Seeing the questioning scene, Lucas raised an eyebrow and looked at Tony and Bruce in surprise.
He hadn't expected that Tony and Bruce hadn't told Steve and the others about the plan before asking them to help.
And Steve and the others were quite disciplined. They just did as Tony said without any explanation, diligently practicing the operation of various purely mechanical instruments during this time.
After a long silence, Tony slowly said, "Perhaps, it's the end of the world. Perhaps, it's nothing."
"Tony, speak in plain English." Natasha said irritably.
"That's the truth." Tony shrugged.
Natasha glanced at Lucas, who had retrieved a slice of watermelon from somewhere. "But even if it's the end of the world, don't we still have Lucas?"
"It's not the end of one world, but the end of all worlds, the end of the Multiverse. If that day truly comes, Lucas will also find it difficult to save all of us. The only thing that can save us is this."
Tony pointed to the spaceship beneath their feet. "Our Noah's Ark."
"I still don't understand what happened, how it suddenly became the end of the world. And Tony, where did you and Bruce get this information?"
Tony didn't answer, only gesturing to Lucas with his eyes.
Lucas cleared his throat and said, "It's just a possibility."
"If the test is successful, this spaceship will go beyond all things to verify whether this possibility is real."
"Beyond all things, what is that?" Natasha, even more confused after the explanation, asked the question in Steve and Hill's minds.
"You should know that the Universe is not singular, and that the Multiverse exists, right?" Lucas asked.
Seeing them nod, he continued, "Innumerable Universes gathered together like a bacterial colony, that is the Multiverse."
"And the gaps between Universes and their periphery are the Superflow. It is the fetal membrane of the reality, both separating parallel Universes and enveloping the entire Multiverse."
"And beyond the Superflow is Neutral Zone, which is the final boundary of the Multiverse. Passing through Neutral Zone will lead to beyond all things."
"There, one can see the materialized embodiment of the Multiverse—Eternity."
"Lucas, what are you going there for? Are you going to..." Natasha suddenly shivered.
She looked at Lucas in disbelief, her eyes widening involuntarily.
"What are you thinking?" Lucas rolled his eyes and grumbled, "My purpose is just to confirm Eternity's state. If I really wanted to destroy the Multiverse, wouldn't it be simpler to destroy it from the inside?"
Natasha and the other two suddenly understood, then became confused again.
"So that's it, then..."
"Don't ask me where the information came from. Whether it's true or false will be known when we see it."
Lucas interrupted their questioning, pointing to the increasingly distorted, abstract, and ineffable environment outside the spaceship.
"The Superflow has arrived. You need to start collecting data."
With that, Lucas chanted a spell, casting a protective charm on them.
"Mr. Stark, Banner, Captain Rogers, Commander Hill, Miss Natasha, please be extremely careful. If you feel any discomfort, notify me immediately."
Ultron's voice sounded again, and at the same time, lights lit up throughout the spaceship, seemingly indicating that some instruments were starting up.
Natasha asked, confused, "Ultron, can you work normally here too? Then why do we still need to collect data?"
Ultron replied. "I don't know if my parts will malfunction in the Superflow, collecting incorrect data, so I need you to collect a set as well, for comparison."
"I see." Natasha nodded.
After that, the five Avengers all became busy.
Collecting data using purely mechanical structures without the aid of electronic instruments was not a simple task.
Fortunately, none of them were ordinary people. Even Hill, who had the weakest physique, had been injected with the Super Soldier Serum over the years, so they had plenty of strength.
— — —
Deep in the vast Universe, a colossal shadow quietly approached a sapphire Planet.
This shadow exuded a terrifying aura, like an abyss ready to devour anything.
After being attacked by Logos and reverting from Lifebringer to Galactus, Galactus resumed his old ways.
This time, his target was the retro-futuristic Planet before him.
This sapphire Planet was unremarkable in the Universe. Perhaps the only thing worth mentioning was its name—Earth.
On a parallel Universe Earth, countless fireballs fell from the sky, and a giant shadow enveloped the sky, like a monstrous, gaping maw of an abyss.
No! This was a monstrous maw—the maw of Galactus!
No one could stop the hungry Galactus, at least not on this Planet.
But some things, someone will always try to do, even if they can't.
"Reed, Susan, Johnny, Ben, you have no obligation to face an enemy you absolutely cannot defeat, do you understand? Take your equipment and leave this Earth!"
