The phantom of a phoenix burning with black flames slowly spread its wings outside Earth's atmosphere. Its eyes held no light, only a pure desire for destruction and an Eternity hunger.
In a corner of the battlefield below, Peter Parker and Jessica Jones, who had just reunited, looked up almost simultaneously.
"Jin?" Peter's voice trembled with disbelief.
That figure in the green battle suit, that familiar silhouette... Despite the great distance, that sense of familiarity from the depths of my Soul Stone is unmistakable!
It's her! It's their partner, Jean Grey!
"She... she's back?" Even Jessica's usually cold and hard face showed a rare hint of emotion.
She clung to the broken wall beside her, barely able to stand.
In the struggle to survive in the apocalypse, nothing is more painful than losing your companions.
And now, my former comrades have returned!
The two exchanged a glance, both seeing in each other's eyes the ecstatic joy of surviving a disaster.
They wanted to go forward, to greet and embrace their long-lost family member.
But the next second, their steps froze on the spot.
As the figure continued to descend, its face became clearer.
That wasn't the Qin they remembered, the one with a sensitive heart and clear eyes; it was... a grayish-blue face covered in lividity, the face of a zombie!
Her eyes were empty and lifeless, and her mouth was stretched into an inhuman arc, with saliva mixed with black flames dripping down.
Beside her followed a figure that also exuded an aura of decay, wearing a green Cloak and a metal mask—it was none other than the zombified Doctor Doom Doom!
"This is the food Doom found for you..." the Zombie Doom said in a hoarse, grating voice, pointing to the ravaged Earth below in a boastful tone.
However, he hadn't finished speaking.
The Zombie Phoenix merely glanced at him indifferently.
"Uh--!"
A black and red phoenix flame shot out from her eyes without warning, instantly engulfing the Zombie Doom.
Before he could even utter a scream, the former monarch of Latveria was burned to the smallest particles in the terrifying flames, leaving not even a trace of ashes.
Clearly, in the eyes of this hungry Beast, there is no such thing as "fellow humans," only "food" and "partners." Any additional participant would be a desecration of her prey.
High above, Thor witnessed this scene, his brow furrowing in worry.
This script is wrong!
The plot he knew flashed through his mind. In the original storyline, Phoenix should have Rebirth at this moment, completely freeing herself from the shackles of the zombie virus, returning in her strongest form, and then... then defeating Knull in one move, becoming Knar's most stern mother.
Now look what happened: Knull was prematurely reset to his factory settings, and while Phoenix did appear, why is she still a zombie?
and...
Thor's expression became more serious than ever before.
He could vaguely sense a pressure emanating from this Zombie Phoenix.
That wasn't the cold, Void oppression of Knull, but a pure, violent, destructive energy capable of burning away all concepts!
"Damn it, I shouldn't have come to rescue Classic Loki!" Thor cursed inwardly.
Having previously roamed freely in other universes and gotten used to low-level matches, I always felt that the Multiverse Level was nothing special.
But when he arrived in the Marvel Comics Universe, wow, one high-level god after another popped up, and they were all superhuman monsters who were above his current level!
The Zombie Phoenix clearly gave no one time to think; her only goal was to eat!
After burning Doom to death, her eyes, filled only with hunger, immediately locked onto Thor, the most radiant being in the sky.
"Roar--!!!"
She let out a roar that was not human, and her whole body transformed into a black and red streak of light, tearing through the atmosphere and charging straight toward Thor at a speed exceeding the speed of light!
Even before the scorching heatwave arrived, it had already caused the entire space to distort and burn!
Thor's face darkened. Without thinking, he unleashed his fist, imbued with the power of light and the divine power of thunder, to meet the stream of light head-on!
This punch is enough to easily turn a star into cosmic dust!
However, the instant his fist, powerful enough to instantly kill Knull, made contact with the black flames burning on the Zombie Phoenix's body—
"Laugh..."
The domineering power of light on Thor's fist only managed to dispel a thin layer of phoenix flames before it ran out of steam and was devoured and Oblivion by the even more surging black flames.
Thor felt an overwhelming force coming from his fist, and he was sent flying!
"Damn it, another overpowered monster!" Thor, having regained his footing, looked at the wisp of black flame that remained on his fist, which he couldn't extinguish, and he already knew what was going on.
