Chapter 143: The Orb of Darkness

Inside the cockpits located in the limbs of Voltron, the Four Roses also awoke. The four girls chirped excitedly: "Oh my god, it's Lotus! How could it be in this world?"

Aside from Luke, perhaps the only ones here who truly recognized the form of Lotus were the girls who genuinely hailed from the Dungeon Fighter Online world.

Luke pulled the control stick, causing the mecha's giant sword to execute a Circle Whip, flipping a Leviathan into the air.

"Take this!"

The hundred-meter-long body of the Leviathan seemed to lose its weight in an instant, and then it flew across the sky, heavily crashing into another Leviathan above. Both exploded together in a resounding chain reaction.

On the S.H.I.E.L.D. channel, a calm and collected voice echoed inside Luke's cockpit—it was Nick Fury: "Washington is calling for help. The President, the Secretary of Defense, and a group of aides are currently trapped in the Pentagon. The enemy has two giant beasts and a large number of troops besieging the place. Apostle, everything depends on you now."

Washington was under attack too? Upon hearing this, Luke felt no particular emotion; after all, he was not an American.

He wasn't even from this world. However, if the capital were to fall, America would practically be finished.

Currently, the only one maintaining full combat capability across the entire battlefield was his side. The others, although having recovered their stamina under the radiance of Apokreth, were still spread too thin in the face of the tsunami-like number of enemies.

"Received," Luke replied.

Lotus cried out excitedly: "Washington, I know that place! It's where the king of this country lives, right? Let's go take him down! What do you say, Luke?"

"The person you're talking about is the President. Although I have no particular feelings for the US President either, we'd better not take him down. That kind of thing isn't suitable for building a good reputation. Did you forget the principle of sustainable trouble-making I told you about?" Luke advised helplessly.

"What a pity..." Lotus's head drooped in disappointment.

"Don't worry, we're going to save the world. That reputation is ours for the taking."

Luke smiled, then maneuvered the mecha to land on top of Stark Tower.

He stepped out of the mecha, holding Loki's scepter in his hand.

At the top of the tower, the Tesseract was still continuously shooting a blue beam of light into the sky, maintaining the spatial portal. As the creator of this device, Dr. Selvig had long since awakened, but he had no way to stop the Tesseract from transmitting energy.

"There's no way, only the power of the Tesseract itself can shut it down. What you need is..."

"This?" Luke raised his hand slightly.

"Great, you got it! Quick, shut it down!" Dr. Selvig said joyfully.

Luke nodded, lowered his gaze to look at the scepter in his hand, and then slowly walked toward the machine.

He first reached out and tried to touch it, but his fingers were blocked by an invisible barrier just a short distance from the Tesseract.

He gripped the scepter with both hands, raised it, and slowly approached the barrier.

However, a sudden sense of alarm arose in his heart, an inexplicable premonition that immediately forced him to stop his movement. Spider-Sense again...

The Spider-Sense seemed to be telling him that if he shut down this machine and closed the portal right now, he would be in grave danger.

"What is going on?" Luke could not help frowning.

The plot of *The Avengers* flashed through his mind in an instant.

In the end, the only factor he could think of was the nuclear missile that had not yet been launched.

Prior to this, he had attempted to close the portal, and although Proxima Midnight had stopped him, his Spider-Sense had indeed given him no warning at that time. This indicated that closing the portal earlier was safe.

Why did the warning appear now? What had changed?

The so-called butterfly effect meant that once a single factor was altered, the subsequent course of events would be vastly different.

Earlier, when he prepared to close the portal and his Spider-Sense told him there was no danger, it implied that if the portal had been closed then, the nuclear missile launch from the original plot would not have occurred.

Yet if he closed it now, the Spider-Sense told him he was in extreme danger. Could it be that for some reason, the nuclear missile was going to be launched after all?

"Could it be that dragging out this time has made the World Security Council make up their minds to launch the nuke?" Thinking of this, Luke had no choice but to withdraw the scepter helplessly.

"What are you doing! Why haven't you shut it down yet?" Dr. Selvig could not understand Luke's action, and he anxiously urged him with a shout.

Luke glanced indifferently at Selvig: " Trust me, Doctor, if we close the portal now, the entirety of Manhattan will vanish."

"How can that be..."

Dr. Selvig opened his mouth in astonishment. Although he did not believe it, reason told him to let this kid make the decision. Kid though he was, he was also an Apostle.

As the person standing at the highest vantage point in all of New York, Dr. Selvig could naturally see clearly just how much of a role the Apostles had played in this war.

Sitting back inside the mecha, Luke scanned the surrounding battlefield with a solemn gaze.

Since the portal could not be closed, continuing like this would mean an endless stream of Chitauri armies pouring in, and even more Leviathans. Fortunately, the Orb of Apocalypse could provide powerful support, and Luke felt everyone should be able to hold out for a while longer.

Voltron raised its hand, its massive fingers rubbing together to snap.

Luke's voice echoed across the entire battlefield: "Night falls!"

Abruptly, in the sky, the Orb of Apocalypse, which had previously been golden, transformed into a sphere of darkness. The gentle golden radiance instantly vanished, replaced by streaks of fierce dark lasers sweeping out without warning!

Some of the Chitauri soldiers attempting to attack the Orb of Apocalypse were the first to be reduced to flying ashes, and then tens of thousands of rays of black light illuminated the entire battlefield. The black light was harmless to humans, but to the Chitauri, it was utterly fatal!

Every single Chitauri touched by the black light was decomposed in an instant, without even time to react, leaving not even a corpse behind as they were seemingly entirely annihilated.

The black light still carried a sacred aura, exuding an unassailable majesty. It was like divine punishment sent down by the gods, aimed only at the sinful invaders.

While the golden light had brought new life to all of New York, granting extraordinary power to every human it touched, the black light similarly swept across the city, yet everywhere it reached, it brought the destruction of the enemies.

In an instant, the Chitauri invaders throughout all of New York were completely wiped clean by the black light!

In the sky, more enemies continued to pour endlessly through the spatial portal, but any who came into contact with the black light were instantly eliminated.

The entirety of New York fell silent. Only the crackling sound of the black light was particularly distinct.

The superheroes stared blankly at this scene, their eyes harboring somewhat complex emotions. The terrifying power displayed by the Dark Orb made everyone secretly harbor a trace of dread.