The moment the portal closed, Tony landed in a void.
Thor looked eager to try.
Behind him stood the Asgard vanguard, the divine energy at the tips of their spears radiating a faint golden glow in the void.
Further away, hundreds of suits of armor stood guard on the perimeter.
Thor didn't turn around, hammer resting on his shoulder, staring straight ahead. "They're here."
Reed's spaceship was already accelerating. A silver-gray energy field left a trail as it hurtled towards the exit of the passage.
"Then let's not be polite with him."
Thor lifted the hammer from his shoulder. "Advance party, first column, push forward, don't let him get through the exit."
The golden armored group pressed forward. At the same time, the energy fields of the spears lit up, creating a barrier in the middle of the passage.
Reed's spaceship did not slow down.
It suddenly opened its side hatch just before the interception line.
Tony initially thought it was a fighter jet released by Reed, but the detection readings surprised him: there was no metal hull, no weapon mounts, and the heat source characteristics were all biological.
What are those?
Banner's voice cut in from the base channel, tense. "Don't know. No match record. Biological tissue, but the structure is all... unnaturally folded."
The things pouring out of the hatch had no fixed shape. They were like flat, gray sheets, spreading out along the void at an incredible speed, forming a net in front of the spaceship within seconds.
Tony stared at the data. "Is this thing absorbing energy?"
Before Tony could continue, Thor had already moved. He swung his hammer in a wide arc, and lightning, imbued with the God Realm energy, poured into the gray net, blasting a hole in the middle, the edges charred and curled. "Then smash it through."
But there was another layer behind the cave. The second layer was thicker and darker in color, Thor's attack only caused it to tremble slightly.
Tony realized, "It's absorbing and reading Thor's attack. The first layer was just a decoy; the second layer has already adapted to Thor's attack energy."
From Banner's end came a rapid clatter of keyboard keys. "Energy signatures are being updated in real time. They are adjusting their defense strategy based on Thor's attacks."
Thor's second hammer blow caused less damage than the first.
The surrounding gray flakes had begun to move around the Protoss warrior, sticking to him from the sides and wrapping around his arms, calves, and weapons.
A vanguard soldier's spear was wrapped in several thin pieces, the Protoss energy slowly dimming, and the weapon became like an ordinary metal rod. He tore at it with force, the pieces snapped off, but more were added from the side.
Tony cut in from the outside, his palm strike shattering several pieces. But after those pieces broke, they wriggled in place, piecing themselves back together into smaller units within seconds.
They will automatically recombine.
Tony said in the channel, "Our attack is useless, Banner, analyze it."
Thor heard it, and lightning exploded around him, burning any nearby flakes to ashes.
But the ashes did not disperse; after lingering in the air for a moment, they began to gather again.
"He's not planning to wage a war of attrition against us."
Tony looked at the re-aggregating ashes. "I know, he's testing. He's seeing what methods we use, and then the next round will target his own modifications."
Thor put the hammer back in his hand and stared at the spaceship that was moving forward.
Reed never showed himself, and the spaceship itself didn't even reveal its weapons.
For the first time, Thor's voice carried a hint of genuine impatience. "He won't even show his face?"
"These things are troublesome enough; he doesn't need to get involved at all."
JARVIS had just marked a new heat source signal on the outer armor ring.
It was located very far and very small, behind Reed's spaceship. If it weren't for the detection arrays deployed by hundreds of armored vehicles, it would have been completely unnoticed.
The characteristics of that signal matched those of the pulse they had previously discovered in the Aquila.
Kang has arrived!
Tony to Lynn's channel. "Did you see JARVIS sharing the armor's detection data?"
Lynn's voice was calm. "I saw it. He's waiting for Reed to force us to use our methods."
"So what do you think Reed will do next?"
Lynn was silent for a moment. "It's already doing it. Tell Thor not to just stare at what's in front of him, but to look at his feet."
Tony glanced down at the armor's stats.
"He's changing the gravitational constant?! The physical rules in this region are changing."
Tony stared at the offset curve of the gravity readings; the values were still slowly changing.
