Pepper carried Morgan while a Spartan guided her to the underground laboratory. Once there, she quickly led her to where Damian's family was.

"Hi, Pepper," said Sophia, smiling as she approached to greet her.

"Hi, Sophia, thank you for having us," said Pepper, smiling slightly as she set her small suitcase aside.

Ana, who was behind Sophia, subtly scanned Pepper's suitcase and everything on her person.

Seeing nothing suspicious, Ana finally lowered her guard a bit and came forward to greet her. It never hurts to be cautious.

Morgan quickly approached the princesses with a smile.

The four played together quite often, so they were not strangers at all.

In the back of the room was Natasha, who only waved from a distance as she had her son, Nate, in her arms.

"How's the situation outside?" Pepper asked immediately after greeting them. To be honest, she was really worried.

Gods, aliens, and cosmic entities were fighting out there, and her husband was involved in it all.

"We're monitoring what's happening from here. Come, take a seat," said Sophia, guiding Pepper to some seats.

"Would you like something to drink?" Sophia asked Pepper.

"No, I'm fine," said Pepper, smiling a bit ironically. She wasn't in the mood for anything like that.

Quickly glancing at the screens, she immediately saw the striking red and gold armor.

Tony seemed to be fighting a rather large guy, whose skin was full of charred parts as he constantly tried to catch him.

Pepper quickly looked over at Morgan, trying to keep her from seeing the screen, but she found her at a good distance playing with Alice, Emma, and Ivy.

"Don't worry, they can't see the images," said Sophia, noticing her reaction.

Pepper nodded slightly before turning her attention back to the fight.

Tony constantly evaded everything the large guy below him threw at him while attacking him constantly.

"This guy is tough. How's the satellite going, Jarvis?" said Tony, grunting slightly while dodging.

"The satellite is in position," said Jarvis.

"Great, then let's not hold back on the energy used and the nanobots destroyed," said Tony, suddenly changing his strategy.

Several missiles shot out from his back directly toward his opponent, pushing him back and obstructing his vision a bit.

Tony quickly descended at full speed while his arms began to increase in size, constructing two large battering rams with repulsors at the rear.

Both battering rams hit with great force against his opponent's shoulders, knocking him to the ground.

In his chest, several nanorobots molded before Tony fired a very powerful energy beam.

Unlike his usual energy beams, this one had turned blue, representing the terrifying energy it contained.

A large, smoking hole immediately formed in the giant's chest, making a hole underneath him, and his movements stopped immediately, dying on the spot.

"Ugh, Jarvis, how much energy do we have left?" said Tony, getting down from the guy.

"9%," said Jarvis.

"10% of the nanorobots were destroyed by the intense energy of the repulsor," said Jarvis.

"Earthly materials are starting to reach their limit. Give me a recharge," said Tony, looking around for a new opponent.

Suddenly, a pillar fell a few meters from Tony, opening from the top and releasing a cloud of nanorobots that integrated into his suit.

Passing by an intact shop window, Tony looked at his reflection.

"Don't I look a bit bulky after adding the nanobots?" said Tony, looking at himself.

"Sir, your body mass has increased by 20%. Considering the loss of 10% of the nanobots, it's really only a 10% increase," said Jarvis.

"Cull," said a voice suddenly behind Tony. He quickly turned and saw a tall, gray-skinned alien looking at the giant's body.

Tony hadn't seen him before, so he assumed he had been in another area.

"Did you do this?" said Ebony, looking at Tony.

"I did," said Tony, nodding casually.

Suddenly, multiple debris pieces lifted from the ground and were thrown at Tony at high speeds.

Tony didn't have time to react, but Jarvis quickly activated the suit's repulsors, making him rise quickly and dodge the debris.

"What's that? Telekinesis?" said Tony, dodging constantly while shooting back.

"Seems so," said Jarvis.

"But if it's telekinesis, why doesn't he exert force directly on me?" said Tony, wondering to himself.

