The dense ranks of Chitauri warriors, at this moment, surged in a massive wave straight towards Alex. From afar, it looked exactly like a swarm of locusts sweeping through the sky, blotting out the light.
So many Chitauri pouring forward just to hunt down Alex — it made clear how deep Loki's hatred for him ran, how much he wanted Alex wiped from this world.
"This fellow really knows how to make himself a perfect lightning rod for hatred…" Seeing Alex draw the full brunt of so many Chitauri warriors all at once, the other Avengers felt the crushing weight on their own shoulders lighten noticeably. Yet at the same time, they couldn't help but cast astonished looks at him.
No one truly understood — what exactly had Alex done to Loki to make that trickster god's loathing burn so fiercely?
Facing the tide of Chitauri charging in like a living wall, Alex's expression shifted, horror flashing across his face. Even with his ability to bend metal at will, even with his Armament Haki bracing his limbs like armor, the sheer flood of thousands of alien soldiers was not something he could stand against head-on.
In that instant of grim realization, Alex spun on his heel and bolted without a shred of hesitation.
Whoosh!
The moment Alex turned tail and ran, the swarm of Chitauri naturally chased after him like a living tide, snarling, their weapons raised, their metallic feet pounding the ground in a terrifying rhythm.
"Come on, we have to help him!" Thor's eyes widened as he watched the endless horde pouring after Alex. His grip on Mjolnir tightened, and with a low growl, he swung the hammer back, ready to launch himself skyward and crash into the fray.
"Hold on!" But right then, Tony moved in swiftly, grabbing Thor's arm in a firm grip and giving a slight shake of his head.
Thor glanced sideways at Iron Man, confusion clear in his eyes. Alex was obviously in grave danger — shouldn't they all go and back him up without delay?
Yet Tony didn't bother explaining, not with words. He kept his helmeted gaze locked in the direction Alex was fleeing, straight towards Stark Tower gleaming in the distance.
"That lunatic set up some kind of trap inside Stark Tower ages ago. Back then, I didn't have the faintest clue what he was planning. Who would've guessed it'd actually come into play now? This guy — did he really predict the flow of this battle so far in advance?" Tony muttered under his breath, his mind racing as he watched the sea of Chitauri flood after Alex's lone figure. The more he thought about it, the deeper the chill that crept up his spine.
And in a heartbeat, Alex dashed through the entrance of Stark Tower, the swarm right on his heels.
Almost at the same time, just as Alex stepped inside, countless fine cracks suddenly splintered across the walls of Stark Tower, and from these jagged gaps, black rods like electrode spines pushed outward all at once.
From a distance, the thousands upon thousands of black rods jutting out made the whole Stark Tower look uncannily like a giant metallic hedgehog bristling for a fight.
The Chitauri soldiers, hovering on their gliders and crawling over the outer walls like swarming insects, did not bother to figure out what strange new trick Stark Tower was playing at. They didn't need to — their mission was plain and brutal: Kill Alex.
If one looked from afar, the entire tower seemed like a block of honeycomb, glistening in the city lights, while the Chitauri poured toward it like countless ants drawn to the sweet scent of fresh nectar.
So dense were their ranks that the shining steel bones of Stark Tower were almost buried under the creeping alien horde.
"Heh heh… at a time like this, how about we throw a thunder party, huh?" Alex muttered under his breath, a crooked grin curling across his face as he dashed through the ground floor and burst out at the base of the tower. The sight of the Chitauri crawling over Tony's tower like locusts made something sharp gleam in his eyes.
Right then, deep within the tower's steel heart, an enormous Arc Reactor suddenly hummed awake, its pale core pulsing violently. With that surge, a blinding torrent of raw current exploded forth, so vast that it defied any easy description.
In the next instant, the power coursed through the countless black rods sprouting from every wall — a living net of lightning weaving itself across the entire Stark Tower.
Seen from a distance, the towering black shape of Stark Tower, choked by the alien swarm moments before, now burst into a white-blue blaze so fierce that for a heartbeat, it burned brighter than the midday sun.
The whole skyscraper turned into a massive lightning cage, arcs and forks of electric light dancing madly through the air. One by one, Chitauri soldiers shrieked and tumbled off their gliders, their bodies smoking as they dropped like roasted chestnuts from the sky.
Some unlucky ones were struck so squarely that they crisped to charcoal before they even hit the ground.
The reason Loki had torn open the portal above Stark Tower in the first place was so that he could stand tall at its peak, soaking in the worshipful gaze of the terrified world. After all, Stark Tower was one of New York's proudest symbols.
But now, Stark Tower, wrapped head to toe in stormfire, was drawing the eyes of the entire city for an entirely different reason.
Was the Arc Reactor powerful? There was never any doubt about that — Tony had built a monstrous version inside this tower, scaled a thousand times larger than the mini reactor humming in his chest. The electricity it could churn out could easily light up the whole of New York City through decades.
And right now, every last volt of that roaring ocean of power was blasting through those black rods, turning Stark Tower into a no-man's-land of raw thunder, an untouchable storm fortress thrumming with crackling, unstoppable might.
"Damn it, he's already sprung a trap here? He lured them in on purpose!" Loki's face was so dark it looked ready to crack. He glared at the blazing Stark Tower, jaw tight with fury.
Ever since Alex showed up, Loki—god of mischief, prince of Asgard—kept finding himself humiliated by a mortal. No matter how clever he thought he was, Alex was always one step ahead. It was infuriating.
"What a surge of thunder!" Thor said beside him, eyes fixed on the tower as arcs of raw lightning tore through the sky. Awe flickered in his voice—he could feel the power humming through every bolt.
With a booming shout, Thor lifted Mjolnir high and bellowed, "Then let me add my own!"
CRACK!
Dark clouds rolled in, thick and heavy, swirling above Midtown in an instant. Thunder rumbled like war drums as Thor's power called the storm. In the next heartbeat, jagged lightning slammed down, lashing across the sky and slamming into the streets below, merging with the tower's electric grid.
Blinding flashes split the battlefield—when the last crackle faded, the ground was littered with scorched Chitauri bodies, twisted and smouldering.
That single blast had torn through wave after wave of the alien swarm.
"This trap did its job perfectly…" Tony muttered, almost to himself. He'd argued with Alex over this plan at first—hell, he'd nearly scrapped it—but now, seeing half the invasion force fried to cinders, he could only shake his head in grudging admiration.
"Don't celebrate yet," Black Widow snapped, her voice crisp as she drew her pistols and scanned the skyline.
The others followed her gaze—up in the bruised clouds, huge Leviathans slithered through the portal like armored sea monsters in the sky. More Chitauri warriors dropped from their flanks, pouring through the shimmering tear above the city.
"If this wormhole is not blocked, these alien soldiers will never be killed", Captain America said with a serious look on his face.