"Thor Odinson?"
"Tony Stark?"
"What are you doing here..." ×2
At a remote sweep point on the edge of the Andromeda Galaxy, former Avengers Iron Man and the God of Thunder stared at each other in astonishment.
"You go first." ×2
The two looked at one another and smiled.
Meeting an old friend in a foreign land. Nothing could be more fitting.
With his distinctive little goatee, now dressed in a gray Imperial military uniform without rank insignia and a white lab coat patterned with polygonal molecular diagrams draped over it, Stark removed his glasses, visibly delighted.
"Wow, you finally cut that long hair that made you look like the lead in some disaster blockbuster." Stark smugly adjusted the hair he had carefully styled with gel. "Now you finally look sharp. Much easier on the eyes..."
"You bastard, Shit Stark."
It would have been better if he had said nothing. The moment he brought it up, Thor was reminded of the embarrassing incident on Sakaar when he activated the spaceship by voice command.
"Forget that. Why are you out in space? And not just outside the Nine Realms, but all the way to the Andromeda Galaxy beyond the Milky Way. This is Skrull territory—one of the fiercest war zones in the universe. Since when did Midgard's technology advance this far?"
Thor gestured toward the fleet outside the viewport—the Demon Inquisitor Chapter's 117th Strike Cruiser formation, each vessel measuring at least kilometers in length.
The corner of his eye kept drifting toward the training deck, where Imperial regular soldiers in training gear moved with thunderous momentum as they performed basic physical drills. There were women among them as well.
The sound of fists slamming into massive striking targets, the speed at which they ran and executed tactical maneuvers under intensified gravity fields, their sharp neural reflexes, the almost instinctive familiarity with every piece of equipment...
They were no less formidable than Sif, Volstagg, Fandral, and Hogun of Asgard.
"Unfortunately, as much as I'd love to say yes, they're not from Earth," Stark said, shaking his head.
He pointed toward another section.
The deck assigned to Earth conscripts. In terms of bearing, training atmosphere, and the precision of their equipment support, the difference was obvious.
Whether mutants, multi-skilled agents recruited from S.H.I.E.L.D., ordinary volunteers, or mortals enhanced by various super-soldier serums, they still fell far short compared to the Imperial soldiers of the 117th Fleet—men and women who had bathed in the primordial essence of the newborn universe, who had effectively unlocked their innate limitations and carried the tag of "heaven rewards diligence." The gap was enormous.
And as the Imperial soldiers continued to transform and realize their liberated potential, that gap would only widen.
"Where's the Captain? And Vision..." Thor asked instinctively.
"Don't even mention it."
Stark sighed and pursed his lips. "The Captain and I had a falling-out. And his situation probably isn't much better now. As for Vision... sigh. The mistake of his birth has already been corrected..."
In a brief yet concise summary, he told Thor about the recent events on Earth.
Stark had been deeply saddened by what happened to Vision and the Scarlet Witch. But given the catastrophe on the East Coast caused by their rampage and loss of control—and the special circumstances involved—what choice did he have? Betray his country and Earth to fight Saitama? Or Gorgon? Or Esdeath? Or the Master Chief? The government had declared them illegal!
All Stark could do was make sure such a disaster would never happen again.
"In short, Earth is now their tax base and missionary ground—the Divine Empress Order's."
"No, Midgard should belong to Asgard..." Thor said, displeased.
His father had only just passed. Asgard had perished together with the Fire Giant. And now Earth had already pledged itself elsewhere?
Glancing at the short-haired version of the Thunder God—now without his hammer—Stark added, "You know as well as I do, you never got government authorization. They did. Perfectly legal. And me..." He pointed at himself. "See this? I was conscripted through legal procedure."
"This..." Thor wanted to argue further, but thinking of his own circumstances, he lost the will. Asgard was gone. He planned to build a new home on Earth. What was there left to say?
"Thor, your left eye?"
While observing him, Stark finally noticed the abnormality in Thor's right eye. It was dull and lifeless. The pupil did not move at all.
"Stabbed out by a sister I'd never met before who thought I wasn't fit to inherit the throne," Thor replied casually.
"...I'm sorry."
Stark spread his hands awkwardly. Family disputes like that were not something an outsider could comment on.
"It's nothing. The throne is gone anyway. It doesn't matter. Mjolnir was crushed. My father died. That sister died. Loki died for me. Asgard was destroyed. And even the surviving people were slaughtered by half by a mad Titan."
