Furthermore, this time, he crushed an enemy that had left two alliances helpless, just like squeezing a clay figurine.

From appearance to finish, it took less than three minutes.

Tony stood on the ruins, his damaged armor still sizzling with electrical sparks.

He opened his mouth, then closed it again.

Bruce stood not far away.

His face was covered in dust and blood, and his Batsuit was in tatters.

The two of them exchanged a glance.

The message contained in that look was simple: they had spent months and invested astronomical resources to create the most powerful weapon they could.

And then that weapon didn't even last three minutes in the hands of the Masked Man.

Bruce watched the Masked Man in mid-air, toying with the stone.

An indescribable feeling churned in his stomach.

He had spent twenty years honing himself, becoming the pinnacle of human physical and mental capability.

He had spent months establishing the Alpha-Zero contingency plan, exhausting every known countermeasure on Earth.

The highest probability of success was thirty-three percent.

Now, it seemed, it was probably less than one percent.

The Masked Man hovered in mid-air for about five seconds.

He looked at Bruce.

The gaze behind the mask traversed thousands of meters, landing precisely on the bloodied Dark Knight on the ground.

Then, he flicked his finger.

The Mind Stone shot out from his palm, turning into a streak of yellow light that cut across the gray sky and landed precisely into Bruce's open hands.

The stone lay securely in the palm of the Batsuit glove.

Bruce looked down at the Infinity Stone in his hands, which was emitting a warm yellow glow.

He looked up, but the Masked Man had already vanished.

A golden portal flashed in mid-air and then closed.

It left behind only a few dissipating golden particles, drifting away in the high-altitude currents.

The battlefield remained silent for nearly ten seconds.

Barry was the first to break the silence.

"So... is it over?"

No one answered him.

Field clinic.

The metal door was pushed open from the inside.

Dr. Lin walked out, wearing a white lab coat.

His gold-rimmed glasses were wiped clean, and a gentle smile hung on his face.

He looked at the wounded who had been waiting outside for a long time.

"Sorry to keep you waiting, everyone. Next, please come in."

The three Agents in line looked at each other.

They had indeed only waited about four or five minutes.

"Dr. Lin, what were you doing just now?" asked an Agent who was clutching his arm.

"I went to the restroom," Dr. Lin said, his expression completely natural. "Had too much tea."

He returned to the Medical Pod and, while putting on gloves, pressed his earpiece with his right hand.

He switched to the private encrypted channel for Tony and Bruce.

"Gentlemen."

His voice rang out on the channel.

Tony and Bruce heard it simultaneously.

"The battle is over. I have sent the bill to both of your encrypted email addresses. There are four charges, clearly itemized. Please settle them as soon as possible."

He paused for a moment.

"Additionally, please send the Vibranium debris from Ultron and all related data to my base, in accordance with our previous agreement. Thank you for your cooperation."

The channel was silent for three seconds.

Then, Tony's voice came through.

"...You really are the most ruthless Doctor in the whole world."

"Thank you for the compliment." Dr. Lin took off his earpiece.

He turned to the bleeding Agent on the examination bed.

"Come on, let me look at your arm."

...

Over Sokovia.

Ultron was dead, the mechanical army was completely paralyzed, but the problems were far from over.

The wreckage of the city, having lost the support of the anti-gravity engines, was slowly falling.

Although the residual anti-gravity field was barely providing some lift, the falling speed was not slow.

However, the three-kilometer-wide chunk of the city, carrying millions of tons of rock and building debris, was falling from an altitude of over three thousand meters; the consequences of it hitting the ground were unthinkable.

Bruce Wayne was the first to recover from the god-like shock brought by Dr. Lin.

His Batsuit was in tatters, and the hole in his right shoulder was still smoking.

He pressed his communicator, and his hoarse voice exploded on the channel.

"Everyone, listen up! The city is still falling! It is estimated to hit the ground in fifteen minutes! Stop spacing out and act immediately!"

Fury's voice followed closely: "Rogers, take Team A to clear the unstable buildings on the edge of the city! Clark, you and Thor are responsible for deceleration! Shatter the largest pieces in mid-air! The Flash, continue to evacuate the remaining civilians!"

The channel was silent for two seconds.

Then, Steve Rogers' voice rang out, still with that rock-steady tone: "Received. Team A, follow me."

Clark flew over from mid-air.

He was still wearing that ridiculously ugly iron pot helmet, its two crooked antennas swaying in the airflow.

But he couldn't care about his appearance; he punched and shattered a piece of building debris weighing hundreds of tons that was falling.

Thor swung Mjolnir, cutting in from the side, and used thunder to blast an entire collapsing apartment building into rubble in mid-air.

Tony's armor was in shambles, and the self-repair system had used up the last of the spare materials, but he still forced himself to fly up.

The power of his palm repulsors was only at thirty percent, but he used them to precisely cut the large concrete slabs falling from the edge of the city, breaking them into small pieces that wouldn't cause fatal damage.

Barry Allen turned into a red streak of lightning on the ground, weaving through the ruins, digging out the last few civilians trapped under the rubble one by one and carrying them to the safe zone.

As he ran, he panted into the communication channel: "I mean... since that Masked Man is so powerful... and can crush Ultron like squeezing a chick... why didn't he just take care of this mess while he was at it?"

No one responded to him.

Tony gritted his teeth inside the armor.

The stitches on his abdomen were aching again.

You want him to just take care of it? Do you have any idea what the price of that heartless guy's "taking care of it" is?

The uncapped bill that Wayne and I signed—the field call-out fee for today alone is already an astronomical figure.

Let him do one more thing, and he could drain all of Stark Industries' liquid assets.

I don't want to pay another cent. Absolutely not.

Tony channeled all of this frustration into power, cutting through rubble in mid-air even more frantically.

The entire cleanup operation lasted for nearly forty minutes.

Clark and Thor teamed up to shatter the largest chunks of the city foundation in mid-air, scattering the fragments over the uninhabited wilderness southeast of Sokovia, kicking up dust that blotted out the sky.

Steve led the ground troops to successfully dismantle all unstable hanging structures on the edge of the city, preventing them from falling onto the residential areas below.

However, even so, the rocks and building debris falling from an altitude of over three thousand meters still caused irreparable damage.