Marvel x Genshin: Mavuika, The Sun Goddess Rules Asgard — Chapter 121

Chapter 121: A Long-Awaited, Hearty Laugh

The night was a canvas of ink, spangled with diamond-sharp stars.

High above the Pacific Ocean, two streaks of impossible light tore across the tranquil sky. One was a silver-white meteor, the other a golden-red dawn. They intertwined and circled, painting a fleeting, brilliant picture against the vast, velvet dome of the heavens.

Tony Stark hovered at an altitude of seven thousand meters, his silver-white Mark II armor gleaming with a cold, metallic luster under the moonlight. Beneath the faceplate, the shadows of the helmet obscured most of his features, but his eyes—eyes that shone with an astonishing brightness even in the darkness—were fixed with fanatical intensity on the landscape unfolding below.

The lights of Los Angeles were like an overturned jewelry box, a spill of scattered starlight covering the entire basin. On Highway 405, the traffic formed two distinct ribbons of light—the crimson of taillights and the stark white of headlights—stretching all the way from Santa Monica to the San Fernando Valley. The high-rises of Century City resembled burning matchsticks thrust into the darkness, while the villas of Beverly Hills glittered like scattered diamonds.

Further out, the Pacific Ocean was a boundless, inky void, punctuated only by the lights of cargo ships moving with the slow, deliberate pace of fireflies.

“Hahahaha—!”

Tony’s laughter exploded through the communication channel, unbridled and exhilarating. It was the sound of a child who had just learned to run, of a teenager who had just been handed the keys to his first car.

In that raw, joyous sound, there were no shadows of the past few days. There was no phantom ache in his chest, no memory of tense confrontations in the boardroom, and no sting from the media’s overwhelming mockery.

There was only pure, primal, unadorned joy.

“Jarvis! Did you see that?!” he shouted, his voice cracking slightly with the sheer force of his excitement. “I’m flying! I’m actually flying!”

“Yes, sir,” Jarvis replied, his synthesized voice as calm and measured as ever. “I am recording all data. Your speed has ascended to Mach 1.2, altitude is currently 6,743 meters. All systems are operating within normal parameters. However, I must remind you that the Mark II has not yet undergone complete flight testing. I suggest you maintain current parameters and do not—”

“Don’t be a killjoy, Jarvis!” Tony interrupted, his tone devoid of any real annoyance, laced only with a childlike willfulness. “I’m used to doing things first and talking about them later!”

A memory flashed through his mind: a summer from his teenage years, just after he’d gotten his driver’s license. Howard had given him a Porsche as a birthday gift—one of the fastest production cars of its time, capable of going from zero to sixty in under five seconds. He had driven that silver-gray sports car down the coastal highway of Long Beach with the top down, the wind whipping through his hair, leaving his mother Maria’s screams and his father Howard’s roars far, far behind.

That was the most freedom he had ever felt.

Until now. He had found that feeling again.

No, this was even better.

A sports car could only race across a two-dimensional plane, forever bound by the asphalt, always needing to turn, brake, and obey the rules of the road. But now… now he could soar upward, dive downward, punch through the clouds, and hover in mid-air to look down upon the world.

The roads were gone. The rules were gone. There was only the sky itself—vast, boundless, and without borders.

Mavuika flew about five meters behind and to his right, maintaining the formation distance he was accustomed to from his military contracts. Her posture was one of effortless grace, a warm, golden-red aura bleeding from her form like heat haze, yet carrying no scorching touch. Her long, flame-colored hair whipped in the high-altitude wind.

“Not bad, Tony,” she said. Her voice bypassed the suit’s comms entirely, manifesting directly in his ear with perfect clarity—a subtle display of her power. “This is my favorite of all your inventions.”

Tony couldn’t suppress the grin that spread across his face. To be praised by Mavuika—not out of politeness, not as a favor to Howard’s memory, but with genuine, earned appreciation—felt better than signing a multi-billion-dollar contract or landing on the cover of Time magazine.

“This is just the Mark II, basically a prototype!” he said, trying to keep the giddy pride out of his voice. “Wait until I build the Mark III. Add the paint job, perfect the weapon systems, improve the energy efficiency… you’ll like it even more!”

“I look forward to it,” Mavuika replied, a smile evident in her tone.

Tony took a deep breath. He couldn’t feel the airflow through the sealed armor, but the simple act calmed his racing heart, only to replace it with a fresh surge of adrenaline.

“Let’s try for maximum speed!” he declared suddenly.

Without waiting for Mavuika’s response, Tony slammed the throttle to its absolute limit. The nozzles of the thrusters on his soles and palms instantly constricted before bursting forth with violent, unrestrained power.

It wasn’t a gradual acceleration; it was an instantaneous ejection.

A blue-white plasma stream exploded into twin lances of light in the night sky. A sonic boom cloud erupted in a perfect ring behind him, like the shockwave from a cannonball leaving the barrel. His body was slammed against the suit’s interior by the immense thrust, the brutal G-force pulling his cheeks back as the edges of his vision began to blur.

The suit’s holographic display became a waterfall of data: Mach 1.3… Mach 1.5… Mach 1.8… Mach 2.0…

“Sir!” Jarvis’s voice had a rare note of urgency. “Structural stress is exceeding design limits! I recommend immediate deceleration!”

Tony didn’t decelerate. His eyes were fixed on the boundless darkness ahead, on the stars that grew ever brighter, on the horizon that was forever receding and forever out of reach. He spread his arms wide, as if to embrace the entire sky.

Then, he turned his head.

Mavuika was flying at his left, less than three meters away. Her posture hadn’t changed in the slightest, as if this blistering speed put no pressure on her whatsoever. Her amber eyes regarded him calmly, carrying the patient amusement of someone watching a younger brother cut loose and play.

“Mach 2.2,” Mavuika stated, her tone as casual as if she were reading a weather forecast. “Can you go any faster?”

Tony’s exhilaration froze for a microsecond before erupting into an even louder, wilder laugh.

“Is that a challenge, Sun Goddess?”

“I’m merely curious,” Mavuika smiled. “About how fast your armor can truly fly.”

Tony gritted his teeth, pushing the suit past every red line.

Mach 2.3… Mach 2.4… Mach 2.5…

The armor began to tremble. It wasn’t a slight vibration, but a high-frequency resonance that shook the entire structure. Metal fatigue sensors screamed with harsh, insistent alarms inside his helmet. Tony’s vision blurred completely as the crushing gravity squeezed the blood from his brain, sending it tunneling into a gray haze. His consciousness frayed at the edges…

Just a moment before losing control, he eased off the thrust.

The speed plummeted. Mach 2.0… 1.5… 1.0… The armor regained its stability, and Tony gasped for air, a cold sweat soaking the bodysuit beneath the metal plates.

Mavuika was still flying beside him, her breathing as even and rhythmic as ever.

“Not a bad speed,” she said, and this time, her tone held sincere appreciation.

Tony gave a bitter smile. “You don’t have to comfort me. When it comes to speed, I don’t think I’ll ever be able to beat you.”

“Alright, enough racing,” he declared, his competitive spirit shifting gears. “Let’s try for maximum altitude!”

He angled the suit upward, pointing it toward the deep blue edge of the dome above, toward the place where the stars began to thin, toward the final boundary of the atmosphere.