Drift Of The Multiverse: [Marvel] [Resident Evil] [DC] [Bleach] [DB] Chapter 197: The Multiple Choice Questions Facing Fury

An oval-shaped object emitting a blue light hovered in Ethan's palm.

The luminous pebble-like object imdiately drew everyone's attention. Since no one had ever truly seen an Infinity Stone before, they were all curious and skeptical, was the one in Ethan's hand really the genuine article?

"Looks like an ordinary stone."

"It is a stone. Why else would it be called the Infinity Stone?" Ethan shrugged, withdrew his magic power, and the 'Infinity Stone' in his palm dissolved into mist and dispersed.

Compared to the actual appearance of the Infinity Stones, Steve Rogers and Bruce Banner were more focused on the thod Ethan had just used.

"Was that magic?"

Ethan nodded. He had deliberately used this thod to replicate the appearance of the Infinity Stones to demonstrate his abilities.

This wasn't ant to show how powerful he was. But the average person always harbors fear toward the unknown, and the identity of a mage like Ethan naturally held an advantage in that regard. "Just a minor trick. Strictly speaking, it doesn't even count as real magic."

"What exactly did you use just now? Magic power?" Bruce Banner was more interested in the nature of the energy in Ethan's hands. If possible, he even wanted to analyze it—what exactly was this so-called magic power?

"That's my own magic power…" Ethan could already guess what Bruce was thinking just by looking at him and directly shut down the idea. "Don't think about analyzing the characteristics of magic power. Because magic power doesn't have a fixed nature. It varies depending on the mage's training thods and personal experiences. Even if two people draw from the sa source of energy, there will still be differences because of the mage."

From Ethan's explanation, Bruce Banner imdiately understood that studying magic power wasn't feasible. From what Ethan had revealed, magic power was an energy with a personal imprint.

"Focus, gentlen!" Fury was also intrigued by the mysterious power of magic, but that wasn't the most pressing issue right now. Seeing the conversation veering off-topic, he imdiately spoke up to draw everyone's attention. "Let's continue discussing the Infinity Stones."

Seeing no objections, Fury turned to Ethan and asked, "Is the existence of the Infinity Stones a secret in the universe?"

Ethan carefully recalled everything he rembered from the Marvel films, eventually coming to a conclusion based on those scenarios. "To so powerful beings, the Infinity Stones are no secret. But for most civilizations and ordinary lifeforms, they're completely unaware of the existence of the Infinity Stones."

In layman's terms, those who are qualified to know about them do, and those who aren't—don't.

Earth wasn't qualified to know. Even though humans had obtained the Tesseract, they didn't know what it was. After decades of research, all they'd learned was that it contained a massive, nearly inexhaustible source of energy, perhaps it had a limit, but with their current level of technology, it was undetectable.

"So you're saying a lot of people actually know what these things are and what they do. If they want to get their hands on one…"

"Now that the Tesseract's location has been exposed, they'll definitely co to Earth."

The situation was clearly grim. This ant that Loki's incident wasn't an isolated one. As long as the Tesseract remained on Earth, beings like Loki would keep showing up.

Through Thor, Fury had already learned that there were higher-level civilizations in the universe and more powerful beings. According to Ethan's information, those who were aware of the Infinity Stones and sought them out had to be one of the two—or even both. Possibly an advanced lifeform with superior technology, like the Asgardians.

That also ant Earth was at a complete disadvantage in the face of any potential invasion from such beings.

Fury stopped speaking. Although he had already considered similar possibilities, he hadn't expected the situation to be this dire. How were they supposed to resolve this? He wasn't even confident that the Avengers Initiative could handle it.

"If it's such a troubleso thing, then why are we trying to find it in the first place? Wouldn't it be better to just let Loki take it?"

Of course, it was Bruce Banner who said this.

But could soone like Fury, Director of S.H.I.E.L.D., a senior agent known as the king of spies, really just abandon sothing this important? Even if it brought great danger, he wouldn't allow soone to take the Tesseract away so easily.

