The azure sky split apart from the center of the heavens, cracks spreading outward like a giant spiderweb. Beyond the fractures lay endless darkness—and within that darkness, countless points of light ignited.
They were starships.
Tens of thousands of warships poured out from the massive tear in the timeline like a plague of locusts, seizing Earth's orbit in an instant. Every cold metallic hull bore the same emblem—a twisted infinity symbol.
The fleet of the Council of Kangs had arrived.
Outside the Avengers base, Levi looked up at the shattered sky, his expression calm.
Thor stood behind him, gripping Stormbreaker tightly. The six Infinity Stones embedded in the axe pulsed urgently with light. Strange's Eye of Agamotto mark flickered faintly on his forehead as molten-gold mystic patterns flowed beneath his skin like lava. Scarlet chaos energy churned endlessly around Wanda, staining the ground beneath her with an ominous crimson glow.
Inside the base's command center, surveillance feeds from around the globe streamed in live.
In Times Square, crowds scattered screaming in panic.
London's traffic had collapsed into endless frozen lines of steel.
On the streets of Tokyo, countless people held up their phones in despair, filming the apocalyptic sight overhead.
The emergency United Nations conference had abruptly ended. World leaders sat pale-faced and speechless.
And yet—
The fleet did not fire.
They simply hovered silently in orbit like ancient beasts waiting for the perfect moment to strike.
A blinding beam of light suddenly descended from the central flagship.
The pillar landed precisely three hundred meters in front of the base, kicking up clouds of dust. When the smoke cleared, a figure stood within it.
He wore sleek purple power armor, elegant yet deadly, with a glowing blue energy core embedded in the chest. Beneath the transparent visor was a face identical to Kang the Conqueror's—yet filled with arrogance and conquest.
If Kang the Eternal had been a weary old man who had witnessed the flow of endless time…
Then this one was a beast newly freed from its cage, eager to tear the world apart.
His gaze swept across the battlefield before finally settling on Levi.
Thor stepped forward, lightning crackling violently around Stormbreaker.
But Levi raised a hand to stop him. He turned slightly toward Strange, giving him a questioning look.
Strange understood immediately. A faint smile appeared on his face as he slowly stepped forward. His Cloak of Levitation billowed without wind, and with every step, intricate golden magic circles spread beneath his feet, as though rewriting the laws of the earth itself.
The Kang variant looked at him—and smiled.
"So these are the Avengers of this universe."
The voice did not come from his mouth. Instead, it echoed directly within everyone's minds, cold and majestic.
"Under Article Seven of the Multiversal Stability Act, your timeline has been designated a malignant deviation and sentenced to pruning. The Council of Kangs are not tyrants—we are gardeners preserving the stability of reality. And you are a cancer that must be excised."
He raised a hand. Countless lights appeared across his armor, converging into a massive holographic projection.
It was a violently distorted stream of light representing this timeline. Bright red nodes blinked across it, each marked with a name.
Tony Stark. Steve Rogers. Thor Odinson.
And—
Levi.
"You have deviated severely from the Sacred Timeline's intended course." The Kang variant stared directly at Levi, curiosity flickering in his eyes. "Especially you. Designation: The Devourer. A variable that should not exist. Every new ability you consume tears the structure of the timeline apart irreversibly. Because of this, the Council has issued the highest-level pruning order against you."
Levi merely raised an eyebrow, studying him with interest.
"Enough!" Thor finally roared in fury. "Who the hell are you, tin-can clown, to judge us?!"
The six Infinity Stones flared brilliantly as violent lightning storms erupted around him.
Levi raised a hand again, voice steady.
"Thor. Let Strange handle this."
Thor froze. "Why? Let me split him in half with one swing!"
"This is a test."
Levi's eyes rested on Strange's back as thoughts raced through his mind.
Kang's technology system was fundamentally different from magic—perfect for testing Strange's newly evolved power. He needed direct data to determine both the true nature of the Sorcerer Supreme's strength and the technological level of the Council of Kangs.
"I want to see," Levi said slowly, "just how far our Sorcerer Supreme has evolved."
Strange stopped fifty meters away from the Kang variant.
The Kang scoffed.
"A sorcerer? You send a mortal who borrows power from dimensional entities to oppose me?"
"Borrowing?" Strange raised his right hand. Golden light gathered in his palm, condensing into a rotating rune. "That was the law of an older age."
The Kang variant's smile froze.
He could feel it.
The energy fluctuations surrounding Strange were utterly unlike those recorded in his database from previous Sorcerer Supremes. Past sorcerers had drawn power like streams from distant reservoirs—sourced, limited.
But this man…
This man himself was a bottomless ocean of energy.
"Interesting." Kang's expression lost its mockery as blue light spread across his armor. "But only slightly."
He raised his hand.
An invisible force field instantly descended upon Strange.
Temporal Stasis Field—31st-century technology capable of freezing localized time flow to absolute zero.
Yet the moment it approached within one meter of Strange, golden light flashed—
And the field was violently repelled.
Kang's pupils contracted sharply.
"Impossible!"
"Your technology is built upon the existing rules of the universe," Strange said calmly. His Eye of Agamotto slowly opened, pure golden radiance flowing from within like the gaze of a god. "But some powers transcend rules."
He raised his left hand. An impossibly intricate magic circle rapidly formed.
"Because they are the rules."
