Earth's Youngest T0 Threat

Everything had happened too suddenly.

Fury watched Melinda die horribly, his face utterly still, but his clenched fist crushed the corner of the table.

As he listened to Duva brazenly describe his next move, Fury finally understood Duva's objective.

"Duva wants to use the Bifrost to transport the Xenomorphs to Asgard? Reinforcements?"

Fury immediately realized that war must have broken out in Asgard. At last, he also understood what Duva had meant earlier about reaching an agreement with Thor.

That madman Duva had actually inserted himself into a war among higher species, pushing the Xenomorphs to the forefront of the battlefield as weapons of war!

Fury did not need to think hard to know how dangerous the war in Asgard would be. It was a battle involving terrifying beings who wielded divine power, one that could cause incalculable destruction.

"You're completely insane. You'll drag Earth into a war it has no business taking part in." Fury's voice was low.

Duva lowered his head and glanced at the earpiece in his hand. "Is there really any difference? If S.H.I.E.L.D. had any ambition at all, it should have done the same thing long ago—forcing research and control onto things that should never have been within S.H.I.E.L.D.'s control. It's merely gotten out of control now. You lost an outstanding subordinate, while my strength has greatly increased."

"Looks like you planned this from the beginning. Even letting me learn about using Pheromone to control Xenomorphs was deliberate. Your real method of controlling them is telepathy."

"What an imagination you have, Holmes." Duva neither confirmed nor denied it.

Fury had been thinking all along: what was the relationship between Matriarchs? If the offspring of different Matriarchs encountered one another while Duva was absent, would they fight?

This was important. It determined whether Fury should continue paying a massive price to deal with Duva.

"As long as I still control one Matriarch, it won't be long before I completely crack your secret," Fury said.

The chips around the necks of many Xenomorphs on the field immediately lit up red, on the verge of exploding.

But Duva reacted faster. He raised Thunder God's Hammer high and summoned lightning that filled the sky. Each bolt was not particularly powerful, but it was more than enough to disrupt signals and destroy the chips.

The Xenomorphs would suffer a little, nothing more. As long as it was not fatal, they could always recover.

"It seems I underestimated divine power as well. From now on, I'll establish a special file on you and assemble professionals to study you."

There was no emotion in Fury's voice, but that coldness was itself the greatest expression of emotion.

"No one likes failure. So perhaps we should discuss our next subject: are you interested in the war that has erupted in Asgard? Maybe we can reach a consensus on certain matters." Duva casually directed all the Xenomorphs to wipe out the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents present.

"You just used tricks to fool me, and now you want to discuss cooperation? Do you expect me to provide you with even more Xenomorphs? Or did gaining a slight advantage in intelligence make you think I'm an idiot?"

Even Fury, who prided himself on putting interests above all else, felt a headache coming on at Duva's seamless transition.

Sometimes, he really wanted to pry open Duva's skull and find out what dangerous things this man thought about all day.

"That's impossible. I won't cooperate with someone like you unless you give up control of the Xenomorphs." Fury felt that he sounded far too righteous saying that, which did not fit his usual image at all.

"What a pity. Then there's nothing to discuss. The way you're acting is like blaming S.H.I.E.L.D.'s incompetence on me without saying it outright. Did I stop you from controlling the Xenomorphs? You stole my little darling, imprisoned it, and ultimately failed anyway. And that's my fault?"

Duva looked around and found that all the recording equipment on site had been destroyed. He then raised his head, spread his hands toward the sky, and made a helpless gesture. "Then you're in serious trouble, Nick Fury. You've committed theft and unlawful imprisonment. You are provoking the ruler of a species."

Fury became more vigilant. He could not determine how Asgard viewed Duva. After all, the status of an Earthling who could wield Thunder God's Hammer in Asgard was still unknown.

This newly risen Thunder God was now even willing to expand his forces through radical means, willing to deceive all of S.H.I.E.L.D. and make a global organization vouch for him. Such behavior...

"You're so eager to prove your loyalty to Asgard. I'm guessing you've already gotten an Asgardian green card," Fury asked.

Hearing that, Duva tossed the earpiece to Thor, who stood beside him with a bewildered expression.

