Chapter 34: Stark, Your Armor Is Leaking Electricity
Four seconds.
Arthur's body made the decision a step ahead of his brain.
Blink.
A blue light flashed, and his position shifted three meters to the side.
The concrete floor where he had been standing was smashed into a deep crater by the 170-kilogram titanium alloy armor 0.8 seconds later.
Gravel sprayed everywhere.
The structural steel of the rooftop groaned and trembled.
Iron Man lay prone in the crater.
The left arm of the armor had vanished, revealing the scorched lining inside and a section of a human forearm.
The Arc Reactor on his chest flickered, like a lightbulb about to go out.
The helmet was shattered, more than half gone, revealing a face caked in dust and bloodstains.
Tony Stark's right eye peered out through the crack in the faceplate.
His pupils first locked onto the chicken feathers scattered across the ground, and Hawkeye, who was squatting on the ice, looking dazed.
Then, he saw Natasha, holding a chicken in both hands with a blank expression.
"...Jarvis." Tony's voice was hoarse. "Do I have a concussion?"
"Sir, you do not have a concussion. Agent Romanoff is indeed holding two pieces of poultry."
Tony decided not to try to understand this.
The sound of engines overhead dragged everyone back to reality.
Two Chitauri skiffs hovered forty meters above the rooftop, their gray armored hatches sliding open.
Sixteen energy cannons extended from the shadows, blue light points locking onto every living creature on the rooftop.
Including those two chickens.
Jarvis's voice became uncharacteristically urgent: "Sir, armor energy is at 12%. Thrusters offline. Weapons systems offline. Left arm servo mechanism damaged. Available combat capability—"
"Zero, just say zero."
Tony tried to push his body up, but his arm shook twice, and he fell back into the crater.
The light of the Arc Reactor dimmed by another fraction.
The energy cannons began to charge.
Sixteen blue light points brightened simultaneously, and the air filled with the scorched scent of ozone and high-energy particles.
Hawkeye's hand, clutching the celery, tightened.
It wasn't fear; it was professional instinct driving him to search for an exit.
But celery couldn't solve this problem.
Natasha dropped the chickens.
The two hens flapped their wings and ran toward the corner of the rooftop, her eyes scanning the ground for any usable weapon.
Then, someone stood in front of them.
A hoodie.
The shadow of the hood obscured half his face.
His hands were in his pockets.
He walked at a steady pace, reached the crater Tony had smashed, and stopped.
With his back to the three Avengers, he faced the sixteen energy cannons.
"Your tin toy really isn't eco-friendly," he said.
Tony looked up from the crater and saw only a lean back.
Not tall, not muscular, wearing a deep gray hoodie washed until it was pilling, with dust on his pant legs.
Compared to the fully armed Iron Man armor lying next to him, he looked like a delivery guy who had walked onto the wrong set.
The Chitauri opened fire.
Sixteen beams of energy poured down simultaneously.
Not potshots, but a strafing run.
A dense web of blue light instantly covered two-thirds of the rooftop, the heat sufficient to vaporize everything.
Arthur pulled his hands out of his pockets.
He pressed his palms together.
Then pulled them apart sharply.
[Arcane Blast].
No incantation, no magic circle.
Pure arcane energy exploded outward with him as the center, a visible purple ripple expanding outward.
The speed of the ripple surpassed the light beams.
The two met in the air about five meters above Arthur's head.
The energy beams were not blocked, nor were they absorbed.
They were refracted.
The force field of the Arcane Blast twisted the path of the beams.
The sixteen blue energy rays made an unreasonable turn in the air, hit an invisible prism, and were broken into dozens of finer branches, scattering in all directions.
Seven of them cut precisely back into the Chitauri skiffs themselves.
The beams sliced through the skiffs' thrusters and armored seams.
The first skiff's left wing was severed by its own weapon, spiraling as it crashed into a nearby building.
The second skiff's power core was pierced, blue flames gushing from the gap; the entire skiff expanded for a moment in the air, then exploded into fragments.
Metal wreckage poured down like rain.
A layer of Chitauri alloy debris showered onto the rooftop.
A palm-sized piece of armor plate spun and landed beside Tony, embedding itself deep into the concrete floor.
It was quiet.
At least above the rooftop, it was quiet.
The war in the distance continued, but this space within a fifty-meter radius had been cleared.
Tony's faceplate opened completely.
He used his only mobile right hand to prop himself up, half-sitting, staring intently at the young man in the hoodie before him.
Jarvis's analysis results projected onto the shattered HUD.
"Unable to analyze target energy composition. Not a known Earth element. Not a known Universe radiation type. Does not match Asgard energy signature. Does not match Mind Stone radiation spectrum. No reference entries in the database."
In his entire life, the number of times Tony Stark had been slapped in the face by things science couldn't explain could be counted on one hand.
Now, there was one more.
Arthur turned his head to look at him.
He raised his right hand casually, condensing a ball of liquid water in his palm, the temperature just right for cooling overheated electronic components.
He tossed the water ball toward Tony's chest.
The water ball precisely covered the surface of the reactor, seeping into the armor's interior along the gaps, carrying away the excess heat.
"Arc Reactor temperature dropping. Core system reboot probability increased to 67%," Jarvis reported.
Tony watched the light of the reactor stabilize again, then looked at the back that had already turned to leave.
"Hey."
Arthur stopped.
"What's your name?"
"Not important."
"It's important to me. I need to know who to send the repair bill to."
Arthur didn't answer.
Because the rooftop beneath their feet began to vibrate.
Not an aftershock, not the fall of battle debris.
It was a dull, rhythmic booming, as if coming from the heartbeat of some gargantuan creature.
The panel popped up a warning.
[Large biological energy signal detected approaching. Estimated mass: approx. 2,800 tons. Moving speed: 180 km/h. Estimated time to contact: 9 seconds.]
Arthur looked up.
The clouds were torn apart.
A giant maw extended from the rift.
To be precise, a set of jaws.
The upper and lower jaws were thirty meters apart, the inner walls covered in metallic-textured scales.
Behind it connected a hundreds-of-meters-long armored, giant-snake-like body—a Leviathan.
The Chitauri's aerial war beast.
It dove from the clouds, its open giant maw aimed at this building.
Aimed at this rooftop.
Hulk was entangled with another Leviathan on a distant rooftop, unable to break away.
Thor was surrounded by Chitauri infantry.
Captain America was on the ground directing the evacuation.
On this rooftop, no one could stop this thing.
Except for Arthur.
He glanced at the panel.
Lv.28. Mana: 1,340 / 2,800.
Less than half had recovered.
And the Leviathan's jaws had already obscured half the sky, the shadow enveloping the entire rooftop.
Only five seconds left.
