The Storm Rises from the Smallest Breeze

Xiao Han sank deep into the beach chair like a living ore vein greedily absorbing light and heat, silent tides of power surging beneath his skin.

Happy dutifully stood in the shadows at the terrace entrance like a silent reef, blocking out any noise that might come from outside.

The freezer was stuffed with Tony Brand ice cream cones in every flavor. It was the landlord's surrender agreement, signed under the pressure of his "sunshine debt"—unlimited supply.

The sound of the waves was monotonous and hypnotic. Xiao Han's consciousness drifted in the pure fullness of energy. New York's ruins, S.H.I.E.L.D.'s box, and Tony's endless babbling had all been filtered by the powerful sunlight into distant, blurry background noise.

The world should have been this simple: sunshine, beach, ice cream, and absolute peace without interruption.

Yet beneath this forcibly maintained tranquility, an incredibly faint but distinctly unusual "ripple" abruptly swept across the edge of his perception.

It was not sound, not an energy fluctuation, not even a physical vibration.

It was a... sense of presence. Distant and vague, yet carrying a cold, viscous "gaze," like some deep-sea behemoth looking up at the surface from ten thousand meters beneath the abyss, through layers of crushing water.

It was not aimed at him. It was more like a scan of the area, carrying a programmed, lifeless indifference. The sensation of being watched vanished in an instant, so quickly that Xiao Han almost thought it was a hallucination caused by the scorching sun.

Xiao Han kept his eyes closed, but his brow furrowed almost imperceptibly. His fingertip lightly tapped the armrest of the beach chair without conscious thought.

Hum.

An incredibly faint tremor passed through the air, nearly blending into the sea breeze.

Centered on his fingertip, the air within a ten-meter radius instantly became like solidified gel. Even the sunlight seemed to refract and distort within it, forming an absolute stillness field that lasted only milliseconds.

Any sound wave, energy fluctuation, or even subtler stream of information attempting to penetrate that barrier would be instantly crushed and annihilated.

That cold sensation of being watched vanished like a startled fish, disappearing without a trace as if it had never existed.

The terrace remained peaceful. The sea breeze drifted past, waves crashed against the shore, and Happy silently yawned in the shadows. It was as though that fleeting anomaly had truly been nothing more than an illusion beneath the sunlight.

Xiao Han's brow relaxed, as though he had merely brushed away a fly trying to land on the tip of his nose. Not even his breathing rhythm changed.

The universe was vast. A few motes of dust occasionally drifting by were not worth his attention. As long as they did not land where he was sunbathing or make noise, who cared whether they were passing asteroids or deep-space probes?

Deep within S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Helicarrier, the Tri-Wing.

Inside a top-secret laboratory completely cut off from signals and layered with energy shielding.

On the central platform, the Tesseract floated within a specially designed force field. Its deep-blue glow pulsed slowly like the heart of the ocean, radiating pure spatial energy that made one's heart tremble.

Beside it, Loki's Mind Scepter was secured inside a complex containment device. The yellow gem at its tip flickered uncertainly, forming a subtle resonance with the Tesseract's deep-blue light. A faint, irritating hum filled the air.

Nick Fury's single eye was fixed on the energy-readout graphs of the two items on the monitoring screen. Complex lines rose and fell violently, twisting together. Their peaks repeatedly broke through preset safety thresholds, only to plummet bizarrely into the depths the next moment, like two out-of-control hearts beating madly.

"The energy resonance index is still rising, Director!" The technical supervisor in a lab coat spoke with a tight voice, cold sweat covering his forehead. "The containment field has overloaded three times already!"

"We've tried interference waves at every known frequency, but the effect has been negligible! At this rate..."

Fury did not turn around. His voice was low, as though suppressing a storm. "What about Project Insight's Phase Matrix? Wasn't it supposed to stabilize any energy source?"

"The Phase Matrix nearly had its core burned out by a reverse energy pulse while trying to synchronize their frequencies!" another technician said, his voice filled with lingering fear.

"Director, these two things... it's like they're... communicating? Or... calling for something? The resonance peak is pointing into deep space. The coordinates... can't be locked. It's like they've been distorted or erased by some powerful force field!"

Communicating? Calling for something?

Fury's lone pupil suddenly contracted. He remembered the horrifying sight he had glimpsed beyond the New York wormhole, and those lava-like eyes tearing through space.

A chill crawled up his spine. Could there still be something out there? Something answering that call?

Just then, the screen monitoring the Tesseract began to flicker violently! The deep-blue radiance surged in an instant, bathing the entire laboratory in a ghostly glow!

At the Tesseract's core, an infinitesimal point of brilliant golden light, so pure it made the soul tremble, suddenly lit up like a needlepoint before vanishing in a flash!

Hummm—!!!

Every instrument in the laboratory erupted with piercing alarms! The lights flashed wildly! The device restraining the Mind Scepter emitted the tortured screech of twisting metal!

"Energy peak has broken past the critical point!!"

"The containment field is collapsing!!"

"Cut it off, now—"

The technical supervisor's scream was swallowed by a muffled explosion!

