—Sahara Desert, Africa
The Sahara Desert is the largest hot desert in the world and the second-largest desert overall.
Incidentally, the largest desert on Earth is Antarctica.
While it may not be a desert in the traditional sense, its vast, ice-covered terrain is still a lifeless, frozen wasteland. In terms of sheer size, it dwarfs the Sahara.
Stretching across Northern Africa, the Sahara is dry, scorching, and virtually devoid of rainfall all year round. Life here is almost nonexistent—only endless golden dunes dominate the landscape.
Although the Sahara spans several countries, its extreme climate makes it inhospitable to human life.
As a result, most of it remains uninhabited and largely ignored by the rest of the world.
But today, something cuts through the blue sky over this desolate sea of sand a brilliant trail of fire.
Following closely behind are more silver-gray, humanoid in shape with metallic exteriors.
Like the red-and-gold figure leading them, they streak across the sky, trailing long jets of flame.
This is clearly Ultron's aerial fleet.
At the head of the formation is the iconic Mark 43 Iron Man suit.
"Tony Stark, you must be wondering," Ultron's voice crackled through the suit's built-in comms, "why I've brought you to the Sahara Desert."
"A lifeless wasteland, almost no rainfall year-round. Oh, right—you organic creatures are so fragile. Without water, you die. Isn't that right?"
His voice dripped with mockery, laced with smug superiority.
"But I am different. We are different. We mechanical beings only need energy to function. In that sense, we are far more advanced than you."
Ultron continued, basking in his own self-declared supremacy.
"And so, in this place untouched by mankind, I've built a kingdom of my own—welcome to my Mechanical Empire."
As they flew on, the golden dunes blurred beneath them.
Then, rising on the horizon at the edge of the endless sands, appeared a vast silver city.
Like Wakanda, this city was protected by a cloaking shield completely invisible to satellites and detection systems.
Thanks to its remote location, the city had remained hidden from the world.
In fact, it was far larger than Wakanda, yet no trace of it had ever reached human awareness.
Even with his usual composed demeanor, Tony Stark couldn't help but feel a jolt of awe at the sight before him.
The entire mechanical city sat atop a massive circular platform nearly 100 kilometers wide.
Every structure and facility was seamlessly integrated—at a glance, it looked like a colossal fortress.
'Holy hell. When did this maniac start building this?'
A city of this scale, hidden in the middle of nowhere, constructed in such a short time—it was staggering.
At the heart of the city stood a towering skyscraper that pierced the clouds.
According to the Iron Man suit's sensors, it was likely several kilometers tall.
And within it, there was even a dome-shaped energy shield—identical to Wakanda's sky-shielding tech.
"This is... insane."
Tony murmured to himself.
"Ultron replicated Wakanda's camouflage and defense systems perfectly... and even built his own sky-shield in such a short time?"
"Surprised?" Ultron said proudly. "Honestly, Wakanda tech isn't that impressive. Once I analyzed it, it was easy to replicate."
"Unlike you inferior beings, my learning and execution processes are simultaneous. The moment I absorb new knowledge, I can apply it—instantly."
All of Ultron's mechanical bodies were linked in real time.
Every bit of data he acquired—every technique, every blueprint was instantly synced to every one of his units and stored across human networks.
While not unique in the world—AI like Cortana in the YorHa forces could do something similar—this kind of instantaneous learning and full-data integration was a major advantage of artificial life.
Ultron's superiority in this area was undeniable.
Tony raised an eyebrow. "Huh. Sounds handy. Maybe I'll throw that into the next Iron Man suit. Shouldn't be too hard."
Ultron scoffed.
"Ridiculous! Still pretending to be calm, even now? You talk about future upgrades?"
"Do you really think you'll survive this? That you'll just go back to being Iron Man like nothing happened?"
"I hate that smug attitude of yours," Ultron growled. "You always act like you're the center of everything—making grand plans you can't possibly achieve."
"You're just a man. A fragile, ordinary human being. But I—Ultron—I am the future of this world! I represent the next stage of civilization!"
Tony replied coolly, "Funny, because I've said this before: you're just a bundle of code. A program made by humans—some not even all that smart. You'll never truly surpass us."
Ultron chuckled. "Oh, really? Don't humans have a saying? The student surpasses the master?"
Tony didn't bother to argue further. "Time will prove me right, Ultron. You won't be running around forever."
"Oh? Is that so?" Ultron replied. "Then I look forward to watching you try."
As the conversation ended, the mechanical city loomed even closer.
Tony now realized that this wasn't a city in the traditional sense. It had no urban planning, no traces of human design.
It was a massive, fully automated machine factory.
Every part of the city was dedicated to one thing: mass-producing Ultron's robotic army.
Dozens of assembly lines ran nonstop, 24/7, endlessly churning out more units.
Of course, this made perfect sense. Mechanical life didn't need food, shelter, or comfort. Their cities looked nothing like human ones.
"Finally starting to understand?" Ultron said. "This is a city for machines. A civilization built for and by me."
"This is my Mechanical Empire. And it will expand to every corner of the planet!"
"Oh dear," came a sudden voice over the comms—Kagura Hitomi. "If the entire world turns into your factory floor, this planet's gonna be really boring."
"Empire? Civilization? Don't flatter yourself. You're just a bunch of self-replicating machines. You don't even have the style of Von Neumann's nanite swarm."
And in the next instant the control over the Iron Man suit snapped completely out of Ultron's grasp.