Those time travelers that year

Happy Lantern Festival! Greetings at dawn!

216. The Battle of New York (Part Two)

What is power? The Cosmic Cube, one of the Infinity Stones, unlocked a portion of its power, allowing Ciel to clearly perceive unimaginable strength. In his vision, countless dimensions overlapped and undulated above New York City. The dimensional barrier of the Vishanti, which had previously shrouded the entire Earth and concealed its spatial warp coordinates, was as fragile as paper before the power emanating from the Cosmic Cube. This was the power that had held off an evil god from another dimension for countless years, protecting Earth from the invasion of extradimensional beings.

Whether it's a wicked god or a demon, countless alien life forms from across Marvel's dimensions have hesitated to approach Earth because of this thin barrier. However, the situation has now changed. The 'Vishanti's' barrier has been erased over New York City, and this has triggered a chain reaction that has begun to affect the dimensional barriers of the entire Earth. At the same time, those extraterrestrial dimensions overlapping with Earth's periphery, taking advantage of the weakening of the 'Vishanti's' dimensional barrier, have directly connected with Earth's space.

This means that dangerous creatures from other dimensions can now enter Earth with minimal effort. Perhaps the next moment, the already troubled New York City will welcome a large group of otherworldly travelers... such as certain evil gods, demon lords, or some indescribable tentacle monsters, who might seize this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to excitedly come to Earth for sightseeing.

However, it's clear that Earthlings wouldn't welcome these guys.

Therefore, at this time, there will always be some rescuers. On a level imperceptible to ordinary people, a vast spiritual force from the East first enveloped the area. This spiritual power, for some unknown reason, triggered another force that spread from a corner of New York City. This nascent power, in Xia Er's perception, was like a vast net, unfurling and extending into the sky. In different dimensions, this spreading net firmly blocked the alien dimensions that were about to merge with Earth, and halted the weakening of the dimensional barrier of the 'Vishanti,' which had originally affected the entire globe.

The dimensional barrier was stabilized, meaning those who wanted to cross the boundary to Earth during this time had made a futile effort. However, this power was not enough to counter the power of the Tesseract, one of the Infinity Stones. The blue pillar of light still stood tall in the sky, and at the top of the pillar, a point of blue light gathered, and soon, a black dot appeared in the sky, and it continued to expand.

"It seems that even using the power of the Cosmic Cube is not enough to open a door big enough immediately!" Xia Er knew without a doubt whose power had stabilized the dimensional barrier outside Earth.

"...This is truly beyond my expectations!" Loki exclaimed in agreement. "At first, I planned to hold back and limit the size of the portal...but I never imagined that the Ancient One, the Sorcerer Supreme who lived as a mortal for hundreds of years, would actually have such a trick up her sleeve!"

"And now? How do you plan to keep this drama going?" Ciel looked at Loki sitting opposite him. "With the Ancient One involved, that portal won't be able to open big enough anytime soon... It won't be long enough to let those large war machines in. At best, it'll just bring in a bunch of cannon fodder."

“Cannon fodder is enough!” Loki replied. “If a real army enters, this play will be over. Anyway, I only planned to send in some cannon fodder.”

"Look! The Superboys are coming, aren't you going?" Ciel glanced at Loki. "Don't forget what I want..."

"No problem! After all, I was planning to have you go to Asgard to get me out!"

“Since we’ve signed the contract, I won’t break it!” Charles said. “As long as you keep your promise, you should know I don’t really trust you. After all, you’re the god of deception…”

"Don't worry, I don't want to be locked up in prison for the rest of my life."

——————————Divider Line——————————

The real Battle of New York didn't last the short time depicted in the movie. From the moment the blue beam of light opened a black portal in the sky, a full forty minutes passed before that portal expanded to a considerable size. This demonstrates the immense effort the Ancient One, under her control, had put in, using the power of the Vishanti—centered around three Sanctuaries located in different cities on Earth—to disrupt the portal's formation.

At this point, even a fool would know something was wrong. In fact, the US military had received an urgent order from above and began accelerating its efforts to enter the city. Police officers in New York City were also instructed to put the entire city on high alert and quickly evacuate the population.

