The number of Void Scavengers had far exceeded their earlier estimates.
They poured in from every direction, each one reeking of putrid flesh.
Bodies stitched together from rotting meat writhed through the void. Twisted runes carved into their surfaces glowed a sickly green.
Their gazes were fixed on the Ark—or, more precisely, on the Living Tribunal's corpse impaled by the Ark's tentacles.
Tony's armor systems had fallen into utter chaos.
Red alerts crowded his display until he could no longer read them, while shrill alarms threatened to pierce his eardrums.
He gripped the edge of the console so hard his knuckles turned white.
Shield strength: forty-three percent, thirty-nine percent, thirty-two percent—
The numbers kept falling before his eyes.
Worse, the Living Tribunal's corpse was still emitting a deathly white light.
Each beam carried enough power to tear through the dimensions of reality, and each one hammered the Ark's hull.
Large sections of the silver liquid-metal armor had been scorched black. Some had even begun to melt and disintegrate.
Fear sharpened Reed's voice into a shriek.
"We have to abandon the corpse! Get out of here, now!"
Clark rushed to the viewport and slammed his fist against the transparent hull with a dull thud.
"There are at least a thousand of those monsters! And more are coming!"
Thor gripped Stormbreaker tightly. The Six Infinity Stones set into its blade flickered erratically.
He could clearly sense that even the stones felt an instinctive fear in this uncanny void.
Wanda held Adam closer. At the same time, her Chaos Magic raised layer after layer of defensive barriers around her.
Her voice trembled despite her efforts to steady it.
"Chu Hang, what do we do?"
Zero's distinctive synthesized voice sounded, but this time the signal was badly distorted.
"Shields approaching failure. Recommend immediate emergency