Loki raised the Scepter high, instantly amplifying his spiritual power through the Infinity Stone at its tip. That invisible signal was transmitted directly across the wormhole to the command systems of the Chitauri mothership!
"All units, obey my command!"
His will resonated in the minds of every Chitauri commander, like a divine oracle.
"Abandon a frontal assault! Stop getting tangled up with the monsters at the gate!
All reinforcements, pass through the space gate and enter the sky over the city immediately!
Fan out as quickly as possible! Scatter the attack!
Their firepower is limited—they can't cover everything! Dodge them! Attack the city below! Strike those fragile buildings! Attack those insect-like humans!
I want this city awash in blood! I want them to lose everything, piece by piece!
Make them watch as their homes are destroyed, little by little!
Go! For Thanos's glory—kill as you please!"
As a well-trained interstellar legion, the Chitauri had no hesitation in executing orders. Upon receiving Loki's latest command, the entire formation shifted at once!
Those rushing out of the wormhole, along with the following Chitauri aircraft and ground troops, no longer headed straight for the frontline battlefield where Hulk and the mutant army waited. Instead, as they emerged from the deep blue vortex into the sky, they spread out in all directions like a school of fish, scattering with a sharp hiss!
In this way, the godlike Hulk and the terrifying "clearing" power of Dormammu were greatly diminished. They could dam the raging torrent in front, but not the countless "streams" overflowing from the sides.
As expected, the "fish that slipped through the net" swarmed past the frontlines like black vultures, swooping down with shrieks into the city, already in panic and chaos!
Atop Stark Tower, Loki watched this scene and finally smiled triumphantly.
"Go ahead… destroy as much as you want... this is the chaos I long to see!"
He seemed to foresee the city being torn apart and turned into a sea of flames. Was this finally the start of the massacre he craved?
But just as Loki believed his "brilliant scheme" had tipped the scales in his favor—as the Chitauri began to bypass the defense, ready to revel in slaughter—suddenly:
BZZZZT—!
Hundreds of golden sparks burst into the air between the descending Chitauri and the ground. Rotating portals opened, swirling constantly!
They were... the portals of Kamar-Taj!
In the next instant, one after another, figures in monk's robes stepped out, faces solemn, their bodies radiating an otherworldly magical power—as if heavenly soldiers had descended to earth through the portals.
At their head stood Ancient One! She surveyed the Chitauri calmly, as if looking at a group of prisoners long condemned to die. Behind her stood Mordo, Wong, and hundreds of Kamar-Taj's elite sorcerers. Centered on the Ancient One, they rapidly formed a grand and mysterious formation in the air.
This "reinforcement" appeared suddenly. Loki, in his ornate attire atop Stark Tower, was stunned for a moment, then sneered disdainfully.
"Another bunch coming to die...
What, even Midgard's circus wants in on today's fun?"
As one of Asgard's mightiest sorcerers, Loki looked down on this gang of "fake magicians" from the bottom of his heart. As he said, at best, they were a "circus"! Facing Chitauri energy weapons, they'd be annihilated in an instant.
But in the next moment—the Ancient One raised her right hand.
"Formation."
She gave her command with such calm that it was almost indifferent.
"With the power of the magic nest...
Open—Mirror Dimension!"
At her command, the hundreds of Kamar-Taj sorcerers linked up, pouring their magical power unconditionally into the massive array! At the same time, majestic energy from the "MagicNet" surged in like a celestial river, granting the spell nearly infinite power!
BOOM—!
A super-complex array, covered in countless runes and geometric patterns, expanded to cover the entire city! Magic light soared into the sky, bathing all of New York in a sacred golden hue!
In the next instant, the world watched in terror via satellite and live news. Under Loki's disbelieving gaze, the entire battlefield—Chitauri closing in on the ground, the skyscrapers, streets, and cars—everything began to twist bizarrely, defying physics...
The space became a canvas, kneaded at will! Tall buildings crumbled, flipped, and folded in half by unseen hands! Streets curled up layer upon layer, like sheets of paper! In that moment, the city turned into a fractured, surreal kaleidoscope!
Countless Chitauri, swooping down a second ago, suddenly found the sky and earth inverted! Everything around them constantly folded and reassembled beyond logic! Ultimately, under the array's shroud, the shattered, surreal "city" and the deeply trapped Chitauri were utterly cut off from the real world...
Expelled!
It was as if they'd been dragged to the other side...
Into the mirror dimension!
As the magic light faded, the real city returned to an eerie calm. The sky remained, the earth remained, but the thousands of Chitauri who'd raged moments ago were gone without a trace. Only the still-open wormhole in the sky, and the stunned, foolish Loki, proved it hadn't all been an illusion.
Inside the Mirror Dimension:
Here, it was an independent subspace, constructed entirely by magic. Everything mirrored the real world, but nothing that happened here would affect reality. The Ancient One smiled faintly at the distorted city and the lost Chitauri, then turned to the sorcerers behind her.
"The stage is set.
In the next battle, fight as you wish—there's nothing to worry about."
She gave another order:
"Divide the battlefield!"
The Kamar-Taj sorcerers began chanting again! The vast mirror dimension was sliced by hundreds of "walls", composed of broken space appearing in midair... grid battlefields!
