Loki's Invitation

Lin Xiu's tactical boots ground heavily over the rusted fire escape outside the theater. The aged metal groaned in a long, shrill protest under the strain, painfully piercing through the stillness of dusk.

The air outside the theater reeked of old decay, mingled with rust and dust, seeping into his nostrils.

His gaze fell upon the mottled metal, and he could almost feel its touch through his soles—cold and rough.

He looked up at the half-open stained-glass window on the third floor. The saint's eyes on the glass glimmered a bluish gray in the twilight, carrying an air of mystery and unease.

The faint light outside filtered through the glass and spilled across the ground, forming irregular patches of light and shadow.

This was the only heat signature the Oracle System had marked in New York's East Side while he was reverse-tracing the rune fluctuations.

The Nanocore at the back of his neck grew faintly hot. The warmth rose from beneath his skin as dark golden patterns crawled up his spine like a nimble little snake toward the back of his ear, where the bloodstained note was still tucked.

The blood on the note had already dried, carrying a faint metallic stench.

He had deliberately made the tactical terminal's location signal jump three times around the block before finally stopping behind the stage curtain in the middle of the theater—this was bait, meant for the person who had written the note.

Inside the theater, dim lighting fell over the shabby seats. Their fabric had worn through, exposing the stuffing beneath. Dust-covered stage props lay scattered carelessly in the corners, filling the place with an eerie atmosphere.

The curtain was suddenly lifted at one corner by the wind with a swish, and Lin Xiu's pupils contracted sharply.

His heartbeat quickened of its own accord as tension spread through him.

The man who emerged from the shadows wore a sharply tailored dark green suit, its shoulders straight as blades.

His blond hair glinted coldly beneath the yellowed spotlight. The pale blue scar at the corner of his right eye trembled slightly with his smile. "Let me guess—graduate student in mechanical engineering, a time traveler whose quantum experiment went wrong, or the new host of the Balder Armor?" He gave the scepter in his hand a little shake, its embedded deep-blue gem radiating a chilly glow. "Welcome to reality, little scientist."

Lin Xiu lightly tapped the terminal on his tactical belt twice with his knuckles. The Oracle System immediately projected Loki's real-time data onto his retina: biological energy fluctuations seventeen times those of an ordinary human, and residual Mind Stone radiation detected in the scepter's core—an exact match for the fluctuations recorded on the data drive stolen from his lab.

"You stole my data drive." His voice remained steady as his thumb quietly pressed the terminal's hidden switch, where the Nano Armor's emergency activation program was stored. "For the entanglement equations of the Mind Stone and the Nanocore." Thoughts raced through Lin Xiu's mind as he weighed the situation before him and considered how to deal with Loki's scheme.

He knew working with Loki was dangerous, but to verify the possibility of the Nanocore's evolution, this seemed to be his only chance.

Loki gave a low laugh. The gem atop his scepter suddenly lit with a ghostly glow, and the note tucked behind Lin Xiu's ear burst into flame with a swish. Ash fell onto the stage's wooden floor, burning into a crooked Norse rune.

The rune emitted a strange aura, carrying a trace of mysterious power.

"Smart, but not smart enough." He took two steps forward, his boot heels tapping out a crisp rhythm. "I can tell you the exact location of the Mind Stone—not that imitation on the top floor of Stark Tower, but a real fragment, submerged in the Asgard Ruins beneath New York."

Lin Xiu's breath nearly stopped.

When the Oracle System had analyzed the Tesseract, it had once flashed a vague prompt: the Mind Stone and the Balder Core might possess quantum entanglement, but verification required a tangible energy source.

And Loki's words had just supplied the crucial missing link in his experiment.

"The conditions?" he asked, while noticing Loki's fingers absently rubbing the scepter—a nervous habit. The Prince of Asgard was hiding something.

"Your nanotechnology." Loki's gaze swept over the dark golden patterns behind Lin Xiu's ear. "The Balder Armor can analyze unknown energy, can't it? I need it to help me strip away the Mind Stone's control." He suddenly leaned closer, and the mixed scent of cedar and sulfur entered Lin Xiu's nose. "Sharing power is better than being crushed by the Time Management Authority or one of Ancient One's lackeys, isn't it?"

A chill crept over the back of Lin Xiu's neck.

He had long guessed that Ancient One was watching him, but the fact that Loki could say it outright meant he possessed more information than Lin Xiu had imagined.

He lowered his eyes to his tactical terminal. A red warning reading "Trust Level 0%" flashed across the screen, but his mind calculated rapidly: if he pretended to cooperate, then activated an Oracle Form energy scan after entering the ruins, he might be able to directly capture the Mind Fragment's quantum spectrum—his only chance to verify the possibility of the Nanocore's evolution.

"I need to test it on site." He raised his head, his gaze as precise as a laser calibrated in a laboratory. "Prove you're not talking nonsense."

Loki's smile widened, as though he had expected that answer all along.

He turned and walked toward the dark door on the left side of the stage, tapping his scepter against the wall three times. The stone bricks suddenly flipped over, revealing a spiral staircase descending into darkness.

A damp scent filled the stairwell, carrying the smell of soil and stone.

"After you, Quantum Sentinel." His voice echoed down the stairs. "Your armor will thank me."

