's hands placed on the table slowly tightened, veins bulging on the back of his hands.
"The Council launched the nuclear bomb on their own, Furylost control, and S.H.I.E.L.D. can't be relied upon either."
"Counting on anyone is useless, Captain." Tony stood up, sweeping over everyone present with a full sense of oppression.
"Our current strength isn't even worthy of guarding the door for Earth."
"Lin Yi can hold his ground, but we can't."
Banner raised his head: "Tony, what do you want to do?"
Tony pulled out that dark cyan rune disc from his pocket and pressed it onto the table with a snap.
A mysterious faint glow circulated on the surface of the bronze disc, forming a strong sense of tearing with the surrounding cold technological holograms.
"I'm researching a new armor." Tony pointed at the disc, his voice low and powerful, "Using Kamar-Taj's high-level runes to create a brand-new magical energy individual armor."
Everyone's gazes focused simultaneously on that antique metal disc.
"magic?" Steve frowned, "Tony, you used to be most disgusted by these inexplicable things."
"As long as it can save lives and kill enemies, even if you make me brush garlic juice on the armor, I'd do it." Tonycoldly interrupted him.
"But the times have changed, everyone."
Tony looked around at the Avengers beside the long table.
"We need to become stronger."
"Banner, I need you to help me calculate the cross-stability of gamma rays and rune energy."
"Thor, can Asgard's forging technology actually fuse high-dimensional meteoric iron? I need your answer. As for Captain..."
Tony looked at Steve.
"Your shield is also due for an upgrade."
Steve looked at the Vibranium round shield leaning against the corner, and his gaze didn't move away for a long time.
"You're right." Steve finally spoke, his voice hoarse yet exceptionally resolute, "We can't wait for a sorcerer to save the day every single time."
Thor slowly released the wine glass and grabbed Mjolnirbeside him.
"Asgard's thunder has never feared any challenge. If you need the metals of the Realm of Gods, I can solve it."
Barton withdrew the short knife in his hand, Natashastraightened her body, and the stagnant atmosphere in the restaurant was torn apart by an undercurrent of fervor.
Tony put away the bronze disc on the table, holding it in his palm.
The ruins of Manhattan outside the window were sinking into the night under the setting sun, but in this cramped restaurant, the gears of fate began to turn.
Chapter 87: The Precursor to the Convergence of the Nine Realms
"Clang!"
Stark Industries Park, Level Three Underground Secret Armor Vault.
Two heavy suitcases entirely cast from black metal were thrown onto the workbench, causing the high-strength alloy tabletop to violently dent downwards.
Thor let go of his hands and patted the dust off his palms.
Tony Stark bit down on a screwdriver, lowering his head to look at the two cases, a flash of vigilance crossing his eyes.
"What is this? Local specialties from you aliens?"
"Asgard's promise."
Thor flipped open the latch of the first case.
The case lid sprang open.
Dark golden metal ingots were neatly arranged.
The metal surface lacked a processed smooth texture; instead, it was covered in pits, with visible blue electric arcs flowing within every depression.
A burnt smell filled the air.
"Uru metal." Thor pointed at those dark golden blocky objects, "Father heard that Lin Yi blocked those bugs outside of Manhattan, so this is a congratulatory gift for Earth's warriors."
"They were forged in the core of a dying star, and their conductivity to high-level magic has zero attenuation."
Tony dropped the screwdriver and fished a micro-scanner out of his pocket.
A blue laser hit the surface of the metal ingots.
"Sir." Jarvis's mechanical voice came from the ceiling speaker, "The internal atomic structure presents a quantum entangled state, the melting point cannot be calculated, and existing plasma cutters cannot cut through them."
Tony raised an eyebrow.
"Interesting. Looks like I'll have to borrow those fire circles from Kamar-Taj to use as a welding torch."
He closed the case and looked at Thor.
"You're leaving just like that?"
Thor picked up Mjolnir, and his bright red cloak fluttered open behind him.
"The Nine Realms haven't been peaceful lately. The trouble Loki caused hasn't been wrapped up yet."
Thor walked to the center of the armor vault's spacious landing pad and raised his head.
"Heimdall!"
A few seconds passed.
There was no movement above the landing pad.
Thor frowned, gripped the hammer handle tighter again, and raised his voice.
"Heimdall! Open the Bifrost Bridge!"
