Attacking the Sanctums

At the edge of the forest, Jarvis looked up at the sky and shouted, "This is bad. The Sky Base is out of control. I used an energy barrier to slow it down, but it hasn’t done much. In a little over a minute, it’ll crash down here like a meteorite."

"What?"

Everyone was shocked. Human Torch could not help shouting, "Have they gone insane? They’ll die too."

"They opened three portals. Most of the agents have already left. The ones remaining are ready to fight us to the death."

Jarvis said, "Strange and the others have failed completely."

"Director, evacuate now."

Watching the Sky Base draw closer and faster overhead, Coulson hurriedly shouted.

"Drone Armor, take the agents and retreat. Super Heroes and Inhumans, escape on your own."

As Steve directed everyone to retreat, he shouted, "Jarvis, is there any way to stop the Sky Base? We’re retreating too slowly. There could be casualties."

Jarvis analyzed, "With Mage Strange absent, Hydra cannot be used, and communications have also malfunctioned. The only way to resolve the current crisis is to use Hulk.

"If Hulk transforms into the God of Anger, he can withstand or knock away the Sky Base. However, he cannot control his power. The collision would be extremely violent, and everyone inside the base would be shaken to death."

"Knock away the Sky Base? He can do something like that?"

Everyone was stunned. Was that even humanly possible?

Of course not. It was godly.

"Communications are down?"

Coulson was more concerned about that. He hurriedly took out his phone and found that it had no signal at all.

Dr. Banner burst out of his clothes and transformed into Hulk. Stretching his limbs, he said, "Leave it to me. Get ready to defend against the shockwave."

"No. If you attack, everyone inside will die."

Yelena and Natasha shouted at the same time. Their mother might still be in there.

"We can’t worry about that now."

Steve spoke. At that moment, Hulk frowned and said, "No. Jarvis, it’s not just communications that have been blocked. Space has been blocked too. I can’t transform into the God of Anger right now."

Jarvis was stunned. "You can’t transform?"

"Bert opened a Backdoor for me on Earth, but my commands can’t leave this area."

Hulk said helplessly, "Still, don’t worry. Even if I can’t transform, I can dismantle the Sky Base. It’ll just be more troublesome, with bigger aftershocks and more commotion."

Jarvis was about to speak when he suddenly glanced at the sky and said, "Mage Strange has returned. If he works with Hydra, they can easily handle the Sky Base while ensuring everyone inside remains safe."

"Hydra? Can’t it work with Hulk?"

Steve asked through gritted teeth. He felt that the world was full of malice.

Jarvis said, "Hulk is not good at control. He only excels at destruction."

Hulk said unhappily, "Who says so? Hulk is also good at eating."

Everyone was speechless. Steve gritted his teeth and said, "Use Hydra. Everyone else, stop retreating and prepare for battle."

Coulson shouted, "Director."

"It’s fine. Human lives matter more."

Steve shook his head. If he had a choice, he definitely would not use Hydra. The problem was that he had no choice right now.

Natasha said gratefully, "Steve, thank you."

Steve shook his head. "No need to be so polite. I’m not doing this for you. S.W.O.R.D. does things differently from S.H.I.E.L.D."

At that moment, Strange, having received Jarvis’s notification, flew back wrapped in his cloak. With the situation so urgent, he did not waste a word. He directly took out a short metal staff and controlled Hydra.

Hydra immediately flew over from afar. One of its heads raised high, controlling fierce winds that wrapped around the Sky Base.

The base immediately began descending more slowly. Although the people inside suffered some impact, they were not seriously harmed.

Then Strange shouted to Steve, "Director Steve, in a moment, I’ll transfer everyone in the Sky Base out. Be ready to deal with them."

The reason he had to wait was that the descent was currently too fast for him to be confident in making the transfer.

"Okay."

Steve nodded and had everyone prepare for battle. Hulk curled his lip. It looked like he would not get a chance to show off his muscles.

A moment later, Strange cast with both hands. Golden Wattoomb’s Winds swept through the Sky Base, transferring everyone inside to the open ground ahead.

Those people froze for a moment, then raised their Energy Guns and prepared to fire at the nearby S.W.O.R.D. agents.

It was worth mentioning that none of them were Spider Demons. All the Spider Demons had been taken away. These were researchers and guards who had yet to complete their transformations.

"So weak."

Hulk curled his lip and stomped on the ground. The earth shook, the ground cracked, and everyone ahead of him fell to the ground.

The Super Heroes and Inhumans seized the chance to charge forward, while the agents rapidly fired their specially modified Tranquilizer Guns at those people.

