Marvel x Genshin: Mavuika, The Sun Goddess Rules Asgard — Chapter 103

Chapter 103: Are You an Asgardian?

Mavuika played along, her voice carrying a hint of amusement. “You are quite different from what Howard described.”

The words were laced with hidden meaning, and Nick Fury’s heart gave a sharp, sudden lurch. What on Earth did Howard Stark say about me?

The practiced smile on Fury’s face stiffened for a fraction of a second before he wrestled it back into place, projecting an aura of unflappable calm he did not feel.

Mavuika, however, did not press him further. Her gaze shifted, piercing through the viewport of the spaceship to lock onto Talos. In an instant, her entire demeanor transformed. Her tone became solemn, and the very space around her seemed to warp under the weight of a truly majestic presence.

“Then let us begin with this,” she declared, her voice connecting not through the air, but seemingly through the hull of the ship itself. “What business do the Skrulls have infiltrating Midgard without Asgard’s permission?”

The word “Midgard” made both Fury and Carol freeze, a flicker of confusion crossing their faces. For Talos, the reaction was entirely different.

The green-skinned alien shuddered violently, his eyes blowing wide as his lips trembled. “Asgard?” he stammered, his voice a choked whisper. “You… you are an Asgardian?!”

His mind reeled, frantically connecting the dots. He looked again at the woman suspended in the void, at the living corona of golden-red flames that wreathed her form, a star given human shape. He recalled her effortless survival in the vacuum of space, her impossible power…

A cold sweat instantly soaked through his uniform. As one of the few truly space-faring civilizations, the Skrulls knew the legends. They had heard the whispered tales of the Nine Realms and of the golden city that ruled them—Asgard. They knew of its power.

Looking again at the incandescent figure, at the regal posture and the powerful aura she radiated, Talos understood. The pieces clicked into place with horrifying clarity. This was no mere Asgardian warrior. This was Marvika, the Sun Goddess of Asgard.

The realization drenched him in a fresh wave of terror. His breath came in ragged, shallow gasps. The name of the Sun Goddess was a symbol of Asgard’s might, a name spoken with the same reverence and fear as Hela, the Goddess of Death, or Odin, the Allfather himself.

Without a moment’s hesitation, Talos scrambled to bow, his movements precise and deeply respectful as he performed the highest etiquette of the Skrull people.

“Talos greets Your Highness, the Sun Goddess,” he said, his voice trembling. “I was not aware of Your Highness’s presence. Please, forgive any offense.”

Fury’s expression twisted into one of deep confusion. Asgard? Sun Goddess? The words sounded like they were torn from a dusty book on Norse mythology he’d read in grade school. But then he looked out the window, at the woman wreathed in fire, floating freely in the cold, unforgiving vacuum of space… and he began to wonder if myths were just history that people had forgotten.

Mavuika gave a slight, regal nod, accepting Talos’s deference. She gestured for him to continue. “Speak. I am listening.”

Talos drew a shaky breath. He knew, with absolute certainty, that lying to an Asgardian—especially this Asgardian—was an act of suicide. The goddess before him could decide the fate of every living Skrull with a single word. Their unauthorized infiltration of Midgard was already a grave violation of Asgardian law. If she chose to hold them accountable, they wouldn’t just fail to escape the Kree; they would be utterly annihilated where they stood.

He quickly organized his thoughts, his voice still shaking with tension as he began to plead his case.

“Respected Goddess, we Skrulls… we came to this world to escape the persecution of the Kree Empire.”

He shot a nervous glance at Carol before his eyes darted away. “The Kree Empire labels us terrorists, a threat that must be exterminated. But the truth… the truth is that we only desire the right to live in peace.”

“For years, the Kree have hunted us, slaughtered our people, and burned our homes to ash,” Talos continued, his voice thick with a bone-deep exhaustion and pain. “We came to Earth because we were following a scientist, a Dr. Wendy Lawson. She had decided to help us. She developed the prototype for a light-speed engine—our only hope of finally escaping the Kree’s grasp.”

“With the complete data for that engine, we can jump to a star system far beyond the Kree Empire’s sphere of influence and find a new home, a world to call our own.”

“So you infiltrated this planet to find her research?” Mavuika asked, her voice a calm, dispassionate current that betrayed no emotion.

“Yes,” Talos admitted, his head bowed. “But we have harmed no one, Your Highness. We were only… observing. Gathering information. We took the forms of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents and scientists, entered their facilities, and found the Tesseract…”

At this, Fury’s eyes snapped toward Talos, his jaw tightening.

“During that time,” Talos confessed, his voice dropping lower, “we secretly infiltrated S.H.I.E.L.D. and used the Tesseract to conduct energy research, hoping to improve the stability of our light-speed engine.”

“But we did not dare remain for long, nor did we risk damaging the Tesseract. Before a Mr. Howard Stark could discover any anomalies, we had already returned it, completely intact, leaving no trace that we were ever there.”

Fury stared, his mind reeling. These green-skinned aliens were that bold? They had walked into S.H.I.E.L.D., stolen the Tesseract right under their noses, studied it, and then put it back? And the entire organization, with all its protocols and security, had remained completely oblivious.

Talos pressed on. “The few of my clansmen who came to Earth with me…” He gestured toward the empty space outside the porthole. “They are hidden in a cloaked vessel nearby. It is our last refugee ship. All that remains of our people are on that vessel, waiting for me to return with Dr. Lawson’s work so I can lead them to a new home.”

Having said everything, Talos lowered his head completely, awaiting judgment. Under the ancient laws that governed the cosmos, infiltrating a protected world without permission was a capital crime. Asgard had every right to execute him and everyone under his command, to blast their last hope out of the sky. As an interstellar wanderer, Talos knew all too well the terrifying power of these ancient cosmic forces.

A heavy silence descended upon the ship. Fury was still trying to process the flood of information, each new revelation shattering his perception of the world. Beside him, Carol clenched her fists, the energy coiling within her like a restless beast. Everything Talos had said directly contradicted the “truth” she had been fed by the Kree Empire for years.

After a long moment, Mavuika finally spoke, her voice returning to its previous state of calm. “I understand the situation.”

She looked at Talos. “Go to your ship. Regroup with the other Skrulls.”

Then she added, “I will deal with the trouble you have attracted. Afterward, I will find you.”

Hearing those words, Talos felt a wave of relief so deep it nearly buckled his knees. A weight he had carried for years suddenly lifted from his shoulders. A genuine, long-forgotten smile spread across his face. He was puzzled by what “trouble” she meant, but he didn’t dare question her. He simply bowed his head again in gratitude.

“Thank you for your mercy, Your Highness!”

Mavuika nodded. Before turning to depart, however, her gaze fell upon Carol. The blonde woman had been watching her with a wary intensity, the power inside her churning just beneath her skin.

“Here,” Mavuika said, pointing to her own neck before gesturing toward Carol’s. “There is something implanted there, is there not? It is limiting your potential. It is a cage.”

Carol froze, her hand instinctively flying to the back of her neck. There was indeed an implant there, a device the Kree had installed to connect her to the Supreme Intelligence. She had always been told it was a necessary tool, something to help her control her immense power.

Mavuika’s voice was soft, yet it cut through the silence like diamond. “The design is ingenious, but it is, in essence, a shackle. It restricts the upper limit of your energy output. Your true power is far greater than what you can access now.”

She paused, her golden eyes holding Carol’s gaze.

“It would be best to remove it.”