Both start in hell: but their talents are multiplied a hundredfold.

The group worked hard to eliminate many of the Chitauri vanguard, but the portal continued to expand until its edge swallowed half of the Manhattan sky.

A vortex several kilometers wide tore through the clouds, revealing a black mountain range formed by the Chitauri mothership fleet behind the gate.

An uncountable number of Chitauri troops surged forth again, flooding the streets like a torrent of metal bursting its banks.

Steve's shield was clamped down by three four-legged infantrymen at the same time. He gritted his teeth and held on, his knees sinking into the cracked asphalt.

Thor's lightning struck, but it could only clear a small area briefly before new Chitauri filled the gap.

Hulk leaped onto the back of a bio-warship, but more warships poured out of the portal, swarming like locusts and blocking out the sunlight.

Qin's mental network was under increasing pressure, and blood seeped from the tip of her nose.

Storm's tornado was blocked by the energy shields of the three motherships, dissipating into weak air currents.

The laser beam from the laser eye shot out continuously, causing the goggles to overheat and turn red.

Frank gradually revealed his weaknesses amidst the endless charges of the Chitauri; blood gushed from his mouth and nose, and even his special alloy tactical knife became dull.

One by one, the Blackwatch cyborgs were overwhelmed by the torrent of armor and energy guns, struggling to hold on.

Natasha crawled out of the crashed Quincy wreckage, blood streaming down her arm, and picked up a Chitauri energy rifle to continue firing.

On the other side of the portal, the Chitauri commander stood on the mothership's command platform, looking down at the tiny resistance fighters on Earth.

"Is this the world that Thanos asked us to conquer?" Its voice echoed within the Hive's consciousness.

"A bunch of insects that haven't even really ventured into space have managed to hold us off for so long."

The captain of the biological warship behind it let out a piercing laugh.

"The technological level of Earthlings is not even as good as the weapons of the Chitauri Empire from 10,000 years ago." The commander raised a slender finger covered with armor and pointed to the ruins of New York reflected in the doorway.

"Look at them, using primitive weapons to fight our energy guns, using their flesh and blood to withstand the Leviathan's charge. They are shedding their last drop of blood for a ruin destined to fall."

"These humans, despite giving their all, have only consumed a negligible amount of our biomass."

The Chitauri are not just an ordinary interstellar race.

In Thanos's army system, the Chitauri were the pioneers, the cannon fodder, and the slave army that was branded after being conquered.

Their home planet was completely conquered by Thanos in five hours, and the entire race was forcibly transformed into biomechanical beings, with each body implanted with a Hive neural interface connected to the mothership.

Their brains were covered by electronic neural networks, and their individual consciousness was compressed to almost zero under the command of the mothership, leaving only the instinct to obey and kill.

The Chitauri Leviathan warships are the product of forcibly fusing the flesh of space behemoths with mechanical armor. Their pain receptors are preserved, but they are unable to resist every command issued by the mothership.

In the warrior culture of the Chitauri, slave gladiatorial combat is a sacred ritual. Other races are thrown into the arena on the ice plains, and their blood freezes in mid-air into "war snow," which is collected to feed the Chitauri cubs.

When Thanos found this already brutal race, his actions were simple: conquer them in an even more brutal way, and then turn them into the most useful expendable resources in his plan to "balance the universe."

The Chitauri are not followers of Thanos, and they do not worship the Titans as fanatically as the Black Order.

They were Thanos's property, tools he picked up casually on his path of conquest, to be used and discarded.

Thanos didn't even bother to personally command the Chitauri army; he only needed to keep control of the Hive mothership and let them carry out the rest themselves.

But Thanos's true target was never just one planet.

What he wants is the Infinity Stones, the Cosmic Cube, the power of space and mind, and the ultimate authority to wipe out half of all life in the universe.

The Chitauri invasion was merely a pawn on the edge of Thanos's overall plan.

Loki was the puppeteer, the Chitauri were the blades wielded, and Thanos watched from the shadows from beginning to end.

If the Chitauri succeed, Earth will become another stepping stone for Thanos to collect the Infinity Stones.

If they fail, it will only be the loss of an army of slaves, and Thanos won't even blink an eye at it.

The commander's compound eyes gleamed with a dark green light as it looked once more at the burning city within the portal.

"Thanos said that the creatures on this planet possess a kind of 'free will'."

When it uttered this word in the cellular network, its tone was one of pure disgust.

"Because of the existence of free will, they will resist, they will struggle, and they will shout that they can fight like this all day long even in a situation where they are certain to die."

"But free will cannot save them."

The commander raised his hand, and the mothership's engines roared as the new Leviathan warship slid out of the dock.

"Order the entire army to deploy reserve forces into the teleportation portal."

"That gentleman doesn't care about the loss."

"He only cares about who ends up standing on the ruins."

The portal expanded outwards once more, and countless Chitauri warships poured out of the abyss like a black tide.

