Marvel: Empire of Power-Chapter 158 - 157: The Asgardian Wildcard, a Titan’s Subtle Touch, and the Gauntlet’s Beckoning

The Nightfall III, carrying Elias Thorne's Vormir strike team and their unexpected, critically wounded captive, Proxima Midnight, arrived at the Alpha Centauri Blackwood Relay Station – a heavily fortified, cloaked orbital habitat that served as Elias's primary deep-space command and R&D nexus. The station, under the direct command of Legionnaire Octavus "Forge" (whose techno-empathic abilities were crucial for maintaining its advanced systems), buzzed with a quiet, controlled urgency. News of Thanos's direct intervention at Vormir had sent ripples of grim determination through Elias's entire cosmic network.

Proxima Midnight was immediately placed in a specialized bio-stasis cell, her alien physiology and potent (though currently suppressed) combat abilities under intense study by a remote team of Finch's top bio-geneticists, with Nox Thorne providing symbiotic sensory data. Elias wanted to understand the "Children of Thanos," their origins, their powers, their loyalty to the Mad Titan. Could they be turned? Could their unique genetic markers yield new Prime Essence Shards or even templates for... darker Legionnaire variants? The System logged her as [PRIME COSMIC ASSET (CAPTURED – CHILD OF THANOS). POTENTIAL: HIGH (INTEL, SHARDS, BIO-WEAPONRY). RISK: EXTREME (ESCAPE, RESCUE ATTEMPT, PSIONIC BACKLASH).]

Logan, Miller "Argent," Elena "Scythe," and O'Malley debriefed directly with Elias via secure holographic link. Their firsthand accounts of Thanos's overwhelming power and the sheer cosmic horror of Vormir were sobering.

"He wasn't just strong, kid," Logan growled, his adamantium claws idly extending and retracting. "He... was. Like a damn mountain. Or a black hole. Whatever energy you threw at him, it just... vanished. And those Outriders... they ain't just grunts. They're endless, fearless."

Miller, his cryo-resonant talons leaving faint frost patterns on the deck plating, added in his guttural voice, "His will... it pressed down on us. Even Nox... felt it. Like the universe itself wanted us to kneel."

Elias listened, his mind a cold engine of calculation. His forces, however potent, were clearly no match for Thanos in a direct confrontation, especially if the Titan acquired more Infinity Stones. He needed a different strategy. Deception, misdirection, striking at Thanos's resources and allies, rather than the Titan himself, at least for now. And he needed more Shards, desperately. His current [0.3 Shard Reserve] was crippling.

Anya Petrova's network yielded the first thread. Thor Odinson, after his "capture" of Loki and the Tesseract post-New York, had indeed returned to Asgard. But Asgard was now in turmoil. Odin, weakened by his effort to send Thor back to Earth and by Loki's subsequent treachery with the Casket of Ancient Winters (events Elias had only glimpsed through fragmented magical echoes), had fallen into the Odinsleep, a deep, restorative coma. Loki, having feigned defeat and imprisonment, had somehow managed to usurp the Asgardian throne, disguising himself as Odin, his true motivations and allegiances a dangerous mystery. The Tesseract (Space Stone) was now in "Odin's" (Loki's) vault.

This was a critical vulnerability. Loki, while a reluctant, duplicitous "ally" of Elias, was ultimately self-serving. If Thanos, aware of Loki's deception (which was likely, given the Mind Stone fragment still subtly linked to him via the Scepter in Elias's vault), offered Loki a better deal, or simply threatened Asgard with annihilation, Loki might well surrender the Tesseract.

[ASGARDIAN SITUATION CRITICAL: LOKI (DISGUISED AS ODIN) RULING ASGARD. ODIN IN ODINSLEEP. THOR POTENTIALLY IMPRISONED OR EXILED BY LOKI. TESSERACT (SPACE STONE) VULNERABLE. THANOS AWARENESS/INTERVENTION: HIGH PROBABILITY.]

Elias couldn't risk Thanos acquiring the Space Stone so easily. He needed to intervene in Asgard, discreetly, to either secure the Tesseract himself, ensure Thor regained his throne and protected it, or, at the very least, make the Stone "disappear" into a dimensional flux even Thanos couldn't easily track. This would require assets capable of traversing dimensional pathways and navigating Asgardian "magic."

His thoughts turned to Dr. Finch. The Arch-Necromancer, his understanding of dimensional energies and esoteric lore now vast, was Elias's key to this Asgardian gambit. Finch, using knowledge gleaned from captured Hydra occult texts, Namor's Atlantean archives, and his own increasingly potent Witch-sight (now Lv. 8, capable of brief, controlled dimensional "scrying"), believed he could create a temporary, unstable "Shadow Bridge" – a pathway woven from necrotic and dimensional energies – that could reach Asgard, or at least, its periphery. It would be a one-way trip for any operatives sent, their return uncertain.

