Intrusion

The Arbitrators' fighter sliced through the clouds, its engine roar unusually deep in the thin upper air. Inside the cabin, Chen Tian stood before a holographic projection, blue data streams reflected across his stern face. In the projection, an ancient castle stood amid Sokovia's mountains, the Hydra emblem flickering in and out under infrared scans.

"Intelligence indicates that remnants of the Mind Scepter's energy are hidden here," Chen Tian said calmly. "This may be Hydra's new weapons factory."

Steve stood beside him, his brow furrowed. "Are we sure Bucky is here?"

Chen Tian's fingertip swept across the hologram, switching the image to a map of the castle's underground structure. Several red dots marked possible detention areas.

"Not sure," he said indifferently. "But Hydra won't abandon any valuable 'assets,' especially the Winter Soldier."

2B stood by the cabin door, her silver hair drifting slightly in the airflow. Data streams flickered through her pupils as she rapidly analyzed the terrain and potential threat points.

"The plan?" Steve looked at Chen Tian.

Chen Tian folded his arms, his gaze still fixed on the projection. "You and 2B will breach from the ground, clear the outer guards, and locate where the scepter is stored. Once you secure the scepter, then go find Bucky." He paused. "I'll observe the overall situation from the air and adjust our tactics whenever necessary."

Steve nodded and reached up to adjust the strap securing his shield. "Understood." He tilted his head slightly toward Chen Tian. "Chen Tian, aren't you coming with us?"

A faint smile tugged at Chen Tian's lips. "I'll watch the big picture. If anything unexpected happens, I'll join the fight."

Steve keenly sensed the implication in Chen Tian's words, but before he could speak, the fighter's AI announced, "We have arrived above the target. Preparing to open the cabin door."

The door slowly slid open, and frigid high-altitude air rushed in. Steve took a deep breath and looked back at Chen Tian. "Give me some time. I'll wake Bucky and retrieve the scepter."

There was a trace of pleading in his voice.

Chen Tian merely smiled faintly. "Good luck, Captain."

2B gave Chen Tian one last look, then leaped out of the cabin. Her silver hair traced an arc through the wind. Steve followed immediately, his shield reflecting a blinding glare beneath the sunlight.

The fighter's door shut again. Chen Tian stood alone before the projection, his gaze fixed on a red dot deep within the castle.

"AI, descend. Maintain stealth mode," he ordered quietly.

The fighter slowly descended as clouds churned beyond the windows. Chen Tian tapped lightly with his fingertip, switching the projection to a live surveillance feed—Steve and 2B had already landed and were rapidly advancing toward the castle.

"Steve, I hope you move a little slower," Chen Tian murmured, a chill flashing through his eyes. "Because I... won't wait."

Chen Tian's hair turned black and white, and his eyes transformed into the Heavenly Eye.

"Bucky Barnes..." Chen Tian murmured the name, his tone icy. "Sorry, but this time, no one can save you."

Steve's shield tore through the air and smashed heavily into a Hydra soldier's chest, blasting him several meters away. The alarm shrieked across the castle, and red warning lights bathed the corridors in blood-like light.

"2B, left corridor!" Steve barked. He twisted aside to evade bullets, then flung his shield backhanded, knocking down three armed agents.

2B moved like a phantom, her silver hair leaving an afterimage as she sped past. Her mechanical arm unfolded, and her slender fingers easily tore through a tank's heavy armor as though ripping apart a sheet of paper.

The Hydra soldiers watched in horror as the seemingly delicate girl overturned a steel behemoth weighing more than ten tons with one hand, then severed their weapons with a flash of her blade.

"Targets eliminated." 2B's voice was calm, as if she had merely completed a simple data entry.

Castle Command Room

Baron Strucker slammed his fist onto the control console, making the holographic projection flicker violently.

"There's only two of them! What are you panicking for?!" he roared.

"Sir, Captain America and that silver-haired girl have broken through the outer defenses!" The agent's voice trembled with fear. "The tanks we deployed... she dismantled them with her bare hands!"

Strucker's expression darkened terrifyingly. He stared at the two figures moving through the surveillance feed as if they were in an empty place, ruthlessness flashing through his eyes.

"Go to the basement," he said coldly. "Release the twins."

The agent froze. "But Baron, their abilities are still unstable—"

"Now!" Strucker roared. "Send them to deal with the intruders!"

Outside the Castle

Steve and 2B stood back-to-back. The fallen Hydra soldiers around them had already piled into small mounds. In the distance, more enemies were setting up heavy weapons, their barrels aimed at them.

"Looks like they don't intend to surrender." Steve caught his breath and tightened his grip on his shield.

Data raced through 2B's pupils. She suddenly reached out to stop Steve, who was about to move forward. "Captain, abnormal energy fluctuations have been detected underground. Recommend delaying our advance."

