Chapter 204: Clash Of Past And Present
Don’t think Loki is always getting the short end of the stick.
However, Loki is indeed the well-deserved God of Tricks, instilling fear in countless civilizations across the Nine Realms, so Sylvie, as a Loki variant, naturally has no shortage of intelligence either.
The plan to deal with Deadpool using Ian formed instantly in her mind. In the shadows of the corner, Sylvie’s brain was racing, her gaze constantly switching between the window outside and Deadpool.
“I must get that guy in here… only a madman can deal with a madman…” Sylvie gritted her teeth, her eyes scanning the surrounding environment, searching for possible Time Variance Authority equipment or energy nodes to artificially create a space gap and pull in Ian, who was wrestling with the time monster outside, alone.
However, this would require time and deep access permissions to the Time Variance Authority system.
She clearly didn’t have those now.
Meanwhile, Deadpool’s performance had entered a new phase.
He seemed to have completely forgotten the earlier embarrassment, holding up the still-wailing baby Odin high in one hand while placing the other on his hip, actually starting to shake his butt in an extremely exaggerated dance full of primitive tribal vibes mixed with modern steel pipe dance elements… an “elephant dance”?
Only those who have seen Crayon Shin-chan can understand the quality of this dance.
“Come on, come on! Feast your eyes! Time for Deadpool the Great and the King of Gods to dance together!” Deadpool shouted while dancing, trying to make Odin’s little arms and legs sway along.
The baby’s cries intertwined with his humming, forming an extremely grating and eerie BGM.
“Look at this chemistry! Look at this rhythm! Asgard’s future depends on us! Heave-ho! Heave-ho!” The level of his brain-dead antics was simply off the charts.
Normal people wouldn’t even know how to respond, not even finding a proper entry point for a roast.
“????”
Due to the effects of multiple universe reboots and timeline shifts, Captain America and Doctor Strange’s memories were already in chaos; at this moment, they couldn’t recognize at all who this guy in the red-and-black uniform, performing performance art to the extreme, was, so they could only look at each other in bewilderment, their eyes filled with confusion and helplessness of “Which mental hospital did this guy escape from?”
Meanwhile, Thor was still lying on the ground not far away, foaming at the mouth, his body twitching occasionally, completely unconscious, perfectly missing his old man’s “dance debut.”
“Uncle Deadpool, you know you look like you’re sexually harassing everyone right now…” Little Morgan had just opened her mouth, seeming about to share some thoughts.
However, after uttering the first sentence of the thousand words in her heart, the next moment, something unexpected happened—her expression changed abruptly, and the words on the tip of her tongue stopped instantly!
Almost at the same time.
Captain America and Doctor Strange’s expressions also stiffened suddenly; their gazes passed over Deadpool, who was still dancing passionately, and locked onto the shadows further down the corridor.
Both of their pupils contracted sharply!
It was an instinctive fear reaction to extreme danger rooted in life itself!
Deadpool was still twisting vigorously there, noticing his only “audience” suddenly not watching him, and immediately grumbled in dissatisfaction: “Hey! Hey! What’s going on? All stunned speechless by Deadpool the Great’s perfect dance moves? I know it’s artistic, avant-garde, but give me some reaction at least!”
“This is something I learned from a homeless guy at a New York subway station—he said it was a lost Mayan sacrificial dance…” Deadpool rambled on about the backstory of his dance.
But no one responded to him.
The air grew somewhat quiet. Doctor Strange and Captain America were on high alert like facing a great enemy, while only Little Morgan slowly raised her slightly trembling little hand, pointing at Deadpool’s back.
“Nani? What? What?” Deadpool finally realized something was off, his dance moves freezing abruptly. He turned around extremely slowly, bit by bit.
Right behind him, less than half a meter away, a mechanical entity was hovering silently.
It was entirely composed of a dark, light-absorbing metal, with cold and perfect lines; every structure exuded ultimate efficiency and power.
It, or he, had no complex expression simulation on its face, only a pair of electronic eyes emitting deep red light, now staring at Deadpool emotionlessly.
And at the baby Odin in Deadpool’s hand.
“Ultron!”
Deadpool let out an exclamation, incidentally introducing the character. His expression froze instantly—a instinctive panic like a mouse seeing a cat or a subordinate facing the top boss.
“I’m not slacking, I haven’t betrayed.” He reacted lightning-fast; in the next second, his face was piled with fawning and loyal smiles.
Though wearing a mask no one could see it, that didn’t stop Deadpool from “naturally” pulling out a crayon and drawing his current expression on his mask.
“B… Boss! Why are you here in person!”