This time, a thunderous roar finally came from the night sky.
A colorful beam of light pierced through Manhattan's clouds, accurately smashing into the center of the landing pad.
The howling wind whipped Tony's shirt loudly, and when the light dissipated, Thor had already disappeared, leaving only a complex, charred brand on the ground.
...
Asgard, Bifrost Bridge Hub.
The colorful light converged into Thor's figure in the center of the control room.
He shook his dizzy head and walked toward the console carrying the hammer.
"You've slowed down, my friend." Thor looked at the robust figure standing above the steps.
Heimdall did not turn back. This guardian god with the All-Seeing Eye rested his hands on a dark golden heavy sword, his eyes shimmering with golden starlight now shrouded in a layer of grayish shadow.
"Your Highness." Heimdall's voice was dry and hoarse, "It's not that I've slowed down; the boundaries of the starry sky are disappearing."
Thor stopped in his tracks. "What happened?"
Heimdall raised his hand and pointed at the boundless deep space outside the control room.
"The Nine Realms are moving. They are breaking away from their original orbits on the branches of the world Tree and approaching each other."
"I cannot see the borders of Vanaheim, nor can I see Midgard's sky."
"An ancient shroud is blocking my sight."
Heimdall turned around and looked straight into Thor's eyes.
"We must go see the God King immediately."
Golden Palace Great Hall.
Odin sat on the towering throne.
The Gungnir leaned against the edge of the steps, and both sides of the grand hall were filled with spear-wielding Heavenly Palace guards.
Heimdall and Thor walked quickly into the grand hall.
Before the two could kneel on one knee, Odin waved his hand.
"Fall back."
The sound of uniform iron armor rubbing against each other rang out, and hundreds of guards retreated from the grand hall, the heavy pure gold doors slamming shut behind them.
Only three people were left in the grand hall.
"Father." Thor stepped forward, "Heimdall said..."
"I know."
Odin leaned on the Gungnir, stood up, and slowly walked down the steps.
As he walked, the tail of the spear collided with the marble ground, emitting a deafening hum.
The hum echoed across the hall ceiling.
The ground beneath Odin's feet transformed, the marble losing its color and turning into a pitch-black void, with nine galaxies of varying sizes slowly rotating beneath their feet.
"The Convergence of the Nine Realms." Odin's single eye stared at those galaxies approaching each other.
"Every five thousand years, the roots of the world Tree contract once. Nine originally independent dimensional worlds will align in a straight line."
On the star map, the nine spheres of light began to overlap. Where they overlapped, the spatial barriers rippled with dangerous red waves.
"Isn't this just an astronomical phenomenon?" Thor gripped the hammer handle tightly, "What's so scary about that?"
"What's terrifying isn't the overlap, but those things sealed away in the shadows."
Odin raised the spear in his hand, its tip pointing toward a patch of darkness at the very edge of the star map.
A pale, hideous face emerged from the darkness, along with countless sharp-eared humanoid creatures.
"Dark Elves." Odin's tone carried a chill, "Before the birth of the Universe, everything was darkness."
"Malekith, the leader of the Dark Elves, attempts to use the moment of the Convergence of the Nine Realms to drag the entire Universe back into a world without light."
In the holographic star map, a dark red fluid as viscous as blood appeared.
It rolled in the darkness, devouring all starlight along the way.
"That is their ultimate weapon. The Aether."
Thor stared fixedly at that ball of red light. After just one glance, he felt his chest roil with churning blood, and even the lightning of Mjolnir was resisting.
"An Infinity Stone." Thor said in a deep voice.
After Lin Yi spoke of that intelligence in the New YorkUnderground Room, Thor had consulted Asgard's ancient texts.
"It is the Reality Stone," Odin corrected, "The other five stones mostly exist in solid forms, only the Reality Stonemanifests as a fluid."
"It will seek out a lifeform as a host, and by devouring the host's life force, it modifies the material foundation of the Universe."
Odin put away the Gungnir.
The star map beneath their feet dissipated.
The grand hall returned to its original appearance.
"Thousands of years ago, my father Bor defeated Malekith."
"The Aether cannot be destroyed, so Bor could only use his divine power to bury it deep within an unknown spatial rift."
Odin turned his head to look at Thor.
"The Convergence of the Nine Realms is here, and the spatial barriers are disappearing. That rift will be opened at any time."
