svetikya Chapter 144 Inviting the enemy into the trap?
Chapter 144 Inviting the enemy into the trap?
The Holy Lord stood at the edge of the shuttle's door, looking down at Icarus hovering below.
Fake is fake.
He raised his right hand, fingers slightly spread. The red light of the Reality Stone flowed in his palm. Since the network of this planet was woven from the Tiger Talisman projection, he could simply peel off this projection layer.
Icarus's body fell backward uncontrollably, and the energy circuits within his body began to break.
Wanda stood quietly behind and to the side of the Holy Lord, watching without questioning his decisions, only carrying them out.
Just as the Holy Lord closed his five fingers.
The sky above Olympia has changed.
The atmosphere overhead suddenly rolled to the sides, revealing the background of the deep universe, with a gap spanning tens of thousands of kilometers lying across the planet.
In the center of the crack, a massive outline appeared.
It was a huge phantom with a hexagonal head and heavy armor.
Celestials, Ethan the Searcher.
The fleet's radar system crashed, and the main control screen flickered with chaotic static. Ethan's phantom was so large that it could blot out half the sky; the shuttle was smaller than a speck of dust in its presence.
Icarus hovered in mid-air, head tilted back, motionless. The obedience command ingrained in the genes of the Eternals had been activated.
Ethan didn't look at Icarus or the fleet; the phantom's head turned towards the shuttle.
A strangely frequencyed mental wave directly entered Shendu's mind, also affecting Wanda who was standing nearby.
"I've finally waited for you."
This greeting lacked any condescending pressure; it even carried a hint of relief.
The Holy Lord withdrew his right hand, and the light of the Reality Stone receded into his body.
"The Celestial Group," the Holy Lord said.
"Ethan the Searcher," the phantom replied, "we've been watching you for a long time."
Wanda took a half-step closer to Shendu, red chaos magic flowing at her fingertips, ready to strike at any moment.
The Holy Lord raised his hand to stop her.
"You used my things to set a trap." The Holy Lord looked at the phantom above.
"A signpost." Ethan's thoughts were calm: "You are searching for scattered power. We are waiting for your arrival. Simply waiting is too inefficient. Creating a conspicuous signpost is a reasonable choice."
Ethan paused for a moment: "We know you don't belong here; you come from another unknown place."
The Holy Lord remained expressionless; it wasn't surprising that the Celestials could see through his origins. This was a race that treated the universe as a laboratory, possessing an extremely high dimensional perspective.
"You went through all that trouble to leave a road sign, just to say hello to me here?" the Holy Lord asked.
"In exchange for an invitation," Ethan replied. "You desire the complete power, which resides in our territory; you may come and claim it yourself."
"Aren't you afraid I'll dismantle your territory?"
"If you have the ability, that's your freedom," Ethan's tone remained mechanical and calm. "But first, you need to get there."
Ethan's phantom raised a hand and pointed into the depths of the crack.
"The passage has been opened, and the coordinates are set at the Celestial Group's forge. What you want is there."
Ethan confidently and openly told the Holy Lord where the item was, and also openly told you that it was the territory of the Celestials, and whether you went or not was your choice.
The Holy Lord looked at the enormous crack.
He had already collected most of the talismans in his hand: Rat, Snake, Monkey, Dragon, Rooster, Pig, Horse, and Rabbit. This was further enhanced by the three Infinity Stones: Mind, Reality, and Space.
The realm of the Celestials is worth a visit.
"Yes," the Holy Lord agreed.
Ethan lowered his hand, preparing to retract the projection.
"Wait a moment," the Holy Lord said.
The phantom image stopped.
"I'm taking two people with me," Shendu said. "Her, and Thanos."
Ethan's phantom remained silent for a few seconds. The Celestials' computational center was rapidly processing the request. One was a mutant wielding chaos magic, the other a survivor of Titan.
"Yes," Ethan replied. "The passage will remain open for a sufficient amount of time."
The phantom began to fade, eventually merging into the rift that stretched across the universe.
The crack did not close; its edges glowed with a steady blue light, forming an extremely large interstellar gate.
The sky over Olympia returned to normal, except for that extra door.
Icarus remained suspended in mid-air, his body somewhat stiff. The appearance and departure of the Celestials completely disregarded them, the "gatekeepers." The collapse of faith often happens silently.
The Holy Lord ignored Icarus and turned back into the shuttle.
Wanda followed behind, and the cabin door closed automatically.
"Master," Wanda said softly, "the Celestials' territory... they have an ambush."
"I know." The Holy Lord walked to the control panel and dialed the fleet's communication channel.
Wanda didn't say anything more. As long as the Holy Lord decided to go, she would pave the way through mountains of knives and seas of fire.
The communication was connected, and Thanos's face appeared on the screen.
"Did you hear the invitation from the Celestials?" the Holy Lord asked.
"I heard you." Thanos's expression was calm. "My fleet is outside, ready to set off at any time."
"No need for the fleet," the Holy Lord said calmly. "You come alone and leave the spaceship behind."
Thanos answered without hesitation: "Understood."
Five minutes later, a small landing craft flew out of Sanctuary II and docked with Shendu's shuttle. Thanos entered the cabin, glanced at Wanda, and then bowed to Shendu.
"Are you ready?" the Holy Lord asked.
"We can leave anytime," Thanos replied.
The Holy Lord raised his hand, and the blue light of the Space Stone shone forth.
He didn't plan to use the shuttle to fly into that crevice. Who knew what kind of trickery was hidden in the passage provided by the Celestials? Since the coordinates were clearly set at "the Celestials' Forge," teleporting there directly was more direct.
The laws of space were reconstructed around the Holy Lord. Blue light enveloped the three of them.
The next second, the shuttle cabin was empty.
The rift above Olympia flickered twice before slowly closing and disappearing completely. Only a massive fleet remained, and the Eternals below lay in utter silence.
The Heavenly Gods' Forge.
There is no sky or ground in the traditional sense here.
An endless expanse of metal structures stretched before my eyes, with buildings of various geometric shapes intertwining in the void. Energy flowed like blood through the pipes. The air was thick with high-density cosmic energy; an ordinary person couldn't survive here for even a second.
A flash of blue light appeared, and the three Holy Lords appeared on a huge circular platform.
The platform is made of neither gold nor stone, yet it feels solid underfoot.
Wanda immediately activated chaos magic, and a red energy field protected the three of them in the middle.
Thanos gripped his double-edged sword tightly and surveyed his surroundings.
"Don't be nervous." The Holy Lord looked beyond the edge of the platform into the distance.
Ahead stood a towering furnace that seemed to reach into the clouds.
At the center of the furnace, a ball of blue-white light floated.
Inside the light, half of an octagonal stone engraved with a tiger's head pattern rested quietly.
The yang side of the Tiger Talisman is divided into yin and yang; this is one half of it.