Chapter Summaries

Su Ming killed the Kree visitor, released a Flerken to wreak havoc aboard the flagship, and returned to Attilan after the Kree fleet was dealt with. He handed Attilan one crystal, took the captive in the cryogenic coffin, and left with Hela.

• Su Ming killed the visitor on the Kree flagship and freed the Flerken, which devoured the room and slipped into the ship.
• Su Ming returned to Attilan as the factions finished hunting down the surrender faction, leaving the city in ruins but free of the Kree.
• Su Ming told the Elders that he had handled the Kree fleet and gave the orange-skinned Elder a crystal in exchange for the captive in the cryogenic chamber.
• Su Ming refused Symak's request for more crystals and warned that he would become Attilan's danger if they held too many.
• Su Ming lifted the coffin onto his shoulder and flew away with Hela.

After recovering from his injuries, Su Ming realized Howard’s assassination may have been part of a larger scheme and set out to investigate. He planned to bring the Inhuman who killed Professor Xavier before Charles and track down Stark.

• Su Ming explained to Hela that he wanted Attilan’s Terrigen Crystals to help Earth’s crystal-less Inhumans and weaken the caste system, then returned to his company with her.
• After Hela left, Su Ming used the Time Stone under Hamill’s protection to heal the injuries he had suffered tearing apart a warship.
• Su Ming sent Hamill to check on Mordo and prepared to take the Inhuman technology and captured killer to Loyalty Academy.
• Su Ming and Gin concluded that separate groups had attempted to assassinate Howard, since the daytime attackers had no sunscreen residue on their bodies.
• Su Ming suspected Howard had staged or manipulated parts of the affair and decided to uncover who had drawn the factions into the larger plot.
• Su Ming planned to show Charles the Inhuman who murdered his father and told Gin to locate Stark.

Su Ming brought a hibernation pod containing a donated body to Loyalty Academy, disguising its alien technology as scientific teaching equipment. After Natasha confirmed that Xavier and his mother were no longer in danger, Su Ming prepared to discuss deeper matters with the dead man’s family.

• Su Ming drove the pod to Loyalty Academy and asked Lorraine to find guards to unload it after the children had gone to class.
• Lorraine recruited four veteran security guards, who carried the pod into the dormitory lounge while Su Ming paid them for coffee.
• Su Ming convinced Lorraine that the pod’s unfamiliar screens and symbols were decorations meant to interest the children, and Lorraine left for work.
• Natasha emerged from hiding and told Su Ming that Lorraine had noticed nothing unusual and that Xavier and his mother were safe.
• Su Ming ended their protective watch, gave Natasha the remaining cash for the holidays, and climbed upstairs to speak with the dead man’s family.

Su Ming let Charles read the captured Inhuman killer’s memories, but the strain left the child gravely injured, so Su Ming used the Time Stone to advance him three years. Charles recovered with stronger psychic control and revealed that a mysterious organization had ordered his father’s death to protect its intended design for the future.

• Su Ming told Charles that the man who killed his father was imprisoned downstairs, and Charles admitted he did not know what to do now that he had found the killer.
• Charles used his psychic abilities to read the killer’s memories, but the effort overwhelmed him and left him unconscious with severe injuries.
• Su Ming used the Time Stone to advance Charles three years, helping him recover while preserving the memories he had read.
• Charles revealed that his father’s Black Womb project had created a godlike being by combining Inhuman, Mutant, and vampire genes, with humanity ultimately lost.
• Charles told Su Ming that a mysterious organization had ordered his father’s death and shared its Italian motto about safeguarding the world’s intended design.
• Su Ming said he understood and asked Charles to promise him a few things.

Leonid learned about Wilson Enterprises’ Black Friday sale and agreed to go shopping with Lily after his friend encouraged him. The chapter ended with Leonid running after Lily while his friend cheered him on.

• Leonid’s friend told him about Wilson Enterprises’ Black Friday sale and offered to buy him shoes as a Christmas gift.
• Leonid’s friend reassured him that he was not a monster, despite Leonid suspecting he was a Mutant.
• Lily asked Leonid and his friend to accompany her to the supermarket and help carry her Spicy Gluten Sticks.
• Leonid’s friend teased him about Lily’s interest, gave him money for their outing, and urged him to catch up with her.
• Leonid ran after Lily as his friend cheered him on.

