But S.W.O.R.D. was tied to the survival of the entire human race—there could be no room for the slightest negligence.
Zodhis, however, wasn't bothered at all. Nick Fury could handle it just fine.
Sure, Fury hadn't realized S.H.I.E.L.D. had turned into a snake pit—Hydra-S.H.I.E.L.D.—which was a massive dereliction of duty, but as one of the very few Level 10 agents in the world, the man was still damn capable. He'd simply been stabbed in the back. After all, how could he possibly have expected Hydra to have survived so naturally and grown so thick inside S.H.I.E.L.D.?
And once he knew, Fury, with real guts, chose to use himself as bait and successfully lured Hydra into attacking him.
Aside from the criticism that he worried like Batman without having Batman's abilities, Zodhis had zero concern that Nick Fury couldn't deal with this sort of thing.
S.W.O.R.D. began a long-term overhaul. Before, everyone had assumed that while S.W.O.R.D. was necessary, it would be disbanded once the monsters were wiped out.
So on top of personal corruption, the corruption between nations and the shameless grabbing for benefits were equally outrageous.
You wouldn't know until you looked—and once you did, the shock was staggering. A bombshell scandal erupted right inside S.W.O.R.D.
The one hundred Decepticons that had been registered were gone, vanished into thin air. The warehouse was empty!
Yes, Decepticons could literally fly, but they were inspected constantly, and every deployment required a report. What's more, these were brand-new Decepticons—they hadn't even had their pilots confirmed yet.
The matter drew high-level attention, but Zodhis was perfectly clear on it: in the Marvel world, if something happened and you couldn't find the culprit, you just pointed a finger at Hydra. Simple.
After the Battle of New York, Loki, as a criminal, was captured and was to be sent back to Asgard.
Thor, the God of Thunder, was deeply bothered by the disappearance of the Tesseract. After all, it was a treasure he'd been expressly ordered to bring back to Asgard. Pity he couldn't find it.
Before leaving, Zodhis, out of curiosity, asked to have a look at Mjolnir.
Thor generously let him study it, never imagining that while he thought Mjolnir was impossible to replicate, before Zodhis—who had already delved deep into the quark realm—the hammer was nothing more than a pile of toy blocks.
"So that's it. This so-called Asgardian divine power—now I've got Asgardian divine power too, and the power of Thor at that."
After fiddling with it a bit, Zodhis handed Mjolnir back to Thor.
Thor was delighted to have made so many friends and met so many strong people on Earth, and they agreed to have a real fight next time.
Zodhis immediately said, "No time like the present. Let's do it today."
And so, Thor, face bruised and swollen, dragged Loki along.
"Heimdall, bring us back!"
Amid a rainbow-hued glow, Thor and Loki vanished within the pillar of light.
Zodhis didn't give it much thought. Up next would probably be taking care of Hydra business.
Casually, he conjured a Mjolnir of his own. Whoever held this hammer would become the God of Thunder!
Heimdall of Asgard witnessed this scene, dared not hide it, and hurriedly reported to Odin.
The All-Father Odin, his expression complicated, said to leave it alone.
After all, that was the emperor of the Kryptonian Empire, and what's more, he couldn't even tell that the Mjolnir Thor held now was a fake.
Had Zodhis found the Reality Stone and used it to replicate Mjolnir?
Meanwhile, the moment Zodhis sensed someone spying on him, he directly used the Mind Stone to screen the entire Earth, blocking Heimdall's gaze.
Then, thoroughly intrigued, he continued to study Mjolnir.
Since there was Mjolnir, surely other divine artifacts could be developed as well.
Like Wonder Woman's, putting together a full set of gear as standard equipment.
Uru metal was also obtained by Zodhis while he examined Mjolnir.
No matter what metal it was, so long as it was material, it had an atomic structure. After mastering matter manipulation at the quark level, he could produce as much as he wanted.
And so, tinkering away, Zodhis came up with the Fire God's Sword.
Not Wonder Woman's version—that Fire God's Sword could cut at the subatomic level and was incredibly formidable.
Zodhis's Fire God's Sword simply employed three metals—Uru, vibranium, and proto-adamantium—along with Asgardian divine power and the runes he observed on Mjolnir.
Runic script!
It helped that Zodhis had also awakened the abilities of a magic Superman; otherwise, even if he had seen the runes, he wouldn't have been able to replicate their effects.
This Fire God's Sword could wield divine fire. The flames it produced were no natural fire, so they could burn in an oxygen-free environment and consume anything—water, ice, all manner of non-flammable substances.
It could even generate temperatures of a hundred thousand degrees, cleaving through any target.
Whoever held this sword would become the God of Fire, gaining flight, super strength, super speed, super endurance, and more.
Fully on par with Thor, that god of hammers.
He packed up a hundred Fire God's Swords and shipped them off to the Kryptonian Empire. Esdeath would handle the artifacts; soon enough, he'd have a fresh batch of Fire God Knights under his command.
Hydra, in an unknown underground base.
The Hydra of today was nothing like during World War II. The organization seemed colossal, but its management system was a tangled disaster.
After all Hydra cells in North America went completely dark, Hydra elsewhere grew wary.
They didn't think much of Alexander Pierce as a Hydra head, but for him to vanish without a trace—that wasn't something an ordinary person could pull off.
One of the five fingers of the Hand arrived here, because Hydra said they had business to discuss.
"Hello, Mr. Murakami."
A man appeared. Murakami was somewhat surprised.
"You are…?"
The man across from him smiled and answered with a single word.
"Clairvoyant."
Murakami was inwardly startled and couldn't help but size up Garrett again with far more seriousness.
"You are the Clairvoyant?"
To many outside Hydra, the Clairvoyant was a deeply mysterious codename.
Nobody knew what he looked like, but many had heard the name. It was said his influence was extraordinarily widespread, and that he was also in charge of several top-secret projects involving human enhancement.
S.H.I.E.L.D. had heard of such a figure as well, only they didn't know what connection he had with Hydra, which was theoretically long destroyed.
S.H.I.E.L.D. had clashed many times with the Clairvoyant's forces in various operations, but every time, their plans were seen through in advance, and every mission left them frustrated and empty-handed.
Because of this, many outsiders spread rumors that the Clairvoyant was an exceedingly rare superhuman with precognitive abilities. Within Hydra and among organizations like the Hand, there were even whispers that "the Clairvoyant is also a leader of Hydra."
Whether the rumor was true or not, it at least proved the Clairvoyant's high status and the power of his forces.
Garrett readily admitted it.
"That's right. I am."
/-\
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