Chapter 193: The Last Trump Card
Taking advantage of the brief window in which Superman could no longer threaten him...
Ultron immediately abandoned direct combat.
He had already reached his conclusion.
Kal-El's physical power exceeded acceptable combat parameters.
Even with a vibranium body enhanced by the Mind Stone, prolonged close-quarters combat remained an unnecessary risk.
The logical solution...
Avoid him.
Ultron's attention shifted downward.
Deep beneath the floating city's streets...
Steve Rogers had led a strike team to the anti-gravity engine's central energy conduit.
If they disconnected the primary energy coupler...
The engine would shut down.
Ultron had no intention of allowing that.
Yet there was no need to intervene personally.
The Mind Stone flashed.
Instantly...
Every remaining drone received a revised command priority.
Protect the engine core.
Self-destruct units were reassigned to the highest priority.
Thousands of machines surged toward Steve's position like an endless metallic swarm.
Clark attempted interception.
Every time he closed the distance...
Ultron phased.
His body shifted into a quantum-energy state maintained by the Mind Stone.
Superman's fists passed harmlessly through him.
The instant Clark overcommitted...
Ultron solidified briefly.
A concentrated energy beam erupted.
Then he phased once more.
He repeated the sequence perfectly.
Solid.
Attack.
Intangible.
Retreat.
He never remained vulnerable for more than a fraction of a second.
His objective was no longer victory over Superman.
Only delay.
So long as Clark remained occupied...
The mechanical army could finish the battle below.
The tactic worked.
Despite being completely immune to psychic attacks thanks to Lynn's helmet...
Clark possessed no reliable method for striking an opponent who simply refused to remain solid.
He opened the communicator.
"Can anyone damage him while he's phased?"
Lynn answered immediately.
"Magic."
His voice remained calm.
"His intangibility isn't true incorporeality."
"The Mind Stone shifts the vibranium body's quantum phase between conventional matter and an energy-dominant state."
"Physical force becomes meaningless."
"But mystical forces operate according to different metaphysical rules."
"They interact with the target's existence rather than merely its molecular structure."
"In other words..."
"Magic ignores the distinction."
Almost every hero instinctively looked toward Wanda.
She knelt behind a collapsed wall.
Both hands supported her weight.
Her face had become almost colorless.
Purple tinged her lips.
Cold sweat streamed down her forehead.
She slowly shook her head.
"...I don't have enough left."
Only four words.
Her shoulders sagged afterward.
The communicator fell silent.
No one blamed her.
She had spent days continuously enchanting equipment with Chaos Magic before the battle.
She had maintained a massive defensive barrier during the first engagement.
She had rewritten countless mechanical soldiers during the current assault.
Even someone empowered by Chaos Magic had limits.
Meanwhile...
Steve's assault team continued advancing.
Every meter cost them dearly.
Thor's crimson cape had been burned through in multiple places.
Barry limped after shrapnel tore open his calf.
Several reserve heroes had already withdrawn after suffering severe injuries.
Still...
They reached the engine chamber.
Steve drove the edge of his vibranium shield beneath the primary energy coupler.
Muscles strained.
Every tendon in his body tightened.
Then—
He pulled.
The coupling assembly tore free.
The anti-gravity engine shut down instantly.
The deafening roar beneath Sokovia vanished.
The enormous blue energy column disappeared.
The floating city's ascent finally stopped.
Yet...
No one celebrated.
Because the city remained suspended nearly three thousand five hundred meters above the Earth.
Without active propulsion...
Gravity reclaimed it.
At first...
The descent was slow.
Residual anti-gravity fields still lingered around the city, partially counteracting its weight.
But those fields weakened every second.
Bruce immediately ran new calculations.
At the current decay rate...
Within approximately forty minutes...
Sokovia would strike the ground with catastrophic force.
Not quite the extinction-level event Ultron originally intended.
But still powerful enough to annihilate much of the surrounding region.
Forty minutes.
That was all they had.
