The sky above New York boomed and crackled with energy and fire as humanity warred with the forces of Corvus. Massive Beast ships fell from the sky alongside Novan and rune-covered fliers, sinking into the rivers and the ocean bordering the city.
Natasha Romanoff split a massive, tentacled Blood Dragon in half with a dimensional katana specially made for her by Dante, and Tony—or Iron Man, as he liked to be called these days-- fried the beast before it could recover with twin torches out of his nanite-twisted suit. They spat massive gusts of flames when a few nimbler, wasp-looking demons tried to flank him. Thin lasers sliced them in half, fired by a group of five other armors. They were empty, unlike Tony's armor, and ran on the same advanced AI—Jarvis.
They covered his flanks and opened fire on the seemingly endless horde that closed in on him and Natasha. She kept on firing dimensional slashes and stingers from her gauntlets—each a different element, each deadly.
Near the center of the Horde, Sentry cut through the bulk of the army with fists wrapped in compressed golden psychic energy so potent that it broke apart any foe that he touched.
Sentry was a curious case. When Dante had explained to me just what he was… I had scoffed in disbelief, and when the Phoenix had confirmed it, I was even more surprised.
A beyond-Omega-level psychokinetic so convinced he was a traditional hero that he neutered himself, using his quite frankly godlike powers to punch and kick.
Absurdly wasteful.
In his defense, he seemed to be quite good at it. In his wake, a select team followed, consisting of the Thunderbolts minus Peter Parker; Captain Marvel; the Warrior Three, excluding Thor; and two members of the Global Defense Force.
They were headed for Corvus's Mother Ship, which spat out endless fighter ships and monstrosities. Taking it out was the first step to winning this war. Kiling Corvus was the second.
Far below the battle, underneath the shield that Dante had meticulously set up, the world was not safer. Just like in his visions, Corvus had managed to trigger his plague anyway, turning the people of New York into monsters. Shield agents in suits and magnanimous mutants were helping.
One in particular fit the description of a man I'd read about in passing. Peter Parker had been floating the idea of recruiting him into the Thunderbolts. Luke Cage. Incarcerated for crimes he didn't commit and experimented on by Hydra, he possessed durability and brawn that outstripped regular super soldiers but not quite on the tier of the new GDF champions. He picked a man transformed into an eight-foot-tall monstrosity and buried him in the asphalt. He seemed to be getting weaker with every passing moment, but I saw that it was a struggle not to end him completely.
From reading the mind of a flying SHIELD agent pumping out shotgun blasts lined with Mind shutdown bullets, I learned that Fury had deployed the Aerosol cure that Betty and the other scientists had figured out, but it was taking a while to kick in. Hence the chaos.
A flying man ran straight into him, punting him from the air and driving him into an upturned car. People turned monsters rushed him, trying to tear through his armor. He would be safe for a while, but not forever.
I winced at the display. Buildings were on fire. Thousands of people were dying by the minute, and SHIELD, Nova, and the Brotherhood were pushed to their limits. I sensed Pietro speeding through Brooklyn. Tying down the infected, shutting down their minds with mind bolts thrown from his armor, and trying to save as many people as he could. And Wanda was reinforcing the runic shield protecting New York from the army above. Those that managed to penetrate the last line of SHIELD and Novan soldiers hammered at it with reckless abandon.
All this destruction—to what end? To satisfy Lauren's appetite? To strengthen Corvus?
A scowl formed on my face, and I vanished with a wink of Phoenix fire, appearing behind the barrier. A few turrets lining SHIELD HQ and other covert buildings turned my way, but their AI shut down before the first shot went off.
"That is quite enough," I said, waving my hand. I funneled a mountain of Phoenix energy through the affinity runes lining my armor and commanded every person in New York City to STOP. Those armed with runic armor were able to resist.
It was like time stopped in New York City. With a detailed scan that lasted a fraction of a second, I shut down every virus-infected mind and then spun up hundreds of thousands of flame spells using the precision runes in my armor. They leaped from my body, small as a bullet, and crashed into the infected, burning out the unnatural stain and energy of Corvus and healing them immediately.
I repeated the trick again and again and again. If Dante were here, he would've been able to form a rune from that specific action and integrate it into the armor of every SHIELD agent here, streamlining the process massively. As it stands, I would have to do it manually.
But even that colossal undertaking took me five whole seconds to accomplish. And then I turned my attention to the SHIELD and Wanda. Agents and mutants were starting to point at me, and I briefly locked eyes with Wanda, who was standing above SHIELD HQ.
She asked about Dante through a telepathic message, and I offered her a single nod. She was pleased for me...but still not crazy about the Shin of it all.
"How are you on energy?" I asked her.
"Lower than I'd like," she confessed. While Dante had outfitted every member of his inner circle with absorption runes, they only worked when you actually got hit. For non-physical fighters like Wanda, it was still a massive boon, but not quite on the level it should be.
Her entire body wisped with reddish-purple energy as the spell structure invigorated the protection dome above us, which winked in certain places.
"I can hold the shield for a few more minutes before I have to call Pietro to transfer some energy, but that would mean leaving Brooklyn for a few seconds...though we don't seem to have that problem anymore."
She didn't sound any happier. And why would she? Thanks to my connection with the Phoenix, I knew precisely how many people died: 95,082. The invasion had barely lasted minutes.
It wasn't fair.
I gritted my teeth.
"I'm helping you now." With a wave of my hand, I sent a bird of shifting fire straight into her core, igniting it and filling it with energy. It also had the secondary effect of triggering a change in her armor. Her eyes went wide.
"Thanks…" she muttered.
"I'm going to end it," I whispered. staring at the streets of New York and then the sky. Shin and parasites like Corvus and Lauren had taken enough from us. From me. I was going to start with him. And then Dante and I were going to visit his father.
I teleported out of the barrier and unleashed my fire spell again, but this time I wanted it to do more than just cure diseases. I wanted it to burn, destroy, and erase down to the soul level. Thousands of thousands of sentient beams poured out of me, blooming, maneuvering, and crisscrossing, annihilating thousands of monsters. Massive wings of cosmic fire bloomed behind me as I shot toward the mothership. Every demon or monstrosity I passed withered to dust, startling more than a few heroes. The beams never stopped. By the time I reached and passed Sentry, most of the battlefield was barren.
I felt Corvus shudder even through the massive flesh wall of his ships. The ten rings Dante had gifted me all those months ago slid down my hand, phasing through my Arcanite armor like it was air, and dangled in the air like a whip linked together with thick ropes made from cosmic fire.
"Come out and face me, Corvus," I snarled and swung, splitting the massive ship in half.
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