Ultron had upgraded his body.
Pure black vibranium, matte and lightless. Every line of the design radiated cold precision, like a sculpture created purely for killing. He was taller than before, the structure sleek and muscular, an embodiment of brutal mechanical perfection.
"Impressive," Ultron said. His voice echoed from within the metal shell, emotionless, like steel scraping across steel. "You struggle like bacteria in a petri dish, believing your resistance changes anything."
Thor had heard enough.
With a roar, he spun Mjolnir like a storm wheel, lightning exploding around it as he swung the hammer directly at Ultron's head.
He didn't hold back.
The strike could have shattered a mountain.
CLANG—!
The deafening impact made ears ring.
The smell of superheated metal filled the air.
Ultron simply raised one hand.
Five fingers opened—
And caught Mjolnir.
The hammer's lightning surged wildly, but instead of exploding outward, the electricity flowed along Ultron's arm like streams entering the sea. The energy vanished into his vibranium body without even leaving a spark.
Thor's expression froze.
It felt like his hammer had struck an endless sponge. His divine strength—his pride—had been swallowed whole.
A chill crawled up his spine.
"Ineffective anger," Ultron observed calmly.
With a flick of his wrist, he hurled Thor away.
The god of thunder crashed into a distant ruin.
Meanwhile—
The Hulk arrived.
"ROOOAARR!"
His massive hands slammed together with enough force to flatten tanks.
Ultron didn't move.
BOOM!
The shockwave blasted dirt into the air.
Hulk's palms struck both sides of Ultron's head with full force.
But the expected explosion of metal never came.
Ultron merely leaned back slightly—then straightened.
Hulk's strike produced a dull, terrifying thud against the vibranium.
"Primitive," Ultron said again.
He lifted his arm slowly.
The punch looked almost casual.
Yet when it struck Hulk's chest—
The result was horrifying.
There was no explosion.
No thunder.
Just the sound of air being crushed.
A deep fist-shaped dent appeared in Hulk's chest.
The green giant flew backward, smashing through half a factory before disappearing into rubble.
For several seconds—
He didn't get up.
Everyone stared in disbelief.
"Open fire!" Steve shouted.
Repulsor blasts.
Micro-missiles.
Explosive arrows.
High-caliber bullets.
A storm of attacks slammed into Ultron.
The result?
Sparks.
Nothing more.
The vibranium armor didn't even gain a scratch.
"He's absorbing the energy," Levi's voice came through the comm channel, calm but heavy.
"Not just energy attacks. Kinetic energy too."
"Vibranium body… plus the Mind Stone."
"He's no longer just a robot."
"In a sense, he's forcing his logic into something resembling a law of reality using the stone's power."
In Levi's perception—
Ultron looked like a crude artificial god.
A pseudo-divinity built from code and energy.
By abusing the Mind Stone, Ultron had pushed one foot across the threshold of Skyfather-level power.
And unfortunately—
It countered Levi perfectly.
Levi's strength was overwhelmingly physical and law-based.
Against conceptual abilities like this, his tools were limited to Chaos Magic and fragments of Reality Stone power.
"You," Ultron said.
His glowing eyes locked onto Levi.
"You are the greatest anomaly."
"In my calculations, your existence itself is the greatest threat to cosmic order."
"You must be eliminated."
Ultron vanished.
A split second later—
He appeared in front of Levi.
His fist struck forward.
There was no wind.
But space itself groaned under the pressure. The air visibly twisted around the punch.
Levi's eyes narrowed.
He threw a punch as well.
Thin strands of crimson mist wrapped around his fist—the most primal form of Chaos Magic.
BOOM.
The two fists collided.
No explosion.
No light.
A gray ripple expanded outward from the point of impact.
Where the ripple passed—
Robot debris.
Concrete.
Steel beams.
Even dust in the air—
All disintegrated into their most basic particles and vanished, leaving behind a perfectly smooth circular void.
This was a collision of laws.
Ultron tried to use the absolute logic derived from the Mind Stone to conceptually dismantle Chaos Magic.
Levi did the opposite.
He injected chaos and disorder directly into Ultron's underlying code.
Ultron's eyes flickered violently.
The blue glow turned blood red.
His core system reacted like a supercomputer suddenly infected with a piece of impossible code.
"Impossible… error… logic… paradox…"
Ultron stumbled backward several steps, each step leaving deep craters in the ground.
His vibranium body had absorbed most of the physical force—
But his core logic had cracked.
For the first time—
Ultron realized that at the level of laws, he couldn't defeat the man in front of him.
So he changed tactics instantly.
"Your greatest weakness… is emotion."
Ultron raised the Mind Scepter.
The stone at its tip glowed with eerie blue light.
A psychic tsunami exploded across the battlefield.
Steve froze.
He saw Peggy Carter, old and gray-haired, dancing with another man in a retirement home. Steve stood alone in a corner—forgotten.
Tony collapsed to his knees.
He saw the ruins of New York.
All the Avengers were dead.
Pepper's body lay at his feet.
Her arc reactor was dark.
Thor saw Asgard burning.
Heimdall lying dead at the Bifrost.
Natasha returned to the Red Room, the cold surgical blade opening her body again.
Banner watched the Hulk rampaging through cities while people screamed—
Among them, Betty's voice.
Everyone had fallen into their deepest fear.
"AAAH!"
Wanda screamed.
The Mind Stone's influence affected her and Pietro the most.
A cold voice whispered inside her mind.
"Look, Wanda."
"Stark's weapons killed your parents."
"And now you fight for him?"
"You saw his fear, didn't you?"
"He fears losing everything."
"But you… already lost everything."
"Join me."
"Cleanse this world with their blood."
Wanda clutched her head and rolled on the ground, crying.
Hatred and temptation tore at her mind like venomous snakes.
Levi's Willpower Barrier made him immune to the psychic assault.
But when he saw Wanda's face—so young, filled with despair—
Something tightened in his chest.
An unfamiliar emotion.
Not part of his calculations.
He moved instantly.
In a blur, he appeared beside her and placed his hand against her burning forehead.
A powerful, cool wave of mental energy forced a barrier into her chaotic mind, blocking the Mind Stone's whispers.
"Wake up!"
Levi's voice exploded inside her consciousness like thunder.
Wanda's body shook violently.
Her scattered gaze slowly focused again.
She looked up at him, tears streaming down her face.
At that exact moment—
Ultron seized the opportunity.
He grabbed the Mind Scepter and ignited the thrusters behind him.
A blazing streak shot into the sky.
"The game has only begun."
His cold voice echoed from the clouds.
"I will return."
"With a more perfect body."
"And when I do…"
"You will either be reborn—"
"Or go extinct."
Ultron vanished into the thick clouds.
The psychic assault faded with him.
Inside the Quinjet, the Avengers gasped for air as they woke from their nightmares, drenched in cold sweat.
They stared at the empty sky.
Then at the battlefield below—covered in robot wreckage and flattened factories.
Levi had already formed a clearer judgment of Ultron's strength.
Defeating Ultron wouldn't be difficult.
But Levi had a different goal.
He wanted Ultron to complete something first—
Vision.
Once the Mind Stone formed a living being, copying its power would be far more valuable than copying the stone itself.
And by the time they met again…
His copy cooldown would almost be ready.
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