The battle outside the fortress didn't last long. After losing the core threat of the zombie Sentry, the remaining zombie horde was nothing more than meat on a chopping block.
In the light screen, Lorna's magnetic field swept across the entire ruined area, crushing hordes of zombies into pieces.
Felicia flew around the arena carrying Mjolnir, lightning arcs scorching the ground black.
The only ones that took more effort to build were the zombie Hulk and the Zombie Thor.
Doom personally intervened, stacking three layers of binding magic arrays, and Morgan le Fay followed up with a Soul Stone Corruption spell. Under the dual suppression, the two top-tier zombies struggled for less than thirty seconds before falling completely silent.
Clean and efficient.
When the group returned to the fortress, Thor was sitting with his legs crossed in front of the control panel, eating nuts.
But everyone's first reaction upon entering wasn't to look at him—instead, they all stared at Valeria.
The girl was holding a Crystal the size of a fist. Inside the ball, golden light was compressed into a human-shaped outline the size of a thumb—it was the zombie Sentry.
The pocket dimension was condensed into the crystalline medium by Thor using some means.
Valeria was surrounded by seven or eight testing instruments, and the table was covered with holographic projections. Her fingers switched back and forth between three terminals, and the words that came out of her mouth were more and more outrageous.
"... The self-replication cycle of the pandimensional parasitic factor is 0.003 seconds, which is two orders of magnitude faster than I estimated—no, the energy conversion model of the host cell shouldn't be linear..."
She paused.
Her golden ponytail swung over her shoulder as she bit the tip of her pen, staring intently at a set of data, her brows furrowing deeper and deeper.
Doom stood in the doorway, his eyes behind the mask scanning the holographic projection.
"Viral replication does not depend on host cell division," he began, his tone flat. "It parasitizes the cosmological constant itself. Let's reduce the dimensionality by one level and reconstruct the model using the Planck scale."
Three sentences.
Valeria froze, her eyes suddenly lighting up.
"... right."
She quickly reconstructed the data model, and the new curve fit perfectly.
The kid with the golden ponytail turned around and, unusually, revealed a genuine smile.
Thank you, Victor.
Doom did not turn his head; his cloak fluttered slightly.
"Don't mention it, you're Doom's goddaughter."
Morgan le Fay leaned against the doorframe, a barely perceptible curve appearing at the corners of his lips.
Felicia and Ash looked at each other, completely bewildered.
Felicia didn't dwell on the matter for long. She walked up to Thor and handed Mjolnir to him.
"Here you go."
Thor glanced at the hammer but didn't reach for it.
"Keep it."
Felicia was taken aback.
"Anyway, this universe is going to restart soon." Thor leaned back in his chair, his tone as casual as if he were handing someone a bag of snacks. "Just treat it as a new toy."
Felicia looked down at the artifact in her hand; the lightning arcs were still pulsating slightly on the Hammerhead. She opened her mouth, but ultimately said nothing and put the hammer away.
Thor stood up and stretched his neck.
"Alright, I'm going to talk to the Watcher about this closed-loop issue—"
"I'll go with you."
A quiet voice cut in from the corner.
Alison stood still, her short blonde hair partially obscuring her face. She finally loosened her grip on her wrist, raised her head, and looked directly at Thor.
Thor looked at her for two seconds, then suddenly raised his right hand and pointed his index finger in the air.
A thin white ray shot out and precisely pierced Alison's forehead.
Her body trembled slightly, and she subconsciously took a half step back before regaining her balance. A warm sensation came from her forehead, which quickly dissipated.
"With this, you will retain all your memories after the world restarts."
Thor withdrew his hand.
I'll come find you then.
Alison's eyelashes trembled. She didn't say thank you, but simply nodded, burying that promise deep in her heart.
Thor turned his head and scanned everyone present.
Then he casually waved his hand.
The magnetic field amplification on Lorna disappeared, the lightning affinity within Felicia was drained, and the extra layer of law enhancement on Doom, Morgan le Fay, and Ash was instantly stripped away. All the temporary enhancements he had previously given to everyone were completely gone, without a trace.
No one had time to react.
Thor's figure transformed into a blue beam of light, piercing through the fortress's dome and soaring into the starry sky.
When he condensed again, he was already standing in the depths of the universe.
In the desolate void where the stars had faded, a large figure in blue robes stood silently in front.
His 3.7-meter-tall body was surrounded by a hazy glow, his standard bald head Sparkly, and his face was calm and lifeless.
Watcher Uatu.
Thor stood with his hands in his pockets, looking up at the enormous head.
"You should have seen my plan. If it can be cured, then treat it; if not, continue with the closed-loop system."
Uatu remained silent for three seconds, then lowered his clear, starry eyes to Thor, his expression calm and devoid of any emotional fluctuation.
"Can."
Thor nodded. "Let's begin."
With a casual scoop, space tore open, and Valeria and Wanda were pulled over simultaneously.
Wanda steadied herself, her scarlet pupils suddenly contracting. The 3.7-meter-tall figure in the blue robe was right in front of her, and the ancient, almost Eternity aura made her hair stand on end.
Her identity Sorcerer Supreme had allowed her to read countless forbidden texts, but seeing the Watcher with her own eyes was a first for her.
Valeria was more direct. She froze for half a second, then her eyes lit up. Her hand had already reached for the terminal at her waist, but she pulled it back abruptly, her fingertips trembling twice.
Reason barely prevailed over impulse.
Uatu ignored the two newcomers. He raised his hands, and vast Cosmic Energy gathered in his palms. Under his control, the timeline fractured, rewound, and restarted.
The closed loop is reactivated.
A strange bolt of lightning struck down in the sky above the distant Earth.
The zombie Sentry plummeted into the atmosphere through a dimensional rift, its golden remains trailing a rotting trail as it crashed into New York.
Alarms blared throughout Avengers Tower, and all the uninfected heroes, including Iron Man, Captain America, and Spider-Man, were mobilized.
Before they even reached their destination, Thor was already directly below the Sentry.
A hand is raised, fingers spread.
The zombie Sentry's fall was frozen in place; the power of a million stars remained completely still before this palm, not even stirring up any air currents.
Thor clutched the golden remains and closed his eyes.
The newly comprehended laws were operating at full power.
The operational logic of the viral agent was peeled back layer by layer in his perception—cross-dimensional parasitism, erosion of the cosmological constant...
But as long as there is power, there are rules, and as long as there are rules, they can be comprehended.
It only took three seconds.
The decay on the surface of the golden remains began to recede, the ashen skin regained its color, and the empty eyes regained their focus.
Five seconds.
A perfectly intact Robert Reynolds stood in mid-air, clean from head to toe, his gold uniform looking brand new.
He blinked blankly, looked down at his hands, then looked up at the unfamiliar blond man in front of him.
"... what happened?"
Thor released his grip and turned to look at Uatu in the void.
"You decide what to do, whether it's quarantine or sending them back to their original universe."
He paused. "We're leaving."
With one hand pulling Wanda up and the other grabbing Valeria by the back of her collar, he was about to tear open a space to catch Alison—
"Wait a moment."
Uatu spoke up.
Thor stopped what he was doing and turned around.
The 3.7-meter-tall blue-robed giant lowered his gaze, and for the first time, something akin to solemnity appeared in his ever-calm starry eyes.
There's something I might need your help with.
Thor raised an eyebrow. "What's so difficult that even you guys can't handle?"
Uatu spoke slowly.
"A while ago, there was a Ultron —who obtained Six Infinity Stones."
It is Carnage the multiverse.
"I need your help, Thor Odinson."