Immediately after, this layer of the shield struggled a few times and then finally shattered. At the same time, the wormhole in the sky began to sway unstably.
"Nick Fury, you have been relieved of your position as Director of S.H.I.E.L.D."
At that moment, someone on the helicarrier finally lost patience and directly removed Nick Fury from command. At the same time, they issued an order, and a fighter jet immediately took off.
"Damn it, Tony, there's a nuke heading toward New York—those bastards are apparently planning to use it to wipe out the enemy directly."
Seeing the missile had already launched, Nick Fury urgently shouted to Tony.
"Whew, we finally neutralized it. But it seems we may have misunderstood the other Tohka—who would have thought she was trying to close the wormhole."
Watching the energy sustaining the wormhole above fade away, making it extremely unstable, Tony also breathed a sigh of relief. Just now, the three of them working together had barely stopped Inverse Tohka's attack.
But to their surprise, her target from the start had been the Tesseract. No matter what, at least now they had almost achieved victory. Without reinforcements, the Chitauri troops would hardly be able to make any more waves.
"What? Those people really are good for nothing."
But just then, Tony's expression suddenly turned ugly, because Nick Fury's words were still ringing in his ears. Then JARVIS also reported the missile coming their way.
"Damn it." Tony didn't have time to explain to the others.
He flew straight toward the missile carrying the nuclear warhead, leaving the remaining Chitauri to someone else.
Elsewhere, Inverse Tohka picked up the Tesseract. Then she released a surge of tremendous energy from her hand, crushing the Tesseract's casing to reveal the gem inside. Right after that, she disappeared before everyone's eyes.
"That girl...she's got some guts." Watching Inverse Tohka's actions below, Tohka, who was flying toward her, broke into a cold sweat. That thing contained enormous power—if it exploded by accident, it might be even more destructive than the nuke.
But before she could be surprised by Inverse Tohka's sudden disappearance, she felt a surge of energy pouring into her body. Then, she was overwhelmed by dizziness, her eyelids suddenly becoming unbearably heavy.
But just before she passed out, she distinctly felt her head sinking into an extremely soft and abundant place. Realizing why, Tohka fainted with a blissful smile on her face.
Elsewhere, just like in the original story, Tony carried the nuclear missile through the wormhole and delivered quite a "gift" to the Chitauri army.
It had to be said—nuclear weapons, humanity's ultimate trump card, were terrifying even by cosmic standards. The Chitauri, unaware humans possessed such weapons, were mobilizing their army, preparing for a massive final assault before the wormhole closed.
This nuke hit at exactly the right moment—almost the entire massive Chitauri army was destroyed in a single strike. Even if not completely annihilated, they were left crippled by this blast. At least in Thanos's eyes, this army was now worthless.
"Whew, finally got out." Because Tony hadn't expended too much energy earlier, he didn't nearly die like in the original.
Watching the explosion behind him, he successfully retreated. But Iron Man's expression was extremely sour—after all, who would feel happy about getting backstabbed by their own side in the middle of a crisis?
He was already thinking about how to demand compensation from those politicians. After all, it had been his team that saved New York.
Just look at the cheers below—right now, they were standing on the highest ground of moral authority. And the government had been willing to sacrifice all of New York along with them—if the public found out…
Well, Tony had already decided he wouldn't rest until he took a big chunk out of them. After all, war always fueled technological leaps, and the Chitauri weapons left behind were enough to let Earth's technology make a qualitative breakthrough.
As a company famous for its tech, he was definitely going to use this opportunity to further secure his position.
Elsewhere, Thor had also found his dear brother. At the moment, that guy was lying on the ground hugging his scepter, reflecting on life.
It had to be said—as tough as Asgardians were, even being smacked that far by Inverse Tohka hadn't caused him any fatal injuries. But compared to physical damage, Loki probably now had quite a psychological shadow regarding Tohka.
"Ah, it's over, Tohka." Looking at the unconscious Tohka in her arms, Miku Izayoi saw she hadn't suffered any serious harm and finally relaxed. But very soon, seeing Tohka lying so defenseless, Miku Izayoi's little schemes started churning again. Fortunately, she knew countless people were watching, so she didn't act on them.
"Whew, it's over." On the S.H.I.E.L.D. helicarrier, Nick Fury also let out a relieved smile.
No matter what, they had won—Earth had triumphed in its first war against extraterrestrials. At the same time, he allowed himself a cold smirk.
He was very curious to see how those politicians were going to explain themselves. After all, Tony Stark was not someone easy to placate. If they mishandled it, things were definitely going to blow up.
"Aiya ya, looks like we've become heroes—this feels so damn good."
Watching the cheering crowds, Spider-Man and Nova, those two show-offs, came together again. Standing high up, they waved to the masses celebrating below, and the crowd was happy to wave back.
But whatever reactions were happening outside, Tohka in Miku Izayoi's arms knew nothing about them. Though unconscious, her mind was still clear—she'd simply been pulled somewhere else.
She recognized this place—it was where she'd been before. The Kaballah Tree of Life still radiated colorful light, almost exactly the same as before.
Of course, it wasn't entirely identical. Now, across from her, there was a black throne, and the girl who had looked exactly like her was sitting there.
At the same time, a blue gem hovered in the air. Looking through that gem, Tohka felt she could see the entire universe. She recognized it—it was the Space Stone.