POV: Baldur.
Downtown Los Angeles, California.
At the Same Moment.
The sight of Galactus without his helmet gave our seemingly invincible enemy a surprisingly human appearance, one that quickly vanished as he rose to his feet and his armor reformed along with his helmet.
Meanwhile, Carol and I stood above, observing him. She now bore witness to the destruction our energy clash had wrought upon the city. She said she understood what we needed to do and the costs involved. Now, she was grappling with those costs.
My perspective differed vastly from hers. While hers was broader and more detailed, I was acutely aware of all the destruction and loss of life, and it weighed heavily on me.
My attention was suddenly seized by my armor. Unfortunately, unlike Galactus, mine couldn't regenerate. That last blow had pushed it beyond its limits. The armor, crafted from the most powerful metals on Earth and beyond, began to crack and fall away from my body, leaving me clad only in simple black pants and shirtless.
Even with its protection, my body hadn't escaped unscathed. Much of my torso bore the telltale purple hue of his energy, which not only hindered my healing but also caused considerable pain.
"He's tougher than I thought," Carol remarked, awakening at my side.
"He wouldn't be a cosmic entity if he weren't," I replied.
He'd been somewhat injured by our last blow. Normally, the best course of action would be to press the attack. But both my friend and I had suffered, and time was also working in my favor.
Then Galactus made his move, a move completely unexpected. The giant, towering over any building in this city, began to shrink until he stood at my height.
"So, he's really serious now," I muttered aloud.
"Yeah, this is going to be tough," Carol agreed, quickly grasping the situation.
Galactus size had clearly been an advantage for us. Due to his immense stature, no aiming or effort was required to strike him. Indeed, since the outset of this battle, all our attacks had found their mark.
"No point in sighing. You go first, or shall I?" I asked the radiant form of Carol beside me.
"I'll go first. You seize the opportunity," she replied.
I extended my hand, and Segil came to me. With the armor destroyed, I could use it without fear of it being damaged by my power.
Together, we shot downward toward him. I let Carol take the lead, veering left to flank our enemy, awaiting my chance. Faster than lightning, Carol reached him and landed a punch squarely on his face. What happened next surprised me. Galactus, faster even than her, had his hand around Carol's neck, lifting her into the air.
I advanced then, appearing right beside Galactus and aiming for his neck. I regretted using my spear the moment I struck. In terms of strength, he was more than holding his own, but in skill, it was a pitiful attempt. I had thought I could wield it adeptly with just one hand, but I was mistaken.
Galactus simply blocked my attack with the back of his hand, causing me to lose my grip on my spear, which flew away from me. Instead of attempting to retrieve it, I took advantage of the proximity and punched him in the face, a blow that he intercepted with his hand, gripping my fist.
We then stood there, he holding my fist and Carol's neck, while she struggled, kicking frantically at his unmoving form. This form of Galactus was truly terrifying. The strength displayed in his giant form was now concentrated in this smaller body, one faster than both Carol and me.
With my fist and Carol's neck in his grasp, he spun his body and flung me aside. I hit the ground rolling and quickly rose to my feet. As I did, I saw Galactus free hand glowing purple as he aimed it at Carol's face, she still unable to free herself.
With a thought, four golden spears appeared around me and shot toward them. Galactus abandoned his attempt to strike her face and aimed his hand at me, unleashing a blast of energy that destroyed my spears. But they were a distraction. Around him, I created several light illusions of myself, ten shimmering images attacking him from every possible direction.
Above, the real me remained invisible. I opened my palm and conjured a golden star within it.
Below, as the illusions closed in on Galactus, an explosion of energy emanated from his body, destroying my fragile illusions. Above him, I closed my hand around the star, then opened it and pointed it at Galactus, firing a concentrated beam of starburst explosion, rather than something dispersed, it was tightly focused with concentrated power.
Galactus did what I expected him to do. He hurled Carol toward my attack. She absorbed the power, and Galactus backed away.
Furious, Carol, now at the peak of her power once more, shot toward Galactus, enveloping his body with her arms and flying away.
"BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAM!"
The two traverse the entire city, only coming to a halt when she collides with Galactus at the vibrating, trembling mirror barrier. I chase after them, and as I draw closer, I see Carol being hurled in my direction. I dodge her and conjure several spears that I hurl at him, but then I feel something gripping my neck. Galactus, who was several meters away, is now right in front of me. I try to escape, but his energy is rendering my body frozen.
"I've never taken pleasure in devouring a world, but this will be the first," he tells me.
"AAAAAAAAAAH!"
Then, as Galactus's entire arm pierces through my chest, I scream in agony, never having felt such pain before in my life.
