A moment later.
Hulk, wrapped in the symbiote, slowly stopped struggling and grew calm.
Then his enormous frame began to shrink, reverting to Banner's original form.
Seeing this, Loki retrieved Mjolnir.
Bruce Banner sat up in a daze, glanced around, and scratched his head, puzzled.
"What happened?"
"You went berserk."
The green symbiote seeped out of his body like an amoeba, making Banner jump.
"Don't worry, I'm not Venom."
The symbiote had clearly seen Banner's memories while using its psychic abilities and learned about Venom's whereabouts.
"You helped me?"
"You suppressed the monster?" Banner asked, astonished.
But the symbiote shook its head. "You treat him like a monster, so he thinks he's a monster."
"But in truth, he is you."
This symbiote had evidently grasped the relationship between Hulk and Banner.
In a sense, there was no Hulk at all. The green giant and Banner were the same person.
It was only Banner's revulsion that made him resist and reject the green giant so fiercely that Hulk came into being.
Banner didn't care about any of that.
He hated Hulk to death.
If someone could help him keep Hulk in check, he'd be more than happy to accept.
Even if that someone wasn't human.
"Of course I'm willing to help you," the symbiote said. "Also, my name is Huanye."
Elsewhere.
The Chitauri vanguard had been utterly annihilated.
War Lord and Black Dwarf had fallen in battle. Ebony Maw had been tossed aside like garbage.
Now even Hulk had regained his senses. Everything made Supergiant understand that their side had already lost the momentum.
She didn't know how Corvus Glaive and Proxima Midnight were faring out in space.
But even if they were winning, they couldn't possibly come to reinforce her.
Because Loki had already taken back the Space Stone.
In this moment, even the unflappable Supergiant couldn't help but feel a twinge of regret.
I should have withdrawn the moment I got the Space Stone, she thought.
All those past battles had been one-sided routs.
That had made them arrogant.
Seizing what they wanted, then slaughtering the planet's population — that routine had become so deeply ingrained that no one had ever considered retreat.
Losing the Space Stone after obtaining it meant the plan had already failed.
Now, what Supergiant had to consider was how to protect the Mind Stone in her possession.
BOOM!!
At that moment, a bolt of lightning descended from the sky.
Loki, clad in silver battle armor, appeared right before her in an instant.
And right after him, the other superheroes arrived.
"Trying to run now? Isn't it a little late?" Tony came jogging over in his Mark V.
Falcon grabbed Steve by the arm and dropped him from the air, then furled his own wings to land.
Harry came surfing in on his glider as if riding a wave.
Felicia sprang between the high-rises, her lithe body stretching out, silver hair fanning open like a plume, which made Tony instinctively whistle.
But Felicia ignored the philandering guy. The moment she landed, she immediately demanded, "Where's Hacker?"
"Love 'em and leave 'em?" Tony asked.
Felicia shot him a glare.
Loki glanced at Felicia. Having spent these past few months on Earth, he naturally knew that Bant often wandered around at night with this little black cat, so he was well aware she was one of Bant's lovers.
Only…
He thought of Luma.
This is a bit tricky.
Imagining Luma's fiery temper, Loki's eyes instinctively drifted.
He couldn't imagine what would happen if that Tazoman woman found out Bant had a little girlfriend on Earth.
I have a feeling she'd come swinging a hammer and flatten this girl's head…
Loki wasn't sure, but he resolved to keep Bant's secret.
So he said, "The Sky Hammer Union's headquarters was also attacked by Thanos. He went to provide support."
"No wonder we didn't get any backup from the Sky Hammer Union this time either."
Steve nodded in understanding.
But Loki spread his hands. "Who says? Aren't I from the Sky Hammer Union? Without me, you'd all be finished already."
Hearing that, Stark clicked his tongue.
He felt Bant was still unreliable.
Not that Bant's abilities were lacking, but as a member of the Sky Hammer Union, he couldn't devote all his energy to Earth.
Like this time — the moment Thanos learned of the Sky Hammer Union's existence and diverted part of his forces, Bant had no choice but to leave Earth.
Earth needs to be protected by Earthlings, Tony thought.
The reason they'd been so battered facing Thanos's army, in his view, came down first and foremost to insufficient manpower.
The first battlefield in space had proven that point.
Back then, he'd nearly been drowned by swarms of Chitauri.
And according to those slimy alien parasites, that had only been the Chitauri vanguard.
