Loki, who prided himself as being a god, was very arrogant. He seldom acted humbly toward anyone other than Odin, especially despising ordinary humans, and rarely engaging in conversation with them. This often earned him reprimands from Odin.
However, the current situation was such that Strange became Loki's client, forcing Loki to start elaborating his plans in detail.
"Asgard rules over all Nine Major Kingdoms. Nothing escapes the notice of the Father of All Gods. Not long ago, a symbiont carrying the Seed of Power from the God of Symbiotic Body, Nal, tried to sneak into the Nine Major Kingdoms."
As Loki spoke, he watched Odin's expression to determine the accuracy of his conjecture.
"At that time, the Father of All Gods had already detected him, but in order to ascertain Nal's intentions, he decided to wait until the Seed of Power would explode on its own before taking any action."
"Afterwards, a cosmic special agent organization owning symbiotes visited Asgard, claiming that they wanted to hunt down traitors of their community. The Father of All Gods agreed to their request kindly, and allowed a Cosmic Agent Symbiote entry into Earth, which is part of the Nine Major Kingdoms."
"During this time, we made some small deals with some Dimensional Lords."
Loki cast a sidelong glance at Odin to gauge his reaction and finding no signs of dissatisfaction, he continued, "The Dimensional Lords presented us with a deposit, and we preliminarily settled the rates of return with most of the demon gods."
At this point, Strange interjected, "That part I am aware of, actually, only a few are left, the rest have already signed the contract."
"But just relying on human cunning... or should I say wisdom, is not enough to get these crafty Dimensional Lords to invest heavily. Most of them are just testing the waters..."
Loki slightly raised his voice: "These demon gods, who have endless lifetimes, are actually even more cunning and cautious than imagined. Unless they see tangible returns, no matter how extravagant the promises, they will not really take the bait."
"Thus, the Father of All Gods and the Supreme Magician believed we must first give them a taste of the benefits."
"Once these demon gods obtained substantive returns, they would genuinely participate in this scheme, instead of just hiding under the banner of investment and continuously reaping advisory services from humans."
"Indeed, I can feel that most demon gods are now calling the Sanctum merely to have their own advisory team. The deposits they pay mean nothing to them, yet ensure them a staff team ready to provide advice at their beck and call..."
Loki nodded in agreement to Strange's accuracy.
"This sort of benefit arrangement is insufficient for humans to benefit from the transaction, nor allows Asgard to make sufficient profit. If we cannot further deepen the transaction, we will all end up working for nothing."
"Therefore, I've been searching for a potential breakthrough in power sources across the universe, on the command of the Father of All Gods."
"However, just recently, the symbiote carrying Nal's Seed of Power exploded. An ancient demon god named Nal, who has long been imprisoned on Klinter Star, intended to project his power onto Earth."
"According to the intelligence I recently obtained from the Nebula of the Fairy Constellation, it seems that Nal is in search of a special symbiote. Regardless, he intends to create a power passage between the Klinter Planet and Earth."
At this point, the slightly anxious look on Strange's face disappeared. He raised an eyebrow and said, "That is exactly what we want, right?"
Loki nodded and replied, "Indeed, but the Father of All Gods believes that merely projecting power through a narrow power channel is unable to satisfy the needs of so many people - like the Dimensional Lords, people on Earth, and the Asgardians."
"Therefore..."
"Just a while ago, following the Father of All Gods' command, I went to the Nebula of the Fairy Constellation to conduct some minor reconnaissance work."
"One question..." Strange asked with some confusion, "Is that Nal creature from Klinter Star quite strong? If he truly escapes from his shackles and arrives on Earth, are we confident that we can handle him?"
"Indeed, Nal is very powerful." Odin finally spoke, his voice deep and resounding, carrying an intimidating aura that did not leave room for questioning, "He might possibly be the oldest creature in the universe, possessing the power of chaos that originates from the cosmos."
"Nal was born in the earliest darkness of the universe. When the Heavenly Gods Group's creation of life awakened him, he defied such creation, believing everything should return to chaos, and thus took an All-black Death Sword from the universal chaos and slew a member of the Heavenly Gods Group."
The Ancient One continued where Odin left off in explaining to Strange, "The Heavenly Gods Group is an extremely powerful celestial god entity. They interfere in the development of all sorts of civilizations in the universe and conduct experiments with various civilizations."
"The Heavenly Gods Group has visited Earth multiple times many years ago." Deep in metaphorical reminiscence, Odin said, "The combined strength of all God Clans on Earth is no match for them."
"But despite the Heavenly Gods Group's immense power, Nal still managed to kill one of them. When the Heavenly Gods Group came to retaliate, they could not completely kill Nal. All they could do was defeat him and throw him back into chaos."
"As long as there is darkness and chaos in this universe, Nal will never die."
Strange harbored great interest in these cosmic wonders but he knew it was not the right time to delve deeper. He asked, "Seeing how powerful Nal is, we are still intentionally provoking him so..."