Steve frowned. "What's wrong?"

"My shield system requires 3 minutes and 42 seconds to charge." 2B reported calmly. At the same time, she subtly adjusted her position, drawing Steve's attention away from the castle's core area. "Recommend clearing the outer fire points first."

Before she finished speaking, the ground suddenly shook violently. With a thunderous boom, a massive hole was blasted through the castle's western wall.

"Damn it!" Steve raised his shield. "Tank units!"

2B swiftly scanned the battlefield. "Four T-90 main battle tanks detected approaching." She deliberately paused. "My shield cannot provide effective defense for the moment."

Steve gritted his teeth. "Can we find a way through?"

"Calculating the optimal solution..." Blue light flickered in 2B's pupils as she secretly prolonged the analysis. "Another 2 minutes and 15 seconds required."

From a distant tower, Baron Strucker sneered and pressed his communicator. "Bring the Maximoff siblings up. It's time to let the Arbitrators witness real power."

Meanwhile, on the third basement level of the castle.

Chen Tian moved through the corridor like a ghost, Hydra guards falling silently along the way. He stared at the blinking red dot on his tactical visor, a cold curve lifting at the corner of his mouth.

"Found you, Bucky."

Azure cursed energy gathered at Chen Tian's fingertips. The energy of Cursed Technique Lapse: Blue slowly rotated in his palm, radiating a suffocating pressure. Fine ice crystals began forming across the glass surface of the cryogenic pod, making Bucky Barnes's face look even paler in the low temperature.

"Farewell, Winter Soldier." Chen Tian's voice was as cold as polar wind.

Just as the cursed energy was about to erupt, his Heavenly Eye abruptly contracted—there was a piercing shriek through the air as a silver-white afterimage came hurtling at him at a terrifying speed beyond the sound barrier!

Boom!

Chen Tian instinctively twisted aside. The ground where he had been standing exploded into a crater three meters wide. Amid the flying rubble, Pietro Maximoff's figure gradually solidified, ionized sparks from breaking the sound barrier still crackling at the tips of his silver-white hair.

"Stop! Don't touch him!" Scarlet light flickered in Pietro's pupils, and his voice shook with fury. "The Baron said this Winter Soldier belongs to us—"

His voice suddenly caught.

The moment he saw Chen Tian's face clearly, Pietro's expression froze. His lips trembled slightly, and the hostility in his eyes was replaced by stunned disbelief.

"This... can't be..."

At the same time, hurried footsteps came from the end of the corridor. Wanda Maximoff charged over, scarlet Chaos Magic swirling around her. "Pietro! What happened—"

Her question stopped abruptly.

The scarlet energy froze in midair as Wanda's pupils contracted sharply. Her lips trembled, and her voice carried shock on the verge of collapse. "Chen Tian? You... weren't you dead? S.H.I.E.L.D..."

Chen Tian's fingers paused slightly as azure cursed energy slowly flowed across his palm. He narrowed his eyes, sizing up the speechless siblings before him—Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver...

"Looks like we don't know each other." His voice was low, but the cursed energy at his fingertips did not dissipate. "Move aside. If you don't want to fight, don't stop me."

Pietro swallowed, his voice dry. "But that explosion... we saw you with our own eyes..."

"Pietro!" Wanda suddenly screamed, Chaos Magic surging violently around her. "Watch out!"

The ceiling exploded, showering the corridor in rubble as Steve descended from above with the Mind Scepter in hand. His Vibranium shield threw off a blinding spray of sparks as he landed, rage burning in Captain America's eyes.

"Chen Tian!" he roared, driving the scepter heavily into the ground. "You promised to give me time!"

Spiderweb cracks spread across the cryogenic pod's glass under the sonic vibrations. Chen Tian looked at Steve standing before it, his black-and-white hair drifting through the turbulent energy currents.

"Captain," he said calmly, his gaze fixed on the scepter in Steve's hand. "Looks like you found one of our targets."

Steve stepped forward, glaring at Chen Tian. The Mind Stone at the tip of the scepter began to emit an ominous yellow glow. "Bucky needs help, not an execution!"

2B silently appeared at the bend in the corridor and took her place behind Chen Tian. "Sorry, Master. I couldn't delay them any longer."

"You've been lying to me all along?" Steve's voice trembled with hurt. "You had 2B deliberately stall for time?"

Chen Tian did not immediately answer Steve's accusation. Instead, he turned his head slightly toward 2B. "The situation inside the castle?"

Data flickered rapidly through 2B's pupils. "Master, 72.3% of Hydra's armed forces have been eliminated, including their leader, Baron Strucker." She paused. "The remaining 27.7% are gathering on the third basement level."

Chen Tian nodded lightly and turned his gaze back to Steve. "Captain, there are still Hydra remnants here that need to be dealt with." His voice was calm to the point of indifference. "I suggest you handle them first."

