The mutants involved in this war are primarily Alpha level and Omega level individuals, whose abilities possess virtually no flaws, differing only in the degree of devastation they can cause.
However, mutants are not perpetual motion machines, even a mutant as flawless as Iceman could become fatigued. Therefore, using them to mow down armies would be a waste. In the original tactics, mutants were tasked with the role of striking against the enemy's stronghold.
In simple terms, Mystique's strategy was similar to the Insect Race. Though the Skrull Empire and the Shi'ar Empire follow the swarm strategy, if mutants infiltrated their ranks, they could also adopt a broad-based approach.
In other words, use massive batches of troops that can quickly replenish to hold the front line, then use powerful individuals to break through.
Unexpectedly, the Insect Race was the first to execute this tactic. Therefore, the powerful mutants became a countermeasure, and now must take up the duty of intercepting the super-individuals the Insect Race sent to assault their stronghold.
When Magneto enters the battlefield, the cosmos falls silent and the stars fade for him. Around him, it feels as though everything, within a range of several light-years, has been slowed down.
The slime slowly drips from the insects' sharp teeth, the muzzles of the Skrull soldiers' artillery slowly gather a faint glow, and amidst the intense crossfire, the haphazardly scattered remains suddenly look like a sudden burst of fireworks when the magnetic field is frozen, carrying a fleeting, yet immortal beauty.
Just like every disaster night brought to the species on the planet by nature, between the magnetic field's subtle tremors, the storm grinds everything into fine dust. Under the gleam of the radiant stars, the dust rises, like a light rain falling in the weightless universe.
When Magneto's cloak falls, the magnetic storm is born, and everything dies.
In this disappearing wind, only writhing slivers of ice can be seen sliding past countless terrified eyes at the edge of the formation. A blue figure soars into the air, arms outstretched.
The moment he clenched his fist, the solar storm suddenly froze over. The surface of each particle was covered in a layer of frost, and in an instant, the bright star hanging in space was frozen solid.
The warm light that originally illuminated each soldier now appeared as though it had been covered by a bleak filter. The Star was still shining, but from the inside out, it had turned into an ice sculpture.
After an event that completely contradicted the laws of physics occurred, all the civilization leaders closely watching the situation were frozen before their screens. But shortly after the calm before the inevitable storm, it becomes increasingly bright beneath the transparent ice layer of the sun.
Dorek screamed.
"Supernova explosion!! Run!!!!!!!"
However, quickly, all civilization leaders closely watching the situation understood why Iceman Bobby needed to freeze the Star before Magneto ignited it — with the explosion of the supernova, the ice covering the star surface became the most terrifying weapon.
Put a different way, the star explosion is merely the engine of a frost storm. The massive thruster from the supernova explosion propels the thin layer of ice particles to infinitely approach light speed, washing over the entire Star System.
After the explosion, the entire Star System was silent and icy cold.
However, a Star System is just a small part of the war front. The entire Great Delivery Portal Star Zone has over 500 star systems. The area with the most concentrated firepower has over a dozen Star Systems. After a complete disruption in one area, the main force of the Insect Race finally shows its fangs.
Mystique and Professor X, sitting in front of the screen, were astonished at the Insect Race soldiers filling the star system. It was like the previous insect waves in prior attacks, but this time, the swarm was made up entirely of super-individuals.
"We've got it wrong again!" Mystique slowly said while looking at the screen, "They have perfectly combined two strategies, the first wave was just cannon fodder probing the way. They've evolved all the members of their civilisation into super-individuals!"
Dorek VII was as though his throat was being choked, all he could make were meaningless short syllables.
The morale, which was just uplifted by the awe-inspiring arrival of the mutants, was now nowhere to be seen. The morale of the Civilization Alliance plummeted to rock bottom. If every member of a race composed of hundreds and billions of creatures is a super individual who has undergone the ultimate evolution, how can we fight this war?
Suddenly, a familiar yet distant sound of a horn echoed in everyone's ears. The older civilization leaders in the alliance instinctively shivered.
The moment the bright thunderbolt flashed across the open sky, all the beings in this universe were calling out his name—"Odin, Father of All Gods!"
The moment the Asgard Fleet made its warp jump into the field, the morale of the Civilisation Alliance weirdly reignited instantaneously. There's no better reason than this: Only those who have been beaten know how painful it is to be beaten.
Looking up to Odin who stood as usual atop the ship's mast, the leaders of the several civilizations were tearful. Finally, there came a day when the Aesir, descending from the colorful auspicious clouds, were not there to beat them.
The number of the Asgard Fleet is far fewer than the Insect Race, and the quantity of individuals in Asgard also pales in comparison to the super individuals in the Insect Race. But Asgard's strength was never in their ability to fight a war from the front line.
Odin's fleet has been able to navigate the cosmos for all these years because of their unmatched sudden attack capability. No matter what fortress you have or what frontline defense you put out, the Rainbow Bridge gives the maximum output, takes off entirely, and strikes the major artery. You'll know it's over when they hit you.
Odin did not even glance at the Insect Race's super-individuals that were gathering to reinforce the firepower point. Relying on his many years of instinct for sudden, decisive strikes, the Rainbow Bridge bursts with light, and seven huge battleships loaded with axe-wielding soldiers crash straight into the face of the Hive Super Brain.
