"Stop them!!!" Doom also let out an angry roar. From beneath his black robe, several cannon muzzles instantly expanded, but instead of cannons, several fusion devices were launched.
These ring-shaped devices shot out at an astonishing speed, intercepting behind the enemy heroes, then, as if guided, gathered together and collapsed inward simultaneously. Alarming gravity emanated from that direction.
"Run! Run!!!" Martian Manhunter shouted frantically.
But it was already too late. The light began to gradually fade, and a soundless darkness spread outward, forming an infinitely deep black inside. Time started to slow down, then everything began to distort.
The other Doctor Dooms had been running for their lives since the thing started to collapse, not forgetting to scoop up those few stunned survivors as they dashed into the gravitational field of the Asgard Base, frantically deploying barriers as they ran.
The Main Universe Captain America looked somewhat bewildered, not yet realizing what happened, until he heard one of the Dooms beside him curse, "What a madman! He actually brought a black hole with him!!!"
Main Universe Captain America shuddered, finally realizing what this series of cosmic phenomena meant—a man-made black hole had appeared above the Asgard Base.
This black hole wasn't large, the Main Universe Captain America could only judge by the range where the light disappeared. But, it was still a black hole. And perhaps artificially adjusted, the event horizon of this black hole was larger than expected, sucking in everything within and outside the range.
It proved that even someone as powerful as Wonder Woman couldn't withstand a black hole. Once captured by the black hole, the divine power couldn't flare up, helplessly pulled toward the singularity. First, time infinitely slowed, then consciousness gradually faded. During this process, several beams of white light appeared. Then, a giant hand covered it.
It was a hand entirely composed of streams of information, constantly dissecting all cosmic information and then reorganizing it. Steve watched the enormous figure muttering to himself, "Didn't expect to get even stronger."
Earth had been peaceful for a long time, and the Iron Demon God hadn't appeared for ages. However, Steve remembered the last appearance, which was a Demon God Form similar to most Demon Gods, only manifested through endless mechanical proliferation.
But reappearing now, without the dazzling magic lights or the swarms of mechanical armies, though still vast and mighty, it was gloomy and silent. Yet this implied another form of strength.
Watching all this through monitoring equipment, the Primary Universe Batman suddenly recalled that Lucifer, who taught Cosmic Construction Science at the magical school, once said that the true essence of the universe is plain and unadorned, more akin to a word if described in human terms—'information.' This group of cosmic administrators are the programmers maintaining endlessly vast information in the background.
And the current form of the Iron Demon God seemed to have discarded all late-stage added filters and renderings, presenting a construct in the form of the universe's information source, directly reading, directly rewriting, directly executing.
Steve remembered, Stark once proposed an idea: whether if he deleted a particular disease from the universe, the people suffering from it would directly heal. Now, it seemed more than just a concept; he might have been exploring this all along. Moreover, he could be close to success.
The black hole was silently deleted, and dense white light emerged from that giant hand, all captured superheroes entirely exited the scene. Then, that enormous figure vanished into nothingness.
The returning Stark suddenly panted heavily, Steve quickly grabbed his shield and flew over to catch him but was still a step too slow. A sharp knife flashed through, slicing a massive gash across Stark's mecha back, one cut even breaking through the mecha's defense, slashing directly onto Stark's back.
"Ugh!!!!"
Stark let out a miserable scream. Steve angrily threw the shield towards that direction, knocking away the green-haired woman. Steve quickly reached out to help Stark.
"He's okay," JARVIS's voice came from the mecha, "We brought enough healing potions, it should heal quickly."
Steve looked at the wound, finding the bleeding already stopped and the wound healing. He heaved a sigh of relief but saw Stark had fainted from the pain.
"Damn it." He cursed.
But just at that moment, in the pitch-black cosmic space, several magic lights suddenly flared up, the mages had arrived.
Main Universe Captain America promptly moved forward and said, "Is the Earth's crisis resolved?"
The leading Grand Mage bowed and said, "The Supreme Magician is still handling the aftermath, we've been ordered to come and assist."
"Great," Main Universe Captain America said. He hadn't yet recovered from the previous shock, his voice slightly trembling, "There's a group of invisible assassins, we need your help to deal with them. Magic energy can disrupt their invisibility."
The mages nodded towards him, then each held a golden light ring. Soon, the members of the Revenge Goddess Team were swept out by them and defeated one by one.
Using magic to clear out the Demon-like Army was the best method, a few magic spells, and the Demon-like were leveled. And those superheroes who avoided capture by the black hole, scattered without forming a climate, retreated miserably.
