Inside the spacious office of a London museum curator, the surviving Eternals of Earth had gathered.
After centuries apart, they were finally reunited. However, this reunion was destined to be tragically incomplete. Their absolute strongest warrior, Ikaris, had fallen in battle!
The atmosphere in the room was suffocatingly heavy. Profound grief was etched onto the face of every Eternal present.
Even though they had scattered across the globe to live their own lives after the Deviants were seemingly eradicated, they still cherished one another deeply. In this vast, changing world, they were each other's only true family!
There were only a handful of them left on the entire planet. Every single Eternal was infinitely precious.
Yet, one of them had just been murdered. And it wasn't just anyone—it was Ikaris, their apex predator. Even worse, he had died at the hands of a mutant, a genetic descendant of their sworn enemies, the Deviants!
This was an absolute, unforgivable transgression!
Among them, Sersi—the Eternal gifted with cosmic matter transmutation—was the most devastated. Ikaris had been her companion and lover for thousands of years. With the love of her life violently ripped away, her normally gentle and compassionate nature had been completely eclipsed by a bottomless, burning hatred!
"Ikaris is dead. Slaughtered by that Level 5 mutant, the White Demon. We must avenge him!"
Sersi's voice trembled with fury as she looked at her family. She wanted nothing more than to fly across the ocean right now and tear the White Demon apart.
But her remaining sliver of rationality held her back. If the White Demon was powerful enough to execute Ikaris in single combat, then she, acting rashly on her own, would absolutely be no match for him!
Beside her, Sprite—an Eternal trapped in the physical body of a pre-teen girl, possessing absolute mastery over illusions—spoke up, her expression incredibly agitated.
"So what are we waiting for?! We need to go kill the White Demon right now!"
For thousands of years, Sprite had harbored a secret, unrequited love for Ikaris. Hearing of his brutal death, the fury burning in her heart was no less intense than Sersi's!
However, Sprite clearly lacked Sersi's wisdom and tactical restraint. She was completely incapable of properly assessing the apocalyptic gap in power between herself and the White Demon.
Gilgamesh, the physically strongest and most hot-tempered of the group, tightly clenched his fists. His ability allowed him to manifest concentrated cosmic energy around his arms, granting him raw striking power that rivaled, and perhaps even exceeded, Ikaris in pure melee combat.
He nodded firmly, supporting Sprite's reckless plan.
"We strike together! I don't care how powerful this White Demon is. If we attack him all at once, we will crush him!"
Just as the grief-stricken Eternals were about to march to war, Ajak intervened. As the Prime Eternal and the spiritual leader of the group stationed on Earth, she possessed wisdom and foresight that surpassed even Sersi's.
Receiving the news of Ikaris' execution had broken her heart, but it had also granted her a terrifyingly clear understanding of the White Demon's absolute power.
She was the leader, yes, but Ikaris was undeniably their ultimate weapon. Even if the rest of them attacked together, they could, at best, fight Ikaris to a standstill.
The fact that the White Demon had killed Ikaris meant the White Demon possessed the power to slaughter all of them!
It was utterly incomprehensible. They had successfully exterminated the apocalyptic Deviant race, yet among the mutants—a mere evolutionary offshoot—a monster of this magnitude had emerged!
But no matter how impossible it seemed, the corpse at the bottom of the ocean was an undeniable reality.
"We must carefully plan our approach to killing the White Demon. We cannot act rashly," Ajak said firmly, her voice cutting through their anger.
Before the hot-headed Eternals could argue, she pointed a finger at the massive monitor on the wall, which was currently looping the SHIELD satellite footage of the battle in Malibu.
"Watch closely," Ajak commanded. "The White Demon's raw strength allowed him to clash head-on with Ikaris and completely overpower him. None of us are capable of replicating that feat.
"If we want to execute him, there is currently only one viable strategy: Sersi must make direct, zero-distance physical contact with him. She must use her cosmic transmutation to completely bypass his Energy Absorption and restructure his physical matter.
"However, according to the classified intel provided by SHIELD, the White Demon seems to possess some form of absolute precognition or hyper-intuition. It is highly likely he already knows all of our abilities and weaknesses. Therefore, he will absolutely avoid any direct contact with Sersi.
"Consequently, relying solely on our current numbers, cornering and executing the White Demon is a near impossibility."
Ajak's eyes narrowed dangerously.
"We must bide our time. We need to strategize, and we must borrow outside strength to exceed the White Demon's calculations!
"Think about it. Why did SHIELD give us this intel? They are desperately trying to profit from a war between us and the White Demon! In fact, it was SHIELD's deliberate manipulation that sent Ikaris to his death in the first place!
"They cannot be allowed to sit on the sidelines while we bleed. We will ally with SHIELD temporarily to formulate a foolproof execution plan for the White Demon.
"And once the White Demon is dead... we will settle our blood debt with SHIELD."
As the Prime Eternal, Ajak's words carried absolute weight. Her cold, flawless logic instantly calmed the room, earning the unanimous agreement of her family.
They would form a temporary alliance with SHIELD. And they wouldn't stop until the White Demon was dead!
...
Meanwhile, having slaughtered Ikaris and looted his cosmic core, Su Mu found his energy accumulation rate drastically increased. His Template Synchronization was climbing steadily.
He spent his time relentlessly practicing his current arsenal of skills, particularly focusing on the mystic portals he had just acquired.
Traditionally, the portal magic of Kamar-Taj required the sorcerer to draw upon ambient dimensional energies, or "borrow" magic from extra-dimensional entities. However, because Su Mu possessed his own massive, internal reserves of cursed energy, he could completely bypass the dimensional loan system and force the portals open using raw power!
Having easily located Tony Stark's other luxury beach house, Su Mu moved in and spent hours continuously opening and closing portals around the living room to grind experience.
The heavenly chimes of the System echoed continuously in his mind:
[System Notification: Energy Point +1]
[System Notification: Six Eyes EXP +1]
[System Notification: Energy Absorption EXP +1]
[System Notification: Mystic Portal EXP +1]
[System Notification: Mystic Portal EXP +1]
[System Notification: Mystic Portal EXP +1]
...
Compared to his other skills, which were already at Level 3 or 4 and required massive amounts of experience to rank up, the Level 1 Portal skill was incredibly easy to level. In a very short amount of time, the experience bar filled to the absolute brim.
A different chime finally rang out!
[System Notification: Mystic Portal EXP +1]
[System Notification: Congratulations, Skill 'Mystic Portal' has leveled up!]
[Mystic Portal Lv.2 (1/300): Consumes magical/cursed energy to open a portal to any previously visited location. The user has transcended the need for a physical focus!]
A massive surge of esoteric magical comprehension flooded Su Mu's mind. His proficiency with spatial gateways skyrocketed. In a matter of seconds, he reached a level of mastery that allowed him to completely discard the Sling Ring!
Su Mu happily slid the clunky brass ring off his fingers and tossed it into his invisible Pocket Dimension.
It was a huge relief. Wearing a heavy, rigid brass knuckle-duster wasn't exactly a pleasant tactile experience.
Now, with a simple, elegant swipe of his bare fingers across the void, a stable, sparking portal instantly materialized in front of him! Not only had he discarded the training wheels of the Sling Ring, but the casting speed was exponentially faster than at Level 1!
Su Mu smiled in profound satisfaction. Achieving this level of mastery in such a short amount of time was entirely due to his unparalleled, absolute genius and his incredibly hard work!
Opening his System interface to review his progress, Su Mu noticed something else.
Aside from the newly upgraded Level 2 Mystic Portal... another one of his absolute core skills was hovering right on the edge of a breakthrough!
_______
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