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Chapter 259: Submit to me, and I will give you a path to survival.
Azazel's pupils contracted abruptly as he stared fixedly at Tony. His already scarlet pupils turned a bloody shade of red as killing intent surged, flooding his crimson face.
Behind him, his tail, a symbol of his Demonic Bloodline, thrashed about frequently. Its power was astonishing; a Transformer made of ordinary materials was caught in its path, and its legs were instantly snapped off.
"You intend to sacrifice your bloodline, using yourself as a coordinate. The strong aura of your bloodline would connect to the pocket dimension where your main body is. After awakening your true self and your people, you'd provide the safest path for their arrival."
Tony sat atop Predaking's head, his face cold, his eyes filled with a bone-deep chill as he stared intently at Azazel.
"Your seduction of Mystique wasn't a result of dejection or passion. It was deliberate. You were curious what would be created by combining a gene that can change into anything with your Spatial Gene."
"The birth of the child, Nightcrawler, was simply the result of your experiment. It was the result you craved most—a powerful and versatile Spatial Ability... Using Nightcrawler's blood as the main conduit would be enough to summon your main body, wouldn't it?" Tony said with a cold smile.
"In several thousand years, how many children have you accumulated? A thousand? Ten thousand? Or a hundred thousand, a million? Killing them all at once to sacrifice to your main body... what a genius idea. It wouldn't attract the attention of organizations like Kamar-Taj, and you could achieve your goal discreetly. Even the Ancient One never noticed anything unusual about you. From start to finish, she thought you were just a minor character, not even bothering to give you a second glance."
Tony was relentless, taking advantage of the fact that only the two of them were in this vast space to provoke Azazel without restraint.
"You... how is this possible? How do you know my plan so clearly? This is absolutely impossible!" Azazel's eyes were red as he gasped for breath, each inhalation stirring the anxiety and agitation in his furious and terrified heart.
Azazel was truly stunned. He had hidden this for thousands of years, had met countless brilliant and talented individuals, yet none had discovered his secret.
Humiliation, disdain, disregard—he had experienced it all. As powerful, glorious, and proud as he was, he had to swallow his pride and endure. Heaven knows how many maddening things he had gone through, but he persevered, patiently and quietly, for millennia.
Thousands of years had passed. Those high-and-mighty figures were all dead, while he was still alive and well, silently carrying out his plan.
But now, on the verge of success, Tony had ruthlessly exposed his plan, revealing its most fatal weakness.
How sturdy can a tiny pocket dimension be, constantly pulled back and forth by numerous Major Dimensions? It's like Mercury and the Sun. If the Sun expands just a little, or its gravity changes slightly, Mercury will be devoured without even making a splash.
"Tell me, how did you know!" Azazel panted, his eyes wide with overflowing Killing Intent.
"The Time Stone. I've used it," Tony lied with a straight face.
Azazel frowned. "The Time Stone, one of the six Infinity Stones? The Ancient One would let you touch something like that?"
In his heart, however, Azazel was starting to believe it. He knew Kamar-Taj possessed the Time Stone; past Sorcerer Supremes had fought great battles with it, and he had been fortunate enough to witness it once from afar. The faint green glow was unmistakable.
Although it was ridiculous—Tony was so weak, how could the somewhat paranoid Ancient One possibly allow him to touch an Infinity Stone? But after thinking it over, it was the only possibility.
The Time Stone was nothing like that trash Divination Magic.
It was entirely possible that Tony had seen the future using the Time Stone.
But the more he considered it, the more he despaired.
"The Ancient One never noticed you. Do you know why? Because you're too weak? No, it's because she never saw you causing trouble in any of the countless futures." Tony sneered. "Do you know what that means? Your plan is doomed to fail. As powerful as your Demonic Faction is, the Ancient One isn't even interested enough to pay attention to you."
"In countless timelines, your future is only destruction, buried along with the pocket dimension you inhabit!"
"You aren't even worthy of posing the slightest threat to Earth!"
As Tony spoke, he began to laugh. "You're furious, aren't you? After struggling for thousands of years, the result is still death. All for nothing. You want to kill me, right? But you can't. You're a Level Four at best, how can you deal with me? Lift a city and teleport it above my head to crush me? That's completely useless."
Azazel let out a low roar, like a true Beast. He bared his savage teeth, glaring at Tony with a fierce and grief-stricken expression.
"You're lying to me. You must be lying to me..." The more he said, the more dejected Azazel became.
What could he do? Kill Tony? Even if he could, what would be the point? For someone as young as Tony to see through his entire plan... if it wasn't the work of the Time Stone, he wouldn't believe it even if you beat him to death.
