Seeing Thor still wearing a look of urgent worry, his face full of concern, Harry softly reassured him,
"Thor, relax. Since you've already made it to Kamar-Taj, I promise you Jane will be fine.
Come on, help me support her. We'll head to the infirmary together and find a way to save her."
The group hurried along and quickly arrived at the infirmary. But the sight before them was far beyond what Thor had expected.
In his imagination, the room should have been packed with advanced medical equipment, something like the cutting-edge healing facilities of Asgard.
Instead, Kamar-Taj's infirmary was completely bare aside from the dense runes carved across the floor, each one giving off a faint, mysterious glow. The place looked especially empty and crude.
The contrast was so strong that Thor felt like he had boarded the wrong ship.
He frowned slightly. After hesitating for a moment, he still couldn't help leaning closer to Harry and quietly suggesting,
"Uh, Harry, don't get me wrong.
But honestly, Asgard's infirmary is way more advanced than this place.
How about we go to Asgard instead? The medical facilities there might be more helpful for Jane."
Harry rolled his eyes at Thor and explained,
"Who told you Asgard is more advanced than we are? Standing in front of you is the Chaos Controller who makes countless Dimensional Demon Gods tremble in fear. I also happen to be a master healer."
The moment he finished speaking, Harry lightly snapped his fingers.
In an instant, the runes inscribed across the floor flared with blinding light.
Immediately afterward, a great number of golden spell rings appeared out of thin air above the Runic matrix.
At first those rings looked hazy and insubstantial, as if they might dissipate at any second. But in the blink of an eye, they rapidly solidified and gradually transformed into a full set of fantastical inspection equipment radiating a mysterious aura, leaving Thor utterly dumbfounded.
Seeing Thor standing there in a daze, Harry helplessly spread his hands and urged him on.
"Hey, Thor, stop spacing out. Put Jane into the machine. I'm going to give her a complete and thorough full-body examination, inside and out."
Thor hurriedly snapped back to his senses and carefully settled Jane into the apparatus.
Once the mysterious spell rings slowly closed around her, Thor couldn't hold back his curiosity any longer. Looking over everything in front of him, he asked,
"This is incredible, Harry. How does this even work? How can something this huge and complicated be stacked together like this?"
Harry gave him a taste of his own medicine and smiled.
"The principles behind this are way beyond Asgardian technology. You wouldn't understand it in a short time anyway."
Then he raised an eyebrow at Thor.
Thor froze for a second before realizing Harry was teasing him. He could only smile bitterly and spread his hands in resignation, choosing not to ask any further.
Given what he knew about Harry, Thor could more or less guess where these things had come from.
Harry now held a top-tier status in the Multiverse, enough to attend all sorts of highly classified auctions.
These tools and bits of knowledge had most likely been obtained from those very auctions.
As for Asgard, even at its peak, when Odin the All-Father was strong enough to rival the Celestials, he still would not have qualified to attend those highest-level auctions.
Thor knew very well that this was a symbol of strength and status. Though he was full of envy, all he could do was sigh to himself. There was nothing he could do about it.
The examination results came out quickly. Looking at the data before him, Harry frowned slightly. The situation was even trickier than he had expected.
Thor, who had been staring at everything without blinking, immediately noticed the crease in Harry's brow and anxiously asked,
"Harry, what is it? Is Jane's condition really that serious?"
"It is a little troublesome." Harry lifted a hand and drew lightly through the air. A floating blue window glowing with soft light instantly appeared. With a turn of his wrist, he pushed it in front of Thor and then patiently explained, "Within its native universe, the power of an Infinity Stone is terrifying, enough to rival a being on the level of a single-universe powerhouse.
Even for me, it's hard to directly influence the Reality Stone.
At the moment, the Aether that melted down from the Reality Stone has already fused with Jane completely. The two are no longer distinct, which makes separating them extremely difficult.
If we use ordinary methods to forcibly strip the Aether away, Jane simply won't survive it. That would be the same as killing her.
Even if I did it myself and handled everything with the utmost care, it would still take at least several months to safely separate the Aether from her body.
During that time, Jane would have to remain by my side at all times. I'd need to continuously supply chaos magic to counter the Aether's erosion of her body. Only then could she stay alive.
But having Jane stay beside me for that long is something neither she nor I would find acceptable."
Since it was her own life on the line, Jane had been listening intently to every single word Harry said from beginning to end.
The moment she heard there was a way to save her, her dim eyes lit up at once, and she blurted out without a second thought,
"I can do it! As long as I get to live, I'm totally fine staying with you for a few months!"
