Behind-the-Scenes Manipulator

"Give me time, and I can do it too."

Tony snorted and looked at the chaos ahead. "Who won?"

"Of course I won."

Strange, battered all over as if he had been run over by a car dozens of times, flew out of the chaos with Red Cloak’s help. He said smugly, "So what if they’re the Celestial Group? Weren’t they still defeated by me? I, Dr. Strange, am the strongest."

Looking at the arrogant Strange, Tony said unhappily, "I really want to punch you."

"A lot of people want to punch me. Get in line."

Strange burst into laughter. "This trip was great. Dr. Strange, I fought the battle for you. Deal with the rest yourself."

After saying that, a black shadow emerged from Strange’s body and vanished. He had returned to his own time and space.

Strange’s wicked expression reverted to his aloof one. He froze for a moment, then cursed without any regard for his image. "You bastard, is this how you screw people over? Offending a bunch of ancient gods was bad enough, but you even offended a Creator God? Just how much do you hate me?"

Tony stared at the cursing Strange, momentarily stunned, then asked, "Magic man, what’s going on with you? Also, you don’t look cool at all right now."

"He was probably screwed over by himself. The really tragic kind."

Loki stepped out of the void and said gleefully, "He can forget about leaving Earth for the rest of his life, because a bunch of big shots are waiting outside to beat him into a pig’s head, then chop it off and braise it."

"That’s a very vivid description."

Though they did not quite understand what was happening, everyone looked at Strange sympathetically. From his furious expression, they could tell that this was a huge mess.

More than huge. Five peak-level ancient gods, plus one Creator God. Strange was even considering whether he should simply kill himself.

Uh, no. He could not kill himself. Those bastards definitely would not let his soul go. Suicide would be the same as delivering himself to them.

"Why is my life so miserable?" Strange sighed. He had no interest in maintaining his image anymore.

At that moment, a figure flew out of the thinning chaos. It was Arishem, but He was battered all over and had even lost an arm. He looked utterly miserable.

Everyone hurriedly raised their guard. Arishem lifted His remaining hand and said weakly, "You won. I lost. This ends here."

"You say it ends, and it ends?"

Thor said unhappily, and the others felt the same. A planet had been destroyed, countless Eternals had been killed or wounded, and one sentence was supposed to end it all? Arishem said, "Don’t worry. I will end this with my death."

Everyone was stunned. Arishem continued, "From the beginning, I never intended to survive. Whether the plan succeeded or failed, I would use my life to apologize to Blood God.

"You don’t need to worry. The Celestial Group will not attack again. This was our final attempt."

Everyone exchanged glances. Blood God really was something. He had actually forced the Celestial Group to commit suicide.

The light in Arishem’s eyes gradually dimmed. He said, "Everyone, you must stop Iron Man. If his plan succeeds, this universe will fall into destruction."

"Even without you saying so, we’ll stop Old Tony."

Steve said, "He’s too extreme. We can’t let him continue down the wrong path."

Arishem was about to nod when a figure suddenly appeared beside His head. The figure raised his hand, his fist transforming into a giant purple fist that slammed viciously into Arishem’s head. With a boom, Arishem’s head exploded, golden matter spraying everywhere.

Arishem’s sigh echoed through the void. Then, Arishem’s massive body flew into the chaotic region and vanished. That was the grave He had chosen for Himself.

Arishem did not want to end up like His kin, taken away for research—the Celestial Head had been left behind by the Celestial Group.

Arishem of the Celestial Group, creator of the Eternals, had officially fallen.

"Arishem."

Sersi and the other Eternals knelt toward the chaotic region. Then, they began to sing a hymn praising Arishem, sending Him off on His final journey.

No matter what, the Eternals had been created by Arishem, even if His purpose had merely been to create tools.

"What a decisive death."

Wang Bert snorted inwardly. At that moment, he vaguely saw a group of Celestial Group members bowing to him. He knew that they were signaling that everything was over.

"Don’t worry, I won’t cause trouble for you. If I’m looking for trouble, it’ll be with the Living Tribunal and the Five Creator Gods. You’re not even qualified to be my opponents."

Wang Bert said disdainfully. The Celestial Group said nothing more, and their phantoms quietly vanished.

