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*****
Watching Fini vanish right before his eyes, Nick Fury's brow furrowed tightly.
Resolving the matter itself was troublesome, but it wasn't impossible for him to handle. What truly unsettled him was the attitude Fini had displayed.
A long time ago, Fury had contemplated what he would do if Fini ever slipped out of his control, and he had even drafted several contingency plans. However, those plans had failed to keep pace with the sheer velocity of Fini's growth in strength. Furthermore, after recently learning that Fini was powerful to an incomprehensible degree, Fury's underlying anxiety had begun to grow exponentially.
While it was true that he hadn't handled this particular situation properly, Fini's unyielding stance undoubtedly deepened his anxieties.
Fini, having already departed, had no idea that Fury's wariness toward him had intensified once again. But even if he had known, he wouldn't have cared. He knew that even if he had been exceptionally polite and made his requests with total composure, Nick Fury would still never let his guard down.
Although he had threatened Fury to handle the situation quickly, it was impossible to erase the public's massive wave of speculation instantly. Even back at Kamar-Taj, quite a few sorcerers were actively discussing him and the Avengers.
When the morning training routine concluded, Jonathan saw Fini sitting a short distance away to rest, so he rolled his wheelchair over to join him.
Thanks to Mordo's care and guidance, Jonathan had gradually grown familiar with Fini over the past weeks. Thinking about the massive news storm that had taken the world by storm over the last two days, he couldn't resist asking in a low voice, "Did you really charge through that space portal at the end and wipe out all those aliens by yourself?"
"Is there a problem with that?" Fini replied with a casual shrug.
"How exactly did you pull that off?"
Hearing Fini admit to it personally sent a wave of shock through Jonathan. The longer he stayed at Kamar-Taj, the more he realized that Fini was an absolute living legend within these walls.
"It basically came down to three steps," Fini explained, looking at Jonathan with a perfectly straight face. "Step one: fly into the portal. Step two: cast Explosion Magic. Step three: fly back out and close the door."
"..."
Jonathan froze, staring back at Fini with a face full of utter speechlessness. Fortunately, having spent some time around Fini, he had grown accustomed to the sorcerer's eccentric personality. Shaking it off, he continued, "Will those aliens ever come back?"
"The Chitauri definitely won't," Fini noted, before letting out a soft sigh. "But the universe is crawling with alien species. There's no guarantee some other extraterrestrial race won't try their luck."
If nothing else, if Thanos still intended to collect the Infinity Stones, a war between him, Fini, and Earth was an absolute certainty.
"Have you actually met other aliens before?" Jonathan asked, staring at Fini with immense curiosity. He found that the more he interacted with him, the more mysterious Fini became.
"Of course," Fini said, pausing to mentally tally them up. "I've met Asgardians, Vanaheimers, Frost Giants, Fire Giants, Dwarves, Kree, Zehoberei, Kronans... honestly, a fair amount." He then added with a touch of distinct pride, "And I can even speak Groot."
Jonathan looked completely taken aback. He hadn't expected the universe to harbor so many diverse alien civilizations, let alone that Fini had personally crossed paths with so many of them.
After chatting with Jonathan for a while longer, Fini went to find the Ancient One to continue their research into upgrading the Sanctum network's power.
Soon, another week slipped by. Nick Fury's counter-measures had been swift. While S.H.I.E.L.D. didn't issue an official public statement directly, a specific narrative was quietly leaked and circulated through various channels.
To put it simply, the leaked information framed Fini's relationship with S.H.I.E.L.D. as a mutual partnership. He had merely joined the Avengers on a temporary basis for the duration of the emergency, and now that the crisis had been successfully averted, he had departed. The leak subtly implied that only when the world faced a catastrophic threat once again would he step out of the shadows to save the day alongside the Avengers.
Though the phrasing heavily hinted that Fini could join the team at any moment, it explicitly clarified that he was not an active member of the Avengers.
