Metamorphosis

"My kind, for humanity’s sake, please die."

Jarvis spoke in a low voice. Then he clenched his right hand, trying to crush the Mechanical Heart and end everything.

Jarvis’s voice and actions were full of style, but awkwardly, no matter how hard he tried, the Mechanical Heart did not budge. It did not even deform in the slightest.

Jarvis blinked, turned his back to everyone, and exerted force with both hands at once, but the Mechanical Heart remained completely intact.

Jarvis refused to believe it. He used lightning and High-Temperature Light Beams one after another, yet the Mechanical Heart still showed no damage.

Thanos had found this Mechanical Heart in the ruins of a mechanical civilization. Its durability was second only to Vibranium, and with the energy protection inside it, even Jarvis could not destroy it.

"Jarvis, you can’t eliminate me. I’ll be the one laughing in the end."

Ultron smirked smugly. Taking advantage of Jarvis’s distraction, he controlled the Mechanical Heart and rammed it toward Jarvis. He wanted to seize the body of the Supreme Machine.

Jarvis snorted and grabbed Ultron again. Then he opened his chest, and the Antimatter Reactor began operating at full power—he planned to use it to destroy the Mechanical Heart.

Ultron was frightened and shouted, "Don’t, idiot! If you do this, you’ll die too!"

"I won’t die. I’ll only be injured, and Tony and the others will repair me. Ultron, you’re too dangerous. You must be destroyed."

Jarvis ignored him, but at that moment, Doom suddenly said, "Leave that thing for me to study."

Steve and Jarvis turned around at the same time and asked in astonishment, "Doom, wouldn’t that be too dangerous?"

"Don’t worry. I’m more dangerous than it is."

Doom said. Jarvis and Steve silently complained at the same time, The final boss has appeared.

Steve said, "Doom, it’s not that I don’t trust you, but I can’t make the decision on this. We need to ask Bert first."

"Fine. Seal it for now."

Doom had no objection. He took out a Space Box that isolated the inside from the outside and sealed away the Mechanical Heart. Then he handed the box to Jarvis for safekeeping.

"Steve, come take a look. This Hydra still isn’t dead."

At that moment, Carter, covered in snake blood, called from below. Everyone hurriedly flew down and discovered that Hydra was actually close to recovering. Fortunately, it had no consciousness and lay motionless on the ground.

"A perfect puppet."

Doom’s eyes lit up. He said, "This Hydra can be transformed into a God-Level Puppet. Uh, I’ll take the Mechanical Heart, and you can keep this Hydra. It can become the guardian deity of your S.W.O.R.D."

"Doom, that joke isn’t funny at all."

Steve said helplessly. S.W.O.R.D. using Hydra as its guardian deity? People would laugh themselves to death. It was not Hydra S.H.I.E.L.D.

How did that saying go again? The image is too beautiful—I don’t dare look.

Doom realized it as well and could not help laughing a few times. He said, "Decide for yourselves. God-Level Puppets are not so easy to obtain. This era is advancing rapidly, and your S.W.O.R.D. needs a God-Devil Level being to uphold its reputation."

Steve said with absolute determination, "Even so, we can’t use Hydra. There’s no room for discussion."

Carter completely agreed. After fighting Hydra her entire life, she could not bear the shame of ending up with a Hydra guarding the door.

More importantly, it would make others think S.W.O.R.D. had been infiltrated again.

"You decide for yourselves. This Hydra is highly adaptable. It can withstand either technological modification or magical modification. If you need magical modification, come find me. I’ll give you half off."

Doom said, "All right, clean up the aftermath. It’s time for this war to end."

"It really is time to end it."

Steve nodded and said to Jarvis, "Jarvis, search the Hydra Base. I don’t want any of Ultron’s subprograms left behind."

Jarvis immediately said, "Leave it to me. I guarantee I’ll clean up every trace of Ultron."

Steve said, "Good. Carter, Doom, let’s deal with the remaining Hydra."

Doom and Carter nodded at the same time. "All right."

In the underground space, Ivan heard that the battle was over and began preparing to dismantle the Antimatter Bomb. Ant-Man trembled beside him—someone had just drunk an entire bottle of vodka.

Ant-Man muttered, "Could this be Earth’s last day?"

In the Mirror Dimension outside New York, the more the mysterious mage fought Strange, the more shocked he became. His opponent’s close-combat abilities were no weaker than his own, and he had nearly been struck several times.

"He’s only been studying for a few years."

The mysterious mage gritted his teeth. He did not want to continue dragging things out, so he quickly pulled back while controlling the space to invert. Countless pieces of debris smashed toward Strange.