"Everyone," Arthur's voice changed, no longer the casual tone from before, "Get down. Don't look up."
He held his hands out level.
A deep blue light flickered in his eyes.
Chapter 35: Freezing the Leviathan
It wasn't a sound. It was pressure.
The Leviathan's massive jaws tore through the clouds, and the first effect was the disappearance of light. The rooftop was enveloped by a moving, colossal shadow. Immediately following was the gale formed as the massive creature displaced the air, sending gravel rolling and causing Tony's damaged armor to emit the sound of metal groaning under unbearable stress.
"Everyone, retreat!" Tony's voice blared through his external speakers, distorted by static. "Its armor could level a building! Move, now!"
Natasha and Clint had already retreated to the opposite edge of the rooftop. Their faces wore professional solemnity, but deep in their eyes lay the helplessness of facing such an unconventional existence. They were top-tier Agents, not gods. A monster of this size was beyond the scope of what human skill could handle.
Arthur did not move.
He simply stood in the center of the rooftop, tilting his head slightly to watch the approaching canopy of death, constructed of metal and biological tissue.
Beneath his hood, his expression remained unchanged.
[Target: Chitauri War Beast - Leviathan]
[Level: 35 (Elite Template)]
[Physical Resistance: 95%]
[Energy Resistance: 80%]
[magic Resistance (Comprehensive): 15%]
The data on the panel was clear and cold.
He glanced at his own status.
[Player: Arthur]
[Level: 29 (98.7%)]
[Mana: 1,410 / 2,900]
Experience points… just a little more. Just that little bit.
A subtle, almost imperceptible arc formed at the corner of Arthur's mouth.
"Large size means magic resistance is diluted." He whispered to himself, as if stating a physical axiom.
This was the first lesson for any apprentice mage in Azeroth.
He took a deep breath, and the muscle memory from countless encounters with massive raid bosses in World of Warcraft awakened in this moment.
Calculations began.
He raised both hands.
The deep blue light in his eyes instantly expanded, swallowing all the black in his pupils.
The temperature of the surrounding air began to plummet.
It wasn't a natural drop in temperature. It was heat being forcibly extracted by an invisible force; water molecules in the air instantly condensed into tiny ice crystals, causing the light itself to distort.
Tony, Natasha, and Clint on the rooftop simultaneously felt a bone-chilling cold, not from the outside, but acting directly upon their blood and marrow.
Step one: Slow. [Frost Nova]!
A ring of light blue shockwaves erupted from Arthur, spreading silently upward and colliding with the diving body of the Leviathan.
The massive creature visibly stalled. Its speed toward the building was forcibly reduced by thirty percent. It was like a locomotive at full speed suddenly crashing into a patch of thick swamp.
Step two: Environmental preparation. Arthur gripped the air with his left hand and raised it toward the sky. [Blizzard]!
In the sky above the Leviathan, a fifty-meter-wide, rapidly rotating dark cloud abruptly formed. There was no lightning in the clouds, only pure, extreme cold. Countless sharp-edged ice spikes, like heavy machine gun bullets mixed with shattered ice crystals, pounded frantically against the Leviathan's heavy armor.
The crisp clanging sounds merged into one. These ice spikes couldn't pierce the armor, but they stripped away the last traces of warmth from the beast's surface. A layer of white frost covered every piece of metal scale.
The temperature of the entire environment was forcibly dragged down to a critical point. Everything was ready.
Step three: Finisher. Arthur pressed his right index and middle fingers together and pointed toward the sky.
Seventy percent of his remaining mana was frantically extracted and compressed in this moment.
A deep blue ice spear, only as thick as an arm and about a meter long, condensed at his fingertips.
That was no ordinary ice. Its surface had no reflection at all, as if it could swallow all light. At the tip of the spear was a nearly transparent, pure crystal, with terrifying arcane runes flowing within. [Ice Lance (Charged & Empowered)].
"Go." Arthur whispered the single word.
The ice spear left his hand. It made no sound, but its speed exceeded the sound barrier, leaving a light blue afterimage in the air as it accurately struck deep into the Leviathan's wide-open maw, large enough to swallow a bus.
Time seemed to stretch in this moment. The Leviathan was only ten meters away from the rooftop. Natasha had already closed her eyes. Tony's reactor emitted an overload alarm.
Then, an extreme icy blue erupted from the Leviathan's throat.
It wasn't an explosion; it was erosion. Deep blue mysterious ice, like a living plague, spread frantically in all directions from the point where the ice spear had struck.
One second. The Leviathan's entire head was frozen. Two seconds. The ice covered one-third of its body, and its forward momentum was completely frozen in place. Three seconds. From head to tail, the war beast, hundreds of meters long, along with its thick metal armor, was completely encased in a layer of massive, half-meter-thick ice crystals shimmering with a ghostly blue luster.
It became a lifelike ice sculpture suspended in mid-air.
Enormous inertia carried this ice sculpture into an adjacent abandoned office building.
There was no earth-shattering explosion. Only a loud "crack." The magnificent ice sculpture shattered and broke upon Impact, turning into billions of ice chunks of varying sizes, mixed with Chitauri biological tissue frozen into powder, raining down like a blue storm onto the streets of Manhattan.
Across the entire New York battlefield, everyone who witnessed this scene fell into three seconds of absolute silence.
On a rooftop in the distance, Hulk, who had just punched through another Leviathan, stopped and stared blankly at the place where the ice chunks had fallen.
At the top of Stark Tower, Loki, who was preparing to watch a good show, froze with a stiff smile on his face.
At S.H.I.E.L.D. Triskelion Headquarters, everyone in the command center stood up before the big screen. Fury's single eye lost focus for the first time. Daisy covered her mouth, her eyes filled with undisguised shock and... fanaticism.
On the rooftop. Arthur slowly lowered his hand. A light breeze blew by, lifting the hem of his clothes.
In his ears, the long-awaited, heavenly notification sound rang out.
[Ding! Over-level kill of a war-class beast, gained massive experience points!]
[Experience points full!]
[Congratulations to the player for reaching Lv.30! Mana cap increased! Mental power significantly increased!]
[Core skill unlocked: Teleportation (Basic)!]
Arthur felt the torrent of magic surging within him, several times stronger than before, and nodded with satisfaction at the newly lit skill icon in his mind that emitted spatial fluctuations.
Finally... looking a bit like a mage.
Just then, the communicator he had scavenged from a S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent at his waist suddenly blared with the anxious plea for help from Captain America Steve Rogers.
"This is Captain America! Seventh Avenue Bank, a large number of civilians are trapped! Repeat, a large number of civilians are trapped! The Chitauri are deploying plasma bombs! I need backup! Is anyone nearby?!"
