CHAPTER 138

A/N: Last post of the year guys. I missed a lot of time to post this month due to school, exams and the ongoing holidays.

Everything will go back to normal by next week. See you guys next year🎊 👋👋

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[Draul St. Cross POV]

After that unimpressive fight with Loki, if it even could be called that seeing as I just one shot the scheming god, I went back, figuring it was high time I looked for the soon to be mutant nation.

All I knew about it was that it was swimming somewhere in the Pacific Ocean which was 30% of the globe. Yeah, I had my work cut out for me

The other satellites will be launched in a few days so hopefully that will quicken the search. 

I was still waiting for Asgard's revenge but I guess we would have to wait and see as the day goes by. But seriously, what the hell does Loki want with me? 

I had in no way made any connection with the Asgardian Gods, except maybe with the berserker staff. I wasn't the only sorcerer who studied Norse runes and I definitely didn't pray to any of them. So even if someone had discussed me in Odin's chambers, it should not be a reason for Loki to actually take the initiative to look for me, should it? 

So now I had to beware of Loki's return, because he would return. He was just as vengeful and petty as the next megalomaniac was. 

Yelena had sulked for a bit when I told her that I had made Loki go back to Asgard. I don't know why she was that adamant about shooting a God. Was it some sort of prestige or a new rave nowadays that I didn't know about? 

Whatever it was, it got her in a funk for a while before she came out of it. Well I had to let her drive around in my car and let her have fun with it for the whole day before she got it out of her system. 

Apart from that, I went back to absorbing the cosmic energies of the Space Stone and I was finally making some progress. I couldn't actually quantify my progress since I was basically absorbing the Infinity of Space. But suffice it to say, I was at least finally able to hold in an iota of the infinite space inside the Space Stone. Unless my rate of absorption increased, it would take me years before I am finally able to move ahead to the other Stones. 

Hopefully the rate of absorption would increase the more I adapted to it, and for that to happen, I considered just taking the stone and trying to see what I could do with space under my control. 

Opening a portal was the basic thing the Tesseract could do. I would have to draw more power if I wanted to create a black hole or compress space to a point to create a singularity. 

Thankfully, the Tesseract acted as a medium that decreased the toll of using the Space Stone. But it also acted as a crutch. 

If I wanted to use the Stone to its limitless potential, then I would have to shatter the Tesseract but now was not that time. I needed the crutch the Tesseract gave. 

I don't think my body would be able to handle the strain of heavy use of the Space Stone. While I might be able to use portals pretty easily while holding the Stone itself, trying to do so while collapsing space or creating a pocket dimension would just eat away at me.

It was the reason why I did not quickly jump at the chance of owning an Infinity Stone or more. It would just sit there collecting dust until I was able to use them well or would have to devise a gauntlet like the one Thanos used. But I don't see that happening given that Odin would probably tell the Dwarves not to and they would obey him. 

Thanos was only able to procure the gauntlet from the Dwarves after Ragnarok happened. Which just goes to show that even the Mad Titan knew who not to cross. It was due to the reputation of the war loving Allfathers that Asgard was feared across different universes and realities. 

Back to the Stones, regarding Space, I would have to understand what the concept of it encompasses to get a full understanding of the capabilities of the Stone. Space was a very broad concept and holding the crystallized essence of the space in an entire universe ought to do more than just opening portals and magnetic push and pull. 

The Infinity Stones together could propel the being capable of wielding them to a Universal+ being. The caveat was being able to wield them and not just using them as pieces of jewelry on a bracelet and testing your finger muscles with a snap - the Stones were so much more. 

Unlike Thanos, I had an extremely adaptable physique and if not for the cosmic components of the Stones being what created the universe in the first place, I would have adapted to it to a far milestone. 

While the Space Stone had its fair share of complexity, the reason I went for it first other than its convenient location was that I needed it in order to get the Power Stone and sure I could just go take it now, highly plausible, but it wasn't like the Stone was going anywhere and even if it was, the Stones acted as some sort of sonar to each other. 

The Power Stone was one of easier Stones to absorb since its domain worked in tandem with others, a multiplication of sorts. I figured that after I was done with the Space Stone, it would be wiser to go for the Power Stone. Though I assume the Power Stone would be harder to use than the Space Stone, in the context that it destroys the body faster than any other of the Stones out there. 

