Adam's expression remained unchanged as he listened to Thor.
Surprise? Dissatisfaction? None of that. He simply sat there calmly, watching Thor in silence.
"Borrow troops… Honestly, that's a crazy idea. If I agree, it means getting dragged into a war on a planetary scale," Adam said slowly.
Take Asgard as an example. The main population of Asgard proper wasn't large... less than a hundred thousand at most. The rest were spread across the various worlds of the Nine Realms as garrisons.
That number included civilians, meaning the actual number of professional warriors who could be fielded was even smaller.
The same applied to other realms. Laufey's Frost Giants ruled Jotunheim, while Surtur and Queen Sindr's Fire Giants ruled Muspelheim. Their total populations weren't huge either.
But their leaders were all Celestial-level beings.
Once full-scale war broke out, planets could be destroyed in the crossfire.
Odin himself, wielding Gungnir and wearing the Destroyer armor, had dared to clash with the Celestials. He was ferociously powerful.
"Mjolnir chose you. You are the new God of Thunder. You should shoulder the responsibilities that come with it!"
The more Thor spoke, the more worked up he became. It was like admitting his own failure. Every time he saw Adam casually playing with Mjolnir, jealousy threatened to tear him apart.
Adam remained unmoved. Trying to bind him... an Earthling for the time being... with talk of Asgard's duty? Don't be ridiculous.
"With great power comes great responsibility?"
"Exactly!"
"So, Thor, how many troops do you want to borrow?" Adam asked seriously.
Thor let out a breath, feeling he had successfully persuaded Adam with powerful rhetoric. He looked around at the Xenomorphs, deep in thought.
Borrow troops… How many?
Thor could guess that Adam wouldn't have all his Xenomorphs displayed in this rundown building. But asking for too many might be more than Adam could... or would... provide.
And it would be "give," not borrow. Thor knew that leading an army into a war between divine races would result in heavy casualties. If they all died, there would be nothing to return.
"The way you look right now reminds me of when I was a child eating cream cake... carefully calculating the ratio of cream to cake, trying to find the perfect balance that satisfied my obsessive mind while still tasting great," Adam said, watching the unusually hesitant Thor. "It's clear that since coming to Earth, your personality has changed somewhat. At least you're making an effort to think things through."
"If you had become a powerless mortal like me, with all your followers abandoning you, you would have changed too," Thor said earnestly.
If not for losing his powers and suffering one blow after another, he wouldn't have grown so quickly... especially in using his head.
Thor raised one hand, holding up five fingers.
"Five thousand? You want to borrow five thousand troops from me? Alright, that's not a small number. Give me some time," Adam nodded slightly.
Thor opened his mouth. He had been about to say fifty…
From his thousand years of warfare, Thor recognized many strengths in the Xenomorphs. They were born with natural exoskeletal armor and decent defense, capable of withstanding Earth firearms to a significant degree. This meant an ordinary Xenomorph's defensive capabilities were comparable to those of an elite Asgardian warrior... minus the high-tech gear.
Their offensive power was terrifying too: inner jaws, tails, and highly corrosive blood were all deadly weapons.
Most importantly, Thor saw them as natural warriors... cold-minded, perfectly coordinated, and utterly unwilling to retreat. Those qualities were invaluable.
Fifty Xenomorphs obviously couldn't help him counterattack Jotunheim. Thor wasn't crazy. He simply wanted to take as many as possible from Earth to help Loki. Perhaps they could serve as a surprise force to strike key Frost Giant targets.
Fifty was the number Thor had carefully considered. He believed Adam's followers should have at least that many, or thirty to forty at minimum.
And now Adam was offering five thousand???
Five thousand... what a concept!
"Thank you for your generosity. This is simply… I don't know the social structure of this race. There are no records in Asgard's libraries. If there were, I would remember. But I need true elites. Don't give me the lowest-tier civilian Xenomorphs. That would be sending them to their deaths," Thor hesitated, then spoke up.
"Don't worry. I know what I'm doing."
The main force Adam planned to deploy consisted of "Blood Xenomorphs." Considering the physical quality of vampire hosts and the resulting higher combat capabilities of the Xenomorphs that emerged from them, they had barely crossed the threshold into superhuman life.
At minimum, Blood Xenomorphs could ignore most human firearms. Even when injured, their already extreme healing combined with the vampires' powerful regeneration ensured rapid recovery.
Sending only Messenger Xenomorphs born from ordinary animals would be far less effective. They could be wounded by even moderately powerful weapons and wouldn't turn the tide on an Asgardian battlefield.
They would still be useful... the lowest-tier Xenomorph blood could corrode spaceship alloys, so it should easily melt through ordinary Frost Giants' skin and organs.
But deploying higher-grade ones was naturally better. They could swarm enemies and expand victories.
Adam said confidently, "Xenomorphs have their weaknesses, but you can rest assured on one point: even if they fight to the death, they will tear their own bodies apart to bathe the enemy in their blood."
A one-for-one exchange at the limit. I may lose, but as my enemy, even if you survive, you'll be crippled. That is the Xenomorphs' favorite way to fight... and their final, desperate attack when no other options remain.
Thor stared at Adam in shock.
"I hope you're not joking."
"You've only been on Earth a short while and you're already learning human dark humor?"
They looked at each other.
"Five thousand… five thousand… If there really are that many…" Thor muttered, growing excited. His expectations had been low, but now he had been promised a hundred times more. It was an incredible surprise!
Five thousand Xenomorphs that had barely crossed into superhuman territory, each capable of a one-for-one exchange at the limit, would be an enormous and tremendously helpful army.
"As far as I know, the Frost Giants prefer close-quarters combat, using their powerful bodies and sharp frost magic to slaughter enemies. Funny enough, I like that style of fighting too," Adam said with a smile.
