After Loki stormed out in anger, Helen quickly chased after him. Although she returned this time with the duty to defend the Fairy Palace, the issue was that the most important thing in the Fairy Palace was Loki. If Loki left, then there was nothing worth protecting in this broken house. On the contrary, if something happened to Loki after flying out, it would truly be disastrous. So, Helen didn't hesitate and flew out of the Fairy Palace as well.
But she actually misunderstood one point: this broken house indeed had nothing worth protecting, after all, it was merely the residence of Odin's family. Although it held some symbolic significance, Asgard never put much importance on material things; if this house was destroyed, they could simply rebuild. The truly important things here were actually two: one was Thor's Crown, the other was Loki's Scepter.
Of course, Helen wouldn't realize the significance of these items because the Infinity Gems had not been usable for a long time. Thor's Crown usually only served a decorative purpose during major festivals; the Scepter could assist Loki in spellcasting, but that was under ordinary circumstances. If Loki rose to the status of Goddess of Glory, then the Scepter would be of no use.
Throughout her growth, Helen had never seen these two items play any important role. When she visited the Time Management Bureau, she even saw a box of Infinity Gems there and didn't regard them as treasures. So in her view, there was nothing in the Fairy Palace worth guarding, so she left without setting up any defenses.
But ironically, Batman's circuitous plan was indeed targeting these two Infinity Gems. Disguised as Thor, he injured Thor, and the goal wasn't really to kill him, but to lure Loki out, so he could steal the gems from the Fairy Palace.
The plan proceeded very smoothly. Loki rushed out in a hurry; in the state of the Goddess of Glory, he didn't need any weapons, and he threw the Scepter in his bedroom. Thor wasn't wearing his Crown either. Even though he'd heard about the human race fighting over the Infinity Gems, the battles on this side were more intense, so he didn't have time to retrieve it, leaving the Crown in the top floor wardrobe. Both Infinity Gems were unprotected, which allowed the Martian Manhunter to easily succeed.
The Martian Manhunter first picked up the Scepter, then went to the top floor to take Thor's Crown, and left without anyone noticing, very smoothly. Even until he left, no one had detected it.
This was actually due to the unique physiology of Mars people. It's been mentioned before that the Martian Manhunter is like a moving mass of molecules, similar in structure to a symbiont. When it transforms into a person, it fully mimics that person's body structure, so any scanning devices find it hard to detect any anomalies because molecularly, it's identical.
The Martian Manhunter took the place of Party Thor from a hypothetical universe mainly because this guy was a drunkard who enjoyed going down to the bar beneath the base to drink.
This base was built by Asgardians, naturally stocked with alcohol potent enough to intoxicate them. However, Asgardians metabolize such hallucinogenic substances very quickly, and a night's sleep is enough to recover. Therefore, Party Thor would always drink himself into a stupor.
Usually, it didn't matter, for a night's sleep would refresh him enough not to affect the next day's battles. But there's always a fear of someone with ulterior motives. The Martian Manhunter exploited this vulnerability, knocking Party Thor unconscious on his way back to the dormitory, and after mimicking his body structure, had the remaining few Flash bring him back to the Dark Quadrant. Meanwhile, he replaced him and joined Thor's team, taking a harsh strike at him.
Thor was caught off guard not only because he didn't expect Batman to act so quickly, but because the Martian Manhunter's mimicry even fooled Mjölnir in Party Thor's hand, meaning he could wield the Hammer. The divine power used in previous attacks on the nest also came from this hammer, identical to Party Thor's divine power. The Aesir recognize each other by their divine power, so when the divine power is the same, few suspect impersonation.
After the Martian Manhunter successfully obtained those two Gems, Batman now had five Infinity Gems, just one Soul Gem short of completing the set.
No one had foreseen the situation developing to this level. In other words, all the Marvel folks thought they had the upper hand, not realizing when the tides began to turn against them.
However, this was merely a beginning, and the more severe consequences of the recent defeats were beginning to manifest. The most important was that their strongest intelligence agency, the Holy Sanctuary, was basically rendered useless.
After the polluted Scarlet Witch and Magneto were swallowed by Helen, they resurrected in Battleworld and communicated a crucial message to the command center—there was no dimensional rift at the target location.
Although they were driven insane by pollution and turned violent, before they completely lost consciousness, they sensed the spatial structure of that area, which had no fracture at all. It was a pure trap, and the opposition didn't even bother setting it up. The center area was instead very calm, with nothing but a source of contamination.
But this intelligence came from the Holy Sanctuary, and upon reconfirmation at the command center, the Holy Sanctuary assured that it was fine, leading to significant mutant losses. So, could the Holy Sanctuary's intelligence be trusted anymore?
Originally, they should have initiated an investigation procedure to see who sent back this intelligence and who confirmed it, but it was impossible because the mages had more important tasks to perform, which was checking the Magical Defense Network.
