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CRACK!
The Chitauri soldier, still frozen in its firing stance, felt its head snap ninety degrees to the side. Its compound, fly-like eyes, glowing with that eerie green light, stared in disbelief at Hawk, who was now standing in front of it.
How did he suddenly get behind me?
The Chitauri soldier didn't understand.
But it didn't need to. That was the last thought it would ever have. An instant later, an endless darkness consumed it.
The soldier's lifeless body crumpled to the rooftop, its energy weapon slipping from its grasp and clattering to the ground.
"That's it?"
"Heh."
Hawk looked down at the soldier whose neck he'd just broken and let out a short, dismissive laugh.
The next second.
He felt it. Deep within the Cosmo that had been born from that internal Big Bang, a warm current of energy surged as the Chitauri soldier died. As this energy flowed into him, it was as if a single star had just been ignited in his personal universe.
At the same time, with the lighting of this star, a wave of information washed over him.
The ghostly outlines of the forty-eight Bronze constellations, which had been shimmering within his Cosmo, became slightly more defined as the first star flared to life.
Hawk closed his eyes, absorbing the information his Cosmo was feeding him.
To grow in countless battles.
To ascend in endless combat.
After all...
The path of the Cosmo was born for war, forged for holy crusades. It was the art of battle, the way of the Saint.
"So."
"If I want to light up my own constellations within my Cosmo, I need to fight. I need to keep fighting."
In the lore of the Saints, the awakening of one's Cosmo was deeply tied to their guardian constellation, but it wasn't a simple one-to-one relationship.
If an awakened Cosmo was the liquid, then the constellation was the vessel.
The constellation was the symbol of a Saint's identity and the container for their power.
The bad news:
In the Marvel Universe, there were no Saints. So, if he wanted a guardian constellation of his own, he would have to ignite them, one by one, through his own efforts.
The good news:
Because there were no Saints in the Marvel Universe, then theoretically, he could awaken all forty-eight of the Bronze constellations.
It wasn't like in the old stories, where tens of thousands of warriors would fight and die just for the chance to claim a single constellation, with only one emerging as the victor.
In those stories, the constellations were few, but the warriors were many.
But here, it was different.
Here, he was the only one who had awakened a Cosmo.
So...
He could be the Pegasus Saint, or he could be the Phoenix Saint. He could be any of them, as long as he could ignite their stars within his Cosmo.
And that...
Was awesome.
He was going to take them all.
Wait a minute.
If he could claim all forty-eight Bronze constellations... what about the twenty-four Silver constellations?
And the twelve Zodiacs of Gold?
Hiss!
The thought struck Hawk with the force of a physical blow, and he drew in a sharp breath.
....
Just then.
He heard the whistle of air cutting above him. His eyes snapped open to see two more Chitauri soldiers on their flyers. They had seen the body of their fallen comrade at his feet and immediately locked onto him. Without a word, they opened fire.
Pew! Pew! Pew!
Enraged at the sight of their ally killed by a weak human, the two Chitauri soldiers unleashed a torrent of energy blasts, pouring their fury down onto the rooftop.
Under their combined assault, the already crumbling rooftop finally gave way.
With a deafening groan, the roof of the apartment building collapsed.
The entire structure began to shudder.
Soon.
As the two Chitauri circled, relentlessly firing, the building began to fail, collapsing in on itself from the top down.
The ground seemed to tremble. With a massive plume of dust and debris, the five-story apartment building was reduced to a pile of rubble.
Some of the residents who had managed to escape the building just before it collapsed, but hadn't gotten far, now stood frozen, their mouths agape as they stared at the ruin.
But their shock was short-lived.
The two Chitauri soldiers descended, appearing before them.
They snapped out of their trance. Seeing the inhuman soldiers, they screamed and turned to run.
But it was too late.
Their orders from the mothership were simple: kill all humans. Seeing the fleeing civilians, the Chitauri didn't hesitate. They pulled their triggers once again.
A storm of exploding energy blasts.
A street of falling bodies.
In the blink of an eye, the already impoverished, rundown street was transformed into a warzone, looking like something straight out of a battle-scarred city.
After clearing out the civilians, the two Chitauri soldiers dismounted from their flyers. They drew their energy rifles and aimed them at the pile of rubble that was once the apartment building.
They had realized something.
The life signal of the human who had killed their comrade was still active.
Not only was it not weakening, it was growing stronger.
Stronger and stronger.
The two Chitauri exchanged a look.
The next second—
BOOOOOOOOOOM!
The rubble exploded outwards, and a blur of motion shot out.
The Chitauri soldier on the right vanished. A split-second later, a thunderous CRACK echoed through the street. The soldier was now plastered against the wall of the building across the road, spread out like a grotesque mural.
Eerie green blood flowed down the bricks.
The remaining Chitauri soldier stared, its eyes wide, at the sudden fate of its partner.
But its eyes were too small. No matter how wide it tried to open them, they still looked like little green beads.
It instinctively started to run toward its splattered comrade, but it didn't get more than a few steps. It saw a flash of movement, and then its entire body was launched backward.
Only then did the sound of the impact reach its ears.
BOOOOOOOOOOM!
CRACK!
The Chitauri soldier's chest caved in mid-air. It flew through the air like a ragdoll before crashing into the pile of rubble.
Its body bounced once off the debris before settling into the ruins.
It didn't move again.
"Pa."
"Pa."
Hawk appeared where the second soldier had been standing. He casually dusted off his clothes while looking around with a curious expression.
He killed one Chitauri, and two more showed up.
Now he'd killed these two. So, three should be coming next, right?
Hawk thought to himself, then looked up toward Manhattan, at the colossal Leviathan that was now descending from the portal...
His eyes burned with anticipation.
He was ready for more.
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