But this was too devastating. Was this the end result after thousands of years of effort? On what grounds? Did the Demonic Mutants just deserve to die?
Tony watched Azazel quietly, feeling the mounting pressure from ahead. He could still see the clash between Sacred Magic and Dark Magic, two diametrically opposed forces, erupting with a power far greater than a nuclear bomb.
The whole thing about the Time Stone was something he'd just made up.
The Ancient One wasn't omnipotent. It was true she could see countless timelines with the Time Stone, but could she really watch every single one? As a Level Seven, could she truly bear such a terrifying burden? Using the Infinity Stones came at a cost.
The Ancient One primarily used it to trace specific people or events to see what was most likely to happen in the future.
The Multiverse is infinite; the Ancient One could not possibly perceive infinity.
Tony had exploited an Information Asymmetry to deceive Azazel.
If Azazel didn't compromise this time, he truly would do as he said and directly urge the Ancient One to find the Demonic Faction's dimension and destroy it in one fell swoop.
"I have a way to save you, as long as you help me seize the Dark Dimension," Tony said calmly. "I can promise you a large swath of land within the Dark Dimension for your people to rest and recuperate."
"Submit to me, and I will give your people a path to survival."
"Submit to you? If I had the chance to take the Dark Dimension, I'd seize it myself. Why should I help you?" Azazel spun around, his face a mask of brutality and madness.
"On what grounds? On the grounds that you are merely a small soul Clone! You're a cunning and treacherous Demon. Did you think your main body wouldn't place restrictions on you when it split you off? For thousands of years, you've remained at the laughable level of a Level 3 or 4. That is the greatest proof."
"Don't forget, your main body should be at least Level 5..." Tony's expression was meaningful.
Even two identical clones could develop completely different personalities when placed in different environments, to say nothing of a small fragment of a soul split from the cunning and sinister Azazel.
Two pieces of a soul: the Main Soul sleeping, the Sub-Soul causing trouble on Earth. Different experiences would breed different thoughts. Two semi-independent souls, separated by different dimensions and unable to communicate... hehehe, if Azazel's main body hadn't left some restrictions in place, he wouldn't be a Demon.
The main part of the soul was in the other dimension. This Azazel on Earth was an incomplete thing.
A Clone that was thousands of years old was weaker than its main body had been at a few hundred years old. It would be a miracle if there wasn't something wrong.
(end of chapter)
Azazel's pupils contracted abruptly as he stared fixedly at Tony. His already scarlet pupils turned a bloody shade of red as killing intent surged, flooding his crimson face.
Behind him, his tail, a symbol of his Demonic Bloodline, thrashed about frequently. Its power was astonishing; a Transformer made of ordinary materials was caught in its path, and its legs were instantly snapped off.
"You intend to sacrifice your bloodline, using yourself as a coordinate. The strong aura of your bloodline would connect to the pocket dimension where your main body is. After awakening your true self and your people, you'd provide the safest path for their arrival."
Tony sat atop Predaking's head, his face cold, his eyes filled with a bone-deep chill as he stared intently at Azazel.
"Your seduction of Mystique wasn't a result of dejection or passion. It was deliberate. You were curious what would be created by combining a gene that can change into anything with your Spatial Gene."
"The birth of the child, Nightcrawler, was simply the result of your experiment. It was the result you craved most—a powerful and versatile Spatial Ability... Using Nightcrawler's blood as the main conduit would be enough to summon your main body, wouldn't it?" Tony said with a cold smile.
"In several thousand years, how many children have you accumulated? A thousand? Ten thousand? Or a hundred thousand, a million? Killing them all at once to sacrifice to your main body... what a genius idea. It wouldn't attract the attention of organizations like Kamar-Taj, and you could achieve your goal discreetly. Even the Ancient One never noticed anything unusual about you. From start to finish, she thought you were just a minor character, not even bothering to give you a second glance."
Tony was relentless, taking advantage of the fact that only the two of them were in this vast space to provoke Azazel without restraint.
"You... how is this possible? How do you know my plan so clearly? This is absolutely impossible!" Azazel's eyes were red as he gasped for breath, each inhalation stirring the anxiety and agitation in his furious and terrified heart.
Azazel was truly stunned. He had hidden this for thousands of years, had met countless brilliant and talented individuals, yet none had discovered his secret.
Humiliation, disdain, disregard—he had experienced it all. As powerful, glorious, and proud as he was, he had to swallow his pride and endure. Heaven knows how many maddening things he had gone through, but he persevered, patiently and quietly, for millennia.
Thousands of years had passed. Those high-and-mighty figures were all dead, while he was still alive and well, silently carrying out his plan.
