"Proxima Midnight has failed."
Thanos, sitting on his throne, said this very calmly, without any emotion. But the people below didn't think so; they saw this as the prelude to Thanos's anger. To avoid being caught in the fallout, the four members of the Black Order quickly knelt on one knee before Thanos, wanting to volunteer for the next battle.
"No need, it's not time yet. This trip has already achieved its intended purpose."
With a wave of his massive arm, Thanos spoke while looking at the darkness of space. He didn't continue to let his main subordinates take the field, but the Chitaurri, who served as cannon fodder for testing, needed to continue their attack. Ebony Maw's ability was similar to Proxima Midnight's, and he understood Thanos's meaning well. He issued a full-scale attack order to the Chitaurri leader; to better achieve Lord Thanos's goal, they had to make these people use the power of this Planet.
"Huff! Huff!"
Having released Rhongomyniad, Artoria was now drenched in sweat. It had been a long time since she had sweated so much. Her playful golden strands of hair were stuck to her face because of the sweat, giving Artoria a hint of the mature charm of a wife. Due to the emptiness in her body after releasing the Noble Phantasm, Artoria could barely stand. She thrust the head of the holy lance into the ground to use it as a support, standing quietly in the center of the massive crater.
Releasing the Noble Phantasm for the first time, her control wasn't quite perfect, and the ground beneath her feet had been vaporized. As for Miss Proxima Midnight opposite her, she had probably been turned to ash! But this wasn't true Death, because Thanos could bring people back to life. The existence of Corvus Glaive proved that Thanos could still manipulate souls.
"Grumble grumble!"
"I'm so hungry~!"
Artoria, still panting, heard her slender belly let out a loud growl. Clearly, the consumption of mana had drained all the energy in her body. Her body needed food to replenish its energy, but there probably wasn't anywhere to eat on this ruined battlefield.
"Here."
"Okay, thanks."
Artoria looked around, found a piece of wood, and sat on the ground in distress. She needed to recover her physical strength. This consumption had exceeded Artoria's imagination. But then, a fragrant chicken leg appeared in front of her. Staring intently at the chicken leg, Artoria took a deep breath. It smelled so good! Her mouth was watering. She forced her attention away from the chicken leg.
Following the arm holding the chicken leg, a familiar face appeared before Artoria. Hope was now standing in front of her, wearing a black-red suit with two pairs of transparent wings on the back. She was holding a paper bag, and the scent coming from it was something Artoria couldn't resist—the smell of protein.
"I'll help myself then."
Trusting that her friend wouldn't harm her, Artoria didn't care about any ladylike demeanor—though she didn't have much to begin with. She took the chicken leg and stuffed it into her mouth, her cheeks bulging like a hamster's. With a crunching sound, her good teeth easily crushed the bone. After a couple of chews, she swallowed it directly.
Seeing Artoria eating happily, Hope was also very happy. She handed all the burgers in the bag to Artoria. Watching Artoria eat with such joy, she felt like she was feeding a small animal. No matter how she looked at it, she felt Artoria was so cute, she wanted to take her home! That ahoge swayed with Artoria's mood, looking very happy.
"Why did you come here?"
After eating a bit and recovering some spirit, Artoria's brain finally started working again. She looked at the somewhat different Hope and asked. Shouldn't she be busy at the Base right now? Why would she run all the way here? And that long hair gave the somewhat tomboyish Hope the air of a mature woman. When did you get hair extensions? Why didn't I know?
"Me?"
"Artoria, where are you?"
Hearing someone calling her name, Artoria turned her head to look, stuffing the remaining half of the burger into her mouth at the same time. Seeing that red hair—wasn't that Natasha? Swallowing the burger, Artoria looked back at Hope. Strange, where did she go? Sitting up from the ground, Artoria looked around in confusion. What happened?
"Aren't you going to stay a bit longer?"
'Hope' watched Artoria quietly from a dark corner. Behind her, a female voice spoke up, teasing 'Hope,' though the tone was full of Envy. It was unclear whether she was envious of Artoria or 'Hope'.
"Let's go back! Time is running out."
Ignoring the teasing behind her, 'Hope' took one deep look at Artoria, as if to imprint her into her heart, then turned and walked into the darkness. They still had urgent business to do—very important business. Soon, the corner became quiet again.
"Natasha, I'm so hungry I could eat a whole cow right now. Is there any food?"
Despite being full of doubts, Artoria decided to keep this matter as a secret buried in her heart. Right now, she was still very hungry, her stomach felt empty, and she needed meat and protein energy to fill it.
(⊙o⊙)...
Natasha was dumbfounded. Reaching out for food—are you still a child? It's not over yet! Can't you see the big hole in the sky hasn't closed? There's no food for you right now.
"Nick, you are now relieved of duty. Launch the nuke."
In the sky, Nick looked angrily at the communication before him. These guys definitely had a problem. Artoria's 'sun' just now had cleared out the majority of the Chitaurri. Although they were still coming to Earth in a steady stream, it was controllable. With a little more effort, it would have been a perfect conclusion. But he didn't expect these guys to actually dare to drop a nuke in the city. Those bastards. The Avengers and Artoria were all down there. He could already predict how furious Howard and Maria would be.
"Connect me to Tony and the others. Tell him a nuke is flying toward them."
Nick's expression didn't reveal his feelings, but his eyes were very dangerous. Did they really think he was a spy chief for nothing? Since you guys are courting Death, don't blame him for being impolite. Right now, he had to help the Avengers get through the danger.
"This is? That big nuke... I actually forgot about it, damn it."
Artoria, who was looking for food, instinctively sensed danger, and a quite high level of danger at that. Her intuition was screaming frantically in her mind. This made her remember that she had been so focused on fighting that she had forgotten how to handle that big nuke. It seemed that getting the holy lance recently had made her a bit overconfident. Good grief, she actually forgot. Artoria's face fell, and Natasha's expression also looked wrong; she had clearly received Nick's notification from the public channel.
"Location. The location of the nuke now."
Tony used his palm repulsors to clear out the Chitaurri grunts. He glanced at the fight between Thor and Loki. Although Loki had stabbed Thor in the kidney with a small knife, the strong warrior Thor was still gaining the upper hand over the melee mage Loki. Gwen was guarding the Tesseract. Dr. Banner had Spider-Man hold Loki's scepter; he had set up a shutdown point on the Tesseract, and the key was Loki's scepter.
Looking at the big hole in the sky, he suddenly thought of a good idea and quickly asked Nick for the nuke's current position.
"It's about to pass the bridge."
Knowing the direction, Tony quickly flew over. He looked at Artoria on the way but didn't stop.
"Big brother."
Artoria looked at the red-and-gold figure flying through the air, speaking with a furrowed brow.
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