Drift Of The Multiverse: [Marvel] [Resident Evil] [DC] [Bleach] [DB]-Chapter 209: The Praying Ethan

When Ethan returned to Earth, the first thing he did was to transfer part of the knowledge from the Book of Inheritance and hand it over to Tony Stark.

Armed with this higher-level knowledge from other universes, Tony Stark was able to advance all his technology several steps forward.

If nothing else, nanotechnology, which originally would not have appeared for many more years, was now something Tony could likely figure out within a year or two. Later models of battle armor would also be developed far ahead of schedule.

Because of Ethan's intervention, Tony Stark's armor design had long since deviated from the original timeline.

According to the original plot, Tony should only have developed the Mark 7 at this point, the version used during the Battle of New York.

With a miniature missile launcher, a propeller on the back, and other standard features, the Mark 7 was essentially just an optimized version of earlier suits, without any real breakthrough.

But after Ethan provided Tony with various magic stone technologies and shared more magical theories, Tony's design path had completely shifted. Aside from the initial set of magic-infused battle armor he created, Tony had continued integrating magical technologies into his suits.

Now, with mastery over some magic stone technology and Asgard's superior energy utilization techniques, Tony was able to create powerful armor that combined science and magic. With the addition of nanotechnology, even the issue of portability was resolved.

Iron Man was no longer the Iron Man Ethan had known in his previous life.

Ethan did not particularly care about this change. What he cared about was whether Tony could apply these technologies effectively to his new ship. After giving Tony enough knowledge to slowly digest, Ethan also left the Cosmic Cube for him to study.

This had been the tacit agreement between them from the start. After Ethan brought back the Cosmic Cube, Tony would be allowed to study it for a while.

Ethan used to worry about S.H.I.E.L.D. or Hydra stealing from Tony, but now he had no such concern.

With the current defenses of Tony's lab—magic stone technology, various black technologies, Jarvis's full-time surveillance, and magical alarm systems set up by Ethan—even if Hydra did manage to steal the cube, Ethan could retrieve it in seconds.

"I'll handle the research on this stuff. What are you planning to do next?" Tony asked, satisfied after receiving the toy he had wanted but clearly unhappy that Ethan would not be staying to help with the research. In his opinion, weren't mages supposed to be research maniacs? Why was this guy always running around lately?

"I'm going to take care of something important."

"Don't tell me you've suddenly found religion."

During this time, Ethan had not only transferred some Asgardian knowledge to Tony but had also been handling other personal matters. He had even borrowed Happy Hogan, Tony's humorous driver and bodyguard, so Tony had a pretty good idea of where Ethan was going.

"Don't tell me you're church-hopping to get married," Tony said, suddenly feeling like he had guessed the truth. "You're not really getting married, are you? To the daughter of Zeus?"

Ethan didn't even get the chance to explain before Tony kept going. With black lines running down his face, Ethan could only wave his hands to indicate that it was not what Tony was thinking.

"I just need to make some tools to collect certain things."

"What's in the church?" Tony frowned, unable to think of anything there worth Ethan's attention. Tossing aside the tools in his hand, he grabbed his coat and decided to follow along. "Fine, I'll come take a look. I'm curious about what you're up to."

"Alright." Ethan shrugged, not particularly caring if Tony tagged along, as long as he didn't cause trouble. "But let me warn you, this trip is going to be very boring."

Tony did not believe it at all. He followed Ethan out of Stark Tower, and with Happy's help, they headed to the nearest popular church.

Ethan did not care whether it was a Catholic or Protestant church. He simply asked Happy to gather a list of all the nearby churches with a large number of believers. Based on their locations, Ethan mapped out a route. The first one on the list was their starting point.

After entering the church, Ethan did not walk around or do anything inappropriate. He simply found an inconspicuous seat, quietly sat down, and pulled a cross from his pocket.

Tony followed closely behind, watching as Ethan sat down, took out a cross, held it in both hands, and closed his eyes as if praying.

"You're not seriously here to pray, are you?"