Leonid invited Lily to lunch, but Howard Stark and Doctor Nathaniel Richards interrupted them, claiming they had come specifically to find him. Leonid mistook Howard’s intentions for an attempt to pursue Lily and walked away with her.

• Leonid asked Lily to have lunch and go to the supermarket with him, and she happily agreed.
• Howard Stark and Doctor Nathaniel Richards blocked Leonid and Lily with their sedan and called out to Leonid.
• Howard introduced himself and Nathaniel, explaining that they had come specifically to find Leonid.
• Leonid recalled rumors about Howard’s womanizing and assumed the men wanted to pursue Lily, so he took her hand and tried to leave.

Howard Stark recruited Leonid to inherit his deceased father Nikola Tesla’s position and took him on a late-night flight to Rome. As their plane departed, an orange-W cargo plane took off from another runway.

• Howard caught up with Leo and Lily, offered Leo a job connected to Nikola Tesla, and gave him cash before leaving them to shop.
• Leo spent the evening with Lily, while an observer in a white fur hat watched them through binoculars from a rooftop.
• Howard and Nathaniel picked Leo up at nine that night and drove him to Kennedy Airport, where Leo learned they were traveling for work.
• Howard led Leo aboard a luxurious Stark Industries jet, and Doctor Richards told him their destination was Rome.
• The Stark Industries plane took off as an orange-W cargo plane departed from another runway.

Howard and Nathaniel brought Leonid to the Immortal City beneath Rome, where the Immortals revealed their history and purpose. Leonid learned that they protected humanity and were summoning him to help guard the world.

• Howard guided Leonid and Nathaniel through a hidden entrance near the Colosseum and into an underground elevator.
• A robed Immortal recognized Leonid, who revealed his star-filled form as the elevator descended into the vast Immortal City.
• The Immortals brought Leonid to a grand theater, where their elders gathered to meet him.
• The leading elder told Leonid how an ancient hero used weapons bestowed by a Celestial to defeat a Space Brood parasite and save Earth.
• The elders explained that their organization protected humanity and opposed forces that obstructed the world's intended future, and Leonid agreed that their purpose was to protect the world.

Leonid joined Isaac Newton’s Brotherhood of the Shield after agreeing to step forward to protect humanity. Meanwhile, Su Ming met Zheng Xian in China, where his claim to be Sorcerer Supreme changed the stakes of their old acquaintance’s visit.

• Isaac Newton and the other members explained that their science, mathematics, and hidden arts let them anticipate dangers, then asked Leonid to join them.
• Leonid agreed to become a member of the Brotherhood of the Shield and was welcomed by its members.
• Su Ming traveled from Kamar-Taj to the Imperial Capital and met Zheng Xian in an underground office.
• Su Ming told Zheng Xian that he had taken over Kamar-Taj and become Sorcerer Supreme, startling Zheng Xian.
• Su Ming requested Da Hong Pao tea, and Zheng Xian left to confirm his identity before returning with the tea.

Su Ming identified the Brotherhood of the Shield as the force behind the plot and visited Zheng Xian to seek support, using vague hints to stir his curiosity. Zheng Xian agreed to discuss the matter over lunch, while Su Ming recognized that the underground bunker was only a decoy for the Relevant Department’s true base.

• Su Ming concluded that the Brotherhood of the Shield was behind the assassination and incitement of war, and reviewed its history and ties to factions such as Hydra and the Great Zodiac.
• Su Ming visited Zheng Xian and traded diplomatic pleasantries with him, offering tantalizing hints about Attilan and Mutants without explaining what had happened.
• Su Ming told Zheng Xian that the Brotherhood of the Shield had been making major moves, prompting Zheng Xian to clear the office and ask for details.
• Su Ming postponed the discussion until lunch, and Zheng Xian invited him to eat Peking duck and drink Moutai.
• Su Ming and Zheng Xian left the underground bunker together, and Su Ming recognized that the facility was a decoy while Zheng Xian’s real base was the Cloud City above.

Over roast duck, Su Ming warned Zheng Xian that a Celestial offspring was nearing its hatch and recounted how Zhang Heng had diverted its mother into the sun. Zheng Xian accepted the danger and understood that his teacher’s legacy had left him responsible for dealing with the looming threat.

