Awareness

"This guy actually gets embarrassed? A creator falling in love with his own creation—how interesting."

Wang Bert shook his head. He looked at the Grand Elder lying on the ground and was about to finish him off when the battle outside changed.

The Holy Light Warriors burning their lives were difficult to deal with, but Tony and the others were no pushovers either. With their powerful abilities and weapons, they gradually suppressed their opponents.

It was worth mentioning that Tony had been especially ferocious today, his performance particularly eye-catching. At least twenty or thirty Holy Light Warriors had died at his hands.

Barring any surprises, Tony and the others would win this war with only minor casualties. But at that moment, an accident suddenly occurred—a group of thugs wearing crude Exoskeleton Armor joined the battle.

Before those thugs appeared, neither Tony nor Jarvis had detected them. They were caught completely off guard, and several S.W.O.R.D. agents died on the spot. The Super Heroes’ expressions changed, and they hurriedly moved to protect the agents. The Drone Armor even flew down to block bullets for them.

"How could this happen?"

Strange was stunned. He had set up a spatial blockade around the area, so why had these people suddenly appeared? There were two possibilities. One, they had been nearby from the start. Two, someone on the other side could silently break through his blockade.

If it was the former, it was not much of a problem. If it was the latter, things would be troublesome.

"Mr. Stark, keep dealing with the Holy Light Warriors. I’ll handle these guys."

Seeing her subordinates die, Skye’s eyes turned red. She roared, and the phantom of a Steel Dragon faintly appeared behind her. Then she pushed forward, sending waves of air mixed with shockwaves crashing toward more than a dozen thugs.

Bang! More than a dozen thugs were sent flying. Their bodies and exoskeletons shattered in midair, raining down onto the ground with a clatter.

"Iron Fist!"

Danny Rand gaped. Why had another Iron Fist appeared? And she looked incredibly powerful.

Skye’s outburst made the thugs all open fire on her. Dense bullets shot toward her like a metal storm.

Skye snorted coldly and shook the air in front of her, causing it to repeatedly weaken the bullets’ kinetic force. In the end, more than a thousand bullets stopped before her.

Then Skye shook both hands, and the thousand-plus bullets rebounded at once, making the thugs scream miserably.

Skye was about to press her advantage when something suddenly slammed into her, sending her flying. She crashed heavily to the ground. Then a guy with an extremely punchable face appeared in front of her and sneered, "Didn’t you see me running over?"

Skye immediately raised her hand and fired a shockwave at him, but he suddenly vanished. Skye froze, then hurriedly shouted, "Careful! Someone incredibly fast is here. By my estimate, he might be close to the speed of sound."

As Skye spoke, that guy—Quicksilver Pietro—used astonishing speed to knock several Super Heroes over in succession, then laughed arrogantly.

Fortunately, Pietro did not have much killing intent. He was merely knocking people down. Otherwise, with his speed, killing people would have been far too easy.

"I hate fast guys."

Tony cursed and was about to help when a figure glowing with scarlet light suddenly appeared behind him. The figure placed her hands on either side of his head, and scarlet energy penetrated his armor and entered his mind.

Tony’s vision blurred, and he suddenly appeared in Manhattan, which was filled with corpses. Looking closely, he discovered in horror that the bodies were all people he knew—Steve, Peter, Aunt Carter, Daredevil, Hawkeye, Black Widow… and more.

"Who killed you?"

Tony was horrified. Just then, he sensed something and abruptly looked up. He saw a blood-red figure floating high in the air. At the same time, large amounts of blood flew from the corpses on the ground, turning into a torrent that flowed toward him as he laughed wildly.

"Blood God."

Tony called out with a trembling voice. The thing he feared most had finally happened—Blood God had attacked Earth.

This was Tony’s greatest fear, because once it happened, no one could stop Blood God.

Other than Jarvis, no one knew that Tony had always been developing the Anti-Blood God Armor. But Blood God’s rate of growth was simply too fast. Tony often had not even finished half the research before he was forced to scrap it and start over.

After several rounds of this, Tony had burned through billions of dollars with almost nothing to show for it.

At that moment, Blood God in the sky noticed Tony. He flew down and said with a wicked, arrogant grin, "Tony Stark, you’re not dead yet?"

Tony roared, "Bert, why are you doing this? Didn’t you promise to always be Earth’s guardian?"

Blood God said flatly, "I’m doing this because there’s something wrong with your brain."

Tony was baffled. "What do you mean?"