"Take Asgard's most elite army and quell the bandits taking advantage of the chaos caused by spatial turbulence."
Odin extended his golden-armored hand and pressed it onto Thor's shoulder.
"Also, keep a close eye on Earth."
"Midgard?" Thor asked in confusion.
"Earth is at the very center of the world Tree." Odin's single eye narrowed slightly, "That is the critical node for the Convergence of the Nine Realms."
"All anomalies will ultimately point there."
Chapter 88: The Aether Appears
London, Greenwich.
Rain poured incessantly, gray clouds pressed down over the Thames, and factory chimneys in the distance exhaled turbid white gas.
An old Ford SUV parked outside an abandoned cement plant.
"This damned weather. My salary card from last month only has twelve pounds, not even enough to add a packet of ketchup to fish and chips."
Darcy Lewis wrapped herself in a thick windbreaker, held a square electromagnetic wave detector, and walked forward, stepping through muddy puddles.
"Shut up, Darcy. Adjust the frequency band to forty thousand hertz."
Jane Foster walked in front, holding a modified tablet that looked like an antenna.
On the tablet screen, rows of red data were jumping up and down at a frantic speed.
Intern Ian followed at the back, clutching two umbrellas.
The three of them walked into the empty loading area of the cement plant.
Open to the elements on all sides, it was filled with rusted steel bars and moss-covered broken bricks.
Beep.
The tablet in Jane's hand emitted a sharp sound, and the red pointer was stuck firmly at the limit on the far right of the screen.
Jane stopped and raised her head.
The drizzling rain falling overhead stopped at a height of three meters from the ground.
Countless transparent water droplets suspended in mid-air, unaffected by gravity.
Darcy opened her mouth wide and dropped the instrument in her hand.
She picked up an old empty soda can from the ground and threw it toward the suspended rain.
The soda can made no collision sound the moment it contacted the rain.
It vanished directly into the air.
A few seconds later, that soda can fell from behind the three of them, smashing into the muddy water.
"Gravitational field distortion, spatial fault..." Jane's eyes lit up as she quickly recorded data on the tablet.
"This is hundreds of times stronger than what we saw in New Mexico. This is not the teleportation formation of the Bifrost Bridge, this is two worlds penetrating each other!"
Jane ignored Darcy and Ian's exclamation, hugged the tablet, and walked deeper into the cement plant following the energy source.
Passing through two dilapidated wire mesh doors.
The surrounding light was dim.
Jane bypassed a huge cement mixing tank and stopped.
The air ahead showed obvious distortion, rolling like high-temperature heat waves.
At the center of the heat wave was a vortex presenting an abyss-like blackness.
Jane stretched out her hand, wanting to touch the edge.
A violent wind rose from the ground.
An irresistible suction came from deep within the vortex.
Jane didn't even have time to scream before her body was violently pulled in by that force.
Darkness swallowed everything.
Jane felt herself falling.
The sound of the wind disappeared, and the temperature dropped below freezing point.
Thud.
Jane slammed heavily onto the hard ground.
She clutched her bruised elbow and slowly climbed up.
What met her eyes was a dim underground space.
Dozens of obsidian pillars, as thick as two people could hug, stood around, their surfaces carved with ancient and rugged Runes.
Right in the center of this underground altar.
A cluster of suspended dark red fluid was rolling slowly in the darkness.
It had no fixed shape, sometimes gathering into the shape of a heart, and sometimes pulling into a sharp network.
The surface of the red liquid exuded a sickening aura of decay.
Jane looked at that cluster of red light, her heartbeat beginning to accelerate.
Her brain warned her frantically, instinct driving her to turn and run, but her feet were nailed to the ground and unable to move.
That cluster of red liquid sensed a living thing.
The slowly rolling Aether stagnated.
Swish!
The entire cluster of red light burst, transforming into thousands of dark red fine threads as thick as hair, crossing a distance of more than ten meters, and slamming into Jane's chest.
The huge force blew Jane into the air, nailing her tightly to the stone pillar behind her.
Jane opened her mouth wanting to scream, but could not make a sound.
The world in Jane's field of vision began to invert, the rocks on the ground turned into liquid, and the air became as sticky as glue.
She heard the shattering sound of her blood freezing in her blood vessels, and felt the muscle fibers under every inch of skin being forcibly torn apart and then recombined.