However, it still seemed a bit too slow. Even though Iron Man and Thor, who could fly, returned first, it was still too late. Opposite the black portal in the sky, a dazzling starry sky was reflected. Then, a large group of Chiretar soldiers... well, cannon fodder, wearing armor, wielding guns, and piloting anti-gravity flying vehicles, rushed out in a swarm.

Although they are essentially cannon fodder, these Chiretas are basically flesh and blood that have been mechanically modified, with their entire bodies replaced by mechanical devices. Don't be fooled by their seemingly thin armor; in fact, unless you're a sharpshooter who hits the weakest point—the facial armor—every bullet simply can't penetrate their defenses. Of course, if you're like Captain America, with superhuman fighting skills and physical abilities reaching the limits of human potential, you can certainly fight these small, alien monsters hand-to-hand.

However, facing the Chiritar cannon fodder with air superiority, it was impossible to perform the kind of one-against-thousand feat seen in the comics... In reality, Tony Stark, who had just rushed back, was nearly scared to death by the swarm of Chiritars charging out. Luckily, he had sent his secretary to Washington beforehand, otherwise things would have been disastrous.

He rushed back into the building, switched to the Mark 7, and immediately ran to the top of the building, attempting to close the portal created by the Tesseract.

"Sir, that's made of pure energy; it's impenetrable." Jarvis's voice reached Tony's ears. Clearly, the idea of ​​using the Palm Cannon to destroy the equipment was futile. At the same time, Tony's actions immediately drew the attention of the Chiretta soldiers. In an instant, a barrage of laser beams rained down, forcing Tony to flee in disarray, his hands covering his head.

"OMG, Fuck!" While dodging the Chiritar attacks, Tony angrily cursed, "Fuck Loki, fuck squid..." Clearly, facing someone who could also fly, these Chiritar cannon fodder were like hunters swarming towards Tony. Startled, he hurriedly activated the miniature rocket launcher on his shoulder, emptying dozens of miniature homing rockets and shooting down dozens of Chiritar cannon fodder.

However, this only attracted the attention of more Chiretas.

Boom!!!

A bolt of lightning as thick as an arm appeared out of thin air and descended from the sky. Amidst the roar and flashes, the new batch of Chirrut fodder who were trying to chase Tony were instantly obliterated by a series of lightning bolts and thunderbolts.

Thor, clad in silver-gray armor and sporting a red cape, appeared beside Tony in an instant.

"We have to close the portal!" Thor shouted. "And where is Loki?"

“Obviously your brother doesn’t want us to close down so easily!” Tony replied.

"Oh, oh... look who's here again? Superboy?" Just then, Loki's voice reached their ears. At that moment, on the rooftop balcony of Stark Tower below, Loki appeared amidst a golden light, holding the Mind Control Scepter. "A Tin Man, and my brother, hmm, all that's missing is a Scarecrow and a Little Girl to make a fairy tale."

"Go and stop those invaders, help the captain!" Looking at Loki's ever-present sarcastic smile, Thor took a deep breath and said to Tony, "I'll deal with Loki!"

"Alright! Have a pleasant reunion, brothers!"

217. The Battle of New York (Part 3)

"Loki!" Thor roared as he landed on the platform, yelling at Loki, who was standing beside him leaning on his Mind Scepter, "Shut down the Tesseract immediately..."

“I can’t do it, my brother!” Loki pointed his Mind Scepter at Thor and laughed sarcastically. “It’s beyond stopping now. There’s only… war!”

“…Alright then!” Thor said in a deep voice, “Then I’ll give you war, brother!” With a swift movement, Thor charged towards Loki, swinging Mjolnir at him. Loki sneered, raising his Mind Scepter to block the hammer.

Immediately afterward, Loki swung his Mind Staff, and Thor ducked to avoid it. At that moment, a blue light flashed from the Mind Staff, and a beam of blue light shot out, heading straight for Thor.

With a single blow, Thor shattered the blue beam of light, then swung Mjolnir to block Loki's follow-up thrust. With a deafening roar, Mjolnir and the Mind Scepter collided, shattering half of the balcony into pieces the instant the weapons clashed. Debris flew everywhere, and the giant English lettering on Stark Tower was blasted to pieces and fell to the ground.

