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Two months later.
In the forging room near the core, Aidan stood in his black armor—scarlet energy pulsing through joint seams—staring at the towering battlesuit before him.
The entire body was silver-white, the distinctive color of pure Uru metal. From head to toe, mysterious magical patterns and runes were carved into its surface, glowing with faint blue fluorescence that pulsed in rhythmic waves.
Twenty meters tall. Two massive wings on its back, equipped with visible thrust jets. The head adopted Asgard's signature horned aesthetic—regal and intimidating.
But the most striking feature was the chest: a dark blue cube—the Tesseract, containing the Space Stone—was embedded directly in the center, transmitting energy throughout the entire frame along etched conduit lines.
After two months of intense forging, the battlesuit was finally complete.
Originally, he'd planned to use Dark Dimension energy to forge his magic suit. But with the Space Stone in hand, there was no need to steal power from Dormammu or any other entity. Besides, the material smelted from the Destroyer plus his bio-metal reserves would've only reached fifteen meters. Eitri's generous gift of additional Uru had pushed it to twenty.
"Traveler," Aidan commanded. "Begin transformation."
The magic patterns across the standing robot began glowing brighter. The body suddenly crouched, joints reconfiguring. Then machinery across its entire frame began shifting—folding, rotating, compressing—gradually evolving into a silver-white spacecraft. The back-mounted wings swept forward to become the ship's primary flight surfaces. Overall, it resembled a giant metal bird, sleek and aerodynamic.
"Traveler" was the designation for the mecha before him. It could also be called a Transformer, though that term felt reductive. Its alt-mode was spacecraft configuration. Compared to the Wanderer Jaeger's ship form, this was much smaller—but the speed granted by the Space Stone far exceeded anything conventional propulsion could achieve. And its combat capabilities were several times stronger.
This was the most suitable mecha for Aidan's needs.
At the time of creation, he hadn't suppressed the generation of consciousness. So the Traveler before him was a genuine living being.
"Very good. You'll accompany me on space voyages from now on," Aidan said, nodding with satisfaction after testing various systems.
The Traveler had three states of existence. Vehicle state—the spacecraft. Robot form—autonomous humanoid configuration. And possession mode—where it would attach directly to Aidan as wearable armor under his direct control.
Generally, the last form was only used during combat. The rest of the time it would operate as carrier or humanoid robot.
With a core of Uru metal and the Space Stone providing power, its combat capability was formidable—significantly stronger than the original Destroyer armor.
"Yes!" A slightly mechanical voice emanated from the spacecraft. Consciousness had only recently emerged. It was still processing existence, adjusting to awareness.
"Now experiment with possession mode," Aidan said, spreading his arms wide.
The Traveler received the order and responded immediately, accelerating directly toward Aidan's position. At the moment of contact, the spacecraft transformed like liquid metal, climbing along Aidan's body, gradually enveloping him entirely.
When the possession completed, a silver-white, slender humanoid mecha appeared. Much shorter than the robot form—human-scaled rather than titan-scaled—but many exposed vents and mechanical components had disappeared. The appearance was radiant and streamlined. Magic lines and runes looked like tattoos now, subtle rather than engraved. The angular horns on the head had smoothed into elegant curves. The Space Stone relocated to the position between the eyebrows, and the originally silver-white horns turned blue. The face had no mouth or nose—only two sharp scarlet eyes glowing with inner fire.
It looked like a graceful demon forged from starlight.
Aidan held his silver-white metal palm before his eyes, clenching the fist experimentally. The transformation still felt slightly unfamiliar, neural feedback mapping to unfamiliar dimensions.
Then his arms swung suddenly to both sides, accompanied by two scarlet energy chains materializing from nothing—the Crimson Bands of Cyttorak! The flicking chains created sonic cracks in the air, reality rippling from their passage.
After experimenting briefly, he retracted the chains and began forming hand seals. With the spell's completion, two additional metal arms suddenly grew from beneath his armpits, and another head manifested on his shoulder. Soon, an identical mecha figure separated from him entirely.
Images of Ikonn! Each clone theoretically possessed the strength of the original body.
However, Aidan turned his head and noticed the Space Stone between the separated clone's eyebrows was absent. Apparently, Infinity Stone properties couldn't be replicated, even by advanced magic. The clones would have Uru durability and magical capacity but not the Stone's dimensional manipulation.
Good to know. Limitations were useful information.
For three days, Aidan experimented with the newly developed battlesuit—testing capabilities, calibrating responses, exploring the boundaries of its living consciousness. Though it was a sentient being capable of independent transformation, according to his original design philosophy, it was still fundamentally a battlesuit. A versatile, adaptive, combat-optimized battlesuit.
The consciousness issue had troubled him initially. In the end, he'd chosen to let it develop naturally rather than deliberately suppressing awareness.
Creating life felt significant. Worth preserving.
"Aren't you supposed to be making a battlesuit? How did you end up with a spaceship?" Eitri's voice called from the entrance.
Aidan had summoned the dwarf king to discuss Space Bridge technical guidance. The Traveler had transformed into spacecraft configuration and was hovering behind him. Once the Space Bridge was operational, Aidan would be departing Nidavellir.
"Traveler," Aidan said, turning slightly. "This is Eitri, King of the Dwarves. Say hello."
Before he could elaborate further, the Traveler rapidly completed its transformation—spacecraft folding, rotating, expanding into twenty-meter humanoid configuration.
"By my beard!" Eitri stared upward at the robot, eyes wide with amazement. "Is this what you meant by bio-metal?"
"Hello. I am the Traveler," the robot said, squatting politely to reduce the height difference.
"Hello," Eitri stepped forward, circling slowly, examining construction details with a smith's critical eye. Then he noticed something and exclaimed, "Great Bor's ghost! Is that the Space Stone? You actually have it! And you're using it as a power source?"
He stared at the Traveler's chest, where the Space Stone quietly pulsed, transmitting energy throughout the frame.
"Uru metal is ideal for containing the Space Stone's output," Aidan confirmed.
Eitri walked around the Traveler obsessively, muttering observations. "Your forging technique is truly unique. Not as refined as traditional dwarven methods, but extraordinarily precise in its own way. And you forged according to magical pattern characteristics and runic geometry rather than choosing engraving methods after construction, so the magical conductivity of the Uru metal has been fully maximized..."
He paused, looking back at Aidan with genuine respect. "You've developed your own forge-craft entirely. Impressive."
"Our approaches differ fundamentally. I had to create methods suited to my capabilities," Aidan said simply.
"Now I understand why Lord Odin values you so highly," Eitri said, smiling warmly.
Aidan shrugged, saying nothing.
After settling all matters in Nidavellir—completing Space Bridge guidance, finalizing technology trades, saying farewells to dwarf friends—Aidan prepared for departure.
His next destination: Xandar.
Time to see what the wider galaxy had to offer.