Asgard.
In the central cluster of towering buildings, there was a golden palace.
The interior of the palace was vast and cold, with rows of massive stone pillars silently supporting the heavy roof.
Tap... Tap... Tap...
A series of footsteps broke the silence.
Thor walked through a long corridor and arrived in front of a room. He pushed the door open with force and walked straight in.
"Brother, I've come to visit you."
This palace was Loki's residence in Asgard.
After being injured in the battle with Cul, Loki was first sent to the medical bay to treat his wounds. Once his condition was stable, he returned to his palace to rest.
At this moment, Loki was sitting on a huge, throne-like chair, eyes closed in a doze. He dismissed the Images of Ikonn clones and brought his attention back.
Loki slowly opened his eyes, looked at Thor, and showed a helpless expression.
"I'm fine now."
Thor waved to Loki. "Really? I haven't seen you leave the palace for days, so I thought your injuries hadn't healed yet."
"Loki, if you're fine, then come out and join the party. Don't let everyone worry, they're all waiting for you."
"Alright." Loki shrugged, jumped off the chair, and walked towards Thor.
"It's good to see you safe and sound, brother." Thor put his arm around Loki and patted his shoulder heavily.
Loki's lips twitched. "I'm also glad to see you've recovered, brother."
Loki was referring to Thor's low spirits after mjolnir was crushed.
"I am the God of Thunder, not the God of Hammers." Thor said stubbornly.
"Thor, I remember you've always liked snakes since you were little, and you also liked mjolnir. Now, a snake crushed your mjolnir, do you still like snakes?" Loki continued to twist the knife in Thor's heart.
"He's not a snake. Where do you see a snake with wings and claws?"
Bickering, the two walked side by side out of the palace. They walked through the long corridor, exited Loki's residence, and arrived at the square.
Night fell, and the lights came on, illuminating the square brightly.
At this time, the square had been set up as a huge banquet venue.
To match the banquet atmosphere, Asgard's time had been artificially fixed to night.
Thor led Loki through the crowd, heading towards a corner on the other side of the square.
"Prince Thor."
"Prince Loki."
Along the way, people frequently greeted Thor and Loki with smiles.
From their tone and gaze, Loki felt respected.
His hard work over the past few days, spreading word of his role in this war through his clones, was not in vain.
"Hey, Thor, Loki, you're here!"
In a low building in the corner of the square, Tony and his group of six were gathered, enjoying Asgardian delicacies.
The six were Tony, Bruce, Pietro, Wanda, Gwen, and G'iah.
As for Clint and Natasha, who also participated in the Battle of New York, Manhattan, they did not come.
When the Bifrost Bridge appeared, they were quite far away and hadn't arrived yet when Loki left with his people.
"To celebrate the defeat of Cul, cheers!" Thor raised his cup, gesturing to everyone.
"Cheers!" Everyone raised their cups in response.
After draining their drinks—
Bang! Bang! Bang...
Eight sounds of cups being smashed rang out one after another.
Tony and his group had been in Asgard for several days, and they were already accustomed to the Asgardian custom of smashing cups.
Asgardians were wealthy and didn't care about a few cups, so Tony and the others naturally didn't hold back.
After a hearty drink of mead, Loki's gaze swept around the room.
The six people in the room were all those he had brought to Asgard for support.
But why wasn't Lucas here?
"Where's Lucas? Why didn't he come?" Loki asked.
In Loki's version of the story, the biggest heroes in the victory of this war were him and Lucas.
How could the main character not be at this celebration feast?
Facing Loki's question, Thor gave an awkward laugh.
He had been trying to repair mjolnir for the past few days, and after realizing it was impossible, he had been in low spirits. He hadn't paid attention to this issue.
But it didn't matter, he had an excuse.
"Loki, Heimdall can't locate Lucas, he can't find him."
Tony shrugged, "After receiving Asgard's invitation to the celebration feast, we've been in Asgard these past few days."
The belatedly aware Thor said, "You can go to the teleportation platform to find Heimdall, use the power of the Bifrost Bridge to teleport back to Earth, and then teleport back when the banquet starts. You don't have to stay in Asgard all the time."
The physical distance between Asgard and Earth in the Universe was extremely vast.
Moreover, as the ruler of the Nine Realms and a major power in the Universe, Asgard had a very complete defense system. Tony and the others had no way to freely enter and exit Asgard.
If they wanted to return to Earth, they could only find Heimdall and use the power of the Bifrost Bridge to teleport back.
But...
"Who is Heimdall? We're not familiar with him." Tony quipped.
"Heimdall is the Guardian of the Bifrost Bridge, he is stationed there year-round—"
Loki glanced at Thor, signaling him with his eyes.
Thor, knowing he was at fault, stopped defending himself and proactively said, "I'll go find Lucas. I'm familiar with Heimdall."
"Did I hear you were looking for me?"
A voice sounded, and a radiant white energy surged as Lucas emerged from it.
These past few days, he had been racking his brain in the bookstore, trying to figure out how to find Mephisto and he really did come up with a method.
During the first Battle of New York, in order to protect innocent non-villains from being harmed by the aftermath of his and Thanos's battle, he had proactively released some radiant white energy to shield them.
In this process, these people had been infused with Lucas's energy, but there were no side effects, so no abnormalities were visible in their daily lives.
During this time, a small number of these people had passed away for various reasons. Some of their souls entered Mephisto's Hell.
Thus, Lucas began to try and sense the energy he had proactively released, attempting to find Mephisto's Hell through this method.
And both Gwen and G'iah had a large amount of Lucas's energy within them, and they were also not far from Earth (relatively speaking, for Lucas).
When Lucas attempted to sense, their positions were exceptionally clear.
And because of this, the conversations happening around them were also heard by Lucas.