"Wow, you didn’t do anything earlier, but you were pretty quick to steal the kill."

Tony sneered at the black shadow—Old Tony. At the same time, Steve led the Super Heroes in surrounding Old Tony.

"You want to attack me?"

Old Tony asked coldly. By now, his body had stabilized, but the Death Mark had not disappeared. It remained in his body, firmly suppressed by the six glittering Infinity Stones.

"Though it’s a little unfair, Old Tony, it’s time for all this to end."

Steve said, "Let’s restore everything to normal, okay?"

"Normal? The kind of normal where world-ending disasters happen every so often? You’ve seen the Sacred Timeline too. You should know what will happen in the future."

Old Tony said, "That isn’t normal. That’s Hell. What I’m doing now is ending this damned Hell."

"I agree that this must end, but your method is too extreme."

Steve said, "We have better ways to solve this."

Old Tony asked, "What way?"

Steve said, "Ask Blood God for help and let him handle it. With him around, those future enemies are nothing. He can deal with them with one slap."

Everyone nodded. Why would they not cling to such a massive thigh? Wang Bert’s mouth twitched slightly. Wasn’t something wrong here? Shouldn’t he be the one passing the buck to others? Why were others now passing the buck to him? Captain, you’ve changed.

Wang Bert complained inwardly. Back in the day, Steve Rogers had worked diligently and been named Employee of the Year for many consecutive years. Yet now, he had actually learned to pass the buck.

"Blood God is indeed powerful, but as long as Super Heroes still exist, disasters will never stop. When the time comes, some accident will most likely prevent Blood God from acting. For example, some terrifying existence awakens, forcing Blood God to duel him."

Old Tony shook his head. "Or maybe something goes wrong somewhere in the universe and Blood God has to suppress it. In short, unless the era of Super Heroes ends, disasters will never end."

"I think you have some misunderstanding about my strength."

Wang Bert stepped out of the void and said calmly, "Forget it, there’s no point saying more. You won’t listen anyway. Let’s finish this quickly. Once we deal with you, then Kang the Conqueror, we can happily wrap this up."

"Blood God, how can you leave the Mind Sea?"

Old Tony asked in shock. "Aren’t you supposed to be suppressing Earth’s people’s minds?"

Old Tony could not help sensing Earth’s situation. Uh, very good. Everyone was either eating or cursing because the movie in the sky had suddenly disappeared—the movie had vanished when the chaos appeared.

"This isn’t my true body. It’s only a suit of armor."

Wang Bert smiled slightly, his body transforming into a silver-white suit of armor. He said, "My true body specially sent this over from the Main Universe. A tiny amount of consciousness is enough to operate it."

Old Tony narrowed his eyes. "Specially meant to deal with me?"

"To be precise, it was specially meant to deal with Materialism Power."

Wang Bert said, "Old Tony, time is limited, so let’s skip the nonsense. Surrender or fight, you decide."

"Of course I’ll fight. I won’t surrender, and I can’t surrender."

Old Tony did not waste words. He immediately activated Materialism Power. The lightning around Thor was instantly suppressed, and Strange nearly suffocated in space. Fortunately, Tony immediately used Nanoparticles to protect him.

As for the others, they all had specialized space equipment on them, so there was no major problem.

Enveloped by Materialism Power, Wang Bert was completely unaffected. He returned to human form, rolled his neck, and said, "Sorry, but I cracked your Materialism Power."

"Not a problem, because I have the Reality Stone."

Old Tony used the Reality Stone to amplify Materialism Power. The mutant power on the silver armor was instantly sealed, but that was all. Wang Bert showed no other changes.

"My armor is the most advanced technological armor, designed by the smartest people in the Entire Universe. Unless you seal technological power too, you can’t seal me."

Wang Bert said calmly, "Oh, and I named it the ‘Piss Off Iron Man’ Armor."

"What kind of garbage name is that?"

Tony cursed. "You keep saying I can’t name things, but you’re obviously even worse than me, okay? And what do you mean it was designed by the smartest people in the Entire Universe? The smartest person in this universe doesn’t remember designing armor for you."

"That name really is awful. Also, you can’t piss me off, because even technological power can be sealed."

