Stirring up trouble, stirring up trouble, stirring up trouble!

"Lotus, you're finally awake."

"What happened, Luke? Did you get beaten to a pulp?"

"..."

"Who are these scums?"

"Well, these are the Chitauri I told you about. As for this woman, huh... why isn't she moving?"

Saying this, Luke suddenly noticed with surprise that Proxima Midnight was standing in place, completely motionless. Her eyes were filled with terror, but her body was like a soulless shell. Even her spear had been dropped.

A thought flashed through his mind, and he instantly understood.

It was Lotus's mental control!

"Hmph. Weak creatures..." Lotus hummed with utter disdain.

"Good opportunity!"

Luke's eyes lit up. Seizing this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, he flicked the joystick. Volunron gripped the glowing giant sword with both hands and stabbed it swiftly and fiercely straight at Proxima Midnight!

"Taste my salted fish thrust!"

Instantly, blood spurted from Proxima Midnight's body as she was sliced diagonally into two halves...

The blood flowing from Proxima Midnight's body turned out to be blue.

At the same time, she instantly regained her consciousness, snapping out of the illusion caused by Lotus. Immediately after, she let out a shrill, piercing scream: "Ah—!"

Even as formidable as she was, one of the Black Order, facing such a fatal wound, her life had reached its end.

She shrieked in shock and fury: "Apostle, Lord Thanos will not let you go!"

And then she breathed her last.

Taking two steps forward, Luke maneuvered the mecha and used two fingers to pick up Proxima Midnight's dimming spear from the ground. He glanced at it twice before tossing it directly into his storage space.

"Phew—"

Inside the cockpit, Luke's entire body relaxed. He let out a long breath: "Finally took down this woman..."

"Look at you, making such a big fuss and getting this tired over just one woman," Lotus scolded.

"..."

The intense and grueling battle had left Luke both physically and mentally exhausted.

Yet he knew that now was not the time to let his guard down. The problem of the Chitauri army outnumbering them tenfold had not been resolved yet; he needed to immediately go and shut down the portal generator to put an end to all of this.

Voltron raised its head and scanned the entire battlefield. Then Luke asked in surprise, "You released your mental control again?"

Within his line of sight, whether it was the human superheroes, the Chitauri, or even Thor and Hulk, all of them looked as though the image had been frozen—either lying on the ground or standing up, completely motionless.

Luke noticed that the Four Roses had also lost consciousness at that moment.

Pondering briefly, Luke took out Loki's scepter and said, "I'll go close the portal first."

"Close it? No way!" Lotus immediately objected.

"Why?" Luke asked in surprise.

"Such a rare opportunity to cause trouble, and you're actually not planning to make good use of it? You're planning to end it? Luke! Have you forgotten your original intention for coming here? Have you forgotten your mission?" Lotus asked in a dissatisfied tone.

Luke said helplessly, "Then what do you propose?"

"Naturally, take the opportunity to spread the glory of the Apostles! I want to cause trouble, and make it big!"

"I think I've already done that." Luke pointed at the shining Orb of Apocalypse in the sky, "Besides, the entire East Coast has been dragged into this war. It has long since strayed from the plot, and things are already big enough."

"Is that so..." Lotus gazed at the Orb of Apocalypse with a somewhat complicated look in its eyes, then it hummed, "It's not enough! Far from enough..."

Luke frowned and said, "Speaking of which, what is the actual meaning of spreading the glory of the Apostles? What is the purpose of doing this? Don't you dare tell me this is just for fun. The DNF invasion of Marvel—you should at least tell me the real intention behind it, right?"

When he said these words, Luke's tone was unprecedentedly serious.

In fact, he had pondered this question many times in his heart. Now, he wanted to hear Lotus explain it personally.

Lotus hummed unhappily, but still explained to him: "As the bridge connecting the Apostles to this world, you are the emissary of the Apostles in this realm. The foolish mortals, they need to know of the existence of the great Apostles. And you, you just need to remember that spreading the glory of the Apostles is your mission and mine, the meaning of our existence!"

Luke was certainly not satisfied with such an ambiguous answer: "What you just said is equivalent to saying nothing. You still haven't answered me, why on earth is this?"

Lotus thought for a moment, a hint of confusion also showing in its eyes, and hesitated: "I... don't know either. I seem to have forgotten."

Luke was left speechless for a moment.

"Regardless," Lotus immediately perked up again. It jumped up and down inside its fish tank, clamoring, "This is still a very rare opportunity to cause trouble. Our duty is to seize every opportunity to spread the name of the Apostles! Struggle on, young man! Don't bring shame to the Apostles. Cause trouble, cause trouble, cause trouble!"

"Fine..." Luke said helplessly.

The next moment, Lotus withdrew its mental control. Across the entire city of New York, as if a pause button had been manually released, everyone was able to move again.

Yet deep inside everyone's heart, panic and terror reigned.

This time, they did not lose this memory; the image of that gigantic, grotesque, and terrifying octopus had been deeply branded into everyone's mind...

Everyone showed a brief moment of blank bewilderment.

They looked around in a daze. Just moments ago, they were clearly in an immensely oppressive environment, as if they were deep in the ocean where they could not breathe, and it seemed they had stayed there for a very long time.

There, they could not speak, could not move, could not communicate with one another, and in their eyes, there was only that terrifying monster... remaining silent.

Yet in the blink of an eye, their surrounding environment changed again, reverting to the familiar scene.

"What on earth just happened!? What was that thing just now!?" On the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier, Nick Fury was utterly shocked: "That image, could it be..."

Judging from the expressions of everyone around him, it was clear that everyone had "seen" that thing.

On the battlefield, the superheroes also looked at each other in dismay. That clawed and fanged image lingered persistently in their minds. Especially Captain America, Steve Rogers; his expression was even more gloomy and unsightly. The worst of memories gradually surfaced before his eyes.

"Uh, guys..." Black Widow's warning voice startled everyone back to reality.

Everyone noticed that the Chitauri soldiers who had inexplicably dropped down and collapsed earlier were also beginning to stand back up in large numbers.

At the same time, in the sky, massive numbers of Chitauri invaders continued to pour out from the portal. Leviathans were also taking flight once more from various parts of the city.

After an abnormal and brief interruption, this battle was far from over.