Chapter 368 |
“As expected, my deduction was correct…Now this kid truly has the ability to protect himself. The only question is whether he can live up to my expectations!” Josh quickly received the message Loki transmitted through Hilda, learning that Loki had completed the absorption of his doppelganger from the Saint Seiya world, feeling quite satisfied.
Of course, although this message was delivered through Hilda, it was definitely not plain truth, but rather a prearranged code.
With Hilda’s intelligence, she naturally understood the trick, but since she owed a debt of gratitude to Josh and Loki and would rely on Josh for many things later, she could only turn a blind eye to such minor maneuvers.
As long as no clear threat was posed to Asgard, Hilda was too lazy to interfere.
After all, she still had to face more troublesome opponents: the Sanctuary and the Sea Realm.
With Loki’s help, she had only just freed herself from Poseidon’s control; to truly break free from the war between the two major gods was still a long way off.
So throughout this process, Josh wasn’t overly worried that Hilda would create too many obstacles for Loki’s actions in the Saint Seiya world.
Especially now that Loki had absorbed the doppelganger of the Saint Seiya world, Josh had even less to worry about.
However, the smooth progress in the Saint Seiya world could not completely erase the faint worry on Josh’s face because this worry did not come from the Saint Seiya world but from the Ancient One.
But the strike she wanted was not against Josh’s work.
Josh’s plan to steal the source power of many gods from the Azeroth universe would still be done by the Ancient One to the best of her ability—that was something she wanted to do herself.
What she really wanted to strike against was the Marvel Universe’s old boss, her greatest former patron, the Creator God Eternity.
It’s well known that the Ancient One, besides her immense power and her centuries of dedicated protection of Earth from other dimensional invasions, was most famous for her habit of not repaying debts.
Many dimensional demons in the Marvel Universe suffered greatly because of her—though it was the greedy demons’ own fault.
The reason the Ancient One dared to do this, apart from her own great power, was most importantly because she had a big boss behind her that no dimensional demon dared to provoke—the Creator God Eternity.
But here, a fact was unavoidable.
Eternity himself was also a creditor of the Ancient One—and one that the Ancient One couldn’t escape even in death.
When the Ancient One died, her soul would inevitably have to go to Eternity’s side to work off the debt.
If you think the Ancient One was willing, that’s obviously impossible.
Unlike the duties of the Supreme Sorcerer, which at least could see an end when a suitable heir appeared, the job of repaying this debt to Eternity, given the Ancient One’s debt, was essentially limitless.
Do you think the name “Eternity” was just called for nothing?
It’s just that before, the Ancient One couldn’t resist the “big boss” and had to wait patiently for that day to come.
Even after learning that Josh had the ability to send people to other universes, she didn’t put much thought into it—because at first she, like the other gods, thought Josh was only able to access other multiverses created by Eternity.
But after arriving in Azeroth, the Ancient One discovered that this strange universe had absolutely nothing to do with Eternity, and her originally calm mindset began to waver.
Damn it, since she had escaped Eternity’s control, why would she bitterly want to go back and work as a laborer for her?
Especially after coming into contact with the Eternity Dragon and the Bronze Dragon, her desire became even stronger.
Because after deep research, she found that the Azeroth universe’s time system was in an extremely chaotic state.
Don’t be fooled by the seemingly overpowered abilities of the Bronze Dragon and the Eternity Dragon—compared to the Ancient One, who had long possessed the Time Stone, a cosmic-level treasure, their use of time power was very low-level.
Yes, low-level.
Don’t be misled by the fact that almost every adult Bronze Dragon or Eternity Dragon was older than the Ancient One; when it comes to understanding and using power, age doesn’t always mean superiority.
In the Marvel Universe, the Ancient One’s age compared to those dimensional demons was just a small fraction, yet how many dimensional demons could really hold their own against her?
Regarding time power, not to mention the Bronze Dragon, even the Titan Aman’Thul, who granted Nozdormu time power, might not understand it as deeply as the Ancient One.
If Aman’Thul, the supreme father of the Pantheon, truly mastered time power fully, Sargeras would never have been able to defeat him.
Moreover, the time power Aman’Thul granted to Chronormu was basically limited to Azeroth itself.
Outside of Azeroth, Nozdormu and his descendants were nothing.
Just like in the Warlords of Draenor version, the Bronze Dragon Kairozdormu tried to go to Draenor 35 years in the past in a parallel universe but needed external help.
And the only place reachable was that planet Draenor, which had become nearly inseparable from Azeroth.
Eventually, Kairozdormu was easily and cleverly killed by a little orc.
So after staying in the Azeroth universe for a year, the Ancient One had already developed the idea of becoming the god of time in this universe.
If she could fully control the power of time, forget about the Titans, Void Lords, or Eternity— even top beings like Elune would probably have no way to deal with her.
Frankly speaking, if the Ancient One could achieve such a level, it would be a huge help to Josh.
At least by then, Josh could get almost anything from the Azeroth universe through the Ancient One.
But the downside was also obvious: if the Ancient One ran away, Eternity would lose track of this deadbeat, and what she would do then was unknown.
This Creator God of the Marvel Universe was too mysterious, and no one knew her temperament; even the gods she created barely understood her.
Josh wasn’t sure whether his Plane Trading System cheat could hide this from her, nor whether she would detect the fact that he had taken the Ancient One to another universe.
If the other side discovered this, Josh might have to pay for the Ancient One.
So Josh couldn’t help but feel conflicted about this matter.