Chapter 228: Could Matthew Have Come From the Future?
In the face of Matthew's offer, Ellis ultimately accepted.
On one hand, he still wanted to keep making a difference in this land he loved.
On the other hand...
He genuinely worried that once Umbrella took over the country, something impossible to walk back might come out of it.
But as it turned out—
That second worry was entirely unfounded.
Once Umbrella formally renamed "America" as "Holy Terra," Matthew seemed to fully awaken his inner drive for infrastructure, throwing himself into a sweeping overhaul of the nation's foundations.
That wasn't all. To address the root causes of public welfare, he formally brought Tony Stark onto Holy Terra's senior leadership, phasing out non-clean energy sources from the ground up in a genuinely era-defining move.
The days of bleeding and dying over oil were finally behind them.
No one on the international stage cracked jokes anymore about how just typing the word "oil" would automatically summon American troops.
Beyond that, medical infrastructure saw a complete overhaul once Umbrella took over as well. Certain medicines Umbrella had previously kept off the market, things like trauma-repair salve, Safsprin painkillers, and regenerative skincare treatments, were formally released to the world after a brief discussion among leadership, so that everyone could have access to cheap, effective medicine.
And in the days that followed, after Matthew refined the newer strain of T-Virus, its physical-enhancement effects were dramatically weakened, while its positive effects, boosting overall constitution and disease resistance, were significantly increased.
Not only that, he'd deliberately made it highly airborne, letting the refined T-Virus spread naturally through the atmosphere and carry out the first round of baseline human enhancement across the entire species.
The announcement sent the whole world into an uproar.
Once humanity's resistance to disease increased, the number of people suffering from illness in the future would drop sharply.
Whether you looked at it collectively or individually, this was the kind of thing that would benefit the present generation and every generation to come.
Of course, the only people genuinely unhappy about it were the handful of pharmaceutical companies that had built their fortunes off people staying sick, the ones who'd probably have preferred the whole world catching something every single day.
But no matter how unhappy they were, there was nothing they could actually say about it.
After all, it was Umbrella Corporation that had done this.
The moment any of them dared voice a complaint, their ashes would already be scattered to the wind by an Astartes before their second foot hit the ground.
Beyond that, the public safety problems that had once plagued the people of America saw dramatic improvement under Holy Terra.
Anywhere within Holy Terra's territory, the Astartes now maintained round-the-clock patrols.
After Tony Stark joined, Holy Terra also stood up new forces: the Anti-Terror Strike Force, equipped with advanced military-grade cybernetics, along with the Iron Legion and a Drone Corps.
Of course, these forces only deployed during major incidents, coming down hard and fast on criminal organizations.
The rest of the time, ordinary police officers and a small Astartes presence were enough to keep the streets in order.
Ever since Umbrella took over, the reforms across this land had produced remarkably visible results.
The once-tense international situation had also settled toward peace, thanks to Umbrella's intervention and its calls for calm.
In Matthew's own words: "If you don't want peace, then we'll simply help you find it."
New York, Umbrella's tower.
The building had gone through another full round of expansion and renovation, and now looked more imposing than ever.
In the top-floor conference room, under warm lighting, Matthew, Eleanor, Ada, Tony, Thor, and the rest of the Avengers and X-Men had all gathered together.
At the edge of the room sat Nick Fury.
Matthew had called everyone together this time to prepare for a major event on the horizon.
Not far from the group, a projection screen flickered with data on Thanos and the Infinity Stones.
That's right.
Rather than sit back on the defensive and wait for Thanos to gather enough Stones to come knocking, Matthew preferred to act first, either securing the Infinity Stones under his own control before the danger arrived, or striking first and taking Thanos out directly.
Inside the conference room, everyone's eyes stayed locked on the flickering screen.
No one could say how much time passed.
The data on the screen finally finished playing.
Once they'd all taken it in, the room fell into silence.
The Infinity Stones. The Infinity Gauntlet. Thanos. A plan to wipe out half of all life in the universe.
Going by what Matthew had said, the crisis hadn't actually happened yet, but it wasn't far off either.
Then, out of nowhere, Nick Fury, seated by the wall, spoke up. "Matthew, are you sure the intelligence you just showed us is accurate?"
Hearing that, Matthew raised an eyebrow, looking over at Fury. "What, you don't trust me?"
