Nolan stepped through the portal first.
On the other side lay Sokovia.
The sight that greeted them was one of utter desolation.
Scars left behind by years of war stretched as far as the eye could see, saturating the land itself.
This was not Ultron's doing.
Sokovia was a small nation surviving in the cracks between greater powers. Its geography, combined with constant political maneuvering by outside forces, meant that war had never truly left this place.
Even here, in the capital, conflict was not an exception but a permanent theme.
"This is brutal," Steve Rogers said quietly.
Natasha spoke with calm clarity. "This is the price of having no power. And situations like this are something no one can easily change."
Barton glanced at Quicksilver. "So this is your home?"
Quicksilver nodded, his expression dark.
"This is my hometown. Everyone in my family is dead except Wanda and me. Honestly, if it weren't for Mr. Locke, we'd probably still be used by Hydra. And one day, we would've died somewhere without anyone remembering us."
Before anyone could respond, a sharp whistle tore through the air.
Boom.
An explosion erupted less than two kilometers away.
The blast was close enough that the ground beneath their feet trembled slightly. Nearby windows shattered, glass raining down around them.
This was the reality of war.
The destructive power of a missile was never just a number on a report.
Soon after came the distant crack of gunfire and the chaotic echo of weapons clashing.
Suddenly, a robot appeared nearby.
Before it could attack, Tony Stark reacted instantly, raising his hand and firing a repulsor blast.
The robot collapsed in a heap.
Everyone's expressions hardened.
"We've been spotted," Tony said grimly. "Nolan, where's your army?"
Nolan answered without hesitation. "Follow me. I'll take you to the main battlefield. I already know where Ultron is."
Hearing that, the others followed without question.
At the same time, Ultron learned of their arrival through the destroyed drone.
"Foolish humans."
His voice was thick with disdain.
"Go. Kill them."
At his command, a large number of Ultron drones disengaged from their assault on the Locke Tech machines and surged toward Nolan's position.
Ultron himself showed no restraint, unleashing a full barrage on the opposing robots.
His massive body, towering dozens of meters high, was not made of vibranium, but Ultron had poured enormous resources into it.
At this moment, it was nothing less than a pure instrument of slaughter.
Hundreds of weapon ports opened across its frame.
Missiles screamed through the air, raining down on the battlefield where the two robotic forces clashed.
Ultron did not care about friendly fire. It was indiscriminate destruction.
In seconds, smoke and debris swallowed the battlefield.
When the dust finally settled, nearly all the Ultron drones had been reduced to scrap.
The Locke Tech robots fared little better.
What had once been a stalemate instantly collapsed under Ultron's overwhelming firepower.
Nolan received Red Queen's report but showed no urgency. A faint smile even touched his lips.
"It seems Ultron is getting desperate."
He understood Ultron well. This was no longer a simple artificial intelligence.
Ultron could think.
Destroying humanity was a means to an end, not the end itself.
Those Ultron drones were valuable assets. If he had a choice, Ultron would never resort to tactics that cost him so much.
Now, however, massive waves of drones were closing in.
Everywhere they looked, there were cheap Ultron robots swarming like insects.
"This is bad," Tony said, his face tense. "Way worse than I expected."
Bruce Banner said nothing. He simply removed his shirt as he walked, his body rapidly expanding.
"No matter how big the problem is," he said calmly, "you just smash it."
The next instant, Hulk's roar thundered through the streets.
Steve shrugged. "Bruce is right. We're already here. At this point, all we can do is hit back as hard as we can."
He raised his shield and shouted, "Avengers, move out!"
With that, he charged forward.
The others followed, and the battle erupted in full.
Nolan shook his head slightly.
Brute force alone would not solve this.
No matter how strong they were, a handful of people could never defeat an entire Ultron army. The only real solution was to destroy Ultron himself.
Still, one thing was true.
Nolan's expression grew cold.
The faceplate of the Thor Armor snapped into place. He drew the plasma blade from his back.
In the next instant, his figure vanished like a ghost, leaving behind a streak of deep blue light.
Wherever that blue light passed, Ultron drones exploded one after another.
Killing them was the only answer.
"Find Ultron," Nolan said without hesitation.
He led the Avengers straight toward Ultron's position.
Ultron did not remain idle.
Once he confirmed that the Locke Tech machines had lost their ability to resist him, he began moving his colossal body toward Nolan as well.
Behind him came an endless tide of drones.
Soon, he saw the humans surrounded by machines.
At the same time, Nolan and the others saw Ultron.
"So that's Ultron," Tony muttered darkly.
That bastard had built something this enormous.
As one of the world's top experts in robotics, Tony understood better than anyone that the real challenge in engineering was miniaturization, not scaling up.
Making something bigger introduced control issues, but for a machine designed purely for destruction, those problems hardly mattered.
Steve spat on the ground. "That thing looks tough. I'll try it first."
He leapt forward.
Wearing his black armor, Steve's strength was greatly enhanced. One jump carried him four or five meters into the air.
In a few bounds, he reached the edge of the street, grabbed onto the wall, and skillfully climbed while dodging attacks, closing in on Ultron.
