"You want to bargain with me?"
Malrick shook his head.
"Doom, I will not allow my Universe to be destroyed in a collision, nor will I let my Earth fall into the Void Land. There are irreconcilable contradictions between us, contradictions of ideology. I cannot become your subordinate. If someone like me joins Battleworld, will you be the Divine Monarch, or will I?"
Doctor Doom stared at Malrick for a long moment, then sighed.
"Then let's do it."
He removed his metal mask, revealing a face identical to Tony Stark's. Turning, he sat on his throne, hands resting on the armrests. Calmly, he said, "Then come and kill me again. You want to protect your Earth, and I want to protect my Multiverse. You can try in vain. This world will eventually submit to me; this is its destiny."
Doom's expression was serene. He had prepared for death countless times, ready to outlast Malrick as Strange had outlasted Dormammu.
Malrick shook his head slightly.
"Time is immense, but it is not the most powerful force, and your power is only a fragment of it. You instructed Strange to continue searching for Shen Loki because you obtained only a portion of time's power. That fragment alone cannot achieve the outcome you desire. Our ideas are ultimately at odds. This time, I will not hold back, Doom. It is a pity—I actually admire your determination to protect the Universe."
Malrick clenched his fist. The two locked eyes across the space. Doom's "Tony face" was taut, Malrick's expression serious.
After a brief silence, Malrick pointed at the mask in Doom's hand.
"Wait, before we start, why not put the mask back on? Facing your old… uh, handsome face, I find it a bit hard to strike."
A slight amusement flickered in Malrick's tone. Doom's rigid expression relaxed. His mouth twitched, but instead of donning the mask, he threw it to the ground.
"Either kill me, or leave now," Doom said. Calmly facing death, he carried a subtle solemnity. Once, he had absolute confidence in surviving time loops. Now, uncertainty crept in. He understood Malrick well, even after only a few encounters. Malrick's jest had been a relaxed farewell, weakening Doom's certainty.
He watched as Malrick retracted his fist from a dozen meters away, then instantly appeared before him. The shadow of death crept into Doom's heart. He reassured himself: this was just another time loop.
But moments later, he froze. Something was wrong. How could Malrick's speed allow a reaction? Doom's pupils narrowed. The entire world had slowed in his perception. Malrick, poised before the throne, punched slowly—but with terrifying intent.
"What… what is happening?" Doom tried to rise, but his movements were equally sluggish. He could barely move his fingers.
Attempting to manipulate time, he realized the truth with horror.
"The power of time is protecting me automatically… a safeguard triggered before my death!"
Doom had never seen this protection activate, not even when Malrick had killed him earlier. Now, it had—but this meant something terrifying.
"Malrick has broken the time loop with his fist. This time, he can truly kill me."
Doom's expression stiffened. Spiderweb-like cracks extended from Malrick's fist, stretching beyond Doom's vision. Shattering sounds echoed like dominoes falling. The time loop enveloping the Multiverse was undone. One fist, unimaginable physical power, had broken it.
Horrified, Doom realized the world had slowed to allow him to escape using time-slipping—but Malrick had disrupted even this contingency. Green light from Doom's power, like the World Tree, spread across the Multiverse. On contact with Malrick, it became tangible and shattered beneath his strike.
Time reversed, protections failed, and Malrick's movement blurred into impossible speed. Doom, stunned, could not think before consciousness plunged into darkness.
Malrick shifted his fist into a palm strike, knocking Doom unconscious. He spoke as if to himself, "Do you believe Doom's choice is right, and you wish to stand with him?"
Though he had shattered Doom's time loop and the erupting power of time, he held back, sparing Doom. A familiar yet strange voice spoke behind him:
"Please wait, Mr. Stark. You don't need to kill Doom."
Malrick turned, recognizing the voice instantly.
"I don't wish to kill him either, but countless worlds have already been destroyed because of him. The Multiverse is collapsing."
"Are you advising mercy because you side with him, or do you have another plan?"
"You better have a good reason, Loki… Shen Loki. This is our first meeting, and you wouldn't want to leave a bad impression."
Behind Malrick stood Shen Loki, normally stationed at the end of time. Dressed in green robes with a trailing cape—the classic Loki attire—he exuded a calm, almost compassionate demeanor. Endless timelines swirled in his hands, forming the World Tree. Though in the Void Land, Loki had not yet relinquished the timelines that composed it.
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