"Cannot win? I don't understand that." Johnny shrugged nonchalantly, his face faintly flushed.
"No matter who is hiding behind that big guy, I'll make him see the power of my fire."
Boom!!!
With that, he burst into flames and soared into the sky towards the giant shadow above. Against the backdrop of the continuously falling fireballs, he looked like a warrior swimming against the current.
"Johnny." Susan shook her head with a helpless smile.
Then she manipulated her force field to propel herself in the direction Johnny had gone.
Seeing this, Reed and Ben also used their respective abilities to follow.
The four were the Fantastic Four, but not the Fantastic Four of this Universe. They had arrived in this Universe due to an accident.
Afterward, the four, who had settled in this Universe, and their patron, Von Doom, were exposed to cosmic storm radiation during a space flight experiment. They gained different superpowers as a blessing in disguise.
Before the Fantastic Four acted, a green-robed figure had already begun to move. It was Dr. Doom of this Universe.
However, stronger execution this time did not bring good news to Dr. Doom, only made him despair earlier.
Neither the various high-tech weapons he independently developed nor the various forbidden dark magic he learned from demons worked.
These attacks fell upon the purple-skinned man with pointed horns on his head, but had no effect whatsoever, like a harmless breeze.
Dr. Doom finally slumped before Galactus. From beginning to end, Galactus never once truly looked at him.
Before long, four more figures appeared beside Dr. Doom: the Fantastic Four.
Similarly, Galactus also ignored the Fantastic Four's attacks. He neither defended nor retaliated, merely treating them as a gentle breeze.
An ant, trying its best, still has a chance to bite a human and inject venom.
Dr. Doom and the Fantastic Four, despite their best efforts, could not even touch Galactus.
As time passed, the Planet's surface began to crack, large chunks of rock and soil peeled away, flying into the abyssal maw in the sky. Until finally, the entire Planet deformed, shattered, and disintegrated.
Just then, a pitch-black rift suddenly appeared, sucking in the surrounding matter, Dr. Doom, and the Fantastic Four.
This act, akin to snatching food from a tiger's mouth, enraged Galactus. His chilling gaze turned towards the suddenly appearing space-time rift, only to see a bewildered, bearded middle-aged man on the other side of the rift.
"Stop! Strange, what are you doing!? How can you casually disrupt the boundaries of space-time!"
This bearded middle-aged man was Strange.
At this moment, facing the rushing Wong and Mordo, he pulled out a silver book and hastily explained, "I... I was just doing what the book said."
Wong questioned, "What did the book say? Did it not mention the dangers of doing so?"
"No, I swear the part I read didn't."
Hearing Strange's explanation, Wong did not believe him. As the librarian of Kamar-Taj, he had practically read all of Kamar-Taj's collection.
"No, how is that possible? Which book? Let me see it?"
"This one."
Taking the silver book, Wong frowned. Without even opening it, he was certain he had never seen this book.
Lucas divine book, Kamar-Taj had never had this book before.
"Time magic can disrupt the cosmic space-time structure, leading to the collapse of a Universe or the collision of two Universes."
On the other side, Mordo was still sternly rebuking Strange.
Because of Strange, Mordo both believed that Strange had the potential to become a sorcerer and a powerful Guardian of the future reality, yet he also worried that Strange would destroy his own Universe due to obsession.
Therefore, when Strange joined Kamar-Taj, he secretly had Wong hide any books about time magic and instructed the other sorcerers not to teach Strange any knowledge related to time magic. He never expected that someone would still violate this.
Mordo said angrily, he wanted to see who was so bold. "Who gave you this book!"
"Lucas."
"Lucas... sorcerer Lucas..."
Mordo's voice trailed off, but his face still showed lingering anger. "When he returns, I'll settle the score with him."
After uttering a harsh threat, Mordo ignored Strange. He quickly formed hand seals, and a series of magic spells formed, rushing into the space-time rift Strange had opened earlier.
When he arrived, Mordo had noticed that five innocent people had been caught in the space-time rift due to Strange's magic. This was also one of the reasons for his anger.
A moment later, with the help of Mordo's magic, five figures successively fell out of the pitch-black rift. Afterward, Wong temporarily put down Lucas divine book and helped Mordo seal the space-time rift together.