The smile vanished from his face. With his head lowered, he spoke calmly of horrifying things. Even now, the trace of blood-red hatred in his eyes had yet to fade.
The sheer amount of information left Stark frozen in place for several moments before he managed to process it.
"Thor... my condolences." A thousand words ultimately condensed into a hand on his shoulder. Stark fell silent for a moment. "What are you going to do?"
"Revenge."
His expression was grave, his tone decisive, yet beneath it surged unmistakable hatred and towering fury.
"He will pay the price."
"That's why I'm here. The woman with white hair, golden armor, pale face, serpent pupils, and vulture wings told me so. They're at war with Thanos?"
"Gorgon told you that? ...More or less. Thanos and the Skrulls. Us and the Kree..."
"Good. So when do we go find that bastard Thanos?"
Thor didn't care about anything else. He only wanted to kill Thanos—even if it cost him his life.
"Don't be impulsive. That guy called Thanos is a cosmic tyrant. He's not the Chitauri, Hydra, or Ultron. He commands a terrifying dark army capable of plunging the universe into war. This isn't something you can solve by charging in alone, cutting down everything in your path, and taking his head."
Knowing far more of the inside story, Stark quickly grabbed hold of him.
He feared Thor would act on impulse, like in some nonsensical third-rate script, and charge off alone to die. Even fiction shouldn't be written that badly.
"If it's war, then there are ways to fight a war."
Stark spoke confidently. "This isn't about superheroes fighting solo anymore. The Avengers are disbanded. Welcome to the new team. I've got a feeling—you won't be the last."
"Come on. Your Meow-Meow Hammer's gone, which works out perfectly. I've got something new—you should be able to use it..." he said enthusiastically, hoping to divert Thor's negative emotions.
"It's Mjolnir! Not Meow-Meow Hammer!"
"Eh, same thing. Oh, right—your right eye should be fixable. I know a military doctor. Should be able to handle it..."
As he spoke, Stark walked to the access gate and flicked the ID badge and clearance pass hanging over his chest.
Beep!
"Avicebron Workshop, Apprentice Technical Trainee, Tony Stark. Access granted." Blue light scanned across him as lines of information appeared one after another on the holographic screen.
"You—Shit Stark—an apprentice?!" Thor couldn't help laughing.
"In rune engraving, golem studies, applied conversion of Honkai energy, interstellar materials science, Kabbalah magecraft... yeah, I'm an apprentice," Stark shrugged, listing the new fields he had been studying recently.
"Do you have weapons forged from uru divine steel?"
"From what steel?"
"Then you don't."
Thor spoke solemnly. "Stark, I'm glad to see you. And thank you for your kindness. But you did remind me of something. It seems I need to go to Nidavellir—to forge a new weapon to kill Thanos. Only divine weapons crafted by the dwarves are suited for an Asgardian."
"No need."
Swish.
"Your axe."
The golden Servant whom Thor had called "Gorgon's attendant," clad in sacred golden armor that seemed fused to his very flesh, raised the long-handled battle axe in his hand and held it before the Son of Odin.
"Stormbreaker. The Dwarf King Eitri entrusted it to me to deliver to you," Karna said.
Thor stepped back slightly. Shock and confusion mingled across his face.
Then he steadied himself. Feeling the longing of Odin's blood within him, he nodded gratefully to Karna and accepted Stormbreaker.
He examined it carefully. The axe was silver-gray throughout. The blade's lines were refined and fluid, dividing its surface into distinct sections. Under the light, the simple engravings seemed almost alive—shimmering like both the sigil of a guardian and a declaration of Asgardian war runes.
Crackle!
"Haaah!"
Amid arcs of lightning, Asgardian armor re-formed around him. Dense, scale-like plates clung tightly to his arms and body. Thunder exploded outward with a deafening boom, fully igniting the power of the God of Thunder within him.
The commotion immediately drew the attention of Imperial soldiers aboard the ship. The surging lightning energy also triggered alarms.
"What's the situation on Nidavellir?"
Having just concluded discussions with Master Chief John regarding the battlefront, garrison deployments, intelligence on the Black Order, and a new round of Heroic Spirit summons, Selene appeared silently behind Karna. As she watched Thor gripping Stormbreaker as if reborn, she halted the response teams aboard the vessel with a gesture and questioned Karna.
