188

Chapter 188: The Third Infinity Stone!

Under the dark sky, Thor Odinson stared at a gemstone emitting an orange light, holding it in his hand and examining it carefully.

After a long time, he took out a golden glove and slowly put it on his right hand.

On the Infinity Gauntlet, on the grooves of the middle and ring fingers, two rays of light, one blue and one red, shone brightly.

"Boom..."

Picking up the Soul Gem, which was inlaid on the little finger, Thor clenched his fist...

"The third one!"

In the pond behind him, a headless corpse lay still.

Sending them together as husband and wife was Thor's final act of kindness to them.

Thor had taken advantage of a loophole to obtain the Soul Gem, which might have been the most difficult to acquire.

At the same time, he discovered something: his Infinity Gauntlet did not seem to react strongly every time he embedded a new gem, and it did not have the intense backlash like Thanos's did.

He consulted the system with his doubts.

"The biggest difference between you and Thanos is that he acquired the Power Gem first. When the stone is placed in the Infinity Gauntlet, the energy needed to activate the power of the stone is supplied by the Power Gem. So, every time a new gem is added, it triggers the energy release of the Power Gem."

"So, is this why the Power Gem can cause significant damage to the user?"

"Yes."

In the original storyline, Thanos was able to use the power of the Infinity Gems without hesitation due to the perpetual motion machine created by the Power Gem.

Unfortunately, it is gone now.

While Asgard was dealing with the major event of the royal transition, a similar upheaval was occurring on Earth.

In just a few days, Secretary Pierce had used Nick Fury's (fake) death to manipulate the Security Council into accelerating the Insight program.

Based on the information provided by Nick Fury and Peggy Carter, Steve Rogers found the original S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters and learned the real situation regarding S.H.I.E.L.D and HYDRA from Dr. Zola's narration.

It turned out that while HYDRA appeared to have disappeared with the Red Skull, it still existed, attempting to use the Insight program to eliminate all of HYDRA's enemies.

An amusing episode occurred when, after exiting the elevator, they encountered Crossbones and his team. Steve and Natasha exchanged awkward looks.

Natasha: "Oh no, I can't let Thor down!"

Steve: "Oh no, I can't let Bucky down!"

Then, they said in unison: "Forget it, let's fight them!"

With the help of Natasha Romanoff, Sam Wilson, and others, the order to fire was halted at a crucial moment, and HYDRA's conspiracy was exposed.

As skepticism remained among many, Peggy Carter stepped forward and presented substantial evidence of HYDRA's infiltration into S.H.I.E.L.D, which proved to be the final blow to the conspiracy.

As the only remaining founder of S.H.I.E.L.D., even though she had been retired for many years, Peggy Carter still held significant authority.

On the other hand, Tony Stark, who was still recovering, spoke to numerous reporters, confirming Peggy Carter's claims.

It was indeed HYDRA that was behind the assassination of his father twenty years ago, and he would never forget it.

In the end, many agents fought back, and Peggy Carter personally eliminated Alexander Pierce, declaring the end of HYDRA's scheme.

During the battle on the Helicarrier, Steve fell from a great height into the water while trying to save Bucky.

Even though Bucky had lost all his memories after being brainwashed, he still harbored an inexplicable attachment to Steve and rescued him on the shore.

In just a few days, the situation had dramatically changed. HYDRA, which had operated for over half a century, collapsed within a week, and the massive S.H.I.E.L.D. organization also disintegrated.

When everything came to light, Peggy Carter was astonished to discover that HYDRA's infiltration was far beyond her imagination.

Rather than having many HYDRA members in S.H.I.E.L.D, it was more accurate to say that many S.H.I.E.L.D. agents were part of HYDRA...

As someone who had "died" once, Nick Fury chose to remain hidden behind the scenes.

Peggy Carter, who had been retired for over 20 years, returned to the stage and once again took over as Director of S.H.I.E.L.D, with Maria Hill as her deputy.

Maria Hill's peculiar behavior led to her becoming one of Thor's subordinates...

After all, the entire S.H.I.E.L.D. had effectively become the joint property of Thor and his allies...

When Thor returned to Earth, everything had been resolved.

Stark was almost fully recovered and no longer had to worry about the reactor with the shrapnel removed. He was seen flirting with a model when Thor visited him.

In the Marvel Universe, both heroes and villains have completely different sides in private.

For instance, the supervillain Thanos, an executioner who has slaughtered countless planets, has always adhered to the principle of never lying.

And superheroes are not moral paragons in private either, as exemplified by the renowned Marvel "cannon kings"—

Iron Man, as fallible as any mortal, and Star-Lord, similarly mortal.

As for Steve, it's been a while since Bucky disappeared again.