"We must stop him!"
On the bridge of the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier, the surviving Avengers assembled around the main holotable. They looked at the high-definition satellite feed of Meliodas's arrogant, dark figure hovering in the sky. Then, they looked at the city beneath him—Albany—which had already been turned into a flattened expanse of scorched earth.
Everyone was filled with a suffocating mixture of grief, exhaustion, and righteous indignation.
"But what exactly should we do?" Clint asked, his fists clenched tight. "Meliodas's power..."
"...is too strong," Tony Stark finished, throwing a heavy bucket of cold tactical water on the situation. His blunt assessment forced everyone present to calm down and face reality. "In a direct confrontation, even if we all banded together right now, we wouldn't be a match for him alone. Conventional weapons pose absolutely zero threat to him. Even if the World Security Council launched another nuclear missile, he's moving at hypersonic speeds. He would be a hundred miles away before it could even detonate."
The room fell dead silent. The atmosphere was incredibly oppressive, weighed down by the absence of their Captain.
"Wait!" Dr. Banner suddenly leaned over the console. "He's moving again!"
Banner's exclamation drew everyone's attention back to the satellite feed.
Above the smoldering ruins of Albany, Meliodas looked down upon the decimated city. He nodded mechanically, as if with great satisfaction. He turned a completely deaf ear to the shrill, distant screams coming from the edges of the blast zone. He simply watched his horrific masterpiece with a chilling smile on his face.
A moment later, Meliodas's figure generated a massive sonic boom, soaring back into the sky.
"Oh no!" Natasha gasped, tracing his trajectory on the map. "He's flying toward the west. That's Rochester and Buffalo!"
"He wants to destroy the entire state of New York!" Thor growled, gripping Mjolnir.
"Quick! Get those people evacuated!" Tony barked. "Fury!!"
Seeing Meliodas take action again, Tony Stark immediately pulled up a holographic projection of the Eastern Seaboard. Meliodas's targets were painfully obvious: he was systematically wiping out the largest population centers in New York State.
Nick Fury didn't dare hesitate for a single second. He immediately opened a direct, emergency line to the Capitol.
In this apocalyptic situation, no one dared to delay. Even before Meliodas appeared on their radars, the residents in the other cities of New York State had already begun to evacuate spontaneously. Facing a literal demon who was effortlessly erasing cities along his path, no one was foolish enough to stay behind and wait for government orders.
Tragically, everything went exactly as Tony Stark expected.
First Buffalo. Then Rochester.
These two cities, just like Albany, were turned into molten, scorched earth by Meliodas's overwhelming demonic magic.
As the horrifying images spread globally via news satellites, residents of cities across the entire country also began their frantic journeys to flee. No one knew how far this demon would go. Would he just destroy New York State? Or was his programmed command to destroy every major city in the entire United States?
For the millions of people who didn't have private jets, they didn't dare to stay and gamble with their lives.
"This guy..." Tony Stark whispered, his eyes widening as the computer charted a sudden, sharp change in the black dot's flight path. "His next destination!"
Watching the screen after Meliodas finished destroying Rochester and Buffalo, the Avengers realized he wasn't continuing north toward Canada. He had turned around, accelerating violently to the south.
Based on J.A.R.V.I.S.'s rapid tactical analysis and the projection of Meliodas's new flight path, Tony Stark stated his next destination concisely.
"It's Washington."
"Washington?" Clint repeated.
"Washington D.C.!" Nick Fury confirmed, his lone eye widening in dread.
Surprised, horrified voices rose one after another on the bridge. Although New York was the iconic, cultural heart of the United States, its strategic importance undoubtedly could not be compared to Washington D.C.
As the capital of the United States and its ultimate political center, the Capitol Building and the secure bunkers beneath it currently housed the President, the Joint Chiefs, and most of the country's congressmen.
If Meliodas attacked Washington D.C. and caused irreparable devastation to the chain of command, the entire country would instantly grind to a halt, plunging the nation into anarchy.
"We must set out immediately," Tony Stark said, his jaw set. "Calculated according to Meliodas's flight speed, if we take the Quinjet and I max out my thrusters, we can arrive just before he does."
Tony waved his hand to close the projection and spoke solemnly to the rest of the Avengers.
No one in that room liked the politicians who had cowardly thrown a nuclear missile at them just hours ago. But if those people really died, the federal government would fall, the country would collapse into chaos, and in the end, it would be the innocent civilians who suffered the most.
It was a profoundly difficult, bitter decision. The people they were going to save had actively tried to murder them just a day ago.
