Dark clouds hung low like an iron curtain, lightning slithered through their depths like enraged snakes twisting in the darkness, occasionally splitting the sky with a ghastly white flash that illuminated the ruins beneath Lin Xiu's feet.
The air smelled of ozone, mingled with the dampness of approaching rain.
Lin Xiu stood amid the ruins of the weather station, the sound of his breathing beneath his faceplate filtered by the armor into a faint metallic rhythm, steady and calm.
His fingers unconsciously traced the Vibranium patterns on his breastplate, their touch cold yet familiar.
He stared at the storm warning flashing on his wrist holographic display—at 3:17 a.m., the cumulonimbus clouds over Manhattan would produce the greatest electrical potential difference in twenty years. This was the best opportunity to test the Oracle System's Resonance Mode.
"Environmental energy readings have reached the required threshold." As the mechanical voice sounded in his ear, the Nanocore at the back of his neck grew faintly hot, like an omen warning him of the boundary he was about to cross.
The chill leaking from the spatial rift Loki had torn open three days ago still lingered in his memory. The green energy patterns winding around its edges had a 73% overlap with the Asgardian magic schematics analyzed by the Oracle System.
Lin Xiu licked his chapped lips and lightly touched the Vibranium patterns on his breastplate. "It's time to let technology and divine power truly clash."
The Nanite Swarm surged out of the metal case by his feet, weaving a pale blue net of light through the air. The faint crackle of electricity echoed beside his ears like whispers.
When the last Nanobot merged into his shoulder armor, fine lightning patterns emerged across the armor's surface—data from Mjolnir's discharges that he had collected over the