“This isn’t the place for our fight, brother!” Loki said to Thor with a cold laugh. “Let’s expand the battlefield a bit!” Golden light kept appearing on Loki’s body. The next moment, several illusions emerged from Loki’s body. The illusion of Loki, who was also holding the Mind Scepter, raised the scepter and slammed it down on Thor.

"This won't work on me, Loki!" Thor pushed off Loki's scepter with all his might, then blocked the relentless attacks from Loki's illusions. Taking advantage of a lull in the attack, Thor raised Mjolnir, the hammer of Thor, towards the sky. As the patterns engraved on Mjolnir flashed with a silvery-white light, a massive bolt of lightning struck down from the sky, heading straight for Thor's position.

With a deafening roar, dust billowed as the lightning bolt completely destroyed the balconies of Stark Tower, except for the areas protected by the Tesseract's energy. Rocks continued to fall from above the entire Stark Tower.

This really upset Tony, who was playing a bullet hell game with the small monsters in the sky. "So you think you can just mess around like this because this isn't your building?!" But before Tony could even complain, some large creatures that had just appeared behind the portal in the sky nearly scared him into being shot down by a barrage of laser beams.

It was a mechanical, fish-like alien creature, much larger than a whale. It was more of a siege weapon than an alien being. Its massive body allowed it to fly against gravity at a considerable speed, and its hard shell was covered with a series of metal spikes. The entire alien monster emerged from the portal, its size alone equivalent to the portal itself, and swam downwards from the sky.

"Fuck, Jarvis, find this thing's weakness!" Tony cursed under his breath, quickly turning and flying away. The monster was heading straight for him, and at that moment, more Chireita soldiers swooped down from their hovering devices. These were basically equivalent to a Green Goblin, enough to make Spider-Man look like a monster. They raised their laser guns and fired explosive energy beams at Tony. "Right, Jarvis, open the communications for me. I need backup."

"Sir, according to calculations, the Captain, Barton, and Agent Natasha will arrive in 1 minute and 06 seconds."

"Oh no, I'm not looking for a tank whose gear is outdated except for their shields and two useless DPS!" Tony, controlling his Iron Man armor, used his hand cannon to shoot down the Chitauri cannon fodder blocking his way, while complaining to his AI butler, "I'm looking for elite personnel, a professional team... Connect me to that wizard's call..."

"Okay, sir, we are locating Mr. Charles Gretel's signal. Please wait..."

"Sir, Mr. Charles Gretel's signal location has been found, right in the heart of New York City."

"What?! He's here! Oh, quick, Jarvis, call him on his cell phone!" Tony exclaimed excitedly.

"Communication call in progress...connected."

"Hello, who are you looking for?"

"Hey! Wizard, Shire, are you free right now?" Tony shouted immediately.

“I’m currently in a revolving restaurant…” Charles’s voice came through the communication device, “and watching a real-life Hollywood blockbuster.”

"This isn't a Hollywood blockbuster!" Tony exclaimed.

“But to me, it’s like a Hollywood blockbuster, Tony,” Charles said. “Don’t say I’m not helping you; in fact, this involves very serious political issues!”

“What the hell is this political nonsense?!” Tony cursed. “How is this even related to politics? Oh… damn it…” Just moments ago, a whole squad of Chiretta soldiers suddenly charged out from the other side of the building ahead, launching a pincer attack in conjunction with their relentless pursuit. Fortunately, Tony was more familiar with the terrain of New York. With the help of the all-powerful Jarvis, in a moment of emergency, Tony immediately rose into the sky, almost getting swallowed up by a barrage of laser beams. The lasers he dodged struck the adjacent buildings, instantly turning them into a series of holes, like they were made of paper. One of them, not being very strong enough to withstand the force, snapped and collapsed with a loud crash, ultimately becoming a pile of rubble.

"Don't you understand?" Just as Tony's heart pounded with fear, Ciel's voice remained calm. "If I'm not mistaken, this time it's Loki, the god of deception from Asgard, leading an alien invasion, right?!"

"That's right! What's wrong?"