The dark red threads drilled into her body along her pores.
Blood vessels bulged on the surface of the skin, presenting a scarlet color.
The pain exceeded the tolerance limit of human nerves, Jane's pupils dilated, she completely lost consciousness, and her body slid down softly, falling to the edge of the altar.
...
Heavy rain pounded on Jane's face.
Jane suddenly opened her eyes, panting heavily.
She was lying in the cold muddy water of the cement plant loading area.
Beside her was the constantly flashing tablet computer.
It was impossible to measure how long time had passed.
Jane pressed her chest; there was no wound there, but deep inside her heart, a violent, icy force was beating regularly.
This was not an illusion.
With trembling hands, she fished out a flat metal communicator from her pocket.
This was a secondary channel communicator modified by S.H.I.E.L.D. experts using metal scraps left on Earth by Thor.
Pressing the red button.
A few minutes later.
Boom!
The sky tore open.
A seven-colored beam of light split open the thick clouds and accurately smashed into the open space outside the abandoned factory building.
Thor, wearing battle armor and carrying Mjolnir, strode out from the scorched pit.
"Jane!"
Thor saw Jane shivering in the muddy water at a glance, immediately ran over, knelt on one knee, and reached out to pick her up.
Just the moment Thor's fingers touched Jane's shoulder.
A dazzling dark red flashed across the depths of Jane's eyes.
Boom!
A violent red Impact erupted from inside Jane's body.
This force carried the destructive power of annihilating matter, directly slamming into Thor's chest.
Thor groaned, blasted backward more than ten meters, and only stopped after breaking two rusted steel bars.
Thor raised his head and looked at Jane in disbelief.
He had just felt pure law distortion.
That kind of force could shake the body of the Asgarddivine clan.
Thor gritted his teeth, stood up, and hesitated no longer.
"Heimdall!" Thor roared.
The seven-colored beam of light descended once more, enveloping the two of them and disappearing from the spot.
Asgard, Soul Forge.
This was a hall constructed of pure light energy, with healing golden runes flowing on the walls.
Jane Foster lay flat on the central floating golden stone platform. Her eyes were closed, her complexion was as pale as paper, and dark red patterns occasionally crawled under her skin.
Three medical priestesses dressed in white robes stood on both sides of the stone platform.
They formed hand seals with both hands, guiding the golden light beam above the hall to shine on Jane's body.
This was Asgard's top-tier soul detection technique, capable of seeing through the physical body and reaching the origin directly.
The beam of light fell on Jane's glabella.
The next second.
The dark red patterns inside Jane's body came to life.
A visible red ripple burst from the stone platform.
The golden light beam shattered instantly.
The three priestesses simultaneously spat out a mouthful of fresh blood, lost control of their bodies, and were blasted away, smashing into the light energy wall.
"Stop!"
Thor rushed forward, using his body to block the aftermath of the red ripples.
He glanced at the priestess and turned his head to stare closely at Jane's face.
The heavy door was pushed open.
Heavy footsteps sounded in the forge.
Odin did not wear battle armor; he only wore a robe, leaned on the Gungnir, and strode to the front of the stone platform.
Chapter 89: There Is One Person Who Can
With his single eye sweeping over the red light surging beneath Jane's skin, a trace of thinly veiled fury and exhaustion surfaced deep within Odin's eyes.
Odin waved his hand, signaling the priests to withdraw.
"Father, what is wrong with her? That power is devouring her vitality." Thor stood blocking the stone platform.
Odin used the tip of his spear to point at a control panel on the edge of the stone platform.
A holographic projection unfolded in mid-air within the hall.
An ancient virtual tome opened its pages.
On the pages, a dark red fluid was devouring a galaxy, turning all matter along its path into nothingness.
"This is the Aether. I mentioned it last time." Odin looked at Jane. "It was released from a rift by someone unknown, and she has become its host."
At this moment, Jane weakly opened her eyes.
"Host?" Jane's voice was as thin as a gossamer thread. "You mean... there is something inside my body?"
Odin nodded.
"It is draining your vitality."
"With a mortal vessel, you can last at most three more days before your flesh collapses and the Aether bursts out of your body."
Thor anxiously took a step forward.
"Then strip it out! Father, with your divine power, or using the source of the world Tree, you can definitely draw it out!"