Tony kept moving in the air while shooting constantly, still not having very good results. The gray alien could defend and attack constantly without giving him too many opportunities.

He also still felt wary of his ability.

Suddenly, Tony saw a shot coming from behind the alien, piercing his chest.

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The gray alien touched his chest in disbelief before staggering and falling to the ground.

Seconds later, Laura arrived and looked up to see Tony.

"I had it under control," said Tony.

"Sure, maybe you could beat him tomorrow when he gets tired," said Laura, mocking him.

"Let's go after the bigger one," said Tony, not wanting to comment further.

"He should have already entered the palace, but let's go anyway," said Laura, nodding.

"You don't seem very worried," said Tony.

"The palace is empty, and he doesn't know where it is or has a way to get to the lab. Even if he could, Ana is down there," said Laura.

"Hm, that woman is terrifying," said Tony, nodding.

"I think she's kind," said Laura, knowing it was possible they were being overheard.

"What are you talking about? It looks like you could make ice cream on her face," said Tony, surprised by Laura's response.

Laura coughed in surprise, trying to avoid laughing at Tony's comments. In the end, she just ignored him while continuing to run.

Inside the lab, Pepper kept an uncomfortable expression, not knowing where to look.

Unlike Pepper, Sophia had let out a laugh.

Ana just gave Sophia a look before paying attention to another screen.

….

Cortana had her hands extended, a somewhat macabre smile on her face.

Tens of thousands of kilometers away from where she was, a Celestial had been completely isolated and wrapped in her chains.

As chains that could even contain her master, the Celestial didn't stand much of a chance.

Cortana began pulling the chains, making the Celestial appear in front of her in an instant.

The Celestial struggled, trying to move his limbs, but his cosmic power wouldn't respond and seemed to be sealed.

Cortana waved her hand, suddenly causing hundreds of asteroids of various sizes to crash into the Celestial.

After a few seconds, the Celestial was covered by a layer of matter until it looked like a small moon from afar.

The chains quickly wrapped around, completely sealing the giant sphere.

Cortana smiled slightly when she saw that she had indeed managed to subdue him. She had definitely grown compared to before, when a Celestial could easily defeat her.

As the situation was a bit pressing, she quickly teleported along with the giant sphere back to Earth.

She easily made the sphere with the sealed Celestial start orbiting the Earth while using it as an energy generator.

An invisible line emerged from the system and connected with the new moon of Earth.

Now, she could harness the capabilities of the Celestial.

Cortana's hands immediately filled with a golden energy quite similar to Carol's.

Giving her defeated opponent one last look, Cortana turned towards her master.

Damian continued to battle the nine Celestials. As the fight went on, his ability to control his own power increased significantly.

He had never been addicted to fighting, but he supposed that was because he had never been able to go all out.

Now he had some incredible punching bags.

Cortana watched in awe as her master moved at an absurd speed, creating giant craters in the Celestials' armor with just his hands.

The Celestials' blood, which to Cortana's surprise was of different colors depending on the Celestial, was scattered all over the battlefield along with pieces of armor.

Originally, she came to help Damian, but seeing him so excited in battle, she decided to just observe.

Since things seemed under control, she took the time to check the situation on Earth.

The situation seemed relatively under control and did not require her intervention.

Cortana quickly checked various aspects of the system before noting the significant boost from adding Celestial No. 1.

She decided to simply call it that for now. The expansion had increased considerably, and she could easily use her abilities.

Cortana ran some simulations and realized the terrifying power of the Celestials. Of course, they were still quite below the combined power of five Infinity Stones in an advanced AI.

But for the average inhabitant of the universe, even for the gods, the Celestials were the true gods of the universe.

Turning her attention back to Damian, she saw that the fight continued intensely.

At that moment, Damian felt incredibly good. He didn't know if it was because of the Celestials' blood constantly coming into contact with his body, but he felt faster and stronger with each passing moment.