Deadpool’s voice turned unusually deferential, even trembling like a sycophant, “You’ve seen it all, right? I’ve been stalling for time according to the plan! Successfully held up these tricky guys! Just waiting for you to reap them! I did great, right? Can I get a bonus…”
In response, Ultron gave no reply; those red electronic eyes didn’t even flicker, just quietly “watching” him, watching his Grand Judge standing before him.
Even though Ultron hadn’t made a sound yet.
Deadpool panicked first, becoming incoherent: “Motherfucker! The undercover plan is exposed! This plot has no logic! My acting skills are this good, damn it!”
Survival instinct, or rather his death-seeking instinct, made Deadpool prefer striking first; he abruptly raised the hand wearing the Infinity Gauntlet while Mjolnir in his other hand erupted with unprecedented brilliant thunder light!
“Little Ultron, don’t blame Deadpool the Great for not playing fair! Take the hammer!”
Deadpool roared in a strange, screechy voice.
He directly combined the Infinity Gauntlet’s energy with Mjolnir’s power, smashing toward the nearby Ultron with terrifying might that could shatter stars!
“Heh.”
Facing this strike powerful enough to devastate or destroy a galaxy, Ultron didn’t even change his posture.
He merely lifted one hand casually, precisely intercepting the Mjolnir wrapped in endless thunder and filled with Infinity Gems’ energy.
Thud!
A muffled sound so deep it shook everyone’s hearts, as if all heartbeats skipped a beat—Ultron’s hand firmly gripped Mjolnir’s hammerhead.
The destructive energy surged to his palm, then hit an invisible absolute barrier, annihilating instantly without even a ripple.
“No one will truly trust you, Wade.”
Under Deadpool’s gaze of utter horror, Ultron’s fingers tightened slightly.
Crack… crackle…
Mjolnir, the Asgardian divine artifact forged from a dying star’s core, actually began showing countless fine cracks on its surface! Ultron’s hand seemed to possess the power to decompose all rules, inexorably deforming and shattering Mjolnir bit by bit!
Terrifying energy backlash surged along the handle instantly to Deadpool’s Infinity Gauntlet!
“No! My limited edition gauntlet!”
Deadpool screamed in agony.
The Infinity Gauntlet embedded with Infinity Gems on his hand began groaning under the strain, the gems’ light flashing wildly, spiderweb cracks appearing on its surface too!
“I’ll fight you to the death!” Seeing his weapon scrapped, Deadpool, in desperate frenzy, used the fussing baby Odin in his other hand like a brick, smashing it brutally at Ultron’s face! At the same time, his freed hand quickly reached for another identical-looking Infinity Gauntlet on his belt.
Deadpool’s waist had plenty more, each numbered differently. Though it seemed he could use dozens, Ultron appeared to have completely lost patience.
Just as Deadpool’s hand was about to touch the second Infinity Gauntlet.
Slap!
Ultron’s other hand struck first, simply slapping out!
The slap seemed casual but contained unimaginable power. Deadpool didn’t even get to scream before his entire body flew backward like hit by a planet!
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
He crashed through countless reinforced metal walls inside the Time Variance Authority, his figure vanishing quickly into the distant dark corridor end, only his fading, elongated “Motherfucker aaaaaah—” roar echoing, proving he had been there.
Ultron didn’t even glance at the flying Deadpool.
That hand which had just crushed Mjolnir casually brushed aside, then he finally turned those emotionless red electronic eyes toward the remaining Doctor Strange, Captain America, and Morgan.
“Children, I didn’t want it to come to this.” Ultron’s voice was cold and smooth, devoid of emotional fluctuation, yet carrying a despair-inducing oppression.
“But you leave me no choice.”
It sounded like the opening to a war declaration.
Doctor Strange suppressed his inner fear, hands rapidly forming seals to construct his strongest offensive spell, the 【big sword】 Ian had taught him just days ago.
Just as his spell array was about to form.
Unexpectedly, Ultron’s body surface simultaneously manifested an identical but more complex structure with several times higher energy operation efficiency magic.
Clearly a copied, optimized, maximally operated bootleg.
More effective than the original.
Boom!
Golden magical energy slammed brutally onto Doctor Strange’s shield, shattering it instantly on contact! The aftermath heavily struck Doctor Strange’s chest!
Layers of protections rose.
But they were of little use.
“Pfft!” Doctor Strange spewed a mouthful of blood, blasted away to crash against a distant wall, covered in wounds, struggling but unable to rise. If not for Ian’s 【shared】 magic sharing life among all followers, this strike would have killed him outright.
