The night passed uneventfully—this world wasn’t woven with conspiracies at every turn.
Though Paul Mellon was the direct heir of the family, the real reins of power rested with his cousin, Richard Mellon. Paul himself was absorbed in art and horse breeding. His most serious “work” had been helping establish and expand the National Gallery of Art in Washington. In truth, h...
Asgard.
Deep within the mountains, hidden away from the devastation above, a cavernous refuge stretched endlessly into the stone. It was no mere hollow—it had been carefully warded, widened by magic, its vault-like expanse carved to shelter thousands.
Yet despite its size, the air inside felt suffocating. The cavern was choked with people, their bodies packed tightly tog...
"H-how is this possible!"
Thor’s voice cracked as if the words themselves resisted leaving his throat. His eyes bulged in disbelief, Mjolnir’s absence in his palm like a phantom ache.
He stood frozen, watching Hela hold the hammer as if it were nothing more than a toy.
Catching it—catching his hammer—with her bare hand?
That wasn’t merely unthinkable; i...
The incident before the wall of paintings didn’t dampen anyone’s appetite. Paul Mellon made no further comment on that painting—perhaps he had seen plenty of young men like Henry, eager to show off.
Henry, for his part, didn’t press it either. Maybe it was simply a different method of aging the canvas. And even if he had stumbled onto a genuine treasure, it wasn’t as though...
“It seems fate has already chosen my path,” Alex thought, the corners of his mouth curling into a faint, wry smile. “No matter how I resist, destiny keeps pushing me toward Asgard.”
He had already struck a secret accord with Odin long ago, a pact woven in whispers and sealed with mutual necessity. Now, with Earth’s uncertain future hanging in the balance, that pact had ...
Whew…
Taking in a long breath, Alex slowly closed his eyes, allowing his consciousness to sink into the dazzling ocean of power that was the six Infinity Stones. Their rhythm pulsed through his veins like six separate heartbeats, each resonating with a different frequency of existence—time, space, reality, power, soul, and mind—yet somehow harmonizing as if they had always ...
From the moment Henry drove into the grounds of Oak Spring Farm, its extraordinary character was plain to see.
Unlike European royal gardens, this estate resembled a botanical garden, divided into zones each with its own personality. Yet within each section, there were subtle touches—living plants arranged to harmonize with lifeless sculptures, trellises, and railings—so seam...
“Homelander, please… I’m begging you, don’t do this!” Dr. Banner’s voice cracked, trembling with desperation. Sweat streaked down his temple as he clutched the case holding the Time Stone to his chest like a lifeline. His green eyes—already flashing faint traces of the Hulk beneath—were filled not with anger, but with fear, with pleading.
Alex looked at him, gaze ...
Swish!
The world twisted. Alex’s vision blurred as the dizzying sensation of time-space travel seized his body once again. The air shimmered, light fractured, and when his eyes refocused, he was standing in an entirely different timeline.
The first thing he did was spread his super-hearing outward like a net. Countless sounds flooded in—the chatter of distant soldiers,...
Henry knew those names—not because he had nothing better to do than research who America’s truly wealthy were, preparing to show up at their doors in a mask to scrounge for favors if he ever went hungry.
No, it was from accompanying Audrey Hepburn at a UNICEF fundraising gala in New York. In such charity circles, it was unavoidable to learn the names of the great philanthropi...
The vase provided by the medical center was blue-and-white porcelain from the East. Of course, it wasn’t an antique, but a modern piece. After filling it with water and arranging the bouquet, Henry carried the flowers back to the hospital room.
Inside, the group was already discussing what to do next.
Robert explained: “Because Audrey will still need chemotherapy and f...
The successful acquisition of the Soul Stone was the first piece of good news.
And just the second week after Alex returned to Krakoa, a second piece of good news arrived, almost as if fate itself wanted to balance the scales.
“Alex, Danvers is back!” Raven’s voice carried urgency as she strode into the lab where Alex and Hank were hunched over, studying the glitteri...
“What exactly happened?” Alex’s gaze sharpened as he turned to Raven, though the question was meant for Erik.
“Three months ago,” Erik began, his voice measured, “I was leading a team on a mission overseas. On our way back, we passed through a remote mountainous region. The terrain was difficult, desolate, and cut off from any sign of civilization. That’s when the D...
The surgery went smoothly. By the time Audrey Hepburn was wheeled out of the operating room, both of her sons had already arrived. In moments like this, the warmth of family was something the lonely could never understand.
With her two children at her side, and Robert—her partner in later life—keeping vigil, she was surrounded by voices of love and concern, her family gathere...
Just like audio mixing, some things can’t be learned from books alone—you need hands-on practice. In medicine especially, books serve more as supplements or foundational material.
Without clinical experience, all Henry had managed was to memorize anatomy charts and acupuncture diagrams. Everything else was a muddle.
The only area where his skills might be useful was in han...
And so—
Kaboom! Kaboom!