Galactus then withdraws his bloodied arm from my chest, and I collapse to the ground, powerless.
"NO!" {NO!}
I hear Carol and Amora's voices shouting simultaneously, but my full attention is now on repairing my body and avoiding death. With my head turned towards the ground, I can hear the sounds of battle; clearly, Carol is attacking with all her strength and fury.
When I manage to heal one of my lungs, I take a deep breath, then turn and gaze up at the blue sky.
{"Baldur? Are you okay?"} Amora asks, sounding concerned.
"Still alive," I reply in a low voice.
{"We're ready, my love, just give the signal."}
For the plan to succeed, I am necessary.
Right now, I can barely even move properly.
"Give me a second, and tell Thor that he'll have to wait a few seconds too."
As I say this, I raise my hand high, hearing the sound barrier being broken, then I grasp Mjolnir that comes to me, and a bolt of lightning strikes my body.
I won't use Thor's divinity to fight; instead, I'm using it to accelerate my recovery. This is Thor's most terrifying ability; it can literally bring someone close to death back to life. This happened twice in the movies: once when he was "killed" against the Destroyer, and the other when he received the power of a star into his body.
The lightning continued to strike from the sky, bathing my body. A few seconds later, the gaping hole in my chest is completely closed. Thor's divinity healing is incredible, but it can't heal all my wounds, far from it actually, but it's enough to get me moving again.
(I was also lucky that the bastard didn't hit my heart.)
"I'm ready, let's finish this!" I say aloud.
Space distorts beside me, and Thor appears.
"Brother, I'm glad to see you're well," he says, greeting me.
"Here, Thor," I say, tossing Mjolnir back to him.
"It's time to put your training into practice," I tell him, making him smile.
"You can count on me, brother," Thor says confidently.
"Amora, as planned, Xavier goes first."
I say this, and I fly upwards, ignoring the battle between Galactus and Carol. When I reach a certain height above the city, space distorts, and I pass through it, appearing in space. This is where the key to victory was forged.
POV: Third Person.
Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters,
Greymalkin Lane, Salem Center, New York, Underground.
A Few Minutes After the Attack Order.
Below the property where the X-Men reside lies a machine with the function of locating every mutant on Earth, the Cerebro. However, this machine can only be operated by mutants with telepathic abilities, and the most powerful of them is the director of this school.
"I still can't believe such a plan is possible," Xavier says, holding a metal helmet connected to wires protruding from a silver table in front of him.
"The creator's plan is logically possible; you just need to follow what was said and leave the rest to me," Vision speaks from behind Xavier.
"Professor, you can also sense a great disturbance in the world; we have to try, or there will be no Earth left," Jean Grey says beside Xavier, her hand on his shoulder.
Xavier hesitates for a moment; what he is about to do goes against the purpose for which the Cerebro was built, but with the fate of the world hanging in the balance, he has no choice.
"Very well!" Making his decision, he puts on the helmet and closes his eyes.
Then the large, empty, dome-shaped silver room comes to life, displaying countless red and blue dots, the sheer number of which resembled the vision of stars in the night sky.
"Jean, I'll need your help now; there are so many," the Professor says with closed eyes.
His student beside him also closes her eyes and, with her hand on her Professor's shoulder, begins to assist. Then each of those blue and red dots that appeared in the room starts to slowly connect into a massive silver super star at the center of the vast room.
It was no easy task; Jean and Xavier were sweating profusely from the effort.
"Do it now; we can't hold on for much longer!" Xavier says loudly.
Vision, who had been waiting behind them, finally moves and places his hand on top of Xavier's head, and the jewel in the center of his forehead begins to glow.
What Xavier and his student were doing now was focusing all the minds of the world into a great mass of psychic force. This concentrated force was too much to control, so that's where Vision came in; he used his jewel to manipulate and amplify this mass of psychic energy to carry out the greatest psychic attack ever seen in this universe.
Then the jewel began to shine even brighter on his forehead. It didn't take long for Vision to raise his head, and a beam of red energy shot from his jewel. The red energy beam, being a psychic attack, pierced through the entire ceiling as if it were a phantom attack, flying toward its true target.
POV: Third Person.
Downtown Los Angeles, California.
Seconds Before Vision's Attack is Executed.
"It's over!" Galactus says, holding Carol's leg, then he releases her, causing her to fall from above. Before her body hits the ground, a portal opens, and she disappears from the battlefield.
"Magician, your tricks end now!" Galactus says, observing this.
Then he raises his hand with the intention of destroying the prison around the city to finish off his enemy once and for all, but then his body freezes.
