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"Don't worry too much. I've captured their commander." Shen He's calm voice echoed over the communications channel. "They're fighting like madmen out there. We need to figure out a way to stop the next wave of attacks."
For a moment, silence reigned. Not only the military officers on the line, but even personnel inside the Virtual Reality Corporation's command center, wondered if they'd misheard.
She just went in, effortlessly captured the enemy's commanding officer, and returned without a scratch? Just like that?
But the situation didn't allow time for disbelief.
As Shen He had warned, the Cherita troops had lost all sense of rational coordination. Waves of alien soldiers poured out of the remaining three motherships, flooding into the narrow wormholes. Aircraft, warships, and even Chaldean dragons tried to intercept them—but the Cherita didn't care for strategy anymore. They threw everything they had into the attack, the madness spreading across the dark ocean of space.
Sirens wailed in the Virtual Reality Company's command center. Tension tightened with every passing second.
"Shen He, I don't think we can hold them back without taking control of at least one of the motherships," Steve Rogers said, trying to lay out the dire situation. "If their commander can't give the retreat order, capturing him doesn't mean much."
"It still matters," Shen He replied, voice unshaken. "I got critical intel from him. I believe I've figured out how to shut down the space-time gate."
"...Are you sure?" Tony cut in quickly, his tone revealing a rare edge of anxiety.
"Thanos gave Loki a scepter—ostensibly to guide the Tesseract. I suspected it held more power than it should, and now I'm certain. That scepter contains another Infinity Stone. It can be used to override the Cube's energy signature."
"That's incredible," Tony exclaimed, before immediately switching to a private, encrypted channel to speak with her alone. His voice dropped. "And our contingency? If the Cherita withdraw... will the civilian tech lines Chaldea's been pushing still sell? We need sustained tension for consistent growth."
Though Tony always sought the least collateral damage, he understood something crucial: a manageable crisis drove innovation—and profits.
"That's why I brought their commander," Shen He said with a small, confident smirk. "A live Cherita warlord is all the evidence Earth needs that the universe remains dangerous."
"You think that just having their leader here will keep the public on edge? That even if we shut the portal, Earth will still brace for another invasion?"
Tony misinterpreted—but Shen He didn't bother to correct him.
Because, in part, he was right.
Propaganda could now pivot: the fact that Chaldea had captured an alien commander while no one else even managed a successful counterattack made it clear—no power on Earth could challenge them. Not anymore.
Shen He reflected. She'd once believed that outside threats would force the world to unite, but now she understood something deeper: the power Chaldea had amassed might just provoke fear and resistance, too.
Even so, as long as Chaldea's actions didn't threaten the balance of global interests outright, the World Security Council wouldn't dare act rashly. They'd bend, not break.
This meant one thing—Chaldea could afford to act bolder. Push further. Redraw the lines.
Resolved, Shen He turned her attention back to the battlefield. The Cherita were massing at the wormhole gate, attempting to force their way through in overwhelming numbers. She tapped a holographic card and handed it to the teenager standing at her side.
"Qi Mu, I'm giving you a Primary Strengthening Card. Go wild."
"Got it," Qi Mu Nanxiong said nonchalantly, taking the card.
The moment the upgrade activated, the field exploded into chaos.
Dozens of Qi Mu clones—wearing customized Chaldean robes—burst into the enemy's ranks like a divine storm. Each one was fully empowered and functionally identical to the original, sharing his vast psychic power.
But unlike the quiet, reserved original, many clones had radically different temperaments. Some craved battle. Some laughed with glee as they tore through the alien ranks. Others experimented with powers and combinations Qi Mu never dared try openly.
And all the while, the original Qi Mu stood calmly, absorbing the data from every clone's experience. This was more than combat—it was research.
Shen He smiled slightly. The feeling was indescribable—like holding a divine army in her hands. For the first time, she thought:
Perhaps even Thanos, without all the Stones, isn't someone we need to fear anymore.
With the enemy ranks shattered by the psychic onslaught, Shen He led her team calmly back through the wormhole breach created by Qi Mu's army. They descended back toward Earth, gliding in formation toward the Virtual Reality Company's landing zone.