At this point, both Odin and The Ancient One displayed a slightly strange expression. After a glance at each other, Odin began, "The power of Nal is indeed very strong, it can even be said to be the most fundamental power in the universe. All the other demon gods' powers are inferior to his."
"But the only problem is, ancient beings born from chaos and darkness aren't particularly intelligent."
To which The Ancient One added, "Chaos represents nothingness and tumult. Creatures possessing this attribute, no matter their strength, behave illogically and erratically."
"They lack direction and logic. The sole purpose of a chaotic creature's existence is to return the universe to chaos and darkness."
"It is precisely due to their chaotic and irrational nature that they often don't think much of their actions."
Strange gleaned from The Ancient One's subtle hints that, in simple terms, Nal wasn't the brightest bulb in the box.
But Strange felt that this made sense as it is in the nature of thought and wisdom to be order-oriented, and behind any crazed action of an intelligent being lies its own logic. If there is indeed a creature whose existence and purpose are anti-order, it is destined not to possess great intelligence.
Or perhaps, its wisdom is too advanced, and premature for the entire cosmos.
Strange touched his own forehead and suddenly realized that Nal would be the perfect target under this premise.
He's ancient, powerful, chaotic, insane, not very bright, and out of touch due to being imprisoned for so long. Who else would be better suited?
"Wait, did Modu just tell me that Earth's defense system has been breached?" Strange turned towards The Ancient One.
"Modu's statement was a little conservative, but he's always been like that." The Ancient One calmly replied from her seat, "Since the Seed of Power began to erupt, Earth's magical defense system has never been activated."
"But if Nal truly descends, Earth might..."
Loki shook his head and told Strange, "You need not worry about that. I just got back from Andromeda and the cage that imprisons Nal is very sturdy. His physical form most likely won't break free. Only his power can manifest."
"And the projection of power is similar to a pipeline." Loki illustrated with a gesture, "At the Klinta Planet end where Nal is, I just enlarged the entrance of the pipeline, allowing Nal to output power more quickly and efficiently."
"On Earth's end of the pipeline, the Supreme Magician has enlarged it. She removed the magical defensive system of the Earth, and even guided Nal's power to a precise projection."
"Born out of chaos, Nal would naturally want to use the projected power to defeat all enemies in front of him and corrode the cosmos with darkness and chaos, just like he once did."
"If he can't accomplish that, he'll increase the power he's sending. Nal, born out of darkness and chaos, wouldn't understand the concepts of tactical flank and strategic retreat. He would only want to use his immense power to erode the cosmos."
"So, if we could delay him, he would endlessly project power here?" Strange continued.
"But is it a bit too risky to choose Earth as the location? People on Earth are all fragile ordinary beings. Let alone Nal's dark power, they have no resistance to magic at all."
Loki shook his head again and explained to Strange, "Choosing Earth as the exit of the pipeline does not mean that Nal's power can directly come to Earth."
"Back to the principle of the pipeline, even though the exit of the pipeline is on Earth, the Dimensional Lords participating in this plan would punch holes along the pipeline's path, and then, from the holes they punched, divide Nal's power."
Strange suddenly understood what Loki meant, and Loki continued, "In this way, barely any power will reach Earth."
"Your words are rather conservative as well." The Ancient One's voice rang out, "Given the appetite of those participants, no power will be transmitted to Earth at all."
"But..." Strange wanted to ask, what benefits could humans get? The Ancient One seemed to see his question and directly said, "We're holding the initiative right now. Hence, we have a very special privilege."
"What is it?"
"We can decide where they can punch a hole in the pipeline."
Strange's eyes widened, and he instantly understood what The Ancient One planned to do.
Simply put, this pipeline connects from the Klinter Star to Earth, with Nal acting as the output end and Earth as the receiving end.
Although the process can't be explained in simple three-dimensional space, one rule remains accurate; there is a loss in the course of power being transmitted from the output to receiving end.
This means that the closer the interception of the power to the output end, the purer the power intercepted will be, while if it's closer to Earth, they can only drink the leftover soup.
Asgard and Earth cooperated to set up a trap. Asgard sent people to widen the output end, while Earth's Supreme Magician opened the receiving end. After controlling the opening and closing of the pipeline, they gained the right to seat allocation.
The closer the seat to the front, the greater the return. But, of course, better seats require more substantial investment.
Most importantly, the rules of this investment game have shifted from equal division to auction.
You don't have to sit in the front. As long as you're ahead of others. You also don't have to be ahead of everyone, just ahead of your competitors.
The Ancient One smiled at Strange, "The next thing is to place a bid. They will be here soon."
Strange shrugged, "Alright. Seems like the staff at the Holy Sanctuary will have to work overtime."
Then, he took out his phone and dialed a number.
"Looks like S.H.I.E.L.D staff is going to work overtime as well." In the office of S.H.I.E.L.D., Shiller took a puff from a cigarette Nick had lit, and joked.
"Strange phoned in time, but you should have guessed some in advance, shouldn't you?" Nick asked.
"Indeed."
"You plan to go with the flow?"
"No, I plan to add a motor to the boat."