This thing is in a completely different league!
His gaze swept over Strange, the Classic Loki, Peter, Jessica, and others in the ruins below.
In such a battle, they couldn't even withstand the aftershocks.
Without further hesitation, Thor activated the Law of Space and made a grasping motion towards everyone below!
"Buzz!"
A soft golden light instantly enveloped Peter, Jessica, Strange, the Classic Loki, Black Swan Yabbat... and all the surviving warriors.
The next second, their figures vanished without a trace, teleported directly to the other side of the universe by Thor.
Thor's actions completely enraged the Beast, which was driven solely by instinct.
The appetizer that was about to be eaten has flown away!
"You... how dare you... let... my... prey escape!!!"
Intermittent roars, filled with endless resentment and madness, exploded directly in Thor's mind.
"I will... utterly... tear you apart! I will devour... every inch of your flesh!!!"
"Boom--!!!!!"
A terrifying black phoenix flame erupted from the center of the Zombie Phoenix!
The flames instantly engulfed the entire Earth, igniting the ancient planet beneath their feet into a massive, black-red cosmic fireball!
Even the Law of Darkness that Knull left behind and that resided deep within the universe were brutally dispersed and burned away in the face of this more domineering and unreasonable force!
The entire Sun System has become this phoenix's oven!
Thor hovered in the center of the flames, his expression extremely solemn.
There's no escaping it; this guy has locked onto me and is faster than me.
We have no choice but to give it our all!
He took a deep breath and mobilized all the power of the more than thirty kinds of cosmic laws that he had mastered without reservation!
All his energy and insights were poured into the black and gold battle axe in his hand at this moment!
On the axe blade, golden light of creation and purple lightning intertwined, while around the axe, more than thirty kinds of laws transformed into visible rune chains, frantically wrapping and compressing!
This was the most terrifying strike Thor had unleashed since his Rebirth, a strike imbued with everything he possessed!
"Open it for me!!!"
With a roar, Thor used all his strength to swing the battle axe, which carried all his power, at the Zombie Phoenix in front of him!
An indescribable axe light, seemingly capable of splitting the entire multiverse in two, tore through space and time, severed cause and effect, Oblivion all laws and energies along its path, and pointed directly at the core of the phoenix!
Faced with this devastating attack, the Zombie Phoenix merely raised her slender fingers.
A tiny, seemingly extinguishable black flame drifted from her fingertips, meeting the axe light that pierced the heavens and earth.
The next moment.
To Thor's incredulous gaze, the axe light, powerful enough to split the heavens and earth, vanished the instant it touched the wisp of black flame, as if it had never existed...
It was burned to ashes, completely and utterly, leaving not a single trace.
Thor's mind went completely blank for a moment.
Before he could even process this incomprehensible scene, the figure of the Zombie Phoenix appeared before him like a ghost.
She snatched the black and gold battle axe that Thor was so proud of from his hand, and without even glancing at it, tossed it into the endless void like trash.
Immediately afterwards, a hand engulfed in black flames grabbed Thor by the neck and lifted him up.
"Now..." Her rotting face loomed close to Thor, greedily inhaling the boundless life energy and divine power emanating from him, "It's time... to savor your taste, Thor!"
The Zombie Phoenix opened her enormous maw, large enough to devour stars, and aimed it at Thor's neck, ready to bite down hard!
But just then--
A sudden change occurred.
The black flames that had been raging across the sky and boiling the sea on the Zombie Phoenix's body suddenly went out without warning.
It was as if someone had pressed a switch, or rather, the concept of "flame" itself "died" at that moment.
The Zombie Phoenix froze, and for the first time, a look of bewilderment appeared in her empty eyes.
A languid and gentle female voice slowly echoed in the silent void.
A woman with black hair, wearing a black tank top, gothic makeup, pale skin, and distinctive teardrop-shaped lines under her eyes, appeared not far away at some point.
She glanced at the frozen Zombie Phoenix and gave a helpless smirk.
"He's not someone you can just eat, little bird."
As she spoke, she glanced at Thor, who was being choked and looked equally bewildered, and a playful smile appeared on her lips.
"If you kill him, where am I supposed to find fun?"