Chapter 128 – Butterfly Effect
"Interesting. I actually managed to draw Ebony Maw out."
Qin Xiao, watching from the Mirror Dimension, was genuinely surprised. The presence of the Maw was entirely outside his projections—a true butterfly effect. Still, it was a welcome windfall. He would get a front-row seat to the combat capabilities of the Children of Thanos.
Outside, Ebony Maw moved with supernatural speed. In the cosmic hierarchy, he was a threat that far exceeded most heroes. Were it not for the constraints of "plot armor," he could easily suppress Doctor Strange, Iron Man, and Spider-Man simultaneously. His goal now was to gauge the true ceiling of this world's power.
He found his first subject: the four-armed Hulk.
Hulk had already dismantled the majority of the Leviathans. His rage had surged to a terrifying new level, allowing him to tear through the massive beasts as if they were made of paper. Banner had promised not to intervene, and for once, he kept his word. The enraged green titan leaped through the city, hunting the largest targets he could find.
BOOM!
Hulk lunged for a surviving Leviathan, shredding its hull with his four massive fists. Suddenly, a floating figure appeared nearby. Ebony Maw waved a hand, and the wreckage of the Leviathan began to disintegrate. Thousands of shards of metal accelerated, converging on Hulk like a swarm of angry hornets.
ROAR!
Hulk saw the wall of metal rushing toward him and snarled, turning his focus toward the Maw. But the sorcerer didn't care for the brute's anger. The metal blades struck Hulk, but they couldn't even pierce his hide.
Ebony Maw shifted tactics. He willed the metal to wrap around the titan, attempting to bind him. Hulk's four arms moved in a blur, swatting away the metal before it could gain a foothold. Anything that did stick to his skin was ripped away by a free hand before it could impede his movement. The sheer power of the four-armed Hulk was beyond anything the Maw had anticipated.
Hulk launched a counter-attack, snatching a massive chunk of scrap and hurling it at the Maw with supersonic speed. Ebony Maw exerted his telekinetic will to deflect it, but the momentum was so immense that he had to physically dodge, the metal whistling inches past his face.
He's too dangerous, the Maw concluded. If I run into this brute again, I'm staying far away.
He abandoned the Hulk and floated toward Thor. If the mortal was the heir to Odin, his power would reveal the true threat of the All-Father.
Maw ripped a massive chunk of architecture from a nearby skyscraper, the very piece of masonry Thor was standing on. Thor had no choice but to take to the air, swinging Mjolnir at the sorcerer. Maw dove toward the street, where Cull Obsidian was waiting.
Thor didn't hesitate, diving after him—only for Cull Obsidian to swing his massive chain-axe, smashing Thor out of the air like a fly.
Qin Xiao, watching from the Mirror Dimension, was dumbfounded. Does he have an allergy to his own logia powers?
If Thor had simply turned into lightning, he could have dodged the strike or rendered it harmless. Why wasn't he using the Rumble-Rumble Fruit?
The truth lay in Odin's hidden commands. The All-Father knew that Thor possessed the potential to surpass him, but the young god had become dangerously dependent on Mjolnir. Even after consuming the Rumble-Rumble Fruit, Thor struggled to find the balance between his divine lightning and the fruit's energy. Odin had forbidden him from over-relying on the fruit, fearing it would stunt the growth of Thor's innate "Thunder God Body." Today, however, Thor was finding the equilibrium. He realized that if he grew his own divine power, the fruit would naturally become a catalyst to amplify it three times over.
But Qin Xiao didn't know this. He only saw Thor take a brutal hit.
Sparks ignited around Thor, and he unleashed a storm of lightning, covering the area where Maw and Obsidian stood.
"You shouldn't have angered me," Thor growled, ascending to the high-rises to pour his rage into the portal.
With Maw delayed, the Chitauri poured through in record numbers. Hulk was forced to abandon the Maw to hold back the encroaching Leviathans.
When the smoke cleared, Maw stood unharmed, protected by a metallic sphere he had woven to ground the lightning. The son of Odin is indeed a terror, he realized. If the heir is this strong, what of the All-Father himself? It was not the right time to conquer the Nine Realms.
As Hulk and Thor were occupied, Ebony Maw drifted toward other targets, his mission purely one of reconnaissance. Cull Obsidian, meanwhile, remained on the ground, lumbering after targets with his axe.
Back at the tower, Tony reached Dr. Selvig. "Doctor, what now?"
"The Scepter… it contains the power of the Tesseract. Jam it into the stabilizer. The conflicting energy signatures will shatter the device," Selvig explained.
"Understood. Move back," Tony commanded.
He jammed the Scepter into the energy barrier.
HUMMM—CRACK!
A blinding explosion ripped through the air, and the pillar of blue light began to collapse.
Ebony Maw looked up at the sky and sensed the shifting tides. He began to race toward Cull Obsidian, but the portal was shrinking too fast.
"Obsidian! I'll come back for you!" Maw roared, throwing himself through the narrowing rift. He plunged into the safety of their starship just as the portal snapped shut.
Qin Xiao watched the sky, frowning, until his eyes landed on Cull Obsidian standing alone on the street. A ripple of the Mirror Dimension appeared around the brute. Before Obsidian could even react, Qin Xiao pulled him into the mirror world.
Well, well, Qin Xiao thought. An alien captive.
Obsidian stared at the empty sky, his heart sinking. He had been sent to back up the Maw; now his master was gone, and he was stranded in a foreign world.
As the portal vanished, the Chitauri soldiers and Leviathans dropped like stones, their connection to the command signal severed. They slumped, dead husks of metal and flesh.
Tony looked over the decimated battlefield, his armor scorched. "If I'd known it would end like that, I would've grabbed Loki ages ago."