"Prophet, why are you here?" Thor asked in surprise when he saw Ethan arriving just after him at the prison.
"I'm here to help," Ethan replied calmly. "The Dark Elves could attack at any moment, and now Asgard's prison suddenly has a riot. That kind of timing probably isn't a coincidence, so it's better to put the chaos down as quickly as possible."
Of course, Ethan had actually come here to harvest summoning energy. Still, he wasn't about to say that out loud.
Thor paused for a moment. When he first heard about the prison riot, his immediate thought had been Loki causing trouble again. But after hearing Ethan's reasoning, he realized the situation might be more serious than that.
Thor nodded firmly.
"Prophet, then let's fight side by side again."
He was clearly referring to the Battle of New York.
Without wasting another second, Thor gripped Mjolnir tightly and rushed straight into the prison. His charging figure looked like a bolt of thunder crashing forward with unstoppable momentum.
Ethan, on the other hand, wasn't nearly as reckless. Nor did he possess Thor's absurd durability.
A telekinetic barrier unfolded around his body, forming a protective field as he followed behind Thor into the prison corridors. If Thor's hammer happened to miss a target or leave someone alive, Ethan simply stepped forward and finished the job with an atomic collapse beam.
Thor smashed his way through enemies at the front while Ethan cleaned up the survivors behind him.
The cooperation was surprisingly smooth.
At the same time, Ethan watched his summoning progress bar with growing satisfaction. The numbers climbed steadily, rising faster than he had expected.
Within a short time, it had already passed one hundred percent.
The prisoners inside Asgard's dungeon were practically treasure troves of summoning energy. There weren't many of them, but each individual prisoner contributed between two and five percent to Ethan's progress bar.
They were what he liked to call "high-experience enemies."
For souls with such high sin values, Ethan refused to let the World absorb them directly. According to the system's rules, a sinful soul only converted into one-thirty-sixth of its value as overwrite energy, regardless of how sinful the soul actually was.
That made it a waste.
At the same time, outside Asgard near the Bifrost bridge, something far more dangerous was unfolding.
A massive black warship suddenly emerged from invisibility. Its enormous inverted cone shape loomed in the sky like a floating fortress.
Moments later, the belly of the mothership opened.
Dozens—then hundreds—of sleek black attack craft poured out, swarming toward Asgard like a cloud of metal insects.
The Asgardian defense systems detected the invasion immediately.
Several enormous fortress cannons lining the city walls fired at once, beams of energy streaking across the sky as the battle for Asgard began.
Back inside the prison, Thor continued to push forward with brutal force while Ethan silently eliminated the remaining threats behind him. With their combined assault, the riot was suppressed quickly.
When the fighting ended, the entire prison looked like a battlefield.
Every cell had been broken open.
Every prisoner had either escaped or died.
Only one cell remained completely intact.
Loki's.
Ethan couldn't help narrowing his eyes slightly as he looked at it. He seriously suspected that the cursed warrior responsible for the prison break might have some kind of racial discrimination issue. Otherwise it made no sense that every prisoner would be freed except Loki.
"Hmph. Loki, it's been a few months," Ethan said with a smile. "You seem to be doing well."
Loki's expression stiffened slightly when he saw Ethan, though he quickly regained his usual composure.
"Hello, Your Excellency," Loki replied politely. "I didn't expect you to visit Asgard. It's unfortunate that I can't receive you properly under the circumstances."
"I'll entertain the Prophet myself," Thor said coldly. "You stay here and reflect on your crimes."
At that moment, distant explosions echoed from outside.
"Dark Elves?" Thor said grimly.
"I think so," Ethan replied.
Asgard was under attack. Thor had no time to continue arguing with Loki. After glaring at his brother one last time, he rushed out of the prison.
"Try not to rot in that cell forever," he muttered before leaving.
Ethan lingered behind for a moment, watching Loki with mild curiosity.
The God of Mischief sat alone in his transparent cell like an animal in a zoo enclosure. The situation was almost amusing to watch.
"Why don't you let me out?" Loki suddenly asked.
