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Chapter 236:
–Tony Stark–
Tony gulped inside his armor when he saw the absolutely gigantic spaceship materialize in the air only a few miles in front of them. He had been expecting a ship to show up, obviously. That was why they were all here in the sweltering desert in the first place. He just wasn't expecting it to be so damn big! It was the size of an entire city at the least.
He was wondering how they would even go about fighting something like that? Let alone knocking it out of the sky!?
His mind immediately flashed to scenes from the movie Independence Day. Giant ships like the one in front of him could level entire cities in mere minutes. Tony hoped that Thanos's ship didn't have any nuclear death lasers like in that movie or this fight would be over long before it started.
Then again…
Tony glanced over towards Layla. She looked cool as a cucumber while staring at the giant ship. She was simply standing there holding hands with one of her Asgardian lovers–as if victory was already a foregone conclusion.
Tony had to admit, just standing next to Layla did make him feel much safer. He was amazed at how far she had come. Especially from where she started.
…Layla trying to sneak past his company's background checks and get hired by his company will still always be funny to him. Especially since she got caught by Pepper immediately.
When Tony first found out about Layla and the existence of Fallen Angels, of course he was shocked. He was a borderline atheist who just had religion proven to his face! If his religious mother was still alive, he could only imagine all the "I told you so's" she would have said to him at the time…
Most men would have been terrified finding out the Supernatural was real, but not Tony. He had his Ironman armor after all.
Layla was impressive, but he was sure he could still beat her or any other Angel with his armor. At least, that was the case until Layla started gaining more black wings. The increase in her power was exponential. Layla went from barely being able to hold off a wizard like Voldemort, to probably being able to kill over 1000 of him in one move.
Tony had rewatched her battle against the demon Belial numerous times. The attacks thrown around in that fight were all incredibly powerful. Attacks that would devastate entire cities easily…
He knew he couldn't do anything in fights like that. Tony could admit that his pride was stung over that. He could only upgrade his suits so much with the technology at his disposal. He'd just barely finished synthesizing his new element, Badassium, a few weeks ago. His suit now had borderline infinite energy output. The problem was that the amount of energy he could output at once, still wasn't even close to the amount of power that Layla could toss out with one hand.
He wouldn't give up though. It was almost every day that he was making some kind scientific breakthrough. He might not be able to match the peak of this world right now, but he knew that one day he would build a suit that could fight off the gods themselves.
That was a promise he made to himself!
"Are you ok, Tony?" The voice of his new sister snapped him out of his thoughts. Andrea's armored hand reached over and grabbed his own.
"Yeah, Sis. I'm alright." Tony said. "I didn't think we'd be going through a real life Independence Day so soon, but here we are." His sister giggled.
Her armored helmet–which was almost identical to his own, just more feminine—nodded to him. "We'll be ok! We have Layla with us after all!" Andrea said. She was, of course, a huge fan of the Fallen Angel for rescuing her from her own ruined Earth. "And a bunch of her siblings are here too! It's kind of mind boggling that Layla has over a million siblings…" She added in awe.
Tony gazed at the 2000 Fallen Angels floating in the air above the US National Reserves. His optics zoomed in on the Fallen. Not a single one of them looked afraid of the fight to come. They all looked incredibly excited actually. These were all the Fallen Angels who fell from Heaven because they loved war and violence.
He was glad that they were all on his side.
Tony could admit that Kokabiel gave him the creeps. He had to hand it to the 'dracula looking' Angel though. The guy definitely knew his war tactics. A lot of the battle planning had been done by him alone. With thousands of years of experience as a general, no one bothered to argue against him.
"Sir, something is happening with the spaceship."
Tony turned back around when Jarvis notified him that there was activity along the spaceship. A single beam of light fell down from the spaceship and struck the sand a mile in front of them. With it, came the big bad alien himself.
He looked exactly as Layla had described him. Like the actor Josh Brolin–if he was a giant purple alien warlord. There were three other beings flanking both sides of Thanos.
Andrea's armored hand patted him on the shoulder. "This is going to get crazy, Tony. just make sure that you stay safe." She told him.
"That's my line." He told her. "I'm the big brother here." Tony knew that this wasn't going to be the type of battle that was going to be decided solely because of him. His objective for today was to make sure he and his sister survived at all costs.
