"Heimdall."
A dark green portal briefly opened in the sky of the sealed realm.
Hela stepped out of it and landed on the ground. Her expression was extremely unpleasant.
"…Helheim."
She uttered the words coldly.
Adrian raised an eyebrow.
"Helheim? Isn't that your territory?"
"Does that mean you really escaped the seal?"
Helheim—the land of the dead ruled by Hela herself—was located in one of the under-realms connected to Asgard.
In theory, if she could reach Helheim, she should have regained her full authority.
"Escaped my ass!"
Hela snapped irritably.
"Do you think that old man didn't anticipate that possibility?"
"If I appear in Helheim, the seal immediately rejects me and throws me back here!"
She walked over to the stone throne and sat down heavily.
Clearly, she was in a terrible mood.
At this point, Hela was beginning to suspect the magic lamp Adrian had produced.
Was this whole thing just some elaborate prank?
"It looks like we'll have to wait another month."
Adrian shrugged.
As far as he was concerned, the situation was completely out of his control.
One month later.
Hela rubbed the lamp again and spoke carefully.
"Let me leave this sealed area."
The lamp absorbed a small amount of her magic.
The blue genie emerged once again.
"I will try my best to fulfill your wish."
Six hours later—
A filthy hand suddenly clawed up from the soil.
Hela crawled out of the ground, covered in dirt.
Without saying a word, she summoned a Night-Sky Sword and charged straight at Adrian.
"You're absolutely playing me for a fool!!!"
The battle that followed lasted another month.
"Why would I play you?"
Adrian sighed, exhausted.
"Do you think I enjoy being sealed here?"
He reluctantly took out the magic lamp and tossed it toward Hela.
"If I knew magic, I'd have used it myself."
"Hmph."
Hela snorted coldly.
She grabbed the lamp and infused it with magic again.
This time she made a completely different wish.
"Let me see Odin."
After so many failures, Hela's attitude had become one of pure sarcasm.
"I will try my best to fulfill your wish."
The blue-skinned genie repeated the same words like a broken machine before vanishing back into the lamp.
A moment later—
A life-sized stone statue suddenly appeared in front of them.
It was a statue of Odin.
"So this counts as letting me see Odin?!"
Hela stared at the statue in disbelief.
Then she punched it.
The statue shattered instantly.
Meanwhile, somewhere in a small city not far away, a stonemason stood in his backyard scratching his head in confusion.
The statue he had just finished carving… had mysteriously disappeared.
"Forget it."
"This thing is useless."
"And Jeff is an idiot."
After repeated failures, Adrian was becoming increasingly irritated.
"No."
"What if it works next time?"
Hela twirled the lamp lazily on one finger, her expression full of amusement.
Why had their attitudes changed so dramatically?
Because ever since the incident with Odin's statue, Hela had discovered something.
Every wish she made somehow involved Adrian.
"Let him leave this seal."
— Adrian experienced another hour of freefall.
"Grant him freedom."
— Adrian inexplicably appeared wearing banana-yellow trousers and a ridiculous headscarf.
"Let him kill Odin."
— Adrian fell from a hundred meters in the air and smashed another unfortunate statue of Odin.
(Stonemason: ???)
At this point, Adrian strongly suspected that Hela had begun treating The Amazing Jeffries as a toy specifically designed to prank him.
"No!"
Adrian refused immediately.
"What do you mean 'what if it works'?!"
"If it actually worked, we would have escaped already!"
Hela shrugged and tossed the choice back to him.
"Fine."
"Then what wish do you want to make?"
"…Well…"
Adrian sighed.
"I haven't eaten in a long time."
"How about some hamburgers and a few pounds of fried chick—"
Before the genie could finish materializing, Adrian suddenly froze.
Then he corrected himself quickly.
"No."
"Just a few pounds of fried chicken."
"I will try my best to fulfill your wish."
Thump.
Several paper bags dropped onto the ground.
Inside were hamburgers and fried chicken.
"The desire for food is one of the most basic mortal instincts."
Hela commented casually.
Before Adrian could even react, she grabbed a hamburger, unwrapped it, and took a bite.
"…Hmm."
"Not bad."
"It seems Jeff the intellectually challenged genie can at least function as a delivery service."
Adrian sighed and picked up a hamburger.
He took a bite—
And immediately froze.
"What the hell kind of hamburger is this?!"
A powerful salty stench exploded across his senses.
He lifted the patty and inspected it.
Inside was not fried chicken.
Not beef.
Instead it contained:
Stinky tofu.
Fermented bean curd.
Lemon slices.
And an entire spoonful of Lao Gan Ma chili sauce.
"…To hell with this 'secret recipe mini burger.'"
Adrian silently tossed the hamburger away while watching Hela happily eating hers nearby.
But then—
Perhaps inspired by the pungent smell—
An idea suddenly flashed through Adrian's mind.
Escaping the seal using the magic lamp was almost certainly impossible.
And waiting for the Ancient One to somehow discover his presence on Earth might take who knew how long.
But what if he could send a message instead?
Yes.
There was a way.
Odin's seal could only suppress things that had originally been imprisoned inside it.
But the magic lamp—
The Amazing Jeffries—
Had been obtained after Adrian was sealed.
Which meant—
It was not bound by the seal.
If the lamp escaped, someone outside could discover it.
And the people on Earth most likely to recognize magical artifacts were the sorcerers of Kamar-Taj.
Once he had an idea, Adrian acted immediately.
A beam of starlight descended from the sky.
His War Star Spirit power returned.
His spear and shield materialized among the falling stars.
Hela looked up in confusion.
"What?"
"You want to fight again?"
She stuffed the last bite of hamburger into her mouth.
Adrian ignored her.
He hung the magic lamp on the shaft of his spear.
Then he gathered all his power and aimed diagonally upward.
And threw.
The Star-Piercing Spear shot into the sky like a comet.
THUMP!
The spear struck the invisible barrier of Odin's seal and stopped.
But the lamp—
Carried by momentum—
continued flying forward.
It shot through the barrier and disappeared into the sky.
High above the planet—
Captain Marvel had just finished dealing with a group of Kree pursuers.
She deactivated her Binary form, drawing the cosmic energy back into her body as she prepared to return to Earth.
Suddenly—
Something slammed into the back of her head.
Before she could react—
Her vision spun.
And she plummeted toward the planet below, dizzy and disoriented.