Harry did not even turn around. His tone was utterly firm, with no room for negotiation at all.
"I'm not."
Jane: "..."
F**k, then why even bring me up just now?
Having found a glimmer of hope for saving Jane, Thor no longer had the luxury of worrying whether anything inappropriate might happen from his girlfriend sticking close to Harry for the next few months.
At that moment, all he cared about was Jane's safety. His eyes reddened, and there was even a trace of pleading in his voice as he urgently said,
"Harry, please! In a situation like this, you're probably the only one who can save Jane. Even my father Odin would have a hard time doing anything against the power of the Reality Stone!"
The thought of having to drag around a third wheel for the next several months made Harry's whole body feel uncomfortable.
Still, he had never been the kind of person who could stand by and watch someone die. After thinking for a moment, his signature smile returned, and he said,
"Thor, calm down. Separating the Aether directly may not be practical, but that doesn't mean we're out of options.
Back when I was going through the archives at Kamar-Taj, I read quite a few ancient texts related to the Infinity Stones."
He narrowed his eyes slightly, recalling what was written in those books, then continued,
"As far as I know, in this universe, other than me, there should be one other race capable of safely extracting the Aether from Jane's body."
"What race?" Thor asked immediately, his eyes full of hope.
"One of Asgard's old enemies, the Dark Elves."
"But they vanished from the Nine Realms long ago. We don't even know where to begin looking for them!" Thor's expression instantly darkened, his tone filled with disappointment and helplessness.
Harry simply smiled, unhurried.
"Don't panic yet. If I were one of the Dark Elves and I sensed the Aether had appeared again, I'd definitely do everything possible to reclaim that power and use it to take revenge on Asgard once more."
He paused briefly before continuing, "Right now, what we need most is more clues. And when it comes to that information, your father Odin should know more than anyone."
...
The area around the Asgardian palace was engraved with a spatial warding array. Unless Harry chose to force his way through it, he couldn't open a portal nearby, so he opened one outside the palace grounds instead.
Harry and the others stepped out of the portal and headed toward the main hall. They needed to request an audience with Odin the All-Father.
The moment Odin saw Harry, he greeted him with a heartfelt smile. He strode straight over and shook Harry's hand, acting even more warmly than he had when facing the Ancient One.
In a steady and affable tone, he said,
"Welcome, Harry. What brings you to Asgard all of a sudden?
I've heard you've been working on a floating city lately. The very first time I saw you, I knew you had potential. And sure enough, you've now managed to build something as incredible as a floating city."
Harry handled Odin's enthusiasm with ease and replied smoothly,
"It's just a little hobby project on my part. Compared with Asgard, a floating city is nothing more than a child's toy."
Odin's unusual behavior put Harry on guard. Given Harry's personality, even if Odin knew he had badly wounded Mephisto and killed Nightmare, he still shouldn't have been this warm.
That meant there could only be one reason for this attitude now.
Odin was definitely after him.
Odin clearly wanted to ask him for something, and whatever it was, it was absolutely going to be troublesome.
Still, when facing an elderly man who, even in his decline, could destroy a planet whenever he pleased, Harry showed him every bit of due respect.
Nearby, Jane quietly watched the two of them exchange pleasantries, and in that instant, a familiar sense of phoniness washed over her.
The scene looked exactly like the way politicians back on Earth socialized at official events. On the surface they were all smiles and courtesy, but every sentence carried hidden barbs and layers of polished calculation.
Harry was one thing, since he came from Earth, but why was Odin, the king of Asgard, exactly the same?
Jane was puzzled. Tugging lightly at Thor's collar, she whispered,
"Thor, has your father always been like this? The way he's talking to Harry feels almost a little too deferential."
The moment he heard Jane's sudden comment, Thor immediately covered her mouth, knowing things were about to go badly.
With his father's hearing, there was no way Odin hadn't heard that little remark from behind his back.
Thor carefully glanced at his father. Only after confirming Odin wasn't paying attention to them did he let out a sigh of relief. Then he turned to Jane with a serious look.
"Jane, don't speak carelessly. If Father is acting this way, then he must have his reasons. Besides, Harry is different. He's someone special even in this universe."
Jane still looked confused. She had known Harry for a long time, but beyond knowing that he was powerful and the leader of some mysterious organization, she knew nothing deeper than that.
So she asked curiously,
"What's so different about Harry? Isn't he just a really strong sorcerer?"
Thor looked helpless, but he still explained,
"That's right, he is a powerful sorcerer.
He's just far too powerful."
"Far too powerful?" Jane asked, still confused. "What's that supposed to mean?"
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