Building an army is indeed one of the core competencies of the Three Great Empires. Don't think it's just because they rely on their almost infinite resources to do this; in fact, how to convert resources into soldiers in the most efficient way is a very deep science. Even more profound is how to get these created soldiers to the battlefield as quickly as possible.
People who have played automation games should understand that the ultimate output isn't just about mining efficiency, it's about the assembly line's efficiency, and even the conveyor belt's efficiency. Eventually, the conveyor belt efficiency becomes the most important factor.
Suppose the mining efficiency and the factory's assembly efficiency are both unlimited, then the only thing to optimize is the conveyor belt efficiency, or in other words, how to deliver the products to the end in the most efficient way. There's a lot of skill involved here. You could say, building a factory might be satisfying for a moment, but organizing the lines is like a crematorium. What starts as a small adjustment to the conveyor belt, ends up with you realizing it's already dawn.
The human race is still somewhat lacking in this regard, or more accurately, they don't need this technology right now. After all, they've yet to achieve an unlimited resource level, nor do they have the deep reserves like the Three Great Empires.
However, this technology is something humans will have to master sooner or later. After all, the human population is far too small. To fight a prolonged war against the Three Great Empires, they can't rely solely on their own race. Ironically, their allies, the Asgardians, are even fewer in number. After developing for so many years without much progress, they could only rely on humans to build up the army.
Stark's idea was to get the technology first. While he didn't think it was that advanced, it was at least a reference, and research data is never too much.
The two Great Empires obviously realized they couldn't let him take this technology. After all, human independently developed technology had already created unreasonable things like the Iron Demon God. If they copied their homework, who knows what oddities they'd produce? At that point, they really couldn't compete.
The nest had a self-destruct system, but Stark controlled it, rendering it ineffective, so it had to be destroyed from the outside. Instantly, countless soldiers swarmed toward Stark. Stark was a bit overwhelmed; it seemed there was no end to them.
His newly comprehended method of modifying cosmic programs as an attack was still in the exploration stage, more suited for precision work. Otherwise, he would have directly deleted everything marked with the Three Great Empires' symbol before, obviating the need for a fight. In fact, it was not feasible.
He had no choice but to materialize a mechanical army, barely forming an equilibrium of annihilation. Although a bit slow, it was barely manageable. Passing through the Destroying Worms, they seemed uninterested in him. He thus returned to the base with the nest in tow.
As soon as he returned, he saw an identical nest placed in the base's center. Shiller's voice rang in his ears: "Didn't you want to study this thing? I brought one back for you to look at."
Stark directly handed his own to Reed, reverting to Iron Man form and flew over, saying, "This is excellent quality, did you disassemble it and bring it back?"
"Not really, I was worried there might be problems during assembly, so I dragged it back with the gray mist to ensure nothing inside changed..."
While they were researching the nest, Thor successfully destroyed the fifth nest. With previous experience, it would get faster. After estimating the shield's withstand limit, Thor decided to divide the Thunder Gods into three small teams, each with a few people, and with enough strength to break the shields, increasing efficiency.
Because they discovered that nests could also manufacture nests. Initially, because there was no threat, they hadn't activated this production line. But after finding the attacks on them, the nests began producing themselves continually. So if the destruction was not fast enough, they would produce even more.
After splitting forces, the efficiency increased significantly. Thor and the other Thunder Gods gathered strength again. As the thunder was about to fall, the Power of Thunder in Thor's hand suddenly exploded.
Bzzz—Boom!
Thor, completely unprepared, was blasted away. In the moment of imbalance, he felt a buzzing in his brain, head splitting, with thoughts going blank, unable to employ any form of self-defense.
Then a sharp pain erupted from his chest, as an X-ray directly penetrated it. Turning his head, he saw a strong green-skinned figure slowly fade into nothingness.
"Damn, it's the Martian Manhunter..." Thor felt his life force instantly drained. His heart was completely melted by the ray, coupled with a strange force preventing his recovery.
Within a flash, an intense white light appeared, a cosmogenic life force sustaining his last bit of vitality. The other Thunder Gods were shocked but rushed over, trying to drag Thor back.
Since the other party had already acted, they wouldn't let them leave so easily. As soon as a few Thunder Gods moved, they felt excruciating brain pain, momentarily unable to control themselves.
"Quick! Call for help!!!"
One Thunder God with strong psychic ability quickly pressed the communicator, not to call the human race, but to call Hela. Thus, Hela left the Fairy Palace for the battlefield.
