Lucci's voice, like a strange spell, jolted Loki's fading consciousness awake! He used the last of his strength to force his eyes open, as if struggling to look back. Seeing Lucci's face clearly, Loki was stunned and croaked in disbelief:
"You! Lu... Lucci?
You... how could you possibly... appear in Midgard?"
Lucci replied lightly at Loki's ghostly expression:
"Why shouldn't I be here?
Allow me to introduce myself: I'm now the new Sorcerer Supreme of Kamar-Taj.
If not in Midgard, then where should I be?"
Sorcerer Supreme... Those words struck Loki's already shattered mind like four merciless hammers!
Countless images flashed through his mind:
The Kamar-Taj mages who'd suddenly powered up, formed mysterious arrays, and dragged his army into another space!
The mutant army that had changed history, erupted with godlike power, and swept the battlefield!
The mighty green monster. The bizarre actions of the dark lord Dormammu...
It all made sense now.
Everything—every mystery, every irrationality—had an answer!
He finally understood!
Before him stood the unfathomable Lucci—talented, who had defeated Thor and become Asgard's prince. Who else could have so dramatically changed the "superpower" landscape of this uneven world in such a short time?
Lucci smiled faintly.
"Congratulations—you're right.
But there's no prize."
Loki's face twisted with a tragic smile uglier than crying. He knew he'd lost—utterly, from beginning to end. He'd danced like a clown, while his opponent watched coldly from the shadows.
All his ambitions, all his schemes, all his struggles—were laughably naïve and overestimated before the other side.
"Are you... here to kill me?"
His voice was heavy with despair, unable to even voice a final resistance.
"Kill you? Aren't we brothers?"
Lucci shook his head lightly.
"Don't worry. You won't die.
Before I left Asgard, the Queen Mother asked me to save your life.
For her sake, I agreed.
And for that promise, I tried to minimize irreversible damage to Midgard."
He glanced down, satisfied at the panicked but mostly unharmed crowd below.
"Seems it worked out."
Hearing that, Loki completely collapsed. The last stubbornness in his heart vanished. Thanks to his mother's request and the other's goodwill, he was allowed to survive. He closed his eyes in defeat, all strength gone.
"You win."
He forced out those words with his last bit of strength. Lucci, seeing him accept his fate, stopped talking nonsense. He reached out gently toward Loki in the crater.
SWISH!
Magical chains appeared from the air, binding Loki tightly and cutting off all his divine power.
When all was done, Lucci's gaze fell to the edge of the crater, where the scepter still glowed faintly blue. He reached out, and the scepter whistled softly, resisting, but a more dominant power suppressed it!
SHH—!
The Scepter turned into a blue streamer and landed in Lucci's hand. Without a second glance, he put it away for later study.
Finally, his eyes settled on the Tesseract placed atop Stark Tower, still operating fiercely—feeding energy into the wormhole, or more precisely, the Space Stone.
In the next moment——
His comprehension of space activated!
Now, the blue cube was no longer just an energy source. The infinite laws, runes, and principles of "space" within were laid bare before him, like a vast galaxy! Collapse, jump, teleportation, dimensions, planes... All the mysteries of spatial law were fully and deeply mastered by him in a short time.
He took the initiative.
He reached out, gently pressing the Tesseract's surface.
BUZZ—
The Cube's wild energy instantly calmed, becoming meek as a lamb. Lucci's mind moved, and he stored it away.
After that, he raised his head, gazing through endless distance to the sky above the still-open spatial wormhole.
He took a step, vanishing instantly from the rooftop, reappearing before the cosmic wormhole.
At that moment, the entire New York battlefield—previously noisy, violent, exploding—fell into a brief, strange... pause.
Everyone, friend or foe, unconsciously turned to gaze at that small, solitary figure, yet grander than the whole world, walking toward the gates of hell.
The mutants' faces lit up with fanatical radiance the moment Lucci appeared!
"Prince Lucci!"
"He's finally taking action himself?"
Jean Grey, suppressing her Phoenix power, stared in awe, eyes burning with Phoenix fire. Magneto, arms still controlling countless metal shards, looked on with unprecedented reverence and shock.
Professor X, via telepathy, sensed Lucci's calm like an abyss, yet beneath it, a terrifying will to change everything.
Even Hulk, who'd just smashed a Leviathan like a sandbag, paused, recognizing the familiar figure and smiling simply, full of trust and reassurance.
If Teacher is here, everything is stable.
Nearby, the mini-Dormammu's pure energy body shook the moment Lucci appeared! He remembered this man, who had once snacked on his proud dark energy and devoured scenes of madness and terror! The absolute oppression from the level of life itself, the power to swallow entire dimensions, was a nightmare that could never be erased!
With that, Dormammu instinctively, calmly put some distance between them. Who knew what trick this man might pull? For safety's sake, it was better... not to get too close.
