The moment Magneto appeared, Coulson's head started ringing like a struck bell. It felt like the entire world was conspiring against him.
"Why the hell is Magneto here?!"
A thousand Xenomorphs seemed to be doing backflips inside Coulson's skull.
Magneto was in a league of his own among global threats... an extreme mutant supremacist with a body count that would make war criminals blush. Even a routine outing from him was enough to put the world on edge.
No one wanted to see this man... who could tank a nuke, flip mountains, or trigger tsunamis... cut loose. That would be a catastrophe.
"Contact Professor Xavier. No matter what's happening, we prepare for the worst," Fury's voice crackled over the comms. "My gut says this is Duva... I mean Adam... again. Why is he so close with Magneto?"
Coulson thought for a second. "We have no proof Adam isn't a mutant. Maybe his ability to create and control Xenomorphs comes from an X-gene."
"Whether he is or isn't, we treat it like he isn't. Reach out to the X-Men. I don't trust them, but we don't have better options." Fury's voice carried heavy weight.
For some reason, ever since Adam showed up, Fury's stress levels had skyrocketed.
Then Coulson spoke again. "Magneto stopped. He hasn't made a move yet… but that might not be good news."
"Why?"
"Because Adam's expression just got really weird."
"That means it's serious. What exactly is happening on site?" Fury asked, realizing the situation had escalated.
Coulson peered at the feed. "Heavy electromagnetic interference. The picture keeps cutting in and out."
The Eternals were also feeling the pressure.
Even the supremely confident muscleman Gilgamesh, while wrestling the mutated leader, shot uneasy glances toward the new arrival.
They had spent years hidden among humanity. They knew exactly how dangerous Magneto was.
"Erik, we're not your enemies," Ajak tried the same line she had used before, but it sounded even weaker now.
Magneto's face remained cold. "You immortal relics killed my people, and now you want to tell me it was all a misunderstanding?"
Ajak opened her mouth, then closed it, deep resignation settling over her features.
It was true. Back in Alaska, if they hadn't rushed to extract Ikaris, they might not have revealed themselves or engaged. That mistake had let the mutated creatures capture the Juggernaut.
Magneto hovered above the battlefield, scanning everyone with a cold smile. Perfect. All the damned pieces were finally in one place.
But what truly caught his attention wasn't the crowd.
"The hammer?"
Magneto held off on attacking, studying Mjolnir with interest. He could sense the unusual power radiating from it.
"So this is the legendary weapon of Thor, the God of Thunder... Mjölnir. Yet the mighty Thunder God himself can't even lift it anymore?"
Magneto hadn't witnessed the earlier fight, but with his experience and sharp mind, one look at Thor's shocked and defeated expression... plus a few exchanged glances with Adam... was enough to piece it together.
There was no doubt Thor had come to Earth. But this blond, medieval-dressed strongman stood out like a sore thumb.
Thor stared back at Magneto without fear.
Another powerhouse? First Adam, then the Eternals, and now this man who radiated pressure and could apparently command the weather. This was nothing like the Midgard he knew. Wasn't this supposed to be the world of mortals? Why did powerful beings keep appearing one after another?
Thor should have felt excitement and shame, but he felt neither.
"You want to lift my hammer too? Give up. My father placed an enchantment on it. If I cannot lift it, a mortal certainly never will." Thor lowered his head.
Adam offered helpfully, "With anyone else, I'd agree it's impossible. But with him? That's not so clear... his power is magnetism."
Magnetism?
Thor looked confused.
"Magnetism means he controls all metal. And your hammer is made of metal," Adam explained.
"This is an unknown exotic alloy," Magneto said, reaching out with an open palm toward Mjolnir.
BOOM!
A terrifying magnetic force erupted. Lightning cracked across the sky, the ground shook violently, and fissures raced outward.
Countless grains of sand floated into the air.
Under Thor's disbelieving gaze, Magneto… actually lifted the hammer!
Thick storm clouds gathered as if to swallow the sky itself, brewing with terrifying energy.
Everyone was stunned. Anyone who understood what Mjolnir represented knew just how insane this was.
Even across the Nine Realms, this was an earth-shattering feat.
Magneto... an extremist and the single greatest source of global instability... had lifted Thor's hammer?!
In that moment, even the mutated leader froze, watching Magneto seize the weapon. It immediately turned to flee.
Too late. It would pay a heavy price. Magneto had learned from Alaska and already surrounded the area with an energy barrier strong enough to withstand a high-yield nuclear blast.
"Just as I expected... your magnetism works on Uru metal too." Adam looked up at the sky, his figure lit by crackling electricity. There was no surprise on his face, only understanding.
Magneto lifting Mjolnir wasn't that shocking when you thought about it.
"So this metal is called Uru?" Magneto opened his hand, guiding the hammer to float before him and grasping it firmly.
"Uru is the core material for forging divine weapons. It can hold and channel godly power. It's highly prized across cosmic pantheons."
Under a barrage of shocked and awed stares, Adam spoke casually, as relaxed as if chatting with an old friend.
"Gods?" Magneto scoffed.
His gaze shifted to the mutated leader trying to break through the magnetic field. He took aim and hurled the hammer.
BOOM!
Mjolnir slammed straight into the leader, sending it flying.
But strangely, the damage seemed limited. There was no apocalyptic storm of lightning as expected.
"You didn't truly lift my hammer. You're just brute-forcing it with magnetism!" Thor's eyes brightened slightly, relief washing over him. "You don't possess Mjolnir's divine power."
"You're right, and I don't care about Asgardian divine power. I just need a very hard metal club," Magneto replied. He manually generated a massive lightning strike with magnetism, looking more like the God of Thunder than Thor himself.