Thor had no idea what a green card was. Seeing Duva's expression, he naturally took it as a Midgardian joke.

"Thor, these people say I'm trying to become an Asgardian through this war. Completely the opposite of you."

"No. At least in one respect, we're the same. Neither of us wants to become a person from the other's world." Thor looked at the Xenomorphs around them, which had fallen silent once more, and felt his mouth go dry. "Let's not waste time on fools. I'll summon the Bifrost now and transport the troops! Once the war is over, you can become whoever you want!"

Over this period, Thor had also been getting a feel for Duva's temperament. He knew Duva had little interest in Asgardian citizenship, so he naturally guessed that Duva wanted to ascend to a higher stage and participate in grander wars to prove his worth and ability.

That was perfectly normal. A large part of the values Thor had been taught since childhood was exactly that.

Oh, perhaps Duva was interested in Frost Giants and wanted to capture a batch of them alive for parasitization.

Thor did not care about that. He also wanted to use this operation to return with an army and assist Loki. He would prove to all the people of Asgard that even without divine power, he could still help Asgard. He was still a qualified Asgardian warrior!

"Loki should have taken over all of Asgard. I can help him, and he'll surely be happy. One day, he'll become Asgard's king, and I..." Thor shook his head. There was no chance of that anymore. He had long since given up.

"Heimdall! I know you can hear me! You've seen my efforts. Now, open the Bifrost and send me and the reinforcements I brought back!"

"Heimdall!" Thor roared himself hoarse at the sky.

Duva stood at a distance, quietly watching.

Very soon, an incomparably brilliant rainbow descended from the heavens, gathering the power to traverse space as it shone upon Thor.

Under Duva's command, the Xenomorphs around them began rushing into the Bifrost's light one after another. When there was not enough room on the ground, they climbed over one another and piled themselves up as they charged in.

This was only the first wave.

A second Bifrost appeared immediately afterward, transporting batch after batch of Xenomorphs to Asgard.

Duva carefully sensed them and confirmed that the Xenomorphs had arrived in Asgard. Even across countless distant stretches of space, his mental link with them remained stable. Only then did he relax.

"So this is the rainbow that sent Thunder God Thor to Earth back then? Impressive technology," Fury said.

"Don't even think about it. This isn't merely advanced technology. It also involves the use of higher divine power, a field you will never be able to touch."

"Time will show Thor that he made a grave mistake by sending dangerous creatures like the Xenomorphs to a battlefield where they never should have gone." Fury's expression was extremely grim.

This meant he had no way to destroy and control all the Xenomorphs.

Even though Duva had sent away his army and the forces around him seemed weakened to the extreme, making this the perfect time to strike, Fury got a headache whenever he thought about those Xenomorphs in Asgard. He hated leaving future trouble behind.

Especially trouble without end.

He had no way to go to Asgard and exterminate the Xenomorphs. Even if he called Captain Marvel back to Earth, she could not do it.

"You need to change your way of thinking, Agent. Perhaps even if I hadn't sent the Xenomorph army to Asgard, you still wouldn't have been able to deal with me? Want to guess whether I showed you every Xenomorph I have, or whether I secretly hid a few away?" Duva's voice was like a devil's whisper.

If the hidden Xenomorphs erupted, no one knew how much destruction they could cause.

Fury felt that at least he still had a Queen in his hands. As long as he had that Queen, he could continue the research. Perhaps one day, he might truly find a way to counter Duva.

Duva controlled Xenomorphs with telepathy? Fury was already considering which superhuman proficient in mental abilities he should find to attempt controlling Xenomorphs by the same method.

With S.H.I.E.L.D.'s immense scale, countless inherited bodies of knowledge, and reserve of talent, as long as they had enough time...

"The war has already begun, Fury," Duva suddenly said.

"War? Asgard?"

"No. The war between you and me. Even now, you still haven't truly understood me."

Duva suddenly let out a deep sigh. His voice became incomparably calm, making it sound as though he had compromised with reality.

Fury's brows furrowed slightly as a bad feeling rose in his heart. But what could it be? He was on the Sky Carrier. Could Duva possibly produce some super Xenomorph capable of firing at the sky?