“Loki’s army belongs to the Chiretas. Oh, you may not know this, but the Chiretas are space pirates who specialize in raiding and plundering. Generally, the planets they invade are reduced to ruins, and the inhabitants are sold as slaves.”

"Now those pirates have come to Earth!" Tony shouted as he dodged the Chitauri's attacks and returned fire. "Right here in this city, war and slaughter are raging..."

"Uh, I'm not from Midgard!"

"Aren't you worried they might just give you a quickie while they're at it!"

"First of all, I'm not gay, and neither are these pirates..." Charles said. "Although I think I'm several points better looking than you, and more than ten points better looking than your girlfriend... Okay, that's not the point. The point is that these space pirates have been causing havoc in interstellar space for many years and haven't been humanely eliminated yet—they have powerful backers."

Tony: ...

“His backer is another tyrant with a bad temper who is prone to planetary massacres…” Charles continued, “Coincidentally, before leaving, that Assar Thor told Coulson that he planned to become an ally of S.H.I.E.L.D. for the sake of the girl named Jane he was dating on Earth.”

"As the next king of Asgard and the current prince, do you know how serious that casual remark is?"

Tony: "I have a bad feeling. Don't tell me it's the one I'm thinking of!"

“The current situation is that Thor, one of the princes of Asgard, is in league with S.H.I.E.L.D. among you Midgards. Or rather, they are allies. S.H.I.E.L.D. hasn’t denied this, so it’s tacitly acknowledged.” Ciel explained to Tony with a helpless voice, “On the other side, Loki, also one of the princes of Asgard… recently fled Asgard after losing a court struggle, and is now with his allies—the Chitauri.”

"Now you understand, Tony. The current situation is Thor and his S.H.I.E.L.D. allies versus Loki and the Chitauri."

"The ongoing war of power struggle in Asgard is a very serious political issue..."

218. The Battle of New York (Part 4)

If he could now, Tony really wanted to beat up all the authors who wrote about palace struggles, or if he had the ability, he also wanted to beat up the guy in the other part of the communication. However, that was impossible... Let alone the question of whether he could beat him or not, he was now being chased by a bunch of Zirita cannon fodder and crackling behind him.

However, after what Ciel said, Tony realized that after all that fighting, it was still just a farce of court politics, and a war that was a continuation of that court politics. Was the relationship between politics and war the same whether it was on Earth or on another planet?

"So you don't want to get involved?" Tony persisted, "Didn't you make a deal with S.H.I.E.L.D. before?"

“That time, it wasn’t like this!” Shire said. “Back in New Mexico, I didn’t get involved in the fight between the two Asgardian princes. Even though I sent a group to beat up the puppet Loki threw over here, I didn’t confront Loki himself directly…”

"So give up, Tony... This is clearly a continuation of the political struggle in Asgard, and it's even a real fight. I will absolutely not get involved."

"But now this city has become a battlefield," Tony said unwillingly. "Aren't you afraid they'll kill you too?"

“The Chiritars are bandits. If they attack me, I can retaliate, but I can only defend myself,” Charles said. “Unless the Loki themselves launch a direct attack on me, otherwise…”

"Fuck!" Before Charles could finish speaking, Tony angrily hung up the phone. "Fine! Jarvis is on our side now. Have you figured out that big guy's weakness yet...?"

"Yes, sir!"

"Alright, now it's Iron Man Tony Stark's turn to save the world!"

……

Saving the world is no easy task, and real-world warfare is not the twenty-minute battlefield depicted in movies. The continuous stream of Chiretar cannon fodder descending upon Earth through the portal has given humanity a vivid lesson. So far, due to the small size of the portal, the Chiretars have primarily deployed a large number of cannon fodder and landing craft... These are all ground landing fleets used for attrition. Looking through the portal to the other side, several enormous dark shapes can be seen—those are Chiretar warships.

At this critical moment, if the Sorcerer Supreme hadn't remotely manipulated the power of the Vishanti, directly sealing off Earth's spatial coordinates and preventing the further expansion of the portal opened by the Tesseract, while also kicking back a whole bunch of extradimensional evil gods and demons, New York City would be in even greater chaos. Even so, this group of Chiretta cannon fodder forced the Earthlings to retreat steadily.

