An extreme test by reactor detonation, the Liaison Office Chief's emergency

That piercing alarm signaled the Ending.

It was like a needle, piercing the time film that had solidified over countless years in the abandoned site of the Red Room.

Immediately following was a roar from deep underground.

It wasn't an explosion, but a more thorough, structural collapse. The metal dome overhead emitted a teeth-grinding groan, and spiderweb-like cracks spread visibly across the massive reinforced concrete pillars.

Dust and gravel fell like rain.

Hela was trapped in front of the blast door of the Class A Archives Department. The Death Energy around her had materialized into a dark green storm, easily turning falling rocks into dust. There was no panic on her face, only an extreme coldness frozen in the aftermath of being fooled and betrayed.

She didn't even look at the cracks in the dome.

Her gaze pierced through layers of barriers, seemingly searching for the person lurking in the shadows, manipulating them at will.

In another cubicle, Wanda's situation was much worse.

Scarlet Chaos Energy surged wildly around her, like a group of soldiers without a leader, chaotic and without order. The forged document about the "Chaos Magic Extraction Protocol" echoed repeatedly in her mind like an inescapable curse.

Lynn's calm and rational face alternated with the cold words in the document.

The foundation of trust is crumbling inch by inch. This internal collapse is far more devastating than the collapse of the external physical world. She tries to stabilize the trembling ground with magic, but the out-of-control energy only futilely bombards the walls, stirring up more dust.

Suspicion drove them to fight their own battles.

In this base that is about to become a tomb, two powerful beings, capable of shaking the universe, are trapped in their own Mind Stone prisons.

Only Gwen Stacy.

She was isolated in the control center. The violent shaking forced her to hold onto the control panel to keep her balance. She didn't look at Hela's anger, nor did she try to sense Wanda's pain.

Her gaze was fixed on the small Personal Terminal screen on her wrist.

On the screen, the value representing the integrity of the base structure is rapidly plummeting towards the red zone. The energy index of the antimatter Arc Reactor, on the other hand, is resolutely heading towards the irreversible critical point.

It's too late.

All conventional methods of escape have failed.

Gwen Stacy took a deep breath, forcing her mind, which was somewhat dizzy from lack of oxygen, to remain absolutely clear.

She didn't try to contact Lynn. She knew that in the face of an internal crisis of this magnitude, any external instructions would be futile. All she could rely on was the rules.

These were rules that Lynn herself established and that she was tasked with enforcing.

Amidst the chaos, her fingers slid rapidly across the light screen, her movements precise and steady, without the slightest unnecessary tremor.

"Emergency Evacuation Contingency Plan for Cross- Dimension Field Personnel of the Negative Zone Management Committee"

She pulled up the document and jumped directly to Article 17, Section 3.

"When a field team encounters force majeure, faces the risk of total physical Oblivion, and all conventional communication and evacuation plans fail, the highest-ranking Liaison Office officer has the authority to activate the ' Supreme Emergency Transport Protocol ' without prior authorization."

She pressed the deep red virtual button.

An authentication window popped up.

Authorization code: Gwen Stacy Stacy, Liaison Office Chief.

Her voice was clear, even somewhat overly calm.

"Emergency teleportation initiated, coordinates: Safe Buffer Zone-03."

"Command confirmed." A cold, synthesized voice came from the terminal.

Almost simultaneously, a purer spatial energy, neither belonging to Hela's death power nor Wanda's Chaos Magic, instantly enveloped the three of them.

Hela was about to draw her sword and forcefully break through space when she felt an irresistible force, bearing the imprint of the Management Committee's underlying rules, locking her in place.

Wanda was also jolted out of her turmoil and looked up in the direction where Gwen Stacy was.

The next second, their figures, along with the surrounding space, transformed into invisible particles.

The moment they disappeared, the miniature antimatter Arc Reactor at the bottom of the Red Room base reached the end of its life.

There was no earth-shattering roar, no dazzling brilliance.

A single, pure white dot of light appeared silently and then rapidly expanded.

Wherever the light touched, all matter—steel, rock, or even the distorted space itself—was silently erased, returning to the most primordial nothingness.

Safe Buffer Zone-03.

This is an absolutely clean, pure white space, used by the Management Committee as a transit station to isolate high-risk samples and personnel.

The figures of Gwen Stacy, Hela, and Wanda are reunited and re-formed here.

Gwen Stacy staggered, clutching her knees and breathing heavily. Forcibly activating the highest Contingency Plan had placed an immense mental strain on her.

Hela and Wanda were in slightly better condition, but their complexions were equally grim. They looked at each other almost simultaneously, their eyes filled with suspicion and hostility that had not diminished in the slightest despite their shared escape from danger.

Just then, a figure staggered out from the shadows of the buffer zone.

It was a woman.

Her black combat suit was tattered, revealing large abrasions. Her face and arms were covered in smoke and dirt left by the explosion, and her red hair was disheveled, making her look extremely wretched.

She saw Gwen Stacy and the other two, a hint of confusion flashing in her eyes at first, followed by a surge of immense joy and relief.

"Are you... a member of the investigation team?"

Her voice was weak, trembling violently as if she had survived a catastrophe, and filled with helplessness.

"Thank goodness... I thought I was going to die in there. That Arc Reactor... it was a self-destruct device left behind by TVA, it just suddenly activated... I'm just a Survivor forgotten here..."

As she spoke, she tried to approach them, but nearly fell because her legs were weak.

Anyone who saw her like this would think she was an innocent victim who had narrowly escaped disaster.

Wanda and Gwen Stacy both looked wary.

Hela simply watched her coldly, observing her near-perfect performance.

"Is the performance over?"

Hela's voice was like a cold knife.

Natasha's body stiffened for a moment, and a perfectly timed look of confusion and fear appeared on her face.

Hela stepped forward.

Without any unnecessary movements, the Night Sky Sword, formed from pure death, was already firmly pressed against Natasha's throat.

The chilling Aura of Death seemed to freeze the surrounding air.

"Soul Search."

Hela coldly uttered two words.

Faced with the direct threat of death, the look of terror on Natasha's face slowly faded, replaced by a bitter, bleak smile.

She neither resisted nor offered any explanation.

With a hand that was still trembling slightly, she pulled something out of the inside pocket of her tattered combat uniform with great difficulty.

It was a neatly folded document, but the edges were charred.

She handed the document to Hela.

In the charred corner of the document, a dark red raptor stamp with TVA's distinctive style was faintly visible under the white light of the buffer zone.