"HULK! SMASH!"
High above the battlefield, Hulk was enhanced by Mordo's light magic, which gave him incredible speed and agility. He roared and leapt, covering almost a thousand meters in a single bound.
In the next moment, Ultron's commander was torn to pieces. Although Hulk wasn't known for his sharp mind, his combat instinct was almost infallible.
After destroying one commander, he wasted no time, he stepped on the remains of the mechanical body, used a double jump, and flew toward the next opponent.
"Mjolnir!"
Thor, realizing that his lightning had no effect on these new Ultron units, decided to switch to raw strength. Just like Aron, he began brutally tearing the commanders' bodies apart one by one.
"Tony Stark!" he shouted, smashing one of the robots.
"Just wait until I'm done with all of them, then we'll talk about these iron monstrosities of yours that aren't afraid of thunder!"
"As you say, but I don't…" Tony paused, sweat dripping down his forehead under the helmet.
The truth pained him, Ultron had stolen a huge part of his research, including technologies from a series of prototypes designed to counter any threat.
All of that was now built into these new commanders, making them deadlier than ever.
"Stark!" shouted Aron as he punched his way through the battlefield.
"If I ever see you experimenting with my abilities in the future, you'd better prepare your own funeral!"
Aron moved at incredible speed, breaking through enemy lines. Wherever he passed, Ultron's commanders exploded in clouds of fire and metal.
His combat efficiency was terrifying, while Hulk and Thor were inflicting massive damage, Aron was eliminating threats almost instantly.
Even the most advanced Ultron technology couldn't change their fundamental weakness, the structure was still vulnerable.
Even super-strong titanium alloy shattered before his blows as if it were glass.
Still, for the rest of the Avengers, the fight wasn't easy. Iterative versions of Ultron's robots were extremely resistant. Hawkeye's arrows explosive, electromagnetic, and even laser, barely managed to deal damage.
Black Widow, using her "Widow's Bite," could only somewhat match their reflexes. She and Hawkeye had to coordinate every attack just to take down a single opponent.
Captain America, with Mordo's help, jumped on the back of one commander and grabbed him tightly by the neck.
"I've got him!" he shouted, gritting his teeth. His muscles tensed, veins bulged, and his grip grew tighter and tighter.
Aron sped past him and, with a quick glance, said, "Steve… you do know robots don't need to breathe, right?"
Without waiting for an answer, he continued toward his next target.
One by one, the commanders fell. Each exploded in a flash of light and sound as the heroes pushed closer to the top of the crashed helicarrier.
---
"Ultron 54 is offline… Ultron 55 is offline… Ultron 56…"
"Update: all Ultron commanders have been neutralized."
The news of the complete destruction of the interceptor forces echoed through the communication channels.
Ultron, however, didn't show a shred of surprise.
He took control of one of the ordinary Ultron robots on the deck of the crashed carrier and looked up at Aron and his team.
His red mechanical eyes sparkled with a cold gleam.
"According to the Insight Protocol calculations…"
"Everything was going according to plan."
Ultron had hacked into the S.H.I.E.L.D. database and accessed Hydra's Project Insight plan, an algorithm capable of predicting possible future outcomes through massive calculations.
Millions of simulations, created by analyzing vast amounts of data, gave him the ability to react in advance, almost as if he could see several steps into the future.
But there were two key conditions: he had to have enough data… and that data had to be completely accurate.
"There are too many gaps in the information about Kamar-Taj on the human internet," he uttered through his digital voice.
"And Aron…"
Aron and the mystical side he represented were his greatest threat.
There were almost no traces of him, even the S.H.I.E.L.D. database was full of blanks.
It was as if he had simply popped out of a crack in reality.
But that, at least according to Ultron's calculations, was now irrelevant.
Fear was gone.
"From now on, you humans will belong to the past."
"This world will be ruled by steel."
The robot serving as his current avatar activated the thrusters on its legs and began to rise into the air.
But before he could finish the threat, the sky was torn by a massive flaming slash.
Boom!
Aron's energy blade cut through the air and struck the robot, shattering it instantly.
The strike was so powerful that it split the carrier beneath them in half, severing half of the hull, while molten metal oozed from the wound, hissing as it touched the sea.
The flames didn't extinguish, they sliced through the sea's surface into a kilometer-long wave, while glowing steam rose into the sky.
"Don't waste time on those puppets," said Aron, raising his blade and aiming it at what seemed like an empty patch of air above the carrier.
In the void, there was nothing… at least not at first glance.
"It seems your Insight Protocol does have a flaw," he spoke calmly.
"But you didn't expect me to find you."
Red light glowed out of nowhere, and Ultron appeared, emerging from optical camouflage.
He was far more imposing than his mass-produced units and even the commander models.
His vibranium body, three meters tall, bore six arms, and on his chest were six circular sockets, slots reserved for the Infinity Stones.
Two were already embedded: the orange Mind Stone and the red Reality Stone.
"You're much stronger than I assumed," Ultron said, looking at Aron with a mix of fascination and caution.
Through global networks and the Insight Protocol, Ultron had already run hundreds of millions of simulations.
In those scenarios, he was always one step ahead of the Avengers… except when it came to Aron.
He had never been part of that equation.
"Did you really come out of nowhere?" he asked, though he already knew the answer no longer mattered.
"I have mastered the power of reality warping."
"You have already lost."
Ultron raised his hand, and the Reality Stone on his chest glowed with intense red light.
In a second, a wave of energy flooded the horizon.
From the air, Ultron's commanders began to materialize, created from nothing, without materials, without manufacturing.
Against the very laws of physics.
In just a few moments, their multitude filled half the sky.
They loomed over the battlefield like a steel storm.
"Welcome… to the Age of Ultron."
——
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