• Su Ming told Zheng Xian that the Brotherhood of the Shield intended to destroy the world and explained that a Celestial aberration was involved.
• In Han Dynasty Luoyang, Zhang Heng confronted a Celestial that planned to consume Earth while its offspring developed inside it.
• Zhang Heng persuaded the Celestial to use the sun as food instead, and it agreed before flying into the star.
• Su Ming told Zheng Xian that the offspring would still need to consume planets after hatching and warned that someone within the Brotherhood of the Shield was weakening Earth’s defenses.
• Su Ming estimated that Zhang Heng’s intervention had shortened the aberration’s incubation from a million years to seventeen hundred years, and Zheng Xian accepted responsibility for the crisis.

Su Ming and Zheng Xian prepared to investigate S.H.I.E.L.D. together, while Leo’s father Tesla appeared at the Immortal City and tried to help him escape. Tesla left Leo climbing a mysterious staircase as he stayed behind to fight S.H.I.E.L.D. guards.

• Su Ming and Zheng Xian finished their meal, and Zheng Xian retrieved his wrapped Holy Spear before leaving with Su Ming.
• Su Ming and Zheng Xian posed for a photograph in an alley before setting out to investigate S.H.I.E.L.D.
• Tesla entered Leo’s room in the Immortal City and revealed that he had returned from the dead to destroy the space and find his son.
• Tesla led Leo up the castle stairs toward a mysterious door, unlocked it with a golden key, and told him to keep climbing.
• Tesla shut the door behind Leo and killed the S.H.I.E.L.D. guards pursuing them with blasts of electricity.

Tesla attacked Howard and Nathaniel as they fought through the corridor, while Su Ming and Zheng Xian followed Dotty’s lead to a wormhole beneath Rome. They descended together and found a vast underground city, where Zheng Xian dismissed Holy Shield’s hidden settlement.

• Tesla electrocuted the attackers who charged him, then turned his lightning on Howard and Nathaniel as they fled along the ceiling with Wall-Adhesion Shoes and Prototype Ray Guns.
• Su Ming arrived on a rooftop with Zheng Xian, where Dotty reported that Howard had gone into a strange underground structure beneath Piazza Venezia.
• Dotty returned to the base, and Su Ming and Zheng Xian entered the dusty sewers, where Zheng Xian examined an enormous rat and identified the dark vortex below as a Space Bridge.
• Su Ming and Zheng Xian discussed Holy Shield and its Immortals before jumping into the wormhole together.
• Cloak caught them above a sprawling underground city with floating islands, and Zheng Xian said the settlement was nothing impressive.

Leo reached the rooftop and met Leonardo Da Vinci, who carried a device he called the hope of saving the world, while Newton sought a prophecy from the imprisoned Nostradamus. Above the Immortal City, Su Ming and Zheng Xian agreed to take a share of its treasures, and Su Ming prepared to offer the Shield a way to avert the coming crisis without using the Human Machine.

• Leo climbed to the rooftop, where Leonardo Da Vinci arrived with a glowing metal sphere and called for everyone to be awakened.
• Newton released Nostradamus to drink the remaining Elixir of Immortality, then made him prophesy that the Son of Eternity and the Son of Stars were about to appear as change unfolded in the present.
• Su Ming and Zheng Xian watched the Immortal City from above and discussed why neither could wield the other's Celestial weapon.
• Su Ming and Zheng Xian agreed to split the treasures they found in the Shield's hidden city before making a grand entrance to help.
• Su Ming explained that the Shield planned to use the Human Machine to examine three possible futures and create separate Time Points.
• Su Ming told Zheng Xian he could show the Shield a clear path forward without letting it use the Human Machine.

Su Ming and Zheng Xian chose to search the Immortal City for the Elixir of Immortality, while Da Vinci awakened Leonid’s buried memories and revealed that he had created the city and its time-space bridge.

• Su Ming explained the Human Machine and his plan to use the Holy Spear against a Celestial, while Zheng Xian showed little interest in time travel.
• Su Ming and Zheng Xian agreed to seek the Elixir of Immortality and flew toward the city’s largest building, where Su Ming suspected it was hidden underground.
• Da Vinci helped Leonid recall his monstrous mother, his origins, and how he had been placed with Tesla and the white-haired woman.
• Da Vinci found a hidden crank on the platform and raised it into the sky as Leonid described the sinkhole as a bridge through time and space.
• Da Vinci told Leonid that he had created the bridge and everything in the city.

Tesla overwhelmed Howard and Nathaniel in the underground facility, but Howard used a Spatial Severance Device to damage Tesla’s armor and destabilize his energy core. Nathaniel tried to stop the resulting Black Hole Bomb by removing the core, and a burst of light vanished along with a massive section of the building.