Chapter 36 Level 30
magic surged.
If the mana pool at level 29 was a stream, then at this moment, it had widened into a bottomless river.
Mental power expanded outward like a tide, with the coverage radius exploding from five hundred meters to two kilometers, and the energy flow of the entire Midtown Manhattan formed a real-time updated 3D map in his mind.
Every shot from a Chitauri energy weapon, the collapse of every building's structure, and even the distinct life force fields of every Avenger were clearly visible.
This was the qualitative change brought about by level 30.
But all of this paled in comparison to the newly lit icon in the skill bar.
[Teleportation (Basic)].
It was not a button, but a brand new dimension of perception.
In Arthur's vision, the real World was overlaid with a grid composed of countless fine blue lines.
Every place he had been to, and every energy coordinate he could clearly perceive, became "nodes" on this web that could be lit up.
He could instantly jump from any node to another.
Theoretically, as long as his mana was sufficient and the coordinates were clear, physical distance on Earth had lost its meaning for him.
This was what a mage was.
An Azeroth mage.
"Bzz—"
A burst of static from the communicator at his waist interrupted Arthur's contemplation.
"This is Captain America! Seventh Avenue bank, a large number of civilians are trapped! Repeat, a large number of civilians are trapped! The Chitauri are deploying plasma bombs! I need backup! Is anyone nearby?!"
Steve Rogers's voice was urgent and steady, but Arthurcould detect a rare hint of anxiety.
Arthur closed his eyes.
His mental map instantly zoomed in, locking onto Seventh Avenue.
He "saw" it.
Inside the bank lobby, nearly a hundred civilians huddled in the corner, shivering.
Steve was alone, holding his round shield at the very front, the surface of the shield already covered in scorched marks from energy burns.
Opposite him, seven Chitauri soldiers were mounting a sphere flickering with unstable blue light onto an energy launcher.
Plasma bomb. The blast radius was enough to cover the entire block.
Tony's armor was still rebooting on the rooftop; it would take a minute and a half to fly over.
Natasha and Clint lacked aerial mobility.
Hulk and Thor were tied up by another main Chitauri force.
A perfect dead end.
"Coordinates confirmed," Arthur said softly.
His mental power locked onto the spatial coordinates three meters in front of Steve's shield inside the bank lobby.
The next second, a blue magic circle composed of countless arcane runes flashed and vanished beneath his feet.
Whoosh!
Arthur's figure vanished into thin air from the rooftop.
Natasha and Clint only felt a faint spatial fluctuation brush past; all that remained in place were a few wisps of dissipating blue light particles and a pure arcane aura that seemed to come from another World.
Looking at the empty patch of concrete, Natasha felt, for the first time, a genuine doubt about the intelligence network that Fury had exhausted all resources to build.
What kind of existence were they… trying to control?
...
Seventh Avenue bank.
A harsh sound of metal grinding rang out as the plasma bomb was activated, entering the final launch sequence.
"Get down!"
Steve turned his head and shouted with all his might at the civilians behind him.
He planted his legs firmly on the ground, his arm muscles bulging, holding that Vibranium shield steady as a rock.
He prepared to use his own body to withstand the bomb capable of melting everything.
This was his only choice.
The Chitauri soldiers opposite him let out an unintelligible screech and pressed the launch button.
The blue energy sphere detached from the launcher, trailing a wake that distorted light, and came whistling toward Steve.
Steve gritted his teeth, preparing to meet the Impact that would be enough to tear flesh and blood apart.
Just then.
A perfect, oval-shaped blue portal unfolded without warning in front of his shield.
It was like a hole that had suddenly appeared on a painting, its edges lined with steadily flowing arcane runes, its center a deep, bottomless blue.
The plasma bomb plunged into the portal, making no sound, and vanished instantly without a trace.
Three seconds later.
High in the air, hundreds of meters outside the bank, a blinding miniature Sun suddenly exploded, and the violent energy formed an expanding shockwave beneath the clouds, yet it caused no damage to the ground.
Inside the bank lobby, there was dead silence.
The Chitauri soldiers' biological processors clearly could not comprehend the scene before them, experiencing a momentary crash.
Steve was also stunned, maintaining his shield-raising stance, his mind blank.
Another spatial ripple spread out beside Steve.
Arthur walked slowly out of the portal, as if he had merely passed through an ordinary curtain.
He didn't even glance at the dumbfounded Captain America beside him.
His gaze swept over the seven Chitauri soldiers still processing logic errors.
He waved his right hand casually.
[Arcane Missiles].
Three solid magic arrows, radiating a purple halo, generated out of thin air, bypassed the lobby's load-bearing columns in a tricky arc, and accurately struck the heads of three soldiers.
Their energy shields were pierced like thin paper, and their helmets shattered.
He followed by raising his left hand.
Three more.
The last Chitauri soldier reacted and raised its gun, intending to fire.
The seventh Arcane Missile was already hovering at its brow.
Pfft.
The World was quiet.
Arthur brushed the non-existent dust off his hands, his heart completely calm.
For a mage who had cleared countless dungeons, this kind of scene of clearing out mobs didn't even count as a warm-up.
"You…"
Steve finally lowered his shield. He looked at this Asian young man who had appeared suddenly, wearing an ordinary hoodie, his face full of shock, confusion, and a hint of heartfelt gratitude.
He wanted to say thank you.
He wanted to ask who he was.
But just as he said one word, he realized the young man before him had suddenly looked up.
Those calm eyes were looking at the bank's shattered ceiling, and for the first time, his gaze held a hint of… vigilance.
Boom!
Accompanied by a deafening roar like thunder, a figure wreathed in lightning descended from the sky, slamming heavily into the center of the bank lobby, causing the hard marble floor to crack like a spider web.
A red cape billowed.
Silver armor shimmered.
Thor held Mjolnir and slowly stood up straight.
He ignored the Chitauri corpses littering the ground and didn't even glance at his comrade, Captain America.
His blue eyes, containing thunder, locked firmly onto Arthur.
In the air, the smell of ionized ozone collided and intertwined with the pure arcane aura, forming an invisible, suffocating field of confrontation.
Thor spoke, his voice low like the rumble of thunder in dark clouds.
"Mortal, your magic… does not belong to the Nine Realms."
"State your origin."
Chapter 37: magic Circuits Even Thor Cannot Understand
Thor's gaze was like a storm gathering over Asgard.
The tiny arcs of electricity surrounding him crackled in the air, filling the hall with a scorched scent—the smell of metal ionized by high heat. This violent energy field was a lethal deterrent to any ordinary person, enough to stop a heart.
But for Arthur, it was merely an unpleasant interference.
It was like having someone turn on a massive, unshielded, old-fashioned blower next to a mana matrix performing high-precision calculations.
