The space portal successfully connected, but the surface landing failed. The mechanical Kun and the warriors as dense as locusts that the fleet had produced were torn apart the moment they entered the portal. In the end, even the flagship Hive was destroyed. And throughout the entire process, aside from the moment he had swaggered through Germany at the very beginning, Loki never appeared again.
The Purple Titan's face was a question mark.
He had given troops, given treasures, and in the end, not only had the Space Stone not been recovered, but his Mind Stone had been swallowed up too?
Bare-faced fraud. Yet even as he seethed with rage, Thanos felt a flicker of understanding. If Loki had simply followed the script like that, then the ambition he had displayed earlier would have been far too fake. With the Mind Stone in hand, how could he not have seen through it? Perhaps this had been premeditated all along—a scheme to swindle him, Thanos?
"Very well."
Through the darkness before him, Thanos seemed to see Loki, who had chosen to betray him and side with the people of Earth, somewhere light-years away.
Thanos smiled.
"Asgardian, you have done something that honors your ancestors. No one has ever dared, or been able, to take anything from my grasp. You should feel proud of this, Loki. And then—"
"Wait for death to descend upon your head, Loki!"
Without question, Thanos had already resolved that once his journey to the Shi'ar Empire was complete and he returned, he would crush Loki along with the low-tier civilization called Earth.
Naturally, that didn't mean Thanos would do nothing for now. In fact, he had already given his orders. He only hoped Earth could hold out.
...
New York. After Zod Hess claimed this place as the new headquarters base for S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Sword Division, the perimeter was first reinforced with poured steel walls—two meters thick and five meters high—encircling the entire original boundary of New York.
At present, everything inside was highly classified for the vast majority of ordinary people, and even those who weren't ordinary knew very little.
All they could see was that the number of War Machine Mark III Decepticons seemed to keep increasing.
The Mark I War Machine appeared to be transitioning into police departments across major nations rather than military applications.
Mainly because the pace of upgrades was simply too fast. Even fighter jets weren't this fast.
War Machines directly rendered fighter jets and tanks obsolete, and then proceeded to render themselves obsolete at an equally breakneck speed.
Only those small nations still treated the Mark I War Machine as a strategic weapon on par with nuclear arms.
Los Angeles. Stark Tower was undergoing fervent reconstruction. On the top floor, Tony stared at the unfinished blueprints before him with a troubled expression. Sitting off to the side, Peter, quietly playing a game, stole a furtive glance at Tony like a foolish son worried about being lectured by his old man, then pulled out his phone to check a message from a friend.
The ruler of Oscorp, Harry Osborn—Peter's wealthy friend. Though this wealthy friend hadn't been doing so well lately, whether it was his own personal issues or the company's problems... well, Oscorp's main base of operations was also in New York, so the losses were simply staggering.
But then he thought, the entire city of New York was gone. Harry's state of mind instantly balanced out. Still, due to his personal issues, Harry decided to have a talk with his dear friend.
So, when Tony wasn't paying attention, Peter quietly slipped away.
"What's up, Harry?"
After unexpectedly becoming Spider-Man, Peter had gotten together with Gwen. Neither of them knew why, but the moment their eyes met, they couldn't help but go at it with fierce passion.
After enough such encounters, Peter gradually forgot about Mary Jane. Mainly because what he felt when facing Gwen was incredibly intense—far stronger than what he'd felt for Mary Jane.
And Gwen was also his superhero senior, the famous Spider-Woman.
A husband-and-wife duo both being spider-heroes—it felt absolutely wonderful.
He didn't know it was because of the spider that had bitten him, and neither did Gwen.
Anyway, they were now deep in the throes of passionate love.
"Peter."
The utterly haggard look on Harry's face caught Peter off guard.
How had his always sunny and confident best friend turned into this?
"I heard you've been having some problems. Is it issues with Oscorp?"
Peter asked with concern.
"No."
Harry shook his head.
"Do you know what a retrovirus is?"
He hesitated, then finally chose to confide in his best friend.
"I don't."
Peter was a bit puzzled.
"HERV, human endogenous retrovirus. You could call it the Osborn family's hereditary disease. Anyone who inherits this illness is destined for death. I am one such person—a dead man walking."
A bitter expression on his face. Harry's father, Norman Osborn, had poured virtually all his time into his career and sent Harry off to boarding school when he was eleven. It was only recently, when Harry's illness flared up, that Norman told him about the hereditary condition.
The deterioration of his condition was undeniable and impossible to resist. Feeling anxious was useless, as were fanciful thoughts.
During the Battle of Manhattan, for instance, Harry had once considered whether technological modification—turning himself into a semi-mechanical lifeform—could allow him to keep living. But as a human being, no one truly wanted to abandon their humanity in the end, and besides, Harry didn't possess that kind of technology.
However, the research data Harry had seen at Oscorp indicated that spider genes contained regenerative healing abilities. That was why he thought of Spider-Man, who was active daily in New York. Envying Spider-Man was a given.
But whether Spider-Man would actually help, Harry couldn't be sure. He wasn't the kind of young man who was entirely self-centered. Spider-Man was everyone's hero, but would he truly treat everyone equally?
The odds of a successful request were clearly low. After all, asking for Spider-Man's blood was a rather excessive demand. Still, it was necessary to try.
"So, I wanted to ask for your help finding Spider-Man."
Harry said to Peter.
Peter looked troubled.
But there was no helping it. If using his own blood could guarantee saving Harry's life with a hundred percent certainty, Peter naturally wouldn't hesitate for a moment. However, Peter was afraid his blood might end up killing Harry instead.
Of course, this was also because Norman hadn't imagined Harry would overthink things this much. Even though he now seemed somewhat disconnected from the Serpent Society, wasn't the Umbrella Corporation still around? All he had to do was ask the boss, and the monthly inhibitor supply quota could simply include one extra dose.
"I'll do what I can. But, Harry, why don't you try cooperating with Zod Hess instead?"
Peter racked his brain and finally thought of a solution.
"They might not even give me a second glance..."
Harry's eyes lit up for a moment, then dimmed again.
Who was Zod Hess? He was the father of new elements—the man who had discovered two entirely new elements. The moment he died, he would enter the textbooks and become the Father of New Elements, the Father of New Weapons, and the Father of New Materials.
/-\
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