Reed stood in the center of the encirclement, his combat uniform gleaming coldly in the void.
He glanced at the surrounding armor. "You think these things can stop me?"
Tony didn't reply; he understood that arguing with someone like Reed was pointless.
As Reed finished speaking, the spatial reading on Tony's armor panel jumped sharply. The encirclement shifted inward by a few centimeters, but the armor itself didn't move; the space itself was contracting!
He's modifying the local spatial density.
JARVIS's voice came through the headset, "The nanotech armor's propulsion efficiency is decreasing; if this continues, the encirclement will fail."
Tony tapped his wrist guard three times, and three spatial anchors popped out from his back, scattering and floating in the surrounding void.
The anchor emits high-frequency vibrations the instant it deploys, like three nails wedged into a contracting space.
A pale blue anchoring field spread out, stabilizing the distorted space.
The armored warriors at the front regained their mobility, and their palm cannons fired simultaneously, the energy beams striking the shields surrounding Reed and creating ripples.
Reed tilted his head, his gaze falling on the anchor. "Interesting. It seems that stone taught you quite a few new things. This anchoring logic shouldn't exist in this universe."
Tony ignited his thrusters and circled around to the side, close to the shield.
Reed's body stretched out from its original position, like a mass of elongated liquid metal, splitting into three streams that surrounded Tony from different directions.
Each segment's end is blade-shaped, angled precisely to target joint gaps and propeller nozzles.
JARVIS said on the channel, "His transformation speed is increasing!"
"Knew."
Tony didn't explain further. He stopped abruptly in mid-air and fired a shot at the root of Reed's extended limb on the left.
The two chased and dodged, their energy beams and extended limbs colliding repeatedly in the void. Reed's body could freely deform, sometimes stretching into a whip to lash out, sometimes spreading out into a thin shield for defense. Relying on the firepower of the armored group, Tony could always find a counterattack angle in the gaps, but Reed seemed to know in advance where he was going to strike each time, and his evasive maneuvers became smaller and smaller.
"He's anticipating my firing rhythm. JARVIS, randomize the firepower mode!"
"Switched. The firing interval and trajectory angle change randomly each round."
Reed's voice held a hint of impatience. "Is this all you can rely on?"
The match on Thor's side is much more closely contested.
The replica can be broken up and reassembled, or burned and regenerated.
Thor's voice came through the channel, "This thing is adapting to my divine power frequency; the damage I do to it is decreasing."
How much longer can you hold on?
"I could spend the whole day like this with him, but it's just so frustrating to play against him."
"I'm busy right now."
Tony glanced at the screen on Thor's side. The clone had reformed once again, and the trajectory of the lightning that struck it was different from before; it had been partially deflected.
" Thor, try a physical attack!"
Thor charged forward, and his hammer slammed down with tremendous force.
"Physical attacks are effective!"
Thor's eyes lit up. "It can adapt to energy, but not to physical attacks. I should have just engaged in melee combat."
He switched the hammer to his left hand, clenched his right fist, and cracked his knuckles. "Let's start the next round."
In the monitoring room, Banner stared at the screen full of fluctuating data, while Phastos stood beside him on the whiteboard, working out a spatial distortion model.
" Reed's spatial rewriting range is expanding."
Phastos pointed to the spreading red area on the screen, "He's modifying the space structure layer by layer, from the inside out. Expand it another two astronomical units, and the supporting orbital batteries will be affected."
Harley's voice came through the communications channel, "Ground support teams are all in position, and evacuation plans for key cities have been activated and pre-loaded. If the battlefield shifts towards Earth, all personnel can be concealed within ten minutes."
Tony's voice cut in shortly after, panting, with the background noise of rapid-fire palm cannons and thruster deflections. "On the ground, everything is normal. We've stopped Reed."
"Received." Haha.
Banner glanced up at the screen. Although Tony said he had stopped Reed, the battlefield was indeed slowly spreading away from the Solar System.
Further to the flank and rear of the main battlefield, Lynn stopped in a vast, empty star field.
He sensed for a moment before speaking, "Come out. Aren't you tired of hiding for so long?"
A portal emitting a dark green light slowly unfolded before him.
A person emerged from behind the door, wearing green armor with gold patterns, a mask covering most of his face, revealing only a pair of calm, indifferent eyes.