Very noisy.
And completely chaotic.
Steve Rogers slung his Vibranium shield back onto his back; he knew now was not the time for a fight. He stepped forward, placing his body between the two tense figures, attempting to defuse the situation.
"Thor, listen, he just saved us, saved everyone here."
Thor's gaze remained fixed on Arthur like a nail, not moving an inch. Ignoring the Captain's advice, he lifted Mjolnir from the cracked marble floor, the heavy hammer head kicking up a spray of debris.
"I saw it." Thor's voice was low, as if he were struggling to suppress his rage. "But his power does not belong to Midgard, nor does it come from Asgard. I cannot feel any response from the World Tree's energy within him; he is like a… a void that shouldn't exist."
He stepped forward, electricity dancing on Mjolnir, emitting a dense, crackling sound that intensified the pressure.
"Mortal, your magic… does not belong to the Nine Realms."
"Reveal your origins."
Arthur finally looked directly at this legendary son of Odin, his brows furrowing almost imperceptibly.
Not out of fear.
But rather, a pure, academic scrutiny from a top-tier scholar.
In his Arcane Wisdom vision, he could clearly "see" the flow of energy within Thor. That power was indeed immense and wild, like an untamed dragon of lightning, surging and roaring instinctively through his blood vessels and muscle fibers.
But the trajectory of its energy operation was truly crude and primitive, devoid of any technique. It was like a barbarian holding the key to a treasure vault but only using it to crack walnuts.
Arthur even felt that calling the power Thor used "magic" was an overstatement of this profound art.
"magic is a precise science. It involves the guidance, conversion, and shaping of energy, requiring a profound understanding of the fundamental rules of the Universe." Arthur spoke, his voice as calm as if he were stating a physical axiom.
He looked at Thor, his eyes devoid of mockery, only the indifference of stating a fact.
"And you, big guy from Asgard, are at best a walking, humanoid… oversized power bank."
Power bank?
Steve was stunned. He seemed to have heard this term from Stark, but he didn't quite understand what it meant at the moment.
But Thor understood.
His handsome face, full of Norse mythological character, instantly flushed red, blood rushing to his head. In the thousands of years since his birth, no one had ever dared to evaluate his divine power like this! This was the power bestowed upon him by Odin, the symbol of the Asgardcrown prince!
"Mortal! How dare you…"
Thor roared, the sound shaking the roof tiles. He violently raised Mjolnir, and the clouds in the sky seemed to heed the call of a king. A bolt of lightning, thicker than any before, tore through the sky with a deafening roar, striking straight down and pouring entirely into Mjolnir!
The hammer head erupted with light so blinding it was impossible to look at directly. The violent power of thunder gathered and compressed on the hammer, on the verge of turning into a destructive Impact to blast this arrogant mortal into dust.
Steve was horrified and was about to raise his shield to block in front regardless of the cost.
Yet Arthur didn't even lift an eyelid.
He simply extended an index finger and lightly tapped the radiant, energy-seething hammer.
No spellcasting, no chanting, not even a trace of magicfluctuation.
He was simply using the overclocked analysis state of [Arcane Wisdom] to instantly discern the energy path Thor used to guide the lightning. Then, using a negligible trace of arcane energy, smaller than the tip of an embroidery needle, he set a small "warp singularity" on that crude energy path.
It was like throwing an inconspicuous pebble that could change the direction of the flow into a roaring river.
The next instant, something so bizarre that it defied the common sense of physics occurred.
The violent lightning on Mjolnir, enough to destroy a Chitauri warship, was, at the moment before it was about to erupt, crudely flicked by an invisible hand, forcing it to make a sharp ninety-degree turn.
Crackle—!
All the power of the lightning, without a single drop lost, poured entirely onto an innocent streetlight that had survived the war at the entrance of the bank hall.
The light bulb of the streetlight shattered with a "pop," the metal pole turned red-hot within 0.01 seconds, and then it emitted a plume of black smoke mixed with a burnt smell, collapsing to the ground.
The entire scene was deathly silent.
Thor held the hammer high, the monstrous rage on his face frozen, replaced by a ghost-seeing bewilderment and astonishment. He could clearly feel that his innate divine power was still within him, and Mjolnir still obeyed his command, but it just… wouldn't listen.
The power was still there, but the control had been snatched away!
Steve Rogers opened his mouth, then closed it. He felt that the bizarre events he had witnessed today were more than all the years combined since he joined the army in Brooklyn, was frozen, and then woke up over the past ninety-plus years.
OK, I accept the alien invasion, I accept that the gods in myths are real people, but now you're telling me that a god's "divine power" can be hacked just like Stark's programs?
"See, it's simple." Arthur retracted his finger, his tone as calm as if he were lecturing an obtuse apprentice. "As long as you find the correct energy node and change a few basic parameters, you can make your 'divine power' go where it should. For example, charging a streetlight, although your energy conversion efficiency is too low; most of it is wasted on sound and light effects."
"You…" Thor held it in for a long time, his throat feeling as if it were stuck with a stone, and finally, he spat out only one word.
"Enough! Everyone stop!" Steve finally found his voice. He forcefully patted Thor's still-stiff shoulder and shouted, "We still have a war to fight! Loki and the Tesseract are the key! Don't waste energy fighting each other here!"
Thor took a deep breath, forcibly suppressing the shock and humiliation that threatened to overwhelm him. He knew the Captain was right. He glared fiercely at Arthur, his eyes seeming to say, "This isn't over," and then turned sharply, rushing out of the bank like an enraged bull to find new enemies to vent his misplaced anger and divine power.
Arthur didn't care about this at all.
Competing with a "humanoid battery" that still thought with "muscles" and "instincts" was purely a waste of mana.
He closed his eyes, his immense mental power spreading out like an invisible radar, once again centering on him as it scanned the entire Manhattan battlefield. Countless life signals, energy reactions, explosions of fire, and terrified screams all turned into data streams flooding his mind.
"Captain, we can't keep fighting like this." Arthur said to Steve, his tone returning to his previous calm. "Their forces are infinite, and the source is that portal on top of Stark Tower. If we don't close it, we will be worn down to death."
"We know, but Loki and his scepter are there, along with the energy shield formed by the Tesseract, we…"
Steve hadn't finished his sentence when Arthur opened his eyes, his gaze sharp as a blade, instantly locking onto a direction.
"Found him."
Just now, in his Magic Perception, a cunning and powerful energy source was approaching the bank silently, moving at high speed, using the continuous explosions and rolling smoke on the battlefield as cover.
It was Loki.
This God of Mischief had actually come himself.
Arthur instantly had a plan in mind.
