Interlude: Armageddon in MCU 2

The street was a surreal blend of chaos and wonder. While some people panicked, shouting and clawing at the changes overtaking their bodies, others stood in silent awe, watching as the world around them transformed.

Trees along the sidewalk began to grow rapidly, their branches twisting into intricate shapes and glowing with an ethereal light.

Cars that had been crushed during the quake started to warp, their metal frames shifting and bending as if alive.

Asher felt like he was in a dream, no, a nightmare. The line between reality and fiction had shattered just as the sky had. His rational mind screamed at him to find a logical explanation, but there was none. How could there be?

"Jenna, we need to move," he said, grabbing her arm. His voice was firm now, urgency overtaking his confusion. "Standing here isn't safe."

"But where do we go?" she asked, her wide eyes darting around. "The whole city is falling apart!"

Asher hesitated. She wasn't wrong. Brooklyn was in shambles. Buildings had collapsed, streets had split open, and the air was thick with dust and the metallic tang of fear. But staying here, surrounded by crumbling infrastructure and frightened, unpredictable people, wasn't an option.

"We'll head toward Prospect Park," he decided. "It's open space. Fewer buildings to fall on us."

They pushed through the crowd, weaving around people who were too stunned or injured to move. Asher's senses felt heightened, every sound sharper, every movement clearer.

He could hear the distant rumble of shifting earth, the faint crackling of energy in the air, even the rapid heartbeat of the terrified woman beside him.

Jenna stumbled, her knees buckling as another tremor rocked the ground. Asher caught her, his glowing hands gripping her shoulders. She flinched at the contact, her eyes darting to the light radiating from his skin.

"Don't look at it," he said quickly, trying to steady her. "Just focus on walking. We're almost there."

They reached the edge of Prospect Park just as the sky darkened further with the red glow of the sun intensifying. The air grew thick, almost oppressive, as if the atmosphere itself was bearing down on them.

Asher glanced at the other survivors who had gathered in the park, their faces lit by the eerie glow of the cracks above.

Suddenly, his chest tightened, and a sharp pain shot through his head. He staggered, clutching his temples as a flood of information rushed into his mind.

Images, words, and sensations he couldn't comprehend assaulted his senses. He saw symbols he didn't recognize, landscapes he'd never visited, and beings that defied description.

It wasn't just knowledge, it was power. Raw, untamed, and terrifying. He could feel it coursing through him, demanding to be understood, to be used.

"Asher!" Jenna's voice broke through the haze. She knelt beside him, her hands on his shoulders. "What's wrong? Talk to me!"

"I… I don't know," he gasped, his vision blurring. "It's like… something's trying to get in my head."

Before she could respond, a deafening roar filled the air.

Asher looked up just in time to see a massive creature emerge from one of the cracks in the sky. It was reptilian, with scales that shimmered like molten gold and wings that spanned the horizon. Its eyes burned with an otherworldly light, and its roar shook the earth.

The earth trembled beneath Asher's feet as the deafening roar tore through the park.

Everyone froze, their heads snapping upward as something massive broke through the crimson-streaked sky. It was a dragon, a creature straight out of mythology and fantasy, except this one was terrifyingly real.

Its massive wings stretched wider than any skyscraper Asher had ever seen, shimmering with golden scales that seemed to ripple like molten metal in the fractured light.

Each beat of its wings sent gusts of wind roaring through the trees, scattering debris and toppling anything not rooted to the ground. Its long, serpentine neck carried a head crowned with jagged horns that glinted like obsidian.

The dragon's eyes glowed like molten gold, and when they locked onto the crowd below, it felt as though every individual had been stripped bare, their very souls laid bare before it.

Its tail, lined with sharp, crystalline spines, lashed through the air, cracking like a whip.

"It's a dragon," Asher muttered, his voice barely audible over the rush of wind. His mind struggled to reconcile what he was seeing with the reality he had always known.

Dragons didn't exist. Not on Earth. Not anywhere.

But here it was, hovering above them with an otherworldly presence that made every hair on his body stand on end.

The dragon wasn't attacking. It didn't need to. Its mere presence was enough to silence the park, the weight of its existence pressing down on everyone like a physical force.

Around Asher, people dropped to their knees, some in fear, others in a strange kind of reverence.

"It's watching us," Jenna whispered, clutching Asher's arm tightly. Her knuckles were white, her face pale as she stared up at the creature.

Asher's throat was dry, his heart pounding in his chest. She was right. The dragon's gaze swept across the crowd like a searchlight, pausing briefly on each person as if it was judging them, weighing their worth.

And then its eyes landed on him.

For a moment, Asher felt as though he couldn't breathe. The heat in his glowing hands flared, the golden patterns pulsing in sync with the dragon's gaze. It wasn't just looking at him, it was seeing him, in a way no one ever had.

"Why me?" he thought, his mind racing. The connection was brief but profound, a silent exchange that left him shaken to his core.

The dragon let out another roar, this one shaking the very ground beneath their feet.

Towering crystalline spires jutted out of alien landscapes, rivers of glowing liquid gold snaked through lush forests, and colossal statues of deities loomed over cities of unimaginable scale.

But it wasn't just the sky changing. The earth beneath them began to shift. The park's familiar trees twisted and grew taller, their leaves glowing faintly with bioluminescence. The ground rumbled as mountains began to rise in the distance, their peaks piercing the heavens.

