"Why does it feel like she's…weaker than I expected?"
After clashing repeatedly, Tohka noticed the other her didn't seem as strong as before. Judging by how powerful she'd been when she first appeared, she should have been much stronger than this.
"Has this little brat had enough yet?"
Annoyed, the Inverse Tohka glared at her counterpart. She also realized by now that there was probably some big misunderstanding between them—but with her usual arrogance, she couldn't be bothered to explain anything and just kept fighting.
On the battlefield below, Thor and the Hulk finally arrived. With their entrance, the tide of the battle turned sharply.
Meanwhile, Nick Fury was having no easier a time—now the World Security Council was putting pressure on him, ordering him to authorize a nuclear strike.
"You have to trust my team—they've already…" Nick Fury absolutely refused to agree, and was now arguing back with everything he had.
What a joke. Never mind that this squad had come together at his urging in the first place—he also planned to clean house inside S.H.I.E.L.D. afterward, and he'd need these people's support to do it.
"Ugh…what happened?" On top of Stark Tower, Dr. Selvig slowly came to, dazed. The first thing he saw was Miku Izayoi standing nearby—and not far away, the Tesseract blazing with energy.
"Oh, you're awake." His groan caught Miku's attention, and she immediately contacted Tony, who was still fighting over New York.
"Mm, that guy woke up, I'll be right there." When Tony heard that, he finally let out a breath of relief.
After blasting apart a few more enemy craft, he flew straight for the top of the tower. Thor followed right behind, clearly eager to face the culprit of this whole disaster himself.
"Dr. Selvig, none of this is your fault. You were under mind control. But now you have to tell us—how do we shut down the Tesseract? If we can end this, there's still time to fix everything."
The moment he landed, Tony wasted no words. He got straight to the point—this wasn't the time for assigning blame. Ending the war was the only priority.
"I left a back door. You have to use Loki's scepter—that's the only thing that can pierce the shield. The scepter and the Tesseract are made of the same energy." Dr. Selvig didn't hesitate either and explained everything at once.
"Loki—where is that bastard?" Thor's reaction was even simpler—he roared at everyone around him, clearly itching to find and pound his brother flat.
…..
But as soon as he said it, the air turned awkwardly silent. Not only Thor—even the other heroes listening over the comms went quiet.
Because they had all realized the same big problem—after all this fighting, Loki himself hadn't shown up again. In other words, he was probably still lurking somewhere, plotting something worse. No wonder everyone felt uneasy.
"Um…I…I think I know where he is." Feeling the tense silence, Miku Izayoi timidly raised her hand. Instantly, every eye locked onto her.
"What? Where is he?" Tony didn't waste time either—he just asked directly.
"Well…earlier, when he ambushed Tohka…" Under all those stares, Miku shrank back.
Honestly, if they hadn't asked, she'd almost forgotten about it herself. In her mind, since Tohka had casually swatted him away, he hadn't seemed worth worrying about.
"He got smashed by Tohka's sword, flew through a bunch of buildings… You could probably follow the trail to find him." As she said this, she pointed to the giant hole in the building across the street.
…..
Silence fell again. Even Thor seemed ready to mourn for his brother. He hadn't even made his dramatic entrance yet—some final boss he turned out to be, getting wrecked off-screen before he could say a word.
"Fine—let's go find him." Hearing Miku's explanation, Tony didn't hesitate any longer. He flew straight through the hole she'd indicated.
At the same time, the aerial battle above them suddenly shifted. Running out of energy, Inverse Tohka was gradually getting pushed back.
She was feeling awful—if she'd been at full power, she wouldn't necessarily have beaten Tohka instantly, but she certainly wouldn't be struggling like this. She was also starting to regret not explaining herself properly.
"Damn it…my power's nearly gone. Whatever—I'm going all in."
Knowing her time was short, Demon King Tohka decided to finish it. With a huge slash, she knocked Tohka flying—and then unleashed a kilometer-long blade of energy.
"What the…this woman…"
Seeing the attack hurtling toward her, Tohka didn't dare hold back. She gathered all her power and braced herself to intercept it—only to be forced steadily downward by the colossal force.
"Damn—we can't let that hit New York!" Tony and Thor, who were already airborne, both spotted it at the same time. They instantly forgot about Loki—Tony spread every repulsor cannon he had, and Thor spun his hammer, preparing to intercept.
"Hmph." Demon King Tohka glanced down at the three of them. She had never expected this attack to actually hurt Tohka—she was so exhausted that even if Tohka got hit, it wouldn't be fatal. If she'd really wanted to kill her, she wouldn't have fired such a telegraphed strike.
Instead, she turned her gaze to the top of Stark Tower—where the Tesseract was waiting. That was her real target.
"This thing—I'll be taking it." Without sparing another glance for the three trying to stop her attack, she flew straight for the rooftop. As she landed, Miku Izayoi and Dr. Selvig both instinctively stepped back.
"Break." She ignored them and swung her massive blade down at the shield.
Boom. As her strike landed, the barrier around the Tesseract rippled violently. But she didn't pause—she poured every ounce of her remaining strength into the next blow. Black light exploded from the cleaver-sized sword.