When the portal expanded to be several kilometers wide, the view behind it was finally fully revealed to everyone.

The Chitauri mothership fleet was arranged in neat rows of black mountains, stretching as far as the eye could see.

Behind the mothership fleet, a dark green planet floats against the cosmic backdrop, its surface covered with metal cities and honeycomb-structured orbital platforms.

That was the Chitauri's homeworld, a world transformed into a war machine.

After Steve knocked down several Chitauri infantrymen with his shield, he looked up and saw the planet, his pupils suddenly contracting.

Thor and Hulk have joined forces and are relying on each other to resist the reckless attack of dozens of warships.

A crack appeared in Qin's psychic net, forcing her to retreat several steps to protect herself.

Storm's dark clouds were dispelled by the mothership's energy field, and she knelt on the ground, panting heavily.

The laser eye goggles overheated completely, forcing him to close his eyes and barely manage to keep going by blind firing.

Frank spat out blood and foam from his mouth; his tactical knife was broken, forcing him to resort to guerrilla tactics.

Natasha leaned against the burning wreckage of the Quincy, her energy rifle magazine empty once more. This lucky woman had yet to be caught by the large Chitauri army.

The dark green planet was reflected in everyone's eyes, and despair spread from their spines to their limbs like icy water.

For the first time, they truly realized that they were not fighting against a small army, but an interstellar empire.

Just then, a golden-red figure tumbled and fell from the direction of Stark Tower.

Tony Stark's Iron Man armor was no longer recognizable as its original color, covered in torn armor and Chitauri purple blood.

He slammed heavily at Shen Jue's feet, his face shield popped off, revealing a face full of anxiety.

Meanwhile, Tony's armored team is still struggling to resist the Chitauri army's invasion.

"Father Shen Jue," Tony gasped, his voice cracking as it came from the speaker on his armor.

"Evacuate with everyone!"

He raised his hand, and the muzzle of the palm cannon was already red-hot and deformed.

"I have a plan! Let that damn Fury find a few high-yield nuclear bombs and smash them all into that damn portal!"

"As long as we destroy the portal, the mothership fleet won't be able to get through, and we can still defend Earth!"

Tony propped himself up on his knees, the joints of his armor emitting a grating metallic scraping sound.

"You take them away, I'll cover the retreat."

Shen Jue stood in the center of the ruins, his pale golden electromagnetic field silently isolating all the Chitauri around him from approaching.

He slowly turned his head and looked at Tony.

His face held an almost sacred composure, and the contours of his jawline were exceptionally clear against the backdrop of the war.

Tony paused for a moment, inexplicably finding the priest to be excessively handsome.

Shen Jue raised a hand and placed it on Tony's tattered shoulder armor.

"Tony."

His voice was calm, yet it made all the surrounding explosions fade into the background.

"It's time to show the real skills."

Tony's expression shifted from astonishment to confusion, and then to some inexplicable premonition.

"Wait! What do you mean by 'real technology'?!"

Shen Jue did not answer. He turned around, facing the portal that was several kilometers wide, facing the black mountain-like mothership fleet behind the portal, and facing the dark green Chitauri homeworld.

A pale golden electromagnetic field began to spread beneath his feet.

Steve saw this from afar. He raised his shield to block an energy beam and shouted at Shen Jue, "Father, what are you planning to do?!"

Thor turned around, and lightning reformed on his hammerhead.

"Father Shen Jue!"

Shen Jue simply raised his hand, palm facing the teleportation portal.

His voice wasn't loud, but it reached everyone's ears clearly.

"Just watch."

"Next, it's my turn."

Shen Jue raised his finger, and the X-gene from the mutant Arkwright was translated and expressed at the atomic level by the electromagnetic field at his fingertip.

Then, a shockwave exceeding the limits of mutant Arkwright spread from Shen Jue's fingertips, almost causing ripples to appear in space.

Shen Jue, possessing a physique, mental strength, and knowledge far surpassing Arkwright, has made the most of this mutant gene.

The Chitauri army that invaded Earth paused briefly upon contact with the shockwave, and then all turned into white dust.

A white ash of biomass fell from the sky over New York.

All of New York fell into a brief silence.

Tony, having deactivated his visor, wore an expression of utter disbelief, as if he had witnessed something incomprehensible.

"No, Father Shen Jue, how can you even be considered human?!"

Shen Jue turned to look at Tony, a half-smile on her face.

When Steve and the others witnessed this scene, they were dumbfounded as the Chitauri army, which had been pouring out continuously, turned into snow-white biomass ash.

Natasha dropped the energy rifle in her hand and caught a handful of snow-white ash in her hand.

This reminded her of the snow in the cold winter of her homeland, Siberia, a snow that was also filled with the taste of war, death, and suffering.

"It's not over yet." Shen Jue's voice rang in everyone's ears. He stepped out and arrived at the top of Stark Tower, directly below the portal.