"But what can we actually do even if we go?" Thor asked, his deep voice cutting through the tension.
While the others were thinking about the complex political influence those people represented, the God of Thunder didn't need to concern himself with human politics at all. And because of that, he was able to cast aside those worries and directly pose the biggest, most glaring problem in the room.
"We simply cannot beat Meliodas in combat."
Silence. A long, suffocating silence fell over the bridge.
"I can try!"
"I have a way!"
After a long while, two very different voices rang out simultaneously.
Dr. Bruce Banner, sitting quietly in his chair, gently raised his arm. The other, surprisingly crisp voice came from Hawk, the little pink pig currently standing on the holotable.
"Hulk says he can fight," Bruce said softly, rubbing his temples as his eyes flashed a faint, gamma-green. "He's getting really mad. He's not afraid of the kid."
From Dr. Banner's mouth, the Hulk's primal, raging thoughts were slowly relayed. The others nodded in serious contemplation. The Hulk possessed the unique, terrifying trait of his physical strength scaling infinitely the angrier he became. Against Meliodas's base physical stats, there might really be a chance to stall him.
They then turned their heads to look at Hawk, who had just spoken.
"I can call the other members of the Seven Deadly Sins," Hawk declared, his floppy ears standing straight up. "If we can stall him until exactly noon... Escanor has a chance to defeat Meliodas."
Although the Avengers didn't know who this "Escanor" was, or what kind of absurd power the Sin of Pride possessed to rival a city-destroying demon, it was the only real tactical hope they had left.
"Then let's split up," Tony Stark immediately made the executive decision. "Thor, Dr. Banner, and I will head to Washington first to run interference and hold the line. Natasha, Clint, you two take Hawk. Go back into New York and bring Ban back. We need his immortality to soak up damage. Then we'll all meet up in D.C."
No matter how disgusting and shameless those politicians were, for the stability of the entire country, they couldn't be allowed to be wiped out.
Two Quinjets took off from the Helicarrier's flight deck, rocketing in different directions.
The Helicarrier's current stealth position was already relatively close to D.C. By the time Tony, Thor, and Banner arrived in the capital's airspace, they could already faintly see an ominous, rapidly approaching black dot on the northern horizon.
Obviously, that was Meliodas.
Around the perimeter of the Capitol Building and the White House, three heavy layers of military defense had already been frantically set up. The Secret Service, the heavily armed White House Police, and the U.S. Marine Corps were each responsible for a fortified sector.
At the same time, a steady stream of Abrams tanks and armored personnel carriers were locking down the avenues. The military didn't dare to be the least bit negligent at this apocalyptic moment.
High in the sky, several squadrons of fighter jets had already engaged, launching a desperate, beyond-visual-range missile attack on Meliodas.
However, the results were entirely useless. Aside from setting off a few bright, harmless fireworks in the stratosphere, the advanced missiles hadn't even inflicted a single scratch on the boy's demonic aura.
The dark, winged figure approached the capital with terrifying speed.
"Fire!!" the Marine Commander roared into his radio.
Outside the Capitol, thousands of anti-aircraft guns, tank cannons, and heavy machine guns fired simultaneously.
In an instant, deafening explosions shot into the sky, and thick, choking cordite smoke filled the air over the National Mall. Countless brilliant tongues of fire lit up the afternoon sky, creating an impenetrable, lead-filled wall of death all heading directly toward Meliodas.
"Humph," Meliodas scoffed, hovering in the air. "A foolish decision."
Endless ammunition poured upward, forming an absolute web of kinetic fire right in front of the Dragon Sin.
Facing this overwhelming military barrage, Meliodas, with the jagged Demon Mark glowing fiercely on his forehead, merely gave a cold, contemptuous smile.
"Full Counter!"
Before the Demon Sword on his back was even unsheathed, Meliodas simply channeled his immense demonic pressure and violently waved his arm.
Though his signature magic usually only reflected magical attacks, the sheer, catastrophic physical shockwave of his demonic energy acted as a devastating repellant. All the incoming bullets, tank shells, and high-explosive payloads were violently caught in the shockwave and returned exactly the way they came, their kinetic speed completely doubled.
The heavily fortified open space in front of the Capitol instantly became a living, fiery hell.
Countless soldiers, Marines, and police officers were brutally shredded by the supersonic bullets they had fired themselves. Following closely behind the lead was their own heavy artillery fire, raining down upon their defensive lines in a catastrophic, self-inflicted bombardment.
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