Marvel: AS A PRINCE IN ASGARD

The laughter subsided. Valina asked again,

"But why not govern at the source, in the territories we already rule?"

"I think Liang Bing is definitely up to the task!"

When Valina said this, a gloating look flashed across her face.

Liang Bing had asked her for revenge after she slapped her, and today was the perfect chance to report it.

Ragna sighed, choosing not to answer Valina directly. Instead, he mused,

"The universe is too vast."

"The universe is too small."

"Actually, they all understand."

But even if he was willing to weaken his own power to maintain balance, the Kree Empire and the Shi'ar Empire would never agree.

"They've taken too many resources from my territory over the years!"

Ragna clenched his fists. The Kree Accusers and the Shi'ar Imperial Guard had long exploited what should have been his domain, reaping benefits while offering nothing in return. His expansion had been rapid, but despite amassing a vast number of Plunderers, devoted believers, and allied civilizations to serve as soldiers, his forces still lacked the advanced technological foundation that truly defined an empire's might.

Yes, the Angel Technology derived from the Reincarnation Pool was formidable, but it was exclusive to the Angels. He needed powerful space battleships and starfighters, vital for patrolling the expanding borders of his empire. Unfortunately, these could only be acquired by trading resources with the Kree and Shi'ar at an exorbitant cost—dozens, sometimes even hundreds of times more than their actual worth. And even then, they never provided cutting-edge technology.

Ragna could do nothing about it. Even if he were willing to expend ten thousand times the required resources, without access to the core technological tree, he could never hope to build warships of equal power.

If raw resources were all it took to develop superior war technology, the universe wouldn't be filled with so many weaker civilizations.

But even possessing warships and fighters wasn't enough to secure the fate of his empire. True power lay in technology's core secrets.

And that was precisely what the Kree and Shi'ar refused to share.

Ragna was tired of giving them free profit. He had to solve this problem.

It was a pity that the Skrull Empire's core technological database had not survived in the Andromeda Galaxy. Other civilizations had similar policies—if defeat was imminent, they would destroy their greatest secrets rather than let them fall into enemy hands.

If Ragna wanted that knowledge, he would need to wage war against one of the major galactic superpowers—a conflict that could last centuries and devastate countless worlds. And even then, there was no guarantee he would obtain what he sought.

A super-civilization's core technology was its lifeline. Whether through destruction or exile, its knowledge was never left behind for an enemy. More likely, those who held it would rather send it to a rival than surrender it directly to Ragna .

No—Ragna needed to build his own scientific research team.

Time passed. It had been eleven years since he left Sakaar and first encountered Captain Marvel. In the eleventh year, the commander of the Third Angel Legion was finally born.

She was given the name Hexi, also known as the Angel of the End. Unlike the other Angels who led fleets into battle, her role was not external warfare—it was research. Hexi would lead the Third Angel Corps in becoming Ragna 's dedicated technology development division.

Their first task? Cracking the inferior space warships and fighters sold to them by the Kree and Shi'ar.

By the twelfth year, Ragna 's scientific division had grown. However, some remnants of the former Skrull Empire's territory resisted the spread of Angel Faith, slowing their expansion.

In the thirteenth year, newly born Angels were immediately assigned to Hexi's research team, all while undergoing indoctrination into Angel Faith. That same year, Hexi ascended, officially reaching the rank of a King-Level Angel.

No—she was now the King of Heaven, the cornerstone of the Sacred Temple.

With her enhanced power, Hexi's scientific capabilities surged. That same year, she successfully cracked and replicated the Shi'ar Empire's space fighter technology.

By the fourteenth year, she had also reverse-engineered the Kree Empire's space battleships.

With this milestone, the former Skrull Empire's territory finally succumbed to Angelic influence, ushering in the establishment of the Heavenly Palace Order.

At Hexi's recommendation, Ragna then recruited scientists from his affiliated civilizations, integrating them into the research division to further refine and optimize the stolen Kree and Shi'ar technology.

But scientific advancement was not a straight path.

Without readily available blueprints, every next step was met with insurmountable barriers.

To break through them, two options remained:

1. A genius scientist of Hexi's caliber, capable of shattering conventional limits through sheer brilliance.

2. An unimaginable amount of time.

And how much time would be needed?

A thousand years? Ten thousand years?

No one knew.

The three major empires of the known universe had reached their current technological supremacy after millions of years of development.

By the fifteenth year, new Angels continued to join Hexi's division, and the Third Angel Corps reached full strength.

But this time, no breakthrough was achieved.

Hexi eventually approached Ragna and confessed:

"Unless the power of the Three Kings is combined, and every Angel devotes themselves entirely to technological research, achieving parity with the Kree and Shi'ar fleets in the near future is impossible."

As for cracking their core technologies—the Kree's Omnipotent Weapons, their Soul Shackles, the Shi'ar's Faith Energy, or their Beyond-Horizon Teleportation—

Ragna didn't even dare to dream about it.

Such advancements were far beyond anything that could be achieved in the short term.

And diverting all of Angelic power to research was simply out of the question.

• The Heavenly Blade King, Holy Kaisa, was leading the First Angel Legion across the galaxy, spreading Angelic faith and waging war against evil.

• The Apocalypse King, Liang Bing, was commanding the Second Angel Legion, enforcing order within Ragna 's territory and eliminating blasphemous civilizations.

Neither could be spared.

Ragna could only sigh and tell Hexi to continue at her own pace.

For now, technology could not provide the fundamental shift he needed.

But then, a letter arrived.

From Heimdall.

And with it, a new idea struck Ragna .

Soon, his scientific research team was about to receive an unprecedented boost.

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