-The Island-
"Is it over?" Tony's voice carried cautious hope.
"Jarvis, give me a climate report. Please tell me things are improving."
The AI's calm voice responded through Tony's helmet speakers: "Global disaster monitoring indicates that Super-Hurricane Elaine approaching New York is rapidly dissipating. Tsunami wave heights are decreasing across all coastal regions. The super-sandstorm originating from the Sahara Desert has ceased movement. Major volcanic activity is subsiding worldwide. Sir, I can confirm that global climate anomalies are fading systematically."
Tony let out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding. "Everyone hear that? We did it. We actually pulled it off."
"Yeah," Natasha said, sitting heavily on the beach, staring out at the suddenly calm ocean. "Wasn't easy."
Tiamut's death—his willing sacrifice—had convinced Earth's consciousness to abandon its genocidal plan. The planet's will recognized that humanity was no longer sustaining the threat, and the extreme disasters began to subside.
Across the beach, Sersi stood alone at the edge of a basalt cliff. Ocean wind whipped her hair around her face, but she remained motionless as a statue, staring at nothing.
Behind her, Gilgamesh and Thena walked together in tacit silence, neither one willing to break the moment with words.
Kingo leaned against a boulder, his expression complex as he watched the still-imprisoned Ikaris, bound in Phastos's golden restraints.
Phastos himself was checking the containment field's integrity, ensuring their wayward brother couldn't escape.
Ajak approached Sersi slowly and spoke softly. "We saved seven billion people." Her voice was nearly swallowed by the crashing waves.
Sersi's head lowered slightly. "But we also killed a god that was about to be born."
"A god that would have destroyed Earth," War Machine interjected, having overheard their conversation. As a human, his stance was unambiguous—he stood with humanity.
Doctor Strange floated nearby, the Cloak of Levitation keeping him hovering just above the sand. "Salvation and destruction are sometimes two sides of the same coin. You made a choice. We executed it together."
"Yes," Wanda said, walking over slowly, her tone thoughtful. "But the price is the potential future of seventy billion lives—perhaps more. That Celestial could have given birth to entire civilizations."
"He also could have grown into something terrible," Rocket said, hopping down from his ship's loading ramp. "Look, your philosophical debate is getting way too heavy for me. Should we be celebrating or mourning here? I'm getting confused about the vibe."
Sersi's voice was quiet, almost lost in the wind. "Perhaps we should mourn. He let himself be killed. I felt it through the Uni-Mind—Tiamut's acceptance, his willingness to die for billions of strangers. It makes me wonder... was I right?"
There was no doubt in her mind now: Tiamut had been a gentle god. Faced with the choice between his own existence and the lives of Earth's population, he'd chosen to sacrifice himself.
Rhodes looked around at the assembled Eternals, his expression serious. "So here's the practical question—what happens to you now? Your mission failed, technically. You were supposed to protect humanity until the Celestial was born, but instead you killed him. What does that mean for you?"
Gilgamesh's voice was heavy with resignation. "The meaning of our existence has been ended by our own hands."
"Don't lose heart," Thor said, trying to inject some optimism. "You'll find a new purpose. It may not be easy, but it might also be a kind of liberation from ancient chains."
"Arishem the Judge," Ajak said quietly, her expression troubled. "The Supreme Celestial. Our creator. We must plead for his forgiveness. Otherwise, I cannot predict what consequences we'll face."
Her heart was heavy. Even though Tiamut had died willingly after learning the truth, their actions had still deviated from the sacred mission Arishem had assigned them. That guilt couldn't be escaped.
"Arishem the Judge?" Strange's eyes lit with scholarly interest. "The Celestial you've mentioned. I'd be fascinated to learn more about—"
"AAAAHHHH!"
A scream tore through the island's tranquility.
Mantis, who'd been standing peacefully nearby, suddenly clutched her head in agony. Her antennae blazed with blinding light—brighter than anyone had ever seen them glow before.
"Something... something's coming!" Her voice was strained, breaking. "Big... so angry... below us... above us... everywhere!"
"Hey! What's wrong?" Drax rushed to her side, catching her as her legs gave out. Mantis's slender body curled into a fetal position, trembling violently. "Is it your stomach? Did you eat something bad?"