After that stomp, Hulk did not attack again, because those people were simply too weak. He said to Dr. Banner, "Banner, the clothes are torn. Go take a nap first. I think there’ll be more fighting later."

Dr. Banner looked at him contemptuously. "You did that on purpose, didn’t you?"

Hulk chuckled. "Who told you to have such a weak body? You can’t even handle a little cold. Say, Banner, when the time comes, do you want me to lend you some strength?"

"You’re so sleazy. Hmph, what kind of joke is that? Do I need cheats?"

Dr. Banner first looked disdainful, then asked in a low voice, "How much can you lend me, and how would it work? Betty has been wanting a child lately."

Leaving aside Hulk and Dr. Banner’s sleazy deal, after transferring everyone out, Strange controlled Hydra to wrap around the Sky Base and slow its descent.

Hydra was a god-level being with extraordinary strength. Combined with its ability to control fierce winds, the base fell slower and slower. It should have no problem landing safely.

"More or less as calculated."

Jarvis nodded and flew into the sky. Then he disabled the Sky Base’s Defense Shield, raised his arm, opened his armor, and sent more than a dozen small mechanical octopuses flying into the Sky Base.

The Sky Base had been given a self-destruct order. Jarvis intended to dismantle all the bombs, which was simply too easy for him.

Meanwhile, Natasha and Yelena rushed into the crowd to search for their mother. To their disappointment, their mother was not among them, but Dreykov was.

To Kaecilius, Dreykov was nothing but trash, so he had left him behind.

"Dreykov."

Natasha did not waste any words. She drew the curved blade from her waist and beheaded Dreykov. At the same time, a ray of white light shot over and pierced Dreykov’s chest. Yelena had attacked as well.

There was nothing to say. Trash like him only deserved to be killed.

"That felt good."

Natasha let out a breath and set fire to Dreykov’s corpse, lest he fake his death again.

Before long, all the enemies had been subdued. At the same time, Hydra brought the Sky Base down safely.

"Good. Everything’s settled."

Steve let out a sigh of relief. At that moment, Mordo, Wong in a robe, and Tony, who had put his armor back on, flew down from the sky together.

"It’s not settled. In fact, we screwed up."

Mordo said with an ugly expression, "If I’m not mistaken, Kaecilius has gone to attack the Three Sanctuaries. With us gone, the Three Sanctuaries probably can’t stop him."

"What? Attacking the Three Sanctuaries?"

Strange’s expression changed. He hurriedly tried to open a portal, but to his shock, the sparks had barely appeared before they immediately went out.

Mordo said, "Don’t bother. Wong and I tried many times just now. We can’t open a portal."

Strange shouted, "Then what do we do? Once the Three Sanctuaries are destroyed, Dormammu will descend upon Earth and swallow the whole planet into the Dark Dimension."

"Notify Bert and have him stop Kaecilius immediately."

Steve hurriedly shouted. Tony shook his head. "No. Communications have been completely cut off. This area is sealed off by chaotic Space Energy. I just controlled the Drone Armor to leave this area, but as soon as it entered the chaotic zone, it was shredded to pieces.

"Still, there’s no need to worry too much. Bert isn’t dead. He can’t possibly fail to sense something as major as the destruction of the Three Sanctuaries.

"Besides, Kamar-Taj still has the Sorcerer Supreme guarding it."

Everyone could not help but breathe a sigh of relief. Only Strange’s expression remained grave. "The Sorcerer Supreme is seriously injured and has yet to recover. As for the Blood God, he is indeed powerful, but if Kaecilius dared to make a move, he must have prepared a way to deal with him.

"So we can’t place all our hopes on Bert. The true key to victory lies with us."

Tony frowned. "Aren’t you overthinking this? I’m not exactly fond of Bert, but he’s not that easy to deal with."

"My intuition tells me that I may be the one who has to resolve this."

Strange shook his head. Tony was speechless. He had finally met someone even more narcissistic than himself.

Wong said, "This is Earth. The Space Storm should calm down soon."

"Even at its fastest, it’ll take a few minutes. With Kaecilius’s current strength and manpower, the Three Sanctuaries won’t last that long."

Strange asked Mordo, "Mordo, how powerful is the Space Storm? Can we force our way through?"

Mordo thought for a moment and said, "We definitely can’t force our way through. Hydra probably can, but it’s a puppet. It would be useless if it crossed over without anyone directing it."

"Isn’t that simple? Have Hydra swallow us and take us out with it."

Mindy said. Tony snapped, "When adults are talking, children… huh, wait, that actually sounds like a good idea."

"There’s no time to lose. Move."