Steve's fist clenched until it cracked. The edge of his shield gleamed coldly beneath the scepter's light. "Answer me! Did you plan to kill Bucky from the beginning?" His voice echoed through the empty underground corridor. "2B stalling for time, you acting alone... was all of this your plan?"

The Maximoff siblings stood nearby, watching the two suddenly quarrel, unsure what to do.

Chen Tian slowly closed his eyes, a trace of scarlet flashing through the Heavenly Eye. When he opened them again, his voice was so soft it was nearly inaudible. "Sorry, Captain."

A blue sphere of energy slowly formed at Chen Tian's fingertips, and the surrounding air began to warp. It looked tiny, yet it seemed to contain the gravity of an entire universe. Even light bent around it.

Cursed Technique Lapse: Blue

As Chen Tian's cold voice fell, the entire underground space suddenly sank into eerie silence. Everyone felt their bodies grow heavy, as if invisible giant hands were pressing them to the ground.

Steve gave a muffled groan, his knees bending slightly. His Vibranium shield suddenly became unbelievably heavy, forcing Captain America to use all his strength just to hold it. Wanda's scarlet hair stirred without wind as she struggled to remain standing, her Chaos Magic thrown into disorder by the powerful gravitational field.

"...Damn it... Chen Tian... doesn't he use... a greatsword?... How does he... know this?" Wanda gritted out, fine sweat beading on her forehead.

Pietro tried to move, only to find that he could not use his super speed at all. His legs felt filled with lead, and even taking the simplest step had become incomparably difficult. "Damn..." Quicksilver's pupils contracted sharply. "My body... is so heavy..."

2B's mechanical core hummed as her gravity regulation system ran at full power to counter the sudden gravitational shift. Confusion flashed through the silver-haired girl's eyes. "Master... this gravitational field..."

Her core computer could not calculate why her master's skill was affecting her as well.

Steve struggled to lift his head and saw Chen Tian standing at the center of the gravitational field, his black-and-white hair whipping wildly in the energy storm. Captain America's eyes were filled with shock and incomprehension. "Chen Tian... what are you doing?"

The cryogenic pod gave off a shrieking metallic groan within Blue's gravitational field. Spiderweb cracks began spreading across its thick tempered glass surface. The entire metal chamber was dragged toward Chen Tian as if gripped by an invisible giant hand, plowing a deep furrow across the floor.

"No! Bucky!" Steve roared and released his Vibranium shield without hesitation. Captain America lunged forward, both hands clamping onto the emergency handles on the side of the cryogenic pod. His knuckles turned white from the strain, and his combat boots scraped two scorched trails into the ground.

Creak, creak, creak— The metal handles began to deform under the opposing forces. Every muscle in Steve's body tensed to its limit, veins bulging beneath his skin like coiled dragons. His temples throbbed as sweat ran down his taut jawline, only to be torn into fine mist the instant it entered the gravitational field.

The cryogenic pod continued moving slowly. Steve's feet had sunk into the concrete floor, and several tears had been ripped open across the back of his combat suit, exposing bleeding skin beneath. Yet Captain America clenched his teeth, a beastlike growl rising from his throat as he used sheer physical strength to resist cursed energy powerful enough to distort space.

"Chen Tian... stop..." Steve forced the words through clenched teeth, his bloodshot pupils reddening. "Have you... gone insane?"

"Insane? No. These are necessary sacrifices." Chen Tian's voice was cold enough to sound inhuman. A scarlet gleam coiled within the azure pupils of his Heavenly Eye.

2B's pupils contracted violently, data cascading through them like a waterfall. She looked at Chen Tian's cold, merciless profile as stinging warning alerts surged through her core processor—this was not the Master she knew.

"Master!" Her voice was sharper than it had ever been, nearly tearing past the limits of her vocal cords. "Please stop!"

Ignoring the tearing force of the gravitational field, the silver-haired girl staggered forward. Her mechanical joints groaned under the unbearable strain, and her artificial skin began to crack beneath the immense pressure, exposing metal structures flashing with electrical sparks underneath.

"You said... you wanted to create a world where no one needed to be sacrificed!" 2B's voice trembled with something almost like human sobbing. "Is this the future you wanted?"

Chen Tian's fingertip paused slightly.

2B's voice was like a blade piercing deep into his chaotic consciousness. The scarlet glow in his Heavenly Eye wavered briefly, and Chen Tian's expression turned dazed for an instant, as though he were struggling within some distant fragment of memory.

"2B..." His lips trembled softly, a nearly imperceptible hesitation flashing through his voice.

But in the next second, the scarlet surged back into his pupils like a tide. Chen Tian's expression became cold and unfamiliar once more, as if that moment of hesitation had never existed.