One Dark Elf warship after another erupted in flames, raining down from the sky like burning leaves.
In barely a few moments, the entire fleet Malekith had dispatched was annihilated by Alex alone.
Thor’s forces hadn’t even managed to properly engage. At most, they picked off the few survivors left in Alex’s wake.
Boom!<...
However, no matter what, the Aether was in the hands of the Asgardians. Malekith could sense its location with absolute clarity.
Since that was the case…
Malekith had no intention of overthinking. All he needed to do was eliminate these Asgardians and seize the Aether.
Others might fear Asgard, but the Dark Elves did not!
Forget just one Asgardian army—even i...
Henry held a screwdriver in one hand, a penlight clamped between his teeth, and worked in silence. If it weren’t for this skill of his, would Greg ever have bothered teaching him trade secrets, or treated him so warmly?
It was only because so few people knew how to fix this antique mixer that Henry had this chance to get closer to him.
For someone who had studied audio equip...
Driven by a mixture of curiosity and his old, reckless streak, Thor did the most Thor-like thing imaginable—he reached out his hand. The crimson, mud-like substance pulsed faintly in the air, radiating an ominous energy, and yet the son of Odin couldn’t resist. Just as Jane Foster had done in another timeline, Thor leaned forward, his expression intent, and brushed his fingers again...
Svartalfheim—the desolate, forsaken realm of the Dark Elves within the Nine Realms.
The moment their boots touched its soil, an oppressive stillness pressed down upon them. The land stretched endlessly, a barren canvas of blackened earth and jagged stone, its silence so absolute it almost rang in the ears. Wind scoured across the empty plains, carrying with it the faint scent o...
Dove Audio had started out in Michael and Deborah’s garage, but by now they had an office and a dedicated recording studio in New York City.
Henry drove the rented car, bringing Audrey Hepburn to the studio. Deborah Raffin and the company’s sound engineer were already waiting.
The two women greeted each other warmly with cheek kisses, while Henry, ever the assistant, h...
The agent began the introductions:
“Miss Hepburn, this is Michael Viner. He was originally a film and record producer. In 1985, he founded Dove Audio, a rising star in the audiobook industry.
“And this is his wife, Deborah Raffin. She’s also a Hollywood actress and was nominated for Best Actress in a Motion Picture at the Golden Globes in 1981 for Touched by Love.”
...
After addressing his team and making his intentions clear, Alex wasted no time. He departed from the bustle of Krakoa’s central citadel and made his way alone toward the quiet farmstead nestled at the island’s edge. The place was still, a patch of calm where sea breezes stirred the grass and distant gulls cried. It was here, away from the celebratory noise of victory, that he chose to s...
Even before, the key members of Thanos’s forces were hardly a match for the X-Men. Now that their supreme commander himself had fallen, their morale collapsed like a dam giving way under floodwaters. The aura of invincibility surrounding Thanos had been shattered, and without it, his army’s will to resist crumbled.
The battlefield, once boiling with frenzied resistance, quick...
The moment word got out in publishing circles that Audrey Hepburn was interested in lending her voice to an audiobook, Henry didn’t even need to do the legwork. Publishing houses came knocking on their own.
Even her longtime talent agency—always handling her public engagements—arrived with a stack of carefully curated options. Every strength and weakness had been neatly sum...
“I’ve walked into a nightmare. I’ve seen famine in Ethiopia and Bangladesh, but never like this. This famine is worse than I ever imagined, and I was not prepared for it.
“As we enter the twenty-first century, there are many things we must reflect on. We look around us and see that promises of the past remain unfulfilled. People still live in extreme poverty, people still...
It was nearly dinner time when Audrey Hepburn slowly woke from her sleep. A delicate fragrance teased the appetite.
It came from Henry’s little improvised kitchen—his own stove and ingredients—producing a bowl of egg-drop rice porridge. The water was bottled mineral water from Europe, the rice fragrant Thai jasmine, and the eggs local… though who knew what kind of chicken...
“Homelander, it seems you think victory is already assured?”
The battlefield fell into a suffocating silence as Thanos’s deep, resonant voice rolled out like distant thunder. His crimson eyes fixed intently on Alex, each syllable laced with venom and disbelief.
“Not think,” Alex corrected, his tone as light as if he were commenting on the weather. “It is.”
The...
Although the battle hadn’t unfolded exactly as expected, the overall situation was still firmly in their hands.
Charles and Emma Frost’s failure to penetrate the psychic barrier shielding Thanos’s inner circle hardly dampened anyone’s spirits. Alex, the X-Men, even Erik—none of them treated it as a setback.
If anything, it was almost preferable.
The rank-and-file ...
The UNICEF goodwill tour was finally back on track. With Audrey Hepburn, their Goodwill Ambassador, taking the lead, the team visited countries in Central and South America. Then, in September, they returned to Somalia—land of fate.
This East African nation was no longer the same as when they had fled a year earlier. Back then, Somalia looked poor, but only poor. There weren’...