Strange shouted. Steve said, "Super Heroes and Inhumans, assemble. Everyone else stays here with Jarvis and waits for space to stabilize. Wong, stay behind and prepare to open a portal."

Wong hesitated for a moment, then nodded. "All right."

Strange was about to cast a spell to protect everyone when Mindy took out a crystal ball and tapped it. The crystal ball transformed into a dome of light. Then she waved to the others. "Get in, quick."

"You really do have a lot of good stuff."

Strange and the others stepped inside the light dome. Mindy giggled. "Can’t help it. My Master is rich. I have pretty much all the magical family artifacts here. Some are even connected to myths and legends."

Tony’s eyes lit up as he asked, "Can you sell me a few? I’ll pay a high price."

"We’ll talk later. Let’s go now."

Strange controlled Hydra to swallow the crystal light dome. Then Hydra soared into the sky and flew toward the Chaos Space outside.

The Space Storm was incredibly terrifying. As soon as Hydra flew into it, its body was torn apart, covered in wounds so deep that bone was visible. Fortunately, it had astonishing regenerative powers, and its body recovered rapidly.

Destroyed, restored, destroyed, restored—Hydra charged forward with all its strength. Since the Chaos Space was not very long, it quickly broke through and entered the uninhabited forest outside.

Strange immediately controlled Hydra to spit out the crystal light dome. Then he cast a spell to open a portal to the New York Sanctum, and everyone rushed inside.

The moment they arrived at the New York Sanctum, Strange and the others saw a horrifying sight—on the platform, Kaecilius had pierced both a mage and Ancient One with a Space Blade.

Let us turn back time slightly.

At the London Sanctum, after three mages stepped out of a portal, they immediately launched an attack. Alarms blared throughout the Sanctum, and the magical Defense Shield rapidly rose.

"Break it."

The three mages shouted viciously. Hundreds of Spider Demons attacked—some raised their Energy Guns, some activated Energy Cannons, and others directly threw Energy Bombs. The magical Defense Shield shook violently, as if it could shatter at any moment.

"Damn it."

The mages inside the Sanctum looked awful. Everything had happened too suddenly. The magical Defense Shield had not fully activated and could not unleash even a fifth of its power.

The Sanctum’s guardian mage held the Life Staff and shouted, "Everyone, it has been an honor to work with you. Today, if the Sanctum stands, we stand. If the Sanctum falls, we fall."

"If the Sanctum stands, we stand. If the Sanctum falls, we fall."

The mages shouted passionately. At that moment, Ancient One’s voice suddenly rang out. "Abandon the London Sanctum. Everyone, head to the New York Sanctum. Also, activate the Sanctum’s self-destruct function and trap the enemies who enter."

"Retreat? Self-destruct?"

The guardian mage froze, then hurriedly shouted, "Sorcerer Supreme, once the Sanctum self-destructs, the Defense Net will have a gap."

Ancient One said, "All Three Sanctuaries are under attack. If we do not concentrate our forces, the Defense Net will not merely develop gaps—it will be completely destroyed."

"It’s that serious?"

The guardian mage sucked in a cold breath and hurriedly sent the mages to the permanent portal while he headed to the core to activate the self-destruct function.

After finishing everything, the guardian mage gave the Sanctum one last reluctant look, gripped his weapon tightly, and stepped into the portal. Today’s battle had only just begun.

With a crash, the magical Defense Shield shattered like glass. Yet the three mages did not lead the Spider Demons inside. Instead, they looked at the Sanctum with mocking expressions.

A moment later, dazzling golden light flared from deep within the Sanctum, and the entire space containing the Sanctum collapsed.

"Ancient One, you truly are decisive. Unfortunately, the Darkhold has already seen everything."

The three mages sneered and opened a portal to the New York Sanctum.

The mages of the London Sanctum were not the only ones to retreat. The Hong Kong Sanctum did the same. Under Ancient One’s leadership, the mages of the Three Sanctuaries and Kamar-Taj all gathered at the New York Sanctum and confronted Kaecilius and the others head-on—the Defense Shield had already been broken.

Kaecilius looked at Ancient One and said through gritted teeth, "Ancient One, you hypocrite."

Mage Hamir, who had lost an arm, shouted angrily, "Kaecilius, not only have you betrayed Kamar-Taj, you dare insult the Sorcerer Supreme?"

"Why can’t I insult her? She deceived every one of us, preaching day after day that we must not absorb dark energy and must not practice Black Magic."

Kaecilius cursed furiously, "And what about her? She absorbed the Dark Dimension’s energy herself and became immortal."