"Ma'am, Loki's Scepter has been under maximum containment since retrieval. No unauthorized personnel have come near it," Coulson reported as he approached her at the landing site.
At the same time, Black Widow moved quickly with a tactical unit, escorting the bound Cherita warlord to a reinforced containment chamber—custom-built for alien captives.
Steve and Tony didn't stay to greet her; both immediately returned to the front lines, where the battle still raged.
"The reinforcements from HQ can remain deployed for another hour at most," Shen He said, striding toward the containment vault holding the scepter. "What about the Maximoff twins—Wanda and Pietro?"
"They've been undergoing advanced capability trials over the past few days," Coulson answered. "There's been significant progress. Wanda's requested permission to engage on the frontlines."
Shen He paused. Her expression hardened slightly.
"No. Absolutely not. It's still too dangerous."
As they spoke, Shen He and Coulson had already entered the lab, now fortified by a large number of robots under Jarvis's direct control. The smooth, automated precision of their movements gave the area the feel of a secure fortress rather than a research facility.
Earlier, Shen He had boldly spoken over the public channel, declaring that the scepter might be the key to sealing the wormhole. Although that announcement was open to everyone, there was a possibility that those with ulterior motives might have either missed or intentionally ignored it. Coulson's cautious demeanor was justified. Even within the ranks of the Virtual Reality Corporation, it was highly probable that agents from rival forces were embedded.
Shen He approached with deliberate strides, Loki's scepter clutched firmly in hand. The artifact pulsed with ominous energy.
Then, his voice once again echoed through the public channel:
"Qi Mu has successfully disassembled some of the 'trophies' we obtained from space, with support from HQ. They're being transported in now. This war is officially entering its final countdown."
"Is this real, sir?!" Coulson couldn't help but beam, his voice tinged with hopeful disbelief.
Excited murmurs erupted across the command channels. Some operatives even stood and began to cheer spontaneously. From the military command center, thunderous applause and cheers broke out.
The war wasn't over—yet. But Shen He's words ignited a spark. A sense of inevitability swept across the battlefield. As long as the wormhole could be sealed, the enemy's desperate assault was just that—desperation. The remaining Chitauri forces would be held off by Chaldea for at least an hour, and within that window, they would fall.
At that moment, the official site of the Virtual Reality Corporation pushed out a global announcement:
—The Final Hour of the War Has Begun—
Chaldea was never humble about its accomplishments—nor did it seek to be. Shen He's role in this war was documented in full: the capture of the enemy commander, the discovery of the method to close the dimensional rift. These feats were proclaimed to the world without a hint of modesty.
Shen He had no intention of being an unsung hero. He wanted everyone—every citizen, every government, every rival—to know who had saved humanity.
Modesty? It simply wasn't in his lexicon.
As the announcement spread like wildfire across every global news outlet, the live feed from the wormhole showed Chaldean operatives in signature uniforms moving swiftly through wreckage. The enemy was now trapped within a distant perimeter, entirely suppressed. And more Chaldeans kept arriving. The headcount already exceeded a hundred.
At last, Chaldea revealed its deeply rooted strength—something the world had only speculated about.
According to Shen He, he still held one final authorization to summon direct support from Chaldea's mysterious headquarters.
If invoked, that request would bring forth a force likened to a nuclear arsenal—not of destruction, but of supremacy. A symbol of an age where such power could conquer the world.
The World Security Council had no choice but to begin reassessing its future. How would they engage with Chaldea—a rising, sovereign entity of overwhelming military, technological, and societal influence?
Shen He, however, wasn't bothered by their deliberations.
He simply did as he pleased.
If there was joy to be taken, he'd take it. Life was full of fleeting victories, and this was one of them.
In that defining hour, humanity collectively paused.
Students halted their lessons, employees stopped their work, office spaces and factories alike turned their eyes toward screens. Unless bound by urgency, the entire planet tuned in to the official Virtual Reality Corporation livestream.
Displayed on-screen was the wormhole... and beneath it, a countdown clock, ticking relentlessly toward zero.
In the final thirty minutes, the broadcast shifted to Shen He.
Clad in radiant white armor and gripping Loki's scepter, he walked calmly into the heart of Manhattan—now a battleground crawling with remnants of the Chitauri army. Ahead of him, two Chaldean warriors burst through the air, creating sonic booms as they cleared his path with hurricane-force winds.