Tony's voice was a bit loud at first, but he quickly realized that this was not the place to shout. Not wanting to offend the believers or church staff, he offered an apologetic gesture to those nearby, then lowered his voice to question Ethan again.

"What exactly are you doing here? If you don't tell me, I'll tell the priest that you brought a Protestant cross into a Catholic church to pray..."

"..."

Ethan was certain Tony would actually do it. Left with no choice, he lowered his voice and gave a brief explanation.

"Churches, where large groups of believers regularly pray, gather a significant amount of belief energy. For some gods, this faith is the foundation of their existence."

Tony looked puzzled. While he did not fully grasp the theory, he understood Ethan's general intent.

"You're trying to collect this belief energy? Why? Are you planning to make yourself into a god?"

Ethan gave Tony a look. This guy was not a trained mage and did not understand how powerful the willpower and faith of believers could be. Even reckless mages would not dare to directly use this power for their magic.

"No, I'm just collecting it. After all, belief is also a form of energy."

Simply put, Ethan was collecting the power of faith or willpower. In his view, this energy came with many problems, like containing too many impurities that could affect the user's mind. Even gods, who regularly absorbed the power of their believers, were often unknowingly influenced by this energy.

However, despite its flaws, belief energy was one of the most widespread forms of energy across civilized worlds. With the right methods, it was also the easiest energy to harvest.

Ethan had obtained relevant knowledge from Clibuso, combined it with theories from Merlin's Book of Inheritance, and supplemented it with knowledge he had gained from Asgard. Finally, he had figured out how to collect and utilize this type of energy for himself.

The cross he held was built by Tony during this period. Its materials were not particularly special, but the technology it contained was the crystallization of all the knowledge Ethan currently possessed.

Through this inconspicuous cross, Ethan could absorb the intangible power of faith, purify it as much as possible to reduce its negative side effects, and then convert it into usable energy.

Considering that the willpower contained in belief energy would inevitably influence the converted energy, Ethan found through experimentation that Holy Light energy was the most suitable choice for conversion.

Unfortunately, Ethan had never come into direct contact with true Holy Light, so he did not know how to perfectly transform the belief energy into the genuine article. If he had mastered real Holy Light, the impurities and chaotic beliefs would not be an issue, as they would be completely purified by the Holy Light.

In the meantime, Ethan could only attempt to imitate Holy Light by combining the energy of the Death Stone with his own understanding, creating an energy with similar characteristics.

In his final experiment, he was surprised to find that after integrating a certain amount of willpower, this energy became even closer to the Holy Light he imagined. It possessed vitality, purity, and strong resistance to negative energy. In fact, this new form of energy was now even more worthy of being called Holy Light than what he had before.

The cross he crafted this time was named the Holy Light Cross.

"So, you asked Happy to find churches with the largest congregations so you could collect their belief energy one by one, convert it into Holy Light, and store it in this cross?" Tony finally understood Ethan's plan after hearing the explanation. He was quite amazed, as he had never imagined that magic could work like this.

"Exactly."

"Doesn't this kind of collection take a long time?" Tony asked, noticing that Ethan had been sitting in the same position for quite a while, maintaining the same prayer-like posture.

"It's not easy to collect faith. I need to continuously coordinate my spiritual energy and make sure there are no problems during the transformation process."

Ethan could only maintain this position while collecting belief energy. He had discovered that when he adopted this posture and sent out spiritual fluctuations similar to prayers, the belief energy in the church was much easier to attract. But even so, the collection speed was painfully slow. He estimated that it would take several months to fully harvest the energy from even a single church.

Realizing that Ethan was going to be stuck in this posture for quite a while, Tony quickly lost interest. He patted Ethan's shoulder with a smile, then called Happy to drive him back to Stark Tower.

Compared to sitting like a fool in a church watching Ethan in a trance, Tony would rather return to his lab and tinker with his projects. Even accidentally creating a crazy robot that wanted to destroy the world sounded more interesting than watching Ethan sit still.

Tony would never believe that Ethan had actually come to pray to God.

(To be continued.)

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