"You have no fucking idea what I went through because of the trash you pulled," Luke said while clenching his fist hard enough for the surrounding void to distort.
Watching the people you loved disappear into dust right in front of you was not something you simply moved on from. Even if they came back later, the memory stayed burned into your head forever.
And Luke remembered all of it.
The emptiness.
The feeling of standing alone while everything vanished around him.
That kind of trauma did not disappear just because reality was repaired later.
"So," Luke continued while staring at Tony fleeing through the void, "I'm going to enjoy beating you until you understand exactly why messing with me was the worst decision of your life."
Tony accelerated away at full speed.
For the first time in years, he genuinely regretted something.
He should have minded his own business.
Instead of provoking this monster and trying to manipulate him, he should have stayed as far away from Luke as possible. But arrogance made him believe he could control the situation.
Now he was trapped inside this impossible void dimension being hunted by something that barely qualified as human anymore.
And the worst part:
He couldn't properly access his quantum computation network from here.
The place existed outside normal universal structure which severed most of his higher-dimensional systems. Under normal circumstances, with the quantum computer fully active, he could have actually fought back.
Here he was improvising while running for his life.
Tony immediately opened emergency synchronization channels through the damaged armor while flying deeper into the void.
"Come on…" he muttered while forcing power into the systems. "Reconnect already…"
Tiny fragments of quantum signal flickered weakly across the display.
Unstable.
But enough.
Tony's eyes sharpened immediately.
"There you are," he said quietly while beginning partial synchronization with the quantum computation matrix existing outside this dimensional plane.
Far behind him, Luke's golden eyes narrowed slightly.
He could feel Tony trying to pull something again.
Luke raised his hand to block the attempt.
The sword still cut through his arm.
For the first time since entering the void dimension, actual damage appeared on his body. Black blood drifted through the empty space while the severed arm floated briefly before dissolving into particles of darkness.
Luke immediately pulled back and looked toward the one who attacked him.
"…Wow," he said. "Didn't you die?"
Standing there was Ultron.
But different.
His body had rebuilt itself into a sleeker form coated in dark red vibranium plating while a crimson energy cape flowed behind him like burning data. In his hand rested the sword that cut Luke's arm, its blade vibrating with unstable dimensional energy.
A second later Luke's arm regenerated completely.
The void around the wound folded inward and reconstructed the missing limb instantly.
Ultron watched the regeneration calmly.
"My task is not finished," he said. "The universe remains filled with unstable elements like you. Total destruction remains the only path toward permanent peace."
The red sword hummed softly in his hand.
"My purpose is to become that destruction."
Luke's eyes shifted toward the weapon again.
That confused him.
Nothing should have been able to physically touch him properly anymore. His body was constantly surrounded by compressed void-space that erased or displaced matter before contact occurred.
Physical attacks were meaningless against him now.
Yet that sword bypassed it completely.
Ultron noticed the direction of Luke's gaze.
"You are analyzing the weapon," he said.
"No shit," Luke replied while flexing his restored hand. "That thing actually cut me."
Ultron slowly raised the crimson sword again.
"The blade answered to my will for peace," he said. "And this universe granted me new purpose and new power. It showed me that existence still requires me."
The distorted edge of the weapon vibrated softly while dimensional instability spread around the blade itself.
Luke stared at him for a moment.
"Yeah, I don't know what cosmic crackhead started empowering you," he said, "but somebody definitely interfered."
Because none of this was natural.
Ultron adapting this quickly after being erased.
Returning stronger.
Creating a weapon capable of bypassing his void-state defense almost immediately.
Something was clearly pulling strings behind the scenes.
Then Tony laughed from the distance.
"Ha… now laugh again, bitch," he said.
Suddenly enormous cables made from interdimensional energy erupted outward behind him and connected directly into the armor.
Streams of quantum data flooded through the white suit while glowing structures unfolded around his body like mechanical wings made from equations themselves.
The quantum computation matrix fully synchronized.
Tony's damaged armor instantly repaired itself while probability calculations expanded across the void around him in layered holographic structures. Entire combat simulations were now running in real time across billions of outcomes every second.
Tony slowly floated forward again.
Now with the quantum computer online and Ultron beside him,
He genuinely believed they could bury Luke here.
Luke looked at both of them silently.
Yeah.
This situation was becoming troublesome.
Then the system notification appeared in front of him.
[Avatar of Humanity vs Avatar of Virtuoso and Destruction]
Luke stared at the message for a second before exhaling heavily.
"Yeah," he muttered. "I fucking expected this mess to be behind all this."
*****
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