The audience was stunned.
"This guy's showing off."
That was the universal thought.
Amid the chaotic battlefield and the flailing resistance of Chitauri stragglers, Shen He walked—slowly, confidently, almost languidly. His pace stood in stark contrast to the desperation around him.
And yet, it was that display that moved people the most.
Shen He had just made one thing abundantly clear: Chaldea was untouchable.
Aliens? They were little more than sophisticated insects to the might of Chaldea. This wasn't a battle—it was pest control. No matter how many came, they couldn't breach Chaldea's gardens.
But ants are still ants.
The more the Chitauri struggled and retaliated, the more they roused something fierce and triumphant within the watching crowds. The dread that had clouded the world for over twenty days was lifting—vanishing in real time before their eyes.
Finally, Shen He arrived at the wreckage of the Stark Tower.
The origin of everything—the Cosmic Cube—floated silently at its center, pulsing with celestial power.
Gazing at it, Shen He sighed inwardly.
He had done everything he could to delay and reshape the outcome of this war. But ironically, the war wasn't ending because he had finally eliminated the enemy. It was ending because Chaldea could no longer afford to hide.
Had they continued, they would've been forced into a full-scale space battle with the Chitauri mothership—a battle that lacked meaning. That mothership couldn't reach Earth. It held no advanced technology worth taking. And compared to what Chaldea now possessed, it simply wasn't worth the effort.
So Shen He made the call.
He plunged the scepter into the swirling light of the Cosmic Cube.
And the wormhole, that cosmic scar upon the sky, folded in on itself and vanished.
Above New York, blue skies returned. Clean clouds drifted once more across the heavens. The nightmarish black portal was gone.
In a moment of global synchronicity, the world erupted in joy.
Especially in New York—where trauma had run deepest—citizens broke down in relief. They hugged strangers. They shouted. They laughed through tears. For the first time in weeks, they believed the future could still be theirs.
They didn't yet know how this war would reshape their world.
But they did understand how technology—like virtual sleep cabins and mechanized weaponry—would now redefine the rules of conflict.
And next time, when war returned?
Humanity wouldn't be helpless again.
The war, which had dragged out far beyond expectations, lasting over twenty days, had reshaped the world more profoundly than Shen He had initially imagined.
But one truth remained: The war was over.
Everything else could wait.
For now, it was time to celebrate.
"Coulson," Shen He declared over the public command line, "as Chairman, I order that all employees take the day off. No exceptions."
The headquarters erupted with cheers.
While Shen He had become the face of victory, it was the frontline employees who had borne the greatest pressure. At that moment, they became the heart of Chaldea's celebration.
The Empress—who had quietly remained in the command center—watched them, eyes gleaming with intrigue. Their unguarded emotions infected even her detached demeanor.
She licked her lips with a soft, amused smile.
This world... was far more entertaining than she'd thought.
By the time Shen He returned to the Virtual Reality Corporation, dusk had fallen.
Although a holiday had been declared, work couldn't simply stop. Post-war duties remained—such as cleanup and secure containment.
Shen He proposed that battlefield sanitation should be handled entirely by automated war machines. Alien wreckage was potentially hazardous; humans should stay out of those zones until full scans were complete.
The government didn't give an immediate answer. However, they formally acknowledged that Chaldea's recommendation would carry significant weight.
Chaldea's status remained ambiguous.
After all, no nation—past or present—had ever hosted a power like Chaldea.
It was unprecedented.
And undeniably unignorable.
"Thor, how long are you planning to stay?" Shen He asked, turning to the Asgardian warrior beside him. "At least stick around for the celebration banquet. My castle's chef is the best on Earth."
"Of course," Thor grinned. "I wasn't expecting Loki's scepter to be the key to the wormhole… Shen He, your team is extraordinary. Fighting by your side has been an honor."
"Haha!" Shen He laughed heartily, clapping Thor's shoulder with a firm thud. "Hearing you say that puts me at ease. Asgard has a fine future king. Honestly, Thor… I'd love to visit your homeland one day. Meet Odin, King of the Gods."
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