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Chapter 835: The Sealed Faerie
The Goddess was fast, unexpectedly so.
The moment Tony arrived on Earth, the Goddess, who exuded an aura that warned all to stay away, instantly vanished, dimension-hopping to an unknown location.
Even Tony was surprised. He had thought that even if they didn't fight, there would at least be a tense standoff. He never expected the Goddess to leave so cleanly.
"What's her game? She gives me information about the Faerie Force, then leaves without saying a single word?"
Tony was a little baffled.
At his tier, he could ignore weaker beings, erasing them with a wave of his hand. But when facing the Celestials, he had to take them seriously. These were ruthless characters that even the Five Creator Deities couldn't suppress; not a single one was easy to deal with.
The Top Ten Celestials—that was ten bona fide Level Eights. On Tony's side, counting himself, the soon-to-awaken Quintessons, and Doomsday King Kong, he only had three Level Eight combatants.
Even if Wanda were to have a power burst, she would barely count as one more. The gap between them and the Celestials was still immense.
Only the Allspark, an unsolvable bug in the system, was something that made the entire Celestial host wary.
And now, there was also the Faerie Force...
"Tony, do you know where my ring went?" Zheng Xian waved at Tony with a helpless look on his face and shouted.
Tony glanced at the mysterious Director of S.P.E.A.R. with some amusement. "It's gone. The Goddess erased that artifact from the Prime Universe."
Zheng Xian's face turned as black as the bottom of a pot, his vision darkening.
It was over. A divine artifact meant to stabilize the national fortune was gone before they could even truly test its power!
"Then you can just make me an identical one," Zheng Xian said shamelessly, holding out his hand to Tony. "For the sake of us having fought side-by-side."
Back when Tony was still on Earth, he had gathered the planet's top powerhouses to invade the Dark Dimension and take down Dormammu, that sly old fox. S.P.E.A.R. had not only participated in that battle but had even deployed its ring-shaped aerospace carrier.
"No!"
Tony's face darkened, and he gave a humorless smile. "You people lost Bumblebee. I haven't even settled that score with you yet."
Before Zheng Xian could say anything, Tony flickered and disappeared. Before leaving, he made a grasping gesture toward the city below, and all of LY City was restored to its original state. This was all he could do for now. If S.P.E.A.R. wanted anything more... they could forget about it.
Few who could become a Director were concerned with saving face.
Zheng Xian stood frozen in place, staring at the empty sky with a look of despair, and sighed deeply. Such a great artifact, gone just like that.
...
S.P.E.A.R. was powerful, at least in terms of raw strength, completely crushing S.H.I.E.L.D. They had 150,000 registered superpowered individuals alone, not counting those in the private sector or those unwilling to be governed by an official agency.
Many of S.P.E.A.R.'s high-ranking combatants wielded ancient legacies, their powers not just from genetic mutation. Take Sun Wukong, for example. This superhero inherited a sliver of power from the Heavenly Court deity of the same name. The hero had once accidentally stumbled into a sealed dimension, communicated with an avatar of the sealed Sun Wukong, and learned his skills there.
But as strong as S.P.E.A.R. was, they did not possess an artifact on the level of the Ten Rings.
Gone was gone. It was foreseeable that a shameful entry would be added to Director Zheng Xian's service record.
Setting aside the immense global turmoil caused by the astonishing changes in LY City, Tony's main body had already returned to Cybertron. The first thing he did was give the Phoenix Force fragment to Jean.
"Where did you get this fragment? I've searched the Prime Universe and haven't found any new ones."
Jean's face was filled with pleasant surprise. She cradled the halo of light in her hands, feeling the urgent pull from the power within her, an eagerness to merge with it, as she asked her question.
"Purely an accidental find. It's a gift for you," Tony shrugged.
He certainly wasn't going to tell Jean that he had stripped this thing off the Anti-Phoenix Armor of a Tony from a parallel universe.
In any case, he wasn't the one who destroyed that universe, nor did he kill anyone. He had just picked up the scraps. Tony felt no psychological burden whatsoever.
Cradling the Phoenix fragment, Jean went off happily to merge with it. This would increase her power by another notch. Although the gap to becoming the Level Eight White Phoenix was still enormous, it had at least shrunk a little.
"After some time, you can quietly take a trip to other parallel universes. On one hand, you can search for other Phoenix fragments; on the other, you can treat it as a vacation. There are some things you can only understand by seeing them with your own eyes, to realize how limited your perspective truly is," Tony suggested.