But now, on the verge of success, Tony had ruthlessly exposed his plan, revealing its most fatal weakness.
How sturdy can a tiny pocket dimension be, constantly pulled back and forth by numerous Major Dimensions? It's like Mercury and the Sun. If the Sun expands just a little, or its gravity changes slightly, Mercury will be devoured without even making a splash.
"Tell me, how did you know!" Azazel panted, his eyes wide with overflowing Killing Intent.
"The Time Stone. I've used it," Tony lied with a straight face.
Azazel frowned. "The Time Stone, one of the six Infinity Stones? The Ancient One would let you touch something like that?"
In his heart, however, Azazel was starting to believe it. He knew Kamar-Taj possessed the Time Stone; past Sorcerer Supremes had fought great battles with it, and he had been fortunate enough to witness it once from afar. The faint green glow was unmistakable.
Although it was ridiculous—Tony was so weak, how could the somewhat paranoid Ancient One possibly allow him to touch an Infinity Stone? But after thinking it over, it was the only possibility.
The Time Stone was nothing like that trash Divination Magic.
It was entirely possible that Tony had seen the future using the Time Stone.
But the more he considered it, the more he despaired.
"The Ancient One never noticed you. Do you know why? Because you're too weak? No, it's because she never saw you causing trouble in any of the countless futures." Tony sneered. "Do you know what that means? Your plan is doomed to fail. As powerful as your Demonic Faction is, the Ancient One isn't even interested enough to pay attention to you."
"In countless timelines, your future is only destruction, buried along with the pocket dimension you inhabit!"
"You aren't even worthy of posing the slightest threat to Earth!"
As Tony spoke, he began to laugh. "You're furious, aren't you? After struggling for thousands of years, the result is still death. All for nothing. You want to kill me, right? But you can't. You're a Level Four at best, how can you deal with me? Lift a city and teleport it above my head to crush me? That's completely useless."
Azazel let out a low roar, like a true Beast. He bared his savage teeth, glaring at Tony with a fierce and grief-stricken expression.
"You're lying to me. You must be lying to me..." The more he said, the more dejected Azazel became.
What could he do? Kill Tony? Even if he could, what would be the point? For someone as young as Tony to see through his entire plan... if it wasn't the work of the Time Stone, he wouldn't believe it even if you beat him to death.
But this was too devastating. Was this the end result after thousands of years of effort? On what grounds? Did the Demonic Mutants just deserve to die?
Tony watched Azazel quietly, feeling the mounting pressure from ahead. He could still see the clash between Sacred Magic and Dark Magic, two diametrically opposed forces, erupting with a power far greater than a nuclear bomb.
The whole thing about the Time Stone was something he'd just made up.
The Ancient One wasn't omnipotent. It was true she could see countless timelines with the Time Stone, but could she really watch every single one? As a Level Seven, could she truly bear such a terrifying burden? Using the Infinity Stones came at a cost.
The Ancient One primarily used it to trace specific people or events to see what was most likely to happen in the future.
The Multiverse is infinite; the Ancient One could not possibly perceive infinity.
Tony had exploited an Information Asymmetry to deceive Azazel.
If Azazel didn't compromise this time, he truly would do as he said and directly urge the Ancient One to find the Demonic Faction's dimension and destroy it in one fell swoop.
"I have a way to save you, as long as you help me seize the Dark Dimension," Tony said calmly. "I can promise you a large swath of land within the Dark Dimension for your people to rest and recuperate."
"Submit to me, and I will give your people a path to survival."
"Submit to you? If I had the chance to take the Dark Dimension, I'd seize it myself. Why should I help you?" Azazel spun around, his face a mask of brutality and madness.
"On what grounds? On the grounds that you are merely a small soul Clone! You're a cunning and treacherous Demon. Did you think your main body wouldn't place restrictions on you when it split you off? For thousands of years, you've remained at the laughable level of a Level 3 or 4. That is the greatest proof."
"Don't forget, your main body should be at least Level 5..." Tony's expression was meaningful.
Even two identical clones could develop completely different personalities when placed in different environments, to say nothing of a small fragment of a soul split from the cunning and sinister Azazel.
Two pieces of a soul: the Main Soul sleeping, the Sub-Soul causing trouble on Earth. Different experiences would breed different thoughts. Two semi-independent souls, separated by different dimensions and unable to communicate... hehehe, if Azazel's main body hadn't left some restrictions in place, he wouldn't be a Demon.
The main part of the soul was in the other dimension. This Azazel on Earth was an incomplete thing.
A Clone that was thousands of years old was weaker than its main body had been at a few hundred years old. It would be a miracle if there wasn't something wrong.
(end of chapter)