His optics zoomed in on Thanos, and Tony was surprised that the purple alien was waving them over. He wanted to talk…
"It looks like he wants to talk." Tony called out to Layla in front of him. Thanos was waving them over and his ship hadn't opened fire on anyone yet. "What's the play here, Layla?" Tony asked.
–Layla–
–Quest Started: Defeat Thanos and his army!–
–Rewards: Level Up X5!, ???–
Sif and Thor were standing next to me as we watched the ship appear above us. I was holding Sif's hand and had been distracting the two of us from the upcoming battle by whispering sweet nothings into her ear for the past hour. Her cute embarrassed reactions to praise and compliments were always worth it.
"Tis a mighty ship." Thor commented in awe as we looked up. "Even Asgard has never built such a behemoth. I now understand why my late father warned me to never cross the Mad Titan–even if this is technically a different Mad Titan."
We watched as a beam of light touched down and Thanos appeared in the middle of the desert along with a few of his followers.
"It looks like he wishes to parley with us before the battle." Sif said. "What should we do?" She asked me at almost the same time as Tony nearby.
I raised Sif's hand to my lips and kissed it causing her to blush. Stay here for now with Thor. I'll go with Kokabiel, Tony, and Andrea to parley with Thanos."
Kokabiel flew over and landed next to me. I smiled at my brother while I signaled Tony and Andrea to come over as well.
Thanos wanting to speak with us shouldn't be a surprise. He's a typical megalomaniac who loves to hear himself talk. I'm sure he just teleported down here to brag before we all start fighting.
"Let's go say hi before we all kill each other." I told them. My black wings flapped behind me as I started flying towards Thanos's group. Ironman, Ironwoman, and Kokabiel followed right behind me. 30 seconds later, we touched down 10 meters across from our enemies.
Thanos was staring at our group with mild interest. His other companions had different expressions.
Hela–the evil Marvel Zombie Universe Hela–was standing to Thanos's right and staring at me hatefully.
Next to her was Hydou Issei who was looking at me the same.
The last being was standing to Thanos's left. I recognized her to be Thanos's daughter Gamora. She was standing with an expression of disinterest, but I could tell from the tenseness of her muscles that she was ready to attack us at any time.
Thanos spoke to us. "You were quite difficult to track down, Fallen Angel." He stated.
I scoffed at him. I didn't ask him to follow after me after I left his Universe. "Then why did you bother going through so much effort to find me?"
Thanos really liked to hear himself talk. "I had a dream… A mission… A vision. One of a bountiful Universe. One where no child went to bed hungry. Where fathers, mothers, brothers and sisters didn't have to kill each other just to survive. I was so very close to accomplishing my dream. And then you ruined it by destroying three of MY Infinity Stones." He stated while glaring at me.
[Technically you only destroyed two of the three, but he doesn't need to know that.]
"So you're here for revenge because I ruined your plan?" I asked him before turning towards Hela and Issei. "And what are you two here for?"
"I'm here because you stole my Harem from me, you bitch! Give back Asia and Rias!" Issei demanded. His Boosted Gear manifested on his left arm and started radiating draconic power.
"I'm here to take back all of the treasure you stole from Asgard! And then take your head as a trophy!" Hela spat at me. I could tell she wanted to immediately attack me, but Thanos placed a large hand in front of her and held her back.
"Now now, my dear wife. Not quite yet…" Thanos said with an amused chuckle.
[Wife? That's a weird development…]
So basically, all three of them were here for revenge. I turned to Gamora next, but she just shrugged at me.
"I'm only here following Father. If he wants you dead, that's good enough for me." She said with the same disinterest. I know in the MCU Gamora ends up turning on her father at some point, but she's from a completely different Universe. She didn't give off the vibes that she was going to betray him at all.
Kokabiel stepped up. "All this banter seems pointless. You wanted to speak with us, before the battle. Say what you came here to say!" He demanded.
Thanos chuckled at my brother before turning back to me. "So be it. The truth is that I wanted to thank you, Layla of the Fallen. The sensors on my ship have detected that this new Universe has Infinity Stones of its own. I may not have been able to accomplish my vision before, but I will succeed now. After I kill you, you can rest easy knowing that I will bring peace and prosperity to this new Universe." Thanos told me so sincerely I almost believed him.
I had to hand it to him. He definitely had a way with words. There's a reason he was able to create a galaxy wide mass murderous cult after all.