"I cannot do it."
Odin's voice was as cold and hard as iron.
"The power of the Infinity Stones surpasses our own."
"The Aether has already bound with her bloodline, soul, and even concept."
"Forcibly stripping it away with external force will only trigger the backlash of the stones."
"A mortal body cannot withstand even a thousandth of a second of the backlash; she will shatter into powder on the spot."
The hall fell into silence.
Jane closed her eyes in despair, tears from the corners of her eyes sliding down her cheeks.
Thor's bloodshot eyes stared as his hands gripped the edge of the stone platform tightly, squeezing the golden stone until it emitted an unbearable cracking sound.
"Then there is no other way?" Thor squeezed the words out from between his teeth.
Odin turned around, looking at the churning red liquid within the holographic projection, and sighed.
"The only way is to let the Aether come out on its own."
Odin tapped the end of his spear.
"The Aether parasitizes in order to find the strongest container to achieve the purpose of altering the Universereality."
"If a container countless times stronger than her appears and proactively opens its soul to accept it, it will transfer on its own."
Thor abruptly raised his head.
Odin's words immediately doused the hope.
"But this is likewise a dead end." Odin turned to look at Thor. "Within the Nine Realms, there is simply no physical body that can bear the cost of reality distortion."
"Accepting the Infinity Stones means using one's physical body to hard-resist the tearing of the Universe underlying laws."
"Even I can only make brief contact; I cannot let it permanently reside within my body."
"If forcibly accepted, that new container will also be blown apart."
Odin closed his single eye, issuing the final verdict.
"Give up, Thor."
Thor stood in place, his mind buzzing.
Bearing the tearing of the Universe underlying laws? Being blown apart?
Suddenly, a scene cleaved into Thor's mind like lightning.
New York, on the streets of Manhattan.
Chitauri flyers flying all over the sky.
An Earthling mage wearing ordinary cloth garments opened his arms, pulling out five dark red chains.
Amidst the deafening roars, he forcefully dragged five hundreds-of-tons-heavy Leviathan beasts into mid-air to collide with each other.
And that huge higher-dimensional spatial channel.
Braving the high temperature of the nuclear bomb and the violent impact of spatial tearing, that person did not even frown slightly.
Thor abruptly raised his head, staring fixedly at Odin.
"Father." Thor's voice was somewhat dry, but his eyes reignited with a fanatical flame. "Midgard... perhaps there is one person who can."
Odin frowned. A trace of confusion flashed within his single eye.
"Midgard? A mortal world that hasn't even mastered interstellar travel? Thor, your sanity has been blinded by grief."
"No! I have seen it with my own eyes!"
Thor stepped forward, stepping over the Mjolnir on the ground, and pressed both hands onto the cold edge of the stone platform.
"His name is Lin Yi. He is a mage of Kamar-Taj."
Odin's brows locked even deeper.
"Absurd. A mortal's physical body has its limits. Even Sorcerer Supreme Gu Yi does not dare to use her flesh and blood to hard-clash against pure higher-dimensional energy."
"What if he has touched the Infinity Stones?"
Thor tossed out his heaviest trump card.
This sentence was like a giant boulder smashing into a calm lake surface, causing even the few priests standing in the distance to raise their heads in astonishment.
"After the Battle of New York, the people of Midgardhanded the scepter embedded with the Mind Stone to him."
Thor's speech became faster and faster.
"That scepter carried Loki's frantic will; ordinary people would be mentally assimilated even if they approached within a few meters."
"Yet Lin Yi held that scepter and stayed for a full three days."
Odin's single eye abruptly constricted.
"Three days? He didn't go mad? His soul wasn't torn apart?"
"No." Thor swallowed a mouthful of saliva. "When he walked out, everyone was forced to retreat by the pressure he unintentionally radiated."
Thor recalled the scene in the surveillance room at that time.
"Not only was he not backlashed by the Mind Stone, but instead, he absorbed... the power within that stone."
"He became stronger than during the battle. That sense of suffocation of standing before him as if facing an entire abyss, I have only felt from you."
Odin leaned on the Gungnir, standing in place in prolonged silence.
A mortal flesh-and-blood body belonging to an Earthlingnot only tore apart the Chitauri fleet, but could also actively endure the mental scouring of the Mind Stonewithout dying, and even turn it to their own use?
