After a brief moment of darkness, Jane broke free from the weightless state. The violent pulling force dragged her through the pitch-black empty corridor and into another dimension...
"DARCY!" Jane shouted at the top of her lungs, trying to suppress the fear in her heart.
Her voice echoed far across the desolate wasteland, but no one answered.
At this moment, the female astronomer felt a pang of regret, 'I shouldn't have wandered off alone.'
The gravity anomalies in this factory were riddled with invisible spatial rifts, making it extremely dangerous. A single misstep could send someone tumbling into another dimension.
Jane wanted to retrace her steps and return through the original passage, but she could no longer find the gravitational distortion point. She had no choice but to cautiously observe her surroundings.
Above her was a starless, lightless night sky, while beneath her feet lay solid ground. By the faint glow, she could vaguely make out countless sunken trenches covering the earth's surface, resembling meteorite craters. A breeze brushed past her ears, lifting strands of her hair.
"The atmospheric composition here is very similar to Earth's. No signs of biological activity detected. Magnetic field direction remains undetermined..."
Jane lowered her head, fiddling with the measuring device as her scientific instincts kicked in.
Amidst the cold silence, she spotted a hazy red glow emanating from the cracks between towering boulders behind her. The faint light spilled out, casting a dark crimson hue.
Driven by intense curiosity, Jane carefully approached the rough stacked boulders. Beneath them, intricate patterns resembling ancient Asgardian script were etched into the stone.
The dark red glow reflected on Jane's face as she peered into the crevice, spotting the restless Aether particles. They swirled like a shifting liquid substance, exuding an eerie yet irresistible allure.
"Don't touch it." The sudden voice made Jane jump.
She shuddered violently and swung her measuring device behind her in panic.
"Hey, it's me." her slender arm was caught in a firm but gentle grip, stopping the astronomer from lashing out further.
Jane snapped out of her fright and realized it was Sean standing there, his warm smile making him seem like a knight who had descended from the heavens, instantly filling her terrified heart with a sense of security.
"How did you get here?" Jane asked, puzzled.
"Your scientific equipment has a S.H.I.E.L.D. tracking device to ensure researchers' safety. About three minutes ago, someone reported losing your signal." Sean shrugged, offering a brief explanation before shifting his gaze to the dark red substance in the crevice... the Aether, the legendary Reality Stone.
"Don't touch it. This thing is dangerous." The young man pulled Jane back a few steps.
The Asgardians had sealed the Aether here to prevent the Dark Elves from reclaiming it.
This barren planet lay at the edge of the Nine Realms, untouched by civilization. Had it not been for the Convergence, the rare celestial alignment, no one would have ever found it.
In the original timeline, Jane had accidentally stumbled into this sealed realm, unwittingly becoming the Aether's host and awakening the slumbering Dark Elves. Thor had later found her and taken her back to Asgard for treatment.
Each Infinity Stone possessed the miraculous power to bend the laws of reality, but not just anyone could wield them...
The Space Stone was encased within the Tesseract, and the Mind Stone embedded in the golden scepter. None could be carelessly touched, let alone claimed by ordinary mortals.
For example, the Power Stone which contained boundless might would incinerate any lesser being who touched it without the protective casing of the Orb, reducing them to ashes in an instant.
As for the Aether, unless one was a Dark Elf or an Asgardian, races born with immense resilience, ordinary beings acting as hosts would have their life force drained and wither away.
A ripple of sapphire light shimmered in the air as a golden gauntlet materialized. Sean stretched out his hand and slipped it on, an unparalleled surge of power flooding his being. He took a deep breath, suppressing the void-like emotions stirring within.
Glancing at Jane, who stood quietly behind him, the young man pushed aside the massive boulder sealing the Aether. The Asgardian enchantment crumbled before him like sand in the wind.
"Warp reality. Turn falsehood into truth." Sean murmured.
The silent space was suddenly filled with the sound of a babbling brook as the Aether, like a serpent rousing from hibernation, slowly floated before him.
The dark red liquid-like substance circled around the young man, its shimmering light flickering as if infinite worlds were being born and destroyed within it.
Each crimson droplet contained intricate layers; energy and matter, darkness and light, reality and illusion... forming an endlessly complex entity in constant flux.
The Aether, also known as the Reality Stone, was one of the six Infinity Stones. Alongside the Soul Stone, it possessed the most enigmatic and unfathomable power, effortlessly bending the rules of existence.
All scientific laws and natural principles were rendered meaningless before it.
Sean reached out, and the Aether slithered up his fingers like liquid, intertwining with the azure and golden radiance of the other two Stones, merging seamlessly.
Through the endless dark red glow, he glimpsed the true form of the Reality Stone...
Unlike the other Infinity Stones, the Aether appeared as a shifting liquid-like substance. The boundary between illusion and reality blurred within its shimmering light, and the moment his mind touched it, it was as if he had brushed against an entirely new world.
The dark red liquid coiled up his arm like scattered droplets, clinging to Sean's body. Then... a new transformation began!
The Aether's energy suddenly turned violent, and the Space and Mind Stones embedded in the gauntlet trembled violently in response. Three overwhelming forces surged into his body.
Spatial distortions erupted in sapphire waves.
Psionic energy swelled like tidal waves.
Azure and golden light clashed with the illusory crimson aura, colliding relentlessly.
Like a raging inferno, the energy storm raged without end. A flicker of pain crossed Sean's face as the endless tide of power crashed into him. The overwhelming pressure bore down from all directions, filling every cell in his body. Microscopic particles tore apart and rapidly reassembled.
The external pressure threatened to crush him into free-floating atoms, while the internal expansion seemed ready to blast him into dust. The conflicting forces squeezed inward and outward, and the metal gauntlet on his right hand cracked with fine fissures, unable to withstand the strain of the three Stones.
Time itself seemed to stretch, slowing to a crawl. In Sean's eyes, the entire world twisted and distorted. The three Stones' energy was infinite, and only the golden flames of the Sentry's power within him barely maintained balance.
The violent tremors continued to gather. Every drop of blood, every strand of hair, bore the weight of immense power. Though Sean pushed his limits again and again, he still struggled to contain it all. Had it not been for the gauntlet regulating the energy output, he would have been ground to dust long ago!
The overwhelming force forced his cells to continuously break apart. Blood seeped from his pores under the pressure, coating his entire body. The half-open dimensional gate inside him erupted with unprecedented golden light, billions of radiant threads surging forth.
The ground beneath his feet trembled violently. The barren planet rumbled as ferocious energy currents tore through the dark starless sky, shooting straight into the heavens!
The terrifying phenomenon lasted less than a minute before the aftershocks gradually subsided.
Sean slowly opened his eyes.
The world had returned to normal, yet it was utterly different. Tiny particles drifted in the void. Violent radiation decomposed into twisting and shifting strands of light.
The Aether shed its liquid-like facade, revealing its original form, a red oval-shaped gem. Now embedded silently in the metal gauntlet...
...
Read more than 80 chapters ahead of schedule; here:
[email protected]/MayaMatengele01