Andrea's faceplate lifted up. "And then what? You wipe out half the Universe? What happens in a few centuries when it ends up repopulating itself? Would you wipe out half of all life again and again. Your vision is pointless!" She told him.
Thanos's gaze narrowed on Andrea. He looked at her up and down scrutinizingly. "It seems that I failed. You are quite tenacious." He said while glaring at Andrea. Out of all of us, she seemed to be the only one he was threatened by.
"Failed what?" Andrea asked him.
"Years ago, when I was purging a planet filled with psychic beings, the leader of the planet told me a spiteful prophecy before I drove my sword through his chest. He told me that I would meet my downfall by a Terran woman wearing gold and red armor." Thanos shrugged before grinning at her maliciously. "I thought nothing of it at first, but as they say: better off safe than sorry. I wasn't going to bother wasting resources attacking such a weak planet just to kill a single human woman. I simply sent a ship down to the planet that was carrying a particularly vicious virus. I knew the technology of your feeble world wasn't enough to cure the virus, nor had anyone achieved space travel in order to flee. Since the virus didn't kill you, it looks like I'll have to do it myself." He lamented with another shrug.
He just admitted that he was the one who had caused the zombie apocalypse and wiped out Andrea's world!
I was shocked by such a revelation! As was Andrea! She was gnashing her teeth and glaring at Thanos hatefully. "...You're the reason! You're the reason my Earth died! I'll kill you!" Her faceplate closed and she thrust both of her arms forwards at Thanos. There was a pulsing noise before both of her repulsors fired directly at his chest!
Two yellow beams slammed into his armor and violently pushed him backwards a few meters. His armor was charred and smoking, but he seemed otherwise unaffected. He reached behind his back and unsheathed a large double bladed sword from his back. "Very good. This wouldn't be any fun if you couldn't put up even a small resistance. All troops… attack!" Thanos declared while holding his sword above his head.
{BOOST! BALANCE BREAKER: SCALE MAIL!}
I turned my head just in time to see the familiar sight of the Red Dragon Emperor charge directly at me. He certainly wasn't wasting any time trying to kill me.
I held my palm towards him as my eyes changed. "Almighty Push!"
"Aaaggghhh–Dammit!" Issei cursed loudly as the invisible force slammed into him and sent him rocketing back into the nearby sand dunes. He just got buried under a small mountain of sand.
"Die!" Hela charged forwards a split second after I sent Issei flying. She was wielding a black sword in both hands and trying to skewer me from both sides.
"I don't think so! You can deal with me instead!" Kokabiel flew forward with an excited grin on his face. He was dual wielding Lightspears and easily paired both of her swords. Hela was caught off guard from his interference, allowing him to lean forwards and headbutt her directly in the face!
"Damn you! I won't be denied my vengeance. How dare you attack the Queen of Asgard!" She grasped her face in pain as her broken nose started to rapidly heal itself. Her full attention switched to Kokabiel.
"Mother Fucker!" I heard Fury yell in my earpiece. I glanced off into the distance and could see why. Hundreds–no thousands of teleportation beams touched down on the ground. Each once carried down legions of chitauri soldiers! It only took a few seconds for around 100,000 of them to descend. They weren't alone either. Hundreds of rolling tanks and dozens of Leviathans emerged from the mothership with them. Thanos had clearly brought his whole army with him.
…
–Nick Fury–
Nick Fury was standing in the control room of the Helicarrier a few miles away. Kokabiel had come up with the general strategy for the upcoming battle, but it was Fury's and Captain America's jobs to actually direct the troops when everything inevitably went to shit!
"Mother Fucker!" Fury cursed when he saw the number of aliens that had just appeared! His forces were suddenly outnumbered almost 10 to 1! He'd be absolutely panicking if he wasn't aware that the Chitauri soldiers were basically untrained suicide troops. They didn't have any tactics besides charge with overwhelming force.
"That's a lot of aliens…" Natasha Romanoff commented next to him. She was officially up here as his guard. Her eyes were mostly focused on the screen that was currently displaying Layla though. Her knuckles were white as she watched the battle with worry.
"Will Layla be alright?" The new red haired woman asked next to Natasha. Fury was told that her name was Rias Gremory and she was one of Layla's newest harem members.
