Kingpin lit a cigar, leaning back in his chair. Ever since becoming an undead, smoking was one of the few pleasures he had left.
"The master went to Alfheim with some superheroes. That's all I know." The situation had unfolded too quickly for Garus to anticipate, and now, he could only gather information through ground-based communication relays.
Fortunately, they had been reinforcing the headquarters' defenses all along, preventing the swarm from breaching the building.
"Alfheim? That's another dimension. No wonder we can't contact him." Uatu nodded in realization, though his expression soon darkened—his ship didn't have enough fuel to reach that realm.
"My ship can handle long-distance travel, but I'm running low on fuel. Can you supply some?"
Kingpin shook his head. "Most of the elemental energy crystals were taken by the master. The few that remain are needed to power the barrier and protect this building. I must safeguard the master's property."
No matter how much Uatu tried to persuade him, Kingpin remained unmoved. To him, the fate of others was irrelevant. Sheltering the nearby civilians was merely incidental.
Besides, he firmly believed that Garus would soon resolve the crisis and return to Earth. The swarm wouldn't be a problem then. His only duty was to hold the line.
"This really has nothing to do with me." Uatu sighed, realizing he was getting too involved. He was merely an observer.
Yet, he couldn't forget what he had seen—the entire Earth consumed by fire. Human civilization wouldn't be wiped out entirely, but by now, nearly a billion people had perished. This catastrophe was worse than any before.
...
Meanwhile, the battle in Alfheim raged on. Garus was now clearly gaining the upper hand. If not for the Cosmic Control Rod constantly regenerating Annihilus' body, the insectoid warlord would have been reduced to a bloody pulp by now.
What puzzled Garus was why the Infinity Stones had no effect on Annihilus. After some thought, he suspected the Cosmic Control Rod was the cause.
The rod itself was an incredible artifact, but the weapon housing it was of poor quality. After several clashes with Frostmourne, its blade was riddled with cracks.
Clang! A crisp sound echoed as Annihilus' weapon shattered into two pieces, and the half embedded with the Cosmic Control Rod plummeted downward.
Before the Brood King could react, Garus cast Death Grip. Gray death magic coiled around the falling hammer, pulling it toward him.
"Give that back!" Annihilus roared in desperation. Without the Cosmic Control Rod, he was just an ordinary Brood King. His reinforcements were almost here—if he could just hold out a little longer…
Schlink!
Rushing toward Garus, Annihilus was met with the icy tip of Frostmourne, piercing effortlessly into his chest.
"I refuse to accept this!" he howled, feeling his soul being torn from his body. The last thing he saw was his swarm, blotting out the sky, descending upon the battlefield.
"A weak soul," Garus muttered as Frostmourne absorbed Annihilus' essence. But it was too feeble to grant him any significant power. That was disappointing. The Cosmic Control Rod, however, was a valuable artifact, though not particularly useful to him.
Just then, a massive energy beam streaked across the sky, obliterating a large section of the battlefield. Yet, the victory was short-lived—the swarm quickly filled the gap left behind.
Looking down, Garus saw that the battle below was nearly over. The insect horde surrounding the city had been almost entirely eradicated.
"Tony, catch!" he called, tossing the Cosmic Control Rod to Stark without hesitation. Maybe he could find a way to study it—it contained advanced technology from the Negative Zone's Baluurian race.
The glowing rod, embedded in a warhammer, landed in the ground before Tony, sinking deep into the earth.
"Jarvis, analyze this," Tony ordered.
A scanning beam from his armor's sensors swept across the Cosmic Control Rod.
"Unable to analyze. The technology far surpasses current understanding. However, based on battle observations, the artifact exhibits matter reconstruction, enhanced user physiology, strength amplification…"
Not bad. Tony considered integrating it into his suit to boost his combat capabilities.
With a thunderous stomp, "Giant-Man" crushed several beetles beneath his foot. Looking at the ever-increasing number of insects swarming the sky, his face paled.
"Garus, we need to leave! Their main force has arrived!" Even though there was nowhere left to run.
Garus had already noticed. The swarm wasn't attacking—they were merely surrounding the continent.
This battle had helped him refine his control over the Infinity Stones. Now, faced with the amassed swarm, he didn't intend to flee.
"These are just cannon fodder. Don't worry. You should take cover."
Frostmourne glowed with a prismatic radiance as fractures spread through the space in front of Garus, like cracks in a mirror. The swarm, trapped within that fractured space, found itself severed from reality.
Space cleaved, reality warped, raw power obliterated. Under the combined influence of multiple Infinity Stones, the sky itself was torn apart, shattered into nothingness.
Like a reaper harvesting wheat, entire swaths of the swarm vanished—erased as if they had never existed.
"The swarm… they're gone!"
Everyone stared in shock at the now-empty sky.
If not for the shattered remnants of the battlefield, they might have thought it had all been an illusion.
"Problem solved. Now we can go home."
"Garus, I think you alone could have wiped them all out," Doctor Strange remarked, realizing how little impact he had on this battlefield.
"Maybe," Garus admitted. "But if I had waited that long, Alfheim might have been destroyed first."
More importantly, his mastery over the Infinity Stones had grown once again.
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TN: This fanfic has been fully translated and is available on my Patreon —— PATREON.COM / PRIMALDEMON