"Are you sick in the head? Why the hell would I destroy Earth? If Earth’s gone, where am I supposed to pick up girls? I’m not like you, who’ll take anything regardless of color. I only like Earth girls, or alien girls who look like Earth girls!"

Wang Bert cursed furiously, "And when have I ever sucked the blood of innocent people? You idiot, do you have persecution delusions, or do you want to kill me and become the protagonist yourself? Let me tell you, as long as I’m around, you’ll be a supporting character for the rest of your life! And I’ve been running all over the place for your son, yet this is what you think of me? I’m pissed off, so I’ve decided to beat you up."

With that, Wang Bert’s fists rained down, making Tony scream again and again.

That was not all. Everyone who had died around them climbed back to their feet and shouted, "Beat Tony!"

Before Tony could figure out what was happening, all sorts of attacks surrounded him, and he let out a miserable scream.

In reality, after Tony was controlled by the red light, he lost control and attacked wildly in every direction. The people around him were initially stunned, then overjoyed—the White Mist had mostly dispersed by now, and their vision was no longer obstructed.

"Iron Man’s been controlled again, again, and again! Seize the chance. Don’t waste it."

Without another word, Hawkeye fired an arrow straight at Tony’s head. The others also launched attacks at Tony one after another. Even the injured Human Torch ignored his own safety, running out to hurl fireballs at Tony.

Ant-Man, Strange, and Wanda were all dumbfounded. What the hell was this? Weren’t they teammates?

At that moment, Tony woke from the illusion. His whole body ached. He shook his head, about to figure out what had happened, when he suddenly realized everyone was attacking him. His face went blank. Am I still dreaming?

Smack! Hawkeye’s arrow struck Tony’s helmet. Before Tony could react, electricity exploded, making his entire body convulse. Then fireballs, air blasts, Energy Gun shots, and all kinds of other attacks came one after another. Tony was blasted away and fell pitifully to the ground.

"You bastards!"

Tony learned what had happened from Jarvis and climbed to his feet, cursing furiously. Hawkeye said, "Looks like he’s recovered. My electricity works best. Tony, remember to give me a raise."

Human Torch shouted, "I think my flames were more important. Tony, seeing as I got up despite being seriously injured to save you, help me reimburse that Ferrari I crashed last month."

"It was clearly my contribution."

Everyone began claiming credit, and someone even shouted at Tony, "Tony, don’t thank us. It’s what we should do."

"I thank your whole family."

Tony trembled with rage. If these bastards had not done it on purpose, he would chop off his own head and let them use it as a stool.

Even Wanda, hiding in the shadows, could not help laughing. She glared at Tony and gave a cute humph. Serves him right.

Jarvis suddenly added, "Mr. Stark, rather than blaming them, I think you should reflect on why you are so hated."

"Shut up. When I get back, I’m taking your motherboard apart."

Tony gritted his teeth. Jarvis dared to look down on even its master. It was clearly a defective product.

"Damn it, why was I controlled again? Wait, controlled?"

Tony came to his senses and hurriedly shouted, "Careful! There’s an invisible person nearby who can control people."

"I found her."

Strange spread his hands, and more than a dozen magical whips shot toward the invisible Wanda at once. Wanda revealed herself and snorted. Scarlet energy enveloped the magical whips, causing them to quickly dissipate.

Strange was somewhat surprised. The scarlet energy of the other party seemed to contain extremely advanced magical energy.

"You’re the one who controlled me?"

Seeing Wanda appear, Tony immediately controlled Crescent Blades to shoot toward her. Wanda raised both hands, and two chunks of earth suddenly flew from the ground, wrapped in red light as they smashed toward the Crescent Blades.

Tony had thought the Crescent Blades would easily cut through the chunks of earth. Unexpectedly, the moment the blades entered the earth, they went still. The chunks continued flying toward him, and he hurriedly dodged.

Strange was about to cast another spell when a figure flashed past. Strange was directly rammed into the air, then crashed heavily to the ground.

Then that figure grabbed Wanda and vanished in an instant.

"Damn it. Stay alert."

Tony cursed, retrieved the Crescent Blades, and rushed over to help deal with the thugs.

These thugs were no ordinary people. They had all been enhanced, and with their exoskeletons and powerful firepower, they were extremely difficult to deal with.

In the underground base, Wang Bert’s expression was rather ugly. Based on the strength and condition displayed by Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver, they did not need any adjustments at all. In other words, he had been played—someone had used the Mind Stone to interfere with his blood.