"When Layla told us her Universe had evil aliens… I honestly wasn't sure what to expect. Those definitely look like typical Hollywood aliens though…" The other woman added. Her name was Sona Sitri.
Fury usually wouldn't allow non-vetted personnel aboard his Helicarrier–especially not in the command room. Layla and Natasha both vouched for the two of them though. He was also told both of these girls were decently powerful. He wasn't going to turn down any offered aid during an actual alien invasion. He allowed both unknown girls in the command room provided they don't touch anything and stay near Natasha the entire time.
Fury's eyes went back to the battlefield. This was now a full scale war!
"The mothership's guns are locking onto our ground troops!" Steve warned next to him.
"Shit!" Fury cursed. "Incoming energy barrage from the mothership! All Fallen Angels, deploy Lightshields! All ground forces, open fire!" Fury commanded. His message went out to every single person on the battlefield.
…
–Layla–
I saw all of the turrets on the mothership aim towards the National Guard forces and start to open fire! Thousands of blue energy blasts sailed towards them in an unending barrage!
Thankfully, my 2000 siblings weren't going to allow their allies to die so easily. Every single one of them flew forwards and deployed Lightshields in sync! When all of their Lightshields combined, I bore witness to the single biggest shield I'd ever seen. It spanned a mile high and at least a few miles wide! The blue energy blasts started pummeling into the combined shield, but it held steady.
"I'll kill you!"
I turned my head when I heard Andrea scream loudly. She was hovering in the air facing Thanos. Her shoulder armor shifted and two small missile launchers sprang up and locked onto Thanos. A second later over a dozen homing missiles blasted towards him.
He threw his arms in front of himself and tanked the blast. A series of explosions that would level a city block rang out where he stood. I knew he probably wasn't hurt though.
I could understand Andrea's rage, but that wasn't going to be enough firepower to put someone like him down. Ironman flew over and hovered next to his sister.
The smoke cleared and sure enough, Thanos was standing in the crater unharmed. "If that was the best you could do, then clearly that prophecy was wrong all along. I suppose I should focus back on the one I came here for." Thanos's gaze brushed past Ironman and Ironwoman and instead locked onto me. "My children will handle you two."
More teleportation beams touched down around Thanos and the rest of his children appeared. Ebony Maw, Proxima Midnight, Corvus, Cull, and Nebula all appeared behind their father. They made their way towards Gamora and all six of his children turned to face Tony and Andrea.
"This metal woman was the one prophesied to kill our great father? How pathetic." Ebony Maw said as he started to float off the sand with his psychic powers.
"Who cares. Let's just kill them both already." Nebula added.
Thanos smiled at all of his children before he started walking towards me. As much as I wanted to help Tony and Andrea, I knew I would be busy with him for a while.
"Ready to die, Thanos?" I asked him.
He chuckled. "Funny, I was about to ask you the same thing, little Angel." We both paused at a sudden interruption.
"Not so fast!" The Red Dragon Emperor blasted out of the sand dunes I'd buried him in. His normally green eyes were glowing an angry red. "I'm going to kill her myself!" The thrusters on his back ignited as he blasted his way towards me in rage.
[He mad.]
I chuckled. "Sorry, Issei. But I'm not your opponent. Someone else wants a round two with you." I said and snapped my fingers. A purple portal manifested next to me and a white blur shot forwards towards Issei! They crashed into each other violently.
Vali, the White Dragon Emperor, was here for some payback. He wasn't alone either. Thunder crackled in the skies as Thor, holding two Mjollnirs, rapidly descended from the sky and landed next to Vali.
"Tis a glorious day for battle! Songs will be sung of this day in Asgard for centuries!" Thor cheered as lightning arced around his form.
Vali begrudgingly had admitted in the war room briefing a few days ago that he would need help taking down his rival. They were going to fight the red dragon together.
Sif had been tasked to stay with the troops and protect any soldiers from the Chitauri if they got too close. In the distance, I could see the Chitauri army advancing towards the legion of my Fallen Angel siblings and the National Guard troops. Bullets, mortars, tank shells, and Lightspears all hurtled towards the advancing army. Hundreds of Chitauri were being cut down every second. In order to not hit their own troops, the mothership had stopped firing on the battlefield…for now.
Thanos and I once again locked eyes. With no other distractions, the Mad Titan and I advance towards each other…
XXX
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