Madame Hydra leading the Viper League into the fray made the battle at Times Square even more treacherous.
Fortunately, after Iron Man and the Fantastic Four cleared out the Hydra forces around the Baxter Building, they finally arrived at the front lines as reinforcements.
At this point, fighting across all other parts of Manhattan had ceased. The only conflict remaining was at Times Square, where the forces of good and evil were locked in opposition, alongside the ambiguous Quake, who viewed everyone as an enemy.
Without a single wasted word, the fight officially escalated into a white-hot brawl as Captain America caved in the head of a Hydra super-soldier with a heavy shield strike.
With Hydra running out of ammunition, both sides engaged in an all-out, hand-to-hand clash.
Eddie Brock held up his phone, streaming live to broadcast the battlefield to the entire world.
Electro, nominally the highest-level combatant here, was tied down in combat. His opponent was a Mexican criminal brought to Latveria and upgraded by the Tinkerer—Living Laser.
Electro possessed the nuclear fusion reactor provided by Tony Stark, while Living Laser wielded an amplifier custom-made by Tinkerer.
The two had turned entirely into two bolts of lightning, continuously darting through the battlefield, clashing against one another, and attempting to siphon the current from each other's body to control it.
Beyond the electrical currents they released, the battlefield was engulfed in flames, frost, poison gas, and smoke...
All kinds of wide-area lethal weapons were deployed recklessly without restraint, causing the situation to continually escalate.
When the man capable of turning into a werewolf from Captain America's team was simultaneously cornered by a Hydra super-soldier, two Viper League members, and a Latverian criminal, nearly losing his life—
"No!" Captain America bellowed, hurling his circular shield with every ounce of his strength. The shield cut the Hydra super-soldier clean in half, bounced off the distant ground without losing momentum, and flew right back.
Clack!
Catching the shield in one hand, Captain America charged in, laying into the enemies with a flurry of strikes, shouting at the top of his lungs:
"From now on, everyone go all out! Win this war!"
Gasping for air, the werewolf scrambled up from the ground and backed into a rear-to-rear combat stance with Captain America once more.
With the Fantastic Four and Iron Man joining the fight, the pressure on the superheroes was significantly alleviated. However, vastly outnumbered, each hero was forced to handle several opponents at once.
The Thing, Ben, relying on his rock-hard body and superhuman strength, originally bulldozed through the crowd. But before long, a bizarre fellow with a shaved head and two strips of black hair clinging to his scalp stepped out to block his path.
This guy was none other than Skurge the Executioner, who had appeared out of nowhere.
After his double-bladed battleaxe was taken by Venom Robin, he had replaced it with a new set of weapons—
Specifically, the two M16 rifles previously held by the young husband possessed by Loki.
"Get out of the way!" The Thing bellowed at Executioner, somewhat unable to tell whether the man was friend or foe.
However, seeing Executioner point the muzzles of the M16s straight at him, The Thing used his common sense to realize the guy was an enemy.
Staring at the pair of rifles wielded by Executioner, The Thing's stony expression twitched. He lowered his head and charged straight ahead.
Weapons capable of taking a normal person's life were practically negligible to him.
Bullets poured out, striking The Thing's body and kicking up showers of sparks.
"Bah!" Seeing the bullets were useless against The Thing, Executioner spat in disgust.
These two guns had been tossed to him by Amora the Enchantress earlier as compensation for his lost double-bladed battleaxe.
For Skurge the Executioner, this was practically the first gift Amora the Enchantress had ever given him, and he instantly cherished them like treasures.
He had even given the two guns resounding names: "Desolation" and "Ruin."
Unfortunately, this was merely a joke played by Loki, the God of Mischief, and Amora the Enchantress. The Enchantress had simply tossed him a couple of ordinary rifles.
Since bullets couldn't deal with The Thing and Executioner couldn't bring himself to abandon the only gift Enchantress had ever given him, he simply slung the guns behind his back and met The Thing bare-handed.
Thump!
The two figures—one large, one small—collided. Neither retreated half a step.
In chaotic Times Square, media helicopters flew across the sky, while Eddie Brock, the reckless reporter, moved among the crowd...
The sprawling chaos made it impossible for anyone to maintain a complete overview of the battlefield. No one noticed that at some point, an intermittent figure in a green dress had appeared among the ranks.