"The dwarves of Nidavellir were slaughtered by Thanos. Only the Dwarf King remains. The neutron star forge of Nidavellir cannot be relocated, so I invited King Eitri instead."
"I see."
Selene nodded.
It was not beyond her expectations.
Although this version of Thanos seemed even more unhinged than she remembered—likely provoked by something unknown—he still barely counted as someone with ideals and a sense of credibility.
That was precisely why, when she had planned to bring Thor along to the Andromeda Galaxy, she had ordered Karna to make a detour to Nidavellir. Thanos had promised to spare the dwarves after forging the Infinity Gauntlet.
Leaving one dwarf king alive technically counted as sparing them. As long as the species wasn't completely exterminated.
"Thanos—!"
His eyes turned blindingly bright, filled with white arcs of lightning, as Thor roared in fury.
Overinflated?
Selene raised a brow.
There was something almost pufferfish-like about it. Stormbreaker had reignited and further awakened the power within Odin's blood, amplifying once again the horrific memories Thor had experienced aboard the refugee ship. He now looked ready to charge off the deck and fight Thanos to the death.
The effect was this strong? Was it because this Stormbreaker was complete?
Selene shifted her gaze away from the axe handle, forged from the wood of the World Tree and adorned with uru divine steel inlays.
This time, there had been no desperate scenario involving a tree-being and a raccoon scrambling to forge it. Whether it was turning the stellar ring forge or personally standing within the hundreds of billions of degrees of heat from the neutron star to activate the furnace by hand, the Son of the Sun, Karna, had been the most suitable candidate.
There had been ample time to find proper mold materials for the handle and complete the assembly, rather than forcing a tree to sever its arm in emergency.
"Ma'am?" Stark called softly as he watched the beast-goddess tear through the lightning and approach Thor with casual steps.
Hum.
A dim yellow Gemstone glow flowed between Selene's clawed fingers.
Authority of Spiritual Consolation—Great Tranquil Repose.
Bang!
Almost at the exact moment the seven-colored beam of the Bifrost flared to life, Selene swung her arm and slapped Thor across the head, knocking him flat onto the deck with a resonant crash like a struck bronze bell.
"Master it. Don't let it master you. You're no longer the God of Hammers—are you planning to become the God of Axes now?"
"Cough..." His mind cleared instantly as Thor pushed himself upright. "Thank you. But I swear, I will use it to cut off Thanos' head." She had saved him. He could hardly argue. Thor grinned somewhat sheepishly.
"Good. Then let's depart."
"I will adjust my emotions, master this power, and advance alongside your legion—what?" Thor lifted his head in disbelief, staring at Selene.
"You probably won't be cutting down Thanos anytime soon. Go cut down his subordinates first. Treat it as practice."
Selene spoke calmly. After finishing, she paid him no further attention. She turned to look out the viewport at near-orbit space, her expression growing contemplative.
The Bifrost... as expected, the so-called faster-than-light travel under Marvel's universal laws was somewhat... watered down.
Thor was one example. Captain Marvel was another.
The former relied on the Asgardian foundation—the Bifrost. The latter relied on overwhelming energy manipulation, wrapping herself in photon energy to achieve a form of synchronized leap with the universe's energy space.
There was a certain cleverness to it. But it also explained why those superheroes and villains capable of faster-than-light travel and bodily roaming the cosmos were relatively fragile in terms of raw physicality, and comparatively weak in strength and destructive output.
If it were truly hard power—if one achieved light speed through sheer energy eruption and physical force—then celestial bodies should shatter with a snap of the fingers, stars fall with a casual gesture. Clearly, judging from actual feats, they were far from that level.
"Flawed laws."
In this regard, the power classification system Selene had crudely established for the Sacred Selene Empire—pure destructive capability as the standard—was far simpler and more brutal.
After all, the Empire was constantly evolving and developing. Such simplicity would not result in incompatibility.
"Thanos is more grounded."
Selene recalled the intelligence shared by the Kree. "He's searching for cosmic rifts, primordial dimensional entrances, relics of ancient civilizations... Is he gathering primordial cosmic energy?"
"Not enough... far from enough. He has already destroyed Knowhere. Facing the full mobilization of the Black Order's vast forces, a single 117th Fleet is still too little."
"Time to change tactics. We'll need to find a few unlucky souls to drag into this."
—
—
40 Advanced Chapters Available on Patreon:
Patreon.com/DaoOfHeaven