"What's happening?" Jenna asked, her voice trembling.

"The world… it's growing," Asher replied, his eyes wide as he watched the transformation unfold. The dragon hovered above it all, a silent sentinel overseeing the chaos as if ensuring the process went according to some grand design.

Asher was about to say something else when a sudden, bone-deep chill washed over him. The dragon's glowing eyes flared brighter, and with it came an overwhelming sense of dread.

Then the screams began.

All around him, people were clutching their chests, their faces contorted in pain. Some collapsed to the ground, unmoving. Others thrashed and writhed, their cries cutting through the air like a blade.

"Asher!" Jenna shouted, grabbing his arm as she fell to her knees. "I can't… breathe…"

He knelt beside her, panic rising in his chest. "Jenna, stay with me!" he pleaded, his hands trembling as he tried to figure out what was happening.

Asher looked up at the dragon, its golden eyes watching the carnage below with a calm indifference.

Then, as suddenly as it had appeared, it began to ascend. Its wings beat once, twice, and then it was gone, dissolving into a cascade of shimmering light that rained down upon the transformed earth.

"What… what was that?" Jenna asked weakly, her voice barely audible.

"I don't know," Asher replied, his mind still reeling. He stared at his glowing hands, the patterns etched into his skin now pulsing with a steady rhythm. "But I think it left us something."

Around them, survivors began to stir, their faces marked with the same glowing patterns as Asher's. Some looked confused, others terrified, but all of them shared the same realization: the world they had known was gone, replaced by something far stranger and infinitely more dangerous.

"What's… happening?" he muttered, clutching his chest.

Nearby, Jenna let out a sharp gasp, her body trembling as she clutched her head. She collapsed onto her knees, her eyes wide with panic. "Asher… I feel—" Her words cut off as a faint light began to glow from her forehead, spreading across her body like veins of molten gold.

It wasn't just her. All around the park, people who hadn't been marked before were now illuminated by the same golden glow. Their screams of fear and confusion filled the air as the energy coursed through them, reshaping them from within.

And then, as suddenly as it began, the chaos stopped. The roar faded, and an eerie silence fell over the park. The golden glow receded from their bodies, leaving faint, intricate patterns on their skin.

Before Asher could catch his breath, a translucent screen appeared before his eyes.

[STATUS]

Name: Asher Kent

Rank: F

Class: None

Skills: Deduce (Rank B)

"What the hell…?" Asher whispered, staring at the floating display. He blinked, thinking it was some kind of hallucination, but the panel remained, hovering in the air.

Around him, similar panels began to materialize before the others. Jenna's hands moved in front of her as if trying to touch something invisible. "Asher… do you see this too?"

"Yeah," he replied, his voice shaky. "I see it."

The Status Panel wasn't complicated. It was clean and simple, as if designed to convey the essentials. But the implications were staggering. Rank? Class? Skills? It was like something out of a video game, except... it was real.

A ripple of murmurs swept through the crowd as everyone began to grasp what was happening. Some were elated, others terrified. A man nearby let out a laugh, his Status Panel floating in front of him.

"F-Rank?" he sneered. "What is this, some kind of joke?"

"Mine says I'm Rank D," someone else shouted. "What does it even mean?"

The air buzzed with a mix of fear and excitement as people shared their ranks and skills. For those like Jenna, who had just awakened, it was overwhelming. She stared at her panel, her hands trembling. "I… I have a skill? 'Healing Touch'? What does that even mean?"

Asher couldn't answer. His mind was racing, trying to process what he was seeing. His Deduce skill, which he felt had always been a part of him, now had a name and rank. He focused on it, and a new screen appeared.

[Skill: Deduce]

Rank: B

Description: Enhances the user's ability to analyze and interpret complex information, drawing conclusions with incredible speed and accuracy.

"So that's what it is…" he muttered. His gift for observation and quick thinking, the traits that had always set him apart, were now codified as a skill.

Asher looked up at the sky, which was still fractured and filled with visions of otherworldly realms. The dragon had vanished, but its impact was undeniable. The world had changed.

Permanently.

The park was no longer the simple urban oasis it had been. The trees glowed faintly, their leaves shimmering with iridescent colors. The ground beneath them pulsed with a faint, golden light, as if the very earth had been infused with magic.

"We're not in the same world anymore," Asher said, his voice low.

"No kidding," Jenna replied, standing unsteadily. Her eyes were still wide with shock, but there was a strange determination in her gaze. "What do we do now?"

Asher didn't have an answer. He looked around at the crowd, at the glowing patterns on their bodies and the floating panels in front of them. They weren't just ordinary people anymore. They were something else, something more.

"This is just the beginning," he said finally. "We need to figure out what these ranks and skills mean… and fast."

Jenna nodded, her grip tightening on his arm. "Whatever this is, we'll figure it out together."

Asher wasn't so sure. The dragon's roar, the merging worlds, the sudden Awakening, it all felt too deliberate, too coordinated. This wasn't random. It was the start of something much bigger.

And deep down, he knew that surviving in this new world would require more than just luck.

...

A/N: Alright, I'm gonna stop here for now to let y'all ruminate over this. I'll be having a hectic day so...Ciao.