Technomancer in MCU

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Chapter 111

Technomancer in MCU

Previously

“Wh-what are you talking about, brother? We are only going to stay in that place for the duration of the ritual. After that, everything goes back to normal, right, right?!” Thor’s smile faded as he looked at the solemn look on his face.

“I don’t know, brother. Ask him. Ask him what would be the after-effects of the ritual, even if we did succeed, and why they have no doubt started building a permanent residence for all Asgardians on Midgard.” Loki said as he looked right ahead.

Well, Damn.

Royal Palace, Asgard

–Ed–

Ah, this was not good. They were not going to reveal it to Thor or Loki, not right now at least. It would just undoubtedly complicate matters with Thor being one of the very few beings capable of matching Thanos, even in his empowered form, after inheriting the Odin FOrce along with getting the connection to Asgard. The Asgard that was made from its people and not the place because that was what Alfred had theorised about.

The collective population of Asgard generated an energy pool that was so dense that, in conjunction with Odin Force, the force was able to propel Thor’s power levels to such levels that even the other SkyFathers of other pantheons were unable to match him. He personally believed that Thor had become strong enough to even match or exceed some of the weaker no-name celestials in combat prowess and that was saying something. 

So, for something like this to come up at the last moment that could turn Thor against them was very much undesirable, both for the ritual and the eventual fight against Thanos because nowhere in Alfred’s simulations had he calculated for Thor’s animosity towards their organisation.

He had to clear things up, or else they could have a huge problem on their hands right before the ritual.

“Er, I can explain?” 

Honestly, not a great start to an explanation.

“What is going on? Explain,” Thor’s voice boomed out as he stood up and loomed over him, his powers responding to his mood, causing thunderstorms to occur over Asgard.

Damn. All that with just a word? Impressive.

Seeing that he had no way out of the situation without placating the Crown Prince, especially in his weak body, he sighed and slumped down on the ground even more, if that was even possible.

“Look, you know about the ritual? It is the only method to heal my body and the reason Alfred is so hell-bent on healing me is because–”

“It’s because of Thanos, isn’t it? I mean, I get that he will do anything to save his master/creator but for Odin to agree to it, there has to be another reason for it.” Loki interrupted him. He was also spot-on with his explanation.

The only problem was that the word seemed to hit a sour spot with Thor as the thunder in the air intensified and the smell of ozone filled the air.

“What about Thanos?” Thor asked him, only this time, it lacked any of the bombastic flair that Thor was known for. This time, it was a deathly quiet whisper that managed to even scare him. Why would Thor be so mad at…

“Does he know about Thanos then? How he was the one who enslaved you?” His gaze snapped to Loki.

Loki looked consterned at the question but nodded slowly nonetheless. So, that was the reason for Loki’s freedom.

“So that was why you were not punished? Can you tell me how Asgard managed to not declare war on the Mad Titan after the fact was made public?” He found himself asking Thor as Thor took deep calming breaths and once again took a seat on his side, looking over at the lake in front of them.

“It was Father. He forbid us from retaliating against Thanos in any form. He said that we would have our chance and Thanos would eventually pay for what he did to Loki, so I stayed my hand,” Thor replied instead of Loki.

So, that’s what happened. Even then, he was kinda surprised that Thor would follow Odin’s orders regarding that. Then again, past experiences must have taught Thor that going against Odin’s express orders probably would not have gone well for him again.

Well, time to rip off the bandaid then. Besides, he was pretty sure that Loki was aware of the consequences of the ritual anyway so might as well tell them before they fell off even more in Thor’s eyes.

“Look, the ritual is going to be very energy intensive. The energies released from the ritual, even if it is successful, will create an explosion that will most probably engulf all of Asgard. Even if we are successful, Asgard, or rather the rock that Asgardians live on right now, will be no more but on the plus side, all Asgardians will be safe and the city we are building for you is better than this one in every conceivable way,” He said before bracing for impact.

“I see,” Thor’s voice was normal, which was oddly alarming for him. The winds began picking speed as it started raining all over Asgard as far as he could see. He expected THor to last out at him but the last thing he expected was for him to feel a crater forming right beside him as Thor had flown away, heading straight for the Palace.

Loki sighed beside him, “He will not be taking it well and if I know Father, he will not be taking it well either. I would not recommend being there when their clash inevitably happens and Ed, I realise that Asgard is where all the Asgardians are but you can’t expect for us to not fight for the place we are brought up in?” Loki asked him before his form just fizzled away, his real body was probably already at the palace or maybe they were talking to an illusion or a clone for all this time, who knows. You never know that with Loki.

He sighed once again; it would seem he was doing that a lot lately. He turned around and looked at his entourage which was no longer hiding. Some of them looked pretty shocked about their Princes’ abrupt departures and the rest of them were looking at him with suspicion and wariness. Well, it was not like he could do anything about that. Ultimately, if they succeeded or not, he was going to be the reason for the destruction of the place where they were born and brought up. Even with the new city, he reckoned that it would take a long time for them to forget about their home, especially with most of them easily living to a thousand years old. God, they were a long-lived race.

“Well, fellas, I suppose we should go to the Palace then?” He asked his guards rhetorically as they nodded and waved him along, escorting him through the market streets.

Odin’s Study

–Odin–

Honestly, what sort of mess were those troublesome people going to put him into now? Taking the name of his daughter and not expecting him to notice, that too on Asgard itself. Did they think he had gone senile? He may have lost the ability to channel large amounts of Odin Force through his body without damaging it but he was still Odin Borson, the strongest Asgardian to ever live.

“What’s wrong?” Frigga, sensing his mood change, asked him.