This battle reached a point where it couldn't continue; the losses were too heavy on both sides. The superheroes were wiped out in an organized fashion, the remaining few scattered and had to retreat gloomily.
Returning to the base, everyone was very silent. The conference room that could originally be fully seated, now could only fill the first three rows, and everyone's counterparts couldn't even form a small team, only sitting together made it somewhat crowded.
"Thank you for your hard work, everyone," Steve sighed and said, "Currently, the command center hasn't ordered a debriefing meeting, so let's all go back and rest."
But no one left. After all, they weren't ordinary people and didn't need sleep. Those with some experience knew if they left now and were alone, PTSD might flare up even more. It was better to stay together and chat to distract themselves.
Previously, they had some doubts about Professor X's statement regarding Doctor Strange's mental issues, but now it seemed there was some truth to it.
Captain America was also a veteran himself. He initially thought he wouldn't be troubled by it, but that was not the case at all.
On the front lines, he had witnessed rounds of artillery bombardments and street warfare meat grinders. He had seen people shot down, people pierced full of shrapnel, and people blasted in half by landmines. All the scenes were bloody and terrifying. As a rookie, Steve Rogers had been scared, but later he gradually became numb.
Because every minute on the battlefield, people were dying, and the screams never stopped. But if you didn't focus your attention, the next one to die would be you. Even for the sake of living, you could only ignore those painful scenes.
But this operation was completely different from previous ones. Hardly anyone bled, and those hit by the Omega Ray just vanished without making a sound. No blood, no agonized cries, just a sudden disappearance. It was a different kind of eerie and terrifying.
This kind of thing completely exceeded normal human cognition, and humanity's greatest fear is the unknown.
Where did the ray come from? Where was it going? Where did the people hit by it go? Did they die? Or did they just disappear? How did they die? Was it high temperature or cutting? Or suffocation?
Just like when humans first come into contact with cosmic knowledge, they always ponder repeatedly: What would it be like to fall into the sun? Into Jupiter? How would it feel to be caught by a black hole?
No answers, because no one has ever experienced it.
All these are just speculations; no one knows the truth. It's an unreachable domain for them, where humans are as small as ants, powerless to struggle.
This confusion and uncertainty always lingered around people, sliding their thoughts towards the abyss of fear, stimulating their primal instincts, making them excited and highly aggressive.
Main Universe Captain America realized he might be on the same path as Doctor Strange, but he indeed couldn't control himself. He began to feel the nerves in his brain flickering, some random thoughts appeared in his mind and then quickly disappeared, leaving no impression.
Immediately, his heart rate increased, his breathing rate quickened, he could clearly hear his heartbeat, his joints began to ache, his muscles started twitching, and each breath became shallow. To prevent suffocation, he could only breathe deeper and faster, but the symptoms of respiratory alkalosis would make him dizzy and nauseous.
Fortunately, at this moment, Strange returned. He looked around the space and was shocked to see so few people left.
Although he had understood the battle situation roughly from Charles, witnessing it firsthand was immensely impactful.
He frowned deeply and then, as Charles had suggested, struck the ground with the long wand in his hand. The power of Light Magic spread out, and everyone felt a boost in spirit.
"Sorry, special times require special methods. I really don't have time to find you a psychiatrist, so I can only use this faster method. But rest assured, after the war, there will be professionals for your psychological counseling," Strange said.
"What did the command center say?" Steve asked.
"We still have to meet, but without running back and forth through portals, this time we'll have a remote meeting. Go back and rest, and gather in the conference hall after 12 hours."
The crowd began gradually dispersing. However, they chose not to stay with their counterparts any longer but left in teams as The Avengers.
Most of The Avengers couldn't gather completely together, only two universes were quite lucky, one being the Main Universe and the other being the Central Universe, where their numbers were still intact.
After they left, Steve stepped up and asked, "How's Earth doing?"
"No big issues, I expelled the Eye Demon. But that Set is very cunning, didn't show up at all. However, I found his presence around the cosmos, so I still need to take a look around later."
"What about Asgard?"
"With Hulk's help, things are much better. At least the defense of the Nine Major Kingdoms isn't a problem. But to make those two empires withdraw, we need to think of other methods."
When he said this, Steve knew they surely had a plan, so he didn't ask further.
Suddenly, a flash of teleportation light appeared, and Loki appeared before the two and said, "There's news about the Primary Universe Doctor Strange. He looted the Collector's treasury and now no one knows where he's gone."