Strategy

"Do we know you?"

Tony’s words made Knull’s entire face darken. He cursed, "I won’t let you off. I absolutely won’t let you off."

"Some weakling we beat until only his head was left before running away said the same thing."

Thinking of something, Tony put on an exaggerated expression and shouted, "Wait, don’t tell me you’re that loser?"

Everyone burst into laughter. Tony’s mouth was truly vicious.

"I’ll kill you!"

Knull was furious enough for smoke to rise from all seven orifices. He immediately wanted to rush forward and kill Tony, but Hela stopped him. Come on, she was an important figure, all right? How could she start fighting without even saying a few grand words first? Style, style.

"Senior Sister Skye, this time, you lost."

Hela said, "Give up. Otherwise, all of you will die here today."

"It’s too early to talk about winning or losing."

Skye snorted. "My people will deal with those Demon Gods as quickly as possible. Also, the Insectoid army you sent to the native planets will soon be wiped out."

Hela smiled. "If I’m not mistaken, you asked Hell for reinforcements, didn’t you?"

Everyone looked at Skye in surprise. Skye did not deny it. "I did ask Hell for reinforcements. With so many lives dying, Hell will sense it. Combined with the Earth Defense Net’s assistance, they’ll soon reach those native planets."

"You asked Hell for reinforcements? Is your brain broken? Those demons in Hell are even more terrifying than the Insectoids."

Knull sneered. "The Insectoids only need corpses. Hell’s demons want both corpses and souls."

Skye said, "I trust Satan. He will keep those demons under control. Annihilus, all of your army will die."

What Skye trusted was not Satan, but Master. Master had said Satan could be used, so Satan could definitely be used.

Annihilus’s expression darkened. Just as he was about to say something, Hela smiled. "Senior Sister Skye, did you think I couldn’t predict that you’d ask Hell for reinforcements?"

As she spoke, Hela clapped her hands. A light screen appeared in the sky. Within it, two massive phantoms stood before Hell’s hall, coldly staring at Satan inside.

"Satan, if you dare lead Hell’s army into the Main Universe, we will attack Hell immediately."

Chthon, shrouded entirely in black mist, said coldly. Beside him, Serpent God Set also said, "That’s right. If you dare act, we’ll immediately invade Hell."

Adam snorted and was about to say something when Hell’s Will stirred, demanding that he stop deploying troops. If he did not stop, Hell’s Will would seal off Hell.

Although Hell’s Will had been beaten into submission by Wang Bert, it would not turn a blind eye to a matter concerning Hell’s interests.

Adam cursed unhappily, "Chthon, Set, you dignified Ancient Gods are actually Hela’s dogs. Aren’t you ashamed?"

Set said in dissatisfaction, "Aren’t you also Blood God’s dog?"

Adam asked in surprise, "So you admit that you’re Hela’s dog?"

Set’s face darkened slightly, and he indicated that he did not want to speak with Adam. Chthon said, "Hela paid a large number of souls to hire us. It is merely an employment arrangement."

Adam said, "Judging by your expressions, she definitely didn’t give you many souls."

Chthon and Set’s expressions both became somewhat ugly. Hela had given each of them thirty thousand souls. It was not a small amount, but compared to Hela’s own gains, thirty thousand souls was practically like tossing scraps to beggars.

Chthon and Set stared straight at Adam, waiting for him to continue persuading them. Who would have thought that Adam would actually close his eyes, neither persuading them nor deploying troops, as though he were asleep.

Chthon and Set were both stunned. Why had he stopped persuading them? If he did not keep persuading them, how were they supposed to bargain with Hela? Damn it, what was wrong with this guy, stopping halfway through a sentence? He would get beaten to death for that, did he know?

Adam did not continue persuading them because there was no point—if they deployed troops now, the Space Channel might be exploited by the Demon Gods. If that happened, the Main Universe would be in danger.

Since they could not deploy troops, what was the point of saying anything more? As for what he had said earlier, it had purely been to mock Chthon and Set.

Adam’s eyes flickered. Looks like I’ll have to deploy the direct line this time.

At the frontlines, seeing Adam blocked by Chthon and Set, Skye and the others looked somewhat grim. At that moment, Hela smiled. "It’s not just Hell. You won’t be able to borrow reinforcements from Dragon World either."

As Hela spoke, the light screen changed. Eye Demon Shuma and Astros were blocking the outside of Dragon World. Annie and the other Avenging Angels looked at the two enormous figures in the sky with incomparably solemn expressions.

"Both Hell’s reinforcements and Dragon World’s reinforcements have been blocked."