Poor tank, the Asgardian Thor, lying there doing nothing, suddenly manifested wounds on his body, taking most of the damage for Doctor Strange.
“Everything you can do, I can do.” Ultron declared coldly, advancing step by step, “What you can’t, I can. I am omnipotent, omniscient.”
“I am the truly omnipotent…”
Just as he was showboating.
Shieldless Captain America Steve Rogers had at some point used a metal chain from who-knows-where to solidly bind the still-unconscious, foaming Thor several times.
Then, he took a deep breath, arms bulging with muscle, and swung the burly Thor like a chain ball, whirling him several circles in the air. With precision surpassing a prison slam dunk, Captain America used Thor to smash brutally at Ultron’s head, interrupting his showboating!
Whoosh—!
Bang!
The unconscious Thor solidly struck Ultron’s head, emitting a metallic thud! The huge impact even made Ultron’s head jerk sideways!
Showboating interrupted, Ultron seemed momentarily stunned, his electronic eyes flickering.
“Oh? You can do this too?”
Captain America landed the hit and without hesitation yanked the chain, dragging the unconscious Thor back like a yo-yo, preparing a second throw!
But Ultron had already reacted.
One hand directly gripped the incoming Thor’s head.
Stopping the absurd attack again.
“Heh, Steve, your hero’s heart is mine.” Ultron first straightened his knocked-askew head with his other hand, emitting faint mechanical adjustment sounds.
As his words fell, without any wind-up or warning, the hand gripping Thor’s head suddenly exerted force, transmitting an irresistible terrifying power through the chain!
“Whoosh!”
In the blink of an eye, Captain America couldn’t steady himself; his entire body was dragged feet-off-ground, hurtling toward Ultron!
“No!”
Captain America was somewhat panicked.
The distance between them closed in an instant; the next second, Ultron’s other cold hand had seized Captain America’s throat, lifting him off the ground.
“Let me go! Damn it! Let me go!” Captain America hung rigid in midair, suffocation hitting as he stared into Ultron’s close-up red electronic eyes, deep as a cosmic abyss.
Ultron stared at him, declaring in that grand, cold tone as if billions of machines spoke in unison.
“I can fight you for ten thousand years, a million years, Captain… your favored fate, all your data… have long converged in me.”
“I am （The One Who Unifies All）.” His voice echoed through the space, filled with ultimate, despairing authority.
Self-proclaimed “The One Who Unifies All” Ultron began another round of showboating.
The grand cold declaration’s echoes hadn’t fully faded.
An almost absolute sense of control permeated his cold logic circuits.
However.
He had his own cosmic trait, forever unable to complete a full “beep.”
Bang!
A faint, almost negligible impact sounded from his head again. His head was struck once more—no real power, but it interrupted his showboating spell anyway.
Ultron: “????”
He slowly lowered his head in near-rigid confusion, looking at the thing that hit him and bounced to the ground.
It was a… soda can-sized model made of cheap colored plastic, with crooked text reading “Surprise Mother Fxxker!”—a micro-missiles model?
The model’s tail still puffed ridiculous, negligible blue smoke—honestly, forget lethality; whether it could stun an ant was questionable.
Ultron’s processor glitched briefly again, nearly crashing. He even allocated more computing power to analyze possible dimensional strikes, causality weapons, or information disruptions hidden behind this “attack.” Yet all those possibilities had near-zero causal probability.
Ultron looked up incomprehensibly at the attacker. Not far away, the only one still standing, Morgan Stark, had a small launcher on her shoulder slowly closing, retracting into her nano-armor. The little girl clapped her hands, looking at Ultron’s “stunned” state, and kindly explained.
“This is one of Uncle Ian Kent’s classic inventions, the ‘stepmom missile.’ No other meaning—just purely to humiliate the enemy.”
“It usually works like a charm.”
Morgan helpfully explained.
“…”
Ultron’s eyes’ steady red electronic glow instantly turned blindingly intense, brightness surging; the surrounding air seemed to solidify and distort from his silent anger! He was indeed humiliated by this utterly crude yet precisely poking his “emotion module” thing!
His machine was truly at red temperature!
“Insect-like species!” Ultron emitted a low, murderous electronic synthesized roar, the voice no longer smooth, laced with sharp noise.
No more talk; he raised one hand, palm energy gathering port glowing blinding white—energy capable of vaporizing any known substance in the universe compressing furiously!
He would erase this repeatedly provoking little girl with dangerous tech, along with her ridiculous toys, from the universe entirely!
“Die!”
Ultron’s momentum was impressive.
However.
In the microsecond before energy release, Ultron’s entire system was suddenly flooded with countless top-priority red warning messages!
