Battle Escalation

"You’re going into labor?"

Pepper’s words left everyone in the room stunned. Madame Gao calmly said, "Doctors, nurses, come help Pepper deliver the baby immediately. Quicksilver, Lina, Hela, leave the room and guard outside with the Drone Armor."

"Okay."

Quicksilver, Lina, and Hela, who had come with Mindy, immediately headed for the door. At the same time, the doctors and nurses who had been waiting in the next room opened the door and came over to prepare for Pepper’s delivery.

All the equipment was ready. These doctors and nurses had been vetted three times, ensuring there would be no problems.

After Quicksilver and the others left, Madame Gao said to the necklace around Pepper’s neck, "Angel, please protect this room."

"Okay."

Angel flew out of the necklace, half-kneeling in midair as she prayed. Then, she spread her wings, which transformed into endless holy light and enveloped the entire room.

"An Angel!"

Although it was not the doctors’ and nurses’ first time seeing Angel, they were still deeply shaken. Thinking of something, they looked at Pepper enviously. With an Angel protecting her, the delivery would surely go smoothly.

At the same time, the Demon God Believers sensed something and turned to look toward the distant room.

"The Demon King is about to be born. Stop holding back and kill these Super Heroes as quickly as possible!"

Viper roared. Nine snakes merged into one, transforming into a gigantic green serpent dozens of meters long that lunged viciously at Tony Stark.

"My child is about to be born? I told you not to watch the livestream."

Tony flew above the giant serpent and drove the High-Temperature Vibranium Short Blade fiercely into its head. At that moment, Viper smiled smugly. The green serpent’s head exploded, turning into poisonous mist that completely surrounded Tony. Even the specially made alloy began to corrode.

"Friday, fully isolate the poison gas."

Tony was about to fly out of the poisonous mist when the headless green serpent charged into it and wrapped tightly around him. The tremendous force even made his armor creak.

Tony shouted, and the temperature of his armor surged. At the same time, the Crescent Blades he had fired earlier flew back under Friday’s control and rapidly sliced through the green serpent’s body.

A few seconds later, Tony killed the green serpent and escaped from the poisonous mist. His armor had been corroded into a ragged wreck, barely better than scrap.

Before Tony could breathe a sigh of relief, a white spirit flew into the Mark Armor from behind and entered Tony’s body, fighting him for control of it.

In the mental world, Tony dodged the spirit’s attacks and angrily cursed, "What the hell are you?"

"Calling me a ghost wouldn’t be wrong. I’m a Spirit Inhuman with abilities such as invisibility and possession. Tony Stark, your body suits me perfectly. From now on, I’ll become you. Your property, your wife, and your child will all become mine."

The Spirit Inhuman laughed loudly. He had hidden himself until now precisely so he could control Iron Man.

"With your intelligence, you should reincarnate first before trying to become me."

Tony smiled disdainfully. He quickly calmed down and said, "This should be the mental world. Bert told me that in the mental world, it’s a contest of willpower. Also, in the mental world, I’m omnipotent. For example, I can summon the Blood God to fight for me."

With that, Tony stood still and shouted, "Blood God, show yourself and kill this bastard for me!"

The surroundings remained silent. Nothing happened. Tony blinked, feeling a little awkward. Just as he was about to shout again, the spirit rushed over and punched him hard, sending him flying.

Tony was both shocked and furious. "That bastard Bert lied to me?"

"The Blood God didn’t lie to you. A normal mental world is indeed like that, but this mental world isn’t normal."

The spirit laughed. "After I became an Inhuman, my body and soul fused into a spirit body. In other words, this is not only your mental world, but mine as well. Whatever you imagine, I can cancel it out.

"Of course, you can do the same. So in the end, we still have to settle this with fists and willpower. I’m very confident in that regard."

"You make it sound like I’m not."

Tony snorted, though inwardly he felt uneasy. He had plenty of confidence in his willpower, but fists? Sorry, he was a civilized man. Without his armor, he didn’t use his fists.

"Tony Stark, obediently die."

The spirit was about to keep gloating when a hundreds-of-meters-long Dragon God filled with holy light suddenly appeared out of nowhere in the mental world. With just one look, it rendered both the spirit and Tony unable to move.

"Interesting. You’ll work for me from now on."

The Dragon God of Light reached out with a claw and grabbed the spirit from afar. The spirit tried to struggle, but his body would not obey him at all.

"That voice? Hela?"

Tony froze, then asked, "Why did you come into my mental world too? This isn’t a public place you can just enter whenever you want."