He turned around, his back to the street, facing Steve, appearing to prepare to explain his tactical arrangement in detail: "The energy structure of that shield has three weak nodes; as long as we attack these three points simultaneously, it will trigger a chain collapse…"
He deliberately exposed his back, completely and defenselessly, to the messy, light-and-shadow-intertwined shadows at the bank entrance.
Steve listened intently to Arthur's tactical analysis, his brain racing, completely failing to notice a blurry phantom with a trace of imperceptible green light flashing past from the ruins across the street.
Loki's true form, like a phantom crawling out of hell, appeared silently five meters behind Arthur.
A cruel and triumphant sneer hung on his face.
This mortal mage, who had appeared out of nowhere, was the biggest variable in this war. He could actually toy with Thor's divine power! As long as he controlled him, or killed him, the rest of the Avengers would be vulnerable.
Loki silently raised the scepter in his hand.
The Mind Stone at the top of the scepter emitted a faint, unsettling yellow light, a light that seemed capable of piercing directly into a person's soul.
Chapter 38: God of Mischief? No, You Are a Sheep
"Watch out!"
Steve Rogers' explosive shout rang out through the bank lobby.
He had no time to think; his combat instincts drove his body, hurling the Vibranium shield he had just slung onto his back at an extreme angle with immense force!
The red and blue shield tore through the air with a whistle, carving a perfect arc.
But it was too late.
Too late.
The distance of space and time had been compressed to the limit by the God of Mischief's surprise attack.
The shield was still in mid-flight when that scepter, embedded with Infinity Stones and representing conspiracy and control, its tip flickering with a faint yellow light capable of twisting souls, had already solidly and silently pressed against Arthur's vital heart area.
No flesh was pierced.
No massive energy blast.
There was only a dull, soft sound as the tip of the staff touched the thick fabric.
"Since you are so powerful," Loki's voice rang out like a ghost beside Arthur's ear, his tone carrying a cold, confident sense of control, "then... become my slave!"
His voice was filled with irrepressible excitement and cruelty.
Hum—!
The power of the Mind Stone was unleashed to its limit without reservation!
A blinding yellow light erupted instantly, completely swallowing Arthur's entire body.
In Loki's mental vision, he had already "seen" the seemingly impenetrable mental barrier of the mortal mage before him.
That barrier was indeed powerful, far surpassing any mortal he had ever seen, even sturdier than that fool Thor's head.
But what of it?
In the face of the power of the Infinity Stones, all resistance was meaningless.
The corners of Loki's mouth curled into a triumphant arc; he only needed a gentle push to drive straight in, completely erase the mage's will, and rewrite it into the most loyal and fanatical servant for himself.
He had even thought up the next script: command this powerful mage to kneel before him, then turn around and use that incredible magic to personally end his foolish brother, Thor.
That scene would certainly be very interesting.
However, the earth-shattering mental collapse he had envisioned did not occur.
One second passed.
Nothing happened.
His invincible mental power, the moment it touched Arthur's mental core, sank like a stone into the sea.
No, it was worse than that.
Loki's mental perception sent back feedback that made his very soul freeze.
That was not a mental barrier.
That was a Universe.
A boundless sea of stars composed of pure, vast, and incomprehensible Arcane laws!
Countless stars were born and died within it, countless galaxies flowed, and every point of light contained the power of laws more ancient and fundamental than the Mind Stone!
His mental power, like a speck of dust drifting into a sea of stars, failed to stir even a ripple before it was instantly diluted, assimilated, and dissipated into nothingness.
Just then, on Arthur's left wrist, beneath the cuff of his dark hoodie, a complex mark composed of countless blue points of light suddenly lit up.
[Arcane Mark].
It did not defend; it did not even deign to defend.
It simply declared.
It declared the existence of a higher-dimensional law here.
The supreme laws belonging to the world-soul of Azerothcollided most directly and violently with the Marvel Universe's localized "singularity creation"—the Mind Stone.
The result was... a crushing defeat.
That dazzling yellow light, capable of warping reality, had its energy structure forcibly parsed, neutralized, and decomposed the moment it touched the blue halo emitted by the Arcane Mark, ultimately being completely annihilated.
Everything returned to calm.
Arthur didn't even turn around.
He remained with his back to Loki, very casually raising his hand to pat the spot on his back where the scepter had touched him, as if dusting off some non-existent dirt.
"Playing with illusions and mind control?"
His voice rang out, calm without a ripple, yet carrying profound disappointment.
"Is this all you're capable of, you... Joker of Asgard?"
"..."
The triumphant smile on Loki's face froze completely.
In his green eyes, which always flickered with cunning and malice, for the first time, a pure bewilderment mixed with shock and incomprehension emerged.
The Mind Stone... failed?
This is impossible!
This is absolutely impossible!
This is one of the six great miracles from the dawn of the Universe!
It is the manifestation of the laws that constitute the Universe itself!
How could it possibly fail against a mortal?
Arthur turned around slowly.
His movements were not fast, yet they carried an invisible pressure that made Loki subconsciously take half a step back.
He looked at Loki's face, which was filled with shock and panic; there was no anger or killing intent in his eyes, only an indifference bordering on boredom.
It was the kind of look a university Professor might give an elementary school student who insisted that one plus one equals three.
"I originally wanted to see what new tricks the God of Mischief of the Nine Realms had up his sleeve."
Arthur shook his head, the disappointment in his tone deepening.
"As it turns out, it's still so... boring."
He raised his right hand.
No chanting.
No magic circle.
Not even a ripple of energy.
He simply flicked his finger casually at Loki, who was full of disbelief and on the verge of a mental breakdown.
[Transformation Magic].
"Perhaps changing your species will help you wake up a little."
"Pop!"
Another comical puff of smoke with pink sparks exploded without warning.
Loki's magnificent armor, which symbolized royal dignity, his unruly antler helmet, along with his handsome and pale face, all instantly twisted, deformed, and vanished within that puff of pink smoke.
In its place was... a dog.
A husky with black and white fur, its eyes revealing a sense of pure "wisdom," head tilted, tongue lolling out.
The only unique thing was that atop this husky's head sat two small, dainty, green mini-horns, shrunk down from Loki's helmet.
It seemed not to have reacted yet, blinking its blue dog eyes in confusion, subconsciously wanting to let out an angry roar, but only a milky, confused "woof woof" sound squeezed out of its throat.
Just at this moment, Thor, who had just rushed back into the bank lobby to save his brother, happened to witness this scene of divine punishment.
He held Mjolnir high, frozen in place, the expression on his face like an overturned palette, colorful to the extreme.
From thunderous rage, to stunned silence, to a blank stare, and finally, the corners of his mouth began to curl upward uncontrollably...
He tried desperately to cover his mouth with his other hand, but his violently trembling shoulders had completely betrayed the ecstasy in his heart.