" Thor, don't stand still. He's altering the gravitational constant of this space. The longer you stand there, the more unstable the gravitational field becomes nearby."
Thor glanced back.
His armor had an independent energy anchor, so changes in gravity didn't affect him, but the three rows of advance team soldiers behind him were already starting to experience problems.
Without turning his head, Thor roared, "Second column, spread out!"
Thor slammed his hammer into the ground, and lightning surged from the handle into the void beneath his feet, carving a stable landing line within the gravitational field.
" Tony, what's the situation on your end?"
"Those things are still being reassembled."
Tony cut in from the outside, his palm strike shattering two gray fragments that were coalescing. The fragments had barely broken apart when the next one filled the gap. "He's feeding his creation with data from every attack we launch. Once it's fully familiar with our attacks, things will get complicated."
Thor raised the hammer above his head, lightning gathering from all directions. "Let it adapt. I want to see if it has any limits."
The hammer flew out of his hand.
This strike was different from the previous ones; Thor held nothing back. The lightning exploded into a spherical shockwave centered on its impact point, engulfing all the gray flakes within its radius and burning them to ashes, giving them no chance to reform.
The edge of the shockwave swept across the side of Reed's spaceship, and the silver-gray energy field flashed.
Tony looked at the readings. "His hull shields have dropped by three percent."
Only three percent?
"His shield is also constantly recharging. You can attack hard, but he can recharge just as quickly."
As soon as Tony finished speaking, a new row of heat source markers popped up on the detection interface, pouring out from the side hatch of the Reed spaceship, twice as many as the first wave. This time, the things that came out were no longer gray flakes; they were darker in color and more regularly shaped, as if something was being assembled.
" Banner, what's this new batch?"
Banner's voice followed immediately. "The structure is different from the previous ones. The first wave was a loose network of units, but this batch has a clearly defined modular structure. They have joint-like structures, and their surfaces are covered with an energy membrane that operates at the same frequency as Reed's ship's shields."
Tony stared at those things. They were heading for Thor. The first wave of gray shards had entangled all the Protoss warriors, but this new wave, after landing, converged directly on Thor, moving much faster than the shards, and their formation was clearly directed.
" Thor, he's coming for you."
"I can tell."
Thor held his hammer horizontally in front of him. "Haha, I wasn't done having fun yet, come on!"
The first batch of new creations stopped about ten meters away from Thor. Instead of attacking him directly, they spread out around Thor, forming a semi-encircling arc.
Banner's voice came through, "They're coordinating. Each one is calculating Thor's movement trajectory in real time, and then exchanging data with each other."
Thor swung his hammer, unleashing a fan-shaped burst of lightning that cleaved the three enemies in front in two. However, the enemies behind him managed to push forward during the brief pause in Thor's attack, tightening the encirclement.
"They're sacrificing the front lines to slow you down. Thor, don't waste time with them. Find command."
"Where's the command unit? They all look the same to me!"
Tony scanned the heat source distribution, and indeed... the heat source characteristics of those new creations were all the same, with no obvious hierarchical differences.
There is no obvious command node. They share computation; each one is a node.
Thor smashed the second wave of three that charged forward, but the encirclement continued to tighten. Those creatures didn't care about losses at all; as soon as the front line was taken down, the others would come to their rescue, an endless stream.
"The annoying thing about this thing is that it keeps adapting to our attacks. Our attacks are dealing less and less damage!"
Tony's gaze remained fixed on Reed's spaceship. Its hatch opened again, but this time only one thing emerged.
A humanoid figure, about the same height as Tony, wearing a dark gray combat suit.
"What is this?"
"I don't know. But the probe readings are different from those other creations. This thing has a denser heat source signature, and its energy density is an order of magnitude higher."
Tony stared at the replica. "It's out. It's heading towards you."
The replica floated out of the spaceship's hatch at a slow speed, heading towards Thor.
Instead of scattering like those other creations, it stopped about fifty meters in front of Thor, suspended in the void, and moved its shoulder in a manner almost human-like.