Tiny fluorescent particles drifted through the air of the underground ruins. Lin Xiu reached out and caught one. It felt like melting stardust, cool and soft.

The walls were carved with runes he had seen in Asgardian texts. Each one flowed with a faint golden radiance, casting a soft glow that illuminated the surrounding darkness.

And on the stone platform at the very depths floated a deep-blue crystal the size of a fingernail—the Mind Stone fragment. It resonated with the Nanocore at the back of his neck, and the dark golden patterns beneath his skin began to burn, as if living things were swimming through his veins.

"Oracle, initiate analysis mode," he said softly, and streams of data instantly covered his vision.

The Nanocore began to resonate. The armor's dark golden patterns crawled down his arms to the backs of his hands, gathering at his fingertips into tiny probing tendrils—an elementary application of Oracle Form, analyzing energy structures through physical contact.

Just as the tendrils were about to touch the fragment, a deafening roar came from the outer edge of the ruins.

The roar was like muffled thunder, making his ears ache from the vibration.

"Loki!"

That furious roar was like lightning splitting the clouds, nearly rupturing Lin Xiu's eardrums.

He looked up to see stone dust raining down from the dome. Thor crashed through the entrance with Mjolnir in hand, his red cape snapping behind him and fury blazing in his blue eyes, hot enough to melt metal. "You're stealing power that doesn't belong to you again! You despicable wretch! You dare steal the power of the gods and drag this innocent outsider into it—you are unforgivable!"

Loki's scepter abruptly flared with ghostly light, and a purple energy beam shot straight at Thor's chest.

Thor's hammer carved an arc through the air. Thunder wrapped in lightning shattered the energy beam, and the blast wave overturned the stone table beside Lin Xiu.

He staggered into a rune-covered wall as warnings flashed wildly across his retina. "Abnormal energy fluctuations! Recommend switching to Tactical Form!"

"Damn it." Lin Xiu gritted his teeth and pressed the form-switch button on his tactical belt.

Dark golden patterns instantly covered his entire body. The armor completed its reconfiguration amid a low hum, miniature thrusters sprang from the shoulder plates, and the quantum matrix in his chest armor began operating at high speed.

Thor's lightning struck again. Lin Xiu instinctively raised an arm, and a pale blue force field rippled across the armor's surface. With a boom, the lightning slammed into the field, numbing his arm.

"You shouldn't have gotten involved!" Thor's voice cut through the roar. His hammer gathered lightning once more, but its target shifted to Lin Xiu. "Outsider! You're helping this liar steal the power of the gods! Do you know his scheme? He's a complete fraud—you've been used by him!"

"Wait—I only wanted to verify the possibility of the Nanocore's evolution. I never meant to help him steal the power of the gods!" Lin Xiu had barely begun to explain when Loki's energy beam came from the other side.

He rolled aside, his armored knee guard scraping across the ground and throwing sparks against the stone bricks.

The Oracle System suddenly displayed a green prompt in his vision: "Mind Fragment energy spectrum collected: 97%"—with only 3% remaining, he could complete the entanglement equation between the Nanocore and psychic energy.

"Icarus Vaughn is here!"

A cool voice pierced the melee like an ice spike.

Lin Xiu looked up and saw a man in dark green robes descend from the shadows beneath the dome, a bronze bell carved with Sanskrit clutched between his fingers.

With a flick of his wrist, the bronze bell buzzed, and a translucent golden membrane instantly enveloped the entire ruin.

Thor's lightning struck the membrane and burst into scattered sparks; Loki's energy beam was swallowed by it without even leaving a ripple.

"You think they don't know what you're doing?" Icarus's gaze was like an ice-tempered blade, piercing straight into Lin Xiu. "In Master Ancient One's astrology chamber, your timeline has already branched into twenty-three possible paths." His fingers slid across the membrane, and an image of Lin Xiu's laboratory appeared upon it—the instant the data drive was taken, the silver glimmer in the ventilation duct, was the magical trace he had left behind.

Cold sweat seeped down Lin Xiu's back.

He finally understood that from the moment the data drive had been stolen, this "chance encounter" had never been Loki's one-man show.

The Nanocore suddenly shook violently. He looked down at his palm, where the Mind Fragment he had collected amid the chaos now lay—the energy spectrum was already 100% complete.

Loki's laughter rang especially clearly within the barrier.

He leaned against a shattered stone wall, the gem on his scepter still glowing deep blue. The smile on his lips was like a slick snake. "The game has only just begun, Quantum Sentinel." His gaze swept over Icarus, then Thor, who was still pounding against the membrane. "After all..." He gently tapped his temple. "Some people are far too eager to be the ones moving the pieces."

Icarus's fingers suddenly tightened, and the bronze bell let out a piercing shriek.

Lin Xiu felt something pressing in from all directions. Ripples began spreading across the golden membrane, as though invisible hands were kneading the space around them.

The Nanocore at the back of his neck burned terribly, and the dark golden patterns nearly burst free from beneath his skin—his armor was issuing a warning. This suddenly formed barrier was altering the quantum state they occupied.

Beyond the membrane, New York's night quietly crept over the entrance to the ruins.

No one noticed a wisp of dark green mist slip in through the ventilation duct. It circled the Mind Fragment in Lin Xiu's palm twice, then quietly dissipated.