"Earth..."
"What secrets is it hiding?"
And on the New York battlefield at the eye of this storm, this feeling was even more visceral, even more overwhelming.
All Chitauri soldiers stopped attacking.
Their combat instincts, modified to be fearless of death, completely collapsed when facing pressure from a higher dimension of life.
Their vehicles trembled and circled uncontrollably in the air, like insects that had encountered their predator.
The massive Leviathans let out low, terrified moans.
Their fortress-like bodies curled together, trembling, as if offering the most humble submission to a god they couldn't comprehend.
"What... what the hell... is that thing?"
The surviving Avengers, gazing at the sky, all asked the same shock-filled question in their hearts.
And Cloud had now fully immersed himself in the "Orochi" state.
He could feel Earth's will resonating with him entirely.
The pulse of mountains, the breath of oceans, the flow of atmosphere... everything had become power he could command at will.
This world's laws still suppressed him, but now, because of "Orochi's" nature as Earth's will incarnate, limited "permissions" were opening to him!
He looked down at the war-ravaged, scarred city beneath his feet.
He looked up at the sky shrouded in darkness and death above.
His face expressionless, he slowly raised his right hand.
A simple, ordinary gesture of raising a hand.
But in this moment, Earth's entire magnetic field violently shifted!
All communication devices instantly failed!
Even the real sun in the sky—its light dimmed!
As if the entire world awaited this true god's final judgment.
"Too loud."
The grand, emotionless "Dao Voice" echoed through heaven and earth once more.
"And also..."
"Pay for my hot dog."
The instant his words fell, his raised hand turned palm-up in a gentle lifting motion.
A small golden sphere slowly formed in his palm.
That sphere looked tiny and harmless, like a lit light bulb.
But every being capable of sensing energy who saw that sphere felt their soul nearly blinded!
What terrifying energy did it contain?!
That wasn't nuclear fusion. That wasn't antimatter annihilation.
That was highly condensed Nothingness—power capable of purifying and resetting all laws!
Inside Tony Stark's armor, JARVIS's calm electronic voice had devolved into incoherent, terrified screaming:
[Warning! Warning! Warning! Detecting incomprehensible energy reaction! Singularity! This is an artificial, stable, controllable Big Bang singularity! Systems have crashed! I repeat! Systems have—]
Bzzzzt—
All communications cut off.
[Sunlight's Blessing!]
In his heart, Cloud silently invoked the name of a technique he hadn't used in ages.
Then he gently tossed that little "sun" from his palm toward the sky.
That small golden sphere instantly arrived at Manhattan's highest point, and gently, tenderly... "shattered."
It transformed into an infinite, sky-filling rain of golden light.
That light rain was so beautiful, so holy—like a gentle snow.
When it fell on people's faces, it brought warmth and peace.
Everyone's fear, pain, and despair were quietly soothed away under this baptism of light.
When it fell on the earth, the burning fires extinguished. The collapsing buildings stopped crumbling further. The polluted air became fresh and pure.
This was the most sacred baptism from heaven itself.
However, for the invaders from another world...
This gentle "light rain" was the coldest, most merciless final judgment!
When the first golden "snowflake" touched a Chitauri soldier's body.
His ugly, hideous form didn't explode. Didn't burn.
It simply, silently, like ice and snow under sunlight, slowly... "melted."
He was broken down, purified, returned to the most basic light particles—not even a speck of dust remained.
Then came the second. The third. The thousandth. The ten-thousandth...
Across the entire sky, a grand yet silent "purification ceremony" unfolded.
Those once-invincible Chitauri hordes, those invaders who had brought the Avengers to their knees, had no power to resist this gentle "light rain."
They couldn't even scream.
They could only, in ultimate silent terror, accept their fate of being completely erased from existence itself.
The massive Leviathans met the same end.
Their hardened metal armor, the moment it touched the light rain, dissolved like paper. Their enormous bodies transformed into dazzling golden motes of light in this holy rain, adding a spectacular backdrop to this "purification ceremony."
Even the hideous wormhole in the sky, once covered by the light rain, was gently "smoothed away" as if by an invisible hand.
Space was repaired.
The rift was sealed.
Everything returned to the tranquility it should have had.
The entire process lasted less than a minute.
New York's sky was azure and clear, cloudless for miles.
As if the apocalyptic war that had blotted out the sky moments before had been nothing but an absurd, unreal nightmare.
The entire world fell into deathly silence.
On the ground, Steve Rogers stood with mouth agape, staring at that impossibly clean sky. His shield clattered to the ground.
In the sky, Tony Stark's armor cleared all warnings. He stared at his empty radar display, feeling his mind go equally blank.
Thor gripped his hammer tightly, those godly eyes filled with reverence. He knew—today he had seen a true "god."
Hulk had shrunk back into Dr. Banner's form. He huddled inside oversized shorts, shivering—not from cold, but from shock.
...
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