Before Returning to Earth

Loki was a little surprised by the turn of events; he kept his silence. He wanted to see the other side of that communication channel and think of a way to escape.

"Master!" The Chitauri leader knelt on the ground and bowed its head, greeting the person on the screen.

Loki narrowed his eyes to see the figure on the screen. The displayed purple-skinned being had a distinctive potato-like wrinkle on his chin.

"Who is he?" Thanos asked the Chitauri leader when he saw Loki through the communication screen.

"An idiot that sneaked into the spaceship, master. I was about to deal with him!" The Chitauri leader quickly replied.

"Come now, I am your guest. Our meeting was simply unfortunate."

As people say, technically true is the best kind of true. Loki is called the God of Mischief in Asgard. He can say whatever he wants.

He quietly removed the restraining device from his body and stood up with grace. His charisma contrasted with the kneeling Chitauri leader.

The Chitauri leader was shocked that Loki had escaped the restraint and hurried to replace the device, but Thanos stopped him with a glare. The purple Titan turned at Loki and asked with bemusement,

"Then, should you not introduce yourself?"

"Of course!" Loki bowed in polite Asgard mannerism. "My name is Loki Odinson, the Prince of Asgard, the God of Mischief. May I know your name? "

Despite hating Odin's preferential treatment, Loki still introduced himself as Odin's son to Thanos. That was because Odin's name was akin to a protective charm across the spacefaring races.

"The Prince of Asgard..." Thanos' eyes flashed with surprise before he introduced himself in turn, "I am Thanos."

"Thanos?!"

Loki quickly searched his memory for this name and finally recalled the marauding warlord who had been invading and conquering civilizations across the universe. That was the extent of his knowledge. To the self-important Asgardian citizens, warlords were simply object of contempt.

But in the current situation, Loki clearly can't show his disdain openly. He instead intensified his reverent tone. "Ah, so you are sir Thanos, whose name echoes within the chambers of Valhalla."

"Ho?" Thanos looked at Loki with interest. "Why are you in this kind of place?"

Loki's mind spun wildly to create an answer. He wasn't sure if the events that happened in the past eight months had been revealed by Asgard, so he answered with half-truths, "I was banished. They imprisoned me here."

"Are you not a Prince?" Thanos asked in surprise. He obviously had not heard about Loki's situation, which was unsurprising since Asgard had been suppressing that information. Family problems stay within the family.

"I guess not anymore," Loki replied indifferently, shrugging his shoulder.

"So you were already a prisoner of Asgard. And now you're mine." Thanos rested his head on his hand.

"No, I am your guest. A friendly guest that will battle and strategize with you." Loki showed his cutest smile.

Thanos didn't respond to Loki's words. After a long pause, he finally commanded the Chitauri leader, "Bring him to me!"

He then added, "Have you found what I told you?"

"Sorry, Master. We could not find anything else here," The Chitauri leader replied in panic, avoiding Thanos' overbearing gaze.

"No matter." Thanos waved his hand dismissively. The information source that led him here was unreliable, to begin with, so he didn't have much hope of actually finding the Infinity Stone here. He simply sent the Chitauri to eliminate the tiniest possibility.

Thanos glanced once more at Loki before cutting the communication.

Loki wracked his brain, strategizing. Thanos was obviously looking for something, and to send so many Chitauri soldiers to look for it meant that something was very important.

Loki coveted this army. He still hadn't given up on proving himself. Therefore, he needed strength, an absolute power to land him on Asgard's throne.

After Thanos cut off the communication, all of the Chitauri leader's reverent submissions vanished. It returned as the arrogant leader in front of Loki.

"Master did say that he wanted to meet you, but he did not specify if he wanted you alive or dead. You would do well to follow obediently. Take him!"

"I will look forward to meeting you, Your Excellency Thanos."

Loki smiled politely but awkwardly at the arrogant Chitauri leader. The humiliation in his heart made him swear that he would take away this Chitauri army from its leader.

The Chitauri leader threw Loki into a run-down and dirty brig. Loki climbed on the bed and looked at the ceiling. Nobody knew the loneliness and pain in his heart.

He shook his head and focused on the tenuous magical connection within him, the one leading to Earth. He frowned. He had initially hoped to escape to that planet, but now that he accidentally met the Chitauri, he had a safer option.

But Loki decided against cutting the magical connection off. It might be useful someday!

...

And so the fifth month passed since Fanny had arrived in Vormir. He had been there since November, so it was already April of the next year.

150 days had not changed Fanny's appearance significantly, but his temper and demeanor had changed.

"That Nick Fury bastard, could it be that he stopped all Tesseract research?" Fanny muttered to himself at the edge of the altar. "But Loki should be able to activate it on his own even without Nick Fury's research, right? Did I guess wrong?!"

The five months of hellish training had almost filled the system's experience bar. The seventh extraction was not far away.

Getting closer to his goal made Fanny anxious about going home. He considered asking Ancient One to check on the Space Stone the next time she visited.

Fanny summoned a fried chicken roll and ate his breakfast while looking at the unchanging scenery.

Due to the massive volume of summoning that he performed every day to feed Blue-Eyes White Dragon, 'Sumire Karaage Rolls' once again proved its status as the invincible skill and evolved last month. To Fanny's surprise, the skill evolved an additional attribute of "light healing."

Its effect wasn't very strong; it could only boost natural recovery a little, but Fanny was satisfied that another gap in his skills was filled.

Right now, he could defend, attack in short range, attack in long range, apply buff and debuff, heal, and even have a pet. There wasn't really any position he couldn't fulfill on his own.