Kang's expression changed drastically. His armor's shields activated automatically, forming a layer of blue energy around him.
Panels slid open along his gauntlets, revealing two black emitters.
"If conventional methods fail… then let's try this."
Two black beams fired—not at Strange, but at the ground beneath him.
The moment they struck, a horrifying scene unfolded.
The land was not destroyed.
Instead, it twisted and faded, as though erased from the painting of existence itself. Causality had been rewritten.
That land had never existed.
A pitch-black void ten meters wide appeared instantly.
Strange swayed slightly, but the Cloak of Levitation lifted him effortlessly above the abyss.
"A causality weapon," he observed calmly. "Directly rewriting the history of existence itself. Thirty-first-century technology truly has its merits."
"That was merely the appetizer!"
Kang sneered and slammed his hands together. The energy core in his chest exploded with unprecedented brilliance. A hundredfold stronger energy field erupted outward, covering everything within a hundred-meter radius.
This time—
The air, birds, dust—
Even the distant surveillance monitors in the Avengers base—
Everything froze in absolute stillness.
Everything except Strange.
The Eye of Agamotto shone brilliantly, forming a golden sphere around him. Inside the sphere, time flowed normally. Outside it, reality remained frozen.
"You think you alone command time?" Strange's voice echoed across the silent battlefield.
He extended a hand. Golden patterns spread from his arm to his fingertips, condensing into a rune carrying supreme order itself.
The rune shot forward and pierced directly through Kang's temporal field.
Not countering it.
Not breaking it.
Simply ignoring it entirely.
The rune struck the shield precisely. Golden light spread across the blue barrier like a living thing, devouring it.
Kang's composure finally shattered.
"How is this possible?! My shields exist in a quantum-entangled state! They're theoretically immune to all forms of energy penetration!"
"Your theories are impressive," Strange replied with faint pity. "But they failed to account for one variable."
He clenched his hand.
"Me."
The rune exploded with blinding brilliance.
Kang's shield shattered instantly, peeling apart like torn paper.
"Damn it!"
Kang tried to retreat—
Only to discover his legs already bound by golden magical chains.
"The game is over," Strange said, walking toward him step by step, golden ripples spreading through frozen space beneath his feet. "Tell me. What is the Council of Kangs truly after?"
The Kang variant stopped struggling.
He looked up.
The fear vanished from his face, replaced by an eerily twisted smile.
"You win, sorcerer. But the outcome of this battle was never important."
Strange frowned. "What do you mean?"
"I was only here for data collection." Kang's smile widened. "Your energy signatures. Attack patterns. Defensive thresholds. From the moment this battle began, everything has been transmitted back to the Council through quantum entanglement. Thank you for the excellent demonstration, Sorcerer Supreme."
Strange's expression changed. His psychic force erupted instantly, trying to sever the connection.
Too late.
"Until next time," Kang's body began dissolving into particles of light, "we'll return with weapons designed specifically for you."
Before the final word faded, his body vanished completely—forcefully recalled by a power beyond the timeline itself.
Time resumed.
Strange stood silently, the Eye of Agamotto slowly closing. His face looked grim.
Levi walked over and patted his shoulder.
"Don't blame yourself too much."
"He was telling the truth," Strange said quietly. "They obtained all my data."
"I know." Levi nodded. "But it doesn't matter."
"Doesn't matter?"
"What they collected was only data from the current you." A meaningful smile curved Levi's lips. "What they don't know is that your power evolves every second. The information they got is already outdated. And besides…"
His gaze pierced the clouds toward the silent fleet hanging in orbit.
"They still have no idea how many cards we haven't shown yet."
At that moment, Thor's expression changed.
"The ships—they're moving!"
The countless warships in orbit shifted formation. Vast torrents of energy surged from every vessel toward the central flagship.
"The main cannon is charging," Levi said sharply.
"They're going to fire?" Wanda stepped beside him, scarlet power gathering around her.
"Not just fire." Levi's voice darkened. "I can feel it. Something far stronger than that Kang variant is descending."
The moment he finished speaking, five more beams of light descended from the fleet, landing around the base and surrounding them completely.
The light faded.
Five figures emerged.
One wore massive heavy armor like a moving mountain of steel, radiating overwhelming physical pressure.
Another wore sleek lightweight armor and wielded twin energy whips, their body flickering in and out of visibility.
A third wore armor engraved with both technological circuitry and mystic runes, carrying an energy cannon in one hand and a spellbook in the other.
A fourth wore almost no armor at all, yet visible streams of temporal energy flowed beneath his skin.
And the final one—
Dressed in magnificent gold-and-white armor, standing at the center like a king, coldly observing them all.
Each radiated power no weaker than the probing Kang from before.
Far above them, the flagship's main cannon had fully charged. A continent-destroying blue glow gathered at its muzzle, aimed directly at Earth.
Levi took a slow breath.
"Looks like they're not planning to give us even a moment to breathe."
He turned toward Thor, Strange, Wanda, and the Avengers emerging one after another from the base behind him.
"Are you ready?"
Thor raised Stormbreaker high, the six Infinity Stones illuminating his resolute face.
"I've waited for this day for a long time."
Strange's Eye of Agamotto opened once more, shining brighter than ever before.
"Order will never bow to tyranny."
Scarlet chaos energy exploded skyward around Wanda, intertwining with Strange's golden radiance.
"We fight together."
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