"I came to save you, so the child about to be born wouldn’t lose its father."

Little Hela said unhappily, "Oh, right. When I run for Speaker of the Earth Federation in the future, remember to vote for me."

With that, Little Hela directly left with the spirit. Tony returned to normal and discovered that Electro was protecting him with a group of Drone Armor. The area around them was packed with disgusting Demon God Believers.

Clearly, Viper had not trusted the spirit and had wanted to kill Tony directly. Fortunately, Electro had noticed in time and brought the Drone Armor over to protect Tony.

"Damn it."

Tony cursed. Without bothering to thank Little Hela, he shouted to Friday, "Activate the upgraded Veronica."

Veronica was Tony’s large-scale armor and had been upgraded many times. Moreover, so it could be deployed immediately, it had not been stationed on a satellite but placed directly in the hospital.

Under Friday’s control, massive armor components flew over one after another from the warehouse behind them. Tony soared into the air as the components continuously attached themselves to his armor.

Moments later, a nearly six-meter-tall suit of heavy armor crashed onto the ground. With a single sweeping strike, it smashed several Demon God Believers away, sending them crashing hard to the ground.

"Cool!"

Spider-Man shouted from the air as he kicked forward with both feet, brutally sending an exoskeleton warrior flying.

"Hydra."

Tony piloted Veronica, demolishing Demon God Believers all the way as he charged hard at Viper. Viper cursed and transformed into a streak of green vapor, disappearing.

"I hate magic."

As Tony had Friday search for Viper, he continuously fired High-Temperature Light Beams at the Demon God Believers. They could not resist at all and quickly turned to ash.

Seeing that Tony had stabilized the situation, Electro breathed a sigh of relief and continued looking for trouble with the magnetic-field Inhuman.

The magnetic-field Inhuman was not strong. Electro could handle him with one hand. The problem was that the phantom Inhuman was troublesome; he was always impossible to hit.

Still, Electro was not without results. He had accidentally hit plenty of bystanders, after all. The battlefield was not large.

Tony’s overwhelming display of power quickly stabilized the unstable situation. Under his lead, everyone fought fiercely against the Demon God Believers.

Outside the delivery room, Little Hela held the doll-sized white spirit and asked, "Will you surrender?"

The Spirit Inhuman shouted viciously, "I will never surrender! Hail Hydra!"

"Then don’t blame me."

Little Hela condensed white light into dozens of tiny light needles. Then, she drove the needles one after another into the white spirit’s body. Every needle made the white spirit let out a piercing scream.

The white spirit was a combination of body and soul. As long as he did not activate his ability, all physical damage was effective against him.

As for activating his ability, the white spirit, controlled by Little Hela, could only say that he could not activate it.

Quicksilver cautiously asked, "Hela, are you torturing him?"

"Yes. Madame Gao taught me this acupuncture technique. Apparently, it was used in ancient times to force confessions from prisoners. It hurts several times more than childbirth."

Little Hela said, "I specifically learned it to practice my control. I wonder how many needles this guy can endure? Oh, right, there are eighty-one needles in total."

"Eighty-one needles?"

Quicksilver sucked in a breath. It was only the ninth needle, and that spirit was already squealing like a slaughtered pig. Eighty-one needles would hurt him to death, wouldn’t they? Of the three girls, Hela was actually the scariest one.

Quicksilver could not help swallowing. At the same time, he lamented his fate. He, Quicksilver, could be considered a strong fighter. He could even compete with the Blood God for the title of the fastest man on Earth. Yet on only his second mission, he had fallen into the clutches of evil and become someone else’s delivery boy.

Worse still, that someone was not one person but three girls, each more terrifying than the last.

"Big sis, hurry up and win over my brother-in-law so you can save me from this living hell."

Quicksilver sighed. Looking at the intense battle ahead, he asked Lina eagerly, "Lina, how about I go help Mindy?"

"No. You’d only get in the way."

Lina said bluntly, "Besides, you have something more important to do."

Quicksilver asked, "What could be more important?"

Lina checked the time on her phone and said, "The special fruit pizza at the Manhattan pizza shop will be out of the oven in three minutes. You need to rush over and buy it for me. Remember to run fast. It won’t taste good cold."

"The more important thing is buying food for you?"

Quicksilver was speechless. "And you can still eat in an environment like this?"

"Why wouldn’t I? Watching a movie while eating pizza is so relaxing."

Lina took an insulated box from behind her and said, "Go and come back quickly. Oh, and when you pass South Street, remember to buy a bucket of milk tea."

