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*****
Fini unleashed another silent cast of Explosion toward the distance. It seemed no different from the previous one, leaving him puzzled as to what had changed.
"Could I have caught some weird trait from the Hulk?"
Fini couldn't help but wonder, but his intuition told him that was impossible. Besides, he wasn't turning green anywhere. Unable to find an answer, Fini temporarily set the matter aside and looked at the Red Skull, who was also lost in thought. He let out a silent sigh.
"I might not be able to head back for a while. Do you have a place to rest around here?"
"Ah!?"
Hearing Fini's question, the Red Skull blinked, then replied with an embarrassed expression, "No. When no one is around, I simply find a spot and drift into a slumber."
"Man, you really are living a pathetic life these days."
Fini felt a twinge of pity for the Red Skull. This was, after all, the legendary leader of Hydra who once shook the world.
"By the way, do you know why you were sent here by the Space Stone—that Tesseract fellow?"
Now that Fini knew the reason for his own displacement, he was curious about the Red Skull's backstory.
"Perhaps because I drew too much energy from it..." the Red Skull replied, sounding uncertain.
"Hah, so it's a petty little thing, isn't it?"
Fini suspected there was more to it. Infinity Stones were called "Infinity" because their energy was virtually limitless. How much could the Red Skull have possibly extracted during his research? His energy weapons hadn't even covered a fraction of the Earth. Calling that "too much" was like calling a drop of water a flood.
Since the Red Skull didn't know the truth, Fini stopped asking and turned his mind to the problem of lodging.
While flying earlier, he had scanned the surroundings. In this desolate expanse, there was nothing but sand and water. Finding materials to build a shelter was a luxury he didn't have.
"How have you survived all these years!?"
Fini looked at the awkwardly floating Red Skull and sighed. The Red Skull could drift around all day without eating, drinking, or sleeping. Fini, however, couldn't go without sleep. One day might be fine, but a week of that would likely kill him.
Fini looked out at the distant scenery. Beautiful as it was, it lacked any sign of life. He couldn't help but grumble to the Red Skull, "This place is dead. Not even a single blade of grass!"
"Because this is a place of exile. All souls are under the dominion of the Stone."
"Hmph. Sooner or later, I'll show it why the flowers are so red!"
Fini's words were spoken in a fit of pique. As he spoke, he briefly imagined the altar covered in roses, thinking the scene would be quite unique.
However, to his absolute shock, the very next second, his mana began to drain. Beside the two of them, countless vibrant roses suddenly burst into bloom, defying the falling snow. The bright red petals released a faint fragrance into the air, leaving both the Red Skull and Fini standing frozen, staring at each other in disbelief.
"What is happening?"
The Red Skull felt that he had encountered more surprises today than in the seventy years he had spent on this planet combined.
Fini, meanwhile, stared at the roses, his mind a whirlwind of doubt, shock, and sudden, wild ecstasy. He thought he had found the reason why his Explosion had been so powerful earlier.
Ars Magna was Fini's earliest skill, and the one he considered his most powerful. Unfortunately, he himself hadn't been strong enough, and he had always been limited by his environment, so he had never been able to unleash its true potential.
But he had clearly forgotten that he was no longer on Earth. Unlike the dimensional spaces controlled by Bast, Vormir was the Soul Stone's domain, but the Stone's control over the planet was not as absolute as a Dimensional Lord's grip on their realm.
Creation had always been the bottleneck for Fini's Ars Magna.
While his Ars Magna had been progressing on Earth, he had never been able to manifest objects out of thin air. He had mostly treated it as a support skill for his other abilities. Now that he had left Earth—and more importantly, the constraints of the Three Sanctums—Fini had somehow broken through that limitation with ease.
At this moment, Ars Magna was many times more powerful than it ever was on Earth. When he had released Explosion earlier in his state of irritation and firm resolve, he had unconsciously used Ars Magna to amplify the spell's potency.
The roses didn't last long. An orange light flashed, and every flower vanished. The environment returned to its cold, desolate state.
"Do not change my domain."
The voice of the Soul Stone echoed in his mind. While it wasn't a Dimensional Lord, this was still its territory.
Fini ignored the Stone. He was currently immersed in joy. Though the Ancient One had told him the Sanctums suppressed the power of Ars Magna, he hadn't expected it to be this much stronger without them.
"Creation: Wooden House!"
Fini calmed his mind and activated Ars Magna, visualizing a refined wooden cottage. Simultaneously, his internal mana began to drain rapidly.
Instantly, a small, exquisite wooden house dropped onto the empty ground of the altar. The Red Skull, who hadn't even processed the roses yet, stared with his jaw dropped.
"Has it really only been seventy years on Earth?" the Red Skull began to doubt everything. He had thought that after everything he'd seen, even Captain America appearing wouldn't surprise him.
He was wrong. Fini alone was enough to leave him speechless. How had Hydra managed to become the world's greatest spy organization on an Earth like this? Was it possible that he was the one who had been holding the organization back all those years!?
"Wow!"
Looking at the house, even Fini couldn't help but marvel. The exterior was exactly as he had envisioned, and the mana consumption wasn't nearly as severe as he'd feared. Compared to Earth, it was a world of difference.
Fini suddenly felt that this godforsaken rock called Vormir was looking quite lovely. Even the Red Skull's dry, red face looked a bit more pleasant. Being able to use Ars Magna properly made him incredibly happy.
"What is this ability?"
The curious inquiry of the Soul Stone rang in his head. It understood the effect—it was similar to the Reality Stone's ability to rewrite rules—but it couldn't understand the mechanism of how Fini was doing it.
"None of your business!"
Fini didn't give the Soul Stone the time of day. Full of anticipation, he pushed open the door and walked into the house to see if the interior matched his imagination.
The Red Skull watched Fini enter. After a moment's hesitation, curiosity got the better of him, and he followed. After all, after so many years, he was truly sick of looking at the same desolate scenery of Vormir.
(End of Chapter)