Thor didn't reply.
He stepped forward, his boot crushing a charred paving stone, sending debris flying to both sides.
Yabbat was still hanging in mid-air, two dark purple tentacles wrapped around her wrists. The posture wasn't very graceful, but her back was straight, and the approaching golden figure was reflected in her cold white pupils.
Thor stopped in front of her.
The distance between the two was less than half a meter, and this height difference was just enough for him to look at the Black Swan hanging in mid-air at eye level.
He extended his right hand forward.
Yabbat's body tensed instantly, his muscles, bones, and mental field simultaneously entering a state of combat readiness.
But Thor did not attack her.
His fingers landed on her left cheek.
I rubbed it.
Yabbat's mental field rippled out instantly, but his wrist was locked by the tentacles, and he could only lean back slightly.
Thor gently rubbed his fingertips against her cheekbone twice.
Then I switched to kneading.
He pinched a small patch of skin on her left cheek with his thumb and forefinger, and kneaded it twice like dough.
Yabbat's entire body was stiff.
She lived for over two hundred years, traversing dozens of universes, and witnessed the collapse of civilizations and the death of galaxies.
Some people want to kill her, some want to use her, and some want to pry the secrets of the multiverse out of her mind.
No one ever rubbed her face—once they met.
Thor withdrew his hand, rubbed his fingers together, and looked as if he had just realized something.
"This is the first time I've ever seen someone's skin so white it's the same color as Deadman."
He tilted his head and looked Yabbat up and down—a black bikini, black tight leather pants, her whole body was black from head to toe.
"I'm curious, is your outfit meant to make you look fairer than others?"
Yabbat did not respond.
Her brain was racing, trying to extract useful information from the man's behavior patterns.
Deliberate provocation? Testing the limits? Or simply...
You know me.
Thor raised an eyebrow, took Stormbreaker off his shoulder, and casually used it as a walking stick.
He leaned against the axe handle, his legs crossed, in an extremely casual posture.
" Yabbat Umon Tulu."
The Black Swan's pupils contracted by a fraction of a millimeter.
"From Earth-13654, a princess of the royal family from Hidden City."
Her breathing rate remained unchanged, and her facial muscles showed no fluctuation, but the dark purple tentacles wrapped around her wrists sensed the change in her heartbeat—from a steady 52 beats per minute to 56 beats per minute.
"When you were four years old, you witnessed a cosmic collision event. To save their universe, the Black Priests destroyed your Earth. Your father, your mother, and your three younger sisters all died."
Thor counted on his fingers, speaking very quickly, like reciting a shopping list.
"Your older brother took you to the Library of Worlds, but he couldn't hold on and died in front of you. Then the Black Swan Order found you, raised you, trained you, and instilled doomsday theories in you."
Fifty-eight. Sixty. Sixty-two.
"You believe in fatalism," Thor paused, tilting his head to look at her, "But you've been secretly searching for a way to bring your family back to life."
Eventually, the jump rate reached 65 jumps per minute.
The data transmitted back by the Strange made Strange glance at Yabbat again.
This woman's emotional control was exceptionally good—her heart rate fluctuations were within the calm range of a normal human being, but for a super-individual who had undergone cult reformation, this was already considered a violent internal turmoil.
Yabbat's face remained expressionless.
His cold, white pupils stared straight at Thor, unblinking.
Two hundred years.
She wandered in the cracks of the multiverse for two hundred years, and her identity information was repeatedly cleaned up by herself no less than twenty times.
The Black Swan Order's encryption methods are sufficient to deceive the vast majority of cosmic-level entities.
Even those high-dimensional beings who claim to be omniscient and omnipotent might not be able to uncover her past so thoroughly.
And this Thor, he just spouts whatever comes to mind.
What is your purpose?
Thor leaned on the axe handle, thought for a moment, and tapped the edge of the axe blade twice with his fingers.
"It's very simple. To be honest, you have very few variants in the entire multiverse."
He held up one finger.
"In some ways, you're even rarer than Sentry Robert. Add to that the knowledge of the multiverse in your head—the secrets of the heavens, records of cataclysms, and so on." He shrugged. "My city is developing, and we're short of talent."
That's it?
For the first time, a subtle emotional fluctuation flickered in Yabbat's cold, white eyes.
She had originally anticipated at least seven possibilities: coercion, exploitation, transaction, blackmail, mind control, contractual binding, and direct absorption.
Hiring?
"That's it?" She uttered the two words that were on her mind. "You know me so well, aren't you afraid I'll betray you?"
Thor thought about it again.
