War Fortress

While Tony’s experiments were still trying to replicate various materials and had yet to produce any results, Dr. Zola had already created a gigantic base in the void.

By the time Tony finally created his first experimental weapon, Dr. Zola’s base had already become a space fortress.

Tony finally realized that his opponent wasn’t a villain from a movie who would let him develop in peace and focus on research, but a super scientist no weaker than himself. If he continued to drag things out, Dr. Zola’s construction progress would definitely far surpass his own.

By then, even if he could find a weapon capable of defeating Zola War God, he would most likely no longer be facing Zola War God, but the Zola Death Star!

He had done something foolish.

He had exposed his ideas to Zola, allowing the enemy to quickly learn from them. Then, using his overwhelming resource advantage, the enemy had rapidly caught up and surpassed him. The knockoff had driven the original out of business.

Pioneers often failed to enjoy the fruits of victory. Instead, lacking any reference, they would take the wrong path and be overtaken by their competitors on the bend.

Tony sighed, abandoned his original plan, accelerated, and bypassed Zola War God. Then he slammed a punch into the War Fortress, which had already grown to tens of thousands of meters across.

Seeing Tony give up, Dr. Zola couldn’t help but start mocking him:

"Tony, I have to thank you!"

"Thank you for your ideas!"

"If you hadn’t reminded me, I never would have thought of using Matter Reconstruction for scientific research!"

"Tony, you really are a big stupid dog!"

"You actually tried to compete with a robot in research speed!"

"Don’t you think you’ve suffered enough setbacks?"

"Haha…"

While taunting him, Dr. Zola activated the defensive facilities.

The War Fortress’s surface flashed, revealing an energy shield. At the same time, Tony felt the gravity around his body change, while a tremendous force pushed him away and repelled his approach.

The War Fortress’s outer wall flipped open, revealing thousands of cannons. Energy rapidly gathered, forming pale-blue energy beams at the muzzles, which all fired at the charging Tony at once.

These were the Chitauri’s alien technological shields and the main cannons of a space battleship. Obviously, however, technology of this level could at most deal with interstellar warships. Against a Magnetic Field Rotation-level warrior, it was of little use.

Tony swept out with one hand and easily sliced through the energy shield. Just as his missiles had been unable to threaten Zola War God, these energy cannons were likewise useless against him. He didn’t even need to dodge. He simply tanked the barrage, charged to the front of the War Fortress, and slammed down with a punch.

Although the War Fortress had also been built from an ultra-durable alloy, it was barely stronger than a paper toy against Tony’s attacks. Tony tore a small hole in the enormous War Fortress, drilled inside, and began wreaking havoc.

Dr. Zola had no way to stop him. His Zola War God body was far too enormous to enter. Or rather, if he entered the War Fortress and fought Tony inside it, the damage would probably be even greater.

So Dr. Zola simply stopped paying attention to the War Fortress and Tony tearing it apart inside, and instead began building a new one.

"Tony, you damned bug!"

"Do you think you can do whatever you want just because you’ve crawled inside my body?"

"Let me tell you, that’s impossible!"

"I can build as many War Fortresses as I want. Let’s see whether you can tear them down faster than I can build them!"

This time, Dr. Zola had learned his lesson. He no longer used ordinary alloys for construction, instead using True Adamantium Alloy and Vibranium as the core materials. He also made the new space fortress even larger, with tall, spacious passages that allowed Zola War God to enter and fight inside.

His body itself was made of True Adamantium Alloy and Vibranium, so he was more familiar with these two materials than anyone. He could create both of them in the void. However, although creating things in the void could be very fast, it still depended on the material. The more complex the material, the slower the manufacturing process.

Without a doubt, True Adamantium Alloy and Vibranium were the most advanced metals, so their manufacturing difficulty was naturally at the highest level as well.

By the time Tony finished dismantling the War Fortress, Dr. Zola had only just completed a framework and still needed vast quantities of metal to fill it in.

Tony naturally wouldn’t allow Dr. Zola to prepare at his leisure. He immediately attacked and clashed head-on with Zola War God, looking for opportunities to land a few punches on the new fortress. However, the new War Fortress was made of special materials, and his attacks were no longer effective.

Even if he wanted to dismantle the new fortress using Matter Reconstruction, he had no opportunity to do so. Dr. Zola had already reserved spacious passages inside the new fortress to deal with Tony, keeping Zola War God on him at all times.

In a frontal battle, Tony was no match for Dr. Zola. Dr. Zola still had enough spare capacity to construct the new fortress and had even begun trying to install Fusion Shield technology on it. If his experiment succeeded and the new fortress could also raise a shield capable of defending against an Advanced Magnetic Field Warrior’s attacks, he would practically become invincible under heaven.

At present, only two problems troubled Dr. Zola.

The first was that he had yet to overcome the technical obstacle preventing a new fortress without a Magnetic Field Warrior from forming a shield.

The second was the lack of an energy core to support the shield. Defending against an Advanced Magnetic Field Warrior’s attacks required an astronomical amount of energy. Even if he built a hundred Arc Reactors, it still wouldn’t be enough.

The Space Stone would have been an excellent energy source, but it had disappeared when Earth was destroyed.

Finding a gem that small in the vast universe was truly harder than finding a needle in a haystack! Especially during a fierce battle, there simply wasn’t time to search for it.

However, Dr. Zola soon found the simplest solution: using Zola War God as the core!

Using Zola War God as the core could solve both problems at once.

He could use Zola War God’s shield as the War Fortress’s shield. Although the shield would become thinner as its area expanded, the added outer armor would actually make it safer. Once an enemy broke through the outer layer, he could retract the shield and let Zola War God use it alone, naturally avoiding any impact.

Moreover, with Zola War God guarding the core, there was no need to worry about enemies infiltrating the interior to carry out a decapitation strike. The enemy would probably never imagine that the very core was the strongest part of the fortress.

The drawback was also obvious: insufficient mobility. It was like a warrior wearing heavy armor. Attacking and defending from a fixed position was no problem, but moving around became extremely difficult.

Especially with this fortress-sized armor, which would grow thicker and thicker. It might ultimately develop into a planet made entirely of metal.

Fortunately, this War Fortress could be put on, and it could naturally be taken off as well. When the great battle began, Dr. Zola could have Zola War God sit at the center of the War Fortress. After the battle ended, he could let the fortress operate on its own, no longer needing an Astral Energy shield to defend against Matter Reconstruction.

By then, Dr. Zola would have plenty of time for scientific research, applying even more outrageous technologies to the fortress and making it stronger and stronger. Becoming a Mechanical God would be just around the corner.

"Haha…"

"Tony, do you see it?"

"This is a War Fortress with no upper limit!"

"The void-creation ability of a Magnetic Field Warrior is a perfect match for a robot!"

"In the future, I’ll develop the War Fortress into a War Planet. Then I’ll use it to conquer the universe!"

"Tony, you have considerable talent. Surrender now, and I can personally make you a Vibranium body!"

Watching the fortress grow larger and more complete, even beginning to affect his battle with Zola War God, Tony knew he had to find a way to break the deadlock. Otherwise, he would only become like a mosquito caught in a spider’s web, sinking deeper and deeper until he was ultimately trapped and killed here.