As a Valkyrie whose lifelong dream was to die on the battlefield and have her soul return to Valhalla after death...
The thing Sif desired most in her life was to trade blows with top-tier powerhouses.
But she was helpless; Thor, her former crush, always charged to the front in every battle. He claimed to "protect" her, but in reality, he just hogged all the satisfying fights.
Whenever she wanted to spar with him, this guy would always put on an arrogant face, as if saying, "Forget it, you'll never beat me in this lifetime."
She hated that feeling!
And Peter...
She had witnessed this man's strength with her own eyes.
There were few in the entire Nine Realms who could face an existence of Solus's level head-on.
If she could keep training with Peter at full strength,
She believed her subsequent progress would definitely be staggering.
"Then what are we waiting for? Let's start now."
"Hmm?"
"Combat training!" Sif stood up abruptly, twisting her longsword to split it into dual blades. "You just promised me!"
With that, she brandished her dual swords and slashed at Peter.
Peter had no choice with this madwoman, so he could only give her a flick to the forehead when she rushed close.
Don't underestimate a simple forehead flick; it sent Sif flying over ten meters away, showing the clear gap in their strength.
Although she was instantly defeated by Peter in one move, Sif didn't regret it at all.
She just gritted her teeth, climbed back up, and charged at Peter again and again.
Once, twice, ten times, twenty times... hundreds of times.
Until her legs could no longer support her, sweat formed a small puddle on the ground, and she collapsed limply, unable to muster even a shred of strength.
Only then was the practice session declared over.
After the practice ended, there wasn't a hint of frustration on her face; instead, it was filled with an unprecedented sense of satisfaction.
This feeling... was amazing!
It was even better than fighting a hundred mock battles in Asgard.
Because Peter wouldn't hold back at every turn like Thor, nor would he deliberately go easy on her just because she was a woman.
He fought exactly as he should, with the appropriate weight behind every strike.
This was a real battle.
This was the kind of husband she wanted!
At that thought, the usually tough Sif rarely displayed a hint of a girl's unique charm:
"Peter."
"Yeah?"
"...Carry me to rest, okay?"
Her voice was soft, yet it carried an irrepressible heat.
Peter was stunned for a moment.
Then he made a decision within 0.1 seconds.
Why hesitate?
He had already reported to Gwen and Felicia anyway.
Besides, this girl had clearly been completely tamed by him. If he stayed reserved now, how would he be any different from a eunuch!
He immediately leaned down and picked Sif up in a princess carry.
Sif buried her face in his chest, her ears so red they looked like they might bleed.
Yet, she was still making excuses: "Don't misunderstand, I'm just too tired to walk."
"Mm-hmm, whatever you say is right."
"I really just can't walk!"
"I know, I know."
"What are you laughing at! Stop laughing!"
...
For the next month or so, Peter's schedule was packed.
Besides deepening his bonds with Gwen, Felicia, Sif, Natasha, Daisy, and the others, the rest of his time was spent at the construction site.
That's right, the construction site.
An unprecedented massive renovation was taking place beneath the streets of New York.
Peter and Tony used air-raid shelters left over from the Cold War as the basic framework to officially begin the New York underground project.
Peter's Earth magic was practically a cheat code in this kind of project—others would have to use tunnel boring machines and consume massive amounts of manpower and resources.
But for him, it was just a matter of saying "LAND PLEASE~"!
Using magic to directly push the Earth, tunnels were completed instantly wherever he went, while workers followed behind to install reinforcing steel beams. Efficiency was multiplied countless times.
Tony was responsible for technical design and equipment installation, while Peter handled the civil engineering and energy core deployment.
The cooperation between the two had reached a level of extreme synergy.
To what extent?
The answer was a level that even Pepper and Gwen would feel a faint hint of envy upon seeing.
Relying on this synergy and his almost god-like magic,
In less than a month, the Level 2 and Level 3 underground fortifications were completed.
The Level 2 fortifications consisted of fifty-three underground safe houses spread across New York's five boroughs.
These safe houses were all independently powered by arc reactors and possessed enough defensive strength to withstand high-yield explosives.
Each safe house was equipped with a complete ventilation system, an emergency medical station, and at least seventy-two hours of supplies.
Theoretically, these safe houses were enough to accommodate all eight million-plus citizens of New York.
If the arc reactor defenses weren't enough, three Level 3 safe houses reinforced with a large amount of Vibranium would be activated.
One in Manhattan.
One in Queens.
One in Brooklyn.
Each Level 3 safe house could hold 1.5 million people.
In other words, in the most extreme case, these three Vibranium fortresses alone could save nearly half of New York's population.
"This is the limit of what we can do."
On the day of completion and inspection, Tony stood in the control room of the Brooklyn Level 3 safe house, showing a rare look of exhaustion.
"The rest will depend on whether Freddy's dynamic scheduling can keep up when things actually happen."
The Freddy Tony mentioned was an auxiliary AI he specifically developed for this defense system.
Once the battle began, Freddy would calculate the battlefield situation in real-time, determine which areas were core combat zones, and then automatically open the corresponding safe house passages, guiding citizens from Level 2 safe houses into Level 3 safe houses.
Simply put—it was to keep the civilians from running around blindly and guide them where they needed to go.
"Good work, Tony."
"Don't give me that." Tony bit into a cheeseburger and spoke indistinctly, "I only hope these things are never used."
Peter didn't respond.
Of course, he didn't want to use them either.
But he had a gut feeling that these things would be put to use very soon.
...
Intuition is the kind of thing that sometimes makes you want to curse because of its accuracy.
Just three days after the fortifications were completed, Peter received a call from Hill.
"Director, Mr. Thor has just arrived at headquarters and says he has urgent business to discuss with you in person."
Hearing this, Peter didn't hesitate. He immediately took out the eye of aurora and teleported to S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters.
In the meeting room, Thor had been waiting for a long time.
"What happened?" Peter asked casually after landing.
Thor took a deep breath and answered directly:
"Heimdall saw it."
"Saw what?"
"Five warships."
Thor solemnly held up five fingers:
"Five Chitauri warships are flying toward Earth."
"And they deliberately bypassed the star system where Asgard is located. Due to the Universal Peace Treaty my father signed back then... we in Asgard cannot intervene in this battle!"
"We can only notify you of this news in advance. The rest will depend on whether you can withstand their attack yourselves!"
***************************
Thoughts on where the plot is heading? Let me know in the comments! If you're enjoying the ride, please leave a quick review and toss a few Power Stones my way. Every bit of support means the world! 🙌