The variant of Kang who had traveled to the future had been defeated by the Age of Ultron—a result that exceeded Kang's expectations, leaving him truly stunned. However, catching a glimpse of the Avengers below, he felt a sense of resignation; after all, Ultron was a creation of the Avengers.
Consequently, he shifted his focus, launching a fresh assault directly against the Ultrons from the future. He concentrated his efforts on the Scarlet Centurion, who had already slipped from his control, confident that this would not take long. As for the other superheroes, his robots were there to deal with them.
Meanwhile—or perhaps not simultaneously at all—counterattacks were being launched against variants of Kang across various eras of history.
First was Ancient Egypt. The war between Kang and Apocalypse made the Egyptian people feel as though they were witnessing a battle between gods. At this moment in time, the mutant abilities Apocalypse had awakened were not yet numerous or complex enough, but even so, his power far surpassed Kang's. Kang, however, mobilized the power of the Cosmic Cube from the future, and the two engaged in a brutal, physical brawl atop the temple.
The powerful aftershocks of their combat made it impossible for the rest of the X-Men to even draw near. They stood on the periphery, watching the battle with tension.
"It's truly... unimaginable. Two of the most powerful beings in the world are down here brawling as if this is the only way to demonstrate who is the world's strongest." Illyana stood on a temple, sword over her shoulder, watching the blurred combat in the distance. In the First Dynasty of Ancient Egypt, pyramids had not yet been invented, so this temple served as the highest point.
She was genuinely speechless. Why did two super-powered masters capable of matter manipulation, energy conversion, and even reality warping ultimately resort to punching each other? Oh, and creating various objects to punch each other with.
"There's no helping it. Even if they are just throwing hands, we have no way to intervene. Illyana, if it weren't for the fact that you have to maintain the spell on Apocalypse, I think the best thing for us to do would be to leave right now."
Watching the distant battle between Kang and Apocalypse, Cyclops felt no affection for either of them. However, if Apocalypse could not resist Kang's time-stop, they would have no way to escape. Conversely, if Kang were to lose to Apocalypse here, it might actually make things easier.
But were they truly incapable of helping at all?
Not necessarily.
The White Queen had been constantly attempting to interfere with Kang's mind, forcing him to divert a small portion of his focus. Besides her, there was Illyana. Magik's longsword could not cause physical damage yet, but it could directly wound the soul—an indubitably lethal move against Kang.
As soon as a suitable opportunity arose, Illyana would drive her greatsword into Kang's body.
"I hope that by the time we get back to the 21st century, it won't be too late."
The 31st Century, Earth.
Upon arriving and seeing the state of things, the Thing let out a sigh of observation.
"To be honest, I thought the 31st century would be... more advanced."
The Fantastic Four, having arrived in the 31st century, saw a scene that caught them very much by surprise. It was indeed a world of futuristic style, but how to put it? It wasn't that futuristic. All the technological progress fell within the scope of their existing hypotheses. Reed had even managed to hack into the local network using his own intellect—proving that the 31st century was still an era of zeros and ones.
"There is a reason why technological progress has been so slow. Earth was once an interstellar civilization, but a civil war reduced human civilization, including Earth, to little more than a wasteland." After rapidly learning and absorbing the language of the 31st century, Reed managed to piece together the local developmental history. "Kang the Conqueror is called the Conqueror because he reorganized the Earth and human civilization of this era, unearthing advanced technology from a vast number of ruins."
Speaking to this point, Reed found it hard to maintain his composure. The technology of the 31st century essentially relied entirely on archaeology. A severe technological disconnect had occurred during the intervening millennium. Kang, having mastered time-travel technology, had simply dug up various technological advancements from humanity's golden age to develop himself, thus becoming Kang the Conqueror.
In other words, Kang was a "tech-tree" player who had cheated; he went to more advanced timelines to bring back technology to conquer the wasteland that was the 31st century. He then expanded into space, nearly rebuilding the territories from the era when humanity was an interstellar empire.
One couldn't say Kang lacked talent; after all, he had excavated time technology from the ruins and repaired it. But this talent was a far cry from what Reed and the others had initially imagined.
Furthermore...
"The multiversal incursion crisis—this shockwave will continue to spread from the point of occurrence across both time and space. That's why Kang is in such a hurry. According to this process, the 31st century will completely dissipate within a few years."
A massive spatial rift leading to the Beyond-Realm and the multiverse was the cause of this terrible crisis. Kang was attempting to close this rift at its source, which led to the inception of the Kang Dynasty. Reed couldn't say whether Kang's actions were right or wrong, but from the perspective of someone living in the early 21st century, Kang was absolutely their enemy.
Deadpool was wandering around nearby while the Human Torch was tasked with keeping an eye on him. Meanwhile, Reed, having finished hacking Kang's systems, had Susan lead them into Kang's palace under invisibility.
Rather than a palace, this looked more like Kang's flagship plugged into the ground—a sword-like tower soaring into the clouds. Reed hacked the system as he walked, searching for Kang's secrets and clues.
"Alright, it's right here. There are actually a lot of Stark Industries remnants in Kang's system. It's truly unbelievable that Tony's work still functions in the 31st century."
As Reed spoke, he opened a warehouse. When the doors swung open, he couldn't help but feel a sense of breathlessness. Kang had not hidden any "weaknesses" here; instead, he had put his ambition on display.
Stored inside were countless incubation pods. Floating within them were heroes they recognized—and some they didn't. A display screen to the side explained the purpose of this place.
"This is a cloning factory. Kang went back to the past, collected our DNA when we or others were just born, and then replicated the ways we gained our powers, cloning all the superheroes and villains. This is an army... belonging exclusively to Kang."
Reed looked at all of this in disbelief. Susan, after a brief moment of shock, asked her husband a very important question.
"If this was Kang's plan, why have we never seen any of these clones?"
-----------------------------------------------
I handpick only the finest and most captivating novels for you. Don't forget to check out my other novels!
p@treon HongMengZi