• Da Vinci and Leo watched the platform rise as blue smoke formed an eagle, and Da Vinci said an explosion had been foretold and that they should return through That Door.
• Tesla used his electrically powered armor to drive Howard and Nathaniel back, deflecting their attacks and catching Howard’s energy-rifle beam before throwing an explosive energy ball at them.
• Howard deployed a Spatial Severance Device, and its blue wave cut through Tesla’s waist and damaged his armor and energy core.
• Howard warned Nathaniel that Tesla’s creation was nearing Critical Mass and would produce material Oblivion, while Tesla declared that he had won.
• Nathaniel rushed to remove Tesla’s glowing energy core, triggering a beam of light that vanished and left a massive spherical section of the building missing.

Leo and Da Vinci reached the Great Hall as Da Vinci explained that Leo’s father had been transported through time and space and that Leo would be central to the Human Machine. Meanwhile, Su Ming and Zheng Xian stole the Elixir of Immortality and headed to search Newton’s office for technology, while tensions rose in the Great Hall.

• Da Vinci told Leo that his father had been reborn through fire in another time and space and revealed that Leo would be at the heart of the Human Machine.
• Su Ming and Zheng Xian found the underground spring, collected the Elixir of Immortality, and left some behind for the Holy Shield.
• Su Ming and Zheng Xian staged Nostradamus’s unconscious body to make it appear that he had drunk the stolen elixir.
• After an earthquake shook the underground area, Su Ming and Zheng Xian decided to search Newton’s office in Ring Base for technology.
• Leo and Da Vinci entered the Great Hall, where Da Vinci challenged Newton and reassured Leo as the gathered Immortals watched them.

Da Vinci revealed himself to Newton as a returning elder of the Shield, then left to retrieve a newborn Celestial from the sun. He taught the rapidly growing aberration basic arithmetic and brought it along toward Earth, while Su Ming and Zheng Xian planned to let the crisis worsen before offering help.

• Da Vinci convinced Newton of his identity by answering questions in Ancient Egyptian and said he had returned to fulfill his duty to the Shield.
• Da Vinci told Leo to search for an open-eye symbol behind the Shield council chamber, then flew into space; Leo decided to investigate the passage.
• Su Ming and Zheng Xian revealed that Da Vinci was retrieving the Celestial Infant and agreed to wait for the Celestial to start killing people before intervening.
• Da Vinci watched the previous Celestial disintegrate in the sun as a red aberration emerged and cried out a mathematical equation.
• Da Vinci taught the newborn Celestial arithmetic, causing it to grow rapidly, then headed back toward Earth with it following.

Michelangelo and Da Vinci tried to regroup after Nostradamus was knocked unconscious, while Newton set out to crush Da Vinci’s faction. Leo’s math explanation caused the Celestial Variant to grow into a gigantic robot, overturning the platform and scattering everyone.

• Michelangelo freed the unconscious Nostradamus and took Leo away, while Newton discovered the empty cell and rushed to rally his followers against Da Vinci’s faction.
• Da Vinci joined Michelangelo on the platform with the Celestial Variant, and they realized Nostradamus could not serve as their planned passage.
• Da Vinci sent signals to gather loyal guards as he and Michelangelo feared Newton’s coming attack and the consequences of the growing Celestial.
• Leo approached the Celestial Variant and answered its math problem by explaining the distributive law.
• The Celestial Variant grew to more than seventy meters tall, overturned the platform, and flung Nostradamus away; Michelangelo escaped and spotted two men watching from a flying carpet.

Su Ming and Zheng Xian used the rampaging Celestial and Michelangelo’s time-travel scheme to pressure Holy Shield. Michelangelo apologized, leaving the two men positioned to negotiate how to contain the threat.

• Su Ming and Zheng Xian watched the unstable platform spin while discussing the balance of power between Holy Shield, Holy Spear, and Kamar-Taj.
• Su Ming decided Michelangelo could be used to obtain equipment for Gin, while Michelangelo realized the Celestial was out of control and sought help.
• Michelangelo greeted Zheng Xian, and Su Ming intimidated him by revealing his identity as the Sorcerer Supreme.
• Zheng Xian and Su Ming pretended to accuse Michelangelo of time-smuggling and threatened to bring in demons unless Holy Shield addressed the danger.
• Michelangelo apologized to Su Ming and Zheng Xian as the Celestial continued destroying the Pocket Dimension.