Above Galactus, Magneto appears with his daughter by his side. The two were working together to momentarily stop Galactus. The father was using his magnetic manipulation to control his armor, while the daughter was using her psychic powers.
But Galactus is too powerful, and he begins to gain the upper hand in the tug-of-war between them. However, this was all a distraction; the real attack came from outside the mirror dimension wall, a beam of red psychic energy that crossed space at the speed of thought hit Galactus head.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"
There's no way to describe the pain Galactus felt when he was attacked by the force of all the Earth's minds, amplified and controlled by an infinity stone. He could only clutch his head and scream in agony.
Still screaming in pain, Galactus began to grow back into his giant form, still holding his head with both hands.
The moment the attack hit him, Magneto and his daughter were also removed from the battlefield, leaving only Galactus still screaming and holding his head, and Thor on the battlefield.
A few meters away from Galactus, Thor walked calmly across the battle-ravaged ground, holding his hammer. Then Thor raised it above his head, and his body began to emit a great amount of lightning, which was concentrated in Mjolnir.
The lightning emitted by Thor created a field of pure electricity around his body, which began to expand. The Mjolnir held above Thor's head was receiving all that power.
Then the sphere exploded, expanding throughout the city like a huge dome of lightning the size of buildings.
A GodBlast.
An attack that channels the ancestral fury of the gods that preceded Thor.
Something taught to him by his brother.
It lasted briefly, everything returned to peace quickly. Thor, who had just executed the most terrifying attack, had disappeared, leaving only Galactus alive in this ghost city. But his situation was dire; he was kneeling on the ground, his entire body burned, and his armor destroyed.
POV: Baldur.
Outer Space, Near Earth.
At the Moment of Thor's Attack.
Everything was going as planned: first, the distraction of Magneto and his daughter, then the mental attack by Vision and Xavier, and finally the GodBlast. Something taught to Thor by me, a concentrated attack with all his divine power unleashed by a mystical item. Unfortunately, I can't do the same; Segil isn't powerful enough to withstand all my concentrated power.
So, here I am in space, where the creations of the greatest scientists and magicians of Wakanda and Genosha lie. An enormous silver tube resembling ancient monocles, tapering from a thinner end to a wider one at its base, ten meters wide and four meters in diameter at its widest point.
I enter the thinner end, where there's a chair for me to sit in. In front of the chair are two silver rods, one on each side, which I grip firmly since I'm without my other arm.
"Finally, you've arrived, old man; I was getting impatient to see my invention work," a holographic screen appears beside my head, displaying a young black girl with dreadlocks.
"Shuri!" a voice behind the girl shouts, though not visible on the hologram.
"Sorry, Mama," the girl says, making me smile.
"Sorry for the delay, little princess," I've known her since she was a child, and I quite like the genius girl.
"You look terrible," she says, looking at my injuries with a clear expression of concern.
"I'll get better. Now, to work."
"All systems are functioning; just go ahead," Shuri says more seriously.
Another holographic screen appears in front of me, the targeting system, which is currently taking advantage of an opening above the city to help me target Galactus, who was quite injured on the ground.
With the target locked, I begin to release my energy, which is absorbed by the rod I'm holding. I don't hold back; this tube's main function is to unleash an attack with all my power, without injuring myself, theoretically.
Then the tube begins to vibrate and glow; the energy level displayed on the screen starts to rise. A few seconds later, the energy level supported by the tube reaches its maximum; I'm currently unleashing fifty percent of my total power, hoping it's enough to deliver a final blow to Galactus.
"FIRE!"
With my command, a burst of golden energy, four meters in diameter, is shot from the wider end of the tube. As the burst is unleashed, the entire tube explodes; this was expected. This tube is a glass cannon, a weapon that can only be used once.
The burst of golden energy with shades of red crosses space towards Earth, pierces its atmosphere, and passes through the mirror dimension hole created by Amora, and finally hits Galactus body.
I couldn't see the result.
To prevent destruction from escaping and causing damage beyond the barrier, Amora closed the opening the attack passed through the moment it passed through it. With the city isolated, I couldn't see what happened.
I rush as fast as I can towards the city, and when I arrive there, Amora opens an entrance for me.
The city remains destroyed; however, now there's a round hole four meters in diameter in the ground where the beam struck.
And beside it lies Galactus's body split in half. I approach him to see if he's still alive; the vitality of beings like him is no joke. It's better to make sure. To my surprise, the darned creature is still alive.
"Next time, it will be different!" he says mentally, and then both parts of his body disappear from the ground, leaving only his helmet behind, and some of his divine blood, which is already giving life to the ground.
"So, it's over," I say aloud, relaxing for the first time in several days.
"Yes, it's over, for you." an unknown voice says
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