Neon lights still flickered across the city, as if the underground crisis that had nearly triggered the end of the world had never happened.
"We did it. We stopped their plot." Captain America stared at the horizon where the skyline was slowly beginning to brighten, his voice low and steady.
But Saitama looked at the silent cube in his hand. Even though it wasn't moving anymore, he had a gut feeling—like an instinctive warning.
"Yeah. We stopped it." He paused. "But… it feels like we're going to run into something even more annoying later."
His tone was flat, but it made the teammates who had just finally relaxed feel their mood sink again.
Because he wasn't wrong.
The existence of a dark demon-god had already been revealed, and the cube was still a hidden danger. The world's guardians were destined to never truly rest.
New challenges might be waiting in the not-so-distant future. But at the very least, in this moment, they had won another victory.
Deep underground in S.H.I.E.L.D.'s cutting-edge laboratory, the air felt like it had solidified from tension. Countless precision instruments emitted a low hum, weaving together a symphony of technology. On the central analysis platform, the strange cube retrieved from the battlefield floated silently within an energy containment field. Under the scanning beams, the unreadable patterns on its surface occasionally flowed with a faint glimmer.
Saitama stood beside the platform in his signature hero outfit and white cape. Under the lab's cold lighting, his shiny bald head was especially eye-catching. Arms crossed, brows slightly furrowed, he watched the researchers in white coats and tactical gear bustle around the cube.
"So… this thing's still got stuff inside it?" he asked, turning his head toward Nick Fury beside him.
Fury's single eye was fixed on the holographic display where data streamed down like a waterfall, his expression grave.
"It's far more than just 'still got stuff,' Mr. Saitama. The residual energy we captured is extremely faint—but its nature… is highly abnormal."
He waved a hand, pulling up a spectrum graph. Several warped waveforms jumped erratically.
"It doesn't match any known energy paradigm. And its fluctuation frequency aligns closely with several of the oldest and most dangerous dark ritual magics in S.H.I.E.L.D.'s archives. This is absolutely not just alien tech."
Just then, the lab's emergency communication channel lit up with a red alert. A panicked voice came through:
"Director! The global magic array monitoring network has received seventeen anomaly reports simultaneously! The coordinates are scattered worldwide, including an unnamed stone formation deep in the Sahara, an ancient altar in the Amazon basin, and a hidden cave in the Himalayas… All locations are detecting energy disturbances of varying intensity. The core spectrum signature… matches the cube's energy fluctuations we're analyzing right now!"
The entire laboratory fell dead silent.
Everyone knew exactly what that meant.
Doctor Strange was already hovering in the air without anyone noticing when he arrived. The Cloak of Levitation rippled without wind as his hands formed seals, arcane light flashing in his eyes while he sensed the magical tides.
"They're responding," he said heavily, with a seriousness that hadn't been there before. "Ancient ruins are waking up—like a sleeping beast hearing the call of a war horn. The cube isn't the endpoint. It's more like a… key. Or a signal amplifier."
Wanda stood with thin red strands of chaos magic drifting around her. Feeling the distant pulse of darkness, she spoke softly.
"Darkness…" She lifted her eyes, voice turning colder. "A deeper darkness is being drawn in. What we stopped before… might really have been only the tip of the iceberg."
(End of Chapter)
[Check Out My P@treon For 20+ Extra Chapters On All My Fanfics!!]
[[email protected]/Draumel]
[Thank You For Your Support!]