Steve Rogers, who had been silent this whole ti, also thought that it might be better to get rid of such a troubleso object. But Loki definitely couldn't be allowed to have it, because he had already shown a significant degree of hostility. Based on his previous behavior, Steve was sure Loki was planning to do sothing next, sothing that definitely wouldn't benefit the people of Earth.

"It's not that simple. Loki didn't just take the Tesseract. He also controlled many people with strange abilities. We need to save them too."

Fury's reasoning was sound, and even Bruce Banner—who had no love for institutions like S.H.I.E.L.D.—had no grounds to argue.

"Ethan, that's why I asked Coulson to contact you. Can you remove that control?"

"There are many forms of mind control. I can't give you a definite answer until I've seen it firsthand. I need to examine it directly… At the very least, I need to see one of the people Loki controlled to determine that."

He wasn't worried about ordinary mind control thods. He believed he could break them. But with Loki, he wasn't entirely confident. That was because Loki's control ca from the scepter he carried, which was given to him by Thanos.

The scepter itself was extrely tough, capable of being used as a lee weapon against Thor's hamr. More importantly, the greatest secret of the scepter lay in the gem embedded at its center.

No one would have guessed that Thanos, who was seeking all the Infinity Stones, would actually hide the Mind Stone in the scepter and hand it over to Loki.

Maybe Thanos wanted Loki to use the scepter containing the Mind Stone to conquer Earth and retrieve the Tesseract, which contained the Space Stone.

But Loki failed. Not only did he fail to retrieve the Tesseract, he even left the Mind Stone on Earth.

In addition, the Eye of Agamotto—also known as the Ti Stone—was being kept by the sorcerers of Kamar-Taj. At this mont, there were already three Infinity Stones on Earth. One could only say… this planet really was the center of this world.

While Ethan was thinking about the Infinity Stones, Fury was pondering how to resolve this crisis. Loki wasn't the only problem. The fallout from his appearance was even worse.

They needed to deal with Loki. They needed to get the Tesseract back.

Then what?

Taking down Loki and reclaiming the Tesseract was only the beginning. What were they supposed to do with it afterward? Based on previously gathered intel, the Tesseract's presence on Earth was likely linked to the Asgardians. It might have been deliberately stored here a long ti ago.

After all, Earth was seen as a backwater planet by most civilizations in the universe. Its inhabitants had no knowledge of the Infinity Stones, making it a relatively safe place to stash such an item.

From that perspective, maybe handing it over to the Asgardians would be a good choice?

In the original plot, Fury made that choice. Although Thor repeatedly emphasized that the Tesseract wasn't sothing humans should "play with," Fury was more than happy to let him take it, perhaps to get rid of the dangerous item and, at the sa ti, curry favor with the future king of Asgard.

Now, Fury had another option—he could let the mage from another world take the Tesseract away.

Fury was a shrewd man. As a top-tier agent, his analytical abilities were exceptional. From Ethan's arrival to his repeated revelations about the Infinity Stones, Fury could already tell what Ethan was after: the young mage had his eyes on the Infinity Stones.

He wasn't surprised. If the Infinity Stones were truly as valuable as Ethan claid, sought after by powerful beings across the universe—then it would be far more surprising if the mage didn't want them.

Fury asked Ethan more questions about the Infinity Stones. He was sure Ethan knew a lot, but Ethan had refused to share everything. Maybe, in the mage's eyes, Fury wasn't qualified to know more?

That thought stung a bit. But facing a mage who could freely traverse worlds and wield powerful magic, even if he felt offended, there was nothing he could do.

With the discussion about the Infinity Stones concluded, the isolation barrier was lifted. Fury, now wearing a grim expression, asked if they had located Loki.

Coincidentally, S.H.I.E.L.D. had just spotted Loki on surveillance—he had openly appeared in Stuttgart.

"He didn't even bother hiding."

Ethan stood nearby with his arms crossed, clearly seeing Loki on the screen. Loki was holding the scepter embedded with the Mind Stone.

He was quite curious, did Loki even know that his scepter contained the Mind Stone? Maybe they could ask him once he was captured?

Ethan didn't plan to get involved in the arrest. Loki would be caught, no matter who went.

(To be continued.)