The Chitauri, still on the move, were forcibly split by these "walls", trapped in sealed arenas like colosseums! They were now turtles in a jar!
"Begin... fight!"
Ancient One's voice rang out. At her words, the sorcerers flickered like ghosts to the edge of each grid, unleashing powerful spells to mercilessly obliterate the trapped enemies, one by one!
Atop Stark Tower, Loki watched his Chitauri swallowed by the mirror dimension, utterly dazed.
"No... No! Impossible!!"
The Chitauri army, a galactic legion meant to trample lesser civilizations—
Had actually been banished by Midgard's magicians?!
To a god like him, this was a humiliation beyond bearing!
"Come out! All of you, get out!!"
Loki roared in fury, raising the scepter and desperately summoning the Chitauri! The Mind Stone at the top shone with unprecedented brilliance, resonating wildly with the wormhole!
ROAR—!
Under his relentless call, more Chitauri and flying machines surged out of the wormhole like a dam burst! He wanted destruction! He would destroy! He would turn the city to scorched earth and make mankind pay in blood for resistance!
But these new forces met the mutant army lying in wait. Cyclops's devastating optic blasts, Storm's lightning, and the diverse but equally lethal powers of other mutants wove a deadly net before the wormhole. The Chitauri, emerging, were shredded in midair—transformed into fireworks before they could even see the new world.
It was a tragic, tense massacre!
But Loki was already mad. Still, he kept raising the scepter, draining the mothership's power. Regardless of casualties, finally, a heavily armored Leviathan broke through the mutants' blockade after several attacks, roaring as it lumbered toward Loki's perch atop Stark Tower!
"Ha! Well done! Well done!!"
Seeing this, Loki's face lit up in joy! He immediately issued a direct psychic command to the Leviathan via the scepter.
"Attack! Crush everything below!"
As long as there was destruction, he would win!
But in his excitement, he missed a detail:
A green figure was clinging to the Leviathan's massive back.
It was Hulk!
During the interception, he'd leaped onto the beast's back, ready to finish it from within.
"Hey, big guy, where you going?"
Sensing the sudden shift in the beast's direction and the commanding mental pulse from above, Hulk understood instantly, his eyes flashing coldly.
"Well, game over."
With a mighty leap, Hulk sprang from the Leviathan's back, his steel-hard feet stomping down with crushing force on its neck and spine!
CRACK—!
A bone-chilling sound echoed from the beast—it's indestructible spine shattered by Hulk's infinite strength!
ROOOAAARR—!
With a final, mournful cry, the Leviathan lost all power and plummeted like a cut kite.
But Hulk didn't stop. Grabbing the beast's tail, he roared and heaved with his waist—
Astonishingly, he swung the hundreds-of-meters-long, thousands-of-tons-heavy interstellar beast like a giant meteor hammer, sending it skyward!
WHAM, WHAM, WHAM—!
The Leviathan shrieked as Hulk slammed it three times, then Dormammu's energy tendrils caught it and incinerated it instantly, like meat through a grinder.
After all this, Hulk's gaze fell upon the rooftop, where a man in a ridiculous costume was still commanding the Leviathan with his scepter.
So...
Was this guy the enemy too? And... the leader?
With that thought, Hulk crouched, then kicked off violently!
BOOM—!
He soared through the air like a green meteor, crossing nearly a kilometer in an exaggerated arc, landing heavily on the top terrace of Stark Tower! The entire terrace and floors below shuddered with the impact! Hulk's feet smashed the hard ground, leaving a shallow crater!
Loki was terrified by the sudden turn! His joy vanished instantly, replaced by pallor. He stared at the green monster, twice his height, radiating terrifying pressure, approaching step by step.
Driven by divine pride, Loki forced himself to straighten and shouted:
"What do you want?
Stop meddling! Kneel before me!
I am a god! You miserable beast!!"
Hulk tilted his head at that, a strange expression on his honest face. Suddenly, he reached out a huge green hand, grabbing Loki's ankle as if picking up a pitiful doll. Then, under Loki's twisted, disbelieving, terror-stricken gaze, Hulk lifted him and smashed him into the ground to the left!
BANG!
"Aaaagh—!"
Loki's scream was cut short, choked off by pain and shock! But Hulk didn't stop. Like pummeling a broken sack, he grabbed Loki's leg and thrashed him left and right across the rooftop!
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!!
The dull thuds were endless. With each strike, Loki felt his bones nearly shatter! His divine dignity, pride, and ambition were smashed to dust before this raw, unreasonable physical force!
Hulk didn't stop until almost every bone in Loki's body was pulped into a muddy puddle. Looking down at the "god" bubbling and twitching in the crater, Hulk grunted:
"What a puny god."
Shaking his head in disappointment, Hulk flexed his legs and leaped into the sky to smash more Chitauri.
All that remained was a deep crater and a puddle of doubtful life.
The god of lies and trickery, Loki, lay in a humiliating pose in the hole he'd been "smashed" into. He couldn't even feel pain anymore—his nerves had long since gone numb. His consciousness floated in and out of the abyss of darkness, on the edge of vanishing.
Just then, light flickered at the crater's rim, and a figure appeared—it was Lucci. He gazed at the dying Loki and shook his head.
"Honestly, so unsophisticated."
...
Bonus chapter at 100 PS
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