Chapter 282: Tony, God of Technology?
"Damn it all!" Loki roared in fury, eyes practically blazing as he glared at the empty spot in front of him — the exact place where Ethan had just used a portal to steal his precious staff moments ago.
His face had gone dark as storm clouds, rage boiling inside him fit to swallow the whole world.
All Loki had wanted was a chance to show off a little divine grace in front of the crowd — a display of his own majesty and power. Instead, everything had been thrown into chaos by Ethan. Not only had his plan been derailed, but that cunning bastard had used the opportunity to steal his scepter clean out of his hands.
Fury and resentment churned inside Loki in equal measure. Ever since crossing paths with Ethan, he'd felt cursed by nothing but bad luck. Is this man genuinely my natural-born rival? Loki couldn't help but start doubting his own luck, his own strength.
Still, after this fight, Loki had to admit that Earth's combat power wasn't nearly as feeble as he'd first assumed. He hated admitting it, but the evidence was right in front of him, impossible to ignore.
These seemingly ordinary Earth-dwellers had just unleashed astonishing strength and cunning.
Even so, Loki didn't let himself sink into despair.
He believed that once the Chitauri army arrived, everything would finally be settled.
No matter how strong Earth turned out to be, in terms of technology or raw power, Loki was confident none of them stood a chance against Thanos — which was exactly why he'd chosen to pledge himself to Thanos's cause in the first place.
Loki swore silently to himself: once Earth and the Black Order had ground each other down, that would be his moment to take his revenge on Ethan. He'd make the man pay a hundredfold for this humiliation.
Meanwhile, Kaito stood off to the side, quietly watching Loki's reaction.
He found himself genuinely impressed with Ethan's style and sharp instincts — especially the way he'd swooped in and stolen Loki's staff right out from under everyone. It only raised his estimation of the man further.
Kaito was also deeply intrigued by that sudden portal-ring ability of Ethan's. It seemed practically tailor-made for someone like him — and looked, if anything, even more convenient and practical than his own Dimensional Gate.
After all, his Dimensional Gate's opening was massive — using it tended to give away his position instantly.
Kaito understood well enough, though, that talking Ethan into trading that technique wouldn't come cheap. He rubbed his chin, deep in thought. He'd need to consider carefully what treasure might actually be worth offering in exchange for a technique that powerful.
Maybe Tsukasa knows something about this, he thought, and opened his own Dimensional Gate.
"Where are you headed?" Loki asked, curious.
"Going to find some backup. Want to come?" Kaito said without looking back, waving a hand.
Loki gritted his teeth at that. Even a nasty piece of work like this has friends, huh. He decided he wanted to see exactly who this "backup" was — and with that thought, he too vanished through the Dimensional Gate.
Meanwhile, having gotten his hands on the scepter, Ethan wasted no time prying the gem loose from its top.
An instant later, he heard the System's notification chime.
「DING!」
「Mind Stone energy detected nearby. Beginning absorption!」
「System entering update phase — countdown 24:00.」
The Mind Stone in Ethan's hand vanished the moment the notification finished.
Ethan muttered under his breath, "Didn't even get a good look at it before you snatched it up. Someone's eager."
Still, he found himself curious what exactly absorbing the Mind Stone would grant the System.
All things considered, Ethan was quite pleased with how the whole outing had gone. He hadn't expected a simple date to net him an Infinity Stone on top of everything else.
Loki really is a walking piggy bank. What a sweetheart, honestly.
A commotion that size hadn't gone unnoticed by ordinary civilians — and naturally, the superheroes had noticed too.
Sure enough, Falcon and Iron Man from the Illuminati had already arrived on the scene.
"That's... it? It's over already?" Tony looked around, still scanning for an enemy that clearly wasn't there anymore.
Guess everybody's got instant teleportation these days, Tony thought, wounded pride flaring in his tech-obsessed heart. He was seriously considering just heading to Kamar-Taj to pick up portal magic himself — the sheer convenience of the thing was unbeatable.
Tony, at least, stayed reasonably composed — he already had a good handle on just how strong Ethan actually was.
Falcon, newly inducted into the Illuminati, felt his entire worldview crumble on the spot. He'd known Ethan was powerful before, sure, but actually witnessing this fight — one that had lasted less than two and a half minutes total — left him thoroughly shaken.
Falcon recognized the Rider form Ethan had transformed into — the Illuminati had a Rider of their own, after all, and every single time he'd sparred against Tsukasa, Falcon had come away thoroughly beaten.
And here was Ethan, casually summoning over a dozen different Riders at will, every single one of which Falcon could tell, just by watching, outclassed him completely.
Ethan just swiped a card and summoned them, no trouble at all. Falcon found himself desperately curious what those cards were even made of — he really, badly wanted one for himself.
And it wasn't just Ethan, either — the other Rider he'd been fighting could also summon additional Riders of his own.
Is "gathering backup" just... the intended use case for Kamen Riders? Falcon marveled. That's such a cool way to fight. I wish I could gather backup like that too.
Comparing all these Rider suits to his own gear, Falcon glanced down at his own uniform — red and blue, with those wings — and thought, God, this thing is butt-ugly.
If only he could get his hands on a Kamen Rider Driver of his own. Not that he hadn't asked Tsukasa about it already — but Tsukasa genuinely didn't have a spare Driver to offer, and even if a new one turned up somewhere, it sure wouldn't be going to him.
He was just the newest recruit, after all — a lowly Shocombatant as far as the Illuminati was concerned. Falcon knew perfectly well he was little more than a scout in their eyes.
"What else was I supposed to do?" Ethan said, rolling his eyes. "She interrupted my date with Wanda. These two clowns were the ones wasting my time."
Beside him, Wanda's face flushed instantly red at his words — nobody watching would ever have guessed that she was the same Scarlet Witch who'd just beaten Loki half to death moments earlier.
Tony, too, stared at Wanda in open disbelief. He'd genuinely never expected this young woman's strength to be this formidable — the man she'd been fighting was, technically, a literal god, and she'd left him with absolutely no room to fight back.
Guess I need to go home and start researching some anti-Wanda armor.
There were already far too many suits on his to-do list, and he was running dangerously low on rare materials. Just thinking about it gave Tony a headache.
"This 'god' business is a lot weaker than advertised. Are all these so-called gods really this underwhelming?" Tony scoffed.
I bet I could take him myself.
Which meant, by his own logic, he counted as a god too now. Tony, God of Technology, he thought to himself, thoroughly pleased.
"He's not THAT weak, honestly. Though at your current level, sure, you could probably take Loki," Ethan said, rolling his eyes. "There are a few gods out there who'd actually give you trouble, though."
Ethan hadn't expected Tony's ego to have inflated quite this much already. Then again, Tony did have some genuine grounds to be proud of himself these days.
Ethan's own presence had, without question, accelerated Tony's growth dramatically — sure, the man kept getting his teeth kicked in along the way, but there was no denying that every single time, his strength jumped by leaps and bounds.
Ethan could easily picture the sheer variety of suits Tony must have stashed at home by now — all built with Ethan himself and Hell's Kitchen specifically in mind as the threat to counter.
"Didn't Loki just say something about coming back with reinforcements? Does that mean we're about to get invaded by aliens?" Tony asked.
"Yep. Congratulations — no prize for guessing right, though."
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