Undercurrents and Trials of Helheim

Lin Xiu's thumb hovered over the terminal touchpad for three seconds. Nanoparticles condensed into pale blue patterns around his wrist—the sign that the Oracle System had entered deep-scan mode.

The Old Norse Script in the email flowed across his retinal display, each character broken down into a quantum-state stream of information.

"Source located." When the system prompt sounded in his ear, the hairs on the back of his neck rose slightly.

The coordinates of a Nine Realms Network node exploded into his mind. It was an energy vortex at the boundary between the Asgardian Palace and Helheim, perfectly overlapping with the Rainbow Bridge fluctuation trail S.H.I.E.L.D. had intercepted three days earlier.

"Odin's Royal Seal..." he repeated softly, his fingertips unconsciously brushing the armor patterns on the back of his left hand.

When he had fought the Chitauri warship three days ago, those patterns had been little more than flickering blue light. Now, they pulsed with a warm tremor in time with his heartbeat, like a pulse awakened by some ancient memory.

The metal clasp of the tactical case pressed a red mark into his palm.

He took out three energy fragments. The Tesseract's mid-grade fragment glowed a deep blue, exuding a faint chill in the dim light, icy cold to the touch. The Mind Stone fragment shimmered pale violet, and a subtle hum could be heard from it, as if some living thing were chanting softly. The last one, wrapped in lightning patterns, was Asgardian energy extracted from the residual force of Mjolnir. Holding it, he could feel electric currents dancing over his fingertips.

As the fragments slid into the armor's slots one after another, the system's mechanical voice suddenly carried a faint fluctuation. "High-level energy resonance detected in the target area. Tactical form activation recommended."

"Activate." Lin Xiu's voice was two tones lower than usual.

The instant nanoparticles surged from the gaps along his spine, he smelled the familiar scent of ozone—the smell that appeared before every armor evolution, like high-voltage electricity breaking through the air in a laboratory, sharp and pungent as it rushed into his nostrils.

Pale blue armor patterns spread along his veins. When the visor unfolded before his eyes, the colors of the outside world suddenly sharpened. Dust gathered in the corner floated beneath the moonlight, every speck clearly visible. He could count the veins of the plane tree leaves outside the window, and when his fingers lightly touched the glass, he could feel its faint chill.

The moment the Rainbow Bridge's golden light streaked across the sky, he was already standing at the center of the quantum teleportation array in an abandoned Brooklyn factory.

Crumbing walls surrounded him, rusted machinery lay scattered across the ground, and the air reeked of old metal mixed with machine oil. The uneven floor creaked beneath his feet.

The Oracle System's navigation cursor flickered across his retina, pointing directly toward the edge of Helheim—the area S.H.I.E.L.D. had marked as the "Asgard Ancient Battlefield Ruins," forever obscured by gray static on satellite maps.

"Quantum jump ready." He made a confirmation gesture at the air, and the instant blue light exploded at his feet, a chill suddenly crept across the back of his neck.

It was the sensation of being watched by a higher being, as though invisible hands had passed through dimensions and gently settled on his armor core.

When Helheim's wind, carrying the stench of rotting leaves, poured into his nostrils, Lin Xiu's visor automatically adjusted its sensitivity.

The land of Helheim radiated deathly stillness. The black soil beneath his feet seemed to exude coldness, while barren mountains loomed in the distance, even more sinister beneath the gloomy sky. Wind howled past his ears with a strange, mournful whine.

Before him stood a slanted stone gate. The runes on its lintel seeped dark purple energy—Asgard's oldest defensive runes, which even S.H.I.E.L.D.'s magic division had only managed to decipher through the third layer.

"Deploy nanite swarm." He tapped his breastplate with a curled finger, and thousands of micron-scale mechanical insects surged from the gaps in his armor, weaving a translucent barrier around him.

When the first mechanical insect touched the stone gate, a sharp crack like shattering glass suddenly rang through the air. The dark purple runes instantly turned gold, and a web of light shot up from the ground, wrapping around his ankles in an instant.

"High-level sealing force field detected." The system alarm turned his visor red. "Analysis progress: 17%... 32%... 41%... failed."

Lin Xiu's pupils narrowed to slits.

