Peter ignored Frigga, who was caught in shock and inner conflict, and instead continued to explain to Thor and Sif, who were listening eagerly:
"I plan to give this sixth divine artifact to Steve."
Without a doubt, this artifact was a shield.
Its design was more retro than his original round shield, looking somewhat like the Renwang Shield from Sanguosha.
"It has two effects. First, like the Miljor Hammer, it has a built-in homing system, making it easy for him to keep throwing it around like a flying shield."
"Second, it converts the user's willpower into combat power. The stronger the user's willpower, the stronger the blessing the shield provides."
"A mortal body rivaling the gods..." Thor looked at the shield and couldn't help but sigh with heartfelt admiration.
"Steve... he deserves such an artifact."
"The seventh artifact is prepared for Tony. His and Steve's artifacts perfectly complement each other."
Tony's artifact was an energy cannon component that could be integrated into his armor.
The principle was similar to Captain America's shield—its power depended on the user's determination to protect Earth.
"The eighth artifact is Hawkeye's bow."
"I've engraved the Blessing of the Wind Spirit on it, which greatly increases movement speed and firing rate. Additionally, even without physical arrows, pulling the bowstring back can condense wind element arrows."
"Finally... is the artifact prepared for Harry."
As Peter's childhood best friend...
Peter ultimately gave Harry a bit of special treatment.
Considering he could previously only throw bombs while riding his flying skateboard...
To give his buddy a cooler look, Peter simply referenced Falcon and Scarab from the cinematic Universe, crafting a set of large wings for him that resembled those of a Gold Saint.
These wings could not only extend and retract freely, but their tips also held two sharp blades. Furthermore, the steel feathers on them could be detached, fired, and recalled at will.
Simply put, with these wings, Harry would also be able to rain down feathers all over the skies of New York in the future~
"How about it, Your Highness? Do these artifacts I've crafted meet your standards?"
After introducing all the artifacts, Peter couldn't help but humblebrag.
Frigga took several deep breaths to recover from her profound shock. She then couldn't help but grasp Peter's arm in excitement:
"If I had any reservations before about Thor going to Earth with you, now I am completely at ease!"
"Mr. Peter, I believe that as long as you are there, Thor will definitely return alive!"
"Additionally, if you ever wish to forge more artifacts in the future, you can come to me at any time. Asgard can even provide the materials for free, as long as you leave one or two artifacts behind as a rental fee for the forge!"
...
After bidding farewell to the dazed Frigga, Peter set off on the journey back to Earth with Sif and Thor.
What they, eagerly returning to Earth, did not know was that during the time Peter was forging the artifacts, Earth had already undergone Earth-shattering changes!
According to Sin's plan, after taking over Talokan, Cul launched a new style of blitzkrieg unique to the Talokanils.
The North African coast bore the brunt of it.
Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Wakanda—tsunamis dozens of meters high swept over the coastlines at a speed of eight hundred kilometers per hour.
There was no warning whatsoever.
There was no buffer.
All breakwaters, coastal defenses, and emergency evacuation systems were as fragile as paper, utterly defenseless before the thirty-meter-high wall of water.
With this, the war between humanity and the God of Fear had officially begun!
The Atlanteans already possessed a type of Vibranium mine capable of releasing massive amounts of seawater.
Combined with the power of the hammer of nerkkod, the sheer force unleashed by these mines was practically world-ending.
Namor stood atop the waves, gripping the hammer of nerkkod tightly in his hand.
His face was as cold and hard as iron, but a closer look revealed that his fingers gripping the hammer were an abnormal white—the color of knuckles drained of blood from excessive force.
He didn't want to do this.
But he had no choice.
Within ten minutes...
Morocco was completely submerged.
When the thirty-meter-high wall of water swept over Casablanca's coastline, this city, famous for its romance, didn't even have time to sound a complete air-raid siren.
Seawater poured into the streets, flooded into the subways, and submerged the domes of mosques.
Thousands of people were swept up and tossed about by the torrents. They desperately reached out in the murky water, only to catch more debris and foam.
Twenty minutes.
The cities on both sides of the Strait of Gibraltar had completely fallen.
This vital passage connecting the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea became a thoroughfare of death.
Water rushed in from both sides simultaneously, generating water spouts dozens of meters high as they collided in the center of the strait.
Soldiers stationed at the British military Base in Gibraltar watched helplessly as the water level rose from their ankles to their chests in ten minutes. They threw away their guns, abandoned their gear, and desperately scrambled for higher ground.
But where was higher ground? There was water everywhere.
Forty minutes later.
Southern Spain, the western coast of Portugal, and southern Italy all sounded the alarm simultaneously.
The seawater had risen past the second floors of the buildings.
More than forty coastal cities were submerged.
Hundreds of millions of people were trapped in the floods.
Even though, thanks to Cul's "special care," not a single one of these ordinary people—whom Cul viewed as nothing more than "livestock to harvest"—had died. This was not because Cul was soft-hearted, but because dead people cannot feel fear.
Only the living would feel the suffocating terror of struggling in the water, the bone-chilling despair of watching their homes get swallowed up, and the agony of calling out their loved ones' names over and over in the dark depths.
These were the things Cul truly wanted to savor.
So he did not kill.
He merely steeped everyone in the juices of fear, slowly and greedily sucking in every single drop of dread they emitted.
The terrifying impact of having their homes submerged in seawater quickly plunged the citizens of these nations into deep panic.
Cries, screams for help, and the rumbling of collapsing buildings blended together, uploaded to the global network through the lenses of phones held by survivors' trembling hands.
The comment sections beneath the videos exploded.
Exclamations, curses, prayers, and desperate messages in various languages packed the screens, refreshing so fast that it was impossible to read them.
The view count of every single video climbed at a rate of hundreds of thousands per second.
Seven billion people worldwide witnessed the face of disaster together at this very moment.
Such a terrifying and sudden natural disaster... everyone could guess exactly whose handiwork this was—
The entity previously introduced by The Arbiter in his livestream: the "God of Fear," Cul the Serpent.
Even though everyone knew in their hearts that they must not feel fear, and that every bit of fear they generated would only serve as nourishment to strengthen their enemy...
...when faced with those images of a literal living hell on Earth...
...people finally realized that knowing and doing were two entirely different things!
Fear is humanity's most honest instinct.
It requires no one's permission.
Spreading inland from the Mediterranean coast, from Europe to Asia, an invisible, oppressive panic swept through all of human civilization like the Black Death of centuries past!
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