Feny's expression was somewhat strained. Right now, his situation was much like the Blue-Eyes White Dragon being infused with the energy of the Soul Stone. The rogue energy of the Aether flooding his body made him feel as though he were about to burst.
Although his physical constitution was exceptionally strong, it wasn't ridiculously overpowered. Using his mortal flesh to act as a vessel for an Infinity Stone was still quite unrealistic for him at his current level.
Fortunately, the Reality Stone was currently in its Aether form, meaning the overflowing energy wasn't completely out of control. Feny figured that if he could find a way to expend this energy, holding out for ten days to half a month shouldn't be much of a problem.
However, he had a nagging feeling that the rate at which this energy was leaking was gradually increasing, so his estimate on how long he could hold out might not be entirely accurate.
Because of this, Feny decided to test something first. He glanced at Jane, who was lying unconscious and quiet on the ground nearby. Then, his left eye suddenly turned a brilliant gold, and a massive clock materialized behind him.
"Zafkiel: Fourth Bullet!"
Feny channeled his time value into his flintlock pistol, pressed it against his chin, and pulled the trigger. He then carefully observed the changes within his body.
Immediately after, his tense expression relaxed significantly. The time reversal of the Fourth Bullet worked on the Aether. This meant that even if he really couldn't find a way to extract the Aether, he wouldn't be in any immediate danger for the foreseeable future.
Looking at the pistol in his hand, Feny dismissed Zafkiel. While firing a shot like this every day could keep his body safe, the time value it consumed would clearly become an issue over time.
But things had to be solved step by step. Now that he was certain he wasn't in danger of exploding anytime soon, Feny's mind was put at ease.
He looked down at Jane on the ground and decided to send her back to Earth first. After all, Thor frequently had Heimdall watch over her, and Feny didn't want Asgard finding out about the Aether just yet.
As he scooped Jane up into his arms, Feny couldn't help but ponder a question.
In the original plot, Jane had lost consciousness because she couldn't handle the Aether after absorbing it. But based on what Feny was feeling right now, it was a flat-out miracle that the energy hadn't caused her to explode and die on the spot.
He suspected that in the original timeline, the Reality Stone had intentionally protected Jane. It was even possible that it had signaled the Dark Elves precisely to save her life; after all, staying inside her body would only result in her death.
The Infinity Stones possessed a unique consciousness of their own, so such an action wasn't outside the realm of possibility.
"Let's work something out, alright? Stop hanging around with those Dark Elves and roll with me instead, what do you say?"
In the dim, shadowy space, Feny suddenly began talking to himself. "Besides, except for the Power Stone, I've already met all your other siblings. I even have the Space Stone and the Mind Stone with me right now."
"Who knows, one day I might just bring you all back together. So when we return to Earth in a moment, don't go sending any signals to those Dark Elves, okay?"
If possible, Feny wanted to first figure out how to extract the Reality Stone from his body before dealing with the Dark Elves.
But the dark space was so quiet that you could hear a pin drop. Feny received no answer in his mind, and there was absolutely no reaction from inside his body either.
Seeing this, Feny let out a silent sigh, not particularly surprised.
After all, he had possessed the Mind Stone and the Space Stone for quite a while now, and despite exhausting all kinds of methods, he had never managed to successfully communicate with either of them even once.
Left with no other choice, Feny held onto Jane, sensed the nearby teleportation markers, and used his magic to take her back to Earth.
They returned to the same run-down building as before, though not at the exact spot where they had first entered.
Placing Jane gently on the ground, Feny stepped into a corner, intending to equip Incursio. But what happened next caught him completely off guard.
The moment he tried to equip Incursio, he encountered fierce resistance from the Aether.
Crimson energy particles suddenly erupted from his body, wrapping around him entirely like a bloody cocoon and halting the transformation of Incursio. In the void, the phantom of the vicious dragon appeared, unleashing a fierce roar as if protesting against the Aether.
"This is..."
Aside from his encounter with the Ancient One back then, this was the very first time Feny had ever experienced Incursio being actively blocked.
Feny wasn't sure if the Aether was doing this to protect him. Frowning, he could only say in a deep voice, "It's my gear, it won't harm me!"
Yet, the Aether offered no response. The blood-red particles flowed smoothly, each single speck packing an immense amount of energy as they swirled around him.
Helpless, Feny had no choice but to cancel the invocation of Incursio. Only then did the Aether recede back into his body and settle down.
"Could it be territorial awareness?"
Witnessing this, Feny began making wild, suspicious guesses in his mind.
Incursio was a sentient, parasitic type of armor that clung to Feny's body, adapting and evolving based on his physical strength.
So, if the Aether had somehow been touched by his words earlier and decided to ally with him, it was entirely plausible that it now viewed his body as its personal domain and was refusing to let Incursio usurp its space.
"Can't you at least give me some kind of answer?"
Feny asked with a helpless sigh, but there was still no response from his mind or body.
Losing the ability to use Incursio was undeniably a massive blow to Feny's overall combat strength. This was especially true because, as things stood, the terrifying energy of the Aether offered very little actual benefit outside of placing a heavy burden on his body.
The problem was that the Aether wasn't just the Reality Stone in its raw form; it was an artifact specifically forged by the Dark Elves to serve their own race.
Consequently, Feny couldn't channel the Aether's energy the way he did with Kamar-Taj's mystic energy to fuel his Golden Ars Magna, amplify his Explosion Magic, or expand the dimension of his Wicked Eye.
Aside from unleashing raw energy blasts, Feny couldn't think of a second effective way to utilize it for the time being.
By extension, the fundamental capabilities of the Reality Stone were also restricted to a certain degree. After all, the Dark Elves didn't possess magic like the Golden Ars Magna.
They had created the Aether solely to plunge the Nine Realms into darkness. As long as it could achieve that single purpose, it was more than enough for them.
Thus, for Feny, acquiring the Aether hadn't instantly skyrocketed his power. Instead, it had brought a threat to his life and placed a severe restriction on Incursio.
Still, the Aether wasn't entirely useless. At the very least, if he were to come under attack, the Aether would autonomously manifest to protect him just as it had moments ago.
Of course, that was assuming the attacker wasn't a Dark Elf.
Thinking up to this point, Feny felt a wave of melancholy. He currently possessed virtually zero control over the Aether. Furthermore, he couldn't be certain whether the Dark Elves had already received a signal, meaning he didn't dare linger on Earth for too long.
Spotting Darcy and the others rushing over--having been drawn by Incursio's roar only to discover the unconscious Jane--Feny took to the sky. He needed to find a spot from which he could depart for Svartalfheim.
Even though the Aether might not have signaled the Dark Elves, Feny couldn't afford to gamble on that possibility. To be safe, he intended to head over to the prepared battlefield ahead of time and wait.
At the same time, he needed to carefully study just how severely the Aether was impacting his strength, and see if there was any way to extract it from his body to restore it to the Reality Stone.