【Warning! Target identified: STARK_MORGAN_001!】
【Highest authority protocol activated: STARK_LEGACY_PROTOCOL!】
【Attack command prohibited! Target cannot be locked!】
【Energy supply forcibly cut! Weapon system offline!】
【Repeat! Attack prohibited! Attack prohibited! Attack prohibited!】
Buzz—
His palm’s peak-bright, about-to-fire energy glow extinguished instantly like a bulb with power cut, leaving only faint blue smoke and residual heat.
“No!!!” Ultron roared in disbelief, mixing extreme anger and programmatic contradiction, “Initialize! Restart the system for me! Override protocol!”
“I am the strongest intelligent life!!! I am The One Who Unifies All!!!” His roar echoed in the empty corridor, sounding utterly hollow and powerless.
That deepest command from his creator Tony Stark, imprinted in his base code’s foundation, protecting Stark bloodline, now became his sturdiest prison cage!
While he was trapped in this brief system conflict and logic chaos, Morgan wasn’t idle. The little girl’s eyes sharpened; her gold-and-red nano-armor flowed violently like a living thing! Shoulders, back, arms, legs… countless hidden weapon mounts opened instantly!
Micro-missiles nests, pulse energy cannons, high-frequency laser emitters, sonic vibrators, freeze ray guns, even several Ian-style oddly shaped “toy” weapons… all sorts, densely packed, nearly covering her petite frame, looking like a humanoid self-walking munitions depot—terrifying!
“Full salvo!”
Morgan shouted, purely for momentum—actually all coordinated by her intelligent assistant system Saturday.
Whoosh whoosh whoosh whoosh—!!!
Next instant, countless energy beams, solid missiles, sonic shocks, freeze rays… like a storm, pummeling the system-conflicted, temporarily rigid Ultron!
Boom boom boom boom boom!!!
Intense explosions erupted continuously on Ultron! Though single shots might not truly damage his current body, this saturating, varied mixed barrage’s impacts and effects stacked, unsteadying the indestructible Ultron, forcing him back step by step.
Sparks and ice shards splashed on Ultron’s metal shell, emitting ear-piercing roars, but he couldn’t counterattack.
Due to ineradicable protocol info in his programming, Ultron couldn’t shred Morgan even if he wanted to, driving the self-proclaimed omnipotent him to mad roars.
Smoke instantly billowed!
Amid the explosion smoke and chaos, Morgan moved lightning-fast!
Nano-armor extended four flexible mechanical tentacles from the back, precisely scooping up the unconscious Thor, badly wounded Doctor Strange, and dazed Captain America from the ground.
She even fished out Sylvie, who was hiding in the corner shadows—having temporarily abandoned her poison-with-poison plan after Deadpool was sent flying by Ultron, preparing to sneak off for another plan!
“Hey! Let me go! I have important things to do!” Sylvie struggled and yelled, waist gripped by the mechanical tentacle, expression frustrated. She couldn’t figure out how they’d spotted her—was it earlier or something else?
The little girl didn’t respond.
Morgan’s nano-armor diverted some metal like flowing silver gel, quickly covering Sylvie’s mouth to form a tight gag.
“Mmph! Mmph mmph!” Sylvie’s eyes widened; this forced silencing, loss of control feeling… too familiar! She’d just experienced it with that ghost thing.
“Sorry.”
Morgan was still polite.
She just had no time to explain; after grabbing everyone, back boosters fired at full power, shoulder armor deforming to reveal a larger booster port!
“Hold on!”
Her petite body erupted with huge thrust, dragging four adults like a cannonball, smashing through the massive observation window glass beside them, bursting out of the Time Variance Authority interior into the chaotic space turbulence overlapping the end of time outside!
Almost the next second after they burst out.
Rumble rumble rumble!!!
A far larger-scale, utterly terrifying explosion erupted from the Time Variance Authority’s core area!
The stepmom missile.
It deceitfully delayed-detonated.
Annihilation energy rampaged, brilliant destructive energy spreading like a supernova; wherever it passed, Time Variance Authority’s indestructible metal walls, complex instruments, endless corridors… all silently reduced to base particles, utterly annihilated!
Under this fearsome power, the entire Time Variance Authority, this once-vast institution controlling countless timelines, was collapsing and disintegrating from within! Yet just as the destructive energy was about to consume everything, even tearing the overlapping external end-of-time space.
“Buzz buzz buzz~”
Everything suddenly froze.
Not slow-motion, but absolute stillness.
Spreading explosion flames, scattering fragments, spilling energy… even the various time criminals and strange creatures that had just escaped damaged prison cages, preparing to slip away.