Only Skurge the Executioner would occasionally look toward that figure during his fight with The Thing, a look of infatuation flashing in his eyes.
That was Amora the Enchantress, currently busy drawing the sacrificial magic array in place of Batman, who was originally supposed to be doing it on the battlefield.
Hydra agent after Hydra agent fell; supervillain after supervillain was subdued.
On the superheroes' side, more and more people were covered in blood. The most severe case was Patriot Elijah, whose abdomen suffered a horrifying, gaping hole.
It was not until the sun dipped toward the west, casting a blood-red sunset across the sky, that the battle finally came to an end.
"Whew... We won," someone panted out.
Everyone looked around. The area was littered with the corpses of Hydra agents and the dead or injured bodies of Latverian supervillains.
Captain America limped over to Patriot Elijah, kneeling down to cradle the young man's upper body in his arms.
Elijah had been dead for a while, his body already growing cold.
Captain America looked around in a daze, feeling a deep, overwhelming exhaustion.
At that moment, a thought suddenly struck him:
While they were fighting to the death here, where had Batman gone?
If he had obeyed orders instead of leaving on his own, would Elijah have survived?
The battle had taken a immense toll on the superheroes' stamina and powers. Even though they had won, no one cheered. They simply sat down where they were or leaned on one another for support.
"Mmm... Everyone, look over here."
Having finished her task, Amora the Enchantress sat atop a dead body and clapped her hands gently.
The crowd looked over in confusion. Before they could even make out the Enchantress's appearance, a surge of extremely dangerous energy erupted on the spot, shooting straight into the sky.
The superheroes were thrown into the air by the force of the energy, crashing heavily onto the ground.
No one knew what was happening until an eight-meter-tall Frost Giant appeared where she had been sitting—its face dark blue, its body clad in armor radiating a primitive, barbaric air.
Because too few superheroes had died—with Patriot Elijah being the only true fatality—Loki had resorted to another method:
Having Enchantress draw the magic array to summon the Frost Giants!
The Frost Giant was immensely muscular, wielding a massive battleaxe nearly the size of its own body. Merely taking a step forward caused the ground to tremble violently.
The superheroes were already exhausted, forced to watch helplessly as the Frost Giant raised its massive axe.
At the critical moment, a roar thundered through the air. Hulk, having resolved his battle with Red Hulk, came hurtling in from afar, swinging both fists down with tremendous force onto the Frost Giant.
Rumble!
Hulk was knocked flying back from the impact, but in the very next instant, he lunged forward again, locking in combat with this Frost Giant that stood more than twice his height.
However, while one Frost Giant was engaged by Hulk, more than one had emerged from that soaring column of energy.
One, two... dozens of Frost Giants stepped out. An icy chill rushed over them, causing the superheroes' hearts to sink further and further.
The Frost Giants surrounded the superheroes completely, leaving no room for escape.
Captain America took a deep breath, being the first to stand up and face the Frost Giants.
He didn't know what these creatures were, where they came from, or why they were here; he only knew that as long as he had strength left, he had to keep fighting.
Unfortunately, with a single swing of a wooden club from one of the Frost Giants, Captain America—along with his Vibranium shield—was sent flying far away, slamming heavily into another Frost Giant.
The Thing, Ben, also attempted to attack a Frost Giant, but his indestructible body began to crack piece by piece under the force of the giant's fist.
Iron Man tried to blast a path open with a chest Unibeam, but it proved entirely ineffective.
Ant-Man grew over ten meters tall for the first time in battle, but after taking a strike from a Frost Giant's axe, blood spurted from his shoulder, and he collapsed to the ground.
Aside from the Incredible Hulk, no one could withstand the Frost Giants.
Just as everyone thought they could only wait for death where they lay, another surge of energy shot into the sky—not in Times Square, but from the distant East River.
Crack-boom!
Following that surge of energy came a deafening crack of thunder that shattered almost every fragile glass and porcelain item across Manhattan.
"Impossible! How can this be?!" The Enchantress's face turned instantly deathly pale.
She looked up at the sky to see black clouds rolling in, thick bolts of lightning clawing across the cloud cover as booming thunder crashed down repeatedly.
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