The yellow gem at the tip of the Mind Scepter suddenly erupted with unprecedented, blinding light. An invisible psychic shockwave swept out like a tsunami!

The two nearest technicians did not even have time to scream. Their eyes rolled back instantly, and they fell stiffly to the floor, blood spilling from their mouths and noses!

The others were sent flying by the shockwave, slammed into the energy-shielded walls, and knocked unconscious!

Fury staggered from the massive impact, his single eye locked on the central platform. The Mind Scepter was trembling violently amid the aftershock of the explosion, the glow of its yellow gem flickering erratically as if it were struggling in pain.

The Tesseract, meanwhile, had returned to its tranquil deep-blue state. Yet that fleeting flash of brilliant gold had branded itself into Fury's vision.

"Lock down the laboratory! Maximum-level biological containment!" Fury roared into the communicator, his voice carrying a trace of alarm that even he had not noticed.

"Immediately isolate and examine everyone who made contact! Activate backup resources under the 'Tahiti' Protocol! And..." He stared at the two items that had become "quiet" again, his expression dark enough to drip water.

"...add a top-priority appendix to the 'Untouchables' file: closely monitor all spatial anomalies and deep-space signals around Malibu Villa! Report the slightest disturbance immediately!"

He faintly sensed that the ruins of New York had only been the beginning. Something far colder, older, and more indescribable than the Chitauri army seemed to have been disturbed.

And that being—the one who could casually crush an alien warship, yet was currently sunbathing in California and eating ice cream—had become the only... unpredictable reef at the heart of this storm.

Asgard, deep within the Golden Palace.

Odin's single eye stared at the even blurrier yet ominous fragments of imagery transmitted through the roots of the World Tree: that fleeting point of brilliant gold within the Tesseract's core;

the uncontrolled psychic storm unleashed by the Mind Stone; and... that cold sensation of being watched, whose coordinates had been forcibly distorted and erased during the transmission.

A warning born from the depths of his ancient bloodline pierced the Allfather's soul like an ice spike. This feeling... was far more dangerous than the Chitauri invasion! That brilliant gold... that cold gaze...

"Heimdall!" Odin's voice rolled through the Golden Palace hall like thunder, carrying unprecedented gravity.

The guardian of the Bifrost appeared in the center of the hall in an instant and dropped to one knee. "Allfather!"

"Your eyes!" Odin's lone eye gleamed with sharp anxiety. "Tell me! Midgard! That power! That golden light! And that 'gaze' from beyond the stars! What exactly are they?!"

Heimdall slowly raised his head. His golden eyes, capable of seeing through the Nine Realms, were now clouded by a rare haze and... a faint trace of confusion.

"Allfather," he said in a low, solemn voice, "I saw a vortex of chaos. The energies of the Tesseract and Mind Stone were intertwined like two venomous serpents dancing madly."

"That point of golden light... it was like a seed, containing unimaginable destruction and... order? I could not see through its nature. It was concealed by some higher force.

"As for that 'gaze'..." Heimdall's golden pupils contracted sharply, as though he had seen something impossibly distant and terrifying. "...it came from beyond the sea of stars, beyond the edge of the known universe... cold and indifferent, like a deity looking down upon an anthill... It seemed to be... searching for something. The coordinates... were twisted by a powerful force, pointing toward... nothingness."

"Beyond the edge? Searching?" Odin tightened his grip around Gungnir, his knuckles turning white with force. Even Heimdall could not see through it? Even the information transmitted by the World Tree's roots had been distorted? This surpassed everything he had learned throughout his long divine life! "Where is Thor?"

"The prince..." Heimdall's gaze turned toward Midgard below. "He followed your orders and stayed away from that Midgardian. But... he is approaching the place where those two objects are being kept. It seems... he wants to recover Loki's scepter."

"Foolish!" Odin growled, anger flashing through his lone eye. "Send the order! Recall Thor immediately! Without my permission, no Asgardian is to approach Midgard again! Especially that place and... that person!"

He paused, his voice carrying an unprecedented heaviness. "The storm of the Nine Realms... has likely only just begun. And at the center of that storm..."

"...there is a being we cannot understand or control." His gaze fell once more upon the blurred image fragment, upon the figure basking in sunlight on Malibu Beach.

"Is he... a new variable, or the only anchor?"

The Golden Palace fell into dead silence. The roots of the World Tree trembled soundlessly, transmitting cold echoes from distant starfields.

The terrace of Malibu Villa.

Xiao Han still had his eyes closed, enjoying the sunlight. The faint vibration at his fingertip had long since calmed, as though it had never happened.

That cold sensation of being watched, the Tesseract's golden light, Asgard's unrest, S.H.I.E.L.D.'s chaos... they were all like stones tossed into the deep sea, unable to stir even the slightest ripple in his heart.

When that "ripple" had swept over him just now, he had merely, unconsciously and as naturally as breathing, thickened an invisible "membrane" around his little domain. A membrane that blocked prying eyes and crushed noise.

The sunlight was warm, and the ice cream was sweet. That was enough.

As for that tiny disturbance in the depths of the universe?

Heh. Even the sea-salt breeze brushing past his lips at this moment was more worthy of savoring than those things.