Final Chapter: Eternal Vigil

Xiao Han traveled through the desolate and dark interstellar space between Milky Way and neighboring galaxies. There was almost nothing here, only the occasional cold Stardust drifting by and the faint light from distant galaxies. Time lost its meaning, and only the final coordinates were like a beacon in the darkness, guiding the direction.

Finally, he arrived at his destination.

There was no grand palace, no huge fleet, and not even the weird monitoring station from before. What was in front of him was just an inconspicuous gray stone floating in the absolute void. It was only about the height of a person, with a rough surface without any trace of artificial carving, as if it was just an ordinary meteorite that had accidentally drifted here for hundreds of millions of years.

But Xiao Han's perception told him that it was here. All information flows ultimately pointed to this seemingly ordinary object. "Final Silence Vault".

As he approached it, no defense mechanism was triggered, no energy fluctuations, no spatial distortion. It was as silent as a truly dead thing.

Xiao Han stretched out his finger and touched the surface of the stone.

At the moment of contact, a massive torrent of information poured into his consciousness like a dam bursting. This was not an attack, but a passive dumping of data that had been stored for countless billions of years. About the history of the long-dead "Guardians" civilization, about the universe they observed The changes in the universe, about the "baseline" laws they set, about their detailed map of monitoring network nodes scattered throughout Local Group and even more distant places, and... about their definition of "Baseline Anomaly", their response protocols and their ultimate fear.

This stone is a silent database, a final recorder. It is not responsible for fighting or monitoring, it is only responsible for saving and... waiting. Waiting for someone who can get here to read everything.

Xiao Han processed this information at an astonishing speed. He saw the ancient rhythm of the universe, saw the rise and destruction of countless civilizations, and saw the futile efforts of "Guardians" to maintain an absolute stability. And he himself, in the eyes of all other beings who follow the laws of the local universe, is indeed the biggest "anomaly".

But all this is meaningless to him. What does the stability of the universe and the survival of civilization have to do with him? The only thing he cares about is whether these creations will disturb his tranquility.

Now, he has found the root cause. As long as he destroys this database and uses the obtained node map to clear out all remaining monitoring nodes in the galaxy group that may still be operating, then this targeted "disturbance" will be completely ended.

He no longer needed these lengthy messages. He pressed his fingers slightly.

The seemingly hard gray stone quietly turned into the finest powder from the point of contact, like a sand sculpture blown away by the wind. All the information contained inside also completely Oblivion ceased to exist.

Then, without any pause, he began a long and thorough cleaning work based on the clear star map in his mind. His figure appeared in every remote corner of Local Group, on the backside of the desolate planet, in the depths of the cold Nebula, and in the orbit of a dying star.

Every appearance is accompanied by the silent destruction of an ancient monitoring facility. There is no explosion, no light, only the complete and absolute Oblivion. Like a silent scavenger, he systematically eliminates all possible sources of noise.

Time passed again. When the last recorded node turned into cosmic dust at his fingertips, he stopped.

It should be completely clean now.

He chose a huge void area between galaxies. There is almost no matter, no stars, no gravitational disturbance, and even the density of dark matter has been reduced to a minimum. It is a true desert of the universe, a place of absolute silence.

Xiao Han hovered in this Eternity darkness and silence, and finally relaxed completely. He closed his eyes and felt the near-absolute nothingness. No light, no sound, no vibration, no disturbance.

He found his peace.

Earth.

Kree Empire's battle group finally evacuated Solar System. That inexplicable super energy signal, and a subsequent series of unexplained weak space disturbances that occurred at the edge of Milky Way or even more distant areas (they could not Detecting the specific cause, only sensing anomalies) caused Kree Supreme Council to have doubts and disagreements. They were unable to determine whether the "abnormal individual" had really left, or whether it had set a trap. Continuing to attack a target with such huge variables was judged to be too risky.

The earth has gained a breather, but it also fully understands its fragility in the universe.

The crisis was temporarily lifted, but the sense of urgency never disappeared. Tony·Stark and Bruce·Banner worked almost without sleep to finally stabilize the energy core of "Planetary Defense Initiative". A huge energy barrier was raised. Although it could not cover the whole world for a long time, it was enough to protect major population centers.

Wakanda's technology is further integrated with global resources, and mankind has begun the enlightenment of the interstellar era in the true sense. Avengers Alliance is still active, dealing with various threats inside and outside the earth, but their eyes are more on the stars.

They all know that the existence that once hung above their heads like the Sword of Damocles may never come back. What he brings is not only fear, but also a kind of twisted protection and warning. Now that the sword has left, humans must go on on their own.

Nick Fury stood on the rebuilt rooftop of S.H.I.E.L.D. Headquarters, looking at the sky. Occasionally, he would subconsciously look in the direction of the Malibu Villa, even though it had been rebuilt long ago, and things and people had changed.

"Has he... finally found the peace he wanted?" Maria·Hill walked to him and asked softly.

Fury was silent for a long time, then slowly said, "Maybe. But for the universe, being absolutely peaceful, whether he is a good thing or a bad thing, who can know?"

He is just a lonely existence in the universe, following his simplest needs. And human beings, after losing their shelter, began their own stumbling but unswerving growth.

The endless depths of void.

Xiao Han is still suspended there, like a rock that existed at the beginning of the universe, and Eternity remains unchanged. His energy is restrained to the extreme, and his thinking slows down to almost stasis, enjoying this ultimate and wonderful silence.

Until one day in the distant future, it may be a weak gravitational ripple caused by the collision of a river system, it may be a neutrino that accidentally arrives across hundreds of millions of light-years, or it may be just an insignificant random fluctuation in the process of increasing the entropy of the universe.

An extremely subtle, almost non-existent disturbance gently brushed through this land of absolute silence.

The pair of eyes that had been closed for countless thousands of years slowly opened in the depths of darkness of Eternity.

(Complete book)