Suddenly, Fury sprang to his feet and rapidly tapped the virtual screen in front of him. "Quick, have Doctor Cliff increase the power of the A-28 Mental Shielding Device—"

"It's been running at maximum power the entire time. Cliff already thought of that... Damn it, the Matriarch is mutilating itself. It used its Inner Jaw to destroy its own head!"

Fury stood frozen, his expression shifting constantly. In the end, he opened a screen, entered the password, and stared at the bloody scene displayed there.

Splattered blood landed on the Adamantium, making sizzling sounds as plumes of smoke rose.

Two scientists who had stood too close had already been splashed by several drops of blood and were struggling on the ground.

Fury's expression changed completely.

What kind of distance was this? And it had even broken through the blockade of the mental shielding device to issue an order for the Queen to commit suicide! "Surprised? I have to say, your security measures were excellent. They never gave it a chance to escape. But that makes sense. As the world's number one organization, if you didn't use Adamantium to make your prison completely airtight, you'd be letting down your professional standards." Duva's voice was terrifyingly calm.

Fury stared at the screen before him in silence for several seconds. "That was a Matriarch..."

"A Queen. I prefer to call Xenomorph leaders capable of reproduction Queens."

"This is the second Queen. It's incredibly valuable. You wouldn't even discuss the terms of a trade with me, and you made it kill itself with a single command?"

"A cunning probing technique. You're trying to extract intelligence every moment of every day."

Duva called out Fury's tactic, but continued, "What makes you think Queens are difficult for Xenomorphs to produce? Want to guess again how many Xenomorphs I released on this planet? How many of them can transform into Queens, and under what circumstances will they become Queens?"

Duva's words made Fury's heart sink to the bottom.

Duva continued, "That's why I keep emphasizing that you don't understand me, and you don't understand the Xenomorphs. You haven't even figured out what the Xenomorphs are. They are a highly ordered species capable of extreme actions for survival and the continuation of their kind. And I..."

He slowly crushed the earpiece in his hand.

"...am the god of this species."

Fury looked at the severed communication and understood what Duva's final words meant.

Not Thunder God, but...

Xenomorph God!

"Looks like we provoked a troublesome fellow. Though I still disdain his pretension of calling himself a god, it seems we made a serious mistake." Fury felt heavy-hearted.

Coulson, still wrapped in bandages and not yet fully recovered from his injuries, had appeared behind Fury at some point. "Using results to prove causes has never been a good habit, but it can help us see more clearly."

"What result do you see, Coulson?"

"Duva is now the Thunder God. Regardless of how Asgard views him, that is how we should view him. That means Duva is difficult to kill through conventional means. Combined with the Xenomorphs' potential threat, that means..."

"Duva became a T0 Level threat in the shortest time and at the youngest age."

Asgard.

Loki was furious.

With several planets having been attacked and already fallen, he was carrying out war mobilization.

Heimdall had activated the Bifrost without permission from him, the king!

Below the throne, several people exchanged glances and saw the surprise in each other's eyes.

"It must be Thor!"

"Thor is back?"

Loki looked at the people whose emotions had risen, took a deep breath, and revealed a smile. "Yes, my brother has returned. But there is unfortunate news: he has not regained his divine power. Taking part in this war will be exceptionally dangerous for him."

Loki rose to his feet and looked at the people below him, each wearing a different expression. His gaze lingered briefly on the faces of the Warriors Three.

"You think I don't want to bring him back? But I can't do that! I'm protecting him! With his personality, he would definitely fight the Frost Giants to the death!"

The more Loki spoke, the sadder he sounded, to the point that even Sif, who knew his treacherous nature well, was nearly convinced.

"I know that my ascension to the throne has left you dissatisfied, but I had no other choice! If my brother were left to rely only on himself..."

Loki's words abruptly stopped. He discovered that Thor was entering Asgard Palace at an astonishing speed.

The doors burst open.

Amid one shocked gaze after another, a great mass of unidentified creatures surged in, surrounding a tearful Thor.

"My dear brother, say no more. I won't give you the chance to fight alone!"

Loki: "..."

He looked at those familiar creatures, then remembered the person who had brought him humiliation. His whole face nearly turned blue.