Those mechanical monsters that swam like whales were actually landing craft. Their enormous size, resembling battering rams, allowed them to bypass the armor of most weapons, and they began a brutal demolition spree, casting a shadow of dilapidated buildings over Manhattan. The continuous collapse of skyscrapers created a deluge of debris, with glass, steel bars, aluminum alloys, and other hard building materials raining down like snowflakes, causing screams and cries of agony among the fleeing crowds. Even those buildings that didn't collapse were engulfed in flames by the energy beams. The blocked streets even blocked most of the troops rushing into the city.

Although the Avengers revealed their identities and fought on the front lines, the endless stream of Chireita soldiers still managed to bypass their defenses and unleash a bloody massacre on the stunned humans inside the buildings. Even the Hulk, who arrived later and repeatedly shredded the roaming mechanical monsters from the sky, successfully drawing a lot of hate points for the Avengers, unfortunately, they still ended up being overwhelmed.

Back in the streets of Manhattan, groups of Chiretta soldiers, wielding laser guns several generations ahead of Earth's technology, engaged in a fierce firefight with human police, military, and agents. They overwhelmingly crushed the human counter-attack forces, only managing to escape if not for the emergency assistance of those body-tightly psychopaths who appeared out of nowhere, and the supervillains who, seeing the situation turning against them, joined the fight against the Chirettas to avoid collateral damage.

For example, there's this Spider-Man swinging on a swing while being chased and attacked by a large group of Chireitas. It's unclear why this obviously fragile character is so aggroed, but that doesn't stop a swarm of attackers from spraying bullets at the Chireitas chasing after him while he's drawing aggro. Then, a weirdo in a red bodysuit, just like Spider-Man, suddenly appears next to him, gets riddled with laser beams, then casually pulls out two knives from behind and slices down a Chireita standing on a hovercraft. He then turns around and starts a verbal battle with Spider-Man.

"God, you're the guild's main tank, you little spider!"

"No! I only play damage-dealing characters. Can't you see I'm a squishy character?"

"I only see a professional tank, are you antagonizing an OT?!" The man in the red bodysuit, ignoring the hole visible on the other side of his body, turned and said in a certain direction, "Now, everyone reading this, pay attention! In the future, never team up with someone who's clearly squishy but insists on taking positions from the tank... By the way, my inability to get legendary gear is definitely the Paladin's fault. You know how painful it is when I'm watching Japanese anime and see obvious fanservice chapters, a beam of light always appears out of nowhere? And..." Before he could finish, another laser beam blasted him into pieces, leaving only his head, which fell down... into a sewer opening with its cover lifted.

Only a lingering echo remained:

"Who stole the manhole cover...?"

In short, even with the combined efforts of superheroes and supervillains... it's clear that the New York instance is no longer the previous PVE mode; it's become an open-world PVP with no player limit. Because it doesn't cause server lag, this open battlefield is incredibly chaotic. All sorts of superpowers are flying around everywhere with a clatter. Over there, a white-haired woman with cataracts summons a tornado along with a bunch of lightning bolts, while next to her, someone shoots a philosophically-inspired red laser from their eye. Unfortunately, a middle-aged man with steel claws that he can't reach is forced to run around as a shield.

Similarly, in the sky, the belated military aircraft, before they could even make a move, were shot down by lasers. It was unclear whether they were there to deliver themselves to the enemy or what. However, the wreckage that should have fallen stopped in mid-air, then shattered into countless fragments, which were then controlled by some force to transform into cannonballs at supersonic speeds, blasting towards the Chireita's cannon fodder. An elderly man, wearing a helmet and dressed like a cosplayer, floated in mid-air, controlling a large amount of scrap metal, abandoned cars, broken fire hydrants, and steel pipes from some construction site, smashing them down on the Chireitas. However, this act of throwing scrap metal quickly attracted a barrage of laser beams, leaving him scrambling and fleeing in disarray. This caused a middle-aged,颓废 (颓废 is a difficult word to translate directly, but it implies a sense of decadence, apathy, or a lack of motivation) man who happened to witness this scene to burst into gloating laughter, only to be immediately blinded by a laser beam.