Everyone’s hearts sank. This was going to be troublesome. Hela grew even more pleased with herself. "My arrangements do not end there. An even greater surprise awaits you."

On Xandar, the Fire Giant and the Sea Water Giant were wreaking havoc. Warships were being blown apart one after another. The two gods laughed heartily. To them, this place was practically Heaven.

At that moment, an axe filled with lightning spun rapidly in from the distance. It instantly blasted the Fire Giant apart, turning it into falling flames.

Next, the axe curved back and flew through the Sea Water Giant’s body. Amid flashing lightning, the Sea Water Giant collapsed, and countless torrents of seawater crashed downward.

Finally, the axe flew back into the hand of a short-haired man crackling with lightning.

"All of you deserve to die. Skye should have sent us out long ago."

Seeing the devastation in the city below, Thor flew into a furious rage and transformed into a bolt of lightning, shooting violently toward the Merman Demon God and the Flame Demon God.

"You’re the one who deserves to die!"

The Merman Demon God and Flame Demon God were furious to see someone ruining their plans. They raised their weapons, and a flame beam dozens of meters wide and a constantly vibrating torrent shot toward the lightning at the same time. Thor roared, and the lightning forcibly broke through the flame beam, arriving before the Fire God.

Then, Thor raised Stormbreaker, blazing with lightning, and swung it down with all his strength. The Fire God and his weapon were split in two and fell toward the ground.

"So strong?"

The Merman Demon God was shocked and hurriedly turned to flee toward the sea. As long as he reached the sea, even if he could not defeat his opponent, he could still escape with his life.

"Can you escape?"

Thor raised Stormbreaker high. The entire sky darkened, and then a massive pillar of lightning descended with a thunderous crash, carrying dense spatial cracks.

The Merman Demon God tried to dodge, but the vibrating space trapped him. Then the lightning struck, and the Merman Demon God was completely annihilated.

"Two pieces of trash."

Thor cursed. With his current strength, the projections of two mere gods were nothing worth mentioning. He was ridiculously powerful now, all right? "Long live Thor!"

Seeing the two Demon Gods destroyed with overwhelming force, many Nova Corps soldiers cheered—thanks to the spread of movies, Super Heroes were now famous throughout the universe.

Centurion Lindy also shouted her praise, "Thor, well done."

"Big guy, I love you."

Star-Lord laughed loudly. Beside him, Drax shuddered. Quill actually liked men? Didn’t that mean he was in danger? Thinking of something, Drax, who never wore a shirt, silently grabbed a jacket from nearby and put it on. Boys had to protect themselves when they were outside.

"Hahaha."

Hearing the cheers around him, Thor foolishly grinned and waved. The Xandarians were so enthusiastic. Should he help them chop up the Insectoid warships too?

At that moment, Frank’s voice came through his earpiece. "Thor, don’t waste time. Get to the next planet quickly. Time is urgent."

"Got it."

Thor grumbled unhappily and transformed into lightning, flying toward the portal. Just then, the portal was disrupted by some force and began to twist and deform. Thor was alarmed and hurriedly accelerated, but he was still too late. The portal turned into specks of light and vanished before him.

"What do I do now?"

Thor was dumbfounded. He was trapped on Xandar!

It was not just Thor. The other Super Heroes were trapped as well. Strange and Doctor Doom’s expressions changed, and they hurriedly cast portals. Yet after the portals appeared, they flickered a few times before dissipating into the air.

Space Magic had been forbidden.

"Destroy the Insectoids. Some kind of device may be causing this."

Doctor Doom thought for a moment, then immediately flew into space. A moment later, an extremely dazzling white light lit up in outer space, and a flagship instantly turned to ashes.

"Damn it."

Carol was furious beyond measure. Without another word, she transformed into a beam of light and flew toward outer space—she was heading for the jump point to return to the frontlines.

Although it would take a great deal of time, this was the only option now.

At the frontlines, Hela said triumphantly, "Your people can’t come back. In order to deal with the Demon Gods as quickly as possible, you sent out all your top experts. Without them, you are no match for us at all."

Skye and the others asked in shock and anger, "You can actually seal space?"

"I can’t, but Chthon, the source of Black Magic, can. It isn’t expensive. Casting a sealing spell costs only fifty thousand souls."

Hela said, "Deploying the Fortress Bugs earlier was actually to lure you to those planets. It’s a pity you didn’t fall for it. Otherwise, I would not have needed to use the Demon Gods at all.