"Not just my blood. Someone has also been influencing my thoughts all this time, making me ignore the Mind Scepter."

Wang Bert was furious. Being played was something he could barely accept, but having his thoughts influenced had touched his bottom line.

What powerful person could tolerate having their thoughts controlled by someone else? At Kamar-Taj, Wang Bert’s projection sought out Ancient One and asked, "Master, how could someone silently influence my thoughts for over a year? That’s unreasonable. Even with the Mind Stone, it shouldn’t be possible."

Being controlled was not frightening. What was frightening was being controlled without even knowing it.

"It isn’t just the Mind Stone. There is also a miraculous force influencing your consciousness."

Ancient One said, "However, this force bears no malice. It is merely pushing for the birth of those two people."

Wang Bert frowned. "Which two? Wanda and Pietro?"

"No, Wanda and Vision. The two of them are destined to be born."

Ancient One said, "No one can stop it. How should I put it? You can think of it as a wish. Someone made a wish, and those two are certain to be born."

"Wanda and Vision? Could that person be some kind of human-machine romance fanatic?"

Wang Bert snorted. He had been annoyed when watching the movies in his previous life. Why would such a beautiful woman fall in love with a robot?

Ancient One merely smiled without speaking. Wang Bert rolled his eyes. No need to ask—their dear Sorcerer Ancient One was being cryptic again.

Seeing Wang Bert’s disdainful expression, Ancient One shook her head and said, "You need not worry. Once Wanda and Vision are born, that force will disappear."

"It doesn’t matter whether it disappears or not."

Wang Bert snorted. "I will never again allow anyone to influence my thoughts."

Ancient One said, "Bert, do not stop Vision’s birth. That would only have the opposite effect."

Wang Bert asked, "Is that force really so powerful?"

Ancient One nodded. "It is a power capable of changing the world."

"If that’s the case, that bastard Tony Stark has probably already upgraded his Jarvis. I should have hit him a few more times just now."

Wang Bert thought for a moment, then said, "Vision can be born if he wants, but Wanda and Vision can forget about being together. I’ll definitely break them up."

"That is up to you."

Ancient One said indifferently, "As long as Vision can be born."

In the underground space, Wang Bert looked at the unconscious Grand Elder on the ground. After some thought, he called Annie over and instructed, "Possess this guy’s body. I want you to be a spy."

The situation on Hydra’s side was unclear. Wang Bert planned to gather intelligence first. After all, his main body had not yet awakened, while the other side possessed a Mind Stone.

Annie asked, "Master, what about the Angel Legion?"

Wang Bert said, "Come unseal them after you finish the mission. They aren’t going anywhere."

"Alright."

Annie did not waste words. She turned into a ray of light and flew into the Grand Elder’s body. Then the Grand Elder opened his eyes, nodded to Wang Bert, and used the scepter to teleport away from the underground base.

"Scarlet Witch!"

Wang Bert looked at Wanda outside, who was destroying the spatial blockade, and narrowed his eyes slightly. Her strength was far greater than in the movies—her scarlet light clearly contained magical energy, and it was extremely advanced magical energy.

On the battlefield, Strange sensed that the spatial blockade was being destroyed and hurriedly shouted to Tony, "Tony, that witch from earlier is destroying the spatial blockade. They don’t seem to be trying to escape. Quickly send Drone Armor to investigate."

"Alright."

Tony stabbed a thug through the body with a blade and shouted. Then three Drone Armor suits flew outside at the same time.

The Drone Armor had barely reached Wanda’s location when they discovered a large number of Pickup Trucks and armed vehicles aggressively driving into the area. Upon seeing the Drone Armor, they immediately opened fire. More than a hundred blue energy beams shot toward the Drone Armor one after another.

The three Drone Armor suits dodged at the same time, but the beams were too dense. Two of them were hit and blown apart. Only one escaped back.

Tony shouted with an ugly expression, "Damn it, someone’s playing the mantis-catching-the-cicada game on us. Strange, open a portal to Stark Industries. We need reinforcements."

"Alright."

Strange did not waste words and immediately began casting a spell to open a portal. Just then, a figure flashed past at high speed and slammed fiercely into him.

This time, Strange was not sent flying. Instead, Quicksilver vanished—he had fallen into a Space Corridor. No matter how he ran, he would ultimately return to where he had started.

As a mage who had been strictly trained—tormented—by Doom, how could Strange fall in the same place twice in a row? He had long since set up Space Magic around himself, waiting for Quicksilver to deliver himself to the door.