It spoke. The voice was exactly like Reed's, but with a hint of polite indifference. " Thor of Asgard. My master sent me to fight you. He said your hammer is too wasteful to smash those little things, so I'll be your opponent."
Thor glanced at it, then at Tony. "He said 'master'?"
"I heard you. This thing was sent specifically to deal with you. Don't underestimate it."
Thor didn't reply, but raised his hammer, which was enveloped in lightning. The replica also moved, much faster than expected.
As Thor's hammer slammed down, it dodged to the side, its right hand extending a transparent, blade-like structure from its elbow, slicing towards Thor's wrist.
Thor dodged, and the hammer swept across, pressing the clone into a thin sheet that slid past the hammer's surface, bypassing the range of lightning, and reforming into human form, landing behind Thor.
"It can also transform!"
"Tell me something I can't see!"
Thor turned and swung his hammer again, knocking the replica back a few meters to the side.
Thor commented, "This thing is much more durable than those little gadgets!"
Tony stopped looking at Thor. He noticed that after Reed's ship released the replica, it began to move to the side, bypassing the battle zone between Thor and the replica, and moving towards the outer perimeter where Tony was.
" JARVIS, tighten the outer perimeter, don't let it get too close."
"Understood. The second ring will contract inwards."
Reed's ship ignored the shrinking armor rings and continued adjusting its angle until its side was directly facing Tony. Then the hatch opened for the third time.
This time, Reed came out on his own.
His body proportions were similar to Tony's. He wore a dark blue combat suit with the collar open to his collarbone, his hair was cut very short, and his face was expressionless. He floated out of the hatch, stood still in mid-air, and looked at Tony from a distance of about a hundred meters.
Tony Stark.
Reed's voice came through the communication channel, "I don't like wasting time. Give me that gem you have, and I can guarantee your universe won't be on the first reset list."
"The first batch of reset lists? You even compiled a list?"
"I've compiled an assessment of all the universes. Some can be preserved, while others need to be redesigned. Your universe currently falls into the category that requires redesign."
"But if you give me the gems, I can move you to the save file."
Tony leaned back in his armor, looked at him for two seconds, and said, "You're making it sound so direct, as if I'd believe you."
Reed's expression didn't change, but Tony noticed his fingers twitch.
"I don't understand people like you. You cherish chaos and glorify disorder as freedom."
Reed moved. His right hand extended into a long, thin whip-like structure, lashing out at Tony's visor. Tony was prepared; he ignited his thrusters, sidestepped, and simultaneously fired a shot from his left palm cannon at Reed's torso. Reed flattened himself into a thin sheet, and the cannon beam passed through, missing its target.
" JARVIS, push up the outer perimeter and confine him to this area."
"Clear."
Hundreds of suits of armor converged from the outside, forming a hemispherical enclosure around Reed. Reed stopped in the middle of the enclosure, transformed back into human form, looked around, and then chuckled.
"You brought hundreds of suits of armor to deal with me alone?"
"I'm not dealing with you. I'm keeping an eye on the person watching the show from behind."
Tony noticed Reed glancing sideways and behind him.
"You already noticed?"
I knew much earlier than you think.
" Tony, I'm in a bit of trouble. It's tangled up in my hammer."
Tony glanced at Thor's image. The replica had transformed into a membrane tightly attached to the hammer handle. When lightning struck it, the membrane was scorched and instantly regenerated, always remaining between the hammer and Thor's hand.
"You hold it off for now. I'll handle Reed."
"Hurry up."
Tony turned off Thor's channel, then reached out and patted the weapon bay on the side of his armor. A heavy defensive system popped out from his back and formed a shield on his arm.
" JARVIS, move the second and third groups of armored vehicles to flank from the side and use ranged weapons to wear them down."
"Understood. Long-range firepower is being prepared."
"Also, contact Lynn. See if you can sever Reed's real-time control over that network at the energy level."
" Mr. Lynn has left the current battlefield and headed towards Kang's previous coordinates."
What is he going to do?
Mr. Lynn did not tell me his thoughts clearly; he only said to go and take a look.