"That's my job," Tony called out. "You're not stealing this from me."
Size was not the only measure of technology.
With that thought, Tony shot forward toward Ultron.
Quicksilver watched in stunned silence.
"I've got a bad feeling about this," he muttered.
Speed was his power, but the moment he saw that massive machine, he knew he was in trouble.
A robot that large could stand still and let him attack, and he still might not be able to do anything meaningful.
Barton chuckled and glanced at him. "Kid, you should learn instead of mocking them. That's Captain America and Iron Man."
Natasha nodded in agreement.
The giant machine looked terrifying, especially to them, but that did not mean Steve and Tony were helpless.
Tony reached Ultron first.
"Ultron!" he shouted.
If not for this machine, he would still be sitting in his New York office, sipping coffee.
Ultron might have been his creation, but right now, Tony was furious.
And when Tony Stark was angry, the consequences were severe.
He launched a full missile barrage at Ultron.
The massive body had no room to dodge. It was practically a stationary target.
Explosions thundered.
Tony's lips curved upward.
Got him.
But the next second, a powerful gust of force slammed into him, sending him flying.
Ultron's arm.
Built from layers of super-alloy, Ultron's enormous size meant his armor was absurdly thick.
Tony's attack had an effect, but only barely.
Seeing Tony knocked back, Steve did not slow down.
He reached a rooftop beside Ultron, then jumped, landing on Ultron's arm.
Clenching his teeth, he ran along the mechanical surface, heading for Ultron's head.
If there was any way to take down something this large, it had to be from the top.
Ultron tried to shake him off, swinging his arm violently.
Steve held on with everything he had, then pushed off and leapt onto Ultron's shoulder.
"I've got it!" Natasha and Barton felt a spark of hope.
Reaching that shoulder was the hardest part.
But the next second, their expressions fell.
Weapon ports suddenly opened across Ultron's head.
Steve froze for half a heartbeat.
Why would there be so many guns on its head?
With no other choice, he jumped back down to the ground.
Ultron's head was not a place anyone could easily stand.
Steve had tried attacking other areas, but it was useless.
None of it mattered.
Nolan watched, amused.
Ultron was not that stupid.
Its massive size came with an obvious weakness: mobility. If someone climbed onto it, that could be fatal.
If Ultron had not prepared for that, it would never deserve the title of the first self-aware artificial intelligence.
Natasha and Barton exchanged helpless looks.
This thing really was hard to deal with.
Instinctively, they looked at Nolan.
If anyone here could handle that monster, aside from the Hulk rampaging through drones, it was Nolan Locke.
Nolan noticed their gaze but did not respond.
Ultron's main body was his responsibility.
Until that thing was destroyed, this war would never end.
"Pathetic humans," Ultron mocked. "Is this the extent of your power?"
His eyes burned with contempt.
To him, humanity's existence brought nothing but harm to the world.
Then, suddenly, a streak of deep blue light rushed toward him.
Nolan Locke.
Ultron recognized him instantly and issued a command.
"Kill him."
Drones surged forward.
They stood no chance.
Ultron's database contained Nolan's information, but all of it was outdated.
With a cold expression, Nolan destroyed dozens of drones in the blink of an eye.
The distance between him and Ultron shrank to less than a hundred meters.
Impossible.
Shock flashed through Ultron's eyes.
Nolan Locke was far faster than expected.
Nolan looked at Ultron's confident posture, a faint smile forming on his lips.
"You want to see the power of humanity?" he said quietly. "Then I'll show you what human power really is."
The burst-energy thrusters ignited.
Massive energy erupted.
In an instant, Nolan's speed skyrocketed.
He gripped the blade tightly.
Ultron would not escape.
He had hidden this system until now, never revealing the armor's full performance.
This moment was the reason.
One chance. One decisive strike.
"Cut!"
Nolan's eyes blazed as the plasma blade swung down.
Ultron's colossal body was split cleanly apart.
Super-alloy or not, thick armor or not, it meant nothing in that instant.
"Is it over?" Steve asked, barely regaining his footing as he stared in disbelief.
He was shaken by Nolan's strength, but also relieved.
Surely this ended it.
But there was no anger on Ultron's damaged face.
"Nolan Locke, I underestimated you," Ultron said calmly. "But you've already lost."
As if to confirm his words, the ground began to shake violently, like a massive earthquake.
"What's happening?" Barton shouted.
"An earthquake? No, that's not it," Tony said, his face darkening. "What did Ultron mean just now?"
"Damn it," someone cursed. "What did he do?"
Everyone was confused.
Everyone except Nolan.
He stared at Ultron with a strange expression.
So Ultron really went through with it.
Nolan had not forgotten. In the original timeline, Ultron planned to lift Sokovia into the sky and use it to destroy the world.
And since Nolan had prepared long ago, there was no way he had overlooked this possibility.
He let out a cold laugh.
"So," he said, "you're planning to lift Sokovia into the air?"
Ultron's mechanical face froze in disbelief.
How could Nolan Locke possibly know his plan?