Inside the town, the ten-meter-tall humanoid plants—the Forest Gods—had begun to bloom.
William, of course, noticed this.
Not only had he been supplying the magic, but he also overheard Odin and Christine's conversation.
A smirk crossed his lips as he subtly reduced the magic output.
Within moments, Odin and Christine noticed William's apparent magic depletion.
Given the scale of the spell, they had no reason to suspect any deception.
All they could do was hope that the Forest Gods would last long enough to fully bloom and bear fruit.
Otherwise, if they only bloomed without bearing seeds, this remaining group of Forest Gods might go extinct entirely.
But reality rarely unfolds as one hopes—especially when someone like William is involved.
Soon, the hundreds of identical magical clones began vanishing one by one, seemingly exhausted.
"No, no, no!"
Christine, her face full of worry, watched as the Forest Gods bloomed but showed no signs of bearing fruit.
Seeing William's clones rapidly disappearing, she acted without thinking.
Clenching her jaw, she threw her gilded staff—the Mind Stone Staff—toward William in midair.
"No—!"
Odin, equally alarmed, immediately raised Gungnir and fired a beam of energy at the staff.
William barely had time to register his frustration and confusion before the beam struck the staff, knocking it off course.
It ricocheted off the magical barrier with a loud clang before plummeting toward the ground.
"Don't pick it up! Don't pick it up!"
Odin shouted as one of William's clones reached for the staff.
"Your body cannot withstand the impact of two Infinity Stones!"
Ironically, if Odin hadn't said that, William might have hesitated.
But the moment he realized Odin was only concerned about whether his body could handle the Mind Stone's energy—
There was no way he was letting this opportunity slip away.
Without hesitation, he grabbed the staff.
The instant his fingers touched it, a surge of gentle but immense mental energy flooded his mind.
His already impressive psychic power skyrocketed.
His mental scan radius rapidly expanded toward two kilometers.
His telekinetic lifting capacity was on the verge of surpassing two tons.
With such a prize in hand, William knew he had to play it smart.
Without allowing Odin and Christine time to process, he quickly opened a dozen portals in the sky.
Each one connected to a lush forest three hundred kilometers away.
His remaining clones abandoned their Plant Awakening spells and instead gestured dramatically toward the portals—
Seemingly drawing nature's energy from the distant forest into the elven town.
In just a few moments, massive waves of green light surged toward the Forest Gods,
accelerating their fruit-bearing process at an astonishing rate.
The once-stagnant Forest Gods now began producing walnut-sized fruit at visible speed.
William, meanwhile, prolonged his connection with the Mind Stone by continuing to channel nature's energy.
For another ten minutes, as the Forest Gods bore fruit and then faded away into the air,
he kept siphoning energy from the distant forest—
ensuring that the freshly fallen seeds immediately sprouted and grew up to ten meters tall before he finally ceased.
As soon as the portals shut, the entire town seemingly froze in time.
The rapid plant growth halted entirely.
Holding the Mind Stone Staff, William landed on the ground and immediately sat down cross-legged,
pretending to meditate and recover from his supposed magic exhaustion.
Then, just to push his limits, he boldly placed his hand directly onto the Mind Stone.
Instantly—
A massive surge of energy erupted from both the Mind Stone and the Space Stone inside him.
The combined energy poured into his body like a tidal wave—
And within just one second, William was forced to hurl the staff away.
His face twisted into a grimace as he hurriedly focused his mind, using deep meditation to suppress the chaotic energy within him.
He had vastly underestimated the danger.
The Mind Stone's energy clashed violently with the Space Stone's power inside him.
For a terrifying moment, it felt as if his mind was about to be ripped apart.
Fortunately, his quick reaction—along with the counterbalancing effect of the Space Stone's energy absorption—prevented disaster.
Instead of harming him, the surge actually strengthened his psychic abilities further.
Still, the near-death experience left him shaken.
Seeing William open his eyes with clarity instead of madness, Odin finally let out a relieved sigh.
Smiling, he approached William and said,
"I must admit, I didn't expect your body to endure the energy of two Infinity Stones."
"But the Mind Stone is called the Mind Stone for a reason—it affects the mind, or rather, the psyche of its wielder."
"Without a tool like the Infinity Gauntlet to regulate their output, no one can handle two Infinity Stones with just their bare body."
"If you insist on trying, you'll either be torn apart from the inside—or your body will be riddled with unhealable wounds before you simply die."
William silently considered Odin's words.
Come to think of it, the only reason he could withstand the Space Stone's energy was because of his storage dimension.
The storage space was constantly absorbing and dispersing the Tesseract's power.
It had grown so vast that William hadn't even kept track of its expansion.
At 24 meters of added length per day,
the cube-shaped storage space now exceeded 8.76 kilometers in size—and was still growing.
His biggest mistake had been touching the Mind Stone directly.
Unlike the Space Stone, he had no natural resistance to its effects.
The only reason he survived was that he had thrown it away in time.
Still, a new thought struck him—
What if he embedded the Mind Stone into his Sentry Armor instead?
For a brief moment, he considered it—
Then immediately rejected the idea.
If the Mind Stone somehow granted sentience to the armor,
and that consciousness turned out like Ultron,
William wouldn't just be a failure—he'd be a damn supervillain.
If not the Mind Stone, then what about the Reality Stone?
After all, the Reality Stone had a massive flaw—
It constantly drained the life force of its wielder.
But the Sentry Armor automatically absorbed ambient energy from its surroundings.
If he used the Reality Stone + Sentry Armor + Space Stone,
then the armor could continuously feed on both the natural energy around it and the energy output from the Space Stone.
If the setup was stable,
then—so long as the energy remained sufficient—
the Reality Stone could literally shape anything he desired into existence.
Of course, there was one major condition:
He had to ensure the energy was sufficient for the Reality Stone's transmutations.
But even if the experiment failed,
at worst, he'd just lose a single Sentry Armor unit—no big deal.
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