Loki waved her Magic Wand, and a burst of light projected a massive Magic Screen in the air. For Ebony Maw and Loki, this screen was somewhat too big. They couldn't see clearly what was being displayed on it. Though for Thanos, the size of the display was just perfect.
All of a sudden, passionate music erupted from the Magic Wand. A clip was showing a black stage with Strange strolling on it in a suit. The camera then zoomed into the audience and rushed all the way down to his face. With a voice even more magnetic than usual, Strange said:
"The Holy Sanctuary is more than just the Holy Sanctuary!"
Then a video started to play.
An operator during her break picked up a model spaceship from the table and began to admire it. As the camera zoomed in, the model expanded and transformed into a real spaceship, firing at the enemy in an interstellar war.
Shortly after, the immense spaceship was struck by a streak of Blink light, instantly disintegrating into fragments.
The operator jerked awake from her dream, picked up the incessantly ringing phone, conveyed some words, and the spaceship in reality instantly made a jump to avoid the lethal beam.
Slamming down the phone and grinning satisfactorily, the Holy Sanctuary's logo enlarged beside her, with its motto shining in gold below it: "The Holy Sanctuary is more than just the Holy Sanctuary."
After that, another short film began. Strange opening with the motto as always, but this time, the spaceship was replaced by a Demon God. It was the operator's early warning that allowed the Demon God to avoid the calamity.
Later on, there were a variety of promotional clips which acted against the human advertising culture. Long and short films, promotional and counter-promotional, member gifts rewarding scenes, and remorseful Demon Gods who just passed by—everything was a masterpiece of human civilization and advertising designing.
About half an hour's worth of promotional videos exhibited the pinnacle of human advertising design. Various styles from all over the world were drawn upon. Thanos and Ebony Maw watched these advertisements for half an hour straight.
Loki had closed the screen half a minute ago but the two of them still hadn't reacted to it. It was Thanos who first collected himself and asked, "So you mean to tell me that this place called the Holy Sanctuary is Asgard's strategic consultant?"
"Not entirely. Asgard has its own independent department for strategy and tactics. However, we're not stingy when it comes to minor investments to gain more ideas." she replied.
Then, Loki started to explain the membership system of the Holy Sanctuary, causing Thanos' head to ache again, so he waved his hand to cut Loki off, "No, I have no interest in taking on a membership."
Loki showed a look of regret but then wanted to continue persuading Thanos. However, Thanos remained unmoved, leading Loki to express her reluctance to continue, and she said:
"I'm very sorry, Your Majesty. The Holy Sanctuary has indeed switched to a membership system. However …" Loki paused and continued, "If you handle your affairs through me, I can offer you the maximum discount, even provide quarterly membership services not mentioned in the membership service description…"
"Enough," Thanos interrupted her, revealing an annoyed emotion. Loki took a deep breath, touched her chest, and finally said reluctantly, "Alright, Your Majesty Thanos, it seems your request is quite high. What exactly do you want to do?"
"I don't want to take up membership, but I want to know the concrete details of that plan."
"You can also purchase it on a per use basis…"
"Loki," Thanos huffed and asked, "What benefits did they give you to make you push for this so hard?"
Loki was stunned by this question, but she simply shook her head and didn't reply. Thanos spoke, "You're a clever woman, like him, my loyal subordinate Ebony Maw."
"Is this the role you want to do, running errands?" Thanos unleashed a grin, "You could have even more."
Loki dropped her fake smile and stared straight at Thanos, who then continued, "I won't subscribe to anything, but I can supply you with the resources. You will help me figure out a way to use their services for free."
Despite her mental compliments towards Thanos' awareness of the dregs of human civilization, Loki struggled to keep her expression from sinking. Then, Thanos tempted her again:
"Loki, even if your rebellion is part of your plan, Asgard has but one Divine King. Your brother has everything, and you, you have no right to inherit anything, yet you run around tirelessly for it. Therefore, this is what you deserve..."
Ebony Maw also chimed in, "All His Majesty needs from them is their information network. As long as you can continuously feed back to us the information we need, His Majesty Thanos will definitely not be stingy."
"When shouting the slogan of counterattack on Asgard, did you feel anything?" Thanos looked into Loki's eyes and asked.
Loki lowered her head slightly, sighed with her eyes closed, and said, "Even if I agreed now, you wouldn't trust me, would you?"
"Right, so we can do it another way." Thanos snapped his fingers, and a few figures walked out from behind the throne and stood in line with Ebony Maw. Thanos looked at them and said:
"You can arrange for my men to go there. We'll find the information we need ourselves, and you needn't worry about exposing us. I believe you have many ways to quietly vanish."
"Indeed, but what will you give me in return?" Loki no longer pretended and her voice turned cold, like the true God of Mischief.
Thanos raised his hands and replied, "Whatever you want, I will grant you!"
"What if I want the entirety of Asgard?"