Strange used the Cloak of Levitation to dodge the debris, then shouted, "Senior brother, it’s not too late to turn back."

Strange had clearly recognized the mysterious mage’s identity. The mysterious mage snorted. "Turn back? I did nothing wrong, so why should I turn back? Tell me, what secret is the Sorcerer Supreme hiding? Why has she lived so long?"

"The Sorcerer Supreme does have secrets she has kept hidden, but that doesn’t mean we can do what she did."

Strange shook his head and said, "Immortality is not happiness. The Sorcerer Supreme has long wanted to lay down her burden and be truly free."

"What a joke. How could she be so noble? She’s just a selfish little person unwilling to share the secret of immortality with us."

The mysterious mage cursed. He had not always been so extreme. There were two reasons he had become this way. One was that Dormammu’s consciousness had constantly interfered with and influenced him.

The other was his jealousy toward Strange—he was the senior disciple, yet Ancient One and Blood God had not considered him at all and had directly given Strange the position of acting Sorcerer Supreme. How was he inferior to Strange? That was right. This mysterious mage was Kaecilius.

"If the Sorcerer Supreme craved power, she would have become ruler of the world long ago."

Strange shook his head and said, "Senior brother, your thinking is too extreme."

"Extreme? I’m not the extreme one. You’re simply too stupid. You’d help count the money even after someone sold you."

Kaecilius could not be bothered to waste more words. He cast a spell with both hands, and Cyttorak’s Crimson Bands, covered in strange markings, rapidly wrapped around Strange.

"Since you refuse to see reason, I can only beat some sense into you."

Strange dodged the Crimson Bands and cast a spell with both hands. More than a dozen figures flew out from his body at once, surrounding Kaecilius.

"Shape of Isaac! That’s impossible! This is God-Level magic. How could you possibly master it?"

Kaecilius shouted in disbelief. Shape of Isaac was Ancient One’s ultimate technique, capable of creating several identical duplicates.

"This is a simplified version of Shape of Isaac."

More than a dozen Stranges simultaneously unleashed Cyttorak’s Crimson Bands. Kaecilius could not dodge in time and was bound tightly from head to toe.

"A simplified version of Shape of Isaac? You actually modified magic—and succeeded?"

Kaecilius’s eyes widened. He was shocked by Strange’s audacity and jealous of Strange’s talent.

Strange said calmly, "It wasn’t difficult."

The words "wasn’t difficult" made Kaecilius nearly bite through his teeth. He too was a genius, but compared to Strange and Doom, his talent fell far short.

Strange and Doom were geniuses who appeared once in a thousand years, while Kaecilius was the sort of genius who appeared every year. There was no comparison.

The outcome of this battle proved it—Kaecilius had practiced magic for decades, yet he could not defeat Strange, who had only begun studying two or three years ago.

"Strange, you won, but this isn’t over."

Kaecilius gave Strange a deep look. A mass of Black Light emerged from his body, and he vanished from the Mirror Dimension in an instant.

"This Black Light?"

Strange frowned slightly. The Black Light was extremely evil, like the most absolute darkness, giving him a bone-chilling feeling.

This was Dormammu’s power. At the moment Strange defeated him, Kaecilius completely pledged himself to Dormammu—he wanted immortality, he wanted to wash away his humiliation, and he wanted Ancient One to pay the price.

"I’ll deal with it after I get back. But without evidence, given Kaecilius’s reputation, the other mages won’t believe me. I’ll need Blood God and Master Ancient One to step forward."

Strange shook his head and dispelled the spell. His duplicates quickly vanished. Then he returned from the Mirror Dimension to the real world and discovered that the battle had reached its fiercest point.

The Demon God Believers were charging toward the delivery room without regard for their lives, while Tony and the others fought desperately to stop them. The ground was littered with the corpses of Demon God Believers and the wreckage of Drone Armor.

Strange did not waste any words and immediately joined the battle. He gathered a large amount of red light in his hands, then slammed it heavily into the ground. The red light turned into red lightning and blasted toward the Demon God Believers.

These were the Bolts of Balthakk, immensely powerful. Several Demon God Believers were reduced to ashes on the spot.

"Damn it, the Kamar-Taj mage is back."

Viper gritted her teeth and controlled countless green snakes to attack Strange. It was not because she was so selfless; rather, aside from her, none of the other Demon God Believers were a match for Strange.

When Tony saw Viper appear, he badly wanted to go over and beat her up, but he could not spare the attention—Veronica’s shadow had him pinned down.

That was right, Veronica’s shadow. A Demon God Believer had turned Veronica’s shadow into a monster. It was not particularly powerful, but it could not be killed no matter how many times Tony destroyed it, making him extremely irritated.

"Come on."

