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"Pop!" The cork flew out, and golden wine was poured into several crystal glasses.
The several senior cabinet officials present stepped forward one after another and picked up their glasses.
"This is all thanks to the unbreakable partnership between you and Vought, Mr. President." The Minister of Defense said with a flattering smile.
"Indeed, justice has always been on our side." Ellis raised his glass, preparing to toast with the officials.
"Mr. President!" A staffer suddenly shouted with a nervous expression, "Look! Look at the screen! Something has happened in Hong Kong!"
The smile on Ellis's face stiffened, and he quickly turned back to look at the big screen.
In the live broadcast, the sky above the Hong Kong quarantine zone was suddenly shrouded in a strange purple cloud.
Deep within the clouds, eerie black lightning tore through the sky like giant pythons, emitting a heart-stopping roar.
Immediately after, a figure exuding an ominous aura slowly descended from the sky.
In front of the Hong Kong Sanctum.
Master Wong, who was commanding the mages in their defense, recognized the man in mid-air at a glance.
"Kaecilius." Wong's expression changed drastically, and he immediately roared, "Everyone, pay attention! Prepare to engage! This guy is extremely dangerous!"
Kaecilius hovered in mid-air, looking down at the Superheroes and mages waiting in battle formation below.
A scornful smile appeared on his cracked face.
"You stubborn fools, why do you continue to put up meaningless resistance?"
"The World you protect is full of decay and decline. Time is the tyrant of all things! And I will bring the gift of Dormammu. Transcend time, and I shall grant you Eternity!"
"Nonsense, you are beyond saving!" Wong shouted angrily.
Kaecilius sneered and stopped talking.
He spread his hands and pulled outwards.
"Crack! Crack!"
The dark clouds in the sky were torn apart, and a hundred-meter-long dimensional rift stretched across the sky over Hong Kong.
Deep within the rift, a purple-red light could be seen flickering.
Following that, black shadows fell like a rainstorm.
"Bang! Bang! Bang!"
A series of dense impact sounds against the ground rang out.
Countless Mindless Ones, with tall bodies, no facial features, and only a single eye, fell continuously from the dimensional rift onto the streets.
In just one minute, the fallen Mindless Ones even piled up into a mountain of flesh in the middle of the street.
Soon, the fallen Mindless Ones rolled over and stood up.
They moved in unison, taking heavy steps and sprinting towards the Hong Kong Sanctum.
"Vought Heroes, assemble! Hold the line!" Steve Rogers roared loudly, raising his Vibranium shield, and charged to the front of the formation.
The heroes reacted quickly, lining up in front of the Sanctum to rebuild a solid defensive line.
However, as soon as they made contact, everyone realized something was wrong.
"Be careful! They are much stronger than the bio-soldiers!" Steve yelled.
The next second, dozens of Mindless Ones stopped in their tracks, their single eyes flashing with a ghostly light.
"Swish! Swish! Swish!"
A dense web of dark energy beams intertwined into a net of death, sweeping across the defensive line.
"Ah! Ah! Ah!"
Screams rang out one after another.
Several Vought Heroes in the front row were instantly pierced through the shoulders and thighs by the beams, falling into pools of blood.
At the same time, more Mindless Ones charged forward, braving the dense attacks.
The situation reversed once again.
Superheroes began to suffer one injury after another.
A silver afterimage shuttled across the battlefield at high speed.
Quicksilver Pietro took on the role of emergency rescue, using his extreme speed to pull injured heroes and mages from the front lines and drag them to the safety of the rear.
He gritted his teeth, his forehead covered in sweat, and his arm had a charred wound from a beam, but he did not stop.
People all over the World watched this scene through their screens, their hearts tightening once again.
They watched helplessly as those usually glamorous and omnipotent Superheroes were injured and bleeding.
While moved, feelings of panic also began to spread.
However, they were not yet in despair.
Because they still held onto a final shred of faith in their hearts.
That man who was like a god, who would always descend in the most desperate moments with BGM.
Most people did not believe that Homelander would die.
It is unknown who started it, but on online forums, social media platforms, and the barrage comments of major live streams, uniform messages began to appear.
"He is waiting for us."
"Just like that time against the Skrulls, Homelander needs our call!"
"Pray! Call out his name!"
People spontaneously clasped their hands together, fingers interlaced. Whether they were in office buildings, factories, or on the streets, everyone in their hearts and with their voices called out the same name in unison.
"Homelander! Homelander! Homelander!"
They firmly believed that Homelander must have encountered an unavoidable obstacle.
As long as the sincere cries of all humanity gathered together, Homelander would surely break through all shackles once again, return to their side, and save this World.
Just as he had done before!
However, a miracle did not happen with their cries.
Time ticked by second by second.
The Mindless Ones pouring out of the dimensional rift showed no signs of decreasing.
The black tide of monsters had almost filled the quarantine zone and began to roar as they spread toward the civilian streets outside the quarantine zone.
Seeing that they were about to break through the blockade and rush into the defenseless civilian area to carry out a massacre.
"Stand together, united as one!"
A shout came from mid-air.
Five figures leaped from a helicopter and landed steadily at the gap in the blockade.
The Superheroes of the Eastern Ancient Kingdom, the five Tao Yu brothers, arrived in time.
They immediately demonstrated powerful abilities that combined elements and martial arts.
The energy of the five attributes—Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, and Earth—interwove on the street into a net of destruction.
The five brothers coordinated perfectly, powerfully tearing open a blank space in the monster tide, temporarily stabilizing the precarious situation.
But everyone knew in their hearts that, facing this kind of endless numerical suppression, the total collapse of the defensive line was only a matter of time.
Just then, a heaven-shaking loud noise came from the front.
Something even more terrifying happened to everyone.
Outside the Hong Kong Sanctum, the Shield of Seraphim, constructed by more than a dozen high-level mages working together, finally turned into fireworks in the sky and shattered after withstanding the concentrated bombardment of thousands of dark energy beams.
Losing the protection of the magical shield, the dark beams bombarded the main body of the Hong Kong Sanctum without hindrance.
Walls collapsed, the dome shattered, and a full third of the main structure was blown away.
Kaecilius, in mid-air, saw this scene and finally felt relieved, letting out a long sigh.
He dropped his hands, exhausted, and stopped the summoning array for the Mindless Ones.
Overdrawing his life force caused his body to begin to collapse, and he fell from the sky.
But he was smiling, a smile devoid of warmth.
"Succeeded, I have succeeded... Dormammu..."