It had already been six days since Karl and Diwan arrived at the new base.
Everything was normal.
The stones hadn't disappeared, and no new bodies had been found.
Everything seemed peaceful.
But Karl was still wanted.
This time, the warrant couldn't be revoked. More than 800 lives had been lost. Even if Karl wasn't involved, the United Nations needed a scapegoat to give the world an explanation.
So Karl held back.
Otherwise, judging from the way the Avengers looked at him, he might have dragged the UN headquarters straight into the sun. The fact that he didn't could be considered their accumulated good karma.
After six days, Diwan had almost adjusted to the time difference.
"Almost," because—
Have you ever seen someone with irregular sleep habits?
Some days they sleep on time; other days, they fall asleep right after sunrise.
At noon, they had lunch together.
Actually, it was just Karl, Diwan, and Tony.
Pepper had gone to New York.
As CEO, she couldn't stay here every day. Happy followed her as her bodyguard.
Vision didn't need to eat, and he didn't know where to go to experience "normal life."
"Should I start charging you for meals?"
After finishing his food, Tony said, "You're not even part of the team, yet you've been eating and living here for free. I should charge something reasonable!"
Karl and Diwan ignored him.
Tony was bored and just trying to mess with them.
The team was getting smaller, and the massive base felt emptier and emptier.
Sometimes Tony even wondered if the place was a waste.
Still, his instincts told him everyone would come back eventually.
"Here, have more of this steak," Karl said, placing a piece onto Diwan's plate. "Kobe sirloin from an old New York farm. Some rich guy wasted money flying it in."
Diwan cut a small piece, tasted it, and sighed.
"Other than the taste of money… it's nothing special."
Tony realized they weren't just ignoring him—they were mocking him.
He took a sip of wine. "You should thank that rich guy. You're lucky to even eat this."
Diwan pushed the steak back into Karl's plate.
"You eat it. It smells like money. I don't like it."
Karl didn't refuse. He cut a large piece and ate it.
"This isn't very good. Rich people are too stingy," he said meaningfully.
Tony stood up, took both their plates, and said with a dark expression:
"If it's not good, I won't let my guests suffer. Mealtime is over."
Diwan was already full, and Karl didn't really care about food anyway.
Karl laughed. "Look at this rich man—gets stingier the richer he is."
"I earned this with hard work! It didn't fall from the sky!" Tony snapped.
"Mhm…" Diwan chuckled softly.
The lunch ended.
Whether it was pleasant or not was unclear—but Karl and Diwan were clearly in good spirits.
Karl took her hand, preparing to leave.
He paused, looked at Tony, and said:
"Italy. Valle d'Aosta."
The sudden statement confused Tony for a moment before he reacted.
Diwan reacted as well and opened a portal.
The three of them stepped through.
But just as Diwan was about to go in—
Karl stopped her.
"You stay here. You have nowhere to go."
She covered her mouth but didn't insist.
Karl and Tony arrived in the small town.
Before they even got close, Tony smelled blood.
He knew instantly—
A lot of people were dead.
Tony ran forward in his normal body, without his armor.
Neither of them spoke.
Karl looked around.
Corpses everywhere.
A town of tens of thousands—
Not a single survivor.
Even pets and livestock had been wiped out.
"Oh God…"
Tony saw a body lying on the street, blood staining everything red.
It was a horrific sight.
Even Karl had never seen anything like this.
When he killed, he either left intact bodies—or completely destroyed them.
This—
Was something else entirely.
Karl stepped forward and skillfully cut open a body's abdomen.
Inside—
There was still a stone.
Tony couldn't say a word.
No one could.
There were too many bodies.
Karl couldn't possibly examine each one—and keeping the stones was meaningless.
He pushed open a door.
The stench of blood hit him instantly.
He frowned. He hated that smell.
"Bzz…"
Tony's phone rang.
"Fury, what is it?"
"We've seen it," Fury said.
Tony replied impatiently, "If you've seen it, did you see the killer?"
"No. The satellite only shows you and Karl arriving."
"Damn it!" Tony cursed.
No clues.
No direction.
Even satellites were useless.
Tony's mind raced, trying to find a solution.
"Got it."
Karl suddenly spoke, interrupting him.
Tony looked at him.
Karl continued:
"There used to be tens of thousands of people here. Something is correcting the traces of their existence."
He scanned the surroundings.
"But this time, they moved too far. The traces are harder to erase."
Tony looked around again.
Still—
Nothing but corpses.
No living presence.
"They've hidden themselves again," Karl said.
Then he added:
"Your world has many strange tools—things capable of influencing reality itself."
Tony spoke into the phone, "Karl seems to have found something. What do you suggest?"
"Leave it to us. You focus on finding the killer," Fury replied before hanging up.
Tony looked at Karl. "Do you know where they went?"
Karl shook his head.
"But now that I've sensed them… they can't escape me."
He raised his fist—
And punched the sky.
Boom.
Crack.
The sky shattered like glass.
Cracks spread everywhere.
Fragments fell—
Until the entire sky broke apart.
Then—
Everything changed.
The bodies were still there—but now covered in additional wounds.
The surroundings revealed chaos:
Footprints.
Ruined buildings.
Signs of battle.
If Karl hadn't broken the illusion, everything would have "reset" into a clean reality.
"Let's go," Karl said. "There's nothing more to gain here. We'll wait for their next move."
He turned and left.
Tony followed.
"Next time… can you stop them?" Tony asked.
Karl narrowed his eyes, a dangerous light flickering within.
"As long as their presence exists within the solar system—I'll remember it."
"…And I'll make them experience what true killing feels like."
Tony shivered.
Back at the Avengers base, Diwan closed the portal.
"How did you find it?" she asked.
"New discovery. Now we wait for their next move," Karl replied.
Tony left alone.
The impact of what he had seen was too great.
This wasn't dozens or hundreds of deaths—
It was tens of thousands.
An entire town wiped out.
Not a single survivor.
Not even animals.
Karl couldn't do anything.
Each time, the enemy corrected reality before leaving, erasing most traces.
Only fragments remained.
And this time—
The correction had been too large, taking longer than before.
Unlike the first time—
When two people were killed right in front of Karl, yet he sensed nothing—
This time, it felt deliberate.
Like they were testing his limits.
These stones were likely remnants of whatever ability they were using.
But why leave them behind?
That part remained unknown.
Karl went to Tony's workshop.
Tony looked dazed, yet still worked rapidly.
Karl didn't disturb him.
He only wanted to check the stones.
If his guess was correct—
They would disappear today.
Just like before.
It seemed the enemy could only act once a week.
A limitation.
If not—
Karl would have to take this far more seriously.
Diwan didn't ask about Italy.
But from their expressions, she already knew—
It hadn't gone well.
Karl stopped at the entrance of the workshop.
"Friday," he said.
"Yes, Mr. Karl El. How may I assist you?" the AI responded.
Her tone lacked the emotion Jarvis once had.
"Monitor any movement of these stones."
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