However, she didn't tell Loki she was going to rescue Thor but tried to describe the situation as less severe as possible, as if Thor was just injured and now he was safe. Otherwise, if Loki impulsively rushed to the battlefield, it would truly be like a buy one, get one free deal.
Unexpectedly, Thor still had the strength to answer his brother's communication, and it was during this communication that his Divine Power completely dissipated, completely losing his last shred of Vitality.
When Hela rushed to the battlefield, she immediately sensed something. She looked towards Thor, but he had already closed his eyes. Hela's fingertips trembled slightly; she thought she was about to see that beam of white light.
But at that moment, an indescribable wave echoed in the hearts of all Asgardians. They simultaneously turned their heads in the same direction, although there seemed to be nothing there, every Asgardian knew that was the direction of the World Tree.
The World Tree was lamenting, a phenomenon that had never occurred before. At least to people from other cosmos, the World Tree had always been very silent, almost never responding to life in the Nine Major Kingdoms. The last time there was a reaction, it was when Odin sacrificed one of his eyes to exchange for the Spring under the World Tree.
But this time, the World Tree gave an unprecedentedly strong reaction. Everyone saw the white light on Thor's body light up, but it did not form a beam of light, as if something was stopping it.
Then, a branch that only beings from the Nine Major Kingdoms could see extended, holding Thor's body and returning it to the World Tree, immersing it into the Spring under the World Tree.
Hela sighed softly; she roughly understood what was happening.
In most cosmos, the World Tree is extremely silent because the God Clan owes debts and doesn't repay them. They extract almost infinite Strength from the nourishment of the World Tree, and the longer the time, the more Strength they extract.
However, the Strength of the World Tree is not infinite. When it is extracted to a certain extent, it will inevitably destroy the God Clan; otherwise, it will starve itself to death.
The era when Loki and Thor were born was already approaching Ragnarök. At this time, the World Tree was already starving madly; let alone taking action, it was probably difficult even to speak, so it was impossible to have any response.
But the God Clan in the Central Universe had paid back the money; they had been continuously providing Energy before, not letting the World Tree go particularly hungry. At the crucial moment, they fed it a large amount. The resources plundered by the Three Great Empires across the cosmos ultimately all went into its belly, not only feeding it but also leaving a portion to feed the living beings of the Nine Major Kingdoms.
That is to say, the World Tree is now in its prime; even if the God Clan is still sucking its Energy, at least it can last for a few thousand years. Because it isn't hungry, it is naturally more active.
However, it saved Thor not out of kindness; the World Tree actually operates according to a certain rule. Things that die on its territory should belong to it, so Thor, having died, should naturally belong to it.
But Thor had created a backup in Battleworld; once he died, he was supposed to be revived in Battleworld. The moment the white light lit up, he should have already been revived in Battleworld.
The problem is, the World Tree wouldn't allow it. It felt that the God Clan that died in its territory owed it a debt, and it had to recover this Strength to survive, so it resisted Battleworld's behavior of taking Thor, desperately pulling Thor towards itself. It coincidentally was well-fed, pulling with great force, and Battleworld couldn't outmatch it.
In theory, Battleworld's authority should be above all, but the World Tree is also one of the origin powers of this cosmos, much like the Omega Ray. The Administrator overlooked this setting, resulting in a similar program error as when Magneto was revived.
The moment Battleworld revived Thor, the World Tree snatched him away. That is to say, Thor revived, but not in Battleworld; instead, he went to the World Tree.
But after the World Tree snatched Thor, it found that the person wasn't dead at all; a living God Clan member is unrecoverable for its Strength. Otherwise, there wouldn't be a need to conduct Ragnarök and kill them first. The World Tree can only consume cooked food, it can't eat raw, so taking the person back was useless, and it could only toss him into the Spring to soak.
It can be imagined that behind this program conflict was the continuously overtime-working OAA. This time was a bit better than last time; it only paused for four days. However, it wasn't because this error was easier to resolve, but because OAA gave up faster.
This issue can't be resolved; you can't let the World Tree snatch one back and then have another resurrect in Battleworld, making two Thor. The only one who might be happy about this would be Loki, and Lucifer would definitely accuse him of cheating, so it's just left at that.
But Loki didn't know, although he sensed the wave from the World Tree, he was overwhelmed by anger. In an instant, he ascended to become the Goddess of Glory, searching all over Asgard for that damned assassin.
But what he didn't know was that the assassin he was furiously searching for was stealthily approaching the Fairy Palace at that moment, using Psychic Ability to fool the Guards, then using Phantom Ability to pass through the barrier, taking the Soul Wand Loki had left behind.