Phoenix fragments in the Prime Universe were extremely rare. Some powerful beings would never allow a massive, uncontrollable power to remain. That was why Tony's rise had been so shocking and unsettling to them.
Tony was also looking forward to seeing what the upper limit of the Phoenix Force was. The White Phoenix was definitely not the end, because there were still more fragments to be collected. Although the hope was slim, if by some chance he could gather all the Phoenix fragments...
The Phoenix would be reborn.
"When the time comes, I'll find a way to team up with the Vishanti to take out Korsen and seize the Chaos Power. Then, I'll figure out how to get Bumblebee to completely master the insatiable Faerie Force... and the Multiverse's three great powers will be completely under my control, or at least the vast majority of them."
Three great entities would be born, powerful enough to utterly dominate the vast majority of Level Eight gods. Forget the tiny Multiverse; they would definitely rank high even in the vast Sphere of the Gods.
One step at a time, he would eventually get closer to his goal. Tony had always followed his plans, and even if there were occasional deviations, he could always steer things back on course.
"The most troublesome foes in the entire Multiverse are the Celestials. We don't have much time," Tony said grimly.
"I understand." Jean nodded and immediately went to merge with the fragment.
Tony didn't delay either. He looked up at the sky; the entire Cybertronian system was enveloped by a giant Mother Box, guarding against a surprise attack from the Top Ten Celestials that could come at any moment.
Once again, Tony disappeared. This time, his figure faded rapidly, crossing through the barriers of countless worlds in an instant, breaking through layer after layer of them until he arrived at the hidden world, exiled and sealed away by the Celestials' Fifth Host.
This was the main battlefield where the Fifth Host had fought an intense battle against the Faerie Force, and it was the world the Fifth Host had painstakingly hidden away.
"Although I don't know why the Goddess sent the Faerie Force to me, even if it's a trap, it won't make me back down." Tony calmly looked at the void before him. Although it appeared empty, in reality, terrifying energies, like successive tsunamis, lay dormant, sealing off a world and suppressing the Faerie Force.
No one would give up the Faerie Force. Even Tony, a Level Eight singular god, would never abandon it. Only a fool would.
(end of chapter)
The Goddess was fast, unexpectedly so.
The moment Tony arrived on Earth, the Goddess, who exuded an aura that warned all to stay away, instantly vanished, dimension-hopping to an unknown location.
Even Tony was surprised. He had thought that even if they didn't fight, there would at least be a tense standoff. He never expected the Goddess to leave so cleanly.
"What's her game? She gives me information about the Faerie Force, then leaves without saying a single word?"
Tony was a little baffled.
At his tier, he could ignore weaker beings, erasing them with a wave of his hand. But when facing the Celestials, he had to take them seriously. These were ruthless characters that even the Five Creator Deities couldn't suppress; not a single one was easy to deal with.
The Top Ten Celestials—that was ten bona fide Level Eights. On Tony's side, counting himself, the soon-to-awaken Quintessons, and Doomsday King Kong, he only had three Level Eight combatants.
Even if Wanda were to have a power burst, she would barely count as one more. The gap between them and the Celestials was still immense.
Only the Allspark, an unsolvable bug in the system, was something that made the entire Celestial host wary.
And now, there was also the Faerie Force...
"Tony, do you know where my ring went?" Zheng Xian waved at Tony with a helpless look on his face and shouted.
Tony glanced at the mysterious Director of S.P.E.A.R. with some amusement. "It's gone. The Goddess erased that artifact from the Prime Universe."
Zheng Xian's face turned as black as the bottom of a pot, his vision darkening.
It was over. A divine artifact meant to stabilize the national fortune was gone before they could even truly test its power!
"Then you can just make me an identical one," Zheng Xian said shamelessly, holding out his hand to Tony. "For the sake of us having fought side-by-side."
Back when Tony was still on Earth, he had gathered the planet's top powerhouses to invade the Dark Dimension and take down Dormammu, that sly old fox. S.P.E.A.R. had not only participated in that battle but had even deployed its ring-shaped aerospace carrier.
"No!"
Tony's face darkened, and he gave a humorless smile. "You people lost Bumblebee. I haven't even settled that score with you yet."
Before Zheng Xian could say anything, Tony flickered and disappeared. Before leaving, he made a grasping gesture toward the city below, and all of LY City was restored to its original state. This was all he could do for now. If S.P.E.A.R. wanted anything more... they could forget about it.