Below, the Avengers hiding among the crowd watched the mysterious newcomer expressionlessly. The man instantly drew all attention.
"Jarvis..." Tony Stark muttered, "Who is he? Another mutant?"
"Sir, no valid data is available.
His very presence interferes with all surrounding detection devices.
All I can analyze is... the space around him is in an extremely stable yet paradoxically active state.
I don't understand."
"Neither do I," Steve Rogers said, shock in his eyes after hearing Jarvis's explanation.
When that man appeared, he saw clear, heartfelt... respect on the faces of those incredible mutants.
"He's... their leader?" Black Widow Natasha judged.
"A leader who can make such powerful mutants submit... what kind of person is he... a monster?"
The same thought struck the four at once, making their hearts tense.
Aerospace carrier, bridge command.
Nick Fury and Maria Hill stared at the main screen.
When that lone figure appeared before the cosmic wormhole, both held their breath.
Their faces were full of disbelief.
"That's him!" Hill cried, voice shaking with excitement.
"The man who appeared in New Mexico—whom we called the Unknown God!"
Nick Fury said nothing, but clenched his fist, his one eye betraying deep unease. Of course he remembered! That mysterious being who smashed the Destroyer's armor with a finger, suspected of a connection to Thor! SHIELD had spent countless resources but found no trace of his origins!
And now, here he was again—at the decisive moment of Earth's fate!
What would he do?
Hill muttered at the screen,
"He's walking toward the wormhole like it's the gates of hell... different, yet... somehow indescribably shocking."
Nick Fury's mind raced. Based on the last New Mexico incident, this "unknown god" was not hostile to humanity—he'd intervened to stop the Destroyer from leveling a town.
So this time... was he about to...
Suddenly, a mad but hopeful thought surfaced in Fury's mind:
Was it possible—could one man take on the entire alien fleet?
At this thought, Fury's heart pounded with wild excitement! Hill's face too showed undisguised rapture! If so... if so, perhaps Earth really could be saved!
At the World Security Council's underground shelter:
Since giving up the foolish idea of using nukes, even these bigwigs now watched the battlefield feed like ordinary spectators, equal parts fearful and pleased by the mutants' godlike power.
Yet when Lucci appeared before the cosmic wormhole, the whole conference room erupted!
"Who is that?!"
"He's not a mutant! There's no info in any database!"
"What's he trying to do? Is he insane?!"
"How dare a human appear before the Chitauri wormhole! Does he think he's... a god?!"
To them, it was pure suicide!
Before the wormhole:
The deep-blue vortex, like a maw to hell, spewed grotesque Chitauri soldiers and flying machines.
Spotting the tiny, black figure floating before them, the Chitauri—incapable of independent thought, executing only kill orders—instinctively identified him as the primary target.
"ROAR—!"
"SCREEEE—!"
Thousands of Chitauri, piloting their craft, howled and surged at Lucci in a black wave! Their energy weapons fired without restraint, focusing on him!
For a moment, thousands of energy beams sliced the sky like a deadly meteor shower, threatening to tear apart the lone, insolent man!
Yet, facing an attack that could vaporize an aircraft carrier in an instant—
Lucci didn't even blink. His expression was as calm as the eternal starry sky.
He reached out his right hand and gently grasped the air.
BUZZ—
A plain longsword appeared in his hand.
It was Path of Flame!
The moment he gripped Path of Flame Sword, Lucci simultaneously activated two supreme Laws:
Time and Space!
The two primeval forces of the universe poured into Path of Flame Sword at once, and the simple blade underwent a world-shaking transformation!
What was once a plain blade deepened, as if it had become condensed starlight!
Countless stars were born, died, and flickered within the sword.
Bright galaxies flowed slowly.
Time itself moved at different speeds in different parts of the blade—some places flashed by in a blink, others were frozen forever.
At the edge, the universe was in a state of unstable chaos, ready to shatter and reform at any instant.
Path of Flame Sword, Second Form—Sword of Time and Space!
In the next instant, Lucci's indifferent gaze swept over the onrushing Chitauri, baring teeth and claws.
He raised his sword.
Facing the endless tide, he softly slashed.
There was no earth-shaking sound—no world-destroying light.
There was only a single, deep glint, as if pure "time and space" itself flashed from the sword tip, absorbing all light.
This sword aura, at first only a few meters long, ignored all physical laws and soared upward, exponentially growing—
10 meters, 100 meters, 1,000 meters, 10,000 meters...
Until a rift of time and space stretched between heaven and earth!
It swept silently through the advancing Chitauri.
And then—a miracle.
The Chitauri, their bodies, aircraft, and weapons all touched by the sword aura—
Each, in the instant of contact, seemed to experience millions, even billions of years!
Their metallic, fused armor instantly lost its sheen, became mottled, rusted, then crumbled to dust in the blink of an eye!
...
Bonus chapter at 100 PS
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