“Nothing, they were talking about her and I sensed her name being uttered so I called them over,”

Frigga nodded, “I see. I would not be surprised if they already know of her and were thinking about how to deal with her even before we told them about it,”

“Yeah, they do seem like the people who would have troublesome information like that before everybody else,” he grumbled to her.

It was already damaging to his pride to have to ask for help from someone, even if his pride was slightly soothed by the fact that they also needed something that he was going to provide. Now, he had to deal with the fact that Thanos was probably on his way here to get some of the Infinity Stones that have no doubt appeared on his radar. The more frustrating thing was that there were even more Stones to come before they were ready for the ritual.

He was sure that there was nothing in the world that could deter someone like Thanos from coming here and getting the Stones, even if it meant fighting someone like him. 

Although, looking at his frail hands, was he even strong enough now? To fend off someone like Thanos who no doubt already possessed at least a single Infinity Stone on his side.

The sound of his door opening brought him out of his morbid thoughts. He looked up to see Alfred entering his study; sitting in the chair in front of his desk and then looking at him expectantly. 

“Well, what do you have to say for yourself?” He asked Alfred, hoping that he would show some remorse in conspiring to kill his firstborn but no..

Alfred shrugged and replied, “Well, what do you want me to say? Your daughter is a major threat, not just to the ritual but to the continued peace that the nine realms enjoy. One of said nine realms just so happens to be Earth and we will do whatever it takes to protect it,”

That…was not an unreasonable thing to expect from them. Also because the city they were building for New Asgard was also on Earth and despite their claims of it being a flying city, he had qualms about the city being sturdy enough to fly out of Midgard’s atmosphere, after all, it was built by mortals, on Midgard.

“We get it. Hela needs to be dealt with but I hope you know the problem with doing that while the ritual is ongoing?” Frigga asked Alfred, getting to the crux matter at hand.

Alfred nodded, “Yes, I am aware of Hela’s connection to Asgard that she gained as her birthright. We have different solutions for that but her domain being the Goddess of Death kinda screws things over. We have plenty, well not plenty, but multiple people on our side who can soundly push her back and with collaboration, even kill her,”

He scoffed at that. There was no killing Hela. He of all people was more than aware of that. As long as Asgard existed, she existed. 

Alfred eyed him while he continued, “I know that she cannot be killed for good without destroying her connection to Asgard. I also know that the current Asgard is a mass of energy created from the continued existence of generations of Asgardians that have called this place home. At this point, it would not be wrong to say that whatever empowerment Thor would gain from gaining your Odin Force would be more or less equivalent to what Hela would gain from her connection to Asgard. Am I wrong?”

He scoffed openly while agreeing with his statement internally. 

“The only reason that would be true is because Thor would be too inexperienced to handle it otherwise the Odin Force is much much stronger,”

“I concur with that statement. Unfortunately, we cannot sever the connection to the current Asgard anymore because you are not at the age to do it, and destroying Asgard before the ritual is done is out of the question so the only option we have is to fight her with all we have,”

Before he could get a word in, Alfred continued, “Don’t worry, we won’t be asking normal Asgardian soldiers to just sacrifice their lives for something that we want so we have made sure that the strongest of our forces will be stationed on Asgard right before the ritual.”

“And what can mere Midgardians do that my Einharjar can’t?” He asked Alfred, offended at the notion that his soldiers would be any weaker than whatever meager forces that their organisation can drum up. Sure, there were noteworthy warriors among them that could have given even Surtur a run for his money but they were few and far between. 

“You need more than a few powerful warriors to keep Hela at bay. The longer she remains of Asgard, the stronger she becomes and besides, even if you managed to kill her once, she will come back and she will come back stronger. A method used once to defeat her will not affect her once again so I am curious as to what army you have that can keep Hela Odinsdottir, Goddess of Death at bay?” He asked Alfred, his voice booming.

Alfred’s face twitched as he tried to hide a smile forming on his face, “Well, we didn’t want to tip our hand this early but here goes. We have them,”

A projection appeared on his table, showcasing the number of soldiers. Midgardian soldiers who were fighting and killing Fire demons with astonishing brutality. They were having an easier time doing it than his soldiers ever did.

His eyes narrowed as he looked closer at the footage, “The armour they are wearing,”

“That is correct. Those are armours that are standard issue in our organisation. That allows every single soldier to hit harder than even the strongest of your Asgardian soldiers, sans you and Thor, of course,” Alfred said.

“Then, there are specialised teams made for different scenarios. Some of them are capable of fighting and defeating your son as well,” Alfred said before the projection changed scenes, showing them a fight between two people. The amount of power he could see in them was astonishing.

Where in the nine realms were they hiding such people and why did Heimdall not see them earlier?

His unasked question was answered by Alfred, “Don’t blame Heimdall. Our base is well protected against seers of all kinds. The measures might not work here, in your domain, but even you can’t see into our base from this far away.”

“Then there is the technology that will be brought in to devastate the surroundings. Since it is going to be destroyed anyway, we have decided to bring in every single weapon, even the ones that cause irreparable damage to the planet.” Alfred said before the projection changed even more, showing flying warships capable of destroying Midgard several times over.

Bor’s beard! These people had been collecting weapons of mass destruction for who knows how long.

How did they do all of this undetected?

“That was…reassuring,” he looked at Frigga who said that hesitantly, then he looked at Alfred who looked at them innocently. It was equal parts worrying and reassuring.

It was good that they were steadfast allies otherwise just thinking of the consequences of becoming their enemy without him being around to protect Asgard was terrifying to even consider.

 

Word Count - 2508

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