The plasma engines hissed as they finally entered stable rotation, the glow within their cores reducing from violent storm to contained brilliance. Steam drifted through the cold forges of Luthar's sanctum as readouts stabilized across the vast displays of mechanical script. In this world where space does not exist, this technology and the engines would have proven their worth.
Luthar stepped away from the console with measured precision, servo-skulls trailing after him like patient ghosts. His mechanodrites folded neatly behind him as he moved, shedding no wasted motion. Another milestone completed. Another foundation laid.
"Done frying yourself for today?" Liliruca's voice carried from where she perched atop a crate marked in faded warning runes. Her tone lacked real concern, worn thin by days of watching him repeat dangerous processes with obsessive calm.
"The contamination is within acceptable thresholds." Luthar's reply was as cold as the forge's metal walls. "Plasma output remains stable. Efficiency maximized under current planetary limitations."
"You could've just said yes," Liliruca muttered. "Would've saved us both a headache."
He ignored her. His attention had already shifted elsewhere. With a gesture, he summoned the interface of his system.
An interface materialized in the air, something only he can see.
Energy Module: 70% energy capacity
Still not enough; while he can remotely control the Nexus Gateway, the energy is not enough. If he wants to bring both goddesses, he would need to wait for at least a few more weeks.
He regarded the numbers in silence.
"When are you going to finish?" Liliruca asked, stretching with a yawn. "For all the 'Master of Technology' nonsense, you're moving pretty slow."
"Conditions remain insufficient. Resources incomplete. The barrier between realms requires more energy than I have."
"So… Mars first. Gods later?"
"No, we prepare for Mars and then bring gods so we would have some extra help."
The system flickered away beneath his fingers. It would progress in time. Everything did, given enough force, enough sacrifice.
He turned then to less urgent matters. Holographic schematics bloomed anew—this time, familiar patterns of armor and weapons, scanned meticulously from Tony Stark. Where others might see innovation, Luthar saw flaws magnified. Weak alloys are prioritized for comfort and aesthetics. Redundant systems catering to human fragility. Power outputs are acceptable only in short bursts, ill-suited to protracted warfare or hostile environments.
"Inefficient," he murmured. "Fragile. Unworthy of replication."
Liliruca leaned forward, squinting at the projection. "In terms of performance, it is still better than the current power armor I have."
"Your armor has a teleportation device, and it can survive form all the chemical and radiation attacks." His mechadendrites flexed, dismissing sections of the design with curt, surgical movements. "Tony's armor is good, but it won't survive a single virus attack regardless of if it's mechanical or made from some strange blessings."
She snorted. "He's still alive. Maybe don't insult it too loud."
"Irrelevant."
Luthar closed the Stark files with finality. His focus shifted again, deeper into his archives, to the less visible aspects of his empire's foundation. Enhancement protocols. Chemical augmentations. Neurological adaptives. His agents—Rumlow, Kara, and the rest—were still too close to baseline humanity. He cannot redesign their DNA to make them strong, so there was only one thing he could do: replace their bones and muscles and give them more enhancement, probably a few more bombs inside their bodies, especially Rumlow. He definitely has a few nanobombs inside his brain and every part of his body, as he couldn't take the risk of a Hydra member getting that much enhancement and turning against him.
Calculations flowed across his screens—dosages, thresholds, and projected failure rates. He considered options without sentiment. Compliance was loyalty; loyalty was best maintained through superiority.
"They'll break," Liliruca warned, watching him chart invasive procedures with clinical indifference. "Even if Rumlow's is a bad person, don't push too far, and at least try to be gentle with my new secretary."
"My secretary having a secretary—that's interesting."
His preparations continued uninterrupted. Augmentation chambers would be readied. New compounds synthesized. Weapons refined. Every asset sharpened, every tool reforged until it served his purpose without question, without weakness.
Liliruca sighed and slid from her perch. "Let me guess. I should leave now before you irradiate something else."
"No need; my current work isn't dangerous."
One of the servo-skulls emitted a burst of binary static—amusement, perhaps, in its own alien way. Liliruca rolled her eyes but obeyed, vanishing through the heavy vault doors before the engines cycled again.
Alone beneath the earth, Luthar watched the hum of his machines build toward a crescendo once more. The world above burned slowly in ignorance, but below, his preparations neared completion.
The next day, Luthar led his small entourage through to the chemical plant they'd recently secured. a forgotten corporate venture, now it had been repurposed into something altogether more significant—though on the surface, it remained simply a factory producing "experimental fuels."
Rumlow trailed a few steps behind, his expression unreadable beneath dark sunglasses. Beside him, Kara followed, looking increasingly agitated as they passed through chambers alive with humming reactors and sealed vats pulsing with ominous blue light.
"This place gives me the creeps," Kara muttered, eyes flicking to the servo-skulls drifting silently overhead. "Feels like we're working for a horror movie villain."
"You are," Rumlow said flatly.
She glared at him. "Maybe you misunderstand, and we are just working for a wizard who thinks he is using technology."
As they reached the heart of the plant—a reinforced chamber lined with containment tanks and harsh industrial lighting—Rumlow broke the silence again. "Fury wants a report," he said, voice casual but probing. "He's asking what we're doing with this place. Wants to know if you're cooking up weapons or something worse."
Kara's head snapped toward him, her posture stiffening in alarm. "Are you insane? You're not supposed to say things like that out loud! Have you forgotten we're supposed to not reveal our identity in the mission, or are you just trying to get us both killed?"
Rumlow shrugged, unbothered. "He knows everything already; it's better to be honest and let him know that we are not planning to rebel."
Luthar regarded them both in turn, expression unchanged behind the impassive glare of his optics. "Tell him the truth. It is a fuel plant. No more, no less."
"Fuel?" Rumlow echoed, skeptical.
"A fuel factory that would be able to give us the best fuel a universe has to offer," Luthar clarified with the patience one might offer a particularly slow machine. "Let him believe this. Let him feel he retains control. It will make him predictable."
"And when you're done building this, are you really going to show us your spaceship and tell us your alien?" Kara asked, folding her arms. Since Luther already knows she is a shield agent, she didn't mind asking questions openly.
"You better not call people aliens, or one day you might get killed." Luthar's mechadendrites flexed idly, tools clicking together with metallic finality. "And showing you the spaceship I could have done by now, but it's so heavy it might just destroy the planet before it even enters the earth's atmosphere."
"That sounds terrifying. It also means you don't even need a weapon to destroy the only planet with life," Kara muttered.
"Earth is not the only planet that has life," Luthar replied, already turning his attention back to the monitors. Progress was ahead of schedule. The engines would be complete within weeks. His next phase—enhancing his agents beyond human limits—would follow swiftly.
"You would be need to assign new duties," he said, dismissing them with a gesture. "I need this plant to start working next week."
Rumlow gave a short nod, already moving. Kara lingered a moment longer, then turned away with a sigh, pulling her jacket tighter as if it could shield her from more than just the cold.
Behind them, the machines churned on, indifferent to human worries.
Beneath their feet, Luthar's cult grew stronger.
Author's note: This would be the last chapter, but if you still want to continue, you know the drill: just go to the link below, and you get access to all 40-plus advanced chapters. If you are thinking I just uploaded the chapter 151, if you have a suggestion or something to tell me, you can comment like always.
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