A wide smile began to appear on his face, showing his threatening fangs.

Probably no one would have believed the scene unless they had seen it: a small, bloodied figure suppressing nine Celestials.

The Celestials really felt in a bind even though not much time had passed since the battle began.

No matter what they did, the monster in front of them would crush it brutally before hitting them.

They knew the creature in front of them could kill them at any moment, but it seemed to be toying with them.

"We have no choice if we don't want to die," said one of the Celestials who had been struck by Damian. There was a gigantic crater in his chest, and cracks extended across nearly his entire body.

The cracks were slowly healing, but even with his theoretically unlimited cosmic power, he felt he was recovering more and more slowly after hundreds of blows.

"Fusing... we'll spend millions of years trying to separate," said a Celestial, clearly hesitant to do so, considering he could have created a galaxy in that time.

"It's better than dying," said another Celestial, enduring Damian's blows.

The Celestials continued to dialogue among themselves with surprising calm despite the situation.

Damian was unaware of their secret communication. Minutes passed as he continued attacking the Celestials.

All of them had been greatly reduced in size so as not to be hit so easily.

Their coordination was also good, they tried to exchange blows with Damian while the others attacked him with energy from different directions.

But at that moment, Damian felt invincible, the energy beams of the Celestials crashing harmlessly against his body or being deflected directly.

Looking at the whole group of Celestials, Damian moved again, attacking them all in an instant.

His speed was so incredibly fast that it almost seemed like he had multiplied.

Damian finally stopped and looked at the nine Celestials regenerating. When he saw the battle camp, his heart beat incredibly fast.

He almost felt the need to burst out laughing.

At that moment, seeing the blood around him, he was struck by an unprecedented sensation of hunger.

His eyes shone a deep red like never before.

Suddenly, the immense amount of blood that had been shed by the Celestials throughout the battle began to gather around Damian, almost forming a sort of cocoon around him.

Cortana saw this from a distance and quickly moved to his side to protect him in case any of the Celestials tried to attack him.

She didn't know what was happening, but her connection with her master didn't indicate that something bad was happening, so she could only wait.

To Cortana's surprise, as Damian was enveloped in the multicolored blood cocoon, the central essence of each Celestial seemed to exit their armor before combining.

An amalgamation of colors formed in the air before taking on a distorted humanoid shape. All the power seemed to have been compressed as its height was around three meters.

The colors in the humanoid seemed to constantly clash within its body as a terrifying multicolored cosmic power spread around.

Cortana's face turned serious like never before as she felt the power of the Celestial in front of her.

Her chains emerged from the void, trying to restrain the Celestial. The chains were noticeably thicker than before and wrapped around its limbs, torso, and neck.

However, the fused Celestial easily tore the chains apart with its own hands.

Cortana's face immediately turned bitter as she looked at her master. This was not the time for whatever he was doing.

Still, she stood in front of her master while preparing several defenses.

The Celestial extended its palm towards Damian, who was behind Cortana, before channeling a wave of energy.

Cortana's face immediately turned pale as her skin began to crack before the energy even hit her.

She quickly extended her hands, creating a shield in front of her that quickly deflected the energy.

But the energy of the fused Celestials was too powerful.

The shield quickly began to crack over time before collapsing.

Her skin started to break again, exposing her flesh.

Cortana gritted her teeth, feeling for the first time in her existence what pain was.

She didn't like it; she just wanted to escape from the place. But thinking of her master behind her, she could only keep enduring.

The energy was constantly being drawn from the stones to create another shield, but it was broken almost immediately when she tried to protect herself.

Cortana's vision was darkening as her body slowly disintegrated. Still, Cortana refused to give up.

Nearly a minute passed before Cortana could stand it no longer, leaving only her metallic skeleton as she succumbed completely, Cortana's last thought was that fortunately her master did not see her looking so ugly.

Without Cortana to stop the attack, the energy of the fused Celestial fell directly onto the cocoon enveloping Damian.