After playing with his heat vision for a while, Zod Heath started getting a little bored.
On top of that, the Monster Association was now overwhelmingly crushing the superheroes. After all, this wasn't the New York City where a single shout would later bring over six thousand superheroes swarming out. The current number of superheroes was still very small, and most of them couldn't even compare to War Machine.
One could say that Zod Heath's emergence had comprehensively elevated the combat strength of Earth's people. Faced with alien invaders, humanity was no longer just meat on the chopping block. At the very least, Earth could probably beat about fifty percent of the civilizations in the universe now—and that was even without superhero assistance.
Thankfully, the Monster Association's strategy of winning through sheer numbers was quickly flipped around and taught a lesson by humanity. A sky-blotting swarm of War Machines, Iron Mongers, and Decepticons surged in, flooding into the underground city to engage the monsters in a desperate, life-and-death slaughter. Regular human military forces also brought in heavy fire support. They might not necessarily be able to kill the monsters, but they could at least play a supporting role.
At the same time, a sizable number of War Machines were also assisting Zod Heath. He, too, felt that it was time for this New York battle to swap in a different villain for the supporting role. So he flew off toward Stark Tower.
"Zod Heath is heading to Stark Tower—he might be going to deal with that portal device!"
"Cover him!"
"This is bad, Deputy Director Fury! After Director Heath left, a huge firepower blind spot opened up!"
Nick Fury gritted his teeth and opted to have the Helicarrier fill the gap. But the Helicarrier's firepower fell short against the Leviathans. Giant targets like these far exceeded the original anticipated enemies when the Helicarrier was designed. After all, its hypothetical foes were only airborne objects or ground targets; close-in defense cannons and missiles with an eight-thousand-meter range were more than enough to solve all those problems. They never expected to run into massive flying units, and the enemy armor was so thick they couldn't even punch through it.
As if sensing that the very powerful human had left, the Chitauri side immediately sent over three more Leviathans. This put everyone under immense pressure. After all, unlike in the movies where they were just transport ships that attacked by ramming, these Leviathans all possessed high-powered energy weapons—even energy main cannons.
The moment Zod Heath entered Stark Tower, he saw Thor and Loki grappling with each other. When they caught sight of Zod Heath, both of them froze. Thor and Loki were just about to explain that they were locked in a life-and-death struggle, to tell Zod Heath not to get the wrong idea, when they saw Zod Heath withdraw his gaze, turn away, and leave silently without a single word.
To be perfectly honest, that was way worse than being misunderstood!
"Wait—it's not what you think—"
Thor struggled, trying to hold Zod Heath back and explain clearly, but Zod Heath didn't even look back.
He walked over beside the portal device, looked at the fake Cosmic Cube inside, and then reached out. The energy barrier that originally required the Mind Scepter to break was pierced through by Zod Heath's bare hand, and then he crushed the counterfeit Cosmic Cube.
In an instant, the enormous wormhole above New York snapped shut. A Leviathan that had just stuck its head out was unlucky enough to have its body severed by the collapsing space, and only its head dropped down. The remaining Chitauri also seemed to disconnect, falling from the sky and littering the ground everywhere.
"Solved?"
Nick Fury and the others breathed a sigh of relief. But what came next was even more severe—the Monster Association.
Truthfully, Zod Heath felt that with the few bugs he had created, defeating the Monster Association was more than enough. Take Blonsky, for example. Relying on his ability to absorb kinetic energy and grow stronger, he had already torn apart several Dragon-level monsters, including Gouketsu, whose martial prowess was extremely formidable. This was a matter of compatibility matchups. Blonsky's ability practically countered all close-combat ability users. But if he faced Homeless Emperor, he would be badly beaten, maybe even lose. Rover was also Blonsky's natural nemesis.
Unfortunately for Rover, it ran into the Green Hulk, who could rage infinitely. In order to preserve the Green Hulk with his boundless potential, Zod Heath had put considerable thought into it, and in the end, he chose to permanently link the emotion of rage within the Phoenix Force to the Green Hulk. Whenever needed, he could put the Green Hulk into an infinite rage state.
Then Homeless Emperor faced the Red Hulk, General Ross, who could absorb radiation and heat to grow stronger.
"Impossible! The power bestowed upon me by a god—actually useless against you!" Homeless Emperor stared in disbelief at the Red Hulk, who had eaten several of his energy blasts and was completely unharmed.
"God? I don't care what kind of god, but you—you've betrayed the human camp, so you're going to die!" General Ross said, a giant cigar clenched between his teeth.
The fact that Homeless Emperor was human was something Tony Stark had detected. They were all shocked that a human could infiltrate the monsters and help them commit atrocities.
"What the hell is this guy? Can he infinitely split and multiply?" Tony Stark's brow was tightly furrowed. Every time he killed this thing that looked like a black Teletubby, even more black Teletubbies would appear, and the individual strength of a single black Teletubby wasn't weak.
Black Sperm had entangled Tony Stark with a playful attitude. S-Class heroes were nothing special after all. Heh heh, once these superheroes took care of Gyoro Gyoro and the others, he would come out and save the Monster Association. Then he would naturally and rightfully become the boss of the Monster Association!
Unexpectedly, Tony Stark suddenly fired something like a freezing mist. Caught completely off guard, several of Black Sperm were frozen solid, and those ones stopped multiplying.
"Found your weakness," Tony said smugly.
His symbiote armor was fully equipped with weapons, accounting for all kinds of situations. Although it wasn't as exaggerated as Zod Heath's Dark Knight armor, which could directly freeze the atmosphere, it was more than enough to handle these monsters.
Zod Heath gazed out at the ruins of New York.
From the gaps in the rubble among the shattered walls, thin wisps of smoke curled gently upward.
Gurgle! Gurgle!
The ground shook more and more violently, like a tiny sampan tossed in surging waves, threatening to capsize at any moment.
Finally—
Boom!
From the deep crater carved out by the Monster Association, a dense beam of blazing light and fire shot into the sky. The air warped and twisted from the searing heat, and the high heavens ignited in an instant, burning a brilliant crimson, like the setting sun descending, like evening clouds draped in vivid color.
Thump, thump!
The gravel on the ground jumped harder and harder, as if someone underground kept kicking the earth, the vibrations bouncing the stones.
Boom! Another beam of flame broke free of the ground's restraints, blasting straight toward the sky.
Boom! Boom! Boom...
The ruins of New York had become a world of fire. Pillar after pillar of flame erupted from beneath the earth, like towering trees of blazing scarlet, firmly dominating New York. When the flames reached their zenith, they drifted down like falling leaves, so for a time, a fiercely burning rain of fire poured from the heavens.
"What's going on?"
"This battle is way too intense."
The agents of S.W.O.R.D. and the others stared dumbstruck at the dozens of large and small pillars of blazing light erupting from underground in the middle of New York. If they were in the middle of that, they would absolutely be buried in the sea of flames, with absolutely no way out.
/-\
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