Every gaze was fixed on the blue Space Stone that had appeared from thin air above Russell's palm.
"He really created it out of nothing?!"
Captain Carter froze. The Vibranium Shield trembled in her hand, her pupils shrank to pinpoints, and her mouth fell wide open.
She had fought beyond Earth, waged an interstellar war involving Thanos, destroyed alien fleets, and witnessed powers and divine abilities that defied belief.
But creating an Infinity Stone from nothing shattered everything she thought she knew about the universe.
Beside her, Black Widow felt her scalp prickle and every hair on her body stand on end. Her eyes shook as decades of certainty about the universe crumbled.
"Impossible. Absolutely impossible!"
Her voice shook as she cried out.
"What are the Infinity Stones? Crystals formed from the six singularities at the birth of the universe."
"They aren't products of technology, concentrations of energy, or magical enchantments!"
"They're part of the universe itself—rules that have existed since its birth. How could anyone create one out of nothing?"
Every being in the universe understood that a stone could be stolen or wielded. At tremendous cost, it could even be destroyed.
But creating one was an impossible contradiction.
Black Panther stood stunned, barely breathing, as though the air had been sucked from his lungs.
He had lived through the fall of the Zombie Universe. He had seen civilization wiped away, planets fall silent, and living beings become walking corpses.
He had seen dimensions collapse, universes perish, and gods fall.
But those were acts of destruction.
What Russell had done bordered on creation.
"This is beyond being powerful..."
Black Panther swallowed hard, his throat dry and his eyes filled with awe.
"This is power only a true Creator God could wield."
Ultron, who had been mercilessly beating Tony and