"Of course, that doesn’t matter. With those Demon Gods there, the Alliance planets will certainly be destroyed. At that time, the Alliance will cease to exist.

"But you probably won’t live to see that day. Without Thor, Carol, and the others, you will definitely die here."

Everyone’s expressions were ugly to the extreme. Hela was truly ruthless, setting trap after trap until they had fallen into a desperate situation.

In truth, Hela was not only ruthless, but also extremely meticulous. Whether the Alliance planets were destroyed or Skye and the others were killed, if either succeeded, the Alliance would become history. At that point, who could resist the Insectoid army? Who could stop them from maintaining the Universe Balance? This was the bearing of Asgard’s first commander. Odin and Thor did not really know how to wage war at all—they always fought through brute force, the kind of "Brothers, charge with me!"

Annihilus and Knull could not help looking at Hela. Even though they disliked this woman, they had to admit that she was a qualified commander.

Wang Bert, who was filming, could not help shaking his head. "Thor isn’t even worthy of carrying Hela’s shoes."

Skye gritted her teeth and asked, "Hela, do you think you’ve already won?"

"Isn’t that obvious?"

Hela said arrogantly, "Skye, for the sake of our shared sect, if you return to Earth now and swear never to come out again, I’ll spare you once. Otherwise, this day next year will be the anniversary of your death."

"You’re celebrating too early. You sealed off Master’s two sources of reinforcements, but you don’t know that Master has a third source."

Skye sneered. "Master’s true direct line."

"Direct line?"

Everyone was stunned. Tony asked in confusion, "Bert has a direct line? How did I not know?"

"Blood God’s direct line is naturally us, the Blood Clan."

A large amount of blood-red light suddenly appeared beside Skye. Then Blade, Xue Ren, Lilith, Mercury, Nissa, and Vampire Progenitor Dracula emerged from the blood light and stood proudly beside everyone.

"The Blood Clan?"

Both sides were shocked. Hela shouted, "Impossible! Weren’t you eliminated long ago? How did you suddenly become so powerful?"

According to Hela’s senses, Blade and the others were all god-level Blood Clan members.

Mercury sneered. "We were not eliminated. Blood God told us to keep a low profile. Only then could we serve as a trump card."

Lilith and Nissa wore proud expressions. S.W.O.R.D. and the Earth Guardians were merely collateral branches. Their Blood Clan was the true direct line.

Knull disliked Mercury’s expression and snorted. "No matter how strong you are, how strong can you possibly be?"

"I am Vampire Progenitor Dracula. Blood God only became what he is today because of my blood. Tell me, how strong do you think I am?"

Dracula stood with his hands behind his back and spoke with supreme arrogance. Annihilus and Knull’s eyes narrowed at the same time. Vampire Progenitor? The Blood Clan had actually hidden such a major figure? Vampire Progenitor—just hearing the title sounded impressive. Combined with his bearing, he was definitely a super expert.

After all, he was the Vampire Progenitor. He could not possibly be a comic relief character, right?

"No, he is a comic relief character."

Hela complained inwardly. She possessed Little Hela’s memories, so she naturally knew what Dracula was like.

Hela could not be bothered to waste any more words. She shouted, "The longer this drags on, the more trouble there will be. Finish them."

"Fine."

At Hela’s words, Knull and Annihilus immediately led the god-level Insectoid generals toward everyone. Skye shouted through her communicator, "Captain, Ms. Carter, Electro, Venom, Mindy, Hydro, contain Hela and delay her as long as possible.

"Tony, Ivan, Jessica, you three deal with Knull. Test how much strength he has first. If you can’t handle him, I’ll send people to support you.

"Uncle Blade, lead the Blood Clan and take care of those Insectoid generals. Black Bolt and I will deal with Annihilus."

"Okay."

Hearing Skye’s orders, everyone charged toward their opponents. Little Hela directly activated the Domain of Light, pulling Hela inside.

Hela gritted her teeth. That plagiarizing bastard. She snorted, activated the Domain of Death, and summoned a sky full of death swords, which shot toward everyone like a torrential rain.

"This intense right from the start?"

Venom, participating in a battle like this for the first time, could not help swallowing, desperately dodging in every direction.

"Looks like this won’t be easy."

Steve smiled and raised his Vibranium shield together with Carter to block the Night Sky Swords. That was right, they were only Vibranium shields. The Fusion Shield was not in their hands.

The Fusion Shield was in Skye and Black Bolt’s hands. The two exchanged a glance and activated the shield at the same time. A highly androgynous figure, impossible to identify as male or female, appeared in the void.