Thanos was not surprised. He said, "Right now, we are merely in a transactional relationship. I will never pay such a hefty price for such so trifling a gain. But if you were to pledge loyalty to me..."
"I only serve the Father of All Gods, Odin," Loki replied.
The two glanced at each other and chose not to prolong the conversation. Conversations between two intelligent individuals do not require much explicit clarification. After Loki had left, Thanos, sitting on his throne, whispered to himself, "Odin... The Nine Major Kingdoms..."
Ebony Maw advanced, bowed, and asked, "Great His Majesty Thanos, whom do you wish to dispatch to the Nine Major Kingdoms?"
Thanos glanced among the Black Order, finally letting his gaze rest upon the tallest of them all, the Black Dwarf. Immediately, Black Dwarf bent his knee and bowed his head, saying, "Understood, Your Majesty."
After the other generals had departed, Ebony Maw remained, saying, "If The Sanctum could offer us decent tactics and break the current development bottleneck, that would be optimal. But if not, we will still benefit from embedding a mole within the Nine Major Kingdoms."
"The one thing that perplexes me, Your Majesty, is why you would send Black Dwarf to infiltrate... Of course, I don't mean to question your decisions, but rather, I question Black Dwarf's loyalty..."
Thanos scoffed, saying, "Of course, I know he's not loyal. He only joined me out of a pretense to ensure the continuation of his own race."
"However, my intention was never for him and Loki to bring back any useful information for me. Wanting to know Asgard's strategy was just a pretext."
"So, you..."
"Odin has two heirs. If he appointed one as the new King of Asgard, would the other be willing to accept this?"
"Are you suggesting instigating a conflict between the new king and the crown princess as a move against Odin?"
"My target has always been Odin." Thanos leaned back against his gargantuan throne as if he were a formidable mountain. His immense power and ruthless reign granted him a powerful aura exclusive to tyrants.
"Only Odin could obstruct my subsequent plans. As for everyone else..." Thanos extended his hand, pinched his fingertips, and said, "They're but brittle pebbles, crumbling upon touch."
After leaving the throne hall where Thanos was located, Loki hastily made his way through the Star Port to leave the Dark Quadrant. Once he was sure he had left Thanos's sphere of influence, he picked up the phone and said:
"Bad news, only one out of the five generals took the bait, and it looks like he's a discarded pawn. Should I bring him over directly, or should we risk having Thanos switch him out for another?"
In the meeting room on the other side, upon hearing Loki's words, Stark frowned and looked at Shiller, but Shiller seemed unperturbed. He said, "It's not that easy to reel in Thanos. After all, he's a Universal Overlord. Just think of him as Odin. Would Odin fall for such tricks?"
"His willingness to send someone over proves that his indifference towards the Infinity Gem is pure nonsense. As long as he's interested, he'll come sooner or later."
"So what do we do next?" asked Loki.
"Who's coming?"
"It should be the Black Dwarf. He's incredibly tall. He looks like he's a native of a galaxy near the Dark Quadrant."
Shiller frowned for a moment and said, "Take him and bring him over. The rest is up to us. By the way, let him fly a spaceship over. It should be the one you described in your file, which can be disassembled into a military vehicle..."
"No problem." Loki nodded and then made a call to Thanos.
Now, Loki had found the advantage of stirring things up. Thanos thought he was on the fifth level when in fact he was only on the first. Thanos assumed this was a ruse from Asgard, thinking it was the feeble human race's attempt to acquire new technology.
So, Thanos agreed without a second thought. From his point of view, Asgard could deceive him in any number of ways, but never with this spaceship. After all, this ordinary spaceship's technological capacity was far inferior to other Asgardian ships. It would be useless to Odin.
When the spaceship reached a coordinate near the Solar System, Loki hastily created an illusion for Black Dwarf, transforming him into a tall, dark-skinned human. Then, he pushed him to get off the spaceship and teleport to Earth.
Black Dwarf was utterly baffled by Loki's frantic antics. He asked, "Why are we in such a hurry? Shouldn't we survey our surroundings first?"
"This is one of the Nine Major Kingdoms." Loki replied while pushing Black Dwarf out. As Black Dwarf was pushed through the hatch, he asked in confusion, "So?"
"Would you survey your own bedroom?" After shoving Black Dwarf out, Loki began to prepare for teleportation. As Black Dwarf was about to say something, a flash of light swept past and their figures vanished near the spaceship.
Soon afterward, the teleportation portal opened and more figures descended next to the spaceship. Staring at the massive spaceship, Stark waved his hand and said, "Get on board!"
"Wait!" Nick Fury who had also arrived, raised his hand, stopping everyone from proceeding.
"According to the human Interstellar Navigation Act, all objects lost in the Milky Way and within 100 light-years of the Milky Way automatically belong to the only pan-human civilization within that galaxy upon the lapse of a 100,000-year unclaimed period..."
"...I forgot the rest. Let's get on board!"