Echoes of the Code of Fate

The fluorescent lights in the underground laboratory suddenly flickered twice when Lin Xiu pressed the confirmation key with his fingertip, emitting a faint hum.

The sound seemed to come from deep within the ceiling, carrying the hollow resonance unique to vibrating metal.

The part of his wrist covered by the Nano Armor grew slightly hot, a sign that the Oracle System had begun high-level calculations—the data file for Divine Sense—Level One Decoding Complete was flowing into the armor's core in pale-blue streams.

Whenever a stream of data passed through, he could hear a faint sound like interlocking gears deep in his mind, as if some dormant machine were slowly awakening.

"Analysis progress: 37%." As the mechanical voice sounded by his ear, Lin Xiu unconsciously rubbed the Vibranium patterns on the console with his thumb.

The fine engravings sank slightly beneath his fingertip, cold and hard to the touch, like ancient runes carved into steel.

The original Mind Stone blueprint he had hacked from Stark Industries three days ago still hung on the holographic screen. Its complex arrays of particle trajectories drifted like living things.

A section of code suddenly glowed red—the system had detected an anomaly.

In that instant, a faint smell of scorching filled the air, like the scent of air burned by leaking electricity.

He leaned forward, his nose almost touching the floating blue light. "Oracle, retrieve the undecrypted section of the Mind Stone blueprint." Before he finished speaking, the array at the center of the holographic screen suddenly collapsed into a thin chain, every node on it pulsing with dark-gold characters.

Those characters seemed alive as they leaped and spun, casting faint shadows of light that traced a blurred outline across Lin Xiu's face.

Lin Xiu's pupils narrowed—that was not ordinary encrypted code. It was Old Norse. He had seen similar markings while researching Norse mythology texts in the library.

The strokes of that language were rough and ancient, as though carved with stone blades into ruins beneath sheets of ice.

"Attempting decryption... Algorithm match failed for the seventeenth time." Oracle's prompt carried an unusual sluggishness, as if even it felt uneasy.

Lin Xiu lightly clenched his back teeth and pressed his left hand over the Nanocore in his chest.

The armor against his skin suddenly became scorching hot, as though something were awakening deep within the core. Every vibration was as distinct as a heartbeat.

Almost unconsciously, he placed his right hand over the holographic screen. The instant his fingertips touched the dark-gold characters, every light in the laboratory abruptly went out.

In the darkness, a line of glowing Old Norse rose from the holographic screen like a poem written in stardust: "Balder shall be reborn in the mortal world, wield quantum power, and rewrite Ragnarok."

Lin Xiu's breathing suddenly stopped.

He staggered half a step back and struck the console. The dull pain in his lower back against the metal edge cleared his mind somewhat—this was not a design note. It was a prophecy.

Words his mentor had spoken at a quantum entanglement seminar three years ago suddenly flooded his mind: "All information that crosses dimensions is, in essence, fate written in advance." And now, this passage was binding the name "Balder," a name belonging to Asgard, tightly to his existence in the most primitive way.

He swiftly brought up his private database, his fingers flying over the virtual keyboard.

As commands were entered, streams of data cascaded across the screen. The touch of his fingertips against the keys was cold and rapid.

When the encryption level rose from triple to sevenfold, the blue glow on the chest of the Nano Armor suddenly surged.

The radiance was so blinding he could barely keep his eyes open, as though a miniature sun were burning inside the armor.

The moment Lin Xiu looked up, the electronic devices along the entire laboratory wall exploded at once. Amid the scattering sparks, he saw the projection of the Mind Stone blueprint intertwine with the Nanocore's data streams like two mating serpents, wrapping around and merging with each other, radiating suffocating waves of energy.

"Warning! Abnormal energy resonance!" Oracle's alarm was piercingly sharp, as if the entire space were trembling.

Lin Xiu's temples throbbed violently, and warm liquid flowed from his nose—a sign that blood vessels in his brain had ruptured under extreme pressure.

He staggered toward the emergency stop button, but a second before he touched it, some invisible force dragged him into darkness.

When consciousness returned, he found himself standing amid a sea of stars.

Beneath his feet lay fragments of the collapsed Rainbow Bridge. They gave off a dim, icy-blue glow, and when he stepped on them, he could feel a subtle texture somewhere between solid and unreal.

In the distance, the outlines of the Nine Realms twisted in the void like crumpled parchment, every detail constantly warping and reforming.

A figure in silver battle armor stood with his back to Lin Xiu. The runes on the armor were identical to the patterns on Lin Xiu's Nano Armor, faintly emitting the hum of metal grinding together.

"You are not the first..." The voice carried the hum of grinding metal. "And you will not be the last."

Lin Xiu wanted to ask a question, but his throat felt as though it were being gripped by an invisible hand.

He reached for the figure's back. Just as his fingertips were about to touch it, the entire illusion suddenly shattered into countless specks of light, and icy aftershocks swept across his nerve endings.

When he opened his eyes again, he was kneeling on the laboratory's metal floor, his forehead pressed against the cold ground and the back of his neck drenched in cold sweat.

The chill of the metal seeped through his skin into his bones, making him shudder.

"Anti-Mental Force Field active. Current resistance strength: 89%." Oracle's voice brought him back to himself.

Lin Xiu braced himself against the console and stood, discovering spiderweb cracks in the Nano Armor on the back of his left hand—the mental intrusion just now had been more violent than he had imagined.

The cracks across the armor's surface glimmered faintly blue under the lights, like fractures spreading across glass.

He quickly switched interfaces and forcibly shut down the resonance module's red alert. The Nanocore's energy index plummeted from 230% to 17%, and the silver patterns on the armor's surface instantly dimmed.

That restless power seemed suppressed, yet it still lurked deep below.

Outside the laboratory, Lena Thorson's combat boots crushed a piece of broken glass with a crisp crack.

She watched the surging blue glow from the direction of the laboratory and pressed her communicator three times before the Rainbow Bridge connected.

Odin's projection appeared beside her, the vertical eye between his brows gleaming faintly.

He watched the energy ripples in Earth's direction. After a moment of silence, he said, "Let him go." His voice carried a weariness that even Lena had never heard before. "Perhaps... this is fate's choice."

Before he finished speaking, a shaft of golden light cleaved down from the sky.

Heimdall appeared holding Gungnir. His gaze swept over the laboratory before settling on Lena. "The Watcher's task is complete." As soon as he spoke, his figure dissolved into the golden light, as if he had never appeared at all.

Lin Xiu looked toward the night sky through the broken window.

The armor patterns on that silver-backed figure from the vision grew ever clearer in his memory—they matched the design blueprint for the Apocalypse Form of the Balder Armor perfectly.

"Nanocore activity detected as abnormally high," Oracle suddenly reported. "Preparation for form upgrade is recommended."

Lin Xiu touched the core in his chest. A steady, faint vibration came from within, like some sleeping power awakening.

He looked at the Old Norse prophecy still flickering on the holographic screen, and a faint smile tugged at his lips.

"This isn't fate," he said softly, gently pressing his fingertips against the core. "This is my choice."

A gust of cold wind suddenly rushed in through the laboratory vent, making the paper documents on the table rustle loudly.

One page was blown into the air, tracing an arc as it flew. Printed prominently across it was the title: "Oracle Form—Pre-Apocalypse Stage Upgrade Plan," glowing dimly blue beneath the moonlight.