Fury shook his head. "You've got it wrong."
"It's not that I don't trust you. It's just that, for something this big, you should probably tell us where this intelligence is actually coming from," Fury explained.
The Matthew standing in front of them now was a world away from who he'd once been, and there was a note of genuine respect in Fury's tone that hadn't been there before.
Hearing Fury's question, Matthew fell into a brief, thoughtful silence.
His mind raced, searching for some reasonable explanation for where the intelligence had come from.
The clock on the wall ticked steadily.
After roughly four or five seconds, Matthew spoke, slow and measured. "If I told you this intelligence came from the future, would you believe me?"
"...What do you mean?" This time it was Tony's turn to look confused.
But before Matthew could say anything more, Logan, who'd been frowning in thought the entire time, spoke up.
"From the way you're talking..."
"Matthew, don't tell me... you're someone who came back from the future?"
Given that Logan himself had once taken part in the Days of Future Past mission, he was naturally more sensitive than most to anything involving "the future."
The moment Matthew mentioned intelligence from the future, Logan's mind immediately went straight to the Days of Future Past mission buried deep in his own memory.
Hearing what Logan had said, the rest of the room, who'd been sitting fairly relaxed a moment ago, all straightened up at once.
The... future?
Everyone's eyes turned toward Matthew.
Even Ada and Eleanor, seated on either side of him, felt a flicker of surprise cross their eyes, and a moment later, seemed to land on the same thought: all those moments where Matthew had seemed to know things before they happened, and the almost supernatural speed of his rise over the past few years.
Understanding dawned across every face in the room at once.
The future?
So that's it.
If he really had come back from the future, if he'd known in advance everything that was going to happen along the way, then his rate of growth and his meteoric rise finally made sense.
Watching that understanding settle over everyone's eyes, Matthew's mouth twitched slightly.
Still, since Logan had just handed him the perfect excuse, he wasn't about to turn it down.
With that in mind, Matthew drew a slow breath, forced out a couple of strained laughs for effect, and said, "Logan, you guessed right."
"I really did come back from a future that failed."
"Earth's future is set to face one disaster after another, none of them any smaller than the one Apocalypse brought."
"And if things go wrong even slightly, humanity could end up completely wiped out in the process."
Not far off, Tony's eyes went wide at that. "No wonder you kept pushing me to hurry up and climb the tech tree. So the future's dealing with some disaster that can't be avoided or stopped."
At that moment, thinking back on that one offhand comment Matthew had once dropped on him, Tony felt a genuine chill run down his spine.
Had he really come that close to the truth about the future back then, without even realizing it?
At the same time, Tony felt a wave of relief wash over him.
Even though Matthew's comment had only been a joke at the time, Tony had taken it seriously anyway, throwing himself into technological development like a man possessed over the past while, and it had paid off in a real jump in his own capabilities.
"Can you tell us what actually happens in the future?" Steve, who'd stayed silent the entire time, finally spoke up.
The question drew every eye in the room.
Like Steve, the rest of them were all curious what exactly this "failed future" Matthew kept referring to actually looked like, and why it had failed in the first place.
Seeing everyone's eyes on him, Matthew was quiet for a long moment before launching into what amounted to a heavily doctored highlight reel of "Avengers 3."
Naturally, to really sell just how powerful Thanos and the Infinity Stones were, Matthew went out of his way to exaggerate exactly how strong Thanos became once he had the Stones in hand, and the room listened with their jaws on the floor.
"You're saying... he pinned the Hulk to the ground with nothing but raw physical strength, no Infinity Stones involved at all?" Dr. Banner shot to his feet, his eyes full of disbelief.
"...You're saying he strangled Loki to death too?!" Thor's eyes flashed with crackling static, murder written across his face.
"The X-Men were wiped out entirely?" Magneto's brow furrowed slightly.
"We all died in that battle too?" Steve's expression turned grim.
"Half the population of the universe, gone with a single snap of his fingers?" Even Nick Fury's usual composure started to slip.
Once Matthew finished, the whole room fell into silence.
They understood now, exactly why Matthew had pushed himself to become this powerful, and exactly why he'd built Holy Terra.
Because without doing all of that, there was truly no way to stand against the crisis Matthew was describing.
Inside the conference room, time slipped by in that silence.
