However, in the next moment, Lyon merely increased the strength slightly.
Carol's fully activated photon energy was instantly scattered.
Her entire body was like a migratory bird flying through the sky, suddenly struck by a falling meteor—blasted straight down from the high altitude by the heat vision.
Lyon ceased his heat vision and looked at the gaping hole blown through the cloud layer, frowning slightly.
"That just now… was Binary Mode?"
Lyon began to doubt his own judgment.
The heat vision he had used just now was completely casual—not even one ten-thousandth of his full strength.
So why did Carol seem utterly unable to fight back...?
"Probably not," he concluded.
Lyon figured she must've been caught off guard.
He had to give her another chance.
A few seconds later, Carol burst through the cloud layer once more, her entire body radiating golden light.
Her golden hair flared upward like fire.
Platinum-colored energy surged continuously around her, like vast, unending rivers and seas.
Her eyes blazed with such intense golden light that it looked like it would shoot out at any moment.
Like a battle angel descended from the heavens, she was completely shrouded in a holy light of triumph.
There was no doubt—this was Binary Mode.
In this form, Carol's power would surge dramatically. Her speed could surpass the speed of light, and her strength seemed to have no limits.
But in Lyon's vision, as he gazed through the seemingly tangible photon energy, what he saw was Captain Marvel's chest, covered in blood and mangled flesh.
Her square face was also streaked with blood.
No matter how you looked at it, she was seriously injured.
Fortunately, Captain Marvel still possessed powerful regenerative abilities. The wounds on her body were healing rapidly.
"You… how are you this strong…!!"
Carol stared at Lyon in a mix of anger and shock.
Lyon didn't quite know how to respond. He scratched his cheek. "So… is this Binary Mode now?"
"You—!" Carol froze for a moment, then her emotions exploded. She threw a punch. "You bastard, get out of my sight!"
Lyon's question was genuine.
After all, in his mind, Carol in Binary Mode should at least be a Heavenly King–level powerhouse—she shouldn't have been pushed aside by a single heat vision.
But to Carol, those words sounded like a blatant mockery of her strength.
She charged at Lyon again, her speed increasing at an astonishing rate.
The few hundred meters between them vanished in the blink of an eye.
Her fist surged with energy powerful enough to shatter mountains and split seas, striking toward Lyon at a speed of tens of thousands of meters per second.
Under that punch, even the air pressure at high altitude shifted dramatically.
Fierce winds howled, and every place her fist passed through seemed to be vacuumed of air.
Yet in Lyon's eyes, in combat mode, her speed wasn't even close to a slow-motion replay.
He casually tilted his head and dodged her iron fist—the surface of her punch grazing past the side of his face.
When Carol went in for another strike, he simply adjusted his position and dodged again.
In just a few seconds, Carol had thrown more than thirty punches, and Lyon effortlessly evaded each one.
With every dodge, the disappointment in his eyes grew deeper, and in his heart, he found himself missing the far more durable Dormammu.
After evading another attack, Lyon gently pushed Carol away with a single palm, sending her flying several hundred meters.
"That's enough. I've understood your strength. You're not the opponent I'm looking for," Lyon said, shaking his head.
"Your Binary Mode has high potential, but you can't even bring out one ten-thousandth of its upper limit. Now take those Skrulls and leave Earth. Don't make me get serious."
In Marvel's power assessment system, Carol's strength rating was a 5, while Hulk was a max-level 7.
A level-5 strength rating meant a lifting range between 25 to 75 tons.
So Carol's raw physical strength wasn't actually that impressive.
Her true power came entirely from her energy.
Photon energy granted her defense, enhanced her strength, and boosted her speed.
Of these, the most exaggerated boost was to speed and defense.
Carol's speed could reach—or even exceed—the speed of light.
At such speeds, even a strength level of 100 tons could unleash destructive force powerful enough to obliterate a continental shelf.
In the What If...? series of parallel universes, the reason Captain Marvel was capable of star-busting feats was because she could drastically increase her speed at any moment, and freely wield her vast energy reserves for attacks.