His various suits hadn't proved all that useful in the fight. Instead, it was the mass-produced Steel Samurai from Pulaimosi that had served as the main force.
So, Hammer, aside from his lacking tech, at least had the right idea when it came to military thinking.
Beyond that, the planetary shield plan didn't seem all that great to him either.
At the very least, this time, the woman called Supergiant had used the resonance between the Stones to reverse-open a passage through the Tesseract.
And in Tony's view, only two Stones were known so far, with several more whereabouts still unknown. What if Thanos pulled the same trick again?
The more Tony thought about it, the more he felt he needed a powerful army of iron to arm the Earth.
But at this moment, he kept those thoughts to himself, because there was still an enemy in front of them.
Once again, everyone's gazes converged on Supergiant.
"Put down the Stone and surrender, or die!"
Even though Supergiant was the only enemy left, as long as she still held the Stone, she always had a chance to turn the tables.
"I do not fear death."
Facing the heroes' threats, Supergiant not only showed no fear but actually smiled.
In fact, long before Thanos adopted her, Supergiant had already longed for death.
It was Thanos who stopped her.
And promised that once he accomplished his destiny, he would grant her death.
Thus, to Supergiant, death was not something to fear — it was a reward, something she dreamed of.
Supergiant's attitude of preferring death to surrender left the heroes somewhat frustrated.
Though it looked like so many people had her surrounded, in truth, not many of them were still capable of fighting on.
Tony's Mark V had hardly any weapons to begin with. After dealing with all those Chitauri, it was practically scrap.
Steve, Peter, and Felicia could still fight.
But their strength was nothing in front of a Stone-wielding Supergiant.
The only threat to her was still Loki.
Loki alone.
Loki fixed his gaze on Supergiant. Lightning flickered between his fingers, and his every breath carried the chill of countless winters.
After fully awakening, he could now control most of the Casket of Ancient Winters' power.
The force of the Eternal Winter resided within his body, yet it didn't affect anyone else.
New York's temperature had returned to normal, which made the dinosaur-form Connors, inside Pulaimosi, groggily wake up.
But he didn't head back to the battlefield.
There was no need anymore, and the dinosaur-man's position was a bit awkward.
Compared to ordinary heroes, he was certainly much stronger. But compared to those earth-shattering gods, he seemed far too weak.
"My maximum strength isn't even a hundred tons… In the end, I'm just a frail scientist. Better not get involved in those matters."
Connors draped a much-smaller cloak over himself, ducked down, and entered the laboratory.
This time, adding a color-changing function to Peter's suit — in his opinion — counted as a reasonably successful little project.
But it could still be optimized, upgraded from a simple color change to real-time transformation.
To achieve true environmental mimicry, even something akin to invisibility.
However, getting immediate results was clearly impossible.
It would require a long period of research.
Nearby, Dr. Otto, seeing him work so hard, refused to be outdone and immediately walked into his own lab.
On the New York battlefield.
Manhattan.
Watching Loki and Supergiant face off, the heroes already knew the outcome of the battle was all but decided.
And it wasn't just them. The New York citizens watching the heroes fight from the shelters felt the same way.
This day had been far too intense for them.
First, the Sky Hammer Bureau issued an evacuation notice. Then came the cosmic battle in the first battlefield, which ended with the heroes retreating but successfully activating the planetary shield.
But before they could even breathe a sigh of relief, the shield vanished.
The battlefield shifted right to New York.
That instantly shut up everyone who'd griped about the Sky Hammer Bureau's mandatory evacuation order.
Then came the heroes' rout, followed by their comeback victory.
To them, it already seemed harrowing enough. But only those who truly knew the inside story understood just how dire the situation had been at the time.
Both Infinity Stones had fallen into enemy hands. Bant was nowhere to be found. The Avengers were all but guaranteed to lose.
In fact, if Ebony Maw hadn't insisted on targeting Loki, they wouldn't have even had a chance to turn the tables.
Regardless, the outcome was now set.
Just as everyone was thinking that, the situation shifted again.
Peter sensed something wrong first.
His spider-sense triggered. The Venom symbiote on his body shouted before he could, "I feel kinda tingly."
Before Venom finished, a deafening boom echoed from the sky.
Then, a gigantic donut (wait, no) — a colossal black spaceship — abruptly materialized above New York City.
Tony's faceplate flipped open. He stared blankly and said, "What is it this time?"
The one who answered him was Loki.
"Thanos is here."
/-\
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