"Clang!"
The shield in Steve Rogers' hand slipped from his limp grip, crashing heavily onto the marble floor with a crisp sound.
He stared expressionlessly at the horned husky, then looked at Arthur standing calmly beside it.
His worldview had been shattered today, and he couldn't even piece it back together.
"Woof! Woof woof!!"
Loki, having turned into a husky, finally realized his situation.
In his clear blue dog eyes, a monstrous rage and humiliation, sufficient to burn the Nine Realms to ash, instantly ignited!
The divine power within him began to run wild, attempting to break through this absurd magical imprisonment.
Only two seconds passed.
"Pop!"
The husky vanished, and Loki's figure reappeared in a puff of identical smoke.
His face was no longer pale, but a liver-colored hue from extreme anger and humiliation.
That magnificent armor had become crumpled, and his meticulously groomed hair was as messy as a bird's nest.
"Mor—tal—!"
Loki emitted a shriek that didn't sound human, mixed with rage and humiliation, completely abandoning all schemes and pretenses.
He held the Mind Stone high, prepared to pay any price to order the entire Chitauri army to wipe this area, along with himself, completely off the map!
However, at the very moment he was about to give the order.
Rumble—!
A dull, heart-wrenching roar that did not belong to thunder echoed heavily from the highest point in the sky.
Everyone, including Arthur who was preparing to watch the show, subconsciously looked up.
The massive, deep blue space portal above Manhattansuddenly flickered and twisted violently!
Its edges were no longer stable, rolling wildly like boiling water, sometimes expanding violently to swallow more of the sky, and sometimes shrinking inward eerily, as if something was trying to squeeze out from within.
Waves of chaotic, violent, and primitive spatial turbulence, which did not belong to the Chitauri fleet, poured out from the other side of the gate without warning!
Several Chitauri flying vehicles near the portal were instantly torn into basic particles by the violent turbulence.
Arthur's brow finally furrowed tightly for the first time.
The [Arcane Mark] on his wrist was sending waves of scorching, stinging pain that represented the highest level of danger.
This power... it wasn't Loki.
Nor was it the Tesseract.
This was some kind of higher-dimensional, purely physical... collision.
The course of the war, at this moment, deviated from everyone's script.
Chapter 39: The Turning Point of the Battle
Loki's rage was abruptly interrupted by that dull, booming sound from the depths of the firmament.
It didn't sound like thunder; it was more like a Planetshattering right beside one's ear—dull, oppressive, and carrying a physical vibration that made even a god feel palpitations. His posture, holding the Mind Stone high, froze. That rage, which could have incinerated the Nine Realms, was extinguished in an instant as if doused by a bucket of ice water from the abyss of the Universe.
His divine power remained, but at this moment, he felt like an ant baring its fangs before a tsunami. The kind of spatial collapse that originated from a higher dimension, at a purely physical level, made him feel small and trembling from the depths of his soul. The magic and trickery he prided himself on were as insignificant as a joke in the face of such pure, violent tearing of the laws of the Universe.
"What is that?" Steve Rogers looked up, the expression on his face grave to the extreme. He had been through many battles, yet he had never seen such a despair-inducing sight.
The portal in the sky, that deep blue rift which had been steadily pouring out the Chitauri army, was now pulsating violently like a dying heart. Each expansion caused the clouds over Manhattan to be torn into shreds by an invisible force, revealing the even deeper, more chaotic void behind it; each contraction squeezed out destructive spatial turbulence from behind the door, turning everything that approached—be it Chitauri aircraft or the debris of New York's skyscrapers—into dust.
The entire city groaned under this irregular pulsation. The glass curtain walls of the buildings shattered silently in sheets, falling like waterfalls of light, while the alarms of abandoned cars on the streets screamed uncontrollably, merging into a cacophony of jarring noise.
Arthur frowned. The [Arcane Mark] on his wrist was flickering and heating up at an unprecedented frequency, the scorching pain spreading along the nerves of his arm all the way to his brain.
[Warning: High-intensity spatial law collision detected. The current Universe is undergoing a physical-level overlap with another parallel Universe. Spatial structure is extremely unstable!]
[Warning: Portal stability has dropped to 17%; irreversible dimensional collapse is imminent!]
[Warning: Spatial curvature anomaly; a large number of micro-dimensional rifts are being generated...]
"So that's it." Arthur understood.
This wasn't Loki or the Tesseract losing control at all.
Rather, the "walls" of two Universes had been brutally struck by some unknown external force, creating a crack, and the Tesseract just happened to have opened a "door" on this crack. Now, it wasn't that the door was closing; it was that the wall itself was collapsing. Once it collapsed, the physical laws of the two Universes would undergo a catastrophic clash in this area, and the result would be far more severe than just leveling a city.
Just then, in the S.H.I.E.L.D. communication channel that Arthur had intercepted, a young female voice screamed until it nearly broke. It was Daisy.
"Director Fury! The Council has overstepped their authority! They bypassed you! They ordered a nuclear strike! An F-35 fighter jet carrying a nuclear missile has taken off and is flying toward Manhattan at high speed! Repeat, the nuke is coming!"
This message exploded like a thunderclap in the communicators of all the Avengers.
"What?!"
The armor that Tony Stark had just finished rebooting shot up from the ground, his AI's synthesized voice filled with unbelievable anger and mania, "Those idiots sitting in their offices! They are going to destroy the entire city!"
"Tony, stop it!" Captain America roared at the sky, his voice hoarse from urgency.
"On it!"
The tail of the red and gold Iron Man armor spewed dazzling blue flames, instantly breaking the sound barrier and leaving a white sonic boom cloud in the sky. He transformed into a streak of light, charging toward the skyline at the edge of the city without a moment's hesitation, to intercept that creation which represented the pinnacle of human violence and stupidity.
The classic scene from the movie was playing out at this moment. But Arthur knew the script had already changed.
His arcane vision could clearly "see" that F-35 fighter jet, as well as the slender tactical nuclear missile mounted underneath it, which radiated an aura of death and radiation. He could even more clearly "see" the invisible, razor-sharp dimensional rifts around the portal; they appeared and disappeared with the spatial pulsations, like a school of hungry sharks waiting for any prey that might intrude.
If Tony still wanted to carry the nuclear missile and charge into the portal as he did in the original story...
He wouldn't just suffer from hypoxia in the vacuum of space and fall back down. The moment he entered the portal, he, along with his armor, would be torn into billions of atoms by the violent spatial turbulence and dimensional rifts, leaving not even a speck of dust behind. The nuclear missile wouldn't even have time to detonate before it was broken down into its most basic particles.
