Back and Forth

"Jarvis."

Seeing Jarvis turn into an iceberg, Tony and Ivan were both startled. They exchanged a glance. Ivan swiftly retreated, while Tony drew the Vibranium greatsword from behind him and, raising its temperature, swung it fiercely at the Puppet Demon God.

"Good material. I like it."

The Puppet Demon God sidestepped the greatsword. Then, with a tap of Its finger against the side of the blade, a Magic Array suddenly appeared. The greatsword shook violently, forcing Veronica to let go as it fell toward the ground.

Just as the Puppet Demon God was about to grab the greatsword, a High-Temperature Light Beam as thick as a rice barrel slammed into Its body, driving It backward through the air.

Without question, it had come from Jarvis’s eyes. Mere ice could not trap him.

"You’re quite good. Unfortunately, you’re still far inferior to my armor."

A Magic Array appeared behind the flying Puppet Demon God, bringing Its entire body to a halt. Then, It activated Its metal body’s ability and frantically devoured the high-temperature energy.

"This guy’s ability is a bit like Absorbing Man’s. We can’t use energy attacks against It."

Tony hurriedly shouted. Jarvis immediately withdrew the High-Temperature Light Beam. The Puppet Demon God sneered, opened Its mouth, and blasted an enormous High-Temperature Light Beam at Veronica. Veronica instantly raised the greatsword before her, but was rapidly driven backward by the beam.

A moment later, the High-Temperature Light Beam vanished. The Vibranium greatsword had not broken. Instead, it had turned glowing red.

"My turn."

Tony controlled Veronica toward the Puppet Demon God. Then, the High-Temperature Vibranium Greatsword tore through the air and hacked viciously at the other party’s head.

The Puppet Demon God did not dodge. It merely moved the Magic Array behind It to beneath Its feet. With a clang, the greatsword struck the Puppet Demon God’s head with Earth-Shattering force. Yet Its head was not split open; both the sword’s kinetic energy and its heat were completely absorbed by the metal body.

"Sorry, but with this body, no attack can harm me."

The Puppet Demon God grinned smugly and fired a blast from Its mouth into Veronica’s chest. Veronica was sent flying backward, parts scattering everywhere.

Just as the Puppet Demon God was about to pursue, Jarvis flew to Its right. Spreading his hands, he enveloped the Puppet Demon God in magnetic force and pinned It in midair.

"Sorry, but I can absorb magnetic force too."

The Puppet Demon God smiled disdainfully and began forcefully absorbing the magnetic force. At that moment, a black sphere shot in from afar and slammed into Its chest. The sphere rapidly expanded, turning into a black hole that dragged the Puppet Demon God inside.

Even the Puppet Demon God could not devour a black hole. It screamed as It was swallowed.

"What a foolish Demon God."

Ivan held up his smoking, damaged energy cannon and spoke with utter contempt. Tony stared at Ivan’s Magic Suit, filled with envy, jealousy, and resentment. Unfortunately, Ivan had already mastered this technology. Otherwise, Tony would definitely have snatched it away to study.

This was technology that could kill gods.

"So what if It was a Demon God? Wasn’t It still dealt with by me, Tony Stark?"

Tony said arrogantly. Ivan looked at him with disdain. "You were just making up the numbers. What credit are you trying to claim? Also, try to keep your mouth shut. Don’t forget, you’re built to get slapped in the face. Oh, right, you used to have a setting where you got sent flying too, but it happened so often that everyone got too lazy to mention it."

"Who’s going to get slapped in the face?"

Tony snapped. At that moment, the three Drone Armors on the ground simultaneously opened the missile pods on their shoulders. Then, twenty-four Micro Missiles struck Ivan one after another. Ivan screamed as he fell through black smoke and flames like a kite with its string cut.

"Ivan!"

Tony immediately flew toward where Ivan had fallen, while Jarvis turned around and saw the three Drone Armors rising from the ground.

One of the Drone Armors roared furiously, "You actually dared to destroy my favorite armor? I’ll place you atop Hellfire and let you burn for ten thousand years."

"You’re still alive?"

Jarvis was greatly shocked. That had been a black hole. How had the Puppet Demon God escaped?

In truth, only the Puppet Demon God’s divine soul had escaped. The metal body It had painstakingly forged had been completely swallowed, leaving It so furious that smoke seemed to pour from all seven orifices, as though Its wife had died.

No, it was worse than losing a wife. A wife could be replaced, but that metal puppet was impossible to come by.

"I want you dead."

The Puppet Demon God roared, controlling the three Drone Armors to fire lasers at Jarvis simultaneously. Jarvis blocked them with his arms, then spread his five fingers and fired three Destruction Rays, instantly slicing the three Drone Armors apart.

Before Jarvis could breathe a sigh of relief, another three Drone Armors rose into the air and fired missiles at him.

