Eric watched the shimmering portal collapse behind Tony and Yinsen, sealing their exit without a trace.
He let out a quiet sigh, rubbing the back of his neck as the weight of the past year finally started to settle.
Home.
Sort of.
But first, he had some loose ends to tie up.
“This place is almost like a maze…” Eric muttered to himself, glancing around at the winding tunnels that stretched in every direction.
The enemy had burrowed in here like some twisted ant colony, using every twist and turn for cover.
In such tight quarters, his heavier hitters like Igris or Bellion would’ve had a rough time swinging their massive weapons without bringing the whole ceiling down.
But for Berru and the Ant Soldiers?
This terrain was practically custom-made.
Normally, Berru would’ve wiped the floor with every last terrorist by now, turning the base into a ghost town in minutes.
Yet the shadow commander was taking his sweet time, moving methodically instead of going full blitz.
Eric furrowed his brows, sensing the odd restraint through their connection.
It was like Berru was deliberately holding back on the large-scale demolition, carefully picking his fights to minimize unnecessary chaos.
“Did he take a liking to this place?” Eric wondered aloud with a half-smirk.
The ant was preserving the layout, which ironically made it harder to hunt down the last pockets of resistance.
For a brief second, Eric considered summoning the full squad of Ant Soldiers to speed things up and then handing the whole cave system over to Berru as a new playground.
But then he hesitated.
Thinking about that massive castle Berru had whipped up for him back in the Solo Leveling world—yeah, the one that was basically mountain-sized—Eric quickly killed the idea.
If Berru really liked this spot, he needed to shut it down fast.
Who knew what kind of ridiculous fortress the ant would construct if left unsupervised?
The last thing this already chaotic Marvel world needed was a giant shadow-ant skyscraper popping up in Afghanistan.
Plus, there was the whole Obadiah Stane angle.
In the original timeline, the guy was supposed to stumble across some prototype suit tech here later and build his Iron Monger armor from it.
Destroying the place entirely felt like the smarter play.
It would save Eric time, keep Tony from dealing with extra headaches down the line, and hey—Tony was one of his all-time favorite characters.
A little behind-the-scenes help never hurt.
As for how this would mess with the so-called “plot”?
Eric shrugged internally.
He didn’t particularly care.
Before visiting the Solo Leveling world, he might’ve stressed over butterfly effects and timeline ripples like some overcautious fanboy.
But now?
With multiversal-level power sitting in his back pocket, those worries felt tiny.
If he still had to tiptoe around insignificant stuff despite everything he’d earned, he might as well dig a hole and hide in it for the rest of his life.
Nah.
Time to wrap this up.
“Berru,” Eric called out, his voice cutting through the distant chaos with pinpoint clarity.
Within a mere second, the towering ant commander materialized before him, dropping to one knee in the dusty cave floor.
Even covered in the remnants of battle, Berru’s insect-like form radiated that same unwavering loyalty, his exoskeleton still gleaming faintly.
“I deeply apologize for the delay, Your Highness,” Berru said, his voice laced with genuine regret.
“I will finish everything here as quickly as possible.”
Eric shook his head, waving it off casually.
“No need for that.
Besides, you seem to like this place.
Do you want it?”
He asked the question while already brainstorming polite excuses to turn down whatever request might come next, but it turned out he was overthinking it.
Berru tilted his ant head slightly, confusion clear even on his usually blank, eerie face.
“What do you mean, Your Highness?”
A smirk tugged at Eric’s lips as he crossed his arms.
“I noticed you’ve been trying to preserve this dump as much as possible.
Usually you’d be done in a flash, but instead you’re tiptoeing around like you’re handling fine china.”
Berru stiffened, lowering his gaze respectfully.
“That… Your Highness showed kindness to those two men earlier.
Since this is their home, I thought it would be best to leave it as intact as possible.”
For a moment, silence hung in the cave.
Then—
“Pfft—”
A loud laugh burst out of Eric, catching Berru completely off guard.
The Ant Commander lowered his head even further, sounding a touch nervous.
“Forgive me if I have done something wrong, my lord.”
Eric wiped a tear from the corner of his eye, still chuckling as he tried to pull himself together.