Asgard's intelligence network actually missed such an existence.
Odin turned his head, looking once more at Jane on the stone platform whose vitality was being rapidly drained. The red light of the Aether had already spread to her neck.
"If it is truly as you say, his physical body might be able to bear the tearing of the reality laws."
A trace of determination flashed in Odin's single eye as he raised the Gungnir and struck the ground heavily.
"Go to Midgard."
Thor snatched up the Mjolnir on the ground.
"I will bring him over immediately!"
"Hold on."
Odin called out to Thor, his voice low and majestic.
"Asgard does not force true powerhouses. The Infinity Stones are a source of danger sufficient to destroy galaxies."
"You must make him understand that this may be a fatal transaction."
"Bring him to the Golden Palace. With Asgard's highest-spec courtesy."
Thor nodded.
He gripped the hammer handle tightly, striding out of the soul forging chamber.
Thunderous roars exploded outside the corridor, and a dazzling pillar of light shot straight into the clouds.
Chapter 90: First Arrival in Asgard
New York, Sanctum Sanctorum third-floor tea room.
Lin Yi had been lingering here.
Outside the wooden window, a drizzling rain was falling.
He leaned back in a rattan chair, toying with a dark golden mage soft armor component in his hand.
Just half an hour ago, Tony sent a message, claiming that the theoretical model of his modified magic energy armor had broken through the laws of physics.
Rumble!
A sudden clap of thunder exploded above the Sanctum Sanctorum.
The violent airflow instantly overturned all the furnishings in the tea room, shattering the wooden table and blowing the tea sets into a floor of porcelain shards.
A dazzling seven-colored pillar of light brutally smashed through the roof of the Sanctum Sanctorum, landing directly on the third-floor floor.
As the charred smoke and dust dispersed, Thor stepped out from the halo carrying Mjolnir.
Lin Yi sat in the rattan chair without even changing his posture.
A piece of broken brick smashed toward his face, and at a distance of two centimeters from the tip of his nose, it was shaken into dust by an invisible force.
"You'd better give me a perfect explanation, big guy."
Lin Yi patted the dust off his shoulders and stood up.
"This is the property of Kamar-Taj."
"For the ceiling repair fee, plus mental damages, I'll charge you two hundred pounds of gold. That's not too much, right?"
Thor was not in the mood to take this joke.
He strode over to Lin Yi.
"Lin Yi, I need your help."
"The Nine Realms are converging, and an ancient creation more dangerous than the Mind Scepter has been released."
"Jane is possessed by it, and can only live for a few hours at most."
Lin Yi narrowed his eyes.
Reality Stone, Aether, the ultimate item for modifying physical laws.
Lin Yi's physique was about to break through 800,000, his mental resistance was even MAX, and his spatial affinity had broken 10,000.
Only the resistance on the side of "Reality Distortion" remained at a pitiful 950 points left over from the battle with Kaecilius.
This was simply a high-end experience package delivered to his doorstep.
"Ancient creation?"
"Is it more explosive than the nuclear bomb in Manhattan?"
"It can directly erase your physical body from a conceptual level," Thor said in a deep voice, "Go with me to Asgard."
"Lead the way." Lin Yi didn't talk nonsense and took a step directly.
Thor raised Mjolnir and roared upwards: "Heimdall!"
Boom! The seven-colored beam of light pierced through the clouds again, swallowing the two of them.
Inside the pillar of light was a rapidly flowing high-dimensional space channel.
A strong sense of weightlessness and violent spatial tearing forces squeezed from all directions.
Ordinary mortals could not even open their eyes here.
Lin Yi stood steadily in the pillar of light.
He opened his eyes, and his pupils reflected the intricate Rune space runes on the inner wall of the Bifrost Bridge.
Under his "Space Folding Perception", this divine passage connecting the Nine Realms was not some magical rainbow at all, but a crude, violent wormhole pipeline forcibly propped up by extracting stellar energy.
[High-dimensional space channel high-speed friction detected, cell activity + 1000]
[Stellar energy residual radiation detected, energy resistance + 2000]
Pure passive gains flashed through his mind.
A few seconds later, the light suddenly stopped.
Lin Yi stepped with both feet onto the solid dark golden metal ground.
Ahead was a huge hemispherical dome building, surrounded by a brilliant and boundless sea of stars.