"Sorry, 2B." His voice was low and hollow, as though it came from somewhere far away. "This isn't a war you should be part of."

Before his words faded, Chen Tian raised his right hand and traced a dark-blue arc through the air. 2B's mechanical pupils abruptly contracted as she saw her data core begin to break apart uncontrollably into countless points of light.

"Master... don't..." Her voice trembled as her fingertips grasped futilely at empty space, touching only cold air.

The silver-haired girl's outline began to blur like a sand painting scattered by the wind, dark-blue data streams glowing beneath her artificial skin.

In the final instant before she vanished, an incomprehensibly complex light flashed through 2B's electronic eyes—a tremor of the soul that no program code could ever define.

Her body turned into countless motes of light, like stars extinguishing in the night sky. Before disappearing completely, those motes still stubbornly tried to piece together the outline of their Master.

"I will... wait for you to summon me again..."

With that nearly inaudible whisper, 2B vanished completely, leaving behind only a few drifting strands of silver hair and several drops of blue coolant on the ground to prove she had once existed.

Chen Tian slowly lowered his hand, the blue afterglow of a Summoning Art still lingering at his fingertips. His expression did not change in the slightest, as if he had merely shut down an insignificant program.

"Now," his gaze locked onto the cryogenic pod once more, the scarlet light in his Heavenly Eye blazing brighter, "it's time to end this."

The gravitational field suddenly intensified severalfold, making the entire underground space tremble. Steve let out a pained groan. His arm muscles had reached their limit, yet he still clung to the cryogenic pod without letting go.

"Chen Tian!" Captain America's voice was so hoarse it barely sounded human. "Wake up! This isn't you!"

But Chen Tian seemed unable to hear anything. He slowly raised his hand as the blue sphere began spinning at an astonishing speed, tearing fine spatial cracks through the surrounding air.

"Rest in peace, Winter Soldier."

Just as the energy was about to erupt—

A long sigh suddenly echoed through the air, as though it had come from the distant end of time and space. The sigh carried indescribable exhaustion and age, yet it also held a wisdom beyond the mundane world.

"Enough."

With that whisper, a ring of golden sparks suddenly appeared beneath Chen Tian's feet, rippling outward like waves on water. The sparks spun, outlining ancient and mysterious runes. Chen Tian's pupils contracted sharply. He immediately tried to activate his technique and lift himself into the air to evade it, only to discover that an identical golden ring had somehow appeared above his head as well.

"This is—"

Before he could finish, the two rings contracted at once, completely enclosing Chen Tian.

The next second, the golden rings and Chen Tian within them vanished from the air, leaving only a few drifting sparks that slowly went out.

The entire third basement level fell into strange silence, with only the cryogenic pod's alarm echoing through the empty corridor.

In an instant, the warped gravitational field throughout the third basement level vanished as if erased by a rubber. The cryogenic pod crashed to the ground, and Steve staggered back several steps, staring at the scene in shock.

Steve stood there blankly, his gaze shifting from where Chen Tian had disappeared to the equally stunned Maximoff siblings.

"What was that..." Pietro's voice trembled slightly. He instinctively touched his own neck, as if confirming that the same magic had not taken him away.

Wanda's Chaos Magic unconsciously swirled around her, caution and confusion flashing in her eyes. "I can't sense any energy fluctuations... It's like, like he never existed at all."

Steve bent down to pick up his shield, his brow tightly furrowed. He looked toward the severely deformed cryogenic pod, where Bucky's pale face was faintly visible behind shattered glass.

Within the golden Mirror Dimension, Chen Tian's figure suddenly appeared. He staggered as he steadied himself, scarlet and azure light violently intertwining within the Heavenly Eye like two tides tearing at each other.

"This is..."

The buildings around him folded and twisted in ways that defied physical laws, while the sky displayed strange geometric patterns. Chen Tian raised a hand to touch the glass curtain wall beside him, but his fingertips passed through the seemingly solid surface—everything here was an illusion reflecting reality.

"The Mirror Dimension?"

"Yes. This is the Mirror Dimension." A gentle voice came from behind him.

Chen Tian's pupils abruptly contracted. He spun around and saw The Ancient One stepping out as if from a shattered mirror, her orange-yellow robes drifting gently in the windless space.

"The Ancient One?" Chen Tian's voice was dangerously hoarse, the scarlet in his Heavenly Eye spreading a little further. "You shouldn't have stopped me."

The Ancient One did not answer at once. She slowly approached, her gaze falling upon Chen Tian's corrupted right eye. The once-pure azure had been more than half stained scarlet, spreading continuously like ink dropped into clear water.

"I have been helping you keep the dimensional demons from finding your whereabouts," The Ancient One said softly, tracing a golden arc through the air with her finger. "But I never expected that one would still slip through the net."

"You... haven't slept properly in a long time, have you?"