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The cavern collapsed in on itself as two cataclysmic forces collided.
Explosions rippled outward, shredding rock, vaporizing air, and hurling debris for miles. Two figures, one man, one dragon, burst through the mountain's heart, streaking skyward in a storm of fire and frost.
BOOM!
Shockwaves rolled across K'un-Lun, flattening temples and tearing through the surrounding peaks.
"Not bad," Nolan said calmly, the corner of his mouth curving upward.
Shou-Lao's power was magnificent but that was all.
Moments later, the dragon's strength faltered. Nolan's strikes tore through the beast's defenses like thunder splitting the sky.
The so-called "Dragon of K'un-Lun" found itself battered, reeling, crushed beneath the might of a being who had long surpassed gods.
Shou-Lao's sacred flames, meant to burn the unworthy, could not even scorch Nolan's skin.
Their battle tore through the city's mountains, detonating entire districts with each exchange.
From below, Lei-Kung and Yu-Ti watched in horror. Once, Shou-Lao had been their trump card unleashed only when no Iron Fist could prevail. Ancient wards, crafted by the archmage Chang-Ming, had always ensured the dragon could be resealed afterward.
But now?
Shou-Lao was losing. Badly.
Nolan landed atop the dragon's skull, expression unreadable. Energy crackled across his palms. Two kinds of dimensional force, psionic and quantum, merged, weaving through Shou-Lao's body like threads of light.
"Let's see what you're really made of."
The dragon roared, twisting violently, but Nolan's footing didn't waver. His Pym-field compression began to shrink the beast from the inside out, collapsing its energy structure. At the same time, Nolan's psionic power siphoned and refined the dragon's chi, converting it into the Dragon's Power within him.
The result was… consumption.
Shou-Lao's massive body shrank, scales flaking into sparks, until the once-mythic dragon was no larger than a lizard writhing in Nolan's hand.
"You dare absorb me!?" Shou-Lao snarled, thrashing futilely.
Nolan's grip tightened. "Let's find out where you came from."
He pressed his palm to the creature's head. His mind dove into the dragon's consciousness.
Memories flooded in a prison of void and fire, created by Chang-Ming to contain the beast.
A flash of battle the day Shou-Lao's astral projection was slain, his energy fragment stolen by the first Iron Fist, opening the cycle of power theft that defined K'un-Lun's legacy.
The truth hit Nolan instantly.
The Iron Fists were never Shou-Lao's champions.
They were his parasites.
Each Iron Fist was merely another thief stealing what they called "divine power." Shou-Lao had learned to accept it. But Nolan's direct absorption, his refusal to kneel or beg, had enraged the dragon.
Then came more images: dozens of Iron Fists through the ages, each fighting and dying to maintain balance. Among them, a woman with blazing wings, Wu Feng Xi, a bearer who had fused Shou-Lao's chi with a fragment of the Phoenix Force, soared into the void beyond Earth.
In this reality, it was a mere spark of the Phoenix, nothing compared to Jean Grey's, but it had changed the city's myth forever.
Finally, Nolan saw Chang-Ming himself as a sorcerer who had once reached Skyfather-level mastery, binding Shou-Lao inside this pocket universe.
Beyond him lay an even greater revelation: a golden palace above the clouds, where beings radiated power unlike anything earthly.
Nolan frowned. "So it's true… the Da Luo Celestial Pantheon exists here too."
They weren't myths they were an Eastern divine host, parallel to Asgard's pantheon. And Shou-Lao had once served as a war-dragon beneath the Star-God of Longevity, before being exiled to this plane.
"If this really is Universe-616," Nolan murmured, "then Earth's gods run deeper than anyone knows."
The last flicker of Shou-Lao's will screamed as Nolan's aura flared. The dragon's essence unraveled into pure energy, absorbed into his own dimensional core. Only its heart remained still pulsing faintly in his palm.
But not for long.
With a quiet hum, Nolan's psionic energy sealed the heart, erasing the last trace of consciousness within it. The relic fell silent.
He glanced once at Lei-Kung and Yu-Ti, both standing pale and trembling among the ruins.
"It's over."
And then he vanished.
K'un-Lun was silent.
Lei-Kung fell to his knees. The dragon-god was gone, their sacred flame extinguished. Without Shou-Lao, the Iron Fist lineage was finished.
K'un-Lun had lost its god.
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Hours Later — Knowhere
Nolan returned the sealed heart to Oscorp, handing it off to Dr. Connors for analysis. He didn't stay. There was still work to do seven days before he breached the Zombie Universe.
Now, he stood on the largest interstellar port in the galaxy Knowhere, the skull of a fallen Celestial, now a hub for every kind of trader, thief, and godling.
Almost immediately, an attendant approached. "Welcome, Supreme Sorcerer Nolan. The Collector requests your presence."
Of course. Taneleer Tivan never missed a cosmic ripple.
Nolan followed through winding corridors until they reached a heavy metal door leading into a vast hall lined with floating exhibits fossilized symbiotes, shattered relics of destroyed worlds, and even a preserved Dark Elf.
From the shadows emerged a man draped in fur, his hair silver-white, his smile sharp behind tinted lenses.
"Ah, the Supreme Sorcerer himself," the Collector said smoothly. "You've been busy. Tell me did you bring me something new for my collection?"
Nolan's eyes glimmered faintly. "That depends… how much is a dead god worth to you?"
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