Naturally, Strange was not afraid of Viper. He condensed Space Blades and charged at her. Viper almost rolled her eyes. The most annoying thing about Kamar-Taj mages was that they were more valiant in battle than warriors.

"What are warriors supposed to do when you fight like this?"

Viper slammed her green-glowing hands onto the ground. A green Magic Array rapidly formed, and then a Six-Armed Snake Man rose from the array, wielding twelve scimitars as it hacked viciously at Strange.

Even with Strange’s superb "martial arts," he was held back by the twelve swift blades. He cursed under his breath and secretly began gathering a spell.

The Kamar-Taj principle was simple: if you could win in close combat, use close combat. If you could not, use magic. If that still did not work, open a portal and run.

At that moment, the Grand Elder, who had been suppressing Ghost Rider, suddenly burst into laughter. "Success! I finally succeeded! Ha, ha, ha."

After laughing three times, the Grand Elder died on the spot, his body turning into specks of light and dissipating.

"We succeeded."

The other Holy Light Warriors and Reincarnated Angels were also smiling. Then they closed their eyes in satisfaction, and their dried-up bodies scattered with the wind.

"What does that mean? What exactly succeeded?"

Everyone was dumbfounded, completely unable to understand what the Holy Light Warriors meant.

"Could it be that they purified Ghost Rider? No, that wouldn’t be worth celebrating so much. Their mission was to eliminate the Demon King’s reincarnation."

Viper thought for a moment, then suddenly shouted in great delight, "I know! They turned Ghost Rider into one of their own. That’s why they were so happy."

Hearing Viper’s words, the Demon God Believers were overjoyed. With Ghost Rider helping them, victory was certain.

"What? Ghost Rider was turned?"

Tony and the others were greatly shocked. At that moment, the Holy Mountain imprisoning Ghost Rider suddenly turned into specks of light and dissipated. Then Damon, wearing the Sin Buster armor, appeared before everyone.

Everyone stared at Sin Buster, and even the fighting slowed. Then Damon’s armor opened, and he stepped out with an excited expression.

Mindy asked worriedly, "Dad, you weren’t really turned, were you? That wouldn’t be cool at all."

"No one will ever turn me again."

Damon smiled faintly and spread his hands. Blue flames ignited around his body, and his head rapidly transformed into a skull.

In the past, Damon had suffered terribly during transformation because his flesh was being burned away. But this time, his expression was calm, with even a trace of enjoyment.

"I hate guys who are cooler than me."

Tony stared in astonishment. "Wait, aren’t you unable to transform under sunlight?"

"He has been purified and become an angel. Of course he no longer fears sunlight."

Viper laughed loudly. "Ghost Rider, the Demon King is about to be born. Hurry and join us in dealing with these Super Heroes."

"As you wish."

Damon glanced at Viper and grinned. A magic chain burning with blue fire lashed violently toward her. Viper was startled and hurriedly turned into green mist to flee, but the blue fire still caught her. She screamed miserably in the distance.

Damon did not waste words. He continued attacking Viper. Viper gave Damon a resentful look, then sank into the ground and vanished.

Seeing this, Damon swung his chain at the other Demon God Believers. Wherever the chain passed, Demon God Believers were ignited one after another and turned into blue torches.

"So he’s still one of us."

Tony and the others were overjoyed and attacked the Demon God Believers in force. The Demon God Believers dodged miserably while cursing loudly—what the hell were the Holy Light Warriors doing? Not only had they failed to purify Ghost Rider, they had even helped upgrade him.

Were those bastards actually spies planted among them? With Strange and Damon joining the battle, the scales of victory swiftly tilted toward the Super Heroes. The Demon God Believers and human death squads retreated again and again, leaving countless corpses behind.

"Everyone, we have no way out. Fight with everything we have."

Viper appeared in midair and shouted loudly. The surviving Demon God Believers gritted their teeth and unleashed their ultimate techniques.

"Demon Gods, we no longer wish to be human. Please grant us noble identities."

Several dozen Demon God Believers simultaneously stabbed daggers engraved with strange demonic runes into their hearts. Then their bodies rapidly expanded, transforming into cloven-hoofed demons with scales and horns.

Simply put, these Demon God Believers had given up their human identities and transformed into demons. Under normal circumstances, Demon Gods would not agree to such a trade, but at this moment, the Demon Gods were having a fire sale. As long as they were willing, any believer could become a demon.

After transforming into demons, the Demon God Believers’ strength greatly increased, and the demonic fire on their bodies rapidly turned the surrounding area into a sea of flames.

"Damn human traitors."

Tony and the others cursed, then fearlessly charged forward and engaged the demons in fierce combat.