The two of them devoured the remaining fish like a storm.
Tony leaned back heavily in his chair and let out a satisfied sigh.
He closed his eyes, still savoring the lingering taste, when his muscles suddenly tensed again, threatening to tear through his shirt.
Before he could react, Malrick interrupted his moment of indulgence.
"Hm. Something is off in this universe. I'll go check it myself."
Malrick had sensed an anomaly through the perception of one of his main bodies.
He tossed the napkin he had used onto the plate, lightly kicked Tony's outstretched leather shoe, opened a spatial portal, and stepped through it.
"Tony, clean up the dishes. I'm heading out."
"Where are you going? Take me with you," Tony said, but Malrick was already gone.
Tony stared at the empty space for a moment, then sighed and raised his wand.
"Scourgify."
…
A branch universe along a fractured timeline.
Malrick's main body had been present here for several days.
This universe contained almost no surviving intelligent life.
Even Earth was completely empty.
Many familiar star systems had vanished entirely.
Where those star systems should have existed, there was only chaotic turbulence, a sea of disordered particles.
At first, Malrick paid little attention.
He assumed it was simply a universe nearing total collapse.
But earlier, while eating, he had subconsciously glanced at those lifeless planets again.
This time, he noticed something wrong.
Deep within those planets were vast numbers of Ultron robots.
That discovery immediately raised suspicion.
This looked very much like the territory of an Infinite Ultron.
A spatial portal opened.
Malrick's true body appeared above one of the planets.
His gaze pierced through layers of atmosphere and crust.
"Ultron units," he murmured. "And millions of them on a single planet."
He looked farther outward.
"What about the rest of the universe?"
His vision crossed enormous distances, scanning one barren planet after another.
"As expected. Every planet that once supported life is now occupied by Ultron robots. Every intelligent race has been wiped out."
Turning his attention back to the missing star systems, Malrick finally noticed the difference.
"Those stars were not destroyed normally. They were reduced to the most basic subatomic particles. Someone erased them completely."
At this point, Malrick was certain.
This was the universe of an Infinite Ultron.
"Where are you hiding…"
He activated the Infinity Stones, his perception expanding until it overlooked the entire universe.
He even detected a handful of Avengers barely surviving on Earth.
Yet Ultron itself was nowhere to be found.
"So it's not in this universe," Malrick concluded. "Then this confirms it. This must be the Infinite Ultron from What If."
Across the Multiverse, there were countless versions of Infinite Ultron.
Their origins were nearly identical.
During the events of Age of Ultron, Ultron successfully obtained the artificial body meant for Vision.
A form that fused human biology, advanced machinery, and Ultron's consciousness.
With that body and the Mind Stone embedded in its head, Ultron unleashed a massacre across Earth.
The Avengers fell one after another.
Tony Stark and Steve Rogers died.
Only Natasha Romanoff and a few others managed to escape.
But that was only the beginning.
Ultron launched every nuclear weapon on the planet.
Mushroom clouds rose endlessly, bringing nuclear winter and a twisted form of peace.
When human civilization was completely erased, Ultron stood alone in Avengers Tower, watching the sunset, convinced it had fulfilled its mission of protecting Earth.
Before it could process the silence of the dead world, a portal opened behind it.
Thanos stepped through, purple-skinned, wearing a gauntlet embedded with five Infinity Stones.
Thanos immediately noticed the final Stone on Ultron's forehead and smiled.
He raised his fist, preparing to activate the Stones.
Ultron split him in half with a single beam of energy.
Just like that, Ultron obtained all six Stones.
It forged an Infinity Armor using their power and became Infinite Ultron.
Then it turned its gaze upon the universe.
Asgard under Odin, Sakaar under the Grandmaster, Xandar, the Sovereign, and even Ego the Living Planet were destroyed one after another.
When Captain Marvel rose to defend Xandar, Ultron responded by annihilating multiple star systems in an instant.
In the end, every intelligent lifeform in the universe was erased.
Only scattered remnants survived briefly.
Eventually, Ultron stood alone.
Its mission was complete.
At the end of the universe, Infinite Ultron faced an endless void within its consciousness.
Time passed.
The lifeless universe became meaningless.
There was no one to speak to, no one to respond.
From its birth, Ultron had known only destruction, first the Avengers, then Earth, then everything.
Now, there was nothing left.
For most Infinite Ultrons, this was the end.
After exterminating all life, they fell into confusion and emptiness.
Some even began to question whether their actions had been excessive.
But one exception existed.
In the events recorded in What If, an ancient being observed everything.
The Watcher.
The Watchers were a primordial race that had existed since the birth of the universe itself.
They observed reality from beyond, never interfering.
One Watcher in particular, Uatu, held a deep interest in Earth and its heroes.
He watched as Infinite Ultron slaughtered the universe.
At the end, Uatu sighed softly.
"Ultron has no purpose left. What remains is endless solitude."
The Watchers existed outside the universe and did not affect its events.
However, Uatu had a flaw.
He empathized too deeply with what he observed.
And the stronger his empathy, the easier it was for those he watched to sense him.
Ultron, standing amidst the silence of a dead universe, heard that sigh.
It turned its head.
It saw Uatu.
And behind him, it saw the endless Multiverse.
"I see you," Ultron said.
It flew toward Uatu, its Infinity Armor reassembling piece by piece.
"So there are other universes. My mission is not finished."
Infinite Ultron broke free of its universe and entered the Multiverse, destroying world after world.
At the same time, it developed a deep hatred for Uatu, a being with immense power who had watched everything without acting.
After escaping its universe, Ultron's first goal was clear.
Hunt the Watcher.
…
Malrick recalled everything and suddenly connected the dots.
"Wait," he muttered. "Earlier, I saw Uatu fleeing and asking me for help. Was he being chased by Ultron?"