Next comes the traditional art of boarding and helping hands to jump down. All Asgardians who make the leap descend with a flurry of mindless slashes: charging, whirlwind slashing, divine power explosion, jumping slashes, "Long live Odin, Father of All Gods!"
Before the Hive Super Brain had time to react, a small portion of its nodes had been chopped off. Immediately, the bugs on the front line began stuttering. This was one of the drawbacks of brain-linked command. Once the command center is attacked, it can easily trigger a chain reaction and completely collapse.
Dorek VII, who had been at war with the Kree Empire for many years, was no stranger to this scene. He was overjoyed and pounded the table, shouting, "Prepare to counterattack, hurry, everyone prepare to counterattack!"
But Odin, who had successfully jumped to the front, furrowed his eyebrows. Just when the Asgardian battle situation was going well, Odin's call, thunderous as ever, echoed in every Asgardian's ear: "Everyone stop, prepare to retreat!"
The respect that Odin had built up over many years led the instinctively combative madmen to follow his command. Everyone teleported back to the ship, with the Rainbow Bridge at full power.
The very next second after the Asgard fleet made their retreat, the dimension where the Hive was located was completely torn apart.
From the communication device on Asgard's main ship, the voice of the Supreme Wisdom was heard, "Among the annihilation worms, there is a special individual that I call the 'Dimension devourer'."
"It takes the form of an incredibly large worm, with a big mouth full of fangs. It devours dimensions, swallowing them whole. Over twenty dimensions under the control of the Kree Empire were obliterated in this way."
"Does their Hive have teleportation capabilities?" Odin asked, squinting.
"The Dimension devourer can swallow any bug and take them to a safe place," the voice of the Supreme Wisdom echoed in the command rooms of all civilizations: "Nothing, including things inside spatial dimensions, will work on it."
Odin didn't look upset. He simply looked up slightly and said, "The Rainbow Bridge needs to recharge, and it will take at least seven hours until it can be launched again, but these bugs do not know this."
"Since they've stolen the Kree Empire's battle reports, they should understand the power of the Rainbow Bridge and would not dare attack unscrupulously before I reappear."
Dorek nodded, agreeing with Odin's statement and added, "What follows will be the most grueling, but crucial stalemate that could affect the outcome of the war. Both sides will defensively counterattack, engaging in a tug of war. Whoever can't hold out first will retreat."
"The good news is that we've held back their most intense initial attack," said Mystique, "The bad news is, the battlefield of the annihilation worms is probably not limited to the material universe, they also have gods."
But at this moment, Charles, who was behind Mystique, revealed a mysterious smile and said, "It would be best if their gods show up soon, because they're going to miss a great show if they're late."
While the front-line battlefield had gone through several rounds of combat, the initial instigator, the Annihilator, wasn't idle either. As written in the guide left by Adam for Quill, both the Annihilator and Ravenous were targeting the Star-swallower Envoy and its patron, Galactus.
They were well aware of the power of the five gods and also knew that Galactus was the best parasite host for the Hive Super Brain, so Ravenous was leading a universe-wide hunt for the envoys of Galactus with the Seekers.
Soon, the Seekers reported back that they didn't find the Star-swallower Envoy, but Galactus himself.
The Annihilator and Ravenous were delighted. But when they arrived at the location of Galactus, they had crashed into a divine battlefield which was out of their control—three gods from a triune deity were chasing and trying to kill a high-level divine avatar.
Put in human terms, the Goddess of Glory, The Iron Demon God, and the King of Brightness were collectively beating Adam, while deities from other dimensions like Mephisto, Dormammu, and Galactus were trying to break up the fight.
If it was Adam from the Court of Life, of course, he wouldn't fear any gods from within the individual universe. The problem was that the Adam within the individual universe was just an avatar and didn't possess all of the Court of Life's power.
This universe was cast out beyond the great world. It had no parents to dote on it, and Adam couldn't even get power from his main body if he wanted to. Under the relentless pursuit of the three gods, all he could do was run.
Of course, Adam wasn't completely helpless. While he certainly wasn't very strong, he was still the boss of the five gods, so he immediately shook the only available Galactus to come and break up the fight.
The reason it was breaking up the fight instead of fighting back was because no matter which of the three he hit, he was very likely to get into trouble with Shiller.
But as everyone knows, Galactus is useless at any time. It's hard to tell whether the surrounding dimensional demon gods like Mephisto and Dormammu come to mediate or to wait for food. And so, Adam was chased round and round the universe by the three gangsters.
In the end, the battered and bruised Adam could no longer endure.
Looking back at his long and arduous journey, he had originally set out to protect the universe from destruction, yet no one understood him. He had a perfect strategy to follow, yet he could get none of the steps right. He tried his best to correct all the programs, yet the code evolved from a mess to a cesspit.
The hardest working god in the universe was now being chased around, fully proving the concept that the harder you work, the more misfortunate you get, Adam was truly falling apart.
Tired, just let it all be destroyed, that was a true portrayal of Adam's mentality at the moment.
So with this mindset, he ended up in a desolate place at the end of time, in front of Strange and Shiller. Looking into Shiller's eyes, he said,
"Hello, Shiller, would you be interested in becoming my Pope?"