Not a single moment was wasted mourning the fall of the Age of Ultron; arriving on the scene immediately were Doctor Doom and Baron Zemo.
Doctor Doom: possessing armor technology on par with Tony Stark, intelligence rivaling Reed Richards, and powerful spellcasting abilities second only to the Sorcerer Supreme.
Baron Zemo: possessing a physical condition trained enough to trade blows with Captain America and a gallant mastery of swordsmanship.
Kang did not even deign to spare Zemo a glance, looking directly at Doom instead. He calculated Doom's capabilities; based on Strange's performance, if Doom were hit by him even once, it would likely be his limit.
Doom could absolutely not survive a second punch, so whatever he planned to do had to be completed in an extremely short amount of time.
As for Zemo, no one cared about Zemo.
Kang raised a hand toward Doom, intending to cast him out beyond the atmosphere. Fortunately, Doom's entire body was covered in magic, shielding him against Kang's reality-altering abilities, which barely allowed him to withstand the attack.
The green energy shield was covered in a dense network of cracks. Doom, meanwhile, accumulated spell energy in both hands and bombarded Kang. However, when the attack dissipated, Kang's armor remained as pristine as new.
He released a massive wave of energy toward Doom once more. This time, the power of the Cosmic Cube enveloped Doom's body, yet after enduring the hit, Doom remained unscathed. Kang felt quite surprised seeing this, wondering how Doom had managed it.
What surprised him even more was Zemo. The latter actually flew toward them on a hovercraft and swung a sword at Kang. Kang felt an unprecedented sense of insult; he simply raised his iron fist, intending to blast Zemo into dust with a single blow.
Kang raised his hand and released powerful energy that covered Zemo's body. But the result of this encounter was even more beyond Kang's expectations: Zemo, too, was unharmed.
Doom is one thing, but how did you manage it?!
However, Kang's surprise soon faded, replaced by a look of interest as he stared at Zemo. "You used the old data left behind by A.I.M. to create an empty shell of a Cosmic Cube? Very clever. I thought Hydra was just a group of boring fascists."
"Precisely. Since you diffused the power of the Cosmic Cube across all timelines, then naturally, this power exists in all points of time. As long as one finds the method, it is quite easy to absorb that energy."
As Zemo spoke, he held up a "Cosmic Cube" in his left hand. The interior of this cube also radiated a faint blue energy. Though this power was not yet enough to rival the vast Cosmic Cube energy Kang possessed, it was sufficient to form a sturdy shield.
As long as this shield was used, it was enough to break free from the influence of the Cosmic Cube. It was precisely through the coordination of this counterfeit Cosmic Cube that Doom dared to stand before Kang.
Vast cosmic energy and magical energy impacted Kang simultaneously. The magic Doom used hailed from the ancient era of King Arthur; the powerful magic channeled from the witch Morgan Le Fay began to rewrite reality directly, stripping Kang's existence away from reality bit by bit. Kang, after taking this powerful attack head-on, let out a roar and proceeded to walk forward through the air, one step at a time.
Doom could even see Kang's armor beginning to peel and crack, yet Kang persisted in his advance. Then, he raised his left hand.
The Time Stone began to operate, but the target was not Doom—it was Zemo. Zemo's entire body began to twitch violently, and he instantly turned into a skeleton draped in clothes. Having lost all strength, he plummeted rapidly from mid-air. Doom, witnessing this, instinctively tried to use magic to catch the counterfeit Cosmic Cube, but Kang was one step ahead.
He seized the empty shell, absorbed all the power within it, and tossed it aside casually before throwing Zemo's remains down from the heights.
Immediately following this, Kang shattered Doom's shield with a single punch, knocking him over. Doom maintained his mana to prevent himself from falling from the clouds, but he was still forced to his knees by a kick from Kang.
"What else can you do?" Kang asked the kneeling Doom. Doom's reply was beyond Kang's expectations.
"...Go to a powerful magical era that even you cannot fully conquer."
As Doom spoke, he looked up at Kang. Kang frowned, not understanding the meaning behind Doom's words. "I certainly know what you've done. You tried to use magic to oppose my rule, and the result is obvious: you have failed miserably."
"It seems the so-called Conqueror also has things he does not know." Doom stood up as he spoke. "As expected, no matter how powerful you are in the 'present,' you are still not omnipotent in the 'past.'"
Kang instinctively realized something. When Doom spoke of the present and the past, he wasn't referring to time in a spatio-temporal sense, but simply to Kang's own past and present.
Before Kang had completely controlled the entire Cosmic Cube, Doom had done something.
"What did you do?!"
"You exiled everyone who posed a threat to you, did you not? The X-Men, Reed Richards, and the Gods. And undoubtedly, your plan hasn't gone quite smoothly; I already know that a pathetic clown has broken through your so-called restrictions. Your attention was entirely on him, while I... while I was learning the magic to oppose you, I pondered a single question: what should I do if I am still not strong enough?"
"There is only one answer. Doom will bring Kang the enemies he least wishes to see. You banished the Gods from the 'present,' Kang, but you did not banish them from the past as well."
Doom began to laugh. "And I, through the bridge that is time, have brought them back. If you truly are the Conqueror of Time, you should be quite familiar with deceiving time, Kang."
Kang's pupils constricted violently in an instant. Then, ten thousand bolts of lightning descended from the heavens. The God of Thunder, filled with a heart of fury and wreathed in unprecedented lightning, swung his hammer and smashed it toward Kang.
"KANG!"
In an instant, white lightning spread across the entire visible sky. Subsequently, the overweening Conqueror fell from the clouds, crashing heavily into the ground. Thor descended from the sky, looking at Kang as he crawled up from amidst the smoke and dust.
Kang merely glared with rage at Thor and at Doom, who had descended alongside him.
"You asked who is next?" Doom looked at him coldly. "I can tell you now who is next."