Levi didn't look back at the ground again.
Like a meteor flying in reverse, he plunged headfirst into the black void in the sky.
The wormhole was no friendly passage.
Space inside was chaotic—like a pot of boiling tar, viscous and violent.
There was no up or down, no gravity—only warped light and spatial rifts that could tear open at any moment.
A fragment of armor sheared off from a nearby warship was accelerated by the distorted gravity within the tunnel, turning it into a projectile as deadly as artillery. A mere graze could rip a human body in half.
Anyone made of flesh and blood entering this place wouldn't last a second before being crushed into subatomic dust.
But around Levi's body, space itself was forcibly smoothed by a stronger will, forming an invisible membrane.
[Spatial Curvature Barrier]
Every lethal fragment and energy surge that hurtled toward him was gently deflected the instant it approached—like striking a perfectly polished surface of soap.
He was a fish swimming upstream through a waterfall, charging straight toward the eye of the storm—toward the kaleidoscopic exit ahead.
---
On the Ground
The battle had reached its breaking point.
"Left flank! The left flank needs support!" Steve's voice roared through the comms.
He slammed his shield into a Chitauri soldier's face, then yanked his pistol and emptied the magazine into the advancing wave. Shell casings clattered across the pavement as he barely forced the enemy back from the bank steps.
Leaning against a broken stone pillar, he gasped for air, covered in soot and blood that wasn't all his. Even a super-soldier's stamina had limits. His lungs felt like torn bellows.
"I'm out of ammo!" Natasha shouted from behind the burnt-out skeleton of a police car. She tossed aside her empty Glocks and drew the last weapon she had—a combat knife strapped to her thigh.
She risked a glance outward. A tide of enemies surged forward, blue energy bolts tearing apart her cover in showers of sparks. She knew she had maybe a minute left.
"JARVIS, status?" Tony's armor weaved frantically between skyscrapers, dozens of flyers chasing him relentlessly.
"Seventeen percent power remaining, sir. Right-arm missile system offline. Left leg thruster severely compromised. High-intensity maneuvers are not recommended."
"Noted." Tony gritted his teeth, dropping into a near stall dive to evade incoming fire, firing a repulsor blast in return. The beam was thinner now, weaker.
For the first time, staring at the cascade of red warnings across his HUD, he wasn't sure.
That guy… Levi… was he really pulling this off?
---
On the Other Side
Levi burst through the wormhole.
Before him lay the cold, silent vastness of space—and a fleet vast enough to inspire despair.
Countless warships, like metallic locusts, sealed off the wormhole's exit in suffocating density. Their hulls gleamed with a cold violet sheen under distant starlight.
At the center of the armada loomed the mothership—a grotesque, beetle-shaped monstrosity the size of a mountain.
The hive.
The core of the command network.
Levi's arrival was like a drop of cold water in boiling oil.
The fleet awakened instantly.
Every cannon slowly pivoted toward him. Blue energy gathered at thousands upon thousands of muzzles, all aimed at this single, insignificant intruder.
Sharp warning pulses exploded across Levi's senses.
He didn't move.
He floated in silence, like a golden statue.
[Adaptive Armor] analyzed the surrounding energy frequencies at high speed. An invisible layer formed across his body, adjusting and optimizing specifically against Chitauri weapon signatures.
Then—
The fleet fired.
Tens of thousands of blue energy beams erupted simultaneously, weaving a suffocating net of annihilation meant to vaporize him entirely.
Levi slowly raised a hand.
Golden energy condensed in his palm, compressed to a pinpoint.
Instead of throwing it—
He pressed forward gently.
The pinpoint unfolded soundlessly into a massive, slowly rotating golden vortex.
Its center was darker than night.
[Spatial: Deflection]
The apocalyptic energy barrage plunged into the vortex without even stirring a ripple—and vanished.
A heartbeat later, an identical vortex opened behind the Chitauri fleet.