"Jarvis, calculate the success rate! The success rate of sending the nuclear missile into that hellish hole!" Tony's voice rang out on the public channel, the wind noise from his high-speed flight whistling loudly.
After a brief silence, Jarvis's voice sounded, calm and cruel.
"Sir, according to the analysis of the current spatial fluctuation data, the survival rate of forcibly passing through the portal... is zero."
The channel fell into a dead silence.
Zero.
Not one percent, not one-thousandth, but absolute zero.
This meant that this was not a gamble, but a destined, meaningless suicide.
"Someone has to try."
Tony's voice sounded again. This time, there was no previous anger, only a calm and resolute acceptance of life and death. He had already spotted the fighter jet; he could even see the terrified face of the pilot in the cockpit.
He intercepted the nuclear missile.
The Iron Man armor did not hesitate in the slightest, carving a sharp arc in the air to precisely "catch" the deadly missile from underneath the F-35. Then, he turned around, like a mortal soldier rushing toward an enemy line with a satchel charge, carrying the hope that could destroy everything, and charged resolutely and straight toward that door leading to hell and destruction.
"Foolish tin man."
A low, disdainful murmur came from the side. Arthurglanced over; it was Loki. The God of Mischief was looking up, his flushed face full of mockery, yet deep in his eyes, there hid a trace of complex emotion that even he himself had not noticed.
Arthur watched that small yet dazzling red and gold dot draw a resolute straight line under the chaotic sky. He sighed softly.
He could just ignore it.
Once Tony was torn apart by the spatial turbulence and New York was leveled by the nuclear missile or swallowed by the dimensional collapse, this farce would be over. He had [Teleportation] and could leave this soon-to-be-scrapped World at any time with whatever he wanted.
But...
It would be a pity for such a stable, researchable "testing ground" filled with all kinds of magical energy and laws to be destroyed just like that. It was like a perfect laboratory containing Gamma radiation (Hulk), Asgardian energy (Thor), and the Space Stone (Tesseract), and now it even had a once-in-a-millennium spectacle like a parallel Universe overlap.
To lose it just like that would be too great a loss. Moreover, he had just "borrowed" so many precious magical materials from the library of Kamar-Taj and hadn't had time to digest or experiment with them yet. This World was his best testing ground.
More importantly... forcibly performing an ultra-long-range, cross-dimensional, precise Teleportation under such extreme spatial law collapse conditions was, in itself, an excellent experiment! The risks were huge, but the rewards were equally astonishing.
Arthur's eyes changed from the indifference of a spectator to the burning intensity of a mad scientist about to make a high-stakes gamble.
He took a sudden step forward and shoved aside the stunned Steve and Thor, who was preparing to raise his hammer and rush up to help. The force was so great that both superheroes stumbled.
"Stay here and don't move. Watch that dog."
Arthur's voice was calm, yet carried an unquestionable tone of command.
Before he finished speaking, his hands were already forming seals rapidly in front of his chest. These were not any known magical gestures—complex, swift, and carrying a geometric beauty that transcended mortal understanding.
With his movements, the arcane energy around him burned crazily at an unprecedented speed! The air began to distort, and pale blue arcane runes appeared out of thin air, circling and rotating around him. They spun faster and faster, eventually forming a visible blue ring of light. The dust and debris in the bank lobby were drawn toward him by an invisible force, only to be ground into microscopic dust by the powerful energy field a foot in front of him.
Thor and Steve watched him in shock. They could feel that the pressure radiating from Arthur was even more heart-palpitating than the spatial collapse in the sky just moments ago! It was a pure, precisely controlled, and terrifying power capable of distorting reality!
In Arthur's sea of consciousness, an extremely massive, extremely complex [Cross-dimensional TeleportationCoordinate] was forcibly lit up by his brute-force mental energy! The coordinate did not point to a corner of the Universe, but to... a concept. A concept of "an absolutely safe vacuum zone of the Universe, far away from this Planet's atmosphere."
He was going to race against time with that nuclear missile and that mortal named Tony Stark.
In the second before Tony crashed into that door of certain death, he would throw him and the nuclear missile together to the other side of the Universe!
Chapter 40: The Closed Star Gate
Stark Tower, top floor.
The generator powered by the Tesseract was still humming on the roof, that blinding blue energy beam shooting straight into the sky, like a massive coordinate beacon, stubbornly maintaining that doomsday gate leading to hell.
Whoosh!
Arthur's figure flickered for the first time, appearing in mid-air, with burning streets and crowds fleeing like ants below.
Whoosh!
The second flicker, he had already crossed several roaring Leviathans, the biting gale carrying smoke and the smell of blood rushing towards him.
Whoosh!
The third time, the continuous space jumps had not the slightest lag, his figure, as if it had never moved, landed steadily beside the generator. The rubble under his feet did not make a single extra sound due to his precise landing point. The strong wind blew his hoodie, flapping loudly, completely separating him from the chaotic sky behind him.
On the distant skyline, that tiny red and gold speck of light was Tony Stark. He was carrying that cold, silver tactical nuke, making the final sprint of his life with a resolute posture.
Less than 500 meters remained to that portal that devoured everything.
The armor's shell had already begun to peel off under the cutting of the ubiquitous spatial turbulence, shooting out blinding, desperate sparks.
"Sir, armor structural integrity 71%... 58%... imminent disintegration!"
Jarvis's calm, emotionless countdown sounded, at this moment, no different from the God of Death's death warrant.
Arthur did not look at the machine that was still running. Close it? Too slow, and it only treats the symptoms, not the root cause.
His mental power was mobilized to the extreme at this moment, in his eyes, countless deep blue, complex arcane runes flowed crazily, forming a massive calculation matrix that ordinary people could not understand. His gaze seemed to penetrate the distance of a thousand meters, crossing the raging wind and explosive firelight, locking onto that high-speed flying nuke, and the mortal carrying it, with absolute precision.
Destroy it? No, the aftermath of a nuclear explosion would also destroy New York.
Teleport it? In such an unstable spatial environment, performing a long-distance teleportation on a high-speed moving object had too many variables and too high a failure rate.
No, there was a better way.
A more elegant, more "mage"-style solution.
The corner of Arthur's mouth hooked into a subtle arc; that was the confidence that the experiment was about to succeed.
[Arcane Traction]!
This was not some profound offensive magic; in Azeroth, it was more like a convenient tool. Mage apprentices used it to move heavy experimental equipment or take down a dust-covered ancient book from the top of a towering bookshelf.
Its core principle was not to apply any form of thrust or pull.
Rather, from a more fundamental level of law, it temporarily and locally "modified" the physical properties of the target.
For example, mass.
And for example, inertia.
...
"Jarvis! Push all energy to the limit! I don't care about any overload!!"