But the Captain Marvel standing before Lyon was clearly far from mastering her Binary Mode.
She was still nowhere near that level of power.
—At least, not in actual combat.
Lyon hadn't seen her display any strength above a million tons, nor any punch speed exceeding Mach 1000.
At most, this level of power was about the same as his own before he crossed into the Swallowed Star universe.
"Hmm.. So I was right after all. When I first returned to Earth from the starship, I really was on equal footing with Captain Marvel," Lyon mused to himself.
As for now—
He shook his head and turned to head home and continue his cultivation!
However, a beam of light shot in from the side, slicing through the air in front of him and cutting off his path.
"Someone who only dares to dodge has no right to say I'm not reaching the limits of Binary Mode!" After throwing so many empty punches, Carol was on the verge of exploding from sheer frustration.
"Oh?" Lyon slowly turned back, expressionless, and held out his hand. "Come."
That calm, almost dismissive gesture provoked Carol again.
Her face twisted for a moment, and in an instant, her figure shattered the sound barrier as she charged at Lyon.
The clouds below were cleaved in two by the air currents she stirred up.
"She's using her flight speed to drive her punches. That is faster," Lyon evaluated inwardly. "Though she still can't instantly hit light speed, she can at least build up momentum during flight until she reaches her limit."
"In that sense, she's actually quite suited to fighting like a humanoid missile."
No wonder Captain Marvel in the movies always flew headfirst into ships to destroy them.
Turns out, that really was her strongest attack.
While analyzing, Lyon raised a hand and casually blocked Carol's assault.
Her fist, blazing with photon energy, was effortlessly caught by him—held in place, completely unmoving.
"What…?!" Carol was stunned once again.
She tried to yank her hand back or push Lyon away, but it was like struggling against a mountain—she couldn't budge him in the slightest.
Even when she lifted off the ground, pouring out energy as if her life depended on it, she still couldn't push Lyon an inch.
"Let go!" She raised her other fist and swung. "Let go of me!"
Lyon glanced at her.
Then he grabbed her incoming left arm.
With just a slight exertion of his palm, the energy of the Space Stone tore through the photon energy.
The equivalent of half the Earth's weight compressed into just a few square centimeters of pressure bore down on her arm.
Carol's left arm bone snapped instantly.
Her forearm twisted upward at a ninety-degree angle from the midpoint.
A jagged white bone tore through the surrounding tissue, bringing with it a spray of bright red blood that scattered across the sky.
"Ah!!" Carol's scream of agony echoed through the high skies.
Her face turned deathly pale under the intense pain.
Immediately, her adrenaline surged, quickly suppressing the pain signals in her body.
A primal instinct to escape took over, driving her to lift her leg and kick at Lyon in an attempt to break free from his grip.
But Lyon simply frowned slightly, let go of her, pulled his arms back, and then delivered a short, forceful punch directly into Carol's chest.
The crisp sound of cracking bones and the sickening rupture of internal organs rang out through the thin air, reaching Lyon's ears.
Carol's eyes bulged wide, her mouth gaping as she let out gasping, choking coughs.
The next moment, her eyes lost their light, the energy around her vanished, and she collapsed limply against Lyon's outstretched arm.
Such injuries wouldn't take Captain Marvel's life, but they would certainly leave her bedridden for several days.
Lyon shook his head.
Captain Marvel's defense was indeed strong—strong enough to withstand collisions at faster-than-light speeds—but it all came from her energy.
Without that energy, she was nothing.
Even without using the Space Stone to break through her photon energy, he could still treat her like a punching bag.
Although Carol's defenses prevented her from sustaining fatal injuries, they also left her with no strength to fight back.
Thinking about it, battling Dormammu last time was much more satisfying.
That thick-skinned monster, even after being punched several kilometers away, still retaliated.
Unlike this Captain Marvel—her strength and defense were terribly mismatched.
Lyon grabbed one of Carol's arms, flew into space, and casually tossed her into the Skrull fleet.
Since she liked protecting aliens so much, she could stay far away from Earth with them.
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Read ahead of WN at Patreon.com/LiveLifeLove