A High-Temperature Light Beam shot from Jarvis’s left eye, causing the missiles to explode one after another. Then, the beam swept across the three Drone Armors, burning all three in half at the waist and sending them falling to the ground like scrap metal.

The Puppet Demon God did not care in the slightest. It once again controlled three Drone Armors to rise. Jarvis had a headache. To kill the Puppet Demon God, he needed to destroy Its divine soul, but that was outside his field of expertise. Jarvis had no idea how to destroy a soul.

"What a pain."

Jarvis could only deal with the Puppet Demon God for now. There were only a few hundred Drone Armors in total, so they would not be hard to handle.

The Puppet Demon God sneered at this. Jarvis had failed to notice one detail: It had not used any magical abilities the entire time!

The reason was simple. Only a small portion of the Puppet Demon God’s soul was inside the Drone Armors. The rest of Its soul was infiltrating the Blood God in the sky.

The Puppet Demon God could control not only humanoid puppets, but warships as well. It just took a little longer.

Meanwhile, Tony flew to where Ivan had crashed and raised his hand to spray dry ice and extinguish the flames. Once the fire was gone, he blew away the icy vapor and found Ivan gasping heavily in the crater. His Magic Suit had become dented and battered, riddled with damage.

Tony let out a sigh of relief. "Good. You’re not dead."

"Why are you so concerned about me? Got a thing for me?"

Ivan struggled to climb to his feet, secretly relieved. It was fortunate he had cultivated qi. Otherwise, even if he had not died this time, he would have lost half his life.

Tony gave Ivan the middle finger. "You’re done for. Go rest. I’ll go help Jarvis."

"Without me, you won’t be able to deal with this guy."

Ivan snorted. He stood up, removed his battered helmet, and tossed it aside. Then, his eyes turned into dragon eyes as he looked toward the Drone Armors in the sky.

A moment later, Ivan said, "Only a small part of that guy’s soul is in the Drone Armors. In other words, the Drone Armors are only meant to distract us."

"What?"

Tony was startled, then asked, "Wait, you can see souls?"

Ivan looked at him disdainfully. "It’s just a minor application of the Dragon Soul. Uh, there’s no point telling you. A sissy like you, who gets beaten by his wife badly enough to call the police, will never be able to subdue a Dragon Soul in your life."

Tony snapped, "Nonsense! I, Tony Stark, may get beaten up at home every day, but I’ve never called the police! No, that wasn’t domestic violence. That was a loving sparring session."

"Is that something worth bragging about?"

Ivan mocked. Then, he shifted his gaze to the Blood God, his pupils shrinking as he hurriedly said, "The Puppet Demon God is on the Blood God. Its target is the Blood God. We have to stop It. The Blood God is already powerful on its own. If It controls it, it’ll become even more terrifying."

Tony looked up at the Blood God and said gravely, "The problem is, how do we stop It? We have no way to destroy a soul."

"You don’t. Go deal with the Drone Armors and switch Jarvis over here. He can resist the Puppet Demon God’s invasion."

As Ivan spoke, he shot into the sky like lightning. Seeing him fly over, the people aboard the Blood God immediately opened the hatch to welcome him.

"Damn it."

Tony gritted his teeth. He, Tony Stark, had once been the Most Handsome Guy on Earth. Now, he had actually been reduced to playing support.

"I’ve slackened off since Pepper got pregnant. That won’t do. I, Tony Stark, am the protagonist."

Tony made up his mind. Then, he flew to Jarvis’s side and explained the situation through short-range encrypted communications. Jarvis nodded and said through the communicator, "We’ll deal with the Drone Armors together. I’ll send an invisible octopus to the Blood God to help Ivan."

"Understood."

Tony nodded and split a Drone Armor in half with one slash. Tens of millions of dollars, gone.

On the Blood God, Skye and Frank, who was wearing the Punisher armor, saw Ivan arrive and asked, "Ivan, are you here to change armor?"

"That’s right. My Magic Suit is nearly destroyed."

Ivan nodded. Then, using the sound-transmission secret technique invented by Wang Bert, he quietly told them what was happening. Their expressions tightened. Skye asked through sound transmission, "Its soul is really inside the Blood God?"

"It is. It has already infiltrated half of the Blood God, including this command room."

"Damn it. The Blood God Master left me might not be salvageable."

Skye cursed inwardly. Ivan said, "Out with the old, in with the new. At worst, have your Master steal another one. Frank, tamper with the Punisher armor so the Puppet Demon God can’t control it."

"Understood."

Frank nodded. The Punisher armor was too powerful, so safeguards had specifically been installed to prevent others from using it.

"No time to waste. Let’s act now."

Skye did not hesitate in the slightest. She placed a hand on the King’s Glory at her waist, and the souls of nine giant dragons emerged. They circled in the air before charging into the command console.

"We’ve been discovered."

Seeing the dragon souls rush toward It, the Puppet Demon God immediately cast magic, transforming Its mental power into spears that shot toward the dragons.

