Chapter 488

"Did you hear that?! The Tesseract is an Infinity Stone! Hand it over—Asgard will protect it!"

Loki's voice rose with urgency as he stepped through the portal and stood before Nick Fury.

But before he could do more, Tony Stark calmly stepped in front of him.

"No, no. This kind of divine artifact should be studied. If we research it properly, we could revolutionize science and tech."

Loki scoffed, eyes full of disdain.

"Foolish human. Keep your filthy hands away from the Infinity Stone!"

Tony smirked mockingly in return.

"Heh, filthy? Says the so-called God of Mischief. How many underhanded deeds are your hands stained with?"

"You dare insult me?!"

Loki roared, drawing Frostmourne with a murderous glare.

Tony, unfazed, raised his armored palm—repulsor charged and ready.

In an instant, Thor rushed over, raising Stormbreaker menacingly.

If Tony dared strike Loki, he would retaliate without hesitation.

"Enough!"

Steve Rogers forced himself between them, calming the tension.

"Arguing is pointless until we actually see the Tesseract."

As always, Cap knew how to cool heads.

Hearing him out, Loki and Stark slowly lowered their weapons. Thor followed suit.

All eyes turned to Nick Fury.

"Fine. We haven't been able to make progress with it anyway…"

Under the mounting pressure, Fury sighed and gave in.

"I'll take you to it. But only a few of you—this is a secure facility."

"Whatever."

Tony waved it off and followed.

Loki and Thor went too.

Naturally, Natasha and Steve joined in.

"Ancient One, should we follow them?"

Mordo asked.

"Might as well see how it ends. You and Strange, go."

"Yes, Master."

The group—now significantly larger than Fury liked—made its way toward the lab.

Fury didn't even bother objecting anymore. At this point, everyone outranked him.

—

Meanwhile, deep in the underground S.H.I.E.L.D. lab…

Scientists were nervously conducting tests on the Tesseract, pushing it to its limits.

"Max out the gamma ray output. Focus it directly on the Tesseract!"

A balding scientist barked orders urgently.

"But sir—won't that be dangerous?"

"No time for caution. If we don't produce something soon, the Director will shut us down—and I like my salary and benefits."

With no further objections, the lab was sealed.

A massive instrument descended from the ceiling, pointing at the glowing cube.

With a loud hum, it began flooding the Tesseract with high-intensity gamma rays.

Almost immediately, the cube flared—its surface erupting with blinding blue light.

The scientists were thrilled.

The data readings surged beyond anything they'd seen.

"This is incredible!"

"We're breaking every previous record!"

But elation soon turned to alarm.

"Sir! The Tesseract's energy levels are rising exponentially! At this rate, it could detonate with force rivaling a nuclear bomb!"

"Don't worry. Keep going! We'll harvest this energy!"

The lead scientist greedily initiated backup absorbers designed to collect Tesseract energy.

But moments later—

"We're maxed out! The absorbers are at capacity!"

"Then divert it somewhere else!"

"We can't! There's no time!"

Only now did the lead realize how bad it was.

"Shut off the gamma rays—NOW!"

They scrambled to do so… but nothing worked.

"The emitter won't respond! System failure!"

Sparks erupted from every console and device in the lab.

Panic took hold.

Technicians screamed and scattered as every machine sparked violently—no one dared stay.

—

Just then, Fury and the others arrived.

"What's going on?!"

"The Tesseract—it's out of control!"

The moment that sentence landed, everyone's faces turned grim.

BOOOOOM!!!

The Tesseract burst with blinding light, launching a pillar of energy straight upward.

It tore through the lab's ceiling, then S.H.I.E.L.D.'s floors, and finally shot out of the building into the sky.

High above, the pillar fanned out into a massive, glowing blue cloud.

It was so enormous and strange that everyone nearby stopped what they were doing to stare.

Phones came out. The internet lit up.

From the rooftop of the Sanctum Sanctorum, the Ancient One watched with resignation.

"Ah… so we've come to this point again. Some events in history are just unavoidable."

The energy cloud began to twist, forming a wormhole—its other end opening into deep space.

And there… several warships hovered—Thanos' fleet.

Aboard his command vessel, Thanos raised an eyebrow at the swirling portal.

Then he smirked and sent a message to the screen.

Thanos: Foolish Earthlings. Have you found the Space Stone only to misuse it and accidentally open a gateway… to me?

Tony Stark: Wait—what just happened?!

The Ancient One: Exactly what he said. Whatever you did triggered the Tesseract to form a wormhole. One that leads straight to Thanos.

Thor: Hold on—does that mean Thanos only needs to take one step to invade Earth?

(End of Chapter)

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