"What's happening to her?" Banner moved closer, his medical training kicking in despite the bizarre circumstances.
"I don't—" Star-Lord started to respond, then stopped.
An emotion washed over him—alien, powerful, not his own. Panic. Terror. Desperation. And underneath it all, a kind of defiant bravado, like a cornered animal preparing to fight to the death.
Before he could process where the feeling was coming from, the ground shook violently.
Then the ocean began to rise.
It wasn't a wave. The entire sea surface bulged upward as if lifted by an invisible hand from beneath. A wall of water—easily a thousand meters high—rose against all laws of physics, blocking out the sun.
But the water didn't fall. Instead, it began moving toward the island's center, drawn by some irresistible force.
Simultaneously, the volcano at the island's heart erupted. Not a normal eruption, but an explosion of pure magma that shot skyward and then curved horizontally, flowing through the air like a living river toward the same central point where the ocean was converging.
Wind howled from all directions—not random gusts, but focused streams that spiraled inward, creating a vortex that made breathing nearly impossible.
And the earth itself began to crack. Minerals erupted from every fissure—iron, stone, crystal—rising into the air in defiance of gravity.
Earth, Fire, Water, Wind.
The four Elemental cores that the Avengers had destroyed months ago—their essence had never truly disappeared. It had been waiting. Watching. And now Earth's consciousness was calling them back.
They weren't separate entities anymore. They spun together in the air, merging, expanding, growing exponentially with each passing second.
Stone formed skeletal structure. Water became blood and ichor. Lava created flesh and muscle. Wind gave breath and movement.
An impossible giant was taking shape before their eyes. Its height broke a thousand meters and kept growing. Its head disappeared into the dark storm clouds gathering overhead.
"EVERYONE ON ALERT! MAXIMUM THREAT!" Tony's voice cut through the chaos as his armor's nanomaterial flowed to cover his entire body. His tone carried barely suppressed terror. "This is worse than anything we've faced!"
They'd fought individual Elementals before—knew their power intimately. The Wind and Fire Elementals enhanced by Dormammu had nearly destroyed human civilization.
But this? This monstrosity made those previous threats look like children throwing tantrums.
Jarvis's voice was urgent in Tony's ear: "Sir, energy readings are exceeding measurement capacity. Threat assessment: CATASTROPHIC."
"What the hell IS that?!" Star-Lord stared up at the towering fusion of elements. Fortunately, even after Tiamut's petrification, his residual energy remained accessible—otherwise Star-Lord would be completely powerless.
"Get inside NOW!" Rocket screamed from the ship's ramp, frantically waving at Gamora, Drax, and Mantis. "Anyone who can't fly or shoot cosmic death beams, get on the damn ship!"
Thor raised Stormbreaker high. The already-dark clouds overhead grew blacker, shot through with veins of lightning. Thunder rolled like drums of war. He brought the axe down, and a massive bolt of electricity struck the Elemental's forming body.
The creature didn't even flinch.
Wanda's hands blazed with Chaos Magic. She spread her arms wide, creating a crimson shield that expanded to protect her nearby teammates.
But as the shield formed, she looked up at the towering monster—easily two kilometers tall now and still growing—and realized with cold clarity that her protection was laughably inadequate. A candle flame trying to hold back a hurricane.
"Is Earth's will trying to take us all down with it?!" Strange shouted over the howling wind. "I thought killing Tiamut would stop this!"
Star-Lord's eyes widened with sudden understanding as he felt Earth's consciousness through his Celestial connection. "It's not attacking us," he said, his voice filled with horrified realization. "It's terrified. This is a panic response!"
"Panic about what?!" Carol demanded, already glowing with photon energy.
Star-Lord pointed upward—not at the Elemental, but at the sky beyond it.
Everyone followed his gaze.
The clouds were parting. Not naturally, but as if pushed aside by an impossibly large hand.
And beyond them, descending through Earth's atmosphere, was something that made even the massive Elemental seem small by comparison.
A Celestial. A true, fully-formed Celestial.
Arishem the Judge had arrived.