Once Xenomorphs reached a certain scale, what did they fear most? Long-range bombardment from high-tech weapons or powerful magic.
But in melee and hand-to-hand combat? Adam wasn't worried. In a sense, while divine wars were extremely dangerous, they were also the perfect battlefield for Xenomorphs.
At least until he developed god-race or magic-capable Xenomorph strains that could wield special energies.
"My brother, we must drink together! When we reach Asgard, I'll toast you with the finest wine! Introduce you to the most beautiful women!" Thor was trembling with excitement. He grabbed Adam's hands tightly, refusing to let go.
Adam calmly pried open the sweaty warrior's grip, looked around, called Elektra over, and wiped his hands thoroughly on her newly grown, smooth white thigh. Elektra's eyes widened in disbelief as she stared at her boss.
"You can really provide five thousand troops?" Elektra wanted to explode, but the larva in her chest forcefully restrained her. She could only ask the question instead.
Even she was shocked by the number.
She had the strange feeling that Adam had deliberately inflated the figure to the "thousands."
"Not yet, but soon. Expanding the army isn't something I'm doing alone. Many others are contributing too."
Adam finally stood up. He glanced at the wild joy and anxious fear of being tricked on Thor's face, then looked past the collapsed doorway toward the distance.
He felt like a relentless arms dealer, doing everything he could to sell the value of Xenomorphs to a client, hoping they would bring them to the battlefield.
Thor had no other choice. He was willing to take the Xenomorphs into war.
Who else could he turn to? The Inhumans? Black Bolt would have to be insane to drag his low-population people into this. Or Kamar-Taj? Atlantis?
"Wait patiently, Thor. It won't be long. I need some time to expand our forces. War is never simple."
If left to Thor's command, the guy would probably just give one order: "Follow me and charge."
"You're not going to fight yourself?" Thor looked at him in surprise, as if it was strange for a leader receiving loyalty not to personally take the field.
"No need. A conflict of this scale doesn't require my direct presence." Adam remained calm. Even without going himself, he could remotely control all the Xenomorphs.
More importantly, he had no desire to be smashed to death on the battlefield by some random Sub-Celestial or Celestial-level powerhouse. Staying on Earth to command from afar meant that even if Jotunheim grew desperate, they wouldn't dare come to Earth for revenge.
"Now then, it's time for that guy to prove his worth… Mr. Blue."
Adam left Thor behind. Accompanied by the Abomination Xenomorph and several mutated strains, he became a blur under the newly chestbursted speedster Xenomorph's ability and vanished from the spot.
Mr. Blue hid in the sewers, painstakingly studying the secrets of the Xenomorphs.
Around him, dozens of pale green creatures floated motionless in formaldehyde.
These were products he had developed using Hulk blood, modeled after the Abomination. He could control them.
But this wasn't what Mr. Blue wanted. He wanted to replicate the Xenomorphs. He wanted to command those fascinating creatures.
His intellect, increased five hundredfold, never stopped thinking. Deduction and calculation were as natural as eating and drinking.
"That guy returned from New Mexico and went quiet… He precisely located Thor's landing site and returned as the God of Thunder. Did he parasitize Thor?" Mr. Blue was extremely excited.
"Something major must have happened in Asgard to cause the God of Thunder to fall to Earth. Foreign invasion? Civil war?" Mr. Blue couldn't figure it out, but he sensed that after contacting Thor, Adam would take further action.
At that moment, a tremendous crash echoed as the ground above shattered. Adam descended from above, appearing before Mr. Blue.
"It looks like you've been working hard these past days," Adam said, glancing at the pale green monsters.
"Of course. I knew someone like you wouldn't let me go and would have Xenomorphs secretly watching me. So I've been waiting for you. You need the things I've developed, don't you?" Mr. Blue showed no surprise. He simply lowered his head slightly and let out a mad laugh.
Adam frowned slightly. It seemed this universe's Mr. Blue, whose brain had been altered by Hulk blood, was somewhat unhinged. But as long as he was useful, that was fine.
"From now on, you will devote yourself fully to producing these things. Including yourself, you now belong to me."
"War is coming? Are you going to fight S.H.I.E.L.D. or some other organization? Is it over control of Thor, or…"
Adam didn't waste words. He shoved a facehugger onto him. Mr. Blue foamed at the mouth and passed out, only to wake up quickly thanks to the Hulk serum in his body.
"There's something growing in my chest. As expected, this creature can integrate the host's genetic material. I assume you won't kill me until I lose my usefulness," Mr. Blue grew even more excited, carefully sensing the changes inside him.
Ever since the day the Abomination Xenomorph was born, he had collected tiny traces of genetic material left behind in his lab. But he had been unable to replicate a true Xenomorph. He had been waiting for Adam's arrival.
First understand, then decode, then perfectly control, and finally surpass Adam and enslave both him and the Xenomorphs. That was the plan Mr. Blue had set for himself!
Adam could roughly guess what the ambitious mad scientist was thinking, but now wasn't the time to worry about it.
A mere Mr. Blue wasn't enough to provide him with a large army.
In the coming days, besides sending more Xenomorphs out in force to capture vampires en masse, he would rely on Mr. Blue's genetic experiments and the stolen Xenomorph egg.
High above the continent.
Inside the Helicarrier's biological laboratory.
"We did it! The Xenomorphs really do communicate through pheromones. So far, we've detected no signs of psychic links. Using their secretions, we've developed a pheromone agent that can control it!"
"Did you notice? This Xenomorph is evolving rapidly. If we're not mistaken, it's developing toward a reproductive queen! Asexual reproduction... that's how they breed. It's incredible!"
A group of scientists huddled together, passionately discussing the Xenomorph held inside an Adamantium cage.
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