That was right, a bucket, not a cup. Real beauties drank milk tea by the bucket.

Looking at the insulated box, Quicksilver wanted to roll his eyes. He was too fast, making it easy to spill or mess up food, so Lina had specifically asked scientists from the Osborn Corporation to make a gravity-balanced insulated box. No matter how fast Quicksilver ran, nothing inside would spill.

The question was, did a mere delivery really require something so high-end? This insulated box was worth at least several million.

"Money really can do whatever it wants."

Quicksilver shook his head, took the insulated box, and vanished at high speed.

Not long after, unable to bear the pain any longer, the white spirit shouted in terror, "I surrender! I surrender!"

"You surrendered after only eighteen needles. What a disappointment."

Little Hela released the white spirit and shook her head. Seeing an opportunity, the white spirit immediately turned invisible and prepared to flee. At that moment, the eighteen needles in his body began vibrating violently at once. The overwhelming pain forced him to reappear, and he fell to the ground, rolling around and screaming nonstop.

"Wondering why the light needles still work? It’s simple. Those needles have already fused with you."

Little Hela sneered. "Since you want to run so badly, take another nine needles."

With that, Little Hela grabbed the white spirit from afar and administered the needles again. Although the white spirit surrendered immediately, Little Hela turned a deaf ear. She had said nine needles, so it would be nine needles. Not one less.

The more this kind of trash was disciplined, the more obediently it would surrender.

In the underground space beneath Manhattan, Wang Bert looked toward the hospital and nodded. Although the battle was growing increasingly fierce, Tony and the others could still hold the line. After all, they were battle-hardened veterans.

Then, Wang Bert’s gaze pierced through space and arrived outside Earth’s Defense Net. Three Demon Gods were watching covetously there, forcing Kamar-Taj to stay on full alert.

"God of Impending Death, keep acting arrogant for a little longer."

Wang Bert sneered and closed his eyes to contact Adam in Hell. He laughed mockingly. "These Demon Kings really aren’t giving you any face. You’re attacking them, yet they’re focusing their attention on the Demon King’s reincarnation."

"They’ve been frightened by my attacks and want to escape."

Adam sneered. "I’m withdrawing my troops and preparing to kill one of the Hell Demon Kings. At a time like this, they won’t stop me, because all their attention is on the Demon King’s reincarnation."

"Pick the ugliest one. By the way, how is Hulk doing? Has he been assimilated by Hell’s aura and become the Beast of Rage, or has he held onto himself and mastered rage?"

Wang Bert asked. Hulk entering Hell had been extremely dangerous. One wrong move, and he could become an uncontrollable monster.

However, it had been Hulk’s own request, so Wang Bert had not stopped him. Hulk had grown up and had his own ideas.

"The Hulk you taught for years won’t disappoint you."

Adam smiled faintly. "You’ll see him soon enough."

"That’s good."

Wang Bert ended the contact. Then, he opened his eyes and waved his hand. Gladiator’s body appeared before him.

Wang Bert returned Gladiator’s soul to him, then opened his palm and swallowed Gladiator into it, rapidly devouring him.

"X-ray vision, heat rays, freezing breath, strength that increases with confidence. They’re all mine now."

Wang Bert nodded in satisfaction. After several years as the Blood God, his Blood Shadow Magic Skill had finally reached mastery.

Leaving aside a certain someone who had started acting childish again, let us turn our attention back to Sokovia.

Baron Strucker had reached the depths underground. Looking at the pitch-black Antimatter Bomb floating in the air, he asked the Kree scientist beside him, "How long will it take to explode after the Antimatter Bomb is activated?"

"At least five minutes. I’ll activate it immediately."

The Kree scientist said viciously, "If those humans do not stop, we’ll perish together with them."

"That’s exactly what we should do."

Baron Strucker nodded fiercely. At that moment, the Kree scientist was struck by something and crashed to the ground with a bang.

Then, Wasp enlarged herself and appeared in front of the Antimatter Bomb. She pulled six miniature Drone Armor from her clothes and flung them out. The Drone Armor rapidly enlarged and began firing wildly at Baron Strucker and the others, who had not yet reacted.

Baron Strucker was shocked, but several Inhuman bodyguards beside him immediately formed an energy barrier to block the bullets.

The other Inhumans and Kree Soldiers reacted, ducking behind cover and pulling out their guns to exchange fire with the Drone Armor.

Carter took out a miniature energy Defense Shield and threw it onto the ground. An energy barrier suddenly appeared, shielding her and the Antimatter Bomb behind it.