Time flowed backward in that instant.
Like a movie playing in reverse.
Captain America's downward thrust froze, then slowly pulled back up.
The needle left Sentry's skin, and even the tiny puncture wound healed shut.
Everything returned to how it was three seconds ago.
Back to when Cap had just raised the syringe and hadn't yet struck.
"Now!"
Standing outside the stream of time, Frieza's eyes revealed his naked brutality.
He didn't attack Captain America. That would be a waste of time.
His target was singular—Sentry's head!
"Die! Power of a million exploding suns!"
PEW!
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A purple beam of death fired the instant time resumed its flow, blowing Robert Reynolds' head clean off!
SPLAT!
A gruesome flower of blood bloomed.
The Sentry, still in a daze, didn't even have time to figure out what was happening. The Void inside him didn't even have time to roar.
His brain was instantly vaporized by high-temperature energy.
Thud.
One of the biggest cheat codes in the Marvel Universe collapsed into the rubble, aggrieved and stripped of all dignity.
He was dead. Completely and utterly dead.
"NO!!!!"
Watching the scene unfold before him, the syringe slipped from Cap's hand and shattered on the ground with a crash.
The golden serum spilled everywhere, reflecting his face, twisted in despair.
The last hope...
Was gone.
"Phew..."
Frieza let out a long breath of murky air. Looking at the corpse on the ground, his heart finally settled back into his chest.
That was too close.
For a split second there, he had actually felt the threat of death.
Thank god.
Thank god he was prudent!
Thank god he didn't give the opponent time to transform just so he could show off!
This is Villainy 101!
"Ohohoho..."
Frieza reverted to his elegant humanoid form (though his suit was a bit tattered), toying with the green Time Stone in his hand.
He looked at the Avengers, who had completely collapsed, and at Cap, who was kneeling on the ground as if he had lost his soul.
He revealed a victor's smile.
"My, my, that was a close call."
"I almost let you wake up that big brute."
"However..."
Frieza stepped on Sentry's corpse and ground his heel into it.
"In front of this Emperor, things like miracles are locked behind a paywall."
"And you people..."
"Are clearly bankrupt!"
---
The wind stopped.
Or rather, even the wind didn't dare make a sound in this moment.
Above the ruins, there was a deathly silence.
Captain America, Steve Rogers, knelt on the ground.
Those blue eyes, once as steadfast as stars, now stared hollowly at the dirt.
By his knees lay the shattered syringe.
The golden serum mixed with the dust, turning into meaningless mud.
And in front of him...
The man S.H.I.E.L.D. regarded as the ultimate weapon, the man said to possess the power of a million exploding suns—the Sentry.
Right now, he looked like a bag of trash that had been tossed aside.
The headless corpse lay on the ground, still emitting wisps of smoke.
He never got the chance to transform.
Even the monster inside him, the Void, didn't have time to open its eyes before being erased by this demon as if it were nothing.
"Heh..."
A soft laugh, filled with self-mockery and despair, rang out.
Not far away, inside the incredibly expensive Anti-Frieza Armor made entirely of Vibranium...
Tony Stark's unshaven face was ashen gray.
"Jarvis."
Tony's voice was terrifyingly raspy.
"Sir, I am here."
"Shut it down."
"Sir? Although the probability is slim, if we initiate the self-destruct sequence, perhaps we could..."
"I said, shut it down!"
Tony roared, then slumped in the cockpit as if all his strength had been drained.
"It's useless... it's all useless."
"He is the master of time, the tyrant of space. He can crush planets with his bare hands..."
"We don't have a chance."
Accompanied by the sound of machinery powering down, the light in the armor's eyes—representing the pinnacle of human technology—faded completely.
It became a cold, iron coffin.
On the other side of the battlefield.
The sorcerer Wong sat staring blankly at the corpse of the Ancient One nearby.
The Sorcerer Supreme, who had guarded Earth for centuries and who, in his heart, was an invincible god.
She just lay there quietly, the gaping hole in her chest shocking to behold.
The Time Stone was gone.
The Sorcerer Supreme was gone.
Kamar-Taj's backbone was broken.
The magic whip in Wong's hand flickered a few times before finally dissipating into the air.
He sat on the ground, the Sling Ring slipping from his fingers.
Fight back?
How?
That monster could even reverse time now!
Not to mention their final trump card was gone. How could they possibly fight back?
Frieza extended a long finger and gently dusted off his shoulder.
The movement was elegant to the extreme.
"Oh my, my..."
Frieza began to walk, step by step, toward the kneeling Captain America.
Every footfall felt like it was stepping on the heartbeats of everyone present.
He arrived in front of Cap, looking down from his high vantage point at the man who had lost everything.
"Captain Rogers."
"Does your laughable persistence still have any meaning now?"
"Your teammates are dead, crippled, or have given up."
"Your trump card, that sleeping man, died before he could even get out of bed."
Frieza bent down slightly, his face close enough to almost touch Cap's nose.
"I will ask you one last time."
"Do you submit?"
Steve Rogers slowly raised his head.
His face was covered in dust and blood, and the star-spangled uniform symbolizing freedom was tattered.
His shield was lost somewhere in the wreckage.
But in those blue eyes...
A fire still burned.
A faint, but inextinguishable fire.
He looked at the arrogant Galactic Emperor before him, at the demon possessing despair-inducing power.
Steve took a deep breath and pushed against the ground with both hands.
His trembling legs, bit by bit, struggled to straighten.
Even though his body was at its limit, even though every bone was screaming in agony.
He stood up.
He straightened his spine, standing like a solitary peak.
He clenched his fists and assumed that classic fighting stance.
Even if he was facing a god, a demon, or an invincible abyss.
"As long as one man stands."
Steve's voice wasn't loud, and it was a bit raspy, but it was incredibly clear.
"Then it is not over."
He stared dead at Frieza, without a trace of fear in his eyes, and said each word with absolute conviction:
"I can do this all day."