Old Tony controlled Materialism Power to seal the technological power on Wang Bert—Materialism Power could apply double standards, meaning it could seal Wang Bert without sealing Old Tony himself.

"Okay, battle over. That was easy. Smartest person in the universe, pfft."

Wang Bert clapped his hands in satisfaction. The next second, the Anti-Blood God Armor on Old Tony was suppressed and retracted into his body.

Without the Anti-Blood God Armor, Old Tony could not withstand the power of the six Infinity Stones in his chest. Veins rapidly bulged across his body, and he looked as if he were about to explode.

"What’s going on?"

Everyone stared in shock. Hadn’t Old Tony had the upper hand? Why did he suddenly look like he was about to die? "I merely established a condition, a very fair condition. The suppression I suffer, he suffers as well."

Wang Bert explained. From the very beginning, he had activated Fair Space. However, instead of pulling everyone into an arena, he had set a fair condition.

Old Tony’s problem was that he had not used Materialism Power before Wang Bert appeared, so he had fallen into the trap. After being converted by the silver armor, this fair condition took the form of technological power, so it had not been forbidden at the start.

The silver armor’s main function was converting other powers into technological power, including Mind Power, stone power, mutant power, and so on.

Tony looked at Old Tony, who was on the verge of collapse, and asked, "Why doesn’t he stop Materialism Power?"

"He has no spare strength to stop Materialism Power, because his body is currently filled with the power of six Infinity Stones."

Wang Bert said, "He can’t even speak."

"Blood God really is incredible. He dealt with Old Tony so easily."

Falcon said worshipfully. If Old Tony had not been using the power of the Infinity Stones to suppress the Death Mark, Wang Bert’s move could not have killed him outright. The problem was that he was using them, so he was finished.

He succeeded because of the Infinity Stones, and he failed because of the Infinity Stones.

Spider-Man could not help shouting, "Blood God, Mr. Stark shouldn’t die."

"Don’t worry. I’ll bring his soul back to the Main Universe. Tony, from now on, you’ll stay in this universe as Iron Man. I’ll alter the memories of everyone on Earth."

Wang Bert said, "As for Pepper and Little Morgan, if you have some special preferences, you don’t need to swap them."

"I don’t have any damned special preferences."

Tony cursed. "Even though my Pepper beats me up at home every day, she’s still the only one I love. Haha, the good days are coming."

Tony was beaming. After moving to this universe, he could finally become the Most Handsome Guy in the Entire Universe. He would never have to worry about someone stealing his spotlight again.

The Super Heroes exchanged glances. Then Strange said, "Aside from one monkey being overly excited, this arrangement is excellent."

"Have you ever seen a monkey as smart as me?"

Tony snorted. "Strange, we’ll have plenty of time to play later."

Meanwhile, the despairing Old Tony shouted in his heart, Help me. I don’t want to die like this. I want to save this universe.

A voice sounded in Old Tony’s mind. "If you want me to help you, you must hand your body over to me completely."

"Fine."

At the end of the road, Old Tony did not hesitate. He immediately agreed. "But you can’t harm my universe or the Super Heroes."

"I’ll do my best."

The voice laughed. The next moment, a powerful force erupted from Old Tony’s body. Then, the six Infinity Stones surged into his body and completely fused with him.

Or rather, ‘Old Tony’ reclaimed the power he once possessed.

Wang Bert was not surprised. He said, "So Old Tony’s trump card really was you, Master of the Infinity Stones, Nemesis."

Wang Bert had made many guesses about Old Tony’s trump card. One of them had been Nemesis, since Old Tony’s trump card was clearly connected to the Infinity Stones.

The problem was that the Infinity Stones of the Future Universe had already been gathered before, yet Nemesis had not appeared. Therefore, Wang Bert had only been suspicious, not certain.

But now, everything was clear. Old Tony’s trump card was Nemesis.

"Nemesis?"

Tony’s expression changed, while Steve and the others looked blank. They knew nothing about this—the Elders of the Universe had not stopped them from collecting the Infinity Stones.

At that moment, Old Tony suddenly transformed into a woman with purple skin, white clothes, and a crown on her head. She said to Wang Bert, "Blood God, I’ve wanted to meet you for a long time."