Kang the Conqueror.
He stopped at the edge of the portal, not moving forward, his gaze passing over Lynn and looking towards the distant battlefield.
Kang's voice had a mechanical quality, "I can't find you in other universes, you are a variable!"
Lynn's fingertips gleamed with a faint Space Stone. "Oh? Perhaps. You're just going to keep watching like this?"
Kang said casually, "I'm observing the data. Reed's molecular reconstruction technology and Tony's armor are both very interesting. They're worth much more than I initially estimated."
So when do you plan to make your move?
Kang chuckled, a muffled laugh coming from beneath his mask. "It's still early. Wouldn't it be better if I made my move after Tony Stark and Reed Richards have settled their differences?"
The light at Lynn's fingertips shone even brighter. "Then you might not live to see that day."
Before the words were even finished, space suddenly folded, and an invisible spatial blade slashed straight towards Kang's neck.
Kang slightly turned his body, just managing to avoid it. Ripples appeared on the portal behind him, clearly indicating that he was preparing to leave.
"Don't rush to attack, I haven't figured out who you are yet."
Kang took a step back, half his body submerged in the portal. "The real show hasn't even started yet, don't be in such a hurry."
A second before the portal closed, his voice came through one last time. "I hope you'll have enough ability to please me when we face off."
The light faded, and the void returned to silence.
Lynn stood there for a moment, sensing the situation. Kang's words were loaded with meaning; was he reminding Lynn to leave some room for maneuver, or was he testing whether Lynn would be provoked?
He simply stopped thinking about it and turned to head towards the main battlefield.
Seeing that he couldn't break through, Reed finally lost patience. He snapped his the Snap, and the spaceship hatch behind him opened for the fourth time.
This time, only one huge, irregularly shaped spherical core slowly floated out.
Silver-gray liquid metal flowed across its surface, constantly changing shape, and the surrounding space distorted slightly in sync with its pulsation.
What is that?
Tony immediately had JARVIS scan him.
"Energy readings are skyrocketing. It's rewriting the constants of physics around us; gravity, the speed of light, molecular forces—everything is changing. This thing is affecting the rules of our surroundings on a massive scale."
No sooner had the words left his mouth than the dozen or so suits of armor in the front row suddenly went out of control.
The thrusters were still firing, but the armor seemed to be nailed to the spot, and the nano-surface began to dissolve irregularly.
"Just like Lynn's abilities, they don't follow the laws of physics. This is troublesome. JARVIS! All armors, retreat!"
The liquid metal on the core surface suddenly expanded outward, forming a semi-transparent force field that began to slowly diffuse.
One after another, the armored vehicles swept by the force field lost power and plummeted into the depths of the void. JARVIS reported the numbers over the channel, "Thirty-seven percent of the first ring is destroyed, the second ring is being evacuated, and the third ring is temporarily safe."
" Thor, have you sorted things out on your end?"
"You can't really get away with smashing this thing."
Tony stared at the pulsating core. He skimmed over the knowledge emanating from the Mind Stone, searching for a corresponding solution.
The core of rule rewriting. Reed calls it the Origin of Order, capable of replacing the physical framework of the target universe.
"Its rewriting scope has an upper limit! Reed needs to locate it at the core of the target universe to complete a global reset; for now, it can only rewrite locally."
"How extensive is the partial rewriting?" Banner asked.
"Based on this pulsation frequency, it can cover half an AU."
"Half an AU?"
Phastos chimed in from the side, "Then the entire battlefield is within range."
Lynn's voice suddenly came through, "How are you? Did you miss me? That thing's weak point is at the bottom; the molecular structure there is the most unstable."
Tony looked up and saw an orange light sweeping over from a distance. Lynn landed beside him, raised her hand to create a spatial barrier, temporarily blocking the expanding force field.
Where is Kang?
"He left... We only chatted for a few words and then he ran off. You should think about how to deal with this problem first."
Did he say anything?
He wants me to be capable enough to please him.
Tony glanced at the bottom of the core. "Never mind that for now. Help stabilize the spatial force field. I'm going down."
"Are you going down alone?"
"You need to keep an eye on Kang. Don't even mention Thor. I'll have to go down there."
