"You're tampering with things you don't understand, Stark! This isn't the first time!" Dana raised her chainsaw sword, its savage silver teeth catching the golden light of JARVIS's holographic projection like flickering cavefire in the long night of antiquity. Her stern rebuke made Bruce Banner hesitate once more, nearly convinced just moments earlier. Even Clint Barton, dull as he sometimes was, picked up on the danger. Stark's intentions were obvious now, and Clint made his outrage clear. The lack of understanding in the room ignited a bitter, scorched taste in Tony Stark's mouth, his lungs seared by the acrid fire of frustration. The burning spread to his throat, until every breath felt like molten iron pouring through his body.
He no longer trusted what he saw. His vision blurred, his brain overwhelmed by the same heat that had turned his breath into a furnace.
"It's a cycle, Tony," Banner said, opening his arms. "We've been here before. This is where it all went wrong."
"This is the end of the line, Banner!" Stark snapped, his sudden fury startling Bruce. He took a deep breath, tried to exhale the flames. "Sorry," he muttered, then looked to Clint and the artificial woman standing between them. "I know what I'm doing. There's no other way. Ultron is a ghost in the internet—we can't catch him! We have to create something stronger. Something that he fears."
"And what then? Every time an AI goes rogue, we just make a bigger one?" Dana's finger hovered over the engine switch. "You don't even know what you're creating, Stark. You can't control AI. Even if you put JARVIS in that body, the cosmic energy in that Stone will change him completely." She pointed to the cradle. "This is magic. And you know nothing about magic."
"Then why didn't Solomon stop me? Why didn't he say something earlier—like when we landed, or during the party? He could've fixed this in seconds!" Stark's voice cracked with disbelief and rising anger.
"The Monarch wants to see what humanity is capable of."
"So we're just lab rats, huh? The events are all variables, and he's the only constant—swooping in at the last moment before we destroy the experiment?" Dana realized that Stark's sharp tongue hadn't dulled with maturity—it had only grown sharper, more insufferable. He jabbed his finger toward the cradle. "If Solomon wants humanity to stand against aliens on our own, this is the path! This is the future of human evolution!"
"And the road to human extinction, Stark. You have no idea how many apocalypses the Monarch has seen—how many of them you started with your own hands." Dana pressed her thumb down.
The dragon's heart inside the chainsaw sword began to pulse again. The enchanted blood surged through the weapon's arteries, breathing life into a screeching roar. The air filled with a sickening stench of blood and brimstone. The raw essence of the dragon's soul craved battle—human blood, angelic blood, any blood. The weight of killing intent, only a fraction of what the creature had wielded in life, made everyone recoil in disgust.
Only now did they realize just how absolute Dana's resolve was.
She embodied Solomon's will.
"You know the Monarch's mission. You know which matters more—your life or humanity's future." Her voice was slowly drowned out by the growing whine of the engine. The others only caught fragments of her words. She unholstered an ornate, brutal-looking sidearm. "I won't let anyone defile what the Monarch sacrificed for his dream. He made his choice. Now it's time for yours…"
"Wait!"
——————————
"Ah! Morning, Captain!"
"You're late, Solomon. It's already over." Steve Rogers wasn't surprised to see Solomon. He'd felt all along that today's mission would make the news. What did surprise him, though, was the way the Maximoff twins smiled when they saw him. The moment passed quickly, but Rogers noticed.
"No need to hide it, Wanda." Solomon stood in the shadows of a derailed train car, waving idly. "When she awakened her magical abilities, Kamar-Taj sensed it. I taught her a few tricks, just enough to stop her from accidentally blowing herself up. She's more of a trainee than a proper apprentice."
Rogers said nothing, waiting for Solomon to continue. But Solomon didn't explain right away. He casually greeted the twins, firmly rejecting Wanda's attempt at a hug—as if even the slightest touch was intolerable to him.
"Your hand is cold!"
Wanda began recounting her experience after escaping the castle, pausing to ask about Solomon's temperature. His expression grew increasingly irritated. "Why didn't you transmute the wheels? Or dismantle some key component? I told you, brute-force spellcasting is foolish. Fire, ice, telekinesis—they're not always the answer. You could've just turned the road into a swamp."
"And explain to the city why Seoul suddenly has a swamp?" Rogers interjected, redirecting the conversation. "I thought you had business today. Are wizards interested in AI now, too? Or did you come to collect Wanda?"
"No classes today," Solomon replied, much to everyone's relief. If they were going to fight Ultron, they needed the twins—and Solomon too. Wanda and Pietro, despite everything, knew the value of life. They wanted to fix what they'd helped create.
"I do have business. But I'm not actually in Seoul."
"Then you—"
Solomon stepped from the shadows. Rogers watched in shock as sunlight passed through his body—dim, like tea-stained glass. If anyone had doubts, Solomon would've told them plainly: the brightness was reduced by eighty-five percent. Wanda recalled one of their lessons.
"Alchemical Simulacrum!"
"Close. More like the advanced version: a Divided Simulacrum. This is a construct of ice and snow, infused with my consciousness." Solomon handed Wanda a scroll. "Use this to bring everyone to Stark Tower. Dana might stop Stark, but she's too aggressive. I need you to keep things under control. I'm in an outer dimension, seeking a solution to Ultron. I'll return when the time is right."
"Where are you?"
"The Abyss." Solomon opened his real eyes and stared out over a mechanical city, blackened and blistering on a cursed wasteland. If molten iron was its blood, then its boiler-hearts were driven by arcane engines. Heavy smoke gathered at the tops of its towers. Acid rain poured constantly, running through massive drainage pipes. Ether-creatures, formed from pure malice, toiled endlessly within. Even from thousands of meters away, Solomon and Phoenix could hear the clanging of metal, the hissing of fumes. The red iron-rich soil trembled underfoot, each beat of the city's monstrous heart echoing through the ground.
This was the wound the Abyss carved into the material plane—a place where cursed chaos had taken shape. The stars devoured by the Abyss were smelted into monstrous war-forged demons, weapons of metal and malice sent to the frontlines to consume humans, devils, angels—even other demons.
Pegasus tossed its head. It hated the tingling sensation in its teeth.
Solomon's ring burned like molten ore. The ancient contract etched into its core told him clearly:
A lion was trapped inside that mechanical city.
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Fairy Tail: Igneel's Eldest Son (Chapter 256)
I Am Thalos, Odin's Older Brother (Chapter 336)
Reborn in America's Anti-Terror Unit (Chapter 542)
Solomon in Marvel (Chapter 924)
Becoming the Wealthiest Tycoon on the Planet (Chapter 1284)
Surgical Fruit in the American Comics Universe (Chapter 1289)
American Detective: From TV Rookie to Seasoned Cop (Chapter 1316)
American TV Writer (Chapter 1402)
I Am Hades, The Supreme GOD of the Underworld! (Chapter 570)
Reborn as Humanity's Emperor Across the Multiverse (Chapter 660)
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