Inside the White House, the President of the United States immediately convened an emergency meeting.
All senior military commanders were urgently summoned back to Washington.
The footage of the battle was playing continuously on every screen.
No one in the room spoke.
They were all staring at the same terrifying scene.
Meanwhile, the World Security Council remained silent.
None of them dared to issue new orders.
Within Hydra, the reaction was completely different.
Fear spread rapidly through their ranks.
When Alexander Pierce saw Karl's power displayed on the battlefield, cold sweat immediately appeared on his forehead.
He remembered the plan he had previously considered—
Capturing someone close to Karl and using them as leverage.
Just imagining that scenario now made his heart tremble.
If Karl discovered such a plan…
Hydra might not survive.
At the Xavier Institute, the X-Men had gathered in front of a large screen.
Everyone watched the broadcast in stunned silence.
Only now did they truly understand why Professor Charles Xavier had rejected Nick Fury's proposal.
Getting involved in the conflict between Karl and S.H.I.E.L.D. would have been suicide.
The shockwaves from Karl's battle with that mysterious woman alone were powerful enough to kill most mutants present.
As Jean Grey watched the battle unfold on the screen, a faint flash of crimson energy briefly flickered within her eyes.
But it vanished almost immediately.
No one noticed.
Not even Professor Xavier.
The truth was—
The mental prison Charles had constructed deep within Jean's mind was beginning to weaken.
Inside that prison, something ancient stirred.
The Phoenix Force.
It had already begun to influence Jean's main personality.
For now, however, it remained dormant.
Yet one thing was clear.
The Phoenix seemed unusually interested in Karl.
Still, the moment for its awakening had not yet arrived.
And so—
The crimson presence fell silent once more.
Meanwhile—
The battle between Karl and Carol Danvers had already moved far beyond Earth's atmosphere.
They were now fighting in outer space.
Only satellites were capable of recording their battle.
Karl attacked relentlessly.
His face remained completely expressionless.
Carol countered each attack with equally devastating force.
Unlike Karl, she avoided most of his strikes, relying on speed and mobility.
Karl, however, made no effort to dodge Carol's attacks.
He allowed them to strike him directly.
Yet none of them caused any meaningful damage.
The reason was simple.
The Sagittarius Gold Cloth protected his body.
And the Horse Talisman continuously repaired any damage instantly.
Even if the armor suffered minor structural stress under repeated impacts, the Horse Talisman restored it immediately.
As a result—
The Gold Cloth remained completely intact.
At the same time, the Dog Talisman ensured that Karl's physical condition remained at its peak.
He could fight indefinitely.
The battle had already lasted for over one hundred exchanges.
Carol's Binary Form allowed her to absorb cosmic energy to maintain her own peak condition.
But Karl gave her almost no opportunity to do so.
BOOM—!
With a powerful strike of the Golden Cudgel, Karl sent Carol flying backward.
Then—
A massive surge of blue energy erupted from his body.
"Absolute Zero Freeze!"
The energy shot toward Carol.
A terrifying cold spread instantly across space.
The blue energy began freezing everything it touched.
Carol's body started to crystallize as the absolute zero energy engulfed her.
The cosmic energy within her body began slowing down.
Even though Carol immediately released even greater power in response, the freezing energy still spread across her body.
Her movements became slower and slower.
Crack—
Moments later—
Carol was completely frozen inside a shell of absolute zero ice.
But Karl did not continue attacking.
Instead, he stopped moving entirely.
Around him, cosmic energy began gathering rapidly.
Carol was a Skyfather-level combatant.
Karl knew very well that absolute zero alone could not defeat her.
At most, it would restrain her temporarily.
But that short window was exactly what he needed.
Karl began gathering energy.
He was preparing to activate Kaioken.
Cosmic particles flooded toward his body.
Energy molecules swirled around him like a violent storm.
Karl then activated Kaioken—
Amplifying his own base strength by one hundred times.
This amplification applied only to his natural power, not the boosts from the Gold Cloth or the Ruyi Jingu Bang.
Even so, the increase was terrifying.
The reason Karl could survive such an extreme amplification was because of the Horse Talisman and Dog Talisman.
Without them, his body would have collapsed instantly.
He would never have dared attempt it otherwise.
Meanwhile—
On the Moon, the Inhuman Royal Family had also detected the battle.
Even Black Bolt watched in shock.
The scale of the battle was astonishing.
Two beings fighting with such power in space was something rarely seen even among cosmic civilizations.
Black Bolt couldn't help worrying.
If the battle shifted toward the Moon…
Even he might not be able to stop them.
Crack—
The ice surrounding Carol suddenly began shattering.
A powerful burst of cosmic energy erupted outward.
Nearby asteroids were instantly pulverized into dust.
Carol's eyes glowed with intense golden light.
She stared directly at Karl.
For the first time, she realized how terrifying his power had become.
Karl himself had grown noticeably larger due to the overwhelming energy now filling his body.
Suddenly—
Karl raised his head.
His eyes locked onto Carol.
In his right hand, the power of Kaioken ×100 gathered.
A terrifying golden aura exploded outward.
Karl unleashed the attack.
The beam of golden energy shot directly toward Carol.
The power behind it distorted the surrounding space.
Carol's expression turned serious.
She knew she could not dodge it in time.
Instead, she crossed her arms in front of her body and entered a defensive stance.
BOOM—!
The attack struck her directly.
Carol was blasted backward at incredible speed.
The golden energy continued forward—
And then pierced straight through Mars.
The shockwave of the attack tore through the planet's surface.
Carol herself was thrown far into space.
Her body was covered in blood.
Even so, cosmic energy still flowed around her.
She still had the strength to continue fighting.
Back on Earth—
The watching organizations were completely stunned.
Karl's attack had just pierced through an entire planet.
Mars.
A literal planet.
If that attack had struck Earth instead—
The consequences would have been unimaginable.
Inside the White House, the U.S. President immediately changed his stance.
All previous plans to control or subjugate Karl were cancelled immediately.
No one present dared oppose the decision.
If Karl ever lost his temper…
Who on Earth could possibly stop him?
Even in the East, high-level authorities were watching closely.
They had already begun investigating Karl after he revealed the Ruyi Jingu Bang.
At first, they were puzzled.
Why would such a legendary artifact appear in the hands of a foreigner?
But their investigation soon revealed something interesting.
Karl had been adopted.
Strictly speaking—
He possessed Eastern ancestry.
Back in space—
Karl did not give Carol any time to recover.
BOOM—!
The Golden Cudgel slammed into her again.
Carol was sent flying once more.
Even when she fired a desperate energy blast in retaliation, Karl simply endured the attack and continued advancing.
Carol had already been severely injured by Karl's earlier Kaioken strike.
That attack had combined the power of the Golden Cudgel and the Gold Cloth, slightly amplified by Kaioken.
The resulting force had almost reached the peak of the Skyfather level.
Both Karl and Carol normally fought within the early-to-mid Skyfather range.
But facing a sudden peak-level strike, Carol had no way to fully withstand it.
Especially since she had spent most of the past years helping the Skrulls search for a new homeworld instead of improving her own strength.
Now—
She was being completely overwhelmed.
Meanwhile, the backlash from Karl's Kaioken was instantly healed by the Horse Talisman.
And with the Dog Talisman providing endless energy—
Karl remained at his absolute peak.
The battle was far from over.
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