At the same time, the Puppet Demon God took control of the command room. Red lights lit up throughout the room, followed by countless Energy Guns emerging from the walls and firing rapidly at Skye and the others—internal defense measures.

Not only that, the Puppet Demon God also attempted to take control of Frank’s Punisher armor. Fortunately, Frank had prepared for this. He forcibly opened the armor and destroyed its reactor.

Frank then picked up the armor’s flame ray gun, used the armor as a shield, and fired at the surrounding Energy Guns.

Ivan removed his belt and snapped it hard. The belt transformed into an Electric Whip, destroying every energy beam fired at him. Then, the Electric Whip lengthened and lashed fiercely toward the Energy Guns on the walls.

The other fleet members also picked up weapons under Korath’s leadership and fought back. The defensive measures were swiftly destroyed.

Skye ignored the energy attacks. She controlled the dragon souls to evade the spears and rush forward to bite at the Puppet Demon God’s soul.

"Get lost!"

The Puppet Demon God roared. Its divine soul erupted with majestic divine light, and all the dragon souls trembled in fear, not daring to advance any farther.

"You think nine mere lizard souls can deal with me? I am a god!"

The Puppet Demon God snorted. A Magic Array appeared out of thin air, and countless chains emerged from it, rattling as they locked toward Skye.

Just as Frank and the others prepared to help Skye, the command room door exploded open with a boom. A group of High-Temperature People rushed in and pounced on Frank and the others.

"Damn it, the Puppet Demon God has taken control of the creation chamber."

Frank and the others’ expressions changed drastically. What was the most terrifying thing about High-Temperature People? Their self-destruction.

"Get lost!"

Ivan roared. A majestic Thunder Dragon Phantom appeared behind him. Then, massive amounts of lightning burst from his body, forming dozens of lightning beams that bombarded the High-Temperature People opposite him. The High-Temperature People were instantly riddled with holes and collapsed to the floor.

At the same time, Skye raised her hand and unleashed a shockwave, destroying the chains and the Magic Array along with them.

Next, Skye raised the King’s Glory and released all several hundred souls within it. She shouted, "Nine Dragon Souls aren’t enough? Then what about seven hundred? Don’t underestimate me. I am the Blood God’s disciple!"

The Puppet Demon God’s divine might could indeed intimidate ordinary souls, but once seven hundred dragon souls appeared, its effect was greatly reduced. After all, there was strength in numbers.

The dragon souls roared in unison and charged fiercely at the Puppet Demon God. The Puppet Demon God cursed and transformed Its mental power into countless densely packed spears, firing them at the dragons.

Unfortunately, there were simply too many dragons. Quite a few broke through the blockade of spears and slammed hard into the Puppet Demon God.

As the saying went, enough ants could kill an elephant. Under the siege of more than seven hundred dragons, the Puppet Demon God gradually became somewhat disheveled. After all, dragons were no weaklings.

Jarvis’s mechanical octopus took the chance to seize control permissions for the Blood God. At the same time, Ivan and Frank controlled their own Dragon Souls and charged at the Puppet Demon God.

"This won’t do. I need to end this quickly and seize a batch of souls before leaving Earth."

The Puppet Demon God gritted Its teeth. It would not lose, but continuing like this would certainly waste a great deal of time—it had no time to waste. That powerhouse capable of defeating Gabriel and Michael could return at any moment.

At that moment, a new space rift happened to appear in the sky. The Puppet Demon God’s eyes lit up. Enduring the dragons’ bites, It created a Space Magic Array beneath Skye’s feet.

The Space Magic Array then shone with dazzling light. Skye instantly vanished, and when she reappeared, she was already in front of the space rift. Her body then flew uncontrollably into the space beyond it.

Seeing their master in danger, the more than seven hundred dragon souls immediately left the battle and chased after Skye.

"Mr. Stark, go protect Skye! The space rift is too small for me to pass through."

Jarvis hurriedly shouted. Skye was the Blood God’s disciple; nothing could happen to her.

"Got it."

Tony did not waste any words and immediately flew toward the space rift. Veronica might not be small, but passing through the rift would not be a problem.

With a bang, Skye crashed face-first into the ground. Covering her face, she climbed up and discovered that more than a hundred thousand scorpions were watching her.

Yes, scorpions—scorpions as large as leopards. They stood in neat formations, collectively watching Skye, who had fallen from above.

The Scorpion Demon God, far smaller than the other scorpions and covered in a purple shell, looked at Skye and asked curiously, "What do you Earthlings mean by this? You sent a woman over first as a little snack for us?"

Skye asked somewhat timidly, "If I say it was an accident, can you let me go back?"

"What do you think?"

The Scorpion Demon God sneered. "Since you’re here, don’t leave. You’ll make a fine sacrifice to raise the banner. Tear her apart for me."