However, Fury still hadn't given up on using Fini to draw attention away from S.H.I.E.L.D.'s internal crisis. After making a phone call and paying a certain tactical price, he leaked a secondary piece of information: the internal members of the Avengers were fully aware of Fini's true appearance and identity.
In an instant, the public's focus completely shifted from Fini's status with the team to what the mysterious hero actually looked like underneath his armor.
To make matters worse, Fury had even arranged for Black Widow, a cold-blooded elite spy, to sit down for a media interview. She adopted an uncharacteristically gentle demeanor, letting slip a few highly ambiguous, thought-provoking comments.
The stunt was so effective that Skye called him that very afternoon to interrogate him, leaving Fini entirely exasperated. He had only agreed to let Fury imply that S.H.I.E.L.D. knew his identity; he never anticipated that the director would have Natasha orchestrate it in such an implying manner.
Too lazy to go back and cause trouble for Fury directly, Fini simply noted the grievance down in his mental ledger, fully intending to pay the director back in full down the line.
Meanwhile, back at Kamar-Taj.
Over a month had passed since the initial upgrade to the Sanctums, but the secondary upgrade phase had been put on hold. Pushing the network any further carried a distinct margin of risk. The Ancient One refused to take unnecessary chances and was actively searching for a way to eliminate the unstable variables.
However, as they concluded their research for the day, the Ancient One suddenly spoke up. "We should pause our studies for the time being. The barriers guarding Earth's space and dimensions are growing increasingly thin. I must begin deploying counter-measures."
Fini blinked in surprise, then nodded understandingly. In truth, he too had profoundly felt the looming signs of the celestial alignment.
To ordinary humans, the world appeared entirely unchanged. But to someone like Fini, who possessed a hyper-acute spatial awareness and opened portals regularly, the fabric of reality was morphing day by day.
Before this, if Fini wanted to open a portal directly to Asgard, he had to rely heavily on the power of the Space Stone to bridge the gap. But with the Convergence rapidly approaching, the Nine Realms were aligning into a straight line, drastically compressing the spatial distance between them. Now, even without leveraging the Space Stone, he could open a portal to the other realms purely through his own mastery of sorcery.
With nearly half a month left before the precise alignment, Fini estimated that when the day finally arrived, stepping through the realms would be infinitely easier.
Leaving Kamar-Taj, Fini went to find Tony Stark to check if the specific task he had requested had been completed.
Up on the penthouse floor of Stark Tower, Fini located Tony working diligently in front of a bank of monitors. He walked up and asked, "Are those missiles ready?"
Although Stark Industries had officially ceased all weapons manufacturing, that policy only applied to commercial sales and distribution. It didn't mean they lacked the capability to manufacture assets for personal use—otherwise, the massive arsenal mounted on the Iron Man armors would have been impossible to acquire.
"They're finished," Tony said, turning away from the screen to look at Fini with an intensely serious expression. "But you need to tell me exactly who you plan to use this many missiles against."
A little over two weeks ago, Fini had abruptly approached him with a request to manufacture a massive payload of high-yield missiles, emphasizing that they needed to be as destructive as possible. When pressed for a reason, Fini had only stated that they were meant to deal with an impending enemy threat.
Looking at Tony's deadpan, determined face, Fini let out a helpless sigh and explained, "An ancient race known as the Dark Elves. They were driven to the brink of extinction long ago. I need to intercept them and seize an artifact before they can get their hands on it. If they secure it, it will trigger a catastrophic crisis for both Earth and the wider universe."
"Once I take it, they will hunt me to the ends of the cosmos without rest. So, I plan to set an ambush and wipe them out completely."
When it came to Asgard, Fini hadn't quite settled on the best approach to navigate around Odin and Thor. But dealing with the Dark Elves was a far more straightforward equation. After careful deliberation, he decided the cleanest solution was to simply eliminate them entirely. Since the Dark Elves were already recorded as extinct within Asgardian history, he might as well make that status permanent.