Everyone watching from the SHIELD aircraft was ecstatic.
It meant that Lock was still aware of his surroundings — still in control.
But the longer he stayed suspended in those flickering illusions, the more Thor's grin widened.
"See? Told you," Thor muttered with amusement. "He's just… enjoying the view."
...
Lock, of course, had no idea that Thor was once again leading everyone's thoughts into the gutter.
He was deep inside Zola's psychic illusion — a sea of endless white clouds stretched before him, hazy and still.
Lock exhaled softly. "An illusion again?"
He reached inward, intending to summon the Reality Stone and unravel it with a burst of red energy. Crimson light surged from his body — yet the clouds before him didn't stir in the slightest.
Lock paused, frowning. "Not reacting… So this isn't physical. This is the mental plane."
If this were the real world, Zola's construct would have disintegrated instantly under the power of an Infinity Stone.
But here, the fight was of the mind.
"Fine," Lock murmured. "If you want to trap me here… I'll use force."
He stamped his foot — and the entire sea of clouds trembled violently. Waves of mist rippled outward and began to part.
Through the thinning fog, Lock caught brief glimpses of the outside world — Thor laughing with SHIELD agents, not lifting a finger to help.
"Tch."
Just as he was about to stride through, the parted clouds surged back, sealing him in again.
Lock tried several more times — each time, the fog dispersed easily but reformed just as fast, no matter how hard he tore at it.
Zola had prepared well.
He knew he couldn't defeat Lock through brute power. Instead, he'd woven this vast mental labyrinth — a soft prison designed to restrain strength with subtlety.
Lock smirked. "So you're hiding behind tricks, huh?"
If strength couldn't crush it, then he'd simply ignore it.
He launched forward — cutting through the fog like a comet. The speed of thought carried him across infinite distance, yet no matter how far he flew, more clouds appeared. Layers upon layers, endless and shifting.
Finally, he stopped.
Zola's laughter echoed from all directions, coarse and static-filled.
"King Lock, even with your power — trapped here, your body is just a puppet!"
Lock smiled faintly. "Zola… do you know what you smell like?"
Zola's voice faltered. "What?"
Lock didn't answer.
He opened his arms wide — and then swallowed.
The clouds nearest him were dragged forward like vapor into a storm drain, consumed by the gravitational pull of his spirit.
Zola screamed. The portion of his psychic essence that made up the fog tried to strike back — but Lock's soul easily burned it away.
He'd guessed correctly. Every illusion here was made of Zola's own mental energy.
And within the spiritual realm, thought could devour thought.
Lock just had to be careful not to let Zola's consciousness slip into his core.
"Heh heh heh… So what if you can eat it?" Zola's voice hissed through the fog.
"This sea is a billionth of my mind! You could feed forever and never finish!"
Lock grinned. "Then I'll just eat faster."
He opened his mouth — and a vortex of soul energy formed.
The entire sea of clouds howled and collapsed inward.
Zola tried desperately to pull away, but the suction was unstoppable. The white expanse twisted, spiraled, and poured into Lock's mouth like a collapsing dimension — along with Zola's enraged scream.
Moments later, silence.
Lock exhaled and patted his stomach, though it was purely symbolic — this was, after all, the spiritual realm.
Still, he felt full. Energized. Clear-minded.
The illusion shattered completely, and his consciousness snapped back to the real world.
The shattered ruin of the facility and SHIELD's team reappeared before him.
Zola's towering mechanical form was flickering, unstable. His voice roared across the field:
"King Lock! I've ascended — I am the One True Self! I can move freely through the network and even possess living bodies!"
"Let's see if you have the heart to kill your own allies!"
Zola's massive body ruptured with a boom and dissolved into streams of glowing data, each one twisting like an enormous serpent of light.
They lunged toward Lock — while one, smaller strand streaked toward SHIELD's position like a shooting star.
"Wanda! Don't let it touch anyone!" Lock's voice boomed.
"On it!" Wanda raised both hands, crimson chaos magic exploding outward.
The energy wrapped around the SHIELD team like a dome. The fleeing strand struck the barrier and froze — trapped inside the scarlet glow.
Inside the red field, the small glowing sphere flickered violently, faces pressing against its surface, screaming and clawing.
But Wanda's will held firm. The sphere trembled, then went still — completely bound.
Meanwhile, Lock dealt with the larger fragments.
Each of Zola's serpentine streams lunged, hissing like electric storms — but Lock simply raised his hand.
A pulse of blue light — and everything exploded.
Metal scraps, burned circuitry, and shattered data rained from the sky.
Lock didn't stop there. He flew across the field and, within moments, returned carrying a larger, pulsing bubble — translucent, rippling with immense psychic energy.
Zola's distorted face appeared within it, contorted with fury.
"How did you find me?!"
Lock smiled. "Loki tried the same trick once."
He remembered it clearly — when Loki had attacked SHIELD's Helicarrier, he'd used a similar decoy to escape Lock's wrath. It hadn't worked then either.
Zola's fate would be no different.
Lock accepted the smaller sphere from Wanda. "Thanks," he said.
Wanda smirked. "Sure thing. He tastes like… five-nut marshmallows."
That earned a few laughs from the group, tension breaking at last.
Everyone gathered around, watching curiously as the two translucent spheres floated before Lock.
Fury folded his arms. "So what's the plan, Lock? You can't just throw him in a cell. Ross's super-prison isn't built for this kind of monster."
He frowned. "We heard him screaming earlier. If he can really possess people, we can't risk another escape. One host is bad enough — a thousand would be a global catastrophe."
Even Thor's grin faded. The idea of Zola copying himself through human minds was genuinely terrifying.
Lock nodded. "You're right. Apart from me, Wanda, or anyone with deep spiritual control, no one can hold him. And I don't plan to make Wanda babysit him forever."
He paused, then added, "The Soul Stone could restrain him… but that's far away."
"So…" Lock said simply, "I'll just eat him."
Everyone fell silent.
Even Thor blinked. "Wait — eat him?"
Though Zola was electronic, they'd still come to see him as a living foe. The thought of devouring him, soul and all, sent a chill down everyone's spine.
The larger sphere trembled violently, faces within it screaming in terror.
Natasha narrowed her eyes. "Lock… if you absorb him, won't his mind infect yours?"
Lock smiled faintly, reached out, and tapped her nose. "When you eat pork," he said, "do you start thinking like a pig?"
---
A/N: New Fanfic Is Out " Naruto: I'm Boruto Uzumaki"
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