Having already mastered one of the universe's four fundamental forces, he had little interest in Asgard-specific divine energy.
In his hands, the hammer was simply a very dense rock for smashing things.
"Now then... Eternals, mutated creatures… all of you can die here," Magneto's icy voice rang out.
"Better to cripple them and leave the rest to me," Adam said.
Magneto wielded the hammer, his overwhelming magnetic power contracting the barrier and crushing the space around the Eternals and mutated creatures.
Ajak's face twitched with deep frustration. She hadn't expected things to spiral this far. She turned to Adam. "Is this what you wanted? Did you know it would turn out like this?"
"Don't flatter yourself. I'm not omniscient. I simply went with the flow." Adam shook his head, eyes locked on Ajak. "In your plan, humanity dies anyway. So whatever I do is justified."
Ajak opened her mouth but found nothing to say. Could she admit she felt pity for humanity and was hesitating to betray the Celestials?
"Just watch, Thor. The masters behind these Eternals are cosmic gods... the same ones who once made your father taste defeat." Adam patted Thor's shoulder, speaking low enough that only the god could hear.
Thor's face filled with shock. He finally understood why Odin had paid such close attention to the Eternals. It involved cosmic gods?
The All-Father… had lost to these beings?
"If that's true, then it makes sense. No wonder Father wouldn't tell me. No wonder he was so angry and disappointed…" Thor's face went pale.
He considered that Adam might be lying, but what would be the point? His identity? He was just a powerless mortal now. His strength? He couldn't even lift his own hammer.
Magneto began unleashing indiscriminate destruction across the desert. Storms and earthquakes raged, turning the landscape into an apocalyptic scene.
Ajak realized joining this fight had been a terrible mistake. She had hoped to clear up misunderstandings, but bringing Magneto into it had made everything worse.
"If we keep fighting, even if we kill Erik, we'll suffer casualties. That's not what I want." Ajak looked pained, believing she had made a critical error in judgment.
But there was no time for regret. She, Gilgamesh, and Makkari stood together, fighting desperately against Magneto's assault.
Gilgamesh held his own, but Makkari was terrifyingly effective. Using her incredible speed, she became a blur of afterimages, tearing at the magnetic field. In the instant Magneto attacked, she landed a solid punch on him.
The remaining mutated creatures clustered together, desperately searching for a way through the barrier. Even as Mjolnir smashed into them again and again... wounding all but the leader... they refused to give up.
"What a magnificent battle. At this point, I don't need to hold back anymore." Adam's gaze shifted, finally settling on the three Eternals.
The Queen deployed.
The massive crowned Xenomorph stood four and a half meters tall, rivaling the Abomination strain. Every sleek line of her form looked mathematically perfect, embodying flawless golden proportions and lethal grace.
Even by human standards, the Queen was breathtaking.
When she unleashed her full presence, she was a reaper straight out of a slaughterhouse.
This was her first time entering the field, but no one could ignore her.
"Is that… the king of their species?" Thor muttered.
In the distance, Loki... who had been battling Kaecilius... paused, his face showing surprise. He abandoned his opponent, using magic to rush toward the main battlefield.
He had sensed this hidden Xenomorph before, but seeing it reveal its true aura was something else entirely.
"So it was the queen all along. Excellent at concealing her presence, but her raw power doesn't seem much stronger than the larger warriors," Loki noted with some regret.
Kaecilius was even more motivated. His goal was to capture a Xenomorph for Dormammu. What better prize than the Queen herself?
In an instant, the battlefield... once Magneto dominating multiple foes... descended into pure chaos.
Both Loki and Kaecilius, despite having worn each other down, were still forces to be reckoned with. Either one was strong enough to demand Magneto's full effort.
Using raw magical violence, they tore gaping holes in Magneto's domineering energy barrier.
The once-stable field collapsed into turmoil. Multiple powers clashed, unleashing destructive fury. Rocks turned to dust, matter broke down into energy. Within the barrier's range, the ground crumbled layer by layer and vanished. Underground magma began spraying and flowing.
"Damn it!" Magneto roared in fury. He had finally trapped the Eternals and mutated creatures, only for others to interfere!
He glanced over... one was likely the dark sorcerer Kaecilius. The other was an Asgardian, and that Asgardian was staring intently at the hammer he controlled.
"A mere mortal dares to touch a god's weapon?" Loki's eyes flashed with killing intent and humiliated rage.
A Midgardian had lifted a weapon that neither he nor Thor could wield? Preposterous!
Such a being could not be allowed to exist in the Nine Realms!
"Loki? Brother, you came!" Thor cried out in wild joy, ready to rush forward.
Adam grabbed him. "He didn't come for you. He just tried to lift the hammer himself. Now he's furious because something that should have been his was taken. Besides, with your current strength, you wouldn't make it two steps before this energy storm tears you apart."
"You're talking nonsense! That's my brother... he would give his life to protect me!"
"Are you sure he wants to protect you more than he wants to kill you? His actions scream the latter. You're too weak right now. Even if he meant well, you couldn't handle it. The great God of Thunder has become the chain holding his brother back."
Adam pulled a fresh Xenomorph egg from his carefully guarded pack. In a voice like the devil's own whisper, he tempted the agitated Thunder God:
"Do you want power? I'll explain it again... my power doesn't conflict with your divine strength. If you ever regain your godhood, wielding both will make you even stronger than before. If you want to help your brother, to fight alongside Loki instead of being a burden he has to protect… accept my gift."
As Thor's face darkened, the Xenomorph egg bloomed open like a grotesque, beautiful flower.
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