At the end of the passage, a magnificent continent floating in the Universe unfolded before his eyes.
The magnificent group of palaces refracted dazzling light in the sunlight, and huge waterfalls poured directly from the edge of the continent into the endless deep space.
Asgard.
Lin Yi didn't gasp in astonishment like a bumpkin entering the city for the first time.
His Void Perception radiated outward like substance, and the ten-kilometer divine sense range instantly covered this area.
He felt amazing energy veins flowing underground in this continent, thousands of times thicker than Earth's leylines.
"Welcome to the Divine Realm, mage of Midgard."
A deep, heavy voice sounded ahead.
Lin Yi withdrew his gaze and looked toward the center of the hall.
A stalwart man wearing dark gold heavy armor and holding a broadsword stood in the center of the turntable.
His eyes were like two burning miniature stars, releasing dazzling golden light.
Heimdall.
The All-Seeing God.
The gatekeeper who claimed to be able to see through the souls of tens of billions of living beings in the Nine Realms.
At this moment, those golden eyes were staring fixedly at Lin Yi.
On the back of the hand holding the hilt of the sword by Heimdall, blue veins were clearly visible.
His gaze, the moment it touched the surface of Lin Yi's body, was like crashing into a sheer cliff cast from tens of millions of tons of mercury.
On the surface of the sea of consciousness within Lin Yi, that layer of pale golden crystal armor merely emitted a trace of counter-shock microwave.
Heimdall let out a muffled groan, and his golden pupils contracted violently.
He felt that his vision was directly cut off, and a sharp stabbing pain came from his cranial nerves.
"You are the one Thor spoke of who blocked the Chitauriarmy."
Heimdall forcibly stabilized his figure, his voice carrying a trace of undisguised solemnity.
"My eyes can see the growth of every blade of grass and tree within the Nine Realms, and can see through the ice slag in the blood vessels of the Dark Elves. But I cannot see through you."
"Your existence is like an absolute void black hole on the world Tree."
Lin Yi walked up to Heimdall unhurriedly with his hands in his pockets.
There was a gap in height between the two, but Lin Yi's aura was like an ancient fierce beast just waking up from a deep sleep, forcibly compressing the surrounding air to a standstill.
"Don't look at me with that kind of gaze, gatekeeper."
Lin Yi looked straight into those golden eyes, the corners of his mouth pulling into an arc.
"Because I simply do not belong to the observation range you can understand."
"If your eyes look down another inch, I don't mind letting Asgard change to a blind man to keep the gate today."
Heimdall's hand holding the sword tightened abruptly, and the instinct of an Asgardian warrior made him want to draw his sword.
But he held back.
Heimdall took half a step back, pulled the broadsword out of the control hub, and cleared the way to the Heavenly Palace.
"The God King is waiting for you in the Golden Palace," Heimdall lowered his head, "I hope what you bring is not destruction."
On the main road of the Bifrost Bridge leading to the Golden Palace, the Asgardian warriors lined up on both sides stood straight.
Sunlight shone on their gleaming armor.
When Lin Yi followed Thor through the formation, the faint sound of metal clashing and suppressed breathing spread in the air.
These battle-hardened veterans of the Divine Realm smelled the undisguised tyrannical aura on Lin Yi.
No one dared to speak.
That passively emitted spiritual coercion made even the strongest warrior unconsciously tense his calf muscles.
Lin Yi looked straight ahead without looking sideways.
He looked like he was strolling through his own back garden, and even had the leisure to observe the ancient Rune runes carved on the stone pillars of the main hall.
The heavy pure gold gates swung open suddenly in front of the two.
Deep inside the main hall, a beam of highly penetrating sunlight struck the throne.
Odin sat on the high platform, clad in golden armor, holding the Gungnir symbolizing power in his hand.
The light in his single eye was as deep as the sea, examining the black-haired youth stepping into the main hall step by step.
Lin Yi stopped at the foot of the stairs. He didn't bow, nor did he salute.
He even fished out a toothpick from somewhere in his pocket, bit it in his mouth, and looked up straight at the God King of the Nine Realms.
This posture made the Captain of the guard in the hall press the hilt of the sword at his waist, emitting a crisp mechanical friction sound.
"Stand down." Odin raised his hand. The Captain of the guard gritted his teeth and retreated.