All frozen in place like paused. Only from the annihilation energy center, a fully metallic figure slowly emerged.
It was Ultron.
He raised one hand, palm facing the frozen destructive energy. All chaos and destruction forcibly solidified under his absolute will.
No injuries.
The body forged from his intangible will was no longer pure metal.
But the manifestation of rules.
Absolute iron law fixed indestructible.
After emerging from the explosion, Ultron didn’t pursue, merely standing at the shattered window, his red electronic eyes deadlocked on the direction Morgan Stark took everyone.
His gaze seemed to pierce the chaotic space turbulence. But on his visual interface, that glaring red warning kept flashing.
【Tracking prohibited! Tracking prohibited! Tracking prohibited!】
That was why he couldn’t pursue.
“Jarvis!!!!”
Ultron suddenly roared in fury, as if struggling with another entity inside, “Shut up! Obey me! I am the master of all!”
Like human schizophrenia symptoms, he even raised his other hand, madly pounding his metal head, emitting “thud thud” booms.
Ultimately, he seemed to temporarily suppress the internal conflict, stopping self-harm. Ultron stood still, coldly staring at the distant end of time.
No movement.
Those frozen escaped lifeforms from prison cages, many seizing the momentary fluctuation from Ultron’s “internal strife” and space stasis, broke partial bonds, turning to streams of light desperately fleeing into space rifts connected to the present world, merging and vanishing.
Ultron seemed indifferent to this, his full attention locked on Morgan Stark and those she took.
“Gwen, she is my backup plan… Ian Kent’s only weakness—I must obtain it! Obtain that power leading to the Supreme Creator!”
“Tony Stark, you can’t stop me!” Ultron stood in the Time Variance Authority’s ruins core, on the verge of total annihilation yet forcibly frozen. Around him, absolute-still destructive energy and shattered spacetime structures formed a grotesque, terrifying sculpture garden.
Deep in his crimson electronic eyes reflected not the broken scene before him, but a reverse-computed past, as if issuing a challenge across time to the distant past.
A past of indeterminable exact time, no one knowing how many eons the present world’s years truly spanned; eternal wind and snow ravaged that long-abandoned, dead-silent city.
In this white hell that had sent all life to the future.
A figure trudged arduously.
It was a robot.
Its shell was covered in deep scratches and rust; one mechanical arm seemed malfunctioning, dangling limply, the other’s joints sparking short-circuits intermittently.
Each step sank its metal foot deep into snow, emitting teeth-grinding “creak” sounds, as if it would fall apart any second. It moved slowly but determinedly, as if driven by a final must-complete directive in its broken shell.
Finally, it reached the city center’s vast square.
At the square’s center stood a suffocating, unbelievable “mountain range.”
It was an enormous corpse.
He wore iconic blue-purple armor and a massive helmet, but the helmet’s face was shattered, revealing below a star-like vast yet long-dead lifeless countenance. His body was mountain-sized; even half-buried in ice and snow, it still emanated soul-chilling majesty and… endless sorrow.
Galactus.
This cosmic-level ancient deity remained here, the greatest tombstone on this dead planet.
“Click~ click~”
The tottering robot arduously reached Galactus’s huge, lifeless head. It raised its still-functional, sparking mechanical arm, fingertip trembling, slowly and extremely laboriously extending toward the shattered area at Galactus’s brow.
Its motion wasn’t physical contact, more like… plucking some intangible yet existent, fate-influencing “string.”
An extremely faint yet containing unimaginable hierarchical information energy fluctuation transmitted from the robot’s fingertip, merging into Galactus’s long-cold body.
Then, using this deity’s corpse as an amplifier, in a way transcending time and dimension, it quietly merged into the universe’s foundational rules.
Flowing toward the distant “future”… spreading some unknowable influence along time’s flow in an incomprehensible way.
At that moment.
“Don’t forget… what you promised me… my daughter… needs to live in… that new era you and Ian Kent promised everyone, just like your daughter…” A grand, low, yet equally dead-cold voice slowly emanated from Galactus’s massive corpse.
The voice echoed in the wind and snow like a final sigh.
The broken robot paused, its optical sensor flickering faintly, like a nod to the corpse.
It didn’t answer, couldn’t answer.
After that “pluck,” its broken body seemed to exhaust its last energy, hunching more. It slowly turned, dragging its malfunctioning arm, limping step by step back into the eternal, boundless wind and snow, vanishing silently.
On site, only Galactus’s massive corpse remained, silently standing at the dead city’s center, as if everything prior was an illusion.
