"You've grown, Mordred."
Since Artoria's consciousness entered another parallel Universe, the group was terrified. The issue of Artoria's care was forcefully taken over by Gaea, but when Maria joined, she didn't refuse. This was because another matter had coincided: Mordred was about to transition from infancy to the juvenile stage. She knew that Dragon species grew very slowly, but she hadn't expected Mordred to accumulate the necessary energy for the infant stage so quickly. The two events happening simultaneously made things difficult for her. Fortunately, Artoria had no major issues, merely falling into a deep sleep. As for when she would wake up, that was up to Artoria herself. However, Mordred's situation was extremely important. Gaea had to find a place with abundant energy—a volcano—and personally oversee the advancement to ensure Mordred's safety.
After choosing the location, she brought Mordred into the volcano and, without hesitation, tossed Mordred into the magma. If anyone had seen it, it would surely have been the topic of a cruel mother abandoning her child. But Mordred was perfectly fine in the magma, treating it like ordinary Water. Following her mother's command, she began autonomously absorbing the thermal energy within the magma. In the past two days, the child changed appearance daily, completely transforming from an infant into a loli, which greatly pleased Gaea.
"Mother."
Today was the third day of her transformation. The juvenile scales on her Dragon body had already shed, and it would take some time for the new scales to grow back. Her Dragon body size also grew from a hatchling the size of a human head to a two-meter-tall young Dragon. This change indicated that her physical energy was becoming stronger, and her previously weak magic power was multiplying tens of times. She was no longer a powerless youngling but a juvenile giant Dragon that had yet to fully mature. Although she was still some distance from the young adult stage, there were truly few on Earth who could handle her current strength. Mordred happily called out to Gaea after comfortably swimming around in the magma.
"Just a few more days. Take your time, there's no rush."
Watching Mordred safely pass the dangerous period, successfully shedding her old scales and growing up, Gaea finally breathed a sigh of relief. In her long Remembrance, the reason Dragon species were so rare was not just due to low fertility; many hatchlings died midway during growth due to insufficient energy while shedding scales. As the daughter of the Earth's consciousness, Mordred would definitely not face the problem of scarce energy; Gaea would solve all problems for her. However, growth had to be done by herself. Gaea understood the dangers of Mordred's growth, and her preparations had minimized the risks, but she feared any unforeseen accidents. If that happened, she would be heartbroken.
"I have strong power now! I can protect Father and Mother."
Feeling the continuous flow of magic power within her body like a river, Mordred happily told Gaea that with such strong power, she would definitely protect 'Father' and Mother. These words made Gaea reveal a benevolent smile. Although the words sounded childish, coming from her daughter, they sounded wonderful. But after smiling, she suddenly remembered that she hadn't returned for two or three days. She wondered how Artoria was doing now. Thinking of this, a trace of worry appeared on her face, fearing something might happen to Artoria. However, her daughter currently needed protection as this was her most vulnerable time. Therefore, Gaea could only wait for Mordred's scales to grow back before taking Mordred away from here to look after Artoria.
"Welcome back, Master."
At night, Artoria sat alone in the office. To reassure Maria and prevent her from sleeping with her, Artoria had a private Doctor perform a physical examination and presented the results to Maria, which helped ease Maria's mind. Artoria gained freedom and was no longer stuck with her mother bringing the two little brats to cling to her. Maria voluntarily took care of both children, saying that as she got older, she simply liked children.
As she said this, she looked at Pepper's big belly with anticipation. The stark family was truly going to branch out and multiply this time. Artoria reviewed the events that had occurred in the world during her 'coma' over the past few days, all collected by Saturday regarding anomalous incidents. As Artoria read, a cute little green figure walked over and gave Artoria a hug. It was Saturday, driving the body Artoria made, expressing her longing for her Master.
"I'm back, Saturday."
Feeling the delicate touch of the bio-skin, Artoria smiled and embraced Saturday, pulling her body, which weighed over three hundred pounds, into her arms. Recently, Saturday had modified this body, whose exterior resembled a Scallion Girl, loading it with numerous weapon systems, making it a fully enhanced armory.
Artoria also looked at the electronic blueprints Saturday had left after the modifications. Artoria's eye twitched upon seeing them. It was already difficult enough to compress so many weapons into such a small shell and keep the weight down to over three hundred pounds. Fortunately, Artoria was now capable of lifting an elephant with one hand; otherwise, she truly wouldn't be able to hold this Little guy. Artoria rubbed the soft hair. She increasingly felt that Saturday was becoming more like a person, performing actions like acting spoiled toward her Master and asking about her well-being so smoothly.
"The modification of the Hyperion is 90% complete and is expected to be fully finished in seven days."
Having received her Master's affection, Saturday was slightly happy, and her calculation speed increased significantly. Since she had gained her Master's attention, she began reporting the situation. Using a holographic projection, she broke down and explained the Hyperion's modification speed and content over the past few days to Artoria, and demonstrated the effect of the Hyperion after successful modification. Based on the data they provided, the Hyperion's various capabilities were quantified, allowing Artoria to see things more clearly.
"Modified like this, I estimate that even if Himeko and Durandal boarded the ship now, they wouldn't recognize this battleship as the original Hyperion."
Looking at the Hyperion, whose appearance had drastically changed, Artoria could only sigh. After all, scientists in Marvel were somewhat more "Green-Skinned" than the scientists in Honkai, especially since the Hyperion wasn't even considered a super battleship. Seeing the Hyperion, Artoria recalled the moonlight throne that she wanted but couldn't obtain. If she had the moonlight throne, she wouldn't have needed to spend so much manpower and material resources modifying the Hyperion. The U.S. dollars spent on modifying the Hyperion during this period were astronomical, and she just hoped it wouldn't just be a loud noise in space.
"Furthermore, Master, there's a discovery regarding the matter you asked me to monitor. According to file comparison, Thor of the Asgardian God Race seems to have landed on Earth. He is currently in a very peculiar state. According to human standards, he seems depressed and has become quite obese."
After finishing the report on the Hyperion, Saturday brought up another video. Inside, a face very familiar to Artoria was seen chugging a bucket of alcohol. Judging by the surroundings, it seemed to be a bar! The surrounding drunkards were applauding the guy, seemingly admiring his drinking capacity. Looking at his physique, he was clearly much larger, especially his protruding belly. Without needing him to take off his shirt, Artoria could guess how much grease this guy had consumed recently. He drank for a full half hour. After a while, a woman appeared and took him away. It looked like Jane, right?
"Thor looks like this—did Asgard get destroyed? Did he encounter Thanos?"
Thor's state reminded Artoria of Thor's appearance in Avengers 4: the same depressed look and the huge beer belly. This situation instantly made Artoria's expression serious. Artoria's heart started racing. She absolutely did not want to hear any news about Thanos right now; she wasn't ready to eliminate Thanos yet. For a moment, Artoria's thoughts were scattered, but after much consideration, Artoria decided to visit this fat Thor. She needed to know the reason why Thor had become like this.
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