“No, no, it’s just—” He took a deep breath, grinning ear to ear.
“You, trying to be all delicate and careful?
That’s a first.
And if Tony knew you thought this terrorist hideout was his ‘home,’ I can only imagine the face he’d make.
The guy was literally hiding with his ass sticking out earlier.”
Berru hesitated, clearly processing the reaction.
“Your Highness, I assure you, I can be quite meticulous when necessary.”
Eric raised an eyebrow, still amused.
“Right.
Because tearing enemies in half with those claws is the absolute peak of precision work.”
Berru, ever the loyal soldier, tried to defend himself with deadpan seriousness.
“If I had known it would amuse you, I would have tried to crush them more elegantly.”
Eric burst out laughing again, clutching his side.
“Berru, stop—you’re gonna kill me here!”
The Ant Commander straightened up a bit, looking genuinely puzzled.
“Is it funny, Your Highness?”
Eric exhaled, shaking his head with a fond grin.
“No, but watching you play gentle giant with a bunch of armed terrorists is.”
The lighthearted moment cut through the grim cave atmosphere nicely.
But playtime was over.
Eric turned his gaze upward, and with a casual push of power, he propelled himself straight through the hole he’d made earlier.
In seconds, he was hovering over a hundred meters above the ground, the Afghan landscape sprawling out beneath him like a rugged map.
Even from this height, he could spot the last remnants of resistance—desperate terrorists scrambling to launch missiles at the “unknown enemy” tearing through their ranks.
He sighed.
Tired didn’t even begin to cover it.
A full year away from home, grinding through life-or-death nonsense, and now this?
Lingering here any longer felt pointless.
He had zero interest in babysitting these guys.
Raising his right hand, a faint blue glow built up around his fingertips, illuminating the air with an ominous, pulsing light.
The atmosphere seemed to hold its breath, the world itself pausing in anticipation.
Then, with a slow, deliberate motion, Eric lowered his hand like he was swatting a particularly annoying fly.
The sky split with a deafening boom.
An immense, invisible force slammed down onto the battlefield like the palm of an angry god.
The earth quivered violently, fracturing under the overwhelming pressure as a massive imprint—perfectly shaped like a colossal hand—crushed into the ground.
Shockwaves rippled outward, shattering buildings, hurling weapons and debris into the air like confetti in a hurricane.
A brief, deafening silence followed—the calm before nature threw its tantrum.
Then a violent rush of wind spiraled downward, roaring in to fill the sudden vacuum.
The displaced air howled like a vengeful spirit, kicking up a blinding vortex of sand and dust that swallowed everything.
What had once been a stubborn stronghold of defiance turned into a chaotic wasteland in moments.
Structures collapsed, bodies and equipment vanished beneath the golden tides of sand.
The desert itself seemed eager to reclaim the land, ensuring nothing would remain.
This wasn’t just destruction.
It was total erasure.
In a few days, the shifting dunes would bury it all, leaving no evidence that any of this craziness had ever happened.
The world would move on, none the wiser.
Satisfied, Eric dusted off his hands with a casual flick.
“That should do it.” He opened a portal with a lazy wave, the swirling gateway humming to life beside him, and stepped through without a backward glance.
Time to finally head home and see his mom.
As the last remnants of the artificial storm raged below, another portal suddenly materialized in the air a short distance away.
From within it, a bald woman clad in a flowing yellow robe stepped forth, her presence calm and ancient amid the howling winds.
She stood motionless for a long moment, her expression unreadable as she surveyed the devastated landscape.
The fierce gusts tugged at her robes, yet she remained perfectly still, like a statue carved from time itself.
Lifting one hand slightly, she seemed to consider intervening—perhaps weaving some mystic spell to undo or investigate—but ultimately lowered it again.
“I was one step too late,” she murmured, her voice carrying a solemn weight that cut through the chaos.
Her golden eyes narrowed ever so slightly.
“It seems I will have to be an uninvited guest this time.”
With that, the Ancient One turned and stepped back through her portal, vanishing as quietly as she had appeared.
The storm continued its work below, relentlessly erasing every trace of the battle.
Soon, the sands of the desert would swallow it all, burying secrets, destruction, and the faint echoes of a new player in this world beneath layers of unforgiving time.