It was a very simple concept but within it was something overbearing. 

It encased the concept of absolute might, though I doubt it was absolute. Or rather than 'absolute', it encompassed the concept of power in this universe. 

It was a very simple analogy and it was because of that particular reason that made it a very important part of the Stones. The reason why Space was more harder to absorb was due to the broad concept of it. Same with Time and Reality. 

… 

I held the Tesseract in my hands and focused on trying to stack the space between the rock in the middle of the desert and me by folds. 

The Tesseract shone blue while the space around me rippled like water. It rippled for a while before stabilizing, but this time it had some sort of glass-like ephemeral state around me. 

Trying to test the state it was in while grunting from the strain that was coursing through my body, I walked towards the rock and placed my hands on top of it and the most astonishing thing happened. 

It felt as if the rock was being submerged in water as the space rippled and it started disappearing into the ripples. If someone were to look at me from afar, they would see a brown stain in front of me. If I were to draw the rock further to me, they would stop seeing since the distance between me and the rock was so far that it would not appear visible to the naked eye. 

As far as trials went, that was a success but it wasn't a full one. Instinctively, I could feel that the space between me and the real world was not stable. If it were, the stone would not have been able to travel through it that easily. For more clearance, if a projectile, a very fast moving one, was to be shot at me and I increased the distance the distance like I just did to stop it, it would travel at its normal speed into the 'distance' between us and if I wasn't as fast, it would hit me without me being able to react. 

But if the space were to be stable, unlike right now, I would still exist in the material plane and any projectile shot at me would stop before getting to my skin. Not that the space between us was thick enough to stop it, but that the distance between us was so large that it would appear that it wasn't moving at all. That was what success would look like. 

But like I always say, all in due time. 

I could no longer handle the strain of the Tesseract which prompted me to cut my connection with it which resulted in wiping out almost 10 km of sand around me… which left more sand. 

All my innards shook as space refolded itself with me at its center and I can safely say that if I were not holding the Tesseract then I would have been refolded with the space which would have splattered my body parts around ten kilometers. 

Props to adaptation, because of it, I was able to take my experiments with the Tesseract a few notches ahead after every use. 

I wonder what I should try next? Maybe I should try to perfect this first before moving onto something else. I went back to keep the Tesseract back where it belonged. 

To be honest, the reason why I still left the Tesseract back at S.H.I.E.L.D'S storage was just because the government had decided that it was high time they put their best weapon to use. 

They wanted to use the Tesseract to power some sort of Sentinel super soldier. It wasn't a biological soldier but rather a technically advanced Sentinel. Oh how I was waiting for the day they finally finished building the thing around the concept that the Tesseract would power it, only to have the damned thing and the robot disappear the moment they insert it inside their killer droid. 

That was hundreds of millions of American dollars gone down the drain with nothing to show for it, along with all their research stored inside any digital drive scrambled and gone. 

They never did stop trying to outsmart the metahumans and trying to put them under them so I was not in the least feeling any sort of guilt. Add that to the fact that I hated them and the sum total would be me fucking with them at every chance I get and the moment anyone of them blows a top, bam! Dead. 

I think they don't understand that they were actually some people that were above their laws. Years, decades and centuries of being in power would never allow them to believe something like that. So they would try and try and try until they were beaten down at every point, even when they resort to open violence only to be trampled on would they behave and leave me alone. 

This wasn't like last two years with Councilman Pucker when I was still a little bit apprehensive about running from the government. If one of them were to pull a shit like they did then, all I would need to do was flick a finger and they would be way too dead for it to even matter. 

Was I thinking like typical villains? I think not. My moral spectrum had always been broad and while I would never go around terrorizing innocents, the same story would not be true if they ever decided to terrorize me or any action towards me with the intent of harm. I don't care if I was stronger than them, the moment they decided that my limited peace and quiet irked them and they needed to destroy it, I would be the first to break every one of their limbs before tossing them in a volcano. 

I was already stressed out as is with dealing with demons and dark dimensional beings. I don't need the pitifully weak government of earth adding to my strainfully peaceful days.

What happened to the days when all I did was jog around and mix some drinks?... 

HYDRA happened… Awwn, those were the good times.