It spat the entire barrage back out.
Their own firepower slammed into their rear lines.
The back half of the fleet dissolved into chaos. Warships detonated under friendly fire, explosions blooming silently across space like a string of fireworks.
Inside the mothership, the commander's rage echoed soundlessly.
Formation shifts began—preparing a second, heavier barrage.
Levi didn't give them the chance.
His gaze locked onto the mothership.
He raised both hands, palms facing each other. This time, the cosmic energy within him didn't surge outward—it collapsed inward at terrifying speed.
Brighter and brighter—
Until between his palms formed a slender, impossibly radiant golden spear.
[Binary: Heaven-Piercing Lance]
He thrust forward.
The spear shot out without sound.
Space itself split along its path, leaving behind a thin black scar—proof that even reality struggled to endure its passage.
A Chitauri cruiser in its way was pierced instantly. No explosion. No fire. It simply unraveled from the point of impact, dissolving into cosmic dust within seconds.
The spear did not slow.
It struck the mothership.
Its massive energy shields flared desperately.
Useless.
Like a heated blade through butter, the spear penetrated the shield and vanished deep into the core.
One second of silence.
Then—
A blinding sphere of pure white erupted from within the mothership.
It expanded faster than light, swallowing everything in its radius.
No sound. No shockwave.
Only pure annihilation.
The mothership vaporized from the inside out, bursting into countless burning fragments that scattered into the void.
And the network—
Snapped.
---
New York
A Chitauri soldier in front of Steve froze mid-swing.
The blue glow across its body flickered out.
It fell forward like a puppet with cut strings.
Then another. And another.
Across the battlefield, every active Chitauri unit collapsed simultaneously.
Flyers dropped from the sky like dead flies.
A Leviathan mid-lunge at Thor lost power and crashed between two skyscrapers, wedging itself there like a grotesque steel tomb.
In seconds, the battlefield transformed from inferno to graveyard.
"…Is it over?" Natasha whispered, staring at the sudden stillness.
Steve looked up at the still-spinning wormhole.
"He did it," he murmured.
High above, JARVIS spoke calmly.
"Sir, all hostile life signatures have ceased."
Tony stared at the falling wreckage.
"That maniac…" he breathed. "He actually did it."
He rocketed to hover beneath the wormhole.
Waiting.
One second. Two.
Ten.
Nothing emerged.
"Hey! Levi! We're done! Get your ass back here!" Tony shouted into the comms.
Silence.
His stomach sank.
---
Stark Tower – Rooftop
Dr. Erik Selvig suddenly shuddered, clarity flooding back into his eyes.
With Loki sealed away, the scepter's influence had vanished.
Horror overtook his face as he saw the destruction below.
"What have I done…"
Then realization struck.
"I can shut it down!" he shouted to Thor, who stood beside the imprisoned Loki.
His hands flew across the console.
In the sky, the wormhole flickered—then began collapsing inward.
"No! Wait!" Tony yelled. "He's not back yet!"
He screamed into the comms. "Who's closing it? Stop!"
No answer.
The portal shrank faster.
"JARVIS! All power to thrusters!" Tony's voice trembled. "I'm going in!"
"Sir, that is extremely dangerous. Your energy reserves are insufficient for return."
"Do it!"
The Mark VI armor flared at maximum output, shooting toward the shrinking portal like an arrow.
"Levi! You idiot! Get back here!" Tony roared.
---
The Other Side
Levi felt it the moment the mothership exploded.
The spatial channel was collapsing.
He turned.
The distant blue opening was shrinking rapidly.
His heart dropped.
He pushed [Binary Form] to its limit, transforming into a golden comet tearing through darkness at maximum speed.
He saw it—
The blue sky beyond.
He saw Tony's red-and-gold armor charging toward him without hesitation.
He even heard Tony's final shout through the comms.
Levi reached out.
Just a little faster—
Just a little closer—
Almost.
So close.
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