Marvel x Genshin: Mavuika, The Sun Goddess Rules Asgard — Chapter 138

Chapter 138: Howard’s Legacy

“You think I don’t know?” Tony’s voice was sharp, cutting through the hum of the workshop. “I know the palladium levels in my body better than anyone. But without this—” He tapped the glowing reactor embedded in his chest. “—I’d be dead already.”

Bruce Banner fell silent, his expression grim.

“So,” Tony continued, his hand steady as he guided a welding torch over a piece of armor plating, sparks showering the floor. “Before that happens, I have to find an alternative. Palladium is a dead end, so I’ll find something else. Platinum, iridium, ruthenium, rhodium… there has to be an element that can replace it.”

“You’ve tried them all,” Banner stated flatly. “Thirty-seven elements. None of them worked.”

“Then we keep trying,” Tony shot back, not looking up from his work. “If thirty-seven doesn’t work, we try thirty-eight. If thirty-eight fails, we move on to forty. There has to be one that—”

His words caught in his throat.

He hadn’t heard anyone approach, but a presence had suddenly filled the space beside him. Tony looked up from his workbench and met Mavuika’s amber eyes.

There was none of the usual easygoing warmth or playful teasing in that gaze. Instead, he saw a deep seriousness, a scrutinizing intensity, and a flicker of something he couldn’t quite place—worry.

“How long has it been since you slept?” Mavuika asked, his voice calm and even.

Tony was momentarily stunned, then a practiced smile stretched across his lips. “Two days? Three? I lose track. You know how it is, once a researcher gets in the zone…”

“Tony.”

Mavuika’s voice, though quiet, cut through his deflection with absolute authority.

Tony’s mouth opened, but no sound came out. The witty retort died on his tongue.

Mavuika’s gaze shifted from Tony’s exhausted face down to his chest, where the faint blue light of the arc reactor pulsed beneath the collar of his shirt. The light was as bright as ever, but Tony’s condition had visibly deteriorated since their last meeting. His skin was pallid, his eye sockets were sunken and dark, his lips had a faint bluish tint, and his cheeks were noticeably thinner.

“Let me see,” Mavuika said. It wasn’t a request.

Tony’s first instinct was to refuse, to wave it off with a joke, but Mavuika had already reached out. With a gentle but firm touch, he pulled the collar of Tony’s shirt aside.

The device was fully exposed. A circular metal ring was set into his chest, the arc reactor glowing at its center. The skin immediately surrounding it was an angry, inflamed red from the constant contact. But it was the edges that drew the eye. From the perimeter of the device, a fine, unnatural network of blue-black veins spread outward in all directions, a grotesque spiderweb creeping beneath his skin.

“Palladium poisoning,” Banner explained in a low voice from the side. “The core of the arc reactor is palladium, but it’s highly toxic. Tony needs the device to live, but the longer he uses it, the worse the poisoning gets.”

He sighed, a heavy, defeated sound. “We’ve tried thirty-seven different elements as a replacement. None of them work. Either the energy density is too low, the output is unstable, or the reaction produces byproducts that are even more toxic.”

Mavuika said nothing, his gaze fixed on those dark, corrupted veins. He could feel it—a slow, irreversible decay spreading from that device, inching its way toward Tony’s heart. They were the tendrils of death, devouring his friend’s life piece by piece.

“How long?” he asked, his voice soft.

Tony knew exactly what he was asking. He let out a short, hollow breath. “If I can’t find a replacement,” he said, his tone laced with a deliberate, almost casual understatement, “about a month? Maybe less. But a month is more than enough time for me to test the last few elements on the list. Maybe—”

“Does Howard know?” Mavuika interrupted, his gaze unwavering.

The flippant mask on Tony’s face cracked. “…No.”

“Why?”

Tony looked away, his eyes falling on a pile of half-finished components on the workbench. “The old man’s been retired for years,” he mumbled, his voice dropping. “He’s living it up in Florida with Maria, sunbathing, fishing, planting flowers for Mom… Why would I dump this mess on his lap?”

He paused, his shoulders slumping slightly. “Besides, my tech is light-years ahead of his. He spent his entire life trying and failing to solve the stability problem for a miniature arc reactor. I’m the one who cracked it. If I can’t find an alternative, what could he possibly do?” A bitter edge crept into his voice. “It would just add a layer of useless worry.”

After a few seconds of tense silence, he looked up again, forcing that signature, flamboyant smirk back onto his face. “So, no need to tell him. I’ll handle it. I’ll figure something out. Don’t you trust me? I am Tony Stark—”

“Tony.”

Mavuika’s voice was perfectly calm, yet it froze the smile on Tony’s face. He looked at him, and in those amber eyes, there was no blame, no anger—only a quiet, non-negotiable resolve.

“You are a friend I have known for seventeen years,” Mavuika stated, each word landing with immense weight.

Tony’s mouth opened, then closed.

“Howard is my friend as well,” Mavuika continued. “And he is your father. He has the right to know what is happening to his son.”

“But—”

“He might not be able to help,” Mavuika cut him off smoothly. “But he deserves to know.”

He pulled out his phone.

Tony’s hand shot up, a reflexive motion to stop him, but it froze in mid-air. He stared at Mavuika for a long moment before his arm dropped back to his side.

“…Suit yourself,” he muttered, turning his back to them and facing the workbench once more.

Mavuika dialed Howard’s number.

The phone rang three times before it was answered.

“Mavuika?” Howard’s voice came through, clear and strong. The faint sound of crashing waves and seagulls suggested he was walking along the beach. “What’s with the sudden call? Did Tony get himself into some new kind of trouble?”

Mavuika paused for a second. “Howard,” he said, his tone serious. “I need to tell you something about Tony.”

The sound of the waves on the other end of the line abruptly quieted, as if Howard had stopped walking.

“What is it?”

Mavuika explained everything concisely: the arc reactor, the palladium poisoning, the thirty-seven failed replacement experiments, and the prognosis of only a month left.

A long, heavy silence stretched across the line.

When Howard finally spoke, his voice was just as steady as before, but Mavuika could hear the immense pressure suppressed beneath that calm exterior.

“Let me talk to Tony.”

Mavuika held the phone out.

Tony turned around and took it, his expression a chaotic swirl of resentment, relief, and a deep, weary resignation. He pressed the phone to his ear.

“…Old man.”

“Tony,” Howard’s voice came from the receiver, sharp and focused. “The existing known materials won’t work. You need to create a new element.”

Tony let out a helpless, self-deprecating laugh. “Of course I know I need a new element. The problem is, you can’t just whip one up in a lab. You make it sound so simple. How am I supposed to do that? I don’t even know where to start—”

“Go look in my warehouse.”

Howard’s voice cut through his son’s spiraling monologue, sharp and certain.

Tony’s words were stuck in his throat. “What?”

“I studied this problem when I was younger,” Howard said, his tone as matter-of-fact as if he were discussing the day’s weather. “Back then, I was also trying to solve the energy source issue for the miniature reactor. Palladium was too toxic, platinum’s energy density was insufficient, and every other element had its own fatal flaw. So, I started researching a different question: could I create a brand-new element?”