Few who could become a Director were concerned with saving face.
Zheng Xian stood frozen in place, staring at the empty sky with a look of despair, and sighed deeply. Such a great artifact, gone just like that.
...
S.P.E.A.R. was powerful, at least in terms of raw strength, completely crushing S.H.I.E.L.D. They had 150,000 registered superpowered individuals alone, not counting those in the private sector or those unwilling to be governed by an official agency.
Many of S.P.E.A.R.'s high-ranking combatants wielded ancient legacies, their powers not just from genetic mutation. Take Sun Wukong, for example. This superhero inherited a sliver of power from the Heavenly Court deity of the same name. The hero had once accidentally stumbled into a sealed dimension, communicated with an avatar of the sealed Sun Wukong, and learned his skills there.
But as strong as S.P.E.A.R. was, they did not possess an artifact on the level of the Ten Rings.
Gone was gone. It was foreseeable that a shameful entry would be added to Director Zheng Xian's service record.
Setting aside the immense global turmoil caused by the astonishing changes in LY City, Tony's main body had already returned to Cybertron. The first thing he did was give the Phoenix Force fragment to Jean.
"Where did you get this fragment? I've searched the Prime Universe and haven't found any new ones."
Jean's face was filled with pleasant surprise. She cradled the halo of light in her hands, feeling the urgent pull from the power within her, an eagerness to merge with it, as she asked her question.
"Purely an accidental find. It's a gift for you," Tony shrugged.
He certainly wasn't going to tell Jean that he had stripped this thing off the Anti-Phoenix Armor of a Tony from a parallel universe.
In any case, he wasn't the one who destroyed that universe, nor did he kill anyone. He had just picked up the scraps. Tony felt no psychological burden whatsoever.
Cradling the Phoenix fragment, Jean went off happily to merge with it. This would increase her power by another notch. Although the gap to becoming the Level Eight White Phoenix was still enormous, it had at least shrunk a little.
"After some time, you can quietly take a trip to other parallel universes. On one hand, you can search for other Phoenix fragments; on the other, you can treat it as a vacation. There are some things you can only understand by seeing them with your own eyes, to realize how limited your perspective truly is," Tony suggested.
Phoenix fragments in the Prime Universe were extremely rare. Some powerful beings would never allow a massive, uncontrollable power to remain. That was why Tony's rise had been so shocking and unsettling to them.
Tony was also looking forward to seeing what the upper limit of the Phoenix Force was. The White Phoenix was definitely not the end, because there were still more fragments to be collected. Although the hope was slim, if by some chance he could gather all the Phoenix fragments...
The Phoenix would be reborn.
"When the time comes, I'll find a way to team up with the Vishanti to take out Korsen and seize the Chaos Power. Then, I'll figure out how to get Bumblebee to completely master the insatiable Faerie Force... and the Multiverse's three great powers will be completely under my control, or at least the vast majority of them."
Three great entities would be born, powerful enough to utterly dominate the vast majority of Level Eight gods. Forget the tiny Multiverse; they would definitely rank high even in the vast Sphere of the Gods.
One step at a time, he would eventually get closer to his goal. Tony had always followed his plans, and even if there were occasional deviations, he could always steer things back on course.
"The most troublesome foes in the entire Multiverse are the Celestials. We don't have much time," Tony said grimly.
"I understand." Jean nodded and immediately went to merge with the fragment.
Tony didn't delay either. He looked up at the sky; the entire Cybertronian system was enveloped by a giant Mother Box, guarding against a surprise attack from the Top Ten Celestials that could come at any moment.
Once again, Tony disappeared. This time, his figure faded rapidly, crossing through the barriers of countless worlds in an instant, breaking through layer after layer of them until he arrived at the hidden world, exiled and sealed away by the Celestials' Fifth Host.
This was the main battlefield where the Fifth Host had fought an intense battle against the Faerie Force, and it was the world the Fifth Host had painstakingly hidden away.
"Although I don't know why the Goddess sent the Faerie Force to me, even if it's a trap, it won't make me back down." Tony calmly looked at the void before him. Although it appeared empty, in reality, terrifying energies, like successive tsunamis, lay dormant, sealing off a world and suppressing the Faerie Force.
No one would give up the Faerie Force. Even Tony, a Level Eight singular god, would never abandon it. Only a fool would.
(end of chapter)
