The smoke and fire gradually dissipated with the evening breeze, and the remaining alien debris was scattered throughout the city. The deafening sounds of artillery fire, mecha roars, and explosions all subsided into silence.
The all-day Battle of New York has officially come to an end.
In mid-air, the majestic and sacred Galactron stood silently, its gilded and pure white mechanical body slowly withdrawing all its energy luster, and the oppressive aura of judgment surrounding it gradually receded. Rimuru raised his hand and waved it lightly, and two giant portals opened one after the other.
The rumbling of machinery trembled the sky as the Transformers army, which had just swept across the battlefield and guarded the defenses, retreated into the spatial portal, their massive metal bodies disappearing one after another into the light and shadow. Then, Galactron, the ultimate weapon of judgment that everyone present would never forget, also stepped back into the pure white portal, bathed in tranquil holy light, its figure slowly fading into the sky.
Tony tilted his head back, his gaze fixed on the direction Galactron had disappeared in, his eyes filled with undisguised longing, as if he were yearning for him.
As a top genius, an extreme gear enthusiast, and a tech fanatic, this ultimate mechanical creation, which combines divine aesthetics, colossal size, and devastating output, perfectly captured all his tastes.
He was already incredibly excited and wished he could pester Rimuru right then and there to get a research replica.
But then he thought about it again. He had just shamelessly gotten top-notch anti-gravity technology from Rimuru not long ago, and he hadn't even fully digested and mastered it yet. Now he was asking for a top-tier ultimate weapon. It was really a bit greedy and impolite of him.
Tony could only suppress the burning obsession in his heart, secretly clicking his tongue in regret, silently making a mental note—next time, next time I'll definitely ask Rimuru me have one.
"Alright, the battle's over, let's call it a day." Tony shrugged casually, dispelling the tense atmosphere of the battlefield, and smiled as he put his arm around the people around him. "Have you ever had Turkish kebabs? There's a shop about two blocks away."
After a life-or-death battle, everyone was exhausted, both physically and mentally. Upon hearing this, they relaxed and responded with smiles. The group of superheroes, who rarely let down their guard, prepared to enjoy the relaxing time after the battle.
One by one, the group headed to the barbecue restaurant on the street. The noisy crowd gradually dispersed, leaving only Rimuru standing in the ruins, his expression slowly shifting from relaxed to calm.
He lowered his eyes slightly, his mind quietly connecting with the void, and softly inquired of the waiting Black Dragon.
"Scan the entire timeline. Have you detected any unusual remnants? For example, overlapping timeline shadows, two Tony, three Hulk, or other signs of temporal distortion."
Black Dragon quickly reviewed the previous battle and sent back accurate test results in an instant: everything was normal, and no similar findings were found.
The moment the result was confirmed, Rimuru a long sigh of relief, as if a huge weight had been lifted from his heart.
Things have really changed.
Because of his intervention, the Battle of New York completely deviated from its original destined trajectory.
There was no Extremis nuclear bomb suicide, no more time warp in the finale, and no more Time Heist by the Avengers.
That means the originally predetermined tragic future has been completely rewritten.
In theory, Tony doesn't need to snap his the Snap in the Endgame to ultimately sacrifice himself and burn out his life.
Natasha wouldn't have to travel to the cliff of the Soul Stone, fall into the abyss, and sleep forever.
The inevitable death of everyone was forcibly erased.
But what followed was endless sighs and helplessness.
There is ultimately no way to have it all in this world.
They saved countless lives and rewrote the tragic ending, but the warmth and compensation for regrets brought by the time travel were also completely lost.
Tony will never have the chance to travel back in time to meet the young Howard, resolve his long-standing issues, and finally have a belated reconciliation and farewell with his father.
Steve never had the chance to travel back in time to that night at the ball, to keep a date seventy years late, to hold Carter's hand, and to make up for his lifelong regret.
The scales of fate are always fair; by avoiding the tragedy of death, they also robbed us of the tenderness of reunion.
Rimuru sighed softly, a hint of helplessness flashing in his eyes.
Bringing his thoughts back to reality, he caught up with the group, already hearing Tony chatting with them.
And there was that somewhat familiar plot point: Hulk was too big to fit in the elevator, Tony made him take the stairs.
After a quick check-up, the group headed to the Turkish kebab restaurant Tony had mentioned.
The shop owner originally had no intention of opening for business, but Tony used his financial power, and the owner immediately agreed.
However, the result wasn't very good. While it wasn't exactly bad, it was just average, and many people fell silent as they ate.
It's highly likely that the Battle of New York today was too brutal, and the barbecue restaurant owner, still shaken by the horrors of war, suffered a mental breakdown, resulting in a loss of skill and a decline in the quality of his cooking.
The group left the barbecue restaurant. The atmosphere was quite nice. Thor even packed some leftovers to go, showing how hungry he was. However, Rimuru's thoughts drifted back to the deeper logic of the timeline, and a crucial question popped into his mind.
Without the time hijacking in Avengers: Endgame, the time distortion in New York in 2012, and the scene where Loki escapes with the Tesseract, would the original timeline still hold true?
In the original comics, the entire beginning of Loki's capture by the Time-Space Variance Authority, his departure from the main universe, his trials and tribulations, and his eventual coronation God of Stories all stemmed from the New York time loophole caused by the Avengers ' time travel.
It was that accidental escape that allowed Loki's variant, freed from his fate of death, to fall into the view of TVA, beginning his legendary life of traversing multiple worlds, weaving all stories, and ultimately settling in the Time Tree to become the God of Stories.
But now, all the previous events have been wiped clean.
There was no time travel, no time loopholes, and no escape from the Tesseract. In 2012, Loki was defeated and captured, and the story continued along the original universe's timeline.
Will he still be arrested by the Time Variance Authority? Can he continue to transform and become God of Stories controls all stories and protects multiple timelines?
Or, in the Thor: Ragnarok: Ragnarok storyline, create an illusion of him being strangled to death by Thanos —he couldn't actually be strangled to death, could he?
Or is it that from the moment I intervened in the New York battlefield and rewrote destiny, a completely new, independent timeline, utterly free from the constraints of the original work, was born?
Damn, I feel like my presence didn't make the characters' storyline better; in fact, it made it worse!
Especially Thor, will he end up with his family destroyed in the end?
As Rimuru pondered this, she looked at Thor with a complex and sympathetic gaze, and everyone else noticed Rimuru's strange expression.
Even Thor, who was frantically tearing apart food, noticed Rimuru's strange gaze.
"What's wrong? Do you want some too?" Thor thought Rimuru also wanted some of the roasted meat in his hand, so he handed Rimuru a piece.
Rimuru immediately waved his hand.
"It's alright, you can continue."
Looking at the landlord's foolish son, Rimuru decided that he should pay for the sins he had committed.
P. S.: Oh no, I forgot about the Winter Soldier character! I only realized I was missing someone after I finished writing.