Compared to figuring out who the mole in the Holy Sanctuary is, it is more crucial to find out how the mole entered Earth. Providing false intelligence and getting mutants killed could still be reversed; however, if the Magical Defense Network were compromised, the entire human race would be doomed.
The mages were overwhelmed with checking the Magical Defense Network, having no time to catch the mole. Ironically, the fate of the Supreme Magician was unknown with him falling into enemy hands; Loki was busy avenging his brother, so angry that he lost his sanity. Neither had time to investigate, leading the command center to abandon the Holy Sanctuary as an intelligence source.
Discarding the Holy Sanctuary intelligence source resulted in another severe consequence—no one went in search of the Infinity Gems.
The Avengers had to guard the base, Mutants needed to help Asgard with the frontline battle, mages needed to check and fix the Magical Defense Network, leaving just a few who couldn't achieve much.
So even though they knew Batman was just one gemstone away from completing his collection, they were powerless, unable to find it. As long as Batman found the last Infinity Gem, this battle was undoubtedly lost.
Only now did the superheroes on the DC side suddenly realize the grand scheme Batman had orchestrated, turning the originally disadvantageous situation into the current state.
Their greatest misstep, losing the Apocalypse Star, turned out to be their turning point to victory.
Because of losing the Apocalypse Star, the battle situation became extremely unfavorable. The Super Body tried to intervene but was caught by Batman, who then inscribed the Life Equation, giving them a magic lifeform capable of using cosmic origin power.
Then Manhattan Batman struck, capturing Doctor Strange and others, weakening Earth's magic defense strength. Then, with the help of Super Body, the magical defense network was disrupted, allowing an infiltration into the Holy Sanctuary.
Immediately after, the mole fabricated false intelligence, causing the mutants to fall into a trap and lose control, which then led the uncontrolled mutants to attack the Nine Major Kingdoms' barrier. This put enough pressure on the frontal battlefield, and then the mole ambushed Thor, diverting the Fairy Palace's guards, taking the opportunity to seize the Infinity Gem.
It's clear that the key to this plan was the mole. And the prerequisite for using the mole was Arkham Batman's group inciting conflict between the Black Queen and the White Queen, which eventually led to the White Queen's abilities erupting, destroying the planet-level Cerebro, leaving Charles in the Central Universe without psychic ability coverage across the cosmos.
And because of the mole, the Holy Sanctuary became unreliable. The command center dared not trust intelligence from the Holy Sanctuary regarding the last Infinity Gem. Other than the Holy Sanctuary, others in the universe were not efficient enough at finding things; Marvel's home-field advantage was almost non-existent.
As soon as Batman gets the last Infinity Gem, the battle situation will be completely reversed.
From the connection of these plans, it's evident Batman had considered everything from the start: first destroying Cerebro, nullifying the psychic detection ability; then quickly deploying the mole to dismantle the Holy Sanctuary's intelligence function; collecting two Infinity Gems first, before searching for the final one. A series of moves flowing smoothly.
The most troubling for the command headquarters is precisely Batman's snowballing ability. He is highly skilled at expanding a small advantage to its maximum.
For example, destroying Cerebro was their first victory after losing the Apocalypse Star, which initially wasn't considered a huge win, because Charles wasn't dead, and Erik who built Cerebro wasn't dead either, which means given some time, another could be created.
It could be said that if the opponent had been slower, this victory would have been in vain, serving only to boost morale without any other effect.
But the opponent happened to be the ever-opportunistic Batman, who in that short amount of time managed to throw Marvel's side into turmoil: severely injuring Thor, blatantly snatching two Infinity Gems, leaving Marvel unable to search for the last one, while also destroying their intelligence system.
The initially negligible battle result, under Batman's tactical maneuvering, has turned into a massive comeback. If he finds the last gemstone, it would be a decisive victory.
The command center realized that if Batman continued to snowball, the battle would be at an end. Although the current situation is very unfavorable, it is not yet time to give up; they still have some chips and can still struggle a bit.
For instance, the supermen trapped by Charles are a suitable target to operate on. Although they can no longer negotiate with Batman based on them, they can at least be used as hostages to slow Batman down.
Moreover, those who have been sitting on the fence can no longer remain neutral. Marvel is at the brink of life and death; if they don't act now, they will be expelled from the Central Universe.
"Heh heh, don't be so hasty." Mephisto paced in front of Natasha and said, "You know, I've always been a staunch supporter of our universe. How could I not help you? I didn't act before only because I was waiting for the right moment."
"When will your moment arrive?" Natasha asked coldly, "When Batman throws a victory party?"
"Not exactly," Mephisto rolled his eyes and said, "Rushing head-on isn't our devil style. Devils rely on brains. I have a small idea..."
"Speak."