Ultron remained operational.
His quantum phase-shifting rendered conventional attacks ineffective.
Wanda could no longer sustain meaningful magical output.
Thor's lightning—though empowered by divine magic—had produced inconsistent results against Ultron's phased state, likely because the android shifted phase before the full discharge could propagate through his body.
Clark remained locked in combat overhead.
His heat vision continued forcing Ultron to maneuver.
But he still could not inflict decisive damage.
High above the battlefield...
Ultron spoke once again.
"Your companions have disabled my engines."
"An intelligent decision."
"But ultimately..."
"It changes nothing."
He gestured toward the falling city.
"The city remains airborne."
"It will fall."
"You cannot destroy me."
"You cannot save the people below."
"You cannot alter the inevitable."
Among the shattered streets...
Bruce Wayne knelt upon broken concrete.
A focused energy blast had burned completely through the right shoulder of his Batsuit.
Fresh blood trickled from cuts across his face, mixing with dust and ash.
Every breath sent sharp pain through fractured ribs.
He looked upward.
Toward the silver figure calmly floating above the battlefield.
Every tactical option had been exhausted.
Physical assault...
Failed.
Magic...
Depleted.
The engine...
Disabled.
The city...
Still falling.
Bruce Wayne's Alpha-Zero Contingency contained thirty-seven separate emergency response scenarios.
Not one addressed this outcome.
Slowly...
He closed his eyes.
His left hand reached into a concealed compartment inside his utility belt.
His fingertips found a small communications transmitter.
A final contingency.
Not technological.
Psychological.
Bruce understood precisely what pressing that button represented.
It meant acknowledging something he had resisted for months.
There existed someone beyond his ability to predict.
Beyond his ability to restrain.
Beyond his ability to control.
And for the first time...
Batman needed that person's help.
His thumb rested upon the transmitter.
He inhaled slowly.
Then...
He pressed it.
...
Ten kilometers away.
Inside the battlefield clinic.
Lynn's communicator flashed.
Three short red pulses.
He looked down.
Bruce.
He quietly placed his teacup on the table.
Then he stood.
Outside the medical pod...
Seven wounded soldiers still waited in line.
Some sat.
Some lay on stretchers.
Others leaned weakly against supply crates.
Lynn stepped outside.
He looked at every one of them.
His expression remained exactly as gentle as always.
"I'm sorry."
"I need to handle a personal matter."
"I'll return shortly."
One wounded S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, pressing both hands against a bleeding arm, looked up.
"Doctor..."
"How long?"
Lynn considered the question.
"No more than five minutes."
The agent blinked.
"...Five?"
Lynn simply nodded.
He returned inside.
The reinforced metal door closed behind him.
Click.
The white medical coat came off first.
He folded it carefully and placed it over the operating table.
Next...
His gold-rimmed glasses.
Folded neatly.
Set beside the coat.
His combat suit emerged from quantum storage.
Black armor sealed itself across his body.
The familiar mask locked into place.
In an instant...
The gentle physician disappeared.
Standing inside the medical pod...
Was the masked guardian who had once shattered the World Engine over Metropolis.
Cold.
Imposing.
Absolute.
Lynn slowly rolled his neck.
"...Time to work."
He raised one hand.
Golden sparks erupted across empty space.
A circular portal blossomed into existence.
Without hesitation...
He stepped through.
...
High above Sokovia.
Altitude:
Approximately three thousand four hundred meters.
The floating city continued its gradual descent.
Clark and Ultron remained locked in aerial combat.
Every strike Superman launched passed harmlessly through Ultron's phased body.
Ultron occasionally solidified just long enough to unleash another concentrated energy blast before immediately shifting phase again.
The stalemate continued.
Then...
The sky itself split apart.
A brilliant ring of golden sparks tore open reality.
Space folded.
A portal expanded across the clouds.
Before anyone could react—
A black figure exploded out of the gateway.
Moving with overwhelming momentum...
He appeared directly between Superman...
And Ultron.
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