No one could say how long it lasted before Thor, who'd stayed quiet the whole time, suddenly seemed to remember something and spoke up urgently. "Wait, Matthew! If what you're saying is true, Asgard wouldn't just sit back and do nothing!"
"And the Allfather Odin certainly wouldn't stand by either!"
"So why haven't you once mentioned the Allfather Odin, this whole time?"
At that, Thor's gaze snapped straight to Matthew.
Given his relationship with Matthew, he naturally believed every word Matthew had said.
But he simply couldn't understand why, in Matthew's entire account, the Allfather Odin had never once come up.
Hearing Thor's question, Matthew didn't rush to answer, falling silent once again.
Seeing Matthew go quiet, Thor grew even more anxious, pressing further. "Did something happen to the Allfather?"
Matthew stayed silent.
Watching him, Thor became certain that Matthew knew something, and kept pressing.
Under Thor's relentless questioning, Matthew finally spoke. "Thor..."
"In the future I saw, Odin had already died."
"And it's not just Odin. Asgard itself was destroyed too, in Ragnarök."
Hearing Matthew's explanation, Thor's eyes went wide with disbelief, his whole body reeling like he'd been struck by lightning, and he dropped heavily into the chair behind him.
The Allfather Odin... dead?
And not just that. Asgard, destroyed too?
"N-no... that can't be..."
"There's no way Asgard could be destroyed!" Thor muttered under his breath.
Then, all at once, something seemed to click, and his gaze locked onto Matthew. "Matthew! If you really came from the future, you must know a way to stop Ragnarök!"
Stop Ragnarök?
Buddy, that's giving me a little too much credit.
Matthew's mouth twitched.
"Thor... I did come back from the future, but I'm not all-powerful."
"I don't know the exact details of how Asgard was destroyed, but I do know it happened because of your sister, Hela, the Goddess of Death."
"Her power comes directly from Asgard. As long as Asgard still exists, she's essentially unstoppable."
"Only by destroying Asgard would Hela's power vanish, and she herself would die along with Asgard's destruction."
"...Is there really no way to stop her?" Thor's fists clenched.
The thought of losing everything that should rightfully be his in the future sent a wave of endless pain welling up inside him.
Seeing him like that, Banner offered some comfort. "Thor, you really don't need to worry this much."
"As long as the future hasn't actually happened yet, there's always a way to fix it."
"Besides, isn't the entire reason we're all gathered here right now to solve a problem coming from the future?"
"Exactly right, Thor!" Steve chimed in. "Whatever's waiting for us ahead, as long as we're willing to stand together, we'll get through it in the end. Won't we?"
The others nearby nodded along in agreement with Steve and Banner.
Listening to the words around him, Thor turned to look at the friends beside him, the confusion in his eyes slowly clearing, replaced at last by resolve.
If the future hadn't become reality yet, then there was still hope of changing it.
He might not know whether the future could actually be changed, but all he could do was try his best.
Turning his gaze, Thor looked toward Matthew, seated at the head of the table.
Setting aside just how powerful Matthew himself had already become, the simple fact that they now had a man from the future on their side meant they'd always be a full step ahead of the enemy in terms of intelligence.
And with that kind of intelligence in hand, no problem would be too big to solve.
With that thought, Thor drew a slow breath and looked at Matthew with real gravity. "So what do we do next?"
Feeling everyone's eyes on him, Matthew got straight to the point, laying out the plan going forward.
First, to prevent Thanos from veering off his original course due to some butterfly effect and simply sending a massive fleet to wipe out the Earth outright, the planet needed its own dedicated space defense line.
That defense line was the very concept Tony Stark, Nick Fury, and the others had already discussed at length before, and it now had a formal name: the Fortress Initiative.
To make sure the Fortress Initiative actually got off the ground, Holy Terra would launch a large-scale recruitment effort, pulling in talent from around the world and pouring everything into building out that defense line.
Beyond that, there was the matter of tracking down the Infinity Stones.
Matthew could open portals on his own, but there were limits to what one person could manage, especially when finding the Infinity Stones meant transportation on an intergalactic scale.
Which meant they'd need to study and make use of spatial-jump technology.
Of course, Matthew already had a more direct option in mind, one that skipped the roundabout approach entirely.
And that was—
Using Asgard's Bifröst, the Rainbow Bridge!
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