He could clearly feel that power gnawing at the armor's quantum structure, like countless fine needles burrowing toward his skin through the gaps between nanoparticles. The stabbing pain spread through his entire body.

Just as he was about to activate the energy fragments and force his way through the seal, ripples suddenly spread through the air. Odin's phantom stepped out of the golden light. The star patterns on his royal robes were more vivid than those in S.H.I.E.L.D.'s files, and even the wrinkles along his brow carried the weight of accumulated years.

A complicated emotion rose within Lin Xiu—reverence for an unknown power, mixed with an unwavering obsession with the truth.

He knew that before a god, he was no more than an ant. But he refused to give up searching for the source of the power within him.

"Mortal." The voice was like muffled thunder rolling across a glacier, making Lin Xiu's eardrums ache. "The power within you... once belonged to my eldest son, Balder." The phantom pointed at his chest. "Why has it now fallen into human hands?"

Lin Xiu gritted his teeth and steadied himself.

The armor core trembled violently. He could hear the energy fragments humming within their slots—they were resonating with Odin's divine power. "I did not come to contend for divine authority." His voice shook slightly from the pain, yet remained exceptionally clear. "I only..."

"Only want to know where it came from." Odin finished for him, a trace of approval flashing through his golden eyes.

The next second, he raised a hand and sent out a bolt of lightning. Blue-violet current, wrapped in a deafening blast, struck Lin Xiu in the chest.

The agonizing pain drove Lin Xiu's knees heavily into the ground.

But what he saw was not blood. A pale blue shield bloomed amid the lightning—the armor core's automatically triggered defense mechanism.

The system prompt practically shouted, "Asgardian energy compatibility increased to 42%!

Original energy sample acquisition recommended!"

Perfect opportunity. Lin Xiu roared inwardly.

Before the shield dissipated, he sprang up fiercely. The nanite swarm burst behind him, disrupting the runes, and he shot into the depths of the ruins like an arrow released from its bow.

The interior of the ruins was darker than the outer area. Only the runes on the walls gave off a dim glow. The air was thick with damp decay, and the walls felt slick to the touch.

When Lin Xiu's visor detected the stone stele, his breathing suddenly stopped. The ancient text carved across its surface was exactly identical to Balder's Diary, which he had deciphered in the Oracle System three days earlier.

Lin Xiu's fingers hovered above the crystal, his heartbeat accelerating wildly. In that instant, he felt the ecstasy of finally uncovering the truth, fear of the unknown consequences, and the satisfaction of seeing years of research about to be proven.

The crystal embedded at the very top gave off a faint blue light. That fluctuation frequency...

"The remnant image of a Cosmic Cube Origin Fragment." Lin Xiu's fingers hovered three centimeters above the crystal, his voice trembling.

This was the theoretical model he had spent three years deriving in his laboratory, now truly laid out before his eyes.

Just as his fingertips were about to touch the crystal, the ground suddenly shook violently. Rubble rained down from overhead, clattering loudly as it struck the ground, while dust filled the air and made him cough.

"You should not have come here."

A sinister voice came from behind him.

Lin Xiu spun around and saw a man in a dark gray cloak standing in the shadows—Icarus Vaughn, a consultant for the S.H.I.E.L.D. Department of Magical Affairs, whom he had met once at the scene of the Battle of New York three days ago.

His pupils now glowed an eerie silver-white, and his right hand rested on the grimoire at his waist. "These ruins do not belong to humanity. They seal..."

"If something does not belong to humanity, should it remain sealed forever?" Lin Xiu cut him off.

The armor core's blue light cast a cold gleam over his visor. "If this is the realm of gods, then I will break it with my own hands."

Icarus's fingers tightened over the grimoire's cover.

He could sense quantum fluctuations moving through the air. Lin Xiu's armor was gathering energy.

And deep within the ruins, the crystal on the stone stele suddenly flared with dazzling blue light, as though responding to a summons that spanned a thousand years.

"You will regret this." Icarus's voice was as soft as a sigh.

But Lin Xiu had already turned away. The armor's thrusters sprayed pale blue flames behind him as he charged at full speed toward the crystal.

He could hear his own heartbeat drowning out every other sound. Within that pounding rhythm was excitement, fear, and something burning hot and impossible to stop—

The truth he had waited nineteen chapters to find.