Hulk, positioned at the very front of the team, had never had such a satisfying fight.
He would often leap dozens of meters high, violently snapping the neck of a twin-winged ice dragon in mid-air.
Then he would descend from the sky amidst a rain of monster corpses and blood, sitting on and crushing a sprinting monster in the process.
At this moment, the Avengers felt incredibly fortunate to have the Hulk.
The battle had raged until now, and everyone was exhausted—only the seemingly tireless Hulk was still excitedly smashing everything in sight.
Just then, Tony Stark's furious voice rang out on the comms channel.
"Fuck! Director Fury just sent an urgent message. The Council has decided to drop a big firework again!"
Captain America cut in immediately.
"Watch your language. Are those officials insane? Did the Battle of New York not teach them that nuclear weapons aren't the solution to everything?"
Clint's calm voice sounded.
"That's because the defensive line is about to collapse. Monsters have already broken through and are heading toward downtown London!"
Tony Stark cursed again.
"Shit! We've all lost. Retreat now; the tactical nuclear missile will arrive in three minutes."
Captain America didn't speak, instead using his shield in a rage to viciously bash away a Frost Lizard that was charging forward.
"Captain, dropping the nuke might be the right choice this time. We need to pull out!"
Clint, having safely retreated to the rear defensive line, reminded him.
Tony Stark shouted at the Hulk, who was getting more and more hyped while smashing: "Big guy, time to go!"
Hulk grabbed a monster that had lunged at him, preparing to tear it in half, then tilted his head as he heard the call, a human-like look of confusion in his eyes.
But he seemed to understand something quickly. He tossed the monster aside, grabbed Captain America, and leaped high into the air, jumping back to the rear defensive line.
Tony Stark breathed a sigh of relief at the sight.
With the stubborn Captain forcibly taken away by Hulk, he also ignited the thrusters of his Mark 45 heavy armor, vanishing into the clouds with a roar.
The outer defensive line around the abandoned factory began an organized retreat.
The Typhoon fighters in the sky acted as cover, frantically pouring fire and beginning a "missile-plowing" strategy to cover the ground personnel's withdrawal.
Three minutes later.
A tactical nuclear missile with a 20,000-ton TNT equivalent hit the factory at Mach 2.3.
BOOM—!
Infinite light and heat were released, the terrifying extreme temperature and pressure forming a massive shockwave.
The entire abandoned factory was leveled to the ground in an instant.
A mushroom cloud, the flower of hell, slowly rose into the sky.
Simultaneously, the nuclear blast forcefully destroyed the spatial rifts inside the factory, and one specific alien dimension began to collapse as well.
Watching the rising mushroom cloud, the Avengers looked grave, terrified that more monsters might crawl out of the hundred-meter nuclear crater.
But after a long time.
When the dust settled, it seemed no more monsters would appear.
"Nice! Great job! Those monsters deserved to be blasted to hell by the big firework!"
"Wooo... we won...!"
The soldiers who had narrowly escaped with their lives cheered wildly, venting the exhaustion of two hours of intense battle.
Steve and Tony Stark looked at each other, both offering a rare, stunned smile.
"It seems the Council made the right call this time."
"Those useless high-ranking officials finally made a single correct decision."
"Haha...!"
Everyone displayed the smiles of survivors who had cheated death.
Meanwhile, after the dimension collapsed.
Harvey transported back to the streets of New York with Jane.
When they saw the "nuclear-peace" version of the London factory and the cheering human army on the live TV news in a shop window...
The two of them finally understood why a perfectly good alien dimension had suddenly collapsed.
"Thank you for saving my life. I am Jane Foster. If it weren't for you, I would have 100% died in that spatial collapse."
Looking at this handsome stranger, Jane offered her sincere thanks.
Harvey had no intention of talking to her. He stepped backward, magically vanishing from Jane's sight.
Thor could appear at any moment; he didn't want to fight the meathead, he just wanted to hitch a ride.
So Harvey decisively acted as a good Samaritan who didn't want a reward.
Jane stared in shock as her savior vanished into thin air; she hadn't expected him to refuse even basic communication.
"Whatever. If I get a chance, I'll ask Thor who this mysterious man is, then find a way to repay the favor."
She pulled out her phone and dialed her friend Darcy.
"Beep... beep..."
"Where are you guys?"
"Who is this...? My God, Jane, you're actually alive? You were missing for five whole hours! We thought you'd been eaten by monsters...!"
"Is it that weird that I'm alive? Quick, tell me, is the unstable gravity field at the factory still there after the nuke?"
"Are you serious? In a time like this, all you're thinking about is science?"
"Answer my question!"
"Sorry, I don't know. S.H.I.E.L.D. has taken over the whole area now. You aren't expecting me to risk lethal radiation to go investigate for you, are you?"
"Can you do it?"
"Of course—not!"
"Fine... uh, talk later, I've got something urgent here."
Jane hung up dazed as a dreamlike rainbow bridge pierced the heavens and earth, appearing right before her.
Looking at the familiar silhouette shimmering within the Bifrost, Jane stepped forward excitedly.
"Thor? Is that you?"
Thor, the God of Thunder, wearing battle-scarred Uru armor, happily gathered Jane into his arms.
"It's me. Where did you just disappear to?"
"Heimdall actually lost sight of you."
Jane gave a brief account of discovering the spatial rift, going to the factory to study the gravity anomaly, and then being rescued from an alien dimension.
Thor froze when he heard a handsome mysterious sorcerer had saved his girlfriend.
After the Battle of New York a year ago, it seemed a mysterious sorcerer was the one who had stolen the scepter.
At the time, Thor couldn't find the person and had no choice but to take Loki back to Asgard first.
Then he had spent the year busy suppressing rebels across the Nine Realms, with no time for Midgardian affairs.
Now, hearing of the mysterious sorcerer's trail again, Thor spoke with a hint of rage: "I know who he is. He is a shameless thief who stole the scepter!"
"A thief?" Jane said in disbelief.
In her heart, she couldn't believe her savior was a bad man.
After all, she was a person who valued looks; to her, a handsome face was the ultimate truth of justice.
However, as she recalled the handsome man opening a portal, she couldn't help but ask:
"Whose scepter did he steal?"
"And by the way, are there many sorcerers on Earth capable of opening portals like that?"
Thor scratched his head like an oaf. "I'm not sure. I didn't even know Earth had sorcerers."
"But that sorcerer is definitely not a good person, because he snatched Loki's scepter away!"
Suddenly hearing such high-level gossip, Jane found herself at a loss for what to ask next.