Tony Stark gritted his teeth, feeling as if he were carrying a towering mountain, flying against the wind. The weight of the nuke, the terrifying air resistance, and the tearing of the spatial turbulence were all pushing him and his armor to the edge of disintegration.
Just at the moment he felt his vision starting to go black and he was about to lose consciousness.
His back lightened!
That terrifying weight that was about to crush his spine vanished!
That tactical nuke, weighing several tons, in this instant, seemed to turn into a weightless, light styrofoam model!
The armor's propulsion system lost the counteracting load and instantly overloaded! Tony only felt a huge force coming from behind, his whole person turned into a faster stream of light, his speed suddenly increasing by a large margin!
"Warning! Propulsion overload 370%! Sir, we..."
Jarvis's voice stopped abruptly.
Because a calm thought, not belonging to any communication channel, rang directly in the depths of his mind:
"Drop it, Stark! Leave the rest to me!"
It was that mysterious mage!
Tony's mind went blank; he didn't even have time to think about how the other party did it, nor did he have time to ask why. This was an almost instinctive trust, trusting the incredible, beyond-understanding power the other party had shown in the bank earlier.
Without the slightest hesitation!
When only a hundred meters remained to the portal, he rolled sharply, disengaging all physical connections with the nuke, while all the deceleration flaps on the back of the armor opened, withdrawing backwards with all his might.
Losing Tony's "load," the silver nuke showed no signs of falling.
A layer of invisible force field, composed of pure arcane energy, had completely wrapped it. It seemed to be firmly supported by an invisible giant hand, and then... accelerated, thrown!
Whoosh—!
It turned into an incredibly precise, silent meteor, under the stunned gaze of countless people on the ground, and in Tony Stark's complex gaze, it plunged into the depths of that deep blue portal.
Target—the core area of that Chitauri mothership, as huge as a small moon, hidden behind the dimension!
One second.
Two seconds.
Three seconds.
After a deathly silence.
A white ball of light, a thousand times brighter than the Sun, exploded suddenly on the other side of the portal!
No sound, only pure, destructive light and heat!
Endless firelight and energy shockwaves poured back along the still-open spatial passage, like a doomsday tsunami from the depths of the Universe, about to completely devour all of New York, along with this sky!
"Natasha! Now! Close it!" On the ground, Steve raised his shield and roared into the communicator.
Black Widow, who had been on standby by the generator, raised Loki's scepter embedded with the Mind Stonewithout hesitation, and with all her might, was about to stab it toward that blue energy core!
Just at this moment.
An extremely subtle, yet vast as the sea, magical power quietly covered the top floor of Stark Tower. That power was full of order, precision, and Zen, like a gentle yet powerful hand, forcibly stabilizing the spatial structure that was about to completely collapse due to the nuclear explosion.
Arthur turned his head sharply, his gaze seeming to penetrate the barrier of space, penetrate the barrier of dimensions, and intersect in the void with another pair of equally profound eyes that seemed to contain the river of time.
Ancient One.
This Sorcerer Supreme, as expected, had been observing everything in secret.
Very good.
Arthur understood in his heart; his gaze only met with Ancient One's for an instant, and a tacit understanding that mortals could not understand had already been reached.
He did not touch that Tesseract, nor did he pay attention to the scepter that was about to be stabbed down.
He took a deep breath, mobilized, compressed, and condensed all the remaining mana in his body!
[Counterspell]!
But this time, what he countered was not a specific magic, nor was it a specific enemy.
What he countered was the existence of the concept of "spatial passage" itself!
He used the more ancient, more domineering arcane laws from Azeroth to forcibly counter, negate, and erase the physical rules formed by the Marvel Universe here! This was a violent conflict of the underlying code of two Worlds!
Crack!
A crisp, loud sound that did not belong to this World, as if glass had shattered or space-time had been forcibly broken at the source, did not travel through the air, but rang directly in the depths of the souls of every survivor in New York.
That huge portal hanging over New York, which had brought endless fear and destruction, split open a pure, light-devouring pitch-black crack from the very center, 0.1 seconds before the destructive white fire was about to pour out.
And then... it was as if it had been rudely wiped from the canvas of reality by an invisible hand, disappearing without a trace in an instant.
The sky returned to its original color, dyed gray by smoke.
All Chitauri aircraft still flying in the air, all Chitauri soldiers and Leviathans still raging on the ground, all stiffened in unison as if all power had been cut off instantly, and then collapsed powerlessly to the ground, turning into a pile of lifeless scrap metal and dead meat.
New York was saved.
The war was over.
After the war.
The lobby on the ground floor of Stark Tower had become a temporary gathering point for the Avengers. The surviving heroes gathered together wearily, Thor leaning against the wall, Steve leaning on his shield, and Tonyslumped on the sofa.
They were not celebrating; the atmosphere was even somewhat dull. They were all searching.
Searching for that mysterious mage who had turned the tide of the war several times single-handedly.
But they searched every corner of Stark Tower, used all monitors and sensors, and did not find a trace of Arthur. He was just like when he appeared—arriving abruptly and leaving silently, as if he had never existed.
"Hey, guys, come look at this." Tony took off his mask and pointed wearily at his bar, which was completely ruined and covered in broken glass and dust.
In the center of the bar, a translucent note, frozen on the table with frost magic, was emitting wisps of cold air. The handwriting on it was not ink, but made of countless tiny, neatly arranged ice crystals, clear and elegant.
"Avengers, well done. Also, S.H.I.E.L.D.'s system is too crappy; I helped you upgrade the firewall while I was at it."
"—Greetings from Azeroth."
Tony curiously extended his finger, trying to touch the ice crystal note, but as soon as his fingertip touched it, it instantly turned white with cold, and a biting chill rushed straight to his brain.
"Hiss..." He retracted his hand sharply. "What the hell is this? Jarvis, analyze the composition."
"Sir, unable to analyze. This substance does not conform to any known physical model of low-temperature condensates."
Tony didn't believe it; he raised his arm, and the micro-laser emitter on the armor's wrist aimed at the ice. A red laser beam shot onto it, but the ice block, which looked fragile enough to break at a touch, didn't even leave a white mark, let alone show any signs of melting.
And on the Helicarrier thousands of meters in the sky, at S.H.I.E.L.D.'s technical center.
Amidst the chaos, a young female Agent looked at the computer screen in front of her that had gone black and then lit up again, her heartbeat suddenly skipping a beat.
Daisy Johnson, the super hacker codenamed "Quake," had just been frantic about regaining control of the system. But now, all viruses and backdoors had been cleaned up, and a brand-new firewall that she was completely unable to crack had appeared out of thin air.
In the center of the screen, there was only a smiley face made of ancient, elegant arcane runes that she was incredibly familiar with.