Chapter 187: The Heart Nerves of the Frost Giant King
"It does indeed look like there's something, but it's all done in gold, which is a bit too tacky."
The group followed Thor, Frigga, and the others as they headed toward the Immortal Palace, admiring the various divine realm buildings that blended technology and mythology. They couldn't help but marvel at it all.
Even Tony could only grumble a few words about minor imperfections that weren't even really flaws.
As they passed through the Divine Realm Square, George saw the massive body of the Frost Giant King, Laufey, who had been ambushed and killed by Loki.
The bodies of the Frost Giants could vary in size. Normally, they stood about thirty-four meters tall, but they could also control their size, shrinking down to roughly human size.
Loki was discarded because of his inherent defects, leaving him only the size of a human.
Laufey had shrunk his size to enter the Immortal Palace in order to assassinate Odin, but after being ambushed and killed by Loki, his body was left in the Divine Realm Square, gradually returning to its normal size of about thirty to forty meters.
"Go!"
As they passed Laufey's body, George immediately used his magnetic powers to control a blade that flew out quickly, stabbing into the heart of the Frost Giant King Laufey. He quietly extracted some of the heart's nerves.
Despite the fact that Laufey, the Frost Giant King, was killed by Loki's surprise attack, it was primarily because he had lost the source of his power, the ancient Winter Coffin.
At his peak, Laufey had even blinded one of Odin's eyes, and his strength was unquestionably immense.
If Laufey's heart nerves were used as a staff core, it would likely rival Odin's hair in quality.
After entering the Immortal Palace, they were led to a luxurious room to rest, where a rich feast had been prepared for them.
"George, you all rest first. My mother and I will handle the situation with Loki."
After leading everyone to the room, Thor and Frigga went to deal with the chaos caused by Loki, while the group began talking among themselves.
Banner, who had been restored by George's rib-poking spell, expressed his amazement:
"It looks like our guess was right. The Divine Realm is indeed an alien civilization far surpassing the technology of Earth. It seems there are many other cosmic civilizations in the universe that we don't know about."
"But I don't think that's a good thing."
Tony, eating the special fruits from the Divine Realm, said, "From the internal strife in the Divine Realm and those aggressive giant ice blocks, it's clear that while their technology is advanced, their mindset isn't much more evolved than ours.
This means that, if they wanted to, they could invade Earth at any time, and with Earth's current strength, we wouldn't be able to resist.
Maybe we should start preparing in advance?"
"Iron Man, what are you thinking?"
Wolverine, cutting fruit with his claws, asked.
"This fruit is really good. When we go back, I'll have Thor send me some."
Tony ate another piece of fruit and added, "I think, maybe when we get back, I can ask Master Wei to help me build more robot soldiers. At that time..."
"Don't even think about it!"
Tony's words were cut off midway by George.
"Tony, you need to understand that robots are controlled by programs, and the technology of alien civilizations is far above ours.
If they hack your program, those robots you build will be immediately controlled by them and turned against Earth.
Or, if a criminal manages to hack your program, we won't need aliens to invade, and we'll be in big trouble."
George didn't want Tony to go down the path of creating robots again, fearing he might create something like Ultron — a disaster for the world and humanity's evolution.
It was better to avoid such a crisis in advance.
"Whenever someone wants to win a war before it even starts, innocent people end up paying the price. History has always been like this."
At this moment, Captain America spoke up.
He didn't agree with Tony's idea of creating potentially uncontrollable plans for a war that hadn't even started yet.
"Alright, don't worry, I was just saying it," Tony shrugged, then looked out the balcony across the room at the ships flying in the sky.
Upon noticing this, George furrowed his brow.
Tony was a very self-centered person. Once he had his mind set on something, unless he discovered he was wrong himself, he wouldn't change it. He generally didn't listen to what others said.
So once the seed of making robots was planted, it would eventually sprout.
"It's not a big deal."
After thinking for a moment, George felt that the situation probably wasn't as severe as he had imagined.
Ultron was mainly a result of Tony's research into the Mind Stone. Without the Mind Stone, Tony wouldn't have been able to develop an artificial intelligence neural network.
Moreover, Loki was now imprisoned in the Divine Realm's prison, awaiting Odin's judgment. The Chitauri invasion of Earth was no longer a concern, and Tony wouldn't be psychologically traumatized, so there wasn't such a strong sense of crisis.
Thinking further, if Tony did manage to create those robots, it would be a long time from now. By then, his abilities would likely have increased severalfold, making it much easier to handle.
About an hour later, Thor returned to the room.
"Father Odin has awakened. He says he wants to meet you and personally thank you for your help in saving the Divine Realm!"
"He's awake at this time?"
George was stunned. He remembered that in the movie, Odin wouldn't wake up until tomorrow.
"Has this old guy been awake all along, just pretending to sleep?"
At this point, George couldn't help but have some suspicions.
In the movie, the Rainbow Bridge was shattered, and Odin rushed straight from his slumber in the Immortal Palace to stop Thor and Loki. But such a perfect timing wasn't likely.
If Loki hadn't let go voluntarily, Thor and Loki would have been fine, and the only issue would have been the damaged Rainbow Bridge, which could be slowly repaired. It wasn't an impossible fix.
At least, they would have gained a grown-up son and a son who realized his mistakes.
However, Odin probably didn't expect Loki's thoughts to be so extreme, refusing to admit his wrongs at the end.
"Truly, the father of the gods who unified the Nine Realms is a crafty old fox!"
George thought to himself as he followed Thor to the meeting hall of the Immortal Palace.
Thinking about it carefully, was Odin a good person?
Of course not. If he were, he wouldn't have led Hela to unify the Nine Realms, conquering countless kingdoms and using vast amounts of gold to forge the brilliant Divine Realm they now had.
After sealing away Hela, he covered up the truth of the wars he fought, even adding a deceptive mural at the top of the Immortal Palace hall.
Then there were the Infinity Gauntlet in Odin's treasure vault, which, though fake, indicated that Odin had definitely once sought out the Infinity Stones. But for some reason, he had abandoned the quest.
Now, the peace they had was probably because he didn't have many years left to live. He wanted a ruler who would maintain the status quo, not wishing for Thor to be as eager for war as he had been in his youth.
Still, George felt that it wasn't a big problem. Whether Odin was a good person or not, they had helped Thor and saved the Divine Realm. That was real, tangible progress.
(End of this chapter)