"What if it's a trap?"
"Even if it's a trap, we have to go. If we let it expand, all our preparations will be wasted."
Lynn didn't say anything more. He pushed the spatial barrier upwards, tightly suppressing the expansion of the force field.
Tony ignited his thrusters and circled around the edge of the barrier toward the bottom of the core.
Reed immediately steered the core around, and the surging liquid metal blocked his way. Thor interfered from the other side, forcing Reed to distract himself.
The energy input interface at the bottom of the core was exposed, and it was much smaller than Tony had expected.
He hovered in front of the interface, charged his palm cannon, and fired it into the interface. The liquid metal around the interface suddenly contracted.
"It works!"
Reed's face changed. "Do you know what you're doing?"
"I'll poke your back door!"
Ignoring Thor's antics, Reed charged straight at Tony.
The liquid metal on the device converges from all directions towards the bottom, attempting to completely seal off the interface.
Tony activated his thrusters at full throttle and retreated along the edge of the core. Just as he created some distance, Thor's hammer arrived.
The lightning struck the core surface, momentarily shattering the converging liquid metal.
Tony seized the opportunity, recharged his Palm Cannon, and attacked the still-open gap once more.
A burst of silver-gray light erupted from inside the interface, and the pulsation on the core surface abruptly stopped.
"The frequency has decreased!"
Banner's voice cut in from the monitoring room, "The rewriting field is becoming unstable."
"Then I'll fire two more shots at it."
Tony bypassed the surging liquid metal on the side of the core and locked the interface.
Reed launched himself from the direction of the spaceship, his body extending into a fine net that enveloped the core, attempting to prevent Tony from attacking again.
" Thor, don't let him come any closer!"
Thor charged forward, smashing his hammer against the net that Reed had transformed into.
Lightning surged in, causing the net to shake violently. Reed neither dodged nor retaliated, attempting to retrieve the device before Tony could attack.
Tony delivered the final blow before Reed could recover.
Reed finally stopped.
He transformed back into human form, landing beside the core and placing his hand on the crack. Silvery-gray liquid nanometal flowed from his palm, attempting to repair the core's internal structure.
The next moment, Thor swung his hammer down. He didn't have time to dodge and took Thor hit head-on. He was sent flying backward and crashed directly into the core surface.
The previous wounds were torn even longer by his impact.
Reed looked at the crack, and his tone finally softened a little.
It looks like this thing is beyond saving.
Tony said on the channel, "I didn't think we'd win easily before I came, but you won't have it easy either!"
Reed did not answer.
He reached out and patted the core surface.
The core pulse suddenly accelerated, and silvery-gray light surged out from the cracks, like a star that had been forcibly ignited.
"He's overloading the core?!"
Banner's voice immediately tightened, "The energy readings in your area are rising."
"Withdraw! All units, retreat immediately. JARVIS, all remaining armored units, get out of the blast radius, the farther the better. Lynn, you're just watching, now it's your turn!"
Thor was closest, and the hammer carried him away.
Tony's thrusters were fully engaged, creating distance along the edge of the core force field. Lynn didn't move; the spatial barrier shifted from blocking the rewriting field to converging inward, completely enveloping the overloaded core.
The core expanded slightly within the barrier.
The silvery-gray light almost burst through the barrier, but was forcefully suppressed by the spatial barrier.
After a muffled thud, the light went out, leaving only a rapidly cooling metal sphere in the void.
When Lynn returned, her breathing was slightly disordered.
"I controlled the explosion, but Reed escaped."
Tony looked into the distance.
The silver-gray spaceship was gone.
"He ran away?"
"Yeah, they got away."
Lynn watched the trail disappear into the depths of the star field. "This time he detonated the core; he definitely won't let this go."
Tony looked away.
The battlefield fell silent.
Of the hundreds of suits of armor, only half were still operational. The replicas on the Protoss battlefield were remotely recalled by Reed when the core overloaded, leaving only a silver-gray fragment floating in the void.
After a moment of silence, Tony said, "The first thing to do when we get back is to give all the battle data from this battle to JARVIS and compile it all."
"Then?"
"Let's make something that will disgust him too."
In an inconspicuous corner in the distance, that faint dark green pulse flickered slightly again.
Then it disappeared.