Ethan raised an eyebrow slightly.
"If you still had a certain scepter I'm interested in," Ethan said casually, "I might consider letting you out. Unfortunately, you don't."
He turned and waved dismissively.
"So if you want freedom, you'll have to earn it yourself."
With that, Ethan walked out of the prison.
There was no point wasting time here with Loki. Killing a few Dark Elves and harvesting their summoning energy sounded far more productive.
Ethan quickly rushed toward the battlefield.
Thor traveled by flying with Mjolnir, but Ethan simply teleported.
He arrived in the middle of the fight instantly.
A pale atomic collapse beam erupted from his hand like a glowing whip, slicing through the sky. Several Dark Elf aircraft exploded in quick succession, their wreckage falling like burning meteors.
In a single attack, Ethan wiped out more than a dozen Dark Elves.
He glanced at the progress bar afterward and couldn't help pursing his lips slightly.
Over a dozen enemies had only contributed about one percent of summoning energy. On average, each Dark Elf provided less than 0.1 percent.
Some of their souls were so weakly tainted that Ethan suspected they didn't even qualify as sinful souls.
Thinking about it, that made sense.
The Dark Elves had been in hiding for thousands of years. They hadn't had many opportunities to commit atrocities. Aside from Malekith and the ancient warriors who fought in the original war with Asgard, most of the current Dark Elves were probably from newer generations.
Ethan estimated that most of their sin value probably came from the Asgardians they had just killed during the attack.
With such poor returns, Ethan quickly lost interest.
He summoned the World and let it begin harvesting the battlefield instead.
Compared to high-sin souls, these low-sin souls were actually more efficient when absorbed directly by the World.
Ethan had already created a simple system for himself.
Any soul worth more than 0.5 percent summoning energy would go to the summoning system. Anything below that threshold would be devoured by the World for overwrite energy.
After all, both hands were full of valuable resources, and Ethan hated wasting anything.
Soon the battlefield fell completely silent.
The fighting had ended.
Thanks to Ethan's actions, the World's overwrite energy reserves had climbed to twenty-seven units.
At the same time, his summoning progress bar had reached two hundred and seventy percent.
Even if he failed to obtain the Reality Stone during this trip to Asgard, the gains alone already made the journey worthwhile. If he actually managed to secure the Reality Stone as well, the profits would be enormous.
Only then did Odin finally arrive.
He looked around at the carnage covering the battlefield, his expression darkening slightly.
Even Odin, who had fought countless wars across the Nine Realms, rarely witnessed destruction on this scale.
"Asgard thanks you for your help," Odin said as he looked at Ethan.
"Your Majesty is too polite," Ethan replied with a small smile. "Though I'm afraid the palace grounds got a little messy."
"It doesn't matter," Odin answered.
He scanned the battlefield again.
Suddenly his expression changed dramatically.
"Not good… Frigga."
Among the bodies scattered across the ground, Odin couldn't see Malekith's corpse. Realizing that Malekith's true target was the Reality Stone, the old king immediately understood what had happened.
It was a diversion.
Without another word, Odin turned and rushed toward the palace interior.
Ethan frowned.
He wasn't sure whether Frigga would still die today after his interference. More importantly, he had no idea where she was currently located. Even if he wanted to help, he had no direction to search.
So he followed behind Odin.
Soon they arrived at a side hall.
Before Ethan even entered, he heard a furious roar echoing from inside.
"No—!!"
Thor's voice.
Hearing that sound, Odin's steps faltered slightly. It was obvious he had already realized the worst possibility.
Ethan moved faster than him.
He rushed into the hall first.
Frigga lay on the ground.
Her body was motionless.
Across the room, Malekith had just thrown Thor aside and was preparing to escape.
But Ethan had no intention of letting him go.
The World appeared instantly in front of him.
Without hesitation, Ethan shouted:
"Za Warudo!"
The World.
In that instant, time stopped.
The entire universe froze in silence.
And at the exact moment time stopped, Odin—who had just stepped into the hall—showed a look of astonishment in his single eye.
....
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