Elias chose his team carefully: Legionnaire Vex "Lexicon" (his Klyntar symbiote providing psychic shielding against Asgardian magic and his linguistic skills invaluable for deciphering runes or interacting with Asgardians), Legionnaire Jaeger "Ace" Richter (his piloting skills and innate understanding of spatial mechanics essential for navigating dimensional flux), and surprisingly, Wraith (Bucky Barnes). Wraith's experience with infiltration, his resistance to mental manipulation, and his cold, lethal efficiency made him the perfect deniable operative for a mission this sensitive. Logan and Miller were too... overt for a subtle Asgardian incursion. Nox was needed to guard Earth's orbital approaches.

Their mission: infiltrate Asgard via Finch's Shadow Bridge, locate the Tesseract, assess Thor's status and Loki's true intentions, and if possible, secure or "lose" the Tesseract before Thanos or his agents could claim it. It was a mission into myth, a journey into the heart of a god's realm. (Shard cost for Shadow Bridge ritual: 0.2, depleting Elias's reserve but deemed essential. Reserve: 0.1/???)

While this Asgardian gambit was being prepared, another cosmic echo reached Elias. Warlord Kryll of the Skrulls contacted him with urgent, almost panicked, intelligence. One of Thanos's most feared lieutenants, Ronan the Accuser – a Kree fanatic exiled for his extreme zealotry but now apparently in Thanos's employ – was on a rampage through a remote sector of Skrull space. Ronan, Kryll reported, was searching for something: an ancient artifact of immense power, an "Orb" that had been lost for centuries, rumored to be hidden on the desolate planet Morag. Kryll, fearing Ronan would find it and deliver it to Thanos (and also eager to acquire it for himself), proposed another "joint operation" to Elias: secure the Orb before Ronan. Kryll would provide coordinates, intelligence on Ronan's forces, and a Skrull infiltration team. Elias would provide the "superhuman muscle" and advanced tech to crack Morag's ancient defenses.

The System immediately flagged the "Orb of Morag" as: [POTENTIAL INFINITY STONE CONTAINMENT UNIT (ORB) – PROBABLE CONTENTS: POWER STONE. LOCATION: MORAG (FORGOTTEN CELESTIAL/ARCHAIC RACE OUTPOST). CURRENTLY SOUGHT BY: RONAN THE ACCUSER (THANOS AGENT) & SKRULL EMPIRE (KRYLL FACTION). OBJECTIVE: SECURE POWER STONE OR DENY TO ALL OTHER FACTIONS. THREAT/OPPORTUNITY: COSMIC APOCALYPSE/UNIMAGINABLE POWER.]

The Power Stone. Another one. Thanos was not just hunting the Soul Stone; he was systematically gathering all of them. This was why the Kree Purifier fleet's arrival had been perhaps more a distraction, a lesser prong of a much larger, Gauntlet-focused offensive.

Elias Thorne felt a chilling sense of cosmic convergence. Two Infinity Stones suddenly in play, with him directly positioned to intervene for both. This was no coincidence. The System, he now suspected, wasn't just guiding him; it was being guided, perhaps by the Stones themselves, or by some even vaster, unseen intelligence playing a game beyond his comprehension, with him as a critical, System-enhanced pawn.

He couldn't refuse Kryll. The Power Stone, in Thanos's or Ronan's hands, was an unthinkable catastrophe. He agreed to the joint Morag operation, but his team would be small, elite, and under his absolute control. He would deploy his remaining most formidable combat assets: Legionnaire Primus Marcus "Nox" Thorne (his Klyntar symbiote practically vibrating with anticipation at the thought of another Infinity Stone's energies), Elena "Scythe" Petrova (her kinetic blades a perfect counter to Ronan's heavily armored Kree forces), and the ever-reliable O'Malley piloting the Nightfall III (now equipped with experimental Skrull shield-bypassing torpedoes based on tech Kryll had "shared"). Logan and Miller would remain as Earth's last line of planetary defense with Thomas and the Adamantium Guard while Elias himself was psychically extended across two cosmic battlefronts.

The universe was holding its breath. On Asgard, a treacherous god-king unknowingly played into a shadow master's hands. On Morag, a fanatical Accuser raced against shapeshifting aliens and Earth's symbiotic champion for a Stone that could unmake stars. And on Earth, Captain America, oblivious to these cosmic machinations, continued his lonely crusade against Hydra's lingering ghosts, while Nick Fury and S.H.I.E.L.D. desperately tried to comprehend a world that had suddenly become terrifyingly, wonderfully, inexplicably filled with gods, monsters, and living weapons from beyond their wildest nightmares.

Elias Thorne, his [Prime Essence Shard Reserve now effectively 0.1 after Finch's Asgard ritual], was stretched thinner than ever, his mind a nexus for two simultaneous, galaxy-spanning operations, the fate of worlds hanging on his every calculation. The Gauntlet's shadow was no longer looming; it was actively, terrifyingly, being assembled. And he, the boy landlord who had dared to master an alien System, was now at the very heart of its cold, dark, infinitely powerful beckoning.