"That's true." He nodded, his tone particularly sincere. "If I remember correctly, you really are a traitor."
Yabbat's lips twitched almost imperceptibly.
Her two-hundred-year-old skill in managing facial expressions came into play at this moment.
"But it doesn't matter to me." Thor pulled out Stormbreaker and slung it over his shoulder. "What I value is what you possess. If you're unwilling to do it, I'll just find someone else in another universe."
He even started turning around as he said this.
Before Strange Thor speak, the dark purple tentacles wrapped around Yabbat's wrists automatically untied and retreated under his Cloak like two snakes.
Yabbat landed back on the ground, her boots making a soft thud as they stepped on the gravel.
She stood very straight, her hands hanging naturally at her sides. She didn't rub her wrists or stretch her muscles; this level of restriction meant nothing to her body.
She stared at Thor's retreating figure for three seconds.
"Can you reverse Absolute Point in Time?"
Thor paused for a moment, but didn't turn around.
"Maybe."
"Can you resurrect my loved ones?"
The moment those words left his mouth, Yabbat himself was slightly taken aback.
She shouldn't have been so direct; for two hundred years she had never shown this side of herself to anyone, no matter what level the other party was.
But everything that just happened changed her evaluation model.
The concept of Infinity Ultron was erased. The Infinity Stones, spanning the multiverse, were distributed like candy.
He casually mentioned the Time Variance Authority and could recite her life story from memory.
The Thor was beyond her entire cognitive framework.
Thor turned around and glanced at her.
"That depends on your performance."
He gestured with his lip towards Strange.
"I'm helping this guy with dark circles under his eyes, because I think he's quite capable, and he's worth helping him revive his girlfriend."
Strange remained expressionless, his tentacles twitching slightly beneath his Cloak, whether from the "dark circles under his eyes like coal" or from the words "resurrect his girlfriend" that stirred something within him.
"You want me to do the same thing for you? It's simple," Thor said, holding up a finger. "Demonstrate your value. Or you can sign a contract with me and work for me."
Yabbat was silent for two seconds.
I won't sign the contract.
"But I can join--"
Thor didn't even wait for her to finish the second half of her condition.
With a wave of his right hand, he tore a rift in the void, and a golden portal opened and spun above the ruins.
On the other side of the door was a city suspended in the void, with platinum-gold female statues, the ethereal Asgard, blue energy pipes, and a stable artificial star in the distance.
Directly in front of the door, a girl with a ponytail was squatting on the ground, with a three-dimensional holographic projection floating in front of her. The projection showed a red-skinned demon image, Mephisto, with data streams constantly rolling around it.
The girl clutched a silver-white personal terminal in her hand, muttering some formula, while a palm-sized Crystal sat on the research table beside her.
Thor waved towards the portal.
" Valeria! Come quick, there's a 99% rare item over here!"
He paused for a moment, then added:
I assure you you absolutely do not know her.
The girl on the other side of the door looked up, her face full of impatience, as if saying, "You're bothering me again," but the words "I don't know you" made her brow twitch slightly.
She stood up, a silver terminal tucked under her arm, and walked through the portal.
As soon as she stopped, her terminal automatically popped open, and a blue scanning beam shot out from the top of the device, scanning Yabbat's entire body from top to bottom.
Data feedback.
Valeria glanced down at the terminal screen.
blank.
There was nothing there.
She frowned, increased the scanning permissions, and connected to the multiverse master database left to her by her father, which contained detailed files on more than 17,000 known universes.
It remains blank.
Valeria's eyes lit up instantly.
She looked up at Thor, her eyes gleaming.
" Thor, have you found me yet another research subject?"
"No." Thor nodded in the direction of Yabbat. " The Black Swan possesses far more comprehensive knowledge of the multiverse than what you have in your terminal. You two can exchange ideas. He's a special talent."
He then pointed to Beta and Kallark beside him.
"These two, Beta Ray Bill and the Gladiator, are top-tier combatants. Take them back and arrange accommodations."
Valeria glanced at the two of them, and their corresponding information appeared on the terminal.
She circled around Yabbat, unable to suppress the fervor with which her research subject had come to her.
The three were led through the portal by Valeria.
The golden crack closed behind them, and the ruins returned to silence.
Thor raised his hand, and another portal tore open.
Wanda Maximoff stepped across the threshold, her red pupils gleaming faintly in the dim light.
She glanced at the surrounding ruins and the huge crater in the distance, but didn't ask any further questions.
Thor turned to Strange, taking Stormbreaker off his shoulder and planting the tip on the ground.
"Let's go, Strange."
"Time to get down to business."